FLEET THAT HAD TO DIE

The remarkable journey of the Russian Baltic Fleet to Port Arthur, and the Battle of Tsushima, 1905 - the most crushing naval victory of all time. On 10th October 1904 the Russian Baltic Fleet, a haphazard armada of some fifty outdated and ill-equipped men-of-war, led by a burnt-out neurotic and manned by ten thousand reluctant and badly trained sailors, set sail for Port Arthur after humiliating defeat had thrown their army back in the face of the Japanese. Their plan was to unite with the Pacific squadron trapped in Port Arthur and crush the "yellow monkeys" of Admiral Togo. But, as Port Arthur fell, the mission of the ill-trained and ill-equipped fleet was to become one of heroic futility. On 27th May 1905, in the most crushing naval victory of all time, Togo utterly destroyed the Russian armada. The total defeat of Russia was confirmed, and with it the rise of a new and dynamic superpower in the east. Includes eye-witness accounts. "Seldom has naval history been presented in so readable and entertaining a form" - Nicholas Montsarrat.