Qualla: Battle of Mukden

Battle of Mukden: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit user:わがまま小皇帝, CC BY-SA 3.0. In just over ten days of fighting, the Japanese army alone fired 20.11 million rifle and machine gun rounds and 279,394 artillery shells. The Russians fired even more. That ammunition expenditure matched what the German army had used in the entire 191-day Franco-Prussian War and exceeded what the British had fired during the whole of the Second Boer War. The Battle of Mukden, fought from 20 February to 10 March 1905, involved 610,000 soldiers and produced 164,000 casualties. It was the largest battle the modern world had ever seen, a rehearsal for the industrialized slaughter that would define World War I a decade later.

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Image: user:わがまま小皇帝 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Mukden: Two Exhausted Empires

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P. F. Collier & Son, Public domain. By February 1905, both sides were approaching the limits of their endurance. The Russian army under General Aleksey Kuropatkin had been beaten at Liaoyang, fought to a stalemate at the Shaho River, and failed in its counter-offensive at Sandepu. Reinforcements from European Russi...

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Image: P. F. Collier & Son | Public domain

Battle of Mukden: The Crescent Closes

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacky Lee, CC BY 3.0. Oyama's plan was elegant in conception and savage in execution. He would form his armies into a crescent around Mukden, cutting off the possibility of Russian escape. The newly formed Yalu River Army, consisting mainly of Port Arthur veterans and reservists, attacked the Russian ...

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Image: Jacky Lee | CC BY 3.0

Battle of Mukden: The Frozen River

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown photographer, Public domain. Luck favored the Japanese in an unexpected way. A late thaw left the Hun River frozen solid, removing what should have been a natural obstacle on the Russian left flank. When Oyama changed his orders from "attack" to "pursue and destroy," Japanese troops poured across the ice. Th...

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Image: Unknown photographer | Public domain

Battle of Mukden: The Shock That Reached St. Petersburg

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kobayashi Kiyochika, Public domain. Russian casualties approached 90,000. Kuropatkin's army, though battered and demoralized, remained largely intact and fled north toward the Sino-Russian border. Oyama's overstretched supply lines prevented him from completing the destruction he had planned. But the battle's signi...

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Image: Kobayashi Kiyochika | Public domain