History 11/03/20 “Tsushima”: the main shame of the Russian Navy
27-28 may 1905, the Russian 2nd Pacific squadron was defeated by the Japanese fleet. “Tsushima” became a household word by the marking fiasco. We decided to understand why this tragedy happened.
the long March
the Original objective of the 2nd Pacific squadron was to help the besieged Port Arthur. But after the fall of the fortress squadron Rozhdestvensky was assigned very vague task of self-conquest of the sea, which without the existence of good bases was elusive.
the Only major port of Vladivostok (Vladivostok) was far enough from the theatre of war and had too weak for a huge squadron infrastructure. The campaign, as you know, was held in extremely difficult conditions in itself was a feat, as it was possible without loss of ships serious accidents concentrate in the sea of Japan, an Armada of 38 different types of ships and support vessels.
the command of the squadron and the commander had to solve a lot of problems, ranging from heavy loading of coal in the open sea and to the organization of leisure of the crew quickly lost the discipline during the long, monotonous Parking lots. All this, of course, was done to the detriment of combat condition, and the exercises, good results were not given and could not give. And this is the rule rather than the exception, because in naval history you will not find examples where the squadron, made a long difficult trek in isolation from the bases could achieve victory in a sea battle.
Artillery: the gun-cotton against chemosis
Often in the literature devoted to the battle of Tsushima, stresses the terrible explosive action of Japanese shells, bursting even from the impact of the water, in contrast to Russian munitions. The Japanese in the Tsushima battle shoot projectiles with high explosive action, causing great destruction. However, Japanese shells was unpleasant property rvatSya in barrels of their own guns.
So, at Tsushima, the cruiser “Nisshin” lost three of the four guns of the main caliber. Russian armor-piercing shells filled with wet gun-cotton, had a smaller explosive activity, and often pierced light Japanese ships, not torn. Of the twenty-four 305 mm shells, trapped in eight Japanese ships did not explode. So, at the end of a day of battle lucky the flagship of Admiral Kamimura the cruiser “Izumo”, when a Russian shell from the “Sisoy Great”was in the engine room, but fortunately for the Japanese, did not explode.
Into the hands of the Japanese played a significant overload of the Russian ships a large amount of coal, water and various loads when the main armor belt of the majority of Russian battleships in the battle of Tsushima was below the waterline. And explosive shells that could not penetrate armor belt, caused the terrible scale of the damage, getting into the skin of the ships.
But one of the main reasons for the defeat of the 2nd Pacific squadron was not even the quality of the shells, and careful application of the Japanese artillery, sosredotochimsya fire on Russian ships. Unsuccessful for the Russian squadron the plot of the battle allowed the Japanese very quickly incapacitate flagship “Prince Suvorov” and cause disastrous damage to the battleship “Oslyabya”. The main result of the decisive day of battle was the death of a kernel of the Russian squadron — battleship “Emperor Alexander III”, “Prince Suvorov” and “Borodino”, as well as fast “Oslabya”. The fourth battleship of the type “Borodino” – “eagle” received a large number of hits, but kept fighting capacity.
we Must remember that of the 360 hits large shells about 265 accounted for the above-mentioned ships. The Russian squadron led to less focused fire, and although the main objective was the battleship “Mikasa”, because of the disadvantages faced by the Russian commanders were forced to carry the fire to other enemy ships.
Low speed
the advantage of the Japanese ships in speed was a significant factor in obulocurled the death of the Russian squadron. The Russian squadron led the fight on speed 9 knots; the Japanese fleet — 16. However, it should be noted that most of the Russian ships could reach a far greater move.
So, four of the latest Russian battleship of the type “Borodino” was not inferior to the enemy in speed, and the ships of the 2nd and 3rd battle groups could give speed to 12-13 knots and the advantage of the enemy in speed would not be so significant.
Allying yourself with slow-moving transports, which still turned out to be impossible to defend from the attacks of light forces of the enemy, Rozhdestvensky untied the hands of the enemy. Having the advantage in speed, the Japanese fleet was fighting in favorable terms, covering the head of the Russian squadron. Day the fight was marked by a number of pauses when opponents have lost each other from sight and Russian ships had the chance of a breakthrough, But again the low squadron speed led to the fact that the enemy were overtaken by the Russian squadron. In battle on may 28, a low speed, tragically affected the fate of individual Russian ships and became one of the causes of the sinking of the battleship “Admiral Ushakov”, the cruiser “Dmitry Donskoy” and “Svetlana”.
Crisis management
One of the reasons for the defeat in the Tsushima battle was the lack of initiative of the command of the squadron — the Rozhdestvensky, and Junior leader. Any specific instructions before the battle transpired. In the event of a failure of the flagship, squadron a had to next in building a battleship, holding the set course. This automatically nullified the role of rear-Admiral enquist and Nebogatova. And who led in the daily battle squadron after the failure of the flagman?
the Battleship “Alexander III” and “Borodino” was lost with all hands and who actually led the ships, replacing the retired commanders of the ships officers and sailors can and is will never be known. Actually after the failure of the flagman and the wounded Rozhdestvensky’s squadron fought virtually without a commander.
in the evening Nebogatov took command of the squadron — more precisely by being able to gather around him. At the outset of the battle Rozhestvensky started a bad rebuild. Historians argue, could the Russian Admiral to seize the initiative, taking advantage of the fact that the core of the Japanese fleet had the first 15 minutes of fight, in fact cdwow system and passing through the pivot point. Hypothesis different….but we only know one thing — neither in that moment nor later decisive action by Rozhdestvensky was not followed.
fight Night, searchlights and torpedoes
the Evening of may 27 after a day of battle, the Russian squadron suffered numerous attacks by Japanese torpedo boats and suffered heavy losses. It is noteworthy that was torpedoed only those single Russian ships, which included floodlights and tried to shoot. Thus perished almost all the crew of the battleship “Navarino”, and received into torpedoes “Sisoy Great”, “Admiral Nakhimov” and “Vladimir Monomakh” sank on the morning of 28 may.
For comparison, during the battle in the Yellow sea on 28 July, 1904 the Russian squadron was attacked by Japanese destroyers in the dark, but then, observing the disguise, successfully came out of the battle, and fight night was marked by a useless consumption of coal and torpedoes, as well as the misadventures of the Japanese destroyers.
In the Tsushima battle of the mine attack, and during the battle in the Yellow sea, were poorly organized – as a result, many destroyers were damaged by Russian artillery fire or in accidents. Destroyer No. 34 and No. 35 were sunk, and No. 69, sank after collision with “akatsuki-2” (former Russian “Determined illegally seized by the Japanese in Chefoo neutral).
Russian Seven
Source:
© Russian Seven
Featured articles Share: Comments Comments to the article “the”Tsushima”: the main shame of the Russian Navy” Please log in to leave a comment! br>
Share on Tumblr
