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[also called the Battle of Khalkin Gol]
| State |
Entry |
Exit |
Combat Forces |
Population |
Losses |
| Japan |
1938 |
1939 |
1000000 |
77000000 |
15000 |
| Russia |
1938 |
1939 |
5000000 |
170000000 |
4000 |
The increased military activities in China--and the Japanese idea of
establishing "Mengukuo" in Inner Mongolia and the Mongolian People's
Republic--soon led to a major clash over rival Mongolia-Manchukuo border claims.
When Japanese troops invaded eastern Mongolia, a ground and air battle with a
joint Soviet- Mongolian army took place between May and September 1939 at the
Battle of Halhin Gol. The Japanese were severely defeated, sustaining as many as
80,000 casualties, and thereafter Japan concentrated its war efforts on its
southward drive in China and Southeast Asia, a strategy that helped propel Japan
ever closer to war with the United States and Britain and their allies.
in 1938 and 1939 Soviet and Japanese armies tested each other in two full-scale battles along the border of
Manchukuo. But in April 1941 a neutrality pact was signed with the Soviet Union, with Germany acting as intermediary.
The Japanese Kwangtung Army, then occupying Manchuria, attacked Soviet and
Mongolian forces holding disputed territory along the Khalkin River (May 1939).
The Japanese attacked in divisional strength (15,000 to 20,000); three Soviet
and Mongolian divisions, including several armored brigades, in all numbering
60,000 to 70,000 and commanded by General Georgi Zhukov, successfully
counterattacked, reoccupying and holding the disputed territory. Their elite
forces badly beaten, the Japanese withdrew, ending the undeclared war (September
1939).
After their border war defeat by Soviet and Mongolian forces and their lack
of progress in China, the Japanese turned decisively toward the invasion of
Indochina and the coming war in the Pacific.
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