Schematic plan · The Manchurian Incident (1938-1939)

Nomonhan-Soviet Counteroffensive

20 August 1939
Manchuria
Victory for USSR

All battles Battles of Khalkhin Gol: engagement 2 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 2 in date order). USSR (Sov 1st Army Group, 57,000 men under Gen Zhukov) attacked Japan (Jap 6th Army(-), 30,000 men under Lg Ogisu) in Manchuria. The CAA Database of Battles records 264 hours of fighting on a front of 50 km, a frontal attack, single envelopment, right flank against prepared defense, and that USSR won. Losses: USSR 10,000 (18%), Japan 11,500 (38%).

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

USSR

Gen Zhukov

Unit	Arm	Men
USSR left wing	Infantry	12,305
USSR centre	Infantry	16,406
USSR right wing	Infantry	12,305
USSR reserve	Infantry	10,254
USSR artillery (216 guns)	Artillery	3,240
USSR armour (498 tanks)	Armour	2,490
Gen Zhukov	Commander	—
In this plan		57,000

Japan

Lg Ogisu

Unit	Arm	Men
Japan left wing	Infantry	6,570
Japan centre	Infantry	8,760
Japan right wing	Infantry	6,570
Japan reserve	Infantry	5,475
Japan artillery (135 guns)	Artillery	2,025
Japan armour (120 tanks)	Armour	600
Lg Ogisu	Commander	—
In this plan		30,000

What the sources report

	USSR	Japan
Strength, this plan	57,000	30,000
Losses, this plan	10,000	11,500

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 260, “Nomonhan-Soviet Counteroffensive”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 264 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Bare
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Hot, Summer, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 50 km (attacker), 60 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
USSRattacker	57,000	10,000	0	216	Frontal attack; Single envelopment; Right flank; Breakthrough
Japandefender	30,000	11,500	0	135	Defensive/offensive plan; Withdrew with heavy losses

Attacker’s advantages logistics +1 · intelligence +1 · initiative +1 · surprise +2 · 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. 260 · 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.