Kurile Islands; Good Pictures

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South
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Location: USA

Kurile Islands; Good Pictures

#1

Post by South » 05 Jan 2019, 23:04

https://www.rferl.org/a/the-disputed-is ... 02307.html


Good afternoon all,

Still not resolved, the Kurile Islands have some in dispute.

I'm posting this for the pictures.

Some of the captions are interwoven with current events. Please do not comment on the current stuff. Keep us AHF-compliant.

Ref 2; Note the writing next to her legs ... er ... just below the right window. It might not be in the Russian language.


~ Bob
eastern Virginia, USA

Anyone joining me for the whale harpooning ? We will "carefully exploit..." ROFL.

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Yuri
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Location: Russia

Re: Kurile Islands; Good Pictures

#2

Post by Yuri » 09 Jun 2019, 11:17

https://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/history ... e_of_wwii/

The last of the tank battle of World War II

Shumshu island, the Northern group of the Kuril ridge. Not the most pleasant place to live: nowadays the island does not even have a permanent population. But in the distant 1945 it was different…
While Japan was strong in the Pacific, it regarded the Kuriles as an important strategic base. With them rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta led away in 1942, the fleet invasion of the Aleutian Islands. In the Kuril Islands, the Japanese assembled landing craft for a trip to Kamchatka.
In the second half of the war, the roles changed: now the Americans regularly organized "raids" on the Japanese bases. Not without reason fearing an the American invasion, the Japanese army began to actively strengthen the defense of the Northern Kuriles. Among other things, the 11th tank regiment was transferred to Shumshu from Manchuria. The Japanese Imperial fleet, which had its own tank units, transferred the 51st and 52nd coastal defense units - "Ka-Mi" amphibious tanks - to Shumshu.

August 9 began the Manchurian operation of Red Army. Guards "thirty" Lieutenant General A. Kravchenko "sprayed" caught in the way of the Japanese Kwantung army. On August 11 fights on southern Sakhalin thundered. And only in Kamchatka and Shumshu island everything was quiet, but not for long.

Early in the morning of August 18, the Soviet vanguard from Kamchatka landed on Shumshu and, catching the Japanese by surprise, almost without resistance moved 2 kilometers. It was the beginning of the Kuril landing operation.

Unfortunately, after that the landing was not so perfect. An hour to the landing reached the ships with the first echelon. The Japanese came to their senses and opened a hurricane fire. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the overloaded ships at low tide could not come close to the shore. Squad the fishing kungas (the Far East boats) that was going to use to deliver the men to the shore, in the fog, lost his bearings and not arrived on time. Marine had to land right in the water and swim to the beach. The water damaged the radio, so the connection with the ships was established only by 11 o'clock in the morning. Almost failed to unload the artillery. And the most tragic: at this moment the most part of the paratroopers written down then in "missing" was lost.

The Japanese themselves, however, also quite a long time to understand what is happening and who is attacking them. From the island to the headquarters flew panic reports of thousands of landed Americans. Only a few hours later the Japanese realized that they were attacked by Russians. Ignorance of the forces and the nationality of the opponent did not prevent the commander of the garrison North to give the order to "throw the troops of enemie into the sea."

The first of the Japanese armored vehicles to the landing site came light tanks. Around 3:30 Colonel Ikeda sent to explore the tank company of captain Ito Isao — 11 light tanks "Ha-Go". By the standards of 1945, this tanks were hopelessly outdated. But in conditions when most of the artillery troops were still on the ships, even they represented a very serious threat.
Marines covered fire from the sea patrol boat. But the main role in the reflection of the Japanese attack was played by the heroism of the Kamchatka Marines. The award documents for Shumshu, the phrase "threw grenades at the enemy tank" is found repeatedly. Having lost six or seven tanks, the Japanese were still able to push the marines to the Eastern slope of height 171 (the North Mountain on modern maps). There are the Soviet units began to hastily dig in, partly adapting to the defense of the captured Japanese positions.

Description of the next of military actions of the Soviet and Japanese sides at odds, sometimes quite strongly. According to the Japanese — to help their reconnaissance group approached the second tank company, but this was not enough. In the end, the Japanese lost a lot of tanks, in the battle killed himself Colonel Ikeda.

According to the Soviet version, the commander of the second echelon of the landing Colonel Artyushin, having received a report on the suitable Japanese reserves, put forward in a dangerous direction most of his available anti-tank weapons — crews of the anti-tank guns (PTR), grenade throwers and several delivered to shore 45-mm guns. Around 14:00 of the Kamchatka time, the Japanese went on the attack with 18 tanks. Almost all of them remained on our line of defense, knocked out by concentrated fire of PTR. Withdraw from battlefield was able only one Japanese tank.

The Colonel Ikeda's Bushido
Perhaps, only, in than utterly unanimous both sides, — this description of Colonel Ikeda in his latest combat. According to the Japanese sources, the commander of the 11th tank regiment led attack, half leaning out of the tower, with a banner in his hand. That is how he is remembered...
Bushido_of_Colonel_Ikeda.jpg
Bushido_of_Colonel_Ikeda.jpg (71.86 KiB) Viewed 1483 times
We can say that fidelity to the samurai traditions of the gods of the country Yamato gave the Colonel a very honorable death: he was not struck by the bullets of a simple infantryman. He defaults at the hands of the commander of the Soviet advanced detachment, major Shutov.

“Tanks were deployed in battle order, with a crash was coming. On one of them, in an open hatch, holding a banner, stood a the Japanese officer. We have already prepared to repel the counterattack. I can clearly see the distorted face of a Japanese officer with a banner. I pull the trigger on the machine. The officer poked his face prone, the flag falls to the ground. And after a moment, the tank freezes”.
Memories of major Shutov. Collection "Chronicle of heroic days". Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1969


It was not possible to throw the Soviet landing into the sea: the Soviet units reliably "hooked" on the island. Just this day, the Japanese admitted the loss of 21 tanks and 96 crew members. The remaining three dozen tanks of the 11th regiment were concentrated to the West of the height of 171 and were preparing for the next attack. But orders about it so and not followed. On August 19, the Japanese garrison capitulated to Shumshu. The Second World War finally ended and here.
Major P. I. Shutov was awarded the title of Hero Of Soviet Union for exemplary performance of combat missions of command and for his courage and heroism.

The commander of 11th Tank Regiment Colonel IkedaSueo posthumously became one of the national heroes of Japan. In memory of his unit, the tank battalion of the 11th brigade of the self-defense Forces, based in Hokkaido, depicts the sign of his regiment on its tanks. The tank "Shinhoto Chi-Ha" of Colonel Ikeda still stands on Shumshu.
Shinhoto_Chi-Ha_1_477x.jpg
Shinhoto_Chi-Ha_1_477x.jpg (28.77 KiB) Viewed 1483 times


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Yuri
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Re: Kurile Islands; Good Pictures

#3

Post by Yuri » 09 Jun 2019, 11:23

My father-in-law Ryzhkov G. T. (1917-2001) was drafted into the Red Army in may 1939, when the fighting began on Halkin-Gol. However, when his units arrived the fighting was already over.
Until February 1943, he was in the Far East.
With February 1943 in the West (Central front - Kursk).
His path on the Western theater military action: Kursk – Minsk – Warsaw – Berlin.
May 2, 1945 in the ReichChancellery in the Hitler's office on the table he took the "trophy": a tablespoon with a swastika.
In June 1945 from Germany he went back to the Far East.
He participated in the landing operation in the Southern Kuriles.
The Japanese fought desperately, did not give up.
Eventually came (swam) lands on the South of these Islands (there are a lot of small Islands, usually without names).
There were five or seven Japanese houses on this island.
In 1946, Japanese families moved to Hokkaido, which is very close.
In 1947 my father-in-law was demobilized.
He was born, drafted into the army and returned from the army in the city of Kara-Balta (Kyrgyzstan, near the capital), where he is buried. His "german trophy" - Spoon with the Hitler's table - I have now.

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