forced to conduct a defensive battle. Thus, the situation for the Soviet landing force became critical and they were threatened with annihilation. By the end of the day, the fleet commander sent an EK-2 sentry ship and two minesweepers from Vladivostok with the 355th separate battalion of marines on board, which could reach Seishin only the next day. Another major flaw was also revealed – aviation spotters were not included in the landing, so fleet aviation struck at a distance from the battlefield to avoid bombing its own troops. As such, direct air support for the landing was absent. During the night, the paratroopers fought an extremely fierce battle in three separate groups, beating off continuous counterattacks and soon lacking ammunition. On the morning of 14 August, the reinforcement convoy reached Seishin and landed a battalion of marines (710 men under command of Major M.P. Barabolko). The battalion commander led his troops into the city and advanced 1–3 kilometers. However, by introducing fresh forces into battle and supported by the artillery fire of an armored train, the Japanese command pushed the Soviets back to the port by the night of 14 August, where they held a bridgehead 2 km along the front and 1 km deep. Only part of the battalion led a defensive battle at the piers, several more groups of soldiers were cut off from their unit and fought separately in high-rise buildings in the city. In addition, because of the lack of knowledge of the situation, the battalion had been landed too far away from all three advanced landing groups in the city and therefore could not unite with them. The critical situation persisted. A volunteer detachment (25 men, commander of the 3 rd rank GV Ternovsky) hastily formed from the crews of the ships, landed on the shore. During the night, the Soviets had to repel 14 enemy attacks. Only thanks to exceptional courage and a high level of combat training, the Marines managed to survive. The ships that arrived in the morning remained in the harbor and supported the troops with their artillery fire. Due to the bad weather on that day, aviation was practically not used in the operation (only two bombers could fly to Seishin, but they had little impact). The main detachment (23 ships) left Vladivostok with the 13th Marine Brigade aboard, and at night, also the destroyer Voikov and a tank