The battle for the hill Bezymyannuyu , which continued throughout July 29, 1938, was the first military clash between the forces of the USSR and Japan in the area of Lake Hassan [3] [1] [4] [5] .
| Fight for the Nameless Hill | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main conflict: Fighting at Lake Hassan (July 29 - August 11, 1938) | |||
| date | July 29, 1938 | ||
| A place | Bezymyannaya Hill (Lake Hasan) | ||
| Total | USSR victory | ||
| Opponents | |||
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| Commanders | |||
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| Forces of the parties | |||
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The fighting for the hill was an integral part of the armed conflict on the state border of the USSR at Lake Hassan July 29 - August 11, 1938 [3] [1] [6] [4] [2] .
Content
History
Osovkan Hills had significant tactical value [7] [8] [9] :
- from the top of the hill, Soviet territory was opened for review and shelling - the artillery deployed at its top allowed to destroy any target in the wide range of shelling to a depth of several kilometers [7] [8] [9]
- With the use of optical observation devices in clear weather, Soviet territorial waters, the coast of Posyet Bay and coastal islands were viewed from the top of the hill for a considerable distance [9]
- approaches to the hill from the Soviet side were extremely difficult and could be shot through through artillery and machine-gun fire from the Japanese side [7] [8]
- At the same time, the Japanese-controlled territory was visible from the top of the hill, the railway was visible, along which the Japanese brought their troops to the border and in the event of war, Soviet artillery from the top of the hill could stop any movement of troops in the border area [7] [8]
In addition, the territory in the area of the Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya hills had significant economic value: the land was well suited for growing rice, logging was possible on the slopes of the heights, and fish and waterfowl were found in the lake [10] .
On July 25, 1938, in connection with the aggravation of the situation on a section of the border in the area of Lake Hassan, Commissar of Defense of the USSR KE Voroshilov gave an order to strengthen the protection of the state border [11] .
On July 27, 1938, Soviet border guards reported that they had noticed on the adjacent side an unusual intensity of movement of Japanese cars and carts in the direction of Zaozernaya and Izyannaya hills. Having received this information, the command of the 59th Posiet border detachment issued an order to strengthen surveillance and increased the number of border patrols [8] .
Later, on the Bezymyannaya Hill, positions were established that were occupied by the outfit of the Posiet border detachment under the command of Lieutenant A. Ye. Makhalin consisting of 11 border guards [4] (sniper S. A. Bigus was armed with a sniper rifle, machine gunner D. Ye. Yemtsov - a DP machine gun, the rest of the border guards were armed with rifles from 1891/30 and hand grenades) [12] [6] [5] [8] .
On the day before the attack, the Soviet border guard reported that Japanese soldiers, who arrived in the village of Hamoko on the adjacent side of the border, walk around the village with lassoes and kill all the dogs in the village (it was later established that the dogs were killed so that the next night, when the Japanese servicemen, who were preparing for the attack, secretly occupied the village, they didn’t make a fuss, warning the owners about the appearance of strangers in the village - dogs could hear the barking from the Soviet side of the border) [13] .
Before dawn on July 29, Japanese troops numbering up to 150 soldiers (reinforced company of border gendarmerie with 4 hotchiss ”machine guns ) advanced to the border from the Black hill and, using foggy weather, secretly concentrated on the slopes of the Bezymyannaya hill [1] [5] [2] .
Later, divided into two groups, the Japanese attacked the hill [3] [8] .
The commander of the border guard, A. E. Makhalin, by telephone, reported to the field headquarters of the frontier post that a large detachment of Japanese had crossed the state border and he decided to keep the height [6] .
While the main forces of the Japanese, deployed in a rifle chain , under cover of machine-gun fire, attacked along the front, one unit (up to two platoons) attempted to bypass the positions of the border guards from the left flank and get them to the rear [12] .
Great importance in repelling the attack played the following circumstances:
- pre-equipped border guard positions:
- at the height of the trenches were dug
- inconspicuous wire fences were installed on the slopes
- predetermined controlled landfills of the design of the chief of the engineering service of the Posiet border detachment, foremen V. M. Vinevitin
- the actions of sniper S. A. Bigus, who, with the very first shot, destroyed one of the Japanese machine-gunners — even before he managed to open fire [12]
- the death of the Japanese officer who commanded the attack at the very beginning of the battle for the height (he was going to his full height in front of his soldiers and was killed by the first volley of border guards) [14]
The battle for height had a fierce character and several times passed into melee fights [3] . A. Makhalin and four more border guards were killed in this battle, the other six border guards were wounded [12] [6] [5] . In hand-to-hand fights, two Japanese officers were killed, who went on the attack with the soldiers (one Japanese officer was shot by A. Makhalin, the second was killed by a border guard R. Lisnyak taken from him) [5] .
After the death of A.Ye. Makhalina, the detachment commander T. M. Shlyakhov took command [8] .
Later reinforcements arrived at the border guards from the Pakshehori outpost [9] - an alarming equestrian group under the command of Lieutenant I. V. Ratnikova with a light machine gun (incomplete platoon) [15] .
Having lost up to 40 people, the Japanese occupied a height [2] .
At this time, the 2nd company of the 119th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division of the Red Army arrived under the command of Senior Lieutenant D.T. Levchenko [2] , reinforced by a tank platoon [3] [12] . Three kilometers from the height, the company turned into battle formation and attacked the Japanese straight away [5] .
By the evening of July 29, 1938, the Japanese were knocked out from a hill [16] [3] [12] .
An attempt by Japanese infantry to counterattack and return the height under cover of a smoke screen was prevented, and the branch commander, machine gunner A. V. Golyanov, who destroyed a group of Japanese soldiers with a DP machine gun, distinguished himself in the Japanese attack [12] .
As a result, the Japanese retreated, leaving their dead on Soviet territory [9] . After the end of the battle, the Soviet soldiers collected trophies: rifles, ammunition, steel helmets , etc. [17]
The long battle of the Soviet military and border guards against the numerically superior enemy forces provided additional time for the advancement of the Red Army units on alert from the places of permanent deployment to the border [3] [2] .
At the same time, the USSR attorney in Tokyo handed a strong protest to the representatives of the Japanese side and demanded that the government of Japan be strongly punished [18] .
On the night of July 30, 1938, the 3rd Battalion of the 118th Rifle Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division of the Red Army under the command of Art. Lieutenant F. Razodeyev [7] and took up the defense. Immediately after arrival, the infantry began to prepare the line of defense - dug trenches, message lines, set up machine guns [12] [7] .
From the contiguous side, to the border line began the advancement of a part of the 19th Infantry Division of the Kwantung Army [6] .
Subsequent events
Participants in the battle participated in a military parade on Red Square on November 7, 1938 [19] .
A.Ye. Makhalin and D.T. Levchenko became Heroes of the Soviet Union [6] , ten other border guards from A.Ye.Makhalin’s outfit (who died in battle David Yemtsov, A. K. Savinykh , V.I. Pozdeev , I. Ye. Shmelev and the wounded T. M. Shlyakhov I.D. Kosobokov , S.G. Kobyakov , S. A. Bigus , R. E. Lisnyak and M. N. Kuvshinov ) were awarded the Order of Lenin [6] [5] , Marina Makhalina (the wife of A. E. Makhalina, who started the battlefield and began to provide medical assistance to the wounded) was awarded the Order of the Red Banner [6] 5] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hasan // Soviet historical encyclopedia / redcolle., Ch. ed. E.M. Zhukov. Volume 15. M., State Scientific Publishing House "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1974. p.543
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 In flame and glory. Essays on the history of the Red Banner Siberian Military District. / ed. B. Ye. Pyankov. 2nd ed., Rev. and add. Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk pr. publishing house, 1988. p.59-61
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941–1945 (in six volumes). / ed. P. N. Pospelov. Volume 1. M., Voenizdat, 1960. p. 232
- ↑ 1 2 3 A. A. Koshkin. "Kantokuen" - "Barbarossa" in Japanese. Why Japan did not attack the USSR. M., "Veche", 2011. p.49-50
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Z. Sh. Yanguzov. Unfading glory of Hassan. Khabarovsk. Book of ed., 1968. p.16-22
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Z. Sh. Yanguzov. The special Red Banner Far Eastern Army on guard of peace and security of the USSR (1928 - 1938). Blagoveshchensk, Amur branch of the Khabarovsk book publishing house, 1970. p.180-184
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 I. N. Moshlyak . We recall the infantry ... M., Voenizdat, 1978. p.31-33
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Cand. ist Mr. Colonel V. Ezhakov. Fighting at Lake Hassan // "Military-Historical Journal", No. 7, July 1968. p. 124-128
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Captain Stezhenko. What happened in the area of Lake Hassan? // "Red Star", No. 198 (4048) of August 28, 1938. p. 2
- ↑ T. Mochalov. At Lake Hassan. // "Red Star", No. 180 (4030) of August 6, 1938. p. 2
- ↑ Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense (TsAMO), f. 1, op. 78424, d. 6, l. one
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 M.V. Novikov. At Lake Hassan // Questions of History, No. 8, 1968. p. 205-208
- ↑ Z. Heeren. These days at Lake Hassan. // "Red Star", No. 199 (4049) of August 29, 1938. p. 3
- ↑ I. N. Shkadov. Lake Hassan. Year 1938. M., Voenizdat, 1988. p.23
- ↑ Vitaly Frost. Samurai reconnaissance in combat. // "Red Star", № 146 (26606) from August 15 - 21, 2014. pp.14-15
- ↑ In Siberia, the born. Pages of the history of the Omsk Combined Arms Command Twice of the Red Banner Vocational School M. V. Frunze. Omsk, Omsk Prince publishing house, 1987. p. 66-67
- ↑ Elena Kholodnaya. Lieutenant Dorofey Levchenko // the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda", No. 237 (4087) of October 14, 1938. p.3
- Извест Izvestia, No. 176 (6643) of July 30, 1938. p. 1
- ↑ Reception in the Kremlin of parade participants on Red Square on November 7, 1938 // Izvestia, No. 261 (6728) of November 10, 1938. p. 3
Literature and Sources
- I. Exler. Heroes Hassan. M., Gosvoyenizdat, 1938
- Battle episodes. Collection of articles and materials about the events at Lake Hassan. Military Publishing, 1939
- V. Busygin. Search start with Unnamed. Vladivostok, Far Eastern book publishing house, 1967
- I. Nikitin, V. Bogdanov. Battle exam. // "The Pacific Star" dated May 14, 1968
- Major N. Haiduk. First fight // "The Border Guard in the Pacific" dated August 10, 1988