Time Slip Reiwa Japan

035 - Siberian War of Independence - 8

More than a month had passed since the start of the Siberian War of Independence, and the scales of victory were tipping in favor of Japan and the United States as a whole. Stalin became impatient with this situation, and decided to stop the formation of the 3rd Red Banner Front, which was being concluded in the western part of the West Siberian Lowlands at the foot of the Ural Mountains, with 5 divisions and 2 brigades, *1 and put them into Siberia as soon as possible. On top of that, he considered shifting the Soviet Union to a wartime system – a system of total war – and creating divisions in three-digit units to retaliate.

However, the domestic situation in the Soviet Union put a stop to this. The Soviet economy, which had been paying for the Five-Year Plan to develop its national strength through heavy taxes on the people, was expected to go bankrupt sooner or later if the working population was taken away as soldiers. The bureaucrats who were watching the domestic economy submitted a report that cutting off Siberia, which could be called the bad debt of the Soviet economy at the moment, was better than piling up war expenditures in order to prevent Siberia from becoming independent. *2 The problem was that it would destroy the faces of the Soviet Union and Stalin.

In the end, it was decided to consider whether the Soviet Union's troops in the west could be deployed by strengthening friendly relations with Poland.

. . .

Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Offensive – 2 (D-Day+48~52)

The 13th Red Banner Division moved to Khabarovsk using a regimental unit as a decoy. The 2nd Corps of the Japanese Combined Armed Forces was successfully caught by this decoy and was lured toward the Aldan Highlands. The Japanese Combined Armed Forces' 1st Army Group, which had surrounded Khabarovsk, had not been careless, but it had been overwhelmed by the backup of the Khabarovsk-Vladivostok Breakthrough Operation Force (HB unit), which had surrendered. Thanks to this, the 13th Red Banner Division succeeded in approaching 20 km to Khabarovsk without being detected by the Japanese forces. Having approached that close, the 13th Red Banner Division began its first full-scale combat operations.

The 11th Red Banner Infantry Division and the Khabarovsk Red Guards Division responded to this move. Against them were the Japanese divisions of the 17th Mechanized Division, the 601st Mechanized Division, and the 1st Division of the Siberian Independence Army. However, the 17th Division was moving to deal with the HB unit that had surrendered, *3 so in effect, the interception was with a force of just over one division. The 601st Mechanized Division was at a numerical disadvantage and was pinned down, so it retreated without forcing itself.

The problem was that the 1st Division of the Siberian Independence Army was too stubborn and refused to retreat. The Siberian Independence Army, which had been hiding its fear of Stalin behind its back, therefore had a bad habit of trying to get ahead of the Soviet army more than necessary in the fight against it.

The 1st Army Group was also upset by this. They could not afford to lose the 1st Division, the symbol of the Siberian Independence Army, in a place like this. The 17th Mechanized Division was able to respond quickly, and the 601st Mechanized Division made an all-out counterattack. The battle turned into a melee, and the front lines became so jumbled that it was difficult to provide air support. The Japanese and Soviet sides were both desperate. The fierce battle lasted for one day and one night.

The Japanese tried to organize the front and clear the battle at once with air support. The Soviets were not going to let that happen, and tried to latch on to the Japanese, even ignoring the damage. However, there was a shortage of supplies. No matter how determined they were to fight, they could not do so without ammunition. Without food, they couldn't move. On the morning of the second day, the troops clashed violently, and the Soviet troops lost their ability to fight, and by noon, even their ability to act. And on the third day, the Soviet troops even lost their ability to organize and fight back. The Federal Armed Forces' 1st Army Group, together with the Federal 2nd Division, which had been quickly sent south, succeeded in bringing the three Soviet divisions under siege.

The Soviet operation had failed. The Japanese demanded surrender with one hour to spare. The Soviets opted to have the surviving senior commanders accept the surrender. The problem was Khabarovsk. The remaining political officer in the city shouted for a full-scale war and declared the existence of the Khabarovsk Loyal Assault Division.

The city's upper echelons and a senior Soviet officer who had been left in charge of the wounded and sick panicked and admonished him. The indoctrinated political officer, however, dismissed these actions as anti-revolutionary and tried to capture and punish them. For this reason, the Soviet commander shot the erratic political officer with a pistol he was carrying. This marked the end of the Battle for Khabarovsk. At the same time, it meant that the Siberian Independence Movement had taken control of the eastern part of Siberia.

. . .

Siberian Independence in Khabarovsk (D-Day+55)

After entering Khabarovsk, the Siberian Independence Movement rented the Siberian City Hall and made it the headquarters of the Siberian Republic. Together with representatives of the governments of Japan, the United States, the Republic of Okhotsk, the Frontier Republic, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Taiwan, Britain, and France, they proclaimed the founding of the Siberian Republic.

The approval of the founding of the Siberian Republic was immediately placed on the agenda of the League of Nations. Despite the opposition of the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy, it was approved by a majority vote, thanks to the persistence of the G4 countries.

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Notes

*1: The two brigades were volunteer units from Germany and Italy respectively.

*2: The author of the report was asked by Stalin to reconfirm whether Siberia was really a bad debt for the Soviet economy, and was given the honorable task of counting trees in the lowlands of Western Siberia.

*3: Since the 601st Mechanized Division of the Republic of Okhotsk of the 1st Division of the Siberian Independence Army were originally Soviet compatriots, emotional tensions and troubles were expected. The 17th Mechanized Division was in charge of handling the HB troops – assembling personnel and sending them back to the rear. On top of this, the Siberian Independence Army's 1st Division was a fast-growing unit, so there were concerns about its skill level and equipment.