In 1904, war broke out between Japan and Russia, but the main battlefield was placed in northeast China. Since that year, the Japanese Kwantung Army has been entrenched in northeastern China. However, at that time, this army was not called the Kwantung Army.
After Russia's defeat in 1905, Russia transferred the lease rights to the "Kanto Prefecture" (a large area of the Liaoning Brigade in China) to Japan. In order to safeguard its colonial interests, Japan sent two divisions of about 40,000 troops to the "Kanto Prefecture" and the south Manchuria Railway annex, and established the Kantō Governor's Palace. In the following year, the Governor's Office was changed to the Governor's Office, under which the War Department was established, with 1 Army Division, 6 Independent Garrison Battalions, Lushun Heavy Artillery Battalion and Gendarmerie Corps, which was the origin of the Japanese Kwantung Army. In 1919, Japan officially established the Kwantung Army.
Japanese Kwantung Army
From 1904 to 1945, the Japanese Kwantung Army remained entrenched in northeast China and committed numerous crimes on Chinese soil. They acted as the vanguard of Japan's invasion of China, using living Chinese to conduct biochemical experiments, launch germ warfare, and invade and occupy china's three northeastern provinces during the "918" incident.
Within the Japanese army, the Kwantung Army was the most effective and equipped, reaching 1.2 million people in its heyday, known as the "Flower of the Imperial Army" and also known as the "First Army of Asia".
So why did the 1.2 million Japanese Kwantung Army, known as the 'First Army in Asia'' and had been entrenched in northeast China for 41 years, be defeated by the autumn wind in August 1945 when it encountered its former defeated Soviet Red Army, and did not even last 10 days? Was the Red Army too strong, or was the Japanese Kwantung Army too weak?
Comparison of troops: The Red Army had an absolute advantage
When the Japanese Kwantung Army was first established, it did not have many troops, and later with the acceleration of the pace of invasion of China, the size of the troops also expanded rapidly, and in its heyday, there were 31 infantry divisions, 11 infantry and tank brigades, 1 death squad brigade and 2 aviation corps, a total of about 1.2 million people.
In the second half of 1943, with the defeat of the Japanese army in the Pacific Theater, the Japanese Kwantung Army, which was entrenched in northeast China, was successively transferred to the southern islands to serve as cannon fodder for the war against the United States.
Kwantung Army
By August 1945, the Japanese Kwantung Army had less than 700,000 men left. Among these 700,000 people, there are still a considerable number of soldiers whose combat quality is worrying. Because by the end of World War II, the troops replenished from Japan were either old, weak, sick and disabled, or they were not yet young, and they could not be compared with the quality of soldiers at the beginning of the war.
On the other hand, the Red Army of the Soviet Union, the strength of the Kwantung Army from Siberia to the south reached 1.5 million. Moreover, these 1.5 million Soviet Red Army are all "elite of the elite" who have experienced the baptism of the European battlefield.
Comparing the two, only in terms of the size of the troops and the quality of the troops, the Japanese Kwantung Army was in an absolute disadvantage, while the Soviet Red Army occupied an absolute advantage.
Equipment firepower comparison: The Japanese Kwantung Army was completely crushed
The Japanese Kwantung Army, known as the "First Army in Asia", was far stronger in equipment and firepower than the Chinese army at that time, but also stronger than other japanese armies. It's just that it was many years ago. After the "918" incident, Japan not only launched an all-out war of aggression against China, but also successively opened up new battlefields in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, and the ambition of expansion made the entire country exhausted, and there was no time, cost, and energy to upgrade weapons and equipment.
In addition, at the end of World War II, the Japanese high command took away the most advanced weapons and equipment while transferring the Kwantung Army to the Pacific Theater. By 1945, the Japanese Kwantung Army, which remained in tohoku, was still using the 38-38-dōgae, which had been produced more than 30 years earlier. When the Red Army launched a general offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army, about 100,000 Kwantung Army soldiers did not even have rifles and had to rely on cold weapons and even sharpened branches to fight the Red Army.
Katyusha rockets
While fighting hard against the Germans, the Red Army had already completed wave after wave of upgrading of weapons and equipment. The Red Army was heavily armed with the state-of-the-art PPSh-41 submachine gun, Katyusha rocket launcher and T-34 main battle tank.
In the early morning of August 9, 1945, when the Red Army dispatched 4,300 aircraft, more than 5,000 tanks and more than 28,000 artillery to launch a general offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Japanese Kwantung Army used only 1,800 aircraft, 1,215 tanks and 6,700 artillery pieces to resist.
Comparison of tactical choices: Positional defense operations are overwhelmed by mechanized large-depth operations
In the Tohoku Battlefield, the Japanese Kwantung Army followed the example of the Okinawa Campaign and adopted the strategy of defensive warfare, digging a large number of fortifications when the Soviet Red Army launched an offensive.
However, the Japanese Kwantung Army ignored the geographical differences between the Tohoku Battlefield and the Okinawa Battlefield. On the vast northeast plain, the Soviet Red Army adopted the idea of large-depth combat, first using the torrent of steel to quickly break the fortifications of the Kwantung Army, and then using fast-track infantry to harvest the remnants of the enemy. This tactic rendered the elaborate fortifications of the Japanese Kwantung Army useless.
A torrent of steel for the Red Army
The 1st Far Eastern Front under Meretskov broke through the permanent fortifications of the Japanese Kwantung Army within a week, penetrating 150 kilometers into enemy positions. After cutting off the Japanese from the reinforcements, the ground combat troops who arrived later quickly wiped out the Japanese troops clinging to the fortifications.
The flat terrain in the northeast was also suitable for the deployment of Soviet artillery units. Before each attack, the Red Army would use artillery units to carry out fierce attacks on the Japanese positions, which also played a very good blow effect in breaking through the Japanese Kwantung Army's defenses.
In addition, there was a special team in the Soviet Red Army, that is, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition fighters who had previously rested in the Soviet Union, they knew the terrain of the northeast region very well, basically understood the defensive arrangements of the Japanese army, and played a good role as a guide in the battle.
The will to fight comparison: a world of difference
Until August 1945, the situation on the battlefield was extremely unfavorable to Japan, and if the Japanese army did not surrender, the whole of Japan would inevitably suffer a catastrophe. The Axis Alliance formed at the beginning of World War II had long since collapsed, with Italy surrendering in September 1943 and Nazi Germany surrendering in May 1945, and the Red Army freeing up its hands to take over Japan. On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.
Meanwhile, at 00:00 a.m. on August 9, when the 1.5 million troops of the Red Army launched a general offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army, many Kwantung Army soldiers were still sleeping with their heads covered, because they expected that even if the Red Army went to war with Japan, it would not be as early as 1946.
The unfavorable situation on the battlefield and the lightning attack of the Soviet Red Army instantly destroyed the will to fight of the Japanese Kwantung Army, and many Japanese soldiers no longer wanted to do the battle of trapped beasts, and they raised their hands and surrendered.
The Japanese Kwantung Army surrendered to the Red Army
The Red Army, on the other hand, had defeated the mighty German army and had just returned triumphantly from the Battlefield in Europe, and was full of morale. They have not forgotten the shame of being defeated by the Japanese army 40 years ago, and they are thinking of the shame of the snow. Thus, at this time the Red Army of the Soviet Union was in a period of the strongest will to fight.
One side has no fighting spirit, the other side is determined to win, and the outcome of the battle can be imagined.
The result of the battle: 600,000 Kwantung Army was driven to Siberia to grow potatoes
In the early morning of August 9, 1945, 1.5 million Soviet Red Army troops under the command of Marshal Vasilevsky of the Soviet Union launched a lightning raid on the Japanese Kwantung Army from three directions at the same time. At sunrise, the Red Army had crossed the border and entered northeast China from the post-Baikal, Heilongjiang and coastal areas, respectively, and launched a decisive battle against the Japanese army on a five-thousand-kilometer front.
The Red Army
To the surprise of the Soviet Red Army, the Japanese Kwantung Army, once known as the "First Army of Asia" and the "Flower of the Imperial Army", collapsed on the Northeast Battlefield and became an escape army. The Red Army quickly ended the battle with a crushing force.
From the launch of the general offensive to the surrender of the enemy, it took only 10 days.
In this battle, 83,000 Japanese Kwantung Troops were killed and 594,000 surrendered, while the Soviets suffered only 32,000 casualties. Nearly 600,000 Japanese Kwantung Army prisoners were sent to alpine Siberia to grow potatoes, during which time countless people froze to death and starved to death.
Write at the end
The Japanese Kwantung Army was not as strong as it thought, and during the "918" incident, 200,000 well-equipped Northeast Troops ceded the entire three eastern provinces to the Japanese without firing a single shot under Zhang Xueliang's policy of non-resistance, which was really incomprehensible. You know, at that time, the Japanese Kwantung Army, which was entrenched in northeast China, had only 27,000 men.
What is more serious is that the Japanese Kwantung Army occupied 787,300 square kilometers of China's territory without a single soldier, which is larger than the area of the two Japans, which further encouraged Japan's ambition to invade China in an all-round way.