Speaking of this Mehris, then I have to mention one more thing. Historically, he was also a loyal lackey of Stalin, and for a time he was the head of the General Political Department. Historically, after Lyushikov's defection, as head of the General Political Department, he immediately rushed to the scene on Stalin's orders and began to rectify the revolutionary order of the Red Banner Front in the Far East.

So what kind of person is this Mehris? Straw bales and rice buckets are the most objective evaluations of him. After the outbreak of the Zhang Gufeng conflict, as Stalin's plenipotentiary envoy, his task was to monitor and intervene in Blyukhel's command of the troops. More importantly, he will soon be tried and suppressed by a group of senior commanders of the Red Banner Front in the Far East.

Historically, on June 30, 1938, Mehris mentioned in a secret letter to Stalin: "...... A true autocrat is needed on the battlefield, and he must be able to command a qiē. Obviously, Blyukhel, who was not inclined to a head-on conflict with Japan at that time, and who had always been on a different path from Stalin, was definitely not a "real autocrat". Under Mehlis, People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov announced that the command of the Battle of Lake Hassan would be handed over to Chief of Staff of the Red Banner Front in the Far East, and at the same time, in order to unify the command of all the forces in the theater, a 39th Infantry Corps was temporarily formed, and the 32nd, 40th, 26th, and 39th Infantry Divisions, as well as the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade, the 59th Frontier Corps, and the Aviation Corps were all included in this corps.

It is equivalent to saying that Blyukhel is directly empty, and even Steln does not have much real command, and it is the Mehris who really has command in this battle. This utter idiot only knows how to fight to the death, and never learns a lesson. Once the battle does not go well, what he is best at is to shirk responsibility. For example, the aforementioned commander of the 40th Infantry Division, Bazarov, became Mehris's first scapegoat.

Mehris placed all the blame for the failure of the first offensive on Bazarov and the 40th Infantry Division. In his report to Stalin. It was said that Bazarov was indecisive and greedy for life and death, and the 40th Infantry Division was even more afraid of the enemy and had low combat ability. Anyway, according to Mehris, the Red Front in the Far East was a waste of dim sum up and down, and he was the only one who knew what was going on. This also led directly to the fact that later the Red Front of the Far East was purged badly, Blyukhel was killed, and Steln was shot.

Of course, the ending of Mehris is also very interesting, as Stalin's loyal dog, he is not only involved in the Zhang Gufeng incident. Later, this product can be seen in all foreign conflicts of the Soviet Union. But what makes people speechless is that this idiot screws things up every time. So much so that Stalin could not bear it, and unceremoniously took off his official hat as head of the General Political Department and demoted him.

Li Xiaofeng naturally knew the details of Mehris very well, he didn't have a good impression of this idiot, if he could, he would immediately order the guards to arrest this idiot, and ask questions first. Unfortunately, this is not possible. Although at this time and space Mehris was not the head of the General Political Department, but only the political commissar of the Red Banner Front in the Far East. But the military commissars of the front are not just killed if they want to. What's more, this is still Stalin's henchman, and it is easy to kill him. However, it would completely exacerbate the contradictions between Stalin and Sverdlov, and it would be inappropriate to do so.

The only thing Li Xiaofeng could do was to denounce Mehris and Apanashchenko for fooling around in person, and resolutely resist the two guys' plan to send Red Army soldiers to their deaths. Anyway, from July 10 to 12, during the three days, the Central Military Commission received a telegram of protest from Li Xiaofeng almost every few hours. In these telegrams, Li Xiaofeng severely condemned the misdeeds of the two men, each time more intensely.

To tell the truth, the Military Commission also scratched its head and ignored these telegrams, and in the end it was a miserable victory, and there was no light on the face. Can it be handled, right? I don't know where to start. Taking Apanashchenko, Stalin resolutely disagreed, and even found Sverdlov more than once in private, asking the latter to give him face. Xiao Si was indeed not ready to turn his face with Stalin, so he could only agree first.

Later, when Sverdlov recalled the Zhang Gufeng incident, he admitted: "It was a very difficult moment for me, the pressures and relationships from all sides were intertwined, and it was difficult to make a choice. ”

Before July 13, in the face of Li Xiaofeng's constant complaints, Sverdlov could only repeatedly reassure him, asking someone not to push too hard, to trust Apanashchenko and Mekhlis for the time being, and to say that he believed that Stalin would put pressure on them.

Did Stalin put pressure? That's for sure, Apanashchenko's early performance in the Zhang Gufeng incident was very bad, which affected Stalin's authority in the Military Commission. He had to save face in both public and private, and Stalin ordered Apanashchenko more than once: "Use all your strength to end the battle as quickly as possible!" ”

This put a lot of pressure on Apanashchenko, and both he and Mechelis knew that if they did not do what Stalin demanded, the results would be quite bad. Comrade Iron never politely drops to losers!

Under the pressure of Stalin, Apanashchenko could only go all out, how could he go all out? That is, to put in more troops and launch more charges. I have to say that Li Xiaofeng did bad things with good intentions this time, and his original intention was to reduce unnecessary casualties and change the simple and crude combat mode, so he constantly exerted pressure. But who would have thought that when this pressure fell on Apanashchenko's shoulders, it led the goods to go farther and farther in the opposite direction. Apanashchenko is more and more disregarding losses, regardless of casualties, blindly trying to use crowd tactics to fight a bloody way!

Late on the night of July 11, in view of the fact that the 40th Infantry Division did not complete its combat mission, the division commander Bazarov was dismissed from his post on the spot for review under the construction of Mehris, and was replaced by the divisional political commissar Ivanchenko and the director of the divisional political department Polushkin.

Not only did Bazarov be removed, but Apanashchenko also replaced the main attacking forces, and the 32nd Infantry Division replaced the 40th Infantry Division as the main attacker. This was an out-and-out tragedy for Belzarin, the commander of the 32nd Infantry Division. Because his troops had just arrived at Lake Hassan, they had not yet completed their assembly. And it is a smear for the situation on the battlefield. Worse. Apanashchenko remains steadfast in his refusal to fight across the border. Berzarin was asked to attack along the offensive route before the 40th Infantry Division.

That night, after personally inspecting the planned attack route, Berzarin's face was completely gray, and he wrote in his notebook: "The front of the attack is unusually narrow, the road is rough, and after the day's fighting, the Japanese army has increased its vigilance, and tomorrow I will be greeted by a fierce battle......

Truly. For the officers and men of the 32nd Infantry Division, the next day's battle was a veritable nightmare. The passage of their attack was very narrow, and there was a small lake (Shacao Peak Paozi) across the already narrow road, and the road was divided in two, so that the already small offensive front was once again compressed. On the east and west sides of the sand grass peak are the sand grass peak and the black mountain heights, and the front of these two highlands is a swamp, and the width of the attack front is only one thousand meters.

At the same time, the 32nd Infantry Division should also pay attention to the threat of Japanese troops on the right flank, Yangguanping and Gujiang. Therefore, Apanashchenko's final offensive disposition was: the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the 96th Infantry Division reinforced the 3rd Tank Battalion of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade to attack Shacao Peak from the northern slope; The 95th Tank Battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment reinforced the division to attack the heights of Montenegro; The 1st Battalion of the 94th Infantry Regiment attacked Gujiang, and the remaining main force of the 94th Regiment was used as a reserve. In addition, the 119th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division strengthened the 40th Tank Battalion of the Independent Tank Battalion to attack and occupy the 52nd Heights behind the enemy to contain the Japanese army, so that the 32nd Infantry Division could capture Zhanggufeng.

At the same time that the Soviet army was actively adjusting its deployment. Otaka Kamezo is also constantly reinforcing troops on the front line, from July 9 to July 10. The Japanese forces at Zhanggufeng doubled to eight brigades. At the same time, the headquarters of the 37th Brigade arrived, and Otaka Kamezo immediately ordered the commander of the 37th Brigade, Nobuki Morimoto, to command all the troops in the area of Zhanggufeng and Shacaofeng.

Nobuki Morimoto set up his headquarters on the 147th Height, about 1 kilometer west of Zhanggufeng, and at the same time adjusted the deployment, dividing the front line into two defense areas in the north and south: the southern defense area was composed of Zhanggufeng and the 52nd Height, which was defended by the 2nd Brigade of the 75th Wing and its subordinate units; The northern defense area is centered on Shacaofeng, and the 72nd and 76th Wings each transfer a brigade to defend it. The 25th Mountain Artillery Wing and the 15th Field Heavy Artillery Wing were deployed west of the Tumen River to support infantry operations on the opposite bank.

Out of concern about the large-scale increase in Soviet troops, Otaka Kamizo applied to transfer the last wing of the 19th Division, the 74th Wing, to the front line, and the Korean Army Command pretended to oppose it for a while and agreed.

However, Otaka Kamezo was not satisfied, and soon got up with the idea of the Kwantung Army, which was friendly to his neighbors, and under the pretext of needing to strengthen the artillery unit, the chief of staff of the Korean Army, Kitano Kenzo, applied to the General Staff Headquarters for an additional artillery unit.

The Japanese General Staff Headquarters agreed to Otaka Kamezo's request after a moment of reserve, but in order to find an excuse for itself and to cover up in case the battle did not go well, the reason given by the General Staff Headquarters for these transfers was: "Emergency combat preparations for the Rajin Fortress." On that day, two squadrons of 75-mm field guns, a squadron of 150-mm heavy artillery, an armored train, and an anti-aircraft artillery unit of the North China Front fell into the command of the North Korean Army, ready to support the 19th Division.

At the same time, a new round of the Soviet offensive was about to begin. In order to take Shacao Peak and Zhanggu Peak in one go, Apanashchenko gave two instructions: first, to invest three times the enemy's troops and equipment; Secondly, it is necessary to inflict a surprise blow on the enemy.

Apanashchenko's first instruction was easy to do, anyway, the ground forces of the Red Army that were now rushing to the battlefield were as high as four infantry divisions and one mechanized brigade, while the Japanese troops on the opposite side had only two wings for the time being, let alone three times, five times as much. As for the second one, it is not easy to do, who let the 40th Division squander the suddenness of the attack on the first day, and it is really impossible to carry out any sudden strike.

However, in order to carry out Apanashchenko's order, the Red Army still made certain preparations, such as finally thinking of conducting pre-war reconnaissance, and at 0:00 the day before the attack was launched, the Red Army reconnaissance detachment braved the pouring rain to survey the Japanese position, and found out the configuration of part of the Japanese army's forward positions, so that the 32nd Infantry Division did not have to fight with a black eye like the 40th Infantry Division.

According to Apanashchenko's plan, on the morning of July 11, three artillery regiments were first prepared for fire, while Red Army fighters covering the ground forces also bombed the Japanese positions. In the end, the 32nd Infantry Division took the opponent in one go.

It's a pity that the heavens are not beautiful. Because of the effects of heavy rain and clouds. The Air Force could not go on the attack as planned. Attack events can only be delayed. It wasn't until the afternoon that the weather began to clear. At that time, Apanashchenko transferred the forward command to an observation post on the 194 heights, which included Apanashchenko, Mehris, Shteln and Mazepov, a member of the Military Council of the Red Banner Front of the Far East, who, in Mekhlis's words, were ready to witness the victory of the Red Army together.

At 16 o'clock, under the command of Rychagov, 180 bombers and 70 fighters of the Red Army launched a fierce bombardment of the Japanese positions at Zhanggufeng-Shacaofeng and the various ferries on the Tumen River estuary, and the air raids lasted for a full hour and a half. Among them, TB-3 bombers alone dropped 1,592 bombs, or about 122 tons, on Japanese positions and rear.

Apanashchenko was very satisfied with the bombing of the Air Force, and proudly said to Mehris beside him: "Our bombing is not only turning up a layer of soil, but peeling off a layer of skin from the brains of the Japanese!" ”

Soon after the TB-3 group left, the Red Army's fighters and attack planes began a second round of strikes, flying at ultra-low altitudes over the Japanese positions, using aerial guns and machine guns to strafe the exposed devils, which caused great psychological pressure on the Japanese troops.

And that's not all, after the end of the air raids, the artillery of the Red Army began to wield. Shells of various calibers, from 203 mm to 76 mm, whizzed down on the positions of the Japanese army, in particular, the Hassan detachment of shore defense artillery (battalion size), which was attached to the Red Banner Pacific Fleet. With 180 mm and 356 mm railway guns, Zhang Gufeng and Shacao Peak were drowned in gunsmoke.

At 18 o'clock, with the clods of earth still flying in the sky, the Red Army tanks roared out of their positions, overtaking the infantry and rushing towards the Japanese positions. And this also opened the prelude to the general offensive of the ground forces of the Red Army.

However, the narrow and rocky road on the battlefield caused great difficulties for the Red Army infantry, and there was only a 15 m ~ 20 m wide path between Hassan Lake and the hillside, which made the Red Army soldiers huddle together again and were subjected to fierce strafing fire from Japanese machine guns, and at the same time, many Japanese artillery brigades also intensively shelled the marching Red Army.

The fiercest fighting took place southeast of Zhanggufeng, where the 119th Infantry Regiment of the Red Army, supported by the 40th Separate Tank Battalion, crossed the Sino-Soviet border from the north bank of the Tumen River and detoured back to the Japanese 52 Heights to attack.

The T-26 approached the Japanese positions on the rugged mountain road and fired at the Japanese fortifications at close range, cracking the breastwork of the Japanese forward positions into jagged shapes with heavy artillery fire. However, the Japanese soldiers, poisoned by the spirit of bushido, showed a fanatical fighting spirit, and even under such heavy artillery fire, they still engaged in close combat with the Red Army who broke through the position. Even though the Red Army once controlled most of the positions on the 52nd Heights, the Japanese commander Shizuo Hihara threw all the forces at hand into the counterattack and recaptured some of the positions.

Due to the lack of synchronization troops, the Red Army's T-26 suffered some losses on the 52nd Heights, and after that, the two sides fought repeatedly around the 52nd Heights, but no one could help anyone, and finally the two sides formed a confrontation on the 52nd Heights.

Although the 119th Infantry Regiment failed to completely occupy the 52nd Heights, it undoubtedly prevented the Japanese from reinforcing Zhanggufeng and Shacaopong single-mindedly, which allowed the 3rd Tank Battalion of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade, which cooperated with the 96th Infantry Regiment to break through the first line of Japanese defense in only an hour, and advanced to the slope northeast of Shacaofeng, and the battalion even tried to launch a further attack along the ridge. However, due to the fact that the Japanese defense on Shacao Peak had been strengthened to the size of two and a half brigades, which was not much different from the strength of the Red Army's offensive force, it was very difficult for the battalion to continue to advance.

At that time, in order to prevent the Red Army's tanks from passing through, the Japanese troops occupying favorable terrain concentrated a large number of machine guns and rapid-fire guns and opened heavy fire, and the Red Army tanks, which were trapped in the mountains and had difficulty moving, suffered heavy losses. The tank troops could only do their best to approach the enemy regardless of losses, and then they rushed into the Japanese position, overturned the Japanese artillery and machine guns, and kept firing at the devil soldiers.

After fierce fighting until 20 o'clock that night, the 96th Regiment finally captured the northeastern slope of Shacaofeng and began to attack Zhanggufeng. The 2nd Mechanized Brigade, under the leadership of the brigade commander, Colonel Panfilov, struggled along two narrow roads north of the 52nd Heights, and due to the lack of anti-tank weapons of the Japanese army, the Red Army tankmen did not encounter much resistance at first, but instead suffered from rocky slopes and endless mechanical failures, and finally the division was stuck in place and could not move.

At this time, the Japanese troops on Zhanggu Peak came up with their best tactic - night attack. At this time, the Red Army fought for several hours, tired and hungry, and fell into a melee by surprise. If it weren't for the fact that Ivanchenko, the political commissar of the 40th Infantry Division, and Polushkin, the director of the political department, found out that the situation was wrong and decisively sent all their troops out, I am afraid that the 32nd Infantry Division and the 2nd Mechanized Brigade would have been driven directly into Lake Hassan.

After a fierce scuffle, the Red Army lost most of the positions it had previously occupied and faced off with its opponents. Such a result naturally disappointed Apanashchenko and Mehris, who were watching the battle on the 194 heights.

It is a shame that the absolute superiority of the forces was used, as well as the overwhelming fire support of the air force and artillery, and the fierce battle for so long did not achieve any decent results!

Anyway, Mekhlis immediately demanded the immediate arrest of the commander of the 32nd Infantry Division, Berzarin, but Apanashchenko still had a little sense and refused to build a new plan. At that time, the commander of the front army had a calm face, and ordered gloomily: "Have a meeting, readjust the combat subordinates, and tomorrow we must recapture Zhanggu Peak and Shacao Peak!" (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank the troubled cat, Bao Kuroko, ds135, cjsky, the dog that plays with frogs, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 2, Juventus, weigede, second kill potato, peerless Qianqianfeng, Orphein, agz00025 and hzwangdd comrades!