Why did the Soviet army beat the mighty Japanese Kwantung Army out of the water in just over ten days?

1On August 8, 945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and then about10.5 million Soviet troops assembled in the Far East launched the "August Storm Operation", which defeated 700,000 Japanese Kwantung Army known as the "Flower of the Imperial Army" in just over ten days. Originally, in the expectation of all countries at that time, the Soviet Union and Japan would start a tug-of-war in the Far East for more than a month. But after the war, it was a one-sided ending, and the fighting capacity of the Soviet Red Army shocked the world. The result of the Soviet-Japanese War was caused by many reasons, but the most important thing was that the Soviet Red Army's fighting ideology and weapons and equipment had been brutally tested by the Soviet-German battlefield, and the Japanese Kwantung Army was still an army that stayed in World War I. Once this generation gap was formed, it would be crushed.

First of all, the Soviet Red Army became stronger and stronger throughout World War II, while the Japanese Kwantung Army became weaker and weaker. The Soviet-German battlefield was the battlefield with the fiercest fighting and the heaviest casualties during the whole World War II. Tens of millions of people fought for their lives, and the death toll of the Soviet Red Army alone was as high as 8.656 million. Those who survived were the elites of hundreds of battles. In the face of Nazi Germany, an opponent who swept through western Europe and had fighting power in off the charts, the personal quality and weapons and equipment of the Soviet army have developed rapidly. The main forces of the Outer Baikal Army, the Far East 1 Army and the Second Army of the Far East who participated in the war against Japan were all elite elements honed from the Soviet-German battlefield, and their combat capability can be imagined.

On the other hand, after the Battle of Nomenham in 1939, the Japanese Kwantung Army basically did not experience any major wars. According to the instructions of the Japanese high-level, it "prevented the war against the Soviet Union and maintained a calm state in the north". 194 1 65438+On February 7th, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in the United States, and the Pacific War broke out. The kwantung army was ordered to send some veterans south to participate in the war; From the second half of 1943, in order to save the decline of the Pacific battlefield, Japan organized and deployed the main divisions of the Kwantung Army and heavy weapons reinforcements in an attempt to rely on "elite" to stop the US attack; At the beginning of 1945, Japan showed defeat and sent the kwantung army 13 division to the Pacific battlefield. 1945 after the battle of Okinawa in April and June, the US military is preparing to land in Japan. In order to fight a decisive battle in China, the Japanese government once again transferred the troops of seven divisions of the Kwantung Army and 1/3 of strategic materials to return home.

After a series of recruitment and consumption, the establishment of 700,000 Japanese Kwantung Army seems to be a bluff, but it is full of a large number of new recruits, just an empty shelf, and its morale and quality are extremely low, which is not as good as that of the Soviet Red Army, which has been tried and tested in the Soviet-German battlefield.

Secondly, the Soviet army demonstrated its strength with the belief of winning, while the Japanese army wavered between war and surrender. Although at the Yalta meeting in February 1945, the Soviet Union promised to join the war against Japan two to three months after the end of the war against Germany, the Soviet Union's high-level officials have been delaying the time of declaring war on Japan for their own interests. Until1August 6, 945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, which shocked the world. The essence of American atomic bomb is to shock the Soviet Union and establish American hegemony. It is natural for the Soviet Union to strike back at the United States and show its strength. It immediately launched "Operation August Storm" on August 8th 1945 to attack the Japanese army. From the beginning, the Soviet Union was heading for victory or a devastating victory.

Japan was already preparing to surrender in 1945, but it has been bargaining, which is no secret among Japanese high-level officials. In order to obtain more relaxed armistice conditions, Japan wavered between the United States and the Soviet Union, waiting for the price to be betrayed. By the time the Potsdam Proclamation demanded Japan's unconditional surrender in July 1945, Japanese high-level officials were still hoping to make a secret deal with the United States and the Soviet Union and obtain a decent peace. This idea is reflected in the lack of determination of Japanese high-level officials to fight to the death in the Soviet Union, which naturally affected the fighting will of grassroots officers and men. When the war started, they were defeated by the Soviet Union. When the Kwantung Army gave the order to retreat to Tonghua and launch a decisive battle with the Soviet Union, the strategic retreat turned into a rout and flight of the whole army.

Finally, the Soviet Red Army and the Japanese Kwantung Army have formed a generation gap. War is the best teacher, and the only thing that makes slow progress is death. 194 1 On June 22nd, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union by blitzkrieg. At the beginning of the war, the German army was in full swing, and the Soviet Union lost millions of troops and a large number of aircraft and tanks in a few months. It is said that failure is the mother of success. In a series of failures, Soviet generals constantly absorbed Germany's advanced tactical theory, combined with their own reality, and perfected the "big depth assault tactics" belonging to the Soviet Union. Until the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Red Army built its army around this tactic.

The Japanese army was dubbed "the best World War I army". Of course, this is not to say that weapons and equipment are backward, but that the Japanese army's operational thinking is still stuck in World War I, and its defense relies entirely on solid fortifications, which is very dull. Since the Japanese army invaded the northeast of China, in order to guard against the Soviet Union, a series of forts have been built on the Sino-Soviet border, such as Hutou Fortress, Dongning Fortress, the largest military fortress in Asia. During the First World War, when the technical conditions were limited and the troops were weak in mobility, the fortress naturally played a huge role.

In World War II, planes, tanks and mechanized infantry were widely used, so it was entirely possible for the fortress to bypass the rear of the defense line, with high mobility and no need to fight foolishly. The most famous thing in World War II was 1940, when Germany attacked France, and the German armored forces bypassed the Ardennes Mountains, making the "maginot line" built by France a joke. The fortress group built by Japan with amazing manpower, material resources, financial resources and time did not play much role.

1945 The "August Storm Action" against Japan was the first time that the Soviet Union fully applied the "big-depth assault tactics". More than 28,000 cannons cooperated with infantry to open the gap in the Japanese defense line, 4,300 planes firmly grasped the air superiority, more than 5,000 tanks cooperated with motorized infantry to attack from the gap in depth, and large-scale paratroopers parachuted behind the Japanese army to seize the airport. Under the attack of air-ground integration, the Japanese army was at a loss. Less than two days after the war, the top management of the Kwantung Army almost lost control of the army, and all kinds of fortresses with high hopes became isolated "living coffins". Hutou Fortress lasted 17 days, and Dongning Fortress was breached in 7 days.

When the Soviet Union suffered heavy losses in World War II, it was able to compete with the United States, which was in full swing after World War II and had an atomic bomb. The powerful fighting capacity of the Soviet Red Army in Operation Storm in August has to be said to be an important weight. The outstanding performance of the Soviet Union won time for the Soviet Union to recover from the trauma of war, and also avoided the possibility of a third world war.