Yasuoka Detachment or Yasuoka Task Force, was an armored

Japanese Imperial Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor ...

unit in 1939. It was commanded by Lt. General Yasuoka Masaomi, composed of 3rd Tank Regiment and 4th Tank Regiment (seventy-three tanks total), 64th Infantry Regiment/

IJA 23rd Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call-sign was the . The 23rd Division was formed in Kumamoto on 4 April 1938, on the same day as 15th, 17th, 21st and 22nd divisions, as part of the military build-up following ...

, 2/28th Infantry Regiment/ IJA 7th Division, the 2nd Battalion of the 13th Field Artillery Regiment, and 24th Independent Engineer Regiment. It was an armored Detachment of the

Kwantung Army ''Kantō-gun'' , image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG , image_size = 300px , caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo , dates = April ...

organized for the Japanese July 1939 offensive of the

Battle of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, ...

. The Yasuoka Task Force planned to attack

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

forces on the Halha's east bank, north of the Holsten River while simultaneously, the main force of the

would eliminate Soviet forces on the east bank and then cross to the west bank of the Halha River and drive south to the Kawamata Bridge, destroying Soviet artillery batteries and supply dumps along the west bank. The link-up of the two pincer columns in the vicinity of the Kawamata Bridge would encircle the Soviet forces and then destroy them. The Japanese tank regiments operating on the east bank from July 2, separated and not coordinating with each other or their attached infantry, engineers and artillery failed to break through the Soviet defenses resulting in the loss of half their armor. On July 9 the Yasuoka Task Force was dissolved, Lt. General Yasuoka Masaomi was relieved and the Armour regiments withdrawn.

Sources

* Drea, Edward J., Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939; Leavenworth Paper #2, Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 66027, 1981.

External links

Nomonhan: Japanese-Soviet Tactical Combat, 1939
Detachment, Yasuoka Military units and formations established in 1939 {{Japan-mil-hist-stub