The website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has published unique declassified documents dedicated to the Japanese campaign of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA).
As you know, the USSR entered the war with Tokyo on August 9, 1945, and on September 2, on board the American battleship USS Missouri, representatives of the militarist regime signed the Unconditional Surrender Act.
The military department of the Russian Federation posted on its Internet portal the journals of military operations of the Soviet formations that operated in the Far East, schemes of operations, various political reports, orders, photographs, award lists of the Red Army soldiers, information summaries and newspaper publications for 1945.
"Restoring peace and order"
The Soviet Union carried out the Japanese campaign, following the agreements reached during the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
On it, Moscow promised the United States and Great Britain to enter the war in the Far East three months after the end of fighting in Europe.
As of the summer of 1945, Japan held a very impressive military force in northeastern China, Inner Mongolia and Korea.
In total, the Kwantung Army consisted of more than 1 million people, 1215 tanks, 6640 guns and mortars, 1907 combat aircraft and 25 warships of the main classes.
On the border with the Soviet Union and Mongolia, the Japanese built 17 fortified areas, each 50-100 km wide and up to 50 km deep.
The defensive positions of the Kwantung Army included three to seven knots of resistance.
Order to the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
One of the well-equipped engineering strongholds of the Japanese was located in the city of Fujin.
The resistance node consisted of stone buildings of pillboxes, bunkers and towers with armored caps.
Suicide soldiers fired machine guns.
It was believed in Tokyo that it would take about six months for the Red Army to capture Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.
Moreover, the Japanese General Staff hoped that during this period it would be possible to regroup the forces and launch a counteroffensive, ending hostilities on the territory of the USSR.
Before the outbreak of the war, Moscow had to transfer significant forces and assets to the Far East from European regions.
The leadership of the Soviet group was entrusted to Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky.
The idea of the campaign was to encircle the Kwantung Army, and then dissect and destroy its main forces.
To this end, the Red Army conducted three large-scale operations: the Manchurian strategic, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin offensive, and the Kuril landing.
Soviet troops enter the liberated Harbin.
August 21, 1945
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The fighting in northeast China, which began on August 9 and continued until September 2, played a key role in the success of the Red Army.
The forces of the Transbaikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts, the Pacific Fleet and the Amur Flotilla, Primorsky, Khabarovsk and Transbaikal border districts took part in the Manchurian strategic operation.
Also, support for the Red Army was provided by Mongolian units and partisan detachments of the 8th Chinese People's Revolutionary Army.
Despite the off-road and fierce resistance of the enemy, the Soviet formations quickly captured the cities of Hutou, Matsyaohe, Mishan, Hunchun, Mudanjiang and the Dongning fortified area.
On August 19, the Red Army entered Changchun, the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo, which was ruled by the Japanese military administration.
The website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation contains an appeal by the Chinese commandant of this city to Major General Fyodor Karlov, whose troops disarmed the Japanese garrison.
The document expresses words of deep gratitude for the liberation from the oppression of the militarists.
Message from the commandant of Changchun to Major General Fyodor Karlov
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
“Your Red Army saved us from such a difficult hopeless situation by defeating the Japanese imperialists in just a few days.
Not only do we rejoice in this in northeast China for the restoration of peace and order, but also the whole world, having received peace and tranquility ... ", - reads the appeal of the commandant of Changchun.
In archival documents published on the website of the military department, one can find information about the stubborn and fanatical resistance of the occupiers.
In particular, the Kwantung Army made extensive use of suicide bombers.
They attacked Soviet officers and generals with melee weapons, threw themselves, tied up with tar and explosives, under tanks.
Sometimes kamikazes formed a "live" anti-tank minefield.
At the same time, suicide bombers rarely managed to commit sabotage.
Most often they were shot with fire from machine guns.
Captured Japanese observation posts in Manchuria
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
However, not all Japanese soldiers and officers acted so recklessly.
So, in the combat report of the chief of staff of the Trans-Baikal Front, it is reported that "during the period from 17 to 19 August 1945, 13,800 Japanese soldiers and officers surrendered, including one major general - the commandant of the Hailar fortified area Nomura."
Realizing the senselessness of hostilities against the successfully advancing formations of the Red Army, a number of high-ranking Japanese military leaders agreed to negotiations on the procedure for disarmament and surrender with the Soviet commanders: Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army Lieutenant General Hata, his deputy Major General Matsumura, commander of the Mukden garrison Lieutenant General Hongo.
“I guarantee a good attitude on the part of the Red Army not only to the senior officers, but also to the soldiers,” the words of Marshal Vasilevsky are quoted on the website of the RF Ministry of Defense.
Japanese parliamentarians
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
According to the documents, General Khata agreed with all the requirements and instructions of the Soviet command.
The Japanese commander asked Vasilevsky to allow before the arrival of the Red Army in Harbin, Changchun, Ranan and other settlements of Manchuria and Korea to leave the soldiers with weapons, since "the population there is unreliable."
The Yuzhno-Sakhalin and Kuril operations were not as large as the Manchurian, but were of decisive importance for the capture of strategically important territories in the Pacific region.
The battles for South Sakhalin began on August 11 and ended on August 25.
The operation was successfully carried out by the Northern Pacific Flotilla and the 16th Army under the command of Major General Leonty Cheremisov.
Illustration from the photo album "The combat path of the troops of the 35th Army of the 1st Far Eastern Front"
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
"In connection with the successful offensive actions of the Red Army troops, on the morning of August 11, by the decision of the commander of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, General of the Army (Maxim. -
RT
) Purkaev, our units went on the offensive on Sakhalin Island," the declassified document of the Russian Ministry of Defense says.
The most difficult test for the Red Army was the assault on the Kotonsky fortified area, which was defended by the enemy's 125th Infantry Regiment.
The Japanese "fortress" was a network of resistance nodes and strongholds to a depth of 8-12 km, which were in fire communication with each other.
On one kilometer of the defensive zone, on average, up to 15 enemy pillboxes and bunkers were located, and a wire net in three lines was stretched along the front edge.
The militarists were also helped by the hard-to-reach terrain, which practically excluded the possibility of bypassing the Japanese positions.
However, thanks to the powerful artillery barrage, the 79th Rifle Division and the 214th Tank Brigade were able to break through the enemy's main defensive zone.
On August 19, the Kotonsky fortified area was captured, which violated the entire system of enemy defense of South Sakhalin.
Scheme of the Coton fortified area
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
To discredit the liberation mission of the Red Army, the retreating Japanese soldiers disguised themselves in the uniform of Soviet servicemen and staged a massacre of civilians.
In the city of Vanemyao, in the bed of an old river, the Red Army found about 500 bodies of women, children and the elderly.
Among them, Soviet soldiers found survivors: an infant and two wounded women, who told the details of the tragedy.
When the bombing of Vanemiao began, the civilian population left the city and settled down for the night in the bed of the old river.
The Japanese ordered the residents to undress and then opened fire on them.
Soldiers of the Kwantung Army killed the wounded with knives.
Captured trench and Japanese observation post in Manchuria
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The Japanese were driven from the Kuril ridge by the forces of the 2nd Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet.
The operation lasted from August 18 to September 1 and was characterized by active operations of the airborne forces of the Red Army.
By August 23, Soviet troops occupied the ports of Kataoka, Kashiwabara, captured Shumshu Island and the northeastern part of Paramushir Island.
By the end of August 1945, the Red Army had practically completed the process of disarming the Japanese formations.
The absence of enemy resistance is evidenced by the order given on August 29 to Vasilevsky to cancel martial law in the Far East from September 1.
Talent and courage
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Japanese campaign became one of the largest operations of the Second World War.
In particular, during the fighting in Manchuria, the enemy lost over 700 thousand soldiers and officers, including more than 640 thousand prisoners.
In the formations of the Red Army, 12 thousand servicemen were killed, more than 24.4 thousand people were injured.
93 participants in the battles with militarists in northeastern China, including Vasilevsky, were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The website of the Russian Ministry of Defense provides a copy of the award list for the commander of the rifle battalion, captain of the 79th rifle division Grigory Svetetsky.
The document says that with his skillful leadership, the officer ensured the breakthrough of the Japanese fortified area.
During the assault, he destroyed 12 pillboxes and 8 enemy pillboxes.
Award list Grigory Svetetsky
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
As noted in the documents published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the Manchurian operation, Soviet servicemen "displayed mass heroism."
Many Red Army soldiers repeated the legendary feat of Alexander Matrosov, closing the embrasures of the pillboxes when breaking through the Japanese fortifications.
The political report to Commander Marshal Kirill Meretskov describes the feat of a sapper-corporal Vasily Kolesnik, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to destroy an enemy machine-gun point with a bunch of grenades, closed the embrasure of the bunker with his body at the moment when the company launched an attack.
Experts believe that the military leadership talent of the Soviet command, courage and high combat training of the Red Army personnel made it possible to paralyze the resistance of the Kwantung Army in an extremely short time.
Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky's message to the people of northeastern China
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
As a senior researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reserve colonel Miroslav Morozov, noted in an interview with RT, a week after the start of the Manchurian operation, the top Japanese leadership realized the inevitability of a complete military defeat.
“In a sense, the war with Japan became a second front for the USSR.
Our country has successfully fulfilled its obligation to the allies.
On August 15, that is, 6 days after the start of our operation, the Japanese emperor announced that he accepts the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, ”Morozov explained.
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
In a conversation with RT, the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society Mikhail Myagkov noted that without the operation of Soviet troops against the Kwantung Army, the United States would have to fight in East Asia for a long time.
“Today, in the Western media and in American historical circles, the version is spread that the surrender of Japan was led exclusively by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.
However, the facts and documents show that without the entry of the USSR into the war against the militarists, the surrender of Tokyo in such a short time would have been impossible, ”said Myagkov.
Illustration from the photo album "The combat path of the troops of the 35th Army of the 1st Far Eastern Front"
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
According to the expert, the actions of the Red Army against the Kwantung Army saved the Chinese and other peoples of East Asia from genocide.
In addition, the successful Japanese campaign led to territorial acquisitions that significantly strengthened the defenses of the USSR's Far Eastern borders.
“As a result of the war, the Soviet Union received South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
Let me remind you that Japan renounced these territories under the 1951 San Francisco Treaty.
If we talk about the operation of the Red Army, then it was brilliantly organized.
The Soviet troops actually took a large enemy grouping in ticks and thereby inflicted a complete defeat on the militarists, "Myagkov stressed.