Battle of Tsushima

Battle of Tsushima
Part of the Russo-Japanese War
Painting depicting Admiral Tōgō on the "Compass Deck" above the bridge of Mikasa at the start of the battle. The signal flag being hoisted represents the letter Z, a special instruction to his fleet.[c]
Date 27–28 May 1905 Location Tsushima Strait 34°33.98′N 130°9.06′E / 34.56633°N 130.15100°E / 34.56633; 130.15100 Result Japanese victory[3]
Belligerents
Empire of Japan	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Tōgō Heihachirō Kamimura Hikonojō Kataoka Shichirō	Zinovy Rozhestvensky Nikolai Nebogatov Oskar Enqvist
Strength
5 battleships 29 cruisers 3 gunboats 21 destroyers 45 torpedo boats[e] 22 auxiliary vessels	8 battleships 3 coastal battleships 9 cruisers 9 destroyers 9 auxiliary vessels
Casualties and losses
117 dead 583 injured 3 torpedo boats sunk (255 tons sunk)	5,045 dead 803 injured 6,016 captured 6 battleships sunk 1 coastal battleship sunk 14 other ships sunk 2 battleships captured 2 coastal battleships captured 1 destroyer captured 6 ships disarmed (135,893 tons sunk)

The Battle of Tsushima (Russian: Цусимское сражение, Tsusimskoye srazheniye), also known in Japan as the Battle of the Sea of Japan (Japanese: 日本海海戦, Hepburn: Nihonkai kaisen), 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^[4][5] and the first in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. The battle was described by contemporary Sir George Clarke ^[f] as "by far the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar".^[6]

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 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) 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. Rozhestvensky was wounded and knocked unconscious in the initial action, and four of his battleships were sunk by sunset. At night, Japanese destroyers and torpedo boats attacked the remaining ships, and Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov surrendered in the morning of 28 May.

All 11 Russian battleships were lost, out of which seven were sunk and four captured. Only a few warships escaped, with one cruiser and two destroyers reaching Vladivostok, and two auxiliary cruisers as well as one transport escaping back to Madagascar. Three cruisers were interned at Manila by the United States until the war was over. Eight 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 heavy warship of the Baltic Fleet forced Russia to sue for peace, and the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in September 1905. In Japan, the battle was hailed as one of the greatest naval victories in Japanese history, and Admiral Tōgō was revered as a national hero.^[g] His flagship Mikasa has been preserved as a museum ship in Yokosuka Harbour.

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