Battle of Tsushima
The Battle of Tsushima (Russian: Цусимское сражение, Tsusimskoye srazheniye), also known in Japan as the Battle of the Sea of Japan (Japanese: 日本海海戦, Hepburn: Nihonkai kaisen), was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the battle was the only decisive engagement ever fought between modern steel battleship fleets[4][5] and the first in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. The battle was described by contemporary Sir George Clarke [f] as "by far the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar".[6]
"Battle of the Japan Sea" redirects here. For the 1969 film based on the naval battle, see Battle of the Japan Sea (film).
The battle involved the Japanese Combined Fleet under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Russian Second Pacific Squadron under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, which had sailed over seven months and 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) from the Baltic Sea. The Russians hoped to reach Vladivostok and establish naval control of the Far East in order to relieve the Imperial Russian Army in Manchuria. The Russian fleet had a large advantage in the number of battleships, but was overall older and slower than the Japanese fleet. The Russians were sighted in the early morning on 27 May, and the battle began in the afternoon. Rozhestvensky was wounded and knocked unconscious in the initial action, and four of his battleships were sunk by sunset. At night, Japanese destroyers and torpedo boats attacked the remaining ships, and Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov surrendered in the morning of 28 May.
All 11 Russian battleships were lost, out of which seven were sunk and four captured. Only a few warships escaped, with one cruiser and two destroyers reaching Vladivostok, and two auxiliary cruisers as well as one transport escaping back to Madagascar. Three cruisers were interned at Manila by the United States until the war was over. Eight auxiliaries and one destroyer were disarmed and remanded at Shanghai by China. Russian casualties were high, with more than 5,000 dead and 6,000 captured. The Japanese, which had lost no heavy ships, had 117 dead.
The loss of almost every heavy warship of the Baltic Fleet forced Russia to sue for peace, and the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in September 1905. In Japan, the battle was hailed as one of the greatest naval victories in Japanese history, and Admiral Tōgō was revered as a national hero.[g] His flagship Mikasa has been preserved as a museum ship in Yokosuka Harbour.
Contributing factors[edit]
Commander and crew experience[edit]
Admiral Rozhestvensky faced a more combat-experienced battleship admiral in Tōgō Heihachirō. Admiral Tōgō had already killed two Russian admirals: Stepan Makarov outside of Port Arthur in the battleship Petropavlovsk in April 1904, then Wilgelm Vitgeft in his battleship Tsesarevich in August of the same year. Before those two deaths, Tōgō had chased Admiral Oskar Starck, also flying his flag in the Petropavlovsk, off the battlefield.
Admiral Tōgō and his men had two battleship fleet action experiences, which amounted to over four hours of combat experience in battleship-to-battleship combat at Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea.[79]
The Japanese fleets had practiced gunnery extensively since the beginning of the war, using sub-calibre practice guns[at] mounted in their larger guns.[au][av][aw]
In contrast, Russian battleship Borodino underwent sea trials from 23 August to 13 September 1904[63] as a brand new ship upon her completion,[82] and the new crew did not have much time for training before she set sail for the Pacific on 15 October 1904. Borodino's sister ship, Knyaz Suvorov started trials on 9 August, Oryol[t] started trials the latest on 10 September 1904, leaving Imperator Aleksandr III (the trials finished in October 1903) as the only Borodino-class ship actually ready for deployment.[63][ax] As the Imperial Russian Navy planned on building 10 Borodino-class battleships (5 were ultimately built) with the requirement for thousands of additional crewmen, the basic training, quality and experience of the crew and cadets were far lower[83] than those onboard the battleships in the seasoned Pacific Fleet.[84]
On film[edit]
The battle has been the main focus for two historical films in Japan. The first, 1969's Battle of the Japan Sea (日本海大海戦, Nihonkai Daikaisen), directed by Seiji Maruyama, starring Toshiro Mifune as Admiral Tōgō, with music by Masaru Sato and special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It was dramatized again in 1983's Battle Anthem (日本海大海戦・海ゆかば, Nihonkai Daikaisen – Umi Yukaba) with Mifune reprising his role.
Another, more recent, depiction is episode 4, season 3 of the 2009–2011 NHK taiga drama series Saka no Ue no Kumo (坂の上の雲) (lit. "Clouds Above the Slope").