Chapter Thirty Z Flag
As the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Heihachiro Togo had been closely monitoring the movements and conditions of the Russian expeditionary fleet over the past few months. Not only did he boldly predict that the Russians would suffer a significant decline in combat effectiveness due to their poor relations with Europeans and the intentional obstruction by the British during their long voyage. Although the main warships of the Russian fleet were nearly twice as many as those of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Togo was still confident of winning the upcoming naval battle. Over the past few months, the Japanese Combined Fleet had repeatedly practiced interception and division tactics near the Tsushima Strait, basically determining the strategy of using their own speed and artillery accuracy to attack the Russian fleet. Now that everything was ready, they were just waiting for the Russians to arrive. Togo's heart was eager to defeat the Russian fleet in one battle, which would not only avenge the Russians' alliance with Germany and France to force Japan to cede Liaodong, but also allow the Japanese to proudly claim to be the number one naval power in Asia. This would also be a decisive help for Japan's development strategy of consolidating Korea and advancing into Northeast China.
Just as the Japanese Combined Fleet was ready to welcome the Russian Expeditionary Fleet, on the flagship "Suvorov" of the Russian Expeditionary Fleet hundreds of miles away from the Tsushima Strait, Rozhdestvensky, the commander-in-chief of this expeditionary fleet and a Russian Navy admiral, was feeling depressed and helpless.
Admiral Rozhdestvensky was not frustrated by the Japanese Combined Fleet. In his view, his own massive fleet would only need to approach the Sea of Japan and those yellow-skinned people would flee in disarray at the sight of the Russian Navy. Even if there were some fools who wanted to engage in a showdown with the Russian Navy, they would be blown to smithereens by the hundreds of guns on his command. What was frustrating Admiral Rozhdestvensky was the officers and men under his command in the Second Pacific Squadron, who had been at sea for so long that their morale was on the verge of collapse. In the past few days since leaving Kamran Bay, there had already been several instances where they mistakenly fired on merchant ships of various nationalities, thinking they were Japanese naval vessels. If this continued, these sailors would be able to sink their own ships without even engaging in battle with the Japanese. Moreover, the Tsar had vetoed his suggestion that he lead the Second Pacific Squadron directly to Vladivostok, ordering instead that it wait for the Third Pacific Squadron, whose ships were old and slow, to join forces before taking action. This order made Admiral Rozhdestvensky furious - not only could the old ships of the Third Squadron not enhance the strength of his own fleet, but their slow speed of 11 knots was also holding back his Second Squadron, delaying its arrival in Vladivostok by over a month.
But the middle commander did not know that behind this slow and huge fleet, there were more than 20 black steel whales following in the water. Part of Taiwan's first submarine squadron "Shark-class" submarines had been following the Russian fleet since it passed through the Taiwan Strait, taking advantage of the submarine's underwater speed of over 20 knots to observe every ship in the fleet from front to back and from left to right.
This time the Russians have made a big investment, in front of the fleet are 4 cruisers, in the middle of the fleet are two columns of 8 battleships lined up, due to the Taiwan Navy's limited understanding of the Russian Navy, the names of these ships cannot be verified, however, based on tonnage and firepower configuration, it is still possible to distinguish between different types of ships. Following behind the cruisers and battleships are a large group of auxiliary vessels, totaling over 20 or so, at the very back of the fleet is a formation composed of over 10 cruisers and destroyers.
On May 25, a supply ship of the Russian fleet entered Shanghai Port in China and was immediately discovered by Japanese spies. The Japanese Combined Fleet, which received intelligence reports from the spies, immediately judged that the Russian expeditionary fleet had entered the Sea of Japan. Therefore, the Japanese Combined Fleet immediately departed from Sasebo Port and headed to the Tsushima Strait area to patrol, and dispatched multiple destroyers and reconnaissance vessels disguised as fishing boats to search for traces of the Russian fleet at the entrance of the Tsushima Strait.
This time, the Japanese Combined Fleet led by Yamamoto Gonbee also mobilized the entire Japanese Navy. The fleet included 5 London-class and **-class battleships purchased from Britain and built in Japan, as well as 18 light and heavy cruisers, and more than 20 destroyers and torpedo boats.
The entire fleet was led by the battleship "Mikasa" as its flagship and divided into three fleets.
The First Fleet was led by Lieutenant General Saneyuki Akiyama, with the flagship being "Asahi", battleships were Mikasa, Asahi, Shikishima and Fuji, armored cruisers were Kasuga, Nisshin, Kashima and Izumo, also included communication ship Sōya.
The Second Fleet was led by Rear Admiral Tomosaburō Kato, with the flagship being "Ibuki", armored cruisers including "Ibuki", "Kasuga", "Azuma", "Yakumo", "Asama" and "Tokusa", and cruisers including "Akashi", "Tatsuta", "Otowa" and others.
The Third Fleet was led by Admiral Kataoka Shichirō, with the Fusō as its flagship. It consisted mainly of old and weak ships, including many gunboats and cruisers that had been left over from the First Sino-Japanese War period. In addition, the Third Fleet also included a high-speed striking force composed of destroyers and torpedo boats, which was responsible for launching torpedo attacks during wartime to disrupt the enemy's formation or slow down their pursuit speed during retreats.
On the morning of May 27, the Russian fleet, which had been traveling long distances, finally arrived near the Tsushima Strait. Since it was the anniversary of the coronation of Russian Emperor Nicholas II, the Russian fleet, which had been implementing a blackout order by Admiral Rozhdestvensky, lit up a medical ship to prepare for the emperor's coronation anniversary lunch. The lights on this medical ship were discovered by the Japanese armed merchant ship Shinano Maru, which was searching nearby. After several confirmations, Shinano Maru sent a telegram to the Japanese Combined Fleet announcing the discovery of the Russian fleet.
Upon receiving this telegram, Yamamoto immediately ordered the First, Second and Third Fleets to set sail in full force towards the direction of the Russian fleet. Due to heavy fog rising over the Tsushima Strait that day, visibility was severely impaired for both sides; however, since all Russian ships had been painted with black hulls and yellow funnels, they were actually more conspicuous than Japanese ships with their grey-blue color. Several cruisers from the Japanese Third Fleet were the first to spot the trail of the Russian fleet and kept a distant watch on its movements.
At 11:00 that day, Russian sailors on board the fleet celebrating the anniversary of the coronation of Tsar Alexander III inadvertently discovered the following Japanese cruisers and continued to sail northeast after a brief exchange of fire.
Russian Admiral Rozhdestvensky judged that the Japanese fleet would be approaching from his northwest, and ordered his battleships and cruisers to turn 8 degrees to port. This way, the broadsides of his modern ships would face the head-on approach of the Japanese fleet. However, due to either a communication failure or the order not being relayed in time, only four battleships executed the turn, while the rest of the ships continued on their original course. As a result, the Russian fleet transformed from two columns into one column in the thick fog, with the first four battleships leading, followed by four cruisers and then another four battleships.
Due to the interference of the thick fog, it was not until after lunch that the Russian fleet discovered its formation was wrong and just as they were about to adjust back, the fog had somewhat dispersed, and the battleships sailing at the very front discovered the ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet coming from the northeast.
The direction from which the Japanese fleet appeared was unexpected to Rozhdestvensky, who hastily ordered each ship to stop turning and temporarily form a line ahead to meet the enemy. However, due to the fact that the Russian fleet was about to adjust its formation, the sudden order to stop adjusting caused confusion in the fleet, with two battleships having to stop advancing to avoid colliding with their companions in front who were slowing down and turning.
At 13:55, the Z flag was hoisted on Yamamoto's flagship, and the signal "The fate of the Empire rests on this one battle, let every man do his utmost" was sent. He then led the fleet in a turn outside the range of the Russian ships, intending to cross their T.
