Battle of the Yellow Sea (1904)
The Russian ship of the line Zessarevich
| date | August 10, 1904 |
|---|---|
| place | Yellow Sea , off the Shandong Peninsula , China |
| output | Strategic Japanese victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 6 ships of the line 4 protected cruisers 14 torpedo boats |
4 ships of the line 2 armored cruisers 8 protected cruisers 18 destroyers 30 torpedo boats |
| losses | |
|
67 killed and 101 wounded |
226 killed and wounded |
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 sea battle in the Yellow Sea ( Japanese 黄海海 戦 , Kōkai kaisen ; Russian Бой в Жёлтом море , Boi w Schjoltom more ) took place on August 10, 1904 off the Shandong peninsula , China, during the Russo-Japanese War . The Russian fleet failed in an attempt to break out of the Yellow Sea .
prehistory
The Russian First Pacific Squadron under Admiral Wilhelm Withöft had been trapped in Port Arthur by a Japanese naval blockade since February 8, 1904 . Japanese land forces tightened the siege ring around Port Arthur in the summer , and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces in the Far East and Governor of the Far East Region, Yevgeny Ivanovich Alexejew , urged the hesitant Withöft to break out the fleet in order to match them with those lying in Vladivostok To unite ships and then with this concentrated force to oppose the Japanese. Withöft and his staff were of the opinion, however, that it would be better to stay in the harbor and use part of the ship artillery to defend the city. Alexejew finally obtained a telegraphic order from Tsar Nicholas II , which ordered Withöft to break through to Vladivostok.
The battle
On the morning of July 28th, Jul . / August 10, 1904 greg. Withoft's squadron left Port Arthur to break the Japanese blockade and run to Vladivostok . It consisted of the six ships of the line Zessarewitsch , Retwisan , Pobeda , Peresvet , Sevastopol and Poltava as well as four protected cruisers and 14 torpedo boats . The Japanese fleet under Admiral Tōgō comprised the four battleships Mikasa , Asahi , Fuji and Shikishima , the two armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga , eight protected cruisers, 18 destroyers and 30 torpedo boats.
The main force of the Japanese fleet initially blocked the Russian route along the Shandong peninsula . At around 1 p.m. both sides opened fire and after about an hour Admiral Withöft managed to break out. Admiral Tōgō, who had now realized that the Russians wanted to escape to Vladivostok, took up the chase and caught up with the slower Russian squadron after a few hours. Driving on a parallel course, both sides began another firefight at 4:20 p.m. at a distance of about 8 to 9 km, in which considerable damage was done on both sides.
At 6 p.m., when the battle was far from over and the Russian fleet could still count on an escape in the dark, Admiral Withoft was killed by a shrapnel on the bridge of the Zessarevich . About 12 minutes later, another shell hit the bridge, killing both the commander and almost all of the bridge personnel. The rudder jammed so hard that the Zessarevich began to drive in circles, heavily heeling. The following ships, unaware of the events on the flagship, tried to follow, so that the Russian battle order fell into chaos when the Zessarevich finally ran back into its own combat formation. Fortunately for the Russians, Admiral Tōgō broke off the battle at this point because of the darkness and the onset of ammunition shortage and ran east. During the night he let his destroyers and torpedo boats carry out attacks on the Russian ships, but these could be repulsed without major losses on the Russian side.
Most of the Russian squadron (five ships of the line, one cruiser and nine torpedo boats) returned to Port Arthur. The other units were dispersed in the dark and sought out neutral ports, where they were interned until the end of the war. The badly damaged Zessarevich arrived with the three destroyers Besposchtschadni , Besschumni , Besstraschni of the Kit class to Tsingtau , where the ships were interned by the German authorities. The Nowik also briefly entered Tsingtau, but left again to try to reach Vladivostok according to the original plan. It was caught by Japanese cruisers in front of Korsakov and finally sank before Sakhalin itself. The damaged Askold , the flagship of Rear Admiral Reitzenstein , who commanded the cruisers , ran to Shanghai , where later the destroyer Grozowoi , who initially accompanied the Diana , also arrived. Both were interned under Japanese pressure from China until a peace agreement was reached with Japan. The Diana ran over Haiphong until 23 August after Saigon , where she was interned. The in Tschifu broken-torpedo boat Ryeshitelni was seized by the Japanese after there neither disarmament nor the intention of re-leakage to be identified.
Immediately in the battle, no ship was lost on either side. During the night the destroyer Burny ran aground near Cape Shantung and was a total loss. The Japanese ships of the line, which besides the Fuji had suffered considerable damage, and the damaged armored cruiser Yagumo were repaired and fought at Tsushima .
The Russian Port Arthur Squadron attempted no further breakout. After the Japanese army occupied the heights around Port Arthur in December 1904, their artillery succeeded in gradually sinking or incapacitating four of the Russian ships of the line and two cruisers in the port.
The Vladivostok squadron ran late to meet the escaping squadron and suffered a defeat by the Japanese armored cruisers in the sea battle near Ulsan ; after that it was never operational again as a squadron.
Movies
- Port Arthur (Germany 1936, directed by Nicolas Farkas ) with René Deltgen and Paul Hartmann .
literature
- Robert A. Burt: Japanese Battleships. 1897-1945. Arms and Armor Press, New York NY 1989, ISBN 0-85368-758-7 .
- Robert Forczyk : Russian Battleship vs Japanese Battleship. Yellow Sea 1904-05 (= Duel 15). Osprey, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-1-84603-330-8 .
Web links
- THE NAVAL CAMPAIGN The Russo-Japanese War Research Society
- The Battle of the Yellow Sea The Russo-Japanese War Research Society
Individual evidence
- ↑ Forczyk, p 46
- ↑ Forczyk, p 48
- ↑ Forczyk, p. 50
- ↑ Forczyk, p. 51
- ^ Image of the damaged Zessarevich
- ^ Askold and Grozovoi interned August 26, 1904 NYT
- ^ Diana in Saigon August 21, 1904 NYT
- ↑ Japan may take war into China, NYT August 16, 1904