The Vladivostok campaign
While the eyes of the world was turned to the war in Central-Europe the Allied forces in the Far East was also preparing for battle. Supreme Allied Commander in the Far East Earl Slim Viceroy of China was not a man to sit still and wait for the enemy to attack. So when the war was started Slim had already positioned his forces for their attacks. Unable to be on several places at once Slim had decided to split the Far East operations into three in the opening stages, this number would be lowered to two after the fall of Vladivostok.
Slim had two main targets for the opening moves of the war in the Far East, the first and most important was the invasion of the Soviet Far East holdings and especially the city of Vladivostok containing the only Soviet naval base, one of the few Soviet air bases and the Soviet supreme headquarters in the Far East. But because of the cities importance and also the fact that it had heavy fortifications Slim knew a direct assault would stand no chance and this was the reason why the attacks on Vladivostok was separate into two. One attack would be amphibious and would attack and conquer the land to the east of the city, while the attack on land would drive towards the city from the west and conquer all land to the west of Vladivostok, then a drive from east towards the western forces would try to link up north of the city giving the Soviets only one way to go, out to sea. Slim knew that the small and outdate Soviet Far East Navy didn’t stand a chance against the American and British aircraft carriers stationed outside of the city and he hoped that when he had the city surrounded the Soviet would either surrender or try to escape and then be crushed by Allied naval forces. One way or another Slims main goal for the eastern part of the Far East campaign was the capture of the city. Slim himself wouldn’t be leading these attacks personally; instead French General Leclerc would command the ground attack while the American General MacArthur would be responsible for the amphibious assaults.
The city of Vladivostok with its large naval base, air bases and Soviet headquarter was the main goal for Slim’s attacks in the Far East
The third forces Slim had mustered were the one he would command personally. These forces were protecting British China from Soviet attacks and it was aimed at driving deep into the Soviet allies in Mongolia and as soon as possible remove this country from the war. After Mongolia had been defeated Slim had planned to move further north into Siberia and then eventually start to drive west capturing Siberia and moving to hopefully join up with Allied forces attacking east through the Soviet Union. Although few in Slim’s command thought they would get that far before the Soviet Union had capitulated, it was a common idea that the Soviets would capitulate when Moscow had fallen, Slim was still determined to be prep reared for all eventually and this had caused him to plan for the invasion of Siberia and the drive west. But first of all the main goal was holding the lines against the Soviets and defeating Mongolia while Leclerc and MacArthur conquered Vladivostok.
The Vladivostok campaign began just one hour after war had been declared when Norwegian and American Marines under the command of General MacArthur started landing onto the beaches to the east of Vladivostok. Only facing a small garrison force they were soon able to create a bridgehead and within hours the Allies had started landing Sherman tanks, motorized and mechanized trucks, jeeps and artillery. Not going to west much time MacArthur at once ordered one of his two armoured division to drive north. The Soviets had no defences in the coastal provinces and MacArthur wanted to secure these provinces as soon as possible and then drive inland.
American General MacArthur was in command of the amphibious attacks. His forces took the Soviets by surprised and would secure all land to the east of Vladivostok within days after the war had begun.
While MacArthur was overseeing the landings in Tetyukhe to the east of Vladivostok, General Leclerc began his attacks in Liaoyuan to the south-west of Vladivostok. Guarded by 14 Soviet divisions the mountainous provinces was well defended, but Leclerc used his great advantage in artillery and air forces well and after five days of barrage upon the Soviet positions the Soviet soldiers were unable to hold their ground any longer and retreated. The capture of this province in the first week of hostilities were very important to the Allies as it bordered 3 Allied provinces and without this provinces under Allied control the Soviets might strike into Korea or China with the Allies unable to stop them. Also it was an important rally point for the attacks against Vladivostok.
Always a firm believer of ground command General Leclerc commanded his forces from the front. His Allied army included French British, American and South-African divisions.
Wanting to continuing pressing north Leclerc found that the Soviets had managed to mass close to 30 divisions in his way, outnumbering the Allied forces. This made the general understand that the encirclement plan wouldn’t be able to fulfil as first planned and instead he move his main forces east directly towards the city.
While Leclerc was busy redeploying his forces MacArthur’s armoured division had managed to capture most of the Soviet coastal provinces and started moving inland. But also here the Soviets had massed large defensive forces in the mountains halting further progress. Angered by the lack of development MacArthur and Leclerc met onboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington outside of Vladivostok on the 20th of May 1947. Knowing that Slim was fighting deep into Mongolia, his forces had almost reached the Mongolian capital before they were halted temporarily by large Soviet reinforcements, the two generals decided among themselves to stop the encirclement and instead press directly forward to the city of Vladivostok. Knowing that their attacks on both flanks had forces the Soviet commanders to remove their forces from the city of Vladivostok and instead positioned them to the north and the west of the city Leclerc and MacArthur knew that now they were able to outnumber the defenders in the city. MacArthur therefore wanted to press forward at once and capture the city, but Leclerc knew that his forces still needed 5 days to finish their redeployment and then some rest convinced the American that the 29th of May would be a better date for the attack. Hearing from their host Admiral Nimitz that this would give the naval air wings several days of fine weather and good visibility to bomb the Soviet positions they two Generals were more than happy when they settled on the 29th.
From the 20th until the early hours of the 29th of May Allied air force from land, but mainly from the huge American and British carrier fleet stationed in Vladivostok bay flew around the clock bombing runs on the Soviet positions. By the early hours of the 29th the Soviet forces left in the city had been subjected to a nine days bombardment and most of them were half dead already when the Allied launched their attack. Against the 11 Soviet divisions left in the city MacArthur and Leclerc had an Allied force of 26 divisions consisting of Norwegians, Americans, British, French, South-African and Canadian forces.
By the early hours of the 30th of May the last Soviet forces in the city surrendered. Half the Soviet force had been destroyed by the air bombardment and the battle and the remaining soldiers were so tired they couldn’t fight any longer. According to Major Larsen of the Norwegian Marines, one of the first Allied soldiers to enter Vladivostok, the Soviet soldiers looked as if they had been to hell and back again. The Allied had captured the only large Soviet city in the Far East and scored a great victory against the Soviet forces by taking their only naval base, one of the few airbases and most importantly capturing the entire Soviet Far East HQ with all its staff and generals.
American forces marching victorious into Vladivostok.
The Soviet Navy had refused to surrender and instead their set sail out of the harbour, this caused all the 8 ships of the Soviet Far East Navy, one light cruiser, three destroyer squadrons and four transports were sent to the bottom of the sea by Allied naval forces. One of the destroyer squadrons were destroyed by the Norwegian heavy cruisers Norge and Eidsvoll, two destroyer squadrons by air wings from USS Lexington, USS Enterprise and USS Hornet. The cruiser was sunk by the battleship USS Washington in co-operation with air wings from the USS Yorktown. The transports were left to the smaller Allied vessels and they were sunk by torpedo runs from Norwegian and American destroyer squadrons. The Battle of Vladivostok Bay left the Allies with complete control of the Pacific Ocean and it would remain under Allied control, there was nothing the Soviet Union to do to contest the Allied sea supremacy.
The Vladivostok campaign had given the Allied important victories. The Soviet Far East Navy had been completely destroyed; the most important Soviet city in the Far East was in Allied hands along with large number of Soviet prisoners and much Soviet capture materiel. But all the Allied commanders knew that there were still dangerous Soviet forces around and Leclerc at once made sure to strengthen the defences at Vladivostok and prepared to press forward once again.
