Chang-ku Feng, Battle of

Conflict between Soviet and Japanese forces in 1938. The battle centred on a hill on the border of what are now the Russian Federation and the Chinese province of Manchuria, about 32 km/20 mi from the sea. It was finally won by Soviet dive-bombers, whose pilots had learned the methods of Blitzkrieg in the Spanish Civil War.

Until 1938, the frontier between Japanese-controlled Korea and the Soviet area south of Vladivostok was a sort of no-man's-land whose precise limits were not determined. In June 1938 the Japanese learned that the Russians were planning to establish a new submarine and air base on Possiet Bay, at the extreme southern limit of Soviet territory. Hence a Japanese patrol occupied the hill, which gave artillery control over Possiet Bay. The Russian frontier guard expelled the Japanese, but was annihilated when the latter returned in strength soon afterwards. New Soviet forces counter-attacked, and within ten days two large armies, each of 80,000 troops, with planes, tanks, and heavy guns, were fighting for possession of the narrow ridge.