Battle of Lake Khasan
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| Battle of Khalkhin Gol | |||||||||
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| Part of the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars | |||||||||
 Russian memorial, on the bluffs overlooking the lake |
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| Combatants | |||||||||
 Soviet Union |
 Japan |
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| Commanders | |||||||||
| Vasily Blyukher, Nikolai Berzarin | Kotoku Sato | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 22,950 | 20,000+ | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 717 killed, 75 missing, 3,279 wounded | 525 killed, 913 wounded | ||||||||
| Manchuria |
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| Lake Khasan – Khalkhin Gol |
The Battle of Lake Khasan ( July 29, 1938 – August 11, 1938) and also known as the Changkufeng Incident (Chinese & Japanese: 張鼓峰事件, Chinese pinyin: Zhānggǔfēng Shìjiàn, Japanese pronunciation: Chōkohō Jiken) in China and Japan, was an attempted military incursion of Manchukuo (Japanese) into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union. This incursion was founded in the beliefs of the Japanese side that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia and Manchu China (and subsequent supplementary agreements on demarcation), and furthermore, that the demarcation markers were tampered with.
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[edit] Events
The conflict started on July 15, 1938, when the Japanese attaché in Moscow demanded the removal of Soviet border troops from the Bezymyannaya (высота Безымянная, Chinese name: Shachaofeng) and Zaozernaya (высота Заозерная, Chinese name: Changkufeng) Hills to the West of Lake Khasan in the south of Primorye, not far from Vladivostok, claiming this territory by the Russia-Korea border. The demand was rejected.
The first Japanese attack on July 29 was repelled, but on July 31 the Soviet troops had to retreat. The Japanese "19th Division" amongst some Manchukuo units took on at least two Soviet infantry divisions. One of the Japanese Army Commanders on at the battle was Col. Kotoku Sato, the commander of the 75th Infantry Regiment. Kotoku's forces expelled Russian troops from the hill in a night sortie whose execution became a Japanese model for assaults on fortified positions.
It was also reported that during the Changkufeng Incident the Japanese orchestrated frontal assaults with light and medium tanks which were immediately followed by Russian tank and artillery counter-attacks. In 1933, the Japanese designed and built an armored train designated "Rinji Soko Ressha" (Special Armored Train). The train was deployed at "2nd Armored Train Unit" in Manchuria and participated in the Sino-Japanese War and the Changkufeng conflict against the Soviets transporting thousands of Japanese troops to and from the battlefield, displaying to the West the ability of an Asian nation capable of adopting and implementing Western ideas and doctrine concerning rapid infantry deployment and transportation.
Under the command of the chief of the Far East Front, Vasily Blyukher, additional forces were moved to the zone of conflict and after several engagements during August 2-9 the Japanese forces were pushed off the Soviet territory.
On August 10, the Japanese attaché asked for peace and the hostilities ceased on August 11.
[edit] Consequences
This incident has been mostly unnoticed in the West, since the initial aggression of Japan in Asia has traditionally not been counted into World War II. However Soviet losses were significant, and the Japanese military, while taking the lesson seriously, was willing to engage with the Soviets once more, in 1939 – see Battle of Halhin Gol.
Poor Soviet fighting was blamed on the incompetence of Vasily Blyukher. He was arrested by the NKVD and executed.
[edit] Further reading
- Coox, Alvin D. The Anatomy of a Small War: The Soviet-Japanese Struggle for Changkufeng/Khasan, 1938. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977 ISBN 0-8371-9479-2
[edit] External link
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