His initial planning completed, General Beloborodov then considered the important question of support for the operation. Artillery support was particularly difficult because of the terrain and the lack of roads on the Soviet side of the border. Just bringing the artillery into its initial firing positions became a tremendous feat. The rugged terrain and paucity of Japanese troops resulted in a decision to fire no artillery preparation.8 By the night of the attack, however, 50 percent of army artillery was in position to provide necessary supporting fires. The 9th Air Army would support the attack with sorties against Japanese headquarters, communications facilities, and fortified positions.

Attaining enough speed to overcome the terrain impediments, to secure the objectives, and to sustain the drive along numerous separate axes of advance required mobile fire support. So the 1st Far Eastern Front reinforced each army with separate tank brigades and separate self-propelled artillery regiments. The 1st Red Banner Army received three tank brigades, three heavy self-propelled artillery regiments, and a heavy tank regiment in addition to its six organic self-propelled artillery battalions in the rifle divisions (a total of 410 tanks and self-propelled guns).⁹ General Beloborodov attached two tank brigades and one heavy self-propelled artillery regiment to the rifle corps. After their passage through the mountainous wooded terrain belt along the border, they would be used as forward detachments to lead the advance.

Front headquarters also provided heavy engineer support to 1st Red Banner Army, both to prepare army jumping-off positions and to help build and maintain roads for the advance. Engineer units opened trails twenty meters wide, crisscrossing the initial army positions along the border. They also constructed firing points for infantry and artillery, observation posts, and two major radial roads leading to the border, over which units could deploy forward. Engineers also established survey markers and directional aids on hills in order to orient Soviet forces moving forward through the forests.¹⁰

Soviet 1st Red Banner Army Echelonment
Army	1st Echelon	26RC		59RC
	2d Echelon
	Reserve
Corps 1st	1st Echelon	300RD	22RD	39RD	231RD
	2d Echelon	59RD		365RD
	Reserve
Figure 2-1

Following Beloborodov's orders, his rifle corps commanders deployed two divisions in first echelon and one in second echelon (see fig. 2-1). Tank and self-propelled artillery units assembled close behind the first echelon so that they could move out quickly to exploit the success of the initial attack. Each first echelon rifle division would advance on two or three axes along roads that the engineers would construct as the units moved forward.

The experience of the 300th Rifle Division, 26th Rifle Corps, illustrates in microcosm the detail required in the planning and conduct of the operation (see table 2-4). The 300th Rifle Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. K. G. Cherepanov, deployed in first echelon on a 2.5-kilometer front left of the other (22d) first echelon rifle division.11 The 300th received as reinforcements the 45th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, one tank company of the 257th Tank Brigade, and the 156th Sapper Battalion. Its mission was to attack in the direction of Mount Tiershiyihao-Chishengshan-Pamientung, to cross the heavily wooded region west of the border, to secure the western slope of Mount Tiershiyihao (the immediate mission), to secure crossing sites over the Shitouho River by the end of 9 August, and to prepare to advance on the follow-on objective of Pamientung. The depth of the immediate mission was three kilometers; the day's mission requirement was five kilometers. Hindering terrain limited the depth of these missions and forced road construction as the Soviet forces advanced.

Table 2-4. Soviet 300th Rifle Division Composition
1049th Rifle Regiment 1051st Rifle Regiment
1053d Rifle Regiment
822d Artillery Regiment
336th Separate Tank Destroyer Battalion
459th Separate Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion
756th Separate Signal Battalion
591st Separate Sapper Battalion Training battalion
Source: V. Timofeev, "300 in strelkovaia divisiia v boiakh na mudan'tszianskom napravlenii" [The 300th Rifle Division in combat on the Mutanchiang direction], Voenno-Istoricheskii Zhurnal [Military history journal], August 1978:50.

To cross the mountainous taiga region in march column configuration along two routes, General Cherepanov formed his division into two echelons, with the main body on the left flank. The 1049th Rifle Regiment of Lt. Col. K. V. Panin, on the right, and the 1051st Rifle Regiment of Lt. Col. M. F. Buzhak, on the left, would painstakingly advance through the forests to the Shitouho River. Upon crossing the river, units would deploy in combat formation to continue the advance toward Pamientung. The 1053d Rifle Regiment was in the division second echelon, while the division training battalion was in reserve. The division's forward detachment, consisting of two machine gun companies, a squad of sappers from the 1053d Rifle Regiment, and two SU-76 guns, supported by fire of the 45th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, would move in column formation behind the 1st Rifle Battalion, 1051st Rifle Regiment. The forward detachment's mission was to capture Hill 748.8 and to support seizure of bridgeheads over the Shitouho by elements of the division's main body. Divisional artillery would support the action of the forward detachment against Hill 748.8. After reaching the Shitouho River, a tank company of the 257th Tank Brigade would reinforce the forward detachment, enabling the forward detachment to push rapidly westward toward Pamientung.

To overcome the isolated Japanese units in fortified positions facing the 300th Rifle Division, the division commander organized small assault groups in the lead rifle companies. Each group consisted of a rifle platoon, one or two sapper squads, one or two tanks or self-propelled guns, a squad of antitank rifles, and one or two teams of manpacked flamethrowers. For weeks before the operation began, personnel of the 300th Rifle Division, division staff, and the assault groups had conducted exercises and training over similar terrain, specifically learning how to prepare roads and to conduct operations over such ground.

At 1800 on 8 August, men of the 300th Rifle Division and other 1st Red Banner Army units moved forward and occupied jumping-off positions. As in other sectors of the 1st Far Eastern Front, as nightfall arrived so did the rains, causing apprehension among commanders across the front. General Beloborodov floridly recalled the scene:

Lightning flashed unexpectedly. Dazzling streaks split the darkening sky in half. Thunder sounded, becoming yet louder. The taiga sounded still more menacing. The downpours approached. Already the first drops resounded on the leaves. We entered the dugouts-and glanced at our watches. 'there remained sixty minutes until the attack. Should we delay the attack? No, under no circumstances! Indeed the rain will hinder not only us but also the enemy. How slowly the time passes. But now approaches the long-awaited moment. Without artillery preparation the forward detachments start forward. It was at 0100 far eastern time 9 August 1945. The forces of the army crossed the state boundary.12

In the Ussuri taiga before the attack.

Marshal Meretskov, awaiting the beginning of the attack with General Beloborodov at the command post of 1st Red Banner Army, also recorded his more pragmatic thoughts:

The assault group of the 1st Far Eastern Front consisting of the 1st Red Banner and 5th Armies was to assault the Japanese after a powerful artillery barrage. But a sudden tropical rainstorm overturned our plans. Torrents of water lashed the troops waiting for the signal to attack. Our artillery was silent. As in the Berlin Operation we intended to begin the attack in the middle of the night in the blinding light of searchlights. And now the driving rain had spoilt everything and a way out had to be found. It was already 0100 hours. We could wait no longer. At the time I was at General Beloborodov's Command Post. A word of command and the mass of men and equipment would go into action. Should I order the gunners to open fire? It was too late to ask for weather forecasts or to gather any other additional information. I had to decide and decide immediately, taking into account the objective data at my disposal. That meant that not a second was to be lost in deliberations. I gave the command and troops lunged forward without an artillery barrage. Advance units gained control of road centres and broke into villages sowing panic among the Japanese. The surprise factor played its part. Taking advantage of the downpour and the pitch-dark night our troops broke into the fortified areas catching the Japanese unawares. Nothing could stop our men now.13

At 0100 on 9 August forces of the 1st Red Banner Army attacked into the forests with first echelon divisions advancing in column formation, each column led by the task-organized regimental forward detachment (see map 2-1). In the 300th Rifle Division sector, each of the two regimental columns was led by a rifle battalion with five T-34 tanks, two automatic weapons companies for security, and a platoon of sappers. The tanks, placed at the head of each column, knocked down trees and saplings as they advanced. The infantry, in turn, gathered the trees, and the sappers worked them into a crude, though serviceable, corduroy road five meters wide. Follow-on units widened the path to seven meters and ultimately improved it enough for two-way traffic. The four engineer battalions of the army road detachment improved the road, built bridges as necessary in each division's sector, regulated traffic, and directed the forward movement of the army's second echelon.

Map 2-1. 1st Red Banner Army Operations, 9-10 August 1945

Three to five kilometers behind the regimental forward detachments marched the first segment of the regimental main column consisting of rifle, engineer, artillery, and specialized units task-organized for mutual support. Other segments followed at intervals of four to five and one-half kilometers. Each succeeding segment further improved the road and evacuated vehicles that had bogged down in the mud and undergrowth. Altogether the 300th Rifle Division constructed more than eleven kilometers of tree, brush, and twig corduroy road as it marched.14 Other first echelon divisions of 1st Red Banner Army accomplished similar feats over slightly shorter distances.

During the darkness of early morning hours, the two regimental columns slowly edged their way through the heavy forest, virtually undetected by the sole Japanese outpost at Chiupikou. By dawn, the main regimental force followed under gray, rain-laden skies. Shortly after dawn, elements of the 1051st Rifle Regiment surprised and overpowered the small Japanese outpost at Chiupikou. The remainder of the column moved westward, literally chopping its way toward the Shitouho River. By day's end, the 1051st Rifle Regiment had secured crossings on the Shitouho just southwest of Hill 748.8, and the 1049th Rifle Regiment had advanced across the slope of Mount Tiershiyihao and had put two rifle battalions across the Shitouho River. The 3d Battalion of the 1049th Rifle Regiment, on the order of Lieutenant Colonel Panin, remained in the rear to help construct a road over which the regimental artillery and rear services would advance. Both regiments thus advanced four to five kilometers on the first day of the offensive, liquidating the token Japanese force along the immediate border.

But if Japanese resistance was nil, the taiga was another matter. Despite elaborately planned road construction efforts, soil, vegetation, and rain combined to plague the 300th Rifle Division. Division artillery, division supply trains, and attached units stuck fast in the mud the first day of the advance. To solve this serious problem, General Cherepanov ordered the 1053d Rifle Regiment of Lt. Col. K. A. Malkov, the training battalion, the 3d Battalion, 1049th Rifle Regiment, and two sapper battalions to improve the road so that it could be used for transporting artillery and vital supplies forward. These efforts to improve road communications paid off. By the morning of the tenth, the division's forward detachment, the 257th Tank Brigade, moved into position on the west bank of the Shitouho River, waiting to receive the expected order to begin the exploitation to Pamientung. Other division units prepared to follow.

For the Japanese, events on 9 August were as dreary as the weather. The chief of staff of the 126th Infantry Division, Col. Masashi Tanaka, wrote from his fortified position at Panchiehho:

The Japanese garrison commander at Panchiehho reported the incidents to the division intelligence liaison officer at Pingyang and learned of other Soviet attacks along the entire 126th Infantry Division front. At division headquarters in Pamientung, the division intelligence officer awoke at midnight to the sound of enemy aircraft. Shortly thereafter, both the Pingyang and Pamientung sectors reported attacks by an "overwhelmingly superior enemy."¹⁶ The intelligence officer transmitted this information to 5th Army headquarters and to his division commander, who was at the commanders' conference at army headquarters. In the Pamientung sector the commander of the 1st Battalion, 277th Regiment, sighted enemy aircraft flying westward shortly before dawn and immediately ordered his forces to prepare their defenses, destroy bridges, and barricade roads. At 1000 on 9 August the Lishan garrison notified the battalion commander that the Chiupikou unit (twenty men) had been annihilated by the enemy just before daybreak. The enemy, though, had not yet reached Lishan.¹⁷

By 0300 on 9 August, 5th Army, aware that an attack was in progress, issued orders to subordinate divisions. The 126th Infantry Division was to

At that time Japanese 5th Army attached one battery of the 31st Independent Antitank Battalion and one battery of the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Battalion to the 126th Infantry Division.¹⁹ Upon receiving his orders, the 126th Division commander left Yehho by motor car for Pamientung.

By the evening of the ninth, reports to 126th Infantry Division headquarters were painting a fragmented, but gloomy picture. In the Pingyang sector, the Chiungshan observation unit had been annihilated in the early morning hours, as was a similar position at Heilingshan. By nightfall Soviet troops were massing east of Panchiehho in estimated division strength. In view of the threat to his position, the garrison commander evacuated his forces at midnight and withdrew to Pingyangchen, arriving there at 0900 on the tenth. Instead of finding relief and regrouping at Pingyangchen, the Japanese commander confronted two Soviet columns, one following him from Panchiehho and one advancing from Hsiaolutai toward the west side of Pingyangchen.²⁰

In the Pamientung sector on the evening of 9 August, the garrisons at Chingkulingmiao and Lishan reported no Soviet activity, though men and machines could be heard approaching their positions from the east and southeast. What the Japanese heard were the advancing forces of the 300th Rifle Division, then completing their movement through the forests adjacent to the Shitouho River.

On the right flank, the 22d Rifle Division slowly pushed toward Chingkulingmiao, while farther east, divisions of the 59th Rifle Corps advanced into the heart of the Pingyang defense zone. At 0500 on the tenth, lead elements of the 1049th and 1051st Rifle Regiments emerged from their bridgeheads on the Shitouho River and entered the final eight to ten kilometers of forest separating them from the more open country east of Pamientung. Japanese opposition was still not yet apparent. To hasten the advance, the forward detachment of the division (257th Tank Brigade of Lt. Col. G. S. Anishchik) moved into the vanguard and led the movement forward, hoping to bypass Japanese strongpoints. To help it accomplish its mission as forward detachment of the 26th Rifle Corps, General Beloborodov reinforced the brigade's twenty-five tanks with a battery of self-propelled guns, an automatic weapons company, and a sapper platoon .²¹ During the morning, the reinforced 257th Tank Brigade moved westward north of Hill 748.8 into the valley of the Liangtzu Ho and then proceeded northwest along the river toward Pamientung. The 1052d Rifle Regiment followed in its wake and engaged the Japanese strongpoint at Lishan at 0800. To the north, the 1049th Rifle Regiment moved westward out of the Shitouho Valley, south of the Japanese positions at Chin gkulingmiao-positions the 22d Rifle Division now confronted in its advance westward. Farther south, the Soviet 5th Army's 190th Rifle Division of 5th Army, on its march toward Machiacho Station, ran into the Japanese platoon (of the 277th Infantry Regiment) holding the encampment at Jumonji Pass. The Soviets set fire to the Japanese barracks at 1000, but the fire spread into the brush and temporarily halted the Soviet advance. Eventually, Soviet infantry outflanked and assaulted the Japanese positions under the cover of tank fire. After suffering heavy losses, the Japanese commander, Second Lieutenant Kawakami, withdrew his platoon northwest, through the forests, toward Pamientung. ²² At the same time, the 1051st Rifle Regiment began a careful reduction of the Japanese reinforced company at Lishan. The Soviets first infiltrated and surrounded the garrison and then poured on heavy observed artillery fire. In the afternoon, the 1051st Rifle Regiment assaulted Japanese defensive field positions. By evening almost all the Japanese, including the commander, were dead, and the position was in Soviet hands.²³

Throughout 10 August, the Japanese company at Chingkulingmiao successfully defended its positions (well disposed over difficult terrain), against lead elements of the Soviet 22d Rifle Division. Late in the day, however, Soviet troops from the 1049th Rifle Regiment of the 300th Rifle Division threatened Japanese withdrawal routes from the south, and 22d Rifle Division forces began infiltrating the Japanese position. The Japanese garrison commander withdrew his company on a mountain path back to positions east of Pamientung, where it arrived on the eleventh and there rejoined the rest of the battalion.²⁴

Tank advance with mounted infantry

Meanwhile, the 257th Tank Brigade (reinforced) rapidly drove on toward Pamientung, leaving Soviet infantry to deal with bypassed Japanese positions. At 1600, four kilometers northeast of the city, the tank brigade encountered prepared Japanese positions defended by two companies of the 1st Battalion, 277th Regiment, plus one company of the 126th Infantry Division's Raiding Battalion. Lacking antitank weapons, the Japanese desperately resorted to suicide tactics: raiding company troops threw themselves bodily at the Soviet tanks. "Each individual of the main body of the 1st Company of the Raiding Battalion armed himself with explosives and rushed the enemy tanks. Although minor damage was inflicted on a majority of them [the tanks], the explosives were not of sufficient strength (three to seven kilograms) to halt the tanks."²⁵

The Soviet 257th Tank Brigade commander had support from the 78th Assault Aviation Regiment. While aircraft pounded Japanese troop and artillery positions, Soviet artillery and tanks added their direct fire. By 2000 on 10 August, lead elements of the 300th Rifle Division and 22d Rifle Division of 26th Rifle Corps arrived to support the 257th Tank Brigade in its attack. Soviet forces now engaged the Japanese forces on three sides, and Japanese units began withdrawing across the bridge westward toward the division main defensive line at Tzuhsingtun. Pressuring the Japanese, the 257th Tank Brigade, reinforced by the 1051st Rifle Regiment of 300th Rifle Division, attacked the northern defenses of the city at 2100, broke through, and secured the bridge over the Muleng River and the railroad station in the northern sector of Pamientung. Early on the morning of 11 August, a simultaneous attack by Soviet forces on the eastern and southern defenses of the city finally crushed Japanese defenses. By noon, the Japanese garrison had been destroyed, with 400 Japanese killed in the struggle. Though the hard, lengthy fighting undoubtedly claimed significant Soviet casualties as well, the Japanese claim of only two Soviet tanks destroyed and seven disabled illustrates the Japanese inability to check Soviet armor advances.²⁶ On the morning of 11 August, while the final battle for Pamientung was in progress, General Beloborodov dispatched the 257th Tank Brigade westward to pursue Japanese forces.

The success of the 26th Rifle Corps, in general, and the 300th Rifle Division, in particular, was paralleled by similar successes in other sectors. While the 257th Tank Brigade led 26th Rifle Corps toward Pamientung, the 75th Tank Brigade performed a similar mission for 59th Rifle Corps, advancing to secure first Lishuchen and then Linkou. General Maksimov's forces on the right wing of 1st Red Banner Army overcame Japanese defensive positions west of Lake Khanka and threatened the Japanese Mishan Fortified Region from the south.

As in other areas of Manchuria, a major factor in the achievement of Soviet victory was the basic Japanese tendency to underestimate Soviet military capabilities. As a result, in just fifty hours of battle, 1st Red Banner Army secured the line of the Muleng River by overcoming defenses that Japanese planners had expected to hold much longer. The stage was set for the army's advance toward the main Japanese defensive position and the critical city of Mutanchiang.

Notes

A. Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii" [In the hills of Manchuria], VIZh, December 1980:30. IVMV, 2:203. Beloborodov, "Na sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 30. Japanese defenses described in JM 154, 250-53. Ibid., 251. Beloborodov, "Na sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 31-33; Beloborodov, Skuoz ogon i taiga [Through the fire and taiga] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1969), 14-16. Beloborodov, "Na sopkakh Man'chzburii," 34-35. IVMV, 2:205; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 107, states that 1st Red Banner Army planned no artillery preparation. Meretskov in Serving the People implies that the army was going to use searchlights to supplement an artillery preparation (as in the Berlin operation). No other accounts support this claim. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 92, gives tank and SP gun strength as 410. V. Ezhakov, "Boevoe primenenie," 78, claims that strength was 402. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 129. Details on the 300th Rifle Division operations found in V. Timofeev, "300-ia strelkovaia diviziia v boyakh na Mudan'tsyanskom napravlenii" [The 300th Rifle Division in Battles on the Mutanchiang direction], VlZh, August 1978:50-55. Beloborodov, Skvoz, 21. Meretskov, Serving the People, 15-16.

Khrenov, "Wartime Operations," 87-88; IVMV, 2:227-28; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 205-7, all describe the road-building feat. JM 154, 253-54. Ibid. Ibid., 257. Ibid., 182. Ibid., 183. Ibid., 255-56. In heavy fighting at Pingyangchen on the tenth, the Japanese battalion commander and most of his officers were killed. After dark the remnants of the force broke through Soviet lines and scattered westward and northward into the hills. Of the 850 Japanese engaged at Pingyangchen, 650 were killed or wounded. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 216. JM 154, 257-58. Ibid., 186, 258; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 216. JM 154, 258-59. Ibid., 259; Timofeev, "300-ia strelkovaia," 53; Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," VIZh, January 1981:45; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 216-17. JM 154, 259, claims Japanese losses were 700, of which 500 were killed. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 217, states that 400 Japanese died in the action.

Army Operations in Swampy Lowlands	3

Geographically, the area over which 35th Army would operate was primarily swamps and marshy lowlands, punctuated in places by low hills protruding from the marshes. This region was bounded on the south by Lake Khanka, on the east by the Sungacha and Ussuri rivers, and on the north by the Wanta Shan (mountains), running from northeast to southwest along the right flank of the army sector. In the eastern portion of the spongy region, a few sparsely wooded hills rose fifty to eighty meters above the swamps, while in the west, similar hills proliferated in number and reached heights of 400 meters. The Muleng River, running from southwest to northeast into the Ussuri River, drained the region. In the western portion of the region, one could exit from the lowlands and travel up the valley of the Muleng via Chihsi and Linkou into the eastern Manchurian hills, or northwest across the Wanta Shan from Mishan to Poli. Swamps hindered movement in places along both of these exit routes.

The Japanese had constructed two major fortified regions to defend the area and to prevent Soviet passage through it. The Hutou Fortified Region rested on the hills scattered north of the confluence of the Muleng and Ussuri rivers. The reinforced concrete positions at and north of Hutou were a formidable obstacle, blocking the road from the Ussuri via Hulin to Mishan. The guns in these positions also threatened the Soviet TransSiberian railroad line running parallel across the Ussuri River at Iman. The second fortified region extended south and east of Mishan on the hills north of Lake Khanka. The combination of natural and man-made obstacles made the task of 35th Army challenging. Marshal Meretskov noted, "It is hard to say what was more difficult for 35th Army: to assault fortified areas or to negotiate places where there was more water than land and where the men waded waist-deep for tens of kilometers at a stretch."1

The Japanese 5th Army assigned responsibility for the defense of the region to the 135th Infantry Division of General Yoichi Hitomi, with headquarters at Tungan, and to the 15th Border Guard Unit at Hutou. Because of the extensive area it had to defend, the subordinate units of the 135th Infantry Division were widely scattered (see table 3-1).

Table 3-1. Japanese 135th Infantry Division Composition
368th Infantry Regiment
369th Infantry Regiment
370th Infantry Regiment
135th Artillery Regiment
135th Engineer Battalion Raiding battalion
20th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment (1 battery)
Source: U.S. Army Forces Far East, Military History Section, Japanese Monograph no. 154: Record of Operations Against Soviet Army on Eastern Front (August 1945) (Tokyo, 1954), 275-76.

The 368th Infantry Regiment, with headquarters at Hulin, had two battalions there and two others working on fortifications in the Chihsing main line of resistance, north of Mutanchiang. The 369th Infantry Regiment had its headquarters and main body at Tungan, one battalion at Chihsing, two companies at Paoching, and a smaller element at Jaoho on the Ussuri River north of the Wanta Shan. The main body of the 370th Infantry Regiment and its headquarters were at Linkou, while one battalion was at Chihsing. The support units of the division were at Tungan, except for the engineer battalion and two batteries of the artillery regiment, which were preparing field works at Chihsing, and the raiding battalion located near Linkou.2

The 135th Infantry Division manned scattered outposts on the border, in sectors north and south of Hutou and adjacent to the northwestern shores of Lake Khanka. North of Hutou, a company-size element of the 369th Infantry Regiment manned fortified positions at Jaoho, on the Ussuri River, while a platoon-size force from the 368th Infantry Regiment occupied Tumuho, upriver from Jaoho. South of Hutou a platoon of the 368th Infantry Regiment covered a seventy-kilometer expanse of the Ussuri and Sungacha rivers. East of Lake Khanka, a company of the 368th Infantry Regiment garrisoned a series of four small fortified outposts at, and south of, Tachiao. These outposts consisted of five to ten log emplacements, firing trenches, and communication trenches. Farther to the rear, the division had constructed a forward defensive line at Mashan, twenty kilometers east of Linkou. The division's main defensive position, at Chihsing, formed the northern sector of the 5th Army main line of resistance.³

The 15th Border Guard Unit, numbering four infantry companies, two artillery companies, and one engineer platoon, totaling about 1,500 men, defended the Hutou Fortified Region, one of the strongest Japanese fortified regions in Manchuria. Seven kilometers long and ten kilometers deep, the region consisted of nineteen reinforced concrete fortifications and eight log forts, numerous armored firing positions, minefields, barbed wire entanglements, and an obstacle network. Armament of the region consisted of a 410-mm howitzer, 100-mm guns, and automatic weapons. ⁴

Other permanent fortified regions in the 135th Infantry Division zone were at Hulin and Mishan. The smaller Hulin Fortified Region comprised twenty-three permanent fortified positions, defending the Hutou-Mishan road fifty kilometers from the border. The larger Mishan Fortified Region surrounded the town of Mishan and had outer works extending southwards toward Lake Khanka.

The operational plan of the 135th Infantry Division, in the event of war with the Soviet Union, followed the directives of Japanese 5th Army. The division would establish an advanced position at Mashan and a main defensive line at Chihsing, with emphasis on defense in depth along the Linkou-Chihsing road. One infantry battalion, an artillery battery, and an engineer element would occupy the Mashan position. These forces would inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy without becoming decisively engaged. Manning the Chihsing line, eight infantry battalions, with artillery and engineer support, would constitute the division's main body. Three battalions of Manchurian troops at Mashan would constitute the division reserve. Border garrisons would hold their positions, if possible, to exact as high a toll as they could on the Soviets. Failing in that, they would try to exhaust the enemy strength by guerrilla warfare.⁵

The approximately 20,000 men of the 135th Infantry Division and 15th Border Guard Unit, with Manchurian assistance, defended the border to a considerable depth, with forces concentrated in a narrow strip along the Hutou-Mishan-Linkou road, the main trafficable artery and high speed avenue of approach. Additional reinforcements for the Japanese theoretically could come from the 1st Manchurian Infantry Division at Poli, though that unit was of questionable political and military reliability (an accurate assessment, as events would prove).

To accomplish the mission, 35th Army had under its operational control three rifle divisions (264th, 66th, and 363d) and two fortified regions (109th and 8th Field). The let Far Eastern Front provided artillery, tank, and engineer support suited to the 35th Army's mission and the terrain over which it would operate. Because much of the terrain was not well suited for armor operations, the army received in attachment only those tanks necessary for infantry support, a total of two tank brigades. The necessity to reduce several heavily fortified regions, however, prompted 1st Far Eastern Front to attach heavy artillery support to 35th Army in the form of ten artillery battalions. This created an army artillery group to reduce Hutou, three tank destroyer battalions to form a tank destroyer artillery group, and two guards mortar battalions to form a rocket artillery group (see table 3-2).7 An additional engineer battalion supplemented divisional engineer units to help cope with problems of passage through marshy regions and to provide sapper units to assist in reducing the fortified regions.

The final plan of General Zakhvatayev echoed the mission Marshal Meretskov had assigned him.⁸ He deployed his army in single echelon formation and arranged to take advantage of the weakest portion of the Japanese defenses, the region across the Sungacha River from PavloFederovka. Here, he deployed the 363d Rifle Division under command of Col. S. D. Pechenenko and the 66th Rifle Division of Col. F. K. Nesterov, each supported by one tank brigade (the 125th and 209th Tank Brigades, respectively) to conduct the main attack. The 215th Army Gun Artillery Brigade, the 54th Mortar Brigade, and the 62d Tank Destroyer Artillery Brigade would support the two divisions. Using a two-echelon formation, each division would attack across the Sungacha River in approximately eight- to ten-kilometer sectors. The actual crossing of each division would occur on two regimental axes of advance, each in a zone of three kilometers. Reconnaissance groups from the division reconnaissance battalions would reconnoiter crossing sites, and border guard detachments and advanced battalions from each first echelon rifle regiment would secure them. In order to cross the major water obstacle (forty to sixty meters wide and seven to eight meters deep), each division received twenty-five A-3 boats to supplement handmade rafts used by each soldier. The 31st Pontoon Bridge Battalion would later install twelve- and thirty-ton bridges to allow heavier equipment to cross.

Table 3-2. Soviet 35th Army Composition
264th Rifle Division
66th Rifle Division
363d Rifle Division
109th Fortified Region
8th Field Fortified Region
125th Tank Brigade
209th Tank Brigade
215th Army Gun Artillery Brigade
224th High Powered Howitzer Artillery Brigade, 4 battalions (24 x 203mm)
62d Tank Destroyer Artillery Brigade, 3 regiments (6 batteries)
54th Mortar Brigade (division support)
67th Guards Mortar Regiment
13th Separate Armored Train Regiment (2 trains)
9th Separate Armored Train Regiment (2 trains)
1647th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
43d Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
110th Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion 3
55th Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
280th Separate Engineer Battalion
Weapons:
205 tanks and self-propelled guns
955 guns and mortars
Source: M. V. Zakharov, ed., Final: istoriko-memuarny ocherk o razgrome imperialisticheskoi iapony u 1945 godu [Finale: A historical memoir survey about the rout of imperialistic Japan in 1945] (Moskva: lzdatel'stvo "Nauka," 1969), 401.

Adjacent to the winding, unfordable river were extensive swampy regions stretching twelve to fifteen kilometers inland on both banks. Dense vines covered the river banks and the many inlets and channels that criss crossed the approaches to the river. Therefore, before the attack, engineers prepared crossing sites by putting down fascine matting and building gravel roads over the swampy terrain throughout the army sector. 9

Regimental and divisional artillery groups would support the ground forces with a three-stage artillery operation. Before the river crossing, a fifteen-minute artillery preparation would soften up Japanese defenses on the far bank. While the crossing was in progress, artillery would fire consecutive concentrations during a one-hour preparation. For six to nine hours after the crossing, artillery would fire in support of the infantry as it penetrated deeper into the Japanese defenses. An army long-range artillery group and a guards mortar (rocket artillery) group would reinforce the preparation.) ¹⁰

Having forced the Sungacha River barrier, the two rifle divisions would then clear Japanese units from the western bank of the river and advance on a Tachiao-Peilingtsi-Paishihshen axis, ultimately to cut the road and rail line between Hulin and Mishan. Then the divisions would join with the 264th Rifle Division advancing from Hutou in order to destroy the Japanese at Mishan.

Simultaneously with the operations of the main attack group, the 264th Rifle Division of Maj. Gen. V. L. Vinogradov and the 109th Fortified Region would cross the Ussuri River in a two-kilometer sector west of Iman to isolate (and then reduce) the Hutou Fortified Region and to advance down the Hutou-Hulin road to join forces with the main attack group. An army artillery group, including subgroups for destruction missions and counterbattery fire, would support the 264th Rifle Division's attack. The artillery destruction group contained the 224th High Powered Howitzer Artillery Brigade armed with twenty-four 203-mm howitzers. ¹¹ As in the case of the main attack group, advanced battalions would initiate the attack. To insure maximum surprise, the advanced battalions of both the main and supporting attack groups would commence their operations during darkness.

The 35th Army prepared for the attack with the utmost secrecy. Engineers worked on the jumping-off positions during darkness, often hindered by summer rains and high water. Nevertheless, by the end of July, they had constructed more than forty-six kilometers of trenches and had built nine command and observation posts and 100 artillery firing emplacements. Two corduroy roads, on which troops could deploy forward, were laid for twenty kilometers across the swamp. To conceal the work from Japanese eyes, engineers built screening fences and placed overhead camouflage nets over open areas.¹²

Throughout the preparation period, reconnaissance was carried out only from specially equipped hidden observation points. All units except border guards and fortified regions maintained complete radio silence. During the last three days before the attack, regimental, battalion, and company commanders personally reconnoitered the forward area. On the evening of 8 August, on an oral order from General Zakhvatayev and his representatives in other sectors of the front, 35th Army forces marched through pouring rain in order to occupy jumping-off positions and to prepare for the river crossing.

Late that evening, the three divisions of 35th Army settled into their jumping-off positions and awaited the order to advance. The 363d Rifle Division, on the army's left flank, deployed on a six-kilometer front with the 404th Rifle Regiment of Maj. G. N. Golub on the right and the 395th Rifle Regiment of Lt. Col. N. A. Martynov on the left.¹³ Across the river in the darkness lay the 363d Rifle Division's objectives, the four fortified villages of Tachiao, Maly Huangkang, Maly Nangan, and Taiyangkang. The first three villages ran north to south across the 363d Rifle Division's front. The fourth was between Maly Nangan and the eastern shore of Lake Khanka. Each village contained five to ten log bunkers, machine gun positions, and barbed wire. In addition, Maly Huangkang had a thirty-sixmeter high observation tower topped with an armored cupola. A company of the Japanese 368th Infantry Regiment stationed at Tachiao had squadand platoon-size elements in each of the fortified villages.

The 404th Rifle Regiment would cross the Sungacha River with its 1st and 3d Rifle Battalions in first echelon, traverse the swamps to capture Maly Huangkang, and take Tachiao by the end of the day. The 2d Rifle Battalion, advancing behind the first echelon battalions, would prepare to flank the strongholds, if that proved necessary. The 395th Rifle Regiment would cross the river on the 404th Rifle Regiment's left to secure Maly Nangan and take Taiyangkang by the end of the day. The 488th Rifle Regiment of Maj. M. L. Grudinin would follow behind the 404th Rifle Regiment and prepare for employment on the right flank of the 404th in order to exploit success northwest of Tachiao.

The 66th Rifle Division, in a six-kilometer sector on the right flank of the 363d Rifle Division, deployed the 341st Rifle Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Pavlenko on the left and the 33d Rifle Regiment of Major Tsarev on the right, with its third rifle regiment in second echelon.¹⁴ The 66th Rifle Division would advance across the Sungacha River, reduce Japanese border posts, and advance on Tachiao from the east in coordination with the 404th Rifle Regiment of the 363d Rifle Division. After securing Tachiao, the division would advance north toward Peilingtsi and begin the exploitation to cut the Hulin-Mishan road. The 125th and 209th Tank Brigades assembled in the rear area in order to follow the rifle divisions after means for crossing the Sungacha had become available.

As midnight passed, the troops sat in their jumping-off positions in a heavy downpour (see map 3-1). At 0100 on 9 August, small groups from the 57th Border Guards Detachment forced the Sungacha and Ussuri rivers on boats and cutters equipped with muffled motors. As the artillery preparation began, they seized the small Japanese border posts along the river, securing the last post by 0200. ¹⁵

Reconnaissance teams from the rifle divisions followed hard on the heels of the border troops. Two reconnaissance groups from the 118th Separate Reconnaissance Company of the 363d Rifle Division pushed inland to reconnoiter the Japanese positions at Maly Huangkang. At 0215, after artillery fire had lifted, the four advanced battalions of the two rifle divisions secured bridgeheads on the western bank of the river. The Japanese did not resist. The army engineers then installed pontoon bridges, and between 0700 and 0800, the men and equipment of the first echelon rifle regiments completed troop concentrations on the western bank of the Sungacha and prepared to move across the swamps toward the Japanese strongpoints. Steady rains made movement through the swamps almost impossible. So, the army commander formed detachments to build trails for column routes forward: three engineer battalions and three rifle battalions prepared trails in the 363d Rifle Division sector; one engineer battalion and two rifle battalions did likewise in the 66th Rifle Division sector. ¹⁶

Taking advantage of the work of these trail detachments, the 341st Rifle Regiment and 33d Rifle Regiment of Colonel Nesterov's 66th Rifle Division made good progress. Meeting no enemy resistance, they traversed the swamps and, at 2000 on 9 August, reached a line two kilometers northeast of Tachiao. After digging in to await the arrival of the 363d Rifle Division, they dispatched reconnaissance units toward Peilingtsi. While the 66th Rifle Division moved forward unhindered by the Japanese, the 363d Rifle Division ran into heavy opposition.

Throughout the morning, the 363d Rifle Division's first echelon regiments pushed westward through waist-deep swamps, laboriously carrying machine guns and mortars on their backs in order to keep them dry. Soviet artillery pounded Japanese positions to their front. By late morning the sun appeared, and the weather became hot and humid, thus adding to the misery of the troops. About noon the 1st Rifle Battalion, 404th Rifle Regiment, under Capt. N. 1. Vodolazkin reached solid ground just east of Maly Huangkang and deployed to attack the strongpoint there. The 2d Rifle Battalion of Capt. 1. G. Lyalyikin provided support for the attack. Five pillboxes connected by trenches and covered by barbed wire defended Maly Huangkang. The armored tower dominated the low-lying landscape. ¹⁷

At 1300, as Soviet artillery lifted its fire to avoid hitting its own troops, Captain Vodolazkin's battalion began the assault with two companies on line. Japanese small arms and machine gun fire pinned down the advancing infantry, and fire from the elevated armored cupola and pillboxes drove the Soviet troops back. It was apparent to Vodolazkin that only direct fire artillery could reduce the strongpoint. Regimental and divisional artillery, however, was mired in the swamps to the rear, and only the efforts of infantrymen pulling the guns brought the necessary artillery forward to support the attack. By 1500 on 9 August, four 76-mm guns of the 501st Artillery Regiment and a battery of the 187th Separate Tank Destroyer Battalion were in position to shell the Japanese fortifications. The 404th Rifle Regiment flamethrower company assembled, ready to support the 1st and 3d Rifle Battalions when they resumed their attacks. After a fifteenminute indirect fire artillery preparation from concealed positions, the Soviet infantry advanced. The artillery preparation, however, had done little damage to the steel and concrete Japanese emplacements, and once again the infantry assault failed. Now the Soviet artillery relocated and took the emplacements under direct fire from open positions. The bombardment continued from 1500 to 1800. Finally, a gun crew of the 501st Artillery Regiment destroyed the tower and armored cupola with an armor-piercing shell. By 1800, fire had slackened, and the Soviets destroyed Japanese emplacements one by one. The 1st and 3d Rifle Battalions inched forward under cover of the artillery fire, and when that fire halted, they rushed the Japanese positions from three sides. By 1900, Maly Huangkang had fallen into the 404th Rifle Regiment's hands. Meanwhile, the 395th Rifle Regiment to the south had secured Maly Nangan and had advanced westward toward Taiyangkang.

By dusk on 9 August, the 404th Rifle Regiment, with the 468th Separate Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion and the 501st Artillery Regiment, had advanced to a position two to three kilometers south and southwest of Tachiao. The 395th Rifle Regiment, with the 472d Mortar Regiment and 187th Separate Tank Destroyer Battalion, had cleared Taiyangkang of Japanese and had reached positions three kilometers northwest of that village. Ten tanks of the 125th Tank Brigade had reached Maly Huangkang, and the remainder of the unit had begun crossing the Sungacha River.¹⁸ By the evening of the ninth, the 66th Rifle Division and 363d Rifle Division had overcome both the swamps and Japanese resistance to secure all of their objectives except Tachiao, which they nevertheless still threatened from the south and northeast.

Farther north, the 264th Rifle Division, 109th Fortified Region, and 8th Field Fortified Region opened their attack on Hutou at 0100. The Soviets began with a fifteen-minute artillery strike on Hutou, followed by a methodical fire on the Hutou fortified positions. The Japanese responded with "a hurricane of fire" on Soviet positions at Iman and at the important Trans-Siberian Railroad bridge over a tributary of the Ussuri, just northeast of Iman. The Soviets answered by sending forty-nine IL-4 bombers, escorted by fifty fighters, in a two-hour air strike against Japanese positions at Hutou.¹⁹

Under cover of the artillery fire, the 1056th Rifle Regiment and the 1060th Rifle Regiment of the 264th Rifle Division sent advanced battalions across the Ussuri River opposite Iman. By 1100 on 9 August, the advanced battalion of the 1060th Rifle Regiment had secured a lodgment on the west bank of the river north of Hutou, while the 1056th Rifle Regiment advanced battalion had secured a lodgment just south of Hutou. By nightfall, regimental main forces had advanced to secure Japanese positions at Krepost' (fortress), south of Hutou. Farther south, the 5th Rifle Company of the 1058th Rifle Regiment, with two companies of the 109th Fortified Region and one company of the 8th Field Fortified Region, had crossed the river and had advanced to the Youeya railroad station southwest of Hutou, thus cutting the Hutou-Hulin rail line.²⁰

On 10 August, Soviet 35th Army forces continued to advance in both sectors. The 264th Rifle Division engaged in particularly hard fighting for Hutou. While the 1058th Rifle Regiment struggled for the southern approaches to the city, the 1056th Rifle Regiment, with units of the 109th Fortified Region, battled for the wharf and riverside section just east of Hutou city. After repelling several Japanese counterattacks, the 1058th and 1056th Rifle Regiments launched a coordinated assault on the city from three sides. By evening on 10 August, the wharf area and city proper were in Soviet hands. Still, the Hutou Fortified Region north and northwest of the city and several Japanese strongpoints south of the city continued to offer strong resistance, whereupon General Zakhvatayev ordered the 1056th Rifle Regiment and 109th Fortified Region, with heavy artillery support, to isolate and reduce the fortified positions, while the remaining forces of 35th Army began an advance westward toward Hulin (see case study 5, "Reduction of a Fortified Region").

On the tenth, while the 264th Rifle Division fought for possession of Hutou, the 66th and 363d Rifle Divisions attempted to develop the offensive toward Mishan via Tachiao and Peilingtsi. The forward detachment that the army had formed to lead the advance consisted of the 3d Tank Battalion, 125th Tank Brigade, with machine gunners riding on the tanks, the 473d Separate Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion, and a rifle battalion from the 33d Rifle Regiment of the 66th Rifle Division. This forward detachment's mission was to cut the Hulin-Mishan rail line by the evening of 11 August. The remainder of the 125th Tank Brigade, with the 468th Separate Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion, was supposed to lead the advance of the 363d Rifle Division.²¹

Though the Japanese retreated rapidly along what few roads there were, and offered little resistance, the swampy terrain in the region created tremendous problems for advancing Soviet units, particularly because the trails and roads could not support heavy equipment. On General Zakhvatayev's orders, each rifle regiment formed a road and bridge construction detachment to build and improve routes of advance. Each detachment consisted of a rifle battalion and one to three engineer battalions. In addition, army detailed the 11th Pontoon Bridge Brigade and an engineer battalion to work with the lead regiment of 66th Rifle Division. It also assigned the 50th Separate Engineer Battalion to work with the 488th Rifle Regiment, leading the advance of the 363d Rifle Division. Units of both the 209th and 125th Tank Brigades (minus the 3d Battalion, 125th Tank Brigade) also became involved with road work.

This road work and the poor trafficability in the region caused not only a delay in operations but also an acute army-wide fuel shortage. On 9 August the army overcame the deficiency by shipping fuel forward ten kilometers in jerry cans. The next day, tractors towed fuel-laden pontoon sections across the swamp.²² The combination of the fuel shortage and terrain difficulties ultimately forced the 35th to curtail the use of tanks in the 66th Rifle Division and 363d Rifle Division sectors. Even without the tanks, by the evening of 10 August, advanced units of the 66th and 363d Rifle Divisions were approaching Peilingtsi, although slightly behind schedule.

The Soviet attack on 9 August had clearly caught the Japanese by surprise. Lieutenant General Hitomi, 135th Infantry Division commander, and Col. Takeshi Nishiwaki, commander of the 15th Border Guard Unit, received word of the attack at 5th Army headquarters at Yehho at 0300. General Hitomi initially ordered his troops to delay the Soviets along the border in order to buy time to establish a defense at Chihsing on the 5th Army's main line of resistance and at Mashan. These positions were to cover withdrawal of 135th Infantry Division units from the forward area. After telephoning the orders to division headquarters at Tungan, the two commanders departed at 0600 by rail to rejoin their units.²³

Reaching Tongan twelve hours later, General Hitomi reviewed the tactical situation and found that all border posts along the Sungacha and Ussuri rivers were under attack and that communications with most units had been lost. Because the Soviet attack had also isolated Hutou, Colonel Nishiwaki could not rejoin his command. General Hitomi then issued new orders calling for all units in the division that could do so to withdraw to the Chihsing and Mashan areas. The 15th Border Guard Unit would hold its positions in accordance with 5th Army orders. At midnight, General Hitomi and his headquarters departed by vehicle toward Poli, arriving there fourteen hours later.²⁴ From this point on, General Hitomi concerned himself with the division's withdrawal to Chihsing and, ultimately, to Mutanchiang. Units remaining on the border were left to their own devices. Elements of the 368th Infantry Regiment withdrew from Hulin at midnight on the ninth and traveled on foot across the Wanta Shan, ultimately to Linkou. Forces at Tungan and Feite retreated on the ninth to Poli.²⁵ Units on the immediate border that had not already been annihilated in fighting on 9 August continued resisting the Soviet advance. Actually, only these forces and remnants of the Japanese force at Hulin and Tungan offered any further resistance to the subsequent advance of the Soviet 35th Army.

On 11 August, Soviet 35th Army forces continued their advance against slackened Japanese resistance. Now the terrain posed the paramount difficulty for the advancing units. At 1100 on 11 August, the army forward detachment captured Peilingtsi, at which point the fuel shortage halted its advance. That fuel shortage and impassable terrain forced the 35th Army commander to withdraw the bulk of his tank forces. The 209th Tank Brigade reverted to front reserve at 2000 on 10 August, while the 125th Tank Brigade (less one battalion) returned to Pavlo-Federovka. The 35th Army loaded the 125th Tank Brigade on rail cars and shipped it from Shmakovka Station to Mishchurin Rog. The brigade then traveled by road to rejoin the 363d Rifle Division at Mishan.²⁶ Meanwhile, on the morning of 12 August, the 363d Rifle Division, having captured Paishihshan the previous day, was redirected northward to Hulin to join the 264th Rifle Division advancing from Hutou. At 1300 on 12 August, lead elements of 35th Army's forward detachment, with four tanks and six self-propelled guns, entered Mishan, even though their main force elements were still thirty to thirty-five kilometers to the rear. Late on the thirteenth, elements of 66th Rifle Division entered Tungan and the next day, in coordination with the 363d Rifle Division, occupied the Mishan Fortified Region, now largely abandoned by the Japanese. The 35th Army thus accomplished its primary mission. The 1058th Rifle Regiment of the 264th Rifle Division, with the 109th Fortified Region, later continued the reduction of Hutou, while the 66th and 363d Rifle Divisions continued their pursuit of Japanese forces to Poli and Linkou.

Because the Japanese offered little resistance after the small Japanese border posts had fallen, 35th Army's operations were more notable for overcoming major terrain obstacles, such as the swamps and flooded ground west of the Sungacha River, than for overcoming Japanese defenses, except in the Hutou area. The operation demonstrated that forces with artillery and limited armor support could operate in such a region if those forces had adequate engineer support and if they were properly trained and task organized. The 35th Army had attached significant engineer support to each subordinate rifle division and had required each division to devote a considerable proportion of its strength to road building and maintenance. Soviet unit commanders imaginatively used field expedients to help overcome the fuel shortage and terrain problems. Yet, even careful planning and imaginative execution could not forestall the 35th Army commander's decision to abandon the use of the two tank brigades in such terrain. Ultimately, the geographical barriers so impeded Soviet operations that the army's main force was a day late in cutting the road from Hulin to Mishan, although it met no significant Japanese resistance. But even that delay was academic, because the Japanese had already withdrawn from the area, and by 10 August, 264th Rifle Division operations had already isolated Hutou. The 35th Army accomplished its overall mission and, in doing so, left as an operational legacy a series of lessons learned about operations in swampy, flooded terrain.

Notes

Meretskov, Serving the People, 344. JM 154, 275-76, 183; U.S. Army Forces Far East, Military History Section, Japanese Monograph no. 155: Record of Operations Against Soviet Russia - on Northern and Western Fronts of Manchuria and in Northern Korea (August 1945) (Tokyo, 1954), 266 (hereafter cited as JM 155). The 135th Infantry Division strength was 14,228 men. JM 154, 276, 281. S. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia nastupatel'naia operatsiia v usloviiakh dal'nevostochnogo teatra voennykh deistvii" [An army offensive operation in the conditions of the Far Eastern Theater of Military Operations], VIZh, August 1978:44; JM 155, 266; Zenkoku Kotokai [National Baton Society], ed., SoMan k?kky? K?t? y?sai no senki [The Soviet Manchurian border The battle record of the Hutou Fortress] (Tokyo: Zenkoku Kotokai jimuky?ku, 1977) (hereafter cited as SoMan k?kky?). JM 154, 276-77. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 94. M. V. Zakharov, ed., Final: istoriko-memuarny ocherk o razgrome imperialisticheskoi iapony v 1945 godu [Finale: A historical memoir survey about the rout of imperialistic Japan in 1945] (Moskva: Izdatel'stvo "Nauka," 1969), 401. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 94, states that 15th Army tank and SP gun strength was 166. Ezhakov, "Boevoe primenenie," 79, places it at 205. The Vnotchenko figure does not include the 209th Tank Brigade transferred in the middle of the operation to front control.

Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 44-45; Pechenenko, "363-ia strelkovaia diviziia v boyakh no Mishan'skom napravlenii" [The 363d Rifle Division in battles on the Mishan direction], VIZh, July 1975:41. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 45. Sidorov, "Boevoe," 16; Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 45; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 107. Sidorov, "Boevoe," 20. Pechenenko, "363-ia," 41. Details of 363d Rifle Division deployment and operations from Pechenenko, "363-ia," 39-46. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 45. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 203. Ibid. Ibid., 204; Pechenenko, "363-ia," 43-44. Pechenenko, "363-ia," 44. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 204. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 46. Ibid., 47. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 213-14. JM 154, 181-82, 285. Ibid., 284-89. Ibid.. 301. Krupchenko, Souetskie, 321; Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 47.

Set Piece Battle	4

That Mutanchiang was a major objective of Soviet forces was natural. Not only was the city built astride the main road and rail line running into central Manchuria from the east, but it was also headquarters for the Japanese First Area Army. In addition, the 5th Army Headquarters was nearby at Yehho, across the Mutan River from Mutanchiang. Mutanchiang itself occupied a strategic location on the west bank of the Mutan River at the junction of roads leading westward from Suifenho and Muleng, southwest from Pamientung, and south from Linkou (see map 4-1). Any withdrawal of Japanese forces in eastern Manchuria from Jaoho to Suifenho had to pass through the city. East of Mutanchiang, the Laoyehling Mountains rose to heights of from 700 to almost 1,100 meters. Running due north and south, this mountain range, which any enemy force would have to cross, provided the city a protective barrier.

Map 4-1. The Approaches to Mutanchiang

The Japanese realized the strategic significance of Mutanchiang. In their original plans they had anchored their defenses on the mountains east of the city. Behind the first two defensive lines on the border and at the Muleng River, the Japanese 5th Army had constructed a third line (the main line of resistance) along the crests of the Laoyehling Mountains. Here, the three forward Japanese divisions (135th, 126th, and 124th Infantry Divisions) had prepared field fortifications and had garrisoned a large segment of their forces nearby. The actual defensive line extended from the Mutan River north of Hualin, eastward past Chihsing (135th Infantry Division sector) to Tzuhsingtun (126th Infantry Division sector), and south along the crest of the mountains to a point fifteen kilometers south of the Muleng to Mutanchiang road (124th Infantry Division sector). Although during June and July, .5th Army units had done considerable work building field fortifications at these locations, that work was still in progress in August.

When hostilities broke out on 9 August, 5th Army ordered its subordinate divisions to occupy those newly constructed positions and to prepare to defend them in accordance with existing plans.1 Those contingency plans envisioned a stiff forward defense of the border fortified regions, followed by a fighting withdrawal of division forward elements back to the 5th Army defensive line. The plan presupposed that any Soviet advance would occur primarily along avenues of approach the Japanese assessed as trafficable and, hence, most likely to be used by any invader. If their hypothesis proved correct, Japanese forward units could delay the Soviets long enough for 5th Army to erect a formidable defensive line east of Mutanchiang. The Japanese hypothesis, however, proved false.

The Soviets launched their attack in strength along virtually every possible avenue of approach, without regard to trafficability. Japanese border garrisons fell quickly, and the hasty withdrawal of Japanese main units was chaotic. As a result, the Japanese 5th Army units occupied their main defensive lines literally in the presence of advancing Soviet forces and never had the chance to reorganize. The Soviets forced the Japanese to fight continuous battles along the border, on the distant approaches to Mutanchiang, and in the immediate vicinity of the city.

Thus, the battle of Mutanchiang occurred in two distinct phases. From 12 to 14 August, in two separate sectors on the distant approaches (fifty to eighty kilometers) to the city, Soviet forces engaged the main forces of the Japanese 126th and 124th Infantry Divisions. From 14 to 16 August Soviet forces converged on the city and attacked the defending Japanese 126th and 135th Infantry Divisions. The speed of the Soviet advance compelled a disjointed Japanese defense of Mutanchiang and precluded the Japanese from consolidating all of their forces for their planned coordinated defense of the city.

By 11 August, throughout the entire Japanese 5th Army sector, Soviet forces had overwhelmed the border defenses and pushed more than eighty kilometers into Manchuria. Pamientung, Lishuchen, and Muleng on the Muleng River were in Soviet hands, and the Soviets were fast closing in on Mishan from the south and east. Japanese forces that had escaped annihilation along the border streamed rearward in disorder. The 5th Army's three divisions followed army orders and occupied their designated main line of resistance east of Mutanchiang (see map 4-2). The commander of the 135th Infantry Division, Lt. Gen. Yoichi Hitomi, whose forces garrisoned the Jaoho, Hutou, and Mishan sectors, ordered his units in the rear at Chihsing to prepare those defenses. He then ordered the remainder of the division at Linkou, Tungan, and Hulin to withdraw as quickly as possible to Chihsing.²

Map 4-2. Japanese Defenses of Mutanchiang, 9 August 1945.

A battalion of the 370th Infantry Regiment and a Manchurian battalion were left at Mashan to defend high-speed routes into Linkou from the east. Similarly, a battalion of the 369th Infantry Regiment remained at Tungan to cover the Japanese withdrawal. On the evening of 10 August, 5th Army revised the order, directing that 135th Infantry Division units instead deploy at Yehho and join the 126th Infantry Division in the defense of Mutanchiang. 3 The next day the raiding battalion and one battalion each from the 368th Infantry Regiment and 370th Infantry Regiment arrived at Yehho and occupied defensive positions northwest of the city. The arrival of additional withdrawing 135th Infantry Division units was expected on the twelfth. In short, because of Soviet pressure, 5th Army had abandoned any idea of defending in the Chihsing main line of resistance.

Likewise, on the tenth, 5th Army ordered the 126th Infantry Division to withdraw from the Pamientung area to Yehho, but to leave sufficient forces in the Tzuhsingtun area to cover the withdrawal of both the 126th and the 135th Infantry Divisions.⁴ The 126th Infantry Division commander ordered Lieutenant Yamagishi to defend Tzuhsingtun and Hill 792 with the tat Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment; the 3d Battalion, 277th Infantry Regiment; one company of the 31st Antitank Battalion; and one-third of the 1st Company of the raiding battalion. Yamagishi deployed his forces, placing the 1st Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment, the antitank company, and the raiding battalion west of Tzuhsingtun to cover the division's withdrawal and the 3d Battalion, 277th Infantry Regiment, on Hill 792 to cover the 124th Infantry Division's left flank. ⁵ Troops of the 126th Infantry Division and its commander, General Nomizo, arrived in Yehho on the eleventh and deployed according to new orders from 5th Army.

By the morning of the eleventh, the 124th Infantry Division had occupied its main line of resistance (MLR) positions west of Muleng (see map 4-3). Even as survivors from the Soviet onslaught straggled into the division's defensive line, Soviet advanced patrols probed the main Japanese positions for the first time. After their redeployment, the Japanese forces awaited the Soviets' advance. The Japanese occupied new defensive positions running from the Mutan River, north of Yehho, eastward into the mountains, arching south, parallel to the west bank of the Muleng River. The covering units at Mashan and Tzuhsingtun and the 124th Infantry Division west of Muleng first encountered the Soviet advance. The fighting began as soon as each Japanese unit had deployed.

Map 4-3. Situation, 11 August 1945

On the morning of 11 August, General Beloborodov, whose forces had secured the Muleng River line, ordered those same units to exploit their success by moving northwest to Linkou and southwest to Mutanchiang. In order to insure a rapid rate of advance sufficient to deny the Japanese an opportunity to regroup and to establish a firm defense, a forward detachment that would lead each rifle corps advance formed around the tank brigades attached to the army. Hence, Lt. Col. L. D. Krupetskoi's 75th Tank Brigade spearheaded the 59th Rifle Corps advance, while the 257th Tank Brigade led the march of 26th Rifle Corps. By the afternoon of 11 August, the tank brigades had crossed the Muleng River and plunged deep into the Japanese rear areas. Lead rifle divisions prepared to follow the forward detachments in march column. Other army units would follow after they had completed passage of the makeshift corduroy roads, now thoroughly ground up by traffic through the Border Mountains.

The 75th Tank Brigade, reinforced by an automatic weapons company of the 254th Rifle Regiment mounted on the tanks and self-propelled guns, marched from Lishuchen toward Linkou via Mashan. The 39th Rifle Division trailed behind. General Beloborodov specifically ordered the tank brigade to cut the rail line at Linkou in order to isolate remaining elements of the Japanese 135th Infantry Division, which were then withdrawing by rail from the Mishan area. 6 At 0600 on 12 August, the 75th Tank Brigade, while approaching Mashan, encountered a Japanese battalion of the 370th Infantry Regiment and a Manchurian battalion in defensive positions behind the Hsia Muleng He. Although heavy rains had swollen the river and flooded its banks, the bridge across seemed to be intact. As the lead tank attempted to cross the bridge, both bridge and tank exploded, victims of Japanese mines. The tank brigade laid down heavy suppressive fire on Japanese positions while sappers worked frantically to repair the bridge. At this time, the 39th Rifle Division commander, Maj. Gen. V. A. Semenov, arrived at Mashan to supervise operations against the Japanese force.⁷

In order to avoid being outflanked, the Japanese forces had occupied positions on the north bank of the river overlooking the bridge. Dug in on the southern slope of a series of hills one kilometer northeast of Mashan Station, other Japanese troops were able to cover the left flank of the main defensive position. At 1100 on 12 August, under cover of artillery fire, the Soviet 75th Tank Brigade moved to new positions in order to engage the Japanese left. Two hours later a battalion of the 50th Rifle Regiment, 39th Rifle Division, with support from the tank brigade, routed the Japanese in the hills east of Mashan. At 1800 the 1st Battalion, 50th Rifle Regiment, and the 75th Tank Brigade intercepted, surrounded, and destroyed a Japanese battalion withdrawing west along the railroad to Mashan.

The battle for Mashan continued into the evening, when Japanese forces counterattacked the Soviets, only to be driven off in the direction of Tutao. Meanwhile, the 254th Rifle Regiment, having completed repair of the bridge across the Hsia Muleng He, crossed the river and drove off the remaining Japanese defenders. Having cleared the Linkou road of Japanese covering units, the 75th Tank Brigade moved on Linkou, with the 39th Rifle Division bringing up the rear. At 0700 on 13 August, the lead elements of the 75th Tank Brigade entered Linkou, and several hours later the remainder of the brigade and the 39th Rifle Division followed. The Japanese defenders had burned important buildings in the city and had left behind small suicide squads (in Russian smertniks) to harass the Soviets. Most of the Japanese defenders withdrew southward toward Mutanchiang and northward into the mountains.⁸

The Japanese, according to General Beloborodov, left covering forces on routes they considered likely for the Soviet advance from Linkou. "On the routes of withdrawal-groups of smertniks, which day and night fired on the columns of our forces, perpetrated diversionary acts and fell upon our rear and transport units."⁹ Heavy rains also hindered Soviet operations.

Map 4-4. Situation, 12 August

The absence of trafficable routes ruled out parallel pursuit of the Japanese and, on the thirteenth, dictated that the 59th Rifle Corps forces continue the march southward toward Mutanchiang in a single, long column led by a forward detachment.

While the 59th Rifle Corps secured Linkou, the 26th Rifle Corps's 257th Tank Brigade moved westward from Pamientung toward the railroad station of Hsientung. The tank brigade's mission was to overcome enemy opposition and reach Mutanchiang by the evening of 12 August (see map 4-4). At Tzuhsingtun the tank brigade met Lieutenant Yamagishi's battalion of the 279th Infantry Regiment, reinforced by a company of antitank guns posted on a hill overlooking the road. Japanese accounts relate their unsuccessful attempt to halt the Soviet tanks, which, after a one-hour fight, bypassed their position and headed westward.11 In fact, the Japanese antitank and infantry took their toll on Lieutenant Colonel Anishchik's tank brigade. According to a detailed Soviet account:

Tanks and infantry in an assault

This fighting and the arduous road march combined to reduce significantly the tank strength of the brigade from its original full TO&E authorization of sixty-five tanks. After the battle, the brigade raced on toward Hsientung.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Yamagishi regrouped his forces on the heights to await the arrival of the main Soviet infantry force. At 1000 on 12 August, advanced elements of the 300th Rifle Division approached the Japanese positions, and the lead regiment of the division deployed under artillery cover. At noon, heavy artillery fire was falling on Lieutenant Yamagishi's hilltop position north of the road. Shortly thereafter, Soviet troops tried to flank the position on the north, but Yamagishi stopped this maneuver by moving his forces from the hills south of the road to the right flank of his position, then north of the road. The Soviets immediately shifted their artillery fires to this sector and forced Yamagishi to withdraw his forces to the western slopes of the hills for protection. At nightfall, Soviet infantry controlled the left rear of the Japanese positions and both hills north of the road were in the hands of the 300th Rifle Division. All Japanese counterattacks to regain the hills during the evening of the twelfth failed.

Outflanked and in danger of encirclement, the Japanese withdrew into the forests south of the road before daybreak on the thirteenth. They had lost 400 of 650 men, four antitank guns, two battalion guns, and three machine guns.¹³ The next day Lieutenant Yamagishi's small force marched across the mountains southwest to Mutanchiang. Two days later it arrived northeast of Yehho, only to find Mutanchiang invested by Soviet forces. The detachment headed toward Tungchingching, where it finally surrended to the Soviets on the twentieth. After smashing Japanese positions at Tzuhsingtun, the 300th Rifle Division pushed on toward Hsientung, with the 22d Rifle Division stretched out behind it on the road from Pamientung.

While on 12 August the 300th Rifle Division battled with Lieutenant Yamagishi's covering force at Tzuhsingtun, Lieutenant Colonel Anishchik's 257th Tank Brigade raced to gain a foothold at Mutanchiang. At 0900 on 12 August, the brigade approached Hsientung, overcame a Japanese outpost in a one-hour engagement, and, at 1900, occupied the railroad station and Japanese logistics depot that supported the Chihsing defensive line. At Hsientung the tank brigade also destroyed forty warehouses and found enough fuel to refill its almost dry fuel tanks. It also destroyed a troop train full of Japanese soldiers en route south from Linkou.

The battle at Tzuhsingtun and the march along the marshy road, however, had taken their toll on the brigade, reducing its tank strength to nineteen.¹⁴ Nevertheless, Lieutenant Colonel Anishchik continued his march south along the railroad toward an important railroad bridge across the Mutan River at Hualin. At 0500 on 13 August, the brigade roared into Hualin and seized the railroad station (see map 4-5). The bridge lay two kilometers beyond.

Japanese forces defending the bridge and the approaches to Mutanchiang were dug in just south of the Hualin Station. Major Takikawa defended the battle position with one battalion of the 370th Infantry Regiment, supported by a section of regimental guns.¹⁵ Against this force, the 257th Tank Brigade attacked with ten tanks in column, supported by self-propelled guns. General Beloborodov recounted the action:

Map 4-5. Situation, 13 August

*Reminiscent of U.S. Task Force Smith's problems in the opening phases of the Korean War.

The Japanese frustration over their inability to destroy the Soviet T-34* tanks in the engagement is recalled in this account:

Our artillery laid fire on the enemy tanks in the rear in order to obstruct the repair of tanks (while our close quarter teams attacked the tanks from the roadside). However even though the enemy tanks were hit, since the projec tiles were not armor piercing, the actual damage was practically nil. . . . The enemy calmly repaired his tanks on a spot exposed to us. His behavior was arrogant and insolent in the face of our impotence. His tanks remained along the road in column, and avoided the swampy ground nearby. Some of the tank crews were observed to consist of female as well as male soldiers.17

At 1800 Lieutenant Colonel Anishchik again ordered his tanks into Hualin, where they occupied a defensive line in a settlement by the station. By mid-evening the tank brigade clearly could not hold the station against Japanese pressure, so it withdrew under heavy fire to a hill a kilometer north of Hualin and established defensive positions along the steep banks of a stream leading to the Mutan River. The sharp encounter at Hualin reduced the tank strength of the 257th Tank Brigade to seven tanks.18

Although they halted the 257th Tank Brigade, the Japanese suffered a major tactical reverse in the process. On the morning of the thirteenth, General Hitomi, the 135th Infantry Division commander, entrained at Linkou for Mutanchiang with elements of the 370th Infantry Regiment and a battalion of the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment. Aware of Soviet troops in the region, the general planned to fight his way through them, if necessary. At 2010 the trains arrived in Hualin to find the railroad bridge blown up in accordance with First Area Army orders. Simultaneously, the 257th Tank Brigade attacked the trains, destroying them and many of the Japanese troops aboard. The effect of the attack is evident from Japanese sources:

Hitomi later made his way to Mutanchiang, where he assumed command of the shattered remnants of his division. In the attack on the trains, the Soviets claimed to have killed 900 Japanese soldiers and destroyed six locomotives, twenty-four guns, thirty vehicles, thirty train cars with ammunition, 800 rifles, and 100 machine guns.²⁰

After midnight, Lieutenant Colonel Anishchik, with his brigade reduced to seven tanks, awaited reinforcements that would enable his depleted forces to resume the attack. Reinforcements arrived the next morning. The 300th Rifle Division and 22d Rifle Division, strung out along the muddy road from Pamientung, dispatched two self-propelled artillery battalions (twentyfive guns) and drove their infantry mercilessly to link up with the hard pressed tank brigade.²¹ From the north, the 59th Rifle Corps ordered the 75th Tank Brigade to move south along the railroad from Linkou to Hualin. After the tank brigade had overcome small Japanese units at Chushan and Santoa-hetsi (thirty-five kilometers north of Hualin), only the deteriorated, rain-soaked roads hindered the brigade's progress. By morning, 1st Red Banner Army would have sufficient forces at Hualin to conduct a major assault on the Japanese defensive lines covering the northern approaches to Mutanchiang proper.

5th Army forces on the road to Mutanchiang

From 12 to 14 August, as the 1st Red Banner Army swept forward from Pamientung and Lishuchen through Linkou and Tzuhsingtun to Hualin, the Soviet 5th Army attacked the Japanese 124th Infantry Division east of Mutanchiang. General Shiina's defensive position on a twenty-fivekilometer front extended from north to south in the mountains west of the Muleng River. The 273d Infantry Regiment, minus one battalion, and the 272d Infantry Regiment, minus one company, defended the sixteen-kilometer sector north of the Muleng-Mutanchiang road (the northern and central defensive sectors, respectively). The 271st Infantry Regiment, minus one battalion, defended the remaining eight-kilometer sector (southern defensive sector) south of the road. A battalion of division artillery supported each of the infantry regiments, while a battery of the 1st Independent Heavy Artillery and the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, minus two batteries, gave support from positions in the rear of the central sector (see map 4-3) 22

In order to reinforce the critical sector defending the road from Muleng to Mutanchiang, the 5th Army commander created a special detachment under Colonel Sasaki, commander of the 1st Engineer Command, and attached it to the 124th Infantry Division. The Sasaki detachment, consisting of the 1st Battalion, 368th Infantry Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 370th Infantry Regiment, from the 135th Infantry Division, deployed along the road east of Taimakou to intercept the advancing Soviet mechanized units.²³ On the evening of the eleventh, General Shiina moved his headquarters to Mount Shozu, behind the central sector unit, in order to coordinate the impending action. Japanese intelligence reports that evening estimated the opposing Soviet force at two divisions, composed chiefly of mechanized units, with more reinforcements approaching from Suifenho.

That Japanese assessment was accurate. On the night of 11-12 August, forward elements of the 97th and 144th Rifle Divisions, led by tank brigades, crossed the Muleng River and secured the town of Muleng. Behind them the 215th, 190th, and 371st Rifle Divisions followed in column along the road from Hsiachengtsu to Muleng, with the 363d Rifle Division approaching Muleng from the southwest. The remainder of 5th Army stretched out in long march column formation from Machiacho Station to Suiyang.

Marshal Meretskov, anxious to speed the movement of General Krylov's army to Mutanchiang, ordered Krylov to assemble a "strong" army forward detachment to advance straight down the road to Mutanchiang and rupture the Japanese defenses in one blow. Krylov designated the 76th Tank Brigade as the forward detachment; it was reinforced by the 478th Heavy SelfPropelled Artillery Regiment and two rifle battalions with automatic weapons.²⁴

At dawn on the twelfth, while Soviet artillery pounded Japanese positions north and south of the road, the 76th Tank Brigade launched its attack against the right flank of the Japanese 272d Infantry Regiment in the central sector (see map 4-4). Japanese heavy and medium artillery halted Soviet infantry supporting the advance of the 76th Tank Brigade. The tank brigade itself met very heavy resistance near Plivuchi Station, where the Japanese 272d Infantry Regiment had launched battalion-size counterattacks supported by artillery, mortars, and artillery fired from two armored trains. The 76th Tank Brigade repelled the counterattack, but could not move forward. In order to restore the momentum of the attack, General Krylov reinforced the tank brigade with the 785th Rifle Regiment of the 144th Rifle Division and two battalions of the 233d Rifle Regiment of the 97th Rifle Division, as well as with additional tanks and self-propelled guns. Following a thirty-minute artillery preparation, the Soviets finally broke through the Japanese defenses on a four-kilometer sector and then continued their advance to the outskirts of Taimakou. ²⁵ All day the fighting raged: Japanese artillery pounded the narrow Soviet penetration corridor, and continual infantry counterattacks tried to seal the Soviet breakthrough.

With the central defensive sector broken and Soviet forces approaching Taimakou, the Japanese 5th Army commander formed yet another stopgap unit. This time a 1,000-man battalion, composed of students from the Reserve Officers Candidate Training Unit at Shitou and the Intendance Reserve Officers Candidate Training Unit, and one battery of the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment were placed under Colonel Kobayashi, commander of the 3d Field Fortification Unit, and positioned at Motaoshih in order to block the road to Mutanchiang.²⁶ By the evening of the twelfth, Soviet forces of the reinforced 76th Tank Brigade, which had overcome the Sasaki detachment at Taimakou and had reached Motaoshih, engaged Kobayashi's ersatz detachment.

Japanese 5th Army postwar accounts downplay the effectiveness of all Japanese resistance and regard the 124th Infantry Division positions as irrevocably split asunder on the twelfth. The 124th Infantry Division accounts, however, credit the division with greater success, particularly for the defense of the main road to Mutanchiang. Soviet versions confirm the success of the Russian drive along the road, but also verify 124th Infantry Division claims of heavy resistance and bitter fighting as Soviet units beat off desperate Japanese counterattacks. ²⁷

Throughout 13 August Soviet forces engaged in heavy fighting (see map 4-5). The 63d and the 144th Rifle Divisions, led by tanks and self-propelled guns, widened the initial breakthrough corridor along the road to five to seven kilometers. They also penetrated to a depth of thirty kilometers, despite constant Japanese counterattacks from platoon to battalion strength and constant shellfire from Japanese artillery and mortar batteries. During the course of this fighting, Colonel Kobayashi was killed, and by 1200 on 13 August his detachment had been destroyed. Some survivors of the Japanese unit retreated to defenses east of Yehho, while others stayed behind to conduct guerrilla warfare in the Soviet rear areas. ²⁸ By nightfall on the thirteenth, lead Soviet elements had secured the pass across the Laoyehling Mountains and confronted the main Japanese defensive lines east of Yehho.

As Soviet units overran the center of the Japanese 124th Infantry Division defenses, the remainder of the division struggled to maintain its defenses. By 0900 on 13 August, General Shiina received a report from his central sector unit stating, "Because of the difficulty of holding our positions, the regiment will launch a counterattack with regimental colors in the lead. This is perhaps the last report from our regiment [272d] to the division."²⁹

General Shiina responded by ordering the regiment to fight to the death. Because his other sectors were not, as yet, hard pressed, he also rejected any idea of withdrawal. Consequently, the 272d Infantry Regiment fought under heavy pressure throughout the day. During the afternoon and evening, while the Soviet 63d and 144th Rifle Divisions approached the outskirts of Yehho, other Soviet divisions pressured the Japanese from north and south of the main road.

The 97th and 371st Rifle Divisions struck the southern flank of the Japanese 272d Infantry Regiment, while the 215th and 277th Rifle Divisions attacked the left flank of the 271st Infantry Regiment. Simultaneously, the 190th and 157th Rifle Divisions frontally assaulted the 272d Infantry Regiment's positions with concentrated artillery support. Early the next day, the Soviet 190th Rifle Division attacked the Japanese left sector (273d Infantry Regiment) while the 97th and 371st Rifle Divisions launched offensives against the central sector from the south, forcing the 272d Infantry Regiment to withdraw to the southern foothills of Mount Shozu. At 0900, General Shiina again moved his command post, this time ten kilometers to the rear of Mount Shozu. Shortly thereafter, Soviet rocket and artillery fire almost obliterated the top of Mount Shozu. A coordinated Soviet assault on the summit, covered by intense artillery fire, finally overwhelmed the stubborn Japanese defenders. The commanders of the 20th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment and the Mutanchiang Heavy Artillery Regiment and most of their men were killed by the onslaught, and their guns destroyed. ³⁰ General Shiina lost communications with his remaining units. His last formal order to his units read:

Map 4-6. Situation, 14 August

Organized resistance by the 124th Infantry Division sputtered out after the night of the fourteenth. 'thereafter, the unit could only harass Soviet columns marching westward toward Mutanchiang and keep Soviet divisions occupied with security and clearing operations north and south of the road. After receiving, by radio, word of the Imperial cease-fire, the remnants of the division, still under General Shiina's supervision, on the night of the fifteenth ceased raiding operations and tried to withdraw to the southwest. After a lengthy assembly period, at 0300 on the eighteenth, the division broke through the endless columns of Soviet troops, trucks, and tanks on the highway between Taimakou and Motaoshih. Separate groups of Japanese continued to cross the road during the next evening as well. Then the division moved through the mountains toward the Ningan area, where, on 22 August, after the Kwantung Army's surrender, it, too, surrendered to Soviet forces.

After the collapse of the 124th Infantry Division's resistance, Soviet 5th Army units secured their lines of communication (see map 4-6). They also redeployed sufficient forces to penetrate Japanese defenses east of Mutanchiang in coordination with 1st Red Banner Army's attack on Mutanchiang from the north. The 144th Rifle Division, 65th Rifle Corps (reinforced by the 218th Tank Brigade and 395th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment), and the 63d Rifle Division, 72d Rifle Corps (with the 210th Tank Brigade and 479th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment), continued to fight against the Japanese defenses east of Mutanchiang. The 97th, 371st, and 190th Rifle Divisions of the 65th Rifle Corps battled with remnants of the 124th Infantry Division north of the Muleng-Mutanchiang road. The 215th and the 277th Rifle Divisions of the 72d Rifle Corps advanced against remnants of the Japanese 271st Infantry Regiment south of the road.

The 215th Rifle Division operated ten kilometers southwest of Motaoshih Station; the 277th Rifle Division, twenty-five kilometers southwest of Muleng. The 45th Rifle Corps, together with the 159th Rifle Division, covered the right flank of the army from Machiacho to Hsiachengtsu, while the 157th and 184th Rifle Divisions marched forward on the road from Suiyang. On the morning of 15 August, the 84th Cavalry (horse) Division, in front reserve at Muleng, received orders to advance into the mountains southwest of Muleng, then along the Tashihtou Valley, and through the Laoyehling Mountains toward Ningan. A separate detachment of the division, with a small number of tanks, traveled south of Muleng to establish contact with 25th Army at Taipenchang.32

By 15 August, Soviet 5th Army had crossed the Laoyehling Mountains and had crushed the Japanese 124th Infantry Division, denying the Japanese the opportunity they had expected to conduct an orderly withdrawal to Mutanchiang. In doing so, however, the distance the army had traveled, the terrain over which it fought, and the resistance of the 124th Infantry Division all prevented the Soviets from bringing overwhelming power to bear on the Japanese Mutanchiang defenses. The 5th Army was stretched out over 100 kilometers, with the bulk of its force deployed on the flanks as security against the remnants of the Japanese 124th Division. Although lead elements of 5th Army had crossed the Laoyehling Mountains well ahead of schedule, Japanese resistance scattered 5th Army's forces. Moreover, a substantial Japanese force remained at Mutanchiang. Because of 5th Army's problems, Marshal Meretskov ordered the front mobile group, the 10th Mechanized Corps, to fight in the 25th Army sector, further south, where prospects for early success looked better.³³ These decisions made, the 5th Army prepared to assist 1st Red Banner Army in overcoming the Japanese defenses at Mutanchiang.

Mutanchiang

By the evening of 13 August, Japanese defenses at Mutanchiang had coalesced to the point that Major Takikawa's battalion temporarily halted Soviet units of 1st Red Banner Army at Hualin (see map 4-6). Meanwhile, Soviet 5th Army forces, having overcome the Motaoshih defense, approached the eastern defenses of Mutanchiang. The Japanese 126th and 135th Infantry Divisions deployed in accordance with a 5th Army order issued at 1200 on 11 August, calling for the 126th to occupy positions east and southeast of the city, with three regiments on line.34 The 277th Infantry Regiment (minus two battalions) dug in south of Yingchitun, facing south. The 278th (minus one battalion) occupied a hill south of the freight depot, facing southeast, and the 279th (minus one battalion) occupied Ssutaoling and Hill 371 north of the highway, with its forces facing eastward. The division artillery regiment, with one heavy field artillery battery, deployed west of Ssutaoling, to cover with fire the approaches to Ssutaoling and Hill 371. Men from the combined raiding battalions of the 126th and 135th Infantry Divisions deployed in foxholes along the road from Ssutaoling to Yehho. Their mission was to interdict Soviet traffic. Almost all trenches were completed by the evening of the thirteenth.

The Japanese 135th Infantry Division occupied two sectors northeast of Mutanchiang and covered the approaches to Yehho from Hualin. Supported by a battalion of divisional artillery, the 370th Infantry Regiment (minus two battalions) defended the left sector. A battalion of the 369th Infantry Regiment, backed by one battalion of the 368th Infantry Regiment and a company of engineers, occupied the right sector. Major Takikawa's battalion, 370th Infantry Regiment, in an attempt to cover the 135th Infantry Division's construction of defenses farther to the rear, engaged the Soviet 257th Tank Brigade at Hualin. Firing and communications trenches had been finished by the evening of 13 August, but the positions were not totally connected. Furthermore, the Japanese lacked barbed wire and antitank obstacles and had only negligible artillery support. The 126th Division, for example, had twenty guns; the 135th, only ten. A handful of light tanks were available for support.

*Throughout the campaign, the Soviets evacuated and repaired tanks quickly.

On the morning of 14 August, the 257th Tank Brigade of 1st Red Banner Army received reinforcements from 26th Rifle Corps (see map 4-6). Two selfpropelled artillery battalions, acting as the forward detachments of the 300th Rifle Division and 22d Rifle Division (whose main elements were still en route from Tzuhsingtun), raced forward and joined the depleted 257th Tank Brigade. Lieutenant Colonel Anishchik then renewed his attacks on Hualin Station. The previous day's fighting had sapped Japanese strength and morale. Especially debilitating to Japanese morale was the Soviet ability, even during the night, to evacuate successfully tanks that had been damaged the previous day.*³⁵

On the afternoon of the fourteenth, repeated Soviet attacks against Major Takikawa's battalion drove the Japanese away from Hualin Station at a cost of three Soviet tanks. The Japanese, however, still held advanced positions north of Tzumeiholo.

The right sector of the Japanese 135th Infantry Division defense was quiet throughout the fourteenth because General Beloborodov did not have enough forces to overwhelm the Japanese positions. Until such forces were available, his Ist Red Banner Army's leading elements could only nibble away at the Japanese defenses.

By the evening of the fourteenth, only the 257th Tank Brigade and the two self-propelled artillery battalions of the 22d and 300th Rifle Divisions had reached Hualin. The rifle regiments of the 300th and 22d Rifle Divisions remained strung out over the forty kilometers of road northeast to Tzuhsingtun, while other 26th Rifle Corps units busily constructed and maintained roads even farther to the rear. It was a similar tale for the 59th Rifle Corps, whose lead elements were approaching Chihsing, but whose divisions were also strung out far to the rear.

In addition, with such a limited force, 1st Red Banner Army could not maneuver against the Japanese because of the terrain obstacles. The composition of the Soviet force (primarily tanks and self-propelled guns) prevented maneuver off the roads into the marshy, boggy woods and fields. Because the Japanese also had destroyed the bridge spanning the Mutan River at Hualin, the Soviets could not cross the river until sufficient reinforcements were available to conduct an assault crossing. The only remaining bridge was at Yehho, still well behind the main Japanese defenses.

1st Red Banner Army artillery firing across the Mutanchiang River

General Beloborodov ordered the 257th Tank Brigade to fix the Japanese defense, while his remaining forces closed on Hualin. Meanwhile, he planned to envelop Japanese defenses by developing operations on both sides of the river.

On the morning of 15 August, while the 257th Tank Brigade continued engaging the Japanese, the main force of the 300th and 22d Rifle Divisions and 77th Tank Brigade, along with the headquarters of General Skvortsev's 26th Rifle Corps, reached Hualin (see map 4-7). Skvortsêv immediately prepared for a two-pronged offensive to commence on the afternoon of the fifteenth.³⁶

The 22d Rifle Division would force the Mutan River at Huashulintsin, ten kilometers north of Mutanchiang, and then strike the city from the northwest. Because of a lack of bridging equipment, no armor could accompany the 22d Rifle Division. The 300th Rifle Division and 257th Tank Brigade would attack the Japanese defenses along the Hualin-Yehho road shortly after noon.

The 1049th Rifle Regiment and the division's training battalion, supported by an SU-76 self-propelled gun battalion of the 22d Rifle Division, made the main thrust on the right flank in order to capture Tzumeiholo, attack across the Mutan River near Yehho, and then advance into eastern Mutanchiang. The 1051st Rifle Regiment, with a self-propelled battalion and the 257th Tank Brigade, made a supporting attack on the left flank toward Yehho Station in order to cross the Mutan River near the recently destroyed bridge and then to advance into the southeastern portion of the city. The 52d Mortar Brigade and 54th Guards Mortar Regiment provided fire support. These combined attacks pushed Major Takikawa's battalion back to a stream north of Tzumeiholo, and the Soviets overran most of the battalion position, although not Takikawa's headquarters.

A major battle erupted for remaining Japanese positions north of the stream and main Japanese defenses south of the stream. ³⁷ The Soviet 77th Tank Brigade joined the battle in support of the 300th Rifle Division. From his command post, General Beloborodov did not like the slow progress he saw:

Thus, the piecemeal Soviet attacks failed to achieve the overall objective. The 1st Red Banner Army had yet to establish contact with the 65th Rifle Corps of 5th Army, advancing on Yehho from the east. Until contact was made, the 300th Rifle Division would continue to have difficulty advancing.

Under heavy fire, General Beloborodov made his way to General Cherepanov's forward observation point, where he found the general seriously wounded. So Beloborodov put Colonel Lubiagin, the deputy corps commander, in charge and joined Lieutenant Colonel Panin at the command post of the 1049th Rifle Regiment, just north of Tzumeiholo. Beloborodov later described the price he paid for his advance toward Yehho Station:

By nightfall on the fifteenth, lead elements of the 300th Rifle Division, 257th Tank Brigade, and 77th Tank Brigade had consolidated their gains along the stream north of Tzumeiholo, five kilometers short of their assigned objective. Beloborodov returned to his headquarters and learned that the 22d Rifle Division, less its artillery and heavy equipment, had successfully crossed the Mutan River. By evening, its lead regiments, the 211th and 246th Rifle Regiments, were only four to five kilometers north of Mutanchiang. The division's reconnaissance units had actually penetrated into the outskirts of the city, where Japanese defenses were very weak. The 22d Rifle Division, however, lacked artillery and tanks to exploit its momentary advantage. To support the division, Beloborodov decided to launch a coordinated attack on both sides of the river on the morning of 16 August. After a partial artillery preparation, the full 300th and 22d Rifle Divisions would attack, supported by additional armor and artillery units just arrived on the battlefield.

While 1st Red Banner Army forces struck southward from Hualin on 14 and 15 August, 5th Army continued to attack the eastern approaches to Mutanchiang (see map 4-6). By the evening of 13 August, the 144th Rifle Division (with the 218th Tank Brigade and 395th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment) and the 63d Rifle Division (with the 210th Tank Brigade and 479th Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment) were just two kilometers east of Ssutaoling and three kilometers southeast of Hill 371. The 144th Rifle Division deployed north of the road, and the 63d Rifle Division took positions south of the road. From these locations, an assault could be mounted upon the Japanese 279th Infantry Regiment's positions.

At 1100 on 14 August, Soviet artillery opened fire on Japanese artillery positions to the north of Ssutaoling Hill in order to neutralize Japanese batteries. Two hours later the Soviets shifted their concentrated fire to the hill itself. Elements of the 218th Tank Brigade, reinforced by infantry, then assaulted the 3d Battalion's (279th Infantry Regiment) field fortifications, which formed a salient southeast of Hill 371. By 1500 the Japanese defenders had been annihilated. Shortly thereafter, troops of the 144th Rifle Division occupied Hill 371, although during the night, they had to repulse several desperate Japanese counterattacks. Meanwhile, the 210th Tank Brigade and 63d Rifle Division contested the 279th Infantry Regiment's main forces for Ssutaoling Hill. Initial Soviet attempts to seize the hill failed, but after a four-hour artillery barrage had destroyed or disorganized Japanese positions on its summit, the Soviet 226th Rifle Regiment finally seized the crest. ⁴⁰ By evening, Ssutaoling Hill was in Soviet hands, although Ssutaoling village remained Japanese. Japanese heavy artillery also shelled the Soviet hill positions, claiming the destruction of sixteen Soviet tanks. During the night, suicide squads from the 126th Infantry Division's raiding battalion attempted to breach Soviet defenses, but "because the enemy's [Soviet] security measures around his newly won positions were very effective," this attempt failed. ⁴¹ A subsequent counterattack by the 279th Infantry Regiment also ended in failure.

On the night of 14 August, the Soviets consolidated their newly won positions on the heights for new attacks against the Japanese the next morning (see map 4-7). From 0800 to 1600 on the fifteenth, Soviet artillery and tanks blasted Japanese artillery positions, knocking out all but one of the twenty-four Japanese artillery pieces, as well as destroying all four Japanese tanks and antitank guns. During the fierce bombardment, the 63d Rifle Division renewed its attack, this time striking the 278th Infantry Regiment south of Ssutaoling. The 63d forced the Japanese regiment to withdraw and cut its communications with division headquarters. Soviet tanks also reached 126th Infantry Division headquarters, where "a squad of firemen from the transport unit, each armed with a 15 kilogram explosive, attacked the leading five tanks in a suicide charge, one tank per man, and successfully demolished all five tanks." ⁴² Shaken, the Soviet 210th Tank Brigade withdrew to Ssutaoling to regroup. With Soviet tanks attacking division headquarters and with all divisional artillery destroyed, the 126th Division commander consulted his chief of staff and, at 1800, ordered his division to prepare for a "final charge." ⁴³ In early evening, however, a lull descended over the battlefield, enabling the Japanese to postpone such a desperate measure.

The unexpectedly strong resistance of the Japanese 126th Division east of Mutanchiang caused Marshal Meretskov to amend 5th Army's mission. Rather than battering itself against Mutanchiang, the army would sidestep the city to the south, leaving only a portion of its force to cooperate with 1st Red Banner Army and reduce the fanatic Japanese defense of the city. Orders issued at 1645 on 15 August accordingly directed 5th Army to turn the Japanese south flank and advance via Ningan to Kirin and Changchun. ⁴⁴ A strong forward detachment of the 210th and 218th Tank Brigades of 5th Army led the advance.

On the morning of the sixteenth, the 65th Rifle Corps attacked Mutanchiang from the east and southeast, while the 26th Rifle Corps, 1st Red Banner Army, attacked from the northwest and northeast. The 26th Rifle Corps was to secure Yehho and put its infantry across the Mutan River into Mutanchiang. After clearing Yehho, the 257th and 77th Tank Brigades, attached to the 26th Rifle Corps, were to continue southwestward to provide armor support for 65th Rifle Corps, 5th Army.

Meanwhile, General Beloborodov completed his dispositions for a final assault on Japanese 135th Infantry Division positions, set for 0700 on the sixteenth. ⁴⁶ East of the Mutan River, the 300th Rifle Division, supported by the 257th and 77th Tank Brigades, would advance to Yehho. The 1049th Rifle Regiment would advance on the right flank, the 1051st Rifle Regiment on the left. The 1053d Rifle Regiment in second echelon would attempt to cross the Mutan River north of Yehho. On the west bank of the Mutan River the 22d Rifle Division, after having consolidated its forces during the night, would attack Mutanchiang from the north and northwest, with the 246th and 211th Rifle Regiments in division first echelon.

Facing impending disaster, Japanese 5th Army reassessed its forces. The day before, First Area Army commander, Gen. Kita Seiichi had authorized 5th Army to withdraw to Tunhua or Hengtaohotzu, if its position at Mutanchiang became untenable. ⁴⁷ With the situation rapidly deteriorating, Lt. Gen. Noritsume Shimizu, 5th Army commander, issued orders at 1200 on 15 August to begin a general withdrawal to Hengtaohotzu after midnight. ⁴⁸

According to the plan, the 126th Infantry Division would move back on the road south of Yehho, across the Mutan River, to positions west of the city. The 135th Infantry Division would withdraw north of Yehho across the Mutan River to positions northwest of the city. The Shihtou Reserve Officers Candidate Unit would cover the withdrawal from its positions east of Yehho to the hills south of the main road from Muleng. Although orders from the two divisions to all subordinate units echoed the substance of the withdrawal orders, those units were still engaged in heavy contact and never received such orders. So the 278th Infantry Regiment, 126th Infantry Division, and Major Takikawa's battalion, 135th Infantry Division, were left to fend for themselves against the Soviet offensive.

The 126th Infantry Division withdrew at 2300 on 15 August, and by 0800, all units except the isolated 278th Infantry Regiment had crossed the Hsingling bridge. The 135th Infantry Division had withdrawn by dawn, leaving only Takikawa's battalion to resist the Soviet advance.

At 0700 on 16 August, the final Soviet assault on Mutanchiang ⁴⁹ smashed through Takikawa's battalion defenses, and the 300th Rifle Division and 257th and 77th Tank Brigades moved on Yehho Station. Rocket artillery volleys struck the Japanese rear areas and ignited ammunition warehouses. The few survivors of the Takikawa Battalion straggled from the battlefield in groups of two's and three's. By 0900 Lieutenant Colonel Panin's 1049th Rifle Regiment had secured Yehho Station. The 77th Tank Brigade's tanks raced toward the Mutan River bridge, only to find the bridge in ruins. Because the Japanese had destroyed all three bridges, Beloborodov ordered his two tank brigades to attack south along the east bank of the river, while his infantry prepared to cross the river by rafts, logs, small boats, and other improvised means. These attempts by the 1051st Rifle Regiment to cross the river were unsuccessful because of Japanese artillery and small arms fire from the far bank.

Also at 0900, the 22d Rifle Division plunged into Mutanchiang from the northwest. After having completed their final concentration in jumpingoff positions at 0600, the 211th Rifle Regiment, 22d Rifle Division, began its attack at 0900, entered Mutanchiang from the northwest, and reached the railroad station. This attack surprised the Japanese rear elements defending the Mutan River and forced their withdrawal. At 0920, the 246th Rifle Regiment entered the northern side of the city along the rail line. Soon all three regiments of Colonel Lubiagin's 300th Rifle Division had crossed the river and were into the city. Using fishing boats, the 1049th Rifle Regiment also crossed the Mutan River at 1100, while farther north the second echelon of the 1053d Rifle Regiment crossed on improvised rafts south of Tzumeiholo. Shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Colonel Buzhak's 1051st Rifle Regiment crossed the river south of the 1049th Rifle Regiment.

By 1300, the Japanese rear guard had abandoned the city under pressure from the east by the 1049th Rifle Regiment, from the south by the 1051st Rifle Regiment, and from the northwest by the 211th Rifle Regiment. Scattered groups of diehard Japanese fought to the end in cellars and basements of demolished buildings within the city. The 300th Rifle Division cleared the southwestern part of the city by late afternoon, while the 22d Rifle Division took all day to reach the western side of the city.

As the 300th Rifle Division crossed the Mutan River into the city, the 257th and 77th Tank Brigades moved south and joined the 144th Rifle Division of 65th Rifle Corps (5th Army). Together these units secured Yehhoshan (three kilometers south of Mutanchiang) and seized an undestroyed bridge, which provided passage into the southeastern sector of Mutanchiang. At 1000 on 16 August, Maj. Gen. Perekrestov's 65th Rifle Corps, 5th Army, completed the destruction of Japanese units east and southeast of Yehho, as his units enveloped and destroyed the Japanese 278th Infantry Regiment. By 1200 the survivors of the regiment had assembled under the regimental colors:

Despite these limitations, Japanese forces suffered heavy casualties. The 126th Infantry Division admitted 2,050 killed; the 135th, 3,000 killed; and 5th Army reported total casualties of 20,000 men out of 60,000 engaged, plus the loss of eighty-six guns and eighteen mortars. First Area Army acknowledged another 5,000 battlefield casualties from its engaged units. 51 These figures appear more realistic than Soviet claims of 40,000 Japanese dead at Mutanchiang alone. ⁵² Both Japanese 5th Army and First Area Army claimed to have inflicted 7,000-10,000 Soviet casualties. ⁵³ The Japanese might have underestimated the damage they inflicted in light of Soviet reports of 32,000 dead in the entire campaign. ⁵⁴ A large portion of the Soviet casualties occurred in the bitter fighting for Mutanchiang.

Despite the tenacious Japanese defense and the hindering terrain of Manchuria, Soviet forces accomplished their objectives ahead of schedule. They preempted Japanese attempts to create a strong contiguous defensive line around Mutanchiang and secured Mutanchiang eight days into the offensive, ten days ahead of schedule. Soviet success was the result of audacious and rapid advance over terrain the Japanese thought impassable. That rapid advance never lost momentum and almost paralyzed the Japanese command structure. The Japanese military's only consolation was the determined, even suicidal, discipline of units that followed orders unhesitatingly and sacrificed themselves for what was already a lost cause.

Notes
Complete Japanese 5th Army plans appear in JM 154, 181-83. 2. JM 154, 288-89. Ibid., 200. Ibid., 199. Ibid., 260, 263. Beloborodov, Shuoz, 42. Ibid., 43; JM 154, 286. Beloborodov, Skoaz, 43-44, 49-50. Ibid., 50. Ibid. JM 154, 260, 199. Beloborodov, "Na sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 46. JM 154, 199, 260-61. Beloborodov, 'No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 46. JM 154, 207, 292-94. Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 46. JM 154, 193. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 218; Krupehenko, Souetskie, 322, claims the 257th Tank Brigade lost six tanks destroyed and thirty-five men killed on 13 August. More detailed accounts of the day's action at Hualin are in Beloborodov, Shuoz, 45-48, and Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 46-47. JM 154, 200-201, 278, 297-99.	Beloborodov, Shuoz, 46; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 218. Beloborodov, "Na sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 46. JM 154, 235, map 2, map 4. Ibid., 190, 195, map 4. Ezhakov, "Boevoe primenenie," 80; Vnotchenko, Pobeda. 220. Krylov, Naustrechu, 443-44; JM 154, 236-38. JM 154, 196-97, map 4. For impressions o£ the fighting, see Vnotchenko. Pobeda. 220-21; JM 154, 195-97, 236-38. JM 154, 204-5. Ibid., 236. Ibid., 238-39; Krylov, Naustrechu, 446; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 256-57. JM 154, 240. The 5th Army dispositions on 15 August are from Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 256-57; Krylov, Naustrechu, 446. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 221-22. JM 154, 202-4. 26J-66, map 1. Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 46-47; JM 154, 293-95, map 1. Beloborodov, "Na sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 48; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 2,53; Timofeev, "300-ia," 53-54. JM 154, 208, 286-97. Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 48.	Ibid., 48-49. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 224-54; Krylov, Naustrechu, 446; JM 154, 205-6, 266-68. JM 154, 268. Ibid., 269. Ibid., 270. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 255. Ibid., 259. The 1st Red Banner Army plan details appear in Beloborodov, Skuoz, 68-69; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 256; the 300th Rifle Division plan, in Timofeev, "300-ia," 53-54. JM 154, 67, 210. Ibid., 211. Beloborodov, Skuoz, 69-72; Beloborodov, "No sopkakh Man'chzhurii," 48-51; Timofeev, "300-ia," 54-55; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 258-59; Krylov, Naustrechu, 447. JM 154, 272-73. Ibid., 69, 215, 273, 302. Various portions of this source cite total casualties in the campaign, the majority of which were suffered at Mutanchiang. IVMV, 2:244, JM 154, 69, 215. I. Bagramian, ad., Istoriia ooin i uoennogo iskusstua [History o£ war and military art) (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1970), 353.

Reduction of a Fortified Region	5

In accordance with the Kwantung Army's fortification policy for border defense, construction units and conscripted native labor built the permanent Ferro-concrete emplacements along the high ground dominating the strategic avenues of approach.1 The Kwantung Army's strategic assessment of terrain dictated the Hutou fortress's isolated and exposed position, so army planners tried to insure that the fortress itself would be almost impregnable. They designated Hutou a "special" category of fortress. ² This meant that it had concrete walls and roofs up to three meters thick, was impervious to artillery fire, and was able to withstand a direct hit by a one-ton bomb.*

Hutou Fortified Region from the south

The Japanese constructed the Hutou complex without dead space. They designed the fire pattern to blanket the 300 meters ahead of defensive obstacles and relied on oblique and flanking fire from adjacent units rather than on frontal fire to cover the dead spaces. One battalion or, in special cases, one company manned individual fortified positions. A company's frontage and depth was 600 to 1,000 meters. Battalion sectors were generally 1,200 to 2,000 meters in width and depth. ³

The completed Hutou forts had above-ground entrances, exits, observation posts, artillery and machine gun apertures, sally ports for local counterattacks, and weather observation posts. Underground were the communica tions system, living quarters, baths, water and supplies, generators, a communications room, and provisions. As mentioned, three-meter-thick concrete protected the key sections.

This fortress and the extensive Japanese fortification system in eastern Manchuria resembled a Manchurian Maginot Line. Like the Maginot Line planners, the Japanese did not expect the forts to hold back an enemy attack. Instead, the defenders would hold their positions and subsequently threaten the rear of the hostile invader, while friendly mobile forces prepared to counterattack. Also like the Maginot Line concept, the Japanese Manchurian defense designers assumed that certain types of terrain were impassable by large numbers of troops and equipment. Such thinking characterized Japanese defensive concepts.

Looking northeast from Hutou

The Hutou fortifications were on an approximately 8,000-meter frontage and a 6,000-meter depth. The 4th BGU Table of Equipment and Organization (TO&E) meshed perfectly with the assigned defensive frontages. Although the unit had only one engineer company, it compensated for this deficiency with two additional artillery companies, which were assigned directly to the garrison. The Japanese had a total of fifty-nine artillery pieces at Hutou, in addition to their eight medium mortars, eighteen antiaircraft guns, and ten antiaircraft machine guns. They divided the fortress into three districts for defensive responsibilities, each garrisoned by four infantry companies and an artillery unit, respectively.

Although the Hutou garrison enjoyed a surplus of men and equipment in relation to its mission, garrison life there was especially hard. The physical isolation and severe climatic conditions made life bleak. High humidity in the underground forts rusted weapons, spoiled food, and proved unhealthy for the troops stationed there. The forts lacked soundproofing, so every noise reverberated throughout the fortress. There was no air circulation equipment, although vents and exhausts for gases and human waste did exist. The Kwantung Army declared the fortress a restricted area and identification was required to enter the zone, which began just north of Hutou City. When local trains neared Hutou, conductors or guards pulled curtains over the windows so the passengers could not see the fortifications. From 1941 on, local authorities censored all mail and photographs. Hutou was a bleak tour of duty.

Map 5-1. Japanese and Soviet Positions on the Eve of the Attack.

The Japanese were unable to maintain the high personnel and equipment standards of the 4th BGU because of vast personnel transfers as units in Manchuria were transferred to the Pacific fighting fronts. In February 1945, 4th BGU personnel served as cadre and fillers for the newly organized 122d Infantry Division. Their equipment was also shifted, in particular antiaircraft artillery and antiaircraft machine guns. In order to maintain this strategically important fortification system (not to mention justifying the huge sum of money expended in constructing the forts) the Kwantung Army, on 20 July 1945, used the remaining members of the disbanded 4th BGU as a nucleus for the new 15th BGU, supplemented by 600 additional troops who had been called up during the July 1945 general mobilization. The 15th BGU had approximately 1,400 officers and men (see table 5-1).

Table 5-1. Japanese 15th Border Guard Unit Strength
Authorized TO&E	Actual TO&E	Frontage/Depth
12 infantry companies 3 artillery batteries 4 artillery companies 1 engineer company	4 infantry companies 2 artillery companies 1 engineer platoon (4)	8,000/6,000 meters

Even these units were not up to authorized TO&E strength. One infantry support company was equipped with obsolete 37-mm antitank guns, and there were thirteen artillery pieces in the artillery companies. Also attached to the fortress were noncombatants like the Hutou Army Hospital, commanded by a major with a staff of 40-50 attached military personnel, 500 Japanese civilians and dependents, and 200 Koreans. In short, the 15th BGU was hopelessly understrength and had only twenty days to prepare itself before the Soviet forces struck it.

Looking west from the Hutou Fortified Region.

Like the other fortified areas along the eastern Manchurian border, the Hutou garrison, as an advanced unit, would use its defenses to check the Soviet advance and thus allow the 135th Infantry Division time to conduct its retrograde movement to the redoubt area. Volunteers would also raid enemy rear areas to disrupt the Soviet advance. 5 A second mission assigned to the garrison units was the destruction of the key railway bridges of the Soviet Far Eastern Railway, which spanned tributaries of the Ussuri River just north of Iman.

The original Soviet bridge, about 7,500 meters from Hutou, fell easily within the 12,750-meter range of the Japanese Type 30 centimeter (cm) howitzer. Aware of the Japanese construction efforts around Hutou in the late 1930s, the Soviets, in turn, built a detour rail line and a new steel bridge some 17,000 meters from Hutou. In January 1942, to foil the Soviet attempt to prevent artillery interdiction of the key rail artery, the Japanese secretly deployed a monstrous Type 40 cm howitzer capable of hurling a 1,000-kilogram shell more than 21,000 meters. The gun was never test-fired because the Japanese did not want to reveal its presence to the Soviets. Its mission was simple: destroy the Soviet new steel bridge with the first few rounds it fired. This doctrine was consistent with Japanese field artillery practices. In 1943 a 24-cm locomotive gun with a range of more than fifty kilometers also arrived at Hutou. In summary, the Hutou fortress had the twin missions of delaying and interdicting the enemy.

The Soviets regarded Hutou as a considerable strongpoint, and they correctly estimated that the Japanese had positioned themselves in a narrow section of the most vulnerable Iman sector and had echeloned their units in great depth along the railroad and highway running from Hutou to Mishan and thence into the interior of Manchuria. 6 The entire Soviet strategy for the Manchurian campaign depended on speed to prevent the Japanese from regrouping or consolidating their forces. For that reason, the Soviets could not afford to get bogged down in a contest for Hutou. Instead, Soviet mobile units would bypass the main Japanese defenses, and specially tasked units would stay behind to reduce the fortress. The Soviets calculated the garrison at Hutou at 3,000 effectives, about double what the Japanese actually had available.

Zakhvatayev concluded that an attack across swampy terrain west of Pavlo-Fedorovka would find the point of weakest Japanese resistance. His main forces would strike from there towards Hulin to cut the railroad between Hulin and Mishan. Subsequently, the 264th Rifle Division and 109th Fortified Region, opposite Hutou, would make an auxiliary thrust to the south of Hutou to destroy the Hutou-Hulin grouping, and then, in cooperation with other units of the 1st Red Banner Army, they would attempt to rout enemy forces at Mishan.⁷

Soviet fortified region units and border guards detachments complemented Soviet 35th Army forces. Opposite Hutou was the 109th Fortified Region, approximately a regiment-size grouping. This fortified region was one of fourteen such entities in the 1st Far Eastern Front area of operations. The unit had the mission of defending about fifty kilometers along the Ussuri River, from about twenty-five kilometers south of Hutou to approximately fifteen kilometers north of the Japanese strongpoint. A comprehensive defensive network of Soviet barbed wire obstacles, antitank ditches, field emplacements, pillboxes, and observation posts dotted the otherwise drab terrain. Broken terrain, cut by numerous sloughs and pockets of marshy ground, characterized the area near both banks of the Ussuri.

Iman City, seven kilometers southeast of Hutou City, was the headquarters of the 57th Border Guards Detachment. According to Japanese records, the 57th had about 2,300 personnel and six gunboats, which their river patrol guards used.

Map 5-2. Overview of 35th Soviet Army Operations

Members of the fortified regions and the border guards detachments had remained in the Soviet Far East throughout the Soviet-German War (22 June 1941-7 May 1945). They had the detailed knowledge of the region that only comes with years of personal observation and experience. Their expertise would greatly benefit the Soviet forces when they crossed the Soviet-Manchurian border, because border guards units would make the initial crossing of the Ussuri and destroy the Japanese outposts that they had watched for so many years. Fortified region and border guards troops would also serve as guides to help the regular Soviet units through otherwise unfamiliar terrain.

On the evening of the Soviet attack, members of the 15th BGU were conducting routine patrol and observation duties. The unit commander, Col. Nishiwaki Takeshi, was at Yehho, about 320 kilometers southeast of Hutou, attending a 5th Army Headquarters briefing for division, brigade, and associated unit commanders.8 There had been local indicators of Soviet activity, but higher headquarters dismissed such warnings, apparently because they did not coincide with the Kwantung Army's estimate that a Soviet attack before September was unlikely.

On 5 and 6 August, for example, small Soviet patrols crossed the border about forty kilometers south of Hutou. ⁹ and on 6 August the BGU headquarters intelligence unit at Hutou reported intercepting a Soviet signal to the effect that the Soviets would soon attack Manchuria.¹⁰ On the afternoon of 8 August, troops patrolling around Hutou's northernmost outpost, about thirty kilometers north of the main defenses, discovered pontoon rafts in the Ussuri River. They assumed that the rafts were debris from a Soviet summer military exercise.

Even after Soviet artillery began to rain down upon the Japanese on 9 August, no one at headquarters believed that they were under attack. They could of course hear the artillery barrage, but the Japanese thought that it was associated with night exercises the Soviets occasionally conducted. Indeed, during June and July 1945, battalions, regiments, and divisions assigned to 35th Army had conducted such exercises on terrain similar to the area of their forthcoming operations.¹¹

Exactly when the Soviets opened artillery fire on the Japanese remains uncertain. The Japanese claim that the barrage began shortly after midnight on 9 August, while Soviet accounts set the time at 0100 that day. ¹² Thunder storms had erupted throughout the Maritime Provinces during the evening of 8 August, so the front commander decided to break through the Japanese fortified positions without a prolonged artillery preparation, relying instead on the cover of darkness and the heavy downpour to gain offensive surprise. Artillery preparation was conducted only in the zone of the 35th Army.¹³

Japanese casualties from the shelling were negligible, but the bombardment cut the road, railroad, and communications networks around Hutou in several places. Outposts were unable to contact their headquarters to report Soviet crossings of the Ussuri. At 0100, under the cover of a short artillery preparation, Soviet border guards troops of the 57th Border Detachment in platoon to company strength crossed the Ussuri on cutters with muffled motors or other types of boats throughout the 35th Army zone. In the Hutou area, one such detachment landed north of Hutou and overran and scattered the eighteen Japanese defenders there. At 0200, again under cover of Soviet artillery, the lead elements o£ the 1058th Rifle Regiment's advanced battalion crossed the Ussuri and, south of Hutou City, annihilated a Japanese outpost that had been covering the southern approaches to the main road and railway to Mishan. ¹⁴

Looking south from Hutou

At 0500 the Soviet artillery fire lifted. The Japanese took advantage of the lull to issue an emergency assembly order and to gather up several hundred dependents near Hutou and take them into the fortress for shelter. One hour later the Soviet artillery bombardment resumed; the temporary respite was a Soviet tactic to confuse the defenders into thinking an attack was imminent, thus forcing them into the open to repulse it. This time small caliber guns firing from positions on the Ussuri's east bank joined the barrage. Fire was accurate enough to keep Japanese heads down, but casualties were slight. Damage to open field fortifications, unreinforced positions, and roads, however, was extensive.

*According to Soviet accounts, one battalion made the river crossing.

About 0800 approximately two battalions of Soviet riflemen from the 1056th Rifle Regiment started to cross the Ussuri south of Hutou City, while smaller, diversionary crossings occurred east of the city. By 1100 the Soviets had succeeded in establishing a firm bridgehead north and south of the city, despite suffering heavy casualties from two Japanese mortar crews.* ¹⁵ Nevertheless, the Soviets had avoided a costly frontal attack on Hutou by moving to outflank the main fortress and to envelop the position.

Map 5-3. Japanese Artillery Coverage at Hutou

During this entire time, the Japanese artillery had remained silent and had not returned Soviet fire. The Japanese had heavy artillery available, but a lack of trained artillerymen hampered getting the guns into action. Moreover, the artillery commander, Capt. Oki Masao, had to do double duty as fortress commander. The guns consequently were not used to best effect during the early stage of the battle. Because the railway gun had not fired a single shot in anger against the Soviets, 5th Army Headquarters ordered it pulled back to Mishan shortly after dawn.

Captain Oki did not know whether this was a localized Soviet attack or the vanguard of a Soviet invasion, because communications with other friendly units had been disrupted, and the fortress commander was absent and unable to provide any guidance. Oki was not alone in his confusion: Kwantung Army Headquarters waited until 0600 on 9 August (five to six hours after the commencement of the Soviet invasion) before issuing orders to its subordinate units to destroy the invaders in accordance with respective operational plans. 16

Not until 1100 did the acting commander of the 15th BGU authorize his artillery to return Soviet fire. At that time he ordered BGU forces to counterattack Soviet troops on the Ussuri's west bank and his artillery to suppress Soviet positions and artillery batteries. ¹⁷ The 40-cm howitzer then fired at the Iman railway bridge, while the 15-cm guns hit at Soviet artillery batteries opposite Hutou Station (see map 5-3). These specific targets had long been plotted on firing tables and had their meteorological data computed, so the initial rounds were very accurate. The one-ton projectiles hit the Iman bridge and, according to Japanese sources, temporarily closed it to rail traffic. ¹⁸

The Soviets retaliated with a renewed artillery barrage directed against the now revealed Japanese artillery positions. An aviation force consisting of forty-nine IL-14 bombers, provided cover by fifty fighters, mounted a two-hour bombing raid on the defensive works, particularly the Japanese artillery batteries. Russian artillery fire was especially violent because there were ten battalions of a Soviet army artillery group in place in order to destroy the permanent emplacements at Hutou.¹⁹ Soviet artillery concentrated on the Japanese 40-cm howitzer and scored a direct hit on the concrete embrasure protecting the gun. Altogether, the 40-cm howitzer would fire seventy-four rounds before a direct hit and explosion inside the cupola destroyed the gun and its crew on 12 August.

Under the artillery and air cover, Soviet troops continued to cross the Ussuri during the day and expand the Soviet bridgehead (see map 5-4). Troops from the 1056th Rifle Regiment continued crossing east and south of Hutou and overran two small Japanese outposts just south of Hutou (called by the Soviets Krepost [fortress]). Two composite companies of the 109th Fortified Region, one company of the 1058th Rifle Regiment, and one company of the 8th Field Fortified Area were also across the river. ²⁰ The 1056th Rifle Regiment began slowly moving northward toward Hutou City and the Japanese observation post at Rinkodai. The 1058th Rifle Regiment and 109th Fortified Region advanced toward the Yuehya Railroad Station southwest of the city, while other elements of the regiment approached Hutou City from the west.

Map 5-4. Soviet Attack on Hutou

Thus, the 1058th and 1056th Rifle Regiments of the 264th Rifle Division enveloped Hutou to the south and cut the Hutou-Mishan road. As the two regiments advanced to secure the city, the 1060th Rifle Regiment prepared to move westward toward Hulin. The 264th Rifle Division had carried out its first essential mission by bypassing and isolating the Hutou complex, thereby securing the right flank of the front's battle group.

At Hutou the Soviet 264th Rifle Division, again under the cover of their artillery, tanks, and aircraft, isolated the fortress and moved against the city. 21 The Japanese defenders slowly withdrew from their outposts towards the fortified region, while using the cover of darkness to launch local counterattacks. Japanese troops assigned to the 2d Artillery Company exited the fortress near the central entrance and tried to dislodge the Soviet attackers on the river bank. These soldiers seem to have had some success, because they returned carrying artillery ammunition, weapons, and food. Another raiding party of infantrymen was less fortunate and was never heard of again.

The weather cleared on 10 August, but smoke and debris soon concealed the Hutou fortress from view. At 0630 Soviet and Japanese gunners began exchanging artillery fire. That duel lasted until about 1100, when Soviet light bombers flew at low level to bomb and strafe Japanese gun positions. Soviet bombers did inflict heavy casualties and destroyed one Japanese artillery piece. The aircraft were able to bomb with impunity because the Japanese had no antiaircraft artillery or machine guns to defend themselves against air attack.

The Soviets launched the main attack against Hutou City from the south, with diversionary attacks to the north and center of the fortress. The intent was to secure the city and thrust into the Japanese fortified zone north of Hutou. The 1056th Rifle Regiment and machine gun battalions of the 109th Fortified Region engaged in heavy fighting to capture the Hutou piers just east of the town. ²² The 1058th Rifle Regiment attacked the southern suburbs in an attempt to sweep through the city to the north and split the defenders in two. Soviet troops managed to reach the defenses of 1st Company, 15th BGU, before a Japanese counterattack and hand-to-hand fighting drove them back south. By nightfall the Soviets, in spite of two Japanese counterattacks, had been able to seize the town of Hutou. They had less success against the fortifications adjacent to the city. ²³ Indicative of the hard fighting, a captured Soviet lieutenant told the Japanese that he had had almost no sleep for three days and nights. ²⁴

Hutou dock area

*A Soviet rifle division contained a separate self-propelled (SP) artillery battalion (thirteen SU-76s).

To reduce the Japanese fortifications the Soviets formed assault groups from the attached combat engineer battalion and the forward rifle companies of the division's first echelon battalions (see map 5-5). These assault groups would infiltrate and reduce the Japanese positions. The division assault groups consisted of a rifle platoon with a field engineer and an antitank squad, one or two tanks or self-propelled artillery mounts, two machine gun squads, and two manpack flamethrower crews.* Obstacle clearing groups included three or four machine gunners and three or four combat engineers equipped with mine detectors, prodders, two bangalore torpedoes, clippers, and compasses. Each first echelon rifle company had two such groups. ²⁵ One Japanese account refers to "infiltration attacks," which were probably the Soviet assault and obstacle clearing groups working themselves into position for night attacks.

That evening, after the Soviet capture of Hutou City, a fierce Soviet artillery barrage raked the Japanese defenders in the fortified areas. The Soviets followed up the bombardment with a three-pronged attack by units from the 1056th Rifle Regiment, 1058th Rifle Regiment, and 109th Fortified Region. In this situation the Soviets relied on the forward battalions to penetrate the fortified areas. Taking advantage of darkness to conceal their movements and to attain surprise, they tried to seal off or destroy key strongpoints within the fortified areas by dawn. ²⁶ The direct assaults on the night of the tenth failed.

After their failure to cut the fortress in half with a single offensive thrust, the Soviets became more cautious. The 35th Army commander ordered the 1056th Rifle Regiment and 109th Fortified Region to destroy "methodi cally individual fortifications." ²⁷ The 1058th Rifle Regiment joined the 1060th in the army advance toward Huhn and Mishan. Soviet artillery and bombers pulverized the Japanese positions. This bombardment was so terrifying that the Japanese could not leave their underground positions to fight back. On the morning of this saturation fire, Soviet rifle units, accompanied by tanks (probably assault guns), again infiltrated Japanese defenses.

Assault groups overran the observation post for the central Japanese defenses. After destroying that pocket of resistance, they attempted to identify and bypass the strongest centers of Japanese defenses, leaving those for the rifle regiments to reduce. ²⁸ Meanwhile, other Soviet units swung northwest around the fortifications.

At mid-morning two Soviet rifle companies working their way from the south to the north stormed Hill 119 and annihilated a platoon-size Japanese force defending that high ground. About the same time, a Japanese outpost manned by eighteen soldiers and flanking the southern approaches to Hutou from Hill 90 was overrun and the defenders listed as missing in action. These small unit actions were characteristic of the Soviets' systematic isolation and reduction o£ the fortress. They were not spectacular operations, but they achieved their purpose of dividing the fortress and blinding its eyes.

Map 5-5. Soviet Reduction of the Hutou Fortress

That afternoon the 2d Artillery Company's 30-cm gun position, located just south of Hill 103, came under attack by approximately three rifle companies. The Japanese managed to destroy their own guns before they had to withdraw. Matters got worse for the Japanese. Following up the capture of Hill 119, the Soviets surrounded the heights and cut off all contact between 2d Company, 15th BGU, and the main fortress. The 2d Infantry Company existed in isolation and would fight on until 26 August before succumbing to the Soviet onslaught.

The Soviets spent 12 August consolidating their gains and using their newly won high ground to spot for their artillery, Soviet forward observers atop Hills 90 and 119 called down accurate artillery fire on the Japanese defenders. Japanese artillery was unable to return the fire because the Soviet spotters were adjacent to them in dead spaces. As their artillery pummeled the Japanese, the Soviets made preparations for their next major assault on the fortress.

On 13 August Soviet artillery, tanks, and infantry launched a concentrated assault on the very center of the Hutou fortress and on the only Japanese observation post (Rinkodai) remaining on the high ground over looking the Ussuri. With assault groups leading the way, Soviet riflemen and tanks struck the fortress from the west, or rear, approach. First, they overran a Japanese outpost on the northeast side of the fortress and then sent infantry and tanks to drive a wedge from the west. Simultaneously, to the east, Soviet troops took the summits in the 3d Infantry Company, 15th BGU, defensive sector, despite Japanese counterattacks and hand grenade battles. From this high ground the Soviets dispatched assault groups to infiltrate the Japanese fortifications. After locating the exhaust vents of the fortress, Soviet combat engineers poured gasoline into the vents and ignited the fuel. Garrison members sheltered underground were asphyxiated. This practice became a standard Soviet tactic to drive the Japanese to the surface.

During this fighting, one of the Soviet tanks supporting the infantry apparently scored a direct hit on a 15-cm gun belonging to the nearby 2d Battery of the 2d Artillery Company. Assault teams and heavy artillery destroyed thirty Japanese weapons emplacements in a single day, probably 13 August.29 The 109th Fortified Region units conducted many of these combined arms attacks.

The Japanese platoon occupying the summit at Rinkodai, the high ground just above the fortress observation post, had been waging a bitter four-day struggle. The fifty men had been fighting since the evening of 9 August. Finally on the thirteenth, the Soviets dislodged the defenders, but the Japanese regrouped and attacked up the slope. Their counterattack surprised the Soviets and swept them from the heights. The Soviets, in turn, drove the Japanese from the high ground, and the positions changed hands several times as nearby Japanese observers with binoculars witnessed grenade exchanges and hand-to-hand combat. Soviet numbers spelled victory, and waving a huge red flag, Soviet infantrymen stormed the heights and drove away the Japanese. That night, however, a twenty-two-year-old probational officer led a final sword-swinging counterattack against the Soviets. He was killed by a hand grenade, and the rest of his men perished. The central outpost was now completely in Soviet hands.

The Soviets continued to proceed methodically. After a rainstorm on 14 August, a Soviet infantry battalion surrounded the remaining Japanese outpost near Hill 103, called Ostraia (Sharp) by the Soviets. The Japanese defenders slipped away during the night and contacted friendly units. With the fall of the last Japanese observation post, the Soviets had effectively blinded Japanese artillery. The surviving artillerymen were therefore divided into antitank suicide squads and "special" (read "suicide") attack units. ³⁰

*These tanks may have come from the 3d Battalion, 125th Tank Brigade, which had originally tried to spearhead the Soviet advance across the swampy Sungacha Valley. Finding it impossible to move in the marshes, this brigade and the 209th Tank Brigade were pulled back into reserve on 10 August. The 125th, less the 3d Battalion, later appeared at Mishan.31 The apparent lack of coordinated effort in support of the 15 August night attack supports the theory that these tanks came from units not originally attached to the 264th Rifle Division or to the 109th Fortified Region. These two units seem to have operated together, probably because of the extensive training they had undergone just before the invasion.

The Japanese defenders never received word of the emperor's radio broadcast ending hostilities, and the fighting continued as it had on previous days. Under overcast skies and rain, the Soviets tried to overrun the remaining Japanese 15-em artillery piece in the 2d Artillery Company's sector. Grenades and point-blank artillery fire forced the Soviet attackers to withdraw. That night about fifteen Soviet medium tanks attacked the Japanese outpost protecting the entrance to the main underground fortress just north of Hill 103. The tanks shelled the entrance for about one hour before withdrawing.*

In a downpour on 16 August, the struggle for the central heights, Ostraia, continued. Farther west, Soviet tanks appeared that day, and about thirty attacked the 2d Infantry Company atop Hill 145. The company commander, a second lieutenant, had about 180 men-100 infantry and the rest a 37-mm antitank squad. The 37-mm was obsolete and worthless against Soviet T-34 tanks, as shells just ricocheted off the Soviet armor plating. The Japanese second lieutenant led repeated counterattacks against the Soviet tanks, but the net result was to get himself and most of his men killed in the hopeless struggle. By the end of the sixteenth, after a three-day struggle, the Soviets secured Ostraia, but only after the central heights had changed hands nine times. ³² The hilltop did hold out for another eleven days, but the Soviets surrounded and occupied the hill above the underground fort on 20 August. The Japanese survivors, after a last-ditch attempt to break out on 26 August, committed suicide with hand grenades and explosives near the underground entrance. ³³

The defense was now degenerating into a cat-and-mouse game. Soviet engineers and infantrymen held most of the ground underneath which the Japanese tenaciously held scattered fortified points. The Soviets searched for exhaust vents, and if they discovered one, poured gasoline into it and ignited the fluid. Carbon monoxide levels in the underground vaults reached dangerous proportions, and some garrison members and their dependents became violently ill.

*According to the revised 1941 version of the Japanese Articles of War, troops who surrendered uninjured risked court-martial punishment. The Soviets were also impressed by the incident and later described it as a wholesale massacre in which "prisoners were chopped up by the sabres of Japanese officers.35

As desperate as their situtation was, the Japanese had no intention of giving up. They demonstrated this dramatically on 17 August when the Soviets sent a five-man delegation comprising captured Japanese into the fortress under a white flag. The delegation reported in bright sunlight to a Japanese first lieutenant and informed him that Japan had surrendered unconditionally two days earlier. The officer departed; when he returned, he told the delegation that Japanese soldiers could never surrender.* To punctuate his point, he suddenly drew his sword and beheaded one member of the surrender delegation.

The Soviets immediately pounded the Japanese positions with artillery and bomber attacks. Then Soviet assault groups led rifle companies in an attack against Hill 114, occupied by the 3d Infantry Company. Heavy fighting developed over the control of this summit. By nightfall the Soviets had already occupied the highest ground around Hill 114 and had brought in field artillery to fire directly into Japanese defensive positions. The Japanese counterattacked and once even seized the Soviet gun pits, but the superior Soviet strength drove the desperate defenders back. The Soviets then positioned self-propelled guns, rocket launchers, and other weapons previously unobserved by the Japanese near the slope of Hill 114. Their combined artillery bombardment, again coupled with air strikes, made it impossible for the Japanese defenders to leave their underground positions to defend the heights. Under this massive covering fire, Soviet riflemen took all of Hill 114 and then repositioned their own artillery weapons on the summit. ³⁴

That same day, the 4th Infantry Company, 15th BGU, defending the northernmost sector of the fortress and protecting the northern flank of the 2d Artillery Company's gun positions, was overrun. The 4th had held what the Soviets called Severnyi Gorodok (Northern Village) against Soviet attacks on 13 and 14 August. These company- and platoon-size Soviet attacks were most likely probes designed to fix the Japanese defenders and defenses for the main attack. With only about half his original 150 effectives still alive, the Japanese company commander had to abandon the northern salient and lead his survivors to the main Japanese fortifications. Most of the men, however, were killed or captured during their attempted escape. The company commander later died during captivity in the USSR. ³⁶

Around 2200 on 17 August, the Soviets succeeded in surrounding the 2d Artillery Company's positions. During this fighting, one Japanese 15-cm cannon gun turret was destroyed when its companion gun accidently hit it while attempting to fire point-blank into the Soviet attackers. At dawn on 18 August, the Soviets launched a large-scale assault on the positions of the 2d Artillery. A Soviet rifle battalion, probably from the 1056th Rifle Regiment, supported by self-propelled guns, tanks, and the 97th Separate Artillery Battalion of the 109th Fortified Region, resumed its attack on the positions. Covered by the tank and self-propelled direct fire, as well as by the direct fire of the 97th's guns, Soviet infantrymen tried to break into the underground vaults and destroy the gun turrets within. A vicious struggle ensued in which the Japanese were reduced to firing blank cartridges into the onrushing Soviet troops. Not willing to squander manpower to achieve the inevitable, the Soviets withdrew. During the seventeenth the Soviets brought up two batteries of 203-mm guns to help reduce the fortified positions by direct fire. In all, thirty-four high powered guns joined in the reduction effort. ³⁷

The next day the Soviets continued their attacks, but the Japanese judged that Soviet losses on the eighteenth must have been considerable, because the Soviets did not press their attacks with any great enthusiasm. Artillery and aircraft pounded the remaining Japanese pockets of resistance, and "heavy tanks" (probably assault guns) reached the main entrance to the underground complex, where Soviet riflemen and machine gunners exchanged grenades and small arms fire with the Japanese defenders. Enemy shelling finally destroyed a portion of the thick concrete roof between the 2d Artillery Company and the command post. Communications were severed, and the passageway turned into a small lake because of a steady downpour through the gaping hole in the roof. The Soviets now controlled all the top ground, and the Japanese scurried below, trying to strike back at their tormentors.

The fighting, for all intents, was over. On the night of the nineteenth, after Soviet probes against the central Japanese positions, several Japanese blew themselves to pieces to avoid the disgrace of being captured alive. Others were cut down by Soviet machine gunners as they tried to escape what had been transformed into a big underground tomb.

A few Japanese survivors watched as the Soviets collected Soviet dead in broad daylight on 20 August, apparently unconcerned that the Japanese were still prowling in the bowels of the forts. That night small parties of Japanese tried to escape. Some were successful, but most were not.

The Soviets proceeded methodically to finish off the Japanese still underground, including 600 noncombatants. The Japanese allege that the Soviets used some form of gas to eliminate these last pockets of resistance. Only on 22 August, following still more air strikes and artillery barrages, did the 109th Fortified Region finally declare that it had seized the center of Japanese resistance. ³⁸

Captured Japanese heavy artillery piece at Hutou

There were no massed frontal assaults or wave-type attacks. Soviet infantrymen flanked, enveloped, encircled, isolated, and then destroyed Japanese strongpoints. The Soviets were extremely frugal with their own lives, but lavish with artillery and air support for their Hutou operation. Sheer Soviet manpower did not take Hutou. Soviet combined arms forces worked well together during the fighting. As soon as the infantry identified significant Japanese targets, Soviet air, artillery, or self-propelled assault guns would bring fire to bear on those targets. The infantry also showed its initiative by skillful infiltration tactics, usually conducted at night, which isolated Japanese strongpoints at a cost of minimum Soviet casualties. The infiltrators also became spotters and observers to identify lucrative targets for their other combined arms to overcome. The Soviets also took advantage of the cover of darkness to position troops and weapons for early morning surprise assaults against Japanese fortifications. It is true that the Japanese opposition was inferior in every respect to its Soviet opponents. But the Soviets were able to accomplish all their objectives at Hutou in a relatively rapid manner without expending vast quantities of human lives. Soviet commanders appear to have judged the Japanese military situation accurately and conducted their operations with the skill and precision that only years of command instill.

Notes

U.S. Army Forces Far East, Military History Section, Japanese Studies on Manchuria, vol. 11, pt. 2: Small Wars and Border Problems (Tokyo, 1956), 21. Ibid. See also Yamanishi Sakae, "TōManshu Kōtō yōsai no gekitō" Eastern Manchuria: The fierce battle of the Hutou Fortress], Rekishi to Jinbutsu, August 1979:99-100. In August 1945, Yamanishi was a second lieutenant in command of an outpost o£ the Hutou fortress. Yamanishi, "Kōtō yōsai," 102. SoMan kōkkyō, 122. Also see Yamanishi, "Kōtō yōsai," 100. SoMan kōkkyō, 122. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 42. Idid.: Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 94. Bōeichō Bōei Kenshūjō Senshishitau [Japan Self Defense Forces, National Defense College Military History Department], ed., Senshi sōsho: Kantōgan (2) [Military history series: The Kwantung Army, vol. 21 (Tokyo: Asagumo shinbunsha, 1974), 482. Kusachi Teigō, Sonohi, Kantōgun wa [That day, the Kwantung Army] (Tokyo: Miyakawa shobo, 1967), 97. SoMan kōkkyō, 148. Vnothenko, Pobeda, 117-42. SoMan kōkkyō, 137, 152. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 45. lbid_ 46: SoMan kōkkyō. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 46; Yamanishi, "Kōtō yōsai," 99. Bōeichp, Senshi Sōsho. 395. SoMan kōkkyō, 167: Yamanishi, "Kōtō yōsai," 101-2.

SoMan kōkkyō, 139: Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 204. IVMV, 232. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 46. Yamanishi, "Kōtō yōsai," 102. IVMV, 25. Vnotchenko, Poheda, 213. SoMan kōkkyō. 1. Tret'iak, "Organizatsiia i vedenie nastupatel'nogo boia" [The organization and conduct of offensive battle], VIZh, July 1980:2. Vnotchenko, Poheda, 213. Ibid. IVMV, 232. Ibid. SoMan kōkkyō. Pechenenko, "Armeiskaia," 47, on. 12 and 13. SoMan kōkkyō Yamanishi, "Kōtō yōsai," 106-7. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 253. Ibid., 285. Ibid., 263. SoMan kōkkyō, 174, Ibid. IVMV, 252.

Army Operations in Arid Mountains	6

In the eyes of Soviet planners the most critical sector of operations against western Manchuria was extreme eastern Mongolia, the salient around Tamsag-Bulag that pointed like a dagger toward the interior of Manchuria. The eastern end of the salient was the closest point to central Manchuria where Soviet forces could deploy. The salient, however, directly faced one of the two heavily defended avenues of approach through the Grand Khingan Mountains, the route from Halung-Arshaan to Solon. Into this sector the Soviets deployed three armies. Two of the armies (6th Guards Tank Army and 39th Army), acting as a shock group, would spearhead the advance. These two armies would advance rapidly, bypass the Japanese permanent defenses, and penetrate quickly into central Manchuria before the surprised Japanese could halt them. Surprise was paramount and would more than compensate for potential Japanese resistance and the hindrances of the rugged terrain. Surprise plus a rapid advance in the west would secure victory for the Soviets in Manchuria as a whole.

The Soviet Far East Command assigned responsibility for operations against western Manchuria to the Trans-Baikal Front of Marshal Rodion Ya. Malinovsky. A High Command directive of 5 July 1945 ordered the front to "strike the main blow with a force of three combined arms armies and one tank army to envelop the Halung-Arshaan Fortified Region from the south in the general direction of Changchun." 1 The immediate mission of the front was to smash the defending enemy, cross the Grand Khingan Mountains, and then to secure with main front forces a line from Dabanshan through Lupei to Solun by the fifteenth day of the operation. By the tenth day of the operation, the 6th Guards Tank Army, operating in the general direction of Changchun, would force the Grand Khingan Mountains, defend the passes through the mountains, and hold them against enemy reserves until the arrival of the follow-on combined arms armies. Then, the main forces of the front would secure the ChihfengMukden-Shantoiakou-Changchun-Chalantun line.

Marshal Malinovsky's concept of the operation required

Malinovsky designated the 39th, 53d, and 17th Armies and the 6th Guards Tank Army to make the front main attack. The 39th Army, 17th Army, and 6th Guards Tank Army would be in first echelon; the 53d Army, in second echelon. The 39th Army and 6th Guards Tank Army would attack from the Mongolian salient east of Tamsag-Bulag. In a visit to 39th Army headquarters on 12 July, Malinovsky spelled out the specific task of 39th Army. It was to

In addition, the army would attack with a force of not less than two rifle divisions on a secondary axis toward Hailar and would cooperate with 36th Army to prevent Japanese forces at Hailar from supporting those at Solun. A third force of one rifle division would attack the right (northern) flank of the Halung-Arshaan Fortified Region. To accomplish this mission, the 39th Army commander, General 1. I. Lyudnikov had three rifle corps of nine rifle divisions, two tank brigades, one tank division, and numerous attached supporting units. The army mustered a total strength of 502 tanks and self-propelled guns and 2,708 guns and mortars (see table 6-1 ). ⁴

General Lyudnikov's 39th Army occupied the easternmost portion of the Outer Mongolian Tamsag-Bulag salient. Directly to the east of his forces loomed the central sector of the Grand Khingan Mountains and the pass through the mountains running northwest to southeast from Handagai to Wuchakou. South of the pass, the mountains ranged in heights of from 1,200 to 1,400 meters, 200 to 300 meters above the elevation from which the army launched its attack. These mountains, which extended to a depth of 100 kilometers east to west, offered good visibility, because trees existed only near springs and in the valleys that traversed the mountains. North of the main pass, the mountains rose higher (1,800 meters) and the mountainous region was wider (200 kilometers). Soil conditions and scattered wooded areas made movement in this sector, especially during rainy periods, virtually impossible. Gullies, narrow valleys, and defiles intersected the entire mountain massif.

The narrow pass from Handagai to Wuchakou was traversed by a rail line and a road that ran throughout its length. The Taoerh Ho flowed through the pass, forming an obstacle to lateral movement, especially in flood stage. The only road in the entire region suitable to support military operations was the Handagai-Wuchakou-Solun road. Formidable as these natural obstacles were, the primary obstacles to movement through the pass were numerous and substantial fortifications and defensive field positions the Japanese had erected. Around Iruse, Arshaan, and Wuchakou, the Japanese constructed defensive emplacements consisting of pillboxes, earthen dugouts, trenches, and, in the Wuchakou area, reinforced concrete field fortifications. A line of entrenchments covered the railroad toward south of Arshaan, and additional field works covered the road junction south of Handagai. West of the road in the hills adjacent to the border, the Japanese built observation posts and occasional field works manned by units ranging in size from squad to full battalion. A second line of field positions to the west of Wangyemiao was incomplete in August 1945. In short, an extensive and elaborate fortification system defended the main avenue of approach into central Manchuria from Outer Mongolia.

Table 6-2. Japanese 107th Infantry Division Composition
107th Infantry Division
90th Infantry Regiment
177th Infantry Regiment
178th Infantry Regiment
107th Artillery Regiment
107th Engineer Regiment
107th Transportation Regiment
107th Signal Regiment
107th Reconnaissance Company
Source: Ōta Hisaō. Dai 107 shidan shi: Saigō made tatakatta Kantōgun (The history of the 107th Division: The Kwantung Army that resisted to the last] (Tokyo: Taiseidō Shoran Shuppanbu, 1979), 14, 24, 26, 72, 76-79.

The Japanese 107th Infantry Division of Lt. Gen. Abe Koichi, with headquarters at Wuchakou, manned these fortifications and positions along the rail line to Wangyemiao (see table 6-2). The 107th Infantry Division was subordinate to 44th Army, whose mission was to cover enemy invasion routes into western Manchuria from Handagai to the south. To accomplish its mission, the 44th Army deployed its 107th Infantry Division in the HandagaiWangyemiao sector, its 117th Infantry Division farther to the rear at Paichengtzu, and its 63d Infantry Division to the south at Tungliao. The 2d Raiding Battalion stationed at Wangyemiao would support the 107th Infantry Division. 5

The 107th Infantry Division placed two regiments (90th and 177th) in positions to defend the critical route from Handagai to Wuchakou. The 1st Battalion, 90th Infantry Regiment, defended Iruse, with its outposts covering Handagai and the areas west of Iruse along the Mongolian border. The 2d Battalion, 90th Infantry Regiment, defended a string of companysize outposts west of Arshaan and manned fortifications around Arshaan proper and the railroad tunnel to the south. The 3d Battalion, 90th Infantry Regiment, and the three battalions of the 177th Infantry Regiment defended positions ringing Wuchakou and the heavily fortified emplacements in the immediate vicinity of the city. The raiding battalion of the 107th Infantry Division, formed only in July, was also stationed at Wuchakou. The 178th Infantry Regiment occupied positions at Solon, Wangyemiao, and other points along the rail line between those major towns. 7 The 44th Army's 2d Raiding Battalion at Wangyemiao and the Manchurian 2d Cavalry Division, headquartered at Solun, provided additional support for the 107th Infantry Division.

Although the 107th Infantry Division had adequate manpower, its weaponry was deficient. In June 1945 Imperial General Headquarters had requisitioned half of its antitank guns for use in the defense of Japan and had also reduced the equipment of the artillery regiment. Yet, given the nature of fixed defenses in the region adjacent to the Mongolian border and Japanese faith in terrain as an effective barrier to Soviet attack, the Japanese 44th Army felt its position to be relatively secure in August 1945. As one staff officer stated, "In the immediate vicinity of the 44th Army border, there were absolutely no indications of a large concentration of troops even immediately prior to Soviet Russia's entry into the war." ⁸

Having received his army's mission from Marshal Malinovsky, General Lyudnikov planned his operations in light of the terrain and Japanese deployments. Lyudnikov's ultimate aim was to attack swiftly in order to deny the Japanese the opportunity to regroup and construct a broader defensive line. He also wanted to avoid a costly direct attack on the heavily fortified Japanese defenses in the Grand Khingan passes. To accomplish these ambitious goals, 39th Army would attempt to sustain an advance of fifty to sixty kilometers per day, which would enable the army to move forward in tandem with 6th Guards Tank Army advancing on its right. Such a pace would insure that on the seventh day of the operation the 39th Army would be around the defended pass and able to secure a line from Solon to Hailahai.

The final 39th Army plan called for a two-stage army operation of six to seven days' duration to accomplish the missions spelled out in the Trans-Baikal Front plan. ⁹ During the first stage, 39th Army would bypass the forward Japanese defenses and cross the Grand Khingan Mountains. The main attack force would march south and east via Dzurkin Harul and Boto Nela to reach a line of Tiikhonera-Kakusupera, while the secondary attack force would reach Ulan Koragan, Bain Chaumiao, and Tappi Bancha. The first stage was scheduled to last four days. In the second stage, the Army would attack Solun and Hailar to destroy Japanese forces in those regions. The second stage would last two to three days.

Trans-Baikal Front troops move forward into jumping-off positions

*Soviet term for multiple rocket launcher units.

General Lyudnikov's army operational formation was designed to achieve these objectives rapidly. The army formed in a single echelon of three rifle corps abreast. On the main attack axis (against Solun), the 61st Tank Division led the attack as the mobile group of the army. The 113th Rifle Corps of Lt. Gen. N. N. Oleshev and 5th Guards Rifle Corps of Lt. Gen. I. S. Bezugly followed the tank division on a front forty-five kilometers wide. Each of the corps had a reinforced tank brigade attached for use as a corps forward detachment. A divisional forward detachment consisting of a rifle battalion on trucks, a self-propelled artillery battalion, an antitank battalion, an artillery battalion, and two guards mortar battalions* led the advance of each first echelon rifle division. The division forward detachments led the offensive, followed by the tank brigades (corps forward detachments) and the two rifle divisions (in corps first echelon). The remaining rifle division in each corps second echelon brought up the rear. All units of the army advanced in march column formation.¹⁰

On the secondary attack axis (against Hailar), the 94th Rifle Corps of Maj. Gen. I. 1. Popov placed both of its rifle divisions in first echelon. The 124th Rifle Division of 94th Rifle Corps, in army reserve, deployed directly against the Halung-Arshaan Fortified Region to support the army's main attack.

Table 6-3. Allocation of Support Units to 39th Army Subordinate Units
113th Rifle Corps
	206th Tank Brigade
	69th Light Artillery Brigade
	134th Howitzer Artillery Brigade
	87th Heavy Howitzer Artillery Brigade
	29th Gun Artillery Brigade
	4th Mortar Brigade
	10th Guards Mortar Brigade
	One regiment light antiaircraft artillery
	203d Engineer-Sapper Battalion
	TOTAL:	860 guns and mortars
		112 tanks and self-propelled guns
5th Guards Rifle Corps
	44th Tank Brigade
	8th Howitzer Artillery Brigade
	99th Heavy Howitzer Artillery Brigade
	22d Gun Artillery Brigade
	50th Heavy Mortar Brigade
	43d Mortar Brigade
	14th Guards Mortar Brigade
	65th Guards Mortar Regiment
	One regiment light antiaircraft artillery
	230th Engineer-Sapper Battalion
	TOTAL:	830 guns and mortars
		119 tanks and self-propelled guns
61st Tank Division
	164 tanks
94th Rifle Corps
	1142d Gun Artillery Regiment
	390th Gun Artillery Regiment
	629th Gun Artillery Regiment
	610th Antitank Regiment
	46th Guards Mortar Regiment
	228th Engineer-Sapper Battalion
	TOTAL:	508 guns and mortars
		47 tanks and self-propelled guns
Army Artillery Group
	139th Army Gun Artillery Brigade
	1143d Gun Artillery Regiment
	55th Antitank Brigade (minus one regiment)
	621st Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
	63d Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
	TOTAL:	224 guns and mortars
Artillery Reserve
	164 guns and mortars
Tank Reserve
	13 tanks and self-propelled guns
Engineer Reserve
	One pontoon bridge battalion
	One engineer-sapper battalion
	TOTAL:	2,586 guns and mortars
		455 tanks and self-propelled guns
Source: 1. 1. Lyudnikov, Cherez bol'shoi khingan [Across the Grand Khingan] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1967), 51-52; 1. 1. Lyudnikov, Doroga dlinoiu o zhizn [The long road in life] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1969), 168.

The Trans-Baikal Front provided considerable armor and artillery support to 39th Army so that it could advance rapidly yet simultaneously provide the firepower necessary to reduce Japanese defensive strongholds. The 39th Army routinely deployed its armored units in the first echelon at virtually every level of command. Soviet forces were bypassing the major Japanese defenses, so the army did not need to mass its artillery fires or create regimental, division, or corps artillery groups. Instead, it allocated artillery to the corps and divisions on the basis of one artillery penetration division and one guards mortar regiment per each corps on the main attack axis, a concentration of more than 2,000 guns and mortars in the main attack sector. 11

Most of the artillery moved in column formation, integrated within and following the division and corps march columns. The difficult terrain restricted column movement, especially of heavy equipment, and much o£ the artillery lagged well behind the advancing tanks and infantry. This meant that the army would conduct no systematic artillery preparation preceding the attack. Instead the artillery would be used to fire on-call missions to support the forward movement of the corps' forward detachments.

One fighter aviation division, minus one regiment, of the 12th Air Army would provide air support for 39th Army. On the first day of the operation, aviation would bomb Solon, Hailar, and the Halung-Arshaan Fortified Region and Japanese airfields.¹² Each corps also received heavy engineer support in order to prepare and maintain the almost nonexistent road network, to overcome the Grand Khingan Mountains and water obstacles east of the mountains, and to assist in reducing Japanese fortified positions (see table 6-3).

On 2 August, Marshal Malinovsky visited 39th Army headquarters, approved General Lyudnikov's plan, and ordered 39th Army to move forward into its concentration area. That evening, army units began the 120-130-kilometer march. The 113th Rifle Corps, with its attached units, marched forward in two columns and deployed at 0600 on 4 August near Ara Bulagin Obo. The 5th Guards Rifle Corps marched in three columns and occupied its concentration area east of the 113th Rifle Corps at 0600 on 5 August. The 94th Rifle Corps (minus the 124th Rifle Division) concentrated in the region of Herempte Nur at 0600 on 3 August, while the 124th Rifle Division deployed into positions near Derkin Tragan Obo at 0600 on 5 August. Other army units completed their redeployment by nightfall on 6 August. All units used their time during the long march forward to conduct training and to practice water discipline.¹³

*Used to control vehicle and march column flow.

Late on the evening of 8 August all units occupied jumping-off positions along the border in readiness for the attack. The advance across the border would occur two hours after the receipt from front headquarters of the code word Molniia (lightning). At 2100 on 8 August Gen. M. V. Zakharov, chief of staff of the Trans-Baikal Front, notified 39th Army of the H-hour for the attack and gave precise instructions concerning the initial hours of the attack. The 39th Army units would initiate the attack with a time-phased commitment of its units. Reconnaissance detachments and forward detachments of rifle divisions and road regulators* would cross the border at 0005 on 9 August. The main force of the army would begin its advance toward the border at 0430, and aviation units would begin flying their missions at 0530. Radio networks would go on the air at daylight, but only if other means of communication were unavailable. Subunits were to report their progress to army and front every four hours, beginning at 0600 on the ninth.¹⁴

On the night of 8 August, latest reconnaissance indicated only small Japanese outposts on the border; Japanese units appeared unaware of impending hostilities. Unlike other areas of Manchuria, in the 39th Army sector the weather was clear, and conditions for opening the attack were excellent.

Soviet units cross the Manchurian border (probably 39th Army)

At H-hour, without any artillery or aviation preparation, the forces of 39th Army crossed the border into Manchuria (see map 6-1). The army forward detachment (61st Tank Division) and corps forward detachments preceded the main advance by twenty to thirty kilometers. Reconnaissance units and forward detachments from each first echelon rifle division moved fifteen to thirty kilometers in front of the advancing rifle corps. A rifle regiment led the march column of each rifle division as a divisional advanced guard. Attached artillery marched in parallel columns, ready to provide artillery support for the infantry columns. Simultaneously with the advance of the main force, aviation units struck Japanese military facilities at Solon, Wangyemiao, and Hailar.

Despite the difficult terrain and general lack of roads, progress on the first day of the attack was spectacular. The complete absence of Japanese resistance and clear weather compensated for the problems terrain imposed on the columns. General Lyudnikov noted:

The day turned out sunny and clear. From the observation point on Mount Salkhit we could distinctly see how the tank division and tank brigades moved forward decisively. We could see the command posts of corps commanders Bezugly and Oleshev and their deployed forces. For more than an hour I watched the columns of the forces. Soldiers, tanks, and guns passed through the hills hidden in the thick and high grass, again appearing on the slopes. And then the sun rose. Figures of people, military vehicles, and the contours of the hills opened before us as if on morning maneuvers.15

Throughout the first day, virtually all units moved in march column, covering more territory by the end of the day than the original plan envisioned. On the Solun axis the 61st Tank Division covered 100 kilometers and, by day's end, had secured crossing sites over the Urgen Gol at Boto Nela. The forward detachments of the 113th Rifle Corps and 5th Guards Rifle Corps advanced seventy-five kilometers to the Sel'dzin Gol, near Dzurkin Harul, and to the west bank of the Urgen Gol, north of Boto Nela. The lead elements of both rifle corps trailed twenty-five kilometers behind the forward detachments.

Despite the good weather, terrain and weather conditions forced some adjustments in the combat formation by the end of the first day. In the rough terrain the tracked vehicles of the rifle divisions' forward detachments far outstripped the march rate of the wheeled vehicles, which carried supplies and ammunition. The heat of day and rough terrain took their toll on fuel consumption. To correct the problem, corps commanders tried to create new divisional forward detachments made up of the three self-propelled artillery battalions from the corps' rifle divisions. Fuel shortages in the divisions, however, stymied this innovation. Finally, by pooling all available fuel, a second forward detachment was formed from one self-propelled battery taken from each rifle division. 16 The men of the advancing divisions also suffered from the elements, according to General Lyudnikov:

Soviet tanks crossing the Grand Khingans

Events confirmed the fears of Soviet doctors. Despite the intensive training that the army had conducted in desert operations during its long march across eastern Mongolia into assembly and jumping-off positions, the sun took its toll. Each day between thirty and forty men in each division suffered heat stroke. The water bottles the men carried were inadequate for such harsh conditions, for they were too fragile and liable to break under any blow. Eventually, 30 to 40 percent of the troops lacked necessary water reserves. ¹⁸ In spite of these handicaps, the 113th and 5th Guards Rifle Corps reached the Grand Khingan Mountains by the end of the first day. Japanese resistance was negligible. One more day's march and the mountains would be behind them; the Japanese fortified regions would be bypassed.

While the main body of 39th Army struggled across the Grand Khingan Mountains south of Wuchakou, the 94th Rifle Corps, on the morning of 9 August, advanced northeastward into Manchuria, past the 1939 Khalkhin-Gol battlefield. The 221st and 358th Rifle Divisions, marching in column formation, covered more than forty kilometers, while their forward detachments overcame small Japanese machine gun units and Manchurian cavalry units and secured crossings over the Hui Gol, 100 kilometers southwest of Hailar. ¹⁹ As the 94th Rifle Corps marched towards Hailar, the 124th Rifle Division simultaneously took up positions south of the Khalkhin-Gol and prepared to strike the northern portion of the HalungArshaan Fortified Region on the following day. Reconnaissance patrols from the division crossed the border and engaged the Japanese at several points along the border west of Arshaan and Wuchakou.

First word of the Soviet attack came to 44th Army at 0200 on 9 August, when Japanese Third Area Army reported the bombing of major cities, including Hailar and Wangyemiao. The 44th Army declared a state of emergency and at 0300 implemented the wartime defense plan. At 0500 a telephone report from the chief of staff of the 107th Infantry Division confirmed the Soviet attack and indicated that the 107th Infantry Division realized the dilemma it faced:

This was an accurate assessment of both the intention of the Soviet 124th Rifle Division to attack the main Japanese fortified positions and the Soviet intent to bypass with the bulk of its forces the fortified region to the south. The problem for the Japanese was how to defend against this multiple threat. The 44th Army ordered its divisions in the rear area (117th and 63d) to undertake defensive measures, but could do little to assist the beleaguered 107th Infantry Division. The following day, in accordance with Third Area Army instructions, 44th Army ordered the 107th Infantry Division to:

Late on the tenth, the Soviets cut telephone communications between the 107th Infantry Division and 44th Army, and henceforth the 107th's activities were unclear to higher headquarters. What is clear from Sovietaccounts is that the 107th Infantry Division resisted vigorously in the fortified region and along the rail line to Solun and Wangyemiao. The bulk of the division disengaged after those battles and fought delaying, harassing actions against the Soviets well after the other Japanese forces had capitulated.

From 10 to 12 August, Soviet columns struggled across the Grand Khingan Mountains south of Wuchakou, meeting little armed resistance but considerable geographical resistance in the region. At least the weather cooperated with Soviet forces during the first few days of the offensive. Only on 9 August was the heat a burden. The 35° C of that day gave way to temperatures between 19° and 22° C on subsequent days. From 9 to 12 August it was generally clear, with only short periods of drizzle. Only after the fifteenth, when heavy rains began, did severe weather dramatically interfere with Soviet operations. During their passage of the Grand Khingans, Soviet forces moved in multiple columns along valleys or ravines. Dry soil conditions in the mountains permitted fairly rapid movement along four or five parallel tracks. After having crossed the mountains, units faced a virgin black soil region where similar column movement was impossible without sapper support. Sappers built and maintained roads by laying thick beds of gravel over the soft black soil, but it was a very time- and laborconsuming task. ²²

Water barriers also proved to be a problem. The Sel'zhin Gol and Siaburutan Gol rivers, west of the Grand Khingans, were totally dry and passable by August, although dry swamps on their banks proved difficult for wheeled vehicles to negotiate. The bed of the Urgen Gol was half full of water (8 meters wide, 2.1 meters deep) and required the engineers to build six bridges across it.

Passage of the Grand Khingans required enormous fuel consumption. As mentioned, heat was a factor as vehicles and tanks used 50 percent more fuel than usual. More important were the detours, false starts, and general difficulty involved in finding and staying on the proper route. Maps proved particularly unreliable, according to General Lyudnikov:

The division to which General Lyudnikov referred was Maj. Gen. L. G. Basanets's 192d Rifle Division, which had been lost in the rugged mountains for two days during the crossing. It obviously ended up in second echelon.

For all of the difficulties entailed in crossing the tractless mountains, Soviet 5th Guards and ]13th Rifle Corps, with the 61st Tank Division in the vanguard, had gained the Japanese flank and rear by 12 August. The road to Solun and Wangyemiao was open, and the Japanese, with no combat troops available, could do very little to counter the threat. The Japanese 107th Infantry Division riveted its attention to its front and right flank, where the 124th Rifle Division and elements of 94th Rifle Corps were increasing their pressure on Japanese positions.

With the assistant commander of 39th Army, Lt. Gen. G. K. Kozlov, present, the 94th Rifle Corps brushed aside small Japanese border detachments and pushed on towards Hailar. By the evening of the eleventh, the main body of the corps had arrived just south of Bualuto (twelve kilometers northeast of Dunda-Khana), while the forward detachment had penetrated to the southern approaches to Hailar. With Hailar firmly invested and bypassed by 36th Army, the services of the 94th Rifle Corps were no longer needed, so the two divisions of the corps received new missions. ²⁴ Maj. Gen. V. N. Kushnarenko's 221st Rifle Division was to sweep eastward through minor passes in the Grand Khingans through the valleys of the Taehrssu and Taehrchi rivers and across the Tagan-Dabe Pass toward Lusun Tsihi. The division would then turn south along the Choer Ho to cut communications linking Japanese forces at Hailar, Pokotu, and Wangyemiao. The 358th Rifle Division would turn south towards the Halung Arshaan Fortified Region to assist the 124th Rifle Division in reducing the primary Japanese fortified region.

While 39th Army forces carried out its envelopment of the Japanese fortified region, the 124th Rifle Division plunged directly into the fortified region on 10 August and engaged elements of the Japanese 90th Infantry Regiment, 107th Infantry Division. That morning Col. D. M. Lelekov's 622d Rifle Regiment crossed the Khalkhin-Gol between Handagai and Iruse and attacked Japanese outposts north of the river.

The following small unit action offers a good example of Soviet tactics. A Japanese position, manned by nine men from the 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 90th Infantry Regiment, defended a four-embrasure machine gun pillbox northwest of Mount Mana Ula. The pillbox, located on a hilltop, had external machine gun positions and external trenches around the hilltop and was encircled by barbed wire. The Japanese defenders were armed with two machine guns, grenades, and nine rifles. Colonel Lelekov enveloped the outpost with a battalion on the northwest and one on the southeast. While direct fire artillery (three 76-mm and 45-mm guns) engaged the outpost from the southeast, a group of submachine gunners with grenades formed an assault group to strike the pillbox from the front. Every fifth man carried an overcoat and cloak-tent in order to surmount the barbed wire. In addition, the regiment's antitank rifle company used direct fire on the pillboxes in order to permit the assault group to get into position. The guns opened fire from the south and southeast to distract the Japanese defenders and to allow the assault group to attack from the southwest with minimum casualties. A salvo from the guns was the signal to storm the pillbox. The assault group advanced, firing its weapons as the Japanese turned their attention to the artillery fire. When the assault group moved through the barbed wire and approached the trenches, the Japanese turned their fire on them-but too late. The assault group took the position in hand-to-hand fighting, an example of subsequent actions in the fortified region. The Japanese fought to the last man, while the Soviets claimed a loss of only four wounded. ²⁵ The Soviets' emphasis on firepower and movement to conserve manpower was typical of their reduction of Japanese positions.

Troops climbing a spur of the Grand Khingans

Throughout 10 and 11 August, the 124th Rifle Division penetrated deeper into the fortified region, systematically reducing Japanese outposts one after the other. After briefly turning north to sweep the Japanese out of Handagai, the division pushed on to Iruse and Arshaan on 12 August. That evening the Japanese counterattacked from the northeast and southeast of Arshaan, but the 124th Rifle Division drove them off and continued southeast towards Wuchakou. The overall Soviet objective was to catch the Japanese 107th Infantry Division between the advancing pincers of the 124th Infantry Division and elements of the 5th Guards Rifle Corps about to move into Solun from the southwest.

On 12 August the lead elements of the Soviet 5th Guards Rifle Corps and 113th Rifle Corps completed their eastward march, north of and along the Wulan Ho, and emerged from the hills just southwest of Solun and Tepossi. An advance element of 5th Guards Rifle Corps struck the railroad at Hailahai and met and destroyed a train traveling south from Solun and carrying a battalion of Japanese troops. Though the path to Solun was open, unforeseen terrain difficulties forced the 5th Guards Rifle Corps to regroup in order to concentrate enough forces to take the city. The valley of the Wulan Ho and other rivers covering the approaches to both Solun and the rail line proved more difficult to traverse than the valleys of the Grand Khingans. Vehicles sank into the swampy valley floors, and rocky crags along the valley sides often restricted movement. These conditions slowed units and forced them into single columns. Overworked sappers fell behind in their road labor, so whole combat units had to join in the task of laying gravel roads capable of supporting the weight of the vehicles. The Soviets used all sorts of improvised means to create roads. Guards mortar units even used their launching ramps as road surface. Tractor teams combined to tow the guns and heavy equipment through the muck. Groups of tractors were left at each bottleneck to facilitate movement of the next unit. Even the repaired roads, however, deteriorated after supporting only the passage of the lead elements of each unit. Subsequent units had to build new bypasses. This stretched the length of march columns to tens of kilometers. Artillery units, in particular, suffered because they had to detach their vehicles to assist the advancing infantry.²⁶ Nevertheless, forward elements still maintained an advance rate of forty kilometers per day. Tank units and tractors carrying infantry managed rates of from fifty to eighty kilometers per day.

On the afternoon of 12 August, 5th Guards Rifle Corps consolidated its position southwest of Solon and moved on the city with one of its corps forward detachments (44th Tank Brigade) and its lead rifle divisions (19th and 17th). The 19th Rifle Division sought to cut the rail line west of Solun, while the 44th Tank Brigade and the 17th Rifle Division struck at Solun and the stretch of rail line to the south. That evening, after an artillery and aviation preparation, 5th Guards Rifle Corps troops occupied a major portion of the city. Japanese units from the 107th Infantry Division (probably the 178th Infantry Regiment) and the 2d Manchurian Cavalry Division launched repeated, unsuccessful counterattacks on the evening of the twelfth and into the thirteenth before both units fell back into the hills northeast of the city. ²⁷ On the thirteenth, Soviet forces moved south from Solun along the rail line to Tepossi.

On the same day, the second 5th Guards Rifle Corps forward detachment, the 735th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment with the 45th Artillery Regiment (one battalion), the 7th Tank Destroyer Battalion, and the 508th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion approached Tepossi from the west. As they entered the town, they intercepted a Japanese vehicular column withdrawing from Solun, drove off the Japanese, and captured sorely needed fuel supplies. ²⁸ After joining Soviet troops arriving from Solon, the 735th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment continued its pursuit south along the rail line from Tepossi.

While 5th Guards Rifle Corps units cleared Tepossi, the 44th Tank Brigade and 17th Rifle Division finished securing Solun by taking the railroad station at 1000 on 13 August. The 19th Guards Rifle Division, led by the 61st Guards Rifle Regiment and 508th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion, advanced westward from Solun toward Chinyinkou station. En route they engaged yet another unit of the Japanese 107th Infantry Division and forced it to retreat north of the rail line. ²⁹ Now Japanese units along the railroad were caught in a pincer between the 19th Rifle Division of 5th Guards Rifle Corps west of Solun and the Soviet 124th Rifle Division near Wuchakou. The 124th Rifle Division on 12 and 13 August passed through Wuchakou, bypassed and encircled the Japanese fortified positions outside the city, and advanced eastward along the railroad to Hsikou. Threatened from east and west after two days of heavy fighting, remaining units of the Japanese 90th and 177th Infantry Regiments, 107th Infantry Division, on 15 August withdrew northeast into the mountains, where they regrouped and, for a time, counterattacked against the Soviet forces.

While the 5th Guards Rifle Corps took Solun and cut off the Japanese 107th Infantry Division, the 61st Tank Division and 113th Rifle Corps continued their march eastward along the Wulan Ho Valley through Hailahai and Kueiliuho toward Wangyemiao. A fuel shortage and very poor road conditions forced 39th Army to rely increasingly on forward detachments to maintain the forward momentum of the army. Main army forces lagged far behind. To insure close control over operations, General Lyudnikov ordered the commanders and staff of corps, divisions, and regiments to stay within ten kilometers of their forces' main bodies. ³⁰

Soviet 39th Army troops entering Wangyemiao

On the fourteenth, the 44th Tank Brigade, with elements of the 17th Rifle Division, repelled yet another Japanese counterattack six kilometers northwest of Solun, and other 5th Guards Rifle Corps units repulsed similar counterattacks south of Solun. The pincer of the 124th Rifle Division and 19th Rifle Division continued closing the corridor on the railroad west of Solon, while lead elements of the 61st Tank Division and 113th Rifle Corps engaged Japanese units northwest of Wangyemiao. By the fifteenth, advanced elements of 39th Army had secured Wangyemiao. During the next two days, the main forces of 5th Guards Rifle Corps and 113th Rifle Corps entered the city. ³¹

With Solun and Wangyemiao in Soviet hands, the envelopment of the Japanese Halung-Arshaan-Wuchakou Fortified Region was complete. The Soviets cut the withdrawal routes of the Japanese 107th Infantry Division and prevented them from joining other Japanese forces in central Manchuria. The pressure of the 124th Rifle Division advancing directly against the fortified region combined with the effects of the envelopment to force the 107th Infantry Division to withdraw slowly northeastward across the mountains, where it ultimately ran into Soviet forces of the 221st Rifle Division emerging from their long trek through the Grand Khingans.

While the main force of 39th Army completed the envelopment of the Japanese 107th Infantry Division, the 94th Rifle Corps continued operations along two divergent axes. Before splitting his forces, Maj. Gen. I. I. Popov, the corps commander, received the surrender of General Houlin, commander of the Manchukuoan 10th Military District, along with 1,000 Manchukuoan cavalrymen. ³² The Soviet 36th Army had driven General Houlin's force out of Hailar, and the retreating Manchurians had run into the 94th Rifle Corps advancing from the south.

Next, the 358th Rifle Division of 94th Rifle Corps headed due south towards the Halung-Arshaan Fortified Region, where it arrived on 14 August to assist the 124th Rifle Division in reducing remaining Japanese strongpoints. The 221st Rifle Division passed eastward over the Grand Khingan Mountains, then turned south along the valley of the Choer Ho. After the fifteenth, the division cut the route of withdrawal of the 107th Infantry Division and, ultimately, on 30 August, accepted the surrender of the Japanese 107th Infantry Division at Chailai, fifty kilometers southwest of Tsitsihar. ³³

These difficulties were, in reality, a product of the audacity of the plan itself. Despite the problems, the army, as a whole, achieved a fortykilometer-per-day rate o£ advance. The achievements of 39th Army along with those of 6th Guards Tank Army ultimately destroyed Japanese hopes for a successful defense in western Manchuria.

Notes

IVMV, 2:199. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 85. IVMV, 2:202. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 88; Sidorov, "Boevoe," 14. JM 155, 82-84. Ibid., 86. Ota Hisat7, Dai 107 shidan shi: Saig6 made tatakatta Kantogan [The history of the 107th Division: The Kwantung Army that resisted to the last] (Tokyo: Taiseid5 Shoran Shuppanbu, 1979), 14, 24, 26, 72, 76-79. JM 155, 100. I. I. Lyudnikov, Cherez bol'shoi khingan [Across the Grand Khingan] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1967), 48-49. Ibid., 49. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 104; Sidorov, "Boevoe," 14; Lyudnikov, Cherez, 51. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 113; Lyudnikov, Cherez, 41. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 53-54. Ibid.. 55; Lyudnikov, "39-ia armiia v Khingano-Mukdenskoi operatsii" [The 39th Army in the Khingan-Mukden Operation], VIZh, October 1965:71; Lyudnikov, Doroga, 171.

Lyudnikov. Doroga, 171. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 176-77. Lyudnikov, Doroga, 172. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 58-59. Ibid., 68-69. JM 155, 101-2. Ibid., 104. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 61. Lyudnikov, "39-ia armiia," 73; Lyudnikov, Doroga, 173. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 69. Ibid., 68-76. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 59-60. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 195; Lyudnikov, "39-ia armiia," 72-73. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 196; Lyudnikov, Cherez, 63-67. Lyudnikov, "39-ia armiia," 73; Lyudnikov, Cherez, 67. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 68. Vnotchenko. Pobeda, 196-97. Lyudnikov, Doroga, 173; Lyudnikov, Cherez, 69-70. Lyudnikov, Cherez, 101.

Forward Detachment Deep Operations	7

The main northwest to southeast rail line, with its associated road and population centers, was the principal avenue of approach across the plateau to the Grand Khingans. The Soviets had used this approach during their punitive expedition against the Chinese in 1929. Drawing on the historical record, the Japanese placed their defenses on this route. 1 Unlike other areas of Manchuria, however, the plateau had alternate trafficable approaches. Although it lacked a good road network, soil conditions and terrain permitted relatively easy movement of forces along the numerous hard tracks and trails that crisscrossed the plateau. The only obstacles to movement were the swamps along the Argun River, occasional bogs (some dry) along the river beds, and sandy areas primarily south of Hailar toward the KhalkhinGol.

The climate of northwestern Manchuria was much dryer than that of other areas of Manchuria. During August, one could expect only occasional showers and thunderstorms. The 30° C daytime average temperature, how ever, made adequate water supply a major concern for any force operating in the region.

Given the geographical configuration of the northwest and the wide expanse forces would have to cross in order to penetrate into central Manchuria, the Soviets launched only supporting attacks into the region. The aim of these attacks was to occupy the plateau as quickly as possible, secure the Grand Khingan passes, and prevent as many of the Japanese forces as possible from withdrawing to join their comrades to the south. The Soviets sought to secure Hailar by a rapid deep offensive thrust to cut the rail line east of the city and, in so doing, to isolate Japanese forces defending that city and the Chalainor-Manchouli Fortified Region farther west.

The Soviet plan gave serious consideration to the Japanese defenses. The Japanese 4th Separate Army of Lt. Gen. Uemura Mikio, with headquarters at Tsitsihar, was responsible for defending north central and north western Manchuria. In order to defend the region northwest of the Grand Khingans, the 4th Separate Army stationed Lt. Gen. Shiozawa Kiyonobu's 119th Infantry Division and the 80th Independent Mixed Brigade at Hailar. The 119th Division was one of the best equipped units of the Kwantung Army. It had almost all its authorized arms and equipment, although it did lack heavy infantry weapons and grenade launchers. As in the case of other divisions, however, the Japanese rated its fighting capacity to be less than that of a prewar standing division. In the event of war, the 119th Infantry Division was to fall back and defend the passes through the Grand Khingan Mountains from Yakoshih to Pokotu. 2 The 80th Independent Mixed Brigade (IMB) defended Hailar and provided smaller forces to garrison Manchouli and the Soviet and Mongolian borders north and south of the city. The 80th IMB contained five infantry battalions, a raiding battalion, an artillery battalion, and support units. Its major defensive position was the Hailar Fortified Region, a series of five strong centers of resistance around the city. In all but one of these sectors, 80th IMB stationed at least a battalion of infantry with artillery support. An infantry company defended the other position. The 80th IMB assigned two companies to defend fortified positions at Manchouli and Chalainor. A platoon-size force based at Sanho (Soviet name, Dragotsenka) manned outposts on the Manchurian side of the Argun River, while another platoon-size force manned similar outposts to the south on the Mongolian border near Nomonhan (Khalkhin-Gol). Because the 80th IMB numbered only about 6,000 men, ³ auxiliary units assisted the Japanese in their defensive tasks. The Manchurian 10th Military District at Hailar included two cavalry regiments (50th and 51st) and several smaller cavalry units in the immediate Hailar area. ⁴ Other small Manchurian units were stationed at Manchouli and along the Mongolian border. Lesser regional forces, primarily cavalry, including a few score Russian êmigrê cossacks, operated in the region northeast of Hailar.

Against these Japanese forces and their auxiliaries in northwest Manchuria, Marshal Malinovsky's Trans-Baikal Front committed the 36th Army of Lt. Gen. A. A. Luchinsky. Issued on 28 June, Malinovsky's orders from the Far East Command tasked the 36th Army to make a secondary attack with the bulk of its forces from the Duroy-Staro Tsurukhaytuy area toward Hailar. The army's immediate mission was to cooperate with a portion of 39th Army in preventing the Japanese from withdrawing into the Grand Khingan Mountains and to crush Japanese forces at Hailar and in the Hailar Fortified Region. Subsequently, the army would cross the Grand Khingan Mountains and take the city of Chalantun. 5

*A temporary grouping of forces to operate on a separate axis from main army forces.

Malinovsky refined the tasking from the Far East Command and issued 36th Army its orders, directing it to attack decisively to envelop the Hailar Fortified Region from the northeast, to destroy the Japanese at Hailar, and to prevent the Japanese from withdrawing to the Grand Khingan Mountains. The Soviets expected that by the tenth day of the operation, 36th Army would have secured Chalainor, Hailar, and Yakoshih. Malinovsky's order specified the creation of a strong main attack force consisting of the 2d and 86th Rifle Corps (five reinforced rifle divisions) placed on the army's left flank. This main attack formation would attack across the Argun River and secure the Hairukan Mountains, develop the army offensive to seize the northern part of the Hailar Fortified Region, penetrate the fortified region from the northeast, and complete the destruction of Japanese forces, while preventing their withdrawal. An operational group* deployed on the right flank of the army would make -a secondary attack: it would penetrate the Chalainor-Manchouli Fortified Region, secure those two cities, pursue the enemy eastward along the railroad, occupy Tsagan Station, and attack Hailar from the west. ⁶

Separated from other Trans-Baikal forces by a distance of 100-120 kilometers, 36th Army had a frontage of about 250 kilometers. It would attack along two distinct axes separated from one another by 100 kilometers, but ultimately converging on Hailar.

To perform these missions, General Luchinsky's army had seven rifle divisions, two rifle corps headquarters, and two fortified regions. 7 Front attached a tank brigade and two tank battalions to permit the army to operate rapidly to the depths of the Japanese defense and sufficient artillery to reduce the fortified regions in its sector. Extensive engineer and bridging support by the front permitted 36th Army to plan an orderly crossing of the Argun River (see table 7-1).

*Commander of the Societ Far East Command.

Throughout early July, Luchinsky worked out his operational plans. Soviet estimates of Japanese forces in the region were accurate, but the prohibition on Soviet troops operating within twenty kilometers of the border, in order to preserve surprise, made accurate reconnaissance of Japanese positions difficult. Luchinsky relied primarily on reports from front headquarters and on information obtained from Soviet fortified regions and border detachments stationed on the frontiers. By mid-July, the 36th Army commander had finished work on his plans. Marshals Vasilevsky* and Malinovsky visited General Luchinsky's headquarters, and together they conducted a reconnaissance of the border region from Otpor Station to Staro Tsurukhaytuy. On the basis of that reconnaissance, General Luchinsky's superiors approved his plan. ⁸

According to the plan, five rifle divisions and one tank brigade would make the 36th Army's main attack across the Argun River between Duroy and Staro Tsurukhaytuy in the direction of Hailar. Under the control of 2d Rifle Corps and 86th Rifle Corps, this force would envelop Hailar from the northeast, cut Japanese withdrawal routes to Yakoshih, and destroy Japanese units in the Hailar Fortified Region. An operational group of two rifle divisions and two artillery machine gun brigades would penetrate the ChalainorManchouli Fortified Region and pursue the retreating Japanese eastward along the rail line to Hailar, there joining the army's main force. ⁹ A strong forward detachment, organized around the 205th Tank Brigade and commanded by the deputy commander of the 86th Rifle Corps, Maj. Gen. V. A. Burmasov, would lead the main attack on the Hailar axis of advance to secure crossing sites for the army over the Moer Gol by the evening of 9 August (see table 7-2).

On the same evening, an advanced element of the forward detachment would secure the railroad bridge across the Hailar River, while two reconnaissance detachments would seize other crossing sites east of Hailar. An army artillery group of seven artillery battalions and two corps of artillery destruction groups provided the firepower to support the crossing of the Argun River and the reduction of Japanese fortified positions. A ten-minute artillery preparation would precede the attack of the operational group against the Chalainor-Manchouli defenses, but in order to guarantee surprise, no preparation would be fired along the Argun River. ¹⁰ General Luchinsky also took care to provide the forward detachment sufficient artillery to facilitate its advance deep into the Japanese rear. One bomber aviation division of the 12th Air Army would support the operation with sorties against the Japanese fortified regions, air fields, and troop concentrations. ¹¹ The limited armor resources of the 36th Army were concentrated in one tank brigade and two separate tank battalions. The 205th Tank Brigade provided the nucleus for the army forward detachment. The 33d and 35th Tank Battalions provided infantry support.¹²

Table 7-2. 36th Army Forward Detachment
36th Army Forward Detachment: Maj. Gen. V. A. Burmasov
	205th Tank Brigade: Lt. Col. N. A. Kurnosov
	152d Rifle Regiment (94th Rifle Division)-on trucks
	158th Tank Destroyer Battalion
	1st Battalion, 32d Guards Mortar Regiment
	97th Light Artillery Regiment
	791st SP Artillery Battalion (SU-76), 94th Rifle Division
	465th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
	1st Battalion, 176th Mortar Regiment
	1st Company, 124th Sapper Battalion
	Source: L. N. Vnotchenko, Pobeda no dat'nem vostoke [Victory in the Far Eastl (Moskva: Voennoe lzdatel'stvo, 1971), 178-79.

*Light amphibious vehicles.

The Trans-Baikal Front attached a considerable number of engineer units to 36th Army to perform the important function of covering the forward deployment of the army and preparing approach routes to the border. More important, the augmented engineer units would provide the means for advancing units to cross the Argun River and support the reduction of Japanese fortified positions. The 36th Army received the 68th Army Engineer Sapper Brigade consisting of four engineer-sapper battalions (295th, 296th, 297th, and 298th), the 2d and 17th Separate Motorized Pontoon Bridge Battalions, and the 12th Separate Motorized Pontoon Bridge Regiment. Bridging units would provide direct bridging support to the 2d and 86th Rifle Corps. The 36th Army would concentrate all bridging equipment on the Argun River by the evening of 8 August. In order to conduct assault crossings before emplacing bridges, front attached to the army a company of American-made DUKWs* assigned to the 653d Large Amphibious Vehicle Battalion. 13

As in other regions where the Trans-Baikal Front deployed, the absence of water was a potentially serious problem, in particular in the region between the Argun River and Hailar City. Hence, the attached 90th Separate Field Water Supply Company had the job of finding and maintaining water sources and storing any water it found. The unit subdivided into reconnaissance groups of four to six men each under an experienced engineer officer who, with a vehicle and survey equipment, would accompany advancing units in search of water. Unfortunately, lack of good maps and drilling equipment hindered their operations. Water sources and water supply points, when found and set up, were maintained jointly by a battalion of the army engineersapper brigade and a company from each rifle corps and from each rifle division sapper battalion. Water points were fifteen to forty kilometers apart in the concentration areas and on the routes of advance. ¹⁴

Luchinsky had two major problems to solve even before his forces could strike at the Japanese. First, he had to deploy his main attack force into the marshy, sandy region west of the Argun River, between Staro Tsuruk haytuy and Duroy. Once in position, he had to move those forces across the 150-meter-wide Argun River. Furthermore, the flood plain of the Argun River was twelve kilometers wide in places, and swampland extended in patches four to five kilometers wide on either side of the river. In order to overcome these obstacles, the 68th Army Engineer-Sapper Brigade built corduroy approach roads to all prospective crossing sites. The lack of trees on the Soviet side of the border forced the engineers, under the personal command of General A. D. Tsirlin, Trans-Baikal Front chief of engineers, to dismantle the wooden houses at Staro Tsurukhaytuy and use that material to construct roads. While the engineers built approach roads twenty to twentyfive kilometers from the river, they also camouflaged the roads and dug foxholes and shelters for tanks and vehicles. With sapper advice, maneuver units themselves accomplished camouflaging tasks in troop concentration areas. ¹⁵ All movement of forces into these concentration areas and jumpingoff positions was done under cover of night. Moreover, the usual July and August fog complicated the movement. Nevertheless, by the evening of the eighth, all forces with their supporting bridging equipment were in their appointed positions.

Gen. G. V. Revunenkov's 86th Rifle Corps, comprising the 94th and the 210th Rifle Divisions, occupied jumping-off positions between Darcy and Belaya Glinka on the right flank of the main attack sector. The 2d Separate Motorized Pontoon Bridge Battalion, with bridging equipment and thirty boats, provided crossing means for the corps. The 2d Rifle Corps of Gen. A. I. Lopatin, composed of the 103d and 292d Rifle Divisions, deployed on the banks of the Argun between Staro Tsurukhaytuy and Belaya Glinka, with the 17th Separate Pontoon Bridge Battalion in support. In addition to its bridges and boats, the battalion also had thirty large amphibious vehicles of the 653d Amphibious Vehicle Battalion attached. The 12th Separate Pontoon Bridge Regiment deployed to the rear of the two advanced rifle corps in order to support passage across the river by army artillery units. The army forward detachment (205th Tank Brigade, reinforced) moved up late on the evening of 8 August with orders to concentrate at Pad Klimechi by 0600 on the following morning. This forward detachment would advance after lead elements of the two rifle corps secured bridgeheads over the Argun River and after bridges were in place. Gen. S. S. Fomenko's operational group of the 293d Rifle Division, 398th Rifle Division, and two artillery machine gun brigades deployed opposite the Japanese Chalainor-Manchouli Fortified Region. The army reserve, the 275th Rifle Division of Col. K. F. Mayorov, occupied positions in the rear of 2d Rifle Corps in readiness to support the advance of that corps.¹⁶

Each of the deployed rifle corps and rifle divisions created special subunits in order to engage Japanese strongpoints,to block Japanese counterattacks, and to clear obstacles from the path of advancing troops. Rifle divisions created assault groups made up of blockading subgroups and security subgroups. A blockading subgroup contained one or two sapper platoons, while the security subgroup contained one or two rifle platoons, a T-34 tank, and one or two artillery pieces. Each subgroup carried high explosives for demolishing bunkers. Rifle corps, rifle divisions, and rifle regiments also created mobile obstacle detachments of sapper squad to sapper company strength, each equipped with mines. A battalion of the army engineer-sapper brigade equipped with four vehicles and 600 antitank and 600 antipersonnel mines performed the same function at army level. In the operational group sector, for two days before the attack, engineers of the two rifle divisions cleared mines and obstacles from their front. In all, they cut seventeen corridors through the dense obstacle network. ¹⁷

One hour later, the 17th Separate Motorized Pontoon Bridge Battalion threw a thirty-ton, thirty-meter-long bridge across the river, while advanced battalions of 2d Rifle Corps made five assault crossings on rafts and boats. On the left flank of 2d Rifle Corps, near Staro Tsurukhaytuy, the 635th Large Amphibious Vehicle Battalion transported two rifle regiments across the river within twenty-five minutes. In accordance with the support plan, engineers then floated five pontoon bridges across the river.* Such efficient bridging permitted the army to complete the crossing of the Argun within a total of thirteen hours.18 Once the lead elements of 2d and 86th Rifle Corps had crossed the Argun River, the rifle divisions and corps prepared for further movement south in three columns toward Yakoshih and Hailar. A mobile forward forward detachment led each column.

The central role in the exploitation fell to the army forward detachment. At 0600 the reinforced 205th Tank Brigade moved out of its assembly area at Pad Klimechi and began crossing the Argun River (see map 7-2). Its orders were to lunge forward along the Staro Tsurukhaytuy-Hailar road to secure crossings over the Moer Got at Touchshan. It was to accomplish this at the same time that the lead detachment crossed the Hailar Ho and secured the railroad bridge into Hailar. The brigade completed crossing the Argun at 1500 and, led by a reinforced tank platoon, struck southward at maximum speed in march formation. Meeting virtually no Japanese opposition, the main body of the 205th Tank Brigade reached Postoianyi Dyor in the Burkhata Valley at 2000 on 9 August. At the same time, its reconnaissance units approached the Moer Gol, where General Luchinsky gave the brigade new instructions to conduct a night attack on Hailar and, if possible, to secure the city and fortified region by the morning of the tenth. The army commander also ordered General Burmasov to "conduct an active reconnaissance to the east to the Mekert Ho and Charote Ho." ¹⁹

Map 7-2. The 205th Tank Brigade Assault on Hailar, 9-10 August

Burmasov ordered the advance to continue throughout the night. Word soon arrived from the reconnaissance detachment, which had bypassed Japanese fortifications north of Hailar, that the main rail bridge over the Hailar Ho was intact and defended by only a platoon of Japanese. Burmasov ordered an immediate attack by the forward detachment, and the bridge was in Soviet hands by 2130. The remainder of the 205th Tank Brigade now closed on Hailar. Leaving a motorized rifle battalion to contain Japanese forces on Anbo Shan north of the city, General Burmasov ordered a general night attack on the city and fortified region. He specifically ordered the 205th Tank Brigade "to envelop the center of resistance 'Eastern Hill' and attack Hailar from the northeast, securing the railroad station and workers' settlement, and then the center of the city." 20 The 152d Rifle Regiment with reinforcing units would envelop Hailar from the east and south to secure the southern portion of the city. The 205th Tank Brigade maneuvered into position and launched its attack at 2300, securing both the railroad station and the workers' settlement. Heavy Japanese artillery fire from Mount Oboto, ten to twelve kilometers northwest of the city, and from positions overlooking Hailar from the west and southwest, halted any further advance by the tank brigade. Repeated Japanese counterattacks, however, could not drive the brigade out of its newly won positions. Meanwhile, the 152d Rifle Regiment, which was supposed to attack thirty minutes after the 205th Tank Brigade, did not complete its complicated night march until early on the morning of the tenth. Only then did it join the fray, occupying the eastern and southern sectors of Hailar before fierce Japanese resistance stopped it.²¹

Soviet artillery firing on Hailar

Throughout the tenth, the 205th Tank Brigade struggled to maintain its foothold in Hailar against heavy Japanese artillery fire and occasional counterattacks. General Luchinsky ordered the 94th Rifle Division of Maj. Gen. 1. V. Zamakhayev to assist the 205th Tank Brigade. In order to effect a speedy relief, he provided vehicles to the division. At 2400 on 10 August the 3d Battalion, 9th Rifle Regiment, 94th Rifle Division, linked up with the beleaguered 205th Tank Brigade. ²²

This audacious Soviet attack took Japanese forces by complete surprise. The 36th Army overwhelmed the Manchouli and Chalainor defenders, who had suffered heavy losses and had withdrawn in disorder toward Hailar on the evening of 9 August. 23 The 80th IMB at Hailar, in accordance with 4th Separate Army orders, undertook stoic, though futile, resistance against the 205th Tank Brigade and, later, against the entire weight of the 86th Rifle Corps. The Japanese 4th Separate Army ordered the 119th Infantry Division early on 9 August to withdraw and defend the Wunoehr Fortified Region, which protected the Grand Khingan passes between Yakoshih and Pokotu. Barely escaping the deep thrust of the 205th Tank Brigade, the 119th Infantry Division entrained and left Hailar during the afternoon and evening of the ninth and successfully occupied its defensive positions in the Grand Khingans. ²⁴ Manchurian cavalry forces of the 10th Military District escaped southward, only to run into the advancing columns of the Soviet 94th Rifle Corps.

Thus the audacious deep strike of the 205th Tank Brigade only partially achieved its objectives, for it did not trap all Japanese forces in the Hailar area. Its spectacular marches covered an extensive distance and secured a foothold in Hailar, thus blocking any further movement of Japanese forces eastward. It is unlikely, however, that the 80th IMB would have abandoned its position. Like other Japanese units in fortified regions, its orders specified defense to the last man. In the end, the 80th IMB's defense tied down two full Soviet divisions and a multitude of artillery units. Not until 18 August did the Soviets finally snuff out resistance at Hailar, after Soviet bombers, artillery, and infantry sapper assault units had reduced the zone pillbox-bypillbox. The Japanese 119th Infantry Division, having escaped eastward, conducted a tenacious four-day defense of the Grand Khingan passes before Soviet forces finally penetrated to Pokotu on the eastern fringe of the mountains.

The 205th Tank Brigade conducted the deepest independent operation by a unit of its size in the Manchurian campaign. Despite the mixed results, its feat illustrates the innovative manner in which the Soviets tailored and used forward detachments throughout the campaign. That the brigade did not totally succeed in its mission is the result less of its omissions than of the rapid reaction of the 119th Infantry Division during its hurried escape from the advancing Soviet dragnet.

Notes

For details see Yu. M. Shchen'kov, "Man'chzhuro-Chzhalainorskaiia operatsiia 1929" [Manchurian-Chalainor Operation 1929], Souetskata Voennaia Entsiklopediia [Soviet military encyclopedia] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1978), 5:127-28. JM 155, 174-75, 180. Bōeichō, Senshi sōsho, 485-86. Ranseikai, ed., Manshūkokugunshi [History of the Manchukuoan Army] (Tokyo: Manshukokugun kankōkai, 1970), 785 Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 69. IVMV, 2:202; A. I. Radzievsky, ed., Armeiskie operatsii: primery iz opyta Velikoi otechestuennoi uoiny [Army operations: Examples from the experience of the Great Patriotic War] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1977), 101. Zakharov, Final: istoriko, 398. A. A. Luchinsky, "Zabaikal'tsy na sopkakh Man'chzhurii" [Trans-Baikal troops in the hills of Manchuria], VIZh, August 1971:68. Radzievsky, Armeiskie, 104; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 178-79. Sidorov, "Boevoe," 15-17.

Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 113. Zakharov, Final: istoriko, 398. V. Sidorov, "Inzhenernoe obespechenie Nastupleniia 36-i armii v Man'chzhurskoi Operatsh" [Engineer support of the offensive of 36th Army in the Manchurian operation], VIZh, April 1978:97. Ibid., 97-98, Ibid.; Luchinsky, "Zabaikal'tsy," 68-69. Luchinsky, "Zabaikal'tsy," 70; Sidorov, "Inzhenernoe," 98; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 179. Sidorov, "Inzhenernoe," 98. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 178-79; Sidorov, "Inzhenernoe," 98-99. Radzievsky, Armeiskie, 102; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 179. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 179. IVMV, 2:221; Radzievsky, Armeiskie, 102; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 180-81. Radzievsky, Armeiskie, 102. JM 154, 184. Ibid., 185.

Joint Ground and Riverine Operations	8

The single suitable exit route from this basin into central Manchuria was up the Sungari River to Chiamussu and through the 150-kilometer gap that the Sungari River cut through the mountains to Harbin. Terrain in this 250-300-kilometer stretch of river, swamps, and mountain passes dictated that it be a secondary attack axis. Yet, secondary or not, the Soviets had to master the terrain and overcome the Japanese who defended it.

Thirty kilometers wide and twelve kilometers deep, the Fuchin Fortified Region had two centers of resistance, one adjacent to the city itself and the other on the Wuerhkuli Shan, an imposing rocky hill mass west of the town. At Fuchin a mixed force of 1,200 Japanese and Manchurians manned 156 reinforced concrete and log pillboxes covered by more than fifty kilometers of trenches and antitank obstacles. Japanese forces in Fuchin consisted of the 2d Battalion, 367th Infantry Regiment, 134th Infantry Division; an infantry battalion from the Japanese Sungari River Flotilla; and a security battalion. In addition, the 7th Manchurian Infantry Brigade kept the bulk of its force in the city, with the remainder downriver at Tungchiang. The Japanese 2d Battalion, 366th Infantry Regiment, 134th Infantry Division, manned the Hsingshanchen Fortified Region in the hills just north of Hokang. Japanese forces and their Manchurian auxiliaries, about 25,000 men, covered the approaches to Chiamussu, concentrating their extensive fortifications on the limited number of avenues of approach through the region. 1

Table 8-1. Soviet 15th Army Composition
15th Army: Lt. Gen. S. K. Mamonov
	34th Rifle Division
	361st Rifle Division
	388th Rifle Division
	4th Fortified Region
	102d Fortified Region
	65th Tank Brigade
	71st Tank Brigade
	203d Tank Brigade
	21st Tank Destroyer Brigade
	52d Gun Artillery Regiment
	145th Gun Artillery Regiment
	1120th Gun Artillery Regiment
	1121st Gun Artillery Regiment
	1637th Gun Artillery Regiment
	424th Howitzer Artillery Regiment
	1632d Tank Destroyer Artillery Regiment
	1633d Tank Destroyer Artillery Regiment
	183d Mortar Regiment
	470th Mortar Regiment
	85th Guards Mortar Fegiment
	99th Guards Mortar Regiment
	73d Antiaircraft Artillery Division
		205th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
		402d Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
		430th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
		442d Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
	1648th Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment
	29th Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
	46th Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
	302d Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
	505th Separate Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
	10th Pontoon Bridge Brigade
	21st Motorized Assault Engineer Sapper Brigade
	101st Separate Engineer Battalion
	129th Separate Engineer Battalion
Weapons:
	164 tanks and self-propelled guns
	1,433 guns and mortars
Source: M. V. Zakharov, ed., Final: istoriko-memuarny ocherk o razgrome imperialisticheskoi iapony v 1945 godu [Finale: A historical memoir survey about the rout of imperialistic Japan in 1945] (Moskva: lzdatel'stvo "Nauka," 1969), 401-3.

The Soviet 2d Far Eastern Front opposed these Japanese forces. Its overall mission was to attack south and west across the Amur River in order to clear the Sungari River region of Japanese troops and to advance through Chiamussu to Harbin, where it would unite with forces of the 1st Far Eastern Front. Simultaneously, farther north, other front elements would clear the Aihun-Sunwu area, across the Amur River from Blagoveshchensk, and advance toward Tsitsihar to join forces with the Trans-Baikal Front. 2 General Purkayev ordered Lt. Gen. S. K. Mamonov's 15th Army to make the main attack:

In order to accomplish this task, 15th Army had three rifle divisions, one fortified region, and three tank brigades, totaling 1,433 guns and mortars, 18 multiple rocket launchers, and 164 tanks and self-propelled guns (see table 8-1).⁴

General Purkayev also provided extensive artillery support to 15th Army to assist it in reducing the fortified regions in its sector. An army artillery group consisting of the 52d, 145th, and 1120th Gun Artillery Regiments cooperated with gunboats of the Amur Flotilla to provide suppressive fire on Japanese positions during the actual crossing of the Amur River. Regimental and divisional artillery groups provided reinforcing fires. A total of twelve artillery regiments, one tank destroyer brigade, one antiaircraft artillery division, one antiaircraft artillery regiment, and four antiaircraft artillery battalions supported the subsequent advance of 15th Army. ⁵ Although rich in artillery, 15th Army received only limited armor assets because of poor road trafficability in the region. Front attached just three tank brigades and four self-propelled artillery battalions, for use as forward detachments to lead the advance of each rifle division and to provide direct fire support to these divisions when they engaged Japanese fortified positions. ⁶ The 10th Air Army, supporting the operations of the 2d Far Eastern Front, allocated 45 percent of its assets to support the attack of 15th Army. ⁷

Because 15th Army needed heavy engineer support in order to cross the Amur River and to reduce several fortified regions, front attached a full motorized assault engineer sapper brigade, two separate engineer battalions, and a pontoon bridge battalion to the army. These units built and improved roads into the army concentration area and upgraded the load-bearing capacity of bridges. Within three months, the engineers constructed 266 kilometers of roadway and repaired another 1,417 kilometers of roads. Army engineers also created three separate river crossing sectors across the Amur River and built up to twenty camouflaged observation posts in each regimental sector along the river. ⁸

In order to facilitate crossing the Amur and subsequent operations up the Sungari River, the Soviet Far East Command subordinated the Amur River Flotilla to the commander of the 2d Far Eastern Front. Rear Adm. N. V. Antonov's Amur Flotilla, with headquarters in Khabarovsk, consisted of three brigades of armored cutters, gunboats, and minesweepers stationed on the Amur River, plus several smaller units operating on tributaries of the Amur River, on the Ussuri River, and on Lake Khanka. ⁹ General Purkayev allocated most of this force to support 15th Army, specifically, the 1st and 2d Brigades of River Ships. He also assigned the 45th Fighter Aviation Regiment and the 10th Separate Aviation Detachment to support 15th Army's operations (see table 8-2).

Table 8-2. Amur Flotilla Support for 15th Army
Amur Flotilla: Khabarovsk*: Rear Adm. N. V. Antonov
	1st Brigade of River Ships: Capt. 1st Rank V. A. Krinov
		Monitors: Lenin, Krasnyi Vostok, Sun Yat Sen
		1st Division of River Minesweepers
		1st Detachment of Armored Cutters
		5th Detachment of Armored Cutters
		1st Detachment of Cutter-Minesweepers
		2d Detachment of Cutter-Minesweepers
		1st Detachment of Mine-Cutters
		two floating batteries
	2d Brigade of River Ships: Capt. 1st Rank L. B. Tankevich
		Monitors: Suerdlou, Dal'neuostochnyi Komsomolets
		2d Division of River Minesweepers
		2d Detachment of Armored Cutters
		3d Detachment of Armored Cutters
		3d Detachment of Cutter-Minesweepers
		two floating batteries
	45th Fighter Aviation Regiment
	10th Separate Aviation Detachment
*8 August-deployed to Leninskoye (1st Brigade) and Nizhne-Spasskoye (2d Brigade).
Source: V. M. Bagrov and N. F. Sungorkin, Krasno znamennaia amurskaia flotiliia [The Red Banner Amur Flotilla] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1976), 155-57.

Mamonov's operational plan was similar in concept to the planning of other army commanders. He selected a main attack axis up the Sungari River, but also sought to bring maximum pressure to bear on the Japanese by using virtually every feasible axis of advance in his sector. The 361st and 388th Rifle Divisions would make the army main attack in the center of the army sector. These two divisions, supported by the 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla, would cross the Amur River in the Leninskoye and Voskresenskoye sectors, respectively. After securing the bridgeheads, the two divisions, led by the 171st Tank Brigade as forward detachment, would occupy Tungchiang, advance up the east bank of the Sungari to Fuchin, and then move southwestward along the river to Chiamussu. The 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla would cooperate with the two divisions and conduct local amphibious operations as necessary in order to compensate for the difficult overland route of the infantry and armor advance. On the army's left, the 2d Brigade of the Amur Flotilla would transport the 630th Rifle Regiment across the river from Nizhne-Spasskoye, so that it could assault Fuyuan and other Japanese strongpoints on the south bank of the Amur as far southwest as the mouth of the Sungari River. On the army's right, the 34th Rifle Division, 203d Tank Brigade, and 102d Fortified Region would, in coordination with the 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla, force the Amur River near Blagoslovennoye. Once across the river, this force would advance southward, reducing Japanese fortified positions between Lopei and Chiamussu. Ultimately, the 34th Rifle Division would join the main body of 15th Army in a coordinated attack on Chiamussu from the north and east, another pincer movement so characteristic of the Manchurian campaign. 10

Late on the evening of 8 August, ground forces were in their jumpingoff positions, and assault units were prepared for transport across the river. To support that assault, the 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla had displaced to Leninskoye; the 2d Brigade, to Nizhne-Spasskoye. General Mamonov established a joint command post for the 15th Army and the Amur Flotilla at Leninskoye. In addition, a floating command post and naval repair base deployed on the Amur River in 15th Army sector. ¹¹ To destroy Japanese outposts on the south bank of the river, the army planned to fire a fifty minute artillery preparation. Army air assets prepared to cover the rifle units crossing the Amur and to bomb major Japanese fortified positions, troop garrisons, and communications links to the depth of the Japanese defensive zone.

During the main attack, the Soviets gained a foothold on the south side of the river. The 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla ferried three reinforced rifle battalions of the 394th Rifle Regiment across the river to reinforce this lodgment. By nightfall, these battalions had seized Japanese positions at Santun and had even begun movement toward fortified Japanese positions at Tungchiang. By this time, however, Japanese forces had already received their withdrawal orders, so only small rearguard forces and Manchurian units resisted the Soviet advance. Throughout the night of 9-10 August, boats and barges of the Amur Flotilla shuttled back and forth, transporting the main force of the 361st Rifle Division and its rear service units across the river between Santun and Tungchiang. On the 361st Rifle Division's left flank, two rifle regiments of the 388th Rifle Division also crossed to the south bank of the river.13

Map 8-1. 15th Army Operations, 9-17 August 1945

Map 8-2. The Assault Across the Amur River, 9-10 August

Crossing operations were a major responsibility of the 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla, which used boats to carry troops across the river and sixty-ton rafts supported by three pontoons to carry heavier equipment. Each raft could carry one of the following four combinations: one T-34 and two T-26 tanks, two T-34s, six T-26s, or one T-34 and three trucks. Each run across the river took four to five hours because of the swift river currents. Moreover, the limited rafting assets required two to three days for the passage of a single tank brigade. The 171st Tank Brigade's tanks, for example, took thirty hours to cross, with the rear elements completing their crossing in a total of four days. 14 By that time, lead elements of the brigade were more than 100 kilometers away. Poor road conditions guaranteed that the brigade's rear elements would take days to catch up with the brigade's forward elements. The resulting absence of logistical and maintenance support further limited the ability of the 171st Tank Brigade to fulfill its role of forward detachment.

Map 8-3. The Battle of Fuchin, 10-13 August

A general shortage of pontoon units also forced the 15th Army to rely heavily on Amur River commercial steamships and barges to transport men and equipment across the river. The steamships Astrakhan, Groznyi, Donbass, Kokkinanki, Sormouo, and others provided extra transport for the fleet, and other steamships, the Chicherin, Ostrouskii, and Kirou, equipped as hospital ships, carried wounded troops back from the fighting on the south side of the river.

The entire crossing effort involved the creation of three distinct crossing sectors. The first sector comprised Amur Flotilla ships, the second steamships, and the third army pontoon units. A representative of the operations group of army headquarters supervised operations in each sector. Despite the river crossing difficulties, sufficient forces had crossed the Amur by the morning of 10 August to sustain further operations. 15

In the main attack sector, as gunboats cut through the murky waters of the Amur toward the town of Tungchiang and prepared to bombard Japanese positions, 361st Rifle Division forces took the road into the town. To their surprise, they found that the Japanese garrison had already retreated south the night before to join Japanese forces in the major Fuchin Fortified Region.¹⁶

After they had secured Tungchiang, the 361st and 388th Rifle Divisions regrouped and moved south against Japanese forces at Fuchin (see map 8-3). The 171st Tank Brigade (minus its rear elements), with infantry mounted on its tanks, led the advance southward. At 1500 General Mamonov issued the order for the 361st Rifle Division and the Amur Flotilla to advance on Fuchin and to secure the city by 0800 on 11 August. He ordered the 361st Rifle Division and 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla to land two reinforced rifle battalions and an assault rifle company on the right (east) bank of the Sungari near Fuchin. These units would make a coordinated assault on the city with the 171st Tank Brigade and lead elements of the 361st Rifle Division advancing on the town from the north. Lack of time made it impossible to work out a thorough plan and to write orders. Thus, all orders were oral, and the few intervening hours were used to train the units in amphibious assault techniques.¹⁷

Japanese strongpoint at Fuchin

The 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla created two naval detachments to effect and support the assault. A reconnaissance patrol detachment consisted of a monitor, three armored cutters, and three cutter-minesweepers. The covering detachment included two monitors and three armored cutters. The reconnaissance patrol detachment would reconnoiter Japanese positions and land the first echelon of the amphibious assault force. The covering detachment, fifteen kilometers behind, would support the reconnaissance detachment and land the second echelon of the landing force.

At 1630 on 10 August, the reconnaissance patrol detachment sailed with the 3d Battalion, 364th Rifle Regiment, 361st Rifle Division, on board the monitor Sun Yat Sen, and with the assault company on the three armored cutters. Carrying the 1st Battalion, 345th Rifle Regiment, the Amur Flotilla covering detachment departed three hours later. During the seventy-kilometer journey upriver, the Soviet ships' lookouts watched for mines and river obstacles. Fortunately for the force, the Japanese, in their hasty withdrawal to Fuchin, did not have time to sow mines or other obstacles in the river. ¹⁸

At 2200 on 10 August, the detachments reached Tutsykou, thirty-seven kilometers north of Fuchin, dropped anchor, and landed the 1st Battalion, 345th Rifle Regiment. The armored cutters set off south to reconnoiter the river channel near Fuchin and the Japanese firing points covering the river. The cutters searched the channel and found it clear of mines. Darkness, however, prevented their discovering the configuration of the Japanese defenses. Also because of darkness, the Japanese in turn failed to detect the cutters, which returned without incident to Tutsykou. Based on this reconnaissance, the landing force commander (361st Rifle Division commander) ordered the 1st Battalion, 345th Rifle Regiment, on shore to join lead elements of the 361st Rifle Division and to approach Fuchin by land. ¹⁹ The second battalion and the assault company would conduct an amphibious assault at dawn on the city of Fuchin in coordination with the advancing ground force.

At 0700 on 11 August, the three armored cutters and minesweepers, followed by the monitors, approached Fuchin. Twenty minutes later the cutters opened fire on Japanese positions. The Japanese returned heavy fire with mortars, artillery, and machine guns, but effectiveness was limited because the Japanese lacked weapons larger than 75-mm. The 130-mm guns of the Soviet monitors Krasnyi Vostok, Lenin, and Sun Yat Sen, and the multiple rocket launchers of the armored cutters systematically silenced the outgunned Japanese firing positions. The monitors destroyed five concrete and twelve wooden pillboxes, six mortar batteries, and several ammunition warehouses, and the armored cutters destroyed another ten firing points with direct naval gunfire. During the one-hour artillery duel, the armored cutters also landed the assault company, and at 0830 the entire 3d Battalion, 364th Rifle Regiment, landed from the monitor Sun Yat Sen. These units secured the immediate shoreline and moved toward the city. On the outskirts of the city, the landing party met heavy Japanese fire and counterattacks, which they repelled with the aid of heavy gunfire from the monitors. Only the timely arrival of lead elements of the 171st Tank Brigade and the 361st Rifle Division's ground forces from the north finally broke the determined Japanese resistance. After 0900, the Japanese withdrew into the fortified military settlement in the southwest sector of Fuchin and into the Wuerhkuli Shan Fortified Region, in the hills southeast of the city. Fighting for the fortified camp continued on into the twelfth.

Tankers of the 171st Tank Brigade and infantry men of the 361st Rifle Division slowly cleared the town in house-to-house fighting. By noon on 11 August, the 171st Tank Brigade, with a battalion of the 355th Rifle Regiment, 361st Rifle Division, had occupied the center of the city. That night the Japanese launched several unsuccessful counterattacks. New Soviet attacks supported by monitors had only limited success the next day. Finally, on 13 August the main body of the 171st Tank Brigade and 361st Rifle Division arrived in Fuchin to join the fray. By the evening of the thirteenth, Japanese resistance had ended in the city, although Japanese forces continued to hold out on the hilly fortress southeast of town. With Fuchin in Soviet hands, General Mamonov marched on to Chiamussu.

Soviet amphibious vehicles of the 2d Far Eastern Front

While the main attack drove up the Sungari, secondary Soviet attacks plunged forward on the flanks of 15th Army. On 9 August the 34th Rifle Division and 203d Tank Brigade crossed the Amur River on the right flank. The next day they advanced south along the Lopei-Chiamussu road. The 34th Rifle Division left forces behind to blockade the Japanese fortified positions at Fenghsiang, while the main body moved south over watersoaked roads and invested the major fortified position at Hsingshanchen. Heavy Soviet air and artillery bombardment at Hsingshanchen ultimately forced the Japanese to withdraw into the hills west of the fortified region or south to Chiamussu. By the thirteenth, the advanced elements of 34th Rifle Division had pushed slowly south toward Japanese positions at Lienchiangkou, covering the north bank of the Sungari River across from Chiamussu. ²¹

On the army's left, the 630th Rifle Regiment of the 388th Rifle Division cooperated with the 2d Brigade of the Amur Flotilla in order to capture Japanese defenses on the south bank of the Amur River southwest of Khabarovsk. ²² The most important of these Japanese positions was the town of Fuyuan. Destruction of these Japanese garrisons would insure safe, continuous Soviet use of the river. At 0320 on 9 August, the gunship Proletarii, the 2d Detachment of Armored Cutters, and the 3d Detachment of Minesweepers left Nizhne-Spasskoye, carrying on their decks the 1st Battalion, 630th Rifle Regiment. The monitors Suerdlou and Dal'nevostochnyi Komsomolets, and the 3d Detachment of Armored Cutters took up firing positions near Malankin Island in order to support the landing at Fuyuan.

As the amphibious troops and ships approached, the monitors and cutters opened fire on Japanese firing positions of the Fuyuan Fortified Region. Landing parties went ashore near the wharves at the west and east ends of the city. Initially, the unsuspecting Japanese did not resist, but as the 1st Battalion, 630th Rifle Regiment, advanced, Japanese resistance stiffened. Soviet Yak-9 aircraft of the 307th Fighter Aviation Regiment provided air cover until it was clear that no Japanese aircraft would intercede. Closer to the center of the city, two detachments of Soviet sailors went ashore to support the 1st Battalion of the 630th Rifle Regiment. By 0800 Japanese resistance had ceased.

Having secured the city, a portion of the 1st Battalion, 630th Rifle Regiment, remained as a garrison, while the rest of the unit embarked once again aboard ship. This time the 2d Brigade of the Amur Flotilla would move upstream toward the mouth of the Sungari, reducing the three Japanese positions at Chinteli, Otu, and Kaintsi. En route, the brigade picked up the 2d Battalion, 630th Rifle Regiment. When the brigade arrived at Chinteli, at 1000 on 10 August, it found the city already in Soviet hands, having fallen to the crew of an armored cutter and several soldiers who had crossed the river and secured the town on their own initiative the night before. After picking up the 3d Battalion, 630th Rifle Regiment, at the village of Pokrovskoye, the brigade moved on to Otu, only to find it also in Soviet hands. Continuing upriver, the brigade reached Kaintsi at 1925 on 10 August. The monitor Suerdlou and three armored cutters landed parties at the mouth of the Kaintsi River, while the monitor Dal'neuostochnyi Komsomolets landed a rifle company north of Kaintsi village. Once again most Japanese had already withdrawn from the village on the ninth. The few that remained fled after hearing the first salvo of rockets from the armored cutters.

Thus, by the end of the tenth, the 630th Rifle Regiment and 2d Brigade of the Amur Flotilla had cleared the entire south bank of the Amur of Japanese for 200 kilometers from Khabarovsk to the mouth of the Sungari River. The 2d Brigade of the Amur Flotilla left garrisons behind in each of the towns taken from the Japanese. The brigade also transported the support echelons of 15th Army across the Amur at Leninskoye. Having finished the task by 13 August, the command group of the Amur Flotilla, then en route up the Sungari River to Fuchin, ordered the 2d Brigade to reinforce the 1st Brigade. It also ordered a battalion of gunboats and a detachment of armored cutters from the Ussuri naval force and a battalion of armored cutters, the monitor Aktiunyi, and the gunboat Krasnaya Zuezda from the Zee-Bureisk Brigade to join the 1st Brigade at Fuchin. This concentrated naval power would compensate for the flooded terrain obstacle that would slow down Soviet ground forces on the south bank of the Sungari.

Faced with the sudden Soviet attack, the Japanese First Area Army, as early as the evening of the ninth ordered the 134th Infantry Division to fall back on Chiamussu and, if necessary, to Fengsang. By the twelfth the bulk of the 134th Infantry Division was at Chiamussu, leaving only a rear guard and Manchurian units to defend in the fortified regions. After the Soviets had taken Fuchin and advanced on Chiamussu, the 134th assigned the defense of Chiamussu to the 7th Manchurian Infantry Brigade and withdrew up the Sungari River to Fengsang. ²³

At Fuchin on the thirteenth, the commanders of the 1st Brigade of the Amur Flotilla and the 361st Rifle Division considered an advance on Chiamussu. High water made the few roads along the south bank of the Sungari treacherous. Maintaining a road for even a limited offensive would take considerable engineer work. Complicating matters, fuel shortages hindered the movement of the 171st Tank Brigade. Facing these problems, the respective commanders selected amphibious operations to secure Chiamussu, specifically a series of landings along the Sungari in order to threaten Japanese withdrawal routes and to facilitate the advance of the division's main force moving overland along the road network south of the river. Rear Adm. N. V. Antonov ordered the 1st and 2d Brigades of the Amur Flotilla to land assault detachments at Chiamussu and to cooperate with ground units of 15th Army in securing Chiamussu by 15 August:

At 0535 on 14 August, ships of the 1st Brigade, with two battalions of the 349th Rifle Regiment, 361st Rifle Division, and a mixed detachment of the 83d Rifle Regiment, 34th Rifle Division, headed upriver toward the two landing sites (see map 8-4). When they arrived at the appointed landing sites, they found that the Japanese had abandoned both, but high water blocked roads from those towns to Chiamussu. Consequently, the ships sailed on and landed their troops at Sustun [Huachuan], forty kilometers from Chiamussu.

On 14 August, on the north bank of the Sungari, the 34th Rifle Division and elements of the 203d Tank Brigade assaulted and secured Japanese positions at Lienchiangkou, across the Sungari River from Chiamussu. Several attempts to cross the river by makeshift rafts proved unsuccessful because of strong Japanese resistance and treacherous river currents. Because of the failure of the 34th Rifle Division to cross the Sungari and the painfully slow movement of the 361st Rifle Division and 171st Tank Brigade on the south bank of the river, General Purkayev, the 2d Far Eastern Front commander, decided on 15 August to use the Amur Flotilla in a direct assault on Chiamussu.

That evening the flotilla's ships moved on Chiamussu. ²⁵ The Japanese released logs and burning barges into the river to attempt to block their movement. Dodging the obstacles, the armored cutters and monitors approached Chiamussu the next morning, only to find that most buildings and warehouses in the city had been put to the torch by the withdrawing Japanese. At 0630 the 1st Detachment of Armored Cutters, supported by the monitor Lenin, landed a reconnaissance detachment of sailors under Capt. S. M. Kuznetsov. The detachment secured the wharf area until reinforced by another reconnaissance unit that pushed on to secure the city police station. The remainder of the 632d Rifle Regiment followed the reconnaissance units and overcame scattered Japanese resistance in the city. Meanwhile, reports arrived that the 7th Manchurian Infantry Brigade at Myngali, seven kilometers east of Chiamussu, was ready to surrender to Soviet forces. At 1100 the 3d Detachment of Armored Cutters landed two automatic weapons companies of the 632d Rifle Regiment at Myngali to take the surrender of the 3,500-man Manchurian unit. By nightfall, Chiamussu and its surrounding region were firmly in Soviet hands, with the 361st Rifle Division, 171st Tank Brigade, and lead elements of the 388th Rifle Division in the city. The 34th Rifle Division completed its task of clearing the region north of Chiamussu and joined the 15th Army's main body at Chiamussu. The combined force of 15th Army pursued the retreating Japanese 134th Infantry Division up the Sungari River along the narrow river valley through the mountains toward Harbin.

Map 8-4. The Fall of Chiamussu, 14-16 August

During the course of seven days, the combined force of 15th Army and the Amur Flotilla had crossed the Amur River and advanced 210 kilometers to Chiamussu, at a rate of thirty kilometers per day over appalling terrain. Within nine days the flotilla had transported 91,000 men, 150 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 413 artillery pieces, along with 3,000 horses and 28,000 tons of supplies across the Amur. 26 The ships of the flotilla with amphibious detachments represented the advanced guard of the front and fulfilled the role of forward detachment as well. Operating far ahead of the main force, ships and amphibious forces overcame the exceptional terrain difficulties and generated the high tempo of advance in the region. By timely application of their limited combat power, they maintained pressure on withdrawing Japanese units and, in doing so, secured the key Japanese fortified points in the region. The operations of the Amur Flotilla and 15th Army form a classic case study of joint amphibious operations, operations that successfully overcome extreme terrain obstacles. Much of the operation's success resulted from the close coordination of the flotilla and the ground force and the ability of commanders to adapt to the changing conditions in the area of operations. The initiative of these commanders maintained the momentum of the offensive until its successful conclusion.

Notes

Bōeichō, Senshi sōsho, 438; JM 154, sketch no. 2, map no. 2, chart 3, gives 134th Infantry Division strength as 14,056 men; S. E. Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi tikhookeanskii flot [Red Banner Pacific Ocean Fleet] (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1973), 206. IVMV, 2:200. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 97. Ibid. Zakharov, Final: istoriko, 400; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 109; Sidorov, "Boevoe," 15. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 125; Krupchenko, Souetskie, 320. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 117. Ibid., 132; IVMV, 2:208. V. N. Bagrov and N. F. Sungorkin, Krasno-znamennaia amurskaia flotilita (Moskva: Voennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1976), 155-57. Ibid., 149-50. Ibid., 151. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 230, claims the Soviets overcame light Japanese resistance on Tartar Island. Other sources deny any resistance. Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 203-4; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 159-60; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 230.

Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 231-32. Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno,167-68. Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 203-4; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 160; Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 233, mentions a "two hour bloody struggle" for Tungchiang. Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 206-7. Ibid.; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 178-79. Accounts of the assault on Fuchin are found in Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 233-35; Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 206-10; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 179-83. Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 234. Ibid., 232-33; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 185. Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 204-6; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 161-66. JM 154, 9, 61, 63. Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 210. Details of the Chiamussu operation are from Vnotchenko, Pobeda, 235; Zakharov et al., Krasnoznamennyi, 210-11; Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 155-87. Bagrov and Sungorkin, Krasno, 168.

Conclusions	9

Soviet operational and tactical combat in Manchuria evidenced the full maturity of Soviet military theory and practice produced by four years of war. Painstakingly detailed planning and imaginative execution of military operations proved to be the keys to rapid Soviet victory, as these eight case studies testify.

In western Manchuria, the Soviet 39th Army confounded Japanese military planners by thrusting two full rifle corps, led by a tank division and two tank brigades, through the supposedly roadless and impassable Grand Khingan Mountains. While the bulk of the army burst upon the rear of the surprised Japanese force, only one rifle division dealt with the major Japanese fortifications network defending this sector of Manchuria. Along the Sungari River, 15th Army conducted joint operations with the Amur River Naval Flotilla, overcoming more than two hundred kilometers of marshland in a series of amphibious assaults coordinated with the simultaneous advance of a ground force. In all instances, the Soviets formed distinctive armies, some composed of rifle corps and some just of rifle divisions, but all with enough artillery, armor, and engineer support attached. The diversity of the Soviet force was as much a surprise to the Japanese as was its ability to operate over terrain which the Japanese considered impassable.

Soviet exploitation of inclement weather and darkness had a devastating effect on the Japanese. Surprise was total, and many Japanese positions fell to the Soviets without a struggle. Initial Japanese defensive lines fell quickly, and the Japanese were never able to recover from the surprise sufficiently to regroup and reestablish defenses. The Soviets have viewed their achievement of surprise and its consequences as one of the most important lessons of the Manchurian campaign.

When envelopments succeeded, the Soviets wasted little time in reducing surrounded Japanese forces. Soviet units simply continued their pursuit deep into the Japanese rear areas, usually relying on tank-heavy forward detach ments to continue the advance. Throughout Manchuria, Soviet reliance on maneuver produced similar results: the Soviets bypassed, isolated, and later reduced Japanese defensive positions, and the forward momentum of Soviet forces preempted Japanese abilities to construct new defenses. The disjointed and futile efforts of the Kwantung Army high command to stem the Soviet tide reflected the total paralysis of the Japanese command and control system.

STUDIES IN PROGRESS

Soviet Airborne Forces in Perspective Defending the Driniumor: Covering Force Operations in New Guinea, 1944 U.S. Chemical Warfare Experience in World War I Special Units: Rangers in World War II Counterattack on the Naktong: Light Infantry Operations in Korea, 1950 Anglo-French Military Cooperation, March 1939-June 1940 Armored Combat in World War II: Arracourt Combat Operations in the Deep Desert: The LRDG Stand Fast: German Defensive Doctrine in World War II Combined Arms Doctrine in the 20th Century Rapid Deployment Logistics, Lebanon, 1958 Operations of Large Formations: The Corps Tactics and Doctrine in Imperial Russia Postwar and Prewar Armies: How We Think About War *U.S. Government Printing Office: 1989 - 654 001/02111

Lieutenant Colonel David M. Glantz is curriculum supervisor for Combat Studies Institute, USACGSC. He received a bachelor's degree in history from Virginia Military Institute and a master's in modern European history from the University of North Carolina. A graduate of USACGSC (1974), the Russian Language School, and the U.S. Army Institute for Advanced Soviet and East European Studies, he has taught in the Department of Social Sciences and the Department of History at the United States Military Academy and served with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, U.S. Army, Europe. He will be leaving CSI in the summer of 1983 to become the Director of Soviet Doctrine in the Department of Doctrine, Planning, and Operations at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013.

COMBAT STUDIES INSTITUTE MISSION

The Combat Studies Institute was established on 18 June 1979 as a separate, departmentlevel activity within the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for the purpose of accomplishing the following missions: 1. Conduct research on historical topics pertinent to the current doctrinal concerns of the Army and publish and distribute the results of such research in a variety of formats to the Active Army and Reserve components. 2. Prepare and present instruction in military history at CGSC and assist other CGSC departments in integrating applicable military history materials into their resident and nonresident instruction. 3. Serve as the TRADOC proponent for the development and coordination of an integrated, progressive program of military history instruction in the TRADOC service school system.

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Synopsis of Leavenworth Paper 8

To be successful, a strategic military operation requires careful planning and meticulous execution. History applauds the commander who orchestrates the operation, and major subordinate commanders share in the glory. In reality, however, commanders and soldiers at the operational and tactical levels play an even more critical role in achieving battlefield success. History often accords them little attention. Practitioners of war must study war at all levels. An understanding of the strategic aspects of military operations is essential in order to provide a context for a more detailed and equally critical understanding of precise operational and tactical techniques. Few officers practice war at the strategic level, The majority wrestle with the myriad of problems associated with implementing those strategic plans. Leavenworth Paper no. 8, through the medium of detailed case studies, examines the operational and tactical aspects of a major strategic operation-the Soviet offensive in Manchuria in 1945. The case studies, which involve army, corps, division, regimental, and battalion operations, focus on the many problems commanders and soldiers at that level face. Constrained by time, a desperate enemy, rugged terrain, and severe climatic conditions-the realities of warSoviet commanders devised and implemented techniques that produced victory. This paper highlights those techniques in the knowledge that Soviet theorists have likewise studied them in detail, both historically and in a contemporary context.

 

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Updated:  11 May 2004