HCB Chapter 790: Dispatching Troops to the Northeast
Chapter 790: Dispatching Troops to the Northeast
Since the end of 1944, the Soviet army has begun to consciously concentrate weapons, ammunition and other supplies in the Far East.
Between December 1, 1944 and April 1, 1945, the Soviet army transported a total of 4,640 mortars, 2,200 artillery pieces, more than 41 million rounds of ammunition, 3.2 million artillery shells and other weapons and ammunition to the Far East.
After Germany announced its surrender on May 8, 1945, of the three former Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan, only Japan was still lingering on. At this time, the Japanese government was still advocating the so-called slogan "When the Japanese army fights the enemy on its own land, the day of national salvation will come", and was prepared to rely on China's Northeast and North China, combined with the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese mainland, to fight a desperate battle.
In order to urge the Japanese government to surrender as soon as possible to end the war and to formulate policies for dealing with post-war Japan, the heads of the United States, England and the Soviet Union held another meeting in Potsdam, southwest of the German capital Berlin, in July 1945.
On July 26, 1945, the conference issued the Potsdam Declaration in the name of China, the United States and England, proposing seven conditions for the Allies to establish peace and stop the war with Japan, advising Japan to surrender unconditionally and warning Japan that if it did not surrender, the Allies "will deal a final blow to Japan until the Japanese government stops resisting."
However, just two days after the release of the Potsdam Declaration, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki issued a statement saying, "The Japanese government does not believe that the Potsdam Declaration has any significant value and can only ignore it. We have no choice but to fight the war to the end."
The Japanese government made this decision in order to delay the war, hoping that the Allies would collapse due to their own conflicts, thus avoiding unconditional surrender.
However, the reality did not develop as the Japanese government wished. Although there were indeed contradictions among the Allies, especially the irreconcilable differences between the United States and the Soviet Union on how to establish a new world order after the war, these contradictions made the newly elected President Du of the United States determined to use the atomic bomb.
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. Air Force dropped an atomic bomb called "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. As the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, the Soviet leaders finally decided on the date for the Soviet army to go to war with the Japanese army.
At dusk on August 8, 1945, along the thousands-kilometer-long border that surrounded China's northeast region, 1.58 million Soviet troops had all entered their offensive starting positions.
At the same time, in the reception room of the Kremlin in Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov read out the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan to Japanese Ambassador to the Soviet Union Sato Naotake. The declaration of war formally announced: "In view of Japan's refusal to surrender to the advice of the Allies, the Soviet government participates in the war against Japanese aggression. From tomorrow, August 9, the Soviet Union will consider itself to be in a state of war with Japan." At this point, the Soviet Union officially declared war on the Japanese government.
On August 9, 1945, the Soviet First Far Eastern Front, the Soviet Second Far Eastern Front and the Soviet Trans-Baikal Front, and the 1.58 million Soviet officers and soldiers of the Soviet Pacific Fleet and the Heilongjiang Fleet, commanded by Marshal Vasilevsky, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Far East Army, invaded China's Northeast region in three directions under the cover of 26,000 artillery and mortars, 5,500 tanks and self-propelled artillery, more than 5,300 aircraft and more than 670 naval ships, and launched a full-scale offensive against the puppet regime of Manchukuo supported by the Japanese Kwantung Army.
The Soviet army's attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army in Northeast China can be divided into three phases.
The first stage was from August 9 to August 14, 1945. During this period, according to the combat plan, the Soviet army's various attack forces crossed the deserts, mountains, rivers and other obstacles along the border, eliminated or besieged the Japanese garrisons on the border, and then the Soviet army attacked to the central plains of Northeast China, forcing the Japanese government to declare unconditional surrender.
The second stage was from August 15 to August 17, 1945. After the Japanese government announced its surrender, the Japanese Kwantung Army in Northeast China still did not give up resistance. The Soviet army continued to attack the Japanese Kwantung Army, expanded the results of the battle, and successfully captured the important town of Mudanjiang.
The third stage was from August 18 to September 2, 1945, when the Japanese Kwantung Army ceased resistance, and the Soviet army, using airborne troops and advance detachments of mechanized rapid forces, seized large and medium-sized cities in Northeast China and accepted the surrender of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
On September 3, 1945, the Far East Soviet Army Headquarters, led by Marshal Vasilevsky, entered Changchun City, Jilin Province, China. Thus, the Soviet army's attack and occupation plan of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Northeast China was successfully completed.
The entire Soviet offensive in China's northeast region lasted only 24 days, of which the combat operations between the Soviet Army and the Japanese Kwantung Army lasted less than ten days. It ended with a great victory for the Soviet Army.
The Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan and its massive military attack on China's northeast region also left the already desperate Japanese government with nowhere to go.
Moreover, at 29 o'clock in the evening on August , , the U.S. Air Force loaded an atomic bomb named "Fat Man" into the bomb bay of a B- heavy bomber. This atomic bomb was a plutonium bomb. Compared with the uranium bomb named "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima, the plutonium bomb named "Fat Man" was more complex in structure and more powerful.
On August 509, , when the Soviet army officially began its offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army in Northeast China, the mission of the second airdrop of the atomic bomb fell on the Sweeney crew of the th Mixed Brigade of the United States.
Sweeney's crew once flew the B-29 heavy bomber "Master of Arts" as an observation aircraft to observe the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Since the "Master of Arts" B-29 heavy bomber still retained scientific instruments for observing the atomic bomb explosion, it would be used as an observation aircraft again. Therefore, Sweeney's crew had to use another B-29 heavy bomber "Bock's Car" as the carrier of the atomic bomb.
At 29: in the morning on August , , the B- heavy bomber "Bock's Chariot" took off from Tinian Airport carrying the atomic bomb named "Fat Man" and flew towards the Japanese mainland.