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 at the final stage of 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 4,600 km and 200-820 km in depth, in a complex theater of military operations with desert-steppe, mountainous, wooded-swampy, taiga terrain and large 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, and 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, a large number of troops, especially mobile formations, were transferred from the west to the Far East and Transbaikalia to a distance of 9-11 thousand km. 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 Marshal of Aviation 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 conducting 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
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 (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, in 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 on the Khingan-Mukden direction, from the Amur region - on the Sungarian direction, and from Primorye - on 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 - Soviet-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 - colonel-gen. 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 Transbaikal front, broke through the border fortifications. areas 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 the South Sakhalin operation of 1945 and the Kuril landing operation of 1945. In terms of design, scope, dynamism, method of performing tasks, and the end 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.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union officially acceded to the Potsdam Declaration. On the same day, at 5 pm Moscow time, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov received the Japanese ambassador and informed him that from midnight on August 9, the USSR and Japan were in a state of war.
On August 9, 1945, at about one in the morning Khabarovsk time, the advanced and reconnaissance detachments of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts crossed the state border and entered the territory of Manchuria. The Manchurian strategic offensive operation began.
At dawn, the main forces of the fronts went on the offensive. Since the beginning of the operation, our ground attack and bomber aircraft have been actively involved in the fighting. On the first day of the campaign, the Soviet air armies delivered massive strikes against the command posts, headquarters and communication centers of the Japanese grouping. There were also raids on large railway junctions, military enterprises and enemy airfields. At the same time, the cities of Khalun-Arshan, Hailar, Qiqihar, Solun, Harbin, Changchun, Kirin, and Mukden were attacked. Skillful actions of aviation managed to ensure that communications between the headquarters and subunits of the Japanese troops in Manchuria were already disrupted in the first hours of the operation.
The Pacific Fleet did not lag behind the pilots. On August 9, 1945, its aviation and formations of torpedo boats attacked ships, coastal defense facilities in the North Korean ports of Yuki, Rasin, Seishin.
Thus, the Kwantung Army was attacked on land, from the air and from the sea along the entire length of the border with Manchuria and on the North Korean coast.
At 4:30 am on August 9, the forces of the Trans-Baikal Front began active hostilities in the central (Khingan-Mukden) direction. Without aviation and artillery preparation, the 6th Guards Tank Army crushed the border formations and cover units and launched a swift offensive towards the Bolshoi Khingan ridge. In this area, the advance of Malinovsky's troops ranged from 50 to 120 kilometers. By evening, the advanced units of Kravchenko's army and the Soviet-Mongolian mechanized cavalry group of General Pliev reached the approaches to the Greater Khingan passes.
From the very first days of the operation, it became clear that the conduct of the war by the Japanese was different from European traditions. This concerned, first of all, the presence of units of "suicide bombers" - tank destroyers. They fixed the charge on themselves and rushed under our tanks, blowing them up and themselves.. But their effectiveness was extremely low. For example, when trying to ram tank columns of the 6th Guards Tank Army, 9 Japanese aircraft piloted by kamikaze crashed. However, all these attempts did not cause significant harm to any machine.
It is noteworthy that the Japanese themselves did not always actively use their tanks. In the summary of the generalized combat experience of the troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, it is indicated, for example, that the tanks of the enemy army were used only a few times during the entire period of the fighting.
In his memoirs, a participant in the battles in Manchuria guards. Captain D.F. Loza described the attack of the convoy by Japanese suicide pilots as follows: |
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Another distinguishing feature was the organization of defense. The Japanese, despite well-equipped defensive strongholds, nevertheless kept a minimum of troops on them, setting them the task of holding the enemy at the line until the main forces approached. At the same time, they limited themselves not to a continuous line of defense, but to a focal one, believing that the enemy would not be able to overcome difficult terrain and would be forced to attack head-on. But the gaps between the fortified areas were so large that they allowed not only small groups, but even entire mechanized columns to penetrate deep into the defense. In addition, numerous bunkers and bunkers had dead zones that were not blocked by fire, which allowed small groups to get close to them and destroy them with the help of explosions and fire.
The Japanese fought for the defended positions to the last, and in the event of an encirclement or a hopeless situation, the garrisons undermined themselves. However, such resistance was not observed in all sectors of the front.
Noteworthy is the use of pigeons in the Japanese army to indicate the location of enemy troops within the sight distance of birds in flight at an altitude of up to 500 meters. For these purposes, the training of domestic pigeons was practiced. It happened in the following way. When the pigeons were released "for a walk", they were driven outside the front line, into the field, where there were Japanese soldiers dressed in Red Army uniforms. As soon as pigeons appeared over the battle formations of disguised soldiers, the “Red Army men” raised canvases with grain and fed the birds. Repeated training developed a conditioned reflex in birds. There were cases when our fighters entered the house, the pigeons chased them and sat on the roof of the house, which was then subjected to artillery fire.
Overcoming difficulties, our armies rapidly pressed the enemy units. At the same time, on the left wing of the front, the 36th Army under the command of General A.A. Luchinsky and the 39th Army under the command of General I.I. Lyudnikov captured the Zhalainor-Manchurian and Khalun-Arshan fortified regions with a counterattack and advanced almost 40 kilometers deep into Manchuria . On the right wing of the front, the forces of the Mongolian People's Army covered 50 kilometers.
Under the onslaught of the Soviet-Mongolian troops, the Japanese command began to withdraw its armies to the Changchun-Dairen line, where they hoped to delay our further advance. At the same time, the retreating Japanese troops were ordered to blow up and mine bridges and main railway lines, infrastructure and communication lines, as well as to poison fresh water sources. But all these measures could no longer affect the course of the Soviet offensive.
The most significant success in the first days of the offensive was achieved by the tankers of the 6th Guards Tank Army, who had experience in overcoming mountain passes in the Carpathians. And in the east, the tanks had to take full advantage of this experience. On the first day of the offensive, the 6th Guards Tank Army of the Trans-Baikal Front, practically without resistance, traveled 150 km, the next day another 120 km, reached the foothills of the Bolshoi Khingan ridge and began to overcome it. Climbing the mountains was difficult, and descending was even harder.. At one of the sites, at first one tank was launched, in which only the driver remained from the crew. Tank with increasing speed rushed down. The skill of the driver, who managed to even out the movement and stop the tank at the very foot of the mountain, as soon as it rolled out onto a more gentle area, saved from the disaster. After that, the equipment began to be lowered on cables, when the rear ones served as a kind of anchor for those in front.
By August 12, the advanced units of the 6th Guards Tank Army had overcome the Greater Khingan and with the main forces reached the Central Manchurian Plain, having completed the task a day ahead of schedule. Developing the offensive, Kravchenko's army covered 180 kilometers in a day. The enemy was clearly discouraged by the sudden appearance in his rear of large Soviet mechanized formations.
For many fighters of the 6th Guards Tank Army, the mountains of the Greater Khingan were not the most difficult test. The march through the Gobi desert turned out to be more terrible. The air temperature was 53-56 degrees, and for hundreds of kilometers around there were no signs of the presence of water. The very name of the desert, translated from the Mongolian language, just means “waterless place”. Often, before retreating from the next settlement, the Japanese managed to poison the water in the wells with strychnine. The lack of water remained a terrible scourge until the end of the operation.
Private of the 30th Guards Mechanized Brigade Yakov Grigoryevich Kovrov recalled that those who were not used to such heat lost consciousness. It was easier for him, since he grew up in the steppe, and a long stay in the sun was not new to him. His company was separated from the main forces. The soldiers were exhausted and refused to move on, having lost all hope that this inferno would ever end. After several times the mirage deceived hopes to get to the water, the company lay down, having lost its direction of movement. No one had water left. To the question of the company commander: “Who can get to the battalion headquarters for help?” Yakov Grigoryevich volunteered. He managed to reach the target and indicate the location of the company. In a hurry, several vehicles were unloaded and by the evening they took the dying soldiers to the main forces, where they were given assistance. So Private Yakov Grigoryevich Kovrov saved his comrades.
At this time, the 36th Army, advancing to the north, reached the city of Buheda, an important transport hub. Thus, the key lines of communication between the main forces of the Kwantung Army and the troops stationed in the northern and northwestern regions of Manchuria were cut off. From August 12 to 14, the Japanese tried several times to counterattack the Soviet-Mongolian units, but they failed to achieve success.
By August 14, the troops of the Trans-Baikal Front advanced 250-400 kilometers eastward, occupying an advantageous position for an attack on the main military-political and industrial centers of Manchuria - the cities of Kalgan, Rehe, Mukden, Changchun and Qiqihar.
The offensive of the Red Army developed no less successfully on other fronts. Troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, with the support of the Amur military flotilla, crossed the Amur and Ussuri rivers and captured the cities of Lobei, Tongjiang and Fuyuan. On August 14, despite the lack of roads and severe swampy terrain, the armies of the front captured the city of Baoqing, creating a bridgehead for an attack on Harbin.
The 1st Far Eastern Front did not lag behind either. The troops of the front had to conduct combat operations against the most powerful grouping of Japanese troops available in Manchuria and Korea. It was necessary to overcome the well-equipped enemy defense zone, created over many years. In addition, the high speed of the offensive was hindered by difficult terrain: forests, mountains, swamps. And, nevertheless, despite the enemy's attempts to counter the attackers, already on the first day, Soviet troops broke through the Japanese defense line and rushed deep into Manchuria. The tanks of the advancing units did not break through the enemy's defenses, but the forest, paving the way for infantry, artillery and vehicles. Sappers made decks from broken trees in the most difficult places. As a result of such tactics, it was possible to imperceptibly come close to the Japanese defenses, and somewhere to bypass it, leaving strongholds for destruction by troops advancing in the second echelon. By August 11, Meretskov's troops took the Hunchun fortified area. The left wing of the front began to develop an offensive along the North Korean coast.
On August 12, landings landed by ships of the Pacific Flotilla drove the Japanese out of the ports of Yuki and Racine. And on August 14 - from the port of Seishin. Thus, by the end of August 14, the forces of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts were able to cut the Kwantung Army into several parts and deprive them of communication with each other. For 6 days of the campaign, our armies advanced in different sectors from 100 to 500 kilometers. Of the 17 fortified areas, 16 were under the control of Soviet troops. At this, the first stage of the Manchurian operation was completed.
Already the first days of the operation showed that the Soviet offensive caught the Japanese commanders by surprise. Later, captured Japanese generals said that they expected active hostilities to begin no earlier than September, during the driest time of the year, and not during the monsoon season, when roads turn into swamps. The main guarantee of success was the swiftness of the offensive and the high degree of interaction of all branches of the armed forces. It is no coincidence that in the West this operation of the Soviet troops is called the "August Storm". And this is in the most unfavorable weather conditions (August in Manchuria is the rainy season). Particularly noteworthy are the engineering units of the Trans-Baikal Front, which ensured that the 6th Guards Tank Army overcame the Greater Khingan, which was considered impregnable by the Japanese. A great deal of work was done by engineering formations on other fronts, ensuring the advance of our troops through marshy and flood-drenched terrain.
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 the ancient tradition of the samurai, performed the seppuku ceremony ...
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, it was considered one of the most prestigious in the Japanese ground armed forces. Service in it meant the possibility of a good career. But then the Japanese command found itself forced to take away 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 took 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 attack 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, there was nothing there: everything else had long been taken back to the metropolis 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, out of 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 preceding 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 recruits of 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 1940s 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 command 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 by 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 - the 17th, 72nd and 65th - was defended from their attack by one Japanese infantry battalion. 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 the Soviet offensive began and to whom the Emperor’s order to surrender did not reach, were picked out for 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 a war with the mother country on the Japanese islands proper 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 the 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 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 loss ratio in the Soviet Manchurian strategic operation was 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 given the order to 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
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- a 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 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 (to the north of the 38th parallel), cutting off Japanese troops from the mother country (see the Harbino-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 assault forces 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.
