Chapter 162 Japan and Russia lost their elite

In terms of the number of battleships, the Russian navy has already had an advantage, but although the number of battleships is relatively small, the Japanese army has a large number of armored cruisers. The 12-inch main guns of this battleship are generally not suitable. In the era when small-caliber rapid-fire guns can only wash the deck, armored cruisers In fact, the firepower is not much worse than these pre-dreadnought battleships.

However, the speed of armored cruisers is much faster than those battleships. In addition, considering the performance of several naval battles between Japan and Russia, the quality of warships of the Japanese navy and the navigation and artillery skills of officers and soldiers are far higher than those of the Russian navy, so although the Russian navy has an advantage in the number of battleships But in fact, it doesn't have much advantage.

During the Russo-Japanese War, the performance of the Russian Navy was not as good as the Beiyang Marine Division during the First Sino-Japanese War. At that time, the Beiyang Marine Division was lost in the performance of warships, especially the performance of rapid-fire artillery, but the training level of officers and soldiers did not belong to the Japanese navy, while the Russian navy was not much weak in the number and performance of warships. Less, the main reason for the failure again and again is the quality of personnel!

At the beginning, after Rozhestvinsky led the reinforcement fleet to arrive in Lushun, it was also in high spirits. At that time, after a series of wars, the Japanese joint fleet was forced to return to Japan for rest and supply because of the formation of thousands of nautical miles for chasing and interception and subsequent operations, but only in Lushun. A small number of ships were left in the sea to monitor the fleet in the port of Lushun.

At that time, it was the most beautiful month for the Russian navy since the outbreak of the whole war. In just one month, the Russian navy continuously sent small-scale fleets out of the port to attack the Japanese sea transport line in the Yellow Sea, and sank many Japanese transport ships at the mouth of the Yalu River, and also escorted them. There was an exchange of fire in this fleet.

It is worth mentioning that there is also a well-known warship in the Japanese navy's escort fleet: Zhenyuan!

The ship was captured by Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War. Since then, it has been assigned to serve in the Japanese Navy as a battleship. Its name is still 'Zhenyuan'. Historically, the ship was incorporated into the 5th Fleet of the Third Fleet of the Japanese Joint Fleet and participated in the Battle of the Japanese-Russian Tsushima Strait.

The battle between Mahai and space has not yet broken out, but there was a sea battle of the Yellow Sea before. In the battle, Zhenyuan was incorporated into the Third Fleet and formed the 5th team together with Yandao, Matsushima and Hashidate to participate in the major melee with the Russian Navy. Because the old ships of the Third Fleet have been behind, although they participated in the melee However, the damage was not great, so when the two main fleets of the First Fleet and the Second Fleet of the Combined Fleet were forced to return to China for maintenance and supplies after the naval battle, the Third Fleet stayed on the west coast to undertake escort duties due to the small damage.

In just one month, the Russian navy sank six Japanese merchant ships or transport ships in the coastal waters from the Yalu River to the west, and also injured many warships of the Japanese navy.

Forced Japan to temporarily give up maritime supplies and only transport supplies to the troops in Fengtian by land. However, at this time, the railway from Seoul to Xinyizhou had not been completed. During the Russo-Japanese War, in order to speed up the progress of the project, the Japanese military temporarily obtained it by directly laying military railways. Vehicle capacity, however, the transportation capacity of this temporary military railway is so small that it can't maintain the needs of hundreds of thousands of troops in Fengtian.

So if the Japanese navy can't open up the maritime transportation line as soon as possible, they will end up first if they don't hit themselves in Fengtian's army.

However, at the same time, the situation of the Russian Lushun defenders is not good. After the fierce attack on Japan for more than a year, they did not have enough ammunition to continue to defend Lushun.

The troops have also caused too much losses due to repeated competition for Height 203. This Height 203 has become a place where Japanese and Russian forces and shells are consumed. With the existing strength of the Russian army, this state of competition cannot be maintained for long. Maybe some people will say that it is impossible to fight? Can't you continue to shrink in Lushun Fortress?

It is naturally possible for the internal defenders, but once the 203 highland is abandoned, it is very bad for the Russian navy. At that time, the heavy artillery of the Japanese army will be able to cover the entire port area. At that time, the Russian navy must give up Lushun, and once it leaves Lushun, the Russian navy will not be able to rely on Lushun. This nail continues to hit Japan's maritime supply line.

In other words, if Hill 203 is lost, then Lushun Fortress will lose its strategic value to continue to defend, and the only value left is to contain tens of thousands of days.

Seeing that Hill 203 is about to be lost, and because the main force of the Japanese joint fleet is repairing and replenishing domestically at this time, Rozhestvinsky did not hesitate to lead all the capable warships in his fleet to quietly leave the port on the night of July 3...

In fact, if the Russian navy does not leave and continues to attack the Japanese maritime supply line based on Lushun, it is hard to say whether the Russian army can't stand it first or the Japanese army within Fengtian can't stand it first.

The news of the large-scale departure of the Russian navy could not be concealed. A few hours later, the Japanese army in the direction of Lushun urgently informed the Japanese navy that most of the Russian navy had left the port.

For a while, the Japanese navy was very nervous, because at this time, many of the main ships of the Japanese navy were still waiting to be repaired on the platform. In the last battle of the Yellow Sea, two battleships of the Japanese navy were seriously injured, and two armored cruisers were also damaged to varying degrees, not to mention other cruisers, but It is said that the First Fleet and the Second Fleet returning to the port of Japan were scarred.

Now that the Russian navy has set out for Vladivostok, the Japanese navy doesn't know what to do for a while. Is it relying on the existing fleet to intercept? Or let the Russian navy pass through the Tsushima Strait and enter Vladivostok?

"Never let the Russian fleet pass through the Strait of Tsushima without endless trouble!" Vladivostok is not Lushun. If the Japanese navy exerts huge pressure on the Japanese army, it may be able to forcibly conquer Lushun with tens of thousands of lives, but don't think about Vladivostok. Once the Russian fleet is allowed to enter Vladivostok, the Japanese navy will not want to survive in the future. After all, the Japanese navy You can't squat outside Vladivostok all the time, right?

Heihachiro Togo can almost foresee the future situation. The Japanese navy will be forced to engage in scattered battles with the Russian navy in the Sea of Japan and the Tsushima Strait. At that time, whether the Japanese navy can have enough strength to maintain the maritime supply line is a big question mark.

"We must destroy them at sea, and even if we can't, we must force them back to Lushun!" Relatively speaking, it is better to let the Russian navy stay in the dangerous Lushun than to let them go to Vladivostok.

After Togo Heihachiro made a decision, the Japanese Combined Fleet gathered again. Although the two battleships were seriously injured, they could not control so much. They directly pulled them out of the platform and took injuries to the battle. At the same time, they also ordered the Third Fleet in the western sea to search and Follow the Russian fleet.

On July 5, most of the main forces of the First Fleet and Second Fleet of the Japanese Combined Fleet had arrived in the Tsushima Strait, and Higashigo Heihachiro tried to have an interception battle here.

However, unlike history, this time in the Russian navy, whether it is Rozhteestvinsky or other large and small naval officers, they know that the Japanese Combined Fleet is ahead, and this time they will definitely fight with the Japanese Combined Fleet.

At 3 p.m. on July 5, the fleets of the two sides had entered the Strait of Tsushima one after another, and then a war broke out between the two sides without surprise!

This time, both sides can be said to be prepared. One wants to stop the opponent, and the other wants to rush through the enemy's blockade to Vladivostok!

Although the history has been completely different, a naval battle broke out between Japan and Russia in the Tsushima Strait, but unlike history, this time both sides were well prepared. The Russian army did not come from afar and were exhausted, and Japan did not begin to miss the trace of the Russian navy, and It has been following the Russian navy.

From 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., the two sides fought fiercely for four hours in this narrow sea. There was no fog, no accidents, no melee, and no melee. The two sides engaged in a traditional and formal fleet decisive battle!

Rozystevinsky learned the lessons of the last Battle of the Yellow Sea. When he could no longer gain the speed advantage, he strictly ordered the formations to speed up privately and must ensure the unified speed of each formation to ensure that the formation is not chaotic.

The Japanese navy adopts a tried-and-tested mobile combat method, relying on high speed and dense firepower to seize the T-head and fire a large number of shells at the Russian army.

Under such circumstances, the naval battle between the two sides is much more cruel than any naval battle in history!

Both sides have adopted a strict line battle method, once again proving to the global navy that line battle is still the unshakable mainstream combat mode of the navy today.

Especially when Heihachiro ordered the fleet to maneuver to the front of the Russian fleet for a U-shaped turn, although the Japanese navy paid the cost of sinking a battleship and two armored cruisers during the turn, the Japanese combined fleet suffered heavy casualties to the Russian navy after completing the turn. After a short half-hour line firing, the battleship Admiral Nahimov of the Russian Navy was sunk on the spot, and the battleship Borrotino was severely damaged and forced to abandon the ship. Then the Russian navy chose to sink, and most of the other ships were also seriously injured.

When four hours of fierce fighting between the two sides, at 7 p.m., the navy had sunk a battleship and two armored cruisers, while the Russian navy was sunk three on the spot, and many other ships were also severely damaged.

After 7 p.m., the main fleets of the two sides broke off, but the war did not end there. That night, the navy sent a large number of small ships to conduct a lightning battle against the Russian navy.

That night, the Russian navy sank another battleship.

The next morning, the scarred main fleets of the two sides collided again, and the battle between the two sides lasted intermittently almost all day.

In the afternoon, Duke Suvorov, the flagship of the Russian fleet, was sunk. Before the sinking, the command tower was hit, resulting in the soul of the Russian navy. Rozhdestevinsky, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, was killed on the spot. After losing this powerful supreme commander, the entire Russian naval fleet suddenly fell into chaos. .

Lieutenant General Flekersham of the Second Squadron raised the command flag at the first time. He was the former major commander of the Second Squadron of the Second Pacific Fleet. After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, he was promoted to lieutenant general during the rest of Lushun and served as the commander of the Second Squadron of the Pacific Fleet.

However, a few minutes later, the former commander of the Pacific First Fleet and the current commander of the Pacific Third Fleet, Lieutenant General William Witthoft, also raised the command flag.

That is to say, two flagships and two commanders appeared in the Russian navy at that time, so that the ships in the Russian fleet did not know who to listen to, which led to serious chaos. At this time, even if Markov and Rozhestvinsky both resured, they could not recover their defeat.

At 4 p.m., after seeing the chaos of the Russian army, Togo Hirahachiro once again had a decisive signal and led the fleet to rush into the Russian fleet, thus successfully cutting off the Second and Third Fleet of the Russian Navy. Subsequently, the First Fleet and Second Fleet of the Japanese Navy entered the Second Fleet of the Russian Navy. Line clamping.

In less than an hour, one of the remaining three battleships of the Second Squadron of the Russian Navy was sunk, one was severely damaged and completely powerless, while the other one ignited a fire and was forced to abandon the ship. Lieutenant General Flekelsham, the commander of the squadron, was also killed in battle. At this time, the Second Squadron of the Russian Navy has been It no longer exists.

At the same time, the Japanese navy also suffered a serious counterattack, and another armored cruiser was hit by fire and severely tilted, and was forced to abandon the ship.

By this time, the three major squadrons in the Russian Pacific Fleet had a total of 14 battleships. At this time, less than half of them were destroyed, and the first squadron lost more than half of them. Most of the battleships of the Third Fleet were also old battleships and could not compete with the remaining warships of the Japanese navy. .

So at this time, no one had robbed him of command with Wilhelm Witthoft, who ordered him to speed up and leave the battle.

In this way, the Russian navy will be even more chaotic!

When the sun sets on this day, the Russian navy has been completely disrupted, and the squadrons can only fight alone. Lieutenant General William Witthoft led the remnants of his third squadron all the way to escape the night* attack of Japan and fled to the sea cucumbers with the remaining three battleships, two cruisers and three destroyers. Wei.

And the other Pang warships of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet were all left at the bottom of the Tsushima Strait!

On this day of the war, the navy also suffered heavy losses. Two battleships and three armored cruisers were sunk, and the other ships were also seriously injured. This was a decisive battle of the fleet. The Japanese navy fought against the Russian navy, which had a numerical advantage with inferior strength. It not only won more with less, but also almost all from beginning to end. Press the Russian navy to fight again.

Although its own damage is not small, it is still a rare typical example of winning more with less and defeating strong with the weak in the history of naval warfare.

When the news reached Jinzhou, Zhao Dongyun sighed: "This Russian navy is really a loser. The battleships and armored cruisers add up to more than 20 capital ships, which are completely defeated by Japan!"

However, Lin Yongquan next to him said, "The loss on my side is not small. From last year to now, four battleships and three armored cruisers have been sunk, occupying half of the combat power of the Japanese navy! In a battle between the two horses, the elite of the Japanese and Russian navy has been lost!"

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PS, there have been many recent modifications. Those who like to strive for excellence can read it the next day or look back at the old chapters!