Schematic plan · The Manchurian Incident (1938-1939)

Changkufeng-Shachaofeng

31 July 1938
Manchuria
Victory for Japan

All battles Battle of Lake Khasan: engagement 1 of 3 The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.

One of the 3 engagements of the Battle of Lake Khasan recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 1 in date order). Japan (Jap I/75th Inf Regt(+), 1,410 men under Col Sato) attacked USSR (Sov 59th Border Guard Unit(-), 1,460 men under Col Grebennik) in Manchuria. The CAA Database of Battles records 6 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a single envelopment, left flank, frontal attack against prepared defense, and that Japan won. Losses: Japan 178 (13%), USSR 350 (24%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

Japan

Col Sato

Unit	Arm	Men
Japan left wing	Infantry	288
Japan centre	Infantry	384
Japan right wing	Infantry	288
Japan reserve	Infantry	240
Japan artillery (14 guns)	Artillery	210
Col Sato	Commander	—
In this plan		1,410

USSR

Col Grebennik

Unit	Arm	Men
USSR left wing	Infantry	274
USSR centre	Infantry	365
USSR right wing	Infantry	274
USSR reserve	Infantry	228
USSR artillery (20 guns)	Artillery	219
USSR armour (20 tanks)	Armour	100
Col Grebennik	Commander	—
In this plan		1,460

What the sources report

	Japan	USSR
Strength, this plan	1,410	1,460
Losses, this plan	178	350

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 256, “Changkufeng-Shachaofeng”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 6 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rugged, Bare
Weather: Dry, Temperate, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 3 km (attacker), 3 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Japanattacker	1,410	178	0	14	Single envelopment; Left flank; Frontal attack; Penetration
USSRdefender	1,460	350	0	20	Defensive/offensive plan; Repulse; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages leadership +2 · initiative +1 · surprise +1 · combat effectiveness +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 256 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Lake Khasan · CC-BY-SA-4.0

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.