The Red Army's defeat of the Germans during the Second World War is one of the Great achievements in military history. The military man most responsible for that victory was Marshal Georgi Zhukov. Though less well known than some of his German or allied counterparts, Zhukov was a brilliant practitioner of a distinctive, and uniquely Soviet, style of operational art. This style was first tested against the Japanese Kwangtung Army at Khalkin Gol in Mongolia. Zhukov"s operational scheme at Khalkin Gol was the prototype for his later successes at Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk.