House, design, renovation, decor. Courtyard and garden. With your own hands

So we got to Port Arthur's most important brand, Electric Cliff. However, this is for us, for the Russians, and for those exclusively who read Stepanov's this super-duper megabrand. And for the Chinese, probably not so. Well, it is not as interesting as the battery on Mount Wantai, although what would they understand in Port Arthur!

254-mm naval cannon on the Electric Cliff battery

Now on the Electric Cliff, and what is remarkable, it is called that in Chinese, many interesting things have survived. And since Stepanov paid a lot of attention to him, then personally, as soon as I got here, it was just that tetanus attacked me. After all, at first, the day before, I thought that I was on Elektricheskiy, visiting the battery at the foot of Krestovaya. But the foot of the Krestovaya was not like a cliff, neither Electric nor Mechanical. In general, nothing that could be called a cliff under Krestovaya did not fit in any way. You, of course, can say that in the Pacific Fire Belt, Cenozoic folding and all that, but I don’t remember that there were such powerful shifts in the history of the movement of continents over the past ten thousand years.
So, having come to my little guest house in the evening, after visiting Krestovaya, I thoroughly studied the map and climbed onto the Electric one.
I don’t think that many of our people can get to this cliff - the way to it lies through several military units, or rather past their checkpoint, which is already a secret zone for China. Access to Mount Zolotaya is generally closed - at its top there is some kind of connected part and, in addition, a magnificent view of the Eastern Basin naturally opens from it, and it has a dry dock and sometimes something military is being repaired there. Well, okay, sometimes you might not see something. Although I believe that if I had stayed in Port Arthur some more, I would have managed to infiltrate Zolotaya. There, by the way, there was also a battery, and it seems that something of it has survived.
So, the Electric Cliff, as I noted right away, brings back memories. Here, in the hollow there is a barracks in which both Boreiko and Zvonarev lived, somewhere nearby there was a battery office. A staircase leads to the cliff, which seems to have survived from those times, but was ennobled during the Soviet military presence. Presumably, our red commanders read about the battery and kept on it one 254-mm naval cannon and a 280-mm mortar from the times of the Russo-Japanese, although they had no practical significance. Our gunners, in violation of the terms of surrender, removed the locks from all the guns and drowned them in the sea. And a special thank you in connection with all this, I say personally, not to the commandant of our base or the commander of the battery of the Electric Cliff, but to that unknown Chinese commander who, either out of harm, or out of his laziness, did not allow during the Great Leap Forward, when the whole of China "quadrupled" the production of iron and steel, to hand over these guns to scrap, so that they were melted down into not understand what.
So these two cannons both stood and still delight the eyes of fans of military history with their gloomy determination to prevent the "damned Japs" from entering the Inner Basin of Port Arthur.
The rest of the gun foundations are now equipped with 130mm Soviet-era naval guns. As usual, the entrance to the casemates was closed and, as always, I wanted to sneeze at it and crawled out everything that was possible. I even almost put my wild head down when I was about to check if there were any guns in the mountain itself. They were not there, but the Electric Cliff is crumbling very easily.
You know, the Electric Cliff was specially created to sit on a cannon, dangle legs and dangle them, watching how ships enter the harbor, how fishermen pull out their catch below, how the sun hides behind the horizon and how the Tiger Tail lights up and flickers on the peninsula Lighthouse.
Eh, good!

On January 5, 1905 (December 23, 1904, old style), Port Arthur (modern Lushunkou) was surrendered to the Japanese by the traitor Stoessel, who had heroically defended it for 159 days.
Well, we got to Electric Cliff. Perhaps for us, for the Russians, this is a well-known place. Now on the Electric Cliff, and what is remarkable, it is called that in Chinese, many interesting things have survived.

But the way to it lies through several military units, or rather past their checkpoint, which is already a secret zone for China. Access to Mount Zolotaya is generally closed - at its top there is some kind of connected part and, in addition, a magnificent view of the Eastern Basin naturally opens from it, and it has a dry dock and is constantly being repaired something military.

Port Arthur is a naval base and access to foreign tourists is limited. Domestic tourists can view Battery # 15 on Electric Cliff.

On battery No. 15, in the converted courtyards, there are guns from different eras. In the foreground is a 130 mm B-13 cannon, installed on batteries after 1945. The most interesting weapons are in the background.

Battery Electric cliff No. 15 for five 10 long guns. Below you can see the dagger battery No. 14, a large building of the artillery barracks, to the right of its mine station of the engineering department.

Battery Electric cliff. The battleship "Petropavlovsk" is visible at sea. Approximately at this place, the ship will die on Japanese mines. There is a word “fairway”.

The death of the battleship "Petropavlovsk".

Battery No. 15 Electric cliff of the Port Arthur fortress. 10-inch guns mod. 1895 on the original carriages of Durlacher, low, with armored canopies, turned to the opposite direction of fire, that is, towards the land front. Next to the 254mm guns, we see a 57mm sighting gun.

In Soviet times, 130-mm cannons were installed here.

Golden Mountain and Electric Cliff, from the side of Cape Tiger Tail.

Most powerful coastal defense guns 10 "battery guns Electric cliff. The battery commander, artillery captain Zhukovsky, stands at the armored casing.

The commander of battery No. 15, Captain Zhukovsky, with his gunners. Port Arthur, 1904

Battery No. 15 on Electric Cliff (10 in.), Which successfully competed on the morning of January 27 with the Japanese squadron. And in the future, she often fought with the entire Japanese fleet.

The results of the combat work of the battery, whose parapet we see, the Japanese fire ships on the way to the entrance to the harbor. Including two fire-ships, which literally did not have enough meters to close the exit to the sea for our ships.

barracks and parade ground of Electric Rock.

The battery has one foundation without a tool, but the structure is visible. A little further we see the stairs to the courtyard for the 57mm gun, which is also empty.

Port Arthur's most valuable cannon is a 10 ″ 45 caliber cannon on the Durlakher machine. The combat path of these guns began in the Russo-Japanese War and ended in the Great Patriotic War, in Kronstadt. The cannon with the machine is very similar to the original, or a very well-made model. The machine has a number of absurdities, which implies later intervention in its design. This whole structure looks beautiful, especially since it is located in its own courtyard.

The electric cliff sounds familiar. Here, in the hollow there is a barracks, somewhere nearby there was a battery office. A staircase leads to the cliff, which has been preserved since those times, but was ennobled during the Soviet military presence. One must think that our red commanders read about the battery and kept one 254-mm and 152-mm cannons on it since the times of the Russo-Japanese, although they had no practical significance. Our gunners, in violation of the terms of surrender, removed the locks from all the guns and drowned them in the sea. And special thanks in connection with all this, not to the commandant of our base or the commander of the Electric Cliff battery, but to that unknown Chinese commander who, either out of harm or laziness, did not allow during the Great Leap Forward, when all of China “ quadrupled "the production of iron and steel, to hand over these guns to scrap metal, so that they were melted down into not understand what.

Presumably, this is a 6-inch cannon on the Durlyakher machine in the post-war courtyard under the B-13 in front of the parapet of battery No. 15. During the Soviet era, the battery was expanded. And these two cannons still delight the eyes of lovers of military history with their gloomy determination of 1904.

But the caponiers remained with the Russian-Japanese.

Nearby there is an antiaircraft gun in his own courtyard.

But back to the 254mm cannon on the Electric Cliff battery. Which was clearly collected after the events of 1904.

Our gunners threw the gun locks into the sea when the battery was being handed over.

The photo shows a detailed study of the carriage, its assembly with rivets. However, the armor visor is located too low and not only does not allow to bring the gun to 0, but also to make a shot from it. On rollback, the gun will blow off the visor. You cannot see the rail shoulder, along which the carriage rollers must run, the loading platform is too low, there is no compressor protruding from the front. Perhaps the weapon was assembled from parts remaining in a Japanese museum.

Construction of a naval base and fortress in Port Arthur

By the time of the capture by the Russians, Port Arthur was a small Chinese city with a population of about 4 thousand people. Later, these Chinatowns were called the Old City. The Russian administration and troops initially settled in Chinese administrative buildings, barracks and residential buildings abandoned by their inhabitants.

Thanks to the Russians, the civilian population of Port Arthur began to grow and by the beginning of the war it was already 15 thousand Russians and at least 35 thousand Chinese.

In 1901, the Russian New City arose near the Old Town. The name of its streets did not differ much from the names of streets in the cities of European Russia - Morskaya, Pushkinskaya, Bulvarnaya, etc. The port and city were illuminated from the central port power station. In Port Arthur, almost until the very end of the defense, its own newspaper, Novy Kray, was published.

The Chinese began to deepen the shallow harbor of Port Arthur, having arranged an artificial East Basin, which could accommodate up to a dozen medium-sized vessels. In 1901, the deepening of the Western Basin, intended for battleships, began, but by the beginning of the war, this work, like the construction of a new dry dock, had not been completed.

The estimate for the construction of the naval port was presented to Nicholas II in 1899. The deepening of the harbor, the acquisition of a dredging caravan, the construction of breakwaters, the arrangement of the port territory and others required about 14 million rubles, and only 11 million were released. Work began only in 1901. and were divided into two stages. The end of only the first stage was supposed to be in 1909. Therefore, by the beginning of the war, Port Arthur had neither docks for large ships, nor an in-depth raid, and they did not even begin to build breakwaters for the outer raid.

The port commander, Rear Admiral Greve, wrote in this regard: “Time passed mainly in various discussions and theoretical considerations, without final decisions and a real start to quickly implement the planned plan. As a result, after four years of ownership of Port Arthur, almost nothing was done there on the arrangement of the admiralty and the port, or very little, and only about a year before the war, work on the arrangement of the port became more intensive. " .

So, for the needs of the military port, only a park of dredgers (5 dredges and 9 tugs) was created, with the help of which work began on deepening the inner roadstead and digging a foundation pit for a new dock for battleships in the southern part of the Eastern Basin.

Also, reserves of Cardiff (English) and Chinese coal (35 thousand tons) were created - the main fuel for ships.

The Russians restored the shipyard destroyed by the Japanese in 1895, where the large ships of the squadron could now be repaired - replacement of furnaces and boilers, steam engine cylinders, propellers, alignment and installation of propeller shafts; spare parts and mechanisms were also manufactured there.

At the end of 1898, the Naval Ministry decided to start assembling destroyers in Port Arthur, which were being built in St. Petersburg at the Nevsky and Izhora factories. Some of the Sokol-class destroyers were made collapsible by these factories, so that their finished sections could be delivered by steamers to the Far East.

According to the plan, it was supposed to send 5 destroyers to Port Arthur in 1899 and 4 in 1900, the last one no later than August. The deadline for their delivery in Port Arthur was set after five months from the date of unloading. But later it was decided to make not 9, but 7 collapsible destroyers.

However, due to the fault of the bureaucrats of the Naval Department, the deadlines for the delivery of the destroyers were disrupted. Only by the end of 1899 was the corps of the first destroyer built at the Nevsky plant, as well as the corps of three Izhora destroyers, sent on the steamer Normania. During 1900, the hulls of the rest of the destroyers of the Nevsky Plant, as well as mechanisms, boilers and other equipment, were sent to Port Arthur on the steamships "Vladimir Savin", "Eduard Bari", "Malaya", "Annam" and "Dagmar".

At the beginning of 1900, on the Tigrovy Tail Peninsula, the construction of a covered boathouse, designed for the simultaneous assembly of three destroyers, began, but full-scale work began only by October. On December 30, the GUKiS entered into an agreement with the Nevsky Plant so that its workers assembled three "Izhora" destroyers. On March 5, 1901, preparatory work began, and on April 11, the official laying of the first of the ships - "Cormorant", which was renamed "Condor" a few days later, took place. First of all, the destroyers of the Nevsky Plant were assembled, delivered in better condition and in greater completeness.

The launching of the Condor took place three and a half months after the laying, and work on the rest of the ships proceeded extremely slowly, since parts of the hulls and mechanisms during transportation by sea and storage in the open air in Port Arthur were covered with rust, which was removed. more than 122 thousand rubles were spent. The assembly of the destroyers of the Izhora plant was considered "rebuilding", since some of the parts were either hopelessly damaged or missing altogether and had to be made on site.

Tests of the Condor began in October 1901 and continued until the summer of 1902. The highest average speed with significant vibration of the machines reached only 25.75 knots. But, despite this, on July 5, permission was given to accept the destroyer "in order to avoid bursting of the boilers."

In 1902, two more destroyers of the Nevsky shipyard were tested, and in 1903 - three "Neva" and three "Izhora" ships. The last three surrendered after the Japanese attack on Port Arthur: "Terrible" - on February 20, "Slender" - on March 1, "Statny" - on July 14, 1904.

Needless to say, the most important thing in Port Arthur was to be the construction of a powerful sea and land fortress, since the Liaodong Peninsula was a piece of Russian territory surrounded by hostile states.

A few words should be said about the geographical position of Port Arthur. The city and the port are located in a hollow surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges that rise 175–210 m above sea level.

The terrain in the Port Arthur area is mountainous, highly rugged, with many deep ravines, steep slopes and cliffs that form many dead spaces when firing. The highest in this area are the Liaoteshan Mountains, reaching 465 m above sea level. From their peaks, a wide panorama opens up towards the sea and land for many kilometers. In addition to Liaoteshan, the dominant heights on the coastal and land fronts were also Bolshaya Gora, Dagushan, Bezymyannaya, Uglovaya and Vysokaya, from which Port Arthur and the approaches close to it were clearly visible.

At a distance of 10–12 km from Port Arthur, the approaches to the city from the northeast are covered by the Wolf Mountains ridge. The height of its peaks reaches 200–240 m above sea level. The Wolf Mountains represented an advantageous natural defensive position, since the northern and eastern slopes are steep, and in some places they are steep, and mastering them presented great difficulties for the attackers. At the same time, with the capture of them, the enemy could control the northern approaches to Port Arthur. Therefore, the defense of the Wolf Mountains was imperative.

On the distant approaches to the fortress, the Nangalinsky, Tafashinsky and Jinzhou ridges were of great importance for its defense. Gradually descending towards the city of Jinzhou, all the ridges cross the Kwantung Peninsula, making it difficult to access Port Arthur in the event of an amphibious assault and an enemy attack from the land side.

The Tafashi heights, crossing the narrow isthmus of the peninsula from northwest to southeast, deserved the greatest attention in tactical terms. Ridges of heights with an excess of 46 to 90 m above sea level abruptly break off near the coast, thereby creating difficulties in bypassing them from the flanks. The northeastern slopes gradually descend towards the valley, due to which dead spaces are not formed during shooting. The terrain lying ahead was clearly visible from the heights and was fired upon by machine guns and artillery fire. Opposite slopes of heights also slopes and descend into a vast valley, which made it possible to carry out a hidden concentration of troops, conveniently locate artillery firing positions, as well as its rear units. The installation of batteries in the Dalniy region, on the Talienvan Peninsula and the left flank of the position, as well as the mining of the bays, significantly reduced the danger of amphibious assault landing and shelling of the Russian troops by enemy naval artillery.

The Jinzhou Hills also provided an advantageous defensive position. However, such shortcomings as viewing them from Mount Samson, the possibility of shelling the rear of the position from the sea and the lack of fresh water, to a certain extent, reduced its tactical advantages.

Along with tactical benefits, the mountain ranges of Quantun presented the defenders with a number of difficulties. In particular, due to the mountainous nature of the terrain, the possibilities of constructing communication routes on the Kwantung Peninsula were limited. The main communication linking Port Arthur with Harbin was the southern section of the Manchurian railway with branches from the Tafashin station to the city of Talienwan and from the Nangalin station to the city of Dalniy. Among the dirt roads of Quantun, such communications as the Mandarin Highway, linking Port Arthur with Pulandyan, as well as the Middle Artur and South Coast roads leading from Port Arthur to Dalny were of great importance. It should be noted that during the summer rains, dirt roads became difficult to pass.

When characterizing the terrain, one should bear in mind one more feature, the importance of which was that, despite the relatively large length of the coastline of the Kwantung Peninsula, there were few places for the landing of large amphibious assault forces. More convenient landing points were the areas of Biziwo, Talienwan, Dalniy and Port Arthur.

Consequently, in terms of its relief, the terrain on the near and distant approaches to Port Arthur was advantageous for creating a solid defense. With regard to the combat use of artillery, the terrain, on the one hand, presented great convenience, on the other, it created a number of difficulties in its use.

The presence of a number of command heights made it possible to carry out careful observation of the enemy's actions with relatively small forces and means, thanks to which a surprise attack by the enemy both from land and sea could be prevented. On the opposite slopes of the heights, it was possible to equip strong long-term structures for coastal and fortress artillery, hidden from enemy observation.

Alas, the War Department hesitated too long before starting the construction of the fortress. By October 1898, the garrison of Port Arthur was still small in number and consisted of the 3rd East Siberian Rifle Brigade (4 regiments of two battalions), 6 companies of fortress artillery, the East Siberian artillery battalion (24 guns), 4 hundred Cossacks and 1 sapper company. The garrison was entrusted with the task of not only protecting Port Arthur, but also monitoring important objects on the Kwantung Peninsula. Therefore, the units of the garrison did not have the opportunity to conduct engineering work on a wide front. This also explains the slow arming of the fortress with artillery.

At the beginning of 1898, a local commission was formed in Port Arthur to develop a project for the coastal and land fortifications of Port Arthur. In her opinion, first of all, it was necessary to use some of the old Chinese coastal batteries, improve them and properly arm them, and then gradually replace these batteries with new ones. As for the land front, it was recognized that it was necessary to move the line of forts of the projected fortress to the Wolf Hills, eight kilometers from the outskirts of the Old City.

However, the Military Department rejected the project, and in October 1898 a new commission chaired by General Kononovich-Gorbatsky was sent from St. Petersburg to Port Arthur.

But even before the commission left, on September 17, 1898, the Imperial command took place, according to which, even before the final plan of the naval fortress in Port Arthur was drawn up, 189 guns of the War Department were temporarily assigned there.

Of these guns, 133 were intended for coastal fortifications. Among them were:

10-inch (254/45-mm) guns - 5;

9-inch (229-mm) guns mod. 1867 - 12;

6/45-inch Canet cannons - 10;

6-inch guns 190 pounds - 28;

57 mm Nordenfeld coastal guns - 28;

battery (107 mm) guns - 8;

11-inch (280-mm) mortars mod. 1877 - 10;

9-inch mortars mod. 1877 - 10.

For land fortifications, 56 guns were intended:

42-line (107-mm) guns mod. 1877 - 18;

light (87 mm) guns - 24;

6-inch (152-mm) field mortars - 6;

3-line (7.62 mm) Maxim machine guns - 8.

As you can see, out of 133 coastal guns, modern guns capable of harming the Japanese fleet, let alone English, were only 10/45-inch and 6/45-inch guns, and even then in the presence of shells filled with powerful explosives - pyroxylin, melinite, etc.

The rest of the guns could be effectively used only on the land front, but again with the appropriate shells. The exception was the completely useless 57-mm coastal guns of Nordenfeld, they were of no use either on land or at sea.

All these guns were to be delivered to Port Arthur within three years, from 1898 to 1900.

In 1898, the following were to be sent for coastal fortifications:

12 - 9-inch guns mod. 1867 Of these, 6 guns were taken from the Emergency Reserve in Odessa, 4 - from the Sevastopol Fortress and 2 - from the Kerch Fortress. But for these ancient guns were taken from the St. Petersburg warehouse brand new Durlyher machines with an elevation angle of 45 ° (6 machines were made for the Libava fortress and 6 for Kronstadt);

28 - 6-inch guns 190 pounds. Of these, 4 were taken from the Ochakovskaya fortress, 4 - from the Vladivostok fortress and 20 - from the Special reserve in Odessa;

28 - 57 mm Nordenfeld coastal guns. Of these, 14 were taken from the Special Reserve in Odessa, 10 from the Sevastopol Fortress and 4 from Vladivostok;

8 battery guns were taken from the Special Reserve in Odessa;

32 mortars mod. 1877 were taken from the Special Reserve in Odessa.

For land fortifications in 1898, they were supposed to deliver:

18 - 42-line guns mod. 1877 For this, 6 guns were taken from separate siege parks in Dvinsk, Brest-Litovsk and Kiev;

24 light cannons were taken from the fortresses - Kovno (12), Novogeorgievsk (6) and the Alexander Citadel in Warsaw (6);

6 - 6-inch mortars were taken from the Novogeorgievskaya fortress.

In 1899, the following was to be sent to Port Arthur:

10 - 6/45-inch Kane cannons, including 6 from the Special stock in Odessa and 4 from those ordered for the Vladivostok fortress;

10 - 11-inch mortars mod. 1877 on Durlakher's carriages from among those made for the Kronstadt fortress.

In 1900, the following was to be sent to Port Arthur:

5 - 10/45-inch cannons, of which 4 were ordered for the Vladivostok fortress and 1 for the Kronstadt.

It is not in vain that the author cites these seemingly boring lists of weapons. From them it becomes clear how the artillery of the Port Arthur fortress was manned "from the pine forest". But it was known beforehand that the 9-inch guns mod. 1867 became obsolete back in 1877. And the 9-inch (228 mm) caliber was weak for fighting battleships, and there was practically no chance of getting from them into a maneuvering cruiser (even on Durlyher's machines). A rhetorical question: why drag unnecessary heavy cannons and machine tools far away, and even build expensive coastal batteries for them?

I would like to note that this is not the only case of the criminal, otherwise you cannot say, the activities of our generals. For example, in 1897-1898. eight 8-inch guns mod. 1867 g.

Such cannons, not even suitable for land batteries, were to be sent from Odessa to scrap or to a museum. These guns were dangerous only for their own servants, but not for the enemy.

As for coastal mortars, by the beginning of the 20th century. the class of such weapons itself has become useless. 9-11-inch mortars could effectively hit only anchored large ships, and even then after a long shelling. Shooting at maneuvering ships was a waste of shells.

Note that a significant part of modern guns were sent to Port Arthur from Vladivostok, i.e. the War Department was simply patching up the "trishkin caftan" in the Far East.

Khlestakov on the throne and the Khlestakovs in the Military and Naval Departments could not reach that, having got involved in a serious game in Manchuria, there was nothing to think about for at least 20 years about the seizure of the Bosphorus, not to mention the Libau adventure. If the funds allocated from 1898 to 1904 for Libau and the Special Reserve were spent on the construction of the Port Arthur Fortress, then it could really become impregnable.

But back to the new War Department commission sent in October 1898 to Port Arthur. Under the leadership of General Kononovich-Gorbatsky, a new project of the fortress was developed. When drawing up the project, the commission proceeded from the fact that, due to the remoteness of Port Arthur, communication with Russia by sea could be interrupted in the very first days of the war, and assistance from land could be provided only four months later. Therefore, the commission pointed out the need to have a fortress "With a solid fortress and with a strong garrison that could withstand a prolonged siege by superior enemy forces" .

According to the well-grounded conclusions of the commission, the construction and armament of 22 batteries were planned on the coastal front. In its project, the commission paid special attention to the construction of defensive structures of the land front, the line of which was supposed to pass along the heights of Xiaogushan, Dagushan, Uglovaya, High and Solyanaya. To arm the fortifications and batteries of the coastal and land fronts, it was planned to deliver 593 guns and 52 mortars, the maintenance of which was to be carried out by battalions of fortress artillery. The fortress garrison was supposed to consist of 20 infantry battalions. At the same time, the 70-kilometer land front had to be defended by 528 guns and a 70-thousand army.

The Ministry of War rejected this project, explaining it by the allegedly too high requirements for the number of garrisons, artillery armament and the construction of Fortifications. Minister of War Kuropatkin decided to build only a few forts on the land front, impregnable "To attack by open force" .

The "special meeting" was of the same opinion, in which representatives of the Diplomatic, Finance and Military departments took part. The meeting decided to minimize the costs of the defense of Port Arthur, and to carry out the work in such a way as not to "irritate" the enemy, reckoning with "The impressionability of foreigners in general and the Japanese in particular" .

In essence, the demands of the Minister of War and the "special meeting" were reduced to precluding the possibility of a prolonged defense of Port Arthur in advance. At the meeting it was established that the garrison of Port Arthur should not exceed 11.3 thousand people. Based on this, it was envisaged to reduce the perimeter of the fortress with the exclusion of a number of command heights from the defense plan.

These erroneous considerations were to be guided by the newly created commission chaired by Colonel K.I. Velichko.

In the summer of 1899 Velichko with a new commission arrived in Port Arthur and in the same year drew up his draft of the fortress. Velichko believed that he created the perfect project for the area. "Similar relief, soil and surface features, - he wrote, - did not occur in any of our fortresses "... According to the project, the land defense line stretched along the heights of the Dragon Ridge, to the hill in front of the Cemetery Mountain, to the Jagged Mountain, to the hill near the village of Sanshugou, to Waldshnepin Hill, to the heights at the southern corner of the Western Basin and to the White Wolf Mountain, for a total of about 19 km. In 1900 this project was approved.

The center of the arc, along which the forts of the land defense line of the fortress were located, was the entrance to the inner roadstead at the tip of the so-called Tiger Tail, and the radius of this arc was about 4 km. The arc of the fort line skirted the inner basin, bypassing the Liaoteshan mountain range, and ended with an 8.5-kilometer coastal position in the form of an obtuse entering angle of about 12 °.

In addition to the main defensive line, which consisted of forts, intermediate fortifications, batteries and redoubts, it was also envisaged to encircle the Old Town and the Eastern Basin with a continuous central fence of temporary strongholds at the command posts and the broken lines connecting them - curtains of cremalier, bastion and polygonal outlines - in in the form of a rampart with a moat, which has a steep counter-escarp and flank defense, partly open, and partly from flanking buildings.

First of all, it was planned to build the main defensive line. But since this line had obvious shortcomings caused by economic considerations, then in the second place, various advanced buildings and positions were provided, for example, on Mount Dagushan and in front of the north-western corner of the fortress.

On the seaside front, Velichko designed the construction of 25 coastal batteries, which were to be located in three groups: the Tiger Peninsula group, the Golden Mountain and Plosky Cape group, and the Krestovaya Mountain group. In addition, a separate battery was envisaged at Perepelnaya Hill. 124 guns were assigned to all coastal batteries, including 10/45-inch, 152/45-mm Canet, 6-inch 190 pounds, 57-mm Nordenfeld and battery guns, as well as 11- and 9-inch mortars.

On the land front, it was planned to build 8 forts, 9 fortifications, 6 long-term batteries and 8 redoubts. In total, Port Arthur was planned to have 542 guns and 48 machine guns to equip permanent structures and batteries. The construction of the fortress was to be carried out in two stages and be completed by 1909.

In the commission's project, the heights of Xiaogushan, Dagushan, Uglovaya and Vysokaya were not included in the defensive line, however, on the initiative of Velichko, it was envisaged to create forward strongholds armed with artillery there. In his report, Velichko made the absolutely correct conclusion that when defending Port Arthur from land, the main attention should be paid to the defense of Talienvan Bay, the Dalny port and the Jinzhou Isthmus. Having created a solid defense there, it would be possible to abandon the construction of the vast land fortress in Port Arthur and limit itself to the construction of only a number of permanent structures at the command heights. However, these important conclusions Velichko were not taken into account when viewing the project by the tsar. The fortress plan, approved by him on January 18, 1900, had a number of significant shortcomings.

First of all, the plan was based on the idea of ​​creating defensive structures depending on the size of the garrison that was there in peacetime. Favorable terrain conditions on the distant approaches were not taken into account, where there were a number of natural positions, with the construction of even field structures and the installation of the necessary amount of artillery, it was possible to inflict significant losses on the enemy and facilitate the defense of Port Arthur.

The creation of a defensive line only on the heights close to the city became one of the reasons for the insufficiently stable defense of Port Arthur. When approaching the fortifications, the enemy had the opportunity to hit important defensive targets, artillery batteries of the fortress and ships of the squadron in the inner roadstead with concentrated fire of both heavy and light guns. Capturing at least one of the command heights of the defensive line allowed the enemy to conduct observation and thereby increase the fire effect on the squadron and batteries by conducting aimed fire of their artillery.

The cost of all engineering structures was 7.5 million rubles, almost the same was the cost of the material part, and in general, the construction of Port Arthur fortress required 15 million rubles.

Although Velichko's project was approved only in 1900, work began a little earlier. But since the funds were released in small portions, the work was divided into three stages, with the expectation of completing the construction of the fortress in 1909. Before the start of the Russian-Japanese war, about 4250 thousand rubles were allocated for the construction of the fortress, i.e. less than a third of what is needed. Therefore, by 1904, a little more than half of all work was done in the fortress. The seaside front was in the greatest degree of readiness: 21 batteries and 2 powder magazines were erected on it, and half of the buildings were finished. On the land front, by the beginning of the war, only 1 fort was completed - No. IV, 2 fortifications (4th and 5th), 3 batteries (letters A, B and C) and 2 nutritional cellars. All other structures were either not completed, or they did not even begin to build them. Unfinished, but of paramount importance in the defense of the fortress (since a land attack was carried out on them), forts No. II and No. III, as well as the temporary 3rd fortification, remained.

The design of the Port Arthur forts was carried out on the basis of a certificate issued by the Asian part of the General Staff, according to which the Japanese assumed that there was no artillery of more than 15 cm 2.4 m were reduced by 0.3 m.But for the same economic reasons, the local Port-Arthur authorities allowed military engineers to reduce the thickness of the vaults by another 0.3 m, and in some places by 0.6 m. And as a result, on the most important Fortifications, which were subjected to the strongest bombardment, the thickness of the vaults in the residential barracks and other important defense facilities turned out to be only 0.91 m. There were also complaints about the quality of the concrete, but the competent commission recognized the unfairness of these complaints. However, in any case, the 91-cm vaults could withstand shells of no more than 15-cm caliber.

The journal of the Fortress Armament Commission No. 351 of February 15, 1900 assigned the following artillery weapons to the land front of the Port Arthur fortress.

The magazine of the GAU Artillery Committee No. 518 dated October 7, 1902 ordered the use of captured Chinese cannons for the defense of the Liaodong Peninsula. “For arming the“ outpost positions ”on the Jin-Chou isthmus and near the city of Dalniy, guns from military booty have been assigned, a total of 59 cannons made by f. Krupp ". Among them were:

1 - 24/35-cm / clb with 150 rounds of ammunition;

2 - 21/35-cm / clb with 150 rounds of ammunition;

3 - 15/40-cm / clb cartridge loading;

3 - 15/25-cm / clb;

2 - 15 cm sample 1877;

4 - 12/35-cm / clb cartridge loading;

16 - 87-mm siege cartridge loading;

28 - 87 mm field.

Despite the decision of the Argkom, the bureaucrats from the GAU did not want to deal with Chinese weapons, which until 1904 were a rather formidable weapon. They drew up idiotic notes like that, they say, one Chinese gun should be delivered to the Main Artillery Range (GAP) near St. Petersburg, tested there, technical descriptions, firing tables, etc. should be drawn up. etc. and then already put on the fortifications. Needless to say, the delivery of 8 guns from Port Arthur to St. Petersburg on Okhta and their testing there would have been delayed for at least two years and would have cost tens of thousands of rubles. It would be much easier to send GAP specialists to Port Arthur and test the guns on the spot. But, alas, our Okhten heroes were too lazy to leave the capital "to hell on little kulichi". Finally, it was possible to request the Krupp firm, where not a single gun left the factory without thorough testing. Relations with Germany in 1900-1903 were good, and the GAU would have received all the necessary information in a week. As a result, the Chinese guns were never put in order by the beginning of the war.

Just before the outbreak of the war, the Journal of the Fortress Armament Commission dated December 12, 1903, determined the new "normal armament" of the fortress of Port Arthur.

On the coastal fortifications were to install: 14 - 10/45-inch guns, 12 - 9-inch guns mod. 1867, 20 - 152/45 mm Canet cannons, 4 - 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds, 8 - battery cannons, 9 - light cannons, 28 - 57-mm Nordenfeld coastal guns, 10 - 11-inch mortars mod ... 1877 and 27 - 9-inch mortars arr. 1877 g.

The land fortifications were to be installed: thirty-nine 6-inch cannons of 190 pounds, thirty-eight 6-inch guns of 120 pounds, twenty-four 42-line guns mod. 1877, four battery cannons, eighty-eight 57-mm Nordenfeld caponier guns, fifty-one field light cannon on a pedestal (for caponiers) and one hundred and sixty-six 6-inch field mortars, twenty 1/2 pounds mortars, sixteen 7.62 -mm machine guns for caponiers, thirty-two 7.62-mm anti-assault machine guns (on high wheeled machines).

However, it was not possible to arm Port Arthur even according to such a report card. The most difficult situation was with 10/45-inch guns, which were manufactured only at the Obukhov Steel Plant. The first five 10-inch cannons were ordered from the factory on October 28, 1896, and under the contract, the first gun was to be delivered in 12 months. However, GAU, after failing to test the ship's 10/45-inch guns, decided to strengthen the barrel and on March 16, 1898, a new drawing of the 10/45-inch gun was sent. Thus, by the grace of GAU, the order was inactive for almost a year and a half. As a result, the first 10-inch cannon was delivered by the plant in May 1899.

By February 26, 1901, the first three 10-inch guns were ready, and the remaining two were to be ready in the winter of 1901/02. The first cannon was sent to the GAP, and the other two were loaded onto the steamer Korea in the summer of 1902, en route to Port Arthur.

By the end of 1902, the plant began to hand over three 10-inch guns a month, and Port Arthur by the beginning of the war could well have received all the fourteen 10-inch guns laid down on the table, if they had not been sent to Libava and Kronstadt. As already mentioned, Libava was an absolutely unnecessary fortress, and no one in 1902–1904 thought to threaten Kronstadt, not to mention the fact that it was already too strongly fortified. For the transportation of 10-inch guns, it was possible to attract other steamers, except for the "Korea".

Well, let's say the mass production of 10-inch guns was just beginning and they were relatively expensive (the body of one gun cost 55,100 rubles), but the question arises: why did the War Department treat the land defense of Port Arthur so ugly?

Light field guns were removed in 1901-1903. with weapons, and they were a dime a dozen, but they were never delivered to Port Arthur. Instead of 217 light cannons, there were only 146 of them! Not even 20 1/2 pounds smooth-bore mortars mod. 1838 But hundreds of such mortars were kept in the fortresses and warehouses of European Russia. There is no doubt that these weapons are ancient and not very effective, but our wise generals did not accept anything else. (Let's remember the long-suffering 34-line mortar!) And given the terrain, 1/2-pound mortars would play a significant role in the defense of Port Arthur. And only after the start of the war, 1/2-pound mortars began to be sent from European Russia to Manchuria. So, in 1904, 25 such mortars were sent from the Kerch fortress to the Far East.

As for the caponier 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns, by 1904 they were not even in prototypes. Several prototypes of General Fabricius and other designs were tested in 1905-1911, but none of them was adopted. The stupidity of Russian generals is incomprehensible to the mind - to create a machine-gun pedestal machine for a caponier is within the power of any engineer, and in order to design an armored hood with a machine gun, one does not need to have seven spans in the forehead either.

As a result, at huge costs, Russia received a fortress that was not ready to fight an enemy with modern artillery.