Hi Phil
This is what happened after you left (from my perspective)Night move 2nd Day
2 Banzais wnt in against your mob and managed to rout 2/6th marine. 2 also went in against Jons 2nd Combined Regt and a third managed to get lost in the night. Mark consistently failed to roll any order changes or get any artillery support. By the end of the night further casualties had been inflicted by the japanese but nothing significant.
Morning 22nd Nov; 3rd Day.
Turn 1; remaining 2x banzai attacks wiped out. 2nd Com. Regt continues advance down runway and clearing southern Red 3 beach. A devestating air attack destroys AA battery in triangle. Jap FOO calls in extra howitzers and mortars and inflicts a loss on 2nd Regt.Turn2; Japs see next wave of landing craft off Red 3 (1st and 2nd bat of 8th marines) jap howitzers cause more casualties. 2nd Com regt starts clearing empty bunkers in triangle. 3/6th marines push on to twin linked coastal art bunker in north.
Turn 3; 1st & 2nd of 8th land at reef with 3x shermans. Jap AA MG in middle of pier fires ineffectually on flank of marines in the water. One landing craft destroyed by coastal artillery. Mark fails to hit gun with destroyers.Turn 4; 3 units of 3/6th assault an unsuppressed gun bunker on northern shore (the one that has held you up for 2 days) and stormed it. The way seems open for a general advance along that beach. 2x tanks lost at sea.
Marks firing misses again!
Turn 5; remaing bunkers and the pier mg open up on 1st & 2nd in the water at ther wire and take out another two units. The remaining sherman also finds another crater and sinks. Marks destroyer fire again ineffectual. 70mm Howitzer repels assault by 3/6th killing one of three. North shore is holding but red 3 completely cleared up to pier.
Turn 6; Com.2nd Reg put on hold as casualties bring it close to another morale test. Destroyers miss again. 70mm How on northern side of runway stormed by 3/6th. However 3/6th needs to go on hold due to casualties.
We ran out of time. Consensus was the next wave of 1st & 2nd of the 8th marines would land reasonably intact (but with no tanks) by turn 9 but there were sufficient Jap forces to hold the Americans from taking the final third of the runway by the end of the day.
I revealed that all the remaing bunkers were sufficiently manned to probably take the best part of another day to clear. The slowness of the landing and the defence near the tank ditch on the first day combined with the first night counter attack delayed the Americans; but the new tactics of smoke and artillery almost regained the battle for the US.
The prebombardment practically wiped out everything on the tail of the island by turn 1 and everything by turn 2. The third bombardment was wasted. The hits were 9, 12 and 10. The japs would have held on for longer than three days but I dont know if they could have ever repelled an American landing and I think the airfield would have been cleared by the end of day four.
Excellent game and without all the effort you put in it would not have been the same game. The quality and amount of terrain and troops you were able to put on was very impressive. Thank you very much for making this game happen.
And Jon's e-mailed comments about the battle
Yes an excellent weekend in good company.
I thoroughly enjoyed this battle. Its a pity we ran out of time (both real and game). Yanks only learned how to fight on the second day and further gains may have been made if the American C -in- C (yes MARK I mean you!!!) had passed more command rolls.
(Not one passed through out the second night, 12 rolls!!!! so no night time predetermined artillery strikes) and NO coupe de main assault on the pier to relieve pressure on the 8th Regiment landings. Also meant No destroyer support for the Combined 2nd Regiment (THE DIE HARDS 1st to land, took highest casualty rate and advanced the furthest) so they ran out of steam having captured enemy HQ and killing Jap admiral.
Fastest advances occurred when bunkers were smoked and HE put down as units close assaulted at same time hoping that bunker would become suppressed. Waiting until the bunker was suppressed before charging meant that with the japs being veterans and rallying on a 3 meant that time after time a suppressed bunker rallied at the end of the turn and chances were lost. We had to be much more aggressive. We got too spooked by the Jap bogeyman.
Jap night attack on second night could have been worse but launched to early on 6th regt front and units to far away on 2nd Regt front. ( some got hopelessly lost and others failed in their attacks) however by end of the second night the 6th Regiment were back in that bloody trench again leaving the 2nd Combined Regt with its left flank across the runway and a bloody great hole behind it. Luckily the Jap night attack had taken lots of casualties and the remaining stand got swept up pretty quickly. Had more japs survived the night the situation might have been very different.
I'm still not convinced we landed on the right beach, the landing was not unopposed as far as the 2nd regiment was concerned and its line of advance was at ninety degrees to its landing meaning that as each battalion landed only a small number of its stands could engage the enemy as the others had to turn and then work there way through the landscape of craters, It lost the equivalent of a battalion before the end of the first morning, the first wave 1st battalion (veterans)lost 50% of its strength in the water and broke before they reached the trench and was incapable therefore of completing its task of securing the right flank. The 2nd wave (regulars) lost a third of their strength before they fired a shot, 50% crossing the trench and by the beginning of the first night two battalions were sat broken on the beach with no engineers or mortars left and the third were barely hanging on. With the 6th Regt still trying to work there way from the far end of the island t he Jap counterattack fell mostly on the already broken battalions.
We spent to much time (almost the whole of the first day) with 50% of our force too far away to fight and when they did they had to attack in column one battalion behind the other so negating our numerical superiority and allowing the japs to break them one at a time. Had we spread out across one shore line in a three battalion wide wave made up from battalions from both regiments and tank support and concentrated our fire on the coastal anti ship guns ,knocked out the two big buggers as we did rather than just carpeting one area the pain may well have been spread across the landing battalions minimizing the risk of them landing and immediately requiring a morale check and also allowing all of them to bring their fire to bear.
Combined with the type of attack that Mark suggested early on the third day on the pier (an assault engineer battalion and Hawkins)in the initial landing might have relieved the pressure on the need to preserve the Amtracs as the pier could have brought in the supplies whilst the amtracs quickly shuttled reinforcements onto the beach. This might also have reduced the influence that the Jap counter attacks had as whilst one battalion might take the brunt of the attack the others would still be on their gains ready to jump off in the morning. Having the narrow front that we had meant that the japs attacked across that very narrow frontage and drove us back without us having the ability to then flood into the gaps they left in their own defenses the following morning.
Historically the Americans wanted to bring massive firepower down on the japs across a broad front. We did the opposite and by landing on the end and cutting down our options for advancing across the island we handed the initiative to the japs. And boy did they take it.Had the japs who attacked on the first night been joined by the (I think twelve) stands who assaulted on the late afternoon and second night the Americans might have been broken and swept off the island altogether. Wouldn't that have been an interesting conclusion on the blog.
Someday I would love to fight this again but not too soon. I have to go bury my dead. (of the 10 stands remaining in the 2nd Combined regiment when it was ordered to hold between the center of the airfield and the pier at midday on the 3rd day and cover the landing of the 8th regt only one, a rifle stand was from the original 1st (veteran) battalion that landed in amtracs on H-hour Day 1) How fucked are you now, how fucked are you now, how fucked are you nooo-ooww, your truly fucked now.
Cheers guys