By an ironic twist of History, it was precisely on 13 August 1945 that a reconnaissance detachment under Hero of the Soviet Union Senior Lieutenant Viktor Leonov stormed the quays of the port of Seishin, which had been seized by the Japanese.
And a week later Leonov’s men phenomenally took prisoner the Japanese garrison of the port of Wonsan. 140 scouts against 3,500 samurai!
How did it happen? The senior lieutenant himself told the story after the war to the writer Alexei Timofeev:
“Unexpectedly for the enemy we landed on a Japanese airfield and entered into negotiations. After that we, ten representatives, were taken to the headquarters of a colonel, the commander of an aviation unit, who wanted to make hostages of us.
Looking the Japanese in the eye, I said that we had fought the entire war in the West, had quite enough experience and would not become hostages — we would rather die, but together with everyone in the headquarters. The difference, I added, is that you will die like rats, while we will try to break out of here.
Hero of the Soviet Union Mitya Sokolov immediately stood behind the Japanese colonel. Pshenichnykh locked the door, put the key in his pocket and sat down on a chair, while Volodya Olyashev (after the war — Honoured Master of Sport) lifted Andrei together with the chair and placed him right in front of the Japanese commander. Ivan Guzenkov went to the window and reported that it was not high here, and Hero of the Soviet Union Semyon Agafonov, standing by the door, began tossing an anti-tank grenade in his hand. The Japanese, of course, did not know that it had no fuse.
The colonel, forgetting about his handkerchief, started wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hand and soon signed the act of surrender of the garrison.
We formed three and a half thousand prisoners into a column of eight. They already carried out all my commands at a run. There was no one to escort such a column, so I put the commander and the chief of staff in the car with me. If even one runs away, I said, you will have only yourselves to blame. While we were leading the column, it had already grown to as many as five thousand Japanese…”
Today they are rattling their little sabres again. Study the subject matter, you damn warriors!
@sashakots
