Talk:Battles of Khalkhin Gol

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Also the first photo is mislabeled. This is NOT a BT-7. Look more closely[edit]

149th Rifle photograph?[edit]

I am no military historian, but this looks like a photograph of american soldiers. no unit called the 149th Rifles is mentioned in the text. Should this picture be here? Dil Green — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.24.172.122 (talk) 16:16, 13 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(Note to future readers) The photo is clearly of Soviets as the Order of the Red Banner is clearly visible on the officer's chest. 149th Regiment was part of the 36th Division. Kges1901 (talk) 12:13, 16 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Number of captured Japanese soldiers[edit]

The Imperial Japanese military records listed in the infobox cannot be right, for the simple reason that it fails to mention the number of Japanese POWs as a result of this battle. We know that Japanese soldiers were captured by the Soviets, as confirmed by the article itself. I'm curious to know, why is it that some editors regard Soviet records as "propaganda", while taking Imperial Japanese records at face value? This seems to be a glaring error of bias in the infobox, unless the number of captured Japanese troops was negligible--something I don't think we can ever know for certain. 2601:200:C100:5CF0:CC28:975A:36ED:5505 (talk) 00:31, 25 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

According to Soviet/Russian records, there were 227 Japanese and "Bargut" (Barga Mongol) prisoners taken at Khalkhin Gol (p. 96: http://japanstudies.ru/images/books/book-2013-khalkhyn_gol.pdf). On the previous page, it is mentioned that from July 19th, that is, while the battle was still being fought, a camp with a capacity to accommodate an expected 2,000 POWs was created at Ulan-Ude, but this 'expectation' failed to materialize and so the prisoners were kept in a smaller facility in Chita. Probably the Soviet propagandists reported what they wanted the reality to be rather than what the situation actually was. (Additionally, Ru-wiki mentions at least 270 Manchu defectors on top of the aforementioned 227, but I haven't looked at this in detail and information is likely sparse.) The Pittsburgher (talk) 23:20, 28 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Japanese forces/Japanese casualties[edit]

Soviet and Russian sources frequently cite a figure of 75,000 men and 182 tanks as the strength of the Japanese Sixth Army, of whom 61,000 were killed, wounded, or captured during the battle. This is inaccurate. First, "182 tanks" appears to have come from simply taking the number of tank regiments in the Yasuoka group (2) and multiplying that by 91, the number of tanks in an IJA tank regiment that US military intelligence also reported in their "Handbook on Japanese Forces." (Even this did not reflect reality as before 1943 the TO&E of a Japanese tank regiment was about 60 tanks - Leland Ness's numbers in "Rikugun" vol. 1 differ slightly from Takizawa's (linked above) but he provides a figure of 8 reserve tanks in the trains company). However, as we know from Japanese sources, the Yasuoka detachment, the only IJA armored unit at Khalkhin Gol, had only 73 tanks and 19 tankettes/armored cars. This force was actually withdrawn from combat after the unsuccessful Japanese offensive in July and was not available to face the Soviet counteroffensive in August. Page 315 of the Japanese Monograph dealing with this battle simply refers to this decision as "an error." (Source: JSOM vol. XI, part 3, book B, p. 315. Book C, covering the end of the battle and lessons learned, can be found here, while Book A, covering the earlier Battle of Lake Khasan, can be found here.)

Additionally, the entire Japanese force that faced the Soviet offensive in August consisted of the 23rd Division, 8th Border Guards Unit, elements of the 7th Division, a Manchukuo cavalry unit, and a separate artillery unit. These totalled about 25,000 men. After the defeat, the Kwantung Army made grandiose plans to gather up a large force and push the Soviets back over the river. This would have involved the 2nd and 4th Divisions, half the 1st and part of the 8th Division, the unscathed 5th Tank Regiment, 12 AT batteries (48 guns), a motorized mountain artillery regiment (24 guns), 17 regimental gun platoons (34 pieces), two 150mm howitzer regiments (the 4th and 9th - 48 guns total), 9 AA batteries (36 75mm guns?), 3 engineer platoons (36 flamethrowers), 21 transport companies, and the Manchukuo Railway Bureau motor units (1,500 vehicles). (Source, Coox, "Nomonhan p. 848) Elements of this force began arriving by 8/9 September, but there was no counteroffensive and fighting was relatively small-scale: the most serious losses were incurred by the 2nd Division's "Katayama and the 4th Division's "Goto" detachments, both of which attacked the Soviets' outer ring before a truce was declared. Hence, these forces should not be included in the total for the Sixth Army.

As for casualties, according to Appendix J of Coox's book, the Kwantung Army compiled the following internal record (The odd names are due to phonetic designations and are reproduced "as is"):

Unit Number Participated Killed Wounded
23rd Division 14,137 5,224 5,561
7th Division 10,308 1,505 1,851
8th Border Guards Unit 4,883 779 603
2nd Division 11,800 200 110
4th Division 8,315 5 6
Independent Guards Unit 3,012 38 59
1st Division 4,980 70 100
"Ta-bi" Heavy Artillery 380 96 ?
3 [?] Heavy Field Artillery 2,092 256 177
3rd "De" [sic] 1,165 14 29
Truck Unit (Kwantung Army) 2,536 31 86
AA HQ 2,641 16 61
AA Unit 935 7 29
Ka-ho [sic] 1,125 200 143
Mortar Unit 401 20 44
Tank Corps 1,627 77 83
Air Force 3,307 55 [?][From article, 152] 58 [From article, 66 "seriously wounded"]
Unidentified 744 ? ?
Miscellaneous 1,350 39 50
Total 75,736 [75,738?] 8,629 [8,729?] 9,087 [9,058+?]

61,000 casualties was not possible because there were not 61,000 men there.
The Pittsburgher (talk) 18:46, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion[edit]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 06:32, 30 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Khalkyn or Khalkhin?[edit]

On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalkhyn_Gol I read the spelling, "Khalkhyn", in the current article it is "Khakhin". https://mn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%85%D1%8B%D0%BD_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8B%D0%BD_%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BD has "Халхын". Can a common ground be found by the specialists?Redav (talk) 00:27, 19 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]