Battle of Tsushima

The Battle of Tsushima (Цусимское сражение, Tsusimskoye srazheniye), also known in Japan as the Battle of the Sea of Japan, was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the battle was the only decisive engagement ever fought between modern steel battleship fleets and the first in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. The battle was described by Sir George Clarke as "by far the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar". The battle involved the Japanese Combined Fleet under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō and the Russian Second Pacific Squadron under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, which had sailed over seven months and from the Baltic Sea. The Russians hoped to reach Vladivostok and establish naval control of the Far East in order to relieve the Imperial Russian Army in Manchuria. The Russian fleet had a large advantage in the number of battleships, but was overall older and slower than the Japanese fleet. The Russians were sighted in the early morning on 27 May, and the battle began in the afternoon of that day. Rozhestvensky was wounded and knocked unconscious in the initial action, during which four of his battleships were sunk. At night, Japanese destroyers and torpedo boats attacked the remaining ships, which had dispersed, and Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov surrendered in the morning of 28 May. All 11 Russian battleships were lost, seven sunk and four captured. Only a few warships escaped, with one cruiser and two destroyers reaching Vladivostok, and one transport escaping back to Madagascar. Three cruisers were interned at Manila by the United States until the war was over. Ten auxiliaries and one destroyer were disarmed and remanded at Shanghai by China. Russian casualties were high, with more than 5,000 dead and 6,000 captured. The Japanese, which had lost no heavy ships, had 117 dead. The loss of almost every warship of the Baltic Fleet forced Russia to sue for peace, and the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in September 1905.

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