The Russian Army and the Japanese War, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being Historical and Critical Comments on the Military Policy and Power of Russia and on the Campaign in the Far EastKuropatkin, A. N. (Alekseĭ Nikolaevich)
History
The Russian Army and the Japanese War, Vol. 1 (of 2): Being Historical and Critical Comments on the Military Policy and Power of Russia and on the Campaign in the Far East
Kuropatkin, A. N. (Alekseĭ Nikolaevich)
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
The arrival of the first units of the 10th Army Corps was more than
opportune, but events did not permit us to await the concentration of
the whole of it. Kuroki’s army was advancing, and the line Sai-ma-chi,
An-ping, Liao-yang, on which he was moving in force, was only covered
by our cavalry and one regiment of infantry. Consequently, as soon as
the leading brigade of the 9th Division arrived at Liao-yang, it was
sent off in that direction. Similarly, troops of the 17th Army and
5th Siberian Corps went straight into action from the train without
waiting the concentration of their corps. It was only on September
2—_i.e._, after seven months—that the three army corps (10th, 17th,
and 5th Siberian), sent from Europe to reinforce the field army,
were all concentrated in the Manchurian theatre. During the decisive
fighting at Liao-yang, the 85th Regiment was the only unit of the 1st
Army Corps which had arrived, and it went straight from the train
into the battle. If, at the beginning of the war, we had had only one
more military train a day, we would have had present at the battle of
Liao-yang the 1st Army Corps and 6th Siberian Corps, and with these
sixty extra battalions must certainly have defeated the enemy. But the
railway fatally affected us in other ways, for while we were feeding
our army with fresh units as reinforcements, we were unable at the same
time to find carriage for the drafts for the advanced troops, which
had suffered heavy losses in killed, wounded, and sick. For example,
in the fighting of five long months, from May 14 to October 14, the
Manchurian army lost in killed, wounded, and sick, over 100,000 men,
to replace which, during that period, it only received 21,000. The
enemy, on the other hand, were making good their casualties quickly and
uninterruptedly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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