Battle of Tsushima order of battle


This is the order of battle of the [Imperial Imperial Japanese Navy|Japanese Navy|Japanese] and [Imperial Imperial Russian Navy|Russian Navy|Russian] fleets at the Battle of Tsushima on 2728 May 1905. The utter destruction of Russian naval power at Tsushima was the climactic action of the Russo-Japanese War.
The Russian fleet had suffered such attrition from Japanese mines and combat with the Japanese fleet during 1904 that the Russian high command made the fateful decision to dispatch the Baltic Fleet in October of that year to the Pacific coast base at Vladivostok. This involved an exhausting voyage of over seven months; those ships that went down the Atlantic, around Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean and up the China Sea eventually covered before ending in disaster as the fleet attempted to transit Tsushima Strait.
Vice-Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, in command of the Russian fleet, rejected the idea of circling the Japanese home islands to the east as impractical and instead drove straight through Tsushima Strait as the most direct route to Vladivostok. Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, in command of the Japanese fleet, was waiting in port at Busan on the Korean coast.
Despite the devastation of its navy, Russia could have continued the war. For their part, the Japanese did not want to reveal how much they had been weakened by wartime expenditures and agreed to a settlement negotiated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Japanese Combined Fleet

First Squadron

Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō in Mikasa
First Division
Vice Admiral Misu Sōtarō in Nisshin
Third Division
Vice Admiral Dewa Shigetō in Kasagi
First Destroyer Division
Captain Fujimoto Shūshirō
Second Destroyer Division
Captain Yajima Junkichi in Oboro
Third Destroyer Division
Captain Yoshijima Jyūtarō in Shinonome
14th Torpedo-Boat Division
Lieut. Commander Seki Shigetaka

Second Squadron

Vice Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō in armored cruiser Izumo
Second Division
Rear Admiral Shimamura Hayao in armored cruiser Iwate
Fourth Division
Vice Admiral Uryū Sotokichi in Naniwa
Fourth Destroyer Division
Fifth Destroyer Division
9th Torpedo-Boat Division
'''19th Torpedo-Boat Division'''

Third Squadron

Vice Admiral Kataoka Shichirō in protected cruiser Itsukushima
Fifth Division
Rear Admiral Taketomi Kunikane in Hashidate
Sixth Division
Rear Admiral Tōgō Masamichi in Suma
Seventh Division
Rear Admiral Yamada Hikohachi in Fusō
15th Torpedo-Boat Division
Lieut. Commander Kondō Tsunematsu
10th Torpedo-Boat Division
Lieut. Commander Ōtaki Michisuke
11th Torpedo-Boat Division
Lieut. Commander Fujimoto Umejirō
20th Torpedo-Boat Division
Lieut. Commander Kubo Kimata
1st Torpedo-Boat Division
Lieut. Commander Fukuda Masateru

Special Duty Squadron

Rear Admiral Ogura Byōichirō in transport Taichū Maru
'''Eighth Division '''

Divisions outside of the Combined Fleet

Kure Naval District
5th Torpedo-Boat Division
Takeshiki Guard District
16th Torpedo-Boat Division
  • No. 66
17th Torpedo-Boat Division
  • No. 34 Lost in battle
  • No. 31
  • No. 32
  • No. 33
18th Torpedo-Boat Division
  • No. 36
  • No. 60
  • No. 61
  • No. 35 Lost in battle

Russian Fleet ''(Second and Third Pacific Squadrons)''

The Russians suffered attrition among their fleet commanders as well as among their capital ships.
  • Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov was killed when his flagship Petropavlovsk struck a mine and sank off Port Arthur on the morning of 13 April 1904. This was most unfortunate for the Russians as Makarov was considered their most aggressive admiral by far.
  • His replacement, Rear-Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, was killed along with his immediate staff by Japanese shellfire at the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August 1904.
  • Having completed the arduous voyage from the Baltic Sea, Vice-Admiral Rozhestvensky was severely wounded during the first day's combat at Tsushima and captured. Treated as an honored guest by the Japanese, he recovered from his injuries and was repatriated after the war.
  • Rear-Admiral Nebogatov surrendered himself and the remnant of the devastated Russian fleet the day after Rozhestvensky's wounding but found it to be unexpectedly challenging. Having been tricked earlier by a Chinese vessel that hoisted a white flag, Admiral Togo at first refused to believe the Russians were surrendering and continued shelling. Not until Nebogatov literally had Japanese rising sun flags hoisted on his ships' masts did Togo relent.
Following repatriation, Rozhestvensky was court-martialed, pled guilty and pardoned. Nebogatov and other officers involved in the surrender of the fleet were assigned the death penalty but had their sentences commuted to prison.

Destroyer Flotilla

First Destroyer Division
  • * Byedovy
  • * Bystryy
  • * Buiny
  • * Bravyy
  • Second Destroyer Division
  • * Blestyashchiy
  • * Gromky
  • * Grozny
  • * Bezuprechny
  • * ''Bodryy''

Transport Squadron

Auxiliaries