Assault on Lushun Port
Before the Russo-Japanese War, the bases of Russian Pacific Fleet in Lushun and Vladivostok were almost equal to those of Japanese navy, but the Japanese navy had to cover the landing troops, which was unfavorable to the Japanese navy. Faced with this situation, General Tougou Heihachirou, commander of Japan's joint fleet, decided to assault the Russian fleet's base camp-Lushun, in order to weaken the Russian fleet's strength and completely block Lushun, so that the main Russian fleet could not obstruct the Japanese landing. In February 194, Emperor Meiji of Japan decided to fight against Russia. On February 6, the Japanese joint fleet gathered at Sasebo Naval Base anchored for Lushun. On the evening of February 8, nine Japanese torpedo boats sneaked into the port area and launched a surprise attack. That night, senior Russian generals all went ashore to attend the ball hosted by Stark, the commander of the fleet. Moreover, the Russian army generally underestimated the enemy and thought that Japan would never dare to go to war with Russia. Therefore, the port channel did not even set up a lightning protection network, and the ships did not implement blackout. The ships were brightly lit. At that night, the situation in Lushun Port was very favorable for Japanese commandos, but the results achieved by the Japanese army were lackluster. The Japanese army launched 18 torpedoes, which severely damaged the Russian warship Prince Tsessarevich and stranded the cruiser Retvizan and Pallada, but the Russian army quickly repaired these three ships. On February 9, the commander of Japan's fourth team, Guasheng Waiji, led the fleet to sink a Russian cruiser deployed in Incheon Port, North Korea, and successfully covered 2,5 Japanese troops landing ashore. On the same day, the main fleet of the joint fleet led by Tougou Heihachirou arrived in Lushun and carried out shore bombing, but the effect was not great. Although the strength of the Russian fleet has not been hit hard, it has been holed up in Lushun base and allowed to run wild by Japan. On the day of the war, two armored cruisers newly purchased by Japan, Rijin and Chunri, also joined the ranks of the Japanese navy.
blockade of Lushun port
When Japan planned this war, it was already considered that in order to win the war, it was necessary to master the sea power of the Yellow Sea and ensure the smooth maritime traffic lines. Therefore, it was necessary to annihilate the main force of the Russian Pacific Fleet based in Lushun. Therefore, after the war, the essence of the Russian navy, the Pacific Fleet, was blocked by the Japanese joint fleet in Lushun Port, and both sides suffered mutual damage in a series of blockade and anti-blockade battles. The early Russian fleet was still active, and it could take the initiative when the Japanese tried to block the port.
on February 8, 194, the main force of the Japanese joint fleet arrived at Lushun port, China, and attacked the Russian Pacific fleet stationed in Lushun port, causing heavy losses to the Russian fleet. Later, the Japanese joint fleet blocked the port of Lushun and blocked the Russian fleet in the port of Lushun, making it impossible to move.
Dongxiang, commander of Japan's joint fleet, used the method of "sinking the ship to block the port" to block Lushunkou on the spot. Later, Commander Dongxiang asked the Japanese to lay mines outside Lushunkou. The flagship of the Russian Pacific Fleet was sunk by a mine. The Russian fleet fought tooth for tooth, and also used mine warfare against the Japanese. The two main battleships of the Japanese joint fleet also sank.
on April 13th of the same year, Russia suffered the biggest setback since the war-the battleship Petropavlovsk was sunk by a mine laid by the Japanese side. Shortly after taking office, it was recognized that makarov vice admiral, the most outstanding general of the Russian navy, sank with the ship. His death was an irreparable loss for the Russian side. Since then, the morale of the officers and men of the Russian Pacific Fleet has plummeted, and they don't want to and dare not fight on the sea again. The succeeding fleet commander thought that the future was bleak and ordered the fleet to retreat in the harbor. The Japanese army successfully landed in Liaodong Peninsula under the cover of the navy and began to surround Lushun on land. In order to prevent the fleet from being submerged in the harbor, under the command of the newly appointed fleet commander, Major General Willhelm Vitgeft, the Russian Pacific Fleet tried to break through on June 23, but it was intercepted by the Japanese fleet and returned to the harbor. By the end of the month, the artillery fire of Japanese land siege troops had reached the port, and Vizofort tried to break through Vladivostok (Russia called Vladivostok). On August 1th, the Russian fleet that broke through was intercepted by the main force of the Japanese joint fleet under the command of Dongxiang in the Yellow Sea, and a naval battle broke out in the Yellow Sea. In the battle, Vizofort was killed, and most Russian ships were driven back to Lushun Port. Then the remaining ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet moored in Vladivostok were intercepted by the Japanese navy. After this World War I, the Russian Pacific Fleet completely lost its attack spirit, and it gave no hope of breaking through the blockade of the Japanese navy. Just like during the Crimean War, sailors on board were added to the land defense forces, and cannons were removed from warships and installed in fortresses and fortifications on the shore. The Russian Pacific fleet has become an empty shell moored in the harbor, which can no longer pose any threat to Japan's mainland and maritime transport lines. There is no doubt that the Japanese have completely mastered the sea power of the Yellow Sea. Russia, which was still blindly optimistic at the beginning of the war, finally felt the taste of the Japanese noose tightening around its neck.
The situation of Russian troops in the Far East is deadlocked, but the imperial Russian army has not been able to win a decisive victory because of the limited traffic volume of the Siberian railway, the slow pace of reinforcements from Europe and Russia, and the incompetence of the generals. And the winter will come, and fighting in the northeast of China is even more miserable. However, compared with Russia, the Japanese army won successively, but the casualty rate was very high, especially in the offensive war in Lushun. The Third Army under the command of Army General Nogi Maresuke almost stepped through the trench filled with the dead comrades' bodies before capturing Lushun. In addition, the trouble of the Japanese army is that it has not been able to intercept the main force of the Russian ship and give it a head-on blow. If the war drags on for a long time, the Japanese economy will be dragged down and collapsed, so the Japanese army is eager to give the Russian army a heavy blow in order to end the war as soon as possible. On June 2, 194, due to the poor performance of the Russian Pacific fleet and the dilemma of being stuck in Lushun, Tsar Nicholas II decided to send Russian ships to Europe and Russia for reinforcements.
In the 19th century, under the pressure of Britain, Russia promised in the London Treaty that the Russian Black Sea Fleet would not enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Da Daniil Strait and the Bosphorus Strait. In other words, the Russian Black Sea Fleet is completely a defensive fleet, which has no other function except cruising the Black Sea in the depths of the inland, so the only available naval force in Russia is the Baltic Fleet. After the tsar decided to send the European-Russian fleet for aid, he renamed the original Pacific Fleet as the First Pacific Fleet and gave the East Aid Fleet the Second Pacific Fleet, and appointed Lieutenant General Zinovi Prtrovich Rozhestvensky as the commander of the Second Pacific Fleet. In front of Lieutenant General Rhodes Svensky, there is a mess. The bureaucratic habits of the czar government are serious, and it is disturbing to go through many procedures to apply for supplies. What is more worrying is that there are still three Borodino warships, the main ship of the Second Pacific Fleet, which have not been completed yet. Seeing that the Russian fleet in the Far East is stuck in Lushun, the military situation is like a spark. However, the imperial Russian bureaucrats still have a consistent attitude and drag on day by day. In addition, because most of the refined officers and men of the Russian navy are in the Far East, Rhodes Svensky has to recruit veterans and farmers who have never seen the sea to serve as sailors and retrain, which has a great impact on the overall combat effectiveness. On September 1th, 194, the No.3 and No.4 ships of all five Borodino-class battleships-Knyaz Suvarov and Orel were completed and put into service one after another.
The departure of the Second Pacific Fleet and the Dogel Incident
After more than four months of preparation, Lodzdevinsky finally assembled a decent fleet. On October 15th, 194, the Second Pacific Fleet set out from Libau base, and the commander of the first fleet was Rhodes Devinsky, who was in charge of the new Borodino-class warships such as Kniaz Suvarov, Alexander III, Borodino and Orel, among which the Duke of suvorov. The second team was led by Major General Von Felkerzan, including the battleship Oslyabia, the Navarin and the armored cruiser AdmiralNakhirov. The third team, led by Major General Enkvist, has jurisdiction over eight cruisers, including Oleg and Aurora. There are also a number of armed merchant ships and supply ships and other logistics ships. * * * The Second Pacific Fleet with 42 ships set out in this way. After the departure, it was rumored in the Russian fleet that Japanese warships would sneak attack along the way, which made people panic. In the early morning of October 22nd, when passing the Dogger Bank in England, the Russian fleet mistook the local British fishing boat for a Japanese torpedo boat in the dark, so they fired, and then the first and third teams sailing side by side turned into shooting at each other, and it took 15 minutes to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy. In the shelling, a fishing boat sank, many fishing boats were injured, and the cruiser Aurora, the third team, was also injured. After this incident, it caused serious protests in Britain, and even invoked the provisions of the Japan-Japan alliance to go to war with Russia, which greatly frightened Russia. This incident was later mediated by Germany and France and handed over to the international court of justice, but it was finally dropped. Britain had to solve the problem on its own, but it was afraid that Britain and Russia would go to war and other powerful countries such as Germany and France would take advantage of it, so it only monitored the Russian fleet along the way to protect the safety of British fishing boats and merchant ships until North Africa. The accidental attack on the Dogg coast caused cynicism all over the world, thinking that the Russian fleet was simply a group of frightened birds. However, there is no denying that a large part of the Japanese navy's ships are made in Britain, and Britain is an ally of Japan. If the Japanese warships that have just left the British dock immediately attack the Russian army, it is not impossible. However, according to Russia's far-fetched explanation afterwards, it seems that the Russian fleet is really hard to say it by mistake.
The long distance of the Russian fleet
The distance from the European-Russian Baltic Sea base to Lushun is almost halfway across the world. Because the tonnage of Russia's main warships is between 1, and 15, tons, it is impossible to shorten the voyage by taking the Suez Canal, so we have to go south along the African coast, bypass the Cape of Good Hope and enter the Indian Ocean. Limited by the neutrality laws and regulations along the way, and Russia has no overseas bases to provide supplies, everything depends on the support of the fleet's own supply ships. After a long journey, countries all over the world did not believe that the Russian navy could reach Lushun safely from the beginning. At that time, warships still used coal as fuel, which was huge and not as convenient to store as gasoline or diesel. In order to solve the large amount of coal needed for long-distance navigation, Russia rented up to 7 coal ships from Hamburg -- America Line in Germany to supply along the way. Germany and France even secretly helped the Russian fleet, allowing Russian ships to dock at overseas colonial ports. Of course, this inevitably caused a protest.
on November 1, 194, the Russian fleet arrived in the Spanish port of Vigo.
on November 6th, 194, the Russian fleet docked in Dangier, French North Africa. Since the port of Tangier, some great ships, such as Sisoi and navarin, led by Major General Fokker Hill, passed through the Mediterranean Sea, went to the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal, and agreed to meet Lieutenant General Rhodes Devinsky on the French island of Madagascar on the east coast of Africa, while other Russian ships continued southward.
On November 16th, 194, Lieutenant General Lodzdevonsky's main fleet docked at Daker, a French territory.
on December 1st, 194, the main fleet of Lieutenant-General Rhodes Devinsky docked in Libreville.
On December 7th, 194, Lieutenant General Rhodes Devinsky's main fleet arrived in Mossamedes, South Africa. At this point, the far east has heard the bad news that the travel is not guaranteed.
on December 16th, 194, the main fleet of Russia's second Pacific fleet arrived in Luderitz, and Lodzdevinsky had learned that there were no Russian ships in Lushun port.
on January 9th, 195, Lodzdevinsky and the fleet of Fokker Mountain met at Nossi B, the northern end of French Madagascar. At the same time, the worse news came that Lushun had been captured by the Japanese. At this point, Rhodes Devinsky wanted to set off for the Far East at once, and before the Japanese fleet recovered from the Lushun blockade after the war, he fought a decisive battle as soon as possible so as to be completely annihilated. When Major General Fokker Mountain's ship passed through the Mediterranean Sea, it was damaged, and it took at least more than a month to repair it before it could continue its voyage. The imperial Russian government also ordered Rhodes Devinsky to stay in Nohi North and wait for the newly established Third Pacific Fleet to reinforce the Far East.
On January 15th, 195, the Third Pacific Fleet, under the leadership of Major General Nebogatov, led the battleship Nicholas I, the coastal defense ship Apraxin, Senivan, Ushakov and the cruiser Vladimir Monomakh.
on March 16th, 195, Lodzewski decided not to wait for Norbogatov. After filling up supplies in Nohi North, he led the Second Pacific Fleet to the Far East. The climate in the Indian Ocean is hot, and Germany and France have no colonies in the Indian Ocean to supply, so everything can only be maintained by the supply ships in the fleet. The Russian Second Pacific Fleet in the Indian Ocean set a record for the first time in the world to refuel ship to ship during the voyage, and it supplied solid coal instead of liquid diesel.
On April 14th, 195, the Russian Second Pacific Fleet arrived in Cam Ranh Bay, French Vietnam, where it was ordered to wait for the Third Pacific Fleet. Major General Norbogatov's Third Pacific Fleet is some old-fashioned ships. Instead of increasing the overall combat power, it has become a burden to the entire reinforcement fleet. Rhodes Devinsky repeatedly tried to ask the czar government to go straight to Vladivostok without waiting for the Third Pacific Fleet, but the Russian government disagreed and insisted on the previous order.
On May 9, 195, the Russian Third Pacific Fleet finally joined the Second Pacific Fleet of Lodzdevinsky.
On May 14th, 195, the Second and Third Pacific Fleet left Cam Ranh Bay and sailed for Vladivostok.
On May 23, 195, Lodzdevinsky ordered the fleets to carry out the last coal loading operation, and then ordered all non-combat ships except four supply ships and two medical staff.