During the discussion of a series of articles devoted to the cruiser "Varyag", a discussion arose about what could have happened if the Russian stationers had not entered the battle with S. Uriu's squadron in the afternoon of January 27 and had been attacked by Japanese destroyers on the Chemulpo raid at nightfall. Opinions were divided - it was suggested that such an attack would have a deadly efficiency and would certainly lead to the death of Russian stationers, but a number of respected readers doubted this outcome.
In order to determine the possible effectiveness of such an attack, we will analyze the results that Japanese and Russian destroyers demonstrated in night battles, and, of course, we will start with the first naval battle, from which, in fact, the Russian-Japanese war began: from the attack of Japanese destroyers to the Port Arthur squadron.
As you know, the latter stood on the outer roadstead in the amount of 16 pennants in four lines, staggered - the distance between the warships was 2 cables. The battleships and cruisers stood with open fires, there were no anti-mine nets, but the anti-mine guns were loaded. The Japanese undertook, as is commonly believed, three attacks, but of them only the first was massive: within 17 minutes, from 23.33 to 23.50, on January 26, 1904, eight Japanese destroyers fired 14 mines at the Russian ships, of which 12 were sent to three-pipe ships. The Port Arthur squadron responded with fire at 23.37, that is, 4 minutes after the first Japanese mine shot, but the coastal guns did not take part in repelling the attack.
As a result of this attack, 3 Russian ships were blown up: with an interval of five minutes at 23.40 a mine hit the Retvizan, at 23.45 - at the Tsesarevich and at 23.50 - at the Pallada. Naturally, the squadron realized that they had undergone a Japanese attack, and without any doubt they fired at the enemy destroyers in the future. But the subsequent "attacks" were the actions of single Japanese ships - at 00.30 on January 27 the destroyer "Sazanami" and at 00.50 the destroyer "Oboro" fired one mine each, the first "into a ship of the" Poltava "type", and the second into an unidentified four-pipe Russian ship, without having achieved success.
When examining unexploded mines (there were many of them), it was found that they were supplied with Aubrey's device for correct action at long distances, and with special knives for cutting through torpedo nets. In other words, it was assumed that the destroyers would attack the ships of the squadron from long distances, without approaching them, and the Japanese had no doubts that the Russian ships would be protected by anti-mine nets.
In general, the following can be stated - the surprise attack to the Japanese was more or less successful. It was a moonless night (the moon appeared in the sky only at about 3 o'clock in the morning) the destroyers were noticed from the Russian ships just before the attack, but, unfortunately, it is not clear at what distance it was carried out. The effectiveness of the first attack was 21.4%, but the subsequent "attacks" on the squadron biting with all the barrels (one mine from one destroyer) were made explicitly for the sake of form - the Japanese destroyers could not get close to the mine hitting distance.
Subsequently, the Japanese made several attempts to block the exit from the inner harbor of Port Arthur, where the Russian ships were forced to leave, and at the same time (according to the work of the Historical Commission), attempts were made to blow up the battleship Retvizan, which, as a result of a successful mine attack on the night of January 27, he was forced to run aground. In fact, the ship was surrounded by two "lines of defense" - the first of them was a makeshift boom made of logs tied together with an anchor rope taken from the port barges. These logs were equipped with mine nets from the left side of the battleship (facing the coast), and from other ships of the squadron that had spare panels. This boom was located about 20 meters from the damaged ship, secured with special anchors, and the second line of defense was the anti-mine network on the starboard side of the Retvizan. At night, a servant was constantly on duty at the starboard artillery, the searchlights were ready to turn on at any moment and only half of the team slept. In addition, two destroyers and several steam boats armed with 37-mm cannons were constantly on duty next to the destroyed ship, and this is not to mention the fact that land batteries were ready to support the Retvizan with fire at any moment.
The first attack took place on the night of February 10-11, when the Japanese attempted for the first time to block the passage to the inner pool with firefighters. Interestingly, the enemy destroyer "Kagero" approached the battleship at a distance of three cables, but was only noticed after hitting the fortress's searchlight - it happened at about 02.45 am on February 11, and it can be assumed that the moon had not yet risen by that time. "Retvizan" immediately opened fire on him, "Kagero" released a mine, but unsuccessfully - it was later found unexploded on the shore. "Retvizan" fired at "Kagero" for less than a minute, and then he slipped out of the beam, again becoming "invisible", but immediately a second Japanese destroyer, "Shiranui" was spotted (although it is not known who exactly discovered it) and "Retvizan" opened fire on it from a distance of 4-5 cables. It was supported by destroyers, four mine boats, and, of course, coastal defense artillery, and then two more destroyers, Marakumi and Yugiri, opened behind the Shiranui. The fire was transferred to them, but then Japanese steamers were discovered, and one of them, in the opinion of our sailors, was heading straight for the Retvizan and the fire was now transferred to them.
In general, it can be stated that the attempt to undermine the Retvizan suffered a complete fiasco, and, moreover, the Japanese destroyers demonstrated poor combat skills: to miss from 3 cables at a squadron battleship standing aground, and not even get into the bon - it had to be able to. But … was there ever such an attempt?
It was not for nothing that we pointed out that information about the attempt to undermine the "Retvizan" was taken by us from the domestic "Work of the Historical Commission", but the fact is that the Japanese have this point of view in the "Description of military operations at sea in 37-38. Meiji (1904-1905)”is not confirmed. They report that the target of the 5th fighter squadron were Russian destroyers and patrol ships, the attack of which could have been stopped by the Japanese fire-ships. And, I must say, the Japanese account of events in this case looks much more logical and therefore more believable: their primary goal was to block the entrance, and for this, of course, it was necessary to destroy the light Russian ships guarding the entrance to the inner harbor. At the same time, an attack with mines on the "Retvizan", which was on the ground, did nothing for solving this problem - one, or even several torpedo hits could not have destroyed the artillery of this ship. In addition, it is difficult to believe that the Japanese did not know and did not know about the protection of the Russian battleship with anti-torpedo nets and boom - and the chances of hitting the ship under these conditions were minimal.
Therefore, the version of the Japanese looks more correct that the commander of the 5th destroyer detachment found "several ships and destroyers at anchor" and attacked them with torpedoes - most likely we are talking about two destroyers and four mine boats located not far from the Retvizan, which caused Russians suspected that the target of the attack was a knocked-out battleship … At the same time, unfortunately, Meiji does not report the number of mines used by the destroyers, it is only known that they were fired from all four destroyers, that is, their consumption could not be less than four. In any case, the Japanese did not hit anyone, however, given that only Kagero fired from a more or less short distance for a night battle (about 3 kbt), and the rest, apparently, fired from 5 cables and even further, especially against destroyers, and even mine boats, such a result can hardly be surprising.
The next day, the Russian cruisers Bayan, Akold and Novik went out to sea. The Japanese, believing that these ships would remain overnight in the outer roadstead, sent torpedo boats to attack them, and these torpedo boats were discovered and driven away by the fire of Russian torpedo boats, coastal batteries and the Retvizan. At the same time, the Japanese did not find anyone (the cruisers actually left for the inner roadstead in the evening) and retreated, not salty, having used up at least four torpedoes - judging by the descriptions, in most cases (if not all) the Japanese fired at the ships, which they only dreamed of, so there were no hits, of course.
Battles of Matusevich's detachment (destroyers "Enduring", "Powerful", "Attentive", "Fearless"), as well as "Resolute" and "Guarding" with Japanese destroyers, we will not consider, because, apparently, the Japanese in these combat In some episodes, mines were not used, confining themselves to artillery. But what attracts attention is that Matusevich's detachment attacked the 1st detachment of destroyer fighters after moonrise, but from Japanese ships Russian destroyers were usually noticed at a distance of no more than 300 meters, that is, a little more than 1.5 cables.
On the evening of March 8, the 4th squadron of Japanese fighters (Hayadori, Murasame, Asagiri, Harusame) tried to attack the Russian patrol ships in the outer roadstead. However, about 2,000 m from the entrance to the harbor (just over 10.5 kbt), the destroyers were discovered and fired upon by coastal batteries and gunboats "Bobr" and "Otvazhny". In the end, it all ended with the Hayadori firing one mine at random, from a long distance (it was found in the roadstead in the morning) and, of course, did not hit anywhere, after which the destroyers left. True, on the same night, the 5th detachment again tried to penetrate into the raid, using the temporarily disabled lighting (the fortress briefly turned off the searchlights), but it was also detected and driven away, unable to launch a torpedo attack, which ended.
The Japanese made a second attempt to block access to the outer roadstead on the night of March 14 - according to their plan, one detachment of fighters was to come up on the evening of March 13 and reconnoiter the situation - if Russian warships appeared on the outer roadstead, they should have been attacked and sunk with the onset of darkness. If there are none, then observation should have been carried out. One detachment of destroyers was supposed to accompany the fire ships until they were flooded, after which, having removed the surviving crews, retreat - he was also charged with clearing the way for transports in the event of a counterattack by Russian destroyers. The other two detachments were supposed to watch the raid, and distract attention by opening intense fire when the fire-ships were discovered, in case the Russian destroyers counterattacked, they should have supported the detachment of direct protection of the fire-ships.
This plan was not crowned with success. The head fire-ship was found 20 cables from the passage, and immediately fire was opened on it from the shore and patrol ships. Then the Russian destroyers "Strong" and "Resolute" attacked the enemy at full speed. This night battle became the record holder for the quality of night torpedo firing: "Strong" fired two mines, and "Resolute" - one, and either two, but maybe even three fire-ships were blown up. Then "Strong", obviously getting a taste, attacked what he took for a Japanese squadron (while hastily reloading torpedo tubes) - these were the Japanese destroyers with which he entered the battle. One of the enemy destroyers, Tsubame, fired a mine at Strong, but missed. During the artillery battle, "Strong" got hit in a steam pipeline (8 people, including mechanical engineer Zverev, received fatal burns), and then was seen and fired upon by its own coastal batteries, which forced him to retreat and be thrown ashore.
On the one hand, it can be stated that the Russian destroyers achieved tremendous success - they attacked a detachment that was under the protection of an enemy twice outnumbered (four destroyers), while the Russian ships did not suffer losses, and the effectiveness of their mine attack was 66, 7 or even 100%. But you need to understand that the conditions in which the "Strong" and "Resolute" operated were quite favorable for them - the Japanese crews were blinded by the light of searchlights that illuminated the targets of the Russian destroyers.
The next use of torpedo weapons was the last battle of the Terrible destroyer, the knocked out Russian ship fired a mine from the bow apparatus at Ikazuchi, but did not hit - however, this battle took place after sunrise, and cannot be considered a night one. But the third attempt to block the access to the outer raid of Arthur, no doubt, is such. This time, the Japanese destroyers again did not show themselves - they tried to divert attention to themselves, firing and shining searchlights, but apparently they did not use mines. The Russian minerals, on the contrary, were again successful: a mine boat from Pobeda blew up one of the Japanese fire-ships (in fairness, we point out that at that time it had already exploded and was sinking). Two more fire-ships were blown up by a mine boat from the "Peresvet" and the destroyer "Skoriy". The boat from the battleship "Retvizan" also tried to launch a torpedo attack, but it did not work out - there was no shot, the torpedo, slipping out of the vehicle, caught on the boat with its rudders and hung on it. In general, you can see the high efficiency of Russian mine weapons - 3 of the four fired mines hit the target, that is, 75%.
But on the night of May 25, the Russians were unlucky - the Japanese, no longer trusting the fire-ships, tried to lay a minefield, but were fired upon from the guns of the ships and the fortress. Two destroyers went on the attack, and the "Speedy" fired two mines at the Japanese interceptor transport. Apparently, both mines did not hit anywhere (one of them was found the next day). The next night battle of destroyers took place on the night of June 10, when Rear Admiral V. K. Witgeft, seeing the increased activity of the enemy forces to mine the outer raid, sent 7 destroyers and two mine cruisers into the sea, which collided with Japanese ships, but he was also artillery. The detection distance is of interest - the moon was shining, but the Japanese destroyers were on the dark part of the horizon. Nevertheless, our sailors found them at a distance of 3-4 cables.
The next day the Russian squadron went to sea, meeting there the battleships H. Togo., V. K. Vitgeft did not accept the battle, and retreated to Port Arthur, it was towards evening, the squadron could no longer leave for an internal raid, and the Japanese tried to solve the case with a massive destroyer attack. However, the result was disappointing.
The first retreating Russian ships were attacked by the 14th destroyer detachment, and each of the four fired one mine at a time (the Chidori was the first to shoot at the Poltava-class battleship), but none of them achieved success. But the Russian destroyers (according to the Japanese official history), rushing into a counterattack, achieved a torpedo hit - five minutes after their shot, the Chidori received a Whitehead mine. Despite receiving heavy damage, the Chidori did not die, and was able to return to base on the Elliot Islands.
Almost immediately, the Russian battleships attacked the 5th squad of fighters, while three destroyers fired at least five torpedoes (none of them hit), and the fourth "Shiranui" did not come out to attack position, separated from the detachment in order to in order to find a goal for yourself in the future. Then the 1st destroyer detachment attacked the squadron from the rear, three of the four destroyers fired at least one mine each. Two destroyers then retreated, and flagship No. 70, together with No. 69, which did not shoot, set off to "seek his fortune" further. Two destroyers of the 3rd detachment attacked the Russian ships with three mines ("Usugomo" - 2 mines, "Sazanami" - one).
By this time, the Port Arthur squadron had already entered the outer raid, but while it had not yet anchored, it was attacked by the 16th destroyer detachment (at least four mines, possibly more), but this attack, throughout apparently, was heavily hit by the searchlights of the Golden Mountain and powerful artillery fire. Finally, "Siranui" saw his chance, attacking Sevastopol (or "Poltava") with a mine, and then retreated, joining up with his squad. Following them, destroyers # 70 and # 69 fired three torpedoes at Russian ships (one at the cruiser Diana, one at Peresvet or Pobeda, and another at an unidentified ship).
After that, there was a short break - until the moon went down. After that, the 1st Fighter Squad (three ships), the 20th Destroyer Squad (four ships) and the previously involved Hayabusa from the 14th Squad, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, rushed forward, but this was not a coordinated attack. First, the 1st squadron of fighters and Hayabusa fired five torpedoes at the standing Russian ships and retreated.
The 20th destroyer detachment went to the Tiger Peninsula, but at this time the squadron extinguished all the lights, only the fortress land searchlights were working, which shone the sea around the Witgeft ships, leaving them in the shadows. Detachment 20 was spotted, fired 5 torpedoes and retreated. From the 12th detachment, only one destroyer was able to go into the attack, firing two mines, and the rest did not manage to launch the attack until dawn. The 4th detachment showed itself better, all 4 ships fired one mine each and retreated. The 2nd fighter detachment, the 10th and 21 destroyer detachments did not manage to launch the attack.
In general, in the battle on the night of June 11, Japanese destroyers fired 39 torpedoes at the Russian ships, but achieved only one torpedo hit: their own destroyer "Chidori" (because in fact there was no Russian counter-attack by destroyers, and the only "source" only a Japanese destroyer could have got into it).
At the same time, at least 15 torpedoes were fired while the squadron was still in motion, 8 at the time when the ships, having reached the outer roadstead, had not yet anchored, and 16 at the squadron standing still. Why have the Japanese not achieved any success?
To be continued!
