Notes from a Small Island

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: An SSX sinks a shoregun-crippled AM, the first Allied ship to go under.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: The most powerful Allied bombardment TF arrives on location and deals with the kind of threat that could ruin somebody's day.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Allied bombardments do modest damage but give the first information about what enemy ground units are stationed at Wakkanai.

Shore gun fire doesn't seem overwhelming.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Heavy disablements as the main amphibious TF (100 ships!) disgorges five divisions on the beach. That's pretty stout. This is a morning phase, so I hope most of the ships are empty now. IE, I hope Allied infantry doesn't take more losses in the p.m. phase.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Hurrah! As ordered, and without enemy opposition, Allied forces are landing in the vacant hex south of Wakkanai. Enemy LOC severed, at least for a bit.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Allied sweepers find no opposition over Wakkanai. Then comes the first Allied air strike - naval strike aircraft based at Shikuka. They don't do much damage, but neither do they take heavy AA fire. That will be beneficial to the coming bombing campaign.

Just prior to this raid, enemy Ki-83 in modest numbers swept Toyohara, finding a sizeable Allied CAP. The enemy prevailed at about a 2:1 ratio, but numbers downed were small.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: The first raid by 4EB does good work against the enemy level-6 airfield.

A handful of other 1EB and 2EB preceded this one, scoring minimally and encountering meager flak.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Following additional small raids, another big one comes in. To this point, I've counted 16 supply hits by the air force (the Navy took out a couple).

I have no idea how much supply Wakkanai holds. Erik might've ratcheted up the supply draw, but more likely it has modest supply of 60k to 80k. If that's true, supply should be an issue under repeated bombing and bombarding.

These series of raids indicate there is the division, two brigades, one regiment, and Soya Fortress at Wakkanai. That's a decent garrison but better than I might have expected for such a key hex.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Japanese auto-bombardment reveals a pretty encouraging picture. The enemy garrison is strong but definitely vulnerable. The Allied divisions are banged up too.

Overall, Erik should perceive that Wakkanai is under imminent threat. I feel sure he will conclude he must throw everything into the fray, which was the overriding objective of this mission.

His air force is so strong that it's a scary prospect to take it on at close range. His navy is stout (especially in BBs) and can sting hard, but may be a one-shot wonder. It's take so many beatings that anything else will be magnified several times by scarcity.

L-Day was superb.

[Canoerebel]

No enemy arty.

No enemy armor.

No enemy AA.

Wow.

[Canoerebel]

During the day, Allied bombers scored 3 hits on Wakkanai Resources, probably eliminating what few were left.

That's a feature of the grand Allied strategy - to take enemy bases only after all possible strategic bombing points have been harvested.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

Uruppu: To cap off the day, this.

So an intricate plan involving lots of timing - the ingressing herd, Uruppu's downfall, L-Day at Wakkanai - came together seamlessly.

This has been a day to celebrate, knowing full well that coming days won't be nearly so rosy.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: This situation in the blocking hex is far better than expected.

[Canoerebel]

12/21/44

L-Day: Allied army is more battered than I had hoped. Fatigue is about 40, disruption in single digits. While the units rest and recover (and close on 100% prep), Allied air force and navy will batter the base.

Allied combat engineering unit looks puny, drat it.

[Lovejoy]

Well done taking both Uruppu and getting your forces ashore on Wakkanai!

Now that you've taken Uruppu, you'll hopefully be able to send the Filipino regiment back to Hawaii or some other nice and warm place for garrison duty. They must be about ready to mutiny on account of the weather!

[Canoerebel]

Hiccups: I left the Amphibious Force HQ TF on Retire, so it's possible it wasn't even in the hex when all the troops unloaded. Augh!

Bonus: A big LST TF with lots of arty is at Wakkanai but didn't start unloading today. So the Allied support units should increase significantly tomorrow.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: Lovejoy

Well done taking both Uruppu and getting your forces ashore on Wakkanai!

Now that you've taken Uruppu, you'll hopefully be able to send the Filipino regiment back to Hawaii or some other nice and warm place for garrison duty. They must be about ready to mutiny on account of the weather!

They just wanna kill Japs.

The Uruppu troops will change prep very soon - perhaps even next turn, balancing the need to get a headstart on Wakkanai reinforcements (mostly) plus one other near-term target.

At Shikuka is the reinforcing division that just arrived via the ingressing herd. It was highly prepping for Uruppu and will change to Wakkanai today.

[Canoerebel]

11th Airborne Division is at Toyohara. I plan on using it tomorrow to feel out enemy fort level at Wakkanai, which will help me plan when to first attack and how to ultimately reduce the base. I think a major Allied invasion would have a good feel for the extent of enemy fortifications at this point - a feature not well-modeled in the game - so that a para assault for this purpose is fine. Do any of you feel differently?

Also, tomorrow, two more parachute regiments will land (via seaborne invasion) at the paired hexes two hexes south of Wakkanai (if their ships make it that far). This could slow down any enemy advance just a bit, forcing units to move only to those hexes first and having to pause one turn to attack. Both hexes remain empty per failure of an SBD squadron to accept bombing assignments for either (a form of intel native to the game).

[RangerJoe]

Congratulations on both Uruppu and your invasion. [&o]

Of course the Cavalry comes ashore fairly intact. The Cavalry is used to being someplace first, ready to fight.

[Canoerebel]

Look closely at 112th Cavalry Regiment - it appears to have eight forts!