Port Arthur town of Knights of Round Table

including most of the IJA 7th Division.

For Nogi, the cost of capturing 203 Meter Hill was that his last surviving son had been killed in action during the final assault on the hill.

The Russians, who had no more than 1,500 men on the hill at any one time,

lost over 6,000 killed and wounded."

(from Wikipedia)

Destruction of the Russian Pacific Fleet

"From the vantage point on 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur harbor, Nogi could now bombard the Russian fleet by relocating his heavy 11-inch (280 mm) howitzers with 500 pound (~220 kg) armor-piercing shells on the summit. This done, he systematically started to sink the Russian ships within range.

On December 5, 1904,

the battleship Poltava

was destroyed, followed by

the battleship Retvizan

on December 7, 1904,

the battleship Pobeda and

the battleship Peresvet and

the cruiser Pallada and

the cruiser Bayan

on December 9, 1904.

The battleship Sevastopol,

although hit 5 times by 11-inch (280 mm) shells,

managed to move out of range of the guns.

The Sevastopol was still afloat, having survived 124 torpedoes fired at her

while sinking two Japanese destroyers and damaging six other vessels.

The Japanese

had meanwhile lost the cruiser Takasago to a mine outside the harbor.

On the night of January 2, 1905,

after Port Arthur surrendered,

Captain Nikolai Essen

of the Sevastopol

had the crippled battleship scuttled in 30 fathoms (55 m) of water

by opening the sea cocks on one side,

so that the ship would sink on its side

and could not be raised and salvaged by the Japanese."

(from Wikipedia)

The surrender

"With the death of General Kondratenko on December 15, 1904, at Fort Chikuan,

Stoessel appointed the incompetent Foch in his place.

On December 18, 1904,

the Japanese exploded an 1,800-kilogram (3,968-pound) mine under

Fort Chikuan,

which fell that night.

On December 28, 1904,

mines under

Fort Erhlung

were detonated, destroying that fort as well.

On December 31, 1904,

a series of mines were exploded under

Fort Sungshu,

the sole surviving major fortress, which surrendered that day.

On January 1, 1905,

Wantai

finally fell to the Japanese.

On the same day,

Stoessel and Foch

sent a message to a surprised General Nogi,

offering to surrender.

None of the other senior Russian staff had been consulted, and

notably

Smirnov and Tretyakov

were outraged.

The surrender was accepted and signed

on January 5, 1905,

in the northern suburb of Shuishiying.

With this, the Russian garrison was taken into captivity,

and civilians were allowed to leave,

but the Russian officers were given the choice of

either going into prisoner-of-war camps with their men

or being given parole on the promise of taking no further part in the war.

The Japanese

were astounded to find that

a huge store of food and ammunition

remained in Port Arthur,

which implied that

Stoessel

had surrendered long before the fight was over.

Stoessel, Foch and Smirnov

were court-martialed

on their return to St Petersburg.

As for Nogi, after leaving a garrison in Port Arthur, he led the surviving bulk of his army of 120,000 men north to join Marshal Oyama at the Battle of Mukden."

(from Wikipedia)

Losses

Russian losses

"Russian land forces in the course of the siege suffered

31,306 casualties,

of whom

at least 6,000 were killed.

Lower figures such as

15,000 killed, wounded, and missing are sometimes claimed.

At the end of the siege,

the Japanese captured

a further

878 army officers and

23,491 other ranks;

15,000 of those captured were wounded.

The Japanese also captured

546 guns and

82,000 artillery shells.

In addition

the Russians lost their

entire fleet based at Port Arthur,

which was either sunk or interned.

The Japanese captured 8,956 seamen.

Japanese losses

The Japanese army casualties

were later officially listed as

57,780 casualties (killed, wounded and missing),

of whom

14,000 were killed.

In addition

33,769 became sick during the siege

(including

21,023 with beriberi).

The Japanese navy

lost 16 ships in the course of the siege,

including two battleships and four cruisers.

There were higher estimates of

Japanese army casualties

at the time such as

94,000 -110,000 killed, wounded, and missing,

though these were written without access

to the Japanese Medical History of the War."

(from Wikipedia)

Aftermath

2004 Russian stamp "100th anniversary of the heroic defence of Port Arthur" showing the military decoration, the Port Arthur Cross