Railways and the Russo-Japanese War: Transporting War

174 Pages·2007·1.129 MB·English

by  Felix Patrikeeff, Harry Shukman

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Railways and the Russo-Japanese War
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2 The book explores the nexus between railways and the Russo-Japanese
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us War (1904–1905) – the first modern war and one in which the railways
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This volume examines some of the key dimensions of the Russo-Japan-
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2 ese war, and most notably how uncomfortably technological and human
1 dimensions of Russia’s war effort interleaved in the course of the conflict.
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: The authors demonstrate how advantages that might have been built upon
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a politically tortuous contexts, and technological edge was negated by the
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e internal turmoil of a country unable to tame a process of modernisation.
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n Demonstrating the vital role railways played in the Russo-Japanese
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C War, generally considered to be the first modern, technological conflict,
T and a precursor to the First World War, this book will appeal to students
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N of the Russo-Japanese War, Russian history, military history and inter-
B national history in general.
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N Harold Shukman is an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford.
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[ From 1981 to 1991 he was Director of the Russian and East European
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b Centre at St Antony’s. Felix Patrikeeff is Associate Professor at the School
d of History and Politics, University of Adelaide. He is the President of the
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d Australian Institute of International Affairs (SA Branch).
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Cass military studies
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2 Intelligence Activities in Ancient Rome
t Trust in the gods, but verify
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9 Clausewitz and African War
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1 Politics and strategy in Liberia and Somalia
3 Isabelle Duyvesteyn
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at Strategy and Politics in the Middle East, 1954–60
e] Defending the northern tier
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t Michael Cohen
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T The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 1965–1991
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From Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale
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B Edward George
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N Military Leadership in the British Civil Wars, 1642–1651
I ‘The genius of this age’
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y Stanley Carpenter
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d Israel’s Reprisal Policy, 1953–1956
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o The dynamics of military retaliation
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n Ze’ev Drory
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Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War
Enver Redzic
Leaders in War
West Point remembers the 1991 Gulf War
Edited by Frederick Kagan and Christian Kubik
Khedive Ismail’s Army
John Dunn
Yugoslav Military Industry 1918–1991
Amadeo Watkins
Corporal Hitler and the Great War 1914–1918
The List Regiment
John Williams
Rostóv in the Russian Civil War, 1917–1920
The key to victory
Brian Murphy
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0 The Tet Effect, Intelligence and the Public Perception of War
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t Jake Blood
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u The US Military Profession into the 21st Century
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9 War, peace and politics
2 Edited by Sam C. Sarkesian and Robert E. Connor, Jr.
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t Learning from crisis and institutional change
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tr JürgenKuhlmann
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T Strategic Culture and Ways of War
E Lawrence Sondhaus
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LI Military Unionism in the Post Cold War Era
F A future reality?
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I Edited by Richard Bartle and Lindy Heinecken
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d Warriors and Politicians
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d U.S. civil–military relations under stress
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o Charles A. Stevenson
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From Ancient Greece to Iraq
Paul Robinson
Military Industry and Regional Defense Policy
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2 Railways and the Russo-Japanese War
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Railways and the
Russo-Japanese War
Transporting war
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First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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1 Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
0 by Routledge
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t 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
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u Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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A This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
9 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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1 collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
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7: © 2007 Felix Patrikeeff and Harold Shukman
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at All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
] reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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r or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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n photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
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C retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
T The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with
E regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and
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cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or
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omissions that may be made.
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F British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
N A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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y [ Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
b Patrikeeff, Felix.
d Railways and the Russo-Japanese War : transporting war / Felix
e Patrikeeff and Harold Shukman. – 1st published.
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a p. cm. – (Cass military studies)
o Includes bibliographical references and index.
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n 1. Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905–Transportaion.
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2. Railroads–China–Manchuria–Strategic aspects.
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D 3. Railroads–Russia–Strategic aspects. I. Shukman, Harold. II. Title.
DS517.9.P37 2007
952.03'1–dc22 2006024736
ISBN 0-203-96476-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-7146-5721-2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-96476-7 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-7146-5721-9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-96476-7 (ebk)
Contents
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2 Acknowledgements viii
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A Introduction 1
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1 1 Russian context and Manchurian setting 5
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T 4 War on ice 50
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5 The dawn of modern conflict 59
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6 The railway and hostilities 92
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a Notes 130
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nl Bibliography 151
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Index 159
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Acknowledgements
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2 The authors would like to thank The Hoover Institution on War, Revolu-
st tion and Peace, The New York Public Library and The St Petersburg State
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g Transport University for the use of their rich resources, which have con-
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A tributed so greatly to the writing of this book. They are also grateful to
9 Esko Naskali, the late David Patterson, Oleg Rzheshevsky and Ezra Spice-
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1 handler for their special insights, and warmly acknowledge Katrina
3 Savvides for her valuable insights into the diplomatic and foreign policy
:
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0 issues involved in the Russo-Japanese War, and especially so the US’s role
at in it. Melanie Keogh offered support, much good cheer and a keen eye to
e] the book’s content at a late stage in its re-shaping. Apologies are due to
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nt her for the distraction that this brought in the course of the process. Felix
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C Patrikeeff thanks St Antony’s College, Oxford for the stimulating intellec-
T tual and congenial social environment it provided him in the course of his
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contribution to the writing of the book. Barbara Shukman earned the
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B authors’ deep gratitude for the support she provided during the most
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L intensive period of their work on this book. And, finally, to Nina Patrike-
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N eff, who has done so much to enrich their work on Manchuria, the authors
[I owe their grateful thanks.
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Introduction
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2 The Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 brought political and social con-
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us sequences that are well known and need not be covered in any great detail
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u here. It confirmed the emergence of an Asian nation (Japan) as a world
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power, through the latter’s defeat of arguably one of the most powerful
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2 (and certainly the largest of) European armies. This led to the profound
1 destabilisation of the internal political system of imperial Russia, fuelling
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: popular discontent that would soon erupt in revolution. It was also one of
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0 the most carefully observed and widely reported conflicts, laying bare the
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a technology and strategies employed by both sides. And for good reason.
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e The Russo-Japanese War was remarkable in the sense that here was a con-
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n flict which foreshadowed many of the characteristics of wars in the
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C remainder of the twentieth century, bringing as it did the steeliness of
T technological innovation to aspect after aspect of combat and military
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N strategy.
B In the course of the war, we see the first deployment of contact mines,
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L the introduction of fire-control and range-finding systems and the devastat-
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N ing firepower of dug-in, quick-firing field artillery, rifle fire and, above all,
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[ machine-gun bursts, used against waves of infantry formations. In addition
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b to these, barbed wire, searchlights, telephone communications and trench
d warfare were also added to the rudiments of war, with the infantryman’s
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d spade now as useful to him as his rifle. If war, as Michael Howard suggests
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o in an essay, ‘starts in the minds of men’, then the Russo-Japanese War pro-
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w vided their imagination with much stimulating matter as to its pursuit.1
o Casualties were very high, especially when the Japanese captured Port
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Arthur after an eight-month siege, while the Battle of Mukden would enter
the annals of Russian folklore as a monumental national tragedy. The war
was a signal lesson in the importance of morale.
General Alexei N. Kuropatkin, the Russian commander-in-chief in
Manchuria, would later attempt to exonerate himself for Russia’s defeats
by blaming the lack of moral strength and commitment shown by the
Russian soldiers, which compared so lamentably with the qualities of the
Japanese. The contrast highlighted another powerful new tool of modern
warfare: ideology. Russia’s fighting men not only were uneducated and