The battles of Khalkhin Gol were fought along the Khalkhin Gol river on the border between Mongolia and the Japanese-controlled state of Manchukuo, and they were the decisive clash of a border war between the Soviet Union, allied with Mongolia, and Japan. Soviet forces commanded by Georgy Zhukov used armour, aircraft and massed artillery in a combined offensive, encircling and destroying the Japanese 23rd Division. The defeat was a shock to the Japanese army, and it helped to convince Japan to avoid war with the Soviet Union, turning its attention toward the south, and in 1941 to sign a neutrality pact with Moscow. The battle made Zhukov's reputation.
Before and after
- from 7 April 1939 to 12 April 1939Italian invasion of Albania
- 13 April 1939Birth of Seamus Heaney
- 14 April 1939Publication of The Grapes of Wrath
- 19 April 1939Birth of Ali Khamenei
- from 11 May 1939 to 16 September 1939Battles of Khalkhin Gol
- 22 May 1939Pact of Steel
- 2 July 1939Founding of Hewlett-Packard
- 9 August 1939Birth of Romano Prodi
- 23 August 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918World War I
- 28 June 1919Treaty of Versailles
- from 1933 to 1945The Holocaust
- 30 January 1933Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
- from 18 July 1936 to 1 April 1939Spanish Civil War
- from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945World War II
The era
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