The following is an article I hope you will be able to use for MWAN. I am getting up a skirmish force for the summer fighting of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 that led up to Port Arthur. I am using the Frontier Russian 6 Japanese infantry and artillery from their Boxer Rebellion line. With off-table artillery, maxim guns, mines, barbed wire entanglements, etc., it should be interesting. While I was doing the research for the figures, I thought I just might as well write an article and share the information. I was inspired to go into the period after buying a copy of HUMAN BULLETS by Tadayoshi Sakurai with translation by Masujiro Honda, Houghton, Mifflin 6 Company, Boston 6 New York, copy right 1907. It is a very interesting book if you like front line action accounts. The book should have made the Europeans realize what they would be in for when they finally lost their senses. I hope to write a follow-up article on weapons and tactics of the war. The following is a simple overview of the uniform information this author was able to locate. RUSSIAN UNIFORMS The Russian forces wore the basic 1882 uniform with some modifications. The basic color of the uniform was an almost black green. In summer, white items were issued but these were colored drab during the war (grayish or brownish in the author's opinion). All troops were issued the universal greybrown Winter Great Coat. All troops wore high topped black boots. Infantry - Winter Uniform: Black green kaftan with consealed buttons. Same color trousers and the same color peakless field cap. Trousers had a red outer seam and the cap and cap band were trimmed in red. Cap band was colored the regimental color of the wearer's unit. Officer's caps had a leather peak. All infantry were issued black sheep skin low crowned caps for parade and winter wear. In summer the white Kittel replaced the winter Kaftan and a white cap with only a frontal metal pin as distinction was issued. Unit Distinctions: Brigade distinctions were red or blue shoulder boards for the 1st or 2nd Brigade of a division respectively. Regimental distinctions were red, blue, white or dark green cap bands and collar patches for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th regiments of the Brigade. Grenadiers had yellow shoulder boards with regimental color pipping (red, blue, white or yellow for the regiments), Rifles had pinkish red should boards. Equipment: Infantry had a black belt with two forward ammo pouches, a large hayersack worn on the left hip, a canteen worn over the haversack, the greatcoat rolled and worn over the left shoulder, the coat end was stuffed into a copper mess pot, a shelter half and ten pegs were cited. Officers had a pistol holster on the right hip and a sabre and sheath on the left hip. Artillery They wore the same uniform as infantry but the sheep skin cap was worn in all seasons and had a metal plate (small one) on the front. The metal plate was dropped during the war. Distinctions were green but piping and shoulder boards were red. Officers had black cuffs and collars.  Cavalry - Dragoons Most cavalry were dragoonized in reforms of 1882. Uniforms were very similar to the infantry. The winter cap had a colored crown; Trousers were grey. 'Unit distinctions were colored patches on a green collor or green patches on a colored collar. Possible colors include red, light blue, white, yellow, green, carmine, and pink (based on 1870 list). Cavalry - Cossacks Their uniform was very much like the dragoon uniform but pants were green. Both flat top forage caps and tapered tall fur caps with colored crowns were worn. The Amxr regiment wore a round cap with a fur edge. Instead of the Kaftan, the Amur regiment and the Caucasian Cossacks wore the grey-brown Cherkesska (the collarless long Cossack coat) with a bolored standing collar Beshmet (shirt) under it. 1890 Cossack Unit Colors Unit Coat-collar Cuffs / Trousers Piping/leg Stripe/cap crown Shoulder boards Transbaikal Green Yellow Yellow Ussuri Green Yellow Yellow Siberian Green Red Red Amur Green Yellow Green (Beshmet yellow) Forage cap band was same color as cap crown. Equipment: Cavalry had a black leather belt with one cartridge box on the right hip and a sabre and steath on the left. An alternative to the single ammo pouch was a black fabric bandolier hung over the left shoulder with the pouches under the right arm. Sabres were hung with the rings on the front of the sheath not the rear (Slavonic style). Carbine was slung on back. NOTE: Many Russian officers carried a binocular case by their sabre. JAPANESE UNIFORMS The Japanese army started the war in the 1880 dark blue winter uniforms. These were replaced by the summer khaki issue early in the srping campaigns of 1904. Late in 1904 a linnen Khaki over uniform was issued for winter (worn over the dark blue uniform). During the winter of 1904.05, cloth Khaki uniforms were issued. Khaki was now standard for year-round wear. Infantry - The infantry wore a single breasted dark blue tunic with collar and piping in branch color. The dark blue trousers had branch color Pipping (outer seam stripe). The peak cap was dark blue with a wide band in branch color and with a brass star on the front. Off white leggins and black shoes completed the uniform. The cap was also piped in branch color. Service Branch Colors: Branch Color Infantry Yellow Artillery White Engineers Dark Red Guards Red Guard Art. White striped Red Transport Corp Light Blue (Another source states that all tunics had red collar and piping. All caps had red piping; shoulder straps were red also by this source). Officers had a blue-black uniform with a cavalry style Dolman jacket with black loopings on the breast. The trousers had wide outer seam stripes in branch color. Caps were the same as men but had varying black stripes; 2 for company officers, 3 for field grade and 4 for Generals. Branch color distinctions on general uniforms were red. Trousers (Generals) had triple stripes. Artillery as for infantry except branch color. Equipment for Infantry black leather waist-belt with 2 forward cartridge pouches, bayonet sheath, should straps, knap sack, also a canteen, haversack, section shelter half, entrenching tool, spare shoes, mess kit and blanket roll on top of knap-sack. Officers had a pistol holster on right hip and sabre hung on left. Binoculars were popular and most officers carried canteens. Cavalry They wore a dark blue dolman with white frogging for line cavalry and red for guards. Trousers were red with a green stripe and other branch color distinctions were green. Officer's Dolman had black looping. (Mother source has the cavalry in blue trousers with red stripes on leg and red cap bands and piping). This may be a guard cavalry unit? Cavalry wore high black boots, Cavalry Equipment This was a black leather shoulder strap single cartridge pouch on the right hip and a plain stell sheathed sabre on the left hip. Waist belts were also worn. Officers as infantry officers. Carbines were carried slung on the back. All troops were issued brown high collared sheep-skin lined great coats for severe winter uses. During the war, officers tended to wear enlistedmen's coats. Notes On The Khaki Uniform In sunpger, a neck cloth about 1/3 cap diameter was issued and seems to have been attached just above the cap band. It hung down below the collar. The Khaki uniforms had no distinctions but the branch color cap band. SOURCES THE BOXER REBELLION, Lynn Bodin, Osprey Publishing Co. London, Reprinted 1982. UNIFORMS OF THE WORLD, Herbert Knotel, Jr. Herbert Sieg, Trans. by Ronald G. Ball. Charles Scribner's Sons; NY, 1980 (German copyright, 1937). THE FIGHTING MAN, Jack Coggins, Doubleday Co., Garden City, NY, Copyright 1966. MILITARY UNIFORMS IN COLOR, Preben Kannik, English ed, Wm., Y. Carman, Macmillian Co. NY, 1968. ARMY UNIFORMS OF WORLD WAR I, Andrew Mollo, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New. York, NY, 1978. USEABLE MINIATURE FIGURE: Frontier Miniatures 25m Boxer Rebellion Line, all figures in both Russian and Japanese listings. Back to MWAN # 23 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com