Manchuria extra 1945 liberation. Manchurian operation (1945). Defense structures of Japan
The Soviet Army is preparing for a liberation campaign
The Soviet military-political leadership began preparations for an offensive in the Far East immediately after the Crimean Conference. The strategic goal of the Soviet operation was to defeat Kwantung Army in Northeast China and Korea, in South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which was supposed to hasten the surrender of Japan. The possibility of a landing operation in Hokkaido was envisaged if Tokyo did not capitulate after the loss of Manchuria and Korea.
The plan of the operation provided for powerful flank attacks on the Kwantung Army from the west and east and an auxiliary strike from the north. This was to lead to fragmentation, encirclement and destruction of the Japanese army in parts. The liberation of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands depended on the success of the main operation.
In accordance with the plan of the operation, organizational changes were carried out in the troops that were in the Far East. In April 1945, from the two existing fronts - the Trans-Baikal and the Far East, the Primorsky group was separated, which included troops that were located from Guberovo to North Korea. This simplified the management of troops and allowed the command to concentrate forces on narrower lanes. On August 2, 1945, the Primorskaya Group was transformed into the 1st Far Eastern Front, and the Far Eastern Front into the 2nd Far Eastern Front. As a result, before the start of the war in the Far East, three fronts were deployed - the Trans-Baikal, the 1st and 2nd Far East. They were supposed to interact with the Pacific Fleet and the Red Banner Amur River Flotilla.
In order to inflict a crushing blow on the enemy and not delay the course of hostilities, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command transferred to Far East part of the forces that were liberated in Europe. The 39th Army was sent to the Trans-Baikal Front from the Königsberg region, and the 53rd Combined Arms and 6th Guards Tank Armies from the Prague region, which were supposed to deliver the main blow in the west. The 5th Army, which was also located at the tip of the main attack, was transferred to the 1st Far Eastern Front from East Prussia. In addition, all fronts received new tank, artillery, aviation, engineering and other units and formations. All this seriously increased the combat power of the Soviet Army in the Far East.
The troops were transferred to a distance of 9-11 thousand kilometers, which was associated with great difficulties. Only during May - July 1945, 136 thousand wagons with troops and cargo arrived from the west to the Far East and Transbaikalia. The troops had to overcome part of the way on their own. Particularly difficult were marches in Transbaikalia and Mongolia, where crossings reached more than 1000 kilometers. Heat, clouds of dust, lack of water quickly tired people, hampered the movement of troops and accelerated the wear of machines. Despite this, daily infantry marches reached 40 kilometers, and mobile formations - 150 kilometers. As a result, all the difficulties of such a large-scale transfer of troops were successfully overcome.
The composition of the fronts in the Far East
As a result of all regroupings, the composition of the fronts in the Far East was as follows:
The Transbaikal Front under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky included the 17th, 39th, 36th and 53rd combined arms, 6th Guards Tank, 12th Air Armies, the Transbaikal Air Defense Army and the Soviet -Mongolian cavalry-mechanized group;
The 1st Far Eastern Front under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union K. A. Meretskov included the 35th, 1st Red Banner, 5th, 25th and 9th air armies, the Primorsky Air Defense Army, the Chuguev task force and 10th mechanized corps;
The 2nd Far Eastern Front under the command of Army General M.A. Purkaev included the 2nd Red Banner, 15th, 16th combined arms, 10th air armies, the Amur Air Defense Army, 5th separate rifle corps and the Kamchatka defensive region.
The general leadership was carried out by the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East, Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky. Colonel-General I.V. Shikin was a member of the Military Council, and Colonel-General S.P. Ivanov was Chief of Staff of the High Command in the Far East. The general leadership of aviation was carried out by the commander of the Air Force, Chief Marshal of Aviation A. A. Novikov.
The three fronts included 11 combined arms, 1 tank, 3 air and 3 air defense armies, an operational group. In these formations, there were 80 divisions (including 6 cavalry and 2 tank), 4 tank and mechanized corps, 6 rifle, 40 tank and mechanized brigades. In total, the grouping of Soviet troops in the Far East had over 1.5 million people, over 26 thousand guns and mortars, 5556 tanks and self-propelled guns, over 3.4 thousand aircraft. Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in men by 1.8 times, in tanks by 4.8 times, and in aviation by 1.9 times.
The Pacific Fleet under the command of Admiral I. S. Yumashev had about 165 thousand personnel, 2 cruisers, 1 leader, 10 destroyers, 2 destroyers, 19 patrol ships, 78 submarines, 10 minelayers, 52 minesweepers, 49 submarine hunters boats, 204 torpedo boats and 1549 aircraft, 2550 guns and mortars. The Amur military flotilla under the command of N.V. Antonov had 12.5 thousand people, 8 monitors, 11 gunboats, 52 armored boats, 12 minesweepers and other ships, about 200 guns and mortars. Action coordination Pacific Fleet and the Amur flotilla with ground troops was entrusted to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet N. G. Kuznetsov.
Front tasks
The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front under the command of Malinovsky were to deliver the main blow with three combined arms and tank armies (17th, 53rd, 39th and 6th Guards Tank Armies) from the Tamtsag-Bulag ledge in the general direction to Changchun and Mukden, by the 15th day of the operation, reach the Solun - Lubei - Dabanshan line, and then reach the Zhalantun - Changchun - Mukden - Chifeng line. On the flanks, the troops of the front delivered two auxiliary blows. The 36th Army was advancing in the north, and the Cavalry Mechanized Group of Soviet-Mongolian troops was advancing in the south.
Each army had its own task. The 17th Army under the command of Lieutenant General A. I. Danilov was to strike from the Yudzyr-Khid region in the general direction of Dabanshan. 6th Guards tank army under the command of Colonel-General of Tank Forces A. G. Kravchenko, she advanced in the general direction towards Changchun. The tankers were supposed to reach the Lubei-Tuquan line no later than the 5th day of the operation, take the passes through the Greater Khingan, preventing the Japanese reserves from approaching the central and southern parts Manchuria, then advance on Changchun, Mukden.
The tank army was placed in the first echelon of the front, since there was neither a well-prepared enemy defense, nor significant Japanese forces in front of it. This made it possible to develop a swift offensive, occupy mountain passes before the approach of the enemy’s operational reserves, and develop success with a strike in the central regions of Manchuria, where they planned to destroy the main forces of the 3rd Japanese Front. The 6th Guards Tank Army was significantly reinforced, having two mechanized, one tank corps, four separate tank battalions, two motorized rifle divisions, two self-propelled artillery brigades, two light artillery brigades, two RGK artillery regiments, a separate mortar regiment, a motorcycle regiment, motorized engineering brigade and other units and subdivisions. Thanks to such a powerful and diverse composition, the tank army could conduct active combat operations in isolation from the combined arms armies.
Tank T-34-85 in Manchuria on the Greater Khingan Ridge
The 39th Army under the command of Colonel General I. I. Lyudnikov delivered the main blow from the area southeast of Tamtsag-Bulag in the direction of Solun, bypassing the Khalun-Arshan UR from the south. Lyudnikov's army was supposed to cut off the escape route for the enemy's Thessalonica grouping to the southeast and occupy the Solun area. Part of the army delivered an additional blow to the northeast in the general direction of Hailar in order to isolate the Thessalonica grouping and support the 36th Army in defeating the Hailar grouping of the Japanese army.
The 36th Army under the command of Lieutenant General A. A. Luchinsky supported the offensive of the front's main shock group from the north. The army of Luchinsky was advancing from the Starotsuruhaituy region to Hailar with the task of taking the Hailar UR. Part of the army forces from the Otpor region advanced on the Zhalainor-Manchurian UR, and after its defeat, they were also to head for Hailar. The 36th Army, in cooperation with part of the forces of the 39th Army, was to defeat the enemy's Hailar grouping.
On the southern flank of the front, the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry Mechanized Group under the command of Colonel General I. A. Pliev struck. The KMG was advancing from the Moltsok-Khid area in the direction of Dolun (Dolonnor), ensuring the movement of the front's main strike force from the right flank. This group included the following Soviet troops: 43rd tank, 25th and 27th motorized rifle, 35th anti-tank artillery brigades, 59th cavalry division, two anti-aircraft, fighter-aviation, guards mortar regiments and an engineering and engineer battalion. On the part of the Mongolian armed forces, the group included the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th cavalry divisions, the 7th armored brigade, an artillery regiment, an aviation division and a communications regiment.
The 53rd Army under the command of I. M. Managarov was in the second echelon of the front. It was supposed to follow the tank army and was concentrated in the Tamtsag-Bulag area. The reserve of the front included two rifle and one tank divisions, one tank brigade. The reserve of the front was located in the Choibalsan area.
The troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front of Meretskov were to deliver the main blow with the forces of two combined arms armies, a mechanized corps and a cavalry division (1st Red Banner and 5th armies, 10th mechanized corps) from the Grodekovo area in the general direction of Mulin, Mudanjiang, in order to On the 23rd day of the operation, reach the line of Boli - Ninguta - Dongjingchen - Sanchakou station. At the first stage of the operation, the main strike force of the front was to break through the powerful defenses of the enemy. The 1st Far Eastern Front advanced towards the troops of the Trans-Baikal and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts. At the second stage of the operation, the troops of the front were to reach the line Harbin - Changchun - Ranan. Two auxiliary strikes by the forces of the 35th and 25th armies were delivered to the north and south.
The 35th Army under the command of Lieutenant General N. D. Zakhvataev advanced in the northern direction, providing the right flank of the front's main strike force. Soviet troops advanced from the Lesozavodsk region in the direction of Mishan. Zakhvataev's army was supposed to defeat the opposing enemy forces and occupy the Khutou UR, and then, in cooperation with the 1st Red Banner Army, destroy the enemy's Mishan grouping.
The 1st Red Banner Army under the command of Colonel General A.P. Beloborodov, in cooperation with the 5th Army, was supposed to take the Mulin-Mudanjiang grouping of the Japanese, take Mulin, Linkou. By the end of the 18th day of the offensive, the army was to reach the line of the Mudanjiang River north of the city of Mudanjiang. The 5th Army under the command of Colonel General N.I. Krylov was supposed to break through the defenses of the Suifynhe UR, and then advance on Mudanjiang in order to destroy the Mulin-Mudanjiang grouping in cooperation with the troops of the 1st Red Banner Army. At the same time, part of the forces of the 5th Army was to advance south, going into the rear of the Japanese troops, who were defending themselves in front of the 25th Army.
The 25th Army under the command of Colonel-General I. M. Chistyakov supported the offensive of the front's main shock group on the left flank. The 25th Army was to go on the offensive after breaking through the enemy defenses in the main direction and use the success of the 5th Army to take the Tungning UR, and then advance on Wangqing and Hunchun. Subsequently, with the support of the Pacific Fleet, they planned to land troops in the ports of North Korea.
A mobile group was formed at the front, consisting of the 10th mechanized corps and a cavalry division. There were two rifle corps in the reserve of the front. Part of the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front (Chuguev task force) continued to carry out the task of defending the Soviet coast of the Sea of Japan.
The troops of Purkaev's 2nd Far Eastern Front attacked Harbin with the forces of the 15th Combined Arms Army from the north along the Sungari River with the support of the Amur Flotilla. By the 23rd day of the operation, Soviet troops were to reach the area of the city of Jiamusi, and then Harbin. The remaining forces of the front at the beginning of the operation had the task of conducting defensive operations.
The 15th Army under the command of Lieutenant General S.K. Mamonov delivered the main blow from the Leninskoye area in the Sungarian direction and an auxiliary blow by the forces of the 5th separate rifle corps from the Bikin area in the Zhaohei direction. Mamonov's army, with the support of two brigades of the Amur flotilla and aviation, was supposed to cross the Amur on both sides of the Songhua River, take the city of Tongjiang, and develop an offensive against Jiamusi and Harbin. The remaining troops of the front were to go on the offensive on the second day of the operation.
The Pacific Fleet was supposed to disrupt enemy communications in the Sea of Japan; hinder enemy operations in the ports of North Korea; ensure their maritime communications in the Sea of Japan and the Tatar Strait; in cooperation with the ground forces to prevent possible enemy landings on the Soviet coast. On August 8, 1945, the fleet received an order to be on alert, deploy submarines, stop single navigation of Soviet ships, and organize escort of merchant ships. Later, due to the success of the ground forces, the fleet received additional tasks: to capture Japanese naval bases and ports in North Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuriles. The Amur flotilla, operationally subordinate to the command of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, was supposed to ensure the crossing of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, support the ground forces in the assault on the enemy's strongholds and URs.
Landing from the monitor of the Amur Flotilla on the Songhua River. 2nd Far Eastern Front
Thus, the offensive against the Japanese army was prepared as strategic operation three fronts and a fleet. The Soviet troops were to inflict three cutting blows converging in the center of Manchuria, which led to the encirclement, dismemberment and destruction of the Japanese Manchu group. The depth of the operation of the Trans-Baikal Front was about 800 kilometers, for the 1st Far East - 400-500 kilometers, for the 2nd Far East - more than 500 kilometers.
Each front planned artillery operations differently. In the armies of the Trans-Baikal Front, due to the fact that the main forces of the Kwantung Army were withdrawn deep into Manchuria, artillery preparation was canceled. Only in the offensive zone of the 36th Army, where two fortified areas of the enemy were located, the artillery was supposed to suppress the strongholds of the Japanese army.
In the armies of the 1st Far Eastern Front, which needed to break through the heavily fortified enemy border with powerful URs, artillery had to play an important role in the beginning of the operation. The exception was the 1st Red Banner Army, which had to advance in difficult mountainous taiga terrain, where the Japanese did not create a positional defense. The troops of the 1st Red Banner Army were to strike suddenly, without artillery preparation.
The highest artillery densities were created in the zone of the 5th Army: 200 guns and mortars per 1 km of the front. The 5th Army was to break through the defenses of the Pogranichnensky fortified area, the strongest on the border of the USSR and Manchuria. On the night before the attack, a 4-6 hour artillery preparation was scheduled for previously identified targets. Before the start of the attack of the main forces of the army, a second artillery preparation was planned.
In the 2nd Far Eastern Front, in the offensive zone of the 15th Army and the 5th Rifle Corps, artillery was supposed to ensure the crossing of the Amur and Ussuri, capture and hold bridgeheads, and then develop the offensive in the depths of enemy defenses.
Aviation was to play a large role in the offensive operation. The 12th Air Army under the command of Air Marshal S. A. Khudyakov was supposed to conduct reconnaissance to detect enemy troops; to cover ground forces from Japanese air strikes; to support the offensive of the front's main strike force; to prevent the approach of enemy reserves along railways and dirt roads. The main efforts of aviation were concentrated on supporting the main strike force of the front. On the first day of the operation, Soviet aviation was to deliver massive strikes against the stations of Solun, Hailar, Halun-Arshan, bridges, echelons, convoys and airfields of the enemy. This was supposed to disrupt the movement of troops and the transfer of enemy reserves.
The 9th Air Army under the command of Colonel General of Aviation I. M. Sokolov, in addition to other tasks, had to solve special task associated with the breakthrough of the long-term defense of the enemy. On the first day of the offensive, secular aircraft were to deliver massive strikes against enemy defense centers and strongholds. Assault aviation was supposed to support the offensive of the ground forces with continuous strikes.
The 10th Air Army, under the command of Colonel-General of Aviation P.F. Zhigarev, was supposed to concentrate the main efforts in the main strike zone, that is, to support the offensive of the 15th Army. Fighter aircraft were supposed to reliably cover ground forces, ships of the Amur flotilla, as well as railways from attacks by Japanese aircraft. Assault and bomber aircraft were to strike at defensive positions, ships of the Sungarian flotilla and suitable enemy reserves. Air Force The Pacific Fleet had the task of attacking the naval bases of the Japanese fleet in North Korea, as well as operating at sea, destroying Japanese aircraft at airfields and covering our ships.
Pe-2 bomber on the 1st Far Eastern Front
To be continued…
August 9 marks the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the Manchurian strategic offensive operation of the Soviet army against the armed forces of Japan.
The Manchurian operation is a strategic offensive operation of the Soviet-Mongolian troops in the Far East, carried out on August 9-September 2, 1945 in final stage World War II. It was aimed at defeating the Japanese Kwantung Army, liberating Northeast China (Manchuria), North Korea and accelerating the end of World War II.
The Manchurian operation unfolded on a front stretching over 4600 km and 200-820 km in depth, in a complex theater of military operations with desert-steppe, mountainous, wooded-swampy, taiga and major rivers. On the border of the USSR and the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) there were 17 fortified areas with a total length of one thousand kilometers, in which there were about 8 thousand long-term firing structures.
The Kwantung Army (commander-in-chief, General Yamada Otozo) consisted of 31 infantry divisions, nine infantry brigades, a special-purpose (suicide) brigade, and two tank brigades; it consisted of three fronts (1st, 3rd and 17th) consisting of 6 armies, one separate army, two air armies and the Sungari military flotilla. In addition, the following were operationally subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army: the Manchukuo army, consisting of two infantry and two cavalry divisions, 12 infantry brigades, four separate cavalry regiments; troops of Inner Mongolia (Prince De Wang) and the Suiyuan Army Group, which had four infantry and five cavalry divisions and two cavalry brigades. The total number of the enemy was over 1.3 million people, 6260 guns and mortars, 1155 tanks, 1900 aircraft and 25 ships.
According to the Japanese strategic plan, developed in the spring of 1945, one third of the Kwantung Army, the troops of Manchukuo and Inner Mongolia were left in the border zone with the task of delaying the advance of Soviet troops deep into Manchuria. The main forces concentrated in the central regions of Manchuria were supposed to force the Soviet troops to go on the defensive, and then, together with the reserves that had approached from China and Korea, push them back and invade the territory of the USSR and the MPR.
The idea of the Headquarters of the Soviet Supreme High Command provided for the defeat of the Kwantung Army by simultaneously delivering two main (from the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic and the Soviet Primorye) and a number of auxiliary strikes in directions converging to the center of Manchuria, the rapid dismemberment and destruction of enemy forces in parts. For this, the Transbaikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts, the troops of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army, which became part of the Soviet-Mongolian Cavalry Mechanized Group (KMG) of the Transbaikal Front, the forces of the Pacific Fleet and the Amur Flotilla were involved.
From May to July 1945, from the west to the Far East and Transbaikalia, it was transferred to a distance of 9-11 thousand km a large number of troops, especially mobile formations. The commander-in-chief of the troops in the Far East was Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky, the coordination of the actions of the forces of the Navy and the Air Force was carried out by Admiral of the Fleet Nikolai Kuznetsov and Chief Air Marshal Alexander Novikov.
The commander-in-chief of the MPR troops was Marshal of the MPR Khorlogiyin Choibalsan. For the Manchurian operation, the fronts allocated 10 combined arms (1st and 2nd Red Banner, 5th, 15th, 17th, 25th, 35th, 36th, 39th and 53rd) , one tank (6th Guards), three air (9th, 10th and 12th) armies and KMG of the Soviet-Mongolian troops - a total of 66 rifle, two motorized rifle, two tank and six cavalry (including four Mongolian) divisions, four tank and mechanized corps, 24 separate tank brigades. They numbered over 1.5 million people, over 25,000 guns and mortars, 5,460 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, and about 5,000 combat aircraft, including fleet aviation.
On August 9, Soviet troops went on the offensive. Aircraft attacked military targets in Harbin, Changchun and Jilin (Jilin), areas of concentration of troops, communication centers and communications of the enemy in the border zone. The Pacific Fleet (commanded by Admiral Ivan Yumashev), having entered the Sea of Japan, cut the communications linking Korea and Manchuria with Japan, and inflicted air and naval artillery strikes on naval bases in Yuki (Ungi), Rasin (Najin) and Seishin (Chongjin). ).
The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky) overcame the waterless desert-steppe regions and the Greater Khingan mountain range, defeated the enemy in the Kalgan, Solun and Hailar directions, and on August 18-19 reached the approaches to the most important industrial and administrative centers of Manchuria.
In order to speed up the capture of the Kwantung Army and prevent the enemy from evacuating or destroying material assets, airborne assault forces were landed in Harbin on August 18, and on August 19 in Girin, Changchun, and Mukden. The main forces of the 6th Guards Tank Army, having occupied Changchun and Mukden (Shenyang), began to move south to Dalny (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Lu Shun). The KMG of the Soviet-Mongolian troops (commanded by Colonel-General Issa Pliev), leaving on August 18 to Zhangjiakou (Kalgan) and Chengde, cut off the Kwantung Army from the Japanese troops in Northern China.
The troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front (commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Meretskov) broke through the border fortified areas of the enemy, repelled strong Japanese counterattacks in the Mudanjiang region and on August 19 approached Kirin, the 25th Army, in cooperation with the landing forces of the Pacific Fleet, captured the ports of North Korea - Yuki, Rasin, Seishin and Genzan (Wonsan), and then liberated the territory of North Korea. The retreat routes of the Japanese troops to the mother country were cut off.
The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front (commander General of the Army Maxim Purkaev), in cooperation with the Amur military flotilla (commander Rear Admiral Neon Antonov), crossed the Amur and Ussuri rivers, broke through the long-term enemy defenses in the Sakhalyan (Heihe) region, overcame the Lesser Khingan mountain range; On August 20, the 15th Army of the Front occupied Harbin. Having advanced 500-800 km from the west, 200-300 km from the east and 200 km from the north, the Soviet troops reached the Central Manchurian Plain, divided the Japanese troops into isolated groups and completed the maneuver to encircle them. On August 19, Japanese troops almost everywhere began to surrender.
The rapid offensive of the Soviet and Mongolian troops put the Japanese in a hopeless situation, the calculations of the Japanese command for a stubborn defense and the subsequent counteroffensive were thwarted. With the defeat of the Kwantung Army and the loss of the military-economic base on the mainland - Northeast China and North Korea - Japan lost the real strength and capabilities to continue the war.
On September 2, 1945, the Japanese Surrender Act was signed in Tokyo Bay aboard the US battleship Missouri. Losses during the operation amounted to: the Japanese - over 674 thousand people killed and captured, the Soviet troops - 12,031 people were killed, 24,425 people were injured.
In terms of concept, scope, dynamism, method of accomplishing tasks, and in terms of final results, the Manchurian operation is one of the outstanding operations of the Red Army in World War II. Soviet military art was enriched by the experience of carrying out an unprecedented regrouping of troops from the west to the east of the country at distances from 9 to 12 thousand km, maneuvering large forces over long distances in the mountain-taiga and desert theater of operations, organizing interaction between ground forces with the Navy and Air Force.
(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing. Moscow, in 8 volumes -2004. ISBN 5 - 203 01875 - 8)
The creation of a special leadership body - the High Command of the Soviet Forces in the Far East - favorably affected the efficiency of command and control, the clarity of coordination of the actions of the three fronts, the fleet and aviation. The success of the offensive of the Soviet-Mongolian troops was facilitated by the help of the population of the liberated regions. The defeat of Japan in the 2nd World War gave impetus to the national liberation movement in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
During the operation, Soviet troops showed mass heroism, courage and bravery. 93 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Manchuria |
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The defeat of the Kwantung Army of Japan, the capture of Manchuria by Soviet troops |
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Opponents |
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Japanese empire |
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Mongolia |
Manchukuo |
Commanders |
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Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky |
Otozo Yamada |
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky |
Dae Wang Demchigdonrow |
Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov |
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Maxim Alekseevich Purkaev |
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Ivan Stepanovich Yumashev |
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Neon Vasilyevich Antonov |
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Khorlogiin Choibalsan |
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Side forces |
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St. 1.5 million people, St. 27,000 guns and mortars, St. 700 rocket launchers, 5,250 tanks and self-propelled guns, St. 3,700 aircraft, 416 ships |
St. 1,400,000 people, 6,260 guns and mortars, 1,155 tanks, 1,900 aircraft, 25 ships |
About 9,800 killed, 24,500 wounded and missing |
About 84,000 killed, 800,000 wounded, missing and captured |
Manchurian operation- strategic offensive operation of the Soviet Armed Forces and the troops of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army, carried out on August 9 - September 2, during the Soviet-Japanese War of World War II, with the aim of defeating the Japanese Kwantung Army, occupying Manchuria and North Korea and eliminating the military-economic base of Japan on the Asian continent. Also known as battle for Manchuria, and in the West - as an operation "August Storm".
balance of power
Japan
By the beginning of the Manchurian operation, a large strategic grouping of Japanese, Manchurian and Mengjiang troops was concentrated on the territory of Manchukuo and North Korea. Its basis was the Kwantung Army (General Yamada), which included the 1st, 3rd and 17th (from August 10) fronts, the 4th separate army (a total of 31 infantry divisions, 11 infantry and 2 tank brigades, suicide brigade, separate units), 2nd and 5th (since August 10) air army, Sungari military river flotilla. The following troops were subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army: the Manchukuo Army (2 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions, 12 infantry brigades, 4 separate cavalry regiments), the Mengjiang army under the command of Prince Dewang (4 infantry divisions) and the Suiyuan Army Group (5 cavalry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades). In total, the enemy troops numbered over 1 million people, 6260 guns and mortars, 1155 tanks, 1900 aircraft, 25 ships. 1/3 of the troops of the enemy group was located in the border zone, the main forces - in the central regions of Manchukuo. There were 17 fortified regions near the borders with the Soviet Union and the MPR.
the USSR
During May - early August, the Soviet command transferred to the Far East part of the troops and equipment released in the west (over 400 thousand people, 7137 guns and mortars, 2119 tanks and self-propelled guns, etc.). Together with the troops deployed in the Far East, the regrouped formations and units made up three fronts:
- Transbaikal: 17th, 39th, 36th and 53rd armies, 6th Guards Tank Army, cavalry-mechanized group of Soviet-Mongolian troops, 12th air army, Transbaikal air defense army of the country; Marshal of the Soviet UnionR. Y. Malinovsky;
- 1st Far East: 35th, 1st Red Banner, 5th and 25th Armies, Chuguev Operational Group, 10th Mechanized Corps, 9th Air Army, Primorsky Air Defense Army of the country; Marshal of the Soviet Union K. A. Meretskov;
- 2nd Far East: 2nd Red Banner, 15th and 16th armies, 5th separate rifle corps, 10th air army, Amur air defense army of the country; Army General Maxim Alekseevich Purkaev.
In total: 131 divisions and 117 brigades, over 1.5 million people, over 27 thousand guns and mortars, over 700 rocket launchers, 5250 tanks and self-propelled guns, over 3.7 thousand aircraft.
The land border of the USSR was covered by 21 fortified areas. The forces of the Pacific Fleet were involved in the Manchurian operation (about 165 thousand people, 416 ships, including 2 cruisers, 1 leader, 12 destroyers, 78 submarines, 1382 combat aircraft, 2550 guns and mortars; Admiral I. S. Yumashev) , the Amur military flotilla (12.5 thousand people, 126 ships, 68 combat aircraft, 199 guns and mortars; Rear Admiral Neon Vasilievich Antonov), as well as the Border Troops of the Primorsky, Khabarovsk and Trans-Baikal border districts. The commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East was Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky, the commander-in-chief of the Mongolian troops was Marshal of the MPR Khorlogiyin Choibalsan. The actions of the Navy and Air Force forces were coordinated by Admiral of the Fleet Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov and Air Chief Marshal Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov.
Operation plan
The plan of the Soviet command provided for the infliction of two main (from the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic and Primorye) and several auxiliary attacks on areas converging in the center of Manchuria, deep coverage of the main forces of the Kwantung Army, cutting them and defeating them in parts, capturing the most important military-political centers - Fengtian, Xinjing, Harbin, Girin. The Manchurian operation was carried out on a front of 2700 km (active sector), to a depth of 200-800 km, in a complex theater of military operations with desert-steppe, mountainous, wooded-marshy, taiga terrain and large rivers. It included the Khingan-Mukden, Harbino-Girinsky and Sungari operations.
fighting
August 9 advanced and reconnaissance detachments of three Soviet fronts launched an offensive. At the same time, aviation launched massive attacks on military facilities in Harbin, Xinjing and Jilin, on troop concentration areas, communication centers and communications of the enemy in the border zone. The Pacific Fleet cut communications linking Korea and Manchuria with Japan and attacked Japanese naval bases in North Korea - Yuki, Rashin and Seishin. The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front, advancing from the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic and Dauria, overcame the waterless steppes, the Gobi Desert and the mountain ranges of the Greater Khingan, defeated the Kalgan, Solun and Hailar enemy groups, reached the approaches to the most important industrial and administrative centers of Manchuria, cut off the Kwantung Army from the Japanese troops in North China and, having occupied Xinjing and Fengtian, advanced to Dairen and Ryojun. The troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front, advancing towards the Trans-Baikal Front from Primorye, broke through the enemy's border fortifications, repulsed strong Japanese counterattacks in the Mudanjiang area, occupied Jilin and Harbin (together with the troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front), in cooperation with the landing forces of the Pacific Fleet seized the ports of Yuki, Rasin, Seishin and Genzan, and then occupied the northern part of Korea (north of the 38th parallel), cutting off Japanese troops from the mother country (see the Harbin-Girin operation of 1945). The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, in cooperation with the Amur military flotilla, crossed the river. Amur and Ussuri broke through the enemy's long-term defenses in the Heihe and Fujin regions, overcame the Lesser Khingan mountain range, and, together with the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front, captured Harbin (see the Sungaria operation of 1945). To August 20 Soviet troops advanced into the depths of Northeast China from the west by 400-800 km, from the east and north by 200-300 km, reached the Manchurian Plain, dismembered the Japanese troops into a number of isolated groupings and completed their encirclement. With August 19 Japanese troops, to which by this time the decree of the Emperor of Japan on surrender, issued yet August 14, almost everywhere began to surrender. In order to speed up this process and prevent the enemy from taking out or destroying material assets, 18 to 27 August airborne assaults were landed in Harbin, Fengtian, Xinjing, Jilin, Ryojun, Dairen, Heijo and other cities, and mobile forward detachments were also used.
Operation results
The successful conduct of the Manchurian operation made it possible to occupy South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in a relatively short time. The defeat of the Kwantung Army and the loss of a military-economic base in Northeast China and North Korea became one of the factors that deprived Japan of real strength and ability to continue the war, forced her to sign an act of surrender on September 2, 1945, which led to the end of World War II war. For military distinction, 220 formations and units received the honorary titles Khingan, Amur, Ussuri, Harbin, Mukden, Port Arthur, etc. 301 formations and units were awarded orders, 92 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.
MANCHURAN OPERATION
Fulfilling the allied obligations undertaken to the United States and Great Britain, as well as in order to ensure the security of its Far Eastern borders, the USSR entered the war against Japan on the night of August 9, 1945, which was a logical continuation of the Great Patriotic War.
Despite the defeats from the allied Anglo-American troops, Japan continued to be quite powerful. military force, still able to withstand its opponents. The imperial army had a total of up to 6 million people, 10 thousand aircraft and 500 warships. With the defeat of Germany and its allies in Europe, the Japanese did not consider themselves defeated and prepared for protracted battles on the near approaches to their mother country. Their stubbornness caused an increase in the pessimistic assessments of the American command regarding the timing of the end of the war in the Pacific. It was believed, in particular, that it would not end before the end of 1946, and the loss of allied troops during the landing on Japanese islands will amount to more than 1 million people.
The most important element of the Japanese defense was the fortified areas of the Kwantung Army stationed in the territory of occupied Manchuria (Northeast China). On the one hand, this army served as a guarantee of the unhindered supply of Japan with strategic raw materials from China and Korea, and on the other hand, it performed the task of pulling Soviet forces out of the European theater of war, thereby helping the German Wehrmacht. Entrance of the campaign on the Soviet-German front in 1941-1945. The USSR was forced to keep huge forces on its Far Eastern borders - at different times from 32 to 59 settlement divisions, large aviation and artillery units with a total strength of up to 1 million people. There is no doubt that such a mass of troops (if they were transferred to the west) could significantly hasten the defeat of Germany and reduce Soviet losses in the war.
Japan has been a longtime adversary of Russia. In the war of 1904–1905 The Russians were defeated by the Japanese army and navy. Peace conditions were extremely difficult: Russia lost the territory of South Sakhalin, ports on the Pacific coast - Port Arthur and Dairen. The situation in the Far East was not easy in the 1930s either. The Japanese imperial government sought to close all outlets to the open ocean to the Soviet Union. After seizing the northeastern Chinese provinces, it embarked on the path of direct military provocations on the Soviet-Chinese and Mongolian-Chinese borders. Despite the fact that all sorties of Japanese militarists in the area of Lake. Hasan (1938) and b. Khalkhin-Gol (1939) were repulsed with heavy losses for them, command imperial army left no hope of taking revenge in the future and tearing away the Far East and Transbaikalia from the USSR at an opportunity.
In 1941, the main vector of Japanese aggression was turned to the south. Japan was in dire need of strategic raw materials and cheap labor. In April 1941, the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was concluded, which somewhat reduced the tension between Japan and the USSR, but did not guarantee the security of the Soviet borders for the next foreseeable period. It is also known that simultaneously with the preparation of a strike against the Anglo-American troops in the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese command was developing a plan of military operations against the Red Army under code name Kantokuen (Special Maneuvers of the Kwantung Army). During 1941-1943, this plan was constantly refined, taking into account the situation on the Soviet-German front.
Japan, remembering well the strength of the Soviet troops, did not dare to attack the USSR after the start of the Great Patriotic War. However, she repeatedly committed provocations at the borders, detained Soviet ships on the high seas, sank 8 of them. This made it difficult to supply the Soviet Union military equipment and equipment from the USA under Lend-Lease.
The USSR could not remain indifferent to the situation near its Far Eastern borders, especially since Japan was an ally Nazi Germany in World War II. Until 1943, the Soviet government, for obvious reasons, did not give an official response to requests from the United States and Great Britain about the possibility of its future entry into the war against Japan. It was only at the Tehran Conference that Stalin agreed to start hostilities against Japanese troops after the end of the war in Europe. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, he specified that this would take place two or three months after the surrender of Germany. The Soviet leadership also stated that the condition for the USSR to enter the war against Japan was the return of the territories of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, the preservation of the status quo of Outer Mongolia, and the lease of the former Russian military base in Port Arthur.
On April 5, the USSR government denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty of April 13, 1941. Two and a half months after the surrender of Germany, on July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was adopted - a de facto ultimatum to the Japanese government demanding its surrender. In the same place, in Potsdam, at the talks of allied military representatives, practical questions connected with the participation of the USSR in the war in the Far East were discussed in detail.
The Japanese command, for its part, believed that if the Red Army went on the offensive in Manchuria, the Kwantung Army would be able to hold out for at least a year. Japan possessed numerous occupying forces in the territory of Central and South China and, in the event of a protracted campaign, could transfer some of them to the north. The Chinese government troops under the command of Chiang Kai-shek, as well as the communist units of Mao Zedong, could not provide effective assistance Soviet offensive. The long-term war with Japan and the internal political struggle had a hard effect on the position of China. The forces of his resistance, despite the active support of the countries anti-Hitler coalition, were exhausted. In 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army carried out a number of successful offensive operations against the Kuomintang troops and gained control over important industrial facilities and highways southern provinces of China. Moreover, China was on the verge of a large-scale civil war. The Communists and the Kuomintang, despite statements of cooperation, increasingly came into conflict with each other and prepared for a decisive battle for political power in the country.
The forthcoming theater of military operations was very extensive and had difficult physical and geographical conditions. Forest in the north gave way to steppe and desert regions in the south. In the center of Manchuria, the Great Khingan ranges were located. The Japanese, in anticipation of hostilities, equipped this region in advance, created a powerful system of defensive structures. By the beginning of the war, the enemy had 17 fortified areas here, 4.5 thousand pillboxes and bunkers, numerous airfields and landing sites. The Kwantung Army had a force of 1 million men, 1,200 tanks, 1,900 aircraft, and 6,600 guns.
To overcome such strong fortifications, not only courageous, but also experienced troops were needed. Therefore, by the beginning of the war in the Far East, the Soviet command had transferred here additional forces that had been released in the west after the victory over Nazi Germany. The bulk of the troops and equipment was redeployed in about three months (from May to July), including two front-line, 4 army and 15 corps directorates - up to 1 million soldiers and officers in total. A significant part of the tanks and artillery was transferred to their original positions immediately from the factories of the Urals and Siberia, which contributed to the fastest concentration of the strike group of troops. By the beginning of August, the total number of Red Army formations in the Far Eastern theater of operations reached 1.7 million people, 30 thousand guns and mortars, 5.2 thousand tanks, more than 5 thousand aircraft, 93 ships.
It should be noted that, perhaps, the main advantage of the Soviet troops over the Japanese in 1945 was not only their numerical superiority, but also the possession of rich and unique experience, received in battles with the German Wehrmacht in 1941–1945. The morale of the Red Army soldiers was high, and the Soviet commanders were determined to put their military experience into practice.
Back in July 1945, the High Command of the Soviet troops in the Far East was formed, it was headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky. To conduct an offensive against the Kwantung Army, three fronts were created: Transbaikal (commanded by Marshal R. Malinovsky), 1st Far Eastern (commanded by Marshal K. Meretskov) and 2nd Far Eastern (commanded by General of the Army M. Purkaev). The actions of the ground forces were supported by the ships of the Pacific Fleet and the Amur military flotilla. In the zone of the Trans-Baikal Front, the troops of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army were introduced into the offensive. According to the plan of the General Staff and the High Command in the Far East, it was planned to deliver powerful blows from the Soviet fronts in converging directions to the center of Manchuria, cut the main enemy grouping, encircle it and destroy it. Then the offensive was to develop in a southerly direction towards the Liaodong Peninsula and North Korea. Separate operations were envisaged for the liberation of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. To speed up the surrender of the imperial army, it was also planned to carry out a landing on the island of Hokaido. However, this operation was subsequently decided to cancel.
Particular attention at the stage of preparation for the offensive was paid to the secrecy of the concentration of troops, to ensure the surprise of the first strike. The command of the Red Army confidently coped with this task. The Japanese, having information about the concentration of large Soviet forces on the border, could not get information about the time of their transition to the offensive. The initial blow came as a complete surprise to them.
Prepared for offensive operations against Japan and the command of the allied forces. However, his strategy had undergone significant changes by the beginning of August. Knowing that Soviet troops were to begin their operation in Manchuria in the near future, US President G. Truman decided to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese islands, which had unprecedented destructive power. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) ushered in the nuclear age to the world. The fatal decision that claimed the lives of 300,000 Japanese was made by the American leadership primarily in order to show the whole world (and, above all, the USSR) its power and military-technical superiority at the final stage of the war. As for Japan, despite the atomic bombings, she continued the war. All the attention of the imperial government in those days was focused on the actions of the Soviet Union.
On August 8, in Moscow, the Soviet government handed over to the Japanese ambassador a statement stating that in connection with Japan's refusal to stop hostilities against the USA, Great Britain and China Soviet Union Since August 9, 1945, he considers himself at war with Japan. On that day, the offensive of the Red Army in Manchuria began in all directions almost simultaneously. The roads, soaked from many days of heavy rains, could not prevent the Soviet attack; crossing the Amur was also successful. The first strikes were sudden and overwhelming for the Japanese, who were unable to offer effective resistance to the Soviet troops.
The advance of the Soviet troops was carried out at a high pace. The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front were advancing especially rapidly. Already on August 12, formations of the 6th Guards Army overcame the Great Khingan and rushed to the key centers of Manchuria - Changchun and Mukden. The strike units of the 1st Far Eastern Front were advancing towards the Trans-Baikal Front. The average daily rate of advance of the Soviet forces ranged from 30 to 82 km.
During the offensive, the ground forces closely cooperated with the Pacific Fleet and aviation. With their help, a number of landing operations were successfully carried out in the ports of North Korea - Yuki, Rasin and Seishin and others. Particularly fierce and bloody battles unfolded for the port of Seishin - fortified from the sea and equipped in engineering terms. naval base Japanese fleet. The first wave of Soviet paratroopers (about 200 people) was able to capture only a small foothold on the coast. The Japanese launched a powerful counterattack, which almost succeeded. Only the courage of the Soviet marines saved the situation. The fighting continued here for several more days. But in the end, Seishin was released. The Japanese command failed to evacuate any significant contingents of troops to the territory of the metropolis.
The American Expeditionary Force began landing in South Korea when the position of Japanese troops in the region became hopeless. On August 18, a decision was made to delimit the zone of responsibility of the armed forces of the USSR and the USA in Korea along the 38th parallel.
The high rate of advance of the Soviet and Mongolian troops in the central part of Manchuria put the Japanese command in a hopeless situation. The resistance of the Kwantung Army was disorganized. Many of its units were surrounded and lost their combat effectiveness. In this critical situation, the Japanese government on August 14 decided to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and notified the governments of the USA, the USSR and England about this. However, as subsequent events showed, the practical actions of the command of the Kwantung Army contradicted the statement of the Japanese political leadership. The imperial army, having ceased resistance against the Anglo-American troops, continued to fight against the formations of the Red Army. In this regard, the General Staff was forced to come up with a special explanation, which emphasized that the Soviet troops would continue the offensive until the Japanese forces opposing them laid down their arms.
The offensive of the Red Army developed rapidly, and by August 20 the defeat of the Kwantung Army was almost complete. A mass surrender of Japanese troops began. It is worth noting that great importance in the fastest capture of the most important strategic points in China, Soviet airborne assaults in such economic centers as Harbin, Changchun, Mukden, as well as in seaports on the Pacific coast - Dairen and Port Arthur had.
In connection with the success in Manchuria, the 2nd Far Eastern Front part of its forces went over to the offensive on Sakhalin. South Sakhalin operation carried out formations of the 56th Corps of the 16th Army in cooperation with the Pacific Fleet. Particularly strong fighting unfolded during the breakthrough of the fortified line in the Konton area, where units of the Japanese 88th Infantry Division were defending. Soviet fighters had to storm numerous reinforced concrete structures of the enemy. The heavy battle lasted three days. After breaking through the Konton line, units of the 56th Corps moved further south. By noon on August 25, the Japanese armed forces in South Sakhalin had ceased organized resistance and capitulated.
The final stage of the war against Japan was the Kuril landing operation, carried out by part of the forces of the 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts and the Pacific Fleet. It began on the night of August 16-17 with a Soviet amphibious landing on Shumshu Island, the northernmost island of the Kuril chain. Here the Japanese had a powerful coastal defense system. All areas of a possible landing were targeted by artillery fire. The battle for Shumshu lasted several days and was bloody. The first wave of Soviet paratroopers was under cross fire and could not move forward. Additional reinforcements and organized fire on Japanese positions were needed. In that battle, both infantrymen and military sailors showed courage and heroism. Many ships of the Pacific Fleet, despite the holes, continued to support Soviet paratroopers with fire from their guns. Many wounded sailors remained at their post. The Japanese could not withstand the onslaught and retreated. Soon the garrison of Shumshu Island capitulated. Thus, the key point of defense of the Kuril ridge was lost, followed by the surrender of the garrisons of the remaining islands. In the period from August 18 to September 4, they were all cleared of the enemy; up to 50 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered.
The Soviet Union won a victory in the Far East in the shortest possible time. The most powerful grouping of the Japanese imperial army - the Kwantung Army - ceased to exist in just two weeks. By the end of August, the resistance of the Japanese on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands was broken. In total, the enemy lost over 700 thousand soldiers and officers, of which 84 thousand were killed and more than 640 thousand were captured. Soviet losses amounted to 36.5 thousand people, of which 12 thousand were killed and missing.
On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, the Japanese rulers, in the presence of plenipotentiaries of the USSR, the USA, China, Great Britain, France and other allied states, signed the Act of Japan's unconditional surrender. Thus ended the second World War that lasted six long years.
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Defense structures of Japan
During the entire period of the war between the USSR and Nazi Germany, Japan waited for the right moment to start hostilities from the East. If he claimed the territory to the Urals, then the rest - from the Urals to the Far East - was planned to be seized by Japan. This task was to be carried out by the Kwantung Army, the beauty and pride of Japan, numbering 1 million in service and 1.5 million in reserve. In addition, the troops of Manchukuo, numbering more than 300 thousand people, and the Sungarian flotilla - 25 warships were subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army. Nurtured in the samurai spirit for four long decades, she went through the practice of war in China and Korea. At the heart of her upbringing lay notorious fanaticism. Each soldier and officer of her carried with him a special dagger for hara-kiri, each, according to samurai customs, at the right time had to be ready for self-sacrifice.
In addition, considering Manchuria already their territory, the Japanese turned it into such a fortified area that they had not yet known. world history. The Japanese absorbed and invested here all the best that was achieved during the construction of the Maginot, Siegfried, Mannerheim lines. 17 fortified areas with a total length of over a thousand kilometers and more than 8 thousand long-term structures were built here. In each fortified area, from three to seven centers of resistance were created. On the heights, they had all-round defense and could support each other with fire. The strength of the fire was such that it could cut down a hundred-year-old forest in an instant.
Around the pillboxes and bunkers there were trenches and machine-gun platforms, which were bordered in one or two belts and complemented the fire system of long-term structures.
But the most stunning, downright amazing, were the pillboxes-ensembles. Equipped with underground concrete shelters, warehouses, power plants, underground communication passages, reservoirs, they were interconnected by underground narrow-gauge railway lines along which trains ran. In high-rise underground structures, equipped with cargo and passenger lifts, the Japanese in an instant could activate all hellish destruction machines, including huge 410-mm mortars. At the same time, their reinforced concrete and armored walls and doors could even withstand the fire of ship's cannons. It was impossible to bypass these fortified areas, as the Germans had once bypassed the Maginot Line: their flanks rested on the impenetrable spurs of the East Manchurian mountains.
All these structures were built by the Japanese within 10-15 years. Tens of thousands of Chinese and Manchus were rounded up by them for their erection, and then the unfortunate prisoners were completely destroyed in order to maintain secrecy. And now the Soviet soldiers had to overcome all this.
Preparing for the offensive
At the end of May, the 5th Army arrived in the Far East. The movement of troops took place covertly, mainly at night. They were also placed taking into account the rules of camouflage, away from the border areas. At the same time, roads were laid through the wilds from each formation to the place of the planned strike and carefully masked from the air. It seemed that such a grandiose operation - striking from three main directions - could not be carried out covertly, but subsequent events would show that the Japanese were taken by surprise.
The operation will begin with an artillery attack, which includes several periods: the first is the preliminary destruction of long-term structures, then the advanced battalions come into action, and within one and a half to two hours before they leave, the artillery strikes, then supports the attack of the fighters by combining a single fire shaft with sequential concentration fire. Further, the artillerymen accompany the troops during the battle in the depths of the enemy's defenses. A special destruction artillery group has been created to destroy the enemy's long-term structures.
On the night of August 8, Soviet troops moved to the border of Manchuria and waited tensely. That night in the city of Changchun - the capital of Manchuria - the commander of the Kwantung Army, Baron Yamada Otoji, was sitting at his headquarters - right hand Japanese emperor - and had a conversation with a puppet and a traitor to his people, an agent of Japanese intelligence, the so-called Emperor of Manchuria Pu-yi - the last scion of the Qing dynasty. The baron arrogantly looked at the thin neck of the squishy "emperor", resembling a sleepy marabou bird, and could not get rid of the desire to wave his signature damask sword and separate the fanged poo's head from his frail body.
They drank sake, talked peacefully, smiled sweetly, although they hated each other. They did not suspect anything that at that time all three fronts of the Far Eastern Soviet troops from Baikal to the Pacific Ocean were already on the border and were waiting for an attack signal. Baron Yamada will never know what will happen during the night of August 9 until 12 noon in his troops, and when he finds out, he will try to command his armies with ostentatious composure, give orders to the troops, but this will no longer save him from disaster. Very little time will pass, and Baron Yamada will appear before an international tribunal, and the puppet Pu-yi, with whose knowledge the Japanese destroyed hundreds of thousands of Chinese and Manchus, will subsequently be treated kindly.
Start of attack
Soviet troops began hostilities. It was an offensive that the history of wars did not know, remarkable in its design, surprising in its breadth of scope and scale. 1,700 kilometers from north to south and 1,400 kilometers from east to west, that is, the entire territory of Manchuria, which could accommodate Japan, Germany and Italy combined, the Soviet troops had to ram through with one powerful one. combined blow.
The army command decided to cancel artillery and aviation strikes on long-term points of the Japanese. This decision was made not only because of the onset of monsoon rains. An additional study of the fortified area of the Japanese revealed that in some places there are up to 16 long-term points per kilometer in the Pogranichnensky area, in addition, it is not known what is in the depths and on opposite slopes of the heights. You can hit from planes and guns, but what will be the effectiveness? The pillboxes will certainly not be destroyed, and there will be no surprise strike. And the command of the army decided to capture the enemy points with a night attack, and if there was a failure, they would use everything that was at the ready on the border. And here the main role was to be played by the soldier.
Such a plan also had a degree of risk, but it was based on the vast experience accumulated by the army in breaking through powerful enemy defensive lines in depth in the West.
The night and day of August 8 passed in anticipation. Not a single bush moved on the border. Everything was carefully disguised. Heavy rain helped to hide the buildup of troops.
On the night of August 9, an attack signal was received. The leading battalions silently moved forward. The soldiers walked in the dark, holding hands so as not to lose their personnel. The sappers paved the way for them in the minefields of the enemy in advance. The fighters climbed the rocky slope of the hill towards the swift water streams, fell, smashed their knees into blood, peeled off their nails. We went through the anti-tank ditch, appeared in front of rows of barbed wire and began to cut them. Each company acted against the pillboxes indicated to it, each had to reach their line at the indicated time, silently remove the protection of the pillboxes in order to hit them all at the same time, and, having stunned the enemy with the suddenness of the blow, did not allow him to recover until the main division strength.
A green rocket went up, and immediately thousands of engines of tanks and vehicles, self-propelled artillery mounts roared. In an instant, the soldiers climbed into the cars, on the armored backs of the tanks, and the entire mechanized armada, turning on the headlights and searchlights, headed for the hill. Now it has become clear that black columns of smoke are rising above the pillboxes, similar to gigantic sinister dragons. The embrasures of many pillboxes choked in fire and smoke.
The gates of the Pogranitsky region were rammed, tanks and motorized units went deep into enemy territory, leaving blocked Japanese garrisons on the heights, who did not want to surrender.
Having captured the commanding heights in the centers of resistance of the Japanese, the battalions of the 233rd regiment at noon on August 9 began to smash the garrisons of military camps located on the western slopes of the mountains with a surprise attack. But the Japanese had already recovered from the first blow. Gray-green avalanches of samurai flew at our troops from the top of the hills with a wild howl of “banzai!”, flashing with blades. They were pressed down by the fire of machine guns and machine guns, they were caught in hand-to-hand combat. It seemed that they were all on the same face, the same height, in the same forms. It was as if they weren't people, but obedient mechanical creatures molded into some sinister machine of war. Without thoughts, without a soul, without their own face and even a name, released for only one purpose - to kill people. They were killed, shot at close range, stabbed with bayonets, strangled with their hands, and they, dexterous, evasive, trained, mastering the techniques of jujitsu and karate, climbed and climbed.
The fighters, who had no idea about all these techniques, beat them backhand, in Russian, beat them in such a way that they crushed their skulls and turned their cheekbones. They passed the Mannerheim line, stormed Koenigsberg. These were not ordinary soldiers, but soviet soldiers. And they overpowered these specially trained samurai. No one felt the sun rising over the hills, and the day was approaching its zenith. The regiment went out onto the highway, and thus the enemy defense system in this direction was violated and the main forces of the division ensured the crossing of the state border.
Part of the forces was left to eliminate the garrisons, who had settled in separate firing points. The pillboxes were really impregnable. Having taken its original position, the self-propelled artillery mount opened fire on the steel cap of the pillbox. The shells bounced off him like peas off a wall. Then, having seized a convenient moment, the sappers climbed onto the pillbox, from which the Japanese fired heavily, and, covering the armored caps with sandbags, laid a charge weighing 250 kg and blew it up on the surface of the pillbox.
There was a powerful explosion that shook the entire mountain, but the pillbox did not move. Even after the steel cap was destroyed by the second, 500-kilogram charge, it was not possible to penetrate into the pillbox. Then the sappers laid three more explosive charges, half a ton each: two at the front door and one on the top cover, and blew them up at the same time. The mountain shook like an earthquake.
And when the smoke and dust cleared, the soldiers saw that the explosion had made a hole.
Through it, they rushed into the depths of the pillbox and in hand-to-hand combat broke the resistance of Japanese soldiers and officers. But those in the lower floors of the pillbox continued to resist. Then I had to lay another explosive charge. Thus, enemy pillboxes were suppressed along the entire front of the 5th Army. Meanwhile, the forward detachments of the divisions of the first echelon continued to advance rapidly into the depths of Manchuria.
After the defeat of the Kwantung Army, she had no choice but to admit defeat, and on September 2 she signed an act of unconditional surrender.
