WW2 Grand Strategy Question SEA BASING - Pacific At War PO Version

[dtashji]

The purpose of this post is to seek opinions on Grand strategy for World War II in the Indo Pacific. For the scenario Pacific at War 41-45 PO version. I am considering a massive revision to the Allied Pacific War plan involving sea basing, with an emphasis on saving allied and civilian lives while also destroying the "Kido Butai" and the Japanese War machine.

During my time as a government contractor working with the Navy and Raytheon I became aware of a radical warfighting concept called Sea -Basing at around the time the Navy procured the Zumwalt DDG 1000 Destroyer. As put forth by the Navy the concept involves moving into a massive sea area of several hundred nautical miles in all directions and creating an effective floating fortress. Think of it as a giant naval air base that is afloat, very much like a Kevin Costner style Water World, only involving every ship in the Allied pacific fleet.

The key pillars of this new Indo Pacific War plan are as follows:
1. Forgo all land campaign battles in the South Pacific and Central Pacific. This means no Guadalcanal Saipan Wake, etc. All of the campaigns fought in the South and Central Pacific are all canceled.
2. Indian and Chinese troops in the Burma Road sector are to unite and move eastward towards Shanghai capturing airfields that can be used by the allies. (The left pincer).
3. Russian and American forces coordinate and occupy air bases in the Kuril Islands (The right pincer)
4. Once enough escort carriers and Fleet carriers are available the Navy will move all available forces into a sea area approximately 300 miles in all directions set up just North East of the island of Hokkaido ( Sapporo) Japan.
5. With air cover provided by land-based bombers and fighters hosted on Russian and Chinese bases ( Oromari, Okryabrski, Gavan) Japanese air and naval forces are lured into a sea and air battle for a decisive naval and air victory for the allies.
6. Afterward, Marine and Army infantry Landings occur on the island of Sapporo capturing key ports and air bases that provide interlocking fire support for the afloat sea base. After the majority of the Japanese Naval forces are eliminated troops that are brought into Sapporo are used for a direct assault on northern Japan port cities.
6a. Targets Include: Hakodate & Sendai
7. The the key concept in the strategy is to better coordinate and resupply Russian and Chinese Allied forces and go directly at northern Japan as a staging area for a subsequent double pincer invasion of mainland Japan, and forgo all other fighting on the Atolls of of the South Pacific.

Here also are some of my key assumptions:
1. A Manchurian Candidate style leader will be required to ensure enhanced coordination and supply of Russian, Chinese, Indian, and allied forces across the western Indo Pacific and to dramatically increase the size of the Flying Tigers Air Force in China.
2. The intended air and naval battle with the "Kido Butai" and the proposed 3oo square mile Allied sea base will be approximately 3 times bigger than the historical Midway campaign. Losses on both sides will be high.
4.Establishing an allied submarine base in the vicinity of the norther Philippines will disrupt Japanese merchant shipping to a greater effect and deny the Japanese war time economy of the rubber, oil, steel, aluminum and other raw materials that were the impetus for the original Japanese war plan.
5. The final battle is expected to be a horrific combination of Nuclear effects and an amphibious invasion approximately two (2) times the size of the Normandy Landings in France 1944. Kamikaze attacks and the Bushido code of no surrender will make this the most bloody and savage military operation of the 20th century.

More On Sea Basing from the USMC:
https://news.usni.org/2014/02/04/docume ... ing-report
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catal ... om-the-sea

Sea basing is a military concept focused on deploying, assembling, commanding, projecting, reconstituting, and re-employing joint forces from the sea, without relying on land bases within the operational area. It leverages the sea as maneuver space to provide global force projection, offering a flexible and scalable way to support and sustain expeditionary forces.

WW2 Grand Strategists: Send constructive comments to me at Ernest J King (dtashji@hotmail.com)

[larryfulkerson]

Thanks a lot for posting this. We needed it. I'm hoping that it will stimulate a conversation about PAW ( PO version ) and what constitutes the "perfect" plan to win the war. Your contribution sounds like one of the better plans and I for one would like to see a workup of the whole thing from the units involved and the timeline. I'm thinking something like an AAR about using this plan and see how it works out would be great. I'll start one and post highlights here to help the conversation along.

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[dtashji]

Welcome to the Situation Room and the West Wing of the White House. Today is January 18th, 1942. This is todays briefing to the President and his Cabinet by the Department of the Navy.

Under the command of the Elmer PO, Japanese forces have attained all of their historical objectives including a ruinous Pearl Harbor attack with a few notable exceptions.

1.An Anglo Australian force comprised primarily from the Australian 8th infantry division hold Singapore while under siege from Japanese forces on land and at sea. A relief effort by the Indian army landing at Kuala Lumpur is planned when enough sea lift becomes available. Holding the Strait of Malacca is crucial to the Navy's plans with key allies in India and Australia.

2. Elements of the Philippine 51st military division along with the Filipino guerrillas are reaping havoc on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. A key airfield and port has also been established by the allies at Buan and Makar.

3. The Japanese 53rd and 33rd infantry divisions are blocked at the Sintang river just outside of Rangoon where a joint Indian and British force hold the road and have blown the bridge. A significant allied Air Force build up is established at Mandalay and Rangoon ensuring air superiority over Japanese attempts to bridge the Salawin, Sitang or the Irrawaddy river.

4. Elements of the 21st People's Liberation army have retaken the city of Peking and secured seven key air bases that could host hundreds of allied fighters and bombers.

Today's actions proposed by the Department of the Navy:

To position in the event the PO launches another attack on the Hawaiian Islands by the Kido Butai, all Allied ships have put to sea, and the carriers Enterprise, Lexington and Yorktown are positioned just off the big island of Hawaii. (see image).



To ensure the continuity of operations and ongoing supply of the proposed sea base, a sea and air bridge will be established from San Diego to Hawaii, then Midway and eventually to the Kuril Islands. This will include extensive use of submarine tenders, underway replenishment ships, numerous Mulberry style artificial harbors, and the extensive use of both sub chasers and minesweepers. A northern supply route from Anchorage Alaska will connect all of Americas industrial cities by rail to the Alaska terminus for onward sea and air lift to the Indo Pacific. Plans for a mini campaign to retake the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska are in work and feature army forces from the US Fourth Army at Dutch Harbor supported by USN Cruisers Pensacola, Richmond and subchaser squadron nine (9).

Additional updates to follow . . .
Ernest J King | Department of the Navy

[larryfulkerson]

I opened the game as the Allies and let the computer play the Jap side so the Japs moved first and it seemed like most of the turn was a series of attacks at multiple places. This is what happened near the Manila area. As you can see the Japs have captured Manila and have forced the Allies into a pocket and will eventually force them into Bataan I suppose. Look at the spread of the shock values of the two sides. That says I'm on the defensive no matter what the actual situation on the map. I haven't yet surveyed the damage we suffered but I assume it's substantial.

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[larryfulkerson]

As you can see the Japs have assaulted Singapore and with the help of his ships I expect they will capture Singapore next turn.

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[larryfulkerson]

The Japs have invested Palembang already so they are ahead of schedule. In RL they didn't grab Palembang until a little later in the war as I recall. Something like April or May of 1941. I'm guessing. And they have already grabbed all the ports and bases in the entire island. But there are a lot of empty bases left so I may be able to grab those if desired. Just to be a pain in the ass to the Japs.

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[larryfulkerson]

The Japs are approaching Rangoon with lots of troops and my dudes are in reorg and can't move. I'm thinking of moving a CA or several to Rangoon to help defend it, but then I'll need some aircraft to protect them. I'll see if I can't scrape up some fighters from somewhere. The AVG maybe.

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[larryfulkerson]

As you can see I have some troops in Calcutta but they can't move this turn. Nor can the aircraft move. I hope I can move the US ARMY aircraft in the Phillippine islands. I found the AVG at Chungking and it can move but I don't see any available airfields at Rangon so I'm divided on where I can send them to. I want them to end up in Rangoon eventually.

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[larryfulkerson]

As you can see the Japs are pushing north from the Hanoi area and west from Hong Kong. I'll have to reinforce that area in order to be able to hold on to my important cities. That and deny the use of the rail to the Japs.

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[larryfulkerson]

So far we've been able to hold onto Mindanao although the Japs have invaded in the northeast. I need to garrison all those empty ports so the Japs cannot capture them easily. I notice there is an aircraft unit in the south that cannot move. It's a PBY-4 unit that has 16 of 41 aircraft left. I'll need to move them earliest south to Australia or somewhere safe. I notice an enemy engineer unit on the island of Morotai to the SE. The Jap naval unit to the west of Zamboanga is labeled as a "Jap Task Force". Thanks a lot for that. Tells me nothing important. I'll need to hit it with a PBY to get some intelligence on it, it's composition say.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is the Zoomed out view of the situation:

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[larryfulkerson]

I thought before I moved anybody I should tell you guys where everybody is. I count at least 3 BB's, at least 5 CA's and multiple CL's and DD's. That group in the upper right of the image looks like it consists of 4 aircraft units and one naval unit which I must suppose consists of at least 2 CV's.

I don't have much of a choice where to move anybody. I cannot just sail out the port(s) to safety because I suspect that there is another group of Jap ships loitering south of Bataan. I would. I don't have proof that they are there but I just know it's true. I think I'll try to move most of the Phill. units to just NW of Bataan and all the American units to Bataan. Then I'll evacuate them as I can. The guy in Lingayen ( SW part of the main island ) is just there to cover the port as long as they can. I have a slim chance to slip a unit into Corregidor but I don't have a logical reason to do so.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is where all the Phillippine garrisons ended up. I tried to plug up all the empty ports I could but there are plenty of free ports open to the Jap.

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[larryfulkerson]

I could go to all the places where there are Chinese troops and give you my plans for those units in the image, but I thought I would cover them all with this: the plan is to pull back all those who can still move at least until I can form a solid front line and protect the Ledo Road.

It looks like the Japs will soon own Rangoon so I guess I'll build what kind of front line I can with the Indians and British and what Chinese that may be handy, if any.

I gave brief thought to parking some British ship, a CA or maybe even a BB, at Rangoon just for it's defensive bonus but then I thought about needing a CAP for it wherever I park it and I can't get the AVG there yet. Next turn for sure.

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[larryfulkerson]

Besides the AVG there's the National China AG unit which is 50 Gladiator aircraft which has a proficiency of 38% which means I need to move it to a quiet area for a while until it's a lot better than that. I'm not sure there's a way to ship it into some quiet spot in the South Pacific, say Tahiti, to save it for late game period after it get's a shit ton of training to boost it's proficiency. It's in the absolute worst position it can be where it is so I obviously need to move it. Calcutta for now.

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[larryfulkerson]

It's now T3 and the shock values of both sides is now 100% which is a good thing. I still don't have any sea transport which is a bad thing. I have decided to build a great big beautiful wall around Singapore for defense and I'll have the Japanese pay for it, that I will tell you.

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[larryfulkerson]

I have plenty of firepower near Pearl but no sea cap. so I can't move any ground-based assets. I can't imagine attacking anything with my ships so this will be a relatively quiet turn.

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[larryfulkerson]

This is the Rangoon area right now. I'm attacking the Jap paratroops. Wish me luck. The Japs have a shit ton of firepower approaching from Moulmein and I suspect they will eventually own Rangoon.

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[larryfulkerson]

I lost a handful of rifle squads but evaporated the Japs unit. So it's a win. I'm going to advance some troops to the bridge and destroy it ( the bridge ) to make it more difficult for the Japs to advance further.

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[larryfulkerson]

The Chinese are having a hard time.

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