Old Week
Abstract: In World War II, the US military fought with the Japanese army in the Pacific Ocean, from island-by-island scrambling to island-hopping operations, each island landing battle was quite arduous, especially in the battles in Kwajalein, Iwo Jima and other places, the battle situation was tragic, the casualties were heavy, and it became a nightmare deeply remembered by the US military. Why is it that in the same face of the Japanese army, the Soviet army sent troops to the northeast, but it was destroyed?
In World War II, the US military fought against the Japanese army in the Pacific, from island-by-island scrambling to island-hopping operations, each island landing battle was quite arduous, especially in the battles in Kwajalein, Iwo Jima and other places, the battle situation was tragic, the casualties were heavy, and it became a nightmare deeply remembered by the US military. Why is it that in the same face of the Japanese army, the Soviet army sent troops to the northeast, but it was destroyed?
When discussing this issue, it is necessary to first understand some common sense about the Japanese army. Which Japanese troops in World War II could be considered first-class elite? Many people take it for granted that it is a division of the first species. In fact, after 1939, in order to solve the embarrassment of increasingly insufficient troops on the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese army had to comprehensively adjust the divisions and regiments in the Chinese battlefield to a "three-unit" division. It was not until 1942 that the Japanese army completed the adjustment of the divisional and regimental structure on the Chinese battlefield, and all of them were unified into the "three-unit" system. Subsequently, according to the different combat tasks undertaken, the A division regiment (field combat), the B division regiment (auxiliary operations), the C division regiment (garrison) and the Ding division regiment began to appear. That is to say, the First Division is a unique organization that only the Chinese dispatch army has, and neither the Kwantung Army nor the Southern Army has it. Therefore, the First Division was only the first-class main force of the Chinese dispatch army, not the first-class main force of the entire Japanese army. To put it more bluntly, the First Division was only the Japanese army in the Chinese battlefield, and the short man picked the eldest son.
In the entire Japanese army, the real first-class main force was the standing army and 17 permanent divisions and regiments that had been formed before the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance in 1937. In the Chinese battlefield, except for only the two permanent divisions of the 3rd and 13th Divisions, which basically filled the whole field, the other standing divisions and regiments had all been transferred to the Pacific Theater after the outbreak of the Pacific War. In the Pacific Theater, not only did there not be a statement of a type A division or a B division, but even a standing division, but it was called a "heavy equipment division." The corresponding divisions, which are mainly responsible for the garrison of the islands, are called "ocean divisions".
The standing division is a "four-unit" system, each division has 4 infantry companies under its jurisdiction, while the first division is only a "three-unit" system, and each division has only 3 infantry companies, which means that the permanent division has a full third more than the strength of the first division! The permanent divisions and regiments that remained in China were also reduced by 1 company and adjusted to a three-unit type A division. Therefore, it is clear whether the first-class main force of the Japanese army is a standing division or a first-class division.
As mentioned above, most of the 17 permanent divisions of the Japanese army, except for a few who remained on the mainland, were transferred to the Pacific Theater to fight with the US army, just look at the surrender site of these 17 permanent divisions when the Japanese army surrendered in August 1945, you can see the hint:
The 1st Division surrendered in the Philippines;
The 2nd Division surrendered in Vietnam;
The 3rd Division surrendered in China;
The 4th Division surrendered in Thailand;
The 5th Division surrendered in Indonesia;
The 6th Division surrendered in the Solomon Islands;
The 7th Division surrendered on the mainland;
The 8th Division surrendered in the Philippines;
The 9th Division surrendered on Taiwan Island;
The 10th Division surrendered in the Philippines;
The 11th Division surrendered on the mainland;
The 14th Division surrendered in the Palau Islands;
The 16th Division was completely annihilated on the island of Leyte;
The 19th Division surrendered in the Philippines;
The 20th Division surrendered in New Guinea;
The Guards Division surrendered on the mainland.
Of the 17 permanent divisions, except for 1 in China and 3 on the mainland, the remaining 13 divisions surrendered to the Americans in the Pacific Theater, accounting for three-quarters of all standing divisions! By the way, it is also emphasized that none of the 17 first-class main divisions are in the northeast, that is to say, the Soviet army sent troops to the northeast, and there was not 1 first-class main division in the Japanese army.
In this way, the answer to our topic today is about to come out, and the US military in the Pacific has encountered the elite main force of the Japanese army, so it is not surprising that it is so hard to fight.
Look specifically at the opponents of the US military in several of the most arduous battles:
In the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Japanese participating unit was the 2nd Division, one of the first six towns established in 1873, renamed the 2nd Division in 1886, and was known as the most elite unit of the Japanese army after decades of conquest.
At the Battle of Kwajalein, the Japanese army participated in the battle as the 1st Mobile Brigade on the Sea, which was reorganized from the 6th Independent Garrison of the Kwantung Army.
At the Battle of Leyte, the Japanese participated in the battle as the 1st and 16th Divisions, all of which were permanent divisions.
At the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese participated in the battle as the 109th Division, which was not a permanent division, but the 145th Infantry Wing, the backbone unit, was the original Kwantung Army unit.
In the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese participated in the battle as the 32nd Army, and the backbone unit was the 9th Division, which was also a permanent division.
It can be seen that the Japanese troops encountered by the US military are all hard stubble, strong combat effectiveness, and the will to fight is even more tenacious, so even if the US military has a strong superiority in firepower and superiority in troops, it still fights very hard, and the casualties paid are also very heavy.
Looking at the situation of the Soviet Army, the Kwantung Army against the Soviet Army, once the most elite unit of the Japanese Army, shouldered the heavy responsibility of the strategic reserve, known as the "Flower of the Imperial Army", but after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the main forces of the Kwantung Army were successively transferred to the Pacific Theater and the mainland, by 1945, 80% of the Kwantung Army's troops were newly formed units in half a year, and the soldiers were 250,000 soldiers and expatriates from the Northeast Reclamation Regiment, either old and weak or young, with insufficient training and serious lack of equipment. Even a three-eight-big cover can not be done, and the combat effectiveness is very low, because it is known as the "Scarecrow" unit within the Japanese army.
However, even in the face of such a weak Japanese army, the Soviet army was far from reaching the level of destruction and pulling up.
At 00:00 on August 8 (Moscow time), the Soviets began to attack the northeast. However, the Japanese army continued to rely on border fortifications and towns to resist, and the Soviets did not approach Mudanjiang until noon on August 13. The Japanese 126th and 135th Divisions stubbornly resisted the Defense Line of Yehe Mountain ten kilometers west of Mudanjiang, and by August 15, when Japan announced its surrender, the Soviets still did not capture Mudanjiang. The Soviet army in the other direction did not capture Taonan until August 14, 200 kilometers away from Changchun!
On August 15, the Japanese Emperor issued a surrender edict, at this time the Soviet army launched the Far East Campaign for a full week, but the Soviet front is roughly from west to east is the Keshketeng Banner (about 150 kilometers northwest of Chifeng) - Tuquan - Taonan - Xing'an League - Hailar - Sun Wu - Baoqing - Linkou - Mudanjiang, did not occupy a medium-sized or above city, nor was it able to form a division of the Japanese army to annihilate the whole.
At 4 p.m. on August 16, the Kwantung Army received an order from the Japanese headquarters to surrender all army and navy units. The Kwantung Army Command immediately conveyed to the subordinate units, and at the same time requested the Soviet side to stop the fighting, and on the 17th, sent the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army to Harbin to propose an armistice to the Soviet Consulate General.
However, the Soviet General Staff issued a statement saying that the Emperor's surrender notice was only a general surrender letter, and the war continued on the grounds that the Japanese army was still resisting. The Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Army in the Far East replied to the Kwantung Army, "Recommending that from 12 o'clock on August 20 onwards all combat operations against the Soviet Army be stopped on the entire front and surrendered." "In order to occupy more places, the Soviet army refused to accept the surrender immediately and continued its military operations. It is a great spectacle in the history of war.
In fact, by August 18, with the exception of some of the border forts that had lost contact, the Japanese troops in most areas had begun to surrender. In fact, the Soviet army's combat has not been resisted - at this time, it can be called to pull up. On August 19, the Soviet army sent airborne troops to occupy Changchun and Shenyang by airborne landing.
Even at 12 o'clock on August 20, the Japanese army was still resisting the fortresses of Hutou and Dongning, which had lost contact with the outside world, and the Soviet army still failed to completely eliminate the Japanese resistance. The Hutou Fortress did not survive until August 26, when 1,400 Japanese troops were wiped out except for a few, and Soviet casualties were around 1,400. Dongning Fortress persisted until August 28, when it remained still standing in the face of a twenty-day onslaught by the Soviet Army, and the Kwantung Army sent people to read the surrender order, and the Japanese troops at Dongning Fortress surrendered.
It can be seen that the reason why the US military fought so hard in the Pacific was because the opponent was the real first-class main force of the Japanese army.
The Soviet army faced the Kwantung Army, which was already a "scarecrow force", but even so, it still failed to destroy the decay. What would have happened if the Soviets' opponents were the first-class Japanese forces that the U.S. military had encountered in the Pacific? Lao Zhou felt that there was a high probability that he would be beaten to the ground looking for teeth.
(The picture of this article is from the network)