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Subject: {ASSM} An Interview With Gorshin (Part 7) By Katzmarek (MF, Slow Hist)
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<1st attachment, "An Interview With Gorshin7.txt" begin>

AN INTERVIEW WITH GORSHIN (Part 7)

   By KATZMAREK

   "As Togo headed North East, Rhozdventsky was forced around to keep his
ship's bearing.  You remember he was travelling twice as fast as us?  Well
that meant that in effect he slowly began to envelop the front of the
Russian line."

   "Where was the Grozny?"

   "We hovered with the rest of our flotilla off the Suvurov's starboard
bow.  We had lost our correct order but I don't think it bothered anybody.
We all were fascinated with what was happening," Admiral Gorshin told the
younger Officer.

   "So what was happening?"

   "Well, to us we thought we were winning!  Here the Japanese had hardly
fired a shot and our Divisions had kicked the piss out of them, it seemed
to us.  But then, where we were, we couldn't get a clear picture."

   "So what happened next?"

   "Togo waited until his rear was out of range of Nebogatov and Enkvist
then...  He just let us have it.  There's no better description...  within
the space of 18 minutes, he'd won." Admiral Gorshin shook his head sadly,
dabbing his eyes.  "And a lot of good people didn't make it home."

   --------------------------------------------

   Togo swung his binoculars towards the rear of his fleet.  Apparently
satisfied, he turned to his Fleet Gunnery Officer and tipped his head
slightly.

   The Officer spun round and yelled, "Now!"

   Above him on the signal platform of the Mikasa, a signalman swung two
white flags over his head.  This was repeated by a sailor on the after
bridge and picked up by Shikishima a moment later.  All down the line there
was a brief fluttering of white flags that reminded those present of the
wings of a dove, a powerful symbol in Japan.

   The Japanese had practiced this routine until they could perform it in
their sleep.  Since the turn, the Battleships had been checking the range
with single shots.  The data had then been passed to all the turrets by
voice pipe.  To make sure, teams of messengers had run around all the gun
crews to make sure they all had the latest information.

   The technique of finding the range in those days was common to all
navies.  One shot short, one over, then between them must be the correct
range.  Bearing was a little more difficult because both vessels were
moving and you needed to compensate for this.  (Known in navy lingo as 'the
rate of change.')

   Because both fleets were moving roughly parallel to each other at
different but constant speeds, Togo's range-takers had ample opportunity to
carefully set their bearing and pass this on to the gun crews.  The
Japanese also had the easier time of it than the Russians because their
main guns were all of a uniform calibre and performed similarly.

   Togo's Gunnery Officer counted down 5 seconds on his silver chronometer
then yelled, "fire!" Instantly his signalman repeated the order into his
row of voice tubes just inside the Mikasa's wheelhouse.

   Sixteen 12 inch guns, all bearing on the Suvurov, exploded with an
enormous crash.  The opening broadside was devastatingly accurate.  At
least seven heavy shells were seen to explode along the Russian flagship's
length.

   One shell struck the base of the Suvurov's control tower and knocked
everyone inside off their feet.  One slammed into the port 155mm hull gun
and blew it into the sea.  The flash then travelled deep into the bowels of
the Battleship's midships creating a raging inferno.

   The foremast was hit, the shell creating a fireball that incinerated the
gun crews in the fighting top.  The mast itself spun off into the Sea of
Japan complete with Rhozdventsky's pennant.

   Dozens of fires were started that soon overwhelmed the fire crews.  The
hoses, so carefully laid out on the deck, were shredded.  In less than 5
minutes, the flagship was heavily on fire and out of control.  Everyone on
the bridge had been stunned, wounded or killed.

   It began a tight turn to starboard, whether of itself or by some heroic
hand on the helm.  (Actually a shell had disabled the rudder) The Alexander
steered to port of her, followed by Borodino and Orel, and started to
circle the Suvurov, protectively.

   By then a thick blanket of black/brown smoke began to spread out from
the burning Suvurov.  There was little wind and the toxic cloud drifted
slowly a few metres above the sea.  It obscured her from Togo's gun-layers
so they moved on to the other vessels.

   Meanwhile the Oslyabya had been left to port all on its own after the
1st Division's earlier chaotic maneuvre.  Two of Togo's Armoured cruisers,
the Iwate and Idzumo, had engaged her in a duel and she'd been hit by two
or three shells on her armoured side.  The Battleship Fuji, however, had
run out of targets and swung onto the 2nd Division's flagship.  The Fuji's
broadside missed except for one 12 inch shell which struck the Oslyabya's
ornate prow.

   Some accounts differ, however from eyewitness reports this is believed
to have been what happened.  Fuji's shell struck her 'bow-chaser' 3 pounder
gun.  The bows of the vessel disappeared in a cloud of brown smoke.  For a
split second, during which the cloud began to drift away, nothing happened.
Then there was a tremendous explosion.  The Oslyabya's bows opened out like
a clamshell and the ship's momentum began to drive the front of the vessel
downwards.  After a minute or two, water began lapping at the foreturret.
All of a sudden the Oslyabya rolled over and sank in a little under three
minutes.  There were no survivors.  The time was 1450 hours.

   ----------------------------------------------

   "Togo began a wide sweep over to the East," continued the Admiral.  "He
swept through 90 degrees, encircling the front of the fleet.  The Alexander
took up leadership and led the line South for 10 minutes or so.  During
that time Togo ceased fire having lost sight of us because of the smoke."

   "And the Destroyers?"

   "We had a quick conference after the Suvurov went up in smoke.  The five
of us pulled up alongside as if we were anchored in a bay.  All the time
Togo's 'overs' were whistling overhead or raising huge water spouts nearby.
It was surreal, in a way."

   "We decided that Buiny and Bedovy should wait by the flagship while the
rest should follow the remainder of the fleet.  No-one was telling us what
to do, you see.  Even if they were, I doubt we could have seen any signals
through all the smoke."

   ---------------------------------------------

   Enkvist had remembered his orders by this time and had turned back to
cover the transports.  They had reversed course and were waiting to the
South for further instructions.  Izumrud and Zhemchug took off by
themselves and went to look for the cruisers.  At least that's what they
claimed later.

   All ships of the Battle Divisions had been hit by the time Togo ceased
fire.  The worst affected still afloat was the Suvurov, which was burning
fiercely.  Alexander was also on fire, as were the Borodino and Orel, but
they were still in some action of sorts.

   The Sissoi Veliky had had her main turret disabled by 8 inch shell hits
from Iwate and Idzumo.  Navarin was relatively unscathed although she had a
fire aft.

   Further back Nebogatov was unaware he was now in charge, the Suvurov
having been disabled.  His old ships had done well and were still in
working order.  He had little idea of the carnage up front and was
surprised when he sighted the burning Alexander on a reverse course to his
starboard.  He quickly made up his mind to cut the corner around the
Suvurov.  Thus he saved his Division from the full weight of Togo's guns.

   The Russians' turn had been tighter than Togo's and opened the distance
to the relief of the Squadron.  A little after three the Alexander again
tried to guide the fleet North.  Turning, she broke out of the smoke haze
to find the entire Japanese line arrayed across her front.  The range had
come down to a little over 7000 metres, practically point blank.

   That time the hail of shells was brief as Togo, correctly deducing what
the Russians were trying to do, reversed course and followed them North. 
He was herding them like a flock of sheep.

   -----------------------------------------------

   "The Alexander turned the fleet North East to get away from Togo,"
Gorshin explained, "however Togo was keeping abeam of us, this time to the
North West.  Whenever there was an opportunity he opened fire.  Having run
out of his evil 'Shimose' shells he was now using high explosive.  We
called them then, 'common' rounds."

   "The Grozny?"

   "I can remember whizzing about dodging shell plumes.  We tried to stay
out of the smoke, it choked us and stung our eyes.  Then we came upon one
of those amazing things you sometimes encounter in battle.  Two men in a
tiny rowboat, rowing as fast as they could go, suddenly appeared out of the
gloom."

   "Who were they?"

   "Two crewmen from the Suvurov, a Petty Officer and Rating.  We plucked
them out of the sea.  They told us that they'd been assisting the wounded
near the stern when they were trapped by fire and smoke.  Together they
lowered the little jolly boat that was swinging on davits from the
starboard stern quarter.  They told us that they then shimmied down the
ropes into the boat."

   "The tale they told of conditions on board the flagship horrified us. 
After the first devastating bombardment the organisation of the ship fell
to pieces.  Fires broke out all over, the Shimose shells just burst into
flames whenever they hit the tiniest obstruction.  Crews left their guns
and ran for cover.  A kind of inertia overcame them and Officers had to
kick the men to get them to do even the simplest of tasks."

   "The very decks burst into flames.  Ladders were warped into grotesque
shapes from the heat.  It was impossible to move around the ship.  And the
smoke, it burnt the lungs, sent sailors gasping for breath to the extent
that they hurled themselves over the side to get away from it.  Others just
lapsed into unconciousness at their posts.  One of the men described
finding a fire crew hiding in a compartment below the mainmast, all quite
dead from smoke inhalation."

   "Rhozdventsky, wounded in the head and half delirious, with Bogdanovich
and Kursel, were the only survivors from the hit on the control tower. 
They'd taken shelter in the port 155mm gun turret.  They had been trying to
hail one of the Destroyers to pick them up with hitherto no success."

   "Pikalevoi said that we must go and rescue the Admiral.  We tried for
over an hour to find the Suvurov again but couldn't.  It was about 1630
hours then and we suddenly found ourselves all alone."

   ----------------------------------------

   Tojo had again blocked the Russian fleet from heading North and again
the Russians had turned back.  This time, however, Togo lost sight of them
and went on a wild goose chase to the South.  Around 1630 he realised the
Russians must be still to the North so he turned to follow.

   He'd spotted, however, Enkvist's Division and detached Admiral
Kamimura's cruisers to chase them.

   Almost all great Commanders have their loyal Lieutenants and Togo had
one in Kamimura.  He was one of those able, sometimes reckless, charismatic
individualists who inspired later generations of Japanese Admirals such as
'Tenacious' Tanaka of World War Two fame.  He was a Stonewall Jackson to
Togo's Robert E Lee, or maybe a Jeb Stuart.

   Enkvist spotted Kamimura around 1500.  The Japanese Admiral had with him
Idzumo, Iwate, Yakumo, Adzuma and the Tokiwa, having doused her fire. 
Enkvist left the Almaz, Donskoi and Monomakh with the Transports and made
off South with the Oleg, Aurora and Svetlana to draw off the Japanese. 
Around 1515 there was a brief exchange of gunfire but Enkvist wasn't
hanging around.  The big, fast Russian cruisers worked up to their full
speed of about 24 knots.



   However, the last of the line--Svetlana--had taken a hit in a boiler
room and was slowing down.  According to Enkvist, the Svetlana's Captain,
Sergei Shein, decided to take his chances rather than slow down the other
two.  She therefore turned away West towards Tsushima Island.

   Meanwhile Kamimura had been recalled by Togo who was chasing the remnant
of the Russian Battleship Divisions.  He therefore left Svetlana alone to
make her way in a rough North Westerly direction.

   On the way Shein picked up the fleeing Zhemchug and Izumrud.  The
Zhemchug decided to follow Enkvist South while Izumrud kept company with
the Svetlana.

   Enkvist with the Oleg, Aurora and Zhemchug kept going until they reached
Manila.  That decision cost him his reputation and career.

   Meanwhile the cruisers left behind with the transports decided to
scatter and make their own way to Vladivostok.  The Almaz worked up to her
full speed of 26 knots and followed after the Battleships.  The Monomakh
followed on a more westerly course while the Donskoi headed for Tsushima
Island to wait for nightfall.  The transports were left behind to fend for
themselves.

   ------------------------------------

   "Enkvist, I believe, had little choice at that stage," commented
Gorshin. "Kamimura was between him and Vladivostok and if he'd done what
the rest of the Scouting Division did he would most certainly have shared
their fate.  Honourable?  Perhaps not, but he preserved those ships and
crews.  Aurora, of course, started the October Revolution when she fired in
support of the Petrograd Soviet.  Zhemchug got herself blown up in Penang
by the German Cruiser Emden in 1915."

   ---------------------------------------

   The Grozny and Bravy didn't stay alone for long.  Around 1515 they
spotted the Battle Squadron once again, this time on a Northerly bearing.
Joining the Battleships, they had not gone far before they came across the
smoking Suvurov.  The Buiny had just taken off Rhozdventsky.  Kursel and
Bogdanovich remained aboard.

   A mist was beginning to gather and, combined with the smoke, reduced
visibility still further.  The Japanese had lost them in the gloom and many
began to believe that their ordeal was over.  The crews gradually stirred
themselves from the debilitating shock that characterised them following
Togo's initial assault.  Optimism increased that the fleet would make
Vladivostok, wounded but alive.

   Alexander the Third still led the fleet although Rhozdventsky was moving
once more on the Destroyer Buiny.  The Admiral himself lapsed repeatedly
into a coma and was probably heavily concussed.  His pennant was lost with
the Suvurov's foremast so none of the remaining warships knew that the
Commander in Chief was nearby.

   Togo himself was pounding after the Russians to the South at his best
speed of around 16/17 knots.  Kamimura and his cruisers were racing after
him on a NNE bearing.  Either he or his Chief called in the Japanese
Destroyers and Torpedo boats from their positions to the West.

   The Japanese were beginning to grow concerned that the Russians might
get away with the advent of dusk.  Togo signalled all his ships that they
were to pursue the enemy, 'with courage, tenacity and ruthlessness.  None
of their warships must survive,' it continued, 'to wound the interests of
the Emperor and people.' This was an extraordinary appeal from a Commander
whose orders were generally terse and businesslike.

   The Japanese destroyers were organised in 2 flotillas of 16 boats.  This
organisation was copied from British practice of the time.  It wasn't until
after the Battle of Jutland 1915 that the Royal Navy concluded that the 16
boat flotilla was too unhandy in operations.  Togo also had 13 of the older
and smaller Torpedo boats, a class of vessel that was going out of favour
at the time.

   In Destroyer operations, training, and organisation, the Russians were
actually well up with the competition thanks to energetic Admirals such as
Makarov.  Similarly few Navies at the time were as experienced in mine
warfare as the Tsarist Navy.  Because they had fewer boats to spread
around, Russian Flotillas were smaller than the Japanese.  Coincidentally
they discovered that the 5 boat flotilla was more effective in operations.

   There was little between the protagonists in courage and daring, however
the bigger Russian Destroyers had been the better weapon in the fights
around Port Arthur.

   In this battle, though, Togo intended to swamp the competition with
overwhelming numbers.

   ---------------------------------------

   "A little before 1800 hours we pulled close to the Alexander for orders.
She'd got her fires under control but we could see she'd taken a fearful
pounding.  The mainmast was down and the after funnel was riddled.  The
afterdeck was smouldering and one of the 305s in the rear turret was
clearly jammed at a high angle.  Everywhere you could tell how hot the
fires had been."

   "I saw the Count Khlodovsky.  He came to the bridge rail and waved.  He
yelled something like, 'see you in Vlady.' I was glad he hadn't been hurt
or worse."

   "At about that time we saw the Japanese Destroyer Flotillas.  Our
lookout was stationed up the mast in a drum we called 'the tin can.' It was
high up near the cross tree.  'Smoke!  West Norwest!' he yelled.  We didn't
have any communications with him so he had to yell down through a
megaphone. At around that time too, Togo was sighted by the Alexander to
the East of us.  I knew then that we weren't out of trouble, that our luck
had run out."

   --------------------------------------------

   Time had run out too for the Suvurov lying disabled to the South.  The
senior Officer left on board was Lieutenant Bogdanovich.  There was little
left to do but to organise an orderly evacuation of the ship.  This had
just begun when Togo's 2nd Destroyer Flotilla spotted her.  Immediately,
evacuation stopped and both he and Kursel went through the ship searching
for functioning guns, and gunners.

   Verner Kursel was a native of Kiel, Germany and a naturalised Russian.
It was not uncommon for young men to seek fame and fortune in the services
of another country.  Kursel apparently joined the Russian Navy at a
relatively young age of 19.

   He was typically Nordic in appearance, tall, blond and blue-eyed.  Why
Rhozdventsky took a shine to him is unclear.  He did, though, regard him as
a prot�g�.  Kursel was a pupil of Rhozdventsky when the Admiral taught at
the Gunnery School at Kronshtadt.

   Kursel found a working gun on the stern of the Suvurov.  It was a 74mm
Quick Firer, the type designed for use against such an attack.  The
narrowness of the stern allowed the gun to traverse over 200 degrees.  It
was the best he could do in the circumstances.  He and Bogdanovich
assembled a team of 8 gunners and found 20 more to go below to man the
shell room and magazine.  The shell elevator, similar to a dumb waiter, had
to be worked by hand as there was now no power throughout the ship.

   An experienced team could fire about ten rounds per minute out of the
74, that's one every 6 seconds.  The Japanese Destroyers believed there was
more than one gun firing.  An eyewitness later said that Kursel's team were
doing better than 4 seconds between shots.  For a manually-operated gun of
that size, that's extraordinarily fast shooting!

   From the wreck of the after bridge Bogdanovich and a team of three took
up one of the Spandau-Maxim Machine Guns.  By then the after funnel had
fallen, its support cables having snapped.  The smouldering boilers below
shrouded the rear of the ship in sulfurous brown smoke.  The ship seemed
strangely deserted when the first of the Destroyers tentatively approached.

   K7 was a Vosper-Thornycroft-built Destroyer of approximately 500 tons.
She was one of the first of her class built specifically for the demands of
the Japanese Navy by the well-known British shipyard.  It knifed in towards
the disabled Russian Battleship, perhaps believing it had been abandoned.
Maybe they thought about boarding her and taking down her ensign flapping
from the stump of the mainmast?  In any case, as she came within 200
metres, a shell from the stern 74 hit her amidships, penetrated her thin
hull, and exploded in the boiler room.  The K7 erupted in a cloud of steam
and smoke and limped off back towards the rest of the flotilla.  Kursel's
second shell detonated Torpedoes on the K7's deck and she blew up in a
series of loud explosions.

   For over an hour, Kursel's 74 and Bogdanovich's Spandau fought it out
with the Destroyers.  Eventually, the Suvurov, her hull rent open from two
torpedo hits on her port side, rolled over and sank.  The time was 1920
hours and by then, to the North, the Russian fleet had ceased to exist.

   ---------------------------------------------

   "Togo's 4 Battleships opened up almost straight away," recounted
Gorshin, "I looked at my watch, it was precisely 1800 hours.  We shot back
with whatever gun we had left, but there were precious few.  They
concentrated on the Alexander first...  it was terrible...  Almost
immediately the Alexander was hit down near the waterline and she began to
list to starboard.  Borodino took over then and tried to open the range by
steering NNW but Togo just followed.  Nebogatov too began to bear away. 
The fleet was losing cohesion...  it was becoming every man for himself."

   "What of the Japanese Destroyers?"

   "They just hovered like a pack of hungry wolves.  Gromky's flotilla
started after them, I think Kern was frustrated.  He was thinking, 'let's
get this over with.' Nebogatov called him back.  There were thirty or so of
the bastards out there and it would have been suicide."

   "I think Nebogatov thought that if the fleet broke up then it would
split the Japs' fire.  In that case, just maybe, a few of the battleships
might get through to Vladivostok."

   "The light was fading.  The onset of evening, the smoke from the
funnels, gunfire and fires that had started again on some of the ships;
this combined with the mist...  it was probably our best chance."

   "Around this time the Monomakh joined us, having slipped past Kamimura.
The Borodino took the lead and led Sissoi Veliky, Navarin and Nakhimov
North West.  Nebogatov and the 3rd Division turned West, then South West. I
think he was heading for Tsushima Island.  Monomakh tagged on the end of
his line.  We lost sight of the Orel...  and the Alexander was in serious
trouble.  I couldn't think too much about that because that's when the
Japanese Destroyer Flotillas attacked."

   "Around 1900 hours we heard a tremendous explosion.  We couldn't pay too
much attention at the time because we were engaging the Jap Destroyers. 
Later we learned that it was the Borodino.  She'd taken one of the last 12
inch shells that Togo fired that day in her forward magazine.  After that
the Japanese Battleships called it a day and drew off to the East to leave
things to the Destroyers."

   "The Alexander?"

   "Those Battleships never could tolerate too much of a list," Gorshin
said sadly.  "She rolled over a little after six in the evening.  She took
with her virtually all her officers...  and Feodor Khlodovsky."

   ------------------------------------------------

   The immediate fate of the Orel, the last of the 1st Division, is
uncertain.  What is certain is that Togo found her the next morning, unable
to steam, with a white flag fluttering from her mainmast.  Most of her crew
had taken to the lifeboats and were grouped together nearby.

   However, a little after 1900 hours the main Japanese Destroyer attack
occurred.  Some thirty Destroyers and Torpedo boats concentrated on the
Sissoi Veliky, Navarin, Nakhimov and Monomakh.  Of the Russian Destroyers,
Buiny and Bedovy, with the Admiral aboard, headed North West out of the
fray.  They were pursued by at least 5 Japs, who launched at least two of
the 76 Whitehead Torpedoes fired that day.  Both missed and the fight
continued using deck guns.

   Bravy, Bezuprechny, Grozny and Kern's Gromky flotilla fought it out at
close range.  The cruiser Almaz joined at dusk and lent a hand.  However by
that time Sissoi Veliky had been hit by at least two torpedoes.  She took
on a steady list then exploded, showering debris high into the air. 
Monomakh and Nakhimov went soon after, both sinking very quickly with high
loss of life.

   The Navarin blundered South West on a course for Tsushima Island.  The
Island had become a sort of gathering point for the remnants of the fleet.
Perhaps it was thought that ships might be able to take shelter under the
high cliffs and deep inshore waters.  The Donskoi took shelter there with
the Izumrud and Svetlana.  Nebogatov's ancients anchored to the North of
the Island.  Izumrud, with her superior speed, however, decided to make a
run for Vladivostok by sailing along the coast of Korea.  She left around
midnight.

   As night fell, the fittest Destroyers, Bravy and Grozny, together with
the cruiser Almaz, were ordered by Nebogatov to run for Vladivostok and
bring news of the battle to the Russian High Command.  They decided on the
most direct route, straight through the waiting Japanese flotillas.

   -----------------------------------------

   "Our Oblukhov 74s were good guns," continued Gorshin, "better, I think,
than the British 6 pounders that the Japs used.  Their guns were all
exposed on their Destroyers whereas ours had shields.  The Jap Destroyers
themselves were smaller and narrower, faster than ours perhaps, but less
stable as a gun platform."

   "Torpedoes were a waste of time against Destroyers, unless you were
practically alongside the target.  The Japs fired a great many of them at
us, but no Russian Destroyer was hit by them."

   "We found the best technique was to run straight at them as if we were
going to ram.  The 'Mad Pole' Spzetznar had a talent for clearing their
exposed gun crews off with the Spandau.  We'd turn away at the last minute
and pump shells into them as we passed.  We put two of them out of the
fight that way."

   "But we couldn't keep all of them away.  That's how they got the old
Nakhimov, Sissoi and Monomakh.  They'd send in one or two to keep us busy
while others made a run for the big ships.  Our big ships didn't help
themselves by splitting up either.  They couldn't concentrate their
defences.  By then, all of us were exhausted and just wanted it to end."

   "How did you make the run for Vladivostok that night?"

   "Almaz, Bravy, and ourselves were the only ones undamaged in the fight.
Bezuprechny shared out most of her remaining coal.  A near miss had riddled
her with splinters and she'd trouble steaming.  Kern's boys had lost two
boats and the remaining three were all badly knocked about.  Only Gromky
was able to steam so the other two beached themselves on the island and set
charges."

   We knew by then that Kamimura was South of us near the coast and Togo
East, waiting for morning.  We weren't sure where the Destroyers were but
we figured they'd most probably have gone back to their tenders to re-arm
and coal.  What we didn't know was that the Sasebo and Nagasaki cruisers
were also now out there."

   "No Navy at that time liked fighting at night.  You can't tell who is
who and if you turn on your searchlight then everyone, friend and foe, is
going to have a pot at you.  Even if you fire flares, the flash from the
flare gun would be like opening your fly buttons on a dark night.  Only the
Germans were paying any attention to the problems of night fighting then."

   "We made our run about 11 that night.  Nebogatov decided to also make
off, but we didn't know it at the time.  The Navarin had found an inlet and
decided to anchor there."

   "We hadn't gone more than about 10 kilometres when we were caught in
searchlights from the East.  I think it was the Nachi group from Sasebo. 
There were at least four cruisers and they opened up with everything.  We
hit back with Torpedoes and guns...  anything, even the Pole was firing the
Spandaus at them.  First the Almaz was hit aft and ourselves and the Bravy
were showered by shell splinters.  It was a wild ride."

   "All of a sudden it stopped, just like that!  Almaz doused her fire
quickly and everything was black once more.  And quiet...  so quiet.  I
have never heard such silence." The Admiral had a wry grin on his face,
"such quiet..." he tailed off.

   ----------------------------------------

   On the Afternoon of the 28th of May, Vladivostok was in an apprehensive
mood.  The town was full of military and refugees.  Swaggering Cossacks
pushed their way through crowds of Chinese, Koreans and Russians displaced
from south of the Amur river.

   The 2nd Pacific Squadron had been expected for some days now and lines
of anchorages had been prepared in the harbour.  In the single dry dock,
the magnificent 12,500 ton Cruiser Rossiya lay battered after her clash
with Kamimura off Ulsan.  Reputed to be one of the fastest of the big
Russian Armoured Cruisers, it was simple weight of numbers that told in the
end.

   Vladivostok before the war had a population of around 100,000.  As
Russia's sole ice-free port and Eastern terminal of the Trans-Siberian
Railway it had considerable commercial importance.  To the North of the
port in the late 19th and early 20th the Amur region and the town of
Khabarovsk had a large agricultural industry.

   In late January the Russian army under General Kuropatkin had been
driven from its positions at Mukden near Harbin, Manchuria.  Some of the
beaten army had retreated upon Vadivostok.  The citizens were terrified
that General Oyama's Japanese army would soon be descending.

   Around 4 in the afternoon, lookouts announced there was smoke on the
horizon.  An hour later a small cruiser and two Destroyers entered the
harbour, all that remained of the Second Pacific Squadron.

   All the vessels were scarred from their encounter with the Sasebo
Cruisers.  As they tied up, rows of stretchers began to descend the
gangways containing the wounded and the dead.  From the Grozny came seven,
the most serious being the 'Mad Pole' with shell splinters in his chest. 
Gorshin also came off the Destroyer on a stretcher, suffering from a high
fever that would be diaganosed as Pneumonia.

   Commander Pikalevoi walked over the gangway with his arm bandaged from a
flesh wound.  The boat itself was riddled with splinters and the hull
plates buckled from near misses.

   The Naval casualties were taken to the nearby Naval base of Novorossisk,
known locally as 'Vostok'(Eastern) to differentiate it from the other
Novorossisk on the Black Sea.

   --------------------------------------

   "I was delirious with fever," continued Admiral Gorshin.  "They took me
to this awful, overcrowded Hospital and left me in a drafty corridor.  I
thought I would die there."

   "After 3 days, I think, they moved me to a sanitorium in Nakhodka, about
20 kilometres to the East of Vlady.  There we had private rooms...  and
nurses.  I didn't know it at the time but the Count had told his family
about me.  He had said, 'I have two dear friends in Yvgeny Gorshin and
Peter Szpetznar.  I'd be grateful if you'd see to the welfare of these men
should they survive the battle.'"

   "It was the final Will of Count Feodor Khladovsky, Ensign, and the
Count's family looked after the both of us very well."
   KATZMAREK(c) 

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