Why the Japanese Army NEVER Recovered After Underestimating Mongolian Horsemen

between 1932 and 1939 the soviet union was at war the imperial japanese army had set up shop in manchuria and was making repeated forays into soviet allied mongolia wholeheartedly believing their leader's ridiculous ideas of ethno-racial superiority the japanese army thought invading the region would be a piece of cake what they didn't count on was their adversary the nomadic mongolian horsemen putting up a fight worthy of their great forefather genghis khan [Music] early in the morning of september 18 1931 japanese artillery shells started raining down onto a unit of chinese conscripts in maktin now shenyang in manchuria the attack was organized by two imperial japanese army colonels acting on their own without orders from their superiors the attack was successful and kicked off a chain reaction among the other japanese forces in manchuria the largest force the quantum army launched a major campaign that eventually led to the complete capture of manchuria by japan the politicians back home were outraged but what could they do their government could only remain in power with the support of the army and unpopular japanese leaders had a habit of getting assassinated in the 1930s too but why did the colonels take such a sensational risk resources they knew northern china mongolia and siberia were rich in the mineral resources that japan lacked and the only solution they could see was invasion over in moscow stalin was worried russia's historic defeat in the russo-japanese war less than 30 years earlier had been a serious factor in toppling the tsar's regime by the 1930s the bolsheviks were finally consolidating their power and another defeat at the hands of japan would certainly throw a spanner in the works quietly stalin sent red army units to the far east these units were ordered to bolster the newly formed mongolians people's revolutionary army a predominantly cavalry force of rugged partisans and nomads by mid-1935 the kuansung army had consolidated its hold in manchuria but its leaders weren't content with what they had they were looking north and the mongols were staring right back at them the same day the quantum army militarized the border between manchuria and mongolia skirmishes began the japanese were preparing to expand their territory north and launched many small probing attacks to test mongolian strength and resolve the mongolians on the other hand weren't used to petty borders separating them from traditional grazing lands or fishing spots the fact that the japanese hated them crossing the border to reach these areas only made the proud horsemen do it more on one occasion japanese soldiers masquerading as surveyors crossed into mongolia to scope out the enemy and the landscape they were equipped with rifles and several machine guns which was rare in this early stage of the war a mongolian scout spied the japanese from a hill and reported it to his commander before the japanese could get their tripods out mongolian cavalry came charging over the hills they were armed with russian-made mohsen nagant rifles and degtriov light machine guns but in this sort of fight their traditional curved swords were most effective their short stocky and incredibly rugged horses were genetically identical to those ridden by the hordes of genghis khan and as it turned out they worked just as well against the japanese the survey party was annihilated and their bodies taken back to the japanese side of the border this was considered a sign of respect and became common practice after mongolian victories and after some soviet ones too on another occasion the mongolian crew of a soviet steamboat stole a large supply of fishing equipment from a japanese depot near the border unwilling to provoke stalin japanese diplomats only issued low-level complaints to the soviet embassy the soviet response was as sarcastic as it was unambiguous the japanese could avoid such difficulties if they returned to japan naturally this didn't go down all that well and japanese high ups began sending constraint requests to their government for more men and suppliers to pacify the lawless borderlands as time wore on each side was bringing more and more soldiers to each flight and they were better and better armed among the hundreds of small-scale skirmishes fought along the border before 1938 were a handful of serious engagements one of these was the battle of kalkan temple fought on january 8th 1935 100 mongolian cavalrymen ambushed a japanese army column they managed to kill 11 soldiers but took horrendous casualties from a well-positioned machine gun nest 23 mongolians including the commander were killed the surviving horsemen fought so hard that the japanese broke and ran abandoning their position the japanese lost serious respect in the eyes of the mongolian and soviet forces but they quickly saw a way to gain it back on march 11 1936 100 mongolian cavalry men and six soviet advisers attacked the border village of tauron they quickly overpowered the japanese allied defenders but what if the attack managed to get out later that day over 400 imperial japanese army troops along with manchurian volunteers arrived with armoured support and several squadrons of aircraft their goal was to retake the village at all costs overnight the japanese aircraft flew bombing run after bombing run in an effort to soften up the defenders many horses were killed and this seriously hampered the mongolian's mobility in the morning the japanese advanced with tanks supported by infantry the mongolians had some light machine guns but virtually no anti-tank weapons they did minimal damage to the japanese armor before they were forced to retreat leaving behind over a quarter of their initial force dead the japanese retook tolran and the mongolians learnt a valuable lesson don't bring a sword to a tank fight next time it would be different on may 11 1939 a mongolian cavalry force of around 80 horsemen crossed into the kalka river to graze their horses a japanese allied manchurian cavalry unit surprised the mongolians and pushed them back over the river two days later the mongolians came back with another hundred horsemen and this time defeated the manchurians fed up with their underlings failures the imperial japanese army decided to take matters into their own hands on may 14th two regiments of infantry attacked the mongolians forcing them to withdraw but two weeks later they came back and this time they had several soviet regiments with them together the mongolians and soviets surrounded the japanese and utterly destroyed them both sides knew the campaign's decisive battle was approaching and brought massive reinforcements to kalkan goal on the japanese side were 30 000 soldiers 92 tanks and tankettes 300 artillery pieces and 200 warplanes the soviets had moved in over 61 000 soldiers 2 000 mongolian cavalrymen 500 tanks 400 armored cars 600 artillery pieces and 580 warplanes in charge of this immense force was an up-and-coming staff officer who is beginning to show some serious strategic skill core commander zhukov his second in command was core kamissar lakvusaren of the mongolian people's revolutionary army it took a month for the japanese commander to receive permission to attack which uncharacteristically he waited for the planters in tokyo wanted to wait until the kuantung army had massed even more troops but they also knew that every day they waited more enemy soldiers arrived on trains from moscow two japanese detachments broke off from the main army and attacked on the night of july 2nd 1939 the first attachment consisted of three and a half infantry regiments and aimed to take bunser gun hill on the river's west bank the second attachment consisted of all the japanese tanks and had no infantry support they aimed to smash through soviet defenses and swing around to link up with the infantry thereby encircling the soviets the first part of the plan worked fine with the japanese infantry pushing the soviets off bansagan hill but then things fell apart zhukov immediately realized what the japanese were trying to do and counter-attacked with tanks and armored cars the japanese infantry would have been fully encircled had they not beat a hasty retreat over the river on their flank soviet infantry and artillery smashed the japanese armor which without infantry support was nearly totally destroyed in the subsequent few weeks both sides dug in the soviets had suffered far more casualties than the japanese but they were far more easily replaced the japanese on the other hand were facing critical supply shortages zhukov may have been content to wait the japanese out but stalin wasn't war in europe was looming and the ussr's cracked troops would be no use confined to the mongolian step on august 20th zhukov launched his final offensive he motorized two full infantry divisions with supply trucks and paired them with two mongolian cavalry divisions and two tank divisions the resultant force was highly mobile and packed a heavy punch but it was a gamble if zhukov's assault failed he would lose his trucks and his army would very rapidly run out of food and ammunition but sometimes you've got to take a gamble to win big and that's exactly what happened here the soviet assault quickly encircled the japanese 23rd division and pushed all other japanese elements out of mongolia the kuan sung army tried again and again to break through and relieve their comrades but to no avail the soviets bombarded the encircled 23rd division until it was virtually wiped out the japanese were pushed from mongolia and the kwan tsung army was broken never to recover from their losses at kalkan gul that was the story of the mongolian cavalrymen of the second world war and their bitter fight against the japanese but what do you think why do you think the japanese kept provoking the mongolians early on what do you think would have happened if zhukov's mechanized assault had failed and given more time do you think the soviets could have taken manchuria let us know all that and more in the comment section below and as always guys thank you so much for watching and i hope you learned something new [Music] you

Channel: The Front

Views: 370,485

Keywords: World War II, WWII, World War 2, WW2, Second World War, China, Japan, Mongolia, cavalry, horsemen, sword, Russia, USSR, Soviet, Manchuria, Kwantung Army, Khalkhin-Gol, MPRA, Zhukov, military history, kings and generals, world war 2

Id: MIperoG1pl8

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021