Night attack destroyers in the Russo-Japanese War
During the discussion of a series of articles devoted to the Varyag cruiser, a discussion arose about what could have happened if the Russian stationary did not fight the squadron S. Uriu on January 27 and were attacked by Japanese destroyers on Chemulpo roadstead with the onset of darkness. Opinions were divided - it was suggested that such an attack would have a deadly effectiveness and would certainly lead to the death of Russian stationary, but a number of respected readers questioned this outcome.
In order to determine the possible effectiveness of such an attack, we will analyze the results demonstrated by the Japanese and Russian destroyers in night battles, and we will begin, of course, with the first naval battle from which, in fact, the Russian-Japanese war began: on the Port Arthur squadron.
As is known, the latter stood on the outer roads in the number of 16 pennants in four lines staggered — the distance between the warships was 2 cable. Armadillos and cruisers stood with open fires, there were no anti-mine networks, but anti-mine guns were charged. The Japanese took, as it is commonly believed, three attacks, but only the first one was massive: within 17 minutes, from 23.33 to 23.50, 26 in January 1904 were eight Japanese destroyers fired at Russian ships 14 mines, of which 12 was sent to three-pipe ships. The Port Arthur squadron responded with 23.37 fire, that is, 4 minutes after the first Japanese mine shot, but the coastal guns did not take part in repelling the attack.
As a result of this attack, the 3 of the Russian ship was undermined: with an interval of five minutes in 23.40, the mine hit the Retvisan, in 23.45 - in the Tsesarevich and in 23.50 - in the Pallada. Naturally, the squadron realized that they had been subjected to a Japanese attack, and without any doubt they shot at enemy destroyers in the future. But the subsequent "attacks" were the actions of single Japanese ships - in 00.30 on 27 in January, the destroyer "Carp" and in 00.50 the destroyer "Oboro" fired one mine each, the first "into a ship of the Poltava type", and the second - into an unidentified four-pipe Russian ship, without achieving success.
When inspecting unexploded mines (there were a lot of such mines), it was found that they were supplied with Aubrey's device for correct operation over long distances, and with special knives for the eruption of torpedo networks. In other words, it was assumed that the destroyers would attack the squadron's ships from long distances, not coming close to them, and the Japanese had no doubt that the Russian ships would be protected by anti-mine networks.
In general, the following can be stated: the Japanese attack was more or less successful. It was a moonless night (the moon appeared in the sky only around 3 in the morning) the destroyers were seen from the Russian ships just before the attack itself, but, unfortunately, it is unclear at what distance it was made. The effectiveness of the first attack was 21,4%, but the subsequent “attacks” on the squadron snapping at all barrels (one mine from one destroyer) were already made explicitly for the pro forma - the Japanese destroyers could not get close to the distance the mines hit.
Subsequently, the Japanese made several attempts to block the exit from the inner harbor of Port Arthur, where Russian ships were forced to leave, and at the same time (according to the “Work historical Commission ”) attempts were made to detonate the battleship“ Retvisan ”, which, as a result of a successful mine attack on the night of January 27, was forced to run aground. In fact, the ship was surrounded by two "lines of defense" - the first of them was a home-made bon made up of logs tied together by an anchor rope removed from port barges. These logs were equipped with mine networks from the port side of the battleship (facing the shore), and from other squadron ships that had spare panels. This boom was located about 20 meters from the damaged ship, secured with special anchors, and the second line of defense was the mine’s starboard network of Retvisan. At night, servants were constantly on duty at the starboard artillery, spotlights were ready to turn on at any moment, and only half of the crew was asleep. In addition, two destroyers and several steam boats armed with 37-mm cannons were constantly on duty next to the blown up ship, not to mention the fact that the land batteries were ready to support the Retvisan with fire at any moment.
The first attack took place on the night from 10 to 11 in February, when the Japanese attempted to block the passage to the internal pool for the first time with the help of the firefighters. Interestingly, the enemy destroyer "Kagero" approached the battleship at a distance of three cables, but was noticed only after falling into the beam of a fortress searchlight - it happened around 02.45 in the morning of February 11 and the moon had not yet risen. "Retvizan" immediately opened fire on him, "Kagero" fired a mine, but unsuccessfully - she was later found on the shore, unexploded. Retvizan fired at Kagero for less than a minute, and then it slipped out of the beam, again becoming “invisible,” but the second Japanese destroyer, Siranui (who knows who discovered it) was immediately noticed, and Retvisan discovered fire on it from a distance 4-5 cable. He was supported by the destroyers, four mineboats, and, of course, coastal defense artillery, and then two more destroyers, the Marakumi and the Yugiri, opened behind the Siranui. The fire was transferred to them, but then Japanese steamers came to light, and one of them, according to our sailors, was heading straight for Retvisan and the fire was transferred to them now.
In general, it can be stated that the attempt to detonate Retvizan suffered a complete fiasco, and, moreover, the Japanese destroyers demonstrated poor combat skills: to miss the 3 cables on an aground battleship, and not even get a bon - you had to manage. But ... was there such an attempt at all?
We have not for nothing indicated that information about the attempt to undermine the "Retvizan" was taken from the domestic "Works of the historical commission", but the fact is that the Japanese have this point of view in the "Description of hostilities at sea in 37-38. Meiji (in 1904-1905) is not confirmed. They report that the target of the 5 fighter squad were Russian destroyers and patrol vessels, the attack of which could be stopped by Japanese firefighters. And, I must say, the Japanese account of events in this case looks much more logical and more plausible from this: their primary goal was to bar the entrance, and for this, of course, it was necessary to destroy the light Russian ships guarding the entrance to the inner harbor. At the same time, the mine attack of the grounded “Retvizan” did not give anything to solve this task — one or even several torpedo hits could not destroy the artillery of this ship. In addition, it is difficult to believe that the Japanese did not know and did not guess about the protection of the Russian battleship with anti-torpedo nets and bon - and in fact the chances of hitting the ship in these conditions were minimal.
Therefore, the Japanese version seems to be more correct, that the commander of the 5 th detachment of the destroyers found “anchored several ships and destroyers” attacked them with torpedoes - most likely we are talking about two destroyers and four mine-boats, which were near “Retvizan”, which caused Russians suspect that the battleship of the battleship was attacked ... Unfortunately, Meiji does not report the number of mines spent by the destroyers, it is only known that they were fired from all four destroyers, that is, their consumption could not be T he longer four. In any case, the Japanese did not hit anyone, however, taking into account the fact that only Kagero fired from a more or less short night fight distance (of the order of 3 kbt), and the others, apparently, fired from 5 cables and even further, especially in the case of destroyers, and even mine boats, then such a result can hardly be surprising.
The next day, the Russian cruisers “Bayan”, “Akold” and “Novik” went to sea. The Japanese, believing that these ships would remain on the outer raid for the night, sent destroyers for their attack, and these destroyers were found and driven away by the fire of the Russian destroyers, coastal batteries and Retvisan. At the same time, the Japanese did not find anyone (the cruisers actually left for the internal raid in the evening) and retreated, not smelly, having spent at least four torpedoes - judging by the descriptions, in most cases (if not all) the Japanese shot at the ships which only ghosted them, so of course there were no hits.
The battles of Matusevich’s detachment (destroyers “Vynylivy”, “Domination”, “Attentive”, “Fearless”), and also “Decisive” and “Guardian” with Japanese destroyers will not be considered, because, judging by everything, the Japanese in these combat episodes did not use mines, limiting artillery. But it is noteworthy that the Matusevich detachment attacked the 1 th detachment of destroyers after the moonrise, but from the Japanese ships, the Russian destroyers usually noticed at a distance no more than 300 meters, that is, slightly more than 1,5 cables.
In the evening of March 8, the 4 Squadron of Japanese fighters (Hayadori, Murasame, Asagiri, Harusame) attempted to attack the Russian guard-ships on the outer roadstead. However, approximately in 2 000 m from the entrance to the harbor (a little more than 10,5 kbt) the destroyers were found and shelled with coastal batteries and gunboats "Beaver" and "Brave". In the end, it all ended with the fact that "Hayadori" released one mine at random, from a long distance (it was found in the raid in the morning) and, of course, did not get anywhere, after which the destroyers left. True, on the same night, the 5 squad re-attempted to penetrate the raid using temporarily turned off lighting (the fortress turned off the searchlights briefly) but was also detected and driven away, unable to reach the torpedo attack, and that was the end of it.
The Japanese attempted a second attempt to enter the outer raid on the night of March 14 - according to their plan, one fighter unit was supposed to come up in the evening of March 13 and reconnoiter the situation - if Russian warships turned out to be on the external raid, they should be attacked and sunk with the onset of darkness. If there were none, then it was necessary to carry the observation. One detachment of destroyers had to accompany the firefighters until they were submerged, after which, after removing the surviving crews, retreat — he was also charged with the task of clearing the way for the transports in the event of a Russian counterattack. Two other detachments were to observe the raid, and divert attention to themselves, opening intense fire, when the firefighters would be detected, in case the Russian destroyers counterattack, they should have supported the direct guarding firefighters.
This plan was not successful. The head brander was discovered in the 20 cable from the aisle, and fire was immediately launched on it from the coast and guard ships. Then the Russian destroyers "Strong" and "Resolute" at full speed attacked the enemy. This night fight became a record for the quality of night torpedo shooting: “Strong” fired two mines, and “Decisive” - one, and either two were undermined, but there could even be three firefighters. Then "Strong", apparently having gotten into the taste, attacked what he took to be the Japanese squadron (while reloading torpedo tubes in a hurry) - these were the Japanese destroyers with whom he entered the battle. One of the enemy destroyers, the Tsubame, shot at the Strong with a mine, but missed. During the artillery battle, “Strong” got into the steam pipeline (fatal burns were received by 8 people, including the mechanical engineer Zverev), and then was seen and fired upon with their own coastal batteries, which was why they had to retreat and throw themselves onto the shore.
On the one hand, it can be stated that the Russian destroyers achieved tremendous success - they attacked a detachment that was under the protection twice as large as the enemy (four destroyers), while the Russian ships did not suffer losses, and the effectiveness of their mine attack amounted to 66,7 or even 100% . But you need to understand that the conditions in which the “Strong” and “Decisive” acted were favorable enough for them - the Japanese crews were blinded by the light of searchlights, which illuminated the targets of the Russian destroyers.
Next torpedo application weapons became the last battle of the destroyer “Terrible”, the wounded Russian ship fired a mine from Ikadzuchi but didn’t hit it - however, this battle took place after the sun rose and could not be considered nightly. But the third attempt to block the exit to the external raid of Arthur, no doubt, is such. This time, the Japanese destroyers did not show themselves again - they sought to divert attention to themselves, shooting and shining with searchlights, but apparently they did not use mines. Russian minerals, on the contrary, were again successful: a mine boat from the Pobeda was blown up by one of the Japanese firefighters (to be fair, we’ll point out that it had already exploded and sank at that time). Two more firefighters were blown up by a mine boat from Peresvet and the Ambulance destroyer Skory. The boat from the battleship Retvizan also entered the torpedo attack, but she didn’t hit on - the shot didn’t follow, the torpedo slipped out of the vehicle, caught the boat in the rudder and hung on it. In general, one can see the high efficiency of the Russian mine weapons - 3 mines from four of them were released, that is, 75%.
But on the night of May 25, the Russians were unlucky - the Japanese, not trusting the firemen, tried to put up a minefield, but were fired from the guns of ships and fortresses. Two destroyers went on the attack, and the Ambulance fired two mines on a Japanese transport vehicle. Apparently, both mines did not hit anywhere (one of them was found the next day). The next night battle of the destroyers took place on the night of June 10, when Rear Admiral V.K. Witgeft, seeing the increased activity of enemy forces to mine the external raid, sent 7 destroyers and two mine cruisers into the sea, which collided with Japanese ships, but he was also artillery. Of interest is the distance of detection - the moon was shining, but the Japanese destroyers were on the dark part of the horizon. However, our sailors discovered them at a distance of 3-4 cable.
The next day, the Russian squadron sailed into the sea, meeting there battleships Kh. Togo., VK Vitgeft did not accept the battle, and retreated to Port Arthur, it was towards evening, the squadron could not go on an internal raid, and the Japanese attempted to solve the matter with a massive mine attack. However, the result was disappointing.
The retreating Russian ships were the first to attack the 14th destroyer detachment, with each of the four firing one mine (the first to shoot the Chidori at the Poltava battleship), but not one was successful. But the Russian destroyers (in the opinion of Japanese official history), having thrown into a counterattack, achieved a torpedo hit - five minutes after their shot, the Chidori received the same Whitehead mine. Despite the heavy injuries sustained, the Chidori still did not die, and was able to return to base on the Elliot Islands.
Almost immediately, the Russian battleships attacked the 5 squadron of fighters, with three destroyers firing at least five torpedoes (not a single one hit), and the fourth "Siranui" never reached the position to attack, separated from the squadron, to further find a goal for yourself. Then the 1 squadron of destroyers attacked the squadron from the rear, three of the four destroyers fired at least one mine. Two destroyers after that retreated, and the flagship No.70, together with the non-gunner No.69, went “to seek happiness” further. Two destroyers of the 3 squadron attacked the Russian ships with three mines ("Usugomo" - 2 mines, "Carp" - one).
By this time, the Port Arthur squadron had already entered the outer raid, but, before it was still anchored, it was attacked by the 16 unit of the destroyers (at least four mines, possibly more), but this attack visibility, was severely knocked down by the Golden Mount searchlights and powerful artillery fire. Finally, "Siranui" saw his chance, attacking a mine "Sevastopol" (or "Poltava"), and then retreated, joining with his squad. Following them, three torpedoes on the Russian ships launched the destroyers No. XXUMX and No. XXUMX (one on the Diana cruiser, one on Peresvet or Pobeda, and another on an unidentified ship).
After that, there was a short break - until the moon came. After that, the 1 fighter squadron (three ships), the 20 th destroyer squadron (four ships) and previously participating in the Hayabus attack from the 14 squad rushed forward, but it was not a coordinated attack. At first, the 1 fighter squadron and the Hayabusa launched five torpedoes at the Russian ships stationed and retreated.
20-th detachment of destroyers went to the Tiger Peninsula, but at this time the squadron extinguished all sorts of lights, only ground searchlights of the fortress worked, which shone the sea around Vitgeft's ships, leaving them in the shadows. The 20 Squad was discovered, fired 5 torpedoes and retreated. Only one destroyer was able to get out of the 12 squad to attack, and the rest were unable to attack until dawn. The 4 Squad proved better, all the ship's 4 fired one by one and retreated. The 2 th fighter squadron, the 10 th and 21 detachments of the destroyers could not go on the attack.
In general, the Japanese destroyers fired torpedoes at Russian 11 ships in 39 on the night of June, but achieved only one torpedo hit: Chidori’s own destroyer (because there were no Russian counterattacks by the destroyers, and the only source) only a Japanese destroyer could be a mine that fell into it).
At the same time, at least 15 torpedoes were fired while the squadron was still in motion, 8 - at the time when the ships, having reached the outer raid, were still not anchored and 16 - by the squadron in place. Why the Japanese did not achieve any success?
To be continued!
In order to determine the possible effectiveness of such an attack, we will analyze the results demonstrated by the Japanese and Russian destroyers in night battles, and we will begin, of course, with the first naval battle from which, in fact, the Russian-Japanese war began: on the Port Arthur squadron.
As is known, the latter stood on the outer roads in the number of 16 pennants in four lines staggered — the distance between the warships was 2 cable. Armadillos and cruisers stood with open fires, there were no anti-mine networks, but anti-mine guns were charged. The Japanese took, as it is commonly believed, three attacks, but only the first one was massive: within 17 minutes, from 23.33 to 23.50, 26 in January 1904 were eight Japanese destroyers fired at Russian ships 14 mines, of which 12 was sent to three-pipe ships. The Port Arthur squadron responded with 23.37 fire, that is, 4 minutes after the first Japanese mine shot, but the coastal guns did not take part in repelling the attack.
As a result of this attack, the 3 of the Russian ship was undermined: with an interval of five minutes in 23.40, the mine hit the Retvisan, in 23.45 - in the Tsesarevich and in 23.50 - in the Pallada. Naturally, the squadron realized that they had been subjected to a Japanese attack, and without any doubt they shot at enemy destroyers in the future. But the subsequent "attacks" were the actions of single Japanese ships - in 00.30 on 27 in January, the destroyer "Carp" and in 00.50 the destroyer "Oboro" fired one mine each, the first "into a ship of the Poltava type", and the second - into an unidentified four-pipe Russian ship, without achieving success.
When inspecting unexploded mines (there were a lot of such mines), it was found that they were supplied with Aubrey's device for correct operation over long distances, and with special knives for the eruption of torpedo networks. In other words, it was assumed that the destroyers would attack the squadron's ships from long distances, not coming close to them, and the Japanese had no doubt that the Russian ships would be protected by anti-mine networks.
In general, the following can be stated: the Japanese attack was more or less successful. It was a moonless night (the moon appeared in the sky only around 3 in the morning) the destroyers were seen from the Russian ships just before the attack itself, but, unfortunately, it is unclear at what distance it was made. The effectiveness of the first attack was 21,4%, but the subsequent “attacks” on the squadron snapping at all barrels (one mine from one destroyer) were already made explicitly for the pro forma - the Japanese destroyers could not get close to the distance the mines hit.
Subsequently, the Japanese made several attempts to block the exit from the inner harbor of Port Arthur, where Russian ships were forced to leave, and at the same time (according to the “Work historical Commission ”) attempts were made to detonate the battleship“ Retvisan ”, which, as a result of a successful mine attack on the night of January 27, was forced to run aground. In fact, the ship was surrounded by two "lines of defense" - the first of them was a home-made bon made up of logs tied together by an anchor rope removed from port barges. These logs were equipped with mine networks from the port side of the battleship (facing the shore), and from other squadron ships that had spare panels. This boom was located about 20 meters from the damaged ship, secured with special anchors, and the second line of defense was the mine’s starboard network of Retvisan. At night, servants were constantly on duty at the starboard artillery, spotlights were ready to turn on at any moment, and only half of the crew was asleep. In addition, two destroyers and several steam boats armed with 37-mm cannons were constantly on duty next to the blown up ship, not to mention the fact that the land batteries were ready to support the Retvisan with fire at any moment.
Retvizan stranded in Port Arthur
The first attack took place on the night from 10 to 11 in February, when the Japanese attempted to block the passage to the internal pool for the first time with the help of the firefighters. Interestingly, the enemy destroyer "Kagero" approached the battleship at a distance of three cables, but was noticed only after falling into the beam of a fortress searchlight - it happened around 02.45 in the morning of February 11 and the moon had not yet risen. "Retvizan" immediately opened fire on him, "Kagero" fired a mine, but unsuccessfully - she was later found on the shore, unexploded. Retvizan fired at Kagero for less than a minute, and then it slipped out of the beam, again becoming “invisible,” but the second Japanese destroyer, Siranui (who knows who discovered it) was immediately noticed, and Retvisan discovered fire on it from a distance 4-5 cable. He was supported by the destroyers, four mineboats, and, of course, coastal defense artillery, and then two more destroyers, the Marakumi and the Yugiri, opened behind the Siranui. The fire was transferred to them, but then Japanese steamers came to light, and one of them, according to our sailors, was heading straight for Retvisan and the fire was transferred to them now.
In general, it can be stated that the attempt to detonate Retvizan suffered a complete fiasco, and, moreover, the Japanese destroyers demonstrated poor combat skills: to miss the 3 cables on an aground battleship, and not even get a bon - you had to manage. But ... was there such an attempt at all?
We have not for nothing indicated that information about the attempt to undermine the "Retvizan" was taken from the domestic "Works of the historical commission", but the fact is that the Japanese have this point of view in the "Description of hostilities at sea in 37-38. Meiji (in 1904-1905) is not confirmed. They report that the target of the 5 fighter squad were Russian destroyers and patrol vessels, the attack of which could be stopped by Japanese firefighters. And, I must say, the Japanese account of events in this case looks much more logical and more plausible from this: their primary goal was to bar the entrance, and for this, of course, it was necessary to destroy the light Russian ships guarding the entrance to the inner harbor. At the same time, the mine attack of the grounded “Retvizan” did not give anything to solve this task — one or even several torpedo hits could not destroy the artillery of this ship. In addition, it is difficult to believe that the Japanese did not know and did not guess about the protection of the Russian battleship with anti-torpedo nets and bon - and in fact the chances of hitting the ship in these conditions were minimal.
Therefore, the Japanese version seems to be more correct, that the commander of the 5 th detachment of the destroyers found “anchored several ships and destroyers” attacked them with torpedoes - most likely we are talking about two destroyers and four mine-boats, which were near “Retvizan”, which caused Russians suspect that the battleship of the battleship was attacked ... Unfortunately, Meiji does not report the number of mines spent by the destroyers, it is only known that they were fired from all four destroyers, that is, their consumption could not be T he longer four. In any case, the Japanese did not hit anyone, however, taking into account the fact that only Kagero fired from a more or less short night fight distance (of the order of 3 kbt), and the others, apparently, fired from 5 cables and even further, especially in the case of destroyers, and even mine boats, then such a result can hardly be surprising.
The next day, the Russian cruisers “Bayan”, “Akold” and “Novik” went to sea. The Japanese, believing that these ships would remain on the outer raid for the night, sent destroyers for their attack, and these destroyers were found and driven away by the fire of the Russian destroyers, coastal batteries and Retvisan. At the same time, the Japanese did not find anyone (the cruisers actually left for the internal raid in the evening) and retreated, not smelly, having spent at least four torpedoes - judging by the descriptions, in most cases (if not all) the Japanese shot at the ships which only ghosted them, so of course there were no hits.
The battles of Matusevich’s detachment (destroyers “Vynylivy”, “Domination”, “Attentive”, “Fearless”), and also “Decisive” and “Guardian” with Japanese destroyers will not be considered, because, judging by everything, the Japanese in these combat episodes did not use mines, limiting artillery. But it is noteworthy that the Matusevich detachment attacked the 1 th detachment of destroyers after the moonrise, but from the Japanese ships, the Russian destroyers usually noticed at a distance no more than 300 meters, that is, slightly more than 1,5 cables.
In the evening of March 8, the 4 Squadron of Japanese fighters (Hayadori, Murasame, Asagiri, Harusame) attempted to attack the Russian guard-ships on the outer roadstead. However, approximately in 2 000 m from the entrance to the harbor (a little more than 10,5 kbt) the destroyers were found and shelled with coastal batteries and gunboats "Beaver" and "Brave". In the end, it all ended with the fact that "Hayadori" released one mine at random, from a long distance (it was found in the raid in the morning) and, of course, did not get anywhere, after which the destroyers left. True, on the same night, the 5 squad re-attempted to penetrate the raid using temporarily turned off lighting (the fortress turned off the searchlights briefly) but was also detected and driven away, unable to reach the torpedo attack, and that was the end of it.
The Japanese attempted a second attempt to enter the outer raid on the night of March 14 - according to their plan, one fighter unit was supposed to come up in the evening of March 13 and reconnoiter the situation - if Russian warships turned out to be on the external raid, they should be attacked and sunk with the onset of darkness. If there were none, then it was necessary to carry the observation. One detachment of destroyers had to accompany the firefighters until they were submerged, after which, after removing the surviving crews, retreat — he was also charged with the task of clearing the way for the transports in the event of a Russian counterattack. Two other detachments were to observe the raid, and divert attention to themselves, opening intense fire, when the firefighters would be detected, in case the Russian destroyers counterattack, they should have supported the direct guarding firefighters.
This plan was not successful. The head brander was discovered in the 20 cable from the aisle, and fire was immediately launched on it from the coast and guard ships. Then the Russian destroyers "Strong" and "Resolute" at full speed attacked the enemy. This night fight became a record for the quality of night torpedo shooting: “Strong” fired two mines, and “Decisive” - one, and either two were undermined, but there could even be three firefighters. Then "Strong", apparently having gotten into the taste, attacked what he took to be the Japanese squadron (while reloading torpedo tubes in a hurry) - these were the Japanese destroyers with whom he entered the battle. One of the enemy destroyers, the Tsubame, shot at the Strong with a mine, but missed. During the artillery battle, “Strong” got into the steam pipeline (fatal burns were received by 8 people, including the mechanical engineer Zverev), and then was seen and fired upon with their own coastal batteries, which was why they had to retreat and throw themselves onto the shore.
"Strong" after the fight on the night of March 14
On the one hand, it can be stated that the Russian destroyers achieved tremendous success - they attacked a detachment that was under the protection twice as large as the enemy (four destroyers), while the Russian ships did not suffer losses, and the effectiveness of their mine attack amounted to 66,7 or even 100% . But you need to understand that the conditions in which the “Strong” and “Decisive” acted were favorable enough for them - the Japanese crews were blinded by the light of searchlights, which illuminated the targets of the Russian destroyers.
Next torpedo application weapons became the last battle of the destroyer “Terrible”, the wounded Russian ship fired a mine from Ikadzuchi but didn’t hit it - however, this battle took place after the sun rose and could not be considered nightly. But the third attempt to block the exit to the external raid of Arthur, no doubt, is such. This time, the Japanese destroyers did not show themselves again - they sought to divert attention to themselves, shooting and shining with searchlights, but apparently they did not use mines. Russian minerals, on the contrary, were again successful: a mine boat from the Pobeda was blown up by one of the Japanese firefighters (to be fair, we’ll point out that it had already exploded and sank at that time). Two more firefighters were blown up by a mine boat from Peresvet and the Ambulance destroyer Skory. The boat from the battleship Retvizan also entered the torpedo attack, but she didn’t hit on - the shot didn’t follow, the torpedo slipped out of the vehicle, caught the boat in the rudder and hung on it. In general, one can see the high efficiency of the Russian mine weapons - 3 mines from four of them were released, that is, 75%.
But on the night of May 25, the Russians were unlucky - the Japanese, not trusting the firemen, tried to put up a minefield, but were fired from the guns of ships and fortresses. Two destroyers went on the attack, and the Ambulance fired two mines on a Japanese transport vehicle. Apparently, both mines did not hit anywhere (one of them was found the next day). The next night battle of the destroyers took place on the night of June 10, when Rear Admiral V.K. Witgeft, seeing the increased activity of enemy forces to mine the external raid, sent 7 destroyers and two mine cruisers into the sea, which collided with Japanese ships, but he was also artillery. Of interest is the distance of detection - the moon was shining, but the Japanese destroyers were on the dark part of the horizon. However, our sailors discovered them at a distance of 3-4 cable.
The next day, the Russian squadron sailed into the sea, meeting there battleships Kh. Togo., VK Vitgeft did not accept the battle, and retreated to Port Arthur, it was towards evening, the squadron could not go on an internal raid, and the Japanese attempted to solve the matter with a massive mine attack. However, the result was disappointing.
The retreating Russian ships were the first to attack the 14th destroyer detachment, with each of the four firing one mine (the first to shoot the Chidori at the Poltava battleship), but not one was successful. But the Russian destroyers (in the opinion of Japanese official history), having thrown into a counterattack, achieved a torpedo hit - five minutes after their shot, the Chidori received the same Whitehead mine. Despite the heavy injuries sustained, the Chidori still did not die, and was able to return to base on the Elliot Islands.
The same "Chidori"
Almost immediately, the Russian battleships attacked the 5 squadron of fighters, with three destroyers firing at least five torpedoes (not a single one hit), and the fourth "Siranui" never reached the position to attack, separated from the squadron, to further find a goal for yourself. Then the 1 squadron of destroyers attacked the squadron from the rear, three of the four destroyers fired at least one mine. Two destroyers after that retreated, and the flagship No.70, together with the non-gunner No.69, went “to seek happiness” further. Two destroyers of the 3 squadron attacked the Russian ships with three mines ("Usugomo" - 2 mines, "Carp" - one).
By this time, the Port Arthur squadron had already entered the outer raid, but, before it was still anchored, it was attacked by the 16 unit of the destroyers (at least four mines, possibly more), but this attack visibility, was severely knocked down by the Golden Mount searchlights and powerful artillery fire. Finally, "Siranui" saw his chance, attacking a mine "Sevastopol" (or "Poltava"), and then retreated, joining with his squad. Following them, three torpedoes on the Russian ships launched the destroyers No. XXUMX and No. XXUMX (one on the Diana cruiser, one on Peresvet or Pobeda, and another on an unidentified ship).
After that, there was a short break - until the moon came. After that, the 1 fighter squadron (three ships), the 20 th destroyer squadron (four ships) and previously participating in the Hayabus attack from the 14 squad rushed forward, but it was not a coordinated attack. At first, the 1 fighter squadron and the Hayabusa launched five torpedoes at the Russian ships stationed and retreated.
20-th detachment of destroyers went to the Tiger Peninsula, but at this time the squadron extinguished all sorts of lights, only ground searchlights of the fortress worked, which shone the sea around Vitgeft's ships, leaving them in the shadows. The 20 Squad was discovered, fired 5 torpedoes and retreated. Only one destroyer was able to get out of the 12 squad to attack, and the rest were unable to attack until dawn. The 4 Squad proved better, all the ship's 4 fired one by one and retreated. The 2 th fighter squadron, the 10 th and 21 detachments of the destroyers could not go on the attack.
In general, the Japanese destroyers fired torpedoes at Russian 11 ships in 39 on the night of June, but achieved only one torpedo hit: Chidori’s own destroyer (because there were no Russian counterattacks by the destroyers, and the only source) only a Japanese destroyer could be a mine that fell into it).
At the same time, at least 15 torpedoes were fired while the squadron was still in motion, 8 - at the time when the ships, having reached the outer raid, were still not anchored and 16 - by the squadron in place. Why the Japanese did not achieve any success?
To be continued!
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