As the summer of 1940 rolls in, I find myself with an interesting strategic puzzle. In the west my army is plodding along at a glacial pace in India, while my navy is checked at Singapore. Supply problems have stalled my army in Australia. In the Pacific, the American navy prevents any large scale actions on my part. The American and British navies, combined, are much larger than mine, and either one individually is large enough to discourage a major naval offensive. Yet I cannot afford a stalemate. The Americans in particular have demonstrated they can build ships nearly as fast as I can sink them. I need to pull something out of my hat, and soon.
For the time being, I decide my best course of action is continue to attempt to out-maneuver the Americans in the Pacific, and hope the Brits remain passive in Asia. After the large and indecisive naval battles in June, I have several fleets ready for repairs. They are sent to Tokyo, but are kept in readiness if an emergency arises. 1 Kaigun is sent to the Australian Theatre to escort landing operations in the Coral Sea area, and 13 Kaigun is sent to escort recapture operations in the Pacific.
Island Hopping
Things proceed rather quietly and successfully throughout July. Three divisions of LXII Gun start out the Pacific recapture operations at Marcus Island. They defeat the American division there with little trouble on the 13th. On the 18th they repeat the process at Eniwetok, which has been in American hands for nearly a year now. Ponape is next on the list; the American division there is driven off the main island late in July, but retreat to neighboring Kosrae. 356 Rikusentai follows them, and ends up capturing them in mid-August. It would have been much quicker to simply re-embark and re-land, but a lack of transports and escorts prevented that. 357 & 358 Rikusentai are shipped to Satawan. Here, the Americans put up the heaviest fight so far, and they hold out until August 16th. They eventually surrender after around 800 are lost on each side. We also manage to hit an unescorted British transport fleet lurking in the area, sinking all six transports. We then reunite LXII Gun for the first time in months in order to make rapid headway in the Coral Sea region.
Off New Guinea, the operation gets off to a slower start. 1 Kaigun does not reach the staging area, Lae, until July 20th. Once there, we load our Rikusentai troops onto the transports and set out to capture Rabul, only to be hit immediately by the Australian navy. We have been sinking their destroyers at a good rate, but they’ve apparently held their larger gunships in reserve to protect the outer islands. The fleet is not especially formidable, consisting of three heavy cruisers and three destroyers. We hit them hard on the first day of fighting, sinking one destroyer and the Australia, which is their pride of the fleet. They retreat eastward, and it takes two more battles to finish off the fleet. By this time, 1 Kaigun is knocked around enough to make it vulnerable to possible air attacks from the Americans, so I return them to Tokyo and send out 4 Kaigun instead. Now, more than a month behind schedule, I finally manage to land 359 & 360 Rikusentai on opposing sides of Rabul, and capture the American division there on August 29th. It is noteworthy that the division guarding Rabul was the 82nd Airborne; it is the second time I’ve captured that division, the first time being back in September 1939, as part of the botched French invasion of Taiwan. I am not sure if this is a good sign or a bad sign.
Farther south, I make preparations for the invasion of the Australian heartland. I & II Gun are deployed to Hollandia, and 10 Kaigun is rebased to Port Moresby to provide cover for the landing. Our plan is land I Gun south of Sydney. They will split into two groups; one group will attack Canberra, and thus secure stockpiles of supplies and fuel. The other group will attack northward, and capture Sydney and Newcastle. II Gun will land farther north, capturing Brisbane and establishing a supply line to Newcastle. If all goes according to plan, this operation, combined with the capture of the Solomon Islands, will force Australia to surrender.
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| My plan for the invasion of the Australian mainland |
On August 1st we begin sailing to the landing points, and immediately discover that the plan is flawed. 10 Kaigun’s escorts are first generation destroyers, and lack the range to reach the southernmost landing point. Sigh. We also note that the ports of Sydney and Brisbane have numerous ships, which might pose a threat to our transports. Therefore, we call off the landings for now, and begin port strikes. If the Australian navy is completely destroyed, that will be sufficient security for the operation. The strikes against Sydney last from the 3rd to the 14th, and result in three light cruisers and four transports sunk. We shift our focus to Brisbane, where a week of strikes sinks a trio of destroyers. That should be the end of the Australian navy, although past experience leads me to believe I should still escort the landing operation. Events elsewhere tie up my navy, so the landings are postponed for the time being.
The British Navy Reappears … Sort Of
In late July, there is an outbreak of partisans in the Philippines. I have had to deal with partisans and rebels frequently so far, and they have never posed anything more than a minor nuisance. This time however, the event is noteworthy due to the surprising involvement of the British navy.
III Gun is still marking time in Japan, so when I receive word of the outbreak I dispatch a few divisions under the protection of 12 Kaigun to deal with the issue. We land the troops with no difficulty, but before our fleet can head back to Japan we are attacked by the British battleship King George V and two escorts. 12 Kaigun is adequate to fend off the Brits, but lacks the firepower to really drive them off. A series of running battles ensues, with the Brits darting in and out of ports. We are eventually able to sink a destroyer on July 27th, but they sink an empty transport in return, and then sprint off to Singapore.
I am dismayed by the missed opportunity, and head off in pursuit. The bulk of the British fleet has left Singapore, so I begin port strikes against the city to try to knock out the George. 2 Kaigun, which was held in Phet Buri in case of emergencies, sails down to provide gunship support if needed. This also seems like a good time to send 5 Kaigun back to Japan to await replacements in a safer area. 5 Kaigun’s movement brings a pair of British battleships out in pursuit of easy prey. On August 4th, 5 Kaigun narrowly manages to escape, and leads the Brits straight into the inviting arms of 2 and 12 Kaigun. We sink the Anson outright, while the other battleship, the Duke of York, flees into Singapore. It finds little shelter there, and port strikes over the next two days sink both the Duke and the King George V. All three of my fleets head back to Tokyo to bask in the success of this impromptu operation.
The Battle of Agana Bay
Although the recent deployment of six new aircraft carriers puts my navy on much better footing than it had been, the fact remains that my flight groups lack the firepower needed to seriously challenge either of the two Allied fleet groups in the area. Even with a two-to-one numerical advantage in the air, the enemy navies still contain enough ships to disperse my striking power, and my CAGs are likely to wear out before sinking any major ship, much less all of them. So I decided to bide my time, and gradually out-maneuver the Allies, perhaps drawing out and intercepting portions of their fleets like I did in 1939. However, I was fortunate in August of 1940, when a mildly bad decision by the Americans opened the door to a potentially decisive battle near Guam.
It started innocently enough, with a few port strikes carried out against our base in Saipan. 11 Kaigun was stationed here in the event of a crisis, but, as it turns out, they made good bait too. Also stationed in Saipan was a wing of ground-based interceptors. Even early in the game, ground-based interceptors a superior to carrier-based aircraft, and we drove off the Americans after a few lackluster attempts. This gave me an idea. The main deterrent to a large scale operation against the American fleet group in Guam is the presence of many CAGs. Yet after their failed port strikes, they were now exhausted, and most of our CAGs were fresh and ready to fight – our ground based aircraft taking the brunt of the early dog-fighting. So on August 12th I begin a fight that will run a full month and come to involve virtually every ship and aircraft at my disposal.
11 Kaigun, being closest to Guam, is first on the scene. It enters Agana Bay, and initiates port strikes against Guam. The CAGs are hardly launched before the Americans sally out of port to meet us in a fleet battle. With mostly carriers on both sides, the battle continues for days inconclusively. We get a few knocks in against their fleet, and eventually their CAGs are too spent to do anything, and they retreat back to port. I restart my port strikes, only to watch the Americans take umbrage and sally out again for a repeat fleet battle. After a few more days, 11 Kaigun’s CAGs are also spent, and the fleet heads back to Tokyo. 14 Kaigun takes up the challenge, and begins port strikes on the 17th, only to see the Americans persist in attempting fleet battles twice more. They accomplish nothing, but the constant change of missions burn up my CAGs organization uselessly.
1 Kaigun, now repaired from its excursion in the Coral Sea, is deployed to Agana Bay to help discourage the American fleet. It arrives on the 25th, and the subsequent American sortie is their last. 1 Kaigun starts to pull within range of the American carriers, and opens fire. The Americans scurry back to port, and make no further attempts to leave. 13 Kaigun now takes over the port strikes, and begins hammering away relentlessly. Despite two weeks of non-stop combat, we have yet to see a single ship sunk. This changes on August 28th, when we sink a destroyer and the escort carrier Monterey. After that, we begin a rapid rotation of carrier fleets. Each fleet attempts a few days of port strikes; even 10 Kaigun, returning from a month of port strikes off the Australian coast delivers a few torpedo-grams to the Americans. It is a race to the bottom as CAGs try to recover enough organization to mount a few more attacks while Americans desperately cling to the few remaining slivers of hull strength on their ships. We rebase our naval bombers and even tactical bombers to Saipan to keep up long-range attacks while our CAGs take a breather in Tokyo or Iwo Jima.
Eventually, the battle comes to a close on September 7th as the final American ship drifts below the water. 1 Kaigun, battered by counter strikes, limps back to Tokyo, where it and our spent flight crews indulge in much needed and well deserved down time. The final tally, however, is eye-opening. During the battle, we sink three full carriers - the Yorktown, the Wasp and the Enterprise; two escort carriers – the Monterey and the Cowpens; three destroyers, a light cruiser, and a transport. While the total ship count is less than that of the Marcus Island operation in June, the strategic effect is much greater, with half of the losses being capital ships. Best of all, it cost us nothing more than spent fuel and ordinance. With the Americans humbled again, we can now return to aggressive operations against the British, and possibly bring an end to the persistent nuisance of Singapore.
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