|
|
Mongolia 1939 – Stalin’s Shrewd Opening ActBy Stuart D. Goldman | World War II | 6 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post The Japanese now found themselves in the potentially disastrous position of having their force divided on opposite sides of a river, with a powerful enemy separating them. The 23rd Division had to cross back over the river as soon as possible. Fortunately for the Japanese, Zhukov had been caught off-guard by the daring river crossing and did not immediately recognize Komatsubara’s vulnerability. On the night of July 3, Zhukov was still thinking in terms of repulsing the enemy, rather than encircling and destroying him. That allowed the 23rd Division to slip away to the relative safety of the east side of the river. Subscribe Today
Both sides had been bloodied, but again Kwantung Army had failed to achieve its objective. And again, much of the cause for the failure lay in poor intelligence work. The enemy’s strength had been badly underestimated. Perhaps even more disturbing, the intelligence failure was not merely quantitative, but qualitative. The Soviet forces were not only larger but more powerful than anticipated. While the Japanese attackers enjoyed a slight numerical advantage, as well as tactical surprise at the outset, the weight of Soviet firepower proved decisive. As Zhukov later noted, “Our trump cards were the armored formations.” This was an alarming lesson, one the Japanese were loath to accept. For if Bushido, the presumed spiritual superiority of the Japanese warrior, could not prevail against crude material force, Japan’s military prospects were grim. Even as the battle at Nomonhan was escalating beyond the border clash it first appeared to be, Stalin was weaving the diplomatic design that would connect it to a far larger conflict: World War II. By the summer of 1939, it was clear that Europe was sliding toward war. Hitler was determined to move east, against Poland. Stalin’s nightmare, to be avoided at all costs, was fighting a two-front war against Germany and Japan. His ideal would be a war between capitalist countries: the fascist-militarist capitalists (Germany, Italy, and Japan) fighting the bourgeois-democratic capitalists (Britain, France, and perhaps the United States)—leaving the Soviet Union free to weigh in on either side after the capitalists had exhausted themselves. Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939—in violation of the six-month-old Munich Agreement—gave Stalin the opening he was hoping for. In response to Hitler’s land grab, Britain and France pledged to fight Germany if it attacked Poland, and then openly sought to enlist Moscow in an anti-Nazi alliance. This offer gave Stalin the leverage to open secret negotiations with Germany. Stalin correctly calculated that if Hitler went to war over Poland, he would want to avoid the 1914 mistake of fighting England, France, and Russia. Stalin was maneuvering into a position in which the Anglo-French powers and Germany were competing for an agreement with him. The choice would be his. Meanwhile, the fighting continued at Nomonhan. The Japanese piece of the puzzle would be part of Stalin’s grand design. In the weeks that followed the early July battle, the Japanese attempted to even the score by bringing almost all the heavy artillery in Manchukuo to the Nomonhan front for a major artillery duel, and, later, by launching a series of large-scale nighttime attacks. But in both cases the Soviets proved stronger, with bigger guns and strong defensive lines. And they were growing stronger still. While Stalin continued public negotiations with Britain and France and secret negotiations with Germany, he reinforced his army at Nomonhan. In July, Zhukov’s 1st Army Group was strengthened by the addition of the 57th and 82nd Infantry Divisions, the 6th Tank Brigade, the 212th Airborne Brigade, two Mongolian cavalry divisions, and numerous smaller infantry, armor, and artillery units. By mid-August, when the buildup was complete, Zhukov commanded a force equivalent to four infantry divisions, supported by two cavalry divisions, 216 artillery pieces, 498 armored vehicles, and 581 aircraft. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Historical Figures, World War II
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||
What is HistoryNet?The HistoryNet.com is brought to you by the Weider History Group, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. If you are interested in a specific history subject, try searching our archives, you are bound to find something to pique your interest. |
From Our Magazines
|
Weider History Group |
Weider History Network: HistoryNet | Armchair General | Great History | Achtung Panzer! Terms of Use | Copyright © 2009 Weider History Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. |
||
Loading ...
6 Comments to “Mongolia 1939 – Stalin’s Shrewd Opening Act”
I am some knower over Japanese-Soviet Clashes in 1938 and 93 among the Japanese-Chinese Conflict in 1937-45.
based in own experience in Nomonhan Japanese developed a some type of 47mm AT infantry guns and Self-propelled vehicles, Armored carriers and Tanks with 47mm cannons
I considered why for Japanese having to chosen figthing against Chinese are erroneous and theirs poses some potential triumph charts in your hands for created needed base of war against Soviets in Siberia:
*Japanese a set up some anticomunist puppet states in Northern China:
-Chinese East Hebei Autonomous Council (1935 – 1938)
-Chinese Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1937-1940)
-Mongolian Mengkiang (1936 – 1945)
-Manchurian Empire of Manchoukou (1932 – 1945)
*Among Japanese poses some Siberian and Central asian nationalities disconformed with Soviets living in such territoires:
-White Russians and East Jews
-Exiled Yakutians and Buriats
-Tibetans,Uiguirs,Dungans and Central Asians
*Japanese during your failed campaing in mainlad China accumulated a force between 1 to 3 million of Japanese and Korean soldiers a half of total of Japanese land forces in Pacific war period.
*Japanese poses a important defector and expert in Soviets topics
the NKVD officer Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov why advised the needed of accumulated a 4,000 tanks for invading siberian lands
If Japanese Army have a decided to use such elements in adequate form for:
- created a combined force conformed by Japanese,white russians,mongol,chinese and Manchu units less between 2 to 3 millions of men
-the use of modified tanks and self-propelled vehicles armed with 75mm cannons
-joining with any type of aerial “Blitz” bombardments
for used an sort distracted strikes to Argun and Amur frontier fortifications and Japan sea fortifications for launched the main stream “lance point” land attack for main Mongolian territoire in route to Irkusts preceded with aerial landings and some undercover strikes for cutting Transiberian line along Irkust also.
such plan as results to “cut the neck” of the Soviet Far East and causing the isolation of such territoire of rest of European Soviet Union,and Japanese easy entering to Blagoveschensk and Khabarovsk without or scarcy resistance
Among this exists some reports from Siberia were one a Communist Serbian why making a interviews with diffrents siberian citizens (students,konsomolsk members,office workers, mining and factory workers,teaches and Communists Party officers,etc) why related stay agreed with seeking the entering of Japanese tanks and soldiers in disacord with Stalininst regimen among some inclusive as disposes to support a Japanese forces if enter in Siberian lands if aiding to a local rebellion against European Stalinists in local government also.
with these points i thinked why Japanese a poses some potential posibilities to defeated soviet forces in Siberia if proposed a making such campaing inclusive with Imperial Navy enter to war with United States in Pearl Harbor.
By Wladimir on Apr 8, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Wow, that’s some history I didn’t know, with gigantic implications.
Of course, Stalin, by buddying up with Hitler, set the Soviet Union up for horrendous casualties–in the range of 20 million-plus deaths. And *he’s* responsible for the eventual death of the marxist ideology(cept in liberal arts department in college), for he purged the party of anybody more charismatic, innovative, intelligent, talented, and inspriing than himself, and this eventually led to stagnation and the fall of the Soviet Union due to a paucity of actual ideas, combined with dizzying cynicism.
By Charles Laster on Apr 14, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Notice the parallel with Guadalcanal-The Japanese committed forces in a very piecemeal and indecisive fashion against an unfamiliar enemy and on both occasions got burned for it.
Excellent research-I enjoyed Zhukov’s ploys to lull the Japanese into not expecting an attack. The Germans pulled the same stunts on the Russians preceding Barbarossa
By paul penrod on May 5, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Paul Penrod’s comment about similar Japanese errors at Khalkhin Gol and Guadalcanal has a surprising basis. TSUJI Masanobu, who bears so much of the responsibility for the disaster at Khalkhin Gol, was in the thick of the ighting on Guadalcanal, where he again caused a military disaster.
By Stuart Goldman on May 9, 2009 at 6:46 am
Where these Soviets units from khalkhin Gol to same units that came to the rescue at Moscow and Stalingrad?
What was the predominant ethnic makeup of the units from Khalkhin Gol?
By Chic Lurch on May 25, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Many of the units that Zhukov commanded at Khalkhin Gol were transfered to the Moscow front in late 1941. But These Khalkhin Gol vetrans were only a fraction of the total forces transfered from the Far East to the Moscow front at that time. I’m not sure what percentage were Russian and slavic. I haven’t followed them after the Battle of Moscow, so I don’t know to what extent these same units were involved in the Stalingrad campaign.
By Stuart Goldman on May 27, 2009 at 1:13 pm