Wento round to Ian's (where Tarawa will be played out this weekend). I had to take Junior with me but he spent all night on the sofa with Ness watching the Simpsons and Family Guy so everyone was happy.
The pictures below are a selection of many shots we took on the night - firstly to get an idea of where Ian and Russ have laid out their assets and to consider (or re-consider) our plan of attack.
The beach was Ness' idea - made from sandpaper, it really makes the island come alive. The barbed wire, anti-tank trenches, most of the bunkers, the runway and the sea wall by yours truly (the 'how to make' instructions are in earlier posts. Hex terrain suplied by Mark, as is the sea (reef done using white chalk). Sea picture supplied by Russ.
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Kingfisher recon plane making a low-level run over the barbed wire
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Wider view of the 'fat' end of the island. Anti-tank ditches running north to south, bunkers galore, palm trees and a key objective - the runway.
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Higher level view of the west of the island. Heavily defended Big Gun, sea wall and barbed wire. Best avoided!
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The island looking east. Runway (with cheeky Zero taxiing for take off). Note that the barbed wire comes in at the same places where the tank ditches begin and end. Crafty! Note also the proliferation of bunkers around the airstrip.
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| More oblique view of the runway and buildings. Bunkers pointing in all directions providing overlapping fields of fire. |
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The reef (where landing craft have to stop) followed by barbed wire within HMG range and a sea wall that tracked vehicles can't cross. Lovely!
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| High level recon flypast - reef, barbed wire, wall, tank ditches etc. |
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| The jetty. Prized asset but under direct HMG and heavy gun fire from all angles. If we can secure it, our supply problems are solved. Trouble is securing is and keeping the Jap guns silent until we have. |
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Defence in depth - wire in the water which requires 1 turn to cross (all the time under MG and arty fire), water (slowing movement), sea wall (which vehicles can't cross and is zeroed in for mortars), then heavily fortified bunkers.
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| One of our destroyers - pootling along the nautical background. |
I'm glad to say that the view of the terrain has not affected our original attack plan (i.e. where we're going to land and what we need to flatten). We have chosen our areas for pre-bombardment and where the destroyers are going to hit with indirect fire. It's no suprise that our primary targets will be the two naval guns at each end of the island - these kill with one hit and can soon decimate an amphibious landing. We've also detailed our initial airstrikes to target the guns as well.
The command bunker is a tempting target to impact their command and control but we think the guns are the main threat.
Once eliminated, we can then bring the destoyers in safely to undertake direct fire (the equivalent of a 105mm battery) on tricky targets as the infantry aim to establish a foothold on the area the pre-bombardment is aimed at.
After that its down to getting troops, tanks and supplies in (using the jetty if we can) as soon as possible before nightfall and the inevitable Japanese counter attacks at night (Banzai!).
I'm aiming to do regular updates on Saturday as the battle progresses. Ian's got breakfast and lunch sorted (steak and beer for the Yanks, sushi and sake for the Japs) and we'll have to wear suitable attire to denote our allegiance (Russ in a thousand stitch belt will be a sight to see).
Updates will come in the form of hourly reports (i.e. what we accomplish each hour) to keep the bat rep managable. This may be accompanied with a John-O-Gram where we can chart American progress by the expression on John's face. Happy smiley and Uncle Sam's doing well. Face like a wet weekend and Tojo is in the ascendency.
