Murky Key Event of WWII 'Khalkhin Gol'

fat tony

fat tony

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a forward observation post in the L-F-H horizon, o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khalkhin_Gol

The Battles of Khalkhyn Gol (Mongolian: Халхын голын байлдаан; Russian: бой на реке Халхин-Гол;simplified Chinese: 诺蒙坎事件 Nuò méng kǎn shìjiàn) was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese Border Wars fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield. In Japan, the decisive battle of the conflict is known as the Nomonhan Incident (ノモンハン事件 Nomonhan jiken?) after a nearby village on the border between Mongolia and Manchuria. The battles resulted in total defeat for the Japanese Sixth Army.
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One of the big bonuses from this was that it tied down quite a number of Japanese forces who might have otherwise been available for operations in Indo-China and the Pacific. On the other hand the Russians were able to leave relatively light forces in the east while concentrating their main efforts against the Germans.

It is interesting to see how poorly the Japanese fared at conducting maneuver warfare against a mechanized enemy in open terrain.
 
Russia may be bumbling and incompetent at times, but they have been waiting since 1905 to give it back to the Japanese. They repeated it on a larger scale in 1945. I understand that they still feel quite the same way towards them.
 
A little known engagement that brought Marshal Zhukov to the attention of Stalin, much to the detriment of the Germans. Zhukov was sent to regain territory lost in earlier engagements. The Soviets declared war on Japan when Nazi Germany was toast and Stalin wanted a share of the spoils from the empire of Japan.
 
And if you want to know why the Japanese were so under-rated by the West, this incident is one of the reasons. The Soviets smashed them, albeit with a large superiority in tanks and artillery, and then couldn't even subdue the Finns a year or two later! Conclusion: the Japanese are feeble. And just to back that conclusion up, they failed to subdue China as well.

As for the Soviet declaration of war against Japan, the Western powers were determined to get this, as the A bombs were still an unknown, and casualties invading the main island of Japan were expected to be enormous: over a million men. As it turned out, the bombs worked and all we got from the Soviet declaration of war was North Korea and lots of Japanese getting an extended vacation in Siberia. Not that they didn't deserve one!

The Soviet helmets are interesting too. Helmets did not come into wide use in the Soviet Army until 42/43. It looks like the type in the photos was discarded because it was too similar to the German M36 helmet in appearance.
 
Japan surrendered when the russians declared war on them? Do you think Hiroshima and Nagasaki Just "might" have had a bit of influence on japan surrendering?:rolleyes:
 
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