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. Whole-heartedly believing
their leader’s ridiculous ideas of entho-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, Ghengis Khan.
Early in the morning of September 18th 1931, Japanese artillery shells started raining down
onto a unit of Chinese conscripts in Mukden — now Shenyang — in Manchuria. The attack was organised
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 Kwantung 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 Czar’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 Mongolian
People’s Revolutionary Army, a predominantly cavalry force of rugged partisans and nomads.
By Mid-1935, the Kwantung 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 Kwantung Army militarised 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
Mosin-Nagant rifles and Degtyaryov 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 Ghengis 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 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 supplies to pacify the lawless borderlands. As time wore on,
each side was bringing more and more soldiers to each fight, 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 Khalkhyn 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 11th 1936, 100 Mongolian Cavalrymen
and six Soviet advisors attacked the border village of Tauran. They quickly overpowered
the Japanese-allied defenders, but word of 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 armour before they were forced to retreat,
leaving behind over a quarter of their initial force dead. The Japanese re-took
Tauran, and the Mongolians learnt a valuable lesson: Don’t bring a sword to a tank fight.
Next time, it would be different.
On May 11th 1939, a Mongolian cavalry force of around 80 horsemen crossed the Khalkha 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
Khalkhin-Gol. 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 armoured cars, 600 artillery pieces, and
580 warplanes. In charge of this immense force was an up-and-coming staff officer who was beginning
to show some serious strategic skill, Corps Commander Zhukov. His second-in-command was
Corps Commissar Lkhagvasuren 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 planners in Tokyo wanted to wait until
the Kwantung 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 detachment consisted of three-and-a-half infantry regiments and
aimed to take Baintsagan Hill on the river’s west bank. The second detachment consisted of all the
Japanese tanks and had no infantry support. They aimed to smash through Soviet defences
and swing round 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 Baintsagan Hill. But then things fell apart. Zhukov immediately
realised what the Japanese were trying to do and counterattacked with tanks and armoured 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 armour,
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 crack troops would be no use confined to the Mongolian steppe.
On August 20th, Zhukov launched his final offensive. He motorised 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 gotta 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 Kwantung 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 Kwantung Army was broken, never to recover from their losses at Khalkhin-Gol.
THAT was the story of 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 mechanised assault had failed? And,
given more time, do YOU think the Soviets could have taken Manchuria? Let us know in the comments!