Reversals of Fortunes - May 1939

A relatively calm sea

    With the Allies’ navies smarting from the sea battles of early April, they spend most of late April and early May in port out of our reach.  Even still, in early May, 4 Kaigun manages to hunt down a British gunship fleet near the Philippines and sinks a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and a destroyer over two days of running battles.  20 Kaigun (made of four submarines) had been patrolling around Guam, but after sinking a few cargo ships, they were hunted down and lost two boats before escaping.  In partial retaliation, 10 Kaigun was sent to the area and was able to sink a submarine.  By mid-May, the remaining boats of 20 Kaigun were patched up and sent back out, where they regrettably met with the same result.  An American carrier group tracked them down on the 20^th and sunk the remaining two subs, and Rear Admiral Ito was lost at sea.  The career of this fleet in particular indicates why I have little use for submarines.  After sinking a handful of cargo ships, they themselves are sunk, having consumed about as much supplies while in port as they destroyed when active, and really never justifying their existence.

    In May, hoping to take advantage of the successful port strikes against Haiphong in April, we start patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin aggressively.  The French respond by throwing their entire fleet into the area.  We meet them on the 17^th in what is likely the biggest naval battle yet of the war, with over 25 ships on each side.  A quirk of Hearts of Iron 3, however, is that the stacking penalty is almost crippling with fleets of that size.  After “raging” for two days, the battle eventually ends, with only a single French transport sunk, and that by misdirected French fire.  Virtually all of the ships involved are dinged up pretty badly, and we retire to our respective ports for repairs.

    3 Kaigun is now the only fleet in good shape for patrol, and heads off to Philippine coast, where the Allies have been hitting our convoys hard.  On the 23^rd it hits paydirt, and is able to sink a trio of British destroyers, and significantly, the battle-cruiser Hood, the pride of the British fleet.  This news will drop my dissent level by two points when I decide to make the information public, so I get to enjoy reduced consumer goods production for a month or so.

A turn for the better in Vietnam

    In April, VI Gun found itself outnumbered in French Indochina, and dense terrain favored the French.  We brought in II, III and IV Gun to turn the tide, and by May the French were in full retreat.  The Allied convoy raiding was hindering my supply lines, so once we captured Quang Ngai we sent III Gun back to Japan.  II Gun proceeds up the coastline, VI Gun concentrates itself on the left flank, and IV Gun drives through the center.  II Gun encounters resistance, but holds the French troops in place while IV Gun diverts to the coast, cutting the French off.  From the 3^rd to the 9^th we gradually tighten the noose, until the last French troops are scooped up at Hue.  We end up claiming around 21,000 POWs, in addition to a thousand or so killed in battle.  We are able to advance another 200 kilometers before the French are able to recover from this blow.

A turn for the worse everywhere else

    In other theaters, our luck turns from good to bad.  Our supply base, nominally, is Phet Buri, but as we are steadily losing convoys, it is more efficient to drop the supplies off at Vietnam.  This means our troops in Vietnam are well supplied, and those in Burma and Singapore start to go empty-handed.  After the Battle of Rangoon, we are able to push the British/Nepalese/Bhutanese troops back a bit, but the offensive quickly stalls as we run out of supplies.  The jungles and swamps go quiet for the month as both our troops and those of the Allies lack the supplies or the morale to fight.

    In Singapore, our advance, unstoppable at first, came to a halt as we found ourselves unable to physically cross over to the island city-state.  It was, at first, merely a bit of a mild embarrassment, as we had forced the surrender of two British divisions already.  However, the British were able to take advantage of the reprieve, and shipped in fresh troops.  Throughout May, they continuously bombed and assaulted LXI Gun across the strait.  The bombing raids were mildly successful, killing around 2000 during the month, but the assaults were far less so, costing them around 5000 men.  The situation remains a stalemate at the end of May.

    One final item worth mentioning:  the military juggernaut of Paraguay has joined the Allies.  Normally, this presents such a formidable obstacle that I would resign, sign off on this blog, and probably spend the next few months wallowing in Angry Birds.  But, for the heck of it, I’ve decided to see if it is possible to even last a full month against the wrath of the Paraguayans.  If this blog is never updated again, assume they got the best of me and look for my new blog: Angry-Birder with Free Time.