What happened to Kwantung Army during World War II?

The Kwantung Army is a part of the Japanese army. It was named (one of the earliest Japanese colonies) because it invaded Jinxian County in northeast China and Kanto County in Dalian. Established in 19 19. At the time of the largest number, it was called a million troops, but in fact, according to the analysis of military experts, it did not exceed 800,000.

Kwantung Army is just an empty shell.

In fact, when the Soviet army fought against Japan, that is,1August 1945, the total strength of the Kwantung Army was only about 700,000, and most of the elite troops had been sent to the battlefield outside Chengping from 1942, so the figures were nothing more than powerful on paper. On the contrary, the Soviet army experienced many large-scale battles in World War II, and its multi-arms combat capability was far superior to that of the Japanese army, which was naturally unmatched by the Kwantung Army.

In detail, in 1945, although the Kwantung Army stopped expanding its personnel, its combat strength dropped sharply. Like 1945, kwantung army 13 divisions once again moved from the Japanese base camp to the battlefield outside Chengping. In April, the US military annexed Okinawa and began air strikes against Japan. In order to concentrate its forces, the Japanese army stopped the decisive battle at home and transferred seven divisions and nearly 1/3 strategic materials stored by the Kwantung Army back to Japan to prepare for the war. These troops are the elite trump cards in the remnants of the Kwantung Army. It can be said that the Japanese army has always been at a disadvantage in terms of combat readiness and personnel, because many recruits are old people and children, and the swords and soldiers are poorly equipped.

Fear of Soviet tanks

At that time, Japan was equipped with Type 97 tanks in World War II, not the enemy of thousands of T34 tanks in the Soviet Union. Because the terrain of the northeast plain was suitable for large-scale tank operations, the Soviet army's mechanized marching speed was very fast, so it quickly outflanked the Kwantung Army. The gap between the mechanized combat strength of the two armies was exposed as early as the battle of Nomenkan in 1939. Now, the Soviet troops who have studied the German Blitzkrieg are more powerful and their troops move quickly.

In view of the unsightly view of the Soviet Union, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Union organized the forces in the Far East into the sequence of Post-Baikal Army, Far East Army, Binhai Cluster, Chengping Ocean Fleet, Red Flag Amur Fleet, Heshan Air Defense Force, Far East Defense Zone and Post-Baikal Defense Zone, with a total strength of 59 .5 divisions. The Soviets appropriated a total of 270 T34 tanks of the most advanced predecessors, which can be said to equip each brigade in the Far East with a battalion of tanks on average.

T34 storage tank

This kind of tank was put into use only at the late stage of the war against Germany. Its front armor is 40-90 mm thick, equipped with an 85 mm cannon and two machine guns, and its maximum travel can reach 300 kilometers. The "Type 34" medium-sized tanks limited by the Japanese army are equipped with 57 mm guns, and the maximum travel does not exceed 160 km. From the above equipment, we can see how substantial the preparations for the Soviet military expedition are, enough to crush Japan.

According to the record of the battle between the Soviet Union and the Japanese army, 1939 From May to September, the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Puppet Manchukuo Army and the Su Meng Army, with hundreds of thousands of troops, stopped a fierce battle in the barren land of Nomenham. The two sides misappropriated all arms and active equipment except sailors, and fought hard, which ended in a fiasco of the Kwantung Army. The Japanese province was forced to admit that "the battle of Nomenham was the first fiasco of the Japanese army since the founding of the People's Republic of China." The Battle of Nomenham had a direct impact on the offensive of the Kwantung Army's northward advance strategy and the implementation of the Japanese base camp's southward advance strategy.

Take the effectiveness of this border campaign as an example. At that time, the three elite divisions of the Japanese Kwantung Army were completely defeated and besieged by the Soviet Union. At the end of the campaign, there were only 4,000 Japanese troops in front, and only 100 cavalry units were produced in the whole system. This battle also made the excellent commanding officers of the Japanese Kwantung Army lose everything. The commander of Kwantung Army, Kenji Ueda, resigned, and the chief of staff, Okamoto, was cut off, which eventually led to the resignation of the Japanese cabinet at that time.

Judging from the military history of World War II, the Battle of Nomenham became the model and origin of armored warfare in military history. Zhukov gave orders to Panzer Rongxing, won the first victory with innocence, and was awarded the title of "Soviet hero". Since then, the Soviet army has continued to demonstrate the innocence of armored warfare in the battle against Germany and Japan, successfully dividing the Japanese army and winning a total victory.

The resultant force of Sino-Soviet friendship

On the other hand, the intelligence personnel of the Northeast Production Party and the former Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition provided the Soviet Union with a large amount of military information, which was convenient for the Soviet Union to choose the opportunity and road to fight against Japan.

Zhou Baozhong, an anti-United general, followed the Soviet army back to the northeast. They are very familiar with the defensive and operational characteristics of the Kwantung Army, which will help the Soviet Union to outflank each other and annihilate the besieged city of the Kwantung Army. Efficient and reliable intelligence work enabled the Soviet army to master a lot of mysterious information about the Japanese defense deployment and defense changes, which greatly accelerated the campaign process.

In detail, the Northeast Anti-Union entered the Soviet Union for training and consolidation, and "death" left a living force, which laid the foundation for future cooperation with the Soviet Union to recover the Northeast. 1On July 6, 942, Zhou Baozhong and Li, then leaders of the Anti-Japanese Coalition Forces, discussed with General Abanashenk, commander of the Soviet Far East Army, and decided to expand the liquidation of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Forces and organize it as the "Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Forces Education Brigade" to "train military and political cadres in the Northeast to resist Japan and save the country and temper outstanding guerrilla fighters so that they can be in the Northeast Liberation Campaign.

In the two or three years after the establishment of the Education Brigade, special drills such as car driving, radio communication, skydiving and skiing were carried out, which improved the tactical skills of Pan Bo commanders. With the approaching of Soviet troops in the northeast of China, the Soviet Far East border guards also stopped unconventional exercises for the education brigade, such as skydiving, driving motorcycles, reading and drawing maps, sending and receiving telegrams, blasting, battlefield photography and so on.

According to Peng Shilu, company commander of the 3rd Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Education Brigade, the relationship between officers and men of China and the Soviet Union is very harmonious. With the help of the Soviet Union, the soldiers of the 88th Brigade received basic skills such as fighting and assassination, as well as training in skydiving and skiing, which was unique and exciting for them. In view of the cold weather and heavy snow in winter in Northeast China, the education brigade pays close attention to skiing practice. The soldiers of the anti-union army are quite persistent in this craft. Although the soldiers fell black and blue, they still kept practicing. In the three-year foreign practice of the Soviet Union, the anti-United education team has been growing. From a guerrilla to a professional army that mastered the equipment of its predecessors.

Most notably, the soldiers attacked the Japanese fort, stopped moving and cleaned for the Soviet army.

Hutou Fortress is located in the foothills of Wanda Mountains in Heilongjiang Province. It is a frontier military fortress secretly built by the Japanese army to attack the Soviet Union. Having a complex attack and defense system is one of the key positions in the eastern part of the Sino-Soviet border. There is a howitzer at the top of the fortress, with a barrel diameter of 1 m, a muzzle diameter of 4 1 cm, and a gun length of about 20 meters, which is called "the first gun in Asia". Its lethality is extremely amazing, with a charge of 1 ton. A shell is 4 meters long and has a maximum range of 20 kilometers. It is a great threat to the Far East Army, which is about to send more troops to the northeast. On the eve of the Soviet general attack, the detachment of the Anti-Union Education Brigade sneaked into Hutoubao and blew the "first shot in Asia".

Hutou fort

In terms of the world ostentation and extravagance at that time, Germany held back admiration, the United States lost its original bullets, and the Japanese army was still struggling. In fact, the Soviet Union's March into the Northeast was a bear against grain, and it did not suffer much resistance, which was also closely related to the decline of the Japanese army's fighting will.

In addition to the above points, I feel that the Japanese General Staff Headquarters and the senior officials of the Kwantung Army have made a big mistake in the grand plan and unsightly thinking of military operations. They still stubbornly believe that relying on the three-dimensional fortifications of concrete bunkers, dark bunkers and trenches can resist the surging iron flow of the Soviet Union, but the reality is that under the three-dimensional attack of tanks, flamethrowers, paratroopers and bombers, these iron turtles did play a negative role in preventing the Japanese army from retreating in real time. The Dongning fortress, which is similar to the Japanese army, is the product of the same thinking, and the final injustice will bring about its own destruction and be destroyed by the lack of innocence.

Reality? The general trend of the world military has changed to air superiority and armored group operations.