Battle of Motien Pass

Battle of Motien Pass
Part of the Russo-Japanese War
General Kuroki, Japanese commander at Battle of Motien Pass
Date 10 July 1904 Location Liaodong Peninsula, Manchuria Coordinates: 40°00′N 122°30′E / 40.000°N 122.500°E / 40.000; 122.500 Result Japanese victory
Belligerents
Empire of Japan	Russia
Commanders and leaders
General Kuroki Tamemoto	General Count Fedor Keller  †
Strength
11,000	25,000
Casualties and losses
355	1,213

The Battle of Motien Pass (摩天嶺の戦い, Matenrei-no-tatakai^?) was a minor land conflict of the Russo-Japanese War, between the Imperial Japanese Army under General Kuroki Tamemoto and the Imperial Russian Army under General Count Fedor Keller over control of a strategic mountain pass on the main road between the coast and Liaoyang, Manchuria on 10 July 1904.

General Count Fedor Keller had assumed command of the Russian Eastern Force from General Zasulich after the Battle of Yalu River. His force of 25,000 men held Motien Pass, in the middle of Liaodong Peninsula, on the main road between Antung (modern Dandong, China) and Liaoyang. Keller, a loyal friend of General Aleksey Kuropatkin and a student of General Mikhail Skobelev, observed that the Japanese strategy was similar to that of the First Sino-Japanese War (i.e. that the three Japanese armies would converge on Haicheng, as they had 10 years previously). Kuropatin agreed, and in an effort to fortify his position at Haicheng, he began a series of complex and confusing troop movements as he endeavored to plug real or imaginary gaps in his defensive line. Keller, already weakened by the loss of men at the Battle of Te-li-Ssu, was further forced to give up two more regiments to Kuropatin's defenses at Haicheng.

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