Didn't know you guys like history, maybe I should print some of my articles:
Admiral Togo's fleet lay in wait in Masampo Bay at the northern end of Tsushima strait. During the months since the Russian controlled Port Arthur had fallen, Togo's Japanese fleet had been refitted, and his crews, already seasoned in battle, had been drilling intensely for the upcoming final encounter. Intelligence units dotted the coastline, ready to report the first sign of the Russians.
On the morning of May 27, 1905, Togo was awakened by news that the Russians were heading northward into the straight. By an unexplained oversight the Russian hospital ship Orel had failed to observe the fleet blackout and had been sighted in the heavy predawn mist. As he read the message, Togo reportedly smiled for the first time since the war had began. He sent out the signal "On this one battle rests the fate of our nation." This battle would now settle who was the dominate power in Asia for the first half of the 20th century, Czarist Russia or Imperial Japan.
The war had been long in coming, since the 1890s the colonial aspirations of both nations in China and Korea had been at odds. Japan had tried to negotiate with the Russians, for control of Korea and parts of China, but Russia saw no reason to share the far east with the little yellow men from an unimportant island kingdom. Early in 1904, the Japanese struck, with a sneak attack on Russia's most important far east base, Port Arthur, on the Liaotung Peninsular in China, and crippled the Russia ships there (Japan had begun a war with China several years earlier with such a sneak attack, and would again in 1941 against the United States). The Port fell after a siege, and the ships there were lost, so the Czar ordered his Baltic fleet to sail half way around the world to replace them, to be based out of Russia's remaining port, Vladivostok. This fleet was now entering the narrow waters between Korea and Japan, called Tsushima straight, and admiral Togo was lying in wait for them.
Togo immediately appeared on deck oh his flagship, the battleship Mikasa, and ordered his fleet to prepare for battle. Just 50 short years ago Japan had been a backward, unimportant nation, now it was an industrial power, prepared to take on one of the Great Powers of Europe. Togo's men donned freshly laundered uniforms for the occasion and as a precaution against infection if wounded. The grey Japanese warships were soon steaming southward to meet their adversaries. At their head stood the slightly built admiral, anxiously scanning the horizon.
Shortly after 1:30 pm Togo the bright yellow and black smokestacks of the Russian fleet. As the enormous battleships bore down on the Japanese Fleet, Togo realized he must change course, his ships would cross the enemy formation heading in the opposite direction. After an exchange of gunfire, the 'battle' would be over, and Russian Admiral Rozhdestvenski's ships could proceed unopposed to Vladivostok.
To avoid such a catastrophe, Togo ordered his fleet to reverse direction immediately. The daring maneuver exposed Togo's battle line to enemy fire for nearly 15 minutes as each ship turned in sequence. The Russians quickly saw their advantage and opened fire; but although the Czar's inexperienced gunners scored 16 direct hits on the Mikasa, most shots went astray.
The Japanese, having completed their maneuver, steered a parallel course to the Russians and soon drew ahead of them, blocking their northward progress and forcing the enemy line to veer off course. Firing from close range, Japan's crack gunners concentrated their fire on Russia's four lead battleships, the Suvorov, Oslyabya, Alexander III, andBorodino.
From a nearby island, a young boy watched as the two long lines of warships drew close together and the waters erupted in the ferocity of full-scale battle. "Countless shells were flying around." he observed. "and as they fell into the sea they turned into hundreds of water columns. The guns flashed like lightning and roared like a thousand thunderstorms..."
Japan's superior speed and marksmanship soon took its toll. The grey Japanese battleships, nearly invisible in the heavy mist, almost eluded the inexperienced Russian gunners aboard the all too visible warships. The Japanese had another decisive advantage in their deadly Shimose gunpowder, based on a secret French formula. The powder burst into flame on impact, producing an unbearable heat and poisonous fumes.
Togo later boasted that the battle was virtually decided by 2:45 that afternoon, barely an hour after it had begun. By then the enemy formation was in complete confusion. And all four lead ships had sustained direct hits. Minutes after 3 PM the captain of the Oslyabya gave orders to abandon ship. Half an hour later the huge vessel rolled on its side and sank.
About the same time the Suvurov, Rozhdestvenski's flagship, dropped out of line, badly crippled by an explosion on her conning tower. Rozhdestvenski, who had received a serious head injury from a flying shell fragment, was removed unconscious to a smaller ship. It would be hours before his second in command, Admiral Nicholas Nebogatov, learned that he had become acting commander of the Russian fleet.
Meanwhile, the captain of the Alexander III, which had replaced the Suvorov as the lead ship, had treid to escape the enemy by turning westward; but Togo's ships blocked the way and continued their relentless bombardment. About 6 PM the Alexander III, her decks ringed with fire and smoke, fell out of line. She sank shortly after 7PM, carrying her entire crew of 900 men with her. The Borodino soon met a similar fate.
That evening Togo withdrew his battleships to the north to bar the enemy from escaping to Vladivostok, while his smaller destroyers and torpedo boats continued their assault through the night. By midmorning the next day Togo's fleet had surrounded what remained of the Russian fleet, and Admiral Nebogatov raised the flag of surrender. He would later be court-marshalled and sentenced to death for his actions.
The Russian fleet had been annihilated. Of the 38 ships that entered the battle, all but 3 had been sunk, disabled or captured. Some 4,800 crewmen and officers, nearly half the total manpower, had been killed. The Japanese, on the other hand, had lost only three torpedo boats and 117 men. In terms of tonnage lost, it was the greatest sea battle to date in history, surpassed only by the huge air and sea battles of WWII.
When news of the victory reached Tokyo, joyous crowds poured into the streets to celebrate. That night there was singing and dancing in Hibiya Park, with streamers flying and dazzling fireworks displays. The mood in St Petersburg, the Russian capital, was quite different. For the discontented masses in Russia the humiliation was yet another example of the corruption, ineptitude, and inefficiency of the Czarist regime. Mutinies by disgruntled returning veterans helped spark the abortive 1905 Revolution.
For the first time in history, an Asian race had defeated a western power in battle, and the world would never be the same.
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Topic: Russo-Japanase war 1904-1905 (Read 2116 times)