The Battle of Tsushima

Introduction

The fleets converged on the afternoon of 14 May 1905. The first ship to open fire was Admiral Rozhestvensky's flag battleship Knyaz Suvorov. Three minutes later, under the flag of Admiral Togo, the battleship Mikasa fired back Because the accompanying transports could not travel faster, Admiral Rozhestvensky had reduced his forces' cruising speed to nine knots. Admiral Togo took full advantage. Proceeding at 15 knots, he overtook the Russians and concentrated his fire on the flagships.

Analysis

During the first forty minutes, the Japanese sho-wered the battleships Knyaz Suvorov and Oslyabya with high-explosive shells, whereupon the Oslyabya sank with its commander, Captain Vladimir Ber, and the majority of its crew. Admiral Rozhestvensky was wounded, and his disabled flagship now became the Japanese target. Control of the squadron was disorganized. The commanders of the battleships Emperor Alexander III and Borodino, Captains Nikolay Bukhvostov and Pyotr Serebrenikov, tried in vain to screen the damaged flagship and bring the squadron back on course toward Vladivostok. The Alexander, Borodino and then the other battleships came under the lateral fire of the Japanese (Steven, pp 1-396). However, by 1600 hours Ad-miral Togo had lost sight of the Russian ships in the mist and smoke. The Borodino led the battleships to the battle line, where the cruisers were fighting to protect their transports. Under fire from the main Russian forces, the cruiser Kassagi was badly damaged and rendered unoperational (Woodward, pp 45-189).

Having drawn away from the burning Knyaz Suvorov, the Borodino turned northward. Its senior officer, Commander Dmitry Makarov, replaced the wounded Serebrenikov and took charge of the battleship. While travelling northwards, the squadron was overtaken by the battleships of Admiral Togo. The Emperor Alexander III and Borodino were lost just before dusk in the ensuing battle, and, almost simultaneously, the Knyaz Suvorov began ...