According to the 1933 establishment order of the Soviet Red Army, the First Mechanized Infantry Army carried two tank divisions and one motorized infantry division, of which the tank divisions were numbered the first tank division and the second tank division respectively, and the motorized infantry division was called the first motorized infantry division.

According to Tukhachevsky's research, the tank division consisted of two tank regiments and one motorized infantry regiment. Each of these tank regiments had 93 tanks, organized into three battalions, one armed with T-26 and the other two armed with BT-2 fast tanks.

Originally, according to Tukhachevsky's assumption, one of the three battalions was supposed to be armed with T-28 medium tanks. But whoever made the T-28 table too bad was cut off directly, and then the BT-2 was used to make up for it.

As for the motorized infantry regiment, in fact, it is not much different from the ordinary infantry division, and the motorized infantry at this time is not the kind of "motorized infantry" that the Red Army later called in infantry fighting vehicles to participate in battles, but the infantry that got rid of mules and horses and used cars to march, and still relied on their legs to advance during the battle.

That is, the motorized infantry of the Red Army at this time was more equipped with cars than ordinary infantry, that is, it was not so dependent on the movement of troops along the railway line. In addition to these two tank divisions, the 1st Mechanized Infantry Corps was equipped with two such motorized infantry regiments and one tank regiment.

At this time, the 1st and 2nd Tank Divisions attacked forward along the left and right banks of the Hellasten River, while the 1st Motorized Infantry Division fell later as a reserve, and on the other side of the 2nd Tank Division, near Nuren Aobao Mountain, Zhukov's 4th Cavalry Division presented a long snake formation, and further west, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions were in progress.

And at this time, the Kwantung Army also reacted. The main forces of the 23 Division began to be transferred to the battlefield. Also mobilized were the 1st Tank Regiment and the 7th Infantry Division of the Japanese Army. However, because the Belarusian-Albanian railway was not completed. Whether it is the 1st Tank Regiment or the 7th Division, it will take quite a long time to get to the battlefield.

The most important thing is that the Kwantung Army command and the base camp did not completely agree on the judgment of the surprise attack of the Red Army, which considered it a full-scale invasion by the Soviet Union, while the base camp believed that it was at most a limited invasion. The inconsistency in judgment led to a divergence in the determination of the Japanese army to reinforce the battlefield on the Haraha River, and the Kwantung Army meant that in addition to sending the 1st Tank Regiment and the 7th Division, it was necessary to also put the 14th Brigade stationed in Hailar into the battlefield. And the base camp means that you should wait and see, there are already two divisions on the battlefield, plus a tank regiment and a considerable number of puppet Manchurian cavalry, and then put in a Manchurian brigade. It's too much fuss.

To put it bluntly, the base camp still did not mean to make things high, and was even very worried that the Kwantung Army would use this to expand the conflict and turn a local war into a full-scale war, which was the main reason why they were very cautious about investing in the 14th Brigade.

That is to say, on the second day of the battle, the strength of the Red Army and the Japanese army was still very different, almost the 23rd Division of the Kwantung Army plus some puppet Manchukuo cavalry units directly resisted the six divisions of the Red Army! If you add the two other infantry divisions and one cavalry division of the Mongolian army, which was responsible for supporting and serving as a reserve behind the Red Army, and the Red Banner Front in the Far East, it is really even more disproportionate.

And there is also a question, since Blyucher still has almost five divisions on hand, why not put it into the battlefield to expand the results? There are two reasons for this. The first, relatively minor reason, is that both the Soviet Union and the Japanese base camp have a limit on the scale of the war. This is a local war, which must not develop into an all-out war. The top leadership on both sides has been somewhat restrained. If Blyukhel threw all his troops into it in one go, it would be too big and easy to make a big deal, and even the current scale would have worried the Politburo.

In addition to the pressure from above, the most important reason is that this battlefield is saturated, and it is simply impossible to put in more troops. In fact, now it is crowded to throw six divisions in one go. In Blyukhel's meaning, there was no need to invest so many troops in such a large place, and even the First Army of the Mechanized Infantry was not fully deployed on the left flank of the battlefield, and the speed of their assault on both sides of the Hylatten River was greatly affected.

To be honest, from the moment he saw the battle plan, Rokossovsky was not very satisfied, because the assault section of his troops was not actually suitable for armored forces, the Hailatan River, a tributary of the Haraha River, divided his troops in two, and the terrain was relatively rugged and there was a distant desert in front of it. Rokossovsky believed that his troops should be placed on the right flank, which was now occupied by the 1st Cavalry Corps, which was relatively gentle and suitable for tank groups.

So why did Blyukhel keep the current configuration? The reason is very simple, first of all, the main force of the 23rd Division of the Japanese Army is in the direction of the assault of the First Army of the Mechanized Infantry, and it is very reasonable to use the strongest troops to beat the strongest troops of the enemy to make a trump card. Secondly, Blyukhel was a little more familiar with the use of cavalry and was more adept at using cavalry. Placing the 1st Cavalry Corps on the right flank and striking from the relatively weak side made it possible to land a beautiful right hook. If Timoshenko moved fast enough, he could outflank the Japanese 23rd Division and encircle it in one fell swoop.

To put it bluntly, Blyukhel used the First Army of Mechanized Infantry as a hammer, allowing it to forcefully hit the iron plate of the 23rd Division, attracting its attention and creating conditions for the cavalry to outflank it.

It should be said that, apart from a slight lack of confidence in the mechanized troops, there were no major problems with the layout of Blyukher, which was based on his own military experience. However, whether it is the real optimal configuration on the battlefield is still up for debate, at least from the perspective of the later battle process, this configuration needs to be adjusted.

Continuing to return to the battle itself, Zhukov's troops showed a strong desire to assault from the first day of the battle, and after racing more than 20 kilometers on the first day, his speed was still very fast on the second day, and he continued to develop rapidly into the depth of the enemy, once beating the puppet Manchukuo puppet army to the point of peeing and only hating his father and mother for missing two legs.

Anyway, according to his tendency to advance suddenly, he would be able to complete the scheduled combat mission -- cutting off the escape route of the 23rd Division -- on the fifth day of the battle. However, these days, the 1st Riding Division and the 2nd Riding Division are not so ideal. With the Japanese 7th Division rushed to the battlefield. They ran head-on into the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions. After a short and fierce battle, although the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions repelled the 7th Division, the momentum of the advance was also interrupted. Especially when the 7th Division began to build fortifications to hold its position, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 2nd Cavalry Division did not seem to have many options.

Why aren't there many ways? The reason is simple, the artillery attached to these two cavalry divisions was left behind, and it was not easy for the cavalry, without heavy artillery support, to tear through the line on their own. Especially when the devil is 100,000 difficult and tenacious, this is even more difficult.

That is, the fifth day of the battle. The momentum of the Red Army's indomitable advance at the beginning of the war had been put to an end, and the cavalry units had not been able to complete the tasks assigned to them by Blyukher, and had not been able to complete the interspersed encirclement. Except for Zhukov's troops, the other two cavalry divisions were bogged down in bitter battles, except for Zhukov's troops. Moreover, it was very dangerous that there was a large gap between the 4th Cavalry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division and the 2nd Cavalry Division, and Zhukov's troops were in a situation of being alone.

This is very dangerous, once the Japanese army continues to mobilize reinforcements, the first to be attacked will inevitably be the 4th Cavalry Division, and the 4th Cavalry Division at this time due to forced marching and combat attrition, the material shortage and body loss is also quite large. Especially their artillery was still far behind, once besieged. It can be said that there is more luck than luck!

As a veteran, Blyukhel was aware of the danger at the first time, but perceiving the danger does not mean that the problem can be solved, whether the 1st Cavalry Division and the 2nd Cavalry Division can repel the 7th Division as much as possible is a problem, if not, the problem will naturally not be solved.

At that time, Blyukhel wanted to give Timoshenko an order to withdraw the 4th Cavalry Division, but in this way, the entire battle plan became a dead letter? What if the 4th Cavalry Division retreats on the front foot, and the 23rd Division runs away on the back foot?

Withdraw, all plans have failed, if not, the situation of the 4th Cavalry Division is very dangerous, for a while Blyukhel was a little undecided, and after thinking about it for a while, he decided to listen to the opinions of the commanders below.

"Semyon. Comrade Konstantinovich, when will your troops arrive at the intended position? Now only the 4th Cavalry Division has completed the task, and the situation is not very ideal! ”

In fact, what Blyukhel really wanted to ask was whether he could withdraw the 4th Cavalry Division, but he couldn't ask directly, because it seemed that he had no confidence in Timoshengo and would hurt Timoshenko's face too much, so he changed his euphemistic question.

So did Timoshenko know what Blyukhel was really trying to ask? I know it. As an excellent cavalry general, he can naturally see that there are problems on the battlefield. This situation is really not favorable, and it is indeed dangerous to let the 4th Division hang alone outside.

However, although he felt that it was dangerous, Timoshenko did not think that there should be any adjustments for the time being, especially that there was no need to withdraw the 4th Cavalry Division. Because the situation on the battlefield had not yet reached that point, aerial reconnaissance showed that the Japanese troops on the battlefield had only two divisions and some servant troops, which was not worth mentioning compared to the Red Army units that had already started fighting.

In Timoshenko's opinion, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions had only encountered a little trouble, and when the artillery unit arrived, he would be able to solve this small trouble in a few minutes. Why did the 4th Cavalry Division withdraw at this time? Isn't that a waste of work?

Therefore, his reply was: "The troops have only encountered some difficulties temporarily, and these difficulties can be overcome, and they are not difficult to overcome......

As soon as Blyukhel heard it, he understood that Timoshenko was against it, touched his chin, and asked again: "Are the results of the aerial reconnaissance out?" ”

His staff officers immediately replied: "According to aerial reconnaissance, in addition to showing a large number of enemy activities in the Arshan area, the nearest enemy unit is still ...... Hailar"

Blyukhel nodded slightly, with this report, he was a lot more relieved, if the enemy's large reinforcements were still in Hailar, then there was really no need to adjust for the time being.

Speaking of which, compared with the army's "high drive and low walk", the air force's performance was as good as ever, not only seizing air supremacy, but also suppressing the enemy's airfields in Arshan, Manchuria, and Hailar, especially their attacks on the enemy's railway lines, which greatly delayed the movement of enemy reinforcements.

Blyukhel was very satisfied with the Air Force's performance, but for Arksness, it was not good enough. In particular, the table xiàn of the attack aircraft unit and the bomber unit. He was really disappointed. Especially TB-3. The plane's performance can only be described as bad, in the five-day bombing campaign, one-third of the TB-3 was lying on the ground because of mechanical failure, and one-third of the TB-3 was "sick on duty", the AM-34 engine is really disappointing, quite a lot of times, the TB-3 can only carry two 250 kg aircraft bomb attack, and the load on the engine is too great. Prone to breakdowns.

What can you do with a bomb load of 500 hundred kilograms? In particular, the hit rate of high-altitude horizontal bombing is already miserable, so to speak, the role of TB-3 is more of a psychological deterrent, and it is basically powerless to paralyze the enemy's military facilities.

Even this psychological deterrence is not very strong, and the survivability of the slow TB-3 is really not good, and it is almost impossible to escape when it encounters an attack by enemy aircraft. On more than one occasion, Japanese fighter pilots piloted the old Type 91 fighter to open the scoop for the TB-3.

Let's put it this way, in all ground attack operations, it was the old Lenin-2 dive bomber that really worked, and 90% of the targets were destroyed by them. On more than one occasion, the Air Force's officers have made strong calls for an advanced attack aircraft to be given to them immediately, and the close support factions in the Air Force, which were already opposed to the development of long-range aviation, have also found an excuse to attack. Constantly questioning the line of Arxnis.

This made Arxnes and the Air Force top brass even more eager for the Boeing 299, a long-range bomber that had just received the YB-17 designation. If it weren't for the fact that the test flight had not yet ended, they would have the heart to place an order for a few hundred aircraft at once. At the same time, he repeatedly urged Tupolev's twin-engine bomber, and even wanted to take the prototype directly to the battlefield.

However, the progress of Tupolev's fast bomber was not smooth at this time, although his prototype ANT-40 No. 1 flew 360 kilometers per hour on its maiden flight on October 1, 1934. But unfortunately, during the test flight on October 31 of that year, due to engine failure, the No. 1 aircraft was damaged during the forced landing, and it took three full months to repair it.

While the unlucky No. 1 was returned to the factory for repair, the No. 2 prototype with two 12Ybrs engines was completed (the project had to be powered by M-25 air-cooled engines due to Tukhachevsky's obstruction). And then on December 30 made its first flight, although the 12Ybrs engine was nearly one-third heavier than the M-25 engine of the first plane, and in order to improve the take-off and landing performance and increase the range, the wingspan of the second aircraft was 1.25 meters longer than that of the first aircraft, but because the V-type liquid-cooled engine has much less wind resistance than the air-cooled engine, and the engine fairing was designed very successfully, the second aircraft actually flew a super good result of 416 kilometers per hour, breaking the unofficial world record in the same class.

However, the joy was short-lived, because for the Air Force logistics personnel, they did not like the second engine with a liquid-cooled engine, because it was more difficult to serve than the air-cooled M-25 engine. And it is not only a problem that is difficult to serve, but more importantly, although the design of the retractable oil radiator of the machine is very ingenious, the heat dissipation efficiency is really unsatisfactory, and as a result, the ANT-40IS is frequently overheated due to the failure of the engine cooling system, especially when climbing!

In fact, the solution to this problem is very simple, that is, to change the egg-hurting telescopic oil radiator to a fixed type, redesign the engine fairing and expand the radiator air intake. Of course, if you change it like this, you will definitely lose a certain amount of speed.

At that time, the Air Force and the design institute approved the change, but Ordzhonikidze, who was in charge of the aviation industry, did not buy it, and he, who had always hated Tupolev, directly opened the spray, accusing Tupolev's design team of "deliberately" reducing the performance of the original design.

In the end, the lawsuit went directly to Lenin, who was about to retire, and the mentor solved the problem with one sentence: "Comrades, there are no trivial matters in aviation design, and the negligence of any detail may cause us to lose our precious aircraft and precious pilots, so I personally respect the opinion of the designer comrades." ”

Well, Lenin settled the dispute with one sentence, but this did not mean that the ANT-40 project was smooth sailing, and not long after the modification of the radiator and fairing, the second prototype was again defeated. The landing gear and part of the rear fuselage were damaged during a landing, and the test flight was interrupted again until the closing of the conference in 1935. It was on that day that the ANT-40IS was officially named the Fast Bomber, which later became the Sb-2 Bomber (SB-2).

However, it was clear that the SB-2, which had only resumed its test flights in April 1935, would not have been able to catch up with the war, as well as the Polikarpov fighter of what would later become known as the I-20 project, and the Pe-1 dive bomber and Ro-1 torpedo bomber, which had been finalized and put into production in 1936.

As far as the naval aviation units that had just rushed to the battlefield were concerned, they could only use the old IL-5K to compete with the Japanese army's Type 91 and Type 92 fighters. However, according to the commander-in-chief of the Air Force of the Red Banner Front in the Far East, Alexei. Vasilyevich. Nikitin's order, the I-5K of naval aviation does not participate in the battle for air supremacy, and is mainly used for reconnaissance and ground attacks. However, Sukhoi, the commander of the special naval aviation army formed for this campaign, was very unconvinced and had a stomach-filled opinion on this order to protect the pilots of the naval aviation...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to Mahshin Bobo, Flying Universe, hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus!