Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939 [Paperback]

Edward J. Drea (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 2005

Before World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) developed an offensive tactical doctrine designed to allow its infantry forces to fight successfully against a superior foe, the Soviet Union. A battle test of that doctrine's effectiveness occurred from June trough August 1939 along the Outer Mongolian-Manchurian border. This essay follows the daily combat operations of the IJA's 2d Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, for a two-month period. During that time, the 2/28th Infantry was in constant contact with Soviet combined arms forces. In July the battalion participated in offensive operations against Soviet units commanded by General Georgi K. Zhukov. When Japanese tactical doctrine failed against a Soviet combined arms force, the Japanese went on the defensive. Japanese officers, however, regarded defensive doctrine as transitional in nature and adopted it only to gain time to prepare for a counterattack. Defensive doctrine that terrain be held until the resumption of offensive operations that would destroy the enemy. A lack of flexibility doomed the Japanese defensive effort. General Zhukov secretly marshalled his forces and in mid-August used his armor columns to spearhead a double envelopment of the static Japanese units in a position defense. The Soviets encircled the Japanese units, including the 2/28th Infantry, and the Japanese survivors had to fight their way back to friendly lines. The 2/28th Infantry's War Diary provides a vivid day-by-day account of its combat operations. This in turn allows the examination of how the Japanese applied their tactical doctrine on the battlefield. The Japanese tried to use and aggressive tactical doctrine to compensate for materiel and equipment deficiencies in their army. Such an approach was successful as long as the Japanese could conduct bold offensive operations. When they were forced to adopt a defensive posture, however, discrepancies between tactical doctrine and battlefield reality became apparent. These problems, applicable to any army, highlight fundamental difficulties of force structure, preconceptions of potential enemy capabilities, and the role of doctrine in a combat environment. An examination of small unit tactics is particularly useful to illustrate the dynamics of doctrine as expressed on the battlefield.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: University Press of the Pacific (May 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410222853
• ISBN-13: 978-1410222855
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #761,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old but very good, December 21, 2009

By 

Stephen Joske (Beijing, China) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939 (Paperback)

While the reproduction on sale on Amazon is dated 2005, the book was originally published in 1981, so it predates Coox's "Nomonhan" (1985). Glantz (When Titans Clashed, page 324)calls Drea's book "the best short study on Khalkin-Gol...Alvin D. Coox, "Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia" is an exhaustive study, but is told almost entirely from the Japanese perspective."

Note that its fairly pricey for a slim paperback.

1.0 out of 5 stars POD Garbage -- incredibly bad print quality, January 6, 2012

By 

K. R. O. Brien "Amazon got my RealName wrong" (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet tactical combat, 1939 (Paperback)

Do not buy this edition of this book -- hunt up a copy of the original university reprint, or of the original US GPO edition. This is essentially a low-quality xerox copy, poorly glued into a flimsy paper binding that will not survive normal handling. It appears that some of the original illustrations printed as blank. Other photographs are nearly black, and still others improperly scanned, showing an irritating moiré pattern. Most of the maps are legible (some have illegible contour line elevations, making the terrain a chore to understand). Most of the text is legible, but any text that was in a shaded box in the original didn't survive the poor xerox job, and the notes are illegible.

The story the book tells, of the hard fight of the IJA's 2/28 infantry, is a good one, well set in the historical firmament. One appreciates what allowed Zhukov to beat the Japanese, as well as the stoic character and courage of the Japanese soldier that made him such a hard opponent for the USA to fight. (Indeed, the book notes that the 2/28 would go down fighting on Guadalcanal within a few years).

Bottom line: good book, bad edition. Don't buy it. I hate to give negative reviews but this half-hearted Print-On-Demand job deserves no better. They're not even trying to make a usable product, let alone a quality one.