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Manchukuo Imperial Army

The history of the armed forces of Manzhou-go began with the famous Mukden incident. On September 18, 1931, there was an explosion of the railway track of the South Manchurian Railway, the responsibility for guarding which was borne by the Japanese Kwantung Army. It is established that this explosion as a provocation was carried out by the Japanese officers themselves, however, was the reason for the beginning of the Kwantung army offensive on the Chinese positions. The weak and poorly trained Northeastern Army of China, commanded by General Zhang Xuelyang, was quickly demoralized. Part of the units retreated inland, but most of the soldiers and officers, numbering about 60 thousand people, came under the control of the Japanese. It was on the basis of the remnants of the Northeastern Army that the formation of the Manchu armed forces began after the creation in 1932. states of manchukuo Moreover, many divisions of the Chinese army were still commanded by old Manchu generals, who began serving in the Qing Empire and were carrying out revanchist plans to restore the former power of the Manchu state.

The immediate process of creating the Manchu imperial army was led by Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army. Already in 1933, the strength of the armed forces of Machukuo amounted to more than 110 thousand troops. They were divided into seven military groups stationed in seven provinces of Manzhou-go, cavalry units, the imperial guard. Representatives of all nationalities residing in Manchuria were recruited into the armed forces; however, some units, primarily the Imperial Guard Pu Yi, were staffed exclusively with ethnic Manchus.

It should be noted that the high fighting qualities of the Manchu army did not differ from the outset. This was due to several reasons. First, since the Manchu army became the basis of the surrendered units of the Chinese Northeastern Army, it inherited all the negative features of the latter, including low combat capability, lack of discipline, and poor preparedness. Secondly, many ethnic Chinese served in the Manchu army disloyally disposed towards the Manchu authorities, and especially the Japanese, and who had the slightest chance of deserting, or even going over to the side of the enemy. Third, the real "scourge" of the Manchu armed forces was the smoking of opium, which turned many soldiers and officers into consummate drug addicts. The low fighting qualities of the Manchu army were aggravated by the lack of normally trained officers, which led the imperial government and Japanese advisers to the need to reform the training of the officer corps. In 1934, it was decided to recruit officers of the Manchu imperial army solely at the expense of graduates of the Manchu military schools. In 1938, two Manchu military academies were opened in Mukden and Xinjing to train officers.

Another serious problem of the Manchu army for a long time remained the lack of a unified uniform. For the most part, soldiers and officers used the old Chinese uniform, which deprived them of their differences from the uniforms of the enemy and led to serious confusion. Only in 1934 it was decided to introduce uniforms based on the form of the Japanese imperial army. On May 12, 1937, the standard of uniforms of the Manchu imperial army was approved in accordance with the Japanese model. It imitated the Japanese army in many ways: in the presence of a leather inclined belt and a breast pocket, and in shoulder straps, and in a headdress, and in a pentagram cockade, the rays of which were painted in the colors of the state flag of Manzhou-go (black, white, yellow, blue-green, red). The colors of the military branches also copied the Japanese: red meant infantry units,

The following military ranks were established in the Manchu imperial army: Army General, Colonel General, Lieutenant General, Major General, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major, Captain, First Lieutenant, Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Warrant Officer, Senior Sergeant, Sergeant, First Sergeant , Acting Junior Sergeant, Private upper class, Private First Class, Private Second Class. In 1932, the army of Machukuo numbered 111,044 servicemen and included the army of the province of Fengtian (strength - 20,541 servicemen, composition - 7 mixed and 2 cavalry brigades); Xin'An Provincial Army (4,374 troops); Heilongjiang Provincial Army (strength - 25,162 troops, composition - 5 mixed and 3 cavalry brigades); Jilin Provincial Army (34,287 soldiers, 7 infantry and 2 cavalry brigades). Also in the Manchu army consisted of several separate cavalry brigades and auxiliary units.

In 1934, the structure of the Manchu army was reformed. It consisted of five district armies, each of which included two or three zones with two or three mixed brigades in each. In addition to the zones, the army could include operational forces represented by one to three cavalry brigades. The number of armed forces by this time totaled 72,329 troops. By 1944, the number of the Manchu imperial army was already 200 thousand people, and the composition included several infantry and cavalry divisions, including 10 infantry, 21 mixed and 6 cavalry brigades. The units of the Manchu army took part jointly with Japanese troops in the suppression of the actions of the Korean and Chinese partisans.

In 1941, Soviet intelligence, which conducted careful monitoring of the condition of the Japanese troops and the armed forces of their allies, reported on the following composition of the armed forces of Manchukuo: 21 mixed brigades, 6 infantry brigades, 5 cavalry brigades, 4 separate brigades, 1 Guards brigade, 2 cavalry divisions, 1 "division of calm", 9 separate cavalry regiments, 2 separate infantry regiments, 9 training detachments, 5 anti-aircraft artillery regiments, 3 squadrons. The number of servicemen was estimated at 105,710, light machine guns — 2039, heavy machine guns — 755, bomb and mortars — 232, 75 mm mountain and field guns — 142, anti-aircraft guns — 176, anti-tank guns — 56, airplanes — 50 (Intelligence report #4 (in the East). M .: RU GSH RKKA, 1941. p. 34).

An interesting page in the history of Manchukuo was the participation of Russian white émigrés and their children, who migrated to the territory of Manchuria after the defeat of whites in the Civil War very much, in the military-political activities of the Manchurian state. In 1942, all Russian men under 35 were involved in compulsory military training, and in 1944, the age of those involved in general military training was raised to 45 years. Every Sunday, Russian emigrants were taught military and fire training, in the summer months a short-term field camp was organized. At the initiative of the Harbin military mission in 1943, Russian military units were created with Russian officers at the head. The first infantry detachment was stationed at the Handaohedzy station, and the second cavalry detachment was stationed at the Sungari 2nd station.

All servicemen of the cavalry detachment at the Songhua 2nd station were registered as part of the armed forces of Manchuku, officer ranks were conferred by the Manchu military command. In total, in the detachment on Sungari, the 2nd managed to serve 4-4% of thousands of Russian immigrants. At the station Handaohedzy, where the detachment was commanded by Colonel Popov, trained 2,000 soldiers. It should be noted that the Russians were considered the fifth nation of Manchukuo and, accordingly, were supposed to carry the full conscription as citizens of this state.

The imperial guard of Manchukuo, completed exclusively by ethnic Manchus and deployed in Xinjin, close to the imperial palace of the head of state Pu I., remained a special elite division of the Manchu army. The Japanese imperial guard became the model for creating the imperial guard of Manchu. Manchurians recruited into the Guard were trained separately from other servicemen. Arms guards were firearms and edged weapons. Guardsmen wore gray and black uniforms, caps and helmets with a five-pointed star on the cockade. The number of guards was only 200 soldiers. In addition to the imperial guard, over time, the guard was given the function of modern special forces. She performed the so-called. Special Guard engaged in counterpartisan operations and the suppression of popular uprisings in the territory of the Manchu proper.

The Manchu imperial army was notable for its weak weaponry. At the beginning of its history, it was armed with almost 100% captured Chinese weapons, primarily rifles and pistols. By the mid-1930s, the ordering of the arsenal of the Manchurian armed forces began. First of all, large quantities of firearms arrived from Japan - first 50,000 cavalry rifles, then machine gun shipments. As a result, the Manchu army was armed with a Type-3 machine gun, a Type-11 light machine gun, a Type-10 mortar and a Type-38 rifle and a Type-39 rifle. The officer corps was also armed with Browning and Colt pistols, while the non-commissioned officers were equipped with Mausers. As for heavy weapons, the artillery of the Manchu army consisted of Japanese artillery guns - mountain 75-mm Type-41, field Type-38, as well as captured Chinese artillery. Artillery was the weak side of the Manchu army, and in the event of serious clashes, the latter would have to rely solely on the help of the Quantuans. As for the armored vehicles, for a long time it was almost absent. It was only in 1943 that the Kwantung Army transferred 10 Type 94 tankettes to the Manchus, as a result of which a tank company of the Manchurian imperial army was formed.

Manchu Sea and Air Fleet

As for the navy, in this area, Machukuo also did not have any serious power. As early as 1932, the Japanese leadership, given that Machukuo had access to the sea, attended to the problem of creating the Manchu imperial fleet. In February 1932, five military boats were received from Chinese admiral Yin Zu-Qiang, who formed the backbone of the river guard fleet patrolling the Sungari River. On April 15, 1932, the law “On the Armed Forces of Manchukuo” was passed. In accordance with it formed the imperial fleet of Machukuo. The Japanese handed over the High Wei destroyer to the Manchus as the flagship. In 1933, a batch of Japanese military boats was delivered, transferred to protect the rivers Sungari, Amur and Ussuri. The officers were trained at the Military Academy of the Imperial Navy in Japan. In November 1939 The fleet of the river guard of Manchukuo was officially renamed the Imperial fleet of Machukuo. Its commanding staff consisted partly of Japanese officers, since the Manchus lacked naval officers, and it was not always possible to prepare them at an accelerated pace. The Manchu imperial fleet did not play a significant role in the fighting and was completely destroyed during the Soviet-Japanese war.

The imperial fleet of Machukuo was structured into the following components: coastal defense forces consisting of the destroyer “High Wei” and 4 patrol divisions of combat boats, river defense forces consisting of 1 patrol division of patrol boats, the Imperial Marine Corps consisting of two detachments of 500 servicemen in each armed with machine guns and small arms. Marines were recruited from the Manchus and the Japanese and were used to carry out security service at the naval bases and in the ports.

The creation of the Imperial Air Force of Manchukuo was also associated with the initiative of the Japanese military command. As early as 1931, the national airline was created, which was supposed to be used in the event of war as a military organization. Later, 30 people who were trained in Harbin were enrolled in the Imperial Air Force. Three aviation units were formed. The first is in Changchun, the second is in Fengtian, the third is in Harbin. The aircraft was armed with Japanese aircraft. In 1940, the Air Defense Directorate of the Imperial Air Force was created.

In the period from 1932 to 1940, the manning of the Manchukuo air force was carried out exclusively by Japanese pilots. In 1940, training began piloting the military aircraft of ethnic Manchus. In the flight school of Manchuku, both military and civilian pilots were trained. On the balance of the school consisted of twenty educational Japanese aircraft. The imperial court used for its own purposes the air transport of three aircraft. The unpleasant story for the Japanese and Manchu command was connected with the flight school of the Manchu-do Air Force when in January 1941 about 100 pilots revolted and went over to the Chinese partisans, thus avenging the Japanese for killing their commander and instructor.

The Soviet-Japanese war was met by the Air Force of Manchukuo in the command of the 2nd Air Army of the Japanese Air Force. The total number of sorties of the Manchu pilots did not exceed 120. The headache of the Manchurian aviation was an insufficient number of aircraft, in particular, adequate to modern conditions. In many ways, this led to the rapid fiasco of the Manchu Air Force. Although they also had heroic pages associated with borrowing air tactics from the Japanese. So, the kamikaze was attacked by an American bomber. Kamikaze tactics were used against Soviet tanks.

The End

The state of Machukuo fell under the blows of the Soviet army, which defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army, as well as other puppet states created by the Axis countries. As a result of the Manchurian operation, 84 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers were killed, 15 thousand died from wounds and diseases, 600 thousand people were captured. These figures are many times greater than the losses of the Soviet Army, estimated at 12,000 troops. Both Japan and its satellites in the territory of present-day China - Manzhou-go and Mengjiang (a state in the territory of present-day Inner Mongolia) suffered a crushing defeat. The personnel of the Manchu armed forces partly perished, partly surrendered. The Japanese settlers who lived in Manchuria were interned.