On February 8, 1904, the Japanese Navy sneaked into Lushunkou, opening the prelude to the Russo-Japanese War. In the following months, the remnants of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet were sealed off in the port of Lushun, waiting for reinforcements. Russia had promised in the Treaty of London under British pressure that the Russian Black Sea Fleet would not enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. That is to say, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was entirely a defensive fleet, which had no other role than to cruise the Black Sea deep inland, so the only available naval force in Russia was the Baltic Fleet.
The distance from the Baltic Sea base in Russia's European mainland to Lushun is almost half a world across the world, because Russia's main warships are between 10,000 and 15,000 tons, it is impossible to take the Suez Canal to shorten the voyage, only to go south along the African coast, bypassing the Cape of Good Hope, and entering the Indian Ocean. The route was limited by the influence of neutrality regulations, and Russia did not have overseas bases to provide supplies, and everything depended on the supply ships of the fleet itself. Over the long journey, the nations of the world did not believe at first that the Russian Navy would reach Lushun safely. Warships at the time still used coal as fuel, coal was large and not as convenient to store as gasoline or diesel, and to meet the large amounts of coal needed for long voyages, Russia leased up to 70 coal ships from Germany's hamburg-america line, replenishing them along the way. On September 26, 1904, the Second Pacific Fleet under the command of Admiral Rozhjestevinsky set sail from the port of Tallinn, Estonia, and under the gaze of Tsar Nicholas II, sailed to the far east, and the essence of the Russian navy was almost all in this expeditionary fleet. After 8 months of voyage, the Russian fleet arrived off the coast of Japan. On May 27, 1905, the combined fleet of Heihachiro Togo and the ambush in the Tsushima Strait was encountered,
At 2:45 a.m. on the 27th, the Japanese auxiliary cruiser Shinano Maru discovered the Russian fleet.
At 5:05 a.m., Togo ordered the whole fleet to attack, and 1 hour later the Japanese fleet began to follow the Russian fleet forward, and at 11:15 p.m. the two sides engaged in a tentative exchange of fire, and the other morning the Japanese fleet accompanied the Russian fleet like a ghost, bringing great mental pressure to the Russian officers and men, and the already low morale was even lower.
At 11:30 a.m., the commander of the Russian fleet, Roger Stevinsky, ordered a change in formation to facilitate the battle, ordered the first and second detachments to accelerate to 11 knots, and to drive in front of another column, and since the other column was not simultaneously ordered to slow down, the formation of the entire Russian fleet fell into chaos.
At 1:30 p.m., the Japanese and Russians approached 10 nautical miles, and the Russian fleet had not yet restored the chaotic formation. At 1:55 a.m., Togo Heihachiro imitated Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar and sent a signal that "the Empire will rise and fall in this battle, and each member will work hard at one level."
At 2:05 p.m., in order to gain a favorable position for attack, Dongxiang resolutely ordered a large turn in front of the enemy, the famous "u" turn.
At 2:08 a.m., the flagship of the Russian fleet, the Duke of Suvorov, opened fire on the Japanese fleet,
At 2:11 a.m., the flagship of the Japanese fleet, mikasa, returned fire, and the capital ships of the two sides began artillery battle at a distance of 6,000 meters, and the Battle of Tsushima officially began.
After the Japanese fleet used 16 minutes to complete the "u" ("α") turn, it gradually adopted the tactic of preempting the T-shaped crosshead to pass through the Russian fleet and attack the Russian vanguard battleships. During the turning of the Japanese fleet, the Russian fleet had injured two Japanese armored cruisers "Izumo" and "Asama", but after the turning was completed, the Japanese fleet took advantage of its higher speed and rate of fire, as well as the power of artillery powder, and gradually seized the initiative on the battlefield, and the flagship of the Russian fleet, the Duke suvorov, was fired fiercely by the Japanese artillery.
At 2:20 p.m., the rudder was broken, the warship was out of control, the commander of the fleet, Roger Stevinsky, was also seriously wounded, and the "Duke of Suvorov", whose entire superstructure had been destroyed, was forced to withdraw from the battle and float on the sea, and the Russian fleet fell into a chaotic situation without command.
The flagship of the Second Russian Detachment, Osriyavia, was heavily damaged by the concentrated bombardment of 6 Japanese warships, sinking at about 3:30 p.m., and more than 300 of the ship's 900 officers and men survived. Subsequently, the battleships "Alexander III", "Borodino", "Eagle", and "Sissoy-Viliki", which had lost unified command, were also severely damaged.
While the battleships were engaged, the cruisers of the two sides were also fiercely engaged. The cruiser exchange of fire began at approximately 2:45 p.m., mainly between the Japanese Third and Fourth Squadrons and the Russian Cruiser Squadron. During the battle, 3 Japanese cruisers were severely damaged and several Russian auxiliary ships caught fire. By about 4 p.m., the defeat of the Russian fleet had been decided, the shipping route to Vladivostok had been blocked, and the two fleets had often lost contact in the smoke and the route was chaotic, and the two sides began a scuffle.
At 4:45 a.m., the Japanese Fifth and Sixth Squadrons entered the battle, and soon the Russian cruiser Svetlana was sunk, and another old cruiser, Donskoy, stubbornly resisted the siege of six Japanese cruisers and wounded two of them ("Wave Speed" and "Sound Feather"), and was later sunk by the crew to avoid being captured. The Oleg, Aurora, Pearl, and several other destroyers and auxiliary ships failed to break through to the north and fled south to the Philippines.
The capital ships of the two sides met twice at 4:45 and 5:30, but the Russian warships were severely damaged and unable to launch a powerful attack, resulting in three battleships being sunk one after another. At 7 p.m., the battered battleship "Alexander III" sank, all the crew members were killed, and 10 minutes later, the ammunition depot of the Borodino was hit by the Japanese "Fuji", the ammunition depot was destroyed, and caused a boiler explosion, which immediately sank, and only 1 officer and soldier of the ship was rescued. The flagship "Duke Suvorov" floating at sea was still shelled by the Japanese, and the Russian destroyer "Rage" ventured closer to the flagship and picked up the ship's wounded, including the fleet commander Roger Stevinsky. At 07:20, a Japanese destroyer launched a torpedo to finally sink the Duke of Suvorov, surviving 20
person.
At 7:30 p.m., all japanese heavy ships withdrew from the battlefield, ready to launch a night attack with torpedo boats and destroyers, and the daytime fighting came to an end.
From 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day, 21 Japanese destroyers and 37 torpedo boats launched torpedo attacks on the remaining Russian ships, and the Russian Third Detachment survived because it was trained in anti-torpedo attacks. Most of the ships of the second detachment were sunk, "Sissoi Viliki", "Admiral Nasimov", and "Navarrin" were torpedoes one after another, and the old armored cruiser "Monomacher" stubbornly sank the Japanese torpedo boat that fired torpedoes at it despite the torpedo blowing off the bow, and later sank by the crew at 5 a.m. due to serious injuries.
After 5 a.m. on the 28th, the remnants of the Russian fleet slowly headed in the direction of Vladivostok, but at 9 a.m., they were again surrounded by the Japanese fleet and were fiercely shelled by Japanese ships, and Rear Admiral Nebogatov, who was the commander of the Russian fleet, decided to surrender.

At 10:53, four battleships, including Nicholas I, Admiral Apaxin, Admiral Serniavin, and Eagle, surrendered, while the Japanese fleet, seeing the Russian surrender signal, continued to carry out inhumane shelling until the combined fleet's chief staff officer, Akiyama Makasa, told the Togo russian fleet that it had surrendered. The Russian officers and men on the "Admiral Ushakov" saw the Japanese signal of surrender, resolutely replied with artillery fire, and finally in order to prevent the battleship named after the famous Russian admiral from falling into the hands of the enemy, the captain ordered itself to be sunk, the cruiser "Emerald" ran aground on the way to Vladivostok, was sunk by the crew, the remaining ships fled to Shanghai, Manila and other neutral ports, and finally escaped back to Vladivostok only the cruiser "Diamond" and 2 other destroyers. The Battle of Tsushima ended here.
Higashigo Heihachiro
In 1905, after a 30,000-kilometer voyage from the Baltic Sea, the Russian Second Fleet (the First Fleet was attacked by the Japanese in 1904 and the remaining turtles were shrunk in Vladivostok) was ambushed by the Japanese Navy in the Tsushima Strait, 38 Russian warships were sunk 16, 6 self-sunk, 7 captured, 6 fled to neutral countries, returned to port, lost a total of 270,000 tons, lost 4830 people, captured 6106 people; the Japanese lost only 3 torpedo boats, less than 300 tons, 117 dead, 583 people were injured. Japan achieved an unprecedented victory.
<b>The cause of Russia's defeat</b>
1: The bureaucratic habits of the Tsarist government are so disturbing that the application for supplies goes through many procedures.
2 : The capital ship of the Second Pacific Fleet, the Borodino-class battleship, has 3 more than 3 unfinished, watching the Russian fleet in the Far East trapped in Lushun, the military situation is like a spark, but the Imperial Russian bureaucracy still does not change its consistent attitude, and the time drags on day by day.
3: The Russian Navy lacks combat training
4: Japan underwent rigorous training before the war, and in the pre-war training, the ammunition alone consumed more than half of the ammunition.
5: The backwardness of the Russian military industry, the use of Japanese Shimose gunpowder and Ishiin shinto.
6: The Russian soldiers have poor mental quality,
7: The main reason is good luck in Japan
<b>Kotaro Sato</b>
When Tetsutaro Sato, a Japanese naval staff officer, gave a lecture at the Naval Academy, he replied to the student's question, "What was the cause of victory in the Russo-Japanese War?" When I thought about this question for half a moment, I said: "40% is luck."
The student then asked, "What about the remaining 60 percent?" ”
"Or luck," Tetsutaro Sato replied very crisply this time.
Co-authored a Russo-Japanese War, and the Japanese defeated the Russians just by luck? This answer didn't seem convincing, so Tetsutaro Sato then explained his "40% luck plus 60% luck."
"The first 40% of the luck is pure luck, such as Commander Makarov was killed by lightning just after taking office, the Yellow Sea Naval Battle of the Yellow Sea that hit the commander tower of the battleship Prince without bias, etc., these events that directly affected the war situation were just pure luck. The latter 60 percent of the luck was a mistake by the Russians or the hard work of the Japanese, and in any case, the Japanese Navy was indeed very lucky in the Russo-Japanese War. ”
On the day of the Battle of the Sea of Japan, there was always a thin fog at sea, and this layer of fog gave the illusion that the distance was still far away. The illusion caused Togo to be closer to the Russian fleet after completing the great turnaround before the enemy, thus increasing the hit rate of the shelling, and the same illusion made Roger Stevinsky miss the opportunity to start shelling, and it is difficult to predict what the result would be if Roger Stevinsky fired five or six minutes earlier.
Let's look at the first few words of the summary report of Lieutenant General Heihachiro Higashigo, commander of the Combined Fleet, to the Military Command, and the first four words of this report, which were drafted by Akiyama Makoto, were: "Heaven help God bless."