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The Battle of Tsushima was a sea battle fought from May 27-May 28, 1905
in which the Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachiro Togo destroyed the
Russian fleet under Admiral Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski.
The Japanese combined fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet, sent over from
Europe, fought in the straits between Korea and Japan near the island of
Tsushima. Earlier, the Russian Pacific Fleet had been destroyed at the
Battle of Shantung on August 10, 1904. The Baltic Fleet sailed through the
North Sea, caused a diplomatic incident off Dogger Bank when they attacked
the British fishing fleet there, and then proceeded around Africa and
touched port in Indochina. The voyage was long and the crews grew less
efficient and discontented. The Russians were deputed to break the blockade
of Port Arthur (Lushun), but the city had already fallen before the arrival
of the ships and so they tried to reach Vladivostok.
The Russians could have sailed through one of three possible straits to
reach Vladivostok: La Perouse, Tsugaru, and Tsushima. Admiral
Rozhedestvensky chose Tsushima in an effort to simplify his route. Admiral
Togo, based at Pusan, Korea also believed Tsushima would be the preferred
Russian course.
The Russian fleet was sighted when two trailing hospital ships were
discovered by the Japanese cruiser fleet. The Russians sailed from
south-south-west to north-north-east; the Japanese fleet from
west-north-east. Admiral Togo ordered the fleet to turn in sequence (see
Naval tactics), which enabled his ships to take the same course as the
Russians, though risking each battleship in turn.
The two lines of battleships stabilized their distance at 6,200 meters
and exchanged gunfire. The Japanese fleets had practiced gunnery continually
since the beginning of the war, using sub caliber adaptors for their cannon.
The Japanese had superior gunners, and hit their targets more. Furthermore,
the Japanese used a different combination of gunpowder, one designed to
wreck the upper works of ships. The Russians used armor-piercing rounds.
The Japanese ships could reach 16 knots, but the Russians fleet could
reach only 8 knots. Togo was able to use this maneuver to "cross the T"
twice.
Admiral Rozhdestvenski was knocked out of action with a shell fragment in
his skull. The Russians fleet lost the Suvarov, the Oslyabya, the Alexander
III, and the Borodino on May 27. Five other battleships under Admiral
Nebagatov were forced to surrender the next day. Three cruisers made it to
the United States naval base at Manila and were interned.
Nearly the entire Baltic fleet was lost in the battle in the Tsushima
Straits.
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