The naval battle in the Yellow Sea was a battle-scale naval battle between the two navies in the northern part of the Yellow Sea during the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-895 (1895). Also known as the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Dadonggou naval battle.

Beiyang navy suffered a crushing defeat in this battle, losing five warships. Many warships of the Japanese joint fleet were hit hard, but none of them sank.

Since then, beiyang fleet retreated to Ahava, making the sea control right of the Yellow Sea fall into the hands of the Japanese joint fleet, which had a decisive impact on the war situation in the late Sino-Japanese War.

War background

1894 (20th year of Guangxu), the Qing navy was divided into four naval fleets: Beiyang, Nanyang, Fujian and Guangdong. Among them, Beiyang Navy is the most powerful. Except for three small cruisers of Guangdong Navy stranded in Beiyang to participate in the naval battle, other naval divisions did nothing in wartime because of their weak strength, and sat idly by while Beiyang Navy collapsed.

On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese naval fleets were reorganized into a joint fleet, with Lieutenant General Ito Sukehiro as the commander of the joint fleet. The formation of the joint fleet is divided into the following teams: the first team, the second team, the first guerrilla and the second guerrilla.

1On July 25th, 894, the First Guerrilla of Japan's United Fleet suddenly attacked two cruisers, the Beiyang Navy "Jiyuan" and "Guangyi", in the waters of Toyota, North Korea.

Subsequently, the British transport ship Gao Shenghao was sunk and the gunboat Cao Jiang was captured, that is, Akio Toyoda naval battle, and the Sino-Japanese war broke out in an all-round way.

The Beiyang navy and the joint fleet are faced with the same task: escorting reinforcements and competing for the sea power in the Yellow Sea.

The cause of war

Beiyang Navy mainly cruised from Weihai to the mouth of Datong River. 1894 In August, the Japanese joint fleet approached Weihai, and Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty accused Beiyang Navy of being the prefect of Ding. Li Hongzhang, the minister of Beiyang, had to order Ding to cruise in the Yellow Sea to calm the emperor's anger and relieve the pressure of public opinion.

On September 1894, the capital ship of Beiyang Navy 12 set off from Weihai and went to Dadonggou at the mouth of Yalu River to escort troops to land.

Different from the Beiyang Navy's strategy of "protecting ships against the enemy", the Japanese Navy made a clear plan to seize the sea power by fleet decisive battle before the war.

After the Japanese joint fleet escorted reinforcements to Incheon, on September 1894 and 13, the joint fleet and the team of the First Guerrilla went to the Yalu River mouth to search for a decisive battle with the main force of Beiyang Navy.

War result

result analysis

The naval battle in the Yellow Sea lasted more than five hours. Beiyang Navy lost five warships, namely Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Chaoyong, Yangwei and Guang Jia, and Laiyuan was seriously injured, with about 800 officers and men killed. Five ships of the Japanese fleet, Matsushima, Yoshino, Bi Rui, Chicheng and Xijing Maru, were seriously injured, with 239 casualties.

After the Yellow Sea naval battle, Beiyang Navy returned to Lushun and Weihai, and "avoiding the war and protecting the ship" no longer went out. The Japanese navy has mastered the sea power of the Yellow Sea.

Loss of both sides

Among the sunken ships, Chaoyong and Yangwei are old ships with small tonnage and weak fighting capacity, and their sinking has little influence on beiyang fleet's strength.

However, the sinking of Zhiyuan Ship and Jingyuan Cruiser was really a huge loss, which greatly weakened beiyang fleet's combat effectiveness. Regarding the losses suffered by the Japanese joint fleet, some Qing people claimed that "according to the Japanese, it is extremely rare."

As we all know, when Japanese ships return to China, they often try their best to make fakes and hide the bullet holes with painted canvas. Today, outsiders can't see its injury. "

In fact, Japanese ships were seriously damaged. The flagship Matsushima was completely defeated, and the deck equipment of Yoshino was swept away by gunfire, leaving only one body. Both Chicheng and Birui were seriously injured, and Xijing Maru was almost sunk. The rest of the ships were seriously injured.

Beiyang fleet's wrecked ship was repaired less than a month after the naval battle, while the Japanese flagship Matsushima was badly damaged until June165438+1October.

So, it has to fill eight mountains; And changed the bridge into a flagship to replace Song Dao. It can be seen that many unsinkable ships in Japan have lost their combat effectiveness. Comparing the losses of both sides, it is not difficult to see that beiyang fleet has suffered a lot.

However, the two armored ships, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, are still there, and the rest of the ships can still be used for fighting after being trimmed. The fleet is still capable of fighting the enemy, and it is not a complete defeat. The losses of the Japanese army are indeed lighter than those of beiyang fleet, but the trauma suffered by the fleet is also quite serious.

From the strategic intention, the Japanese joint fleet was sent to seek a decisive battle with beiyang fleet's main force, so as to realize its aggressive ambition of "gathering the fleet in the Yellow Sea" and seizing the sea power. However, as a result of the naval battle, Japan did not achieve its goal.

Beiyang fleet's task is mainly to escort the fleet carrying troops. Because beiyang fleet fought bravely for more than five hours and gained time, the Korean army landed safely and completed the escort mission.