I Became Stalin?! - Chapter 178:

Chapter 178

The Japanese Kwantung Army’s operational plan was typical of the Japanese military.

First, they would launch an invasion towards Liaodong Peninsula, defeat the Soviet Far East Army’s ground and air forces, and occupy major cities such as Ussuriysk, Vladivostok, and Borzya. Then, they would switch from defensive to offensive in the west, towards Zabaykalsk, and crush the Soviet Army.

In summary, they would clear the troublesome rear (east) first, and then advance to the west.

In this process, they had various plans, such as launching Operation Yangdong to cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway that ran along the Soviet-Manchurian border in the north, or destroying the Soviet Army’s offensive capabilities with a large-scale surprise attack.

The Kwantung Army’s operational plan, which was based on the idea of bypassing the Soviet Army’s main defense line with rapid maneuvers, breaking through the weak points, and encircling and annihilating the Soviet Army, began to fall apart from the start of the war.

“This is the Kwantung Army’s operational plan?”

“Yes, it is, General Chief of Staff. It is the operational plan of 1942, so there may be some changes.”

Vasilyevsky read the report with an incredulous expression.

Unlike Zhukov, who had a proud and fiery personality, he was the type of general who always tried to evaluate the enemy carefully. But even he could not understand the Japanese Army this time.

“What are they thinking of bypassing with? Infantry? How can they encircle and annihilate anyone with mechanized forces that are not properly equipped?”

“That is… I don’t know either…”

“Where are they going to deploy these thousand light tanks… in this vast battlefield?”

The mechanized corps, which could be said to be the backbone of the Soviet-style maneuver warfare, had at least 250 armored vehicles.

Since the Soviet tank/mechanized corps were equivalent to divisions in Germany or the Western armies, the Kwantung Army’s tank strength was only four division-sized units.

And they were not even 74mm, but 47mm guns mounted on light tanks. How could they break through the Soviet Army’s defense line with those?

The Japanese Army’s tank strength data, which was stolen from the corrupt Kwantung Army officers, labeled the American light tank M3 Stuart as a ‘powerful medium tank’, and the M4 Sherman medium tank as a ‘tremendous performance medium tank’.

It was unbelievable for the Soviet Army, which had fought against the real monsters like the German Panther and Tiger in the Eastern Front.

“Is this the same Sherman that I know? Why is that a ‘medium tank’…?”

The Soviet Union also had some Sherman tanks that they received from Lend-Lease, so they knew the performance of the Sherman tanks.

Compared to the T-34-85 tank, it was superior in several non-catalog performance aspects, but it was not inferior to the improved T-34 tank in terms of basic firepower or armor.

The Soviet Union produced and deployed tens of thousands of T-34 tanks.

And if they thought about the Budyonny medium tank, which was developed to counter the German medium tanks and was one class above the T-34, the Japanese Army, which called the Sherman a medium tank, was beyond their comprehension.

“You guys, honestly, isn’t this operational plan a deception? Does this make sense?”

“But… all the information says that this is the truth, General Chief of Staff, comrade.”

“No! At least they should have deployed a few divisions in the Daehungryeong mountain range to defend against the offensive!”

Vasilyevsky was speechless. How could people who studied military science make such a plan?

Was the Japanese Army not even an army? How did these bastards fight on equal terms with the Americans for a while? What was Germany thinking when they abandoned China, which had a huge population, and joined hands with these guys?

Well, if they had a normal judgment, they wouldn’t have invaded the Soviet Union in the first place.

“Hmm… let’s reactivate the intelligence line. There must be something, there must be something wrong!”

“Yes, yes, sir. But…”

“But what?”

When the staff trailed off, Vasilyevsky pressed him for an answer with an expression that he knew what was coming. But the staff still looked puzzled.

“According to the local reconnaissance results, there is no defense force in the Daehungryeong mountain range. The Japanese Army judged that they could not maneuver their armored units there, both in theory and in reality.”

“Did they see the Ardennes Plateau?”

“…Yes.”

It was ridiculous. That was Vasilyevsky’s impression.

The Soviet Army’s armored units had annihilated the enemy in the harsh terrain of northern Scandinavia, the Carpathian Mountains, and the Balkan Mountains.

Nevertheless, the Daehungryeong mountain range, which reached up to 2,000 meters above sea level, was not easy, but if they deployed only a few divisions, they could easily stop the Soviet Army. And they just concluded that they could not break through and left it empty?

“But… what can we do if they think that way?”

“…”

He had nothing to say.

He had a hard time adapting to the Japanese Army’s low-level officers and soldiers, after facing the innovators, the great generals like Walter Model, Erich von Manstein, and Heinz Guderian.

He planned the operation assuming that they would have prepared some countermeasures for this level of difficulty, but they were amazing people who did not do what they should. That was how he felt about the Japanese.

“…All right. Then… let’s proceed with the landing operation on Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Hokkaido as planned.”

“Yes! Yes, sir!”

The secretary-general had planned to tear up Japan as he had torn up Germany.

After Peter the Great, Russia had wanted to advance to the warm-water port, so they would occupy Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Hokkaido, and divide Japan into north and south and establish a military administration with the United States.

They also had in mind to tear up Japan as they had torn up Germany, but…

“If we burn them all…”

Since the sea transportation was difficult, and most of the major cities that were responsible for Japan’s industrial capabilities were concentrated in the southern region that the United States would occupy, they decided to burn everything they could not take.

Instead, the Soviet Union decided to seize various industrial facilities in Manchuria and provide them to the Koreans, who would be their partners in the Far East.

They might look bad when they asked for money from the United States if they ate too much, right?

Anyway, that was what they did.

***

“Huh… How can there be no defense force here?”

“Right?”

The Daehungryeong mountain range was difficult, but it was not an obstacle for the heroes of the counterattack.

Before Germany surrendered, the First Balkan Front Army had moved to the Far East by rail.

The troops that were collectively called the Zabaykalsk Front Army were ordered to break through the Daehungryeong mountain range, which gently curved the plain along the western Soviet-Manchurian border, and occupy the Liaodong Peninsula and Dalian, where the scars of the Russo-Japanese War remained.

As the main force of the Manchurian vacuum operation, the Zabaykalsk Front Army expected to face the most difficult terrain and the strongest defense line, but they enjoyed the feeling of going on a picnic.

The Japanese Army seemed to really believe that the Soviet Union could not maneuver here.

“Haha… They think they can stop us? With this mountain range?”

“I wouldn’t mind if it was the Pripyat Marshes…”

For them, who had crossed the Carpathian Mountains and fought against the ruthless and cruel SS units in the Balkan highlands, Manchuria was nothing but a playground.

“Let’s advance!”

Japanese fighters often came out to meet the Soviet Army in the sky. The reason they could say that they came out to meet them was that they did not inflict any damage on the Soviet ground forces.

“Ugh! What is so hard!”

[I hit it, I hit it, but it doesn’t budge!]

Nor did the Soviet Air Force suffer much. The Fire Bear fighters were much superior in design, even though they were developed around the same time.

While the Japanese Army’s Hayabusa fighter had a 1,150-horsepower engine and reduced the armor and weight as much as possible to aim for low-altitude turning battles, the Fire Bear had a high-output engine that could spit out up to 2,600 horsepower, twice as much.

They invested all the remaining output in the armor, and even equipped the weapons with much larger calibers. The Fire Bear fighters could hunt down the Hayabusa as much as they wanted.

“What did they shoot… It doesn’t feel like I was hit?”

[Yeah…]

The 20mm Kalashnikov machine gun spewed fire. The Hayabusa, which was half the size of the Fire Bear fighter and had problems with the metal material, became a rag in an instant and crashed while burning.

The fight between the hawk (Hayabusa) and the fire bear was already decided. The size was twice, the caliber of the weapon was twice, and the number was twice.

The Soviet pilots, who were used to crawling and finally shooting down the German aces who survived the Eastern Front, rushed in with excitement at the opportunity to raise their kill marks.

In a normal situation, they would have to equip ground-attack bombs or armor-piercing shells for ground support, but according to the order from the top that there would be no targets to attack on the ground, the Fire Bears, which only equipped anti-aircraft weapons, tore apart the Hayabusa that were flailing with overwhelming firepower.

“Huh? The ground is already…”

[Yes! They said they cleaned it up!]

By the time they cleared the Japanese aircraft that tried to kamikaze them, the fight on the ground was over.

The armored units trampled on the Japanese Army, which had no decent artillery or anti-tank guns.

No matter how much the Japanese dug bunkers and trenches to stop the tank units, they lacked firepower.

Likewise, the Japanese, who only had the firepower to push back the Chinese Army with infantry, had no weapons to smash the Soviet tanks, which were moving steel pillboxes.

“What kind of army is this?”

The German Army was scary until the end. That was why they smashed Berlin. Literally, they stepped on them so that they could not say ‘reinforcements from the rear’ or ‘rearmament’. That was the only way to avoid meeting the scary army again.

But Japan was… different. It was shabby. It was flimsy.

***

Despite their shabbiness, Japan had everything that the Soviet Union wanted.

“Fleet, port, manpower…”

And puppet states, Manchukuo. Major Chuykov looked at the group of Chinese who were bowing in front of him and clicked his tongue.

Soon, the Soviet Army’s vanguard would enter Harbin, one of the central cities of Manchukuo. And there, they would declare the founding of the Manchurian Communist Party.

Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, gave up the sovereignty over Inner Mongolia and Manchuria to receive the support of the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China, would be furious, but he could do nothing.

The Chinese Communist Party was already preparing for another civil war against the Republic of China.

After the Soviet Union occupied Manchuria, the Manchurian Communist Party, which was nominally a friend (友黨) of the Chinese Communist Party, would temporarily take over the region and then declare the founding of the Soviet Republic and join the Soviet Union or become a satellite state.

The infrastructure and railway facilities that Japan had built in the region, and the precious ports, would all belong to the Soviet Union!

The massive population of 50 million would become laborers who would work in the Soviet factories, and the fertile land of Manchuria would produce food to feed the Soviet people.

Even Lushun Port, which Tsar had lost, would come into the hands of the Soviet Union and become a blade aimed at China.

Japan would gather all this and give it to the Soviet Union.