The Battle of Tsushima was a major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. It was naval history's first, and last, decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets, and the first naval battle in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. It has been characterized as the "dying echo of the old era – for the last time in the history of naval warfare, ships of the line of a beaten fleet surrendered on the high seas".