Conflict, in keeping with its policy of publishing original works of military history, is pleased to present for the first time in print, the following article by the noted military historian, Dr. Alvin D. Coax. The maps and photographs, from Dr. Coax's private collection, are reproduced here for the first time. An undeclared war between Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union erupted on a large scale in the spring of 1939 in a hitherto-quiet sector of disputed territory. The terrain was inherently useless from the military standpoint: trackless, uninhabited, waterless steppe and desert country lying on the fuzzy border between westem Manchuria (in the puppet empire of Manchukuo) and eastem Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People's Republic). Scorched by the winds from Gobi in summer blanketed by snow in winter, this region was a footsoldier's despair. Still, the terrain was flat and wide open, ideal for maneuver on a vast scale -- the Soviet Army's specialty. The Nomonhan Incident, as it was called by the Japanese (or the Khalkhin-gol affair, according to the Russians), was conducted by the Japanese garrison forces in Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, headquartered at Hsinking (old Changchun). This field army lived up to its jingoistic reputation, going so far as to deceive or defy Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo on occasion. During the warfare at Nomonhan, both the Japanese and the Russians employed armor, aircraft, artillery, and infantry. The Red Army alone used flamethrowers, especially tank-mounted. Far from railheads in either the USSR or Manchukuo, the locale was a logistician's fright. Ostensibly it was the two satellite neighbors who were directly involved in the controversy -- Manchokuo vs. Outer Mongolia. In practice it was the patron Great Powers at war -- Japan vs. Russia. More Nomonhan (Khalkhin-Gol) Introduction 1st Phase (May 1939) 2nd Phase (July 1939) 3rd Phase (August 1939) Japanese TO&Es: 23rd Div. and Yamagata Detachment Four Vehicle Specs and Illustrations (72K) Five Large Combat Maps (extremely slow: 708K) Four Jumbo Combat Maps (monstrously slow: 1.2MB) Back to Conflict Number 5 Table of Contents Back to Conflict List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Dana Lombardy This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com