Considering the actions of the armored cruisers "Pearls" and "Emerald" on the first day of the Tsushima battle, three main stages can be distinguished: from dawn to the beginning of the battle of the main forces at 13:49 Russian time; from 13.49 to 16.00 approximately, when the cruisers tried to solve the tasks assigned to them before the battle by Z. P. Rozhdestvensky, as well as from 16.00 until the end of the day's battle. In the last period of time, "Emerald" was still trying to fulfill its role as a "rehearsal and rescue" ship with the main forces, and "Pearl" joined the cruisers of Rear Admiral O. A. Enquist.
Before the battle begins
The events up to 13.49 pm were described in detail earlier, I will only remind you that both "Pearl" and "Emerald" were with the main forces and did not move away from the squadron for reconnaissance. There were three main reasons for this:
1. Reconnaissance makes sense only when it allows you to detect the enemy fleet and monitor it until the main forces meet. The cruisers of the 2nd and 3rd Pacific Squadrons were too small and weak for reconnaissance operations and could not solve this problem;
2. Regardless of the reasons under item 1., An attempt at reconnaissance could be made, but taking into account the fact that in the direction from which the main forces of the Japanese were expected to approach (north), there were strong cruising units of the Japanese, it would lead to a battle of cruisers in unequal for us conditions. In this case, the Russian cruising detachment would have squandered its combat capability even before the start of the battle in which it was supposed to guard the transports, and, most likely, could no longer protect them;
3. The key reason for the refusal of cruising reconnaissance, according to the author, was the plan for the battle of Z. P. Rozhestvensky, which meant rebuilding in a battle formation in view of the main forces of the enemy. For the success of this plan, it was not necessary either to conduct reconnaissance ourselves, or to interfere with the enemy's reconnaissance ships, since the Japanese commander had to know that the Russians were marching and build a plan of attack for the main forces of the Russian squadron on this basis.
"Pearl" actions until 16.00
At the beginning of the battle, the Russian squadron fought on the left side, the Zhemchug and Izumrud were on the starboard, performing the duties of rehearsal ships, and in addition, they were supposed to cover the main forces from mine attacks and provide assistance to the knocked out ships. As described in the previous article, "Pearl" did just that, but, mistakenly assuming that the Japanese were moving to the right side of the squadron, cut through its formation in order to be on the left flank and thus landed right between the fighting columns. Then he, as it were, "went down" to the end ships of the Russian squadron, and again crossed over to its right side. However, not wanting to interfere with the salvo of the coastal defense battleship, "General-Admiral Apraksin" slowed down, which made the auxiliary cruiser "Ural", which by that time had almost lost controllability, made a bulk on the "Pearl", and in the "Ural" itself it was believed that " crushed”“Emerald”. After that, the "Pearl" tried to move forward, but saw the damaged battleship, and approached it, believing that it was the flagship "Prince Suvorov", although in fact it was "Alexander III". At this time, Russian destroyers marched past the Zhemchug, on one of which flag officer Z. P. Rozhdestvensky Clapier-de-Colong, hence the assumption arose that both the entire headquarters and the admiral were also on the destroyer. Japanese battleships approached "Alexander III", and the commander of "Pearl" P. P. Levitsky, having no chance to provide support to the battleship (the only mine vehicle that the cruiser could use in conditions of excitement was damaged during a collision with the "Ural"), of course, retreated. "Zhemchug" followed the destroyers, believing that the admiral would like to switch to the cruiser out of the fire zone, but this did not happen, and later, at about 16.00, "Pearl" joined the cruising detachment of Rear Admiral O. A. Enquista, taking part in the protection of transports from the attack of Japanese cruisers. What was “Izumrud” doing at that time?
Actions "Emerald" from 13.49 to 16.00
This cruiser, under the command of Baron Vasily Nikolaevich Fersen, by order of Z. P. Rozhestvensky performed the same functions as the Zhemchug, but with the 2nd armored detachment, led by the Oslyabey, while the Zhemchug - with the 1st, which consisted of the Borodino-class battleships. With the beginning of the battle of the main forces "Emerald" pulled back to the traverse "Oslyabi", and for some time nothing interesting happened to it.
The cruiser made the first active actions shortly after the Oslyabya finally lost its combat capability. As you know, the latter at 14.45 went out of order with a strong trim on the bow and a roll to the left side, turned to a countercourse to the squadron (that is, by 180 degrees) and stopped the machines. Nevertheless, the commander of the "Izumrud" did not yet consider that the flagship of the 2nd armored detachment needed his help. But the list of the Oslyabya rapidly increased while the main forces of the Russian squadron passed by the destroyed battleship, and when the Oslyabya found itself opposite the end of the 3rd armored detachment, it suddenly turned over quickly.
According to the report of V. N. Fersen, he directed the "Emerald" to the dying battleship, seeing that the "Oslyabya" was in distress: perhaps we are talking about the moment when the latter began to roll over. In addition to "Izumrud", 4 destroyers also went to the scene of the tragedy, including "Exuberant" and "Bravy". They were the first to succeed and were already rescuing people with might and main, when the Emerald approached: from the latter they threw bunks, buoys and one whaleboat without rowers, while the cruiser itself stopped.
What happened next is not entirely clear. For example, V. V. Khromov points out that the "Izumrud" carried out the rescue of people until he saw the ships of the 3rd armored detachment approaching it, and then he was forced to retreat so as not to interfere with the battleships. However, the author of this article is not clear how this could be: such an interpretation does not coincide too much with the possible maneuvering of units in battle. Most likely, dear V. V. Khromov was guided by the report of V. N. Fersen, but it must be admitted that in this part he is very suspicious. This is how the commander of the cruiser "Izumrud" saw this moment of the battle:
“A few moments after stopping at the site of the sinking of the Oslyabya, I noticed that I was interfering with the maneuver of the battleships that were marching towards me; when and how they turned - I don't know. I saw the battleships of the 3rd detachment as the head ones, and behind them 3 battleships of the 2nd detachment; the very first armored detachment, being on the sidelines, defended the Suvorov, whose masts, chimneys and all upper superstructures were shot down, and on which there was a strong fire."
Most likely, the events described took place closer to 16.00, when the squadron was led by "Borodino": by this time, the formation of Russian ships was really pretty mixed. The first was Borodino, followed by Eagle, and then Sisoy the Great, but the latter, having received damage, went out of action, so that his place was taken by Emperor Nicholas I. He was followed by all three battleships of coastal defense, and only then, in their wake, "Navarin", "Admiral Nakhimov" and returned to service "Alexander III". Probably, it was these ships of V. N. Fersen took the 2nd detachment for battleships - and was, in general, not far from the truth.
"Pearl" and "Emerald" after 16.00
And so, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, it turned out that only two ships remained from the armored detachments "patronized" by "Pearls" and "Emerald", and in both detachments the flagships were out of order. What happened next? Unfortunately, the sources do not give an unambiguous answer to this question. So, A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov assert that at about 16.00 "Pearls" and "Izumrud" joined the cruising detachment protecting the transports, while others (V. V. Khromov, for example) indicate that O. A. Only the Pearl joined Enquista.
In order to understand how things were in reality, we will briefly consider what the cruising detachment of the Russian squadron was doing at that moment. Their maneuvers and combat are a topic for a large separate work, so it makes sense to limit ourselves to only the most general description of cruising combat.
It all started with "Izumi", which made an attempt to approach the transports and fire at them from the side of "Vladimir Monomakh" when the latter entered the battle. Rear Admiral O. A. Enquist, apparently, thought to destroy the Japanese cruiser, as he went to the Oleg together with the Aurora and Dmitry Donskoy to help - the Izumi fled. However, then the 3rd and 4th combat units of the Japanese appeared: "Kasagi", "Chitose", "Otova" and "Niitaka" under the command of Vice Admiral Deva and "Naniwa", "Takachiho", "Akashi" and "Tsushima" "Under the flag of Vice Admiral Uriu. At 14.30, the battle began, and in the number of pennants the Japanese outnumbered the Russian detachment by half. At 15.10 O. A. Enqvist turned 16 points (180 degrees) in order to disperse with the Japanese on a countercourse, passing between them and the transports (probably by that time the Russian cruisers were very far from the latter), but the Japanese repeated the maneuver of the Russian rear admiral. And after only 10 minutes, at 15.20, three more Japanese cruisers approached: "Suma", "Chiyoda" and "Akitsushima", making the aspect ratio completely unprofitable for Russian ships.
Nevertheless, the fire of the Japanese was not very accurate, as noted in his report by O. A. Enquist, and our cruisers could hold on. Moreover - when at 15.35 the plight of the Prince Suvorov was discovered on the Oleg, the Rear Admiral led his cruiser and Aurora to the rescue, leaving only the Vladimir Monomakh and Dmitry Donskoy to cover the transports - but seeing that the Russians battleships are moving in the direction of "Suvorov", returned to the transports in order to continue the unequal battle. According to O. A. Enquista looked like this:
“At about 4 o'clock,“Oleg”and“Aurora”, seeing the approach of the squadron to help Suvorov and noticing the dangerous position of the transports from the side of the enemy armored cruisers, with the“Vladimir Monomakh”and“Dmitry Donskoy”who joined on a signal from“Oleg”, went to rapprochement with the enemy; having turned to the right, the "Pearls" and "Emerald" also joined the cruising detachment, the presence of which at the battleships could not bring any benefit."
The Zhemchug commander described this moment of the battle in a similar way, but slightly differently. P. P. Levitsky saw the situation in such a way that "Oleg", "Aurora", "Dmitry Donskoy" and "Vladimir Monomakh", moving in a wake column, are fighting 10 enemy light cruisers (the term of P. P. Levitsky - this is exactly what it was written in his report, and this is the correct figure, since the Takachiho, as a result of being hit by a Russian shell that damaged the steering wheel, was forced to withdraw from the battle for a while) at a distance of about 20-25 cables. Apparently, P. P. Levitsky, as well as O. A. Enquist, considered that his continued stay with the battleships of the main forces would not help anything, and preferred to support the cruiser. He himself described his decision as follows:
"Seeing that the enemy cruisers are pushing ours, I entered the wake of the Vladimir Monomakh to take part in the battle, to help our cruisers and to give the team an opportunity to shoot at the visible enemy."
Thus, the Zhemchug did indeed join OA's ships. Enquist, but there are some doubts about Emerald. Of course, in his report, the Rear Admiral directly indicated that the cruiser V. N. Fersen joined his ships, but P. P. Levitsky: "The Emerald also joined the cruisers:" Almaz "and" Svetlana "also took part in this battle" can be understood in such a way that the accession of the "Izumrud" consisted in the fact that it entered the battle with the same enemy, as the cruiser O. A. Enquist. The most important thing is that the commander of "Izumrud" V. N. Fersen, in his report, did not say a word about the fact that he had attached his ship to the cruisers. As a matter of fact, his description of the events that took place around 16.00 is as follows:
“For the duration of the formation of the cruisers and battleships of the 3rd and 2nd detachments, they merged; I settled outside the circle of this formation against the interval between the Nakhimov (in front) and Oleg and supported the fire on the enemy cruisers. Ahead of me, opposite the next interval, also outside, was Almaz at that time, a part of the squadron, to which I joined, was fired upon by the enemy main forces on the right, and cruisers on the left. It was very difficult to follow the course of the battle, since I had to pay all my attention to controlling the cruiser, so as not to collide with which one of the transports that had lost all formation, and the destroyers that were constantly cutting through the formation: I had to repeatedly from full forward speed, to give full back or lock the machines, so we had to let the steam into the refrigerators, than the latter were blown up and subsequently leaked."
In other words, one gets the impression that closer to 16.00, when the Russian battleships, as a result of a series of maneuvers, seemed to return to the transports they had left earlier, it turned out that the latter, following very chaotically, found themselves between the Russian battleships and cruisers, and in this heap, a little and pleased "Emerald". He did not join anyone, but "all the time he kept up fire on enemy ships that came to the corner of the shelling" (according to VN Ferzen). Apparently, the armored cruisers of the Japanese were best seen from the Emerald, which created the illusion of this cruiser joining the ships of O. A. Enquist.
In any case, it should be noted that after 16.00 and, approximately, until 17.15, when the battle, according to the authors of the official history of the Tsushima battle, "somewhat verse", "Pearl" and "Emerald" had to participate in a fierce battle. It would seem that from 4.10 pm to 5:15 pm the position of “Oleg”, “Aurora”, “Vladimir Monomakh” and “Dmitry Donskoy” improved somewhat, because they were also supported by “Zhemchug”, “Izumrud” and “Svetlana” with “Almaz”, so the ratio between armored cruisers has already become 10: 8 in favor of the Japanese, if, of course, the Almaz with its 4 * 75-mm cannons is counted as a real cruiser. But in fact, no improvement occurred, since the ships of Rear Admiral O. A. The Enquistas were caught in the crossfire. According to the report of the rear admiral: “Further, in order to lie parallel to the Japanese cruisers, our cruisers began to lean to the left. During these turns, the cruising detachment was under crossfire on one side of the armored cruisers, on the other, the Nissina and Kasugi. Moreover, O. A. Enquist noted that it was at this time that his lead "Oleg" and "Aurora" received the most sensitive injuries. Which, however, is not surprising at all: the Japanese tried to transfer their best gunners to battleships and armored cruisers, so that they fired much better than armored cruisers.
However, both Japanese and Russian armored cruisers received support - Admiral Kataoka arrived to help the Japanese with the Chin-Yen and three Matsushimas, and in addition, the Russian squadron was caught up by the armored cruisers of Kh. Kamimura. But the ships of O. A. Enquista received support from their battleships, not connected in battle with the 1st combat detachment of H. Togo. I must say that in this episode the Japanese "armored decks" got the worst of all: the Kasagi and Naniwa were forced to leave the ranks, and the affairs on the Kasagi were so serious that Chitose had to accompany him to Aburadani Bay. "Naniwa" managed to quickly repair itself, and soon returned to his detachment.
In this episode of the battle, the active participation of the Pearl, and most likely the Emerald, ended before 17.00, as the Japanese cruisers, having received damage, retreated and went beyond the effective fire of the cruiser's 120-mm guns. As for the mutual position of the cruising and armored detachments, the cruisers, together with the "Pearl", lagged behind the battleships a little, and then had to catch up. At about 17.30, the wake column of the cruisers caught up with the main forces and settled at 12-15 (according to various sources) cables from them, while the "Oleg" was on the traverse of the "Emperor Nicholas I". So, there is no doubt that the "Pearl" was with the cruisers all the time of the battle, following the "Vladimir Monomakh" all this time. But what the Emerald was doing at that time is unclear, but judging by the description of V. N. Fersen, he did not join the cruiser column, and closer to 17.30, his cruiser was abeam of the "Emperor Nicholas I", that is, it was between this battleship and the flagship cruiser O. A. Enquist "Oleg".
By this time, the Japanese armored cruisers had returned and the cruising battle resumed, and both the Pearl and the Emerald took an active part in it. At the same time, the "Pearl" held on to the cruisers of O. A. Enquista, although, perhaps, did not follow them in wake formation, and the Emerald fought on the starboard side, being at the battleships. The battle of the cruisers, however, did not drag on, continuing to a maximum of 18.00 or even less.
That was the end of the day's battle for Zhemchug, but the Emerald team still had some thrills ahead. At 18.30, they watched on it, as on "Alexander III", a flame appeared between the chimneys, and it went out of order: it quickly tilted and turned over.
The Emerald immediately went to the crash site. Approaching the capsized ship (the keel of "Alexander III" was above the water), the "Izumrud" stopped and began to drop bunks, circles and other tackle that the drowning could hold on to, and in addition, began to launch a rowboat, since all whaleboats by that time were either damaged or filled with water on the eve of the battle and could not be used. But at that time, the 2nd combat detachment approached the place of death of "Alexander III": 6 armored cruisers of Kh. Kamimura, including the "Asam" that had returned to service. Of course, the Japanese ships immediately opened fire on the cruiser standing still, and the Russian squadron could not cover the Emerald, since its end ships were already 2 miles from it, and the distance to the enemy exceeded 40 cables. To the credit of V. N. Fersen, "Emerald" remained in place until the distance to the nearest Japanese cruiser was reduced to 23 cables, and only then ordered to give full speed. Since this, of course, could not be done all at once, the Emerald approached the Japanese ships up to 20 cables before it could break the distance and retreat to the main forces of the Russian squadron.
On this, the participation of "Pearls" and "Emerald" in the daytime battle on May 14 can be considered complete. What can you say about the actions of these cruisers?
Some conclusions
Unfortunately, the participation in the Tsushima battle of Russian armored cruisers of the 2nd rank in Tsushima in the most accessible sources (V. V. Khromov, A. A. Alliluyev, M. A. Bogdanov) is described extremely sparingly. According to them, one gets the impression that the Russian cruisers did not really fight, but were only present at the defeat of the Russian squadron, and yet, this is absolutely not the case. The period of passive waiting, when the "Pearl" and "Emerald" did not try to get involved in the battle, playing the role of "rehearsal and mine action ships" assigned to them by Z. P. Rozhdestvensky, lasted from 13.49 to 16.00. And even then it turned out to be a "diluted" dashing raid of the "Pearl" between the wake columns of the fighting squadrons, albeit by mistake. And then, from about 4 pm to 6 pm, both the Zhemchug and the Emerald fought an intense and heated battle with the Japanese armored cruisers.
Actions of "Novik" at Port Arthur in the afternoon of January 27, 1904, when a small cruiser "jumped" on the Japanese squadron, approaching 15-17 cables, deservedly received the most enthusiastic reviews. But the "Pearl" with the "Emerald" also often found themselves in close proximity to heavy Japanese ships. The Zhemchug, moving to the left side of the squadron, dangerously approached the Nissin and Kasuga, being 25 cables or less from them, and then, approaching Alexander III, was only 20 cables from the Japanese battleships. What about Baron V. N. Fersen, then his attempt to save the crew of Alexander III, for the sake of which he allowed the Emerald standing still (!) To approach the Japanese armored cruisers by only 20 cables, is worthy of the highest praise, although it should also be noted that the cruiser was not knocked out only miraculously.
What damage did the Russian cruisers receive? According to A. A. Alliluyeva and M. A. Bogdanov's "Emerald" in the daytime battle was hit by 3 shells, which did not cause him any special damage. But in the reports of the commander and officers of the cruiser, the number of enemy hits is not indicated, and the figures given by the above authors may turn out to be erroneous. The fact is that A. A. Alliluyev and M. A. Bogdanov reported about 17 hits in "Pearl", but this is an obvious mistake, because in the report of O. A. Enquist damage to the "Pearl" is reported in detail, and their list includes 17 items:
1. The middle chimney and its casing are broken.
2. The front chimney is pierced by fragments of an exploding shell.
3. The fan is punctured in several places.
4. The entrance commander's hatch is broken.
5. The bulwark was pierced at the commander's entrance hatch.
6. The bulkheads of the bath are concave and pierced.
7. The commander's entrance ladder was broken.
8. The upper wooden and iron deck of about 120-mm gun # 1 was pierced.
9. The upper and living deck near the commander's entrance hatch was pierced.
10. The right gunwale is concave on the poop.
11. Whaleboat # 1 and rowing boat # 1 are broken.
12. The gunwale on the bridge is broken.
13. The bed net of the 120-mm cannon # 1 is broken.
14. The right screw is bent.
15. The steering oil seal is leaking.
16. Two water tanks are pierced by shrapnel.
17. The upper deck is damaged in many places.
It is obvious that some of these damages can be the result of the same hit, and vice versa - the damage to the propeller is not at all associated with enemy fire, but was due to the bulk of the "Ural" on the cruiser stern. Thus, the data on 17 hits in the "Pearl" should be considered obviously erroneous, and is it worth then unconditionally trusting the information about 3 hits in the "Emerald" from the pen of the same authors? As for the losses among the crew, 12 people were killed on the Zhemchug, including 2 officers. Directly in the battle, Baron Wrangel, Warrant Officer Tavastsherna, conductor Konkov and 8 lower ranks fell. Another sailor later died of his wounds. There were 22 wounded, including the conductor Shorokhov and 7 lower ranks heavily, Warrant Officer Kiselev, Warrant Officer Spadovski and 12 lower ranks easily. There were no killed on the "Izumrud", and there were 4 wounded.
In terms of ammunition consumption, Baron V. N. Fersen pointed out that the Emerald fired about 200 120-mm rounds during the battle, and the 47-mm cannons did not fire beyond range. As for Zhemchug, its commander, P. P. Levitsky, found it difficult to indicate the consumption of shells, but it can be assumed that such was no less, if not more than that of the "Izumrud".
Did the Russian 2nd rank cruisers do any harm to the Japanese ships? It is extremely difficult to answer this question: the author has to admit that he has not yet studied the history of the Tsushima battle enough to make any reasonable assumptions on this score. But "Nissin" and "Kasuga" received at least 5 hits by shells of unknown caliber, one of which could well "fly in" from the "Pearl" when he moved to the left side of the squadron, thus finding himself between two fires. In addition, Russian shells hit the armored cruisers. The author managed to find information about two hits of 120-mm shells, one of which hit Akashi, and the second hit Tsushima. Oddly enough, the commander's premises were damaged on both cruisers, and 7 people were killed on the Akashi (one at once, and six more died of wounds) and two were wounded, and on Tsushima only two were wounded. But this success cannot be unequivocally attributed to the Zhemchug or Izumrud artillerymen, since 120-mm guns were also installed on the armored cruisers Vladimir Monomakh and Dmitry Donskoy, which also fought the Japanese cruisers when they received the corresponding hits. It is also possible to hit some other Japanese ships, since in many cases we do not know either the hit time or the exact caliber of the hitting shell.
This concludes the description of the daytime battle on May 14, 1905, and will further consider the events of the night of May 15 and subsequent events.
