Battle of Hansan Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Battle of Hansan Island | |
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| Hangul: |
한산대첩
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| Hanja: |
閑山大捷
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| Revised Romanization: | Hansan Daecheop |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Hansan Taech'ŏp |
| Battle of Hansan Island | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Fleet of Toyotomi Hideyoshi | Korean navy | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Wakizaka Yasuharu Wakizaka Sabei† Watanabe Shichi'emon† |
Yi Sun-Shin Won Kyun Yi Eok Ki |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 73 ships | 56 ships | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 47 ships destroyed and 12 captured 1,500 deaths |
no ships lost 19 dead and 114 wounded |
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| Hideyoshi's Invasions |
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| Busan – Tadaejin – Tongnae – Sangju – Ch'ungju – Okpo – 1st Sacheon – Imjin River – Dangpo – Danghangp – Hansando – Pyongyang – Chonju – Haejongchang – Busan – Jinju – Pyeongyang – Uiryong – Byokchekwan – Haengju – Jinju – Pusan – Chilchonryang – Namwon – Myeongnyang – Ulsan – 2nd Sacheon – Noryang Point |
The naval Battle of Hansan Island, also known as the Battle of Hansan-do, took place on August 14, 1592 near the Korean island of Hansando, and was one of the most important battles of the Imjin War. Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin destroyed more than 59 Japanese ships and killed 9,000 Japanese soldiers. Yi's success in this battle became a turning point in the war.
Contents |
[edit] Prelude
Admiral Yi Sun Shin, along with the small fleet of seven ships of Admiral Won Kyun, had fought two campaigns across the southern coast of Korea. Admiral Yi Eok Ki joined Admirals Yi and Won for the third campaign. In all, the Koreans sank over 100 Japanese ships and inflicted thousands of casualties. Admiral Yi and the combined Korean fleet did not lose any ships and suffered only 11 killed and 26 wounded up to this point.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi made it absolutely imperative to his commanders that the naval situation must be brought under control, the Korean fleets destroyed and the supply routes through the Yellow Sea secured. The Japanese commander, Wakizaka Yasuharu, was ordered to wait and combine his fleet with the forces of Katō Yoshiaki and Kuki Yoshitaka to seek out and destroy the Korean fleet. However, it would have taken some time for Katō and Kuki to assemble their ships, so Wakizaka went out alone with 73 ships. Wakizaka's fleet probably had the best war ships fielded by the Japanese up to that point in the war. Out of the 73 ships, 36 were the large multi-decked atakebune, 24 the medium sized seki bune and 13 small kobaya scout ships.
In the meantime, Admiral Yi was planning a third campaign and worked with Admirals Won and Yi Eok Ki in combined operations and practiced a new battle formation in the shape of a crane's wings. The combined fleets had a total of 54 panokseon battleships and 2 or 3 turtle ships.
[edit] First phase of the battle
Admiral Yi received intelligence from a local farmer that a large Japanese fleet (Wakizaka's ships) was making its way west towards him and was anchored north of the Kyonnaeryang Strait, a narrow channel between Koje Island and the mainland.
On August 14th, the next morning, Admiral Yi sent out six panokson battle ships through the channel to lure out Wakizaka's fleet. Wakizaka took the bait and his ships chased Yi's six panoksons through the channel and into the broad open sea in front of Hansan Island. At this time, Admiral Yi began to arrange the fleet in the crane wing formation.
[edit] The crane wing formation
In the two previous campaigns, the Koreans had either met the Japanese ships in a straight battle line or, if space was limited, with a circular or rolling method of attack, where their ships attacked in relays to sustain a continuous bombardment. Although these tactics were effective, considerable numbers of Japanese had escaped and swum ashore. The crane wing formation was designed to not just sink ships, but to annihilate the enemy without losing a lot of men.
The formation itself resembled a "U" shape, with the heaviest battleships in the center and lighter ships on the wings. Reserves were placed behind the central ships and would plug gaps as the formation expanded. Ships at the front of the formation would face broadsides to maximize the number of cannons that would be aimed at the enemy. Furthermore, the "U" shape itself would allow for interlocking fields of fire so that many Japanese ships would be enfiladed and hit from several angles. In this sense the Crane Wing formation shared similarities with the early 20th century battleship tactics of 'Crossing the T'.
The Japanese tactic was to put their fastest ships in the vanguard to keep the Korean ships occupied, then move their larger ships rapidly to close in, grapple, and board the Korean ships. However, this tactic played right into Admiral Yi's plan, as the Japanese rowed deeper into the trap. The volume and range of Korean cannon fire prevented the Japanese from employing their favorite tactic and, finally, the crane wing formation enveloped and surrounded the Japanese.
[edit] Second phase of the battle
Wakizaka Yasuharu was a highly aggressive commander and one of the legendary "Seven Spears of Shizugatake," having gained fame in the battle that solidified Hideyoshi's claim to be Oda Nobunaga's successor. It is clear from his tactics in the Battle of Hansan Island that Wakizaka threw all caution aside. Wazikaka not only followed the six Korean ships through the Kyonnaeryang Strait with his entire fleet of 73 ships, but pressed as quickly as possible into the center of the crane wing formation, oblivious to the danger ahead.
By positioning the Korean fleet in a "U" shape, Admiral Yi was able to quickly surround much of the Japanese fleet and commenced heavy fire onto the Japanese, lobbing cannonballs, fire arrows, arrows, and musketballs. The battle continued from the mid-morning to the late afternoon. Heavy hand to hand fighting took place but Admiral Yi allowed it only if the enemy ship was crippled and damaged. Commanders Wakizaka Sabei and Watanabe Shichi'emon were killed. Commander Manabe Samanosuke committed seppuku aboard his burning, sinking ship. Wakizaka Yasuharu himself was hit by several arrows, but it did not penetrate his armor. After losing 59 ships, Wakizaka's remaining 14 ships retreated because the Koreans began to concentrate their fire on his ship. Wakizaka barely escaped due to his fast ship. Most of the surviving ships were damaged so badly that they had to be abandoned in some of the surrounding islands that dotted the southern Korean coast. Only a few ships ever made it back to the Japanese base at Pusan Harbor.
[edit] Aftermath
Admiral Yi's victory at Hansan Island effectively ended Hideyoshi's dreams of conquering Ming China, which was his original goal in invading Korea. The supply routes through the Yellow Sea had to be open in order for his troops to have enough supplies and reinforcements to invade China. Thus, Konishi Yukinaga, the commander of the contingent of troops in Pyongyang could not move further north due to lack of supplies, nor could more troops be sent to him because there was not enough food to feed them. It took five times the resources in food and men to move supplies via the land route over Korea's primitive roads. Furthermore, moving supplies overland left them vulnerable to attacks by regular Chinese and Korean forces as well as the Korean militia forces (the Righteous Armies 의병/義兵) that were becoming increasingly active as the war progressed.
After the battle of Hansan Island (and the battle of Angolpo shortly afterwards), Hideyoshi found it necessary to give a direct order to his naval commanders to cease all unnecessary naval operations and limit activity to the immediate area around Pusan Harbor. He told his commanders that he would come to Korea personally to lead the naval forces himself, but Hideyoshi was never able to carry through on this as his health was deteriorating rapidly.
The battle of Hansan Island was the most important battle of the Seven-Year War. It ensured that all the fighting would be in Korea, not China, and that Pyongyang would be the furthest northwestern advance of the Japanese armies (to be sure, Katō Kiyomasa's second contingent's brief march into Manchuria was Japan's northernmost advance, however, this operation ultimately had little effect). It can be argued that the battle was one of the most important in East Asian history up to that point. Had Hideyoshi been able to invade China and conquer a large part of it, his plans were to also invade the Philippines and other commercially important islands in the East and South China seas. Hideyoshi's larger war plans, supported in much written documentation, was nearly identical to Imperial Japan's blue print for conquest in the second half of the 20th century.
[edit] International Recognition
George Alexander Ballard (1862–1948), a vice admiral of British Royal Navy, complimented Admiral Yi's winning streaks by the Battle of Hansando highly:
- "This was the great Korean admiral's crowning exploit. In the short space of six weeks [actually about 9 weeks, May 7, 1592 – July 7, 1592] he had achieved a series of successes unsurpassed in the whole annals of maritime war, destroying the enemy's battle fleets, cutting his lines of communication, sweeping up his convoys, imperilling the situation of his victorious armies in the field, and bringing his ambitious schemes to utter ruin. Not even Nelson, Blake, or Jean Bart could have done more than this scarcely known representative of a small and cruelly oppressed nation; and it is to be regretted that his memory lingers nowhere outside his native land, for no impartial judge could deny him the right to be accounted among the born leaders of men." (The Influence of the Sea on The Political History of Japan, 57p)
[edit] References
- Hawley, Samuel 2005 The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China. Republic of Korea and U.S.A.: Co-Published by The Royal Asiatic Society and The Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
- Turnbull, Stephen 2002 Samurai Invasion: Japan's Korean War. Great Britain: Cassell & Co.
- Sohn, Pow Key (edited by) 1977 Nanjung Ilgi: War Diary of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin. Republic of Korea: Yonsei University Press.
