Battle of Shaho

Battle of Shaho
Part of the Russo-Japanese War
Ukiyo-e "In the Battle of the Sha River, a Company of Our Forces Drives a Strong Enemy Force to the Left Bank of the Taizi River" by Yoshikuni, November 1904
Date 5–17 October 1904 Location South of Mukden on the Sha River, Manchuria Result Indecisive; Russian retreat
Belligerents
Empire of Japan	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ōyama Iwao	Alexei Kuropatkin
Strength
170,000	210,000
Casualties and losses
3,951 killed 16,394 wounded	5,084 killed 30,506 wounded 4,869 MIA

The Battle of Shaho (Japanese: 沙河会戦 (Saka no kaisen), Russian: Сражение на реке Шахе) was the second large-scale land battle of the Russo-Japanese War fought along a 37-mile (60 km) front centered at the Shaho River along the Mukden–Port Arthur spur of the China Far East Railway north of Liaoyang, Manchuria.

After the Battle of Liaoyang the situation for General Alexei Kuropatkin, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies in Manchuria became increasingly unfavorable. Kuropatkin had reported a victory at Liaoyang to Tsar Nicholas II in order to secure reinforcements brought in by the newly completed Trans-Siberian Railroad, but the morale of his forces was low, and the besieged Russian garrison and fleet at Port Arthur remained in danger. Should Port Arthur fall, General Nogi Maresuke's Third Army would be able to move northward and join other Japanese forces, enabling the Japanese to achieve numerical superiority. Although he needed to reverse the tide of the war, Kuropatkin was reluctant to move too far from Mukden due to the approach of winter, and the lack of accurate maps.

The Japanese forces commanded by Field Marshal Ōyama Iwao consisted of 170,000 men in 170 battalions, organized into the Japanese 1st Army (General Kuroki Tamemoto) in the east, 2nd Army (General Oku Yasukata) in the west, and 4th Army (General Nozu Michitsura) in the center, and four reserve brigades.

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