1. THE FORGOTTEN HILLS
LAKE KHASAN, RUSSIA, August 6, 1938: The Khunchun Treaty of 1886, defined the border between China and Russia, in eastern Manchuria, as the ridge tops of a series of mountains and hills near the Pacific Ocean. Territory on the eastern slopes was Russian and the Chinese possessed the western. Half a century later with the defection of NKVD Commissar for Siberia, General Lyushkov, to the Japanese in June 1938, tensions had escalated along this Pacific frontier. Units of the well equipped OKDVA (Special Red Banner Eastern Army) under the instructions of the local commander, Colonel Grebennik, began fortifying the eastern slopes of the Zaozernaya (Changkufeng) and Bezymyannaya (Shachaofeng) hills. The Japanese soon found that barbed wire had been placed by the Soviets on the western slopes of the hills. They issued protest leaflets to the troops on the hills and diplomatic protests to Moscow — all of which were ignored. On July 29 a skirmish between reconnaissance units led to Lt Gen. Suetaka Kamezo’s 19th Division seizing the two hills. Marshal Blyukher, commander of the OKDVA began assembling forces for a counter-strike. A hasty divisional strength attack on August 2 was repulsed by the Japanese. An attack by the 32nd Rifle Division north-east of Lake Khasan and the 40th Rifle Division from the south-east, was ordered for August 6.