The Kuril landing operation, which was carried out by Soviet troops from August 18 to September 2, 1945, forever went down in history as an example of operational art. Soviet troops with a smaller force were able to solve the task before them, completely capturing the Kuril Islands. The result of the brilliant operation of the Soviet troops was the occupation of 56 islands of the Kuril ridge, with a total area of 10, 5 thousand km2, all of them in 1946 were included in the USSR.
The defeat of the Japanese troops in Manchuria as a result of the Manchurian strategic operation and on Sakhalin Island as part of the South Sakhalin offensive operation created favorable conditions for the liberation of the Kuril Islands. The advantageous geographical location of the islands allowed Japan to control the exit of Soviet ships into the ocean and use them as a springboard for possible aggression against the Soviet Union. By August 1945, 9 airfields were equipped on the islands of the Kuril archipelago, of which 6 were located on the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir - in the immediate vicinity of Kamchatka. Up to 600 aircraft could be deployed at the airfields. But in reality, almost all of the planes had previously been recalled to the Japanese islands to protect them from American air raids and to fight American troops.
At the same time, by the beginning of the Soviet-Japanese war, more than 80 thousand Japanese troops, about 60 tanks and more than 200 artillery pieces were stationed in the Kuril Islands. The islands of Shumshu and Paramushir occupied parts of the 91st Japanese infantry division, the 41st separate mixed regiment was located on the island of Matua, and the 129th separate mixed brigade was located on the island of Urup. On the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril ridge - the 89th Infantry Division.
Loading troops on ships
The most fortified island of all was Shumshu, which was separated from Kamchatka by the First Kuril Strait, 6.5 miles wide (about 12 kilometers). This island, 20 by 13 kilometers in size, was considered by the Japanese command as a springboard for the capture of Kamchatka. On the island was the well-equipped and well-equipped naval base of the Japanese fleet - Kataoka, and three miles from it on the island of Paramushir another naval base of Kashiwabara.
The 73rd Infantry Brigade of the 91st Infantry Division, the 31st Air Defense Regiment, the 11th Tank Regiment (without one company), the fortress artillery regiment, the garrison of the Kataoka Naval Base, the airfield team and separate units of the Japanese troops were stationed on Shumshu Island. … All sections of the coast that were available for the landing were covered by bunkers and bunkers, which were connected by trenches and underground passages. Underground passages were used not only for maneuvering forces, but also as shelters for communication centers, hospitals, various warehouses, power plants and other military facilities. The depth of some underground structures on the island reached 50 meters, which made them invulnerable to Soviet artillery fire and bomb strikes. The depth of the antiamphibious defense engineering structures on the island was 3-4 kilometers. In total, there were 34 concrete artillery bunkers and 24 bunkers on Shumshu, as well as 310 closed machine-gun points. In the event that the paratroopers seized certain sections of the coast, the Japanese could covertly retreat into the interior of the island. The total number of Shumshu garrison was 8, 5 thousand people, more than 100 artillery pieces and about 60 tanks. At the same time, the Shumshu garrison could easily be reinforced with troops from the neighboring well-fortified island of Paramushir, on which there were up to 13 thousand Japanese troops.
The plan of the Soviet command was to suddenly land an amphibious assault for the enemy on the northwestern part of Shumshu Island, which was the main stronghold of the Japanese troops in the Kuril Islands. The main attack was planned to be delivered in the direction of the Kataoka naval base. Having seized the island, the Soviet troops planned to use it as a springboard for a further offensive on Paramushir, Onekotan and other islands of the archipelago.
Troopers on the Kuril Islands. Artist A. I. Plotnov, 1948
The airborne forces included two reinforced rifle regiments of the 101st rifle division of the Kamchatka defensive region, which was part of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, a marine battalion, an artillery regiment, an anti-tank destroyer division, a combined company of the 60th maritime border detachment and other units … In total, 8,824 people, 205 guns and mortars, 120 heavy and 372 light machine guns, 60 different ships were involved in the landing. The landing was reduced to a forward detachment and two echelons of the main forces. The commander of the 101st rifle division, Major General P. I. Dyakov, commanded the landing on the island of Shumshu. The amphibious assault force, headed by the commander of the Petropavlovsk naval base, Captain 1st Rank D. G. Ponomarev, consisted of 4 detachments: security, trawling, artillery support ships and transports and landing craft directly. Air support for the landing was to be provided by the 128th mixed aviation division, numbering 78 aircraft and the 2nd separate bomber regiment of naval aviation. The general leadership of the landing operation was carried out by Admiral I. S. Yumashev, and the direct one was the commander of the Kamchatka naval defense area, Major General A. R. Grechko.
The operation began on August 17, when at 17 o'clock the ships with the landing party left Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky under the cover of fighters and a submarine. They made a night trip to Shumsh in dense fog. On August 18, at 2:38 am, a coastal battery of 130-mm guns located at Cape Lopatka opened fire on enemy fortifications, and at 4:22 minutes, the advance detachment of the landing began, which consisted of a marine battalion (without a company), machine-gun and mortar companies, a sapper company, a company of machine gunners and anti-tank rifles, reconnaissance units. The fog helped the paratroopers to covertly approach the coast, but it also complicated the actions of the Soviet aviation, which nevertheless made almost 350 sorties on August 18, working mainly in the depth of the Japanese defense and on the neighboring island of Paramushir.
One of the reconnaissance flaws was immediately revealed - the bottom in the landing area turned out to be with large pitfalls, and the approach of the landing craft to the coast was difficult. Overloaded landing craft stopped far from the coast, sometimes 100-150 meters, so paratroopers with heavy equipment were forced to get to the island by almost swimming under enemy fire and in the ocean surf, while some of the paratroopers drowned. Despite the difficulties, the first wave of the landing took advantage of the surprise effect and gained a foothold on the shore. In the future, the resistance of the Japanese, their artillery and machine-gun fire only increased, especially the Japanese batteries at the Kokutan and Kotomari capes, which were placed in deep caponiers, annoyed the landing. The fire of the naval and coastal artillery of the Soviet troops against these batteries was ineffective.
Soviet armor piercers on Shumshu island
By 9 o'clock on August 18, despite the active fire resistance of the enemy, the landing of the first echelon of the main landing forces - the 138th rifle regiment with reinforcement units - was completed. Thanks to courage and dedication, the paratroopers managed to capture two commanding heights, which were of great importance for organizing a bridgehead and further advancing inland. From 11-12 o'clock in the afternoon, Japanese troops began to launch desperate counterattacks, trying to throw the paratroopers into the sea. At the same time, additional Japanese reinforcements from the neighboring island of Paramushir began to be transferred to Shumshu.
In the second half of August 18, the decisive event of the whole day and the battle for the island took place. The Japanese threw all their tanks into battle, the landing forces attacked up to 60 Japanese tanks. At the cost of heavy losses, they managed to move forward, but they could not throw the paratroopers into the sea. The main part of the Japanese tanks was destroyed in close combat by grenades, as well as by the fire of anti-tank rifles, some were destroyed by the fire of naval artillery, which the paratroopers sent.
The Japanese used their only mobile reserve - the 11th Tank Regiment, which in August 1945 consisted of 64 tanks, including 25 light Type 95 "Ha-go", 19 medium - Type 97 "Chi-ha" and 20 medium type 97 Shinhoto Chi-ha. The regiment's materiel was comparatively new, but even these Japanese tanks were vulnerable to conventional anti-tank rifles. According to Soviet data, the paratroopers managed to destroy or damage about 40 Japanese tanks, the Japanese admit the loss of 27 combat vehicles, while the commander of the 11th tank regiment, Colonel Ikeda Sueo, was killed in the battle, as well as all but one of the commanders of tank companies, a total of 97 died in the battles. Japanese tankers. At the same time, the paratroopers suffered significant losses - up to 200 people. The skeletons of destroyed Japanese tanks more than 70 years after the battle can be found on Shumshu Island today.
Destroyed Japanese tank on Shumshu island
By the evening, the second landing echelon - the 373rd Infantry Regiment - was landed on the shore, and at night a temporary pier was built on the shore, designed to receive new ships with ammunition and landing forces. They managed to transport 11 guns and a large amount of ammunition and explosives to the shore. With the onset of darkness, the fighting on the island continued, and according to the experience accumulated during the Great Patriotic War, the main stake was made on the actions of small shock and assault groups. It was in the evening and at night that the Soviet troops achieved the most significant successes, having managed to capture several heavily fortified positions. In conditions when the enemy could not conduct targeted artillery and machine-gun fire, the paratroopers got close to the Japanese pillboxes and blew them up with the help of sappers along with garrisons or undermining their embrasures.
The day of August 18 became the most violent and dramatic day of the entire amphibious operation, both sides suffered the greatest losses on that day. Soviet troops lost 416 people killed, 123 missing (mostly drowned during the landing), 1028 wounded, in total - 1567 people. The Japanese lost 1,018 people killed and wounded that day, of which more than 300 were killed. The battle for Shumshu was the only operation of the Soviet-Japanese war in which the Soviet side lost more in killed and wounded than the enemy.
The next day, August 19, fighting on the island continued, but did not carry such intensity. Soviet troops began to increase the use of artillery, systematically suppressing the Japanese defenses. And already at 17:00 on August 19, the commander of the Japanese 73rd Infantry Brigade, Major General S. Iwao, entered into negotiations with the Soviet command. At the same time, the Japanese initially tried to drag out the negotiations. Only at 14:00 on August 22, 1945, the commander of the Japanese troops in the northern Kuril Islands, Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi, accepted the Soviet terms of surrender. In total, two Japanese generals, 525 officers and 11,700 soldiers were captured on Shumshu. 17 howitzers, 40 cannons, 9 anti-aircraft guns, 123 heavy and 214 light machine guns, 7420 rifles, several surviving tanks and 7 aircraft were captured. The next day, 23 August, a powerful garrison of the neighboring island of Paramushir surrendered without resistance: about 8 thousand people, mainly from the 74th Infantry Brigade of the 91st Infantry Division. Up to 50 guns and 17 tanks were captured on the island (one company of the 11th tank regiment).
Shumshu Island, preserved Japanese anti-tank ditches
By the end of August 1945, the forces of the Kamchatka Defense Region, together with the ships of the Petropavlovsk Naval Base, occupied the entire northern ridge of islands, including Urup, and the forces of the Northern Pacific Fleet, by September 2 of the same year, occupied the rest of the islands located south of Urup. In total, more than 50 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, including 4 generals, more than 300 artillery pieces and about 1000 machine guns, 217 vehicles and tractors were captured, and the Japanese command managed to evacuate about 10 thousand soldiers to the territory of Japan.
The Kuril landing operation ended in a brilliant victory and the capture of all the islands of the Kuril ridge. Despite the fact that it was prepared within a limited time frame, the well-organized interaction of ground units, the fleet and aviation, as well as the well-chosen direction of the main attack, decided the outcome of the battle. The courage, heroism and training of Soviet soldiers made it possible to solve the task in practically one day - on August 18. The Japanese garrison, which on the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir had a serious numerical advantage over the landing forces, entered negotiations with Soviet units on August 19, after which most of the Kuril Islands were occupied without resistance from the enemy.
The most distinguished in the Kuril amphibious operation, units and formations were awarded the honorary names of the Kuril. From among the participants in the landing on Shumshu, more than three thousand people were awarded various orders and medals, 9 of them were awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Shumshu near the village of Baikovo. The strip of the old Japanese airfield is visible on the left.
The question of the ownership of the islands
It is difficult to talk about the Kuril Islands without considering the issue of their ownership. The territorial dispute between Russia and Japan still exists and almost every time it rises in the framework of meetings of the political leaders of the two countries. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands located between the Kamchatka Peninsula and Hokkaido Island, a slightly convex arc separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The length of the chain of islands is about 1200 km. The total area of all 56 islands is 10.5 thousand km2. The Kuril Islands form two parallel ridges: the Greater Kuril Islands and the Lesser Kuril Islands. The islands are of great military-strategic and economic importance. At present, the state border between the Russian Federation and Japan runs to the south of the islands, and the islands themselves are administratively part of the Sakhalin region of Russia. The southern islands of this archipelago - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group are disputed by Japan, which includes these islands in its Hokkaido prefecture.
Initially, all the Kuril Islands were inhabited by the Ainu tribes. The first information about the islands was obtained by the Japanese during the 1635-1637 expedition. In 1643 they were surveyed by the Dutch (led by Martin de Vries). The first Russian expedition, led by Atlasov, reached the northern part of the Kuril Islands in 1697. In 1786, by decree of Catherine II, the Kuril archipelago was included in the Russian Empire.
On February 7, 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Shimodsky treaty, according to this agreement, the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and the islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge went to Japan, and the rest of the Kurils remained in the ownership of Russia. At the same time, Sakhalin Island was declared a joint possession - an "undivided" territory. But some unresolved questions about the status of Sakhalin became the cause of conflicts between Russian and Japanese sailors and merchants. To eliminate these conflicts and resolve contradictions in 1875, an agreement on the exchange of territories was signed in St. Petersburg. In accordance with the agreement, Japan renounced its claims to Sakhalin, and Russia transferred all the Kuriles to Japan.
Another agreement between the countries was signed on September 5, 1905 following the results of the Russo-Japanese War. According to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Japan also transferred a part of Sakhalin Island south of the 50th parallel, the island was divided by the border into two parts.
The problem of the Kuril Islands arose again at the end of World War II. In the framework of the Yalta Allied Conference in February 1945, the Soviet Union called the return of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands one of the conditions for entering hostilities against Japan. This decision was enshrined in the Yalta Agreement between the USSR, Great Britain and the United States of February 11, 1945 ("The Crimean Agreement of the Three Great Powers on the Far East"). Fulfilling its obligations, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on August 9, 1945. Within the framework of the Soviet-Japanese War, the Kuril landing operation took place (August 18 - September 2, 1945), which led to the capture of the entire archipelago and the surrender of Japanese troops on the islands. On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender, accepting all the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. According to this declaration, Japanese sovereignty was limited only to the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido, as well as a number of smaller islands in the Japanese archipelago. On February 2, 1946, by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuriles were incorporated into the Soviet Union.
According to the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, which was concluded between Japan and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, Tokyo renounced all rights, legal grounds and claims to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But the Soviet delegation did not then sign this document, because it did not stipulate the issue of the withdrawal of the occupation troops from the territory of Japan. In addition, the text of the document did not spell out exactly which islands of the Kuril archipelago were discussed, as well as in whose favor Japan refused them. This step became the main reason for the territorial problem that still exists today, which is still an obstacle to the conclusion of a full-fledged peace treaty between the Russian Federation and Japan.
The principled position of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, which became its legal successor, is that the ownership of the Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai) to Russia is based on the generally recognized results of World War II and the unshakable post-war international legal basis, including the UN Charter. Russian sovereignty over the islands has a corresponding international legal framework and is not in doubt.
Japan's position is that it refers to the Shimoda treatise of 1855, claims that Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a number of small islands of the Kuril archipelago never belonged to the Russian Empire and considers their inclusion in the Soviet Union illegal. In addition, according to Japan, these islands are not part of the Kuril Archipelago, and therefore do not fall under the term "Kuril Islands", which was used in the 1951 San Francisco Treaty. At the moment, in Japanese political terminology, the disputed Kuril Islands are usually called "northern territories".
