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The Battle of the Yalu River, also called simply 'The Battle of Yalu'
took place on September 17, 1894. It opposed the Japanese and the Chinese
navies, and was the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
The Yalu River is the border between Korea and China, though the battle was
actually fought at the mouth of this river, in the Korea Bay (Yellow Sea).
A Japanese fleet under Admiral Isokuru Ito was attempting to disrupt the
landing of Chinese troops protected by a fleet under Admiral Ting Ju ch'ang.
On paper, the Chinese had the superior ships, and included numerous ten
inch and eight inch gun mounts. However, the Chinese had not seen fit to
engage in gunnery practice in months prior, and the Chinese gun crews were
somewhat unprepared for the stress of gunnery under fire. Corruption seems
also to have played a role; many Chinese shells appear to have been filled
with sawdust or water, some Chinese officers fled the engagement area
shamefully, one vessel appears to have used its guns to store pickles, and
in at least one case, a pair of ten inch guns seem to have been hocked for
cash on the black market.
The engagement raged for most of the day, and whilst not the first
engagement of pre-dreadnought technology on a wide scale (the Battle of
Foochow in 1884 between the French and Chinese certainly predates this)
there were significant lessons for naval observers to consider.
At this time, the Japanese were confident in their own abilities. The
Chinese, however, still had a number of foreign advisors and instructors. In
particular, the German, Major von Hanneken, recently from Korea was
appointed as the naval advisor to Admiral Ting Ju ch'ang. W. F. Tyler, a
sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve and an Imperial Maritime Customs
officer was appointed as von Hanneken's assistant. Philo McGiffin, formerly
an ensign in the US Navy and an instructor at the Wei-Hai-Wei naval academy
was appointed to Chen Yuen as an advisor or co-commander.
Prior to the battle with the Japanese, the vessels and armaments of the
Chinese fleet were examined and the ships were repainted. Philo McGiffin
noted, at the time, that the Chinese vessels have been painted in 'invisible
grey' although contemporary photographs indicate a dark hull and a light
superstructure so perhaps only the white superstructures and the buff
funnels were repainted grey with the hulls remaining black. It was also
noted that many of the charges were 'thirteen years old and condemned'. The
thin shields that were covering the barbettes on some of the vessels were
removed as these had been found to splinter when hit by shells. The Tsi
Yuen's return to port after recent action with the Japanese highlighting
some of these problems.
Admiral Isokuro Ito had his flag aboard the Matsushima with the dispatch
vessels Saikyo (a converted liner) and Akagi (a gunboat). The Japanese Chief
of Naval Staff, Admiral Kabayama was on a tour of inspection and aboard the
Saikyo. The rest of the main body consisted of the ships Chiyoda,
Itsukushima, Hashidate, Fuso and Hiyei. A flying squadron of Yoshino,
Takachiho, Akitsushima and Naniwa led the Japanese vessels.
The Japanese advanced on the Chinese with the flying squadron leading in
line astern formation with the dispatch vessels off to the port of the
second squadron (where the flagship was). The Chinese were in two squadrons
and in line abreast with the majority of the ships in a squadron consisting
of Tsi Yuen, Kuang Chia, Chih Yuen, King Yuen, Ting Yuen, Chen Yuen, Lai
Yuen, Ching Yuen, Chao Yung and Yang Wei. A second squadron consisted of the
Kuang Ping and Ping Yuen along with a couple of gunboats and torpedo boats.
Ting Yuen opened fire on the Japanese when the range between the vessels
was about 6000 yards (5,500 meters). This turned out to be a disastrous (and
unnecessary) salvo from the Chinese flagship. When the German Navy took the
Ting Yuen out for gun trials in 1883 (Ting Yuen had been built in Germany,
they noted that the main armament should not be fired on an ahead bearing.
Firing on an ahead bearing resulted in the demolishing of the flying bridge
and this is what happened. Admiral Ting Ju ch'ang became a casualty of the
battle from the opening shot of his own vessel, along with a number of
officers also present on the bridge.
The Chinese fleet all opened fire on the Japanese fleet as they passed
from port to starboard across the bows of the Chinese vessels. They failed
to score any significantly damaging hits on the Japanese from their 12-inch
and 8.2-inch guns. At about 3000 yards (the Chinese had been steadily
closing the range), the Japanese concentrated their fire on the right hand
end of the Chinese line, with devastating barrages poured into first the
Chao Yung and then the Yang Wei.
Both those vessels burst into flames and this has been put down to too
much paint and varnish applied over the years. The Japanese had intended on
swinging the flying division around the right flank of the Chinese line in
an encirclement but the timely arrival of the Kuang Ping and Ping Yuen along
with the two 'alphabetical' gunboats and torpedo boats Fu Lung (built at
Schichau) and the Choi Ti, a Yarrow built vessel diverted this maneuver.
The Japanese fast cruisers veered to port and were then dispatched by Ito
to go to the assistance of the Hiyei, Saikyo and Akagi which had been unable
to keep up with the main line and had then been engaged by the left-hand
vessels of the Chinese line. Early in the battle the Ting Yuen had lost her
signaling mast as well, which helped to cause more confusion with the
Chinese vessels. The Chinese fleet, with some foresight, had anticipated
something like this happening and formed into three pairs of mutually
supporting vessels to carry the fight on.
The Japanese fleet, for its part, ravaged the Chinese and fought with
fierce determination. Japanese shells set many Chinese ships aflame, and
were responsible for sinking or seriously damaging eight of them, either
during the battle or during later mopping up operations. Some of the Chinese
ships, caked with many coats of flammable paint and varnish and manned by
inexperienced crews, suffered horribly from the effect of superior Japanese
gunnery.
The Aftermath
Japan sank or damaged, eight Chinese warships, and killed and wounded
about 850 Chinese. The Ting Yuen had most casualties of the Chinese vessels
still afloat with 14 dead and 25 wounded.
The Chinese seriously damaged four Japanese warships - Hiyei being
severely damaged and retired from the conflict; Akagi suffering from heavy
fire and with great loss of life; Saikyo, the converted liner, urged on by
Kabayama had been hit by four 12-inch shells and was sailing virtually out
of control as a result, did cosmetic damage to two more, and killed about
400 Japanese sailors.
The Chinese fleet retired into Port Arthur, the Japanese withdrawing
possibly from a fear of a torpedo boat attack from the Chinese in the night
time and lack of ammunition.
While the Japanese certainly did far more damage to the Chinese fleet,
many foreigners at the time credited China with the victory. The Chinese had
successfully carried out their troop landing, and the Japanese, for their
part, had withdrawn after running low on ammunition. Many credit the prompt
action of foreign advisers in the Chinese fleet (most notably McGiffin) for
keeping even the most heavily damaged Chinese ships fighting till the very
end of the engagement. Later research suggests that the Chinese ships
fighting in pairs was something that had been planned ahead of time to cover
the eventuality of communications being lost in the smoke and confusion of
battle. At the same time, it is fair to note that the Chinese suffered more
from poor quality munitions - some of the shells fired by the Ping Yuen, for
example, hit the Japanese Matsushima but failed to explode, being filled
with cement rather than high explosives. These were made at the Tientsin
factories.
The Chinese Government laid the blame for the Chinese defeat squarely on
the shoulders of Viceroy Li Hung-chang and Admiral Ting Ju ch'ang. However,
on October 27, 1894, Admiral Freemantle, the British Commander-in-Chief met
Ting in Wei-Hai-Wei with Ting 'still lame from the burns received in the
Yalu action' and described him as a 'brave and patriotic man'.
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