North Wind Rain

Alternative History:
2nd Russo-Japanese War

by Mark E. Stille

On 10 September 1941, after frenetic preparations, the formations of the Kwantung Army were only waiting for the final order to begin the long-planned attack on the Soviet Union. As units from the homeland and from China had been late arriving, General Umezu, commander of the Kwantung Army, had requested a delay of several days. Tokyo refused his pleas and he was ordered to attack on schedule.

The Soviets were aware of the impending assault through a combination of their well-placed agents and defectors from puppet Manchukoan units. In the last days of peace, frantic efforts were made to strengthen border defenses, aircraft were dispersed, and armored units moved up to positions behind the frontier.

Hostilities opened with a massive Japanese air attack against Soviet airfields throughout the Far East. The attackers were met by large numbers of I-16s and failed to inflict significant damage to the dispersed aircraft or the facilities themselves. Later in the day, Red Air Force bombers began to pound Japanese border concentrations. The air war would continue unabated for the next two months. Gradually, the Soviets wore down the Japanese while losing enormous numbers of aircraft. By the end of October, both air forces were so weakened that they were no longer able to bring sufficient combat power to bear against each other to deliver the final knock-out blow or to effectively support ground operations.

On the ground, the Japanese offensive began with a night attack into the teeth of the Soviet border defenses. Initial progress was good, but when daylight arrived and the Japanese ran into the main Soviet defensive lines supported by massive artillery fire, the attack began to falter. Later in the day, Japanese artillery, massed at the intended breakthrough areas, supported attacks by waves of infantry. The results against the entrenched Soviets were disastrous. Under heavy artillery fire, the Japanese were able to make only limited penetrations at a tremendous cost.

From 11-28 September, the Japanese resorted almost exclusively to night attacks. Avoiding the strongest held positions, the Japanese sought weak points in the Soviet defenses. The intended main attack southeast of Lake Hanka gained only 11 miles in almost three weeks and was finally abandoned. Results were better along the Ussuri River where Soviet units were stretched thinner. Several bridgeheads were established and the last Japanese reserves of three divisions (including two arriving from China) were committed there on 25 September.

On 29 September, the crumbling process finally paid dividends. On that day, the Japanese broke clear of the layers of Soviet border defenses in two areas. The largest penetration was made in the area south of Iman. Here, four divisions wheeled south, supported by the Kwantung Army's two tank groups, to envelop Soviet forces remaining in their border defenses. The other penetration, in the area west of Vladivostok, was lead by the two divisions of the Korea Army.

Zhukov, the new Far East Front commander, was now forced to commit his last reserves. He petitioned the Kremlin to retain key units slated for transfer to the west. Stalin relented but only under the condition that Zhukov use the units to deliver the arrogant Japanese a crushing blow. Zhukov's attack was delivered commencing on 3 October and was more devastating than even his 1939 performance. The Soviet commander assembled a total of 12 divisions including four tank divisions: the 61st transferred from the Trans-Baikal Military District, the 58th and 60th held back from the west, and a scratch division from assets in the Khabarovsk area.

Under the weight of this armored force with over 1,000 tanks, supported by the massed artillery and remaining air assets of the 1st Red Banner and 35th Armies, the largest Japanese bridgehead across the Ussuri was destroyed and the bulk of five Japanese divisions annihilated.

However, the tenacious Japanese infantry defending the bridgehead delayed the inevitable by three weeks, tying down the bulk of the Soviet attack force until the bitter end. By the time the much weakened Soviet armor was released to turn south to clear up the other penetration, it was too late. Japanese units had taken Ussuriysk and on 6 November had reached the outskirts of Vladivostok. Soviet counterattacks into this deep penetration from the north were repulsed on 8-9 November. The abortive attack, pushed ahead ruthlessly by Zhukov, lacked significant armored support as the bulk of the tanks in the four tank divisions committed earlier were destroyed in heavy fighting or in need of repair. Fighting continued around and in Vladivostok, but by 20 November the two combatants were exhausted and the early arrival of deep winter brought large scale operations to a halt.

By any measure, the campaign had been one of the bloodiest in history. Seventy days of intense fighting had resulted in extremely heavy losses for both sides, but the issue was far from settled. The Soviets had occupied the western part of Manchuria and retained control of most of the Soviet Far East, but had been unable to relieve the garrison of the surrounded fortress of Vladivostok. The Japanese had attempted too much with too little. The IJA had launched an attack with insufficient resources and inadequate support and found itself again unable to answer the withering Soviet firepower advantage. With stalemate looming, both sides quickly turned to a negotiated solution that would permit them to conduct their other wars. In the end, the Second Russo-Japanese war was fought for nothing.

North Wind Rain Japanese Invasion of Manchuria

Back to Table of Contents -- Against the Odds vol. 2 no. 1
Back to Against the Odds List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2003 by LPS.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com
* Buy this back issue or subscribe to Against the Odds direct from LPS.