Weapons only become effective through trained crews, fire control, maintenance, and repeated practice. Before the incident, newspaper commentary treated Russia's aggregate gun total as mathematical evidence that it would defeat Japan. Dogger Bank demonstrated the weakness of that arithmetic when the battleship Oryol reportedly fired hundreds of shells without hitting anything. Rozhestvensky subsequently imposed frequent practice and improved his force during the voyage. Its starting level, however, was revealed by the inability to identify targets, coordinate fire, or hit slow trawlers at close range. The watch point turns an infamous mishap into a broader lesson about readiness rather than hardware inventories.
Notable Point · 1:59:10-2:03:19
Why gun count did not guarantee Russian combat power
The trawler attack overturned claims that Russia's large gun total made victory mathematically inevitable.