The Conquest of Guangxi Clique and Yunnan - Spring 1938

     On March 15^th, the Germans annex Austria.  I don’t blame them, it’s a lovely country.  I’d annex it too.  That seems like a good trigger for me to set 1 Homen-Gun into motion against the Guangxi Clique and Yunnan.

     The conquest of Guangxi Clique is hardly worth mentioning.  Despite a rather large number of divisions, they are completely unprepared for war.  None of their divisions appear to be mobilized, and consequently our direct strikes against their key cities are over within a matter of hours, with fewer than 100 total casualties suffered by I, II and III Gun.  It takes a few days of marching through the rugged terrain, but on the 22^nd Guangxi surrenders.  From this we receive about 50 money, around 2000 supplies and fuel, and small amounts of resources.

The Battle of Dali

     Yunnan, however, demonstrates a bit more foresight.  They have several regular army divisions along the front, and put up a formidable defense.  Dali is defended by 136 Bubing Shi and Guizhou Silingbu, both full strength regular army units.  They combine their defense with counterattacks against my flanks.  Personally, I think these counterattacks are unwise, as they, like me, are attacking across a river towards mountains.  They would’ve been much better off reinforcing Dali.  But I’m not one to complain when my enemy makes a mistake.  The three counterattacks cost us 96 killed, and inflict 1521 against the Yunnan forces.  More importantly, previously full-strength, high-organization divisions are spent and unavailable to shuffle into Dali after its defenders retreat.

     The first part of the Battle of Dali last a week.  The troops there retreat on the 23^rd; we suffer 450 dead in the effort, while Yunnan loses 672.  It is a long march, however, from Panzhihua to Dali, and Yunnan has plenty of time to move more troops in.  On April 8^th the 21 Duli division arrives to slow us down.  We lose another 173, and inflict 347 against them, before they retreat.  By the 18^th, yet another division arrives, 20 Jun, and puts up a fight, costing us another 146 KIA, and suffering 361 in turn.  Throughout the nearly two month long offensive, V Gun loses 865 men, and inflicts 2901 casualties, which gives us an unexpectedly favorable ration of better than three to one.

The Battle of Kunming

     Oddly, the more significant point, Kunming, was less well-defended.  Kunming is Yunnan’s capital, and its capture alone forces Yunnan to surrender.  It is, however, deeper into the country, making its capture marginally more complicated.  We first strike from Xichang to Donchuan.  Donchuan is defended by 45 Jun, a regular army division, and a militia reserve.  They break after six days of battle, at a cost to us of around 300 killed.  Two counterattacks against Xichang inflict only 13 casualties on us, while costing them over 600.  In desperation, they move a partially mobilized militia division in on March 27^th, which is quickly brushed aside.  Kunming itself is also defended by a partially mobilized militia division, which retreats on April 4^th after very light losses on both sides.

     The fighting is over by mid April, but there is still plenty of marching to be done.  It is May 8^th before IV Gun occupies Kunming, and V Gun does not even occupy Dali until the 15^th.  Yunnan, however, throws in the towel and surrenders after its capital falls.  We get a small amount of money, supplies, etc, but most importantly, about 700 desperately needed rare materials.

     We initially expected the stiffest resistance to be from the Guangxi Clique, and had our tactical and carrier-based bomber groups focused on hitting them.  It became immediately apparent this was incorrect, and we quickly shifted our bombing targets to Yunnan.  Our tactical bombers were killing between 100 and 250 per sortie, with two to four sorties per day, meaning they dealt far more damage to the Yunnan manpower than our ground forces.  The carrier groups predictably dealt fewer casualties, but also contributed at least around a thousand casualties.  Early in the war, Major General Ozawa had performed enough bombing run to gain the tank buster trait, and his skill has improved to level 5, earning him the promotion to Air General, the first commander to receive that distinction.

Diplomatic Affairs

     My successes in China have not gone unnoticed in the rest of the world.  On March 19^th, New Zealand joins the Allies, followed shortly by an announcement of a trade embargo from the US.  This is somewhat unfortunate, as we were importing large amounts of metals and rare materials from them, but we are able to replace most of the trade agreements without too much difficulty.  On March 30^th, the US goes even further by joining the Allies themselves, followed the next day by Australia.  Perhaps they think I am going to declare war on them next.  What irrational paranoia!  I’m not planning on invading them for at least a few months.