Battles & Wars › Industrial wars › Russo-Japanese War
Battle of Tsushima
May 27–28, 1905· Battle· Asia & Pacific
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Admiral Togo Heihachiro's Japanese fleet destroyed Russia's Baltic Fleet in the strait between Korea and Japan.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Russia sent its Baltic Fleet some 18,000 miles, a seven-month voyage to the Pacific. Admiral Togo waited in the Tsushima Strait. Alerted by radio from a scout ship, his faster, better-trained fleet crossed ahead of the Russian line, concentrating fire on its lead ships. In under two days Russia lost nearly its whole force: 21 ships sunk, including most of its battleships, and several more captured. About 4,400–5,000 Russians died and some 6,000 were captured; Japan lost three torpedo boats and about 117 men.
Why it matters
It forced Russia to make peace, made Japan a first-rank naval power, and is often called the only decisive battle between fleets of steel battleships.
How we know
Japanese and Russian official histories, Togo's reports, foreign naval observers' reports, and survivors' accounts such as Alexei Novikov-Priboy's novel-memoir Tsushima.
Still debated
How much Japanese gunnery, explosive shells, or the Russian fleet's exhaustion and overloading decided it is still debated.
Connections (4)
▸Battle of Tsushima decided Russo-Japanese WarWell documented
The connection
With Russia's Pacific squadron already sunk at Port Arthur and its armies beaten at Mukden, the Baltic Fleet was Russia's last hope of cutting Japan off from its army in Manchuria. Its destruction, amid revolution at home, pushed Tsar Nicholas II to accept American mediation. The Treaty of Portsmouth followed in September 1905.
When and how
Tsushima Strait, May 27–28, 1905; peace talks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August–September 1905, mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt.
How we know
Japan asked Roosevelt to mediate on May 31, days after the battle, and Russian court and diplomatic records show the Tsar agreed soon after.
Debates and open questions
Japan too was near financial and manpower exhaustion, so historians debate whether Tsushima or mutual exhaustion really ended the war.
▸Battle of Tsushima seemed to confirm the all-big-gun case for HMS Dreadnought and the naval arms raceDebated
The connection
At Tsushima much of the decisive damage came from heavy guns at ranges of several miles, longer than navies had expected. Advocates of all-big-gun battleships cited it as proof that only the largest guns mattered. But Dreadnought's design had been approved in early 1905, months before the battle, so Tsushima reinforced the idea rather than created it.
When and how
Tsushima Strait, May 1905; Fisher's Committee on Designs, January–February 1905; British observer Captain William Pakenham watched the battle aboard the Japanese battleship Asahi.
How sure are we?
Pakenham's reports and Admiralty papers survive, but they show the decision already made; the link lies mainly in how Tsushima was interpreted afterward.
Debates and open questions
What Tsushima proved was disputed at once: in 1906 Alfred Thayer Mahan argued medium guns did much of the damage, against William Sims, who championed all-big-gun ships.
▸Radio (wireless telegraphy) relayed the enemy sighting that opened the Battle of TsushimaWell documented
The connection
Admiral Tōgō waited with Japan's fleet at Jinhae Bay on Korea's south coast. Before dawn on May 27, 1905, the scout ship Shinano Maru sighted the Russian fleet in fog and radioed 'enemy sighted.' Tōgō sailed at once and met the Russians in the strait. Russian ships heard the signals but reportedly were refused permission to jam them.
When and how
Tsushima Strait, between Korea and Japan, May 27, 1905; Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō against Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky's Baltic Fleet.
How we know
Japan's official naval history, Tōgō's battle report and Russian survivors' accounts record the sighting and the signal.
Debates and open questions
Whether jamming could have changed the outcome is unknowable; Japanese gunnery and Tōgō's tactics probably decided the battle anyway.
▸Armstrong and Vickers: Britain's arms giants built Admiral Togo's flagship Mikasa, which led at Battle of TsushimaWell documented
The connection
Japan built its modern navy largely in British yards. Vickers' Barrow shipyard built the battleship Mikasa, completed in 1902, Admiral Togo's flagship at Tsushima. All four of his battleships there came from British yards, and Armstrong's Elswick yard built four of his armored cruisers. British-built ships and British-influenced training helped Japan crush Russia's fleet.
When and how
Barrow-in-Furness and Newcastle, England, 1890s–1902; Tsushima Strait, between Korea and Japan, May 27–28, 1905.
How we know
Shipbuilding records, Japanese naval records, and Mikasa herself, preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka, Japan.
Debates and open questions
How much credit goes to British ships, versus Japanese training and tactics and Russian exhaustion after a seven-month voyage, is debated.