This was the last battle of World War II, this is the Japanese Kwantung Army boasted of the "First Fortress of North Manchuria", which is the "Eastern Maginot Line" that the Japanese Kwantung claimed to be able to hold for 6 months, but in fact the Soviet Red Army gave the Japanese army a resounding slap, and in just 17 days, the Tiger Head Fortress built by the Japanese Army in 6 years was broken, which was the Tiger Head Fortress Battle.
How did the Japanese Kwantung Army organize the strength of the Tiger Head Fortress? Why did more than 1,000 Japanese kill messengers? How did the Red Army capture the fortress? Today we will talk about the causes and consequences of the Battle of Hutou Fortress.
A fortress where the Japanese Kwantung Army had high hopes
After the "918 Incident", the Japanese Kwantung Army occupied the three eastern provinces of China, and the northeast entered a 14-year-long colonial rule. After entering the northeast, in order to consolidate colonial rule and gain greater political and economic benefits, Japan pointed the spearhead of military struggle at China and the Soviet Union.
Japanese militarism planned a "northward" policy and frantically expanded its armaments, and the Tiger Head Fortress was built in the process. Hutou town is modest in size, but its strategic position is extremely critical, across the Ussuri River from the Soviet Union. The fortress was built here, and the Soviet Trans-Siberian Railway and the city of Iman can be seen in full view.
The Tiger Head Fortress is located in the middle of the Wanda Hills and consists of a number of positions, of which Tiger Mountain is the main position. The Japanese army began to build in 1933, after six years of expansion, Hutou Fortress in the west of the Flint Hill, east to the Ussuri River, south to Lianzi Mountain, north to Hubei Mountain.
The central area of the fortress covers more than 30 kilometers of the surrounding area, and within the surrounding 360 square kilometers, more than 10 large and small bunkers are built on the commanding heights. Hutou Fortress has set up more than 200 permanent fire points, the underground fortifications are reinforced concrete, the thickness reaches 1.5 meters, there are command posts, hospitals, barracks, grain depots and other facilities, underground fortifications communicate with each other, canine teeth staggered, strong concealment.
The above-ground fortifications were in an inverted U-shape, communicating with the underground fortifications, and artillery positions and military airfields were set up.
In 1937, after the outbreak of the All-Out War of Resistance, the Japanese would capture Chinese prisoners of war on the battlefield and become laborers after brutal training, serving as hard labor in building the Tiger Head Fortress. In the process of building the Hutou Fortress, a large number of Chinese prisoners of war and civilian bones were scattered in the mountain pass of the Hutou Fortress, which was built with the blood and sweat of Chinese, symbolizing the atrocities committed by the Japanese fascists in China.
When the Hutou Fortress was first built, the Japanese army deployed more than 8,000 troops, and by 1944, the Japanese army in the Pacific theater was becoming more and more unfavorable, and the Eighth Route Army in North China also launched counterattacks from time to time. By July 1945, when Japan's defeat was a foregone conclusion, the Japanese garrison at Tiger Head Fortress was only about 1,400.
At that time, the Japanese Kwantung Army arrogantly boasted that the level of artillery fire and fortification of the Tiger Head Fortress was far better than the French "Maginot Line", as long as the Soviet Army dared to come, the Kwantung Army held the Tiger Head Fortress for three days, and the Soviet Army would collapse!
On May 8, 1945, Germany announced its surrender. The Japanese government pinned its hopes on the Japan-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, coupled with hundreds of thousands of Kwantung Troops in the northeast, and could not help but take chances at the prospects of World War II.
On August 8, 1945, after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan.
On August 9, next to the Ussuri River, the Soviet army braved heavy rain and rushed to attack the Japanese post and captured the post near the Ussuri River in one fell swoop. Soviet Far Eastern forces began to assemble at Iman, and artillery had begun shelling the Tiger's Head, which was entrenched by the Japanese.
The Soviet Far East 1st Front concentrated the strength of 3 divisions and two tank brigades, divided its troops into three routes, and began to attack the Hutou Fortress. Under the cover of powerful artillery fire, the Soviet army attacked the tiger head all the way, attacked the tiger forest all the way, and crossed the Ussuri River all the way. After two hours of bloody fighting, the Japanese army's ground fortifications, stations, communication facilities, and barracks suffered great damage.
The Japanese army killed the messenger and stubbornly resisted
Faced with a sudden thunderous offensive, how could the Japanese resist the attack of the Red Army? Faced with the persuasion of the Red Army, why did the Japanese army kill the messenger?
Faced with a surprise Attack by the Soviet Union, the Japanese fled into the fortifications in a hurry. The Japanese daisa, who was garrisoning the area, immediately convened a meeting to discuss how to deal with the Soviet attack. After brief discussion, the Japanese pulled out the 40cm large-caliber artillery, a behemoth they claimed could destroy the entire city of Iman.
At 1 p.m., the Soviet Red Army forcibly landed on the Japanese forward position in an iron boat, and the Soviet shells poured on the Japanese positions one by one, and the Japanese troops on the positions immediately counterattacked. After several shots of Japanese 40cm large-caliber guns, although the ground shook, most of them deviated from the target and deviated far from the city of Iman.
The Japanese artillery fought vigorously, but they laughed for only half an hour. Under the shelling of the Soviet Red Army, the Japanese power supply system was destroyed, and the Japanese large-caliber artillery after losing power instantly became a pile of scrap iron.
After a day and a night of fierce fighting, the Japanese army not only did not repel the Soviet attack, but lost the riverside dock and the town of Hutou. The Soviets began to take full advantage of their air superiority, 40 Il-4 bombers took off, and the entire battlefield was filled with roar. After two hours of uninterrupted bombardment and ground-to-air strafing, the Soviets annihilated more than a dozen Japanese troops and destroyed two artillery pieces.
On 12 August, the Soviets concentrated two infantry regiments to attack the Japanese garrison. The Soviets, under the cover of tanks, launched a second large-scale offensive. Watching the Soviet army approaching, the Japanese army Daisa organized a death squad to engage in a white-knife battle with the Soviet army, but under the superior firepower of the Soviet army, the Japanese army suffered defeat. During the day, the Japanese suffered setbacks, and the Japanese immediately organized a night raid team, which caused some casualties to the Soviet army.
On August 13, the two armies began to fight for the position of The Western Mountain. After half a day of fierce fighting, a company of the Soviet army attacked the top of the mountain and planted the Red Flag of the Soviet Army. The Soviets followed the vents of the Japanese fortifications on the hill and dropped gasoline, incendiary bombs, and bombs. The Japanese troops in the fortifications immediately felt bad and immediately organized death squads to retake the position. After a night of fierce fighting, the strength of two companies of the Soviet army crushed the Japanese counterattack.
On August 14, Soviet heavy artillery and forward artillery shelled the Main Japanese position at Tiger Mountain, the Tiger Head Fortress. The Soviet artillery company destroyed in one fell swoop the fire point that the Japanese intended to use for half a year. After half a day of shelling, the Japanese artillery positions were destroyed, but the Japanese still controlled the commanding heights.
In the afternoon, a large number of Soviet cars arrived, and the Soviets unloaded a large amount of gasoline and blowers from above, poured gasoline from the vents of the underground fortifications on the top of the mountain, and a large amount of oxygen was consumed after gasoline was burned, and the carbon monoxide produced suffocated many Japanese troops. Some of the Japanese troops wore gas masks and still insisted on sticking to the entrance of the cave.
On August 15, daisaku, who was guarding the Tiger Head Fortress, learned the news of Japan's defeat and surrender from the radio, and was shocked for a while! But thinking that he was fighting the Soviets this time, he judged that this was a deception, and immediately ordered the destruction of all radios, vowing to "all be loyal to the emperor", preferring to be crushed and never surrender.
Two days later, the Japanese army Daisa, who was guarding the Tiger Head Fortress, ordered "all the members of the jade to be crushed" ordered. Half an hour after the order was issued, the Daisa and 140 wounded Japanese soldiers were killed, and the Japanese at Tiger Head Fortress never heard the headquarters again.
On the afternoon of August 18, the Soviets issued an ultimatum to the recalcitrant Japanese army, ordering the Japanese to surrender immediately, or the Soviets would launch a devastating attack. At 4 p.m., the Soviets dispatched the captured Hutou Port Bureau Chief Sen and five first-class men to the main position of Tiger Mountain to persuade them to surrender. Who knows, the degree of resistance of the Japanese greatly exceeded the expectations of the Soviet army. The Japanese commander who was guarding the main position killed Mori and Ichi, who had come to persuade him to surrender.
Katyusha pulled down the curtain on World War II
The Japanese army was really terrible, yesterday it was still a former comrade-in-arms, and it was directly killed by a knife. In order to completely crush the Japanese army, the Soviet army mobilized Katyusha to destroy the Japanese army's will to fight, so how long can this group of recalcitrant Japanese troops hold out? How many casualties did both sides suffer in this war?
On August 19, the Soviets realized that the Japanese would not choose to surrender and were determined to resist to the end. So Katyusha and all the artillery that could be put into battle launched an endless bombardment of the Tiger Valley. Since the 19th, the fighting has not been stopped by the Japanese army if it wants to stop.
Under the cover of air power and artillery fire, the Soviets annihilated the Japanese troops guarding Tiger Mountain and East Tiger Mountain. On August 24, the Soviets concentrated hundreds of tons of gasoline, all poured into the fortress, and as the Soviets pulled the flame launcher button, the fortified fortress became a huge furnace, and countless Japanese troops were engulfed in flames.
In the Tiger Howling Cave behind the Tiger Head Fortress, 70 Japanese survivors continued to resist. When they ran to the mouth of the cave, they found that the Soviets were already waiting for the rabbit at the mouth of the cave. The Soviets immediately opened fire and tilted their fire into the cave, and the Japanese fled back to the cave.
On August 26, the Soviet army concentrated 30 artillery pieces and more than a thousand soldiers and rushed towards the Japanese position of Huxiao Mountain, and finally 53 Japanese troops were captured alive by the Soviet army, and the Battle of Hutou Fortress was over.
World War II also came to an end with the end of the Battle of Tiger Head Fortress, exactly 11 days later than the Time when the Japanese Emperor announced his unconditional surrender.
In the Battle of Hutou Fortress, more than 1,300 Japanese troops were killed, and more than 700 Japanese pioneers who took refuge here became funerary items. In this battle, 493 Soviet troops were buried at the foot of Hutou Mountain.
So where did Japan lose this battle to the Kanto?
Because of the injustice of the war of aggression initiated by Japan, the morale of the Kwantung Army soldiers who participated in the Battle of Tiger Head Fortress was low. At that time, the Japanese Kwantung Army was in a situation of great rout, and a tiger fortress alone could not control the development of the war situation. The weapons and equipment of the Japanese Kwantung Army are quite backward compared with those of the Soviet Army. The five fortress positions set up by the Japanese army were not strongly linked, and it was easy to be cut off by the Soviet army.
Compared with the Japanese army, the Soviet army suffered relatively small casualties in this battle. The war waged by the Soviets was just and supported by the local population. It was in this way that the Soviet army could obtain more accurate geographic information.
Second, the Soviets fought bravely. In order to cover the assault of his comrades, one of the Soviet soldiers directly blocked the japanese machine gun firing port with his body.
Finally, the Soviet army has advanced weapons and equipment, has the basic weapon conditions for offensive operations, and has air supremacy in its hands.
The Battle of Hutou Fortress was the last battle of the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the last battle of the Anti-Fascist War, the fate of the Japanese aggressors could not escape, and the Chinese military and people's arduous 8-year War of Resistance was completely over.