Short Map PI Scen

[TIMJOT]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen


The Philippine Army had a long term plan for six AA Regiments and equipment for the first was in storage at US Army Depots as of 12/7. Awaiting formation and training of the Philippine unit, I suppose. This equipment was historically used to form the 515th AA.

I can confirm that this equipment was used to form the 515th Prov. AA So you might want to rename it the something like 1st PA AA Rgt. but then again, maybe 515th was a PA number designation. It was decided in Nov 41, that due to the difficult training issues in the PI no further AA equipment would be sent, instead only fully equiped and trained USA AA Regts would be sent to protect the Planned FEAF expansion. Apparently 6 regiments were selected for deployment but war begun before any reached ports of embarkation. Since AA was considered by both USAAFE and US army staff to be a priortity we can assume at least some if not most of these regts. would have been deployed by April 42.

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: JWE

Thanks TIMJOT and Don.

Yeah, I should have done some simple long division and paid more attention to the details of the breakdown of the 20s and 30s US Bn. So waded through my Trota again and think I got it. Can't get internally definitive with company organization, but it seems they each had (authorized) 4 BARS, giving 12 to a Bn, with 2 more in the MG coy (as AA protection for weapons carriers !!). Few more scattered about (as AA protection) in the Bn mortar company. Oddly enough, these were only provided 1 to a section, so only the 1st squad carrier had an AA BAR, the second presumably learned to duck.

Have a good grip on the organization with respect to M1917s. However, I still stumble over references to M1919s, or some generic 'air-cooled' MG. I proposed a LMG section in the Inf Coy (just because the contemporary US units had one). Maybe this was grasping at chimeras. I can strike them, easy, and do a "game" PA division with what's known, now, that will come in at the "authorized" levels of man and fire power.

Really wish somebody would ease my pain and say nope, no M1919s and no 60s either. I guess if Dougie wasn't whining for them, they weren't on the 'need list', but confirmation would be nice. Ciao.

I'm here to ease your pain -- in AE research I also tripped over the passing reference to M1919s, but I think M1917s were "more standard". (I was also confused by the rare reference to 75mm AA -- I think they meant the 3" M3/M1917/M1918 guns.

No 60s, and 3" "Trench Mortars" (with a high rate of dud ammo) in lieu of 81mm mortars.

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen


Other than the fact that it existed, I know nothing of the Constabulary Heavy Weapons unit. The Constabulary did have crew served weapons attached to various formations and used in a couple of the recorded engagements against bandits or moros. Sorry, all I got.

As for the Constabulary Companies, that was just speculation...

The pre-war distribution of the constabulary was primarily in company and smaller units in Philippine towns. Larger units were in major cities, bases, and trouble spots. I wish I had a good history of the Constabulary but mostly I just have references here and there. Trotta, for instance, mentions the major operation against the Moros in Jolo but gives no details. In fact, most of what he gives are statistical totals or problems with corruption. Something like 25% of the Constabulary Officers were court martialed for some reason or other. Mostly corruption.

I suspect that there was a higher organization, such that detachments or companies in local areas were part of a battalion located near by, etc. It is know that many of the local detachments were not incorporated into the Regimental sized units, but that may be because they were cut off by the Japanese advance.

I think I'm going to see what Google and I can find out about the Constabulary organization.

Here are my notes on the Constabulary's 2nd Artillery Regiment AKA the Heavy Weapons Regiment:

11x howitzers/guns -- 8x2.95" Pack Howitzers, 2x3" Naval, 1x6 lbr. Naval (In AE I discounted the 6 lbr)
2x 37mm AT gun
17 Bren carriers with .30 cal and .50 cal MGs
an indeterminate number of infantry, and crew served MMG and HMG


------------------------------
Artillery Regiment
Headquarters and Headquarters Battery
1st Battalion - Roberto
2nd Battalion - Vinluan
3rd Battalion - Baltazar
Artillery Battalion each had
Headquarters and Headquarters Company
2 Firing or MG Batteries (MG Batteries seem to exist due to a lack of
artillery pieces from the writing.)

Originally, the 2nd Artillery Regiment had been given only Enfield Rifles,
Water Cooled MMG's, Air Cooled MMG's and .50 cal MG's. Later, it did get
8 -2.95" Mountain Howitzers, 2-3" and 1 6pdr Naval Guns on Pedestal Mounts.
It was often called the Heavy Weapons Regiment.

AT Battalion*
Headquarters and Headquarters Company
Companies A,B,C,D, and E
1 MG Company
1 BREN Gun Carrier Company

*Improvised organization, since it lacked the proper AT equipment called for
in the TO&E. The unit got 17 BREN Gun Carriers seized from a ship going to
Hong Kong. It used .30 cal and .50cal MG's. Acted mainly as Infantry, it
also had 2-37mm AT Guns.

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse
Here are my notes on the Constabulary's 2nd Artillery Regiment AKA the Heavy Weapons Regiment:

Thanks a bunch, Joel. Once again, gotta tip the hat to ya'll in the critter branch. Gary Owen!

Where did you find that, btw?

J

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: JWE

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse
Here are my notes on the Constabulary's 2nd Artillery Regiment AKA the Heavy Weapons Regiment:

Thanks a bunch, Joel. Once again, gotta tip the hat to ya'll in the critter branch. Gary Owen!

Where did you find that, btw?

J

Thanks. Here's the link to the TOE page for the Constabulary:

orbat.com/site/history/volume6/Philippine%20Army%20TO%201941.doc

Keep those Caissons rolling!

[JWE]

Ok, think the PA is coming together, thanks to all the help and input. Got a decent take on a PA Inf squad. Because they, and their companies, were so small, and they were (comparatively) so poorly armed, decided to aggregate into an 8 sqds/coy model, and proportionately increase LC and anti-soft. Reducing the sqd/coy factor also helps balance out the relative AVs so that things are actually looking mighty fine with respect to div/rgt stack combat. Here's kinda how it breaks out:

PI Div – AV = 270, in 330 units
IJA IR – AV = 132, in 178 units
US IR – AV = 118, in 160 units
US RCT – AV = 129, in 182 units

The PA div is 'generally' equivalent to 2x an IJ or US Regt. Firepower is lower on a device basis, so the PA Div represents a reversal of the paradigm. Notably, ant Rgts, left here or there, will have an AV of 84, along with the inherent firepower weakness, so the 3:2 ratio still obtains. Gosh, I love it when a plan comes together!

Dialing it all up, the PA division totals out to 7640 troops, against an authorization of 7880. I set the Support rate to 80%, which gives a tooth-to-tail of about 50/50. Looking very good so far.

[JWE]

Have a question about the 'opening day' breakouts for this scenario.

If we presume the PA was getting its poopie together and had much of its needed equipment, Dougie would also have had additional time to strengthen his beach defenses. Japanese intelligence would be aware of this and their operational planning would not have broken Kanno's Bn out of Tanaka's 2nd Formosa and had the two rumps hit Aparri and Vigan separately.

I'm positioning the assault units and TFs, and think it's best to strike the "detachments" and just leave things in terms of the parent regiments. Some detachments, of course, are reasonable (Sakaguchi, Kawaguchi, et al) but think Kanno, Tanaka, Miura, etc., would not have obtained in the scenario's environment and propose to omit them. Comments?

[berto]

Any ETA for this short map PI scenario? Next week? Next month? ...

(Yeah, I know, it's ready when it's ready.)

I'm giving consideration to tackling the DEI scenario next, and I like to plan ahead my limited free time.

[JWE]

Not as fast as next week, but not as long as next month. Sorry, but that's the best I can say.

Found some grits in the DEI scen, so will clean that up too. Will add a 'CPX Scenarios' section to the website and post the DEI and PI and whatever other short mappers we come up with. Will have some explanations about how they are designed to be played and what can and cannot be done with letting the computer run either of the two sides.

Ciao. J

[TIMJOT]

ORIGINAL: JWE

Have a question about the 'opening day' breakouts for this scenario.

If we presume the PA was getting its poopie together and had much of its needed equipment, Dougie would also have had additional time to strengthen his beach defenses. Japanese intelligence would be aware of this and their operational planning would not have broken Kanno's Bn out of Tanaka's 2nd Formosa and had the two rumps hit Aparri and Vigan separately.

I'm positioning the assault units and TFs, and think it's best to strike the "detachments" and just leave things in terms of the parent regiments. Some detachments, of course, are reasonable (Sakaguchi, Kawaguchi, et al) but think Kanno, Tanaka, Miura, etc., would not have obtained in the scenario's environment and propose to omit them. Comments?

Japan had a very good intelligence network in the PI. So I think we would have to assume with USAFFE strength increased exponentionally that the 14th Amry would likewise be strengthen. Most players use the 4th Div as part of the 14th Army anyway so that should be available in the scenerio and perhaps even the 56th Div. since Yamashita didnt use it historically and it is unlikely given the Brits preocupation wtih N.Africa that any substantial ground reinforcements would have been sent to Malaya. I believe only the 44th and 45th Indian Bgds along with 8th Aus Div. organic MG and Pioneer Bns. were planned to be sent to Malaya prior to the start of war.

[berto]

ORIGINAL: JWE

... Will add a 'CPX Scenarios' section to the website and post the DEI and PI and whatever other short mappers we come up with. Will have some explanations about how they are designed to be played ...

Grateful for this. The more documentation (lying out in plain view, not buried deep in some forum thread) the better.

[dwg]

ORIGINAL: JWE
I'm positioning the assault units and TFs, and think it's best to strike the "detachments" and just leave things in terms of the parent regiments. Some detachments, of course, are reasonable (Sakaguchi, Kawaguchi, et al) but think Kanno, Tanaka, Miura, etc., would not have obtained in the scenario's environment and propose to omit them. Comments?

Seems reasonable, the Japanese were able to break their operations down into detachments because they weren't expecting to hit substantial formed forces in the first stages of the landings. But you aren't likely to detach a battalion TF if there's a good chance it might run into a formed regiment, or division, before mama can come running.

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: TIMJOT
Japan had a very good intelligence network in the PI. So I think we would have to assume with USAFFE strength increased exponentionally that the 14th Amry would likewise be strengthen. Most players use the 4th Div as part of the 14th Army anyway so that should be available in the scenerio and perhaps even the 56th Div. since Yamashita didnt use it historically and it is unlikely given the Brits preocupation wtih N.Africa that any substantial ground reinforcements would have been sent to Malaya. I believe only the 44th and 45th Indian Bgds along with 8th Aus Div. organic MG and Pioneer Bns. were planned to be sent to Malaya prior to the start of war.

Yes, although Japan is not necessarily reinforced so much as unit arrivals are accelerated. To make this scenarios work, we presume that the off-map operations (Malaya, Burma prep, etc..) proceed as they did, and that on-map follow-on operations (Celebes, Borneo, fx) are in planning, using the same time schedule and units. So ...

16th ID Maj Gen Morioka Susumu and 48th ID Maj Gen Tsuchibashi Yûichi conduct the initial assault. 4th ID Maj Gen Kitano Kenzô accelerated arrival (ex-Takao). 21st ID Maj Gen Nagano Kameichirô accelerated arrival (ex-Taihoku). 65th IBr Maj Gen Nara Akira is scheduled to arrive (ex-Anami Oshima) when 48th ID is "officially" detached to 16th Army. 9th IBr Maj Gen Kawamura Saburô transfered to 14th Army from South Army on normal schedule. 35th IBr Maj Gen Kawaguchi Kiyotake transfered to 14th Army from South Army on normal schedule (but is on-map for the Miri/Kuching ops).

56th IBr Maj Gen Sakaguchi Shizuo and 10th IGarBr Col Ikuta Torao available from 16th Army (ex-Babeldaob) for initial assault. Other available 16th Army units include 38th ID Maj Gen Sano Tadayoshi, after conclusion of Hong Kong ops. 2nd ID Maj Gen Maruyama Masaô accelerated arrival (ex-Babeldaob).

Since Miura would remain with 33rd IR, the Miura Detachment is replaced with an AEaster Egg. And then, of course, there's the IJN units.

[JWE]

Japan done. Some AEaster eggs lurking in them there woods. Working now on the PI forces, according to stuff provided by Uncle Don, Tinjot, and others.

What to do, what to do, with PA divisions that left units behind on Cebu and Mindanao when the main echelon moved to Luzon in the stock scenario?? Keep them split up?? Move everyone to Luzon?? Keep everyone at the organization location and let players move them?? What to do, what to do. Comments??

[berto]

*

[TIMJOT]

ORIGINAL: JWE

Japan done. Some AEaster eggs lurking in them there woods. Working now on the PI forces, according to stuff provided by Uncle Don, Tinjot, and others.

What to do, what to do, with PA divisions that left units behind on Cebu and Mindanao when the main echelon moved to Luzon in the stock scenario?? Keep them split up?? Move everyone to Luzon?? Keep everyone at the organization location and let players move them?? What to do, what to do. Comments??

I believe you mean the 73st and 93rd Regts. on Leyete and Negros Islands. Those regiments probably should be joined with parent Divisions on Luzon as I believed that was the plan but I am pretty sure they were no plans on deploying the Cebu, Panay, and Mindanao Divisions to Luzon or else there would be no force left in the Visaya/Mindanao Force. Cebu in particular was going to be the location of THE major Bomber base for the FEAF. So I doubt they would leave it undefended.

[Don Bowen]

As I recall, MacArthur's plan was to concentrate for the defense of Luzon and Mindanao. Del Monte, on Mindanao, was to be a major airbase.

If shipping and the Japanese had allowed, I believe the entire 71st and 91st Divisions would have moved to Luzon. The actual movement started after hostilities, and I do not know the planned schedule pre-war. Or, indeed, if they would have moved at all. Additional CD defenses were being planned for the Visayas.

The 61st and 81st were to move to Mindanao, a movement that also began after war broke out.

In all cases, only portions of the Visayas divisions completed the move.

Another problem is the long-term goal of a full corps for each military district. Not to be completed until 1946, but at some time (soon?) the mobilization of the second divsion in each district would have begun. Note that Panay was able to raise two more (under equiped) regiments before being overrun. The first division might have moved while the units of the second defended the Visayas??

[TIMJOT]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen


As I recall, MacArthur's plan was to concentrate for the defense of Luzon and Mindanao. Del Monte, on Mindanao, was to be a major airbase.

If shipping and the Japanese had allowed, I believe the entire 71st and 91st Divisions would have moved to Luzon. The actual movement started after hostilities, and I do not know the planned schedule pre-war. Or, indeed, if they would have moved at all. Additional CD defenses were being planned for the Visayas.

The 61st and 81st were to move to Mindanao, a movement that also began after war broke out.

In all cases, only portions of the Visayas divisions completed the move.

Another problem is the long-term goal of a full corps for each military district. Not to be completed until 1946, but at some time (soon?) the mobilization of the second divsion in each district would have begun. Note that Panay was able to raise two more (under equiped) regiments before being overrun. The first division might have moved while the units of the second defended the Visayas??

Hi Don

From what I read even MacArthur didnt think Mindanao was defensible and because it was outside his defense perimeter he told Washington that Del Monte would not due for the planned bomber base. Del Monte would serve as an auxillary base and for expediancy temporarliy serve as the 7th BG base until the Cebu base could be developed. USAFFE maintained that with the completion of the Inland Seas Defence project and in-shore patrol that the Visayas could be defended. It was thought that Cebu also had the advantage of being far enough away as to be imune to Japanese attack but close enough to allow B-17 and B-24 to strike enemy targets. It was only after the early start of the war made the Cebu base in Inland Seas Defence project moot that the decision was made to concentrate on Mindanao to protect the now only practical base Del Monte. Both Sharp and Chenweyth were posted to there commands prior to out break of the war so it doesnt appear that the Panay and Cebu Divisions were going anywhere.

[el cid again]

The key to an interesting game that MIGHT permit Allied victory is Baguio City. The road system is right at
Hex 81,74.

It needs to be a location with lots of supply generation, lots of resource generation, coded as non-malarial - and
as mountains. It is not only a mining center, but a food producing area, with fabulous ridge lines and swift flowing
rivers at the bottoms of each valley. It is a real airfield too. And location of Fort John Hay. A house there is still
US territory - it is where Yamashita surrendered. He had to be ORDERED to surrender - because his position was
so strong it was not worth the effort to force him out. So when he pointed out surrender was against Japanese
law, and he required written orders from the Emperor, we waited for that to happen.

Otherwise, mine RHS for a WITP type OB - derived from The Philippine Army - a scholarly treatment - as well as
US Army materials - some of them from the museum at For John Hay and not published.

Rename location 623 Balinta pass - the trail system is also correct here - for a communications route from the
Northern Ilagan Valley into the central plain of Luzon. It needs to be defined as mountains as well.

Ilagan valley makes some supply ( lots of food, water, timber ) and Bontoc should be a new location with
resources - the trails are already correct - at hex 81,73. It has the largest copper mine in Asia - to this day -
well except a major PRC project in New Guinea that may now be opened. Had Japan exploited this, it would not
have had any copper needs from anywhere else.

[berto]

ORIGINAL: el cid again

The key to an interesting game that MIGHT permit Allied victory is Baguio City ... A house there is still US territory - it is where Yamashita surrendered.

Didn't Yamashita in fact surrender at Kiangan, Ifugao?

Look here.

Rename location 623 Balinta pass - the trail system is also correct here - for a communications route from the Northern Ilagan Valley into the central plain of Luzon.

Also, it's the Cagayan Valley, named after the Cagayan River, the Philippine's longest and largest, that runs through the valley, south to north. Ilagan is the capital of Isabela Province, just one of several provinces in the Cagayan Valley Region.