Soviet Attack Hastened End of World War II

Soviet · 08-11-2005, 11:28 PM

Interesting article from the New York Times.
I didn't know that Zhukov fought against the Japanese in 1939.

------------------------------------------------

The New York Times
August 6, 2005

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:18 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- On Aug. 8, 1945 -- a week before Japan's surrender in World War II -- 1.5 million Soviet troops launched a massive surprise attack against Japanese occupation forces in northern China and Korea, an area the size of Western Europe. Within days, Tokyo's million-man army in the region had collapsed in one of the greatest military defeats in history.

''It was a massive campaign and a crushing blow for Japan which was already in a bad way after fighting for almost four years in the Pacific War,'' said Nigel Steel, a World War II historian at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Historians say the now largely forgotten Red Army victory -- codenamed August Storm -- not only hastened the end of World War II but also set the stage for the Korean War and for the victory in 1949 of the Chinese communists in the civil war against the Nationalists.

Some Japanese historians believe it had a greater effect on the decision of the Japanese leadership to end the Pacific War than the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which came within days of the Soviet attack.

''The impact of atomic bombs (on Japanese army's decision to surrender) is being overestimated,'' says Arai Shinichi, historian and professor emeritus of Ibaragi University and Surugadai University.

More important in persuading Tokyo to surrender were the Soviet decision to enter the war in the Far East, the Red Army's lighting advance through Manchuria, and the collapse of Japanese efforts to enlist the Soviets as peace intermediaries, Arai said.

Still, because August Storm came in the midst of the two atomic blasts, it has been largely neglected by Western historians.

''Cold War propaganda contributed to their being largely overlooked from the Anglo-American perspective,'' Steel said. ''We always have focused on the atomic attacks, which for us represented the definitive blow.''

In Russia, too, the far-off campaign was eclipsed by the bloody life-and-death struggle against Nazi Germany, dubbed the Great Patriotic War, said Alexander Koltyukov, director of Moscow's Institute of Military History.

Despite the unprecedented scale of the Soviet victory in the Far East, the relatively light casualties suffered by the Red Army in the Asia campaign also contributed to it being viewed as a sideshow, Koltyukov said.

Japan's forces in northeast Asia, known as the Kwantung Army, had already tangled with the Russians in 1939 when the Japanese tried to invade Mongolia. Their crushing defeat at the hands of Gen. Georgy Zhukov -- an up-and-coming commander who later crafted the Soviet victory against the Nazis -- persuaded Tokyo to turn against U.S., British, French and Dutch forces in Southeast Asia instead.

Moscow and Tokyo eventually signed a neutrality pact that kept the U.S.S.R. out of the Pacific War that followed Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. In fact, following the Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945, Tokyo looked to Moscow to mediate an end to the war in the Far East.

But unbeknownst to the Japanese, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had promised Washington and London that he would attack Japanese forces within three months of Germany's defeat.

A force of 1.5 million Soviet troops under the command of Marshal Aleksander Vasilevski poured across the Manchurian frontier in a huge battle of encirclement on Aug. 8, catching the Kwantung Army completely off guard. Despite tenacious, often suicidal, resistance by the Japanese, within days the quick-moving Soviets had penetrated 560 miles into China, Korea and the Kuril islands.

Up to that point -- although Japan had been weakened by defeats in Burma, the Philippines and a string of Pacific islands -- the Imperial Military Command believed it could still hold out against an Allied invasion of the home islands if it retained control of Manchuria and Korea, which provided Japan with the resources for war.

But then came the Soviet attack. After the death of 80,000 troops -- compared to about 8,200 Soviet casualties -- and the loss of the Kuril islands within striking distance of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, Tokyo finally accepted the inevitability of defeat.

''The impact of the blow in Manchuria persuaded Japan's civilian and political leadership more than the atomic strikes to recognize they stood no chance at all of holding out even in the home islands,'' Steel said.

Although Moscow and Tokyo normalized diplomatic relations in 1956, Japan has refused to sign a peace treaty formally ending hostilities until the Soviet Union returns the ''Northern Territories,'' four small islands off the coast of Hokkaido, which Tokyo claims have always been Japanese territory.

------------------------------------------------

Associated Press Writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Joseph Coleman in Tokyo contributed to this report.

vatjan · 08-12-2005, 02:17 AM

The battle of Khalkhin Gol in august 1939, was one of the first great victories for Zhukov.
You can find the khalkhin Gol medal in the Mongolian section.
He was very proud of this victory, and if you look closely at portraits of Zhukov, you can almost always find this medal amongst the Victory, Lenin, etc... orders.
Jan

See here for more info on the battle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halhin_Gol

redmedals · 08-12-2005, 12:22 PM

Those are interesting articles and links. Remember too he managed to survive the Stalin Purges of the mid 1930's when just about every officer of any consequence in the Red Army was shot. A fact which certainly contributed greatly to the "preparedness" of the Red Army and Air Force in June 1941.
Zhukov was without a doubt the best tactician of the war. And an argument can easily be made to declare him the best military commander of the war. When he first appeared on the battlefields of the eastern front to stop then push back the Nazis at the gates of Moscow it was at the head of his fresh "Eastern armies". From then on any battle that Zhukov took command of was won. He stands as great in history as any soldier throughout the ages bar none.
Ron

ekclete · 08-13-2005, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redmedals

Zhukov was without a doubt the best tactician of the war. And an argument can easily be made to declare him the best military commander of the war. When he first appeared on the battlefields of the eastern front to stop then push back the Nazis at the gates of Moscow it was at the head of his fresh "Eastern armies". From then on any battle that Zhukov took command of was won. He stands as great in history as any soldier throughout the ages bar none.
Ron

Hello,
There are some who find that Zhukov did have one defeat after the defense of Moscow. David Glantz, a noted author on the USSR in The Great Patriotic War, cites Operation Mars as a major defeat.
All the sites I wanted to post links to are commercial in nature. I did a search on a major search engine using 'Zhukov's Greatest Defeat' and returned numerous hits that give more information then I can.
I do not know much of this battle so I am not able to comment on it. I do, however, think that David Glantz has credentials in this area and his arugment needs to be considered.
I do have to agree with Ron that Marshall Zhukov has few peers as a military commander even with Operation Mars. He beat the best the famed German general staff could send against him consistenly.

Dolf · 08-14-2005, 05:58 AM

Imho, I still think that Chuikov was the best tactician and the best commander of WWII, all sides included, and the reading of David Glantz'book mentioned above by Ecklete + Chuikov's book "The end of the TR" only reinforce my personnal sympathy for this hard to beat General. I guess that one of the reasons Zhukov is better known and appreciated is for the fact that he had a higher rank than Chuikov and was above Chuikov on the military hierarchy.

Just my two cents...

Anyway, back to the subject, nice Awards!

Dolf

PS: Ron, still looking for one of those Soviet Union made Partisan Stars...

medalklector · 08-14-2005, 10:12 AM

Just following on from this. If Zhukov was so rated then why did stalin hide the fact that Hitlers body HAD been found from him. He only found out 20 years later!!!

Dolf · 08-14-2005, 01:26 PM

Medalklector,

I guess that it was a Stalin's political decision, and Zukhov was a military, but I'm just speculating. I guess it's not easy to explain the decisions of any dictator, specially if the guy is/was also paranoïc.
I think Stalin thought that by hidding the truth he could launch some confusion between the other Allies (that he didn't trust) or at least create some mystery that he could use later, I don't know. Anyway he lied many times on his letters exchanged with Churchil and Rosevelt, including about his plans to arrive to Berlin before all the others, so I think that was already a kind of pre-Cold War thing.

Just my two cents,

Dolf

08-11-2005, 11:28 PM	#1
Soviet Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Montréal Age: 43 Posts: 356	Soviet Attack Hastened End of World War II Interesting article from the New York Times. I didn't know that Zhukov fought against the Japanese in 1939. ------------------------------------------------ The New York Times August 6, 2005 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 2:18 a.m. ET LONDON (AP) -- On Aug. 8, 1945 -- a week before Japan's surrender in World War II -- 1.5 million Soviet troops launched a massive surprise attack against Japanese occupation forces in northern China and Korea, an area the size of Western Europe. Within days, Tokyo's million-man army in the region had collapsed in one of the greatest military defeats in history. ''It was a massive campaign and a crushing blow for Japan which was already in a bad way after fighting for almost four years in the Pacific War,'' said Nigel Steel, a World War II historian at the Imperial War Museum in London. Historians say the now largely forgotten Red Army victory -- codenamed August Storm -- not only hastened the end of World War II but also set the stage for the Korean War and for the victory in 1949 of the Chinese communists in the civil war against the Nationalists. Some Japanese historians believe it had a greater effect on the decision of the Japanese leadership to end the Pacific War than the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which came within days of the Soviet attack. ''The impact of atomic bombs (on Japanese army's decision to surrender) is being overestimated,'' says Arai Shinichi, historian and professor emeritus of Ibaragi University and Surugadai University. More important in persuading Tokyo to surrender were the Soviet decision to enter the war in the Far East, the Red Army's lighting advance through Manchuria, and the collapse of Japanese efforts to enlist the Soviets as peace intermediaries, Arai said. Still, because August Storm came in the midst of the two atomic blasts, it has been largely neglected by Western historians. ''Cold War propaganda contributed to their being largely overlooked from the Anglo-American perspective,'' Steel said. ''We always have focused on the atomic attacks, which for us represented the definitive blow.'' In Russia, too, the far-off campaign was eclipsed by the bloody life-and-death struggle against Nazi Germany, dubbed the Great Patriotic War, said Alexander Koltyukov, director of Moscow's Institute of Military History. Despite the unprecedented scale of the Soviet victory in the Far East, the relatively light casualties suffered by the Red Army in the Asia campaign also contributed to it being viewed as a sideshow, Koltyukov said. Japan's forces in northeast Asia, known as the Kwantung Army, had already tangled with the Russians in 1939 when the Japanese tried to invade Mongolia. Their crushing defeat at the hands of Gen. Georgy Zhukov -- an up-and-coming commander who later crafted the Soviet victory against the Nazis -- persuaded Tokyo to turn against U.S., British, French and Dutch forces in Southeast Asia instead. Moscow and Tokyo eventually signed a neutrality pact that kept the U.S.S.R. out of the Pacific War that followed Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. In fact, following the Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945, Tokyo looked to Moscow to mediate an end to the war in the Far East. But unbeknownst to the Japanese, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had promised Washington and London that he would attack Japanese forces within three months of Germany's defeat. A force of 1.5 million Soviet troops under the command of Marshal Aleksander Vasilevski poured across the Manchurian frontier in a huge battle of encirclement on Aug. 8, catching the Kwantung Army completely off guard. Despite tenacious, often suicidal, resistance by the Japanese, within days the quick-moving Soviets had penetrated 560 miles into China, Korea and the Kuril islands. Up to that point -- although Japan had been weakened by defeats in Burma, the Philippines and a string of Pacific islands -- the Imperial Military Command believed it could still hold out against an Allied invasion of the home islands if it retained control of Manchuria and Korea, which provided Japan with the resources for war. But then came the Soviet attack. After the death of 80,000 troops -- compared to about 8,200 Soviet casualties -- and the loss of the Kuril islands within striking distance of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, Tokyo finally accepted the inevitability of defeat. ''The impact of the blow in Manchuria persuaded Japan's civilian and political leadership more than the atomic strikes to recognize they stood no chance at all of holding out even in the home islands,'' Steel said. Although Moscow and Tokyo normalized diplomatic relations in 1956, Japan has refused to sign a peace treaty formally ending hostilities until the Soviet Union returns the ''Northern Territories,'' four small islands off the coast of Hokkaido, which Tokyo claims have always been Japanese territory. ------------------------------------------------ Associated Press Writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Joseph Coleman in Tokyo contributed to this report. __________________ На Берлин!

08-12-2005, 02:17 AM	#2
vatjan Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: brussels, Belgium Age: 55 Posts: 131	The battle of Khalkhin Gol in august 1939, was one of the first great victories for Zhukov. You can find the khalkhin Gol medal in the Mongolian section. He was very proud of this victory, and if you look closely at portraits of Zhukov, you can almost always find this medal amongst the Victory, Lenin, etc... orders. Jan See here for more info on the battle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halhin_Gol Last edited by vatjan; 08-12-2005 at 02:21 AM.

08-14-2005, 10:12 AM	#6
medalklector Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: London Posts: 48	Just following on from this. If Zhukov was so rated then why did stalin hide the fact that Hitlers body HAD been found from him. He only found out 20 years later!!! __________________ "When the man with the rifle gets killed, the man without picks up the rifle and shoots....."

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Soviet Great Patriotic War Awards	Taz	General Talk Archive	1	10-02-2006 04:34 PM
Soviet Generals of the Army in the Great Patriotic War	slava1stclass	The Researchers' Corner	1	11-19-2004 09:54 AM
Marshals of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War	slava1stclass	The Researchers' Corner	0	11-19-2004 05:11 AM
Soviet Naval Infantry During The Great Patriotic War.	vikingraider1	History References	9	10-15-2003 06:52 PM
Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39S, and the Air War Against German	Tal Inbar	History References	1	07-13-2003 01:18 PM

08-12-2005, 12:22 PM	#3
redmedals Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shediac, New Brunswick Age: 68 Posts: 99	Those are interesting articles and links. Remember too he managed to survive the Stalin Purges of the mid 1930's when just about every officer of any consequence in the Red Army was shot. A fact which certainly contributed greatly to the "preparedness" of the Red Army and Air Force in June 1941. Zhukov was without a doubt the best tactician of the war. And an argument can easily be made to declare him the best military commander of the war. When he first appeared on the battlefields of the eastern front to stop then push back the Nazis at the gates of Moscow it was at the head of his fresh "Eastern armies". From then on any battle that Zhukov took command of was won. He stands as great in history as any soldier throughout the ages bar none. Ron

08-14-2005, 05:58 AM	#5
Dolf Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Lisbon, Portugal Age: 68 Posts: 572	Imho, I still think that Chuikov was the best tactician and the best commander of WWII, all sides included, and the reading of David Glantz'book mentioned above by Ecklete + Chuikov's book "The end of the TR" only reinforce my personnal sympathy for this hard to beat General. I guess that one of the reasons Zhukov is better known and appreciated is for the fact that he had a higher rank than Chuikov and was above Chuikov on the military hierarchy. Just my two cents... Anyway, back to the subject, nice Awards! Dolf PS: Ron, still looking for one of those Soviet Union made Partisan Stars...

08-14-2005, 01:26 PM	#7
Dolf Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Lisbon, Portugal Age: 68 Posts: 572	Medalklector, I guess that it was a Stalin's political decision, and Zukhov was a military, but I'm just speculating. I guess it's not easy to explain the decisions of any dictator, specially if the guy is/was also paranoïc. I think Stalin thought that by hidding the truth he could launch some confusion between the other Allies (that he didn't trust) or at least create some mystery that he could use later, I don't know. Anyway he lied many times on his letters exchanged with Churchil and Rosevelt, including about his plans to arrive to Berlin before all the others, so I think that was already a kind of pre-Cold War thing. Just my two cents, Dolf

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)