Brothers in Arms: Russians, Germans, Italians, British, French, Japanese and Austrians in one formation
From Malay waters to Altai
Leaders from the eastern islands
At the walls of the drooping China
Collected the darkness of their regiments.
As locusts are innumerable
And insatiable like her,
Stronghold kept by
Tribes going north
Oh Russia! forget the former glory:
The two-headed eagle is afflicted
And yellow children for fun
Given the shreds of your banners.
V. Soloviev. Panmongolism ", 1894
Leaders from the eastern islands
At the walls of the drooping China
Collected the darkness of their regiments.
As locusts are innumerable
And insatiable like her,
Stronghold kept by
Tribes going north
Oh Russia! forget the former glory:
The two-headed eagle is afflicted
And yellow children for fun
Given the shreds of your banners.
V. Soloviev. Panmongolism ", 1894
World battles stories. And it so happened that China, belatedly integrating into the world cultural and economic community, began intensive modernization at the end of the XNUMXth century. And, of course, millions of ordinary Chinese have only gotten worse from this era of change. The enemy, and quite visible, was before our eyes: foreigners. A "kulak uprising" or "boxer uprising", as it was called in the West, began for the good old traditions, against foreign influences. The rebels captured Beijing and laid siege to the embassy quarter, where its personnel, including women, had to weapons in the hands of fighting for your life. What are the norms of international law, what are you talking about when the slogan of the day: "Death to foreigners!" In general, it was so that the uneducated and hungry masses of people got lost in gangs, armed themselves with whatever they could and went to kill the "foreign devils of foreigners", from which, as they believed, all their troubles were. The rebels killed the baptized Chinese, killed missionaries, including women and children (however, they often only cut off their hands for children!), And even began shelling Blagoveshchensk with artillery pieces.
Ships of the international squadron. Raid Taku
Even before these events, the international coalition of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, the USA, Japan, Italy and Austria-Hungary sent warships to the Zhili Bay to the mouth of the Peiho River, and to the Embassy Quarter in Beijing and the international village of Tianjin to protect them - detachments of sailors. Their connection with the squadron, stationed off the coast of China, took place by rail going from Beijing to Tanggu station near the mouth of the Peiho River, and further to the sea - by small boats. But where the Peiho River flows into the sea at Dagu, there were Chinese fortifications that controlled communications of the allied forces. Meanwhile, in mid-June, the Chinese government openly supported the "boxers", strengthened the garrisons of the Dagu forts and began to mine the mouth of the Peiho River.
Under these conditions, on June 2 and 3, on the cruiser "Russia", the senior in rank, the commander of the Russian Pacific squadron, Vice Admiral Giltebrandt, held meetings of the admirals of the international squadron. It was decided that the nature of the Chinese actions towards the allies was clearly hostile, as evidenced by their attempt to destroy the railway between Taku and Tianjin and the mining of the Peiho estuary. At first, it was decided to take measures to suppress such activity, and on June 3, the admirals considered it necessary to present an ultimatum to the Chinese side, which was handed over to Commandant Law by the commander of one of the Russian destroyers, Lieutenant Bakhmetyev. The second ultimatum was sent to the Viceroy of the Zhili province in Tianjin.
Four Chinese forts should have been taken by peace or by force of arms: two on the left bank of the Peiho - North-West and North and two on the right - South and New, equipped with strong artillery of 240 guns of a wide variety of systems and calibers of which, however, 54 guns were the newest guns of Armstrong and Krupp. With the possibility of a circular fire, they could shoot at the mouth of the river and shell the river itself, which, due to its constant bends, ran almost parallel to all the forts four times. The distance between the two forts blocking the mouth of the river was no more than 100 fathoms, that is, it was simply very difficult to miss here.
Because of the shallow water, the cruisers and battleships of the international squadron could not approach the shore closer than 20 miles. Therefore, the gunboats of the squadron had to bombard the forts, if necessary. From the Russian side - "Gilyak", "Korean" and "Beaver" who had approached the day before. There were also the French gunboat "Lion", the British "Algerin" and the counter-destroyer "Vaytin" and the German gunboat "Iltis".
Sea-going gunboat "Gilyak", 1898
Residents of Taku and Tonku were asked to leave their homes within an hour and move to safety for the sake of safety on the American warship "Monokashi", placed on the river out of range of shots. On the same day, the British destroyer "Waitin" touched one of the Chinese mines during the movement, but that, fortunately, for some reason did not explode.
Gunboat "Korean" at Taku
At 5 pm at Dobrovolsky, the commander of the gunboat "Bobr", a council of war of the commanders of the Russian and foreign gunboats gathered, where they worked out a plan for the upcoming battle and discussed the disposition of the ships. The signal to open fire was to be given by the "Beaver".
Gunboat "Lion", 1886
An amphibious detachment of sailors was also prepared under the general command of the German captain Hugo Paul, who had at his disposal 350 British sailors under the command of Captain Cradock; 230 Japanese captains Hattori; 130 German; 50 Austrian and 25 Italian lieutenants Tank.
Gunboat "Akagi"
On the same evening, a consolidated company of the 12th regiment of 168 men arrived at Tak under the command of Lieutenant Stankevich. The company was transported by barge to Tonka, where it was ordered to join up with an international assault force, bivouacking near the railway station.
The gunboat "Iltis" fires at the Taku forts
At 8:30 in the evening the ships began to change their position and by nightfall they stood almost parallel to the forts as follows: "Vaytin", "Algerin", "Beaver", "Koreets" and "Gilyak". Behind the bend of the river, slightly upstream and also parallel to the line of the forts, were Lyon, Iltis, Atago and Monokasi.
An interesting drawing from the Niva magazine. But in fact everything was not so there ...
There were two hours before the ultimatum expired. And then on the forts two electric searchlights lit up, illuminated the boats that were standing on the river in front of the forts and went out again. And the fact was that the commandant of the fortress, General Luo, had already received at that time by telegraph from Tianjin an order not to give Taku forts to foreigners in any case.
Battle plan from "Niva"
Therefore, after checking with a searchlight, whether all the gunboats were in their places, which had long been pointed by the guns of the forts, and being completely sure that the foreigners would carry out their threat without fail, General Law decided to shoot at the boats, without waiting until foreigners themselves will not start shooting.
And this is a map from the English edition ...
The night was very dark. In the dim moonlight, the long line of forts was barely visible, but still slightly visible. One hour and ten minutes remained before the ultimatum expired.
North Fort (Germanic plan)
The sailors slept, without undressing, right at the guns. Well, how to say, they were asleep ... Many could not close their eyes with excitement and argued with each other: will the Chinese surrender the forts or not. And if they do not surrender, but will they do it against all ships of the squadron or not? Needless to say, the pairs on all the ships were divorced, and the guns had long been loaded ...
Northwest Fort (German plan)
But here on one of the forts the flash of a shot flashed. The grenade whirred over the Gilyak. Searchlights flashed on the forts, and shots from them rang out one after another. A combat alarm was sounded on the ships of the international squadron. "Beaver", as it was agreed, gave the signal to open fire, after which "Gilyak", "Koreets" and "Algerin" also began firing at the forts.
Northwest Fort (English plan)
The distance from "Gilyak" to the nearest North-West fort was about one and a half kilometers, and to the most remote New Fort - more than two and a half. So it was difficult to miss here. However, at the very beginning of the cannonade, the shells, although flying directly over the boats, did not hit the target. Most likely, the Chinese aimed their cannons at the boats at high tide. Now it was low tide, the ships sank along with the water level in the river, so the shells gave flight.
Very often in magazines of those years, instead of photographs, graphic images were printed, taken from photographs
The French gunboat "Lion" and the German "Iltis" moved down the river and opened fire on the forts on the move. At the same time, the British counter-destroyers "Waitin" and "Fem" went to attack four Chinese destroyers. The Chinese tried to shoot back with guns and revolvers, but after the British began firing at them with cannons, they fled ashore. The prisoners were taken to Tonka, but on the way back a 5-inch shell broke one of the cauldrons on the destroyer "Waitin".
View of the forts from the river
Meanwhile, the Chinese were shooting at Iltis. Seventeen grenades, and then another, landed in this gunboat and almost completely smashed the upper deck on it. Commander Lanz lost his leg and was also wounded by 25 shrapnel from a shell burst. Moreover, the Chinese also fired Krupp shells and Krupp guns, so it was especially offensive. In addition to the commander, who was seriously wounded, another officer and six sailors on the ship were killed and 17 people were injured.
Courtyard and main tower of one of the forts
One grenade hit the French "Lyon", the explosion of which killed one person and injured 46 more. One of the Japanese ships, the gunboat Akagi, did not participate in the battle, since the car broke down on it, and the second, the Kagero, was with the Russian destroyers in the coastal zone, where it was monitoring the Chinese cruiser Hai Ten. who stood under the flag of the Chinese admiral, but did not show any intention to join the battle.
A gun of one of the forts with an armor shield pierced by two shells
The gunboats and forts continued to fire. The ships of the allied squadron illuminated them with searchlights, and they answered with a hail of shells. But the allied squadron had something to respond to shots from the forts. Thus, the Russian gunboats had powerful guns of caliber 229 and 203 mm, as well as 152-mm and 120-mm guns, which at such a short distance fired with high accuracy.
On the Russian ships, the crews began to suffer losses: the gunboat "Gilyak" on Mars, Lieutenant Bogdanov, was wounded in the face by a shrapnel. Quartermaster Ivanov was blown off his head by a shrapnel.
Gilyak officers. Taku Forts (Dagu), June 3, 1900
But the submarine received the most severe damage at about 3 am, when a Chinese shell hit a cartridge cellar and caused an explosion of shells located there. Lieutenant Titov, who was at that time on the deck near the hatch, received severe burns to his back and head and literally miraculously survived. 136 rounds exploded immediately, causing the deck above the cellar to swell, and a fire broke out on the upper deck near the guns. In addition to Lieutenant Titov, five more people were killed, and 38 lower ranks were wounded.
And this is how "Gilyak" got it ...
Later, everyone noted that the Gilyak team fought heroically. The fire was poured with buckets and cannons in 15 minutes. Mechanical engineer Lavrov and Busse, together with the sailors, found and repaired the hole made by the projectile, and then also repaired the damage caused by the explosion to the car, so that two hours later, the ship got going again. But the sailors of the Gilyak did not flinch and, together with the officers, stubbornly and fearlessly continued to simultaneously save their ship and destroy the forts. The fireman Pluzhnikov extinguished the fire under the lower deck until he lost consciousness, and the helmsman Ulanovsky fed in cartridges, standing up to his waist in water, so that the gun above continued to fire.
All in all, eight people died on the Gilyak, and 48 were wounded, including the officer's cook, who also bravely rushed to put out the fire. And from some of the dead, only one coal remained.
The first Chinese shell hit the gunboat "Koreets" at about 3 am. A fire started in the wardroom, thanks to the well-coordinated actions of the crew, it was extinguished very quickly, although the bomb cellar, the cruise chamber and the cartridge compartment had to be flooded. Another shell destroyed all the officers' cabins on the starboard side and pierced the watertight bulkhead in the engine room.
Lieutenant Burakov and three sailors were killed.
Despite the fire, the fire from the Koreyets did not diminish. The commander ordered to fire pyroxylin shells from the 8-inch starboard cannon. Already the second shot he made fired a powder magazine at one of the forts. A loud "Hurray!" crew members.
Krupp's gun of one forts hit by a shell
The fans of the stoker were smashed by another Chinese grenade. Lieutenant Dedenev was mortally wounded in the legs, and in total two officers and nine sailors were killed on the Koreyets. Another 20 people were injured.
Most fortunate in this battle was the gunboat "Beaver", armed with a powerful 229-mm gun in the bow casemate. No matter how much the Chinese fired at him, they never hit. And no one on it was wounded or killed. The Beaver himself managed to blow up the powder magazine at the New Fort. It is interesting that two pigeons sat on one of the yards on the mast of the "Beaver" during the entire battle and ... they never flew away from it!
On land at 1 o'clock in the morning, when the first shots were heard from the direction of the Chinese forts, the Russian troops landed on the left bank of the Peiho joined the Japanese, German and English soldiers and marched to the forts. The Germans went ahead, followed by all the others.
Waiting for the fire from the forts to subside, Captain Paul called the commanders for a conference. It was clear that the gunboats did not inflict much damage on the forts, so most of the commanders decided to retreat.
Krupp's gun at one of the Taku forts, broken by shells from the united European squadron
Lieutenant Stankevich took the floor and suggested waiting another hour, assuring that during this time the artillery of the forts would be weakened. "As a last resort I will go to take the fort alone," said Stankevich and moved forward with the company. It is clear that after such a statement it would be a shame to refuse to follow his example, and the troops began to move towards the ramparts.
The Germans and Austrians went along with the Russians, the Japanese lagged behind somewhat.
It was 5 o'clock in the morning when the Chinese finally noticed the paratroopers and opened rifle and cannon fire on them. However, now the landing force could fire from rifles at the servants of Japanese guns, including those that fired at the ships!
The strange composition of the armament of one of the Chinese forts: the most modern 37-mm automatic cannon at that time, an English pom-pom and a muzzle-loading gun!
Then Lieutenant Stankevich, along with Second Lieutenant Yanchis, three non-commissioned officers and two more riflemen, rushed to the gates of the fort, broke them open with blows of butts, and, quite unexpectedly for the Chinese, burst into the fort. The Japanese ran after them to the gate, overtook everyone else and immediately after the Russians also found themselves in the courtyard of the fort. Only then the Chinese came to their senses a little and managed to fire a buckshot at the goal. Captain Hattori died, but the Japanese were not deterred. Lieutenant Shiraishi took the place of the killed, and his soldiers rushed to kill their eternal enemies, sparing no one. Then the British came up and raised their flag over the fort, since they had taken care of the presence of flags at the landing party in advance. But at the right moment the Russians, as a rule, did not have the most necessary, so Stankevich nailed a non-commissioned officer's shoulder strap of one of the people of his company onto the flagpole of the British flag.
Hitting the gunboat Iltis
At 5 hours the Northwest Fort was taken. The crews of the gunboats greeted the raising of the English flag over it with loud shouts of "hurray!" At 30 o'clock in the morning, all boats weighed down and began to descend down the river to attack the South and New forts.
The pipe of the gunboat Iltis, riddled with fragments of Chinese shells
Well, the allied landing moved to the Northern Fort and quickly occupied it, since the Chinese simply fled from it. And again the English flag was raised over it, while one of the Austrian gunners turned a Chinese gun towards the South Fort and blew up the powder magazine on it with the first shot. Its defenders fled, but were hit by a burst of Maxim machine guns, which stood on the battle marches of the Gilyak gunboat and fired almost continuously.
At 6 hours in the morning, both southern forts were sequentially occupied, over one of which the Russian flag was finally raised. The German and Austrian flags were raised over the New Fort, the Japanese flag over the North, and the British and Italian flags were now flying over the Northwest.
As for the captured Chinese destroyers, Russia, England, France and Germany divided them among themselves, and the Russian destroyer turned out to be very fast, was named after the first officer who died in battle "Lieutenant Burakov" and later became famous in the defense of Port Arthur ...
The storming of the Taku (Dagu) forts on June 4, 1900. Based on a Chinese illustration published in Tianjin
As for the commandant of the forts, the Chinese Luo, although he tried to defend the forts to the last, he could not do anything. Seeing the flags of "foreign devils" fluttering over them, he committed suicide in the duty of the Chinese military leader.
Well, the brothers in arms went to their ships. Yes, whatever you say, but the common danger and kinship of interests bring even the most diverse people very close!
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