Descrição
Naval Battle of the Yellow Sea (黃海海戰/黄海海戦) was the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War invloing ships from Imperial Japanese Rengō (Combined) fleet and Qing Empire's Beiyang (Northern) fleet.
On 17 September 1894, The Beiyang Fleet which included two ironclad battleships, 1 coastal battleships, 8 cruisers, 1 gunboat and 2 torpedo boat had completed escorting Qing convoy to the mouth of the Yalu River, and was returning to its base at Lüshunkou when it was engaged by the Japanese Navy.
The Japanese Rengō Fleet consisted of two formations. A flying squadron, composed of the four fast cruisers and Main squadron composed of 4 cruisers and 1 gunboat.
Beiyag fleet opened fire at a range of 5,000 meters, which was far too great to cause any damage. The Japanese, meanwhile, held their fire for another twenty minutes as they headed diagonally across the Beiyang Fleet at twice the speed. On the signal of Admiral Ito, the Japanese squadrons divided, the flying squadron then moved around the right flank of the Chinese formation to strike at the weakest units there. Holding fire until they were in effective range, the cruisers battered Chaoyong and Yangwei.
The Beiyang Fleet was caught between the two Japanese squadrons. Dingyuan and Zhenyuan resisted the heaviest bombardment as a result of their armour; however, the quick firing Japanese guns decimated crews on their decks.
The Japanese sinking the cruiser Zhiyuan that had attempted to ram one of the Japanese cruisers and destroyed the cruiser Jingyuan.
Many of the Japanese ships, however, also received major damage. Yoshino was hit and Akagi and Saikyō Maru were put out of action. The damage to flagship Matsushima, was the most severe; where the lack of armour was made apparent when she was struck by Qing battleship two 12-inch shells that tore open the deck and ignited ready ammunition causing nearly one hundred casualties and forcing Admiral Itō to transfer his flag to Hashidate.
By sunset the Beiyang Fleet's main formation was near the point of total collapse with both wings gone (the two ships of the Port wing had fled and four units of the Starboard wing destroyed); the four units of the centre were variously damaged and the two largest ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were nearly out of ammunition.
Clip taken from :
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