Battle of Khalkhin Gol 1939 / Soviet Counteroffensive

The border skirmishes between the Soviet Union's Red Army and the Imperial Japanese Army in 1939 had led to brutal fighting and an eventual stalemate between the two sides. Commander Zhukov who would later become famous for his deeds during the 1942 Battle of Stalingrad against Nazi Germany then developed a plan to defeat the Japanese for good and force a peace treaty.

Using the same tactics that led to the Stalingrad encirclement, he encircled the Japanese forces across the river by using combined arms operations on an massive scale and advancing across the flanks of the main Japanese forces in an pincer drive.

The attack was devastating, the Japanese army groups across the river were annihilated and Japan suffered one of it's largest battlefield defeats it ever had at the time. An ceasefire agreement was signed between Japan and the Soviet Union shortly afterwards.

This battle had major implications for both sides, Russia gained reassurance that Eastern Russia would likely remain safe from further attacks by Japan. And Japan was forced to respect the power of the Soviet Union and refrained from attacking them until 1945 when the Soviet Union declared war against Japan.

This defeat also led to the Army factions losing face in the Japanese cabinet. The Army's idea of expanding into Russia for resources was abandoned, and the Navy's idea of expanding southward into the Philippines and risking war with the United States was favored instead. Leading to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the Pacific war.