APPENDIX II
BREAKDOWN OF THE UNIT ORGANIZATION
AND DISTRIBUTION[109]
Amongst the causes which added to our difficulties must be mentioned the frequent breakdown in action of the normal organization of the troops. It began when war was declared, and though efforts were made to rectify things as far as possible, it was not till after the battle of the Sha Ho that we were really able to re-establish our formations. But both the corps and divisional organization again disappeared during the battle of Mukden, and the resulting confusion to a certain extent contributed to our defeat.
When war began the corps organization of the troops stationed in the Far East was not complete, and one corps was formed of the independent Rifle brigades. When the Rifle regiments were brought up to a strength of twelve battalions, the normal composition of the 1st and 3rd Siberian Divisions was twenty-four battalions. The 2nd Siberian Corps was supposed to consist of one Rifle division and one reserve division formed in the Trans-Baikal district. Before hostilities commenced, a division of the 3rd Siberian Corps (the 3rd East Siberian Rifle Division) was moved by the Viceroy to the Ya-lu; the 4th East Siberian Rifle Division, with the corps staff, remained in Kuan-tung. The 1st Reserve Division, which constituted part of the 2nd Siberian Corps, I kept at Harbin, and this corps remained with only one division till I was appointed Commander-in-Chief. When the operations began, I endeavoured to reform the dislocated corps organization. I therefore collected on the line Liao-yang–Feng-huang-cheng the 3rd and 6th Siberian Rifle Divisions, and formed with them a corps which I called the 3rd Siberians. At first I did not succeed in sending to this corps the 23rd East Siberian Rifle Regiment—it being stationed in Mukden as a guard on the Viceroy’s Headquarters—and my subsequent request that it might be sent to the Ya-lu to join the corps there was refused; it was only sent forward after the battle of the Ya-lu. The line Liao-yang–Ta-shih-chiao–Port Arthur was guarded by the 1st Siberian Corps, at full strength. The 2nd Siberian Corps, in which was included the 2nd Brigades of the 31st and 35th Divisions, which had arrived in the Far East in 1903, composed my reserve, and was divided between Liao-yang and Hai-cheng.
At first, owing to our paucity of numbers, the 3rd Siberians had to defend a large tract of country. Six regiments of this corps were on the line River Ya-lu–Feng-huang-cheng–Fen-shui-ling–Liao-yang; one regiment was on the line Ta-ku-shan (sea and mouth of Ya-lu)–Hsui-yen–Ta Ling–Hai-cheng. One regiment was on the line Kuan-tien-cheng–Sai-ma-chi–An-ping–Liao-yang. When the 4th Siberians arrived, the line Ta-ku-shan–Ta Ling–Hai-cheng was occupied by one of its brigades, because a considerable number of Japanese had made their appearance in this direction. The remaining three brigades were concentrated near the station of Ta-shih-chiao,[110] as a reserve either for the 1st Siberians to the south or the brigade of the 4th Siberians on the Ta Ling (Pass). All the units of the 10th Army Corps which arrived from Russia were collected on the line Sai-ma-chi–An-ping–Liao-yang, where Kuroki’s army was in force. As soon as the units of the 4th Siberians and 10th Army Corps occupied the above-mentioned lines, the regiments[111] belonging to the 3rd Siberians were moved off to join their own corps. On arriving from European Russia, the units of the 17th Army Corps were concentrated near Liao-yang, and formed my main reserve.
The two brigades of the 10th and 17th Army Corps, which arrived in the Far East in 1903, were organized as independent brigades, and, till the troops concentrated at Liao-yang, operated with the advanced forces. The brigade of the 35th Division fought with the 1st Siberians, to which it was sent up as a reinforcement in the battle of Te-li-ssu. The brigade of the 31st Division sent to reinforce the troops operating on the line Ta-ku-shan–Ta-Ling–Hai-cheng, together with the 5th East Siberian Rifle Division, became part of the 2nd Siberians. When the Japanese advanced with all their three armies on July 31, the general disposition of our troops was as follows:
1. To the south, opposite Oku’s army, were the 1st and 4th Siberian Corps, total forty-eight battalions (the 1st Siberians at full strength, the 4th Siberians consisting of three brigades), under the command of General Zarubaeff.
2. On the line Ta-ku-shan–Ta Ling–Hai-cheng, opposite Nodzu’s army, were the 2nd Siberians and a brigade of the 4th Siberians, total twenty-eight battalions, under the command of Lieutenant-General Zasulitch.
3. On the line Ya-lu–Fen-shui-ling–Liao-yang, opposite Kuroki’s army, were the 3rd Siberians, and the 10th and 17th Army Corps, total eighty battalions, under the command of General Bilderling. At this time the 5th Siberians were, by the Viceroy’s orders, detrained at Mukden, and told off to protect the rear and the line Pen-hsi-hu–Mukden, and to act at the same time as a reserve for the advanced corps. When we moved towards Hai-cheng the brigade of the 4th Siberians operating on the line Hai-cheng–Ta Ling–Ta-ku-shan, returned to its own corps. In retiring towards Liao-yang, the two brigades of the 10th and 17th Army Corps, which had been sent out to the Far East in 1903, joined these corps.
During the first days of the battle of Liao-yang the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Siberians and 10th Army Corps took part at their full strength of units. The 2nd Siberians had only one division, and the 17th Army Corps concentrated on the right bank of the Tai-tzu Ho, and was not at first engaged. When we crossed on to the right bank of the river, in order to operate against Kuroki, the corps organization became in several instances quite dissolved. In addition to the 2nd and 4th Siberians, we had to leave a brigade from both the 3rd Siberians and the 10th Army Corps for the defence of the immense fortified camp at Liao-yang itself. At the time of our advance at the beginning of October, I did everything possible to keep the corps organization intact. The 1st and 3rd Siberians and the 1st, 10th, and 17th Army Corps operated at full strength, while the 4th and 6th Siberians had three brigades each, one brigade of the 4th Siberians being sent to strengthen the 3rd, which had a particularly difficult task allotted to it, and one brigade of the 6th Siberians (which was under me) being left by the Viceroy’s orders to protect our rear. The 2nd Siberians, which consisted of the 5th East Siberian Rifle Division, was strengthened by five reserve battalions. The 5th Siberians was alone (for good reasons) split up into two groups, one operating under the command of the corps commander on the extreme right flank, the other on the extreme left under General Rennenkampf. The account of the September operations of the Eastern and Western Forces, given in [Chapter IX.], shows to what an extent the units became mixed by the mere course of the fighting. As soon as I was appointed Commander-in-Chief, I did my best to prevent this in the future. The 61st Reserve Division, which did not belong to an army corps, and had been detailed by the Viceroy to strengthen the Vladivostok District, was sent by me to the field army and incorporated in the 5th Siberians, in place of the 71st Division, which was concentrated on the extreme left flank under the command of General Rennenkampf. All the regiments of the 1st Siberian Division were sent to join the 2nd Siberian Corps, and the 1st Siberian and 10th Army Corps were moved at full strength from the first line to my main reserve. The 3rd, 4th, and 6th Siberian and the 1st and 17th Army Corps were at full strength—distributed along the first lines and in reserve. The 2nd and 5th Siberian Corps had each only three brigades, one brigade of the latter having been left on the right bank of the Hun Ho to protect our extreme right. A brigade of the 5th Division holding Putiloff Hill was left, at the special request of the officer commanding the 1st Manchurian Army, on the positions which had been captured by the splendid regiments of this brigade (19th and 20th East Siberian Rifle Regiments). As soon as the 8th and 16th Army Corps arrived they were posted to my main reserve; the three Rifle Brigades were formed into a Composite Rifle Corps.
Early in January, 1905, I concentrated all three corps of the 2nd Army—i.e., the 8th, 10th, and Mixed Rifle Corps in reserve, and I had in my main reserve the 1st Siberians with a division of the 16th Army Corps (the other was still on the railway). We had altogether 128 battalions in reserve, and our position was most favourable. It might, however, have been still better if I had insisted on strong army reserves being formed in the 1st and 3rd Armies. My proposal to move the 17th Army Corps back from the advanced lines met with a strongly worded request that the distribution of the 3rd Army might be left as it was. In the 1st Army I might have insisted on the whole of the 4th Siberian Corps being sent to join the reserve after the transfer of the Rifle Brigade from Putiloff Hill to the strong Erh-ta-ho position. I made a mistake also in forming three Rifle Brigades together into one corps. If I had kept them as independent brigades, it would have been unnecessary to take brigades from army corps whenever independent brigades were required. Although the Japanese had fewer battalions than we had, these were much stronger than ours; they also had more independent units than we had. Their divisions were not organized in corps, their small armies being made up of divisions and independent brigades, and our corps organization was not sufficiently flexible to meet the thirteen to fifteen Japanese divisions, and a similar number of independent brigades. The enemy were able to take divisions and brigades from the advanced positions and transfer them, without upsetting their existing organization, and with far greater ease than we could move our corps. When an independent brigade operated against us—as, for instance, on the line Sai-ma-chi–An-ping—we were obliged to break up our corps organization in order to meet it with one of our brigades; this happened in the 10th Army Corps.