I know you don’t do modern, and this is breaking news, but I think it’s safely apolitical: What do you make of the UFOs the US Navy have just acknowledged as real? With the capabilities demonstrated, how might they effect naval warfare in the future? (I’m assuming you’re not the type to declare them aliens, or I wouldn’t ask. Chinese, perhaps?)
If the germans managed to get Tirpitz ready for combat in time for Operation Rheinubung how would the Battle of the Denmark Strait have gone like had Tirpitz sailed with Bismarck instead of Prinz Eugen or with both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen?
If the wreck of the Suvorov is ever found, efforts should be made to recover the admiral's binocular box. History deserves to know how many of the 50 were left.
If they were on the bridge and given the pounding the bridge and conning tower took, and the ship was clearly burning when she sank, what ever were left were likely destroyed in the fires
WWI battleships Captain and his officers are stationed on outside bridges to see the combat more correctly and giving orders. If the ships sinks, the officers is most likely washed away.
Rozhestvensky might the most honorable military man I've ever heard of. Dragging a fleet of ragtag ships across the world, facing every kind of frustration imaginable and baffling displays of incompetence from almost every ship in the fleet, and losing horribly in a battle that dictated the outcome of the war... And he STILL took all the responsibility, in spite of probably hating most of the officers he was safeguarding. I salute you.
When Russians are cornered in a hopeless fight, they fight like there is no tomorrow, which is true because most will not survive the fight. Look at the Battle of Stalingrad for instance. I think that perhaps those hated officers turned into fighting men once they got into the thick of it. I was most impressed by that Russian battleship taking up first position after the flagship was taken out, knowing full well this was downright suicide (the difference: suicide is easy).
@Phil McCrevice Hah, I bet you would have been a shining example of courage had you been part of the Russian fleet at that time. Clearly you have not seen the entire video.
@Phil McCrevice Incompetence, yes, but firing well and even continuing to man their posts and firing as the ship is sinking! That is not cowardice. As for the ships that fled, I do not believe that to be cowardice either, as the battle had clearly been lost by that stage. Rather they performed their country a service by saving a few vessels, as opposed to the ones lost in surrender. Again, given the odds against them, this was simply accepting that they had been defeated. With no chance of inflicting any significant damage against the intact opposing fleet, their surrender was honourable.
@@Temp0raryName "Firing as the ship is sinking" More likely the crew had so many false alarms about sinking that they didn't know that it actually was until the water was over their heads.There is a very thin line between bravery and stupidity. I have my own thoughts on where the Russian fleet was in respect to that line, you can have your own.
@@Nyx_2142 We had no indication of false alarms, so that is speculative at best. However foolishly elements of the fleet may have behaved, the record shows those men doing their duty, and beyond, to the end. As such I am content in standing by my comment and respecting their loss.
Fun Fact: Admiral Togo actually visited Rozhestvensky when he was being treated at the Japanese hospital, and he offered the following words: “ Defeat is a common fate of a soldier. There is nothing to be ashamed of in it. The great point is whether we have performed our duty.” Togo probably didn’t realize his words would mean more to Rozhestvensky than he intended because he had no idea what the poor guy has been through...
Quite a contrast to how the same man might have been treated by the same side just a couple decades later. The IJN might well have beheaded the man for daring to lose and survive.
@@proudfirebrand3946 Totally, the IJN would fish you of the water, beat you as a matter of principle, fail at beheading you then push you overboard with nothing except maybe a nice weight to drag you down. Or possibly go on a murder and rape rampage in a city they had once controlled when they realised the end was nigh.
It doesn't surprise me that Rozhestvensky died of a heart attack. What surprises me is that he didn't already have 20 heart attacks while commanding the 2nd Pacific Squadron.
How can we know he didn't? A lot of people with heart issues and stubborn personalities just "shrug off" heart attacks and walk them out. They refuse to acknowledge something is wrong with them until it's too late. Granted, given all the coal gunk if not heart disease he'd have died of cancer.
Also other notable Nazis like Himmler, Heydrich, Goering etc, as well as Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Mao, whoever was in charge of BuOrds, a number of future Japanese officers, maybe Hirohito, whoever ended up in Unit 731, etc.
@@SpicyPotato8675 Ironically that's not far off - it was indeed listed as "finished off by gunfire from Japanese light forces". So it could've also said "TOLD YOU BOUT THOSE TORPEDO BOATS!"
+1 for Rozhetsvensky A man who deserved honours and praise rather than court martial and the remainder of his life spent alone. Edit: happy to see the likes for him.
He deserved plenty of blame for some of his decisions though. His top-down tyranny hamstrung the fleet when he could not convey his orders in the heat of battle. (And honestly what did he expect? That the Japanese would gamely not shoot at his flagship and allow him to direct his forces from safety?). He dropped the ball with regards to Japanese scouts (to the point of preventing the cruiser Ural from disrupting the Japanese radio-telegraph comms when they spotted the Russian forces). He dragged the transports along for god only knows what reason instead of sending them away to a neutral port when the battle became imminent. He relegated the torpedo boats to defense and rescue operations instead of setting them to task of harassing the Japanese warships. All of this is armchair admiraling of course, but I'm pretty sure if Makarov was alive and in charge, things would've been different.
@@RegisTraiter good point, but same can be said for the Japanese admirals involved in midway and the scuffles with the RMs: they didn't have the benefit of hindsight. He really did work with what he had.
He showed to have a truly great personality, great character for taking all of the blame for the defeat. I think most of the 'bad officers' that made his life hell earlier on, rose to the occasion when finding out it would be a fight to the death. I never knew the Japanese Admiral Togo accepted the Russian surrender. I always believed the Japanese mercilessly sank every Russian ship they came into contact with. But then I never studied this battle in depth, just read some accounts about ships getting hit, the Japanese outmaneuvering the Russians and in the end the total destruction of the Russian squadron. They were in effect destroyed, just not all were sunk and the Japanese took the surviving vessels as prizes.
@@AudieHolland Rozhestvensky tried to resign while the squadron was still under way, but the Tsar rejected his resignation. He was a man caught between his own towering ego and an absolutely shit hand he was dealt. He was smart enough to know that the whole thing would end in a disaster, but couldn't stand the fact that he was in charge of the disaster. I think by the end of it all he was completely broken by the experience and was hoping to be executed, hence his acceptance of all responsibility and subsequent hermetic lifestyle.
@@RegisTraiter I wouldn't call trying to get out of commanding a junk fleet full of superstitious "sailors" who barely understood the basics of how to operate a ship to be egotistical. It's completely justified to want to get off a sinking ship after all.
Rozhestvensky was one of the crazy ones. Wounded in the legs and head, he chooses to get stuck in with the crew in one of the casement guns and help them shoot at the enemy. I'm glad he survived.
Crazy nothing. At that point, it was the most good he could do. I wasn't surprised to hear that he didn't stand on his officer status and just got to doing what needed to be done.
Novikov- Priboy, who served in the crew of the battleship "Orel" described him in his book as rude not clever officer who adored to communicate with subordinate men by hitting them.
@@vasskolomiets41 Doesn't surprise me to hear that one of his men thought something along those lines, after all, with the men he was given to command, the mass chaos, lack of discipline, insubordination, etc, I'm pretty sure that in the Age of Sail the whole expedition would've been brought to a halt simply because he had to order the whole crew flogged or hung.
@@hansvonmannschaft9062 in Russian Empire the medieval slavery (crepostnoye pravo- the serfdom) had been canceled legally only a generation before the Russian- Japanese war- in 1860. There was a mentality in the Russian elite to communicate with subordinated people in such way.
After the battle as Rozhestvensky was recovering from his injuries in a Japanese hospital, Togo approached him and said "Defeat is a common fate of a soldier. There is nothing to be ashamed of in it. The great point is whether we have performed our duty." Which is pretty nice
Definitely a shame that entire Russian fleet were too busy getting killed to be able to enjoy the sinking of the Kamchatka! And also a shame that it was NOT sunk by torpedo boats!!!
Sadly it's not documented what the Orel sent to the Shinanu Maru exactly, only that it was in Russian code which made the Japanese realize the ship assumed allied ships would be nearby, after which they saw a bunch of other ships appear in the mist and put 2 and 2 together. At least, that's what I've been able to make of it. It matters little, the Orel might as well have told the Japanese ship to be careful of the other ships in the fleet for all the effect it had.
I‘m so sad. Why wasn‘t the Kamchatka sunk by torpedo boats? 😭 That has to be the biggest betrayal in the history of betrayals. The chemistry between the Kamchatka and the Japanese torpedo boats is unrivaled by anything in existence.
I can only imagine : [Kamchatka in all that smoke and chaos bumps into no less than *8* Japanese Torpedo boats from all sides, gets torn to shreds, and while it's sinking the crew is like] : *SEE, VASILI ?!?! I TOLD YOU ALL THERE WERE JAPANESE BOATS ALL ALONG*
just imagine, if Kamchatka had gotten away: 'Good news Admiral, the Kamatchka managed to escape'. The poor man would have probably exploded right there.
"I am an old man, 60 years of age, and my life is of no particular value anymore. It is over anyway, I will get shot for this. But you are young men in your prime, and it is you who are destined to restore the glory of the Russian navy. I take responsibility for this step all by myself." - Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov announcing his intention to surrender to his crew.
Except he wasn't shot and lived until 1922. There was a possibility that he'd be shot, he and 3 of his captains were given death sentence after court martial, but Tzar changed it to 10 year sentence and then in 1909 he was pardoned and released on Tzar's birthday.
Captain Vasily Fersen of the fast protected cruiser Izumrud disobeyed the order and broke through the Japanese blockade but wrecked his ship in a night while approaching Vladivostok.
I am sure he was smiling from heaven when he saw how the russians had finally built a competent blue water navy in the 1970s and 1980s. It is funny how the soviets actually achieved the goals and ambitions of the Russian empire. It was if as the USSR was just a commuinst mutation of the russian empire.
@@GenocideWesterners That competent blue water navy was never tested in combat. It is very probable that an actual battle would go as well as Tsushima.
I've seen several summaries of this battle, including two in university-level history courses, and this is by far the most cogent and easy to follow. It also (when seen after its predecessor) does a better job of explaining WHY the Russians lost, rather than relying on conclusory assessments such as "inferior Russian gunnery," "the more modern and better drilled Japanese ships," and "poor leadership by the Russian admirals." The business about Yamamoto's fingers was a fascinating side note.
BTW, I'm a published, and moderately successful author of Military Science Fiction novels, so I'm a constant consumer of military history, and my books are stuffed with historical references and allusions. Channels like this are important to me professionally, as they give me easily used material that can inspire elements of the battles I stage in outer space. Somewhere along the line, I've got to find a way to add a USS Kamchatka to the fleet and provide it with an appropriate set of SNAFUs and disasters.
@@HPaulHonsinger To be fair, if you had used this stuff about the Kamchatka and the stay at Madagascar in a fictional story, people would find your story unrealistic.
@@gunnar6674 I would like to point out that is essentially the case for most things that actually happened historically if told to somebody who didn't know too much about the topic beforehand, and as such almost any writers that base parts of or are inspired by historical events for their stories take such commentary with a grain of salt
Come on now. Anyone could make the mistake of accidentally loading a live shell. And those fishing boats were disguised japanese torpedo boats after all!
Rozhestvensky deserves some credit for not committing suicide and actually doing his best in the face of every Murphy's -Law- Abject-and-Quite-Personal Hatred of everything 2nd Pacific Squadron. And damn if the Russians don't have some borderline psychotic levels of stubbornness. Still firing from a burning battleship, damn.
I must admit, I had always bought into the stereotype around the 2nd Pacific Squadron, ie sailed around the world to get sunk with only some damaged trawlers to show for it, but actually did somethingthe established navies thought was impossible (sail around the world, resupply at sea and get no drydock time) with ships totally unsuited for the task and fight dammed heroically. You've corrected my view of history a few times and is the reason this is genuinely one of my favourite channels, long may it continue, thanks Drach.
Agreed wholeheartedly. By any reasonable standard, the voyage of the 2nd Pacific Squadron (and the 3rd as well, to be perfectly frank) was a _success;_ they made it from the Baltic Sea to the Tsushima Strait, recoaling the entire fleet at sea multiple times along the way, without drydocking at any point, without losing a single ship, _despite_ the sheer rank incompetence that was endemic in many of the ships' officers and men for large parts of the voyage (and which Admiral Rozhestvensky was actually mostly able to beat out of them by the time they'd reached Tsushima). The fact that the fleet then got largely wiped out by the Japanese fleet (and, even then, they fought hard and bravely) is no detraction from the success of the preceding voyage.
I am reminded of a Russian phrase I learned some years back: “Nichego”. The rough translation is something along the lines of “that’s too bad” or “it can’t be helped”, and it is most commonly used to convey a feeling of resignation. The phrase is also part of one of my favorite quotes: “The Russian people subsist on a regular diet of cabbage, vodka and nichego - and in a pinch, they can make do without the cabbage”. Dosvidanya, Admiral Rozhestvensky. In a world with any hint of fairness, they’d have named a medal after you; “The Order of Rozhestvensky, awarded for peerless courage and dedication to duty in the face of insurmountable odds”. EDIT: corrected spelling error.
"...And skills above and beyond in binocular hurling". If you get two (referred to as "with bar") I think the bar to the award should be a bronze/silver/gold representation of the Kamchatka... Too soon?
Rosie Hawtrey While I can appreciate the sarcastic nature of making the “lecherous slut” part of the medal, I think a representation of the Suvorov would be a bit more appropriate. EDIT: Forgot to say, I can definitely get behind making “binocular-hurling” one of the reasons for the medal being awarded, so long as it’s not actually a requirement. Not every sailor will have easy access to a pair of binoculars, unfortunately.
I feel bad for Admiral Roschestweski he is forever remembered as incompetent because he was unable to a achieve a nearly impossible attack in a short time.
I wounder what if he had won, say the Tasae gave him more ammo and even said, “beat the officers of you must, just get that force into shape” and with said allowances he managed to achieve a victory. Interesting to wxpore these very unlikely alternatives
He could find his kin in Admiral Patricio Montojo, a contemporary given an even more impossible task with, if anything, an even more decrepit and unsuited fleet. Montojo too was court martialed, although in his case the enemy Admiral actually sent a note testifying to his bravery in the utterly hopeless and impossible battle.
@@TheoreticalString Montojo ... was he a Spanish Navy officer? Yeah, that was another really sorry bunch. I hear tell that when one old rust bucket of a warship steamed out of Manila Bay to face Admiral Dewey, its propeller shaft sprang a leak. Fortunately, the leak was plugged. Unfortunately, it was plugged with CONCRETE ... which immobilized the ship for the rest of the battle.
Kamchatka (as she's fired on by both Japanese and Russian ships): What are you doing I'm on your side. Russian Ships: WHY WON'T YOU JUST SINK ALREADY!!!!!
In case anyone wonders what happened to Izumrud. After giving the Japanese the finger and escaping (being cheered on by the crews of the remaining Russian ships), it ran aground in Vladimir Bay shortly after. By some accounts, her captain Hans William (Vasili) von Fersen, who was generally regarded as a brave and competent officer, lost his nerve and became paranoid, thinking the Japanese were giving chase (whereas they were too busy capturing the rest of the Russian ships). His command became erratic, which contributed to a navigational error and subsequent grounding. The ship could still possibly be saved if the Russians had waited for high tide... but Fersen's paranoia got the best of him and he ordered the cruiser scuttled. The crew then marched overland towards Vladivostok, buying up cattle from the villages along the way. They marched into Vladivostok looking dirty, battered and road-worn, and accompanied by A WHOLE LOT OF COWS (possibly sparking the jokes that they traded the cruiser away for the moos). They were then taken to Moscow by train where they received heroes' welcome.
At least he got his boys out of harms way, that cannot be said for most Russian captains that day. I'd trade a single cruiser in an obviously already lost war for her like 300 crewmen any day. Von Fersen had already denied the enemy that ship. If I could chose I'd rather serve under him than the majority of his peers ...
Great video and corrects many misconceptions about the Russian 2nd Pacific squadron. Because of the defeat some authors describe them and the commanding Admiral as totally incompetent when in fact they were brave and skilled people who fought as well as they could given the disadvantages of their circumstances. The Japanese fleet fought just as well but had every advantage possible with the exception of sheer numbers, and in this case quantity was NOT a quality all of its own.
I recall a report that one gunnery officer had to teach his gunners to COUNT before they could even the targeting scopes and rangefinders. considering that it's actually a miracle they hit anything during the battle.
During the battle, the Russian and Japanese ships were probably firing at almost point blank range. If that's how it went, it would negate the Russian crews ineptness with advanced sighting equipment. What I got from this excellent narration is that the Russians, with their many faults, fought like lions once they knew there was no escape. Rozhestvensky showed that a few wounds did not deter this Russian Admiral from fighting on even commanding a gunturret. Which, when hit and his entire crew obliterated leaving him more wounded, only made him demand 'new gunners!' to continue the fight. And after all this, he took all of the blame for the defeat. Saving the reputations of many inept Russian officers he had learned to hate and despise during the long voyage. Perhaps all of them showed the same exceptional fighting spirit that the surviving guns of the Svetlana showed, fighting till the last shell or till their vessel was shot from under them. And this compensated for all the hardships they had put their Admiral through during the long voyage.
@@AudieHolland They were not at point blank range. The ranges were actually much longer than naval tacticians had expected. It was one of the key things that lead to the all big gun battleships because at those ranges the only guns that really counted were the 12" guns. All the secondary and tertiary guns really didn't justify themselves.
In russian naval historical circles Rojestvensky is blamed for being passive. There are suggestions he should attack incoming cruisers in time of crossing T, or some other part of japan fleet in some other moment. But his dang ships couldn't even turn all at same direction! I clearly see he chose passive way to let his matelots to avoid any maneuver mistakes
Modern Russian military historians tend to follow the Soviet narrative and portray all the late-Imperial officers as hopelessly incompetent. Whatever the Imperial generals/admirals did was branded as "wrong", in that narrative. This was needed to prove how "efficient" the post-Revolutionary officers were, in comparison...
Post revolutionary offices were pretty good, though over time became like the imperial Russian officers, be coming incompetent and rigid. The doctrine they had however, as a great one, as deep operation plays heavily to their strengths.
It doesn't matter what you order as a commander if your men simply do not have the training and skill to execute those maneuvers. Even a general as brilliant as Hannibal at Zama was reduced to mostly very basic maneuvers because the majority of his army by then was made up of raw recruits with minimal training who simply would not have been able to perform any of the creative out-of-the-box tactics he had become some famous for while fighting with his veteran force in Italy.
I wish to commend you for honoring the Russian and Japanese Sailors lost in this conflict. In the end, all who go to sea are sailors and brothers and sisters of the sea.
A very appropriate ending to the video. Whilst much of the previous video (and a fair part of this one) was devoted to mocking their incompetence approaching the fight, and ineffectiveness in it, this showed suitable respect to their loss.
Yeah brothers and sisters killing each other while their superiors are drinking tea together, telling them when to kill and when not to kill each other. Such a hypocrisy. If they were "brothers and sisters" they would have turned the barrels against their own superiors only willing and intent to get them butchered by the other side.
Russian who were rescued from sea, sent over to Japan in Matsuyana. They were free to go out, enjoyed Hot Spring and attended Theatre. Wonded Sailors who were treated but died were buried Individually with respectable stone, facing at their homeland. There is memorial event for praying in March. I think Relations can visit Japan.
Oh boy I can’t wait to see the Russians who just sailed half way around the world and drive their admiral to the brink of insanity sink the Japanese fleet!
13:08 "What is this giant dent in the hull?! Did a shell or fragment hit here?!" "Uh, no. That is where Admiral Rozhestvensky smashed his head into the hull after witnessing our massive screw ups."
As a sidenote, two of the three Torpedo Boats the Japanese lost were sunk by the Armored Cruiser 'Dmitri Donskoi'. She was attacked by several waves of boats during the night but managed to drive all of them off, also damaging a third one in the process. She next beat off an attack by four Cruisers, also damaging them. Not a bad showing for a 20-year old vessel, I'd say.
She also helped transfer Rozhestvensky from _Buinyi_ over to _Biedovi_ after _Buinyi's_ machinery broke down, and took on both _Buinyi's_ crew and over 200 survivors from _Oslyabya_ that the destroyer'd been carrying when she had to scuttle _Buinyi_ to keep it from being captured. _And,_ when she was finally cornered and badly damaged by a large number of Japanese warships in the late afternoon of the second day, having made it nearly halfway from the main battle site to Vladivostok, she managed to drop anchor near Ulleung Island and get everyone ashore before scuttling, with only 60 dead out of nearly a thousand on board at that point _(Dmitrii Donskoi's_ own officers and men, plus the crew of _Buinyi,_ plus the _Oslyabya_ survivors from _Buinyi)._ (Oh, and the third torpedo boat, the one that _wasn't_ sunk by _Dmitrii Donskoi?_ _She_ was lost in a collision with the destroyer _Akatsuki..._ who'd been captured from the Russians nine and a half months previously at the Battle of the Yellow Sea.)
Little known fact: Historians were actually able to reconstruct 2nd squadron's course from the Baltic Sea to Japan with great accuracy by following the trail of binoculars resting on the seabed.
26:44 This. This is a perfect example of why I love history. A single digit non lost from that young ensign's hand arguably changed forever the history of Japan AND the US, and consequently of the whole world. Incredible.
I doubt that Yamamoto not being there would've influenced the greater events all that much. Japan would've gone to war with the USA regardless of whether Yamamoto was there to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor and participated in the buildup of aircraft carriers before the war. He made it easier for them in the early years, sure, but I doubt things would've gone much different in the greater scheme of things.
I would disagree. Pearl Harbor was Yamamoto's brainchild, and it was a pivotal event that catapulted the US into the war overnight and with enormous resolve. Admiral Halsey famoulsy said "before we’re through with ‘em, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell". Churchill, having been informed of the attack, later wrote that he "slept the sleep of the saved" that night. Would the US have participated in WW2 without Pearl Harbor? Probably. To what extent? We'll never know. But the crucial importance of that fateful day cannot be underestimated: Japan managed to instantly awake "the sleeping giant", and he was very very pissed.@@MyVanir
@@richardmaccagni8690 Japan was always going to attack the US after the latter sanctioned them for the invasion of China. They needed the raw materials and the lands controlled by the various colonial powers in the region had them. The only difference Pearl Harbor made was giving Japan a short period of time when they had absolute superiority in the Pacific and could occupy the areas that they did - Yamamoto not being there to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor would've meant their initial attack might've been weaker and in some different area, but since the Phillippines were under US control at the time, they too would've been attacked.
@@MyVanir And we could fill many alternate history books and novels with so many "would have, should have, could have". Maybe a "weaker initial attack", as you proposed, would have caused a lesser reaction from the US; maybe a delayed intervention from the US could have been catastrophic for the UK and rest of the world, and a thousand other maybe: point is, we'll simply never know. Unless you have a crystal ball, this is just speculation: you're dismissing a major turning point in the entire war, a world changing event, on a pure "would have" basis. Maybe Russia would have invaded Japan if the US didn't drop two nuclear bombs. Maybe Germany could have resisted many years more if it managed to seize and hold the oil fields in the Caucasus. Maybe WW1 would have happened anyways if Princip failed to kill Franz Ferdinand. Maybe Napoleon would've won at Waterloo if Davout and not Grouchy commanded his cavalry. Can you say for sure? No. We can debate forever on so many fascinating "what ifs", but that's speculation, not history.
If the Royal Navy hadn't been successful at Tarantino then Yamamoto may not have launched Pearl Harbor ( although I've no doubt the war would have happened anyway - maybe started by invading the Phillipines ). Butterfly wings. If the 2nd Pacific fleet had made one more mistake & got into a fight with the Royal Navy - as they came very close to - then the entire century would have looked radically different. The British Empire, Japan, and quite possibly Germany vs Russia? I can't picture the fallout of that.
Despite the outcome, I've got to say hats off to Rozhestvensky for doing some seriously impressive work getting his squadron all the way to the Pacific given the state of it and managing to whip a fair few ships into proper discipline and competence. Hats off of course also goes to said crews who managed to perform admirably under the circumstances like the crews of the 3 lead pre-dreadnoughts. Like Srećko Čuvalo said in another comment, if somebody discovers a time machine, Admiral Rozhestvensky certainly deserves a visit and given the respect and consolation he deserves for his feat :)
Tsushima is one of the craziest stories in naval history. Imagine sailing all the way around the world for months on an epic journey, only to get obliterated in one battle at the end.
Very honorable the attitude of Togo of respecting their enemies lifes and offering conditional rendition. Gentlemen at the top of these fleets. Well done Nebogatov, not sacrificing men in vane.
I am appalled at the decision to omit from your dedication any mention of the countless crocodiles, chameleons, colorful birds, and venomous serpents that valiantly squawked, slithered, served, & ultimately sacrificed all for Russia... adopted Mother Russia.
The fact that Rozhestvensky was court martialed for the failure of an astoundingly stupid plan that he hated from the very moment he was assigned it says so much about Tsarist Russia. Especially the part where Rozhestvensky _wasn't even conscious_ and couldn't have prevented a surrender in the first place if he wanted to, everyone knew it, and instead of just letting it go, they went along with his insistence it was his fault and no one else's.
thank you for putting this story straight and giving the Russian crews the dignity they deserve. Far too often their sacrifice is forgotten, cast as incompetent idiots when in reality they were doing their best.
You have to admire the sheer determination of Rosnyezventskiy. His communications wrecked, his ship halfway burned down and shot to hell, and the madman goes and starts shooting a gun himself whilst bleeding out. Say what you will about the Russians performance, they sure as hell didnt go easy.
26:42 - That ensign wasn't actually Isoroku _Yamamoto_ at the time; he was only adopted into the Yamamoto family in 1916. At the time of Tsushima, he would've still been Isoroku Takano.
The Matsushima-class, for those who are wondering, were protected cruisers armed with a single 13-inch battleship gun each. They were not actually monitors, though they looked quite a bit like them, but "bizarre" is definitely the right descriptor.
@@sodincyes, we called it Apache Roulette, if enough of them charged a Gatling gun on horse back, it would run out of bullets in time for the survivers to overrun it. Which meant the soldiers had part of their stomach nailed to a tree and were chased around it until they ran out of guts, or were hung upside down on a wagon wheel with a small fire slowly cooking their brains, until their skull exploded. Great fun for the Apache! The last great breakout was around 1912, they were chased back to the reservation by airplanes and Ford's with machineguns mounted on them. A unrelenting enemy you had to respect. Only the Japanese ever equalled them in battle.
This is an excellent video. It is detailed, humorous where appropriate, and respectful of both sides despite the results being very heavily in favor of the Japanese Imperial Navy. The little anecdote about Ensign Yamamoto's injury and its affect on his future career is especially appreciated.
A complete shitshow start to finish. It must be said that with green crews, wear from a huge voyage, insubordinate officers and endless supply issues Rozhetsvensky faced his enemy with his head held high and all guns blazing.
I was aboard IJN Mikasa (July 2019). The wind was whipping the spray up and across her decks. I was standing on her flying bridge when I had my "moment". Tokyo Bay, the wind, the rain all combined for a sublime juncture of time and space as I looked out across her forward 12 inch guns (reproductions but yeah, still cool). Thanks for your videos, especially this one as the fate of the Second Pacific Squadron vs. the Japanese has always interested me.
I used to stand on the seawall at Yokosuka and imagine Flying Dragon, Red Castle, Blue Dragon, Prancing Dragon, Soaring Crane, Auspicious Crane, Auspicious Phoenix, Phoenix Flying, Big Eagle, Cloud Dragon, Flying Hawk, Cloud Hawk, Sea Hawk, Divine Hawk, Hawk Which Soars, Peregrine Falcon, and Thousandth Generation Field all riding at anchor on that windy vast anchorage. What a mesmerizing sight - with Fuji gleaming in the dawn light behind them.
@@sprucezeus I also got to tour the Hikawa Maru. Moored just a few miles away, the liner is equally famous for transporting royalty, escaping Jewish refugees, and surviving WW II.
I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen or heard an account of this battle from the Russian perspective. While different sources do give varying degrees of detail on the Russians' hellride to get *to* the battle in the first place, once contact is made the perspective always shifts to Japan. Bravo!
I have read that Yamamoto was not adopted into the Yamamoto family until both his parents were dead. He was then about 30 years of age. At the battle of Tsushima, he was 20 or 21, so his name was still Takano Isoroku.
"The Russians fought valiantly at least" Yeah, but as the events show, that's not what is most important. They needed that spirit back when the ships were constructed, back when the plans were made and the crews trained. That's like coming to the math quiz and trying your hardest: It's not going to help if you never studied. "The victorious force first achieves victory and will seek battle thereafter. The defeated force will fight first and then try to achieve victory." Sun Tzu
Kinda hard to train when your some Russian farm labourer who's never seen the ocean before and when you get there it's frozen over. Also when your commanding officer is only there because they are a noble.
Revolutions take a very long time to brew, this was 13 years before the most authoritarian government to ever exist was militarily coup'd into power. This was not a cohesive nor trained crew but they fought, which is yet another testament (if you're such a history brainlet you needed one) of Slavic loyalty and bravery. Russia has never been conquered by a foreign army and most warlike legacies end in a defeat of attrition in the motherland. (All caucasians have called russia home at some point in their lineage)
There was. And several of them. From the top of my head i can remember 2: intelligence vessel, built in 1980s and coast guard vessel built couple years ago.
I imagine Admiral Rozhevensky finally dying and getting to the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter gets out his file and reads it with his eyes getting wider and wider... then he looks up at the admiral, shakes his head in sympathy and hands him a VIP pass, since the poor man had obviously ALREADY spent his fair share of time in hell...
It's easy to make fun of the Russians but when you hear that their gunners still kept firing, while the ship was capsizing you see their actual quality of character shine through.
Judging by this and the previous video on the 2nd Pacific Squadron, it seems more like the officers were the incompetent ones, while the crews main fault was inexperience. It's what rampant nepotism in military hierarchy will get you.
This may not be a popular opinion , but in my view courage cannot excuse laziness in training or ineffective action. Courage should grow from justified confidence not wild despair.
@@tamlandipper29 You may be missing the point a bit. I am not even mentioning the word courage in my post. I said "quality of character" and was pointing towards a certain Russian streak of mentality - half curse, half blessing - that shows through ever so often.
You know, all memes aside, they really did try their best. Making the battle as difficult for their enemy as they could and never giving up to the suprise of the Japanese.
i like to imagine Togo's eyes widen in horror as the wounded Rozhestvensky tells his story. he then summons his aid and demands a bottle of vodka for the poor man.
@@CThyran yeah given the bad luck they had during this war it is a small miracle one small sample of said luck Admiral Stepan Makarov pretty famous admiral loved by his men for being a fighting admiral and well regarded outside Russia even by the japanese in one destroyer engagement when the russian destroyer is losing he switches his flag to a cruiser and goes out to save that destoryer the commander of the whole fleet well he later hits a mine and goes down with his battleship Admiral Wilhelm Withöft tries to make a dash to Vladivostok slips past the japanese fleet who think he is coming out to fight them japanese give chase but they are in a stern chase when one lucky shell hits the bridge of the flagship that one shell basically kills the admiral all his staff and jams the rudder when the flagship begins to turn with no signal so does the rest of the fleet
What most people think, who have not heard or read about this battle in some detail, is that the long journey around the world was the hardest part of the fight. Many people, including myself, believed they were simply sunk once they encountered the Japanese at Tsushima Street. Perhaps the Russians were their own worst enemies when not in actual battle but once they encountered an enemy intent on killing them, their survival instinct kicked in and they rose to the occasion. Probably because of bad visibility, many gun battle between opposing ships were fought at rather close distance, negating the disadvantage the Russian crews had being less trained in gunnery. And if the enemy is close enough so that you don't have to rely on the range finder (ie: fire at point blank range) it becomes difficult to miss each other.
'They did fairly well' ??? They shot fishing boats, saw imaginary torpedo-boats everywhere, got on opium, couldn't hold the line, couldn't hit the targets, covered their ships with flammable dust, wasted ammunition, were shooting at each other on numerous occasions, lost their way, infested their ships with rats and dangerous animals and finally got obliterated completely with almost endless more victims than their enemy. And you say 'they did fairly well' ??? I really wonder what than 'doing bad' would be in your opinion. In my opinion they did not do fairly well. They were a bunch of utterly incompetent sailors (as confirmed by their own incompetent officers) sent on an impossible mission by their equally incompetent leaders, partly sailing on floating museums and pleasure-boats. That is not to say that the ships that were up-to-date, were doing any better. Oh, yes, I forgot: their strategy was not having a strategy. Taking all this into consideration, I would say that they did exceptionally bad on a biblical scale. The only thing that was fairly well, perhaps, was the consumption of wodka.
@@1911olympic they hit Mikasa over 30 times half of that 15 times in 5 minutes were talking about an unplaned trip around the world with green sailors and very little logistical support here the Japanese were benefiting from good rest and repair add to that a much larger fleet thanks to the British helping them buy foreign ships and blocking the Russians from buying ships from Chile all of that and they knew they were coming and could do a sustained 15 knots to the Russian 14 knots burst of speed so yeah in summary the much larger and faster and better trained fleet lying in ambush won what were you expecting? Kamchatka was actually sinking btw
The part of his name that makes pronouncing it in many languages hard is just one letter - "Ж" - which in English is usually transliterated as "zh" and in German it's indeed usually "sch". The French "j" is actually the closest. Interestingly, "Ж" in Russian is also a shorthand for "ass" :)
Part 1 and 2 of this series were great. The maps, few photos, and stories of the mishaps during the entirety of the mission help keep the topic easily understandable, and in some cases, relatable. The addition of the movie footage was a great touch to bring the story alive. The step by step story telling during the battle helped to capture the drama and get feel of how quick the action was during the fight. The additional story of Isoroku Yamamoto was a very interesting bit of information.
Thank you for having a time delay and a change of tone in this follow up video. I honor your respectful approach as regards a battle where thousands of lives were forfiet.
I read that Rozhestvensky earned the utmost respect of the Japanese for relentlessly continuing the fight from his flagship despite it being a burning husk. It basically pulled the naval equivalent of the Monty Python "It's only a flesh wound" skit.
I missed the detail that then-Ensign Yamamoto lost two fingers and came to the edge of being invalided out of Naval service. Entirely coincidentally, his opposite number in WWII, Admiral Nimitz, had lost most of his right ring finger in a machinery accident (his glove was caught by gears in a mechanism he was showing some visitors, and he was only stopped from losing the whole hand by his Annapolis class ring jamming the mechanism, a rare case of wearing two dangerous articles resulting in a reduced injury). Had he lost his hand, he would have been invalided out of Naval service and WWII in the pacific might have gone rather differently again.
When the Kamchatka was needed she failed to radio that torpedo boats were sighted. That was her time to shine and she failed it. Just reinforces my thoughts that she was the Japanese torpedo boats all along. Also important question: Did Rozhestvensky run out of binoculars to throw in fits of rage?
The Matsushima class has to be one of the most beautiful classes I've ever seen. Let's take a protected cruiser and stick on a gun so big it takes half an hour to reload. Marvellous imperial ingenuity.
Khan: "Conan! What is best in life?" Conan the Barbarian: "To crush the 2nd Pacific Squadron, to see them sink before you, and hear Drachinifel recount the tale of their misfortunes!"
And thanks for the detailed explanation of WHAT it was that was burning on the Russian ships following hits by the Shimose shells - I always wondered why in the popular depictions of Tsushima, the Russian ships were lit up like torches. While there may be some embellishment there still - that does make better sense. Also, the Russians' better gunnery at the start of the battle is a surprise, but actually does make sense. Tsushima is a battle that's usually talked about in summation rather than in detail, where glossing over its course as "Japanese gunnery good, Russian gunnery bad" is not inaccurate overall. But when you break the timeline down further, it does get a little less straightforward than that!
“... actual, real life, all singing, all dancing, all features included, protected by the Emperor, torpedo boats...” Holy shit I keep relistening to this
Japanese Signal: The Fate of the Empire depends on the outcome of this battle. Let every man do his utmost 2nd Pacific Squadron Signal: Please please, just put us out of our misery....have mercy on our souls
Rozhestvensky was such a badass after all this shut he had to go threw he kept fighting till he physically couldnt anymore and after everything they put him he took the reponsibillity for everything those dumbasses did Imagine if he had control of a compitant fleet
There are a lot of parallels to this and the Naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba between Spain and the USA. In each case was on one side a deteriorating Imperial Empire with an even more ramshackle Fleet operating fat from their home base, and on the other side an up and coming power with a modern fleet in good repair operating close to its home base. …The outcome was also quite similar.
So all along the voyage the russians misidentified everyone as "japanese torpedo boats" and then promptly misidentified the first real japanese vessel they come across as russian? This fleet was the russian equivalent of Austria-Hungary general Conrad von Hötzendorf...
I just want to express my heartfelt thanks that you make these extraordinarily well made videos. You not only have knowledge to an amazing degree but you are a fantastic story teller as well. All credit to you, Drachinifel.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Will you ever cover Ancient battles?
Like the naval battles of the Punic war, or the naval battle that occurred during the battle of Thermopylae.
I know you don’t do modern, and this is breaking news, but I think it’s safely apolitical:
What do you make of the UFOs the US Navy have just acknowledged as real?
With the capabilities demonstrated, how might they effect naval warfare in the future?
(I’m assuming you’re not the type to declare them aliens, or I wouldn’t ask. Chinese, perhaps?)
If the germans managed to get Tirpitz ready for combat in time for Operation Rheinubung how would the Battle of the Denmark Strait have gone like had Tirpitz sailed with Bismarck instead of Prinz Eugen or with both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen?
Drachinifel If Churchill and FDR stuck there top Navel architects into a room what sort of aircraft carrier would they have come up with in 1941?
@@themightynanto3158 if the British force distribution doesn't change, probably a bit worse. Of course the German ships would lose in the end.
If the wreck of the Suvorov is ever found, efforts should be made to recover the admiral's binocular box. History deserves to know how many of the 50 were left.
Likely they were all expended after the 6” gun he was reported to be serving was destroyed.
If they were on the bridge and given the pounding the bridge and conning tower took, and the ship was clearly burning when she sank, what ever were left were likely destroyed in the fires
WWI battleships Captain and his officers are stationed on outside bridges to see the combat more correctly and giving orders. If the ships sinks, the officers is most likely washed away.
@Wet Mustard A nice brandy on there being 16 left
@@davidandmartinealbon3155 nah, a 2L of dr. pepper says there's nothing in that box but barnacles.
Rozhestvensky might the most honorable military man I've ever heard of. Dragging a fleet of ragtag ships across the world, facing every kind of frustration imaginable and baffling displays of incompetence from almost every ship in the fleet, and losing horribly in a battle that dictated the outcome of the war...
And he STILL took all the responsibility, in spite of probably hating most of the officers he was safeguarding.
I salute you.
When Russians are cornered in a hopeless fight, they fight like there is no tomorrow, which is true because most will not survive the fight.
Look at the Battle of Stalingrad for instance.
I think that perhaps those hated officers turned into fighting men once they got into the thick of it. I was most impressed by that Russian battleship taking up first position after the flagship was taken out, knowing full well this was downright suicide (the difference: suicide is easy).
@Phil McCrevice Hah, I bet you would have been a shining example of courage had you been part of the Russian fleet at that time. Clearly you have not seen the entire video.
@Phil McCrevice Incompetence, yes, but firing well and even continuing to man their posts and firing as the ship is sinking! That is not cowardice. As for the ships that fled, I do not believe that to be cowardice either, as the battle had clearly been lost by that stage. Rather they performed their country a service by saving a few vessels, as opposed to the ones lost in surrender. Again, given the odds against them, this was simply accepting that they had been defeated. With no chance of inflicting any significant damage against the intact opposing fleet, their surrender was honourable.
@@Temp0raryName "Firing as the ship is sinking" More likely the crew had so many false alarms about sinking that they didn't know that it actually was until the water was over their heads.There is a very thin line between bravery and stupidity. I have my own thoughts on where the Russian fleet was in respect to that line, you can have your own.
@@Nyx_2142 We had no indication of false alarms, so that is speculative at best. However foolishly elements of the fleet may have behaved, the record shows those men doing their duty, and beyond, to the end. As such I am content in standing by my comment and respecting their loss.
The admiral did not fear defeat or death, his only fear was that he would need to sail all the way home again with the same fleet.
😅😅😅
Fun Fact:
Admiral Togo actually visited Rozhestvensky when he was being treated at the Japanese hospital, and he offered the following words:
“ Defeat is a common fate of a soldier. There is nothing to be ashamed of in it. The great point is whether we have performed our duty.”
Togo probably didn’t realize his words would mean more to Rozhestvensky than he intended because he had no idea what the poor guy has been through...
Quite a contrast to how the same man might have been treated by the same side just a couple decades later. The IJN might well have beheaded the man for daring to lose and survive.
@@tackytrooper that's the IJA, complete opposite in integrity to the IJN.
@@proudfirebrand3946 Totally, the IJN would fish you of the water, beat you as a matter of principle, fail at beheading you then push you overboard with nothing except maybe a nice weight to drag you down.
Or possibly go on a murder and rape rampage in a city they had once controlled when they realised the end was nigh.
@@lolroflroflcakes Truth. IJN had plenty of blood on its hands too.
Togo was a gentleman. These were men with honor.
It doesn't surprise me that Rozhestvensky died of a heart attack. What surprises me is that he didn't already have 20 heart attacks while commanding the 2nd Pacific Squadron.
How can we know he didn't? A lot of people with heart issues and stubborn personalities just "shrug off" heart attacks and walk them out. They refuse to acknowledge something is wrong with them until it's too late. Granted, given all the coal gunk if not heart disease he'd have died of cancer.
That heart attack was yet another delayed bomb from the Kamchatcka.
As incompetent as its mother ship, it took 4 years to explode.
RIP.
Increased levels of cortisol in the blood due to stress have been linked to increased risk of heart attack...
Note to self: If I ever discover/use time travel, I need to give Rozhestvensky a hug and tell him he did good.
Srećko Čuvalo
Please kill hitler while your in he’s time 👌
@@M0A0R0k00W0Y0L0D0E Of course, thats the 1st rule of time travel.
Also other notable Nazis like Himmler, Heydrich, Goering etc, as well as Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Mao, whoever was in charge of BuOrds, a number of future Japanese officers, maybe Hirohito, whoever ended up in Unit 731, etc.
@@bkjeong4302 a long list. But hey, that just means you need more ammo.
@@ironstarofmordian7098 lol
The Kamchatka...
Very important question, did the Kamchatka signal the spotting of the actual torpedo boats?
Needs more likes!
Hey, it's not like the impossibility of seeing Japanese Torpedo boats ever stopped the Kamtchatka before.
"No for real this time, I see torpedo boats!"
_ last message from the Kamchatka
@@SpicyPotato8675 Ironically that's not far off - it was indeed listed as "finished off by gunfire from Japanese light forces".
So it could've also said "TOLD YOU BOUT THOSE TORPEDO BOATS!"
@@SpicyPotato8675 "A torpedo boat bit my sister once. No relli"
+1 for Rozhetsvensky
A man who deserved honours and praise rather than court martial and the remainder of his life spent alone.
Edit: happy to see the likes for him.
He deserved plenty of blame for some of his decisions though. His top-down tyranny hamstrung the fleet when he could not convey his orders in the heat of battle. (And honestly what did he expect? That the Japanese would gamely not shoot at his flagship and allow him to direct his forces from safety?). He dropped the ball with regards to Japanese scouts (to the point of preventing the cruiser Ural from disrupting the Japanese radio-telegraph comms when they spotted the Russian forces). He dragged the transports along for god only knows what reason instead of sending them away to a neutral port when the battle became imminent. He relegated the torpedo boats to defense and rescue operations instead of setting them to task of harassing the Japanese warships.
All of this is armchair admiraling of course, but I'm pretty sure if Makarov was alive and in charge, things would've been different.
@@RegisTraiter good point, but same can be said for the Japanese admirals involved in midway and the scuffles with the RMs: they didn't have the benefit of hindsight. He really did work with what he had.
He showed to have a truly great personality, great character for taking all of the blame for the defeat.
I think most of the 'bad officers' that made his life hell earlier on, rose to the occasion when finding out it would be a fight to the death.
I never knew the Japanese Admiral Togo accepted the Russian surrender. I always believed the Japanese mercilessly sank every Russian ship they came into contact with. But then I never studied this battle in depth, just read some accounts about ships getting hit, the Japanese outmaneuvering the Russians and in the end the total destruction of the Russian squadron. They were in effect destroyed, just not all were sunk and the Japanese took the surviving vessels as prizes.
@@AudieHolland Rozhestvensky tried to resign while the squadron was still under way, but the Tsar rejected his resignation. He was a man caught between his own towering ego and an absolutely shit hand he was dealt. He was smart enough to know that the whole thing would end in a disaster, but couldn't stand the fact that he was in charge of the disaster. I think by the end of it all he was completely broken by the experience and was hoping to be executed, hence his acceptance of all responsibility and subsequent hermetic lifestyle.
@@RegisTraiter I wouldn't call trying to get out of commanding a junk fleet full of superstitious "sailors" who barely understood the basics of how to operate a ship to be egotistical. It's completely justified to want to get off a sinking ship after all.
29:02 - "The Russian flagship also capsizes, still firing her remaining guns."
The ship broke before the crew did!
Wrong, the crew broke a long, *LONG* time ago
Only the captain didn't broke.
The ship itself must have thought that it was aiming at friendlies
...Hood too was still shooting when she sank...!
@@Packless1 A final torpedo fired that saved the Prince of Wales, right?
Rozhestvensky was one of the crazy ones. Wounded in the legs and head, he chooses to get stuck in with the crew in one of the casement guns and help them shoot at the enemy. I'm glad he survived.
though not for that long & after getting court marshaled. poor guy.
Crazy nothing. At that point, it was the most good he could do. I wasn't surprised to hear that he didn't stand on his officer status and just got to doing what needed to be done.
Novikov- Priboy, who served in the crew of the battleship "Orel" described him in his book as rude not clever officer who adored to communicate with subordinate men by hitting them.
@@vasskolomiets41 Doesn't surprise me to hear that one of his men thought something along those lines, after all, with the men he was given to command, the mass chaos, lack of discipline, insubordination, etc, I'm pretty sure that in the Age of Sail the whole expedition would've been brought to a halt simply because he had to order the whole crew flogged or hung.
@@hansvonmannschaft9062 in Russian Empire the medieval slavery (crepostnoye pravo- the serfdom) had been canceled legally only a generation before the Russian- Japanese war- in 1860. There was a mentality in the Russian elite to communicate with subordinated people in such way.
After the battle as Rozhestvensky was recovering from his injuries in a Japanese hospital, Togo approached him and said "Defeat is a common fate of a soldier. There is nothing to be ashamed of in it. The great point is whether we have performed our duty."
Which is pretty nice
It's certainly nicer than what the Russian newspapers were saying - they had incorrectly reported that Rozhestvensky had died in battle.
I like to imagine Togo and Rozhestvensky split a bottle of American whisky, while discussing the various woes of their respective commands.
@@TheAKgunner why american exactly?
@@hulilupteri. First drink that came to mind. And besides, who besides Americans make the best whiskey?
@@TheAKgunner The Scots and the Irish. (And also the Japanese, but their industry didn't actually start until the latter half of the 20th century)
24:50 "The Kamchatka is slowly sailing in circles."
By this time, the mention of the Kamchatka is enough to start me laughing.
2nd Pacific Squadron: it couldn't get any worse...
Drachinifel: It did in fact, get worse.
Correct......
2nd Pacific Squadron: It couldn't get any worse...
Admiral Togo: Hold my sake...
Shortly after that, 2nd Pacific Squadron lost his wife.
A Dumb Edgy Name then the judge said she can have the house and the dog and the kids...
O those russians
Togo was able to track the Russians by following the trail of binoculars being found on the sea floor.
This comment is so underrated.
I can only imagine an angry Russian man throwing binos like they were t-shirts at a basketball game
and simply following the sound of russian profanity
Finds pile of thrown binoculars, ah… the Kamchatka.
Definitely a shame that entire Russian fleet were too busy getting killed to be able to enjoy the sinking of the Kamchatka! And also a shame that it was NOT sunk by torpedo boats!!!
Russian Hospital Ship: "Be careful, there are many Russian ships around. I'd hate for you to collide with them."
Confused Japanese Ship: "Arigato?"
Shinanu Maru: “Well that was a freebie.”
Konnichiwa
Da, arigato gozaimasu
Sadly it's not documented what the Orel sent to the Shinanu Maru exactly, only that it was in Russian code which made the Japanese realize the ship assumed allied ships would be nearby, after which they saw a bunch of other ships appear in the mist and put 2 and 2 together. At least, that's what I've been able to make of it. It matters little, the Orel might as well have told the Japanese ship to be careful of the other ships in the fleet for all the effect it had.
I‘m so sad. Why wasn‘t the Kamchatka sunk by torpedo boats? 😭
That has to be the biggest betrayal in the history of betrayals. The chemistry between the Kamchatka and the Japanese torpedo boats is unrivaled by anything in existence.
"Anything *in existence*"
...Unlike *literally all* of the torpedo boats with which the Kamchatka had said chemistry :'D
I dunno, man. It feels like it went down EXACTLY in character: almost comically and not from the threat it kept panicking about.
By Japanese Torpedo boats disguised as British Trawlers...
I can only imagine :
[Kamchatka in all that smoke and chaos bumps into no less than *8* Japanese Torpedo boats from all sides, gets torn to shreds, and while it's sinking the crew is like] : *SEE, VASILI ?!?! I TOLD YOU ALL THERE WERE JAPANESE BOATS ALL ALONG*
...and of course the "Kamchatka"...*:)
just imagine, if Kamchatka had gotten away: 'Good news Admiral, the Kamatchka managed to escape'. The poor man would have probably exploded right there.
I have no doubt that the admiral would have detonated with enough force to sink the entire Japanese navy on the spot
"I am an old man, 60 years of age,
and my life is of no particular value anymore. It is over anyway, I will get shot for this. But you are young men in your prime, and it is you who are destined to restore the glory of the Russian navy. I take responsibility for this step all by myself." - Rear Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov announcing his intention to surrender to his crew.
Ok, NOW I'm crying...
Except he wasn't shot and lived until 1922. There was a possibility that he'd be shot, he and 3 of his captains were given death sentence after court martial, but Tzar changed it to 10 year sentence and then in 1909 he was pardoned and released on Tzar's birthday.
Captain Vasily Fersen of the fast protected cruiser Izumrud disobeyed the order and broke through the Japanese blockade but wrecked his ship in a night while approaching Vladivostok.
I am sure he was smiling from heaven when he saw how the russians had finally built a competent blue water navy in the 1970s and 1980s. It is funny how the soviets actually achieved the goals and ambitions of the Russian empire. It was if as the USSR was just a commuinst mutation of the russian empire.
@@GenocideWesterners That competent blue water navy was never tested in combat. It is very probable that an actual battle would go as well as Tsushima.
I've seen several summaries of this battle, including two in university-level history courses, and this is by far the most cogent and easy to follow. It also (when seen after its predecessor) does a better job of explaining WHY the Russians lost, rather than relying on conclusory assessments such as "inferior Russian gunnery," "the more modern and better drilled Japanese ships," and "poor leadership by the Russian admirals." The business about Yamamoto's fingers was a fascinating side note.
BTW, I'm a published, and moderately successful author of Military Science Fiction novels, so I'm a constant consumer of military history, and my books are stuffed with historical references and allusions. Channels like this are important to me professionally, as they give me easily used material that can inspire elements of the battles I stage in outer space. Somewhere along the line, I've got to find a way to add a USS Kamchatka to the fleet and provide it with an appropriate set of SNAFUs and disasters.
@@HPaulHonsinger To be fair, if you had used this stuff about the Kamchatka and the stay at Madagascar in a fictional story, people would find your story unrealistic.
@Jonathan Stiles I can feel theirs ghosts reaching through time to scream something to the extent of 'did you see what we had to work with?!'
Admiral Chester Nimitz also lost a finger, weird coincidence.
@@gunnar6674 I would like to point out that is essentially the case for most things that actually happened historically if told to somebody who didn't know too much about the topic beforehand, and as such almost any writers that base parts of or are inspired by historical events for their stories take such commentary with a grain of salt
I love that The Kamchatka was listed 5 times on the "numerous threats" list XD
Yeah, it was nice of him to downplay what a risk she was to the fleet.
Well it did gave me a laugh
Come on now. Anyone could make the mistake of accidentally loading a live shell. And those fishing boats were disguised japanese torpedo boats after all!
@@repairshipkamchatka1984 Didn't you say you were sinking? Go on and do it then!
@@repairshipkamchatka1984 Do you see torpedo boats?
Greatest enemy of the Russian fleet, the kamchatka
Japanese Fleet: hold my beer
Jon Bezeau
Japanese fleet: looks at Kamchatka.
„Never mind.“
Gives the Kamtchatka the beer.
Kamchatka drunkenly sails next to Japanese fleet.
Do you see torpedo boats?
Lol
Rozhestvensky deserves some credit for not committing suicide and actually doing his best in the face of every Murphy's -Law- Abject-and-Quite-Personal Hatred of everything 2nd Pacific Squadron.
And damn if the Russians don't have some borderline psychotic levels of stubbornness. Still firing from a burning battleship, damn.
Probably out of pure respect for the Admiral.
I must admit, I had always bought into the stereotype around the 2nd Pacific Squadron, ie sailed around the world to get sunk with only some damaged trawlers to show for it, but actually did somethingthe established navies thought was impossible (sail around the world, resupply at sea and get no drydock time) with ships totally unsuited for the task and fight dammed heroically.
You've corrected my view of history a few times and is the reason this is genuinely one of my favourite channels, long may it continue, thanks Drach.
The irony is that if not for their harrowing, often incompetent journey they wouldn't have become less incompetent by the time of Tsushima.
Agreed here
Agreed wholeheartedly. By any reasonable standard, the voyage of the 2nd Pacific Squadron (and the 3rd as well, to be perfectly frank) was a _success;_ they made it from the Baltic Sea to the Tsushima Strait, recoaling the entire fleet at sea multiple times along the way, without drydocking at any point, without losing a single ship, _despite_ the sheer rank incompetence that was endemic in many of the ships' officers and men for large parts of the voyage (and which Admiral Rozhestvensky was actually mostly able to beat out of them by the time they'd reached Tsushima). The fact that the fleet then got largely wiped out by the Japanese fleet (and, even then, they fought hard and bravely) is no detraction from the success of the preceding voyage.
I am reminded of a Russian phrase I learned some years back: “Nichego”. The rough translation is something along the lines of “that’s too bad” or “it can’t be helped”, and it is most commonly used to convey a feeling of resignation. The phrase is also part of one of my favorite quotes: “The Russian people subsist on a regular diet of cabbage, vodka and nichego - and in a pinch, they can make do without the cabbage”.
Dosvidanya, Admiral Rozhestvensky. In a world with any hint of fairness, they’d have named a medal after you; “The Order of Rozhestvensky, awarded for peerless courage and dedication to duty in the face of insurmountable odds”.
EDIT: corrected spelling error.
"...And skills above and beyond in binocular hurling".
If you get two (referred to as "with bar") I think the bar to the award should be a bronze/silver/gold representation of the Kamchatka...
Too soon?
Rosie Hawtrey While I can appreciate the sarcastic nature of making the “lecherous slut” part of the medal, I think a representation of the Suvorov would be a bit more appropriate.
EDIT: Forgot to say, I can definitely get behind making “binocular-hurling” one of the reasons for the medal being awarded, so long as it’s not actually a requirement. Not every sailor will have easy access to a pair of binoculars, unfortunately.
There are similar saying in other languages such as the French "c'est la vie" or the Japanese "shikata ga nai"
Ничего , Nichego - which means nothing. How you are doing ? Nichego. This means nothing good and nothing bad.
Ivan Monahhov Thanks for the correction! 🙂 I don’t actually speak Russian and got my knowledge of the word secondhand, sorry about that. 😅
I feel bad for Admiral Roschestweski he is forever remembered as incompetent because he was unable to a achieve a nearly impossible attack in a short time.
I wounder what if he had won, say the Tasae gave him more ammo and even said, “beat the officers of you must, just get that force into shape” and with said allowances he managed to achieve a victory. Interesting to wxpore these very unlikely alternatives
He could find his kin in Admiral Patricio Montojo, a contemporary given an even more impossible task with, if anything, an even more decrepit and unsuited fleet. Montojo too was court martialed, although in his case the enemy Admiral actually sent a note testifying to his bravery in the utterly hopeless and impossible battle.
@@TheoreticalString Montojo ... was he a Spanish Navy officer? Yeah, that was another really sorry bunch. I hear tell that when one old rust bucket of a warship steamed out of Manila Bay to face Admiral Dewey, its propeller shaft sprang a leak. Fortunately, the leak was plugged. Unfortunately, it was plugged with CONCRETE ... which immobilized the ship for the rest of the battle.
Kamchatka (as she's fired on by both Japanese and Russian ships): What are you doing I'm on your side.
Russian Ships: WHY WON'T YOU JUST SINK ALREADY!!!!!
Told you there were japanese torpedo boats all around us!
Aurora: This is the true meaning of JUSTICE!
"And in the middle of the carnage, the Kamchatka was sunk... and there was much rejoicing" *(Yeeyyyyyyyyy...)*
@@repairshipkamchatka1984 Username checks out.
@@vikkimcdonough6153 wtf XD
In case anyone wonders what happened to Izumrud. After giving the Japanese the finger and escaping (being cheered on by the crews of the remaining Russian ships), it ran aground in Vladimir Bay shortly after. By some accounts, her captain Hans William (Vasili) von Fersen, who was generally regarded as a brave and competent officer, lost his nerve and became paranoid, thinking the Japanese were giving chase (whereas they were too busy capturing the rest of the Russian ships). His command became erratic, which contributed to a navigational error and subsequent grounding. The ship could still possibly be saved if the Russians had waited for high tide... but Fersen's paranoia got the best of him and he ordered the cruiser scuttled. The crew then marched overland towards Vladivostok, buying up cattle from the villages along the way. They marched into Vladivostok looking dirty, battered and road-worn, and accompanied by A WHOLE LOT OF COWS (possibly sparking the jokes that they traded the cruiser away for the moos). They were then taken to Moscow by train where they received heroes' welcome.
that's quite the little side tale.
I would expect nothing less
At least he got his boys out of harms way, that cannot be said for most Russian captains that day.
I'd trade a single cruiser in an obviously already lost war for her like 300 crewmen any day. Von Fersen had already denied the enemy that ship. If I could chose I'd rather serve under him than the majority of his peers ...
@@abcdef-cs1jj I suppose it depends on the national combat mentality.
Maybe some of them were from Texas and were so shell-shocked they thought they were on a round up.
Great video and corrects many misconceptions about the Russian 2nd Pacific squadron.
Because of the defeat some authors describe them and the commanding Admiral as totally incompetent when in fact they were brave and skilled people who fought as well as they could given the disadvantages of their circumstances.
The Japanese fleet fought just as well but had every advantage possible with the exception of sheer numbers, and in this case quantity was NOT a quality all of its own.
The Japanese had a trakget rich enverment
I recall a report that one gunnery officer had to teach his gunners to COUNT before they could even the targeting scopes and rangefinders. considering that it's actually a miracle they hit anything during the battle.
During the battle, the Russian and Japanese ships were probably firing at almost point blank range. If that's how it went, it would negate the Russian crews ineptness with advanced sighting equipment. What I got from this excellent narration is that the Russians, with their many faults, fought like lions once they knew there was no escape.
Rozhestvensky showed that a few wounds did not deter this Russian Admiral from fighting on even commanding a gunturret. Which, when hit and his entire crew obliterated leaving him more wounded, only made him demand 'new gunners!' to continue the fight.
And after all this, he took all of the blame for the defeat. Saving the reputations of many inept Russian officers he had learned to hate and despise during the long voyage. Perhaps all of them showed the same exceptional fighting spirit that the surviving guns of the Svetlana showed, fighting till the last shell or till their vessel was shot from under them. And this compensated for all the hardships they had put their Admiral through during the long voyage.
@@AudieHolland They were not at point blank range. The ranges were actually much longer than naval tacticians had expected. It was one of the key things that lead to the all big gun battleships because at those ranges the only guns that really counted were the 12" guns. All the secondary and tertiary guns really didn't justify themselves.
PETITION: Kamchatka to get its own episode of infamy 😈
Adm. Rozzy: infamy, infamy, they've all got it infamy...
Kamchatka: I see torpedo boats...
We seriously need a Kamchatka video.
I second this.
YES!!
Hear! Hear!
The Kamchatka has become my sentimental favorite.
In russian naval historical circles Rojestvensky is blamed for being passive. There are suggestions he should attack incoming cruisers in time of crossing T, or some other part of japan fleet in some other moment. But his dang ships couldn't even turn all at same direction! I clearly see he chose passive way to let his matelots to avoid any maneuver mistakes
Modern Russian military historians tend to follow the Soviet narrative and portray all the late-Imperial officers as hopelessly incompetent. Whatever the Imperial generals/admirals did was branded as "wrong", in that narrative. This was needed to prove how "efficient" the post-Revolutionary officers were, in comparison...
Post revolutionary offices were pretty good, though over time became like the imperial Russian officers, be coming incompetent and rigid. The doctrine they had however, as a great one, as deep operation plays heavily to their strengths.
You could say that he was passive in the sense that he didn't strangle half of his crew
@@jurisprudens as we've seen recently, their modern navy is no better!
It doesn't matter what you order as a commander if your men simply do not have the training and skill to execute those maneuvers. Even a general as brilliant as Hannibal at Zama was reduced to mostly very basic maneuvers because the majority of his army by then was made up of raw recruits with minimal training who simply would not have been able to perform any of the creative out-of-the-box tactics he had become some famous for while fighting with his veteran force in Italy.
I wish to commend you for honoring the Russian and Japanese Sailors lost in this conflict. In the end, all who go to sea are sailors and brothers and sisters of the sea.
A very appropriate ending to the video. Whilst much of the previous video (and a fair part of this one) was devoted to mocking their incompetence approaching the fight, and ineffectiveness in it, this showed suitable respect to their loss.
Yeah brothers and sisters killing each other while their superiors are drinking tea together, telling them when to kill and when not to kill each other. Such a hypocrisy. If they were "brothers and sisters" they would have turned the barrels against their own superiors only willing and intent to get them butchered by the other side.
@@GilbMLRS The Aurora eventually did. Perhaps this video illustrates some of the frustrations that led to this event.
@@GilbMLRS ok tankie
Russian who were rescued from sea, sent over to Japan in Matsuyana. They were free to go out, enjoyed Hot Spring and attended Theatre. Wonded Sailors who were treated but died were buried Individually with respectable stone, facing at their homeland. There is memorial event for praying in March. I think Relations can visit Japan.
Oh boy I can’t wait to see the Russians who just sailed half way around the world and drive their admiral to the brink of insanity sink the Japanese fleet!
Bit of a bummer then lol.....
"sail" is a bit generous for what they did. yet also an understatement.
@@wideyxyz2271 LOL
You misspelled "sink _in front of_ the Japanese fleet!"
13:08
"What is this giant dent in the hull?! Did a shell or fragment hit here?!"
"Uh, no. That is where Admiral Rozhestvensky smashed his head into the hull after witnessing our massive screw ups."
“And boy oh boy! Did we screw up A LOT!!”
Hypersonic binoculars
As a sidenote, two of the three Torpedo Boats the Japanese lost were sunk by the Armored Cruiser 'Dmitri Donskoi'. She was attacked by several waves of boats during the night but managed to drive all of them off, also damaging a third one in the process. She next beat off an attack by four Cruisers, also damaging them. Not a bad showing for a 20-year old vessel, I'd say.
She also helped transfer Rozhestvensky from _Buinyi_ over to _Biedovi_ after _Buinyi's_ machinery broke down, and took on both _Buinyi's_ crew and over 200 survivors from _Oslyabya_ that the destroyer'd been carrying when she had to scuttle _Buinyi_ to keep it from being captured. _And,_ when she was finally cornered and badly damaged by a large number of Japanese warships in the late afternoon of the second day, having made it nearly halfway from the main battle site to Vladivostok, she managed to drop anchor near Ulleung Island and get everyone ashore before scuttling, with only 60 dead out of nearly a thousand on board at that point _(Dmitrii Donskoi's_ own officers and men, plus the crew of _Buinyi,_ plus the _Oslyabya_ survivors from _Buinyi)._
(Oh, and the third torpedo boat, the one that _wasn't_ sunk by _Dmitrii Donskoi?_ _She_ was lost in a collision with the destroyer _Akatsuki..._ who'd been captured from the Russians nine and a half months previously at the Battle of the Yellow Sea.)
Little known fact: Historians were actually able to reconstruct 2nd squadron's course from the Baltic Sea to Japan with great accuracy by following the trail of binoculars resting on the seabed.
26:44 This. This is a perfect example of why I love history. A single digit non lost from that young ensign's hand arguably changed forever the history of Japan AND the US, and consequently of the whole world. Incredible.
I doubt that Yamamoto not being there would've influenced the greater events all that much. Japan would've gone to war with the USA regardless of whether Yamamoto was there to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor and participated in the buildup of aircraft carriers before the war. He made it easier for them in the early years, sure, but I doubt things would've gone much different in the greater scheme of things.
I would disagree. Pearl Harbor was Yamamoto's brainchild, and it was a pivotal event that catapulted the US into the war overnight and with enormous resolve. Admiral Halsey famoulsy said "before we’re through with ‘em, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell". Churchill, having been informed of the attack, later wrote that he "slept the sleep of the saved" that night.
Would the US have participated in WW2 without Pearl Harbor? Probably. To what extent? We'll never know. But the crucial importance of that fateful day cannot be underestimated: Japan managed to instantly awake "the sleeping giant", and he was very very pissed.@@MyVanir
@@richardmaccagni8690 Japan was always going to attack the US after the latter sanctioned them for the invasion of China. They needed the raw materials and the lands controlled by the various colonial powers in the region had them. The only difference Pearl Harbor made was giving Japan a short period of time when they had absolute superiority in the Pacific and could occupy the areas that they did - Yamamoto not being there to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor would've meant their initial attack might've been weaker and in some different area, but since the Phillippines were under US control at the time, they too would've been attacked.
@@MyVanir And we could fill many alternate history books and novels with so many "would have, should have, could have".
Maybe a "weaker initial attack", as you proposed, would have caused a lesser reaction from the US; maybe a delayed intervention from the US could have been catastrophic for the UK and rest of the world, and a thousand other maybe: point is, we'll simply never know.
Unless you have a crystal ball, this is just speculation: you're dismissing a major turning point in the entire war, a world changing event, on a pure "would have" basis.
Maybe Russia would have invaded Japan if the US didn't drop two nuclear bombs.
Maybe Germany could have resisted many years more if it managed to seize and hold the oil fields in the Caucasus.
Maybe WW1 would have happened anyways if Princip failed to kill Franz Ferdinand.
Maybe Napoleon would've won at Waterloo if Davout and not Grouchy commanded his cavalry.
Can you say for sure? No. We can debate forever on so many fascinating "what ifs", but that's speculation, not history.
If the Royal Navy hadn't been successful at Tarantino then Yamamoto may not have launched Pearl Harbor ( although I've no doubt the war would have happened anyway - maybe started by invading the Phillipines ). Butterfly wings.
If the 2nd Pacific fleet had made one more mistake & got into a fight with the Royal Navy - as they came very close to - then the entire century would have looked radically different. The British Empire, Japan, and quite possibly Germany vs Russia? I can't picture the fallout of that.
"The phrase, and then it got worse, is practically a national moto."
That line aged rather well, wouldn't you say?
Like Who's On First.
The joke "Russia is now the second strongest army in Russia" might actually be true now
@@kostakatsoulis2922Indeed, “and then it got worse”
Despite the outcome, I've got to say hats off to Rozhestvensky for doing some seriously impressive work getting his squadron all the way to the Pacific given the state of it and managing to whip a fair few ships into proper discipline and competence. Hats off of course also goes to said crews who managed to perform admirably under the circumstances like the crews of the 3 lead pre-dreadnoughts.
Like Srećko Čuvalo said in another comment, if somebody discovers a time machine, Admiral Rozhestvensky certainly deserves a visit and given the respect and consolation he deserves for his feat :)
I’d bring along a healthy supply of 21st century Jamaican weed as a gift if I made that trip. Poor man deserved it...
30:30 @@grahamstrouse1165Don't forget a box of binoculars.
Tsushima is one of the craziest stories in naval history. Imagine sailing all the way around the world for months on an epic journey, only to get obliterated in one battle at the end.
Very honorable the attitude of Togo of respecting their enemies lifes and offering conditional rendition. Gentlemen at the top of these fleets. Well done Nebogatov, not sacrificing men in vane.
I am appalled at the decision to omit from your dedication any mention of the countless crocodiles, chameleons, colorful birds, and venomous serpents that valiantly
squawked, slithered, served, & ultimately sacrificed all for Russia... adopted Mother Russia.
The moment of silence in memory is probably appropriate for many other videos as well.
The fact that Rozhestvensky was court martialed for the failure of an astoundingly stupid plan that he hated from the very moment he was assigned it says so much about Tsarist Russia. Especially the part where Rozhestvensky _wasn't even conscious_ and couldn't have prevented a surrender in the first place if he wanted to, everyone knew it, and instead of just letting it go, they went along with his insistence it was his fault and no one else's.
Cough cough.... different regimes but nothing ever changes in russia. We see same story more than a century later
thank you for putting this story straight and giving the Russian crews the dignity they deserve. Far too often their sacrifice is forgotten, cast as incompetent idiots when in reality they were doing their best.
You have to admire the sheer determination of Rosnyezventskiy.
His communications wrecked, his ship halfway burned down and shot to hell, and the madman goes and starts shooting a gun himself whilst bleeding out.
Say what you will about the Russians performance, they sure as hell didnt go easy.
Threats - “And, the KAMCHATKA...” 😱😂😂🤷🏼♂️
26:42 - That ensign wasn't actually Isoroku _Yamamoto_ at the time; he was only adopted into the Yamamoto family in 1916. At the time of Tsushima, he would've still been Isoroku Takano.
The Matsushima-class, for those who are wondering, were protected cruisers armed with a single 13-inch battleship gun each. They were not actually monitors, though they looked quite a bit like them, but "bizarre" is definitely the right descriptor.
It was during this battle, that the officers of the Russian Fleet invented Russian Roulette in frustration.
5 out of 6 people say Russian Roulette is perfectly safe
@@wilsonj4705 much cheaper than hurling expensive binoculars into the water, with one chance out of six that all your problems will be over.
in russia back then it was known as american roulette
@@sodincyes, we called it Apache Roulette, if enough of them charged a Gatling gun on horse back, it would run out of bullets in time for the survivers to overrun it. Which meant the soldiers had part of their stomach nailed to a tree and were chased around it until they ran out of guts, or were hung upside down on a wagon wheel with a small fire slowly cooking their brains, until their skull exploded. Great fun for the Apache! The last great breakout was around 1912, they were chased back to the reservation by airplanes and Ford's with machineguns mounted on them. A unrelenting enemy you had to respect. Only the Japanese ever equalled them in battle.
@@wilsonj4705 me very dumb... lol
This is an excellent video. It is detailed, humorous where appropriate, and respectful of both sides despite the results being very heavily in favor of the Japanese Imperial Navy. The little anecdote about Ensign Yamamoto's injury and its affect on his future career is especially appreciated.
A complete shitshow start to finish. It must be said that with green crews, wear from a huge voyage, insubordinate officers and endless supply issues Rozhetsvensky faced his enemy with his head held high and all guns blazing.
The fact he got that farce across the world shows his skills.
@@bkjeong4302 It was also quite generous of him to take all the blame himself, and not try to get any of those other officers punished.
He had more honour than many, it was a professional and understood command.
Not to mention the Kamchatka.
I want to like this but my honor as an Imperial citizen and member of the Imperial Guard forbids me to like anything with an Orkz face on it...
I was aboard IJN Mikasa (July 2019). The wind was whipping the spray up and across her decks. I was standing on her flying bridge when I had my "moment". Tokyo Bay, the wind, the rain all combined for a sublime juncture of time and space as I looked out across her forward 12 inch guns (reproductions but yeah, still cool). Thanks for your videos, especially this one as the fate of the Second Pacific Squadron vs. the Japanese has always interested me.
I used to stand on the seawall at Yokosuka and imagine Flying Dragon, Red Castle, Blue Dragon, Prancing Dragon, Soaring Crane, Auspicious Crane, Auspicious Phoenix, Phoenix Flying, Big Eagle, Cloud Dragon, Flying Hawk, Cloud Hawk, Sea Hawk, Divine Hawk, Hawk Which Soars, Peregrine Falcon, and Thousandth Generation Field all riding at anchor on that windy vast anchorage.
What a mesmerizing sight - with Fuji gleaming in the dawn light behind them.
@@sprucezeus Alas, it was too cloudy when I was there. I did not get to see Mt. Fuji that day.
@@morlock2086 Alas indeed - to be in Kanegawa and not see Fuji is tragic. You never forget the holy mountain and she never forgets you.
@@morlock2086 Don't feel too bad. I had no idea Mikasa was there until a few hours before I left.
@@sprucezeus I also got to tour the Hikawa Maru. Moored just a few miles away, the liner is equally famous for transporting royalty, escaping Jewish refugees, and surviving WW II.
I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen or heard an account of this battle from the Russian perspective. While different sources do give varying degrees of detail on the Russians' hellride to get *to* the battle in the first place, once contact is made the perspective always shifts to Japan. Bravo!
I have read that Yamamoto was not adopted into the Yamamoto family until both his parents were dead. He was then about 30 years of age. At the battle of Tsushima, he was 20 or 21, so his name was still Takano Isoroku.
"The Russians fought valiantly at least" Yeah, but as the events show, that's not what is most important. They needed that spirit back when the ships were constructed, back when the plans were made and the crews trained. That's like coming to the math quiz and trying your hardest: It's not going to help if you never studied.
"The victorious force first achieves victory and will seek battle thereafter. The defeated force will fight first and then try to achieve victory." Sun Tzu
Kinda hard to train when your some Russian farm labourer who's never seen the ocean before and when you get there it's frozen over. Also when your commanding officer is only there because they are a noble.
Dylan W Well, isn’t that the entire point of the comment?
...indeed...!
...the russian navy should have studied Sun-Tzu BEFORE the fighting started...! :-(
...b.t.w ...
...admiral Togo did...!
@@suvorov8989 As if Japanese Navy's structure was much different.
Revolutions take a very long time to brew, this was 13 years before the most authoritarian government to ever exist was militarily coup'd into power. This was not a cohesive nor trained crew but they fought, which is yet another testament (if you're such a history brainlet you needed one) of Slavic loyalty and bravery. Russia has never been conquered by a foreign army and most warlike legacies end in a defeat of attrition in the motherland. (All caucasians have called russia home at some point in their lineage)
I feel so sorry for Rozhestvensky. He did what he could do. sm
Well, I suppose this misadventure was probably why there was never another Russian vessel named the Kamchatka ever again.
///We're Sinking!///
**Engaging Japanese Torpedo Boats!**
@@Demour77 Everyone else: *FINALLY!*
There was. And several of them. From the top of my head i can remember 2: intelligence vessel, built in 1980s and coast guard vessel built couple years ago.
@@Temeluchas Did they report Torpedo boats?
I imagine Admiral Rozhevensky finally dying and getting to the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter gets out his file and reads it with his eyes getting wider and wider... then he looks up at the admiral, shakes his head in sympathy and hands him a VIP pass, since the poor man had obviously ALREADY spent his fair share of time in hell...
Imagine the punishment for his sins would be to be forced to do the same voayage ever and ever again XD
@@derherrgraf6001 With an entire fleet composed SOLELY of many, many identical copies of the Kamchatka.....
Plus a pair of binoculars
It's easy to make fun of the Russians but when you hear that their gunners still kept firing, while the ship was capsizing you see their actual quality of character shine through.
Judging by this and the previous video on the 2nd Pacific Squadron, it seems more like the officers were the incompetent ones, while the crews main fault was inexperience.
It's what rampant nepotism in military hierarchy will get you.
This may not be a popular opinion , but in my view courage cannot excuse laziness in training or ineffective action. Courage should grow from justified confidence not wild despair.
@@tamlandipper29 You may be missing the point a bit. I am not even mentioning the word courage in my post. I said "quality of character" and was pointing towards a certain Russian streak of mentality - half curse, half blessing - that shows through ever so often.
@@michaelt.5672 they all were probably poor conscripted farmers who never wen to any training or school
@@faded_specter6495 and Japanese, British or American sailors were all volunteers with university degree?
A survivor, the protected cruiser Aurora, is a museum ship in Saint Petersburg.
Last time I was this early Hood was still sailing.
The Battle Cruiser or the officer himself? ;-)
@@robertmarsh3588 yes
@@robertmarsh3588 Which Officer? The 1st? 2nd? 3rd? 4th? Sam Hood's 2nd cousin?
Last time I was this early battleships weren't obsolete.
last time I was this early, Drach was still a robot (he may still be, but they've at least upgraded the speech circuits!)
You know, all memes aside, they really did try their best. Making the battle as difficult for their enemy as they could and never giving up to the suprise of the Japanese.
Honestly, whenever I’m having a bad day, I listen to the saga of the 2nd pacific squadron. It cheers me right up because of how hilarious it is.
The most amazing story is after the battle when Togo himself personally visited Rozhestvensky.
Is there a record of that? Would make good read.
i like to imagine Togo's eyes widen in horror as the wounded Rozhestvensky tells his story. he then summons his aid and demands a bottle of vodka for the poor man.
people need to remember this was the russian B team
if we are honest they did fairly well considering they were a green crew in old ships
It's a miracle they even got there.
@@CThyran
yeah given the bad luck they had during this war it is a small miracle
one small sample of said luck
Admiral Stepan Makarov
pretty famous admiral loved by his men for being a fighting admiral and well regarded outside Russia even by the japanese
in one destroyer engagement when the russian destroyer is losing he switches his flag to a cruiser and goes out to save that destoryer
the commander of the whole fleet
well he later hits a mine and goes down with his battleship
Admiral Wilhelm Withöft
tries to make a dash to Vladivostok slips past the japanese fleet who think he is coming out to fight them
japanese give chase but they are in a stern chase when one lucky shell hits the bridge of the flagship
that one shell basically kills the admiral all his staff and jams the rudder
when the flagship begins to turn with no signal so does the rest of the fleet
What most people think, who have not heard or read about this battle in some detail, is that the long journey around the world was the hardest part of the fight.
Many people, including myself, believed they were simply sunk once they encountered the Japanese at Tsushima Street.
Perhaps the Russians were their own worst enemies when not in actual battle but once they encountered an enemy intent on killing them, their survival instinct kicked in and they rose to the occasion. Probably because of bad visibility, many gun battle between opposing ships were fought at rather close distance, negating the disadvantage the Russian crews had being less trained in gunnery. And if the enemy is close enough so that you don't have to rely on the range finder (ie: fire at point blank range) it becomes difficult to miss each other.
'They did fairly well' ??? They shot fishing boats, saw imaginary torpedo-boats everywhere, got on opium, couldn't hold the line, couldn't hit the targets, covered their ships with flammable dust, wasted ammunition, were shooting at each other on numerous occasions, lost their way, infested their ships with rats and dangerous animals and finally got obliterated completely with almost endless more victims than their enemy. And you say 'they did fairly well' ??? I really wonder what than 'doing bad' would be in your opinion. In my opinion they did not do fairly well. They were a bunch of utterly incompetent sailors (as confirmed by their own incompetent officers) sent on an impossible mission by their equally incompetent leaders, partly sailing on floating museums and pleasure-boats. That is not to say that the ships that were up-to-date, were doing any better. Oh, yes, I forgot: their strategy was not having a strategy. Taking all this into consideration, I would say that they did exceptionally bad on a biblical scale. The only thing that was fairly well, perhaps, was the consumption of wodka.
@@1911olympic
they hit Mikasa over 30 times half of that 15 times in 5 minutes
were talking about an unplaned trip around the world with green sailors and very little logistical support here
the Japanese were benefiting from good rest and repair add to that a much larger fleet thanks to the British helping them buy foreign ships and blocking the Russians from buying ships from Chile
all of that and they knew they were coming and could do a sustained 15 knots to the Russian 14 knots burst of speed
so yeah in summary the much larger and faster and better trained fleet lying in ambush won what were you expecting?
Kamchatka was actually sinking btw
I became a Patreon supporter and a video is posted within the hour. Who could ask for better service?
Finally!
And then it got worse a national motto... That's cold, Drach.
But so apt....
@@douglasdaniel4504 Let's just wish them better luck going foward...
its Russia, ofcourse its cold
Hy I'm Admiral Roschestwenski, and this is Jackass
Try "Hello, my name is Admiral Zinovy Roheztvensky
@@ironstarofmordian7098 I got the german pronounciation :D
@@clemi6739 oh. I didn't realize. I assume you're from Germany or Austria?
@@ironstarofmordian7098 You assume correctly ;)(Austria) Just looked it up on wikipedia as I wasn't sure I got the name right (I didn't)
The part of his name that makes pronouncing it in many languages hard is just one letter - "Ж" - which in English is usually transliterated as "zh" and in German it's indeed usually "sch". The French "j" is actually the closest.
Interestingly, "Ж" in Russian is also a shorthand for "ass" :)
Part 1 and 2 of this series were great. The maps, few photos, and stories of the mishaps during the entirety of the mission help keep the topic easily understandable, and in some cases, relatable. The addition of the movie footage was a great touch to bring the story alive. The step by step story telling during the battle helped to capture the drama and get feel of how quick the action was during the fight. The additional story of Isoroku Yamamoto was a very interesting bit of information.
When the pessimist says things could not possibly get any worse the optimist will say yes they can.
And of course, the Kamchatka
It's surprising that nobody TKed the Kamchatka before they arrived at Tsushima.
Thank you for having a time delay and a change of tone in this follow up video. I honor your respectful approach as regards a battle where thousands of lives were forfiet.
Kamchatka -> loude laughter -> bunch of people looking into my officeroom and wondering what is so funny.
The battle of Tsushima destroying half of russia's fleet
The Kamchatka: **Intense Repair Ship Screaming**
Admiral Rosesvenski: *WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE NORMAAAAAALLLL!!!!!*
Kamchatka: Dammit! That's my job!!!!!
@@weldonwin *toots in chaotic stupid*
Roschestwenski dying of a heart attack, while tragic, is hilariously fitting
i'm surprised it didn't happen while he was on the voyage.
I read that Rozhestvensky earned the utmost respect of the Japanese for relentlessly continuing the fight from his flagship despite it being a burning husk. It basically pulled the naval equivalent of the Monty Python "It's only a flesh wound" skit.
They really should rename the WoWS “It’s Just a Flesh Wound” badge the “Rozhestvensky Award.”
Pretty much all of the Russian "good" battleships ended up doing that.
I missed the detail that then-Ensign Yamamoto lost two fingers and came to the edge of being invalided out of Naval service. Entirely coincidentally, his opposite number in WWII, Admiral Nimitz, had lost most of his right ring finger in a machinery accident (his glove was caught by gears in a mechanism he was showing some visitors, and he was only stopped from losing the whole hand by his Annapolis class ring jamming the mechanism, a rare case of wearing two dangerous articles resulting in a reduced injury). Had he lost his hand, he would have been invalided out of Naval service and WWII in the pacific might have gone rather differently again.
Interesting alt-history idea: No Yamamoto and no Nimitz due to these mishaps being worse.
Legend has it that Japanese fishing trawlers continue to catch binoculars to this day.
When the Kamchatka was needed she failed to radio that torpedo boats were sighted. That was her time to shine and she failed it. Just reinforces my thoughts that she was the Japanese torpedo boats all along.
Also important question: Did Rozhestvensky run out of binoculars to throw in fits of rage?
Memorial at the end is a nice touch.
I thought so to.
The Matsushima class has to be one of the most beautiful classes I've ever seen.
Let's take a protected cruiser and stick on a gun so big it takes half an hour to reload. Marvellous imperial ingenuity.
Khan: "Conan! What is best in life?"
Conan the Barbarian: "To crush the 2nd Pacific Squadron, to see them sink before you, and hear Drachinifel recount the tale of their misfortunes!"
Khan: who let connan on the internet
"You forgot being regaled with tales of the adventures of the hero ship Kamchatka!"
Honestly it is impressive that they even made it to East Asia at all.
And thanks for the detailed explanation of WHAT it was that was burning on the Russian ships following hits by the Shimose shells - I always wondered why in the popular depictions of Tsushima, the Russian ships were lit up like torches. While there may be some embellishment there still - that does make better sense.
Also, the Russians' better gunnery at the start of the battle is a surprise, but actually does make sense. Tsushima is a battle that's usually talked about in summation rather than in detail, where glossing over its course as "Japanese gunnery good, Russian gunnery bad" is not inaccurate overall. But when you break the timeline down further, it does get a little less straightforward than that!
I wonder what would have happened if the russians had give the fleet ample ammunition to practice with.
@@Slurreydude They would have sunk the Aurora, most likely.
R.I.P for those sailors who gave their lives in this battle.
“... actual, real life, all singing, all dancing, all features included, protected by the Emperor, torpedo boats...”
Holy shit I keep relistening to this
Kamchatka! I laughed so hard when i remember all he mishaps during the journey! Thank you for this.
12:28 "an actual real life all singing, all dancing, all features included, protected by the emperor. Torpedo boats"
We all laughed at the comedic journey to get here, but that would have been so terrifying for those unfortunate sailors.
I am so happy to see "Includes paid promotion" you deserve a piece of a pie for what you are doing! KEEP UP GOOD WORK!
Japanese Signal: The Fate of the Empire depends on the outcome of this battle. Let every man do his utmost
2nd Pacific Squadron Signal: Please please, just put us out of our misery....have mercy on our souls
Rozhestvensky was such a badass after all this shut he had to go threw he kept fighting till he physically couldnt anymore and after everything they put him he took the reponsibillity for everything those dumbasses did
Imagine if he had control of a compitant fleet
Yeeeeeeah, finally! Thanks Drach, after the magnificent first part I couldn't wait for the sequel!
Watched this after the loss of Russia's Black Sea Flagship today...
Same)
Moskva: most modern submarine in the r*ssian navy
There are a lot of parallels to this and the Naval Battle of Santiago de Cuba between Spain and the USA. In each case was on one side a deteriorating Imperial Empire with an even more ramshackle Fleet operating fat from their home base, and on the other side an up and coming power with a modern fleet in good repair operating close to its home base. …The outcome was also quite similar.
Every Russian who ever lived:
"I fear no man. But... that thing..."
*Kamchatka*
"...it scares me."
So all along the voyage the russians misidentified everyone as "japanese torpedo boats" and then promptly misidentified the first real japanese vessel they come across as russian? This fleet was the russian equivalent of Austria-Hungary general Conrad von Hötzendorf...
I'm really glad you got your first sponsorship! This channel is awesome and deserves it. シ
I just want to express my heartfelt thanks that you make these extraordinarily well made videos. You not only have knowledge to an amazing degree but you are a fantastic story teller as well. All credit to you, Drachinifel.