Battle of Koan
| date | August 15, 1281 |
|---|---|
| place | Hakata Bay near today's Fukuoka on Kyūshū in Japan |
| output | Mongol invasion repulsed |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Japan ( Kamakura Shogunate ) |
|
| Commander | |
|
Fan Wen-hu (Chinese) |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 100,000? | 142,000 men in 4,400 ships (?) |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
120,000+ |
The battle of kōan ( Jap. 弘安の役 , Kōan no eki, also known as Second Battle of Hakata Bay ) was the second attempted invasion of the Mongols under Kublai Khan in Japan during the Kōan - era . After the first invasion failed seven years earlier at the Battle of Bun'ei , the Mongols rallied an invading army of unbelievable size in 1281 - only to see them eventually destroyed by a typhoon . The Japanese would later call this divine wind or kamikaze .
In June 1281, 900 ships under Mongolian command gathered in Korea. They were manned by 17,000 seamen and transported 10,000 Korean as well as 15,000 Mongolian and Chinese soldiers. Another army was gathering south of the Yangtze in China. It supposedly consisted of 100,000 men on 3,500 ships. However, the departure of the fleet coming from southern China was delayed by several weeks because the person responsible there had difficulties with the logistics (sudden death of the Mongolian commander-in-chief Alaqan, strikes of the dock workers), so that the weather period unfavorable for the invasion was approaching.
As with the first invasion, the islands of Iki and Tsushima quickly fell under the large numbers and military experience of the Mongols.
The Korean fleet or army arrived in Hakata Bay on June 21 and decided to proceed with the invasion without waiting for the larger Chinese fleet that was still in China. They landed a short distance northeast of the landing point of 1274, already outside the walls and defenses built by the Japanese. However, the samurai attacked the invaders in waves and did not allow them to form a bridgehead.
Groups of samurai entered the bay at night in small boats, right in the middle of the Mongolian fleet. Under cover of darkness, they sneaked onto the enemy ships, killed as many enemies as possible, and retreated to land before dawn. This guerrilla tactic forced the Mongols to retreat to Tsushima, where they waited for the Chinese army. Over the next few weeks, around 3,000 men died because of the cramped conditions and the hot weather.
The first ships of the southern fleet arrived on July 16, and on August 12 the two fleets were ready to attack Japan.
On August 15, however, an unusually strong typhoon began in the Strait of Tsushima , which was to last a full two days and decimated the Mongolian fleet. Contemporary Japanese sources state that no more than 200 ships remained. 80 percent of Mongolian soldiers drowned or were killed by the samurai on the coast.
The Khan then began to rally forces for a third attempt at invasion in 1284, but was sidetracked by events in Southeast Asia and found his resources completely inadequate for the project, so no further attempt was made.
literature
- Paul K. Davis: 100 Decisive Battles. From Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Brockhaus in Text and Image 2003 [SW], electronic edition for the office library, Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus, 2003; Article: "Korea".