Far Eastern Imperial Navy

History

See also: Ships of Far Eastern Imperial Navy 1920

Formation

Far Eastern Imperial navy was formed in 1776 from the Russian Siberian Military Flotilla. Its early purpose was mainly exploring the vast Pacific region and support the colonial ventures especially of those of the Far Eastern American company. With colonization of Hawaii islands in 1815, The operational areas and importance of the navy rose and although aggressively expanding nation mainly in the Asian continent, Far Eastern Empire begun to actively expand in oversea territories. First major setback for the Navy became in the Crimean war in 1854 when Far Eastern Empire allied its former overlord Russia again British and French. British ships blockaded and assaulted several Far Eastern naval holdings and revealed the obsolescence of the existing Far Eastern Fleet which still relied heavily on sail ships.

With the aftermaths of the war, Far Eastern Imperial navy begun to modernize and adopted naval strategy of commercial raiding e.g. focusing on powerful cruisers instead of challenging the British and French navies evenly. During the American civil war, Far Eastern ships made visits to Californian ports to give support to the Unionist and preventing UK and France to help the southern confederation. Activities of the fleet increased with establishment of the Far Eastern Colony in New Guinea and its accompanying islands in 1884-88. In 1885 after minor clashes with Spain, Far Eastern Empire bought the Marshall Islands in 1885 from Spain and eventually the whole Caroline archipelago in 1898.

Main naval composition relied very much on armored cruisers in the latter part of the 19th century with Great Britain seen as the main adverser. To counter the Far Eastern cruisers in the region, UK build two dedicated 2nd class battleships of the Centurion class. That sparked Far Eastern Empire to build their own "battleship-cruisers" to protect the cruiser fleet. However during the late 1880, China acquired two powerful battleships from Germany and that sparked local naval race in the Asian powers.

In 1894 Japan defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese war. Japan got hold of the Chinese battleships and with money received as war indemnity started massive naval expansion program. Initially Japan was to be given free hands with Korea, but after intervention by Far Eastern Empire, Germany and France, Japan was forced to recognize Korean integrity. As a slap to Japanese faces, Far Eastern Empire leased the port of Pusan as their own naval base just few hundred miles away from Japanese home islands. The rapid emerge of Japan into the world arena meant that Far Eastern Empire no longer enjoyed the status of sole modern nation in the region. To answer Japanese threat, Far Eastern Empire start their own massive naval build-up.

Far Eastern-Japanese War

As Far Eastern presence in Korea clearly threatened Japanese own ambitions in the region, they decided to launch pre-emptive attack on Far Eastern fleet in 1904 which was stationed in Pusan at the time. Japan had secured its back by allying with Great Britain in case that Russia or any other country would intervene on Far Eastern Empire's behalf. Despite Naval authorities advice, the Far Eastern Emperor Mikhail II wanted to shown off to Japanese and kept the main fleet in Pusan despite its imminent proximity to attack and possible trap.

Japanese attacked without a warning in February 1904 and tried to destroy the Far Eastern Fleet. At the same time they landed troops in Korea and quickly started to build up defensive positions along the mountainous northern regions of the peninsula. Meanwhile the Far Eastern fleet was blockaded into Pusan and several indecisive naval battles took place around the waters between Korea and Japan. Both sides lost initially two battleships into mines which were first time used offensively in war. While the fleet was trapped in the Southern tip of Korea, Far Eastern imperial army tried to push trough Japanese defenses but were unable to make breakthrough. Japanese in the otherhand started to close in Pusan and it soon fell into siege from both land and Sea.

The situation in Pusan became unbearable as the enemy artillery became too close and the Far Eastern battle-fleet was now under the risk of being sunk by land based gunfire. Therefore the fleet decided to make final breakthrough-attempt and flee to Vladivostok. Plan was to use the light cruiser section to lure the Japanese blockade fleet to loose their guard so the main fleet would escape the port. The plan worked initially and the main battleship fleet managed to escape from Pusan but was soon caught by the Japanese fleet in the straight of Tsusima. Japanese managed to maneuver into more favorable positions and in the battle of Tsusima, the almost entire Far Eastern fleet was destroyed. From 7 battleships initially stationed in Pusan only 1 survived. As the fleet was lost and the attempt the win Japanese in the land were also failing, Far Eastern Republic asked for peace where it was forced to give up claims on Korea.

The interwar years

After the war Far Eastern Empire was badly reduced into seccond-rate naval power. It had only one battleship and one obcolete battleship-cruiser left alongside its cruiser fleet. Also the one of the biggest consequences was loosing influence and basing rights at Korean ports which ment that the fleet were even more divided into Yellow Sea and Japanese sea.

Accusations of poor judgement of basing the battlefleet in Pusan prior to the war begun imidiately as well as hindsight over too passive approach to the Japanese threat after the first Sino-Japanese war. Many claimed that the pace of the "For the needs of the navy" naval construction program of 1898 was too slow and it was started too late. Those claimants noted that Far Eastern Empire should have been able to benefit its larger economy comapared to Japan in terms of naval power. Revanchism spred widly among the Far Eastern monarcs and Emperor Mikhail II which seemed to avoid the blame of the loss with his unwise rulings. Instead he became the most prominent advocator of the revanchist policy. This led to the 1905-6 naval reconstructive program which was aimed to outmach Japanese with the whole strenght of the Far Eastern Economy.

In more practical level, "Special committee of readjustment in naval affairs" was created which was to study and analyse the war experience and provide new suggestion for naval strategy and composition of the fleet. One of the major conclusions made by the committee was adaption of "all big-gun" battleships and armoured cruisers (battlecruisers). This conclusion alligned with the naval planners agross the world and aptly Great Britain introduced the first "all big gun" battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1906. Suddenly Far Eastern Empire was in the situation where the ships it had just lost during the war were now seemed outdated and the need for replace the predreadnought type with mixed caliber guns were forced on all major naval powers.

The committee suggested that future Far Eastern Imperial Navy would consist of two battle squardons. The squardon was to be the principal tactical unit of the fleet. Each squardon would divided into 2 brigades of battleships and one brigade of armoured cruisers. Each brigade would hold 4 ships. To accompany the capital units, each squardon would aditionally feature 9 light cruisers and 36 destroyers. This would make the future fleet for the following composition:

• 16 battleships
• 8 armoured cruisers
• 18 light or protected cruisers
• 72 destroyers

Despite warnings of financial ministery, Emperor approved the plan the "2 squardon" policy became the nucleous of the fleet construction.

World War I

Far Eastern Empire allied with Russian Empire in 1906 and was called into arms in 1914 when Russia entered the First World War. Far Eastern participation was rather limited as it found itself in rather obscure situation beign in the same side as Japan which was called for the war as UK's ally. Far Eastern Imperial Navy sended detachment of few cruisers and squardon of destoryer to help the Entente powers in ASW operations against Germany. Other than that its operations were almoust non-existent.

The "2 squardon" naval buildup continued with open armsrace with the Japanese despite officially being on the same side. Some alterations were made for the program as reporst of war-experience reached Far Eastern Empire.

After the Bolshevik revolution, Far Eastern Empire sended large army into Russian Siberia to help out the "whites" in order to bring Russia back to the fight against the Central Powers. However the support to the Right-wing forces of Russia was rather unpopular among the Far Eastern soldiers and population in general as symphaties for the bolshevik cause had gained strong foothold in the Empire.

Personnel

Strength

At the eve of the revolution, Far Eastern Imperial Navy was in the following strenght:

• 8 Dreadnought Battleships (+ 2 building)
• 6 Battlecruisers (+2 building)
• 2 Semi-Dreadnought Battleships
• 4 Predreadnought Battleships
• 10 Armoured Cruisers
• 16 light and protected cruisers (+4 building)
• 119 destroyers (+ 12 building)
• 63 submarines (+6 building)