August 27, 2009 8:08 pm (EST) 1:08 am
Rightardia Comment: This battle was the real start of WWII. For many years the West downplayed the role of the Soviet Union in WWII, but the battle of Khalkhin-Gol was the first conflict between the Allied and Axis powers.
The Japanese were confident there superior fighting spirit would prevail, but they were up against Georgy Zhukov, one of the greatest generals of WW2. It was these same Far Eastern Soviet forces that broke the back of the Wehrmacht in 1945. Once Stalin was convinced the Japanese weren't coming back to the Far East, he moved 40 Far Eastern divisions to the East to engage Field Marshal
Friedrich Paulus' Nazi forces. These fresh forces crushed the exhausted Nazis and pushed the Wehrmacht back into Germany.
Although this engagement is little-known in the West, it had profound implications. It was the first decisive battle of World War II, because it determined that the two principal Axis Powers, Germany and Japan, would never geographically link up their areas of control through Russia.
The defeat convinced the Imperial General Staff in Tokyo that the policy of the North Strike Group, favoured by the army, which wanted to seize Siberia as far as Lake Baikal for its resources, was untenable.
Instead the South Strike Group, favored by the navy, which wanted to seize the resources of Southeast Asia gained the upper hand, leading directly to the attack on Pearl Harbor two and a half years later in December 1941. The Japanese would never make an offensive movement towards Russia again.
Russia and Mongolia are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the battle of Khalkyn-Gol, when the Soviet Union and Mongolia defeated Japanese forces, preventing Japan from possible invasion of Russia’s Far East.
The battle of Khalkyn-Gol took place on the Mongolian border in 1939, just weeks before Hitler's troops marched into Poland.
President Medvedev is in Mongolia to commemorate the anniversary of one of the forgotten battles which shaped World War Two.
“I would like to thank everyone who prevented aggression against our country and protected Mongolia’s sovereignty,” said Medvedev. “They say even machine guns melted in these hot plains, but the people went through this test and defended their land.”
After Japan occupied Manchuria and Korea, it went on to stretch its offensive into Soviet territory. The first clashes began in 1938.
Prior to World War Two, Germany’s ally Japan was planning to use Mongolian land to get into the USSR from a southern front.
Because of the Khalkhin-Gol battle, for many Soviet servicemen the Second World War began two years earlier than for most other Soviet soldiers.
“For us newbies it looked like hell”
Khalkhin-Gol battle veteran Nikolay Ganin, who by 22 had already fought to protect the Soviet Union.
Mongolian and Russian soldiers on the battlefield during the undeclared border war, remembers that “It was a horrible battle on such a small plot of land, several square kilometers. It was impossible to see the ground because of the smoke and explosions.”
Tokyo’s strategy was divided in two: The North Strike Group, which wanted to seize Siberia, and the South Strike group which sought the rich resources of south-east Asia. But in the end, it was a Russian who forced Japan’s choice.
Rightardia Comment: This battle was the real start of WWII. For many years the West downplayed the role of the Soviet Union in WWII, but the battle of Khalkhin-Gol was the first conflict between the Allied and Axis powers.
The Japanese were confident there superior fighting spirit would prevail, but they were up against Georgy Zhukov, one of the greatest generals of WW2. It was these same Far Eastern Soviet forces that broke the back of the Wehrmacht in 1945. Once Stalin was convinced the Japanese weren't coming back to the Far East, he moved 40 Far Eastern divisions to the East to engage Field Marshal
Friedrich Paulus' Nazi forces. These fresh forces crushed the exhausted Nazis and pushed the Wehrmacht back into Germany.
Although this engagement is little-known in the West, it had profound implications. It was the first decisive battle of World War II, because it determined that the two principal Axis Powers, Germany and Japan, would never geographically link up their areas of control through Russia.
The defeat convinced the Imperial General Staff in Tokyo that the policy of the North Strike Group, favoured by the army, which wanted to seize Siberia as far as Lake Baikal for its resources, was untenable.
Instead the South Strike Group, favored by the navy, which wanted to seize the resources of Southeast Asia gained the upper hand, leading directly to the attack on Pearl Harbor two and a half years later in December 1941. The Japanese would never make an offensive movement towards Russia again.
Russia and Mongolia are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the battle of Khalkyn-Gol, when the Soviet Union and Mongolia defeated Japanese forces, preventing Japan from possible invasion of Russia’s Far East.
The battle of Khalkyn-Gol took place on the Mongolian border in 1939, just weeks before Hitler's troops marched into Poland.
President Medvedev is in Mongolia to commemorate the anniversary of one of the forgotten battles which shaped World War Two.
“I would like to thank everyone who prevented aggression against our country and protected Mongolia’s sovereignty,” said Medvedev. “They say even machine guns melted in these hot plains, but the people went through this test and defended their land.”
After Japan occupied Manchuria and Korea, it went on to stretch its offensive into Soviet territory. The first clashes began in 1938.
Prior to World War Two, Germany’s ally Japan was planning to use Mongolian land to get into the USSR from a southern front.
Because of the Khalkhin-Gol battle, for many Soviet servicemen the Second World War began two years earlier than for most other Soviet soldiers.
“For us newbies it looked like hell”
Khalkhin-Gol battle veteran Nikolay Ganin, who by 22 had already fought to protect the Soviet Union.
Tokyo’s strategy was divided in two: The North Strike Group, which wanted to seize Siberia, and the South Strike group which sought the rich resources of south-east Asia. But in the end, it was a Russian who forced Japan’s choice.
Thanks to Georgy Zhukov, the two principal ‘axis powers’, Germany and Japan, never got the chance to link their conquered areas through Russia. Marshal-to-be Georgy Zhukov arranged an assault of a large Soviet armed force on the Mongolian border, sending the Japanese military effort and history in a different direction.
The defeat compelled Japan to choose its South Strike policy, which infamously resulted in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“At that time, Japan was fighting on the Khalkhin-Gol river. Therefore the USSR could easily have ended up waging a two-front war, so the speed with which the Japanese were defeated was vital,” explains Aleksandr Dyukov, Russian historian and the director of Historic Memory Fund.
Dyukov points out “The fact that the victory came almost simultaneously with the diplomatic victory of the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact was a great achievement for the USSR.”
Shortly after Khalkhin-Gol, Marshal Zhukov became a renowned military leader, employing a very similar technique in the Battle of Stalingrad and throughout WWII.
92 year old Nikolay Ganin is one of the few who remembers Zhukov’s tactics.
“Mongolia retained its sovereignty and Japan decided to sign a non-aggression pact in 1940. Hitler lost a very important ally [against Russia] and we strengthened our positions in the East. Thanks to Zhukov’s victory, the second front on our Far East was never opened,” says the Khalkin-Gol veteran.
Nikolay says Khalkin-Gol is his devotion. He’s gathering evidence of Japan’s wartime aggression and wants to write a book. Not so much a memoir, but to underline the importance of Khalkin-Gol to the history of the 20th century.
Source: http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-08-26/khalkhin-gol-battle-anniversary.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khalkhin_Gol
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