History of Asia

What is the operation of the Japanese fleet that defeated the Russian Baltic Fleet? ??

The biggest Venus in the modern war is probably the Russo-Japanese War.

Among them, [ Battle of Tsushima ] Is said to be the battle that decided the victory or defeat of the Russo-Japanese War, and became a turning point for the Japanese Navy after that.

Russian Baltic Fleet to the Far East ...

January 1, 1883 The Japanese army achieved its original goal by occupying Lushunkou and repelling the Russian Pacific Fleet, but October 1897 The Russian fleet Baltic Fleet Has begun a voyage to the Far East for reinforcements.

Baltic Fleet (Baltic Fleet) Even after being informed of the fall of Lvshun, he headed to the Far East in order to seize control of the sea in the Far East waters and destroy the battlefield in the land battle in the direction of Manchuria.

" Baltic Fleet to the Far East ... ], The Japanese army begins to prepare to destroy the Baltic Fleet after the occupation of Lushun. For about three months, we have been training hard, greatly improving the skills of each fleet's artillery and torpedo battles, and docking the battleships for maintenance.

In the Far East, Vladivostok is the only Russian fleet base, so the Russian fleet was predicted to travel north from the Straits of Tsushima to the Sea of ​​Japan, or to go around the Pacific Ocean and pass through the Tsugaru Straits or Soya Straits.

The Japanese army predicted the route to intercept the Baltic Fleet, and among the above three routes, selected the route via the Tsushima Strait and waited for the Russian fleet. However, since the Russian fleet was not discovered even after the schedule, the Japanese army began to consider the possibility of breaking through the Tsushima and Soya Straits from Tsushima, but at the decision of Commander Togo Heihachiro, he continued to wait for the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Strait. rice field.

May 27, 1883 " Shinano Maru " was patroling around Jeju Island. 』Discovers the Baltic Fleet.

At this time, 4:45 am It was that.

" Enemy fleet, passing through the Tsushima Strait, like St. Sulmonono ] And Shinano Maru 6am after receiving the news from To her flagship " Mikasa ], A sortie order was issued to the entire fleet.

The Japanese Combined Fleet dispatched all ships toward the decisive battle that determined the victory of the Russo-Japanese War.

The Combined Fleet caught the Baltic Fleet in sight at 1:39 pm . It was that.

At this time, the distance to the enemy fleet was 13 kilometers.

" Empire's abolition of Hakono's battle, each member of the team will make further efforts to encourage them. Z flag * Is hung on the battleship Mikasa, 2:00 pm The Japanese fleet, which was to the north of the Russian fleet, was heading west-southwest, and the Russian fleet was heading northeast in a counter-voyage manner.

* Z flag ↑

The start of the Togo turn that surprised the Russian fleet! !!

If we proceeded as it was, the Japanese fleet would have had a long pursuit after a short counter-voyage, but the Japanese fleet would steer to the left.

Famous [ Togo Turn 】let's start doing.

Also known as [ T-shaped strategy ] It seems that it is called.

Briefly,

" Proceed to block the direction of travel of the enemy ship and shoot all at once

In the strategy, from ancient times [ naval battle ] Speaking of this, right? It is a famous tactic, not the original of Heihachiro Togo.

The point of this operation is in the direction that the ship can attack.

For infantry and tanks, it's best to attack in the direction of travel, but for ships The attack power is highest on the left and right with respect to the direction of travel. The reason is obvious when you look at the construction of a ship.

The biggest difficulty in this operation is that it is on the sea, and in the sea you have to take into account the wind direction and waves. In such a situation, it was extremely difficult to move accurately to the side of the enemy ship.

This tactic was the strongest in theory, but it wasn't practical at all. Everyone thought that it was useless to do it, and that it would end up being hit from the side where it was done. In fact, the Russian side responded to the Japanese army that made this move by saying, " The Japanese army has become a mess . The strategy with a low success rate is [ Togo Turn 】was.

This is not a fluke, August 10, 1897 Battle of the Yalu River It seems that the lessons of Commander Togo and Chief of Staff Akiyama Saneyuki follow the same tactics in the Yellow Sea, but they are killed by Kotenpan.

Trial and error based on the failure in the Yellow Sea was [ holding the lead of the enemy fleet ]. The solution is a coordinated mine operation [ forcing the enemy fleet to choose between rushing into a mine source or bombardment . ] It was a thing. However, the weather was bad on the day of the decisive battle, and the operation could not be carried out.

So, as the next improvement, Enemy Destroyer Destroyer It was a strategy to pierce the blind spot of the enemy. Taking advantage of the agility of the Japanese Combined Fleet, I decided to forcibly bring the enemy into the same voyage.

The Battle of Tsushima begins

A few minutes after entering the parallel course with the Russian fleet, the Russian fleet approaches a distance of 7-8 km and begins firing at the Japanese fleet. A battle start order was also issued to the Japanese side, and the battle will start starting with the start of firing of the flagship Mikasa.

The Japanese-Russian fleet's artillery battle, which lasted about an hour, took the initiative as the Japanese fleet, which was faster than the Russian battleship, gradually greeted the head of the Russian fleet. At that time, I was at the beginning [ Mikasa ] Was in a position where more than 30 ships could be seen on the starboard side of the Baltic Fleet.

After that, the battle continued until sunset, and by the time the night came, the results of the battle expanded, and even in the night battle before dawn, the destroyers and torpedo boats attacked the Russian fleet further.

And 10:34 am on the 28th The remaining Russian fleet surrenders to Japan Did.

Both Japanese and Russian troops had almost the same main fleet and fought in a decisive battle [ Battle of Tsushima ], 21 ships sank on the Russian side, and 6 ships surrendered, resulting in the loss of a total of 27 ships. In the end, only five cruisers, two destroyers, and two special mission ships returned to Russian territory.

On the other hand, Japan's loss is limited to three torpedo boats, and the Battle of Tsushima will end with a complete victory of the Japanese Navy. It goes without saying that this caused the Russian side to abandon the continuation of the war.

What was the cause of the Baltic Fleet's defeat?

The fact that the Baltic Fleet, which led four state-of-the-art Russian fleets, suddenly disappeared in the Sea of ​​Japan surprised powerful nations such as Britain and the United States. Now, I would like to consider why the Russian fleet lost.

Long-term voyage

The Baltic Fleet is October 15, 1897-May 27, 1883 I had been sailing for more than half a year. During the first voyage to the Far East, fear of the Japanese troops who defeated Lushun was potentially widespread among the marines.

In addition, since it was not possible to call from Cam Ranh departure port in Vietnam to Vladivostok, each ship was loaded with coal and a large amount of supplies and was overloaded. As a result, the height on the water line is reduced and stability * It led to a decline and caused the sinking in the Battle of Tsushima.

* Stability is the force that tries to return to the original position when a ship standing upright on the water is gently tilted from a balanced position.

For long-term voyages, shellfish and barnacles that reach the bottom of the ship are dropped about once every two months. This is a work that can only be done by docking, and the fleet that could not secure the port during the voyage could not do this work, and the fleet gradually slowed down in 6 months. ..

In addition, as a result of not being able to make anthracite coal as fuel, the enemy found the position of the ship due to the slowdown of the speed of the ship itself and the generation of black smoke.

Differences in soldier formation

In Russia, aristocratic senior officers dominate the soldiers of the common people It was.

It wasn't a relationship between superiors and soldiers, but an army with a master-slave relationship, often creating conflicts and inefficiencies. During this period, the buds of free thought that led to the Russian Revolution began to open, and the opposition to incompetent senior officers drastically reduced morale.

The best Russian Navy sailors were gathered in the Pacific Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet, and the Baltic Fleet was said to have had poor sailor quality.

The fleet, exhausted after a long voyage of six months, was thinking of avoiding the battle of the Japanese army, pulling it to Vladivostok, taking a rest, and then confronting the Japanese army. Therefore, even when I confronted the Japanese battleship, I was in a defensive system from beginning to end.

Therefore, it is said that the battle could not be fought in a situation favorable to the own army.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Heihachiro Togo pointed out the inadequacies of the Baltic Fleet and said, "The mistake was that the Russian fleet came in two rows, and the weak second fleet was on this side, so the enemy I was hurt by the time I finished the deployment. At that time, I couldn't get such a result if I came in a single line of battle. I heard that he said.