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The Siege of Port Arthur was the central event of the Russo-Japanese War, and is often seen as a precursor to the battles of the First World War, with similar technology and often similar results.
The author pulls no punches in his assessments of the military commanders on both sides, and one gets the impression that the Japanese won because they had the least incompetent officers, rather than the most capable!
When we turn to the campaign itself this does appear to be accurate. Admiral Togo’s performance off Port Arthur was rather unimpressive and after losing several of his capital ships he was forced to stick to a distance blockade. The Russian fleet performed equally badly. On land the Japanese struggled to deal with the Russian defences of the Liaodong peninsula, which used barbed wire, machine guns and trenches, but the Russian General Fok repeated ordered unnecessary retreats, and the Japanese were soon outside the inner defences of Port Arthur. Here the Russians were able to put up a much better show, and a series of major Japanese assaults were repulsed at heavy cost to the attackers. This section of the book reads very like an account of fighting on the Western Front (in particular at Verdun). However the big problem for the Russians was that they were isolated with increasingly little hope of relief, so despite their best efforts the defenders were slowly worn down.
This is a good detailed account of this famous siege, with more focus on the fighting on land than is often the case. It justifies the claims put forward for this as being the first ‘modern’ siege, with the combination of barbed wire, machine guns and trenches giving it a feel of the conflicts to come.
Chapters
Origins of the Campaign
Chronology
Opposing Commanders
Opposing Forces
Opposing Plans
The Campaign
Aftermath
The Battlefield Today
Author: Robert Forczyk
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2024