Military Model Scene

Title: Soviet Tanks in Manchuria 1945
Author: William E. Hiestand
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-5371-1

New Vanguard number 316, sub-titled 'The Red Army's ruthless last Blitzkrieg of World War II'. A 48-page soft-cover book, with illustrations by Henry Morshead and Irene Cano Rodriguez.
With a neat Introduction there is the consideration of how Soviet armoured operations had developed by these final stages of the war. This leads nicely into the details of the late war Soviet AFVs. The bulk is then devoted to the course of the campaign itself. Soviet forces in the Far East had simply held steady against the Japanese Kwantung army. They had older tanks such as the T-26 and BT-5/-7 but huge numbers of new tanks, and troops, were shipped to the Far East once the war against Germany was over. The numbers involved are huge, with 1.5 million Soviet troops facing 1.25 million Japanese and supported by a huge mechanised force of some 5,500 tanks and SPGs. The light Japanese tanks were totally outclassed by the T-34/85, KV-1 and the ISU-152. Over a vast area it took just 2 weeks for the Soviet offensive to succeed.
Despite my lifelong interest in the history of WW2, this is a story I knew nothing about beforehand, so I found this one especially fascinating. The Soviet army had learnt a lot from their war with Germany, and that was put to good use in this huge offensive against the Japanese in the Far East. A successful campaign but overshadowed by the effects of the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan which brought the Japanese war to a swift end. A lot of archive images throughout the book, along with maps and some fine artwork.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin