May 22, 2006 May 22, 2006
I remember very well the night from 8th to 9th of the August. We, scouts, got an order to cross the border as first, to define enemy fire points, and to capture a POW if it was possible. Before that time we secretly watched the enemy for a long time - Japanese patrols went along the border line routinely, they also had frontier posts and observing posts. But at the night of August, 9th, when our offensive had began, we didn't meet any resistance - we met some first enemy patrols only a few hours later, it was already at morning. And the first serious combat we had when we went 120 km inside enemy territory - the Japanese had regained consciousness in some scale and sent a school of junior commanders against us - it looks as it was their last reserve. Everything looked like we were not waited there and we had taken the enemy by surprise. At least, the resistance in our direction was much less than in the direction of the advance of the neighbouring 36th Army which assaulted Khalun-Arshan Fortified Region or of the 1st Far-Eastern Front where the samurais defended the city of Mudantsian up to the last soldier. But for us the main enemy were not the Japanese but the nature - the Japanese had no large forces there as they supposed the mountains of the Grand Khingan as impassable for heavy equipment, practically unassailable.
Really, both the climate and the landscape were against us - we had to make a 500-kms rush through waterless semi-desert and then through wide mountain ridge which had no any road including country ones. And you can believe or not to believe but domestic equipment showed itself better than Western one. I even do not speak about tanks. To the point, it were not only outstanding T-34s which showed itself excellently but also BTs which were considered archaic for a long time: BTs were not used in the Soviet-German Front for a long time but out Far-Eastern troops still had a lot of BTs and they showed themselves as excellent tanks - speedy, simple, reliable. But in the desert and mountain conditions even Soviet automobiles excelled greatly praised Western equipment in some questions. Those "Studebeckers" and "Dodges" which our troops had in large amount were excellent trucks but they had a disadvantage - they were too wide and couldn't move along narrow mountain paths. Also, the height of the Grand Khingan was 2000 meters over a sea level but the American trucks were air-cooled and often became deaf in those mountains. But our trucks didn't become deaf. But, of course, our infantry and motorized infantry often had to pull and to push trucks with their shoulders.
It became especially difficult when rains had began - an August is a rainy season in Manchuria. We never saw something like that in Russia: the rain was a day and a night, and it continued for weeks and if it stopped on short time the humidity of the air was so high that it sensed like it was possible to choke by the air.
All the roads turned into mud area; slush covered our feet up to knees; it was slippery and we went down from the Grand Khingan like from an ice-run. And here samurais began to ambush us. It was difficult, it was very difficult. But when we had crossed through passes of the Grand Khingan and had shot forward in Manchurian Plain it was a victory: we were in deep rears of the Japanese troops. The Japanese didn't suppose that we would be there, at least they didn't suppose that we would be there so quickly, and they were not able to do anything, it was impossible to stop us in that moment. In the spite of what the Japanese speak now [it is about current time - remark of Andrey] their surrender was forced and not voluntary: even if their Mikado [Japanese Emperor - remark of Andrey] didn't order to surrender, even if he ordered to his citizens to fight up to the last soldier their resistance couldn't change anything - Quantung Army was doomed.
We had finished the war in Port Arthur. Oh, how we strived eagerly there, how we wanted to set scores with samurais for our defeat in the first Russian-Japanese War [In 1904-1905 Port Arthur was a powerful Russian Naval Base of Russian Navy and a fortress. That war had began after a Japanese sudden night strike against Russian ships based in Port Arthur, it was like the Japanese strike against Pearl Harbour. Port Arthur was encircled by the Japanese and had surrendered after a long siege - remark of Andrey] I remember that we read "Port Artur" ["Port Arthur" by Stepanov is a very popular in Russia novel about the siege of Port Arthur] again and again when we were moving by train in Far East, also our military mass media often spoke about it. And our political officers again and again spoke to us later, already during our offensive, that our mission is right, it is the condign punishment for all previous Japanese crimes, it is the restoration of historical justice. Also Stalin said in his victorious declaration: we had crushed Japan and we had washed "black spot of shame" from our people's memory.
And I had my personal reasons to win samurais, it is more correct to call it my family's reason. It was 40 years ago when my grandfather fought in Port Arthur and when I was a little boy he often told me about that war - how Russian soldiers beat the Japanese there, about their heroic feats, and how the Tsar's generals had betrayed them and had surrendered the fortress to the enemy. And when we in the end of the August of 1945 had returned in Port Arthur where our grandfathers were fighting and were dying in past so first of all we bowed before soldiers' graves in the Russian cemetery. We went in the places of the combats that were there many years ago and it was still possible to find there bullet cases, which became green from time, and scraps of soldiers' greatcoats with the spots of blood.
And our command at the head of Marshal Vasilevskii had placed some wreathes on those grave right after our victory.
