Welcome to the jungle - Belisarius vs. Scharfschütze

[Scharfschütze]

All of a sudden, the continous barrage on the lower slopes of Heroes` Hill, as Captain Amos´ northern position shall now be called, stopped.
While the shellshocked japanese soldiers were slowly rising, the Marines struck. The Raiders counterattacked in strength, tanks and infantry advancing side by side and methodically eradicating the foe. The assault met minimum resistance, and a second wave of M3 Stuarts was called in to destroy the fleeing foe. Scores of japanese soldiers were mowed down by the tanks´ machineguns.

The japanese attack on Heroes´Hill had not only been thwarted, but completetly crushed, costing hundreds of lives.

[Belisarius]

The few survivors of the onslaught staggers out of the belching smokes to temporary safety. This hill will not be taken easily. We see a sickening number of M3's - 14 of them!

We mop up a few MG squads in the south, and the artillery helps to add the score. Otherwise the motto of the day is "regroup" We're consolidating the lines where it's needed. We are far from beaten

[Scharfschütze]

Ever onwards the Stuarts rolled, firing on the move and killing fleeing jap infantry. Machineguns and AT positions, obviously the rearward postions of the enemy front line, were crushed by the armored onslaught. Toyota trucks burned brightly.

Soon the Marines would reach the japanese fortifications recon patrols and listening posts had discovered, and face the fearsome 5" naval guns of their bunkers.

[Belisarius]

A thousand deaths to you, pale-skins!

We have little to nothing left to counter the M3 menace. Argh. Very funny idea - flood the enemy with something he can't counter. Har har har.

Sacrificed a tank down south to get a lone M3. It was worth it! Promise! 'tis but a small price to pay for the grace of the divine Emperor!

Anyway, I don't think I'll pull this off, but the Marine Corps will pay in blood for their victory. At this rate, we can still fight for another 10 turns!

[Scharfschütze]

M3 menace? Those were meant as backup for my Marines against those jap monster squads (like 17 men and firing back after 10 casualties :mad::mad: ), they suffered badly in the first encounters with the jap tanks and it smelled of a breakthrough in the south were I had no tanks left. I hadn´t purchased any ATG´s, thinking the mighty M3 would be enough to defeat the few jap tanks to be encountered.:rolleyes:


On a brighter side, Cpt. Amos is driving the enemy back all the way to Tokio. The loss of two tanks to a well dug-in AT-rifle pales in face of the losses we have inflicted on the enemy. In the last few minutes, more than 500 metres (on a front more than a kilometre long) have been liberated from the japanese and all resistance has been crushed. The enemy forces attacking Heroes´ Hill have been wiped out, we are now just mopping up stragglers. Japanese losses are estimated in the hundreds.

[Belisarius]

Monster squads? What monster squads? You ain't seen nothing yet

Knocked out another M3 down south. Turn tradition! One M3 a day keeps the surrender away!

Otherwise, we're just trying not to get squished. Lars has explained to me what tank force he still has available (it's a LOT ), and suggested that I end it. I pretty much agree, but he still has a lot of hardship to go through before getting the last of me, so I'll hold on that offer. 2 or 3 more turns...

[Scharfschütze]

Captain Amos was steering everyone towards the front line. Dead Japanese were lying everywhere, testimony of the tank charge. The Stuarts had found firing positions south of a large hill where the Japs had dug in and also erected numerous fortifications, including at least one large bunker equipped with 5" naval guns. The fire was sporadic, they seemed to have passed beyond the bunkers LOS.

To the south, Captain Dobb´s central sector forces were still encountering localized resistance by engineers and AT-rifles. The enemy bikers were perishing rapidly to both the Marines, which had reached the frontline and M3´s.

Further south, scout parties were looking for Japs in the broken ground where the northern prong of the Jap attack in this sector had been annihilated first by artillery fire and then by the timely arrival of tank reinforcements. The southern prong was still edging towards the Marines positions, but was presumed to lack the strength to pose a serious threat.

All over the field, the Marines had taken the initiative and were driving the Japs before them. Soon, sweet victory would be theirs!:p

[Belisarius]

Surrender!

I can't fight M3s in these numbers! Only thing I have left to counter with are my fixed defenses, and they are easily avoided with a force like that. So... nothing to do, hand in the papers.

I can't see the kills, so Scharf will supply that info.

IJA OOB:

4x Medium tank platoons (Chi-ha's)
1x Gun tank Co
2x SNLF Co
4x Engineer plt
1x HMG Co
1x Motorcycle Co
4x Scouts (=8 patrols)
4x FO
6x 81mm mortar plt
3x Ammo dump
1x 150mm btn
1x 105mm btn
5x Sniper
3x Sa-To plt
1x Cavalry Co
1x Shore bty
2x Caves (=6 caves)
3x Armored car plt
1x AT gun Co
3x Inf ATR plt
1x HQ

Didn't write down reinforcements, but they were something like a n SNLF company and an artillery batallion. Ofcourse, had I known that Lars had pitted almost 50 M3's against me, I would have taken AT troops instead. Ah well.. :rolleyes:

[Scharfschütze]

Well, those AT troops Belisarius had apparantly did a good job nonetheless:

Casualities:
Japanese:Marines
832:354 men
7:3 arty
3:0 soft vehicles
23:21 AFV´s

So I lost 21 M3´s, about 40% of my total tank strength, quite a testimony to the hard fighting.

My forces:

HQ

2 FO´s (Lt. Donovan had an arty command of 75 and was able to call in offboard arty with a 0.2 delay
most of the time. Excellent man!)

2 Lt. Tank Companies M3A1 Stuart (18 each)

6 Companies of the USMC 2nd Raiders

7 Platoons .50 cal AAMG´s

5 sections FT Engineers (laid a lot of mines, flamed noone)

10 M1 81mm mortar platoons (2 each)

2 Ammo Dumps

4 Lt. Truck platoons

11 Recons (á 3 USMC Recon Patrols)

5 Listening Posts

6 Bty´s 155mm Howitzers


Reinforcements:

4 Platoons of M3 Stuarts

3 Platoons 37mm ATG´s

The choice of reinforcements clearly shows how afraid I was of jap tanks busting my line in the south. I now know that Belisarius just didn´t have enough tanks to try this, but while things were running there was a very real possiblity of this happening as I had lost two full platoons of M3´s in the south and had no AT weapons down there for several turns. Perhaps the rail cars might have been enough to force a breach...they perished pretty uselessly in the central area.


I did some hypersnaps of the final positions:

[Scharfschütze]

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[Scharfschütze]

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