{"id":5533,"date":"2022-05-30T14:18:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T12:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=5533"},"modified":"2022-10-24T19:20:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T17:20:24","slug":"may-28-1905-japan-sinks-russias-baltic-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=5533","title":{"rendered":"May 28 1905 Japan Sinks Russia’s Baltic Fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Admiral Rozhestvensky\u2019s Baltic fleet was originally intended to relieve Port Arthur on the Liadong Peninsula (then Manchuria, nowadays China). But General Anatoly Stessel baffled everyone by surrendering to the Japanese. Instead, they were heading to the only other Russian port in the Far East \u2013 Vladivostok. Admiral T\u014dg\u014d of the Imperial Japanese Navy knew this was where he was going and knew that he would take the dangerous route through the Tsushima Strait. This strip of water lie between the Japanese home islands and the Japanese Naval Base in Korea. He lie in wait. Admiral Rozhestensky had journeyed 33,000 kilometers, a feat which is astounding in the age of coal-driven ships. Japan then proceeded to open a can of naval whoop ass on the Baltic Fleet, two-thirds of which was soon decorating the floor of the ocean. Of the fifty-two ships of the Baltic Fleet, three made it to Vladivostok. Russia was reeling. They had suffered a brutal defeat in Mukden two months before and with Russia suffering internal pressure to end the war, they had no choice but to sue for peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the Russo-Japanese War was relatively short and is oft-forgotten, it had significant repercussions. As the first major war of the 20th<\/sup> century, it foretold much of the weaponry, equipment, and tactics of the upcoming Great War. Namely, equipment such as barbed wire, trenches, and machineguns and tactics such as getting out of those trenches and walking directly into the bullets coming from those machineguns. Moreover, by beating Russia in war, Japan became the first Asian army to defeat a Western power. By sinking Rozhestensky\u2019s Baltic Fleet Japan had knocked out its only rival in the East Pacific. The war halted European expansion into East Asia as Japan became the unquestioned military and sea power in East Asia. And the world suddenly stopped being completely European centered as a pole of strength had been added in Asia. And boy will those chickens come home to roost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Russia entered into the war, they thought it would be a fast and easy victory. Indeed, on paper, the Japanese should have lost to the Russians. Japan was outmanned and less technologically savvy. Their army was younger. However, the Japanese continuously outmanoeuvred and surprised the Russian army. They also took advantage of various missteps, hesitancies, and mistakes made by Russian high command, Stessel\u2019s handing over of Port Arthur among them. There had been a huge leap in maturity of the Imperial Japanese Army and the professional Japanese soldier between this war and the one that took place ten years before with China. Though there\u2019s also a hint of the samurai culture in Japanese military, the fatalistic \u201chuman bullet\u201d approach to frontal assaults that will exemplify the Japanese soldiers of the early campaigns in World War II.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One factor in Russia\u2019s loss was alcohol. For as long as Alcohol had long been (and would long be) a big part of military life. The soldiers and sailors of almost every military received a daily portion of alcohol. Japanese soldiers were granted a pint of sake every three days. Russian soldiers were given vodka every day. British sailors were given rum. In the fledging Continental  Army during the Revolutionary War, George Washington had rum rationed to soldiers. And in the recently fought Civil War, beer had been rationed out (in German regiments) and whiskey (in the Irish ones). In the Confederate army, the alcohol had been brandy, moonshine, or whatever was in local stills. It was part of military life and probably for good reason. A shot of rum or whiskey probably made you forget that you were being shot at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as soldiers had alcohol military command had tried to mitigate the problems. By the end of the American Civil War high military command on both sides had made strict rules on alcohol intake, some even prohibiting it totally. The Royal Navy added water to their rum to make grog in order to avoid the disciplinary problems and seagoing\u2026uh, romance that being boozed up caused. And while both sides in the Russo-Japanese conflict were rationed alcohol, it was the Russians who had been badly affected. Without exception, British and American observers of the war said that while the Japanese soldiers were given sake, there were no drunken soldiers. Though some had clearly been drinking, there were no incidents worthy of punishment or which led to neglect of duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the same cannot be said of the Russians. Observers noted that Russian soldiers were often highly intoxicated and though some could barely stand up, they were still given vodka by officers. Perhaps the most stunning claim is that during the Battle of Mukden Japanese soldiers came across \u201cthousands of dead drunk Russian soldiers\u201d and skewered them with bayonets. In sum, Russia lost the war by being drunk. At home, a growing social unrest exploded after the humiliating loss, which led to the revolution of 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Russia had learned its lesson. When World War I broke out ten years later, Russia put immediate restrictions on sales of alcohol. As a result they were able to mobilize men quicker than Germany and Austro-Hungary which may have played in their early victories in East Prussia and Galicia. England did the same. Then Munitions Minister David Lloyd George said, \u201cwe\u2019re fighting Germany, Austria and Drink, and as far as I can see the greatest of these three deadly foes is Drink.\u201d Their temperance movement cut down on drinking problems within the army significantly. The prognosticator Kaiser Wilhelm II said in 1910 \u201cin the next war, the nation which drinks the least alcohol will be the winner.\u201d And he was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we drink like the Russian soldiers in 1905. This will require an array of ingredients and about thirty minutes of preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n