February 19 – March 10, 1905 · Manchuria Theater
February 19 – March 10, 1905
The largest land battle in history to that point, Mukden involved over 600,000 men across a front stretching nearly 100 kilometers. Oyama and Kodama executed a massive double-envelopment, swinging five armies around the Russian flanks in a Manchurian winter. Despite fighting tenaciously, Russian forces were outmaneuvered as Japanese columns threatened encirclement from both sides. Kuropatkin ordered a desperate retreat northward through a narrowing corridor, managing to escape annihilation but losing the city of Mukden and suffering catastrophic casualties. The retreat lasted weeks, with the Russian army dissolving into near-chaos.
Commanders