After the superiority of steel warships was discovered, ironclad ships were favored by the navies of various countries. However, shipbuilding technology and naval power were evolving rapidly, and soon after in the 1880s, there were former dreadnoughts with superior performance over ironclads. The Battle of Tsushima, which broke out in 1905, was a life-and-death contest between the Japanese and Russian navies at the peak of the development of the former dreadnought. This war directly affected the development trend of battleships, and naval warfare moved to the era of giant ship cannons. Next, let's get a glimpse of this "giant ship cannon doctrine" opening battle!
Japanese Admiral Heihachiro Higashigo
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two tigers in the Far East</h1>
May 27, 1905 was a special day. For Russia's Second Pacific Fleet, which crossed half the globe to reach the Far East, today is the coronation day of Tsar Nicholas II. For the Japanese Combined Fleet, this day was the "zodiac auspicious day" for ambushing the Russian fleet—after a long period of training, the fleet's ammunition depot had been depleted by more than half, and the enemy they had been waiting for for a long time finally appeared.
The story begins with the struggle between Japan and Russia in the Far East. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Japan and Russia, which had entered the period of imperialism, actively expanded their armaments and joined the ranks of colonial expansion. Russia was eyeing East Asia, and Japan was trying to invade China and Korea, so a great war broke out between the two "bandits" in order to compete for the sphere of influence in the Far East. It's a contest between the old European powers and the emerging Asian powers, and Japan, which is less powerful than Russia on paper, is undoubtedly the underdog side. Who would have imagined that the Japanese army would suddenly attack and completely annihilate the Pacific Fleet, one of Russia's four major fleets, and shock the world. In a critical situation, Russia had no choice but to draw troops from the Baltic and Black Seas to form the Second Pacific Fleet, which, under the leadership of its commander, Vice Admiral Rozhdestvinsky, traveled thousands of miles to the Far East.
Commander of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, Rozhdje Stevinsky
The commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet was the famous Admiral Heihachiro Higashigo. As early as the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, Togo had already emerged as the captain of the "Wave Speed" and made military merits for Japan. This time, based on the intelligence and rich combat experience he had obtained, he judged that the Russian fleet would definitely take the shortest voyage through the Tsushima Strait and go to Vladivostok, their only remaining military port in the Far East. Togo decided decisively to fight a decisive battle between the Tsushima Strait and the Russian fleet that had come from afar. He adopted the plan of Makoto Akiyama, known as the "genius staff officer", and made a meticulous ambush plan to annihilate the Russian Navy in one fell swoop.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Tsushima Strait is about to come</h1>
Unsurprisingly, in the early hours of May 27, the Japanese ship Shinano Maru discovered the whereabouts of the enemy ship near the Tsushima Strait. The Japanese Combined Fleet, which had received the report, set sail for the intended ambush site, and their main warship, including the flagship Mikasa, was the highly regarded former dreadnought of the time.
The so-called pre-dreadnought is actually the collective name of the new type of battleship built by various countries in this period based on the British "Majesty" class battleship. Influenced by the "giant ship cannon doctrine" doctrine of the U.S. naval theorist Mahan, this giant battleship with heavy artillery and at least one light weapon, covered with reinforced steel armor, and equipped with coal-fired steam engines, was revered around the world. Countries have spent huge sums of money to develop a maritime fleet with battleships as the core, and the former dreadnought naturally replaced the ironclad ships and became the main warships of the navies of various countries.
During the Battle of the Tsushima Strait, Togo Heihachirō commanded the battle on the battleship Mikasa
As an ambitious emerging naval power, Japan has also followed the trend and vigorously expanded its fleet of former dreadnoughts. After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan purchased a series of "Shikishima-class" battleships from British shipyards, and the Mikasa was one of them. The ship, which cost £880,000 to build, was launched in 1900 and officially entered service in 1902, making it the most powerful and powerful warship in the Japanese Navy. The same type of "Shikishima" class battleships also "Shikishima", "Asahi" and "Hatsuka", all of which participated in the Russo-Japanese War and were active in the coastal and ocean-going battlefields as the main warships of the Japanese Navy.
Faced with the threat of emerging powers such as Japan, Russia also responded by expanding its fleet. Before the Battle of Tsushima, the Russian Navy was ranked among the top three in the world's navies, and the mixed fleet to the Far East had 38 main warships and about 20 auxiliary ships, and the lineup was more powerful than the Japanese Navy. The First and Second Squadrons had as many as seven former dreadnoughts, the flagship Duke Suvorov and the latest fast battleship oslyabia, which the Russian Navy had high hopes for.
However, the victory or defeat of the war is not determined solely by the paper strength of both sides, but also depends on the time, place and people. It took more than 7 months for the Russian reinforcements to reach the Far East from the Baltic Sea, and the long and continuous voyages made the officers and men suffer hardships, and by the time they reached the Strait of Tsushima, they were exhausted and demoralized. In contrast, the Japanese Navy, with their leisure and waiting, was fully prepared.
Schematic of the "U" turn tactics
Japan and Russia thus met in the Tsushima Strait and began a tentative exchange of fire at noon. At this time, the commander of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, Rozhdestvinsky, was surprised to find that he had misjudged the appearance of the enemy ships. He gave an urgent order to change the fleet from a double column to a single column, but many ships failed to carry out this order in time, causing the fleet formation to fall into chaos for a while. Making mistakes on the battlefield comes at a heavy cost. Seizing this opportunity, Togo Heihachiro ordered the ships to attack with all their might, and according to the plan, they made a big turn in front of the enemy, which is the famous "U" turning tactic, hoping to change the position of their own warships to obtain a more favorable attack position and concentrate their firepower on attacking the Russian warships.
This is a desperate tactic, because the flagship at the front will be attacked by the concentrated fire of the Russian army when it turns to change positions, and the fleet is in danger of being "decapitated". In order to boost morale, Dongxiang asked the flagship "Mikasa" to raise the "Z" signal flag, which according to the prior agreement conveyed that the country was destroyed in this battle, and it was hoped that the kings would die and serve. With firm determination and high morale, Togo was also favored by the god of fate, and the First Fleet, composed of 4 former dreadnoughts led by the "Mikasa", withstood the enemy shelling and all reached the predetermined battle position, which in turn formed a fire attack formation against the "Duke Suvorov"; The Second Squadron, consisting of six new armored cruisers, with the exception of the Heavily Shelled Andromeda, which was heavily shot and forced to withdraw from the battle, also reached the battle position, and the muzzle of the gun pointed directly at the Russian Oslyabia. At this point, it can be said that the situation of the Russian fleet is already like fish on the board.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > giant ship cannons compete on the same stage</h1>
In addition to the determination, luck and superb command, the excellent performance of the former dreadnought is also an indispensable factor in the successful change of the tongo. For example, the armor of the "Mikasa" was made of the most advanced Krupp steel at that time, and the thickest armor was 356 mm. Therefore, although the Russian fleet opened fire at the same time as the Japanese changed positions, the Japanese side, which had the advantage in speed and battleship performance, quickly completed the shift in 16 minutes. The Japanese immediately began to fight back, and the two sides came and went, and the war tended to be white-hot.
Four steel behemoths with displacements of 10,000 tons of the Japanese First Fleet aimed a total of 16 main guns and 164 secondary guns of various types at the Duke Suvorov. Thanks to good live-fire training and powerful gunpowder, coupled with the rapid rate of fire and high hit rate of the shells, after several rounds of salvos, the "Duke Suvorov" was severely damaged and out of control. Rozhdestvinsky himself was seriously wounded by shells. For a time, the Russian fleet, which had lost control, was in disarray. The fate of the Oslyabia was even more tragic, its main mast fell, its chimney was torn to pieces, the ship was set on fire, and it eventually became the first Russian fleet to be sunk. Under such unfavorable situations and artillery fire, the Russian Second Pacific Fleet itself was still unable to return to the sky, despite its own strength.
The Japanese fleet's enemy front turn was completely accomplished, and Togo took the opportunity to step up the attack. The Third to Sixth Fleets of the Japanese ships, which had earlier taken on patrol duties, were not idle, and considering that these fleets were generally dominated by less powerful destroyers, frigates, torpedo boats, and old warships, and that a head-on battle with the main forces of the enemy ships might not be able to take advantage, Togo ordered them to attack the Russian fleet, which was also dominated by old warships, and the battle situation was still tilted towards the Japanese side. It was also the first instance in the history of world naval warfare in which torpedoes were used in large-scale naval battles.
In the end, the Japanese Combined Fleet, with its huge naval guns and good tactical command, defeated the Russian Second Pacific Fleet to sink, descend, and flee. The Russian Second Pacific Fleet was almost completely annihilated, with more than 10,000 soldiers killed, wounded, and captured, as well as Rozhdy Stevinsky. The Japanese combined fleet, which paid the price of only 3 torpedo ships being sunk and more than 600 casualties, won an unprecedented victory in the competition of giant ship cannons.
In the Battle of Tsushima, in addition to the factors of the commander's misjudgment and the long-distance fatigue of the soldiers, the armor, speed, artillery power, and rate of fire of the battleships were not comparable to those of the Japanese warships, which was also an important reason for Russia's fiasco. The superior performance of the Japanese fleet, the former dreadnoughts, played an absolutely leading role. This also proves that the most important thing for a battleship is firepower, speed, and armor, and that a good battleship that combines these three elements should occupy the hegemony of naval warfare. This philosophy profoundly influenced subsequent naval warfare. Just a year after the Battle of Tsushima, the more fiercely powerful British battleship "Intrepid" was launched, and the era of giant ship cannons officially arrived. Under the wheels of history, the former dreadnoughts have not been spared the fate of being replaced. The Japanese flagship Mikasa, which was the most popular in the past, was later sunk by an explosion in the ammunition depot, and after salvage and repair, it was preserved in Yokosuka City, becoming the only surviving former dreadnought ship.