📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
On January 2, 1905, General Stoessel shocked both Russia and the world by surrendering Port Arthur while the garrison still held defensive capacity and supplies for continued resistance. The fortress fell after 156 days of siege following the death of its true defender, General Kondratenko, in December. Stoessel met with General Nogi and signed the articles of surrender, handing over approximately 24,000 surviving soldiers as prisoners of war. Japan's Nogi, who had lost two sons in the siege, wept openly — though whether from grief at his sons or respect for the fallen enemy remained a subject of Japanese legend.
The formal capitulation released Nogi's Third Army for the drive north to Mukden. The surrender outraged Russian public opinion and began the unraveling of domestic support for the war that would culminate in the 1905 Revolution.
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