Port Arthur was surrendered by decision. The heroic defense of the Port Arthur fortress. Who does time work for?

The Russo-Chinese Convention of 1898 leased Port Arthur to Russia for 25 years with the right to extend this period. The Russians, once on the Liaodong Peninsula, began to remake everything in their own way: in a few years, a small Chinese village turned into the main base of the Russian navy in the Pacific Ocean. By 1904, the Russian-Chinese Bank was operating in Port Arthur, the buildings of the engineering department and the headquarters of the military administration were towering, and numerous soldiers' barracks stretched around. By that time, more than 50 thousand people lived in the city.

Port Arthur before the war. (Pinterest)

On the eve, not all Russian military leaders saw the danger of the siege of Port Arthur. So, for example, the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in Manchuria, Yevgeny Alekseev, in his plan of military operations, indicated that "the offensive of the Japanese army to Port Arthur is unthinkable, why only a garrison with small additions can be assigned to defend it." At the same time, the Daily Mail war correspondent Benjamin Norrigaard, noting the poor training of the troops, wrote: “The Russians, however, turned out to be unaware of the modern development of fortification art and most of their fortifications were of the same type that was used back in half the last century.” Major General Kostenko is even more pessimistic about the defense of the fortress: “Not only did Arthur not have the right or reason to be considered a “stronghold”, but then he really did not have the character of a fortified camp. In his original form, Arthur was positively hopeless in terms of protection and vulnerable in any of his points. The remark of one of our most popular generals that “macaques” are starting a war with “somewhat” was also fully justified on Arthur.

Be that as it may, on the eve of the summer of 1904, Port Arthur was cut off by land from the Manchurian army, after some time the sea communication was blocked, and finally, on July 30, 1904, the siege of the fortress by Japanese troops actually began.

2nd Platoon, 3rd Foot Hunting Team, 16th Infantry Regiment. (Pinterest)

In early August, the Japanese attacked the advanced fortifications of the fortress: as a result of stubborn battles, at the cost of serious losses, the Japanese were able to capture the Dagushan and Xiaogushan redoubts. The first successes gave the Japanese leadership confidence - the troops of General Noga immediately began to prepare for the assault.

“It was necessary to recruit such chiefs in Port Arthur,” Admiral Von Essen complains in his diary. Describing the confusion during the first assault, he says: “The Thundering boat was commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Nikolaev, already a very elderly man, sent to the east to serve the qualification. This commander fell ill immediately, as soon as his boat had the prospect of taking part in hostilities. Gilyak was commanded by Stronsky, a young officer, but possessing neither the energy nor the courage so necessary for a commander.

Medics in the fortress of Port Arthur. (Pinterest)

An employee of the Port Arthur newspaper Novy Krai, Larenko, in his memoirs, describes the storming of the fortress by the Japanese as follows: “Today, from the very morning, it’s hell on our batteries, the Japanese are bombarding our northeastern front, concentrating fire on one or the other battery, our batteries fire just as hard. The mountains are covered with smoke from exploding Japanese shells and from the shots of our guns, and above this black smoke and dust, shrapnel bursts in the air like shreds of cotton wool, showering positions with a rain of bullets. The rumble and rumble merge so that it is impossible to make out who is shooting from where and where the shells are exploding.

“Until dark, continuous volleys of guns rumbled, and in the fortress, in the area where the 10th regiment was located, music thundered and repeated explosions of “cheers” were heard - this is the 14th regiment, standing here in reserve, continues its regimental holiday: there is a thunder of explosions , battle and death, and here are cheerful clicks and the completely non-belligerent sounds of the regimental orchestra, ”recalls this day in his diary, Colonel Rashevsky.

Burial of the dead in Port Arthur. (Pinterest)

For four days, the Japanese General Nogi unsuccessfully tried to capture the fortress: as a result, according to historians, he lost almost half of his soldiers - about 20 thousand killed. Russian losses amounted to about 3 thousand people. Despite this, the inhabitants of the fortress were indignant. So, for example, engineer Mikhail Lilier writes: “There was longing in my heart and, at the same time, stupid anger at the Petersburg careerists, at the Korean timber merchants, at all those who had such a sweet life away from these places, where, because of them, people now flowed in streams. Russian blood.

The unsuccessful assault forced the Japanese commanders to move on to a long siege: they were waiting for reinforcements and building siege structures. Already in the first months of the sea and land blockade, the Russians began to experience problems with food. The journalist Larenko mentions: “While starvation has begun everywhere, in the city and in the positions, we learn that General Stessel has another hundred pigs and many other edible animals. He stocked up on everything. Angrily ironic remarks are heard at his address, by the way, the question is asked - if General Stessel has 100 pigs, how many pigs are there in total? The answers don't match."

The defensive line of the fortress. (Pinterest)

With all this, the Japanese also did not have to relax. The English journalist Norrigaard, who lived in a Japanese military camp, says in his materials: “The firefight did not stop day or night, sometimes shrapnel and shells fell into the trenches, so that the soldiers could never be calm and had to be constantly on the alert for a week which they spent in these trenches. If they forgot themselves even for a minute and stuck their heads out of the trench, then they were fired upon and were often killed on the spot, since the Russians appointed their best shooters for this.

The second assault was carried out by the Japanese in early September. “The main focus of the Japanese is on the High Mountain. There, all the time, without ceasing, there is a strong gunfight, to which at times the roar of guns, sending whole clouds of lyddite shells, joins. From the outside, it seems completely incomprehensible how you can remain safe and sound in this hell and continue to repel the enemy’s desperate attacks, ”recalled the first day of the assault, Russian army engineer Mikhail Lilye. Indeed, a fierce and stubborn battle went beyond the High Mountain, which the Japanese never managed to take. Special heroism, according to eyewitnesses of that battle, was shown by Lieutenant Podgursky, who, with three hunters, knocked out three companies of the Japanese who occupied the fortifications with checkers. Another attack was repulsed, as a result of which the Japanese lost four times more soldiers (about 6000) than the Russians.

Soldiers after another assault. (Pinterest)

After another failure, the Japanese concentrated on sapper work: they dug trenches to the forts and fortifications of Port Arthur. During the long siege, provisions were completely depleted: the front-line soldiers received horsemeat twice a week, the rest of the time they had to be content with bread. In addition, scurvy was rampant in the fortress, which, no worse than bullets and shells, reduced the size of the garrison.

The third assault at the end of October, the Japanese army again failed: the general attack ended in the defeat of the Japanese. “In general, despite the hellish fire, the Japanese did not take possession of more than one solid fortification: if we still manage to beat off the next assault, then, perhaps, we will sit out altogether,” Colonel Rashevsky left such an entry in his diary on the day of the Japanese attack.

Abandoned artillery pieces. (Pinterest)

Indeed, the next assault was not long in coming: having received reinforcements, the army of General Nogi at the end of November launched the largest attack on the fortress of Port Arthur. For ten days, the Japanese were not able to break through the Russian front, but they achieved an important strategic goal - they occupied Mount High, from which the entire Port Arthur harbor was visible. Immediately, Japanese artillerymen opened fire from 11-inch howitzers on the city and the ships of the Port Arthur squadron. Russian battleships and cruisers were irretrievably lost. At the same time, the British journalist Norrigaard wrote not about the successes of the Japanese, but about the heroic deed of the Russian soldiers: “Both sides fought madly, especially the Russians, who attacked that day with unparalleled courage. No one could resist their furious attack. General Nakamura was seriously wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Okuba was killed and over a thousand soldiers were out of action.

“A company of sailors went to the High Mountain in extended formation. People go cheerfully, calmly - to almost certain death. The sound of the explosion made us look back towards the harbour. There, above the battleship Poltava, a huge puff of yellowish-brown smoke rose. Probably, an enemy 11-inch shell hit the ship's powder magazine. P. came and says that the Japanese are already at the very top of the High Mountain. I don't believe it. I don't want to believe!" - recalls those days an employee of the newspaper "New Territory" Larenko.

The crippled soldiers of the garrison of Port Arthur. (Pinterest)

Less than a month since the end of the last assault, the fortress of Port Arthur held out. Commandant Stessel, contrary to the decision of the Military Council of the fortress, which advocated the continuation of the defense, surrendered Port Arthur. On January 5, 1905, the garrison, exhausted by the siege, surrendered their weapons and handed over Port Arthur. The officers, who promised not to fight again in this war, were sent home.

“The history of the siege of Port Arthur is, from beginning to end, the tragedy of Japanese weapons. Neither in the field of strategy nor in the field of military art was anything outstanding or especially remarkable shown by the Japanese. Everything was limited to the fact that thousands of people were placed as close as possible to the enemy positions and rushed into continuous attacks, ”the English correspondent Ellis Bartlett, who was in the camp of the Japanese troops all this time, will write later.

General Nogi, feeling guilty for the death of thousands of soldiers, wanted to perform the seppuku ritual - ritual suicide by ripping open the stomach. However, the emperor forbade him to do so. The general, together with his wife, carried out his intention after the death of the emperor.

The fortresses of Port Arthur from February 9 (January 27, old style) 1904 to January 2, 1905 (December 20, 1904, old style) during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

In order to secure access to the Yellow Sea, in 1898 the tsarist government of Russia leased for 25 years part of the Liaodong Peninsula (Kwantung Peninsula) with Port Arthur (now Lushun). The construction of fortifications in Port Arthur, due to lack of funds, began only in 1901 (by January 1904, nine long-term and 12 temporary batteries were built in the coastal direction from 25 batteries; on land, six forts, five fortifications and five long-term batteries were completed only one fort, three fortifications and three batteries). Of the 552 guns, 116 were on alert. The garrison of the Kwantung Peninsula consisted of the 4th and 7th East Siberian Rifle Divisions. The head of the Kwantung Fortified Region was Lieutenant General Anatoly Stessel, the commandant of the fortress was Lieutenant General Konstantin Smirnov, the head of the land defense was Lieutenant General Roman Kondratenko, who became the organizer and inspirer of the defense of Port Arthur. At the beginning of the war, the 1st Pacific Squadron was in Port Arthur under the command of Vice Admiral Oscar Stark (seven battleships, nine cruisers (including three old ones), 24 destroyers, four gunboats, two minelayers, two mine cruisers).

On the night of February 9, 1904, 10 Japanese destroyers suddenly, before the declaration of war, attacked the Russian squadron, which, due to the carelessness of the command, was on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur without proper security measures. The battleships "Tsesarevich", "Retvizan" and the cruiser "Pallada" were heavily damaged. But the enemy failed to destroy the Russian squadron with one sudden blow. In the morning, the main forces of the Japanese fleet appeared in front of Port Arthur (six battleships and 10 cruisers under the command of Vice Admiral Heihachiro Togo). A Russian squadron came out to meet them (five battleships and five cruisers). The fight lasted for about an hour. Under the fire of Russian ships, supported by coastal artillery, the enemy retreated and went to the open sea. His attempts to block the Russian squadron from entering the inner roadstead of Port Arthur were also unsuccessful.

On March 8, Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov took command of the Pacific Squadron, taking decisive measures to increase its combat activity. But on April 13, during one of the squadron's exits to the sea, the flagship battleship "Petropavlovsk" hit a mine and sank two minutes later. Makarov and most of the crew were killed. Rear Admiral Wilhelm Witgeft took command of the squadron.

The passivity of Rear Admiral Witgeft, who took command of the squadron, allowed the Japanese to freely begin on May 5 in the area of ​​Bizwo the landing of the 2nd Army of General Yasukata Oku, which, without meeting resistance, cut the railway line to Port Arthur, on May 26, the Japanese troops, thanks to a significant superiority in forces (about 35 thousand people against 3800 people from the Russians), captured Russian positions on the Jinzhou Isthmus, covering the distant approaches to Port Arthur. Russian troops retreated to positions along the line of the Lunaantan Bay. Fearing an attack by the main forces of the Russian army from the north, the enemy left one division against Port Arthur, and redeployed three to the north. Sent to support Port Arthur, the 1st Siberian Corps under the command of General Georgy Shtakelberg (about 30 thousand people) was defeated near Vafangou on June 14-15 due to inept leadership. To capture Port Arthur, the Japanese created the 3rd Army of General Maresuke Nogi, which launched an offensive on June 26 and reached the near approaches to the fortress by July 30, beginning its siege. By this time, its garrison consisted of about 50.5 thousand people (of which eight thousand sailors), 646 guns (including 350 serfs) and 62 machine guns. The enemy had about 70 thousand people, about 400 guns (including 198 siege guns) and 72 machine guns.

On August 10, Russian ships again attempted to break through to Vladivostok (the first attempt was made on June 23), but after an unsuccessful battle in the Yellow Sea, they returned to Port Arthur, where they actively supported the ground forces with their fire during the defense of the fortress, transferred artillery and personnel to the troops to strengthen the defense.

On August 19, the enemy launched an assault on Russian positions. In fierce battles that lasted until August 24, at the cost of heavy losses (about 15 thousand people; the Russians lost over six thousand people), he managed only in some places to wedge into the main line of defense of the fortress.

On September 19-22, Japanese troops launched the 2nd assault. Having suffered heavy losses (7.5 thousand people against 1.5 thousand people from the Russians), the enemy captured three fortifications - the Kumirnensky and Vodoprovodny redoubts and the Long height; the main object of their attack - the High mountain dominating the city - withstood.

On October 1, the shelling of Port Arthur from 11-inch howitzers began, destroying the concrete casemates of the fortress, not designed for such a caliber of guns. During the 3rd assault on October 30-31, the Japanese troops were able to occupy only a few secondary fortifications. Having received replenishment, the enemy resumed the assault on November 26, directing the main blow against Vysokaya Mountain, on December 5, despite the heroism of the defenders, took possession of it and began destroying the surviving ships of the squadron locked in the inner roadstead with artillery fire. The battleship Poltava was the first to die on December 5, the next day - the battleships Retvisan and Peresvet, on December 7 - the battleship Pobeda and the cruiser Pallada, on December 9 - the cruiser Bayan. Of the large ships, only the battleship "Sevastopol" (Captain 1st Rank Nikolai Essen) survived, which left the inner raid in a timely manner and took refuge in the White Wolf Bay. Here it was attacked by Japanese destroyers for six nights, but to no avail: two of them were destroyed by artillery fire from the battleship, and nine were seriously damaged. Until the very end of the defense of Port Arthur, "Sevastopol" continued to provide fire support to the ground forces.

On December 15, General Roman Kondratenko died with his closest assistants. General Anatoly Fok, a supporter of the surrender of the fortress, was appointed head of the land defense. On December 29, a meeting of the military council was held, the majority of the participants of which spoke in favor of continuing the defense. However, despite this, Anatoly Stessel signed the capitulation on January 2, 1905.

On January 2, 1905, the Port Arthur garrison numbered over 32 thousand people (including about six thousand sick and wounded), 610 guns, nine machine guns, about 208 thousand shells and up to three thousand horses.

The heroic defense of Port Arthur lasted 329 days, including 155 days of direct struggle for the fortress on the land front. She pinned down large enemy forces (up to 200 thousand people), frustrating his plan to quickly defeat the Manchurian army. In the struggle for Port Arthur, the Japanese lost over 110 thousand people and 15 warships, another 16 ships were heavily damaged and out of action for a long time. The losses of the Port Arthur garrison in killed and wounded amounted to about 27 thousand people.

Under the Portsmouth Peace Treaty (1905), lease rights to Port Arthur passed to Japan, and it became the main base of Japanese aggression in China. In 1923, the lease expired, but Japan did not return Port Arthur to China. During the 2nd World War (1939-1945), on August 14, 1945, an agreement was signed between the USSR and China on the joint use of Port Arthur as a naval base for 30 years. On August 23, 1945, Soviet troops liberated Port Arthur. In February 1950, an agreement was concluded between the USSR and the PRC on the joint use of the naval base of Port Arthur for three years, which was extended in 1952. After the end of the war in Vietnam and Korea in October 1954, an agreement was concluded on the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Port Arthur, which was completed in May 1955, and all the facilities of the fortress and the naval base were transferred to the PRC.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

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The defeat of the Russian army in the war with Japan in 1904-1905, the shameful peace concluded as a result of it, the first Russian revolution and the anti-patriotic moods that prevailed in the then Russian society ignored the war itself, in particular, one of its most important and heroic episodes - the defense of Port Arthur.

All that distant, now forgotten by all war still raises many questions, doubts and disputes among researchers, and simply lovers of military history.

From various sources it is known that Port Arthur did not have time to properly prepare for defense, the main reason for the current situation is associated with the lack of the necessary state funding, in those days, the Russian army was plagued by the same funding problems as now.

According to the plans of the military department, it was planned to fully complete all construction work and other measures to bring the fortress to full combat readiness only by 1909, however, the tsarist Ministry of Finance began to allocate money for construction work only with the outbreak of war, in total they managed to allocate about 4.5 million rubles of the 15 million planned, which was about less than one third of what was needed.

As a result, by the beginning of hostilities in the fortress, only a little more than half of all work had been completed, with the greatest attention being paid to the coastal front, that is, they were going to defend themselves from the enemy mainly from the sea, and not from the land.

Another miscalculation in the construction of Port Arthur is the fact that its defensive line adjoined the city and the harbor too closely, this gave the Japanese the opportunity to bombard most of the fortress in the future, almost from the very first days of the siege, including the sea harbor itself with warships of the fleet.

It turned out that in terms of military engineering, Port Arthur simply did not fit in terms of its engineering parameters to the standards of the then modern fortress such as Verdun or Brest-Litovsk, the so-called classical fortresses. Port Arthur was not a fortress, but most likely it was a complex of various defensive positions and structures. The Russian military command, perfectly aware of all the weak points of the defense of Port Arthur, built the entire system of the main fortifications, relying on the terrain that was quite favorable for defense.

Most of the fortifications were mainly built on the dominant heights, opposite which, to the north of the fortress, there was a relatively flat area, which, as it approached the fortifications, turned into an open sloping area, the entire area was turned by the defenders into a zone of continuous artillery and rifle fire . The rear slopes of the heights served as good cover for men and guns.

With the outbreak of hostilities, the construction of fortifications accelerated, work was carried out day and night. Echelons with troops, artillery, machine guns and ammunition continued to arrive in the fortress until the very last moment. But it was not possible to fully complete all the engineering and construction work in five months, which were calculated for five years.

It is also known from various sources that by July 1904, the Port Arthur fortress was armed with only 646 artillery pieces and 62 machine guns, of which 514 guns and 47 machine guns were installed on the land front.

There were about 400 shells for each gun. For the transportation of goods, materiel, combat stock, food, etc. there were over 4.5 thousand horses in the fortress.

By the beginning of the defensive battles, the garrison of Port Arthur was provided with food, incl. flour and sugar for six months, meat and canned food for only one month. Then they had to be content with horse meat, there were few green supplies, which is why during the siege there were a lot of cases of scurvy in the garrison.

The total strength of the fortress garrison consisted of 41,780 soldiers and 665 officers. In addition, 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, 2 mine cruisers, 4 gunboats, 19 destroyers and the Amur mine transport were stationed in Port Arthur Bay.

The squadron and the Kwantung naval crew numbered up to 8 thousand people, it was a truly well-trained, regular army, consisting of conscript soldiers, whose average age was no older than 30 years, so the fighters from the Port Arthur garrison, unlike the soldiers of Kuropatkin's army, which consisted for the most part of the reserve, they fought professionally, with minimal losses of their own, while inflicting maximum damage to the enemy.

The defense of Port Arthur was led by General A. M. Stessel, to whom all ground and engineering troops, as well as fortress artillery, were subordinate. However, what was interesting to note was that the fleet, which was based in the bay of the fortress, was not subordinate to Stessel, but to the commander-in-chief, who was in Manchuria and could not really control it.

Even in the absence of a sufficient number of long-term, well-fortified structures, Port Arthur met the enemy with an organized defense and, as subsequent events showed, became a real grave for the Japanese land army.

The Japanese sought to capture Port Arthur, primarily in order to destroy it as the main base of the Russian military fleet, that is, the ground army acted in the interests of the fleet, the events of the war showed that the Japanese fleet fought much better than the ground forces. For the siege and capture of Port Arthur, the Japanese formed a special 3rd army, which consisted of three infantry divisions, two reserve brigades, one field artillery brigade, two detachments of naval artillery and a reserve engineer battalion.

At the initial stage of the siege, apart from special troops, Commander General Nogi had under his command over 50 thousand bayonets, more than 400 guns, of which 198 were special siege artillery.

In the future, the siege grouping of the Japanese troops constantly increased and soon reached about 100 thousand soldiers, and this is not counting the reserves, with which the Japanese kept up to 200 thousand soldiers and officers near Port Arthur.

The fighting for Port Arthur began in the first half of May 1904. on the distant approaches to it, from the so-called battle of Panshan. This place was called the Jinzhou Isthmus, about 4 km wide (the narrowest point of the Kwantung Peninsula), the positions were defended by the reinforced 5th East Siberian Rifle Regiment of the 4th East Siberian Rifle Division, which in total numbered about 3,800 people with 65 guns and 10 machine guns . For 13 hours, the regiment resisted parts of the Japanese 2nd Army, about 35 thousand people with 216 guns and 48 machine guns. The Japanese at first acted according to a pattern, tried to storm the heights head-on, walked literally over the corpses of their dead soldiers, 8 consecutive attacks were repulsed by the Russians without much difficulty.

In the end, not having received reinforcements, the regiment was forced to retreat from its tactically advantageous and well-fortified position. As a result of the first battle, the troops of Lieutenant General Yasukata Oku lost 4.5 thousand of the 30 thousand people who participated in the battle. The losses of the Russian troops amounted to about 1 thousand people. This was only the beginning, the main victims of the siege were still ahead of the Japanese.

Further, the assaults on the direct fortifications of Port Arthur were carried out by the Japanese in strict order, as if on schedule, for example,
the assault, carried out from August 19 to 24, ended in the complete defeat of the Japanese, one of the reasons for which was the remarkable accuracy of the night shooting of Russian artillery. The result of the assault - in two weeks of continuous fighting, the Japanese only killed more than 15 thousand of their soldiers, some units, and even entire units of General Nogi, simply ceased to exist or were no longer combat-ready, Russian troops also suffered serious losses of about 3 thousand people.

Between September 15 and 30, General Nogi delivered his next dense massive frontal attack, this time successfully. The Japanese even managed to capture some secondary positions, but the key point of the entire defensive system - Hill 203 - repelled all attacks. The shock columns were swept down again and again until the hillsides were covered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers. In this battle, the Japanese lost 7,500 people, the Russians - about 1,500 people.

Units of Russian machine gunners acted especially successfully and effectively in repulsing all these Japanese assaults, line after line, they mowed down countless chains of Japanese, sending them in tens or even hundreds to heaven to their Japanese gods, the trunks were red-hot and did not have time to cool down, from intense operation, machine guns failed, carriers barely had time to bring cartridges with ribbons, there was a roar of battle around, enemy corpses lay in bulk, Japanese soldiers, like zombies, continued to move forward, and only death awaited them ahead.

In November, another so-called “fifth general” offensive of the Japanese took place, and again it was repulsed by the Russians in all positions and cost the Japanese more than 12 thousand lives.

And only, finally, on November 22 (December 5), the enemy completely occupied Hill 203 (Vysokaya Mountain). The total losses of the Japanese during the assault on the mountain amounted to about 10 thousand people. Russian troops lost 5 thousand. soldiers and officers, these were the largest one-time losses of Russian troops in the entire defense of Port Arthur.

From the captured mountain, the Japanese began to correct the fire of heavy siege guns on Russian ships. Soon, most of the ships of the 1st Pacific Squadron were sunk in the Port Arthur raid. The fate of the fortress was sealed. The failure of the constant assaults, as well as the entire siege of the fortress as a whole, dramatically complicated the situation in the Japanese siege army. In many formations, the “limit of so-called stability” was surpassed, as a result of which the morale of the Japanese troops dropped sharply.

There were cases of disobedience and even an attempted rebellion, and this is among the always disciplined Japanese, who have their own philosophy of life and death that is special from all peoples, who, as Japanese experts say, were never afraid to die for their emperor, apparently not everyone was so afraid and how afraid. The behavior of the Japanese high command itself is also interesting, which threw tens of thousands of its soldiers right to the slaughter, one can directly say that the Japanese literally filled up the defenders of the fortress with the corpses of their soldiers.

According to various sources, it is known that during the siege of Port Arthur, the Japanese army lost from 90 to 110 thousand of its soldiers killed, wounded, died from wounds and diseases - these were truly horrific losses. Russian losses amounted to only 15 thousand dead, of which 7800 soldiers and officers were directly involved in combat.

On December 23, 1904 (January 5, 1905), a capitulation was concluded, according to which the garrison of 23 thousand people (including the sick) surrendered as prisoners of war with all stocks of combat equipment.

In those days, knightly traditions were still in effect and the Japanese allowed Russian officers to return to their homeland. Those who agreed to give their word of honor at the same time that they would not participate in hostilities.

The question still remains controversial, could Port Arthur continue to resist, or were the garrison's resistance forces really completely exhausted? Who is the head of the garrison, General Stessel - a criminal who surrendered the fortress to the enemy or a hostage of the circumstances. Some researchers argue that the further resistance of the fortress defenders was futile, completely blocked from the sea and land, without ammunition and sufficient food, Port Arthur was doomed, and Stessel's actions as commander were justified, they allowed the surviving defenders of the fortress to be saved. There is another opinion that Stessel committed a betrayal, as he handed over all the artillery to the Japanese, and this is at least 500 units. artillery pieces of various calibers and systems, large stocks of provisions and other material assets, which at the time of surrender continued to remain in the fortress.

Stessel nevertheless appeared before a military tribunal, which sentenced him to death for surrendering the fortress and port. The court found that during the entire period of defense, Stessel did not direct the actions of the garrison to protect the fortress, but, on the contrary, deliberately prepared it for surrender. However, the sentence was later replaced by a 10-year sentence, but already in May 1909 he was forgiven by the tsar. The society of the then Russia was not at all interested in the details of the lost war, students and female students were then more interested in bombers and revolutionaries of various stripes, and the heroic defense of Port Arthur, located already on the other side of the world, the war with some Japanese - all this was perceived by a large part society rather as exotic and nothing more.

Defense of Port Arthur

Shelling of Russian warships in the bay by Japanese artillery

Opponents

Side force commanders

Side forces

The defense of Port Arthur is the longest battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. During the siege, such new types of weapons as 11-inch mortars, quick-firing howitzers, Maxim machine guns, barbed wire fences, and hand grenades were widely used. Port Arthur was the birthplace of a new weapon - the mortar.

Defense of Port Arthur. The main base of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the headquarters of Russian troops in Northeast China was located on the Liaodong Peninsula (China). On the night of January 27, 1904, a detachment of Japanese destroyers attacked the Russian fleet in the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. However, the Japanese failed to land troops. Hostilities began on land from mid-April 1904, when the forces of three Japanese armies were landed in different places: the 1st Army of General Kursky (45 thousand people) at Tyurenchen, the 2nd Army of General Oku at Bizvo, 4th Army General Nozu at Dagushan. Later they were joined by General Noli's 3rd Army. In May 1904, Port Arthur was cut off by the Japanese from Manchuria. After a long defense on December 20, 1904, Port Arthur was surrendered to the Japanese.

Characteristics of the parties involved

• - The cruisers Nissin and Kassuga, bought from Argentina, entered service on April 11, 1904.

• • - This number includes the mine cruisers "Horseman" and "Gaydamak".

Tactical and technical data of some Russian ships on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War

Tactical and technical data of some Japanese ships

The course of the battle

Battles for advanced fortifications

On July 25 (August 7), 1904, the Japanese opened fierce fire on the advanced position of the Eastern Front - the Dagushan and Xiaogushan redoubts, and by evening they were attacked. All day July 26 (August 8), 1904 there was a stubborn battle - and on the night of July 27 (August 9), 1904, both redoubts were abandoned by Russian troops.

First assault

On August 6 (August 19), 1904, the Japanese began bombarding the Eastern and Northern fronts, and the latter was attacked. On August 6-8 (August 19-21), 1904, the Japanese attacked the Vodoprovodny and Kumirnensky redoubts and the Long Mountain with great energy, but were repelled from everywhere, having only managed to occupy the Corner and the fortification of Panlongshan.

On August 8–9 (August 21–22), 1904, Nogi stormed the Eastern Front, captured the front redoubts at the cost of severe losses, and on August 10 (August 23), 1904, approached the line of forts. On the night of August 11 (August 24), 1904, he thought of delivering a decisive blow to the fortress, in the gap between forts II and III, but this blow was repelled. The forts and the Chinese wall remained behind the besieged.

Siege and second assault

After the failure of the first assault, Nogi switched to a siege for a while. The Japanese received reinforcements and built siege structures.

The second assault began on September 6 (September 19), 1904, and by the morning of September 7 (September 20), 1904, the Japanese captured the advanced positions of the Russians - the Vodoprovodny and Kumirnensky redoubts and the Long Mountain. September 8-9 (September 21-22), 1904, there was a stubborn battle for the High Mountain, in which the Japanese saw the key to Arthur. However, the Japanese failed to take the High Mountain - the Russian army owes its preservation as a result of the fighting on September 9 to the eye and resourcefulness of Colonel Irman, the decisiveness of Lieutenant Podgursky and the heroism of the shooters of the 5th regiment. Podgursky with three hunters knocked out three companies of Japanese with pyroxylin checkers, who were about to occupy the lunettes.

Continuation of the siege and the third assault

After another failure, the Japanese launched earthworks on an even larger scale. The sappers, having reached the front line, dug day and night, drawing parallels, trenches and communication passages to the forts and other fortifications of Port Arthur.

On September 18 (October 1), 1904, for the first time, the besiegers used 11-inch howitzers to bombard the fortress, the shells of which pierced the concrete vaults of the forts and the walls of the casemates. Russian soldiers still steadfastly held out, although their situation worsened. From September 29, front-line soldiers began to receive 1/3 pound of horsemeat per person, and then only twice a week, but there was still enough bread, it was given out at 3 pounds per day. Shag disappeared from the sale. In connection with the hardships of trench life and with the deterioration of nutrition, scurvy appeared, which on some days pulled out more people from the ranks than the shells and bullets of the enemy.

On October 17 (October 30), 1904, after a three-day artillery preparation, which certainly weakened the strength of the defense, General Nogi gave the order for a general attack. In the morning the siege artillery opened heavy fire. By noon, he had reached his peak strength. Supported by artillery, the Japanese infantry attacked. The attacks ended in the complete defeat of the Japanese. Although on October 18 (October 31), 1904, it was quite clear that the next assault on the fortress had failed, nevertheless, Nogi ordered to continue the attacks against Fort No. II. The battle began at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and lasted intermittently until one in the morning and again unsuccessfully for the Japanese.

Fourth assault. The death of the squadron

In early November, Noga's army was reinforced by a new (7th) infantry division. On November 13 (November 26), 1904, General Nogi launched the fourth - general - assault on Arthur. The blow was directed from two sides - to the Eastern Front, where it was reduced to a desperate, frenzied onslaught, and to Mount High, where a nine-day general battle of the entire siege was played out. In fruitless attacks on the defensive fortifications of the fortress, the Japanese troops lost up to 10% of their manpower in the attacking divisions, but the main task of the assault, to break through the Russian front, remained unfulfilled.

General Nogi, having assessed the situation, decided to stop the attacks on the broad (Eastern) front and concentrate all his forces to capture Mount High, from which, as he became aware, the entire Port Arthur harbor was visible. After ten days of fierce fighting, November 22 (December 5), 1904 High was taken. The next day after the capture of the mountain, the Japanese equipped an observation post on it to correct artillery fire and opened fire from 11-inch howitzers at the ships of the Port Arthur squadron. Thus, the fate of Russian battleships and cruisers was finally sealed.

Surrender of the fortress

Photo of the scuttled Russian ships in the harbor of Port Arthur. In the foreground "Poltava" and "Retvizan", then "Victory" and "Pallada". On December 20, 1904 (January 2, 1905), General A. M. Stessel announced his intention to enter into negotiations on surrender. The widespread thesis that this was done contrary to the opinion of the Military Council of the fortress is not true, since the Council did not express any general and final opinion or decision. December 23, 1904 (January 5, 1905) capitulation was concluded. The officers could return to their homeland, having given their word of honor that they would not participate in hostilities.

A distant piece of land on the edge of the world, abundantly watered with the blood of Russian soldiers. Eleven centuries ago, the eyes of the whole world were riveted to this place. It was here that the main events of the Russo-Japanese War unfolded. Great feats were accomplished here and fatal, and sometimes contradictory decisions were made. The defense of Port Arthur is a vivid example of the military prowess of Russian soldiers.

Port Arthur, which served as the main base of the Russian fleet in this region, occupied a strategically advantageous position. From this bridgehead, the Russian squadron could strike in the direction of the Korean and Pechili bays. Thus threatening the most important operational lines of the Japanese army. But for all its strategically advantageous position, Port Arthur was not well equipped to serve as a reliable and safe naval base. The inner harbor, where the main forces of the fleet were located, was too cramped and shallow. With only one very narrow exit, it was a real mousetrap in the military-tactical aspect.

Not much more preferable in this regard was an external raid. Completely open, it represented an outright danger, as a parking lot for warships. In addition, the fortress did not have proper protection from either sea attack or land attack. In general, on the eve of the war, it was difficult to call this fortress an impregnable stronghold. Port Arthur was not able to withstand the massive attack of the army and navy of Japan. And he could not provide the Pacific squadron with a safe base. These are the basic premises of the tragedy of this war.

By the time the tight siege of Port Arthur began, only 116 out of the 552 guns of the fortress were in combat readiness. The garrison was not fully equipped with the fourth and seventh East Siberian rifle divisions. As for the fleet, the Port Arthur raid was the location of the first Pacific squadron and the Siberian flotilla.

The war, and, accordingly, the defense of Port Arthur, began on the night of January 27, 1904. The beginning of hostilities was initiated by an attack by 10 Japanese destroyers on a squadron stationed on the roadstead of Port Arthur. Immediately, Japanese torpedoes damaged two squadron battleships and one cruiser. These were the first losses of this dramatic and bloody war...

In the morning, the main forces of the Japanese squadron approached under the leadership of Admiral Heihachiro Togo. From that moment on, the defense of Port Arthur from the Japanese armada, which had a fourfold superiority, directly started. The daytime battle, which did not bring success to the squadron of Admiral H. Togo, culminated in a complete blockade of the fortress. In order to prevent Russian ships from leaving the harbor and disrupt the transportation of Japanese troops to

The valiant defense of Port Arthur lasted 329 days, but the fall of Port Arthur was inevitable. On the 329th day of heroic and fierce resistance, the fortress nevertheless fell. The protracted and exhausting defense of Port Arthur frustrated the plans of the Japanese command regarding the lightning defeat of the Russian troops in Manchuria. The price of 27 thousand Russian lives is the result of the defense of Port Arthur. The damage of the attackers was so great (112 thousand dead and wounded, fifteen sunk and sixteen damaged ships) that the commander-in-chief of the Japanese M. Nogi, who suffered for such monstrous and unjustified losses, was about to perform the hara-kiri rite. But the emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun forbade him this act. And only after the death of the monarch, the general carried out his intention ...