The Manchurian operation was a strategic offensive operation by the Soviet Army and troops of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Army during the Soviet-Japanese War in World War II, with the aim of destroying the Japanese Kwantung Army, occupying Manchuria and North Korea, and eliminating Japan’s military/economic base on the Asian continent. It is also known as the Battle of Manchuria, and in the West, Operation “August Storm”.
Forces
By the beginning of the Manchurian operation, a large strategic force of Japanese, Manchu and Mengjiang troops were concentrated in Manchuria. The so-called Kwantung Army was commanded by General Otsudzo Yamada, which included the 1st, 3rd and 17th Armies, the 4th Separate Army, the 2nd and 5th Air Army, and the Sungari Military River Flotilla. The following troops were also subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief: the Manchukuo Army, the Mengjiang Army and the Suyuan Army Group. All In all, the Japanese forces comprised over 1 million troops, 6,260 guns and mortars, 1,155 tanks, 1,900 aircraft, and 25 ships. One third of the troops of the Japanese army grouping was located in the border zone, the main forces in the central areas of Manchukuo. At the borders with the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People’s Republic, there were 17 fortified regions.
During May-early August, the Soviet command transferred to the Far East, some of the troops that liberated Europe in the west (over 400,000 men, 7,137 guns and mortars, 2,119 tanks and automatic control systems). Together with the troops stationed in the Far East, the regrouped units comprised three fronts. In total: 131 divisions and 117 brigades, more than 1.5 million troops, more than 27,000 guns and mortars, more than 700 rocket launchers, 5,250 tanks and self-propelled guns, over 3,700 Â aircraft. The land border of the USSR covered 21 fortified areas. The forces of the Pacific Fleet were also used to conduct the Manchurian operation (about 165,000 men, 416 ships, including 2 cruisers, 1 leader, 12 destroyers, 78 submarines, 1,382 combat aircraft, 2,550 guns, and mortars), and the Amur Military Flotilla (12,500 men, 126 ships, 68 combat aircraft, 199 guns and mortars), as well as the Border Guard Forces of Primorsky, Khabarovsk and Zabaikalsky border districts. The commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East was Marshal of the Soviet Union AM Vasilevsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Mongolian troops – Marshal of the MPR Horlogin Choibalsan. The actions of the Navy and Air Force were coordinated by Fleet Admiral Nikolai Gusimovich Kuznetsov and Chief Marshal of Aviation Alexander Novikov.
Operation Plan
The Soviet’s operational plan envisaged the deployment of two main attack points, from the territory of the Mongolian People’s Republic and Primorye. Several auxiliary attacks were conducted on areas converging in the center of Manchuria. Deep coverage by the main forces of the Kwantung Army, allowed their dissection and subsequent defeat in parts, mastering the most important military and political centers of China. The Manchurian operation was conducted on a 2,700-km-wide front, to a depth of 200-800 km, in a complex military operation in desert-steppes, mountainous, wooded swampy, taiga terrain and large rivers.
Fighting
On August 9, the day the US Air Force bombed Nagasaki, the advanced and reconnaissance detachments of the three Soviet fronts launched an offensive. At the same time, aviation struck massive blows at military facilities in Harbin, Xinjiang, and Jilin, along concentrations of troops, communications and communications units of the enemy in the border zone. The Pacific fleet cut communications connecting Korea and Manchuria with Japan, and struck at Japanese naval bases in North Korea, Yuki, Rasin, and Seisin. The troops of the Trans-Baikal Front, advancing from the territory of the MPR and Dauria, overcame the waterless steppes, the Gobi Desert and the mountain ranges of the Greater Khingan, and defeated the Kalgans, Helyar and Hailar groups and reached the most important industrial and administrative centers of Manchuria. They also isolated the Kwantung Army from Japanese troops in North China and, having occupied Xinjiang and Fengtian, advanced to Dairan and Ryoujun. 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 counterattacks in the Mudanjiang area, occupied Jilin and Harbin, and, in cooperation with the Pacific Fleet assault forces, seized the ports and then occupied the northern part of Korea, cutting off Japanese troops from the metropolis. 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 defense in the areas, crossed the Malay Khingan mountain range and, together with the forces of the 1st Far Eastern Front, seized Harbin.
By August 20, Soviet troops had advanced into the interior of Northeast China from the west by 400-800 km, from the east and the north by 200-300 km, reached the Manchurian plain, dismembered the Japanese troops into a number of isolated groups and completed their encirclement. Since August 19, the Japanese troops, to whom by this time the decree of the Emperor of Japan to surrender was issued, almost universally began to surrender. To accelerate this process and prevent the enemy from taking out or destroying valuable material, airborne assault forces landed in cities from 18 to 27 August.
Operation results
The successful conduct of the Manchurian operation allowed the southern Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands to be occupied in a relatively short time. The defeat of the Kwantung Army and the loss of the military and economic base in Northeast China and North Korea became one of the significant factors that deprived Japan of real viability and opportunities to continue the war, forced it to sign the surrender act on September 2, 1945, which led to the end of World War II.
Sources:
- The history of the Second World War 1939-1945 / Grechko, Anton Ivanovich.
- Zakharov, Matvey Vasilyevich. The final
- Vnotchenko LN, Victory in the Far East
- Campaign of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Far East in 1945 (Facts and Figures)
- Buranok SO The victory over Japan in the assessments of American society