Military operations in the Far East 1941 1945. World War and the situation in the Far East
LAST BATTLE IN TRANSBAIKAL AND PRIMORYE
In the Far East, the Red Army was opposed not by parts of the white movement and nationalist regimes that were defeated in 1919, but by the 175,000-strong army of Japan. Under these conditions, the Soviet government decided to create on April 6, 1920, a buffer democratic state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER), closely connected with the RSFSR. The FER included the Trans-Baikal, Amur, Primorsk, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka regions. G. Kh. Eikhe, who had previously commanded the 5th Army of the Soviet troops in Siberia, was appointed head of the People's Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the FER. Parts of the NRA during 1920 fought with the troops of Ataman Semenov and Kappel's detachments, which controlled a significant part of the territory of the Far East. Only as a result of the third offensive on October 22, 1920 did the NRA take Chita with the support of the partisans.
With the help of the Kappel and Semenovites who retreated from Transbaikalia, Japan fortified itself in Primorye, where on May 26, 1921, the power of the Primorsky Regional Administration was overthrown and the pro-Japanese government of S. D. Merkulov was created. At the same time, units of R. F. Ungern invaded Transbaikalia from Mongolia. In the current difficult situation, the Soviet government provided military, economic and financial assistance to the Far East. Eikhe was replaced by V. K. Blyukher as commander of the NRA FER. In June, Ungern retreated to Mongolia, where in August 1921 most of his troops were surrounded and destroyed by units of the NRA. In the autumn of 1921, the situation escalated again, but in the end, as a result of fierce fighting near Volochaevka (January-February 1922), in a 40-degree frost, units of the NRA turned the tide and returned the previously lost Khabarovsk. The further offensive of the NRA units (new commander I.P. Uborevich) took place in October 1922. On October 25, the NRA troops entered Vladivostok, and on November 14, 1922, the People's Assembly of the FER announced the establishment of Soviet power in the Far East and the entry of the FER into composition of the RSFSR. Soviet power established itself in all regions where civil war had flared before.
I.S. Ratkovsky, M.V. Khodyakov. History of Soviet Russia
"THROUGH THE VALLEYS AND TOWARDS THE HILLS": THE HISTORY OF THE SONG
The biography of Peter Parfyonov, which is closely connected with Siberia, is amazing. He managed to combine the talents of a poet, writer, historian, military figure, diplomat, head of a major Russian government department and party functionary.
Perhaps his name would have long been forgotten if it were not for the famous song composed by him “Across the valleys and over the hills”.
Petr Parfyonov, in the article “The History of the Partisan Song”, recalled:
“The song “Along the valleys, over the mountains” has a long history. The text has been revised by me several times. The song took its final form under the following circumstances.
After the liquidation of Kolchakism and the liberation of Vladivostok, the political commissioner (as the military commissars were then called - A.M.) under the head of the Nikolsko-Ussuriysk garrison made a report on the political and moral state of the military units, pointed out the complete absence of good revolutionary songs.
“For five months now we have been standing, and our Red Army soldiers are singing Kolchak's Canary, and we can offer them nothing in return. It's a disgrace, comrades!" the delegate said.
Taking advantage of the next Sunday afternoon, when there was less operational work, I found my notebook with verses and, borrowing from it the melody, theme, form and a significant part of the text, wrote a new song “Partisan Anthem” in one evening:
In the valleys, in the mountains
Divisions went forward
To take Primorye with a fight -
Stronghold of the White Army.
To drive out the invaders
Outside your native country.
And do not bend before their agent
Labor of his back.
Standing under the banner
Created a military camp
Remote squadrons
Amur partisans.
Glory will not cease these days
Will never forget
How dashing is our lava
Occupied cities.
Preserved, just like in a fairy tale
Age-old like stumps
Stormy nights of Spassk,
Nikolaev days.
How we drove the chieftains,
How we smashed the gentlemen.
And in the Pacific
Your trip is over."
Later it turned out that the legendary "Partisan Song" had other predecessors. Yuri Biryukov, a researcher of Russian song history, revealed that back in 1915 a collection of poems “The Year of War. Thoughts and Songs” by Vladimir Gilyarovsky, the famous Moscow reporter “Uncle Gilyai”. One of his poems “From the taiga, the taiga far away” became a song that was sung in the Russian army. The song was subtitled "Siberian Riflemen in 1914":
From the taiga, the dense taiga,
From the Amur, from the river,
Silently, a formidable cloud
Siberians went to battle...
And in recent years, the “March of the Drozdovsky Regiment” has been published, which is considered the first double of the “Song of the Siberian Riflemen” in terms of appearance. The words of the “Drozdovsky March” were composed by P. Batorin in memory of the 1,200-verst-long transition of the 1st separate brigade of Russian volunteers under the command of Colonel Drozdovsky from Romania, where they were caught by the revolution, to the Don.
Trekking from Romania
There was Drozdovsky glorious regiment,
To save the people
Carried heroic heavy duty.
So, two different songs were born for one motive: “red” and “white” (since later Drozdovsky’s brigade fought with weapons in their hands against the Bolsheviks), which often happened in those days of a tragic break in the life of Russia. There is also pathos in the song of the Drozdovites, but the people demand salvation in the name of holy Rus':
The Drozdovites walked with a firm step,
The enemy fled under pressure:
Under the tricolor Russian flag
The regiment gained glory for itself!
Both songs remained in history, in songbooks, although the original source was forgotten for a long time. And the song of Pyotr Parfyonov, which became a kind of symbol of the era of the Civil War, gained world fame. The words from this song are minted on the monuments of partisan glory in Vladivostok, in Khabarovsk:
Glory will not cease these days,
Will never fade.
Partisan detachments
They occupied the cities...
ICE EPILOGUE OF THE CIVIL WAR
Living in Harbin, in the spring of 1922, General Pepelyaev entered into relations with two delegates from the population of the Yakutsk region that rebelled against the Bolsheviks: P. A. Kulikovsky and V. M. Popov, who arrived in Vladivostok to seek support from the government of S. D. Merkulov. This government, however, did not show an active interest in Yakut affairs, and the delegates then managed to interest General Pepelyaev in them, who, after long requests and insistence, agreed to help the people of Yakutia in their fight against the communists. Deciding to organize a military expedition to this distant Siberian region, A.N. Pepelyaev moved to Vladivostok in the summer of 1922.
Persons and institutions that had nothing to do with either the Japanese or the Merkulov government helped Kulikovsky and Pepelyaev to prepare food, uniforms and weapons for the expeditionary detachment. Recruitment gave the gene. Pepelyaev up to 700 volunteers, mostly former soldiers of his Siberian army and Kappelevites.
On September 1, 1922, when General Dieterichs already held power in Primorye, Pepelyaev's detachment was ready to leave Vladivostok. It received the name of the Siberian Volunteer Squad, but officially it was an expedition to protect the Okhotsk-Kamchatka coast.
To send a detachment to the ports of the Sea of Okhotsk, two steamships were chartered.
Upon the arrival of the expedition to the place, it turned out that the popular anti-Soviet movement in the Yakutsk region had already been liquidated by the Bolsheviks. According to one of the participants in the campaign, the help of the Siberian Volunteer Squad was at least three months late.
General Pepelyaev now faced the question of whether to create a new anti-Bolshevik movement in Yakutia or immediately return to Vladivostok. A meeting was arranged with local people who assured Pepelyaev that it was easy to create a movement in the region again, since there were still many partisan detachments in the taiga, and it would be enough for the squad to move forward, as it would quickly be strengthened by new volunteers.
Even before the arrival of General Vishnevsky in Ayan, Gen. Pepelyaev, with a detachment of 300 fighters, went to Nelkan to take the local red garrison by surprise there with its food and weapons supplies and shipping facilities. The detachment had to travel a distance of 240 versts through deserted terrain and on the way cross the difficult Dzhukdzhur Range, which during the autumn thaw, with insufficient means of transportation, was an extremely difficult task.
Nevertheless, this path was passed, and the detachment reached Nelkan, but three defectors warned the Reds about the approach of the enemy, and they managed to sail away on barges along the May River to Aldan.
Thus, the squad was forced to settle down for the winter at two points: in Nelkan, with General Pepelyaev, and in Ayan, with General Vishnevsky ... On November 19, a detachment from the port of Ayan, led by the gene, was able to approach Nelkan. Vishnevsky, and now only the third battalion of the squad remained in Ayan.
Pepelyaev's squad stayed in Nelkan for about a month, organizing their transport and collecting intelligence information. Information was received about the location of the red units in the area. It turned out that there were up to 350 red fighters in the Amga settlement, almost the same number in the villages of Petropavlovsky and Churapcha. In the regional city of Yakutsk, the number of red fighters was not found out. It was assumed that their main forces were here, led by the commander of all the red detachments in the region, Baikalov ...
On January 22, 1923, a detachment was sent from Ust-Mili to take the village of Amga, under the command of Colonel Renengart with a strength of up to 400 fighters with two machine guns ... The distance of 200 miles from Ust-Mil to Amga, the Renengart detachment passed at 40-50 ° along Réaumur in six days.
Amga was taken after a short resistance by the Reds ... This was the first success of the Whites, but the further development of the struggle brought them nothing but disappointment and serious disasters.
On February 12, information was received that the red garrison of the village of Petropavlovsky, under the command of Strodt, had withdrawn and went to Yakutsk. General Vishnevsky was sent to meet him with an instructor company and the 1st battalion, which was supposed to ambush and defeat the Reds while they were resting in one of the villages.
Strodt, however, learned of the proposed ambush and prepared to meet the enemy. In the Yakut ulus (village) Sigalsysy on February 13, a battle began ...
Strodt's detachment was surrounded; guards were posted around him in the forest. The Whites made an attempt to take Sigalsysy by storm, but the Reds developed destructive machine-gun fire, and this attempt was not successful.
In view of the impossibility of taking the enemy out of battle, the Whites decided not to lift the siege until the Reds, under the pressure of hunger, surrendered themselves. On February 25, information was received about the movement of the Churapchinsky Red Detachment to the rescue of Strodt. Gene. Pepelyaev sent part of his squad to meet this detachment, but again failed to destroy it.
Three days later, news came that a large detachment under the command of Baikalov himself had set out from Yakutsk. This detachment moved directly to Amga and on the morning of March 2 opened gun and machine-gun fire on it. The white defenders of Amga fired back from the Reds to the last bullet, then some of them retreated to Ust-Mili, some were captured by the enemy.
The situation has now changed drastically, not in favor of the Whites.
March 3 Gen. Pepelyaev ordered the retreat of his squad back to the village of Petropavlovsky, at the mouth of the Mai River. Among other things, the order said:
Having experienced severe hardships on the road, the retinue of Gen. Pepelyaev in early April. 1923 reached Nelkan. In total, about 600 people remained in the squad after the campaign against Yakutsk, including 200 Yakuts.
After resting in Nelkan, the detachment then went to Ayan on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk. This was in the summer of 1923. Having learned about the exit of the detachment of General Pepelyaev to the sea, the red authorities of Primorye sent a military expedition on three ships from Vladivostok under the command of Vostretsov.
On the night of June 18, with a strong wind and a storm at sea, the Reds landed on the shore near Ayan and approached the port unnoticed, surrounding Pepelyaev's headquarters and its combat units. Vostretsov offered Pepelyaev to surrender without a fight, warning that otherwise his squad would be destroyed by force of arms.
There was no way out: Pepelyaev agreed to surrender ...
Pepelyaev and his most important associates were taken to Siberia, where they were tried in the city of Chita. The general himself and ten people from among those taken prisoner together were sentenced to death, but this sentence was later commuted to ten years in prison ...
The danger of a major war with Japan has threatened our country since June 1941.
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Captured Japanese tanks captured by Soviet soldiers in the Far East. Photo: protown.ru
70 years ago, on August 9, 1945, in the Far East, three Soviet fronts launched an offensive operation against Japan. It may seem that all the years of fighting with Nazi Germany, the Far Eastern region of our country was a deep rear. The reality was different - since June 22, 1941, it was such a rear that every day could become a real front.
Today, few people remember that the first Soviet front during the Second World War was created exactly one year before the attack of Nazi Germany. On June 21, 1940, by order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, it became the Far Eastern Front with headquarters in Khabarovsk.
The Great Patriotic War in the spring of 1945 ended with eight Soviet fronts. At the same time, far to the east, almost 8 thousand kilometers from Berlin, there were three Soviet "rear" fronts: Transbaikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern. It is they who will end the Second World War with a brilliant victory.
“We need to be ready to fight on two fronts…”
On the eve of World War II, Japan was one of the strongest military powers on our planet. The power of Tokyo then spread far beyond the Japanese islands: Taiwan and all of Korea were officially part of Japan, and in the 30s of the XX century, the samurai army captured almost half of China, where three puppet "states" were formed, completely subordinate to the Japanese.
As a result, units of the Japanese Kwantung Army were located along our borders for almost three thousand kilometers from Vladivostok to Mongolia. Here it must be recalled that our largest Far Eastern cities - Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Chita - are located very close to the border, and then they could at any moment be under attack by Japanese troops.
In 1938-1939, a whole series of battles took place between our and Japanese troops near Lake Khasan and on the Khalkhin Gol River. Only against the backdrop of the grandiose battles of World War II, they seem like a small local conflict, but, in fact, it was a real war between Japan and the USSR.
At that time, the Japanese naval forces were the strongest on the planet and were head and shoulders above the Soviet Pacific Fleet. 14 battleships, 10 aircraft carriers, three dozen heavy and light cruisers, over 60 destroyers. All this power our fleet in the Pacific could only oppose 16 destroyers. The Soviet Union was able to achieve relative equality of forces here only in submarines. Thus, all maritime borders in the east of our country, from Primorye to Kamchatka, were open to Japanese strikes and landings.
A significant part of influential Japanese politicians and generals advocated a large-scale war against our country in order to annex the Russian Far East to their empire, relying on the resources of captured Korea and China and on the powerful fleet. Back in 1936, in Berlin between Nazi Germany and Japan, the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact, an official treaty of alliance against the USSR, was signed.
The signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan. Berlin. November 25, 1936 Photo: historic.ru
Under these conditions, Moscow rightly feared that a major war might break out both on the western and eastern borders of the Soviet Union. And at least until the summer of 1940 (before the Germans defeated England and France), the danger of a big war with Japan was even higher than with Germany.
In the summer of 1940, People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Timoshenko wrote to Stalin: "The Soviet Union needs to be ready to fight on two fronts: in the west against Germany, supported by Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland, and in the east against Japan as an open enemy or an enemy taking the position of an armed neutrality, which can always turn into an open clash.
Against the USSR, the Japanese at any time, not counting the powerful fleet, could throw into battle 50 divisions, over 1000 tanks and 3000 aircraft. Our country had to prepare for a big war on two fronts, in the east and west at the same time.
"The Japanese behaved aggressively ..."
The German attack on the USSR sharply aggravated the situation on the Soviet-Japanese border. One of the border guards at the outpost in Primorsky Krai recalled the everyday life of 1941: “The Japanese behaved aggressively. We didn’t show up at the border during daylight hours - they’ll definitely fire…”
This situation continued throughout the years of the Second World War. For example, in 1942 alone, more than 500 sabotage attacks and crossings of the land border of the USSR by groups and subunits of Japanese military personnel were registered in Primorye alone.
The government in Tokyo and the command of the Japanese army wanted to have a "legitimate" reason to declare war in order to attack the USSR after Hitler had achieved a decisive success in the west. On July 2, 1941, Japan began preparations for an attack on our country, by August the number of Japanese troops near the borders of the USSR was doubled and reached 600 thousand people. According to the Kantokuen plan developed by the Japanese General Staff, the offensive was planned to begin after August 19, 1941.
The Japanese expected either the fall of Moscow or a sharp reduction in the number of Soviet troops in the Far East: after the defeat in Belarus and Ukraine, the Soviet armies in the west inevitably needed reinforcements from the east. The leadership of the USSR had to solve the most difficult task - to transfer from the Far East the reserves necessary to protect Moscow, and at the same time not to weaken the defense of the borders with Japan.
German and Japanese military intelligence actively cooperated, exchanging information about the composition and strength of Soviet troops in the east and west. It is no coincidence that Major General Yanagita Genzo, head of the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army, was soon awarded by Hitler the Order of the German Eagle with a star - the highest award of Nazi Germany for foreigners.
The Germans recorded the appearance of Far Eastern Soviet divisions on their front and passed this information on to the Japanese. By June 1941, there were three dozen Soviet divisions in the Far East - in preparation for the attack, Japanese intelligence was waiting for half of the Soviet forces to be transferred to the west, against Hitler.
Guerrillas against Japan
As of June 1941, the Far Eastern Front had 432 thousand soldiers, 27 thousand machine guns, almost 5 thousand guns, 4 thousand mortars, almost 3 thousand light tanks and 1940 aircraft (another 1053 aircraft were in service with the Pacific Fleet and the Amur River Flotilla), 20 thousand trucks , 8 thousand tractors and 84 thousand horses. Since the danger in the west was considered paramount, the Far East received a minimum of new weapons - for example, in 1941 there was not a single new KV and .
Since since June 1941 it was not necessary to rely on reserves and new weapons, grandiose defensive work was launched in the Far East. First of all, minefields were set up against the powerful fleet of Japan, covering campaigns to Vladivostok, Sovetskaya Gavan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and other Far Eastern ports.
The new naval mines were primarily used in the Baltic and the Black Sea, so the Far East had to be protected by tsarist mines produced in 1908–1914. Some of them rusted due to long periods of storage and were torn off by storms, for example, by 1943, only 10% of the mines set at the beginning of the war survived on the approaches to Vladivostok.
Until 1941, 12 fortified regions were created in the Far East. After June 22, the construction of seven more began, including the Kamchatka defensive region and fortifications that covered the most vulnerable sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which in some sections ran almost along the border.
The fortifications were built by soldiers and civilians. In July 1941, the residents of Khabarovsk, using only improvised means and materials, built a 14-kilometer anti-tank ditch during non-working hours. According to the calculations of the command, in 1941-1943, each resident of the Far East, on average, worked one week a month on the construction of defensive structures.
Construction of defensive structures against the expected Japanese aggression in the Far East, 1941
Construction of defensive structures against the expected Japanese aggression in the Far East, 1941. Photo: Nazarov / RIA Novosti
In the cities of Primorye and the Khabarovsk Territory, all the basements of stone buildings standing at the intersections of streets were converted into anti-tank and machine-gun pillboxes. Throughout the war, until 1945, bomb shelters were also prepared in the Far East, only 2303 of them were built in Vladivostok, and 7129 in the Khabarovsk Territory, which made it possible to shelter 57% of the entire population from possible bombing at the same time.
In case of a Japanese offensive, a guerrilla war was also prepared in advance. In Primorye, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Chita Region and Buryatia in 1941-1943, 392 partisan detachments were created with a total number of 15 thousand people who were trained to operate behind enemy lines. In the taiga, secret bases and caches with weapons and food were equipped for them.
In the cities and towns of the Far East, old people who had experience of underground work during the years of the Civil War were created secret cells in case of Japanese occupation. In May 1942, some of the people were even transferred to the Far East, who in the fall of 1941 were trained as underground workers for illegal work in Moscow if the Germans captured it. After the danger to the capital had passed, they arrived in Primorye and the Khabarovsk Territory in full secrecy and set about preparing a conspiratorial network to fight in the Japanese rear if the enemy could capture the cities of the Far East.
"Combat Readiness #2"
The danger of an attack did not disappear even after Japan launched a war against the United States in December 1941 - in battles with the British and Americans, the Japanese fleet was the main striking force, while most of the Japanese land army continued to remain in Manchuria and China, not far from the Soviet borders . The likelihood of a Japanese attack decreased only in 1943, when Tokyo not only became involved in a grueling war against the United States in the Pacific Islands, but also finally convinced that Hitler was not capable of defeating the forces of the USSR in the west.
Therefore, until the end of 1942, during the period of the greatest threat of attack from Japan, all formations and units of the first echelon of Soviet troops in the Far East were brought to wartime states and were located not in barracks, but in pre-excavated and prepared trenches. At night, 50% of soldiers and commanders were on duty at combat positions.
Throughout the Great Patriotic War, our Pacific Fleet was on high alert - the so-called combat readiness No. 2, which provided that upon receipt of the order, the fleet should go to sea in a maximum of four hours. Artillery batteries were in firing positions, fighter jets were on duty at the airfields, anti-aircraft defense guns were ready to immediately open fire.
The troops in the Far East were actively preparing for war - in 1944 alone, 286 joint exercises of the Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet were held. At the same time, until 1945, all the best forces and means went to the west, to the war against Nazi Germany, so a third of the soldiers of the “rear” Far Eastern Front were conscripts of older ages, over 40 years old, and outdated weapons were in service from the royal warehouses. Until 1945, there was not a single new type of tank here, only outdated BT and T-26. Despite daily combat training, the Far Eastern troops ate according to the "third rear norm", that is, they actually lived from hand to mouth.
Valentin Gaevoy, then a lieutenant in the Soviet army, recalled the formation of a new infantry brigade near the village of Khanko in Primorsky Krai in 1942: “They issued very long rifles with a bayonet. Moreover, these were old Mosin rifles of the 1891 model, on the butts of many of them the imperial monogram was knocked out ... The third rear norm. It was supposed to be 650 grams of bread per day, but so much was never given out. You always feel hungry. Fortunately, we were standing in the hills, so we managed to get additional rations, hunt birds, although most of the goats were shot. So it was possible to survive ... The mood was fighting. All soldiers and commanders asked to go to the front. We carefully prepared the soldiers, conducted a lot of training in tactics, the soldiers often shot at targets. In addition, they organized night marches, daily forced marches were carried out in full gear ... ".
Seven Guards Divisions
At the same time, throughout the war until the spring of 1945, reserves were sent from the Far East to the German front. The first echelon of Far Eastern fighters left for the west already on the night of June 29, 1941.
In the first two years of the war alone, 558 thousand soldiers, officers and sailors from parts of the Far Eastern Front, the Pacific Fleet and the Amur Flotilla were transferred from the Far East to fight the Nazis. 18 infantry divisions, 4 tank divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, 19 air regiments, 12 artillery brigades, as well as construction, railway, engineer battalions, automobile regiments and signal companies were transferred to the western direction. Until 1944, more than a thousand tanks and 5 thousand guns and mortars were transferred from the Far East to the German front.
At the same time, by sending reserves to the west, the Soviet command managed not to weaken the defense of our borders in the Far East. This was achieved through the mobilization of local residents, the formation of new units and the massive construction of long-term and field fortifications.
The decisive role in leading this complex process was played by General Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko, who from January 1941 commanded the Far Eastern Front. In October 1941, he organized the rapid transfer of part of his troops to the west to participate in the battle for Moscow.
By mid-1942, in the Far East, 92% of young people aged 18–20 were drafted into the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces. In total, during the war years in the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye, 517 thousand people were mobilized - half of all those who worked before the war in industry and agriculture went to the front to defend the Fatherland.
Not everyone returned alive. In the spring of 1942, the 205th Infantry Division was formed on the territory of the Khabarovsk Territory. In July 1942, this division arrived in Stalingrad and took up defensive positions in the bend of the Don. Already in August, the division came under attack from German tank troops, rushing to the Volga. Once surrounded, the division almost completely perished - out of 12 thousand no more than 300 people came out to their own ...
During the years of the Great Patriotic War, every sixth drafted into the army in the Far East died in battles with the enemy. Among them is the commander of the Far Eastern Front, General Apanasenko - in the summer of 1943, after numerous requests, he was sent to the fighting army and soon died during the Battle of Kursk.
As a result of mobilizations, by May 1945, the population of the Khabarovsk Territory decreased by 17%, Primorsky - by 20%. If before the war in the Far East, according to statistics, there were 100 men for 72 women, then by 1945 the number of women here exceeded the number of men by 1.5 times, and there were almost twice as many girls aged 18-29 as men of this the same age.
Many soldiers from the Far East distinguished themselves during the Great Patriotic War. In November 1941, in the Battle of Moscow, the German SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" was forced to retreat from our capital by the 78th Infantry Division urgently transferred from Khabarovsk, the first of the Far Eastern units to receive the title of Guards for this feat.
One of the most productive snipers during the war years was Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev. He arrived at the front from the Far East, where he served in the Pacific Fleet. By the summer of 1942, Zaitsev filed five reports with a request to send him to the active army. And in September 1942, he fell into the thick of street fighting in Stalingrad, where only in the period from November 10 to December 17, 1942, he destroyed 225 Nazi soldiers, including 11 snipers.
Sniper Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Zaytsev (left) explains the task ahead to the newcomers. Stalingrad. December 1942
Sniper Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Zaytsev (left) explains the task ahead to the newcomers. Stalingrad. December 1942 Photo: wikipedia.org
Seven divisions from the Far East during the war years received the title of Guards. More than 1,100 Far Eastern soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, over 300 became full holders of the Order of Glory.
300 thousand Lend-Lease wagons
The Far East provided assistance to the fighting country not only with troops. Although at that time this region did not have a developed military industry, until 1945 the factories of the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories produced over 12 thousand mortars and 24 million mines for them, as well as over 13 million grenades.
A significant role was played by minerals from the Far East. Over 34 tons of gold and 129 tons of silver were mined in Primorye and on the banks of the Amur in 1941-1945. Here, 145 tons of bismuth, a rare metal, was obtained, which is necessary, for example, in the manufacture of tips for armor-piercing projectiles.
During the Great Patriotic War, oil production in Western Siberia had not yet been explored and established, and then the main sources of oil in the Caucasus, in Baku and Grozny, were under the threat of capture by the Germans. Therefore, oil reserves in the Soviet Northern Sakhalin (the southern part of this island belonged to Japan from 1905 to 1945) played a significant role.
Already in 1941, oil production in the Soviet part of Sakhalin was doubled compared to pre-war. During the war, four times more oil was produced here than in the Urals, and almost as much as in the Grozny oil region. Oil from the Sakhalin field "Ekhabi" then had the highest percentage of gasoline yield and was considered the best in the USSR.
The railways of the Far East played a huge role. By mid-July 1941, 12,000 wagons left from here to the European part of Russia. By 1943, a third of all Far Eastern steam locomotives had gone west to compensate for military losses. During the war, the Far Eastern and Amur Railways transported over 70 million tons of cargo.
An even more significant role during the war years was played by the seaports of the Far East: Vladivostok, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Nagaevo, Anadyr, Providence, Pevek, Tiksi. Through them were strategic cargoes from abroad, including those supplied under Lend-Lease.
On June 22, 1941, the peaceful life of all Soviet people was interrupted by the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. The main slogan in those years was: "Everything for the front, everything for victory!". Volunteers left for the war from all regions of the country, and those who remained in the rear showed no less heroism, working overtime in factories and helping the front with everything necessary. The Far East was no exception.
The Far East during the Great Patriotic War: a special situation
From the very beginning of the war, the Far East was in a special position. On the one hand, military operations were not conducted on its territory, and in relation to the western regions of the country, which were attacked by Germany and its satellites, it was a deep rear. On the other hand, throughout the Great Patriotic War, the Far East could turn into a theater of military operations, remaining dangerously close to Japan, Germany's ally in this war. And even in the pre-war period, after several military provocations and a number of border violations, at the suggestion of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin in 1938, the Far Eastern group of troops was transformed into the Far Eastern Front (FEF).
The front received its baptism of fire already in July-August 1938 in the area of Lake Khasan. And in May 1939, the troops of the Far Eastern Fleet helped stop the invasion of the Kwantung Army into Mongolia. As a result of the fighting in the area of the Khalkhin-Gol River, which lasted several months, the Japanese units were surrounded and defeated. Under these conditions, the postponement of the war in the West, which Stalin achieved by signing a non-aggression pact with Germany, allowed the USSR to avoid a war on two fronts. And it also made it possible for the Far East to better prepare for possible military operations.
Stalin's acquaintance
By the middle of 1941, thanks to the measures taken in advance to strengthen the Far East, the Far Eastern Fleet included dozens of well-trained divisions, tank, artillery and aviation units. The total number of personnel reached 704 thousand people, slightly exceeding the forces of the Kwantung Army, which included 700 thousand people. Colonel-General Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko (1890-1943) was appointed to command the forces of the Far Eastern Fleet.
Iosif Rodionovich, whose military career began back in the First World War, had known Stalin since the Civil War. He fought on the side of the Soviet government as part of the First Cavalry Army. In 1918, during the battles near Tsaritsyn, he met Joseph Vissarionovich. However, in the future, their paths practically did not intersect. According to Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Apanasenko was interrogated in 1937, as a suspect for participating in the Tukhachevsky conspiracy, however, there were no reprisals against him. We can only say with certainty that at the beginning of 1938, Stalin called Apanasenko to the Kremlin, before his appointment to Tashkent.
Joseph Rodionovich Apanasenko
By the way, later sending Iosif Rodionovich to the Far East, Stalin was aware of the potential dangers of the future wartime, and set quite specific tasks for the general: to make the region an impregnable fortress for the Japanese and be ready, without weakening the defense, to provide assistance to the western fronts. From which it can be seen that Joseph Vissarionovich understood the inevitability of a future conflict and was preparing for a possible war on two fronts.
Apanasenko responsibly approached the Far Eastern assignment, and, first of all, started looking for vulnerabilities. These were the transport routes. The first thing that the new commander of the Far Eastern Fleet drew attention to was the absence of a motorway along the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the event of hostilities, this could lead to disastrous consequences: by blowing up several bridges and tunnels on the Trans-Siberian, a potential enemy (Japan) could deprive the army of both supplies and maneuverability. According to Apanasenko's decision, the construction of a highway with a length of a thousand kilometers began. By September 1, 1941, a road was laid from Kuibyshevka-Vostochnaya (now Belogorsk) in the Amur Region to Khabarovsk. Roads were also created to all military garrisons in Primorye.
Troops to the front!
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Far East turned into a forge of reserves for the army in the field. Spare parts and formations were formed here, conscripts were trained, command, political and engineering personnel were trained. And, of course, during periods of aggravation of the situation on the Soviet-German front, military units with already trained personnel were sent from the Far East. Of course, no one forgot about the danger of opening a new front in the Far East. Therefore, draft contingents of youth and conscripts from the reserve were constantly sent to the region, not only from the region itself, but also from Siberia and the European part of the country.
But back to sending the Far Eastern units to the front. For the first time, troops from the Far East were brought to the West on the eve of the Great Patriotic War! In connection with the aggravation of the situation in Europe in the second half of April 1941, it was decided to strengthen the western grouping of troops. By June 22, 1941, 57,000 people, more than 670 guns and mortars, and 1,070 light tanks had left the Far Eastern Fleet and the Trans-Baikal Military District. All of them were already used in the first months of the war in defensive operations in the western and southwestern directions.
The next transfer of troops from the Far East took place at the initial stage of the war. From June 22 to December 5, 1941, 12 rifle, 5 tank and one motorized divisions were sent from the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal fronts. Almost all of them were concentrated in the western direction.
With someone's light hand, the opinion was established that Moscow was saved by the Siberian divisions. But let's not forget that for Muscovites everything beyond the Urals is Siberia. The divisions that arrived along the Great Siberian Railway and participated in the battle for Moscow were not Siberian, but Far Eastern!
From May 1 to November 18, 1942, the Far Eastern units were already replenishing the Stalingrad, South-Eastern and Bryansk fronts. And so it continued until 1944, when, during the summer-autumn campaign, the last regrouping of troops from the Far East to the west was made. In total, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, 23 divisions and 19 brigades were sent from the region!
Replenishable reserve
Often the rate of dispatch of troops was so high that they left at the loading station on alarm. Because of this, the units could be understaffed - some of the personnel could be outside the location. In some places there was a shortage of weapons and transport - after all, at the very beginning of the war, the entire mobilization stock of weapons and ammunition was sent to the west. And Moscow demanded full staffing! And Apanasenko organized the check-out station Kuibyshevka-Vostochnaya (Belogorsk), which housed the residence of the headquarters of the 2nd Army, and a reserve of all weapons, vehicles and personnel was created to make up for the shortage.
In order not to leave the region defenseless, Iosif Rodionovich immediately formed new divisions in place of the departed divisions. For this, a general mobilization of all ages up to and including 55 was announced! But since there were not enough people, on the orders of Apanasenko, the prosecutor's office checked the affairs of the camp contingent and freed everyone who was possible and sent them to the troops.
And yet the front!
Japan closely followed the Far Eastern frontiers. But the transportation of troops was organized so skillfully (additional secrecy was provided by the railway tunnel built on the eve of the war under the Amur near Khabarovsk), and the contingent of departing units replenished so quickly that it even caused a skirmish between the Germans and the Japanese. German intelligence claimed that "under the nose" of Japan, divisions from the Far East were being transferred to the west. The Japanese secret services denied this, insisting that the Far Eastern divisions remained in their places of deployment.
The Japanese General Staff in 1941 was seriously engaged in preparing for war and even developed a plan for the invasion of the Soviet Far East. On August 29, 1941, the start of hostilities themselves was already planned, and everything was planned to be completed by mid-October. However, the blitzkrieg not only failed, but did not even begin. The course of hostilities on the Soviet-German front convinced Japan not to rush the offensive, and already in early July the terms were revised.
And in the Soviet Far East, preparations for a possible war were in full swing. In the border zone, it was required to create an insurmountable line of defense of the land state border and the sea coast. Formations and units were not just put on alert - they dug trenches, equipped command posts, laid roads, and created anti-tank obstacles. At sea, ships of the Pacific Fleet already in the first days of the war set up defensive minefields on the outskirts of Vladivostok, Sovetskaya Gavan and Petropavlovsk.
The construction of the field defense was completed by October 1, 1941. But even when in December 1941 Japan got involved in a war against the United States, even when in 1942 it became clear that the Japanese were seriously bogged down in this struggle, defensive work in the Far East did not stop. In 1942-1943, military units worked on defensive lines six days a week, and only in 1944-1945 four days a month. Not only the front line was fortified. The forces of the troops and the local population in Khabarovsk and other large cities of the Far East created three to four barricade lines.
All this is only a part of what was done by the Far East during the war years. There was also a mass departure of volunteers to the front, and heroic work in the workplace with overfulfillment of plans, and the evacuation of some enterprises to the region (there was no mass evacuation - the region was considered as a potential front throughout the war years). And at the last stage of the war, the Far East also became a springboard for military operations against Japan. So, throughout the Great Patriotic War, the region was both the rear, in which the Victory was forged, and the front, ready at any moment to start hostilities on its territory.
PHOTO: safe-rgs.ru, echo.msk.ru, pravoslavie.ru
Throughout World War II, the Kuomintang armies did not actually conduct combat operations against Japan; armed struggle took place only on the fronts of the 8th and 4th New People's Liberation Armies. By 1944, the number of regular troops led by the CPC had reached 910,000. There were 2.2 million people in the people's militia units. The 8th and 4th New PLA repulsed numerous campaigns of Japanese and puppet troops; by April 1945, there were 19 liberated regions in China with a population exceeding 95 million people. These armies pinned down most of the Japanese military in China - 64 percent of the Japanese and 95 percent of the puppet government's troops.
The Japanese command at the end of March 1944 launched the largest offensive during the war in China. Operations were conducted against the Kuomintang troops and aimed at occupying the entire coast of China, pushing the Kuomintang inland. By establishing a direct land connection from Singapore to Northeast China, the Japanese strategists completely eliminated the consequences of the naval blockade established by the US and British fleets. The consequences of all this would be very significant, as D. F. Dulles admitted: “The Japanese accumulated a large amount of military materials in Northeast China, hoping that they would be able to continue the war on the mainland, even if the islands themselves were lost.” The Japanese offensive lasted almost a year and was crowned with success. The Kuomintang armies were defeated, losing from 700 thousand to 1 million people. The Japanese connected their fronts in Central and South China, creating a wide corridor along the coast. They occupied the Chinese provinces with an area of about 2 million square meters. km with a population of 60 million people.
During the advance, Japanese troops captured 10 major air bases and 36 airfields. These bases were created with great difficulty by the Americans, during the retreat they had to abandon and burn the property available on them, and in order to deliver one ton of cargo to them, the Americans spent three tons of fuel; China's only supply route was by air, through the Himalayas. The unheard-of catastrophe in China overturned the entire Anglo-American strategy in the war in the Far East.
Combat operations in Burma developed extremely sluggishly throughout the war, and in March-April 1944, Japanese troops, with a sudden blow, threatened the Allied communications in Northern Burma. Further deterioration of the situation was avoided only as a result of the fact that the allied command finally allowed the arming of the Burmese partisans. Until then, Britain and the United States were afraid to give arms to the Burmese people. By the joint actions of the allied forces and the anti-Japanese resistance forces in Burma, led by the anti-fascist People's Liberation League, the Japanese troops were expelled from Burma by May 1945. However, success in this theater was of a local nature and by no means undermined the forces of the Japanese ground army. There was also no weakening of the will of the Japanese armed forces in the struggle. On the contrary, after more than three years of war, Japanese soldiers, as the enemy approached the Japanese islands, fought with even greater ferocity.
The American commanders in the Pacific saw no way to achieve victory over Japan before the end of 1946. In the final battles against her, the upcoming losses were estimated at a million people. MacArthur firmly told Naval Minister Forrestal that the help of at least 60 Soviet divisions was needed to defeat Japan. Many years later, in 1949, even Secretary of State Acheson frankly admitted: "The main concern of the American government was" to achieve the early entry of the Soviet Union into the war with Japan so that the Japanese army, concentrated in Manchuria, could not return to their home islands in critical moment." Truman wrote, "As our troops moved forward in the Pacific, paying with great blood every step, Russia's entry into the war became more urgent. It meant saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans."
In February 1945, a conference was held in Yalta, which was attended by representatives of the countries that were part of Great Britain and the United States, managed to get the Soviet Union to agree to take a direct part in the war with Japan. In exchange for this, they promised him to return the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, lost during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
Termination of the peace treaty
At the time when the decision was made in Yalta, the so-called Neutrality Pact was in force between Japan and the Soviet Union, which was concluded back in 1941 and was supposed to be valid for 5 years. But already in April 1945, the USSR announced that it was breaking the treaty unilaterally. The Russo-Japanese War (1945), the reasons for which were that the Land of the Rising Sun had sided with Germany in recent years, and also fought against the allies of the USSR, became almost inevitable.
Such a sudden statement literally plunged the leadership of Japan into complete disarray. And this is understandable, because her position was very critical - the Allied forces inflicted significant damage on her in the Pacific Ocean, and industrial centers and cities were subjected to almost continuous bombardment. The government of this country was well aware that it was almost impossible to achieve victory in such conditions. But still, it still hoped that it would somehow be able to wear down and achieve more favorable conditions for the surrender of its troops.
The United States, in turn, did not count on the fact that they would get an easy victory. An example of this is the battles that unfolded for the island of Okinawa. About 77 thousand people fought here from Japan, and about 470 thousand soldiers from the United States. In the end, the island was taken by the Americans, but their losses were simply amazing - almost 50 thousand killed. According to him, if the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had not begun, which will be briefly described in this article, then the losses would have been much more serious and could have amounted to 1 million soldiers killed and wounded.
Announcement of the outbreak of hostilities
On August 8, in Moscow, the document was handed over to the Japanese Ambassador to the USSR at exactly 17:00. It said that the Russo-Japanese War (1945) was actually starting the very next day. But since there is a significant time difference between the Far East and Moscow, it turned out that only 1 hour remained before the start of the offensive of the Soviet Army.
In the USSR, a plan was developed, consisting of three military operations: the Kuril, Manchurian and South Sakhalin. All of them were very important. But nevertheless, the Manchurian operation was the most large-scale and significant.
Side forces
On the territory of Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, commanded by General Otozo Yamada, opposed. It consisted of about 1 million people, more than 1 thousand tanks, about 6 thousand guns and 1.6 thousand aircraft.
At the time when the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 began, the forces of the USSR had a significant numerical superiority in manpower: only there were one and a half times more soldiers. As for equipment, the number of mortars and artillery exceeded the similar enemy forces by 10 times. Our army had 5 and 3 times more tanks and aircraft, respectively, than the corresponding weapons of the Japanese. It should be noted that the superiority of the USSR over Japan in military equipment consisted not only in its numbers. The equipment at the disposal of Russia was modern and more powerful than that of its opponent.
Enemy strongholds
All participants in the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 were well aware that sooner or later, but it had to start. That is why the Japanese created a significant number of well-fortified areas in advance. For example, we can take at least the Hailar region, where the left flank of the Trans-Baikal Front of the Soviet Army was located. Barrage structures on this site were built for more than 10 years. By the time the Russo-Japanese War began (August 1945), there were already 116 pillboxes, which were interconnected by underground passages made of concrete, a well-developed system of trenches and a significant number. This area was covered by Japanese soldiers, whose number exceeded the divisional one.
In order to suppress the resistance of the Hailar fortified area, the Soviet Army had to spend several days. Under war conditions, this is a short period, but during the same time the rest of the Trans-Baikal Front moved forward by about 150 km. Given the scale of the Russo-Japanese War (1945), the obstacle in the form of this fortified area turned out to be quite serious. Even when his garrison surrendered, the Japanese warriors continued to fight with fanatical courage.
In the reports of Soviet military leaders one can very often see references to the soldiers of the Kwantung Army. The documents said that the Japanese military specially chained themselves to the beds of machine guns so as not to have the slightest opportunity to retreat.
evasive maneuver
The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 and the actions of the Soviet Army were very successful from the very beginning. I would like to mention one outstanding operation, which consisted in a 350-kilometer throw of the 6th Panzer Army through the Khingan Range and the Gobi Desert. If you take a look at the mountains, they seem to be an insurmountable obstacle to the passage of technology. The passes that the Soviet tanks had to pass were located at an altitude of about 2 thousand meters above sea level, and the slopes sometimes reached a steepness of 50⁰. That is why cars often had to zigzag.
In addition, the advancement of equipment was also complicated by frequent heavy rains, accompanied by flooding of rivers and impassable mud. But, despite this, the tanks still moved forward, and already on August 11 they overcame the mountains and reached the Central Manchurian Plain, in the rear of the Kwantung Army. After such a large-scale transition, the Soviet troops began to experience an acute shortage of fuel, so they had to arrange for additional delivery by air. With the help of transport aviation, it was possible to transport about 900 tons of tank fuel. As a result of this operation, more than 200 thousand Japanese soldiers were captured, as well as a huge amount of equipment, weapons and ammunition.
Height Defenders Sharp
The Japanese War of 1945 continued. On the sector of the 1st Far Eastern Front, Soviet troops encountered unprecedentedly fierce enemy resistance. The Japanese were well entrenched on the heights of Camel and Ostraya, which were among the fortifications of the Khotous fortified area. It must be said that the approaches to these heights were indented by many small rivers and were very swampy. In addition, wire fences and excavated scarps were located on their slopes. The firing points of the Japanese soldiers were cut down in advance right in the rocky granite rock, and the concrete caps protecting the bunkers reached a thickness of one and a half meters.
During the fighting, the Soviet command offered the defenders of Ostra to surrender. A man from among the local residents was sent to the Japanese as a truce, but they treated him extremely cruelly - the commander of the fortified area cut off his head. However, there was nothing surprising in this act. From the moment the Russo-Japanese War began (1945), the enemy basically did not go to any negotiations. When the Soviet troops finally entered the fortification, they found only dead soldiers. It is worth noting that the defenders of the height were not only men, but also women who were armed with daggers and grenades.
Features of military operations
The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had its own specific features. For example, in the battles for the city of Mudanjiang, the enemy used kamikaze saboteurs against units of the Soviet Army. These suicide bombers tied themselves with grenades and threw themselves under tanks or at soldiers. There was also such a case when about two hundred "live mines" lay on the ground next to each other in one sector of the front. But such suicidal actions did not last long. Soon, the Soviet soldiers became more vigilant and had time to destroy the saboteur in advance before he came close and exploded next to equipment or people.
Surrender
The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 ended on August 15, when the country's emperor Hirohito addressed his people on the radio. He stated that the country had decided to accept the terms of the Potsdam Conference and capitulate. At the same time, the emperor called on his nation to observe patience and unite all forces to build a new future for the country.
3 days after Hirohito's appeal, the call of the Kwantung Army command to its soldiers was heard on the radio. It said that further resistance is pointless and there is already a decision to surrender. Since many Japanese units did not have contact with the main headquarters, their notification continued for several more days. But there were also cases when fanatical military personnel did not want to obey the order and lay down their arms. Therefore, their war continued until they died.
Consequences
It must be said that the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 was truly of great not only military but also political significance. managed to completely defeat the strongest Kwantung Army and end World War II. By the way, its official end is considered to be September 2, when the act of surrender of Japan was finally signed in Tokyo Bay right on board the battleship Missouri, owned by the United States.
As a result, the Soviet Union regained the territories that had been lost back in 1905 - a group of islands and part of the South Kuriles. Also, according to the peace treaty signed in San Francisco, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin.
