Battle of Tsushima

The Battle of Tsushima (Japanese: 対馬海戦, tsushima-kaisen), commonly known as the "Sea of Japan Naval Battle" (Japanese: 日本海海戦, nihonkai-kaisen) in Japan, was the last and most decisive sea battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. It was fought on May 27-28, 1905 (May 14-15 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia) in the Tsushima Strait. In this battle the Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo destroyed two-thirds of the Russian fleet under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski. In Theodore Rex (ISBN 0-394-55509-0), historian Edmund Morris calls it the greatest battle since Trafalgar. It was the biggest naval battle of the pre-dreadnought battleship era.

Overview

The Japanese Combined Fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet, sent over from Europe, fought in the straits between Korea and Japan near the Tsushima Island group. Earlier, the Russian Pacific Fleet had been dispersed at the Battle of Shantung on 10 August 1904 and eventually sunk in Port Arthur. The Baltic Fleet sailed through the North Sea, caused a diplomatic incident off Dogger Bank when they attacked the British fishing fleet there, and then proceeded around Africa and touched port in Indochina. The voyage was long and ardous, and the morale of the crew began to plummet. The Russians were ordered to break the blockade of Lushun (now known as Dalian), but the settlement had already fallen before the arrival of the ships and so they tried to reach the Russian port of Vladivostok.

The Russians could have sailed through one of three possible straits to reach Vladivostok: La Perouse, Tsugaru, and Tsushima. Admiral Rozhedestvensky chose Tsushima in an effort to simplify his route. Admiral Togo, based at Pusan, Korea also believed Tsushima would be the preferred Russian course. The Tsushima Strait is the body of water eastwards of the Tsushima Island group located midway between the Japanese island of Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula, the shortest and most direct route from Indochina. The other two routes would have required the fleet to sail to the east of Japan.

Battle

The Russian fleet was sighted when two trailing hospital ships were discovered by the Japanese cruiser fleet. The Russians sailed from south-south-west to north-north-east; the Japanese fleet from west-north-east. Admiral Togo ordered the fleet to turn in sequence, which enabled his ships to take the same course as the Russians, though risking each battleship in turn. This U-turn was successful. The two lines of battleships stabilized their distance at 6,200 metres and exchanged gunfire. This marked the beginning of modern naval gunnery. Traditionally, ships were to begin their engagements at considerably closer range. Togo immediately gained the advantage of surprise. The Japanese fleets had practiced gunnery continually since the beginning of the war, using sub caliber adaptors for their cannon. The Japanese had superior gunners, and hit their targets more often. Furthermore, the Japanese used mostly high explosive shells with shimose (melinite), which was designed to explode on contact and wreck the upper works of ships. The Russians used armor-piercing rounds with small guncotton bustring charge and unreliable fuses. Japanese hits caused more damage to Russian ships in proportion to Russian hits on Japanese ships, including setting the superstructures and their paint on fire. Japanese fire was also more accurate because they had more rangefinders on their ships than most of the Russian vessels.

The Russian fleet was in poor shape for a naval battle. Apart from the four newest Borodino class battleships, the ships were older designs and ill-maintained. The long voyage and the lack of opportunity for maintenance meant their bottoms were heavily fouled, significantly reducing their speed. The Japanese ships could reach 16 knots (30 km/h), but the Russian fleet could reach only 8 knots (15km/h). Togo was able to use the better maneuverability of his fleet to advantage, "crossing the T" twice.

Admiral Rozhdestvenski was knocked out of action by a shell fragment in his skull. The Russian fleet lost the battleships Knyaz' Suvorov, Oslyabya, Emperor Alexander III and Borodino on May 27. Japanese ships only suffered light damage, mostly to Mikasa. In the evening, Rear Admiral Nebogatov took the command on the Russian side.

At night, Japanese torpedo boats and destroyers were thrown against the Russian fleet, which was dispersed in some small groups by then, trying to break northwards. The old battleship Navarin was sunk, while the battleship Sisoy Veliki and two old armoured cruisers Admiral Nakhimov and Vladimir Monomakh were damaged and had to be scuttled in the morning.

Time Line

May 27, 1905 (JST)

04:45 Shinanomaru (Japan) finds The Russian Baltic Fleet, and sends a telegram.
05:05 The Japanese Combined Fleet leaves port, and send a telegram to Imperial Headquarters: Today is fine but high wave.(Japanese: 本日天気晴朗なれども波高し)
13:39 The Japanese Combined Fleet finds The Russian Baltic Fleet by the eye, and puts up the battle flag.
13:55 distance: 12,000 meter.
14:05 distance: 8,000 meter. The Japanese Combined Fleet starts to helm aport (start "crossing the T").
- The Russian Side thinks "Togo is crazy, and we'll win."
14:07 distance: 7,000 meter. Mikasa finishes up turning around. The Russian Baltic Fleet starts to cannon shot.
14:10 distance: 6,400 meter. All Japanese ships finish up turning around.
14:12 distance: 5,500 meter. Mikasa is hit first.
14:16 distance: 4,600 meter. The Japanese Combined Fleet starts to cannon shot all together to Knyaz' Suvorov, which is the top of The Russian Baltic Fleet.
14:43 Oslyabya and Knyaz' Suvorov are fired, and leave the battle line.
14:50 Emperor Alexander III starts to turn north, tries leaving the battle line.
15:10 Oslyabya is sunk. Knyaz' Suvorov tries fleeing.
18:00 The each fleet re-approachs (distance: 6,300 meter), and re-starts to cannon shot.
19:03 Emperor Alexander III is sunk.
19:20 Knyaz' Suvorov, Borodino, and Sisoy Veliki are sunk.

May 28, 1905 (JST)

09:30 The Japanese Combined Fleet re-finds The Russian Baltic Fleet.
10:34 The Russian commander signals "XGE", which is 'I surrender' in the then used International Code of Signals.
10:53 The Japanese side agrees to a surrender.

Aftermath

Four other battleships under Rear Admiral Nebagatov were forced to surrender the next day. His group consisted of only one modern battleship, Orel, along with the old battleship Emperor Nikolay I and the two small coastal battleships Apraxin and Admiral Senyavin, and he had no chance to stand against the Japanese fleet. Until the evening of May 28, single Russian ships were pursued by the Japanese. The small coastal battleship Admiral Ushakov refused to surrender and was sunk by Japanese armoured cruisers. The old cruiser Dmitri Donskoy fought against six Japanese cruisers and survived until the next day, when she was scuttled due to damage. Three Russian protected cruisers, including Aurora, escaped to the United States naval base at Manila and were interned. The fast armed yacht Almaz (classified as a cruiser of the 2nd rank) and two destroyers were the only Russian ships to make it through to Vladivostok.

Nearly the entire Russian Baltic fleet was lost in the battle in the Tsushima Straits. The Japanese lost only 3 torpedo boats (Nos. 34, 35 and 69).

Naval tactics

Battleships, cruisers, and other vessels were arranged into divisions, each division being commanded by a Flag officer (i.e. Admiral). At the battle of Tsushima Admiral Togo was the officer commanding in Mikasa (the other divisions being commanded by Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals, Commodores and Captains and Commanders for the destroyer divisions). Next in line after Mikasa came the battleships Shikishima, Fuji and Asahi. Following them were two armored cruisers.

When Admiral Togo decided to execute a turn to port "in sequence" he did so in order to preserve the sequence of his battleline, i.e. with the flagship Mikasa still in the lead (obviously Togo wanted his more powerful units to enter action first). Turning in sequence meant that each ship would turn one after the other whilst still following the ship in front, effectively each ship would turn over the same piece of sea (this being the danger in the manoeuvre as it gives the enemy fleet the opportunity to target that area). Togo could have ordered his ships to turn "together" i.e. each ship would have made the turn at the same time and reversed course, this manoeuvre, the same which was effected by the French-Spanish fleet in Trafalgar, would be quicker but would have disrupted the sequence of the battleline and caused confusion by altering the battle plans, placing the cruisers in the lead, and this was something Togo wanted to avoid.

References

Busch, Noel F. The Emperor's Sword: Japan vs. Russia in the Battle of Tsushima. New York: Funk & Wagnall’s, 1969.
Hailey, Foster and Milton Lancelot. Clear for Action: The Photographic Story of Modern Naval Combat, 1898-1964. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pierce, 1964.
Woodward, David. The Russians at Sea: A History of the Russian Navy. New York: Praeger Publishers. 1966.
Hough, Richard Alexander. The fleet that had to die. New York: Ballantine Paperbacks. 1960.

External links

Russojapanesewar.com — Contains a complete order of battle of both fleets. It also contains Admiral Togo's post-battle report and the account of Russian ensign Sememov.
Battlefleet 1900 — Free naval wargame rules covering the predreadnought era, including the Russo-Japanese War.

Naval battles | Battles of the Russo-Japanese War | 1905

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