Schematic plan · The Manchurian Incident (1938-1939)

Nomonhan-Opening Engagement

28 May 1939
Manchuria
Draw

All battles Battles of Khalkhin Gol: engagement 1 of 2 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 2 engagements of the Battles of Khalkhin Gol recorded in the CAA Database of Battles (number 1 in date order). Japan (Jap 64th Inf Regt(-)(+), 1,300 men under Col Yamagata) attacked USSR (Sov 11th Tk Bde(-)(+), 1,228 men under Maj Bykov) in Manchuria. The CAA Database of Battles records 24 hours of fighting on a front of 3 km, a frontal attack, double envelopment against hasty defense, and that neither side won. Losses: Japan 278 (21%), USSR 250 (20%).

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 Yamagata

Unit	Arm	Men
Japan left wing	Infantry	286
Japan centre	Infantry	381
Japan right wing	Infantry	286
Japan reserve	Infantry	238
Japan artillery (4 guns)	Artillery	60
Japan armour (10 tanks)	Armour	50
Col Yamagata	Commander	—
In this plan		1,301

USSR

Maj Bykov

Unit	Arm	Men
USSR left wing	Infantry	251
USSR centre	Infantry	334
USSR right wing	Infantry	251
USSR reserve	Infantry	209
USSR artillery (14 guns)	Artillery	184
Maj Bykov	Commander	—
In this plan		1,229

What the sources report

	Japan	USSR
Strength, this plan	1,300	1,228
Losses, this plan	278	250

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 259, “Nomonhan-Opening Engagement”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 24 hours
Winner: the draw
Terrain: Rolling, Bare
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Spring, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Hasty defense
Front width: 3 km (attacker), 5 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
Japanattacker	1,300	278	0	4	Frontal attack; Double envelopment; Penetration; Stalemate
USSRdefender	1,228	250	0	14	Defensive/offensive plan; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1 · air superiority +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. 259 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battles of Khalkhin Gol · 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.