As I begin the fourth year of the war against the Allies, I take some time to reflect on the purpose of this blog. The main purpose is entertainment – that is, I am attempting to write an interesting, occasionally amusing narrative of a game. The secondary purpose is advisory – that is, I consider myself to be somewhat good at playing the game, and hopefully Hearts of Iron 3 players can learn some tips and techniques from this blog. My prioritization of entertainment over advice is most obvious in my handling of the Singapore situation. Do not do what I have done, and will do, in Singapore. For the love of god, don’t do it.
An Inauspicious Beginning
After LXI Gun’s failed attack against Singapore in December, I decide the situation calls for a decisive and final solution. My plan throughout late 1941 was to attempt to starve the troops there by intercepting convoys. This seemed like an easy enough plan, as there is only one obvious convoy approach to Singapore, and that is through the Straits of Malacca. With the full might of my impressive navy at my disposal, it should have been easy enough to starve the defenders away within a month or two. In this, I was wrong. My fleets intercepted a few convoys, but by late December there was no indication of any shortages in Singapore whatsoever. I placed an order to build a squadron of strategic bombers, but that was due to take nearly a year to complete, and was not guaranteed to help resolve the situation anyway.
So, I thought to myself, “What is the main thing preventing an invasion of the island?” Answer: “They have too many land troops, possibly ten divisions or so.” So, since starving them out doesn’t seem likely to work, I resort to the tactics that have worked well in the past. I decide to abandon Johore and allow them to send a few divisions across the strait. Then I can close the strait behind them with my warships, and counter-attack. I have carried this out before, and it worked well; the only thing preventing its ultimate success before was the intrusion of the British Navy. Since the British Navy is no longer able to do much interfering, I should be able to destroy the Allied land forces piecemeal in Johore, then press the attack against the reduced defenders on the island itself, and bring an end to the situation.
So, in early January I begin moving LXI Gun northward, and by the 15th they have completely abandoned Johore. It is promptly filled with Allied troops (who began attacking even during our retreat), and I subsequently send in a gunship fleet to close off the strait. I begin the counterattack, and quickly realize that I have made a horrible mistake. Due to a combination of bad timing on my part and aggressive tactics by the Allies, they have sent virtually their entire land force across the strait simultaneously. I press the counter-attack until the 20th, in hopes I can make the most out of their stacking penalty. But they simply have far too many divisions, about 10, including at least two armored divisions, so my Rikusentai have no hope of destroying them all. We drive two divisions into the sea, destroying them, but ultimately I break off the attack, with most of my troops already nearly spent. Only one division, 355 Rikusentai, which had been deployed northward to put down some partisans, remains in good shape.
The Allies immediately begin counterattacks. Most of their divisions are still at full strength, and my hardened veterans are quickly forced back by a rapid and unrelenting series of attacks. We begin retreating back up the peninsula, a la June 1939. We retreat rapidly with a few divisions while stalling with others, in order to make a stand at Kuala Lampur. A heavy battle ensues here from February 17th to the 21st. Despite our maneuvers, we wind up the loser, and suffer 2,225 dead, and inflict only 1,766 casualties on the Allies. We are forced back into a now-desperate retreat northward towards Kota Bharu.
At this point, I am badly pressed. I ship 2 Shidan (one of my few armored units) to help defend Kota Bharu. With their help, LXI Gun is able to take a breath. However, the situation has only progressed from “urgent crisis” to “regular crisis”. Allied armored and motorized divisions steer up the peninsula, capturing Nakhon Si Thammarat, and threatening Phet Buri, while a large number of infantry divisions surround Kota Bharu preventing an easy break out attempt.
At this point, my only option is to resolve the situation. With extreme prejudice. With matters in the Middle East fully control, I can bring VI and VII Gun in to help contain the situation. Likewise, I Gun is at my disposal, but they are long overdue to be deployed to Los Angeles. I make a gamble and ship them (excluding 2 Shidan) across the Pacific, and pick up LXII Gun and bring them back to the Malay Peninsula. These forces, once arrived, reverse the number disparity. Whereas I was outnumbered 10 divisions to 5, once fully deployed I will have 22 divisions on the scene.
Yet the situation is still highly fluid, and will take weeks (even months) before I can recover the lost ground in a methodical manner. My first step, as the winter closes out, is to land LXII Gun at Johore. This doubles down on my original gamble of taking the extra time to ship them in. By deploying them at Johore, they cut off the direct supply route for the Allies; thus, the main Allied force must rely on modest supplies brought in via the meager ports at Teluk Anson and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Likewise, intercepting convoys bringing supplies into these ports will have a much larger effect. On the flip side, LXII Gun itself will have very limited resupply ability. They land with 20 days or so of supplies; from there I must air drop supplies from Kuching; this may be insufficient itself, and is further complicated by Allied fighter cover in Singapore. The most unsettling, although unlikely, possibility is that the Allies could simply send a large number of divisions back, and overwhelm LXII Gun at Johore, where they have no possibility of retreat.
Shortly after landing, I order LXII Gun to make a reconnaissance attack at Singapore. There they find three divisions: two infantry and one armored. I break off the attack and dig in to preserve supplies and organizational strength. With VI and VII still arriving, and the supply situation at Kota Bharu deteriorating, the situation remains tenuous at the end of the winter.
The Finishing Touches in the Middle East
Elsewhere in the world, the only decisive events this winter occurred in the Middle East. The Italians have captured Cyprus, Malta and all other Allied strongholds in the region, leaving only Crete to stand alone. Even before the end of 1941 I began the mission to occupy this final refuge. LI Gun, my mountain corps, was wasting time in Karachi, so by virtue of convenience they were selected for the operation. My customary plan for the invasion of Crete is to land troops at Rethymno, and then attack all of the other provinces simultaneously. I did this, sending my idle cargo aircraft to Alexandria in case they might be needed. They weren’t. The invasion proceeded smoothly, and by January 6th the island was cleared of Allied forces and Iraklieo was occupied. The Greek government, long since driven from the mainland, gave up any remaining hope and formally surrendered.
By early February, I had already resolved to send troops to the Malay Peninsula. However, that still left me with three idle corps, namely VIII, IX, and LI Gun. These were not sufficient to began an invasion of Britain or Spain, and I am not interested in taking up the burden of occupying Africa at the moment, so by process of elimination Persia winds up on the chopping block. VIII Gun is sent to the Northern Iraq, to occupy Tabriz. IX Gun is deployed to Central Iraq, and is tasked with taking Tehran. LI Gun, freshly shipped in from Crete, is sent to Basra, and will occupy the key ports along the coast.
The conquest of Persia has, occasionally, given me modest difficulty. Not so this time. I think they may have put virtually all of their efforts into diplomacy, with an eye towards joining the Axis. Well, I can’t have that. War is declared on February 4th. My initial advances do not encounter the slightest resistance. VIII Gun occupies Tabriz within a few days, and LI Gun makes impressive headway in the south. However, due to the mountainous terrain, IX Gun makes slow progress, even with no enemies in sight. Accordingly, I decide to split LI Gun in two, and send the left flank northward to take Tehran. South of Tehran, at Kashan, we encounter the only fighting of the war. A small fight ensues against a single division, but we are able to drive them back through Tehran, and occupy the city itself with few casualties. I forgot to record the date of the surrender, but I am fairly certain it was before the end of March.
Aside from these minor events, the beginning of 1942 offered little of importance. In Europe, the front fluctuated by a few provinces, first westward, then eastward. On February 12th the only significant event of the theater occurs, as the Germans occupy Leningrad. Farther north, the Soviets continue to advance aggressively against the Fins; they eventually capture Helsinki and force the government’s surrender on April 3rd. That event occurs a bit outside the time frame of this post, but mentioning it now saves me the trouble of shoe-horning into my next post. In fact, I feel safe giving away a bit of a spoiler here, and can say that literally nothing of strategic significance will happen along the German-Soviet border for the remainder of the year. While undoubtedly scores of high casualty battles rage all along the front, the front itself barely moves an inch. This is indicative of an impending collapse of the German war effort. They cannot possibly win a war of attrition against the Soviets; with the war almost immediately turning into a stalemate, the Germans have effectively already lost.
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| The Eastern Front. This screenshot is actually from May, but is representative of the entire year. |
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