World at War #95 - Khalkin Gol War: Struggle for Mongolia, 1939

From Decision Games:

The Magazine:

Khalkin-Gol War in Inner Asia, 1939

In 1939 Japan and the USSR fought a small war on the border between Manchukuo (Japanese-controlled Manchuria) and the People’s Republic of Mongolia (a Soviet satellite). The fighting’s outcome turned Japanese ambitions toward the Pacific, but that was not foreordained. The Japanese made plans for a wider war against the Soviets, and that easily might have been the scenario that played out.

Articles

- The Rise of Soviet Airpower 1917–41 On 22 June 1941, the Luftwaffe struck a seemingly decisive blow against the Soviet Air Force, destroying several thousand planes in a few weeks. Despite that, by mid-1943 the Soviets were back in the sky in strength. The sources of that turnaround go back to 1917, and are remarkable given the obstacles Soviet aviation had to overcome.

- Germany’s Missiles In the mid-1930s, the Luftwaffe pursued innovative technologies and weapons in an effort to become the world’s most powerful air force. Fortunately for the world, that effort atrophied when its main sponsor, Chief of Staff Gen. Walther Wever, died in an air crash on 3 June 1936. The fact German missiles came close to operational use is testament to the expertise of the engineers and scientists involved.

- The Falaise Gap Halt Order On 13 August 1944, a “halt order” from Bradley’s 12th Army Group stopped Patton from closing the gap between Argentan and Falaise and trapping German Seventh and Fifth Panzer Armies. That allowed a large number German troops to escape—among them their most determined cadre. Those men were later key in defeating Operation Market Garden, holding the West Wall, and counterattacking in the Ardennes. Here is our analysis.

The Game:

Khalkin-Gol War is an operational-level, two-player wargame covering a “what if” Japanese-Soviet war in Mongolia in 1939. The historical campaign saw a series of limited actions in the late spring and early summer of 1939 along the Khalka River (Khalkin-Gol) on the Manchukuoan-Outer Mongolian border. The campaign ended in a corps-level battle in August 1939 in which the Soviets decisively defeated the Japanese and produced a cease-fire between the two antagonists. The assumption of the game is that both Tokyo and Moscow decided instead to turn this into a full-scale war.

Each turn of play represents a month of operations. Each hex on the map is approximately 30 kilometers across. Ground units are mostly built around divisions, with breakdowns into brigades and regiments. Air units represent anything from an elite squadron to a mediocre group.

22 x 34-inch map and a sheet of 176 5/8-inch counters.