Manchukuo navy - operational capacity and deployment in August 1945?

[mihu]

Could anyone help me with some info (or maybe a list) of Manchukuo's naval forces that were still combat-ready at the time of the Soviet invasion in August 1945? I have a few lists of vessels overall, but it is sometimes hard to know which ones were still capable of combat by August 1945, since it seems several were stripped of weaponry (especially AA guns) for shoreside use before the invasion.

Also, I'd like to know a bit of info about how/where Manchukuo's naval forces were deployed during the Soviet invasion.

[lupodimare89]

Greetings! This was just after my question/post of the mysterious 1939 incident? XD

From what I gathered, the Manchukuo played almost no part at all, and it seems the Navy on itself was almost complete control of the Japanese (with ships bearing "double" names both Chinese and Japanese).
You probably already saw a good work done by the Navypedia site with all ships listed ((http://www.navypedia.org/ships/manchukuo/ma_index.htm))
Excluding ships returned to Japan before hostility and the ones stripped off weapons, it seems the largest ones were the two "Hai Feng" patrol boats (184tons for 43 meters of length, 2 76mm guns, 2machineguns and DC): both quietely (?) seized by Soviet troops at Port Arthur.
I read only bits of the Soviet operations there, but due geography there was no Naval action apart the landing of Soviet troops by Seaplanes.

The bulk of the Manchukuo riverine fleet was captured in Harbin, but again without resistance.



Something more occurred on rivers:
On 9 August, during the seizure of a riverine ferry the Soviet border-guard boat "KM-113" received some bullet holes before capturing the ferry with 26 prisoners. This was so-far the only reported damaged occurred to Soviets by Manchukuo riverine craft (but maybe it was Japanese guards? or armed civilians). Among the other losses of the day, a police-boat was captured by Soviet BK-64 with 6 prisoners.

In the following days a number of "Police-boats" were either captured, sunk, or sunk by Soviet riverine forces (mostly BK gunboats) after being already abandoned/scuttled/grounded.

The only other episode of attempted resistance was on 18 August, when the Soviet riverine forces attacked Sanxin on Sungari River.
One Chinese steamer, apparently armed, attempted to flee and opened fire against the Soviets but was hit and sunk. I've never got info about this ship neither of the Soviet boats involved, other ships/barges later seized in Sanxin.

[mihu]

You probably already saw a good work done by the Navypedia site with all ships listed ((http://www.navypedia.org/ships/manchukuo/ma_index.htm))

No, I hadn't seen that site, thank you.

Excluding ships returned to Japan before hostility and the ones stripped off weapons, it seems the largest ones were the two "Hai Feng" patrol boats

Thank you, I'm aware of them. They were not Navy/River Defence Fleet vessels though. They were maritime police vessels.

Something more occurred on rivers:
On 9 August, during the seizure of a riverine ferry the Soviet border-guard boat "KM-113" received some bullet holes before capturing the ferry with 26 prisoners. This was so-far the only reported damaged occurred to Soviets by Manchukuo riverine craft (but maybe it was Japanese guards? or armed civilians). Among the other losses of the day, a police-boat was captured by Soviet BK-64 with 6 prisoners.

In the following days a number of "Police-boats" were either captured, sunk, or sunk by Soviet riverine forces (mostly BK gunboats) after being already abandoned/scuttled/grounded.

The only other episode of attempted resistance was on 18 August, when the Soviet riverine forces attacked Sanxin on Sungari River.
One Chinese steamer, apparently armed, attempted to flee and opened fire against the Soviets but was hit and sunk. I've never got info about this ship neither of the Soviet boats involved, other ships/barges later seized in Sanxin.

Thank you, I wasn't aware of those incidents.

[lupodimare89]

Main (and only?) Russian author who wrote about these actions/losses it's K.B.Strelbitskiy.
Some other fixes and posts floated around in Russian forums or sites in last years however.

And yeah, still Hai Feng boats were likely the strongest/largest ships in service of Manchukuo, especially after the biggest riverine units were disarmed.

[mihu]

Main (and only?) Russian author who wrote about these actions/losses it's K.B.Strelbitskiy.
Some other fixes and posts floated around in Russian forums or sites in last years however.

Has he written a book or article on this subject? I'd be interested to read it, if you wouldn't mind giving me the name?

And yeah, still Hai Feng boats were likely the strongest/largest ships in service of Manchukuo, especially after the biggest riverine units were disarmed.

Yes. I'm still interested in maritime police vessels during these events, I just wanted to point it out because I've had experience with some anglophone people/authors who get confused about the vessels, and think they were all "Navy".

[lupodimare89]

This is his russian wikipedia page with the long list of published works, you can try to search them individually (obviously only the ones interesting you)
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Стрельбиц ... _Борисович

Probably very valuable for you could be this:
http://www.navylib.su/ships/august-1945/index.htm
there are many sublinks with list of losses, including naval and riverine ones.
There are few minor inconsistencies here and there, but of extremely minor points (like for example the amount of shipping seized on 18 August at Sanxin, with Soviet source giving slightly altered data in terms of number of tugs/barges etc.)

[mihu]

@lupodimare89 Thank you, I'll have a look through the lists.