Chang Kufeng / Zhang Gufeng Incident Nuomenkan / Nomonhan Incident
The Imperial Japanese Army's takeover of Manchuria in 1931 brought Japanese and Soviet armed forces eyeball to eyeball along a 3,000-mile border. Numerous border skirmishes and disputes characterized the next several years as both sides reinforced their respective forces. In 1936 the Soviets signed a mutual assistance treaty with Outer Mongolia, and in January 1937 the Soviet High Command organized the 57th Special Rifle Corps consisting of the 36th Motorized Rifle Division, 6th Cavalry Brigade, 11th Tank Brigade, and 7th, Sth, and 9th Armored Car brigades. These units moved into Outer Mongolia in 1938.
In July 1938 and from May to August 1939, the Japanese army provoked two border conflicts against the Soviet Union, known as the Zhang Gufeng Incident [Chang Kufeng] and the Nuomenkan Incident [Nomonhan]. Geography, the combatants' compulsive secrecy, and the subsequent outbreak of World War II in September 1939 all combined to overshadow the most massive use of tanks theretofore recorded. The Soviets used over 1,000 tanks during the fighting and, under the command of General Georgi K. Zhukov, evidenced skill and sophistication at mechanized warfare. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), essentially an infantry force, fared poorly, and fell victim to a Soviet double envelopment.
An especially bloody affray at Changkufeng/Lake Khasan in 1938 resulted in over 2,500 casualties on both sides. It also seemed to stiffen Soviet resolve because the following year, Joseph Stalin, speaking before the Eighteenth Soviet Party Congress in March 1939, warned that any acts of aggression against the inviolable Soviet frontiers would be met by twice the force of any invader. Two months later, a handful of Soviet allied Outer Mongolian cavalry troops wandered into a disputed border area between the Halha River (Soviet name, Khalkhin Gol) and the tiny village of Nomonhan. The Japanese claimed that the boundary followed the river, but the Soviets maintained that it passed just east of the village of Nomonhan.
Throughout early August 1939, probing attacks and occasional battalion-sized assaults by the Soviets characterized the activity on the battleground. Soviet artillery gained superiority and daily pounded Japanese positions. At the same time General Zhukov built up his forces in preparation for a great Soviet offensive. The Soviets completed these preparations in complete secrecy, concealing the movement and disposition of their forces.
Faced with the drastically new situation in Europe, the antagonists at Nomonhan/Khalkhin Gol suspended major military operations. The tempo of diplomatic negotiations already underway between Japan and the Soviet Union quickened and the fighting diminished in early September 1939. A cease-fire was declared on 16 September 1939. Japanese losses in the four months of fighting were extremely heavy: over 17,000, including 8,440 killed and 8,766 wounded. Soviet casualties were given as 9,284 killed and wounded.
After occupying South Manchuria of China, Japan forced the USSR to retreat from North Manchuria. To avoid conflict, after obtaining some benefits, the USSR retreated to Siberia and China's Outer Mongolia. In April 1941 Japan realized one of its major diplomatic objectives with the conclusion of the Japanese-Soviet "Non-Aggression Pact." However, the outbreak of the Soviet-German war only two months later created an entirely new situation. The Konoye Cabinet resigned on 16 July, reassembling two days later under the same Premier but with Matsuoka, the architect of the Axis Pact, replaced as Foreign Minister by Admiral Teijiro Toyoda. The new cabinet was geared to rehabilitate relations with the United States, a course which conservative Navy elements had stoutly advocated. The Japan-USSR Neutrality Treaty of 1941 was an invitation to divide China's Manchuria and Mongolia.
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