‘That is exactly it,’ Togo said. ‘The keys to the situation are the Russian Pacific Squadron, and possession of Port Arthur. The Military Command is well aware of this. They believe that if we can deal with the Russian Squadron, they can take Port Arthur, before any adequate Russian mobilisation can be accomplished. Well, they took Port Arthur in 1894. They ought to know how to do it again.’
‘They may find the Russians harder nuts to crack than the Chinese.’
‘That is their business. Ours is the fleet. And there is also the question of morale: if we succeed in destroying the Port Arthur Squadron, the morale of the defenders will drop accordingly.’
‘Very good, honourable Admiral.’ Nicholas was not prepared to concern himself with the moral issues involved in forcing a war; he had tried that with China. In any event, he had long known a war with Russia was inevitable, and had wanted it before he retired. ‘Will you give me a timescale?’
‘As soon as the fleet is concentrated. That will be the end of January. At that time our mission in Moscow will demand an instant resolution of all outstanding issues between our two countries. This will certainly be refused by the Russians, whereupon our mission will announce that the talks are at an end, and request their passports. The moment this is done, our Ambassador will wire us here. The fleet will be in position, and the moment that wire is received, it will go into action. We will adopt your plan, Barrett. We will strew a curtain of mines outside Port Arthur. But this will not be completed until after our initial attack. For this we are going to use the torpedo boats. They will enter the harbour, and do as much damage as possible, paying particular attention to the battleships. If they can sink two or three of those, then we have already gained the victory.’
‘As you say, honourable Admiral. But I must repeat, these are not the Chinese we are dealing with. There is bound to be a time lag between the withdrawal of our mission from St Petersburg and the actual declaration of war. The Russians will have time to prepare their defences, and they must realise that the moment war is declared we will attack Port Arthur. If I were the Russian commander, I would order my ships to sea in good time.’
‘That is what he should do, certainly,’ Togo agreed. ‘But he will have no time. As I have said, we will strike the moment our mission announces its withdrawal.’
Again Nicholas frowned. ‘But . . . the declaration of war . . .’
‘There will be no declaration of war, Barrett san. I repeat, we will strike the moment we receive that wire.’
Chapter Fourteen – The Triumph
‘That won’t do our reputation much good,’ Nicholas remarked. ‘Even with our allies.’
‘You mean Great Britain? They will admire us, when we have won the war. The British hate Russia.’
Nicholas couldn’t argue with that; the British certainly hated the Tsarist regime, not merely because of its secret police and pogroms, but because they regarded the Russians as potential enemies, dreaming of the conquest of India. But going to war without undertaking the proper preliminaries would be to the British like setting out to murder a man without first challenging him to a duel.
Yet he himself wanted the war, and a quick, stunning victory. His only concern was that as far as his intelligence information went, Captain Count Rashnikov was not amongst those stationed in Port Arthur.
‘I will, of course, command the torpedo attack myself,’ he said.
‘No,’ Togo said.
‘With respect, honourable Admiral . . .’
‘With respect to you, honourable Admiral,’ Togo said, ‘who is also my oldest friend and most able instructor, you are asking the impossible. You are going to be sixty-five this year. And I need you, to help me win this war. Have you no faith in any of the men you have trained? I wish to have your detailed plans for the attack, and for the mine-laying and the disposition of the blockships, on my desk at the end of this week. And Barrett san, remember that this conversation we have had is absolutely confidential.’
*
‘Well?’ Elizabeth asked.
‘Well, what?’
‘Oh, really, Nicky, you are becoming so vague. What did Togo have to say about Sue-Ellen, and Alexander?’
‘Ah . . . he agreed the Cummings didn’t have a leg to stand on.’
He could tell from her expression that she felt that to describe him as vague was perhaps bowdlerising the situation, but she didn’t press it, especially when he told her to make all preparations for the wedding the moment Alexander got home. Unfortunately, Yoshino was delayed by bad weather, and had not yet returned when Togo told Nicholas to make his headquarters at Shimonoseki.
‘Our time is very close now,’ he said.
*
‘I wish you’d tell me what is going on,’ Elizabeth complained.
‘All I can tell you is that I cannot,’ Nicholas said.
She gazed at him, and understood. ‘Oh, my God,’ she whispered. ‘But . . . Alexander . . .’
He held her hands. ‘We must pray that whatever happens will be short and sharp. Alexander will have to play his part, but I do not think it will be possible for us to have a wedding until the summer. I will see him whenever I can, and keep him fully informed.’
‘He has been away six months,’ Elizabeth said. ‘Surely he is entitled to a little leave.’
‘I doubt he will wish to take it,’ Nicholas said. ‘Even to hold Sue-Ellen in his arms.’ He hug her. ‘When he, and I, are again entitled to leave, it will be an occasion for a great celebration. Until then, you must trust me.’
Her cheeks were wet. ‘And in the meantime, wait for the news that you have been killed.’
He smiled. ‘In my case, my dearest girl, chance would be a fine thing.’
*
On the night of 8 February 1904, ten Japanese torpedo-boats penetrated the twisting entrance to the harbour of Port Arthur – known as the Tiger’s Tail – and before the Russians knew what was happening, attacked the ships moored there. Hits were scored on the battleships Tsessarevich and Retvisan, and on the seven thousand ton, eight-inch gun cruiser Pallada. Japanese casualties were slight, and the skippers claimed that the big ships had been sunk, but Japanese agents within the port reported that although all three had been severely damaged, they were still afloat.
Togo had taken his fleet close inshore behind the torpedo-boats, and fought a short, sharp action with a few Russian ships lying in the roads outside the harbour; little damage was done to either side, Togo’s intention being to cover the withdrawal of his small craft, and also the mine-laying activities of his cruisers, in accordance with his overall plan.
That same day the transports sailed from Shimonoseki, round the bottom end of the Korean Peninsula for Chemulpo, which had been renamed Inchon. This was a repeat of the 1894 operation, and went entirely according to plan. The one Russian heavy unit at sea, the six-and-a-half thousand ton protected cruiser Variag, armed with twelve six-inch guns, was engaged by one of the new armoured cruisers Nicholas had recently added to the fleet, Asamo. Asamo displaced nearly ten thousand tons, and carried four eight-inch as well as fourteen six-inch quick-firers, and in a very short space of time she reduced Variag to such a wreck that the Russians scuttled her and took to the boats.
The next day war was declared!
*
All Japan was wildly enthusiastic about the early successes, especially as the three warships in Port Arthur were reported as sunk. In his office in Shimonoseki Nicholas was bombarded with congratulations as well as more practical messages. The commander of the cruiser squadron to which Asama belonged, Vice-Admiral Kamimura, radioed – all the Japanese ships were by now fitted with transmitting as well as receiving sets – that Variag had gone down in shallow water, and could well be salvaged. Nicholas gave the order immediately; he had an idea that he might need every ship he could lay hands on before this war was over.
He had to accept that his initial plan of campaign had not been a success. He very soon learned that the two Russian
battleships had not, after all, been sunk, and although the minefields had been laid without difficulty, the third part of his plan, the blocking of the Tiger’s Tail, had failed completely; the guns on the overlooking hills had sunk the blockships before they could be manoeuvered into position. So Togo and his fleet remained on blockade duty outside the port. The Russians were showing no signs of coming out, but that they would come out, probably as soon as Tsessarevich and Retvisan were repaired, seemed obvious, when the relative fleet strengths would remain unchanged.
Nicholas found himself chafing as February dragged into March. The war, which had begun with such an explosion, settled into a stalemate. As far as he could determine, every day the conflict lasted was an advantage to Russia, as every day saw more and more men being sent east to reinforce the Army of Manchuria under General Kuropatkin. There was no indication that any additional naval units were on their way, but he was concerned towards the end of February when he received information that Russia’s greatest admiral, Stepan Makarov, was coming to Port Arthur to take command.
That meant a fight was imminent, and when Nicholas learned that Yoshino had completed her refit after her voyage and was on her way to join Togo, he informed Captain Yamashita that he was going to have a passenger.
*
That meant he could see Alexander, with whom he had not spoken since his return. The two men embraced, then Alexander stepped back and bowed.
‘I must apologise for the trouble I have brought upon you, honourable Father,’
‘Sue-Ellen is no trouble. Have you managed to speak with her?’
‘On the telephone, briefly. Is she well, honourable Father? And honourable Mother?’
‘They were, when I left Tokyo,’ Nicholas said. ‘You realise that you’re likely to be a father before you have a wife?’
‘I understand this. Is this a disgrace for the family?’
‘The Emperor once told me that whenever it was convenient, I could be a barbarian,’ Nicholas said. ‘No, it will not be a disgrace, especially in these circumstances. I look forward to it.’
‘Is there news of Nicholas?’
‘Oh, indeed, you may have the chance to see him. He’s on Yashima, gunnery lieutenant. Just like his grandfather. We’re all going to be in on this together, Alex. For the last time.’
*
Togo raised his eyebrows in surprise as Nicholas bowed before him in his day cabin on board Mikasa. ‘Have you no duties in Shimonoseki, Barrett?’
‘None so pressing as here, honourable Admiral. Every fighting ship I have been able to lay my hands on is at sea. You have heard about Makarov?’
‘One man.’
‘One fighting seaman, honourable Admiral.’
Togo smiled. ‘Then the day for which we have waited for so long is at hand.’ He held out his hand. ‘I will be glad to have you at my side, Admiral Barrett.’
*
It was 8 March when the Japanese heard the fourteen-gun salute from inside the harbour heralding the arrival of the Russian admiral. Instantly every ship in Togo’s fleet was put on the alert, but although there was immediately increased Russian activity in the form of repeated sorties by light craft, it was another five weeks before any major units emerged. Then at last, on 12 April, the signal came back from the inshore destroyers that the Russian battle squadron was coming out.
Instantly the Japanese formed line ahead, the battleships in front of the cruisers, and every binocular on Mikasa’s bridge was levelled at the distant shore.
‘One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,’ Nicholas counted the battleships as they emerged. ‘They have repaired Tsessarevich and Retvisan.’
‘And also the cruiser,’ Togo observed. ‘There are four of them. Can you make out the Admiral’s flag?’
‘Flying from the van battleship. I would say she is Petropavlovsk.’
‘Well, then, let us prepare to engage them, Barrett san.’
Acting as Chief of Staff, as he had done for Ito ten years previously, Nicholas gave the orders, and the Japanese fleet closed up for action.
‘Remember to maintain this course,’ Nicholas warned the captain. ‘There are minefields to either side.’
As he spoke, there was a distant dull rumble, and the watchers saw a column of water rising into the air alongside the Russian flagship. The water was black rather than white, and the explosion far louder and more violent than might have been expected; it was clear that the battleship had struck the mine at a peculiarly vulnerable point, perhaps near a magazine. A moment later there was another explosion, and one of the cruisers was seen to drop out of the line. But all eyes were on the Petropavlovsk, which was commencing to heel as thousands of gallons of water rushed into the opened hull. It happened too quickly for coherent thought, and yet had a quality of terrible, inexorable slowness. For men like Nicholas and Togo, who could well remember banging away for several hours at the Chinese fleet outside the mouth of the Yalu with only a couple of small cruisers to show for it, the almost instant destruction of an eleven thousand ton ship and its crew of six hundred and thirty-two officers and men, was all but unbelievable. But she was gone within seconds, leaving only a huge frothing bubble, around which rescue craft circled in vain.
‘What a way to go,’ Nicholas commented.
Togo gave one of his grim smiles. ‘The odds have now been evened, Barrett. Unfortunately, there will be no battle today.’
With the loss of their flagship, and their commanding admiral, and with one of their cruisers also crippled, the Russians were turning back for the safety of the port.
*
That the Russians had received a very serious blow was obvious to everyone. It was not merely the destruction of their battleship and the consequent loss of confidence that they dare proceed to sea at all; it was the death of Makarov.
But from the Japanese point of view, the substance of a victory was not immediately apparent. There were still six Russian capital ships tucked away behind the Tiger’s Tail, and as long as they were there, the Japanese fleet had to be there too, and at sea rather than at anchor, with the consequent expenditure in coal and wear and tear on the ships and men. Togo made a further attempt to block the harbour but this again failed.
‘I need ideas,’ he told Nicholas.
‘There is only one, now,’ Nicholas said. ‘Port Arthur must be made untenable.’
‘And how is that to be done?’
‘We must rely on the army.’
Nicholas knew that the army plans included the recapture of the seaport; this was one of the principal reasons for going to war. And the army was doing all that could be asked of it. At the end of the month General Kuroki’s First Army forced its way across the Yalu, routing the Russian defenders. Most observers now assumed that Kuropatkin would concentrate on the defence of the Liaotung Peninsular until he had sufficient forces to take the offensive, but to everyone’s surprise he fell back on the Manchurian capital of Mukden, leaving the road south open.
A conference was hastily summoned, at which both Togo and Nicholas attended.
‘Port Arthur is the key,’ Nicholas insisted.
‘You do not suppose it is a trap?’ Marshal Oyama demanded. ‘My intelligence estimates that by the end of this year Kuropatkin could have three hundred thousand men under his command. That is very close to our maximum strength, and he will have more arriving all the time. That is where we must concentrate our efforts, now, before he has achieved that strength.’
‘And if you attack him, and he merely falls back?’ Togo inquired. ‘He has a lot of territory to play with.’
‘The effect on morale would be disastrous,’ Oyama insisted.
‘He must have taken that into consideration when he abandoned Port Arthur,’ Nicholas said. ‘It is the loss of Port Arthur that would be disastrous to Russian morale.’
‘Of course, Admiral Barrett. But Port Arthur is impregnable.’
‘We took it ten years ago. You took it, honourable Marshal.’
> ‘From the Chinese. The Russians are much better fighting men, and they have more than doubled the fortifications. And how are we to get at them? Only by again forcing the neck of land which connects the peninsular to the mainland. The Russians know this, and that too is fortified; Nanshan Hill, overlooking the neck, is one of the strongest fortifications in the world. You are asking me to send my men on a frontal attack against such odds?’
Nicholas looked at Togo. This had to be a Japanese decision.
‘Is it not true that nearly all the Russian prisoners you took at the Yalu were drunk on vodka?’ Togo asked.
‘Yes. Their officers said the alcohol was given to their men to make them fight.’
‘Do you not think the same thing will apply in Port Arthur?’
‘In Port Arthur they will be fighting behind defences.’
‘It is still very revealing of the fighting quality of the Russians that they have to be fed vodka before they will go into action. I think Port Arthur can be taken, honourable Marshal.’
‘The casualties will be heavy.’
‘We are at war. Casualties must be expected. In any event, I do not require that you actually take the port. What I want you to do, honourable Marshal, is to force the neck and then the hills overlooking the harbour, close enough to enable your howitzers to drop shells on the ships situated there. I wish you to drive the Russian fleet to sea, that I may destroy it.’
Oyama stroked his moustache, while his generals waited.
‘And in the meantime, you can mask Kuropatkin’s position,’ Nicholas added. ‘The elimination of the Russian fleet will by itself be an enormous blow to Russian morale.’
Oyama considered for a last few minutes, then nodded. ‘Very well. General Kuroki, you will continue to advance towards Mukden. But as Admiral Barrett has recommended, your movements will be of a masking nature. General Oku, with the support of the navy, you will land your Second Army here,’ he prodded the map. ‘At Pitzuwu. From there you will prepare an attack upon Nanshan Hill, the strong point guarding the neck. General Nodzu, you will land your Fourth Army at the mouth of the Yalu, from where you may move either north to support General Kuroki, or south to support General Oku, as the situation may require.’ He looked at Togo and Nicholas. ‘I trust this meets with your satisfaction, honourable admirals?’
Bloody Sunrise Page 38