Lessons from the Russo-Japanese War

11 December , 2015

Oh Yes, Philip Towle is well known in Anglo-Japanese studies.....A very good read.

13 December , 2015

Dear Alll

Many thanks for the input. Greatly appreciated and lots to digest. The lists of Officers (thanks seaforth 78) are particularly interesting and may well provide some interesting leads. Thank you for taking the time to dig these up.

MG

Oh Yes, Philip Towle is well known in Anglo-Japanese studies.....A very good read.

I am not familiar with Towle or his writings. Is there anything in particular Inshould be trying to track down?

MG

14 December , 2015

Here is a link to a good essay on British Observers of the Russo Japanese War by Towle.

http://www.russojapanesewar.com/aspects.pdf

(It's the second essay after Lone's)

14 December , 2015

Here is a link to a good essay on British Observers of the Russo Japanese War by Towle.

http://www.russojapanesewar.com/aspects.pdf

(It's the second essay after Lone's)

Thank you. Clearly there is a mass of material.

Towle seems to argue that the British were unable to learn as much as they might have learned due to entrenched views. It was also interesting to see how different British observers had different (and occasionally conflicting) views on the tactical lessons. I am not sure that I would agree with Towle's views that the Cavalry was obsolete. The British and ANZAC used cavalry with some effect in Egypt and Palestine during the Great War,

The comments on Hamilton's character were interesting, as well as the alleged conflict between the British Officers. Friction between British Officers was a significant factor in 1914 and it is interesting to see evidence of this years in advance.

The one thing that really surprised me is the idea that Britain was close to entering the Russo-Japanese War with the Japanese and that France might have entered on the Russian side.

18 December , 2015

In searching for Kuhn's papers for the thread on neutral observers of the Russo-Japanese War, I came across Lessons From the East: Nothing New That's Not in the Books by Chanley M. Mahoney of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The link: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA378244

The abstract:

Early this century the United States Army began to implement a long overdue and much needed reform program. This program began to form in the 1870s after Brevet Major General Emory Upton published the results of his military observer mission to the armies of Asia and Europe. In the conclusion to his report, he recommended changing the military policy of the United States and his suggestions later formed the basis for Secretary of War Elihu Root's reform program, some 20 years after he published his report.

Nearly 30 years after Upton's observer mission, the U.S. Army sent several officers to observe both the Russian and Japanese armies during the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05. This paper will explore what these officers learned; the mechanisms the Army used to share their ideas; and whether the Army, as an institution, learned from the experiences of the observers. To determine this, the paper will examine the professional journals, Army War College lectures, and the subsequent careers of two of these officers.

Obviously this isn't focused on the British Army as per the OP's request, but it seemed related.

30 December , 2015

Martin

If you are interested in American advisors, I noticed two online volumes when I was looking for something else on Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) Digital Library. Also Reconnaissance in the Russo-Japanese War by Asiaticus Translated from the German by J Montgomery 3^rd Hussars

http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org

Cheers

Maureen

30 December , 2015

Here is an excerpt from the Raymond Brutinel Tapes, 1962.

TAPE 1.

Interviewer:

What led to the formation of the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade?

Reply:

I have very often been asked to relate the circumstances which led to my joining the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and consequently to the formation of the First Canadian Machine Gun Brigade.

I have done so verbally many times but I feel that this simple story should be told again and recorded, as it is really the starting point of a great adventure, the multiple phases of which could not be foreseen in August 1914.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I had been a close student of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and had been struck with the great fire power of the Machine Gun when employed in sufficient numbers by resolute men, well trained. I deplored the systematic ignorance of the qualities of these weapons shown by the French General Staff and also by the British General Staff, although with the light Vickers machine gun the British had the best machine gun available at the time - and, as far as I know, still unsurpassed.

31 December , 2015

Lessons learned is an interesting use of words. Whilst it is clear that it was much observed, and much documented, any influence of the lessons does not seem to me to have had a positive influence on the British army - or did it?

31 December , 2015

Hi

For general views in what was going on in the British Army before WW1 then 'From Boer War to World War' by Spencer Jones is useful, also a couple of articles in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research - Spring 2009 'Was the British Army Lagging Technically in 1914? by Anthony Lucking, and, Summer 2012 'The British Army and Technology Before 1914' by Nick Evans.

'Lessons learned' in any battle can differ whether you are an observer or a participant. It would be no surprise that different lessons could be interpreted from the same engagement, we see it within both the Russian and Japanese armies at the time. Exactly what lessons did the Russian Army learn and what effect did it have on their performance in 1914? That would be the main question as far as WW1 is concerned. The British Army was still absorbing the lessons of the Boer War during the Russo-Japanese War so any information gained was additional to those lessons and how useful they would be in actual Army operations they were engaged in world wide not necessarily just a possible future conflict in Europe!

Mike

31 December , 2015

You could try the RUSI Library. In addition to RUSI Journal articles, their catalogs lists 101 books

1.

Achtzehn Monate mit Russlands Heeren in der Mandschurei

Author: Tettau, Eberhard