Russo - Japanese War 1904-05

[stevenbecker]

Mates,

This maybe outside your scope but I was woundering if you have anything on the Russian units used in this war.

I am chasing down an AIF soldiers who claimed service in that war;

RAVENSBY Michael 3190 Pte 02 LHR 25R Tos 4 LHFA 5-17 to 2 ASH 2-18 (Russian Cavalry 5 years served in the Russo - Japanese War 1904-05)

I did wonder if he had boots on the ground during that war as he is shown being born in Lanewve Poland, which meant his Army service would have been in the west not the east,. do you have a list of Russian Cavalry units sent to the east from the Poland area and used in the fighting and used in the Manchurian areas?

Cheers

S.B

[James A Pratt III]

George Nafziger OOBs which is on the net has the OOBs of battles of this war. Most Russian cavalry in this war were Cossacks, with some border troops cavalry and a few dragoon regiments. The site marks russian Military history has the russian armys OOB at the start of WW I. There is also a site that deals with the R-J war. I hope this is of some help.

[Dolphin]

Steve

It's probably not much use to you, but nevertheless a great source about a fascinating conflict:http://www.russojapanesewar.com/

Cheers

Gareth

[jwsleser]

Steve

As James pointed out, most Russian cavalry units were Cossack. As Ravensby was likely Polish, he would have been conscripted into a regular cavalry unit. The only regular cavalry that served in Manchuria was the 2nd Independent Cavalry Brigade consisting of the 51st and 52nd Dragoon Regiments (at this time all regular cavalry were dragoon regiments). I will need to check to see where their mobilization and peacetime stations jive with a Polish recruit.

While the bulk of the Russian Army was positioned in the west after mobilization, the 1902 war plan for Manchuria took units from various places in the empire. The X and XVII Army Corps were scheduled for deployment to Manchuria if needed. The 2nd Independent Cavalry Brigade was the corps cavalry for the XVII AC. This was unusual as the vast majority of the corps cavalry was Cossack (and the main reason why only two regular cavalry units served in the east).

Jeff

[jwsleser]

I looked at the Russian mobilization in May and June 1904. The XVII AC was located in the Moscow area and south. It would be unlikely (but possible) that a Pole could have been assigned to a cavalry regiment in this area. It is possible that he could have been a replacement. The Russians didn't mobilized the 1st Line reserves per their planned mobilization schedule, but limited their mobilization to selected districts. The western districts weren't mobilized, so it is unlikely he would have been called up.

Ravensby could have volunteered. Unusual in Russia but possible. In all, not clear connection between the two dragoon regiments and Poland.

Jeff

[stevenbecker]

Mates,

Thanks for the info, fills a gap in my reseach.

It does fit with what I was thinking, that he never made it to the battle front but was conscripted in Poland during that war but never was sent to the East.

Cheers

S.B

[rhetor]

he is shown being born in Lanewve Poland, which meant his Army service would have been in the west not the east,. do you have a list of Russian Cavalry units sent to the east from the Poland area and used in the fighting and used in the Manchurian areas?

Russian Empire, as all of multi-national powers, carefully sifted through the conscripts. It was often the case that conscripts from minorities considered "not trustworthy" were impressed into units serving away from their homeland. Thus the Poles in the Russian units on the front with Japan were overrepresented.

The same situation happened in Germany; my Great-Grandfather lived in the recruitment area of the XVII Armeekorps, but was mobilized into a regiment deployed on the Western Front. Austro-Hungary used the same policy to even greater extent.

[James A Pratt III]

In doing some more research from an osprey book on the R-J war it has the East Siberian Rifle Regiments with 40% of their men being Polish. It has the Primorsky, Nezhinski and Chernigov dragoon regiments serving in this war. Other research in 1882 all non guards or line cavalry regiments or non cossack regiments were converted to dragoons and around 1907 Nicholas II brought back the lancers and hussars for line cavalry. In reading general Kuropatkin's books on the R-J war which are online at his wiki bio. No major units from the Warsaw military district were sent to Manchuria and after the defeat at Mukden the Russians put out a call for volunteers to serve in manchuria and 100,000 men did so only they arrived too late to see any combat of note. I believe in the book "Tide at Sunrise" points out polish troops had a greater tendency to desert than Russian troops. Considering all the unrest ect in Poland that went on during this war this is not surprising. There were also a number of Poles living in Siberia having been exciled there in the 1800s for revolting against the Tsar. i hope this is of some use.

[Guest]

This seems like a good place for this

A staff officer's scrapbook during the Russo-Japanese war by Sir Ian Hamilton

Mike