Battle of Liaoyang

The Battle of Liaoyang (遼陽会戦) was one of the major land battles of the Russo-Japanese War.

While the Japanese Army settled down in front of Port Arthur for a siege, a large force under Field Marshal Oyama moved north to secure the strategically located rail junction of Liaoyang, on the Mukden–Port Arthur spur of the China Far East Railway, in Manchuria.

The battle began on 25 August 1904, with the 158,000 strong Russian armies, attempting to turn the flanks of the Japanese First, Second and Third Armies totaling 125,000 men.

On 26 August 1904, the Japanese First Army took Kosarei Peak and Hung-sha Pass southeast of Liaoyang city after a hard-fought action. General Alexei Kuropatkin, commander-in-chief of the Russian armies, believed that he had been beaten and withdrew from the outer Russian defense line, with the Japanese in pursuit.

From 29–30 August 1904, the Russian troops managed to repel intense Japanese assaults on the main defense lines south of Liaoyang. By 31 August 1904, the Japanese First Army was crossing the river northeast of Liaoyang,

On 4 September 1904, after a few days of ineffectual counterattacks, Kuropatkin decided to evacuate Liaoyang for Mukden in the early morning. The unfortunate city was then sacked in succession by Russian, Chinese, and Japanese forces.

The Russian armies suffered about 15 548 casualties (2007 KIA, 1448 MIA, 12 093 WIA) However, despite the greater Japanese casualties (23,615 killed, wounded or captured), the Japanese were able to claim victory since the Russians quit the battlefield.

The dearly-won Japanese victory at Liaoyang and the fall of Port Arthur shortly thereafter contributed to the major Russian defeat the next year at the Battle of Mukden.

Gallery
Russian forces were supported by observers in a variety of balloons, providing aerial monitoring of the unfolding battle.