“We are facing an exceptionally strong ‘enemy'”

On August 9, 1945, Soviet troops crossed the border of the state of Manchukuo, formed by Japan in China. In the following days, the operational reports of the Sovinformburo stated that the Japanese units were putting up strong resistance. But it was not mentioned that the inevitable defeat of the Kwantung Army was no less strongly opposed by the usual weather in the Far East.

From the memoirs of Lieutenant General K. F. Kalashnikov, in August 1945 – head of the Political Directorate of the 1st Far Eastern Front.

… Against the Kwantung Army, the offensive was carried out in three directions by the forces of the troops of three fronts. The main blows in this strategic operation were delivered by the troops of the Trans-Baikal Front from the territory of the Mongolian People’s Republic to the southeast and the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front from the territory of Soviet Primorye to the west … At the same time, the 2nd Far Eastern Front advanced in the Sungarian and Zhaohe directions. Thus, the main grouping of troops of the Kwantung Army was cut into parts, which should have accelerated its defeat.

The 1st Far Eastern Front dealt the main blow with the forces of the 5th and 1st Red Banner armies (as in the text.— “Story”)…

That night I (from August 8 to August 9, 1945.— “Story”) was at an auxiliary control post in the forest, near Grodekovo. Just a few kilometers from here is the Pogranichnaya station. There are the Japanese. Marshal Meretskov went to the command post to Beloborodov. Came back at midnight. It was noticeable that the commander was very concerned. Kirill Afanasyevich explained what was the matter. It was planned, as in the Berlin operation, to start the offensive at night with searchlights. But suddenly a downpour broke out – the searchlights would not give anything. And the gunners, because of the rain and fog, will not see the targets, which means they will hit at random. Such artillery preparation is of little use. Meanwhile, the time of the offensive was drawing near…

From the memoirs of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General A.P. Beloborodov, in August 1945 – commander of the 1st Red Banner Army of the 1st Far Eastern Front.

… The day of August 8 was hot, stuffy and unusually long. All preparations have been completed, the troops have been moved to their starting areas for the offensive, the artillery has taken up firing positions. In the morning, our task force occupied an army observation post on Metla Hill, 300 meters from the border marker. The air is motionless – not a breeze, not even a slight breath …

For about five minutes the rain fell somehow reluctantly, in large drops, pounding on the parapet of the dugout and on the rolls. Then it poured heavily. Bad story. We are familiar with these Far Eastern rains – the product of the eastern, Pacific winds. They bring down so much water on the taiga that they overflow the beds of rivers, streams and rivers. The summer flood, characteristic of the Far East, begins, when dirt roads, and sometimes highways, are covered with a rapidly rushing stream. I look at the clock: midnight. I wait another ten minutes, the rain is getting stronger. We must report to the commander of the front. I contacted him by phone and explained the weather situation. Advance or postpone until the morning? “Advance!” he answered briefly…

At one in the morning on August 9, the troops of the 1st Red Banner Army, under heavy rain, with continuous flashes of lightning discharges, crossed the border and moved along seven routes through the taiga to the west and northwest.

… Together with the scouts, groups of sappers crossed the border. They were formed and equipped in accordance with the task of each of them. Seven groups conducted engineering reconnaissance of column routes through the mountain taiga, chose routes for rifle regiments. It’s easy to say: choose! Imagine for a moment: pitch darkness, pouring rain, steep slippery slopes interspersed with swamps, around a forest littered with windbreak and intertwined with lianas, of course, there are no landmarks, except for a magnetized compass needle. The angle between the arrow and the sight indicates only the general direction, which somewhere, 18–20 km away, should lead this rifle regiment to the road. And here, right in front of the reconnaissance sappers, there is a stream bed. On the map, it is marked with a barely noticeable blue line, and in nature, neither horse nor foot, not to mention wheeled vehicles, can pass this swampy pad. And sappers in complete darkness, where you can only distinguish someone walking ahead with a flash of lightning, enter the swamp, get bogged down in it, get out of there, and this is repeated many times until they find a suitable ford or detour and, cutting down large trees, mark one and a half – two kilometers of the future column track …

From the memoirs of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant-General V.R. Boyko, in August 1945 – a member of the Military Council of the 39th Army of the Trans-Baikal Front.

… In the offensive zone of the Trans-Baikal Front, the Bolshoy Khingan ridge, stretching along the meridian from north to south for 1,400 kilometers and up to 300 kilometers wide, first of all attracted attention; on the way to the Central Manchurian Plain, as they say, it was impossible to either bypass or bypass it.

The central part of the ridge was considered especially difficult for the movement of troops, and it was here that the main forces of the front, including the 39th Army, had to break through to the plain.

In the offensive zone of the army, the ridge is treeless, but the slopes of the mountains and hollows are covered with grasses, often the height of a man, and are also swampy, dissected by rivers and streams. The largest of the rivers are Khalkhin-Gol and Taoerkhe. The Khalkhin-Gol River, known from the battles of 1939, is more full-flowing – its width is 20-50 meters, its depth is 1.5-2 meters; the banks are overgrown with reeds and willows, steep in places, often swampy. The Taoerkhe, a tributary of the Songhua, in the Greater Khingan region is narrow – up to 15 meters, but gradually expands and near the city of Wangyemyao becomes a serious obstacle to the troops. It was also necessary to take into account the fact that summer rains, the season of which falls at the end of July – August, turn even small streams and streams into turbulent streams, and swamps into lakes. At this time, all dirt roads also get wet, becoming impassable, and there were practically no highways in our offensive zone …

From the memoirs of Major General M. A. Voloshin, in August 1945 – head of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 39th Army of the Trans-Baikal Front.

… Having occupied Solun and Vanemyao, the 39th Army completed its task ahead of schedule. But this did not give us the right to respite. Having reached the plains of Central Manchuria, the formations continued to move rapidly in a southeasterly direction. And here we were faced with an exceptionally strong “enemy” – the monsoon rains fell upon us. Those who have not seen them can hardly understand what they are.

Try to imagine a wall of water. Yes, it is a wall that hides from your eyes everything that is at a distance of more than 50-100 meters. Trees, bushes, small Chinese fanzas were just visible. But then the rain poured down – and everything was hidden. Within a few minutes, the streams, which, as they say, even a chicken will ford, turn into turbulent streams, sweeping away everything in their path. Wooden bridges and wicker fences are crumbling. Cars running along a dry road suddenly find themselves in water up to the wheel hubs, or even up to the very body. In a word, it seems that somewhere in the sky all the pipes of a giant water pipe burst at once. I just did not imagine that such an amount of precipitation could fall at the same time …

The roads have turned into a mess. Even those of them that were paved, practically became unusable for the advancement of troops. Water washed away the soil from under the hard surface, and the asphalt fell through in huge chunks. But the soldiers did not lose heart. Sometimes I happened to meet whole groups of fighters who walked barefoot, throwing boots tied with laces over their shoulders.

The connection between the army headquarters and the advancing units deteriorated sharply. Wire lines were broken, messengers with reports got stuck on the way. The Po-2 light aircraft that we had at our disposal, with great difficulty, found micro-sites that could somehow be used for landing and take-off. Nevertheless, Soviet soldiers, overcoming all obstacles, persistently moved forward …

Publication by Evgeny Zhirnov