Battle of Chilcheonryang
| date | August 26, 1597 to August 27, 1597 |
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| place | Sea of Japan off the coast of Geojedo , Strait of Chilcheonryang, Korea |
| output | Victory of japan |
| Parties to the conflict | |
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| Commander | |
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| Troop strength | |
| between 500 and 1000 combat ships | approx. 169 ships, including Panokseon and Geobukseon |
| losses | |
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no details |
approx. 157 ships and their crews |
The sea battle of Chilcheonryang ( Japanese 漆 川 梁 海 戦 , Shitsusenryō kaisen , Kor. 칠천 량 해전 , McCune-Reischauer : Ch'ilch'ŏnnyang haejŏn , revised : Chilcheonryang haejeon ) was a sea battle during the Imjin War . It took place on August 26th and 27th, 1597 (15th day in the 7th month according to the Chinese lunisolar calendar) between a Japanese sea fleet and the Korean sea fleet in the Strait of Chilcheonryang near the island of Geojedo near the port city of Busan .
prehistory
During the first attempt at invasion of Korea by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army in 1592, the Japanese armed forces initially achieved great success due to the ailing condition of the Korean army and military bureaucracy. But the Korean naval commander Yi Sun-sin had shown foresight and was well prepared for an invasion by Japanese troops. With the help of his strategic expertise, the intensive use of cannons and a new type of battleships , I succeeded in seriously jeopardizing the supply of the invading army, which had to be carried out over the sea, even with larger naval units there. Japan started to legitimately view I as the only serious threat to the annexation of China and Korea, which made it the target of Japanese decision-makers.
In order to render I harmless, a double agent was sent to the Korean royal court in 1597 to convince King Seonjo that the Japanese fleet wanted to launch a major attack at a certain point in time. As expected, Seonjo ordered Admiral I to intercept and destroy the Japanese fleet. However, I refused to obey the order because he did not trust the message and the area where the landing was supposed to take place was too treacherous to navigate. Seonjo then wanted to sentence him to death for high treason. However, I had won a great deal of sympathy from the people and some high officials, including his old childhood friend and then Prime Minister Ryu Seong-ryong , and in order not to risk a rebellion, Seonjo ordered him instead to be tortured and subsequently demoted to a rank of ordinary soldier. In his place, General Won Gyun , commander of the Gyeongsang Right Naval Division and a colleague and rival of Is, was appointed chief admiral of the Korean fleet.
Course of the battle
According to various sources, including Yi Sun-sin's own war diaries ( Nanjung Ilgi ), Won Gyun had proven himself to be an incompetent officer during the Imjin War, who repeatedly defied Is orders, and on some occasions even apparently abandoned him in battle . He also made impulsive decisions that, had he been able to enforce them, would have had disastrous effects. He was also notorious as a drinker and voluptuary, who even stalked the wives of his own followers.
After Won Gyun had received the order from King Seonjo to destroy the Japanese fleet, he set off with the entire Korean combat fleet, including the ships that had previously been under Is's command, from the naval base on Hansan Island in the direction of Busan . Unlike I, however, Won did not bother to get more detailed information from scouts and locals or to send a reconnaissance party, but instead let the entire fleet run out at once. Therefore, on August 26, 1597, near Busan, Won unexpectedly met a Japanese task force whose strength (depending on the source) was between 500 and 1000 ships.
Although his fleet was completely inferior to the enemy in number and (due to the exhausting journey) in combat strength, Won attacked the Japanese immediately. He made a second fatal mistake by letting the Japanese get too close to his ships, where they could fully exploit their advantages in land combat , supported by the volley fire of their arquebuses . Yi Sun-sin had always prevented the Japanese from doing this through the massive use of cannons against the enemy ships, until most of their crews had been incapacitated. As a result of this strategic mishap, the Japanese succeeded in raising thirty Korean ships on the first attempt. Before this fight, a Korean commander, Bae Sol, had deserted from the battlefield with twelve other ships and a crew of 200 after he had realized the hopelessness of this situation.
Won Gyun immediately withdrew with the rest of the fleet and landed on Gadeok Island to gather supplies. There was a Japanese garrison there, however, which immediately attacked the Korean troops, killing 400 marines and sending the rest to flight. Amazed and encouraged by this unusual bungling of the Korean Navy, the Japanese set out to pursue them and put the fleeing soldiers to fight again the following night. Again, Won Gyun allowed the Japanese to come within boarding distance, and in this second phase of the battle all remaining ships of the Korean Navy were wiped out. Won Gyun, his colleague Yi Eok-gi and several other survivors were able to escape to a nearby island, but this was also home to a Japanese garrison. As a result, the refugees were quickly discovered and cut down to the last man.
Effects
The removal of Yi Sun-sins and the Korean defeat at Chilcheonryang gave the Japanese invaders renewed confidence. As a result, they made further advances into Jeolla Province and were able to get as far as Chiksan, from where they could be ready for a renewed advance against Hanseong , the country's capital.
However, Chilcheonryang remained the only sea battle that the Japanese could win in this war. On the Korean side, this catastrophic defeat resulted in King Seonjo pardoning Yi Sun-sin with immediate effect and restoring command of the Korean Navy to him. With the twelve ships that Bae Sol had taken with him from the battlefield at Chilcheonryang, and an additional panokseon , I succeeded, despite all expectations, about two months later in the sea battle of Myongnyang in such a decisive victory against the Japanese supply fleet that the Land operations of the invading army came to a complete standstill due to the disruption of their maritime supply routes.
See also
literature
- Yi Sun-sin: Nanjung Ilgi [The War Diary] . Ha Tae-hung and son Pow-key (Eds.). Yonsei University Press, Seoul 1977.
- Sung-do Jho: Yi Sun-Shin: A National Hero of Korea . Naval Academy, Chinhae 1970.
- Stephen Turnbull: The Samurai Invasion of Korea 1592–1598 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-1-84603-254-7 .
Individual evidence
- ^ I Sun-sun: Nanjung Ilgi. P. 18.
- ^ I Sun-sun: Nanjung Ilgi. P. 51.
- ^ I Sun-sun: Nanjung Ilgi. Pp. 14-15, 22.
- ^ I Sun-sun: Nanjung Ilgi. Pp. 267-268.
Web links
- Annals of the Choson Dynasty (Korean). Retrieved January 20, 2013