Soviet pre-emptive strike against Japan

In June 1941 many in the Soviet Union were terrified by the idea that Japan would come to the aid of it's ally and invade the Far Eastern Soviet Union. Soviet forces were unnecessarilly huge on the Japanese border and had already proved twice they could easily best the powerful Kwantung Army through superior tactics and equipment.

So what if in August 1941 the Red Army launched an all out offensive into Manchuria August storm style.They would not need to recall any troops from the western front and could have seized Manchuria and Korea.Also it is likely that the majority of these troops could have been pulled back to save Moscow as per OTL as Japan would not launch any large counter offensive on land or sea during winter.

Could this have worked?
 

Sachyriel

Banned
Even if there was enough men for any operation against Japan, I doubt the USSR had enough material to sustain the two immensely draining fronts it would be forced to deal with.
 
Even if there was enough men for any operation against Japan, I doubt the USSR had enough material to sustain the two immensely draining fronts it would be forced to deal with.

I was thinking more of a blitzkrieg style offensive and the Soviets did in fact have sufficient resources to hold back a sustained Japanese attack,resources which could have been used to deal a decisive blow to the distracted Kwantung Army.
 

nbcman

Donor
If the blow wasn't decisive enough to put Japan out, you would lose the route where almost 50% of Lend Lease from the USA to USSR was shipped. I don't think that Stalin was in the right mind during this timeframe to want to jump into another war when they were fighting for there life against the European Axis.

American aid to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945 amounted to 18 million tons of materiel at an overall cost of $10 billion ($120 billion modern) and 49 percent of it went through Vladivostok, the major Pacific port of Far Eastern Russia, Tuyll reported.
Vladivostok was a valuable port for this program because Russia’s northern ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk were attacked by Nazi Germany and many of the lend-lease shipments were lost. In 1942-1944 the Soviet Union chartered about 120 American ships and 50 U.S. tankers, and to protect these vessels from attack by Japan in the wake of its December 1941 strafing of Pearl Harbor, American crews sailed under the Soviet hammer and sickle flag. When lend-lease shipments arrived at Vladivostok they were stored both in port terminals and in warehouses on Portovaya and Verkhne-Portovaya streets, then they were conveyed by train along the Trans-Siberian Railroad to points west. During the war the port of Vladivostok handled four times more cargo than Murmansk and Far Eastern railroad traffic was four times greater than the rest of nation.

citation: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1385548/posts
 

Markus

Banned
I was thinking more of a blitzkrieg style offensive and the Soviets did in fact have sufficient resources to hold back a sustained Japanese attack,resources which could have been used to deal a decisive blow to the distracted Kwantung Army.

Ok, why was the KA distracted? Why attack at all if you can defeat any Japanese attack? Remember the western front was falling apart at this time. That is a bad time to start another war.
 
Ok, why was the KA distracted?

They were occupied with fighting the Chinese popular front.

Why attack at all if you can defeat any Japanese attack? Remember the western front was falling apart at this time. That is a bad time to start another war.

As you said the front in the west was collapsing so it would be apparent to many that these reserves would need to be recalled at some time so it would make sense to remove the threat before you remove the forces you have to counter the threat.
 

Hyperion

Banned
So what if you remove the threat?

Even if the attack is 100% successful with everything but political gains achieved, this doesn't mean that the Soviets couldn't take a sizeable number of casualties, both in terms of lives lost, and equipment damaged or destroyed, even in a victory scenario.

Also, for a major invasion, how long would it take. A day? A week? A month?

This is beyond ASB realistically. At this time, even though nothing is official yet, most everyone knows that there is a very real possibility of the Japanese opening armed conflict with the US and European powers.

Also, your arguement falls apart by your own words. The Japanese where distracted by the Chinese, so how could they possibly be an immediate threat?

All in all, this would suck for the Japanese, and take pressure off the US and UK, but it could still turn out bad in the long run for the Soviets.

Also, consider this. The closer to Japan, the closer they are to land based bombers from the home islands, and the Japanese industrial heartland.
 
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