This is the full and rare five-volume War Office Official History of the events of the land war that appertain to the Russo-Japanese War during 1904, from the Battle of the Ya-Lu in February to the fighting at the major battle of Sha Ho in October. Published complete with 40 strategical and tactical colour maps, and several monochrome plates.
Factual, immensely detailed and without extraneous later comments or criticisms to cloud the detailed historical information, this is a prime reference source on an imperialistic conflict that grew out of the rival designs of Russia and Japan on Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of military operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria; losses in battle were exceptionally heavy on both sides.
A series of quick Japanese victories astounded the world. The disastrous outcome of the war for Russia was one of the immediate causes of the Russian Revolution of 1905. Japan gained the position of a world power, becoming the first non-European and non-American imperialist modern state, and in a position to treat its European allies as a fully equal partner.
This was the first time the tactics of entrenched positions for infantry defended with machine guns and artillery became vitally important. Both would become dominant factors in World War I. Even though entrenched positions had already been a significant part of both the Franco-Prussian War and the American Civil War, it was apparent that the high casualty counts, and the tactical lessons readily available to observer nations, were completely disregarded in preparations for war in Europe, and during much of the course of World War I.