() As the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Yamamoto Gonbei, in the past few months after learning about the departure of the Russian expeditionary fleet, in addition to paying attention to the whereabouts and ship conditions of the Russian fleet, he also made bold predictions
Because the Russians are not popular in Europe, and the British are interested in
To make things difficult, this ultra-long range will drastically reduce the combat effectiveness of the Russian fleet. Although the Russian fleet's main combat ships are almost twice as many as the Japanese combined fleet, Yamamoto still has a good chance of winning the upcoming naval battle.
In the past few months, the Japanese Combined Fleet has been on many occasions against
Interception, segmentation and other tactics were practiced near the Ma Strait, and the strategy of using the speed of the ship and the accuracy of the artillery to attack the Russian fleet was basically determined. Now everything is ready, just waiting for the Russians to come. Yamamoto is very eager in his heart
Defeat the Russian fleet in one fell swoop. In this way, not only would the Russian fleet be repaid for the original
The Chinese united with Germany and France to force Japan to give up its hatred of Liaodong, and from now on in Asia, Japan can stand up and say that we are the number one navy in Asia. Japan has formulated a development strategy for consolidating North Korea and entering Northeast China.
It is also a decisive help.
Just when the Japanese Combined Fleet was ready to welcome the Russian expeditionary fleet coming to its door, on the Russian expeditionary fleet's flagship "Prince Suvorov" hundreds of nautical miles away from the Tsushima Strait, this expeditionary fleet
The commander-in-chief, Vice Admiral of the Russian Navy, Rozed Stefanski, was depressed and helpless.
What Lieutenant General Luo is depressed about is not the Japanese Combined Fleet. In his opinion, as soon as his huge fleet approaches the Japanese Sea, those yellow-skinned ones who can only despicably attack the Japanese Navy will run away, even if there are blind guys who want to
If you compete with the Russian Navy, you will also be defeated by the hundreds of naval guns at your command.
They were instantly blown to pieces. The Vice Admiral was depressed and helpless because the officers and soldiers of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet led by him were on the verge of mental collapse due to long-term sailing at sea. In the past few days, after setting off from Cam Ranh Bay, something had happened
Several times, they mistakenly mistook merchant ships from various countries for the Japanese navy and fired artillery fire.
If the situation continues like this, these sailors will be able to sink their own ships without waiting for a fight with the Japanese. Moreover, the Tsar rejected his suggestion to lead the Second Pacific Fleet directly to Vladivostok and strictly ordered the Second Pacific Fleet to go straight to Vladivostok.
The fleet has to wait for the Third Pacific Fleet, which has old ships and very slow speed.
This order made the Vice Admiral very angry. Not only were the old ships of the Third Fleet unable to improve the strength of his fleet, but their speed was too slow, only 11 knots, thus dragging down his Second Fleet and making it impossible to reach Vladivostok.
The time was delayed by more than a month, which the Lieutenant General could not bear.
What the lieutenant general didn't know was that just behind his slow and huge fleet, there were more than 20 black steel whales following in the sea water. Some of the "Shark-class" submarines of Taiwan's First Submarine Group came from Russia.
As soon as the fleet passed through the Taiwan Strait, it followed a few nautical miles behind it. Taking advantage of the submarine's underwater speed of more than 20 knots, it looked at every ship in the fleet from front to back, from left to right.
through.
This time the Russians have spent a lot of money. In the front of the fleet are 4 cruisers, and in the middle of the fleet are 8 battleships arranged in two columns. Since the Taiwan Navy does not know much about the Russian Navy, the names of these ships
There is no way to verify it, but from the tonnage
In terms of equipment and firepower, it is still possible to clearly distinguish the ships of each level. Following the cruisers and battleships is a large group of auxiliary ships, about 20 in total. At the end of the fleet, there are more than 10 cruisers and
A formation of destroyers.
On May 25th, a supply ship of the Russian fleet sailed into the port of Shanghai, China, and was immediately discovered by Japanese spies here. The Japanese Navy Combined Fleet, which received the spy's notification, immediately determined that the Russian expedition fleet had entered Japan.
Sea. As a result, the Japanese Combined Fleet immediately set off from Sasebo Port and cruised in the Tsushima Strait area. It also sent a number of destroyers and reconnaissance ships disguised as fishing boats to search for traces of the Russian fleet at the entrance to the Tsushima Strait.
This time Japan's joint return fleet led by Yamamoto Gonbei also mobilized the entire Japanese navy. The fleet included 5 London-class and solemn-class battleships and 18 light and heavy ships purchased from the United Kingdom and built in Japan.
cruisers, and more than 20 destroyers and torpedo ships.
The entire fleet is divided into three fleets with the battleship "Mikasa" as the flagship.
The First Fleet was led by Lieutenant General Misu Sotaro, with the flagships "Ri", "Rishin", "Kasagi", and "Takasago", and the communication ship "Ryuta".
The Second Fleet was led by Rear Admiral Tomosaburo Kato, with the flagship "Izumo", the armored cruisers "Izumo", "Iwane", "Azuma", "Yakumo", "Asama", and "Jiban", and the cruiser "Akashi".
Horse horn, sound feather horn, etc.
The Third Fleet is led by Vice Admiral Shichiro Kataoka, with the flagship "Fuso". His men are basically the old, weak, sick and disabled. Many gunboats and frigates left over from the Sino-Japanese War of 1888 have entered the Third Fleet. In addition, the Third Fleet
The fleet also has a high-speed assault fleet composed of destroyers and torpedo ships, which are responsible for launching torpedo attacks during wartime to disrupt the opponent's formation or delay the enemy's pursuit speed during retreat.
In the early morning of May 27th, the long-distance Russian fleet finally arrived near the Tsushima Strait. Since that day was the coronation anniversary of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian fleet originally implemented light control in accordance with the order of Lieutenant General Roger Stevensky.
,a hospital ship
But the lights were turned on in order to arrange a lunch to commemorate the coronation of the Tsar. The lights on this hospital ship happened to be discovered by the Japanese armed merchant ship Shinano, which was searching nearby. After several confirmations, the Shinano sent a signal to the Japanese combined fleet.
Received a message announcing the discovery of the Russian fleet.
After receiving this telegram, Yamamoto immediately ordered the nearby 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fleets to dispatch and move closer to the Russian fleet. Due to heavy fog rising in the Tsushima Strait that day, the sightlines of both sides were seriously damaged, but
Since the Russian ships were all painted with black hulls and yellow chimneys, they were much more conspicuous than the gray and blue colors of the Japanese ships. Several cruisers of the Japanese Third Fleet were the first to discover traces of the Russian fleet, and
Monitoring the actions of the Russian fleet from a distance.
At 11:00 a.m., Russian sailors celebrating the coronation of the Czar on a sailing ship inadvertently discovered the following Japanese cruiser, and after a brief opening fire, they continued to sail northeast.
The commander-in-chief of the Russian fleet, Roger Stevinsky, judged that the Japanese fleet should be coming from his northwest direction, so he ordered his battleships and cruisers to turn 8 degrees to port, so that the sides of his new ships would be just right.
Facing the bow of the Japanese fleet. However, I don’t know whether it is a communication failure or not.
The order was not conveyed in place. Anyway, only four battleships turned in accordance with the order, and the other ships continued to sail along the original course. As a result, the Russian fleet changed from two columns to one column in the heavy fog, with the bulk of the fleet turning.
There were 4 battleships, then 4 cruisers, and then 4 battleships.
Due to the interference of the heavy fog, it was not until after lunch that the Russian fleet discovered that its formation was wrong and was about to adjust back. At this time, the fog dissipated and the battleship traveling at the front discovered the ships of the Japanese combined fleet.
Coming from the northeast.
The direction in which the Japanese fleet appeared was beyond Roger Stevinsky's expectation, and he quickly ordered all the ships to stop turning and temporarily line up in a single column to meet the enemy. However, because the Russian fleet was about to adjust its formation, the order to stop the adjustment suddenly allowed the fleet to appear.
In the confusion, two battleships had to stop their progress to avoid hitting their companions in front who were slowing down and turning.
At 13:55, Yamamoto's flagship hoisted the Z-flag and issued a message that "the empire will rise and fall in this battle, and everyone will work hard together." He led his team and began to turn outside the range of the Russian fleet.
, intending to cross the front of the Russian fleet.
