From Malay waters to Altai
Chiefs from the Eastern Isles
At the walls of drooping China
Gathered the darkness of their regiments.
Like locusts, innumerable
And insatiable like her
We are kept by an alien power, The tribes are going north.
About Russia! forget the past glory:
The two-headed eagle is crushed, And the yellow children for fun
Scraps of your banners are given.
V. Soloviev. Panmongolism , 1894
Battles of world history. And it so happened that China, belatedly integrating into the world cultural and economic community, began intensive modernization at the end of the 19th 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 took over Beijing and laid siege to the embassy quarter, where its personnel, including women, had to fight for their lives with arms in hand. 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 foreigners", from which, as they believed, all their troubles were. The rebels killed 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.
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 vessels. 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 mining 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 actions of the Chinese 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.
It was necessary to take four Chinese forts 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 the most diverse systems and calibers of which, however, 54 guns were the latest weapons of Armstrong and Krupp. With the possibility of a circular fire, they could shoot at the mouth of the river and fire at 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 coast closer than 20 miles. Therefore, if necessary, the gunboats of the squadron had to bombard the forts. From the Russian side - "Gilyak", "Korean" and "Beaver" who had approached the day before. There were also the French gunboat Lyon, the British Algerin and the counter-destroyer Vaytin and the German gunboat Iltis.
Residents of Taku and Tonku were asked to leave their homes within an hour and move to safety for the sake of the American warship "Monokashi", stationed 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.
At 5 pm at Dobrovolsky, the commander of the gunboat "Bobr", a council of war of the commanders of 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".
An amphibious detachment of sailors was also prepared under the general command of the German captain Hugo Paul, who had at his disposal 350 English sailors under the command of Captain Cradock; 230 Japanese captains Hattori; 130 German; 50 Austrian, and 25 Italian tank lieutenants.
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, bivouacked near the railway station.
At 8:30 in the evening, the ships began to change their position and by nightfall 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.
There were two hours left before the ultimatum expired. And then two electric searchlights lit up on the forts, 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.
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.
The night was very dark. In the dim moonlight, the long line of forts was barely visible, but still a little visible. One hour and ten minutes remained before the ultimatum expired.
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 be squeezed 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 …
But then 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 agreed, gave the signal to open fire, after which "Gilyak", "Koreets" and "Algerin" also began firing at the forts.
The distance from "Gilyak" to the nearest North-Western 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 on the boats at high tide, at high tide. Now it was low tide, the ships sank along with the water level in the river, so the shells gave flight.
The French gunboat "Lyon" 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.
Meanwhile, the Chinese were shooting at the 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.
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 together with 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.
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. So, 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.
But the submarine received the most severe damage at about 3 am, when a Chinese shell hit the cartridge cellar and caused an explosion of the shells that were 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 started on the upper deck near the guns. In addition to Lieutenant Titov, five more people were killed, and 38 lower ranks were wounded.
Later, everyone noted that the Gilyak team fought heroically. The fire was filled 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 after two hours 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 served cartridges, standing up to his waist in water, so that the gun above continued to fire.
All in all, eight people died at 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 victims there was only one coal left.
The first Chinese shell hit the gunboat "Koreets" at about 3 o'clock in the morning. 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 subside. 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. There was a loud "Hurray!" crew members.
The fans of the stoker were smashed by another Chinese grenade. Lieutenant Dedenev was mortally wounded in the legs, and only 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 cannon 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. Interestingly, two pigeons sat on one of the yards on the Beaver's mast during the whole 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 towards 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.
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," Stankevich said 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!
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 completely unexpectedly for the Chinese rushed 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 make a buckshot shot at the goal. Captain Hattori was killed, but this did not deter the Japanese. Lieutenant Shiraishi took the place of the killed, and his soldiers rushed to kill their eternal enemies, sparing no one. Then the British approached 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.
At 5:30 am the Northwest Fort was taken. The gunboat crews greeted the raising of the English flag over it with loud shouts of "hurray!" At 6 o'clock in the morning, all the boats weighed anchor and began to descend down the river to attack the South and New forts.
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 a 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 6:30 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 …
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 as a 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!
