Chapter 452: Not to be Trifled With

With a roar of “Attack!”, a new war began in the distant East. A group of short, yellow-uniformed Japanese soldiers with puttees wrapped around their legs arrayed themselves on the vast plains of Mongolia and opened the Battle of Nomonhan.

This was a war that Japan, as an Axis power, had long since agreed upon with Germany. According to their mutual commitment, Japan should have started this promised war half a month ago. However, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters had played a clever trick. They had delayed the war until today, because only today had they confirmed that Germany had secured a stable victory in the Battle of Britain. Just a few hours earlier, the new British government in Canada had announced the fall of the Churchill regime, which had been trapped in London.

Even between partners, the relationship between nations is a strange one. Every country is happy to add flowers to a brocade, but few are willing to offer charcoal in snowy weather. Not all countries are willing to bear the risks of choosing a side early. But once the outcome is certain and some countries are needed to kick a man while he’s down, the number of allies who will do the kicking multiplies overnight.

On the very day that Churchill was abandoned by the British government, Spain declared war on Britain and began the Gibraltar War. Franco mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to launch a fierce attack on the British territory of Gibraltar. Although they made no substantial progress due to the resistance of the British garrison, this atmosphere of “when a tree falls, the monkeys scatter” did indeed shake America’s resolve to enter the war.

Taking action against Germany was no longer a simple matter. Looking at the long list of countries in the Axis powers, President Roosevelt felt a bit disheartened: Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania, Spain, Vichy France, Ireland… and possibly Turkey and Finland as well. Although these countries, even when added together, did not seem particularly strong, enough ants can still bite an elephant to death.

Moreover, America’s potential allies were few and far between. In northern Britain, Chamberlain was fighting with the British Royal Family in Canada over the leadership of the legitimate Britain. In China, although the United States had been providing aid, Chairman Chiang had been secretly exchanging glances with the Germans. The Soviet Union had not yet officially entered the war, so its position was uncertain. De Gaulle’s Free French government-in-exile was a staunch supporter of an American declaration of war on Germany—but apart from their support, they didn’t even have a decent fighting force.

Thus, in a situation where the outcome was almost certain, the “Strike North” faction of the Japanese Army gained the upper hand. After a series of analyses, the Imperial General Headquarters decided to go all-in this time. The Japanese operational plan was split in two. What should have been a straightforward northern attack on the Soviet Union became a crazy gamble of striking both north and south simultaneously.

Following Spain’s declaration of war on Britain, Japan also prepared to declare war on Britain. The Japanese Navy would be responsible for covering the Japanese army’s attack on Hong Kong in the south and seizing Britain’s colonies in Southeast Asia. At the same time, the Japanese army in Vietnam would advance into Burma to attack the British forces there.

Of course, the Japanese Kwantung Army would mobilize a corps-sized force to attack Mongolia to the north and test the Soviet reaction. If the Soviet Union entered Outer Mongolia to fight the Japanese, the Japanese Army would do its utmost to crush the Red Army and relive the glory of the Russo-Japanese War.

This operational plan seemed outrageously arrogant, but it had its reasons from the perspective of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. After some discussion, they concluded that this plan was comprehensive and effective, a more efficient expansionist action that was fully in line with Japan’s future development strategy.

Why? Because the Japanese Army believed that the Soviet Red Army was a pushover, and they were confident of defeating the Soviet Far East Army. This confidence stemmed from several sources, such as the Russo-Japanese War, which had marked Japan’s official rise; the poor performance of the Red Army in the Winter War against Finland; and the disgraceful state of the Soviet army in the two Polish-Soviet Wars.

Therefore, the Japanese high command believed that this probing attack on the Soviet Union would most likely play out like this: the Imperial Japanese Army would enter Outer Mongolia, the Red Army would be forced to engage, Japan would win a great victory, and then they would pursue the retreating enemy. Outer Mongolia would fall into Japan’s hands, and places like Vladivostok would become Japanese territory.

Since they were so optimistic, the idle navy and the army in the south couldn’t just sit around, could they? They had to find something to do. So, the Japanese Navy, which was always at odds with the Army, took the opportunity to propose its own “grand strategy”—you Army guys want to go north and kick the Soviets? Well, we Navy guys will go south and kick the asses of Britain and America! You mess with the Soviets, I’ll punch America! We absolutely cannot let the Navy lose face, and we absolutely cannot be outshone by the Army!

So in Japan’s “Strike South” strategy, attacking Hong Kong, invading Singapore, and assaulting Burma were just appetizers. The true obsession hidden in the hearts of the Japanese Navy was to conquer the Philippines, slash through Malaysia, stomp on Australia, and虐待America. Your little Italy only has so much ambition, you’re satisfied with just turning the Mediterranean into an inner lake of the Roman Empire? Look at our great Imperial Japanese Navy, we’re going to turn the entire Pacific Ocean into our Emperor’s bathtub!

It’s hard to say where the Army’s blind optimism came from, but over ninety percent of Japanese soldiers believed that the Red Army was a pushover. Over seventy percent of Japanese commanders, with no knowledge of the Red Army’s situation, confidently declared that one Japanese division could defeat three Soviet divisions.

So, on March 15th, two divisions of the Kwantung Army, the 23rd and the 7th, marched in grand style to the Mongolian-Chinese border and raised the curtain on the Russo-Japanese Battle of Nomonhan.

“General Komatsubara, it seems the Japanese Army is determined to win this time. May I ask how confident you are in this operation?” a war correspondent asked, holding his notebook, as he stood on a slope watching the 23rd Division snake its way forward. The man he was addressing was the supreme commander of the Japanese front, Lieutenant General Michitarō Komatsubara.

This General Komatsubara was the military attaché at the Japanese embassy in the Soviet Union and a Soviet expert in the Japanese army. His appointment as the overall commander of this offensive was well-deserved.

Komatsubara stood with his hands behind his back, his long Japanese sword hanging by his leg, looking quite the general. For this battle, the Kwantung Army had thrown in everything it had, preparing a full three divisions: the 1st Tank Division, the 7th Division, and the 23rd Division. If he still couldn’t win, Komatsubara would probably have to commit seppuku.

Based on his earlier observations of the Red Army, while he couldn’t blindly say that one Japanese division was equal to three Soviet ones, he felt that three Japanese divisions against three or four Soviet divisions was a very safe bet. So, Komatsubara smiled at the Japanese reporter and said, “There is no such thing as a certain victory in war, but this time, Japan will not lose!”

“Ah, General, then I congratulate the great Imperial Japanese Army on its victory in advance,” the reporter naturally took the cue, quickly jotting down the general’s words and offering his own flattery.

On March 16th, the Japanese frontline reconnaissance units made first contact with the Red Army. The two sides immediately committed forces and engaged in a fierce battle. Komatsubara assigned the main front to his 23rd Division and ordered the 7th Division and the 1st Tank Division to launch a flanking attack to the north, to cut off and isolate the Soviet forces facing the 23rd.

On the morning of the 17th, the Red Army was routed. Telegrams reporting the Japanese Army’s victory flew to Tokyo like snowflakes. The most outrageous one claimed to have “killed 5,000 Red Army soldiers, achieving an unprecedented victory.” However, Komatsubara’s own telegram denied this exaggerated result. He truthfully reported the day’s outcome: the Soviet forces were routed, 270 Soviet soldiers were killed, and 4 were captured.

This victory enraged Moscow. A furious Stalin replaced the frontline commander of the Soviet Far East Red Army and handed over command to one of the few sensible men left in the Soviet high command: Zhukov. The moment he took office, Zhukov redeployed his forces and expanded the scale of the battle. The Soviet Far East command committed more troops, and the Battle of Nomonhan erupted in full force.

Large numbers of Soviet armored units entered the battlefield and immediately demonstrated a power that terrified the Japanese. The Soviet armored forces were semi-apprentices who had been虐待d by German tanks in Poland. Against the few “antique” tanks of the Japanese Army, it was like using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken. The Japanese tank forces were instantly taught a lesson in humility.

The Soviet T-26 tank, which had been beaten black and blue by the German Panther, was already much better than the Japanese tanks. After a series of improvements that strengthened its frontal armor, it became the nemesis of the Japanese tanks. The Russian tankers finally got to experience what it felt like to be on the other side of the slaughter they had endured from the Germans, with some setting glorious records of one of their tanks destroying several Japanese ones.

A T-26 tank, knocked out by the Japanese due to a mechanical failure, was transported back to Shenyang with great difficulty and was immediately hailed as a divine artifact by the Japanese tank designers who came to observe it.

One designer, stroking the T-26’s armor, which was as fragile as cardboard in front of a German tank gun, couldn’t help but exclaim, “The thickness of this tank’s armor is very much worth our study and emulation in Japan.”

Of course, emulation was one thing, but the Battle of Nomonhan had to continue. However, just as in the other timeline, the Japanese army was beaten soundly by the Zhukov-led Red Army and retreated miserably back to where they started. The situation became so bad that even the “emperor” of the puppet state of Manchukuo, Puyi, learned that the Soviet artillery was so formidable that even the Japanese couldn’t afford to mess with them.

The result of the battle was exactly as Akado had predicted. Japan lost over 5,000 men and retreated back into China in disarray. Zhukov had fought a bit better than expected; the Soviets had also lost about 5,000 men. The Japanese Army, its face swollen from the slapping, never mentioned striking north again. And the Soviets temporarily postponed their planned attack on Germany. Stalin and the high command in Moscow shifted more of their attention to the Far East.

Published: 2025-08-26T05:05:58.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-14T10:57:48.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c452-not-to-137361466

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