| Battle of the Yellow Sea | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theRusso-Japanese War | |||||||
 Shikishima firing during the battle (colorized) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Empire of Japan |  Russian Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Tōgō HeihachirōDewa Shigetō |  Wilgelm Vitgeft †Pavel Ukhtomsky | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 5 battleships 6 armoured cruisers 8 protected cruisers 18 destroyers 30 torpedo boats | 6 battleships 4 protected cruisers 14 destroyers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 226 killed & wounded 2 battleships severely damaged 1 battleship slightly damaged 1 protected cruiser slightly damaged | 340 killed & wounded 1 battleship severely damaged 5 battleships slightly damaged several ships interned in neutral ports | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheBattle of the Yellow Sea (Japanese:黄海海戦,romanized: Kōkai kaisen;Russian:Бой в Жёлтом море) was anaval battle of theRusso-Japanese War, fought on 10 August 1904. In the Russian Navy, it was referred to as theBattle of 10 August. The battle foiled an attempt by the Russian fleet atLüshunkou (Port Arthur) to break out and form up with theVladivostok squadron, forcing them to return to port. Four days later, theBattle off Ulsan similarly ended the Vladivostok group's sortie, forcing both fleets to remain at anchor.
TheImperial Russian Navy's First Pacific Squadron (AdmiralWilgelm Vitgeft) had been trapped inLüshunkou (Port Arthur) since theImperial Japanese Navyblockade began on 8 February 1904 with theBattle of Port Arthur. In July and early August, as theImperial Japanese Army laid siege to Port Arthur, relations between Vitgeft and the RussianViceroyYevgeni Alekseyev soured. Alekseyev, a former admiral, favored an aggressivesortie so as to enable the First Pacific Squadron to link up with the Vladivostok Squadron to create a naval force powerful enough to challenge the Japanese fleet. Admiral Vitgeft believed in afleet in being, which simply stayed at anchor, while at the same time contributing some of his weaponry to theSiege of Port Arthur as the safest course to follow.[1][2]
Although passive, Vitgeft's preference was actually more in keeping with the Russian Navy's doctrine, which was building up strength (waiting for the arrival of the Baltic Fleet, also known as the 2nd Pacific Squadron), and then engaging the Japanese navy in decisive battle. After several exchanges of letters in which both insisted on their demand, Alexeyev turned to Tsar Nicholas II, who replied to him by telegraph: "I fully share your opinion that it is important for the squadron to break through quickly from Port Arthur to Vladivostok." After Alexeyev had warned Withöft of the possible legal consequences if he did not comply with the Tsar's order, Vitgeft finally yielded.[1][2]
Most of the ships' guns that were still in working order were hastily replaced; but even after recovering everything that could be salvaged from the batteries ashore, as well as the guns of the ships that were to remain at Port Arthur, the squadron was still short one 304 mm, ten 106 mm and twelve 12-pounder guns when it encountered the Japanese fleet. The work of replacing the armament and preparing for sea was fraught with difficulties as the Japanese bombarded the harbor. The Russian fleet consisted of the ships of the lineTsesarevich, Vitgeft's flagship,Retvizan,Pobeda,Peresvet,Sevastopol andPoltava as well as the four protected cruisersAskold,Pallada,Diana andNowik and 14 torpedo boats. The Japanese ships under Admiral Tōgō were part of the 1st Fleet (第一艦隊, Dai-ichi Kantai) and were composed of the 1st Division consisting ofMikasa,Asahi,Fuji andShikishima, plus the armored cruisersNisshin andKasuga detached from the 5th Division , the 3rd Division (Vice Admiral Dewa Shigetō) consisting ofYakumo,Chitose,Kasagi andTakasago, the 5th Division (Rear Admiral Yamada) consisting ofMatsushima,Itsukushima andHashidate, the 6th Division (Rear Admiral Togo) consisting ofAkashi,Suma,Chiyoda,Idzumi, andAkitsushima.[3] In addition, Admiral Tōgō had 18 destroyers and 29 torpedo boats at his disposal.
On the morning of 28 July [O.S. 10 August] 1904, Vitgeft's squadron left the port of Port Arthur to break through the Japanese blockade and head for Vladivostok. At 9:00 a.m., the entire fleet slowly sailed out to sea, initially in line abeam to clear the shipping channel of mines, following a course along the coast of the Shandong Peninsula. By 10:30, the Russian fleet had reached open sea, whereupon half of the torpedo boats returned to Port Arthur while the fleet took a southeasterly course and proceeded at a speed of 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). In the meantime, both fleets approached on a converging course and at about 11:30 the two main fleets came into view, only dimly visible through the thin haze. The leading ships were now about twelve nautical miles apart. TheMikasa led the Japanese fleet, followed byAsahi,Fuji,Shikishima,Kasuga andNisshin in line ahead. As soon as they were directly in front of the enemy line, Admiral Tōgō had his ships simultaneously turn to port so that the Russian fleet was behind them.[citation needed]
During this time, Admiral Dewa's four cruisers (Chitose,Takasago,Yakumo andKasagi) came into view, fast approaching from the south at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph), and Tōgō attempted to squeeze Admiral Vitgeft's fleet between the two advancing columns.[citation needed] Just after 13:00, Tōgō attempted tocross Vitgeft'sT and commenced firing his main batteries from the extreme range of more than 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi).[4] Vitgeft, with the battleshipRetvizan, returned fire, but the range was excessive for both sides and no hits were scored. Tōgō had miscalculated his speed when trying to cross theT and Vitgeft simply made a quick turn to port, maintained his speed, and increased his range from Tōgō's fleet. Within minutes, Vitgeft was again headed for the open sea and Tōgō's pincer move had failed, as Admiral Dewa's cruisers had to turn quickly to avoid Tōgō's battleline, and thus broke contact without having fired a shot. As Tōgō observed Vitgeft's battleline swiftly move past his own in opposite directions, he quickly ordered each warship to turn about individually, which put his cruisers into the lead, but now parallel with Vitgeft's battle line.[5]
At about 13:25, and again at a range of over 8 miles (13 km), Tōgō's battleships opened fire on Vitgeft's flagship andRetvizan, hitting the latter 12 times. By about 13:30 the Russian flagship had returned fire, knocking out Tōgō's wireless communications with two 305-millimetre (12.0 in) shell direct hits at this extreme range. For nearly half an hour the two battleship fleets pounded each other, slowly closing their range, until by 14:05 they reached about 3.5 miles (5.6 km), at which time both fleets let loose with their secondary 155-millimetre (6.1 in) guns. As the fleets continued to pound each other with all available guns, Tōgō's flagship was beginning to feel its wounds, and he tried to turn his vessel a bit, due to the hits she was taking (she ended up being hit 20 times), and urgently tried to have his cruisers engage the Russian battleline. But with his radio shot out, he had to rely on flag signals and radio relays from accompanying warships.[6][7]
The Japanese cruisers had re-established contact with the Russian battleline, but were quickly driven off by their 305 mm gunfire. Both battlefleets were maintaining about 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph), but again, Vitgeft had managed to get past Tōgō, and the Japanese were forced to commence a stern chase. By 14:45 the Japanese flagship had closed to within about 7 nmi (13 km; 8.1 mi) of the trailing battleshipPoltava, which had been unable to maintain her fleet's speed of 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) due to engine trouble.Mikasa andAsahi soon began to poundPoltava, scoring several hits. Admiral Ukhtomsky in the battleshipPeresvet observed the plight ofPoltava and ordered his division to fall back and helpPoltava, and they began concentrating their gunfire ontoMikasa andAsahi. With Admiral Ukhtomsky's division firing, coupled withPoltava rejoining of the fight,Mikasa andAsahi began taking too many hits, and upon the urging of his chief of staff, Tōgō used his superior speed to break contact, race ahead of Vitgeft's fleet, and try to re-establish contact again under more favorable conditions. By 15:20 the range was opened and the firing ceased.
As the battleships had broken contact, Admiral Dewa with his cruisers attempted to get into action, when suddenly the Russian battleships opened up on him. At about 15:40 one 305-millimetre (12 in) shell hit Dewa'sarmored cruiser,Yakumo, from a range of over 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi), which was well out of range of his 203 mm (8 in) guns. Admiral Dewa decided against having his four Japanese cruisers engage with any Russian battleships. By this time, only Tōgō's six warships (four battleships and two armored cruisers) were chasing Vitgeft's 10 warships (six battleships and four cruisers).With darkness only three hours away, Admiral Vitgeft believed that he had outranged Admiral Tōgō, and would lose him totally when darkness came. Tōgō knew this too, and ordered a 15-knot (28 km/h; 17 mph) speed to catch up to the tail end of Vitgeft's fleet. By 17:35 hours Tōgō's warships had closed to within 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km; 4.0 mi) of the again-lagging battleshipPoltava, and opened fire upon her.
Admiral Dewa also showed up with his cruisers, and Tōgō ordered all battleships and cruisers to shellPoltava, hoping to at least sink one Russian battleship. However, thecommanding officer ofPoltava, Captain Ivan P. Uspenskiy, and his crewmen scored several hits on Admiral Tōgō's flagship. At this time, theShimoseshells loaded inside the 305-millimetre (12 in) guns began detonating prematurely inside the hot gun barrels; knocking out of action one 305-millimetre (12 in) gun onShikishima at 17:45, and two 305-millimetre (12 in) barrels onAsahi at 18:10 hours. By 18:30, Tōgō had only 11 of his original 16 305-millimetre (12 in) still in action.[8][9]
Although the range had dropped to about 3 miles, the secondary batteries of 155 and 203 mm guns were still ineffective, andPoltava andPeresvet, although heavily damaged, were still with the Russian battleline. By 18:30, Tōgō was still having trouble controlling his battleship's gunfire;Shikishima andAsahi were blasting away at the crippledPoltava,Fuji was shooting atPobeda andPeresvet, while the flagshipMikasa was duelling with the Russian flagshipTsesarevich. No IJN warships were shooting at the Russian battleshipsRetvizan andSevastopol, which allowed them to freely blast away atMikasa.[10] With darkness only 30 minutes away, the Japanese flagshipMikasa almost no longer combat effective, and Russian gunfire seemingly becoming more accurate and effective with each cannon shot; the flagship signaled toAsahi to take over (known as a battle handoff) the shooting upon the lead Russian battleship.[11] Within 10 minutes of being relieved byAsahi, Admiral Tōgō fired a 305 mm salvo into the Russian flagshipTsesarevich, instantly killing Admiral Vitgeft and his immediatestaff, and jamming the flagship's steering wheel. The explosion had wedged the wheel into a port turn, sharp enough so thatTsesarevich heeled over 12 degrees.Retvizan, which was unaware of the situation on theflagship, followed in her wake. "By the timePobeda arrived at the turning point,Tsesarevich had swung around 180 degrees and was heading back into her own line. With no signal to indicate what had happened, the other ships were unaware thatTsesarevich was not only out of control and without its admiral, but was actually without anyone at all in command."[12]
PrincePavel Ukhtomsky of the battleshipPeresvet soon realized that the flagship was out of action, and attempted to gain control of the Russian squadron. But a Japanese shell, falling wide, cut the foremast ofPeresvet, preventing the signal flags from being hoisted as usual; they had to be hoisted along the bridge instead. Being thus almost hidden from view, the signal apparently was only seen onSevastopol; no other Russian capital ships followed Ukhtomsky's lead.
At the same time CaptainEduard Schensnovich commandingRetvizan, immediately turned his battleship towards Tōgō's battleline, charging directly into it with all weapons firing, despite being down by the bow from battle damage. Tōgō's battleline shifted their fire ontoRetvizan as the range dropped to less than three miles. There were so many shell splashes surrounding the charging battleship, that Japanese gunners were unable to adjust their fire. However, as Tōgō's battleships were running low on 305 mm shells, and many of his main guns were out of action, he decided to play it safe, and with the Russian squadron scattered, he turned the fight over to hiscruisers anddestroyers.[13]
As Tōgō's ships began their turn, they fired a final salvo, hitting the enemy battleship with several shells, one of which seriously wounded Captain Schensnovich in the stomach.Retvizan laid smoke and also began to turn away,[14] but the battleship had effectively ended the duel between the opposingpre-dreadnoughts, and had saved the flagship from destruction. There was little choice but to give up the attempt to reach Vladivostok and to return to Port Arthur. Even this proved impossible to coordinate, and many ships wandered off on their own.
Two hours later, the bulk of the Russian fleet returned to the relative safety of Port Arthur. Five battleships, a cruiser and ten destroyers made it back. The damagedTsesarevich and three escorting destroyers sailed toKiaochou, where they were interned byGerman authorities.[15][16] The cruiserAskold and another destroyer sailed toShanghai and were likewise interned byChinese authorities. The cruiserDiana escaped toSaigon, where it was interned by theFrench.[16] Only the small cruiserNovik sailed east around the Japanese home islands to try to reach Vladivostok. On 20 August, Japanese cruisers forced the ship aground atSakhalin, where it was destroyed by the crew after engaging the Japanese at theBattle of Korsakov.[17]
The Battle of the Yellow Sea was naval history's first major confrontation between modern steel battleship fleets, so with the exception of Admiral Tōgō's 20-minute duel with Russian Admiral Stark's battleships at Port Arthur on 9 February 1904, both Vitgeft and Tōgō were new to fighting modern steel battleship fleet actions.Although AdmiralOskar Starck had been replaced by AdmiralStepan Makarov shortly after thePort Arthur battle, Makarov in turn was replaced by Vitgeft, following Makarov's death in April 1904, when his battleshipPetropavlovsk blew up and sank in the Yellow Sea, after strikingmines. Had Admiral Starck remained in command at the time of the Yellow Sea battle, Admirals Tōgō and Starck would have met on equal terms, both retaining about equalcombatexperience in battleship fleet actions. But the naval force that Tōgō was to meet atTsushima the following year was not the same type of battle fleet that he engaged at the Yellow Sea either. Though Admiral Vitgeft was new, many of his men were not, most of them were veterans of Far East duty, with some of them veterans of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China; thus they were a highly experienced fighting force.[18]
During the late 1890s, it was thought that around 3 to 4 miles (4.8 to 6.4 km) would be the norm for battleship engagements due to the limitations of the gun sights and rangefinders available at the time, even though the 305 mm (12.0 in) guns usually mounted to battleships of the period had a considerably longer range. In the Yellow Sea engagement, the Russian battleships hadLugeolrangefinders with a range of 4 kilometres (2.5 mi), while Japanese pre-dreadnoughts had the latest (1903)Barr and Stroud coincidence rangefinders, which had a range of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi). As a result, the naval world was quite surprised after the Yellow Sea combatants opened fire upon one another and scored hits while still over 8 miles (13 km) apart.[4]
The Yellow Sea engagement lasted some 6 to 7 hours, with about 4 of those hours being direct combat. During those nearly four hours of fighting, roughly 7,382 rounds were expended by both sides, ranging in size from 155 to 305 mm shells. Of those 7,382 shells fired, approximately 5,956 had been from 155 mm guns; 3,592 from the Imperial Japanese Navy, and 2,364 from the Imperial Russian Navy. 307 203 mm shells had been fired by the Japanese Navy and none by the Russian fleet. Admiral Vitgeft's fleet had expended 224 254 mm shells compared to Tōgō's 33 shells. The long range gunnery duel that had commenced at a range of over 8 miles, and which began with 305 mm main gun fire, ended with 305 mm gun fire in near darkness, during which time 862 305 mm main gun rounds were fired; 259 from the Russian battleships, and 603 from the Japanese battleships.[19]
The nearly seven hours of naval combat coupled with the estimated 7,382 fired shells had produced a hit rate of 1.7%. Schensnovich charged his battleship into Admiral Tōgō's battleline, thus ending the battleship fleet duel and saving the Russian flagship from destruction. Schensnovich later died from his wounds received in January 1911, at the age of 57.[20]
Damage and casualties included the following:[21]
| Battleship | Primary armament | Waterline armor[a] (inches) | Year launched | Builder | Damage sustained | Casualties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tsesarevich, (Flagship) | 4 × 12-inch guns 12 × 6-inch guns | 9+3⁄4 | 1901 | Toulon,France | 13 305 mm gun hits and two 203 mm hits | 12 crewmen killed and 47 crewmen wounded. First Pacific Squadron AdmiralWilgelm Vitgeft killed. |
| Pobeda | 4 × 10-inch guns 11 × 6-inch guns | 9 | 1900 | St. Petersburg,Russia | 11 large caliber hits | 4 crewmen killed and 29 crewmen wounded |
| Peresvet | 4 × 10-inch guns 11 × 6-inch guns | 9 | 1898 | St. Petersburg, Russia | 39 hits | |
| Poltava | 4 × 12-inch guns 12 × 6-inch guns | 14+1⁄2 | 1894 | St. Petersburg, Russia | 12 to 14 hits, 203 to 305 mm guns | 12 crewmen killed and 43 crewmen wounded |
| Retvizan | 4 × 12-inch guns 12 × 6-inch guns | 9 | 1900 | Philadelphia,United States | 18 hits from 203 and 305 mm guns | 6 crewmen killed and 42 crewmen wounded |
| Sevastopol | 4 × 12-inch guns 12 × 6-inch guns | 14+1⁄2 | 1895 | St. Petersburg, Russia | Struck by several shells | 1 crewman killed and 62 crewmen wounded |
| Mikasa (Flagship) | 4 × 12-inch guns 14 × 6-inch guns | 9 | 1900 | Barrow,Great Britain | Hit 20 times and aft 305 mm turret knocked out of action | 125 casualties |
| Asahi | 4 × 12-inch guns 14 × 6-inch guns | 9 | 1899 | Clydebank, Great Britain | 1 305 mm hit near the waterline and both aft 305 mm gun barrels burst | 2 crewmen wounded |
| Shikishima | 4 × 12-inch guns 14 × 6-inch guns | 9 | 1898 | Thames Iron Works, Great Britain | 1 forward 305 mm gun barrel burst | |
| YakumoArmoured Cruiser | 4 × 8-inch guns 12 × 6-inch guns | 7 | 1899 | Stettin,Germany | 1 305 mm hit |
The majority of the Russian squadron (five ships of the line, one cruiser and nine torpedo boats) returned to Port Arthur. The other units were scattered in the darkness and sought out neutral ports, where they were interned until the end of the war. The heavily damaged battleshipZessarewitsch (Tsesarevich) arrived at Tsingtau with the three Kit-class destroyersBesposchtschadni,Besschumni andBesstraschni, where the ships were interned by the German authorities.Novik also stopped briefly at Tsingtau, but left again to attempt to reach Vladivostok according to the original plan. She was confronted by Japanese cruisers off Korsakow and finally sank herself off Sakhalin. The damagedAskold, flagship of Rear Admiral Reitzenstein, who commanded the cruisers, sailed to Shanghai, where the destroyerGrosowoi, which had initially accompaniedDiana, also arrived later. Both were interned by China under Japanese pressure until peace was concluded with Japan.[22]Diana sailed via Haiphong to Saigon until 23 August, where the ship was interned.[23] The torpedo boatRyeshitelni, which had sailed for Chifu, was confiscated by the Japanese after neither disarmament nor the intention to return to sea were apparent there.[24]
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