Ulsan

[Enforcer]

I've got 2 questions about the Ulsan Battle.

I have searched through wikipedia and therussojapanesewar.com, but I couldn't find enough details there: I've always wondered: HOW badly damaged were the 2 surviving cruisers: Gromoboi & Rossiya? Which Japanese cruisers took some punishment? (Idzumo and Iwate, but what about the other 2?). Literature on the RJW is hard to find...

Distant Guns: has anyone taken command of the Russian ships and defeated the Japanese?

After I had got to know the map and the circumstances a lil'bit better (and a few times' practice) I took my Russian squadron to the challenge:

Japanese forces
Idzumo: sunk
Adzuma: sunk
Tokiwa: heavily damaged
Iwate: heavily damaged

Naninwa: sunk
Tsushima: sunk
Takachiho: sunk

My Russian formation
Rurik: sunk
Rossiya: light damage
Gromoboi: light damage

I was proud :D

in real life however, it would'n have worked...

I tried to escape Kamimura's main force and first started haunting the 3 smaller Japanese vessels, one by one... I sank them all, easily with my formation.

All of my ships took some punishment due to long-range shots from Kamimura's force but most damage could be repaired. I let them fire (and meanwhile held fire myself) until the AI refrained from wasting shells from long range. Then I took my ships northwest (at +- 5000 meters) from Kamimura's force and started firing at the leading ship Idzumo. The lighter but abundant side-guns from Gromoboi and Rossiya (and to a lesser extent: Rurik) gave it a good punishment and after half an hour, Idzumo suffered moderate damage. I had the opportunity to flee, because the Idzumo couldn't keep it up anymore and slowed down, including the whole division.

For an enormous while my 3 ships battled from the same distance against the 3 remaining heavy cruisers, and the next cruiser in the Japanese line, Adzuma, began to tell: moderate damage. By then, 3/4th of my ammo was gone, and with 3 three enemy ships against 3 of mine (although those of the enemy were more powerful) I felt it was worth the risk of a close battle. Thereby, my 3 cruisers had only suffered limited damage, while the Japanese had only 2 "healthy" ships left and one already burning with considerable damage. However I first stayed aloof, and fired from safe distance at the Adzuma, with a few powerful hits. I couldn't proceed because at 5 kms distance, only a small percentage of the shells hit their targets.


I closed the distance and to my amazement the main batteries of the Japanese cruisers started pounding again (I thought they were out of ammo). Rurik got badly damaged and subsequently sank. Gromoboi and Rossiya also took some serious hits but thanks to the big damage control crew, both ships had but just enough manpower to extinguish the flames. The Japanese ships once again took many many small hits (mainly by 152mm guns and occasionallly a 203mm hit) and Adzuma got heavily damaged, Tokiwa and Iwate took light damage (which soon transformed into moderate damage, and so on...).

I put my 2 remaining ships on a fleeing course and awaited the damage on the Japanese ships gradually increasing through the flames. I returned to spend my very last bullets. As a result of this, Adzuma sank, and the remaining two cruisers stayed afloat, albeit heavily damaged...

Result: glorious victory :eek:

(sorry for my mediocre English :OHNO:)

[Bullethead]

HOW badly damaged were the 2 surviving cruisers: Gromoboi & Rossiya?

There's a book listed on Norm's personal RJW page http://home.austin.rr.com/normkoger/RJW.html called The McCully Report that has this info. It was written by a US naval officer who was with the Russians as an observer. While he wasn't as Ulsan himself, he was at Vlad IIRC when the Russian ships came back. There he interviewed participants, toured the ships, and sketched the damage.

It's been many years since I read this book (it was in my university library) but IIRC the damage was like this: There were no major leaks and the machinery was intact, thanks to the belt and deck armor. However, the ships were riddled above the belt armor, where there was a huge expanse of unarmored side. Thus, there were extensive casualties amongst the unprotected gun crews (I think over 100 in both ships), many guns were knocked out, the funnels were shredded, etc. One of the ships (I forget which) had a serious propellant fire in a forward 8" casemate, too, and one of the ships (again, I don't remember which) lost a mast I think. There were a number of minor fires all over on both ships, too.

Which Japanese cruisers took some punishment? (Idzumo and Iwate, but what about the other 2?). Literature on the RJW is hard to find...

I don't know, but the manual's write-up on the scenario notes damage to Iwate, so I guess she took more damage than most. Probably one of the books on Norm's page has the answer.

Result: glorious victory :eek:

Well done! You should write this up in more detail, include some illustrations, and put it in the AAR topic ;).

[Enforcer]

Thank you for the information!

McCully report, I will search it.

[Bullethead]

Thank you for the information!

McCully report, I will search it.

It's a great book. The guy who wrote it was at Port Arthur most of the time. I think he got there shortly after the initial attack so he's got details of how they did the repairs from that. He then sat on a hill and watched a bunch of the skirmishes that happened near PA and sketched up the damage afterwards. He left PA just before that became impossible and had numerous adventures running around as a refugee before finally ended up in Vlad.

[Rhetor]

As far as Japanese ships are concerned, "Iwate" indeed took some damage. According to leading Polish historians of the war, J. W. Dyskant and A. Michalek, in their "Port Artur - Cuszima 1904-1905", Warsaw 2005, p. 164, a 203mm shell fired by the "Riurik" hit the "Iwate" on the port side, causing an explosion of 152mm shells stored near the guns, destroying three 152mm guns and one 76mm gun, killing 40 and wounding 37 crewmembers.
The above information are based, according to the footnote, on the official Japanese account of the war: "Der japanisch-russische Seekrieg 1904/1905. Amtliche Darstellung des japanischen Admiralstabes", Berlin 1911

On page 169 the Polish authors write that the Russians fired about 2000 shells and scored 56 hits, and in a footnote they note that the most recent Russian work, W. Gribowskij, "Rossijskij Flot Tichogo Okieana", Moscow 2004 credits the Russians with 42 hits.

[Bullethead]

The above information are based, according to the footnote, on the official Japanese account of the war: "Der japanisch-russische Seekrieg 1904/1905. Amtliche Darstellung des japanischen Admiralstabes", Berlin 1911

Thanks for the info.

[Daedalus]

I played the Ulsan Battle as the Russians. And did very well.
Using the Islands as a buffer I let the Japanese ships come around one Island and I went and used the same Island for cover, letting my ships steam at slow speed. When the Japanese ships came out from behind enough to engage I opened up with all of my ships on the first in line. I was able to inflict heavy damage on each ships as it came out from behind the Island.

After the first few minutes of battle I set my Russian fleet to full steam and moved away from the Japanese as fast as I could. In doing this I had the freedom to move about as I needed to finish off the rest of the ships in the Japanese line. This took quite awhile but the outcome was a win for myself.

[Enforcer]

I played the Ulsan Battle as the Russians. And did very well.
Using the Islands as a buffer I let the Japanese ships come around one Island and I went and used the same Island for cover, letting my ships steam at slow speed. When the Japanese ships came out from behind enough to engage I opened up with all of my ships on the first in line. I was able to inflict heavy damage on each ships as it came out from behind the Island.

After the first few minutes of battle I set my Russian fleet to full steam and moved away from the Japanese as fast as I could. In doing this I had the freedom to move about as I needed to finish off the rest of the ships in the Japanese line. This took quite awhile but the outcome was a win for myself.

indeed, that's the +- the way I did it..; first steam away at full speed, and then lure them into a trap...