After more than 20 days of tug-of-war, the first conflict on the Haraha River ended with the Soviet-Mongolian coalition forces withdrawing to the west bank on their own initiative, because the outside world generally believed that the Soviet-Mongolian coalition forces had a superiority of no less than 3 to 1 in strength over the Japanese and Manchurian armies opposite, this result naturally made Japan jubilant, and the congratulatory telegram flew like snowflakes to the Kwantung Army headquarters, and the commander of the 23rd Division, Komatsubara, won the reputation of "the flower of the Kwantung region" and was as famous as the "Malay Tiger" Yamashita Fumi, the "Wahu Fierce Ox" Ushijima Mitsumitsu, and others who had made great achievements in the Japanese army. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The victory in the Battle of the Haraha River was so significant, the Japanese base camp completely ignored the great superiority of the Soviet and Russian troops in armored operations, and the focus of the discussion was on how to reward the front-line soldiers, although the Kwantung Army Command noticed the astonishing losses of the front-line departments, but at the moment of victory, the generals took it for granted that these sacrifices reflected the heroic spirit of the imperial soldiers and were worth paying. Although in his summary report on the campaign, he profoundly reflected on the backwardness of the Japanese Army's current armament and tactical strategy, and put forward the necessity and urgency of carrying out military reforms, it failed to attract sufficient attention from the top level, and he himself relaxed his vigilance amid praise from his colleagues and various circles in China.

In the first Hawaiian campaign of that year, the Japanese Army's strong combat power and tenacity made the US military greatly moved, and after that, the motto "Act like the wind, guard the rank like a forest, attack like fire, and defend like a mountain" was added to the training code of American recruits. Despite the repeated defeats of the Japanese army in the middle and late stages of the Pacific War, the world still realized the formidability of the Japanese army in modern warfare. At present, the elite troops of Soviet Russia in the Far East have been defeated by the second-rate divisions of the Japanese army, and both the United States, which has direct competition with Japan in the Pacific, and the head of the Western allies, which is facing Japan's challenge on the world's strategic map, have invariably developed a new sense of crisis. Once the Japanese army occupies the entire Far East, and even expands its sphere of influence into the vast expanse of Siberia, the Japanese archipelago will be in a truly complete absolute defensive circle, and the re-expansion of this military empire will break through all constraints.

Against this background, the Soviet and Russian high-level leaders proposed to the European and American powers through diplomatic channels to join hands to contain Japan's expansion, and Germany, the United States, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands responded and sent representatives to Moscow to make contacts. The Moscow Conference was nominally to solve the problem of the low level of agricultural development in Soviet Russia, but in fact it was to clarify the positions and division of tasks of various countries on how to curb Japan's military expansion. The territory of Soviet Russia is across the sea from the Japanese archipelago, and it borders the occupied areas of Japan on the Korean Peninsula and the puppet state of Manchukuo, so it is naturally the only vanguard to directly confront it. After the defeat of the Far Eastern forces on the east bank of the Harakha River, the Soviet Russian delegates pointed out that their countries urgently needed to reorganize their troops and strengthen their equipment, but they were seriously short of funds and technology, and therefore demanded that the participating countries further lift trade restrictions on Soviet Russia and provide assistance in all respects as much as possible.

The representatives of the seven European and American countries soon reached an agreement on the general principle of aiding Russia and suppressing Japan, and for the purpose of alleviating the economic crisis and promoting trade exchanges, they agreed to relax the economic blockade against Soviet Russia, provided that Soviet Russia made a formal guarantee that it would not infiltrate European and American countries and would not support the Soviet organizations of European and American countries. On this basis, the countries agreed to provide Soviet Russia with preferential loans totaling no less than 200 billion marks with a term of not less than 10 years, 80 percent of which must be used for the purchase of military supplies and military technology from the borrowing countries, and that naval and air force equipment must not exceed 20 percent of the total amount of the loans.

In addition to easing trade restrictions and providing preferential loans, countries provide a variety of support measures according to their own conditions. The Germans decided to transfer the non-military materials that had accumulated in the warehouses to Soviet Russia at a very low price in exchange for the minerals, timber, furs and other resources that Soviet Russia was rich in, and they were willing to send military technicians free of charge to assist the Soviet Russian army in the training of officers and soldiers. The U.S. government was no longer as wealthy as it used to be, but it was more desperate than the Germans to contain Japanese expansion, so they decided to provide Soviet Russia with more than $40 billion worth of military supplies, including dozens of war-mothballed warships, in the form of cargo-for-cargo.

It is worth mentioning that the Netherlands maintained its neutrality during the two wars. Due to the special relationship between the Dutch royal family and the German royal family, during the Japanese army sweeping through Southeast Asia, the American and British colonies fell one after another, but the Dutch colonies were spared. Nowadays, these Dutch colonies have become "enclaves" surrounded by the Japanese occupation zone, and the Japanese government has repeatedly put forward the demand of "land exchange", hoping to replace the Dutch East Indies, Dutch New Guinea and the Maluku Islands with colonies in southern India or southwestern Australia, so as to turn the whole of Southeast Asia into Japan's backyard. With their thousands of men and horses in Southeast Asia, once the Japanese side uses force, it will not be able to fight at all. Under these circumstances, the Dutch government had no choice but to hope that the European and American powers would join forces to contain Japan's expansion, and it was willing to contribute money and efforts to this end -- the Dutch government and private consortiums would provide Soviet Russia with interest-free loans of up to 28 billion marks, and would use its own merchant fleet to transport aid to Soviet Russia free of charge.

With the solid industrial and military foundation of Soviet Russia, a large amount of aid from European and American countries is undoubtedly a powerful booster, and with the understanding and support of the Western allies, the Soviet Russian army can finally greatly expand its armaments in a grand manner. In the same month that the "Moscow Aid Agreement" was signed, the Soviet Russian government signed the first tranche of loans of 46.5 billion marks with Germany, the United States, Austria, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands, of which 45 billion yuan was quickly converted into military orders -- 12,005 aircraft, 26,056 military combat and transport vehicles, 44,400 artillery pieces, 171 ships, and millions of tons of guns and ammunition, and these equipment and materials will be delivered to the Soviet Russian army within four years, which is equivalent to more than 100 times the loss of equipment by the Soviet-Mongolian coalition forces on the east bank of the Haraha River!

Although the Moscow Aid Agreement was signed in secret, the Japanese side soon learned of its existence and knew most of its provisions in detail, which greatly shocked the top brass in Tokyo and made ordinary soldiers and civilians very indignant. In order to salvage the situation, the Japanese government launched one of the most vigorous diplomatic actions in the postwar period against Europe and the United States, but for various reasons, this diplomatic action was costly but ineffective, which directly led to a sharp deterioration in Japan's relations with the Western allies. In its attitude toward the United States, the Japanese Government has gone against the hardline of the past, actively reached a post-war understanding with the Japanese Government, and held contact meetings on the signing of a non-aggression agreement. This makes the Japanese side think that it has no worries in the Pacific direction.

In September 1941, less than five months after the end of the First Battle of the Haraha River, the Luftwaffe dispatched the 401st High-altitude Reconnaissance Aircraft Group of the 99th Special Service Wing to Vladivostok, Russia's largest strategic base and defensive fortress in the Far East, in response to the increasingly frequent military movements of Japanese troops on the Korean Peninsula and in the puppet Manchukuo region. The He-121 twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft "Thunderbird" equipped with the brigade can be said to be an outstanding work of the German aviation industry in the late 30s, and its maximum ceiling reached 14,800 meters -- the ceiling of ordinary aircraft is usually within 6,000 meters, and the use of a first-stage supercharged engine can reach 7,000-10,000 meters, and the use of a two-stage supercharged engine can break through 12,000 meters. When they appeared in the Far East, Japan's strongest fighters could only look up 4,000 meters below its limit, and the Japanese anti-aircraft guns of small and medium caliber were helpless against them.

With auxiliary fuel tanks attached, the He-121 has a range of 3,000 kilometers, and its radius of activity is sufficient to cover the northern regions of the Korean Peninsula, the puppet Manchukuo and even the Japanese archipelago, including three of the four bases of the Japanese Combined Fleet......

Since then, as long as the weather permits, these high-speed reconnaissance planes will conduct aerial reconnaissance of the Japanese military deployment on the Korean Peninsula and the puppet state of Manchukuo once or twice a month, and once or twice a month to conduct high-altitude reconnaissance of the northern part of the Japanese archipelago -- after arriving at the target area, the pilots use a high-altitude observer improved from a high-altitude bombing sight to make direct observations. Then, two aerial cameras located under the belly of the aircraft are manually controlled to shoot continuously at the right angle and timing. In the course of reconnaissance, whenever they encountered interceptions by Japanese fighters and interceptions by ground antiaircraft artillery fire, all the German pilots had to do was to climb as high as possible and fly at an altitude of more than 10 kilometers above the ground, and they were not even easily detected by the naked eye. In the last three months of 1941, more than 40 such reconnaissance attempts were carried out, and the Japanese accordingly carried out 31 air interceptions, none of which were successful, and the ground anti-aircraft artillery attempted 20 interceptions, again without any success.

By the beginning of 1942, the number of German reconnaissance planes stationed in the Far East had increased to 22, including 10 He-121 "Thunderbirds" and 4 Ju-56 electronic reconnaissance planes equipped with radar detectors. This equipment can calculate the position of the opponent's radar based on the intercepted radar waves, and the new aerial camera equipment manufactured by Zeiss will also effectively improve the effect of aerial reconnaissance.

(End of chapter)