Which battle was the last battle of the Second World War? Some say it could be the U.S. Battle of Okinawa, while others say it could be Operation August Storm launched by the Soviet Union. But in fact, the real final battle of the Second World War was the Battle of the Four Northern Islands, which is often overlooked.
During this battle, the Soviets launched a series of offensives against the Japanese forces entrenched in the four northern islands. After the battle, the four northern islands, known to the Japanese as the Kuril Islands, were completely reduced to Soviet control. This became the real territory that Japan actually lost after the end of World War II.
To this day, the four northern islands are still tightly held in Russia's hands as an important node in Russia's control of the East, which is also the source of contradictions between Japan and Russia.
So how exactly did this battle break out? How did he end up? Today, let the army and everyone take a look at the last battle of the Second World War.
In this war, the Soviets and the Japanese fought a final decisive battle with similar troops. Moreover, in this war, there were many Soviet soldiers who witnessed the last kamikaze operation of the Japanese army and witnessed the last madness of the Japanese army.
On August 18, 1945, a cannon blast shattered the tranquility of the Japanese coast. At that time, many Japanese soldiers were awakened from their sleep, and they thought that they did not know which unsightly coastal defense formation had fired the cannon, after all, the emperor had already announced his surrender on August 15, and now that the war was over, there should be no more fighting.
Soon, however, the hastily ordered soldiers ran into the headquarters on the island. He told the commander that the Soviet warships had suddenly attacked them, and now they were about to launch a general attack on the island. This frightened the local Japanese defenders, who quickly organized their beachheads for defense.
Nor did they expect that these fortifications, which had been frightened at the beginning of World War II to prepare for a sudden Soviet attack, would come in handy only after the end of the war.
Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union at the time, negotiated with other Allied giants at meetings in Cairo and Yalta. At the request of the United States, the Soviet Union would eventually send troops to help attack Japan, but only if the Soviet Union would gain control of Japan's four northern islands and Sakhalin Island after the war.
On much thought, people, including Roosevelt and Churchill, agreed with Stalin.com. Kuye Island was forcibly occupied by the Japanese after the Russo-Japanese War, and the four northern islands, although they are Japan's traditional territories, are the springboard for Japan in the Far East. More importantly, these places were too far from the spheres of influence of the United States and Britain.
Therefore, instead of upsetting the Soviet Union, it is better to sell the Soviet Union a smooth water. After all, the United States and Britain were the mediators of the Russo-Japanese War, and it is now very appropriate to abolish the Psmouth Treaty by themselves.
In 1945, the Soviets launched Operation August Storm like a devastating radial, and the entire Japanese Kwantung Army trembled like a lamb to be slaughtered. A week later, the entire Kwantung Army's sphere of influence was almost under Soviet control. But at this moment, the Japanese emperor suddenly announced his unconditional surrender, which made Stalin very angry.
For Stalin, his real offensive had not yet begun. The Soviet Union's bitter hatred of Japan was also understandable. Because in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, Japan defeated Tsarist Russia and forced Russia to sign the Portsmouth Treaty. Sakhalin Island, which was under Russian control at the time, was ceded to Japan south of the 50th parallel and the affiliated islands, which became the fattest piece of meat that Japan snatched from the Russians.
In 1918, after the outbreak of the October Revolution, Japan sent an intervention army to forcibly intervene in the Soviet Civil War and invaded Vladivostok. In 1938 and 1939, Japan provoked again on the Soviet border. Although they were eventually driven back by the Red Army, Japan's provocative behavior has made successive leaders of the Soviet Union think that if they do not teach Japan a lesson, they will despise the existence of the Soviet Union.
The Soviets never imagined that the Japanese would surrender so quickly. The reason is simple, that is, Stalin did not expect that the United States would drop atomic bombs at Japan in such a short period of time. Although the Soviet Union knew that the United States had such a mass murder weapon as the atomic bomb, it never imagined that the Americans would actually use it against Japan.
In the face of these two atomic bombs, combined with the Soviet offensive, the Japanese Emperor finally collapsed. He read the Edict of the End of the War on August 14 and broadcast Japan's unconditional surrender on August 15. For the Soviet Union, it was a thunderbolt on a sunny day.
If the world had acknowledged that Japan had surrendered, there would have been no reason for the Soviets to launch an offensive against the Japanese forces stationed south of Sakhalin Island, which would have made it illegal for the Soviets to take back Sakhalin Island. More importantly, Stalin understood that Britain and the United States would accede to their demands in those years because they wanted the Soviet Union to send troops.
Now that Japan has surrendered, the Soviet Union's demands are irrelevant. He did not believe that Britain and the United States would abide by the agreement and demand that Japan surrender its territory. Therefore, Stalin could only demand that even if Japan had surrendered unconditionally, it would do everything possible to capture the four northern islands. And that's why the Battle of the Four Northern Islands took place.
The most important of the four northern islands is Chamdo Island, the closest island to the Soviet mainland and less than 6.5 nautical miles from the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula. After World War II, the Soviet Union had anticipated that Japan would inevitably fall to the United States in an all-round way. If Japan had continued to occupy the island, every move of the Soviet Far East Fleet would have been seen by the Americans.
Therefore, the Soviet Union had to take the island. And if the four northern islands are taken, there is no doubt that the island chain of the Western countries trying to trap the Soviet Far East Fleet will be completely broken, and the Soviet Union will have unparalleled strategic initiative in the Far East.
During World War II, Japan feared that the Soviet Union would make surprise moves on the islands. On this small island of less than 400 square kilometers, the Japanese laid out a large number of fortifications.
On the only beach in the entire island, there are 34 permanent fire points, 24 civil fire points, hundreds of guns under 100mm, and a large number of machine gun bunkers. The island is dotted with various trenches, the deepest of which is even 50 meters underground. At the same time, 74 tanks and eight aircraft were deployed on the island, which could suppress the fire of the landing enemy. According to the experience of previous island operations, the more than 8,400 soldiers on the island were enough to suppress tens of thousands of Soviet troops.
At this time, the total combat strength that the Soviet Far Eastern Military Region could send was only more than 8,800 people, which was almost the same as the Japanese strength, so the Soviets could only find a way in firepower. Before the war, the Soviet Union prepared 205 artillery pieces and 42 aircraft.
These were enough to exert tactical pressure on the island's technical weapons, and more importantly, they mobilized two destroyers, the Kirov and The Gilzhinsky, from the Red Navy, ready to use these firepowers to deliver a fatal blow to the Japanese. The Soviets' action was a race against time, and they were trying to take the island before japan fully accepted it internationally.
At 5 a.m. on August 17, 1945, sea fog rose over the Pacific Ocean. The Soviet naval forces turned off all radios for a surprise attack, and the fog became the best cover for the Soviet fleet. At 4 a.m. the next day, Soviet troops had assembled at sea.
The first shells were fired from coastal artillery on the Kamchatka Peninsula. From a shell from the Soviet mainland began a military operation against the four northern islands. A shell immediately panicked the sleeping Japanese soldiers, who did not know what was happening.
But at this time, the Soviets at sea encountered a big problem, that is, the Soviet landing ships had to stop at sea 100 meters from the coast due to overcrowding loads, and then the soldiers waded through the sea to charge the fortifications. At the same time, the Soviet advance fleet also exposed its position due to hasty shelling.
It can be said that the recklessness and aggressiveness of the Soviets eventually turned the climate advantage into a disadvantage. After seeing the specific location of the Soviets, the Japanese also urgently organized a defense. They immediately brought in 100mm coastal defense guns to shell the Soviet landing ships. Two landing ships caught fire under shelling, and hundreds of Soviet soldiers fell into the sea and drowned.
The situation of the two destroyers was not much better, and under the attack of the Japanese coastal guns, the radios on both destroyers were destroyed, which completely lost contact between the Soviet command and the Soviet landing forces.
At this time, the Soviets could only change their strategy, from a full-scale occupation to a little breakthrough. More than 8,800 soldiers charged all the way, directly captured a key point on the beach, and began to deploy artillery units on the beach. At this time, the entire situation on the island had been fully seen by the Soviet army, and the Japanese fortifications could already be attacked by Soviet artillery.
But both soviet and Japanese air power had lost the ability to fight at this time, because the fog never cleared, which turned the Soviet planes into headless flies, unable to provide effective support to the ground.
The Japanese on the island, under the command of a lieutenant general, began a counter-offensive. The lieutenant general said that whoever landed must be crushed. At the urging of the Japanese army, the 11th Tank Wing launched a charge. The company commander of the company at the time was named Sueo Ikeda, and he led 30 Japanese tanks to launch a charge on the beachhead.
But soon he found himself making a very stupid move, that is, the Soviet army had already built a position on the beachhead, and his tank troops could not bite the Soviet position. These Japanese, who were accustomed to dealing with Chinese soldiers, never imagined how iron will it would be for European soldiers who had experienced a great war.
All the Soviet soldiers gathered the remaining guns and ammunition, as well as anti-tank guns and four 45mm anti-tank guns, and launched an attack on the Japanese tanks. A large number of Japanese tanks were set on fire under the attack of Soviet anti-tank forces.
At the same time, soviet anti-tank grenades also made a great contribution, and many Japanese tanks were directly destroyed on the beachhead. Japan's original armored superiority was wiped out at this time, and Ikeda Sue-o-Sa was also killed in the charge.
The Japanese also panicked after seeing the strength of the tank troops, and prepared to launch a white-knife battle on the beachhead. But what the Japanese did not expect was that the Soviets were also experts in white warfare. The Soviet soldiers had already put bayonets on their rifles and were ready to fight the Japanese. The Japanese soldiers jumped into the trenches of the Soviet Union and were immediately pierced by the bayonets of the Soviet soldiers. Soldiers on both sides fought in the beachheads, and the entire beach was stained red with blood.
At this moment, a Japanese fighter was injured by the Soviet Navy's anti-aircraft artillery, and the fighter pilot immediately rushed to a Soviet landing craft, along with the landing craft, which became the last recorded kamikaze attack in World War II.
But even so, the defeat of the Japanese army was irreparable. Their proud white-knife battle struck a nose of ash in front of the Soviets and had to retreat back into the fortress. So the Japanese defenders had to send a peace negotiator, Captain Nagashima, hoping to make peace with the Soviets. However, the Soviets arrogantly told him that a lieutenant was not qualified to negotiate with the Soviets, so the Japanese had to send another big sa to negotiate with the Soviets.
The Soviets agreed to the Japanese military's permission to negotiate this time, but in the process of negotiations, the Soviets said that they must immediately surrender all their weapons and formally surrender. The Japanese considered such an armistice too shameful, so they decided to return to continue to build fortifications, and the negotiations between the two sides fell apart unhappily. The Soviet army immediately resumed shelling the Japanese.
On 19 August, the order to sign the surrender edict was sent to the Kuril Islands, and the defenders of the islands considered this to be nothing more than a Soviet delay, because they received the order to end the war after the 31st, so they and the Soviets once again engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The Soviet Union continued to land on the island, and the two sides remained in a tug-of-war on the beach.
By August 23, however, the Japanese defenders had received the exact news that the Kwantung Army in northeastern China had been completely defeated by the Red Army, and that there was no point in their continued stubborn resistance. So the Japanese soldiers walked out of the bunker and raised their hands to surrender to the Soviet Union.
In this operation, the Soviets lost a total of 416 soldiers, while the Japanese lost 369 people and lost almost all of their tanks. In terms of the number of casualties, the two sides are not much different, but in fact, the Japanese army has no possibility of continuing to fight. If the war continues, the war will still end in the victory of the Soviet army, but the Soviet army may pay for the lives of more soldiers.
This was the first time since the Soviet Union had war with the Japanese that soviet casualties had surpassed that of Japan. The Soviet officers involved in the landing wrote in their summaries that the Japanese defenses on the island had exceeded the imagination of the Soviet army, and the Japanese had built the island into a steel fortress, while the Soviets could not use the landing ship to drop tanks to the island to attack the Japanese army, which was the reason why our attack was frustrated.
However, the Tactics of the Japanese were also problematic. They obviously had the advantage of fire points and tank armor, but they could not concentrate their superior firepower to suppress the Soviet army. This is enough to see that the Japanese army's combat thinking is still very old, so the Japanese army is not an opponent that can compete with the Soviet Union.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union rushed to send troops to other islands, where the Japanese had heard about the war that had taken place on the islands, and they were terrified that the Soviets without any heavy weapons could still completely annihilate the armored forces of the Japanese army, and they immediately chose to surrender to the Soviet Union after seeing the old weapons in their hands. Therefore, the subsequent military operations of the Soviet Union can only be described as a soldier without bloodshed.
In fact, the Soviet Union at that time was ready to continue to capture Hokkaido, but since the war was really over at this time, the Soviet Union could not carry out the next military operations. There is no doubt that the Soviet offensive against the four northern islands was quite successful, and at the same time as the attack on the four northern islands, the Soviets had also swept through the Japanese defenders on Sakhalin Island and incorporated both Sakhalin Island and the Northern Four Islands into their sphere of influence.
After this battle, the Soviets got what they wanted, while the Japanese lost their territory forever. For Japan, this is the price of a war of aggression. In the decades of foreign wars waged by The Japanese, everything eventually became a dream bubble, not only did they not gain any land but also lost their own land, which was the price of the invaders. And to this day they have to pay for everything that year.
Today, the four northern islands have been built by Russia into a truly invincible super fortress, no matter what kind of warship must walk next to it, must weigh the anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship missiles on them. The Japanese still regularly look at the four northern islands in Hokkaido, but they also know that these islands are now completely impossible to recover.
Almost every Japanese prime minister, before coming to power, shouted the slogan of reclaiming the four northern islands, but it was never implemented, and the Japanese have accepted this fact.
Soviet troops who landed on the beach in 1945 may have become the last sign of the war.