Occupation of Sakhalin
| date | July 7. bis 31 July 1905 |
|---|---|
| place | Sakhalin |
| output | Japanese victory |
| consequences | The southern half of Sakhalin remained in Japanese hands until 1945 |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| 7,280 men and 12 guns |
14,000 men 18 guns |
| losses | |
|
3,451 total losses
|
low losses |
Port Arthur (Sea Battle) - Chemulpo - Yalu - Nanshan - Te-li-ssu - Hitachi-Maru Incident - Motien Pass - Tashihchiao - Hsimucheng - Port Arthur (Siege) - Yellow Sea - Ulsan - Korsakov - Liaoyang - Shaho - Sandepu - Mukden - Tsushima - Sakhalin
The occupation of Sakhalin was an operation by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War and took place on June 24th . / July 7 greg. until July 18th jul. / July 31, 1905 greg. instead of. It was supposed to expel the Imperial Russian Army from the island of Sakhalin (Japanese: Karafuto ) in order to put further pressure on the Russian delegation in the upcoming negotiations in Portsmouth, America. The operation was the last military confrontation between the two warring parties. On September 5, 1905, the war ended.
prehistory
After the Battle of Tsushima , Tsar Nicholas II was forced to accept the offer of negotiation made by American President Theodore Roosevelt . Although Japan had emerged victorious from numerous land and sea battles, the country's war effort was evident. On June 6, 1905, the Japanese envoys Komura Jutarō and Takahira Kogorō made the American president understand their readiness for negotiations. Nicholas II wanted to immediately accept the peace offer before Russia ran the risk of the Japanese attacking and occupying the Russian island of Sakhalin.
In Japan there had been conflicting discussions since the beginning of the war about whether or not to attack Sakhalin. Ultimately, the decision to occupy Sakhalin was made on June 15, 1905. The operation was transferred to the recently established Japanese 13th Division under General Haraguchi Kensai .
Fight on Sakhalin
Right at the beginning of the war in February 1904, all men fit for military service on Sakhalin were called up for military service. These included hunters and farmers, but also prisoners or exiles who were released for the duration of the fighting. Training for these units was slow, because training officers did not arrive until April 1905.
Guerrilla fight in the south
The strength of the Russian troops stationed in the south of the island was insufficient for open combat. Therefore, General Lyapunov divided his available forces into five units, which should immediately switch to guerrilla warfare after the Japanese landed . Each of the units was assigned its own area:
- Area around Korsakov Colonel Arzischewski , 415 man, eight 47-mm guns and three machine guns and ten guns (including two 12-cm and two 47mm guns, by the protected Kreuzer Nowik after the Battle of Korsakov were recovered and were placed in a coastal battery under the command of Lieutenant Maksimov).
- Area around Lake Tunaitscha : Captain Grotto-Slepikowski , approx. 190 (178) men, a machine gun
- Area around the village of Sevastyanovka : 160 (157) men
- Area around the river Ljutoga : Captain Dairskowo, 180 (184) man
- Area around the Naiba River : Captain Bykow, 225 (226) men
On July 7, 1905, two Japanese troop contingents landed, escorted by ship units of the Imperial Japanese Navy . The ships had taken part in the naval battle of Tsushima a few days earlier . The Japanese landed between Aniwa and Korsakow in Aniwa Bay and then moved towards Korsakow. There the Russians under Colonel Arciszewski defended the city for 17 hours, but had to withdraw. After taking Korsakov, the Japanese marched north and captured Vladimirovka on July 10th . To the west of it, Arzischewski's group dug in to again offer resistance to the Japanese. After the Japanese had bypassed the Russians on the flanks, they hastily retreated into the mountains. Over 200 Russians were captured, while the Japanese had 18 dead and 58 wounded. On July 16, Colonel Arzischewski had to give up and surrendered with his remaining men. Only a small group around Captain Boris Sterligow escaped and went to North Sakhalin.
Captain Bykov's group had heard of the Japanese landing and set up ambushes near the villages of Romanovskoye and Otradna, which could inflict heavy losses on the Japanese. Nevertheless, Bykov's group could not stop the Japanese and withdrew after crossing Nevelskoi Street to Nikolayevsk on the Amur . He lost 54 men in the process.
The remaining three Russian guerrilla groups were not involved in any fighting.
In the North
On July 24, 1905, the Japanese landed near Alexandrowsk-Sakhalinsky . The strength of the Russian troops in northern Sakhalin was over 5,000 men under the direct command of General Lyapunov. Because of the numerical and material superiority of the Japanese, the Russians withdrew from the city and capitulated a few days later on July 31, 1905.
losses
The Japanese had acquired Sakhalin with minimal effort and loss. The Russian losses, however, amounted to 181 dead and 3,270 prisoners. The reasons for the low Russian resistance lay in the low morale of the soldiers, who for the most part consisted of prisoners and deportees with little or no military training. In addition, there were insufficient telephone and telegraph connections to coordinate military actions. Even General Lyapunov had limited military knowledge and was a civil lawyer.
consequences
According to the Treaty of Portsmouth, southern Sakhalin remained with Japan. The 50th parallel served as the limit. Only at the end of 1945 was Russia able to take full possession of the island again. The Ainu people , the indigenous people of northern Japan , had settled Sakhalin since the 12th century. Parts of the Ainu had converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and also spoke Russian. Nevertheless, after the victory of the Red Army in 1945, they were forcibly deported to Japan.
literature
- Military Literature, Chapter 19 , Russian
- Russo-Japanese War 1904/05, Part 2, Military Operations on Sakhalin and the Tatar Sound , Russian
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Military Literature, Chapter 19 , Russian
- ↑ a b c d e The Historical Section of the Committee of the Imperial Defense (Ed.): Official History (Naval and Military) of the Russo-Japanese War . London 1910, p. 835 .
