This former Japanese Kwantung Army military doctor is named Matsumoto Kuhei. The military doctors of the Kwantung Army Chinese think of the notorious Unit 731 of the Kwantung Army.
Matsumoto Kusahira Memoirs Chinese edition
October 1, 1977, 38 years after the outbreak of the Nomenham War (1939), was China's National Day. Matsumoto, 60, published his war memoir, "The Vast Wilderness: Nomenham," in Japan. In the book, he recalls the war that went away in Nomenhan, at the northern end of the Gobi Desert on the Sino-Mongolian border. He wanted to tell future generations what he saw about the pain of war.
Nomenham location
This war, the Japanese "Showa History" recorded as follows:
In a major war in which the 23rd Division of the Japanese Kwantung Army alone had a casualty rate of 70%. However, since the Soviet Union and Japan did not declare war, Japan called the war the "Nomenkhand Incident" and the Soviet Union called it the "Battle of the Halaha River". The Japanese wanted to forget this event through time, but how could the Battle of Nomenkhand be easily erased?
Matsumoto was drafted into the army twice. The first time he joined the army, he belonged to the 23rd Division and participated in the Battle of Nomenkhan; The second time was in 1943, when he was sanctioned as a "red element" for privately spreading the theory of Japan's defeat in the war.
Japanese recruits enlisted
Matsumoto's son mentions in the Chinese preface:
Major General Masanobu Hattori and Masanobu Tsuji, staff officers of the Kwantung Army who planned and commanded the war, were not only not held accountable, but were promoted to the post of commander and squad leader of the Operations Section of the Japanese Army Base Camp Staff Headquarters. Later, the two men vigorously pursued the "southern offensive policy" and became the vanguard of the Pacific War.
No matter what era, there are war maniacs and warmongers, who succeeded in the era of Japanese militarism and caused the tragedy of an era. In the contemporary international community, peace-loving people cannot allow these fanatical politicians who clamor for war to plot to undermine the general environment of world peace.
First, Matsu Materia was plainly confused on the front line
After the end of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), under the pretext of protecting its special rights and interests inherited from Russia in the Liaodong Peninsula, Japan sent more than 40,000 troops to Lushun, this dispatched army was officially named the Kwantung Army in April 1919, directly under the jurisdiction of the emperor, the task was to "garrison" the Kanto Prefecture (Liaodong Peninsula south of Pulandian) and the South Manchurian Railway, the best-equipped, most trained and strongest combat effectiveness of the troops, known as the "invincible" "flower of the imperial army", at its peak there were 20 divisions and regiments with nearly 1 million troops. During World War II, the Kwantung Army was the general reserve of the Tokyo base camp.
Group photo of the Japanese Kwantung Army
In May 1938, the 32-year-old Matsumoto Kusahira had just opened its new hospital when it suddenly received a "general mobilization" from the Japanese Ministry of the Army
Know, signed up for the military medical reserve. Matsumoto was a private who became a sergeant after 75 days of training, and on October 7 he was assigned to the 23rd Division Health Corps. There are veterans in the health brigade, several over the age of 50.
The 23rd Division landed in Dalian Port on a military transport ship from Japan, then crossed Harbin by train, passed through the Xing'an Mountains, and reached the station of Hailar (present-day Hailar District, Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia). Six months later, in May 1939, the puppet Manchukuo's Hung Yen Northern Garrison and the Outer Mongolian Army fought for Xilin-Tauragai, and the commander of the 23rd Division, Komatsubara Michitaro, first sent the commander of the cavalry wing, Higashi Babaizang, to lead 200 devils and a total of 700 puppet troops to participate in the battle.
Michitaro Komatsubara escalated border friction and sought an excuse to realize Tokyo Base Camp's "northward advance" plan. The headquarters of the Kwantung Army sent operational staff officer Masanobu Tsuji to the battlefield to guide the next operation.
The Nomenkhand War was a border dispute between Mongolia and the puppet Manchu regime, deliberately instigated and exploited by Japan. The commander of the 23rd Division, Komatsubara Michitaro, sent the 64th Infantry Wing of Wuguang of Shan County and the Eastern 800 Tibetan Cavalry Wing to join the banks of the Halaha River to assist the puppet Manchu army in dealing a severe blow to the Soviet-Mongolian army that had "crossed the border."
Battle of the Halaha River by the Soviet-Mongolian army
Matsumoto Sohei military doctor is in the 64th Infantry Wing of Wuguang in Yamaken. Matsumoto Herbology, as the health captain, a total of more than 100 people, behind the mountain county wing, walked for four days to the Hulunbuir grassland, walked 200 kilometers, and finally reached Nomenhan on May 26, with the snowy peaks of the Daxing'an Ridge in the east.
Japanese pig assault tactics
The Japanese army considered itself invincible and would win every battle, and it despised the Russian army. The Mountain County Wing arrived at the General Temple on May 27 (the anniversary of the naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War). On the same day 34 years ago, the Japanese Navy completely annihilated the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Strait.
At 4 o'clock the next morning, the Yamaken Wing charged at the front line position 742 heights, and Matsumoto Kusahira's health team also participated in the infantry pig assault. Matsumoto encountered a malfunction of a Soviet BA-64D light armored vehicle, but the Soviet-Mongolian troops had long since retreated from the position.
Soviet BA-64D light armored vehicle
Matsumoto Sohei's temporary rescue center was located on the bank of the Halaha River, and he felt the error of the cross-sectional map of the Halaha River by Major General Masanobu Tsuji, operational staff officer of the Kwantung Army, first, the distance between the two banks of the river was about 400 meters, and second, the Soviet-Mongolian position on the left bank of the Halaha River was higher than the Japanese position on the right bank.
Comparison of the terrain map drawn by Masanobu Tsuji and the military doctor
Matsumoto believes that the Soviet-Mongolian army saw the Japanese every move clearly on the left bank. The Japanese "Manchu" army was at an absolute disadvantage. After the Shanxian Wing occupied the 742 heights, the trench fortifications were repaired, and the shelling of the Soviet troops began, and after the shelling, Soviet tanks rushed over.
The 23rd Division's operational plan was to divide the troops into three routes, with the infantry wing in Shanxian attacking head-on, the right flank of the eastern 800-zang interspersed troops cutting off the enemy's retreat, and the left flank outflanking force being the puppet Manchu army. Soon the right flank troops were surrounded, all the reinforcements and ammunition sent were cut off, and there were heavy casualties.
General Zhukov
In the early morning of the 29th, the Soviet army shelled again, and the Soviet-Mongolian army was probably armed with a Type 1910 122mm howitzer. It was the largest caliber artillery on the battlefield at that time, and it was extremely powerful. Matsumoto Ping lies in the octopus tank trench, where it could be buried alive at any moment. At noon, the artillery of the Shanxian unit brought out a rapid-fire gun (at that time the elite Japanese troops were armed with 37mm infantry sniper guns, and an infantry squadron was equipped with two) fired three shells at a Soviet tank. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the troops of the Eastern 800 Tibet were fighting to the death with "meat bombs." Two hours later, the Japanese devils may have run out, and the position fell silent under the night.
Soviet Type 1910 122mm howitzer
Matsumoto was assigned a night patrol in the early hours of the morning, and he took three sanitary soldiers on a mission when he encountered a Mongol soldier, one of whom had experienced sanitary soldiers, and killed the Mongol soldier who was pulling a grenade. Near the end, he encountered a superior soldier who had returned from the Eastern Search Team (the right wing was interspersed with troops, which had been completely destroyed), covered in blood, and fell to the ground after shouting "Long live His Majesty the Emperor."
After dawn on May 30, Soviet artillery bombarded for more than an hour. The devils of the Japanese army on the 742 heights of less than 300 people did not drink water for several days. At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Masanobu Tsuji, staff officer of the Japanese Kwantung Army Command, the planner of this operation, flew to the 742 heights in an American Cessna small reconnaissance plane.
Jackal staff officer Masanobu Tsuji
Masanobu Tsuji was a young man and a scheming man, and when the Shanghai Maritime Rebellion on January 28, 1932, he was a squadron leader of the 9th Division, and was appreciated by the division commander, Kenkichi Ueda. Kenkichi Ueda was transferred to the command of the Kwantung Army, and Masanobu Tsuji was promoted to Major General of the Operational Staff in the Kwantung Army. He was the author of the "Outline for the Settlement of Border Disputes between Manchu and the Soviet Union", the planner of the "Malay Surprise Attack" plan of the Pacific War, and the main planner of the Battle of Guadalcanal, after the defeat of Japan, he disguised himself as a Japanese monk and hid in Thailand and China for three years, and helped Chiang Kai-shek fight the civil war as a military adviser. Masanobu Tsuji returned to Japan in 1950 and was elected to the Diet two years later. In 1961, he ran to Southeast Asia, was captured by the Lao People's Liberation Army in Laos, and was shot on charges of espionage, ending his criminal life.
As soon as Tsuji Masanobu saw Takeo Daisa in Yamaken, he cursed and accused him of causing the death of Higashihachizo. Higashihachizo and Takeo Yamaken were classmates. In the eyes of the soldiers, Masanobu Tsuji is the real "three-plot staff officer" who "plots, plots, and conspires."
Japanese cavalry wing
To recap, on the night of May 27, Cavalry Wing Commander Dong Babaizang led cavalry and a squadron of armored vehicles (12 vehicles) to carry out an outflanking mission, and at dawn the next day reached the bank of the Halaha River, and after occupying the headquarters of the Mongolian 6th Division, it encountered the armored battalion of the Mongolian 6th Division, 36 BA-6 armored vehicles plus rows of 45mm cannon shells, and the Japanese cavalry men turned over on their backs. The Soviet T-130 Spitfire tank firepower is many times stronger than that of Japanese armored vehicles. The main force of the cavalry wing of the 23rd Division was completely destroyed.
The East 800 Tibetan Cavalry Wing lined up in four columns along the way, swaggering and walking on the wasteland, but I did not expect that this would be like a moth to a fire, and it would never come back
Matsumoto's health team became a corpse collection team and encountered Soviet tanks, but fortunately the two trucks took out first-aid kits emblazoned with the Red Cross emblem and hung them on the guardrail on the right side of the truck, otherwise they would have been killed by the Soviets. Another corpse truck was unlucky, did not carry the Red Cross emblem, was shelled by Soviet tanks, and all were killed.
The Mountain County United, which suffered heavy losses, withdrew to Hailar. The commander of the 23rd Division, Michitaro Komatsubara, reported the "battle results": the destruction of the headquarters of the 6th Mongolian Cavalry Division, the killing of the division commander, and the total annihilation of the 15th Cavalry Regiment. The command of the Kwantung Army considered this battle to be a draw with the Lao army. A congratulatory message was sent from the Tokyo General Staff Headquarters. Seishiro Sakagaki, Minister of the Army of the Ministry of Arms, had originally been promoted from the post of Lieutenant General of the Kwantung Army to the post of Lieutenant General and Minister of the Army, but seeing that the old troops were stirring up trouble in Nomenkhan, it was exactly what he wanted and actively supported the march to Transbaikal in the Soviet Union.
Second Battle of Nomenham: The first tank battle in Asian history
Having personally experienced the First Battle of Nomenkhan, Matsumoto realized that the Soviet army was much stronger in terms of materials and mechanics than the Japanese army. What he did not know was that the Soviet army was equipped with advanced T-28 and T-35 multi-turret tanks, and the artillery was changed from 122mm howitzers to a large number of Type 89 150mm heavy guns, and the total strength of the Japanese army far exceeded that of the Soviet-Mongolian army.
Lieutenant General Taro Komatsubara, commander of the 23rd Division
On 20 June, Lieutenant General Komatsubara again sailed to Nomenhan with more than 20,000 people from seven wings of infantry, artillery, engineering, and cavalry. At this time, the temperature in Nomenham was as high as 35 degrees Celsius, and the Japanese army walked on foot, and the heat and lack of water were more realistic enemies.
The Japanese 1st Tank Division stationed at Princess Ridge also reached Nomenham. The roads are muddy and the tanks are mostly deep in them. This tank division was the only tank division in the Japanese army at that time.
The Japanese 7th Infantry Division also took part in the battle. Its 26th and 28th Wings arrived in 400 trucks of the Kwantung Army Automobile Wing. These two wings were the double aces of the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War.
According to tradition, the chief officer with the same rank in a theater of operations was awarded earlier, and Michitaro Komatsubara became the commander-in-chief of the front. He commanded nearly three divisions at once, and his men also had advanced equipment such as tanks and heavy artillery, and Komatsubara was excited.
Komatsubara once served as a military attaché of the Japanese Embassy in the Soviet Union for a long time, and was a "Soviet expert" who boasted that he knew very well the combat effectiveness and tactical characteristics of the Soviet army, and also wrote an internal reference book "How to Fight the Soviet Army", proposing the tactic of "roundabout outflanking" against the Soviet army, which the Japanese army dogmatically applied, and was beaten to the head by the Soviet army.
Stalin (left), Zhukov (right)
But Komatsubara's opponent was Zhukov. It was not easy for the Soviet Union to find generals who could reassure Stalin and have command skills after the "Great Purge", but Stalin still found the deputy commander of the Belarusian Military District, the former military adviser to the Soviet Union in China, and an active advocate of the Soviet army's tank warfare - Ge. Healthy. Admiral Zhukov.
As early as 22 and 24 May, the Soviet Far East Air Force dispatched 150 I-15 Bis biplane fighters to launch an air battle at Nomenham with 120 95-type Nakajima land offensives of the 2nd Flight Group of the Kwantung Army. The Soviet Air Force first lost, the lost aircraft and pilots could be replenished in time, and the Japanese planes fought less and less, at this time the improved I-16 fighter group of the Soviet army entered the battle, and the battlefield air supremacy was transferred to the Soviet army.
I-15 fighter
Lieutenant General Toru Saga, commander of the 2nd Flight Group of the Japanese Army, proposed to concentrate forces and cross the border to raid the Tamsk airfield of the Soviet air base. However, the Tokyo base camp did not think of a countermeasure and did not agree with Lieutenant General Saga's plan. However, at 4 o'clock in the morning of 27 June, 57 Type 97 heavy bombers and 80 95 land attack planes at the Kanggyur Temple Airport and Hailar Airport carried out Lieutenant General Nagasuga's plan. Although certain results were achieved, because it was against the instructions of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters, the commanders of the major general brigade who personally led his subordinates to risk their lives to bomb the Soviet army were not commended but reprimanded.
Type 97 heavy bomber
At the end of June, the "731" Kwantung Army's epidemic prevention and water supply department, led by unit commander Shiro Ishii Daisa, wearing grass-green grass and armbands with "mountain" shaped armbands, came to Nomenhan to organize death squads and secretly go to the upper reaches of the Halaha River to manually spread bacteriological weapons to the water source of the Soviet army. More than 30 military doctors and military assistants died before and after. The Soviets did not release the number of casualties caused by germ warfare, but the Mongols had a record of a large attrition of troops and horses of the 5th Division infected with meliosis. After the war, on October 2, 1939, the Kwantung Army presented a certificate of award to the Ishii unit.
731 bacteriological troops
On July 2, the Second Battle of Nomenham began. The Japanese infantry crossed the Halaha River and captured the Mongol high platform on the left bank, but was soon attacked by 15 Soviet T-26 tanks, followed by more Soviet tanks. Komatsubara, commander of the 23rd Division in a golden car, had just crossed the river, and the division's ordnance service chief Daizo Konzawa lacked confidence in long-distance supply support, and he committed suicide under pressure.
Nearly 20,000 Japanese soldiers did not bring drinking water and had little ammunition, and they could not drink the water of the Halaha River, which had been thrown bacteriological weapons by Ishii's troops.
The Japanese army, which easily occupied the west bank of the Halaha River, encountered a torrent of steel composed of various types of Soviet tanks and armored vehicles in the Bayincha Mountain battlefield, which was the Soviet tank brigade, the 7th armored brigade and the two armored battalions of the Mongolian army.
Japanese offensive formation
Although the Japanese soldiers launched the "meat bomb death squad" sortie, they could not stop the Soviet attack led by the T-28 tank group.
On the battlefield of Bayincha Mountain, the corpses of the Japanese army were everywhere, and the headquarters of the 23rd Division that had just crossed the river was also in danger, and Major General Ouchi, the chief of staff of the headquarters, was killed. Komatsubara led a dozen officers desperately drawing their knives and preparing to cut their abdomen. Fortunately, the rapid-fire artillery squadron that had just crossed the river arrived and saved Komatsubara's life. But in just 7 minutes, although the rapid-fire gun squadron repelled the attack of the Soviet tank company, only 6 of its own men survived, leaving 1 gun. The 26th Wing of the 7th Division of the Reserve was entangled by 36 armored vehicles of the Mongolian armored battalion, and the 26th Wing, which had more than 4,000 people, was in a dilemma.
The Japanese were besieged on three sides and held their positions. After the arrival of the 24th Regiment of Sumobu and the 8th Mongolian Division, a general attack was launched. The Soviet armored forces were not accustomed to night battles and significantly weakened the offensive in the evening. Komatsubara took the opportunity to break through and withdraw to the east bank of the Halaha River.
Matsumoto Chohei's health team was almost completely annihilated, and Matsumoto was stunned by a shell on the battlefield for 10 hours and was listed as a death list.
Japanese army sanitary soldiers
Matsumoto received an order to lead the containment team back to the battlefield to pick up the remnants of the Japanese army, and met the Japanese stretcher team under the noses of the Soviet-Mongolian army, bringing back 13 wounded.
On the battlefield of 7 square kilometers, the Japanese tank group was dominated by 13-ton Type 89 medium tanks, and the total weight of the Soviet T-28 tank was 31 tons. The Soviet army had heavy armor and excellent artillery, and had no scruples; the Japanese tanks were hit with heavy casualties in front of more than 100 50-mm, 82-mm, and 120-mm mortars of the Soviet army, and the rout of the Yasuoka Tank Division, which had just been established for half a year, shook the Tokyo base camp.
Matsumoto Chohei's health team withdrew to Lake Uzil for a week. Japanese convoys, which relied on carts and mules for supplies, maintained their troops, and the Japanese, who lacked air supremacy, also lacked anti-aircraft weapons and radar equipment, and they were basically at a disadvantage on the battlefield.
In the air battle of Nomenkhan, the "two-plane attack" formation adopted by the Soviet Far East Air Force successively shot down the ace of the Japanese Kwantung Army air force, Hiromichi Surihara, and the commander of the 12th Flight Group, Katsushi Abe (posthumously promoted as a major general), the commander of the 1st Flight Group, Fumio Harada, Takeo, and others dealt a great blow to the morale of the Japanese air force.
On the night of July 7, the Japanese 23rd Division and the 7th Division launched the first round of night attacks on a rainy night, the 72nd Wing of the 23rd Division encountered a Soviet armored reconnaissance detachment, and the 152mm heavy artillery group on the west bank of the Halaha River, guided by scouts, bombarded the Japanese infantry assembly area, and more than half of the officers above the squadron leader were killed.
Soviet Type 1939 152 mm plus howitzer
Unwilling to fail, Komatsubara concentrated about 20,000 infantry from all Japanese troops in the Nomenkhand Theater and launched another group charge at 10 p.m. on July 9.
Zhukov had already figured out the law and tactical characteristics of the Japanese night raids, and when the Soviet army and other Japanese troops rushed to the front of their positions, the Soviet troops suddenly turned on all the lights and thousands of flares rose into the air one after another, and there was light within several square kilometers, and the Japanese troops were all exposed to strong light, and all the weapons in the Soviet forward positions opened fire together, and after a fierce confrontation, the Japanese army could not withstand the blows of the Soviet Poposa submachine guns and retreated. The second wave of Japanese charges killed Major Lemitsov, commander of the Soviet 149th Regiment, during the counter-assault. The Soviets withdrew as planned. After dawn, Komatsubara found that the heights he had just occupied had become a purgatory for intensive Soviet artillery fire.
Japanese night raids
The Japanese suffered more than 5,000 casualties in three successive large-scale night raids, half of the artillery was lost, the Soviets lost 263 killed, and the defense line was retreated by 2-3 kilometers.
At that time, the German military attaché was watching the battle on the battlefield and reported to the country that the tactical level of the Japanese army was in the early days of World War I.
Less than half a month after the Second Battle of Nomenkhan, the Kwantung Army lost as many as 10,000 soldiers, more than half of the tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft, field guns and other technical weapons, and the front-line ammunition ran out.
Nomenham's third meeting
In order to avenge the death of one stone, the headquarters of the Kwantung Army began to move artillery wings from all over Manchuria to the Nomenkhan front from July 15. The 3rd Heavy Artillery Brigade and Regiment stationed in Lushun, the Muling Heavy Artillery Wing, the 1st Field Heavy Artillery Wing, and the 7th Independent Heavy Artillery Regiment were ordered to rush to Nomenhan. The emperor's son-in-law Mori Hou happened to serve in the independent 7th Heavy Artillery Wing "gilded", served as an artillery squadron leader, and also came to the Nomenham front.
Japanese troops on the Nomenkhand front
The mechanization of the Japanese artillery was low, and an artillery wing had to be dragged by at least 3,000 horses. Let the Kwantung Army heavy department cry bitterly. Four independent brigades of the Japanese army and one puppet Manchu cavalry brigade stationed in Shenyang, Hailar and other cities also came to the Nomenhan front.
The Japanese army is a heavy force
Komatsubara suddenly had more than 1 corps and 6 wings of heavy artillery, which he believed was enough to compensate for the lack of armored units.
At 6:30 a.m. on July 22, the sky was drizzling and the visibility was too strong for the Japanese artillery plan to be implemented. However, the Soviets discovered that the Japanese were different and began shelling the Japanese assembly area, resulting in serious attrition of the Japanese troops in ambush, with the loss of the 2nd Infantry Group of 1,200 men of the 72nd Wing only 260 men, and the casualties of other wings exceeded one-sixth.
At 6 o'clock in the morning of the 23rd, after taking off, 58 Type 97 bombers and fighters of the 2nd Flight Group of the Kwantung Army were surrounded by more than 200 Soviet I-16 and I-15 fighters, and the whole army was destroyed.
The impatient Japanese artillery did not hesitate to open fire at the same time as 76 large-caliber guns, firing more than 5,000 shells in one go, and the entire Nomenkhand battlefield was shaken and filled with gunsmoke. The shelling was originally planned for 2 hours, but the shelling was extended by 1 hour. At 10 o'clock sharp, tens of thousands of Japanese infantry jumped out of cover two hours later as planned, shouting "long live" to launch a "pig rush" charge at the Soviet position, just as the Japanese troops rushed into the Soviet position to launch a melee struggle, rows of shells smashed into the heads of the Japanese soldiers, which were originally covered by the Japanese own artillery fire, and were attacked head-on by the Soviet troops, with heavy casualties.
Japanese pigs rushed to charge
At sunset, the Komatsubara infantry fled back to the position, half of them "crushed", and the grassroots commanders below the squadron leader lost 70%.
At the end of the day, the Japanese army consumed more than 10,000 shells, the Soviet army consumed more than 30,000 rounds, and Zhukov still had more than 200,000 shells, but the Japanese army consumed 2/3 of the front-line reserves. The fate of the defeat of the Japanese army is irreversible.
After three days of artillery battle, the Japanese heavy-caliber shells were exhausted.
Soviet-Japanese artillery battles decisive battles
The battle in Nomenkhand lasted for more than three months, and although the Japanese army suffered repeated setbacks, it had no intention of retreating, and its strength became larger and larger, and more and more heavy weapons were used. Zhukov judged that the Kwantung Army had the intention of deliberately expanding the war and even turning it into a Soviet-Japanese war, and only a major counteroffensive could stop the crazy intention of the Japanese army.
Stalin pointed out that if a Soviet-Japanese war breaks out in the Far East, it will contradict the basic national policy of the Soviet Union, which focuses its strategy on Europe, and the provocations and adventures of the Japanese army are likely to have been agreed long ago in the German-Japanese anti-communist agreement, and the main forces of the Soviet army will be pinned down in the Far East so as to cooperate with Nazi Germany's actions in Europe. Zhukov's great counteroffensive would disrupt the Japanese attempts.
On August 20, Zhukov prepared everything, and the Soviet-Mongolian army launched a general offensive, continuously and fiercely bombarded, followed by a coordinated attack by Soviet air, infantry, and Tanzania. The 6th Army of the Japanese Nomenham Front was divided and surrounded.
On August 25 , the 23rd Division 's Jingzhi Cavalry Wing was defeated with more than 700 corpses dropped. The most elite Sakai Wing of the 23rd Division was also completely annihilated. The Sakai Wing fought 2,295 men on August 24, with 1,823 killed and 377 wounded in the civil war in one day, with a one-day casualty rate of 95 percent, and 79 generals and colonels, 52 casualties, a casualty rate of 66 percent. The 64th Infantry Wing of the 23rd Division was also "crushed" in Shanxian Wuguang.
The Japanese suffered heavy casualties
The abrupt end of the Battle of Nomenham
The Kwantung Army was defeated at Nomenkhan. The Tokyo base camp ordered the Chinese Dispatch Army to send the 5th and 14th Divisions and two field heavy artillery wings to Manchuria, and the pressure on China's frontal battlefield was immediately relieved.
The Kwantung Army gritted its teeth and regrouped its remaining forces, preparing to fight the Soviet army again at Nomenkhan. However, on September 3, the Japanese base camp urgently telegraphed the Kwantung Army immediately took the initiative to end the battle in Nomenkhand and stop all combat operations.
It turned out that on August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact in Moscow. Hitler did not want to provoke the Soviet Union for the time being, and the Soviet government also wanted to delay the military plan to strengthen war readiness, but Germany signed a contract with the Soviet Union without communicating with Japan in advance. Where could Hitler look at Japan, a small projectile country?
The Japanese government lost face, and the Japanese cabinet with Kiichiro Taira as prime minister was embarrassed and had to announce its general resignation. In the Nomenham War, Japan lost completely, politically, and became a ridiculous beam-jumping clown on the international stage.
Ichiro Hirai
The commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, had to take responsibility for the defeat in the war and asked for his resignation.
Michitaro Komatsubara, as the commander of the Nomenhan front, was also removed from his post and transferred to the reserve due to improper behavior, and finally ran to the grave of the fallen officers and soldiers of the 23rd Division and committed suicide by cutting his abdomen.
After returning to Moscow, the commander of the Soviet army, Zhukov, received the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" and became one of the most legendary marshals of World War II with the outbreak of the Soviet-German war. (End)
Reference: Nomenham: Japan's First Defeat
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