How the Soviets Blitzed Japan in WW2 | Animated History

dust chokes the air of the cramped claustrophobic tunnel network beneath the city of halar the concrete walls tremble slightly with each artillery strike on the city above reigning yet more choking particulates on the hunched japanese infantry trembling with exhaustion the men clutch empty rifles or loose bayonets their ammunition long spent but despite their desperate situation the fire of defiance still burns in their eyes and the rumbling of tanks in the distance only fortifies their resolve to die a glorious death in the name of the emperor though their continued resistance seems like madness each man knows exactly what he needs to do when they emerge from their holes they will charge the enemy tanks directly using rubble for cover those with bayonets will sacrifice themselves to distract the infantry while the men carrying demolition charges will flank the soviet armor none will return but their deaths will allow halar to survive one more grim day hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian many viewers will be familiar with the island hopping campaign that the united states carried out against japan for control of the pacific ocean but the enormous soviet push into japanese occupied manchuria in 1945 remains remarkably obscure known sometimes as the august storm the soviet offensive captured over a million miles of land in less than three weeks a feat unequaled in military history in this video we'll see how a nation thought devastated by war with germany smashed the ambitions of imperial japan while simultaneously moving into a position capable of threatening the home islands themselves during the second world war the soviet union struggled with many strategic problems and russian officers had to learn many harsh lessons before they gained the upper hand against the axis forces fortunately the sponsor of today's video skillshare gives you the chance to take advantage of thousands of inspiring creative classes dictated by various industry professionals skillshare has played an instrumental part in my own journey on youtube i was taking classes on how to optimize my growth on the platform and establish my brand to a wider audience the knowledge from these lessons were crucial in helping me maintain my creative output and manage the team that brings you quality content on a consistent basis if you'd like your own primer on this topic i'd recommend lessons like youtube success script shoot and edit with mkbhd created by marcus brownlee as a bonus the first 1000 viewers to sign up using the link in the description below will get a one month free trial of skillshare so you can start exploring your creativity today ever since the japanese invasion of manchuria in 1939 tensions between the empire of the rising sun and proletarian dictatorship of soviet russia had been high stalin was all too aware of russia's stinging loss to japan in 1904 and the image-obsessed autocrat was keen to re-author the narrative border clashes between the two nations had been exceptionally common with patrolling squads of japanese and soviet troops frequently opening fire on each other or conducting small-scale border raids that resulted in dozens of casualties on both sides additionally soviet russia had been a major source of military aid for chiang kai-shek's kuomintang offering the beleaguered government nearly 10 times the resources of other sympathetic powers such as the united states so great was stalin's hatred of the japanese that he was willing to overlook the kuomintang's mass slaughter of chinese communists so long as they continued to offer military resistance to their occupiers the only thing that kept the war from breaking out between the two powers was their preoccupation with other matters for the russians operation barbarossa posed a far greater existential threat to soviet power than even the millions of japanese troops stationed on the ussr's manchurian border the japanese were rabid anti-communists and logic dictated it was only a matter of time before the empire would strike for the japanese it was the ongoing war with america whose oil embargo threatened to the japanese economy and stall any further expansion into central asia and beyond thus the two natural enemies spent most of the war standing back to back unable to do more than glance threateningly over their shoulders at each other while they dealt with nazi expansion and allied resistance respectively the first signs of inevitable confrontation emerged in november 1943 at the tehran conference with the war now clearly turning in the favor of the allies joseph stalin formally pledged to turn his attention eastward as soon as germany was defeated by 1944 he had already appointed marshall alexander vasilevskiy as commander-in-chief of soviet forces in the far east and tasked the veteran staff officer with drawing up plans for an invasion of manchuria at the yalta conference in 1945 stalin reaffirmed his commitment to the war in the east while simultaneously managing to wrestle u.s president theodore roosevelt into agreeing with his plans to restore the territories lost by zarist russia during the russo-japanese war with his mission to avenge this black stain on russian honor granted international approval stalin headed back to moscow and demanded that the perpetually beleaguered soviet high command or stafka drag its attention away from the advance on berlin and confront the daunting task of invading 1.5 million square kilometers of virtually undeveloped wilderness on the opposite side of the country fortunately by this point stalin had accepted that competency in his officer corps was not the inevitable precursor to treason and marshall vasilevskiy quickly began putting together plans for an audacious multi-pronged assault vasilevskiy possessed a keen eye for logistics and operational planning and he quickly began assembling a force of hand-picked units known for their experience fighting in difficult terrain even as the third reich crumbled under an endless tide of soviet aggression the trans-siberian railroad was abuzz with frenzied activity dozens of locomotives ferrying tens of thousands of men into staging areas in the mongolian people's republic and primorsky administrative region vasilevskiy also understood the vital role that military intelligence would play in this enormous operation and carefully supervised the railroad deployments to confuse any japanese spies operating in the region while it was impossible to hide the build-up completely the stafka worked hard to downplay the sheer size of the force under the marshal's command mechanized divisions estewed railways whenever possible driving their vehicles directly to these staging areas by road instead of on the back of train cars while the trains themselves drove mainly at night or in harsh weather conditions where they were less likely to be spotted all told 40 full divisions over 750 000 men were transferred to the far east in just a few weeks combined with the 40 divisions already stationed on the borders of manchuria this amounted to 1.5 million men eager to see if they could make the rising sun set while the soviets were busy with their buildup events elsewhere in the world continued to move apace germany surrendered on may 8th while the war in the pacific reached the japanese home islands with the battle of okinawa imperial japan was fully on the defensive yet the allies had been stunned by the sheer ferocity of the imperial japanese army which resisted despite overwhelming odds though japan had offered repeatedly to negotiate their military government clung onto the idea of retaining their colonial empire and refused unconditional surrender determined to avoid the unspeakable bloodbath that would certainly result from an invasion of mainland japan the united states now prepared to deploy its ultimate weapon the atomic bomb astonishingly enough the nuclear firestorm that swept over japan had minimal impact on the invasion of manchuria the deadline for the attack had been set months before and though he was ostensibly still working with the western allies stalin cared very little about what happened to the home islands his goal was to gobble up as much territory and gain as much influence over the final outcome of the war in asia as possible just three days after hiroshima was reduced to ashes by the first ever atomic airstrike a soviet ambassador issued a formal declaration of war to his japanese counterpart precisely one hour and one minute later a million soviet troops thundered across the border into manchuria catching the imperial japanese army totally by surprise vasilevskiy's plan of attack was simple yet gigantic in scale his forces were divided across three fronts the trans-baiko front the first far eastern front and the second far eastern front together they formed a massive pincer movement that aimed to completely encircle japanese forces in the puppet state of manchukuo with one overwhelming charge although caught by surprise and substantially outgunned the japanese kuantang army stationed in manchuria had no intention of simply rolling over and giving up sources conflict on their exact size in 1945 but at a minimum general otozo yamada had 800 000 men under his command and could call up another few hundred thousand in reserve from manchukuo and mengjang the kuantang army was also considered an elite fighting force having spent years on campaign against the chinese and local insurrections unfortunately it had been all but bled dry by the demands of the pacific war with many of its veteran units siphoned off to fight against the united states during their island hopping campaigns given this unenviable situation the japanese had embraced the concept of defense in depth leaving the borders of manchuria lightly defended and concentrating their troops along strategic choke points and natural strongholds as a result of this approach the initial soviet charge was practically unopposed vasilevskiy had chosen his menwell and whole divisions were able to cross the difficult border terrain with ease on the trans-bagel front the sixth guard army penetrated through areas the japanese themselves had deemed impassable such as the greater king and mountain range further west a soviet mongolian cavalry mechanized corps charged straight into the puppet state of mengjang aiming to cross the vast mongolian desert and seize the trade city of calgon finally on the second far eastern front soviet forces pushed across the border and pinned the local japanese soldiers in place preventing them from withdrawing south to the capital city of changchun overall the advance was incredibly rapid exceeding soviet expectations with the first major obstacle only encountered when russian troops pressed into the halar district of inner mongolia after crossing the argonne river using amphibious vehicles the soviets found themselves engaged by a japanese division supported by a large force of manchurian cavalry though unable to halt the enemy advance the japanese quickly formed a strong pocket of resistance centered around the regional capital which housed a massive underground fortress built by chinese slave labor in 1937 as night fell the soviets launched an armored assault into the suburbs only to be driven back by hidden anti-tank guns and kamikaze troops who rushed their vehicles wielding explosive charges the sheer willingness of the japanese to engage superior forces with an utter disregard for their own lives was shocking to even men hardened by the eastern front and the decision was quickly made to besiege halar while the rest of the army continued advancing across the mountains 24 hours into the invasion soviet forces had made huge gains across the fronts leaving the quantum army in total chaos the sixth guard's army had sped over the greater kingdom mountains plunging into the central manchurian plains that held the majority of the population the japanese had barely organized a token resistance and many field commanders had lost contact with headquarters then the worst news of all arrived just a few hours after the soviet declaration of war the city of nagasaki had been erased from the earth by an atomic fireball even larger than the one which had engulfed hiroshima these two events crippled the ability of the japanese government to respond to the lightning assault ripping through manchuria between the 10th and the 12th of august the soviet advance continued well ahead of schedule with two significant exceptions on the first far eastern front two russian armies totaling nearly three hundred thousand men crashed into the fifty-five thousand strong japanese fifth army around the city of mutanchang though often described as the only set piece battle of the whole invasion the battle of mutan chang was in fact a desperate holding action fought while the bulk of the japanese far eastern forces retreated south japanese defenses were concentrated on a series of fortified hilltops which allowed them to pour artillery fire down on the advancing enemy columns heavy rain also bogged down russian tanks allowing them to be swamped by japanese suicide bombers casualties quickly mounted on both sides but the japanese continued to put up a frenzied resistance successfully stalling the russian advance for several days the second major holdup occurred when soviet troops assaulted the karafto line on the sachalin island which had been designated as a vital staging area for a potential future invasion of hokkaido though outnumbered almost four to one the 20 000 defenders were dug in and heavily fortified necessitating a series of amphibious assaults by the soviet navy to pry them loose from their static defenses unfortunately for the japanese army mutan chang and korofto were single strong points in a region undergoing rapid collapse back on the trans-bakel front the sixth guard army had been forced to halt between the 12th and 13th due to a lack of fuel but was now charging straight towards its main objectives at makdan and changchun the corps in mengjiang had also reached kalgen after hard fighting with local mongolian cavalry and would go on to dismantle the regime with minimal resistance over the next few weeks the far eastern fronts saw significant gains as well when an amphibious assault launched from vladivostok successfully captured the korean city of chongjin on the 13th however the most devastating blow to japanese morale came on the 14th when prince tsunyoshi takeda arrived in manchuria and demanded the imperial japanese army cease fire general yamada immediately countermanded this order causing a major split among his officer corps as men were torn between their loyalty to the emperor and determination to fight to the death the confusion only worsened a day later when emperor hirohito made a broadcast implying but never outright stating that a surrender was taking place all the while marshall vasilevskiy pushed his men onwards desperate to gobble up as much territory as possible before the japanese could officially capitulate on the 16th the soviets launched an all-out assault on mutanchon engaging the defenders in brutal room-to-room combat as masked katyusha rocket artillery systematically annihilated the remaining hill forts having been cut off from all communications for days the defenders stubbornly fought to the last man inflicting over 10 000 casualties on the russian aggressors before the city fell their sacrifice had been brave but it was ultimately a feudal gesture as the bulk of the japanese army would simply lay down its arms in accordance with the surrender only two days later on the 19th this was the same day the defenders of the massive fortress complex at halar surrendered having been whittled down to fewer than 4 000 men after a 10-day siege the only remaining strong point was the karafeto line whose defenders unanimously rejected the surrender order with their advance now proceeding more or less unopposed the soviets began to uncover some of the darker secrets of manchuria upon reaching the large city of harbin on the 20th the men of the first red banner army discovered the infamous unit 731 busily trying to destroy all evidence of its nightmarish biological weapons program they also discovered the mass graves of murdered chinese civilians and even japanese civilians who had been executed by the retreating iga in order to save them from the indignity of having to surrender but the soviets had very little mercy of their own and cities like chongqing and harbin were subjected to days of looting and burning although the official capitulation of the exhausted guantan army occurred on the 19th the soviets would continue offensive operations until early september when the train lines ran out they used trucks and horses when the supply depots were out of range they used air drops under vaselefsk's leadership the red army stretched its supply lines further than anyone had previously considered possible pushing from the borders of mongolia all the way to the korean peninsula in less than three weeks sakhalin island would fall on the 25th and a series of amphibious assaults on the curl islands would only end when japanese ambassadors arrived in soviet territory to declare unconditional surrender of the entire nation though modern historians continue to debate whether the atomic bombs or the invasion of manchuria contributed most to the japanese surrender the soviet contribution should not be underestimated by the time their offensive ended all of japan's mainland territories had been wiped out and over 2.7 million japanese citizens had been captured russian casualties have been heavily debated but a generally accepted figure is around 24 000. vasilevskiy's logistical genius had delivered stalin a victory that czarist russia could only have dreamed of restoring all of the territory lost in 1905 and granting russia unparalleled influence in asia this would have huge implications for the coming cold war [Music] thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this video if you'd like to be among the first 1000 viewers to benefit from a one month free trial of the best online learning platform available don't forget to sign up using the link in the description below [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 1,473,299

Keywords: invasion of manchuria, soviet-japanese war, the soviet invasion of japan

Id: Qiz-kVErOhk

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 04 2022