what if by late 1943, the Soviets and the Japanese had a large scale war around the Hokkaido, Sakhalin & Kuriles region. In this scenario the Soviets are mainly land based with numerous air bases and army already positioned on the islands and Japan launching air strikes from Hokkaido and using what remains of their carrier force to reach more distant areas like Kuriles.. who would win and would the Soviet aircrafts (aka MiG-3, Yak 1-7, Lagg, Il-2, etc) stand a chance against Ki-84s, etc
Looking at this objectively. I doubt the Russians could have afforded any additional combat experienced divisions to a re-newed conflict with the Japanese in the East. And it is unlikely this scenario would have happened anyway as the Japanese could ill afford weakening their position in the Pacific, let alone diverting air force resources north. The latter would have relieved pressure off US bombing raids on the Japanese homeland that started at the end of ’44.
If this large scale conflict with the Russians in Northern Japan had happened and lasted more than a year, American raids on Japanese industry would have eventually bled the Japanese defenders dry of crucial armaments. As already mentioned, the Japanese were in NO position to fight on two fronts. They would have lost to the Russians too. On a side note, the Best Japanese fighters would have been more than capable of taking on Russia’s best, if flown by skilled/experienced pilots.
Sign In
