Operation August Storm
Part of World War II and Soviet-Japanese Border Wars
Soviet SU-76M assault guns entering Changchun, the capital of Manchukuo.
Date August 8 – September 2, 1945 Location Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Korea Result Decisive Soviet and Mongolian victory. The battle, along with the atomic bombings, led to the surrender of Japan.
Combatants
Soviet Union People's Republic of Mongolia	Japan Manchukuo Mengjiang
Commanders
Aleksandr Vasilevsky	Otsuzo Yamada
Strength
Soviet Union 1,577,225 men, 26,137 artillery, 1,852 sup. artillery, 3,704 tanks, 5,368 aircraft Mongolia	Japan 1,040,000 men, 6,700 artillery, 1,000 tanks, 1,800 aircraft, 1,215 vehicles
Casualties
(Soviet estimate) 8,219 KIA, 22,264 WIA; (Japanese estimate) 20,000+ KIA 50,000+ WIA	(Soviet estimate) 83,737 KIA 594,000 POWs; (Japanese estimate) 21,000 KIA ? POWs

Operation August Storm, or the Battle of Manchuria began on August 8, 1945, with the Soviet invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo; the greater invasion would eventually include neighboring Mengjiang, as well as northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. It marked the only military action of the Soviet Union against the Empire of Japan apart from the 1939. Battle of Khalkhin Gol; at the Yalta Conference, it had agreed to Allied pleas to terminate the neutrality pact with Japan and enter the Second World War's Pacific Theater within three months after the end of the war in Europe. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Soviet-Japanese Border Wars was a series of border conflicts between the Soviet Union and Japan between 1938 to 1945. ... Soviet forces entering Changun during Operation August Storm. ... The SU-76 was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II. History The SU-76 was based on a lengthened version of the T-70 tank chassis. ... Changchun (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is the capital and largest city of Jilin province, located at the northeast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Manchukuo (1932–1945), Manchu country, was a former state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia created by former Qing Dynasty officials and Imperial Japan in 1932. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; Simplified Chinese: 满洲; pinyin: MÇŽnzhōu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... Inner Mongolia (Mongolian: ᠥᠪᠦᠷ ᠮᠣᠨᠺᠤᠯᠤᠨ ᠥᠪᠡᠷᠲᠡᠺᠡᠨ ᠵᠠᠰᠠᠬᠤ ᠣᠷᠤᠨ r Mongghul-un bertegen Jasaqu Orun; Chinese: 内蒙古自治区; Hanyu Pinyin: N... Sakhalin (Russian: , IPA: ; Japanese: 樺太 ) or サハリン )); Chinese: 庫頁; also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50 and 54°24 N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. ... Location of Kuril Islands in the Western Pacific. ... Korea (Korean: 한국 or ì¡°ì„ , see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_People's_Republic_of_Mongolia_(1949-1992). ... The Peoples Republic of Mongolia (Mongolian: Бугд Найрамдах Монгол Ард Улс (БНМАУ)) was a communist state in central Asia which existed between 1924 and 1992 and changed to a capitalist country, Mongolia, in 1992. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan_(bordered). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Manchukuo. ... Manchukuo (1932–1945), Manchu country, was a former state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia created by former Qing Dynasty officials and Imperial Japan in 1932. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Mengjiang. ... Mengjiang, (蒙疆 in pinyin: MÄ›ngjiāng; in Wade-Giles: Meng-chiang; Postal Pinyin: Mengkiang), Meng Chiang, also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was a puppet state in northern China (consisted of Chahar and Suiyuan provinces) controlled by Japan. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky (Russian: , September 30, 1895 – December 5, 1977) was a Soviet military commander, promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1943. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Japan_(bordered). ... Otsuzo Yamada (1881 - 1965) was a infamous Imperial Japanese Army general who was born in 1881, and was commissioned into the cavalry in 1903. ... Temporary grave of an American machine-gunner during the Battle of Normandy. ... WIA is a three letter abbreviation meaning Wounded in action. ... Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... 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Combatants Soviet Union,1 Poland (from January 1945) Germany,1 Italy (to 1943), Romania (to 1944), Finland (to 1944), Hungary, Slovakia Commanders Aleksei Antonov, Azi Aslanov, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Ivan Bagramyan, Kirill Meretskov, Ivan Petrov, Alexander Rodimtsev, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Pavel Rotmistrov, Semyon Timoshenko, Fyodor Tolbukhin, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Nikolai Vatutin... Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler, Ion Antonescu, C.G.E. Mannerheim, Benito Mussolini, Miklós Horthy, Jozef Tiso Joseph Stalin Strength ~3. ... Battle of the Baltic concerns the German and Soviet battle for the control of the Baltic sea during World War II. Categories: | | | | | ... 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The formation of the Rzhev salient during the winter of 1941-1942. ... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Fedor von Bock, Friedrich Paulus Semyon Timoshenko Strength 300,000 men, 1000 tanks, 1500 aircraft 640,000 men, 1200 tanks, 1000 aircraft Casualties 20,000 killed, wounded or captured 207,057 killed, wounded or captured, 652 tanks, 1,646 guns, 3,278 mortars, 57,626... Combatants Germany Italy Hungary Romania Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Maximilian von Weichs Friedrich Paulus # Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Italo Garibaldi Gusztav Jany Petre Dumitrescu Constantin Constantinescu Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Georgiy Zhukov Semyon Timoshenko Konstantin Rokossovsky Rodion Malinovsky Strength German Sixth Army German Fourth Panzer Army Romanian Third Army... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Kurt von der Chevallerie M. A. Purkayev Strength ~20,000 (on 19 Nov) 100,000 (on 19 Nov) Casualties 17,000 killed or wounded, 3,000 captured 30,000 killed or wounded Situation after the initial Soviet advance. ... The eastern front at the time of the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive. ... Combatants Nazi Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Hans von Kluge Hermann Hoth Walther Model Georgiy Zhukov Konstantin Rokossovskiy Nikolay Vatutin Ivan Konyev Strength 2,700 tanks 800,000 infantry, 2,000 aircraft 3,600 tanks 1,300,000 infantry, 2,400 aircraft Casualties German Kursk : 50,000 dead... Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders Günther von Kluge Andrei Yeremenko, Vasily Sokolovsky Strength 850,000 men, 8,800 guns, 500 tanks, 700 planes[1] 1,253,000 men, 20,640 guns, 1,430 tanks, 1,100 planes[1] Casualties (Soviet est. ... Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Rokossovsky, Konev Strength 1,250,000 men 12,600 guns 2,100 tanks 2,000 planes 2,650,000 men 51,000 guns 2,400 tanks 2,850 planes Casualties Low est. ... The 1943 Battle of Kiev resulted in a Soviet victory, forcing the German invaders of the Soviet Union to retreat further. ... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein, Wilhelm Stemmerman (Gruppe Stemmerman), Hermann Breith, III Panzerkorps Georgi Zhukov, Nikolai Vatutin (1st Ukrainian Front), Ivan Konev (2nd Ukrainian Front), Strength 56,000 70 tanks and assault guns In packet only but much large with relief troops 200,000 500 tanks Casualties... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein (Army Group South) Hans-Valentin Hube (First Panzer Army) Georgi Zhukov Nikolai Vatutin (1st Ukrainian Front) Ivan Koniev (2nd Ukrainian Front) Strength 200,000 500,000 Casualties  ?  ? 357 tanks The Battle of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, also known as Hubes Pocket... Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders Ernst Busch Walther Model Ferdinand Schörner Konstantin Rokossovski Georgy Zhukov Aleksandr Vasilevsky Strength 800,000 1,700,000 Casualties (Soviet est. ... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Josef Harpe (Heeresgruppe Nordukraine) Ivan Koniev (1st Ukrainian Front) Strength 370,000 men 340 AFVs 4,800 guns 1,200,000 men 1,979 AFVs 11,265 guns Casualties 350,000 men 520 AFVs 198,000 men 1,285 AFVs The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive[1... Combatants Red Army Wehrmacht Heeresgruppe Südukraine, Romanian Army Commanders Marshal Semyon Timoshenko Generaloberst Friessner Strength 1,341,200, 1,874 tanks and assault guns ca. ... Combatants Wehrmacht i. ... Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders General Otto von Lasch Marshal Vasilevsky Marshal Rokossovsky Strength 130,000 250,000 Casualties 50,000 60,000 The Battle of Königsberg was the last battle of the East Prussian Operation. ... Combatants Soviet Union Poland Germany Commanders Georgiy Zhukov Ivan Konev Konstantin Rokossovskiy Vasiliy Chuykov Adolf Hitler â€  Gotthard Heinrici Helmuth Reymann Ernst Kaether (one day) Helmuth Weidling # Karl Dönitz # Wilhelm Mohnke # Strength 2,500,000 soldiers, 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces [1] 1,000,000... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Czech Insurgents Commanders Ferdinand Schörner Ivan Konev Strength 900,000 2,000,000 Casualties Unknown 11,997 killed or missing, 40,501 wounded or sick (52,498 casualties[1]) The Prague Offensive (Russian:Пражская наступательная операция, Prazhskaya nastupatelnaya operacia, Prague Offensive Operation) was the last major battle of... Combatants China (from 1937) Việt Minh (from 1941) United States (from 1941) United Kingdom (from 1941) British India (1941) Australia (1941) Free France (1941) Philippines (1941) Netherlands (1941) New Zealand (1941) Canada (1941) Soviet Union (from 1945) Mongolia (from 1945) Empire of Japan Wang Jingwei Government Thailand (1942) Mengjiang... The Pacific Ocean theater was one of four major theaters of the Pacific War, between 1941 and 1945. ... The South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was the name given to the campaigns of the Pacific War in India, Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Singapore. ... The South West Pacific was one of two theatres of World War II in the Pacific region, between 1942 and 1945. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Soviet redirects here. ... A puppet state is a state whose government, though notionally of the same culture as the governed people - owes its existence (or other major debt) to being installed, supported or controlled by a more powerful entity, typically a foreign power. ... Manchukuo (1932–1945), Manchu country, was a former state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia created by former Qing Dynasty officials and Imperial Japan in 1932. ... Mengjiang, (蒙疆 in pinyin: MÄ›ngjiāng; in Wade-Giles: Meng-chiang; Postal Pinyin: Mengkiang), Meng Chiang, also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was a puppet state in northern China (consisted of Chahar and Suiyuan provinces) controlled by Japan. ... Korea (Korean: 한국 or ì¡°ì„ , see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ... Sakhalin (Russian: , IPA: ; Japanese: 樺太 ) or サハリン )); Chinese: 庫頁; also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50 and 54°24 N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. ... Location of Kuril Islands in the Western Pacific. ... Anthem: Kimi ga Yo Imperial Reign Slogan: Fukoku Kyohei Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Military (a. ... Combatants Soviet Union Mongolia Japan Manchukuo Commanders Georgy Zhukov Michitaro Komatsubara Strength 57,000 30,000 Casualties 6,831 killed, 15,952 wounded 8,440 killed, 8,766 wounded The Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Japanese: ノモンハン事件 Nomonhan jiken), sometimes spelled Halhin Gol or Khalkin Gol after the Halha River passing through... The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. ... The Neutrality pact refers to more than one pact between Russia and Japan and a proposed pact between the United States and Nazi Germany, during World War 2. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Combatants China (from 1937) Việt Minh (from 1941) United States (from 1941) United Kingdom (from 1941) British India (1941) Australia (1941) Free France (1941) Philippines (1941) Netherlands (1941) New Zealand (1941) Canada (1941) Soviet Union (from 1945) Mongolia (from 1945) Empire of Japan Wang Jingwei Government Thailand (1942) Mengjiang... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The invasion began on August 8, 1945, precisely three months after the German surrender on May 8. Notably, it began between the droppings of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... For other uses, see Hiroshima (disambiguation). ... August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... Nagasaki (Japanese: 長崎市, Nagasaki-shi  , long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ... August 9 is the 221st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (222nd in leap years), with 144 days remaining. ...

Japan's decision to surrender was made before the scale of the Soviet attack on Manchuria, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands was known (See Downfall, pg 289), but had the war continued, the Soviets had plans to invade Hokkaidō well before the other Allied invasion of Kyushu.^[1][2] The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; Simplified Chinese: 满洲; pinyin: MÇŽnzhōu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... Hokkaidō   (北海道, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo and Yesso, is the second largest island and largest prefecture of Japan. ... Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II. It was scheduled to occur in two parts: Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, set to begin in November 1945; and later Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu near Tokyo, scheduled...

Naming conventions

Though the battle extended beyond the borders traditionally known as Manchuria—that is, the traditional lands of the Manchus—the coordinated and integrated invasions of Japan's northern territories is still collectively labeled as the Battle of Manchuria. Alternatively, it is also known by the Soviet codename for the invasion plans—Operation August Storm—or as the Battle of Manchukuo or the Battle of Northern China. One of the Qianlong Emperors Manchu bodyguards (1760), notice the distinctive hat The Manchu (Manchu: Manju; Simplified Chinese: 满族; Traditional Chinese: 滿族; Pinyin: MÇŽnzú) are a Tungusic people who originated in Northeastern Asia, collectively known in English as Manchuria. ...

Combatant forces

The Soviets

The Far Eastern Command, under Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky, conducted the massive attack. The only Soviet equivalent of a theater command that operated during the war (apart from the short-lived 1941 'Directions' in the west), it consisted of three Red Army fronts: Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky (Russian: , September 30, 1895 – December 5, 1977) was a Soviet military commander, promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1943. ...

• Transbaikal Front, under Marshal R. Y. Malinovsky (aimed at Mengjiang and western Manchukuo), including:
  • 17th Army.
  • 36th Army.
  • 39th Army.
  • 53d Army.
  • 6th Guards Tank Army.
  • Soviet Mongolian Cavalry Mechanized Group under I.A.Pliyev.
  • 12th Air Army.
• Far East Front, under Marshal K. A. Meretskov (aimed at eastern Manchukuo), including:
  • 2d Red Banner Army.
  • 15th Army.
  • 16th Army.
  • 10th Air Army.
• 2nd Far East Front, under General M. A. Purkayev (aimed at northern Manchukuo), including:
  • 1st Red Banner Army.
  • 5th Army.
  • 25th Army.
  • 35th Army.
  • Chuguevsk Operational Group.
  • Amur River Flotilla.

Soviet soldiers in Mongolia, before the invasion.

Each Front had ‘front units’ attached directly to the Front instead of an army [1]. The forces totaled at least eighty divisions with 1.5 million men, over five thousand tanks (including 3,700 T-34s), over 28,000 artillery pieces and 4,300 aircraft (including 3,700 first line combat aircraft). Approximately one-third of its strength was in combat support and services. Its naval forces contained 12 major surface combatants, 78 submarines, numerous amphibious craft, and the Amur river flotilla, consisting of gunboats and numerous small craft. It incorporated all the experience in maneuver warfare that the Soviets had acquired fighting the Germans. Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (Russian: , Rodion Jakovlevič Malinovskij; November 23, 1898-March 31, 1967) was a Soviet military commander, Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s, who played a key role in World War II, including the major defeat... A Cavalry Mechanized Group was a Red Army military formation type used during World War II against Germany and Japan. ... Issa Alexandrovich Pliyev (Russian: Исса Александрович Плиев) (November 12, 1903 - 2 February 1979) was a Soviet military commander, Army General (1962), Double Hero of the Soviet Union (4. ... Far East Front may refer to one of the following. ... Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov (Russian: Кирилл Афанасьевич Мерецков) (June 7, 1897 - December 30, 1968) was a Soviet military commander. ... Maksim Alexeyevich Purkayev (Russian: ) (August 14(26), 1894, Mordovia - January 1, 1953, Moscow) was a Soviet military leader and army general. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder. ... A Front (фронт) was a major military organization in the Soviet Army, roughly equivalent to an army or army group in British or American military terminology. ... The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank first produced in 1940. ... The Amur River (Russian: Амур; Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: , or Black Dragon River; Mayan; Mongolian: Хара-Мурэн, Khara-Muren or Black River; Manchu: Sahaliyan Ula, literal meaning Black River) is Earths eighth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Manchuria in China. ...

The Japanese

The Kwantung Army of the Imperial Japanese Army under General Otsuzo Yamada, was the Japanese force opposing them. It was the major part of the Japanese occupation forces in Manchuria and Korea, and it consisted of two Area Armies and three independent armies: The Kwantung Army or Guandong Army (関東軍 Japanese: Kantōgun) was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that originated from a Guandong garrison established in 1906 to defend the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. ... The Imperial Japanese Army (: 大日本帝國陸軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国陸軍 Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) was the official ground based armed force of Japan from 1867 to 1945 when it was Imperial Japan. ... Otsuzo Yamada (1881 - 1965) was a infamous Imperial Japanese Army general who was born in 1881, and was commissioned into the cavalry in 1903. ...

• First Area Army (northeastern Manchukuo), including:
  • 3rd Army.
  • 5th Army.
• Third Area Army (southwestern Manchukuo), including:
  • 30th Army.
  • 44th Army.
• Independent units
  • 4th Army (an independent field army responsible for northern Manchuria)
  • 34th Army (an independent field army responsible for the areas between the Third and Seventeenth Area Armies)
  • Kwangtung Defence Army (responsible for Mengjiang)
  • Seventeenth Area Army (responsible for Korea; assigned to the Kwantung Army in the eleventh hour, to no avail)

Each Area Army (the equivalent of a Western "army") had headquarters units and units attached directly to the Area Army, in addition to the field armies (the equivalent of a Western corps). In addition to the Japanese there was the forty thousand strong Manchukuo Defense Force, composed of eight under-strength, poorly-equipped, poorly-trained Chinese divisions. Korea, which would have been the next target for the Far Eastern Command, was garrisoned by the Seventeenth Area Army. Mengjiang, (蒙疆 in pinyin: Měngjiāng; in Wade-Giles: Meng-chiang; Postal Pinyin: Mengkiang), Meng Chiang, also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was a puppet state in northern China (consisted of Chahar and Suiyuan provinces) controlled by Japan. ... The term Western world or the West (also on rare occasions called the Occident) can have multiple meanings depending on its context (i. ...

The Kwantung Army had over six hundred thousand men in twenty-five divisions (including two tank divisions) and six Independent Mixed Brigades. These contained over 1,215 armored vehicles (mostly armored cars and light tanks), 6,700 artillery pieces (mostly light), and 1,800 aircraft (mostly trainers and obsolete types, they only had 50 first line aircraft). The Imperial Japanese Navy contributed nothing to the defense of Manchuria, the occupation of which it had always opposed on strategic grounds. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) (: 大日本帝國海軍 Shinjitai: 大日本帝国海軍   or 日本海軍 Nippon Kaigun), officially Navy of Empire of Greater Japan, also known as the Japanese Navy or Combined Fleet was the Navy of Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japans constitutional renunciation of the use of force...

On economic grounds, Manchuria was worth defending as it had the bulk of usable industry and raw materials outside of Japan and still under Japanese control in 1945. However, the Japanese forces were far below authorized strength, and most of their heavy military equipment and best military units had been transferred to the Pacific front over previous three years. As of 1945 the Japanese army in Manchuria contained a large number of raw recruits. The result was that the Kwantung Army had essentially been reduced to a light infantry counter-insurgency force with limited mobility and experience. In the event, Japanese forces were no match for the mechanized Red Army, with its vastly superior tanks, artillery, officers, and tactics. Red Army flag The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ...

Compounding the problem, the Japanese military made a number of mistakes. First, they assumed that any attack coming from the west would have to follow either the old railroad line to Hailar or head in to Solun from the eastern tip of Mongolia. The Soviets did attack from both those routes but their main attack went right through the supposedly impassable Greater Khingan range south of Solun and into the center of Manchuria. Second, the Japanese military intelligence failed to figure out how many troops the Soviets were actually transferring to the Siberian front. Their military intelligence predicted, based on erroneous numbers, that an attack was most likely in October or in the spring of 1946. Hailar may refer to: Hailar River Hailar, China This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Solun a city in the Xingan League administrative district of Inner Mongolia Province of China. ... The Greater Khingan Range (Simplified Chinese: 大兴安岭; Traditional Chinese: 大興安嶺), also called the Greater Hingan Range or Greater Hinggan Range, is a volcanic mountain range in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. ...

New plans made by the Japanese in the summer of 1945 called for the borders to be held lightly and delaying actions fought while the main force would hold the south-eastern corner in strength (so defending Korea from attack). However the new plans were not implemented by the time the Soviets launched their attack.

The campaign

The operation was carried out as a classic double pincer envelopment over an area the size of Western Europe. In the western pincer, the Red Army advanced over the deserts and mountains from Mongolia, far from their resupply railways. This confounded the Japanese military analysis of Soviet logistics, and the Japanese were caught by complete surprise in unfortified positions. The Japanese commander was missing for the first eighteen hours of conflict, and communication was lost with forward units very early on. At the same time, airborne units were used to seize airfields and city centers in advance of the land forces; they were also used to ferry fuel to those units that had outrun their supply lines. Red Army flag The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ...

A Japanese surrendering to Soviet soldiers.

The fighting had lasted for only about a week when Japan's Emperor Hirohito read the Gyokuon-hōsō on August 15, and declared a ceasefire in the region the next day; Soviet forces were already penetrating deep into Manchukuo by that time. They continued their now largely unopposed advance into Manchukuo's territory, reaching Mukden, Changchun and Qiqihar by August 20. At the same time, Mengjiang was invaded by the Red Army and her Mongol allies, with Guihua soon taken. The Emperor of Manchukuo (and the former Emperor of China), Puyi, was captured by the Soviet Red Army. File links The following pages link to this file: Operation August Storm Categories: Pre-1973 Soviet Union images ... File links The following pages link to this file: Operation August Storm Categories: Pre-1973 Soviet Union images ... Emperor Shōwa ) (April 29, 1901 — January 7, 1989) was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death. ... Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War The Gyokuon-hōsō ), lit. ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Manchukuo (1932–1945), Manchu country, was a former state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia created by former Qing Dynasty officials and Imperial Japan in 1932. ... Major districts of Shenyang. ... Changchun (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is the capital and largest city of Jilin province, located at the northeast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Qiqihar ( Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Manchu: Cicigar hoton) is a major city in the Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China and has 895,000 inhabitants. ... August 20 is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Mengjiang, (蒙疆 in pinyin: MÄ›ngjiāng; in Wade-Giles: Meng-chiang; Postal Pinyin: Mengkiang), Meng Chiang, also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was a puppet state in northern China (consisted of Chahar and Suiyuan provinces) controlled by Japan. ... Anthem: Bügd Nairamdakh Mongol United Mongolia Capital (and largest city) Ulaanbaatar Official languages Mongolian Government Parliamentary democracy  - President Nambaryn Enkhbayar  - Prime minister Miyeegombyn Enkhbold Formation  - National Foundation Day 1206   - Independence from China July 11, 1921  Area  - Total 1,564,116 km² (19th) 603,909 sq mi   - Water (%) 0. ... PÇ”yí (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ) (February 7, 1906–October 17, 1967) of the Manchu Aisin-Gioro ruling family was the last Emperor of China between 1908 and 1924 (ruling emperor between 1908 and 1912, and non-ruling emperor between 1912 and 1924), the twelfth emperor of the Qing Dynasty...

On August 18, several amphibious landings had been conducted ahead of the land advance: three in northern Korea, one in Sakhalin, and one in the Kuril Islands. This meant that, in Korea at least, there would already be Soviet soldiers waiting for the troops coming overland. In Sakhalin and the Kurils, it meant a sudden and undeniable establishment of Soviet sovereignty. August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Korea (Korean: 한국 or ì¡°ì„ , see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ... Sakhalin (Russian: , IPA: ; Japanese: 樺太 ) or サハリン )); Chinese: 庫頁; also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50 and 54°24 N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. ... Location of Kuril Islands in the Western Pacific. ...

The land advance was stopped a good distance short of the Yalu River, the beginning of the Korean peninsula, when even the aerial supply lines became unavailable. The forces already in Korea were able to establish a bit of control in the peninsula's north, but the ambition to take the entire peninsula was cut short when American forces landed at Incheon on September 8, six days after the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. The Amnok River, or the Yalu River, is a river on the border between China and North Korea. ... The Korea Peninsula or Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. ... Incheon Metropolitan City is a metropolitan city and major seaport on the west coast of South Korea, near Seoul. ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... Representatives of Japan stand aboard the USS Missouri prior to signing of the Instrument of Surrender. ...

Hokkaidō was never invaded as planned. Hokkaidō   (北海道, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo and Yesso, is the second largest island and largest prefecture of Japan. ...

Importance and Consequences

Operation August Storm, along with the two atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, combined to break the Japanese political deadlock and force Japan's surrender; they made it clear that Japan had no hope of holding out, even in the Home Islands. The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... For other uses, see Hiroshima (disambiguation). ... Nagasaki (Japanese: 長崎市, Nagasaki-shi  , long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ... The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. ... The Home Islands refers to the four main islands of Japan: Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido. ...

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa's research has led him to conclude that the atomic bombings themselves were not the principal reason for capitulation. Instead, he contends, it was the swift and devastating Soviet victories on the mainland in the week following Stalin's August 8 declaration of war that forced the Japanese message of surrender on August 15, 1945.^[3] August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

Soviet-occupied Manchuria would also provide the main base of operations for Mao Zedong's forces, who proved victorious in the following four years of civil war in China. In fact, military success in Manchuria prevented the Soviet Union from receiving bases in China—promised by the Western allies—because all land gained was turned over to the People's Republic of China after they gained power. Before leaving Manchuria, however, Soviet forces looted its considerable industrial plant and relocated it to war-torn Soviet territory. “Mao” redirects here. ... Combatants Nationalist Party of China Communist Party of China Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Mao Zedong Strength 4,300,000 (July 1946) 3,650,000 (June 1948) 1,490,000 (June 1949) 1,200,000 (July 1946) 2,800,000 (June 1948) 4,000,000 (June 1949) The Chinese Civil War...

As agreed at Yalta, the Soviet Union had intervened in the war with Japan within three months of the German surrender, and they were therefore entitled to the territories of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, and also to preeminent interests over Port Arthur and Dairen, with its strategic rail connections. The territories on the Asian mainland were transferred to the full control of the People's Republic of China in 1955, and the other possessions are still administered by the most powerful of the Soviet Union's successor states, Russia. The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. ... Sakhalin (Russian: , IPA: ; Japanese: 樺太 ) or サハリン )); Chinese: 庫頁; also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50 and 54°24 N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. ... Location of Kuril Islands in the Western Pacific. ... Location within China Lüshun city or Lüshunkou or (literally) Lüshun Port (Simplified Chinese: 旅顺口; Traditional Chinese: 旅順口; Pinyin: , formerly in historic references both Port Arthur and Ryojun, is a town in the southernmost administrative district of Dalian of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Dalian (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dàlián; Japanese: Dairen; Russian: Далянь, Dalian or Дальний, Dalny) is the governing sub-provincial city in the eastern Liaoning Province of Northeast China. ... Post-Soviet states in alphabetical order: 1. ...

Though the north of the Korean peninsula was under Soviet control, the economic machine driving the invasion forces had given out before the entire peninsula could be seized. With the American landing at Incheon—some time before the Red Army could have remobilized and secured the entire nation—Korea was effectively divided. This was a precursor to the Korean War five years later. Incheon Metropolitan City is a metropolitan city and major seaport on the west coast of South Korea, near Seoul. ... Red Army flag The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... The Korean peninsula, first divided along the 38th parallel, later along the demarcation line The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, ending Japans 35-year occupation of Korea. ... Combatants United Nations:  Republic of Korea,  Australia,  Belgium,  Luxembourg,  Canada,  Colombia,  Ethiopia,  France,  Greece,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  New Zealand,  Philippines,  South Africa,  Thailand,  Turkey,  United Kingdom,  United States Medical staff:  Denmark,  Australia,  Italy,  Norway,  Sweden Communist states:  Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,  Peoples Republic of China,  Soviet Union Commanders... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

World War II Operation August Storm

• Russo-Japanese War
• Operation Downfall
• Soviet-Japanese Border War (1939)
• Great Patriotic War
• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
• Relevant military history
  • Empire of Japan
  • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
• Amur Military Flotilla
• Evacuation of Manchukuo

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... Combatants Russian Empire Empire of Japan Commanders Emperor Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov† Emperor Meiji Oyama Iwao Heihachiro Togo Strength 500,000 Soldiers 400,000 Soldiers Casualties 39,518 killed; 158,600 wounded; 74,000 POW (http://www. ... Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II. It was scheduled to occur in two parts: Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, set to begin in November 1945; and later Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu near Tokyo, scheduled... The Battle of Halhin Gol, sometimes spelled Khalkhin Gol and alternately known as the Nomonhan Incident in Japan, was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet-Japanese Border War (1939), or Japanese-Soviet War. ... The Eastern Front1 was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ... The Second Sino-Japanese War was a major invasion of eastern China by Japan preceding and during World War II. It ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. ... The military history of Japan is characterized by a long period of feudal wars, followed by domestic stability, and then foreign conquest. ... Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov depicted saluting a military parade in Red Square above the message Long Live the Worker-Peasant Red Army— a Dependable Sentinel of the Soviet Borders! The military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks... Amur military flotilla (AMF) (Амурская военная флотилия in Russian), a military flotilla on the Amur river in the Far East region of Russia. ... This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ...

References

• Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (Penguin, 2001 ISBN 0-14-100146-1)
• Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-01693-9.
• Glantz, David (2003). The Soviet Strategic Offensive in Manchuria, 1945 (Cass Series on Soviet (Russian) Military Experience, 7). Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5279-2. 

Further reading

• US military analysis:
  • August Storm: The Soviet 1945 Strategic Offensive in Manchuria
  • August Storm: Soviet Tactical and Operational Combat in Manchuria, 1945

• Japanese Air Order of Battle and Operations Against 'August Storm', August 1945.

• Observations over Soviet Air Arm in August Storm Invasion:
  • Aerial actions over Kuriles
  • Soviet Order of Battle
  • Soviet naval aerial kills

• Soviet side information:
  • Comment over Soviet Pacific Fleet during Russian-German Conflict and Japanese forces actions in this period
  • Comment about Soviet Russian Pacific Fleet actions during August Storm Invasion
  • General information over Soviet Invasion to Japanese land in Karafuto and Kuriles from August 1945, with some photos, only in Russian language.

• Soviet Battle maps:
  • Soviet viewpoint map of August Storm Campaign
  • Soviet viewpoint map of Battle against Japanese fortifications in Shumushu and Paramushiro islands
  • Soviet viewpoint map of Battle against Koton Japanese fortifications in way to Shikuka city, in north Karafuto area

Footnotes

1. ^ David M. Glantz, "The Soviet Invasion of Japan," Quarterly Journal of Military History, vol. 7, no. 3, Spring 1995, pp. 96-97, discusses new information indicating that Stalin was ready to land troops on Hokkaidō two months before the scheduled American landings in kyushu. (Information from The Smithsonian and the Enola Gay. The National Interest; 6/22/1995; Washburn, Wilcomb E. footnote 15)
2. ^ Frank, Downfall, p. 323–4, citing David Glantz, "Soviet Invasion of Japan".
3. ^ Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy, p. 298.

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to 1945 unless otherwise indicated    * to 1944			Prelude • Causes • in Asia • in Europe Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... During World War II, the Western Front was the theater of fighting west of Germany, encompassing France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Denmark. ... Combatants Soviet Union,1 Poland (from January 1945) Germany,1 Italy (to 1943), Romania (to 1944), Finland (to 1944), Hungary, Slovakia Commanders Aleksei Antonov, Azi Aslanov, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Ivan Bagramyan, Kirill Meretskov, Ivan Petrov, Alexander Rodimtsev, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Pavel Rotmistrov, Semyon Timoshenko, Fyodor Tolbukhin, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Nikolai Vatutin... During World War II, the North African Campaign, also known as the Desert War, took place in the North African desert from September 13, 1940 to May 13, 1943. ... The Middle East Theatre of World War II is defined largely by reference to the British Middle East Command, which controlled Allied forces in both Southwest Asia and eastern North Africa. ... The Mediterranean region. ... Combatants China (from 1937) Việt Minh (from 1941) United States (from 1941) United Kingdom (from 1941) British India (1941) Australia (1941) Free France (1941) Philippines (1941) Netherlands (1941) New Zealand (1941) Canada (1941) Soviet Union (from 1945) Mongolia (from 1945) Empire of Japan Wang Jingwei Government Thailand (1942) Mengjiang... Combatants Royal Navy Royal Canadian Navy United States Navy Kriegsmarine Regia Marina (until 1943) Commanders Sir Percy Noble Sir Max K. Horton Percy W. Nelles Leonard W. Murray Ernest J. King Erich Raeder Karl Dönitz Casualties 30,248 merchant sailors 3,500 merchant vessels 175 warships 28,000 sailors... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This is a timeline of events that stretched over the period of World War II. // German soldiers supposedly destroying a Polish border checkpoint. ... This article is concerned with the events that preceded World War II in Asia. ... In Europe, the origins of the war are closely tied to the rise of fascism, especially in Nazi Germany. ... 1939 • Invasion of Poland • Winter War Combatants Poland Germany, Soviet Union, Slovakia Commanders Edward Rydz-ÅšmigÅ‚y Fedor von Bock (Army Group North), Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group South), Mikhail Kovalov (Belorussian Front), Semyon Timoshenko (Ukrainian Front), Ferdinand ÄŒatloÅ¡ (Field Army Bernolak) Strength 39 divisions, 16 brigades, 4,300 guns, 880 tanks, 400 aircraft Total: 950... Combatants Finland Soviet Union Commanders Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Kliment Voroshilov, later Semyon Timoshenko Strength 250,000 men 30 tanks 130 aircraft[1][2] 1,000,000 men 3,000 tanks 3,800 aircraft[3][4] Casualties 26,662 dead 39,886 wounded 1,000 captured[5] 226,875 dead... 1940 • Battle of France • Battle of Britain • Invasion of Greece Combatants France United Kingdom Canada Czechoslovakia Poland Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) H.G. Winkelman (Dutch) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... Combatants United Kingdom Including combatants from:[1] Poland New Zealand Canada Czechoslovakia Belgium Australia South Africa France Ireland United States Jamaica Palestine Rhodesia Germany Including combatants from Italy Commanders Hugh Dowding Hermann Göring Strength 754 single-seat fighters 149 two-seat fighters 560 bombers 500 coastal 1,963 total... Combatants Italy Greece Commanders Sebastiano Visconti Prasca Ubaldo Soddu Ugo Cavallero Giovanni Messe Alexander Papagos Strength 529,000 men Under 300,000 men Casualties 13,755 dead, 50,874 wounded, 25,067 missing, 12,368 incapacitated by frostbites, ca. ... 1941 • Invasion of Yugoslavia • Invasion of the USSR • Battle of Moscow • Attack on Pearl Harbor Invasion of Yugoslavia Operation 25 was the german code-name for the so-called April War, the German attack on Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. ... Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler, Ion Antonescu, C.G.E. Mannerheim, Benito Mussolini, Miklós Horthy, Jozef Tiso Joseph Stalin Strength ~3. ... Combatants Nazi Germany Soviet Union Commanders Fedor von Bock, Heinz Guderian Georgy Zhukov, Aleksandr Vasilevsky Strength As of October 1: 1,000,000+ men, 1,700 tanks, 14,000 guns, 950 planes[1] As of October 1: 1,250,000 men, 1,000 tanks, 7,600 guns, 677 planes[2... Combatants United States Empire of Japan Commanders Husband Kimmel (USN), Walter Short (USA) Chuichi Nagumo (IJN), Mitsuo Fuchida (IJNAS), Shigekazu Shimazaki (IJNAS) Strength 8 battleships, 8 cruisers, 29 destroyers, 9 submarines, ~50 other ships, ~390 planes 6 aircraft carriers, 9 destroyers, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 8... 1942 • Battle of Midway • Battle of Stalingrad • 2nd Battle of El Alamein Combatants United States of America Empire of Japan Commanders Chester W. Nimitz Frank J. Fletcher Raymond A. Spruance Isoroku Yamamoto Chuichi Nagumo Tamon Yamaguchi† Strength 3 carriers, ~50 support ships, 233 carrier aircraft, 127 land-based aircraft 4 carriers, 7 battleships, ~150 support ships, 248 carrier aircraft, 16 floatplanes Casualties... Combatants Germany Italy Hungary Romania Slovakia Soviet Union Commanders Maximilian von Weichs Friedrich Paulus # Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Italo Garibaldi Gusztav Jany Petre Dumitrescu Constantin Constantinescu Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Georgiy Zhukov Semyon Timoshenko Konstantin Rokossovsky Rodion Malinovsky Strength German Sixth Army German Fourth Panzer Army Romanian Third Army... For the Battle of Alam Halfa, which is also often termed the Second Battle of El Alamein, see Battle of Alam Halfa Combatants British Eighth Army Panzer Army Africa Commanders Bernard Montgomery Erwin Rommel Strength 220,000 men 1,100 tanks[1] 116,000 men[1] 559 tanks(220 panzers... 1943 • End in Africa • Battle of Kursk • Guadalcanal campaign • Allied invasion of Italy The Tunisia Campaign was a series of World War II battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the World War II, between forces of the German/Italian Axis, and allied forces consisting primarily of U.S., British and small numbers of Vichy French. ... Combatants Nazi Germany Soviet Union Commanders Erich von Manstein Hans von Kluge Hermann Hoth Walther Model Georgiy Zhukov Konstantin Rokossovskiy Nikolay Vatutin Ivan Konyev Strength 2,700 tanks 800,000 infantry, 2,000 aircraft 3,600 tanks 1,300,000 infantry, 2,400 aircraft Casualties German Kursk : 50,000 dead... Combatants Allied forces including: United States Australia New Zealand British Solomon Is. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...	1944 • Battle of Normandy • Operation Bagration • Operation Market Garden • Battle of Leyte Gulf Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B... Combatants Axis Soviet Union Commanders Ernst Busch Walther Model Ferdinand Schörner Konstantin Rokossovski Georgy Zhukov Aleksandr Vasilevsky Strength 800,000 1,700,000 Casualties (Soviet est. ... Combatants United Kingdom United States Canada Poland Germany Commanders Bernard Montgomery Brian Horrocks Roy Urquhart James M. Gavin Maxwell Taylor Stanislaw Sosabowski Walter Model Wilhelm Bittrich Kurt Student Strength 35,000 20,000 Casualties 17,000 dead or wounded 4,000 - 8,000 dead or wounded Operation Market Garden (September... Combatants United States Australia Empire of Japan Commanders William Halsey, Jr (3rd Fleet) Thomas C. Kinkaid (7th Fleet) Jisaburo Ozawa Strength 17 aircraft carriers 18 escort carriers 12 battleships 24 cruisers 141 destroyers and destroyer escorts Many PT boats, submarines and fleet auxiliaries About 1,500 planes 4 aircraft carriers... 1945 • Battle of Okinawa • Battle of Berlin • End in Europe • Hiroshima and Nagasaki • Surrender of Japan Combatants United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia Empire of Japan Commanders Simon B. Buckner†, Joseph W. Stilwell, Ray Spruance Mitsuru Ushijima† Strength 548,000 regulars, 1300 ships,  ? aircraft 100,000 regulars & militia,  ? ships,  ? aircraft Casualties 12,513 dead or missing, 38,916 wounded, 33,096 non-combat wounded... Combatants Soviet Union Poland Germany Commanders Georgiy Zhukov Ivan Konev Konstantin Rokossovskiy Vasiliy Chuykov Adolf Hitler â€  Gotthard Heinrici Helmuth Reymann Ernst Kaether (one day) Helmuth Weidling # Karl Dönitz # Wilhelm Mohnke # Strength 2,500,000 soldiers, 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces [1] 1,000,000... During the Battle for Berlin, the Red Flag was raised over the Reichstag, May 1945. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. ... • more military engagements USS Lexington explodes during the Battle of the Coral Sea. ... Aftermath • Effects • Casualties • Expulsion of Germans • Cold War • in contemporary culture Note: This section was copied from the article World War II and removed from that article in order to reduce the size of the article. ... Piechart showing percentage of military and civilian deaths by alliance during World War II. World War II was the single deadliest conflict the world has ever seen, causing many tens of millions of deaths. ... Germans expelled from the Sudetenland // The expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the escape and mass deportation of people considered Germans (Reichsdeutsche and some Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories during 1945 and in the first three years after World War II 1946-48. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... The influence of World War II has been profound and diverse, having an impact on many parts of life. ... Lists • Category • Topics • Conferences // Military engagements For military topics (land, naval, and air engagements as well as campaigns, operations, defensive lines and sieges), please see List of military engagements of World War II. Political and social aspects of the war Causes of World War II Appeasement Occupation of Denmark Netherlands in World War II... List of World War II conferences of the Allied forces In total Churchill attended 14 meetings, Roosevelt 12, Stalin 5. ...	• Attacks on North America • Blitzkrieg • Comparative military ranks • Cryptography • Home front • Military awards • Military equipment • Military production • Resistance • Technology • Total war Attacks on North America during World War II by the Axis Powers were rare, mainly due to the continents geographical separation from the central theaters of conflict in Europe and Asia. ... Insert non-formatted text here This article is about the military term. ... 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The Himeyuri Monument in Itoman, Okinawa The Himeyuri Students (Himeyuri Gakutotai) was a unit of the nursing in the Battle of Okinawa. ... Selection of Hungarian Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in May/June 1944. ... Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism. ... The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as The Rape of Nanking, was a war crime incident committed by the Japanese military carried out by Japanese troops under the command of 3rd Division General Shin Makoto in and around Nanjing (then known in English as Nanking), China, after it fell to the... Combatants Germany Spanish Blue Division Soviet Union Commanders Wilhem von Leeb Georg von Küchler Kliment Voroshilov Georgiy Zhukov Strength 725,000 930,000 Casualties Unknown 300,000 military, 16,470 civilians from bombings and an estimated 1 million civilians from starvation The Siege of Leningrad (Russian: блокада Ленинграда (transliteration: blokada Leningrada... Strategic Bombing during World War II was unlike anything the world had previously witnessed. ...
Axis	Allies
Japan World Map with the participants in World War II. The Allies depicted in green (those in light green entered after the attack on Pearl Harbor), the Axis Powers in orange (including occupied or annexed countries), and neutral countries in grey. ... The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. ... Image File history File links Naval_Ensign_of_Japan. ... entered 1939  Germany  Slovakia  USSR (to 1941) Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_First_Slovak_Republic_1939-1945_bordered. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov depicted saluting a military parade in Red Square above the message Long Live the Worker-Peasant Red Army— a Dependable Sentinel of the Soviet Borders! The military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks... entered 1940  Italy (to 1943)  Vichy France* Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy_(1861-1946)_crowned. ... This page is intended to serve as a focal point for studying Italian military history during the WWII-era. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Vichy_France. ... Motto: Travail, famille, patrie (Work, family, country) unoccupied zone of Vichy France (until November 1942) Capital Vichy Language(s) French Religion Roman Catholicism Government Republic President of the Council  - 1940 - 1944 Philippe Pétain Legislature National Assembly Historical era World War II  - Battle of France June 16, 1940  - Battle of... entered 1941  Bulgaria*  Iraq (1941 only)  Romania*  Finland*  Hungary  Croatia*  Nedić's Serbia*  Vlasov Russians  Manchuria  Mengjiang  Free India Image File history File links Flag_of_Bulgaria_(1878-1944). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Iraq_1924. ... Combatants Kingdom of Iraq United Kingdom India Commanders Rashid Ali General Sir Edward Quinan Strength five divisions about two divisions Casualties 2,500 KIA, about 6,000 POWs 1,200 (KIA, MIA, WIA) The Anglo-Iraqi War is the name of hostilities between the United Kingdom and the Iraqi nationalist... File links The following pages link to this file: Axis Powers Flag of Romania Categories: Flag images ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Finland_(bordered). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Hungary_1940. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Croatia_Ustasa. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (900x596, 36 KB) Reason for deletion request: NOTE: This is not redundant to Flag of Serbia. ... Nedićs Serbia (Nedićeva Srbija) is the popular name for the Serbian nazi puppet state that existed between 1941 and 1944, on the teritory of parts of todays Serbia. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia_(bordered). ... A soldier of the Russian Liberation Army Russian Liberation Army or ROA (Русская Освободительная Армия, Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Armiya), also known as the Vlasov army, was a group of volunteer Russian forces allied with Nazi Germany during World War II. The ROA was organized by former Red Army general Andrey Vlasov, who tried... Image File history File links Flag_of_Manchukuo. ... Manchukuo (1932–1945), Manchu country, was a former state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia created by former Qing Dynasty officials and Imperial Japan in 1932. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Mengjiang. ... Mengjiang, (蒙疆 in pinyin: MÄ›ngjiāng; in Wade-Giles: Meng-chiang; Postal Pinyin: Mengkiang), Meng Chiang, also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was a puppet state in northern China (consisted of Chahar and Suiyuan provinces) controlled by Japan. ... Image File history File links 1931_Flag_of_India. ... The Legion Freies Indien, or the Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950 variously known as the Tiger Legion, the Free India Legion (in English), The Azad Hind Legion, or the I.R 950 (Indisches Infanterie Regiment 950) was an Indian armed unit raised in 1941 attached to the Wehrmacht, ostensibly according... entered 1942  Thailand  Burma Image File history File links Flag_of_Thailand. ... Image File history File links -Burma1942Japanese1. ... entered 1943  Salò Republic  China-Nanjing Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... War flag of the Italian Social Republic. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China. ... The Wang Jingwei Government was a government under the leadership of Wang Jingwei in the Republic of China, set up by the Empire of Japan in March 1940. ...	Rep. of China  Czechoslovakia Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Republic_of_China. ... Combatants Republic of China Empire of Japan Commanders Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Cheng, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, Xue Yue, Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai Fumimaro Konoe, Hideki Tojo, Matsui Iwane, Jiro Minami, Kesago Nakajima, Toshizo Nishio, Yasuji Okamura, Umezu Yoshijiro Strength 5,600,000 4,100,000 (including 900... Image File history File links Flag_of_Czechoslovakia_(bordered). ... entered 1939  Poland  United Kingdom  France (to 1940)  Australia  Canada  India  New Zealand  South Africa Image File history File links Flag_of_Poland_corrected_(bordered). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_France. ... The military history of France during World War II covers the period from 1939 until 1940, which witnessed French military participation under the Third Republic, and the period from 1940 until 1945, which was marked by colonial struggles between Vichy France and the Free French Forces under Charles de Gaulle... Image File history File links Flag_of_Australia. ... Image File history File links Canadian_Red_Ensign_1921. ... Image File history File links Imperial-India-Blue-Ensign. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_New_Zealand. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_South_Africa_1928-1994. ... entered 1940  Norway  Belgium  Netherlands  Free France  Greece Image File history File links Flag_of_Norway. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Belgium_(civil). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Netherlands. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Free_France_1940-1944. ... Free French Forces under review during the Battle of Normandy. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Greece_(1828-1978). ... entered 1941  Yugoslavia  Soviet Union  United States  Philippines Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia_(state). ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in Latin, Југославија in Cyrillic, English: Land of the South Slavs) describes four political entities that existed one at a time on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union. ... Image File history File links US_flag_48_stars. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Philippines. ...	entered 1942  Free Thai  Brazil Image File history File links Flag_of_Thailand. ... The Free Thai Movement (Thai: ขบวนการเสรีไทย, Khabuankarn Seri Thai) was an underground resistance movement against Japan during World War II. The movement was one of the important sources to the Allies for military intelligence in this region. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Brazil. ... entered 1943  Italy Image File history File links Flag_of_Italy_(1861-1946)_crowned. ... entered 1944  Bulgaria  Romania  Finland Image File history File links Flag_of_Bulgaria_(1878-1944). ... File links The following pages link to this file: Axis Powers Flag of Romania Categories: Flag images ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Finland_(bordered). ... entered 1945  Burma Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
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