Russian battleship exploding under bombardment from Japanese battleships, a line of Japanese battleships, positioned on the right, fire on a line of Russian battleships on the left, in a surprise naval assault on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. On the night of February 8, 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo Heihachiro, opened the war with a surprise torpedo boat destroyer attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur. The attack heavily damaged the Tsesarevich and Retvizan, the heaviest battleships in Russia's far Eastern theatre, and the 6, 600 ton cruiser Pallada. Although the actual Battle of Port Arthur was indecisive, the initial attacks had a devastating psychological effect on Russia, which had been confident about the prospect of war. Chromolithograph, 1904. |