Manchu operation. Japan's capitulation and the myth of the Kwantung Army. The Soviet Army is preparing for a liberation campaign
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.
With the defeat of Germany and its allies in Europe, the Japanese did not consider themselves defeated, their stubbornness caused an increase in pessimistic assessments of the American command. It was believed, in particular, that the war would not end before the end of 1946, and the loss of allied troops during the landing on the Japanese islands would amount to more than 1 million people.
Fortified areas were the most important link in Japanese defense. Kwantung Army stationed in the territory of occupied Manchuria (Northeast China). On the one hand, this army served as a guarantee of the unimpeded 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.
Back in April 1941, the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was concluded, which somewhat reduced the tension between Japan and the USSR, but, simultaneously with the preparation of a strike against the Anglo-American troops on pacific ocean, the Japanese command developed a plan of military operations against the Red Army under code name Kantokuen (Special Maneuvers of the Kwantung Army). The danger of war on the Far Eastern borders of the USSR persisted throughout the subsequent time. On April 5, 1945, the Soviet government denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty.
By the summer of 1945, the Japanese had 17 fortified areas in Manchuria, 4.5 thousand pillboxes and bunkers, numerous airfields and landing sites. The Kwantung Army had 1 million men, 1.2 thousand tanks, 1.9 thousand aircraft, and 6.6 thousand guns. To overcome strong fortifications, not only courageous, but also experienced troops were needed. Soviet command at the beginning of the war on Far East transferred here additional forces released in the west after the victory over Nazi Germany. 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. In July 1945, the High Command of the Soviet Forces in the Far East was formed, it was headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky.
On August 8, 1945, 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, the Soviet Union considers itself in a state of war with Japan from August 9, 1945. On that day, the offensive of the Red Army in Manchuria began in all directions almost simultaneously.
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. In connection with the success in Manchuria, the 2nd Far Eastern Front went on the offensive on Sakhalin with part of its forces. 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 Pacific Fleet.
The Soviet Union won a victory in the Far East in the shortest possible time. 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.
YALTA SECRET AGREEMENT OF THE THREE GREAT POWERS ON THE FAR EAST, February 11, 1945
The leaders of the three great powers—the Soviet Union, the United States of America, and Great Britain—agreed that two or three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allies on the condition that:
1. Maintaining the status quo of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic).
2. Restoration of the rights belonging to Russia, violated by the perfidious attack of Japan in 1904, namely:
a) the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of about. Sakhalin and all adjacent islands,
b) the internationalization of the commercial port of Dairen with the provision of the predominant interests of the Soviet Union in this port and the restoration of the lease on Port Arthur, as a naval base of the USSR,
c) joint operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway, which gives access to Dairen, on the basis of organizing a mixed Soviet-Chinese Society with the provision of the predominant interests of the Soviet Union, while it is understood that China retains full sovereignty in Manchuria.
3. Transfer to the Soviet Union of the Kuril Islands. It is assumed that an agreement regarding Outer Mongolia and the aforementioned ports and railways will require the consent of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. On the advice of the Marshal, the President will arrange for such consent to be obtained.
The heads of the governments of the Three Great Powers agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union should be unconditionally satisfied after the victory over Japan.
For its part, the Soviet Union expresses its readiness to conclude a pact of friendship and alliance between the USSR and China with the National Chinese Government for rendering assistance to it with its armed forces in order to liberate China from the Japanese yoke.
Franklin Roosevelt
Winston Churchill
Foreign policy of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. T. 3. M., 1947.
JAPANESE SURRENDER ACT, September 2, 1945
(extract)
1. We, acting on the orders and in the name of the Emperor, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Staff, hereby accept the terms of the Declaration issued on July 26 at Potsdam by the Heads of the Governments of the United States, China and Great Britain, subsequently acceded to by the Soviet Union, which four Powers shall later known as the Allied Powers.
2. We hereby declare the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Imperial Japanese General Staff, all Japanese military forces and all military forces under Japanese control, no matter where they are located.
3. We hereby order all Japanese troops, wherever located, and the Japanese people to immediately cease hostilities, preserve and prevent damage to all ships, aircraft and other military and civilian property, and comply with all demands that may be made by the supreme Commander of the Allied Powers or organs of the Japanese government on his instructions.
4. We hereby order the Imperial Japanese general staff immediately issue orders to the commanders of all Japanese troops and troops under Japanese control, wherever located, to surrender unconditionally in person, and also to secure the unconditional surrender of all troops under their command.
6. We hereby undertake that the Japanese Government and its successors will faithfully carry out the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, issue such orders and take such actions as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers or any other representative appointed by the Allied Powers, in order to implement this declaration, requires.
8. The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese Government to govern the state shall be subordinated to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, who shall take such steps as he deems necessary to carry out these terms of surrender.
Foreign policy of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War. M., 1947. T. 3.
MANCHURAN OPERATION
Fulfilling the allied obligations taken to the USA 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 losses of the allied troops during the landing on the Japanese islands would 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 combat operations against the Red Army, code-named 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 of 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. Only at the Tehran Conference did Stalin agree to begin fighting 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 to the Soviet offensive. The long-term war with Japan and the internal political struggle had a hard effect on China's position. The forces of his resistance, despite the active support of the countries anti-Hitler coalition, were exhausted. In 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army conducted a series 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 Forces 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 thousand Japanese was taken by the American leadership primarily in order to final stage war to show the whole world (and above all the USSR) their power and military-technical superiority. 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, the Soviet Union considers itself in a state of war with Japan from August 9, 1945. 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 blows were sudden and overwhelming for the Japanese, who were unable to offer effective resistance. 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, a naval base of the Japanese fleet fortified from the sea and equipped in terms of engineering. 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 capability. 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. The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk operation was carried out by 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 Conton 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, which lasted six long years.
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The defeat of the Kwantung Army and the loss of a military and economic base in Northeast China and North Korea 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.
Manchurian operation took place from August 9 to September 2, 1945. The Red Army was opposed by the grouping of troops of the Kwantung Army, commanded by General Otozo Yamada, which included the 1st, 3rd and 17th fronts, the 4th separate army (a total of 31 infantry divisions, 11 infantry and 2 tank brigades) and also 2nd and 5th armies, Sungari military-river flotilla. The troops of the puppet state of Manchukuo (2 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions, 12 infantry brigades and 4 separate cavalry regiments), the army of Inner Mongolia under the command of Prince Dewan (4 infantry divisions) and the Suyuan Army Group (5 cavalry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades). A total of 1 million people, 6260 guns and mortars, 1155 tanks, 1900 aircraft, 25 ships. The enemy built 17 fortified regions along the border between the USSR and the MPR.
To carry out the Manchurian operation, the Soviet command deployed 3 fronts: Trans-Baikal (17th, 39th, 53rd Army, 6th Guards tank army, horse-mechanized group of Soviet-Mongolian troops, 12th air army, Transbaikal air defense army, front commander Marshal Malinovsky), 1st Far East (35th, 1st Red Banner, 5th, 25th army, Chuguevskaya operational group, 10th MK, 9th Air Army, Primorsky Air Defense Army. Front Commander Marshal Meretskov), 2nd Far East (2nd Red Banner, 15th and 16th Army, 5th Separate Rifle Corps, 10th Air Army, Amur Air Defense Army Commander of the Front Army General Purkaev). A total of 131 divisions and 117 brigades, 1.5 million people, 27 thousand guns and mortars, 700 rocket launchers, 5250 tanks and 3.7 thousand aircraft.
During the Manchurian operation, it was supposed to use the Pacific Fleet: 416 ships, including 2 cruisers, 1 leader, 12 destroyers, 78 submarines, 1382 combat aircraft. Fleet commander Kont-Admiral Antonov.
The plan of the Soviet command provided for delivering two main and several auxiliary strikes in the directions converging in the center of Manchuria, deep coverage of the main forces of the Kwantung Army, dissecting them and defeating them in parts, mastering the most important military-political centers - Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin, Jilin. The Manchurian operation was carried out on a front of 2700 km, to a depth of 200-800 km, in a complex theater of military operations with desert-steppe, wooded-swampy, mountainous, taiga terrain.
On August 9, advanced and reconnaissance detachments of three Soviet fronts launched an offensive. At the same time, aviation dealt a massive blow to military facilities in Harbin, Changchun and Girin, to areas of concentration of troops, communication centers of enemy communications in the border zone. The Pacific Fleet cut communications linking Korea and Manchuria with Japan and struck at the Japanese naval bases in North Korea - Ungi, Nanjin, Chongjin.
The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front, advancing from the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic and Dauria, overcoming the waterless steppes, the Gobi Desert and the mountain ranges of the Great Khingan, defeated the Kalgan, Solun and Khailar enemy groups, reached the approaches to the most important industrial and administrative centers of Manchuria, cut off the Kvantu Army from the Japanese troops in North China and, having occupied Changchun and Shenyang, advanced towards Dalian and Duishun.
The troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front, advancing towards the Trans-Baikal Front from Primorye, broke through the enemy's border fortifications, repelled strong Japanese counterattacks in the Mudanjiang area, occupied Kirin and Harbin, in cooperation with the landing forces of the Pacific Fleet captured the ports of Ungi, Najin, Chongjin, Wonsan, and then released North Korea to the 38th parallel, cutting off the Japanese troops from the mother country. The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, in cooperation with the Amur Flotilla, crossed the Amur and Usuri rivers, broke through the long-term enemy defenses in the Heihe and Fujin regions, overcoming the Lesser Khingan ridge and, together with the troops of the 1st Harbin was captured by the Far Eastern Front. By August 20, they advanced 400-800 km deep into Northeast China from the West, 200-300 km from the East and North, reached the Manzhur Plain, divided the Japanese troops into a number of isolated groupings and completed their surroundings. On August 19, Japanese troops began to surrender en masse. To speed up the process of defeating the enemy troops, from August 18 to 27, airborne assaults were landed in Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun, Girin, Luishun, Dalian, Pyongyang and other cities, and mobile forward detachments were also used.
There is great symbolism in the defeat of the Kwangstung Army. The Manchurian operation took place 40 years after the shamefully lost Russo-Japanese War 1904-05. Coincidence almost with the end of that war and the victory in this one almost to the day. On September 5, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, and the Japanese surrender pact was signed on September 2. This moment had a huge propaganda effect. Where Russian empire stumbled badly, there the Soviet Union won effortlessly. The mood among Russian emigrants has changed greatly.
The power that the Red Army demonstrated, including the defeat of the Japanese troops, frightened the so-called allies of the USSR. Britain and the United States quickly began to look for an excuse to fence themselves off from the Soviet Union with the Iron Curtain.
Emperor Hirohito
裕仁
65 years ago, on August 15, 1945, after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the declaration of war on Japan by the Soviet Union, Emperor Hirohito ( Japanese 裕仁 ) made a radio address for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces.
This decision was opposed by the highest military leadership of the country, but the emperor was adamant. Then the minister of war, the commanders of the army and navy and other military leaders, following ancient tradition samurai, performed the rite of seppuku ...
On September 2, 1945, Japan's surrender was officially signed aboard the battleship Missouri. World War II, which claimed millions of lives in Europe and Asia, is over.
For years, Soviet propaganda suggested that the USSR defeated both the Third Reich and Japan: they say that for 4 years the Americans were fooling around with the pitiful, insignificant Japanese armed forces, playing war games with them, and then the mighty Soviet Union came and in one week did the biggest and most the best Japanese army. Here, they say, is the entire contribution of the Allies to the war!
Consider the myths of Soviet propaganda and find out how in fact there was a defeat of the Kwantung Army opposing the Soviet troops, and we will also briefly consider how some of the hostilities proceeded in the Pacific Ocean and what consequences the landing in Japan could have had.
So, the defeat of the Kwantung Army - as it really was, and not in Soviet history books.
Kwantung Army ( Japanese関東軍, かんとうぐん ) indeed until 1942 was considered one of the most prestigious in Japanese ground armed forces. Service in it meant the possibility of a good career. But then the Japanese command found itself forced to take the most combat-ready units and formations from the Kwantung Army one by one and plug the gaps made by the Americans with them. Numbering at the beginning of the war more than a million people, the Kwantung Army by the beginning of 1943 had already barely 600,000 people. And by the end of 1944, just over 300,000 people remained from it ...
But the Japanese command selected not only people, but also equipment. Yes, the Japanese had bad tanks. However, they were quite capable of resisting at least outdated Soviet BTs, of which there were many in the First and Second Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal Fronts. But by the time of the Soviet invasion, in the Kwantung Army, which once numbered 10 tank regiments, only 4 (four) of such regiments remained - and of these four, two were formed four days before the Soviet attack.
In 1942, the Kwantung Army formed 2 tank divisions on the basis of its tank brigades. One of them was sent to the Philippines, to the island of Luzon, in July 1944. It was destroyed by the Americans. By the way, she fought to the last crew - only a few of her members surrendered.
From the second - first they sent one tank regiment to Saipan (April 1944, the regiment was completely destroyed by the Americans, only a few surrendered), and in March 1945 - the entire division was sent home to defend the metropolis. Then, in March 1945, the last divisions that were part of the Kwantung Army in 1941 were withdrawn to the metropolis.
Soviet sources claim that the Kwantung Army had 1,155 tanks. At the same time, according to the same Soviet sources, a total of about 400 vehicles were destroyed in the battles and after the surrender were captured. Yes, well, where other? Where, where ... Well, you understand - exactly there, yeah ....
And then Soviet historians they took it and transferred the estimates of the officers who planned the Manchurian operation into post-war literature as ... the equipment really available to the Kwantung Army.
The same Soviet method was used when describing the aviation of the Kwantung Army: 400 airfields and landing sites - it sounds cool, but ... in fact, the entire list of combat aircraft available to the Japanese at the time of the invasion was not 1800, as Soviet sources write, but less one thousand. And out of this thousand, no more than a hundred are fighters of the latest models, about 40 more bombers, and half are generally training aircraft (training centers of the Japanese Air Force were located in Manchuria). Everything else - again, withdrawn from Manchuria to plug holes punched by the Americans.
The Japanese had exactly the same situation with artillery: by the middle of 1944, the best units armed with the latest guns were completely withdrawn from the Kwantung Army and transferred against the Americans or home to defend the metropolis.
Other equipment was also withdrawn, including transport and engineering units. As a result, the mobility of the Kwantung Army, which met the Soviet strike in August 1945, was carried out mainly ... on foot.
Well, and also along the railway network, which was most developed not at the border, but in the center of Manchuria. Two single-track branches went to the Mongolian border, and two more single-track branches went to the border with the USSR.
Ammunition, spare parts, weapons were also exported. From what the Kwantung Army had in its warehouses in 1941, by the summer of 1945, less than 25% remained.
Today it is reliably known which units were withdrawn from Manchuria, when, with what equipment - and where they ended their existence. So: of those divisions, brigades and even individual regiments that made up the payroll of the Kwantung Army in 1941, by 1945 there was not a single division, not a single brigade and almost not a single regiment in Manchuria. Of that elite and highly prestigious Kwantung Army that stood in Manchuria in 1941, about a quarter made up the core of the army, which was preparing to defend the metropolis and capitulated along with the whole country on the orders of the Emperor, and everything else was destroyed by the Americans in countless battles throughout the Pacific Ocean, from the Solomon Islands to the Philippines and Okinawa.
Naturally, left without the greater and better part of their troops, the command of the Kwantung Army tried to somehow rectify the situation. To do this, police units from the south of China were transferred to the army, recruits were sent from Japan and all the Japanese who were conditionally fit for service from the Japanese living in Manchuria were mobilized under the whisk.
As the leadership of the Kwantung Army created and prepared new units, the Japanese General Staff also took them away and threw them into the Pacific meat grinder. Nevertheless, by the huge efforts of the army command, by the time of the Soviet invasion, its number was brought to over 700 thousand people (Soviet historians received more than 900 by adding Japanese units in South Korea, the Kuriles and Sakhalin). They even managed to somehow arm these people: the arsenals in Manchuria were designed for massive deployment. True, apart from small arms and light (and outdated) artillery was nothing there: everything else was taken back to the metropolis long ago and to plug holes throughout the Pacific theater of operations ...
As noted in the "History of the Great Patriotic War" (vol. 5, p. 548-549):
In the units and formations of the Kwantung Army, there were absolutely no machine guns, anti-tank rifles, rocket artillery, there was little RGK and large-caliber artillery (in infantry divisions and brigades as part of artillery regiments and divisions, in most cases there were 75-mm guns).
As a result, the Soviet invasion was met by the "Kwantung Army", in which the most experienced division was formed ... in the spring of 1944. Moreover, from the entire composition of the units of this "Kwantung Army" until January 1945, there were exactly 6 divisions, all the rest were formed "from fragments and fragments" in the 7 months of 1945 that preceded the Soviet attack.
Roughly speaking, approximately during the time that the USSR was preparing an offensive operation with already existing tested, experienced troops, the command of the Kwantung Army ... re-formed this same army. from the materials at hand. In conditions of the most severe shortage of everything - weapons, ammunition, equipment, gasoline, officers of all levels ...
The Japanese could only use untrained conscripts younger ages and limited fit older ages. More than half of the personnel of the Japanese units that met the Soviet troops received an order to mobilize a month before the Soviet attack, in early July 1945. The once elite and prestigious Kwantung Army could hardly scrape together 100 rounds of ammunition per fighter from the devastated warehouses.
The "quality" of the newly formed units was quite obvious to the Japanese command as well. Prepared for the Japanese General Staff at the end of July 1945, a report on the combat readiness of army formations from more than 30 divisions and brigades included in the payroll estimated the combat readiness of one division - 80%, one - 70%, one - 65%, one - 60%, four - 35%, three - 20%, and the rest - 15% each. The assessment included the staffing of manpower and equipment and the level of combat training.
With such quantity and quality, it was out of the question to resist even the grouping of Soviet troops that stood on the Soviet side of the border throughout the war. And the command of the Kwantung Army was forced to revise the plan for the defense of Manchuria.
Headquarters of the Kwantung Army
The original plan of the early 40s involved an attack on Soviet territory. By 1944, it was replaced by a defense plan in the fortified areas equipped along the border with the USSR. By May 1945, it became clear to the Japanese command that there was no one to seriously defend the border strip. And in June, a new defense plan was received by the army units.
According to this plan, about a third of all army forces remained near the border. This third was no longer tasked with stopping the Soviet offensive. She was only supposed to wear out the advancing Soviet units to the best of her ability. The remaining two-thirds of its forces were deployed by the command of the Kwantung Army, starting from about a few tens to several hundred kilometers from the border, in echelons, to the central part of Manchuria, located more than 400 kilometers from the border, where all units were asked to retreat, not accepting decisive battles, but only slowing down the Soviet offensive as much as possible. There they began to hastily build new fortifications, in which they hoped to give the Soviet army the last battle ...
Naturally, there was no question of any coordinated defense of the border strip by the forces of one-third of the strength of the army, and besides, consisting of freshly shaved yellow-mouthed conscripts, who had practically no heavy weapons, and there could be no question. Therefore, the plan provided for defense by individual companies and battalions, without any central control and fire support. Still, there was nothing to support ....
The regrouping of troops and the preparation of fortifications on the border and in the depths of the territory for defense were still in progress according to the new plan (regrouping was largely on foot, and the preparation of fortifications was done by the hands of the newly called up recruits themselves, in the absence of "technical specialists" and their equipment who had long left Manchuria ), when on the night of August 8-9, Soviet troops launched an offensive.
In the offensive zone of the Trans-Baikal Front, about three divisions of the Japanese defended themselves against the Soviet units numbering six hundred thousand people in three fortified areas that saddled the main roads. None of these three fortified areas was completely suppressed until August 19; individual units there continued to resist until the end of August. Of the defenders of these fortified areas, no more than a quarter surrendered - and only after the Emperor gave the order to surrender.
In the entire strip of the Trans-Baikal Front, there was exactly ONE case of surrender of the whole Japanese connection before Order of the Emperor: the commander of the tenth Manchurian military region surrendered, along with about one thousand employees of the administration of this region.
Bypassing the border fortified areas, the Trans-Baikal Front advanced further in march formation without encountering any resistance: by order of the command of the Kwantung Army, the next line of defense was located more than 400 km from the border with Mongolia. When units of the Trans-Baikal Front reached this line of defense by August 18, those who occupied it Japanese units have already capitulated, having received an imperial order.
In the offensive zone of the First and Second Far Eastern Fronts, the border fortifications were protected by scattered Japanese units, and the main Japanese forces were withdrawn from the border by 70-80 km. As a result, for example, the fortified area west of Lake Hanko, which was attacked by three Soviet rifle corps- 17th, 72nd and 65th - one Japanese infantry battalion defended from their attack. This balance of power was all over the border. Of the Japanese defending in the fortified areas, only a few surrendered.
So what really happened in Manchuria?
The entire crushing hammer, which the Soviet command had prepared to defeat the full-blooded "elite and prestigious" Kwantung Army, fell on ... about 200 thousand recruits who occupied the border fortified areas and the strip immediately behind them. For 9 days, these recruits tried to do exactly what they were ordered to do: the garrisons of the border fortifications, as a rule, held out to the last fighter, and the units standing in the second echelon retreated with battles to the main defensive positions located even further from the border.
They carried out their orders, of course, badly, extremely inefficiently and with huge losses - as soon as they can be carried out by poorly armed, poorly trained recruits, most of whom had served in the army for less than six months at the time of the Soviet attack. But there was no mass surrender, no disobedience to orders. It took almost half of them to kill to break the road inland.
Almost all cases of mass surrender to Soviet troops in the period from August 9 (the beginning of the invasion) to August 16, when the order given by the Emperor to surrender was brought by the commander of the Kwantung Army to its formations, is the surrender of Manchu auxiliary units in which local Chinese and Manchus served. and to whom not a single responsible sector of defense was entrusted - because they were never good for anything other than the functions of punishers, and their Japanese masters did not expect anything more from them.
After August 16, when the imperial decree of surrender, duplicated by the order of the army commander, entered the formations, there was no more organized resistance.
More than half of the Kwantung Army in any battles with Soviet units did not participate at all: by the time the Soviet units reached these units, which had withdrawn deep into the country, they, in full accordance with the imperial order, had already laid down their arms. And the Japanese who settled in the border fortified areas, who lost contact with the command at the time of the start Soviet offensive and to which the Emperor's order to surrender did not reach, they picked out another week after since the war is already over.
Otozo Yamada
During the Manchurian operation of the Soviet troops, the Kwantung Army under the command of General Otozo Yamada lost about 84 thousand soldiers and officers killed, over 15 thousand died of wounds and diseases in Manchuria, about 600 thousand people were captured.
At the same time, the irretrievable losses of the Soviet Army amounted to about 12 thousand people ...
There is no doubt that the Kwantung Army would have been defeated even if the Emperor had decided not to surrender and its units had fought to the end. But the example of that third of it that fought on the border shows that if it were not for the surrender order, even this "people's militia" would most likely have killed at least half of its personnel in senseless and useless attempts to stop the Soviet troops. And the Soviet losses, while remaining very low compared to the losses of the Japanese, would nevertheless have grown at least three times. But already so many people died from 1941 to May 1945 ...
In the discussion of the topic of nuclear explosions, the question has already been raised: "What resistance from the Japanese did the US military expect?"
It should be considered with how that the Americans had already encountered in the Pacific War and what they (as well as the officers of the Soviet General Staff who planned the Manchurian operation) took into account (could not have ignored!) When planning the landing on the Japanese islands. It is clear that the war with the mother country is actually Japanese islands without intermediate island bases for the technology of that time was simply impossible. Without these bases, Japan could not cover the captured resources. The fights were brutal...
1. Battles for the island of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands), August 1942-February 1943.
Of the 36,000 participating Japanese (one of the participating divisions was from the Kwantung Army in 1941), 31,000 were killed, and about one thousand surrendered.
7 thousand dead on the American side.
2. Landing on the island of Saipan (Marian Islands), June-July 1944.
The island defended 31 thousand Japanese military personnel; it was home to at least 25,000 Japanese civilians. From the defenders of the island managed to take prisoner 921 people. When no more than 3 thousand people remained from the defenders, the commander of the island's defense and his senior officers committed suicide, having previously ordered their soldiers to go to the Americans in the bayonet and end their lives in battle. All those who received this order carried it out to the end. Behind the soldiers going to the American positions hobbled, helping each other, all the wounded able to somehow move.
3 thousand dead on the American side.
When it became clear that the island would fall, the Emperor issued a decree to the civilian population recommending that they commit suicide rather than surrender to the Americans. As the personification of God on earth, the Emperor, by his decree, promised the civilian population an honorable place in afterlife next to the soldiers of the imperial army. Of at least 25 thousand civilians committed suicide
suicide
about 20 thousand!
People threw themselves off the rocks - along with young children!
From those who did not take advantage of the generous guarantees of the afterlife, the names "Suicide Cliff" and "Banzai Cliff" reached the rest of the world ...
3. Landing on the island of Leyte (Philippines), October-December 1944.
From 55 thousand defending Japanese (4 divisions, 2 of them from the Kwantung Army in 1941 and one more - formed by the Kwantung Army in 1943), died 49 thousand.
3 and a half thousand dead on the American side.
4. Landing on the island of Guam (Marian Islands), July-August 1944.
The island was defended by 22 thousand Japanese, 485 people surrendered.
1747 dead on the American side.
5. Landing on the island of Luzon (Philippines), January-August 1945.
The Japanese garrison numbered a quarter of a million people. At least half of the divisions of this garrison in 1941 were part of the Kwantung Army. 205 thousand died, 9050 surrendered.
More than 8 thousand killed on the American side.
6. Landing on the island of Iwo Jima, February-March 1945.
The Japanese garrison of the island was 18 - 18 and a half thousand people. 216 surrendered.
Almost 7 thousand killed on the American side.
7. Landing on the island of Okinawa.
The Japanese garrison of the island is about 85 thousand soldiers, with mobilized civilians - over 100 thousand. The heart of the defense consisted of two divisions transferred there from the Kwantung Army. The garrison was deprived of air support and tanks, but otherwise organized the defense in exactly the same way as it was organized on the two main islands of the archipelago - mobilized as many civilians as it could use in support roles (and continued to mobilize as they were spent), and created a powerful a network of fortifications dug into the ground, connected by underground tunnels. With the exception of direct hits in the embrasures, these fortifications did not even take the 410-mm shells of the main caliber of the American battleships.
110 thousand people died.
No more than 10 thousand surrendered, almost all of them were mobilized civilians. When only the command group remained of the garrison, the commander and his chief of staff committed suicide in the traditional samurai way, and their remaining subordinates committed suicide with a bayonet attack on American positions.
Americans lost 12 and a half thousand killed(this is a conservative estimate as it does not include the several thousand American soldiers who died from their wounds)
The number of civilian casualties is still not exactly known. Various Japanese historians evaluate him from 42 to 150 thousand people(the entire pre-war population of the island - 450 thousand).
Thus, the Americans, fighting against real(and not on paper, as was the case with the Kwantung Army) of elite Japanese units, had a loss ratio of 1 to 5 to 1 to 20. The ratio of losses in the Soviet Manchurian strategic operation about 1 to 10, which is quite consistent with the American experience.
The share of Kwantung Army servicemen who actually took part in the battles and surrendered to Soviet troops before orders of the Emperor - only slightly higher than was the case in the rest of the war in the Pacific.
All other Japanese captured by the Soviet troops surrendered, following the imperial order.
So you can imagine WHAT what would have happened if the Japanese emperor had not been forced to surrender ...
Every day of war in Asia claimed thousands of victims, including civilians.
Nuclear bombings are, of course, terrible. But if it were not for them, everything would be even worse, alas. Not only American, Japanese and Soviet soldiers would have died, but millions of peaceful civilians both in the countries occupied by Japan and in Japan itself.
A study undertaken for US Secretary of War Henry Stimson estimated that American casualties in the conquest of Japan would be between 1.7 and 4 million, including between 400,000 and 800,000 dead. Japanese losses were estimated in the range of five to ten million people.
This is a terrible paradox - the death of the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki throughout the rest of Japan.
For Soviet soldiers, if Emperor Hirohito had not ordered surrender, the war with Japan would then have turned into not an easy walk, but a bloody massacre. But millions have already died during the battles with Nazi Germany ...
However, the exclamations of Soviet patriots about the war with Japan as an "easy walk" seem to me not entirely correct. I think that the above figures disprove this. War is war. And before the Kwantung Army received the order to surrender, it managed, despite its unenviable position, to inflict losses on the advancing Soviet troops. So Soviet mythology by no means cancels the courage and heroism shown by ordinary fighters who shed their blood in battles with the Kwantung Army. And all the previous experience of fighting in the Pacific Ocean indicated that desperate, bloody resistance could be expected.
Fortunately, Emperor Hirohito announced his surrender on August 15th. It was probably the smartest thing he ever did...
The signing of the Japanese Surrender Act aboard the Missouri
Manchurian operation of 1945
The Manchurian operation of 1945, a strategic offensive operation in the Far East at the final stage of World War II, carried out on August 9 - September 2 by the troops of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army in cooperation with the Pacific fleet and the Red Banner Amur Flotilla. M.'s purpose about. was to defeat the Japanese. Kwantung Army, liberate the North-East. China (Manchuria) and North. Korea and thereby deprive Japan of the military-economic. bases on the mainland, a springboard for aggression against the USSR and the MPR, and to hasten the end of World War II. The concept of the operation provided for the application of two main ones (from the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic and Primorye) and several auxiliary ones. strikes in areas converging in the center of Manchuria, which ensured deep coverage of the main. forces of the Kwantung Army, dissecting them and quickly defeating them in parts. The operation was carried out at the front stretching St. 5000 km, to a depth of 200-800 km, on a complex theater of operations with desert-steppe, mountain, wooded-marshy, taiga terrain and large rivers. Japanese the command provided for stubborn resistance to the Sov.-Mong. troops in the border fortified areas, and then on the mountain ranges that block the way from the ter. Mongolian People's Republic, Transbaikalia, Amur and Primorye to the center, districts of Manchuria (North-East China). In the event of a breakthrough of this line, the withdrawal of the Japanese was allowed. troops on the line the village of Tumyn-Changchun-Far (Dalian), where it was supposed to organize a defense, and then go on the offensive in order to restore the original situation. Based on this, ch. Japanese forces. troops were concentrated in the center, districts of Manchuria and only 1/3 in the border zone. The Kwantung Army (commander-in-chief, General Yamada) included the 1st, 3rd Fronts, 4th Det. and the 2nd Air Army and the Sungari River Flotilla.
Aug 10 The 17th (Korean) Front and the 5th Air Force were operationally subordinated to the Kwantung Army. army in Korea. Total number Japanese troops in the North-East. China and Korea exceeded 1 million people. They were armed with 1155 tanks, 5360 op., 1800 aircraft and 25 ships. In addition, on ter. Manchuria and Korea were, therefore, the number of Japanese. gendarmerie, police, railway and other formations, as well as the troops of Manchukuo and the Japanese. henchman of the prince Ext. Mongolian Dewan. With the introduction of owls. troops into Manchuria, most of the troops of Manchukuo fled. On the border with the USSR and the MPR, there were 17 fortified areas with a total length of up to 1 thousand km, in which there were approx. 8 thousand long-term fire structures. Owls. and mong. troops numbered more than 1,500 thousand people, St. 26 thousand guns and mortars (without anti-aircraft guns, artillery), approx. 5.3 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, 5.2 thousand aircraft (taking into account the aviation of the Pacific Fleet and the Red Banner Amur, flotillas). Owls. The Navy had 93 warships in the Far East. classes (2 cruisers, 1 leader, 12 squadrons, destroyers and 78 submarines). The general leadership of troops in M. o. carried out specially created by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command Ch. command of the owls troops in the Far East (commander-in-chief - Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky, member of the Military Council - Colonel General I. V. Shikin, Head of Staff - Colonel General S. P. Ivanov ). The commander-in-chief of the MPR troops was Marshal Kh. Choibalsan.
Aug 9 shock groupings of the fronts went on the offensive from the ter. The Mongolian People's Republic and Transbaikalia in the Khingan-Mukden direction, from the Amur region - in the Sungarian direction, and from Primorye - in the Harbino-Girinsky direction. Bombard, aviation of the fronts struck a mass. military strikes. objects in Harbin, Changchun and Jilin (Jiling), on the areas of concentration of troops, communication centers and communications of the avenue. Pacific. the fleet (command, adm. I. S. Yumashev) attacked the Japanese with the forces of aviation and torpedo boats. Naval Base in Sev. Korea - Yuki (Ungi), Racine (Najin) and Seishin (Chongjin). Troops of the Trans-Baikal Front (17th, 39th, 36th and 53rd combined arms, 6th guards tank, 12th air army and cavalry mech group - KMG - Sov.-Mong. Troops; Commander Marshal Sov. Union R. Ya. Malinovsky) by August 18-19. overcame the waterless steppes, the Gobi desert and the mountain ranges of B. Khingan, defeated the Kalgan, Solun and Hailar groups of the pr-ka and rushed to the center, the regions of the North-East. China. Aug 20 ch. forces of the 6th Guards. tank, armies (commander - general-colonel tank, troops of A. G. Kravchenko) entered Mukden (Shenyang) and Changchun and began to move south to the years. Far and Port Arthur (Luishun). KMG Soviet-Mong. troops, leaving 18 Aug. to Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) and Rehe (Chengde), cut off the Kwantung Army from the Japanese. troops in the North. China (see Khingan-Mukden operation 1945). Troops of the 1st Far East. front (35th, 1st Red Banner, 5th and 25th combined arms armies, 10th mechanized corps and 9th air army; commander Marshal of the Soviet Union K. A. Meretskov), advancing towards the Trans-Baikal front, broke through the border fortifications. districts of the avenue, repelled strong Japanese counterattacks in the Mudanjiang region. troops and 20 Aug. entered Kirin and together with the formations of the 2nd Far East. front - to Harbin. The 25th Army, in cooperation with the landed seas. Pacific landings. fleet liberated the ports of the North. Korea - Yuki, Rasin, Seishin and Wonsan, and then the whole North. Korea to the 38th parallel, cutting off the Japanese. troops from the metropolis (see the Harbino-Girinsky operation of 1945). Troops of the 2nd Far East. front (2nd Red Banner, 15th, 16th combined arms and 10th air armies, 5th separate rifle corps, Kamchatka defense, district; commander of the army general M. A. Purkaev) in cooperation with Red Banner. Amur, the flotilla (commander of Rear Adm. N.V. Antonov) successfully crossed pp. Cupid and Ussuri, broke through long-term. the defense of the avenue in the districts of Sakhalin (Heihe), Fugdin (Fujin), overcame the M. Khingan mountain range and on August 20. together with the troops of the 1st Dalnevost. front captured Harbin (see Sungaria operation of 1945). Thus, by 20 Aug. owls. troops advanced deep into the North-East. China from 3. to 400–800 km, from east to 200–300 km, and from north to 200–300 km. They went to the Manchurian Plain (Songliao), dismembered the Japanese. troops into a number of isolated groupings and completed their encirclement.
From 19 Aug. Japanese troops almost everywhere began to surrender. In order to speed up this process, to prevent them from evacuating or destroying material values, during the period from 18 to 27 August. air were planted. landings in Harbin, Mukden, Changchun, Girin, Port Arthur, Dalniy, Pyongyang, Kanko (Hamhung) and other cities. For this purpose, army mobile forward detachments also operated, which successfully completed their tasks. The rapid advance of the owls. and mong. troops put the Japanese troops in a hopeless situation, the calculations of the Japanese command for a stubborn defense and the subsequent counteroffensive were thwarted. The Kwantung Army was defeated. With the defeat of the Kwantung Army and the loss of the military-economic. bases on the mainland - North-East. China and Sev. Korea - Japan lost real strength and the ability to continue the war. Japanese defeat. troops in Manchuria created the conditions for South Sakhalin operation 1945 and the Kuril landing operation of 1945. In terms of design, scope, dynamism, method of performing tasks, and the final results, M. o. - one of the outstanding operations of the Sov. Armed. Forces in the 2nd World War. In M. about. owls. military art was enriched by the experience of carrying out an unprecedented regrouping of troops from the 3rd 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 Far Eastern theater of operations, and "organizing the interaction of ground forces with the Navy. The military army is instructive because of its large scale, the skillful choice of the directions of the main strikes and the time of the start of operations, the creation of a decisive superiority of forces and means in the main directions with a very wide width of the offensive zones of the fronts and armies. and armies, but also formations, which was determined by the isolation of operational areas.A feature of the operational formation of the troops of the Transbaikal Front was the presence of tanks, armies and KMG in the first echelon of the front, which played an important role in achieving high rates of offensive troops. on the course of hostilities, aviation was, which made more than 22 thousand sorties. The station was widely used for reconnaissance, landing troops and delivering cargo, especially fuel for the tank army. During the operation, 16,500 people were transported by air, approx. 2780 tons of fuel, 563 tons of ammunition and approx. 1500 tons of other cargo.
M.'s feature about. was that the general leadership of the troops was carried out in it by the High Command of the Soviets, specially created by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. troops in the Far East. This significantly affected the efficiency of command and control, the clarity of coordination of the actions of the three fronts, the fleet and aviation in the largest strategic operation. In the successful offensive of the owls. troops in Manchuria, an important role was played by the purposeful party-polite. work aimed at ensuring high morale of the troops and will advance. impulse. Much attention was paid to the clarification of personal. the composition of the essence of hostile acts of Japan. militarists against our Motherland, features of hostilities in the Far Eastern theater of operations, internats. liberates, the missions of the Sov. Armed. Forces in the campaign in the Far East. As a result of the rapid and brilliantly conducted M. o. Manchuria, liberated by owls. troops together with the Mong. People's Army, has become a reliable military strategist. foothold of the revolution forces of China, the new political. whale center. revolution. M. o. was ch. content of the final period of the 2nd World War. Owls. The Union and its Armament. Forces as a result of M. about. defeated one of the most important groupings of the Japanese. overland troops on the mainland - the Kwantung Army, which forced Japan to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of the Allied States (see the Potsdam Conference of 1945). With their victories over the strike forces of the fascist. bloc in Europe and a brilliant victory in Manchuria Sov. The Union made a decisive contribution to the defeat of militaristic Japan. 2 Sept. 1945 Japan was forced to sign at Tokyo Hall. aboard the Amer. battleship "Missouri" act of surrender. As a result of the victory over Japan, favorable conditions were created for the development of national liberation in Asian countries. movement, for the victory of Nar. revolutions in China, North. Korea and Vietnam. M. o. was a vivid demonstration of the power of the Soviets. Armed. Force.
G. K. Plotnikov.
Used materials of the Soviet military encyclopedia in 8 volumes, volume 5.
Literature:
History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. 1941-1945. T. 5. M., 1963;
Liberation mission in the East. M., 1976;
Shikin I. V., Sapozhnikov B. G. Feat on the Far Eastern Frontiers. M., 1975
Liberation Mission of the Soviet Armed Forces in World War II. Ed. 2nd. M., 1974
Vnotchenko D.N. Victory in the Far East. Military-ist. an essay on the combat operations of owls. troops in Aug.-Sept. 1945 ed. 2nd. M., 1971;
The final. Historical-memoir essay on the defeat of the imperialist .. Japan in 1945. Ed. 2nd. M., 1969;
Hattori Takushiro. Japan in the war 1941-1945. Per. from Japanese. M., 1973.
