ABSTRACT
Ten minutes after midnight on 9 August 1945 (Khabarovsk time), reconnaissance units, forward detachments, and advanced guards of the Trans-Baikal Front’s forces crossed the border into Inner Mongolia and Manchuria. No artillery or air preparation preceded the attack. Initially,
the advancing units encountered resistance only in the 36th Army’s sector, where the attack routes traversed fortified Japanese border installations. In other regions, the assault units moved forward virtually unopposed. At 0430 hours main force units advanced on the heels of the assault units (see Maps 29-31).3
