Day 2 – Turn 3 to Turn 15
You may remember that we’d been mullered by the Japanese during the night. We’d seen the dawn rise and tried to kill the last of the Japanese infantry that had given us so much trouble during the night…
Turn 3
The first order of business was to stop the Japanese guns killing our troops. As the artillery was now ensconsed on the island we decided to use some of it to get smoke down on the Japanese guns – and smoked the Japanese AA gun.
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| Smoke finally keeps the Jap guns quiet. |
Perhaps the shock of not having things their own way affected them as the Japs miss with all their guns for the first time.
They also scoffed at my appalling dice throwing – then I suppressed a bunker! Perhaps the first glimmers of hope were on the horizon. This switched to a supernova type bright light when Russ (in trying to unsuppress the bunker) said ‘I’ll show you how to do it “ …then rolled a 1. LOL!
The Japanese supremacy was on display in the close combat stage when we rolled a 6 we still lost!
Turn 4
The last SuperJaps were still in range so we tried to polish them off. I also pushed forward as the bunker was suppressed – but we failed to call the artillery onto the twin-linked gun. D’oh!
John kept the crappy dice going as he tried to call his mortar in – and missed.
We manage to also miss with 2 MG’s – its like our guys have forgotten everything they learned in basic training – like shooting.
Russ proves that our hope was short lived as he gets another 6 against us – then another one! Talk about rubbing it in!
Turn 5
Another reason for us not rampaging across the island was that the first of the Japanese tanks turned up (making itself the prime target for incoming artillery fire).
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| Japanese tank turns up to make a nuisance of itself. |
Mark’s dice remained hopeless as he failed to change orders again so we were once again stuck in a hole. We at least manage to smoke more guns to keep incoming fire down.
As we STILL hadn’t killed them the Super Japs continue to go along unhindered. We manage to actually roll a6 but still failed to kill them off.
The Super Japs charge in and….died! I still don’t know how but they were finally, finally dead. We took no chances and wrapped them in garlic, put a stake in their hearts and left the coffins open to the sunlight. How else can you explain their power in the dark?
Our artillery – and everything else we threw at it - failed to kill the Jap tank.
Turn 6
Mark actually managed an Order Change – so John gets to combine his units again. Three divisions reduced to one – how bad had we been?
We carry on smoking – the guns (not cigars) and fire definitely slackens off.
Mark (I should have made clear) had been banging away with the destroyer guns and had basically missed time and time again – prompting the question “Could you actually try aiming at the island this timel?”
It gets better as I managed to suppress the tank. AND dialled in the artillery on the double barrelled gun.
We then find the secret to throwing 6’s and killed the tank! BOOOM!
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| John finally kills something! |
I then need an 11 to suppress the twin gun - and get it!
Mark then adds to his destroyer dice debacle by failing to change orders AGAIN! We should be used to it, I suppose.
Turn 7
We honk down the well trodden path into the the AT trench to get ready to suppress some guns.
All our indiect fire misses – but Russ chucks another 6 to suppress a platoon.
We suppress a bunker. They unsuppress the bunker! Another turn goes by…but the smoke is keeping the Japanese guns quiet.
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| Smoke gets in their eyes! |
Turn 8
As our troops try to cross the AT trench, Mark buggers up the destroyer guns again. We’re now more than suspicious that he’s been bribed by the Japs.
John and I try to make a difference ourselves. We finally suppress the mortar but I miss with my flames and MG’s so STILL can’t kill the tank in front of us.
Basically we just miss. Lots. Again.
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| Flames, MG's and everything else fail to kill a suppressed tank. |
Turn 9
John moves his joined up division up and starts to engage but I join Mark in the Hell of Crappy Dice and miss yet again
Mark finally hits something with destroyer fire. We suspect it was an accident.
But the American habit of hitting stuff then continues as I hit the bunker with a mortar round to re-suppress it and John kills the mortar that has also inflicted significant casualties on us.
I open up with everything in reach and – whoop! – kill the bunker at last! But again we’ve had half the daylight and moved virtually nowhere and killed just a few units.
John fails to kill the suppressed units in front of him – also holding us up.
At this point, Ian went with another massive Try It On ….trying to convince us that the Japs rally on a 2! Yeah, right!
Oh – and we were relying on Mark to call in another airstrike. Guess what…he fails to call in the planes.
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| Gaps appear in front of John - can he get moving? |
Turn 10
Russ also Tries It On by attempting to unsuppress the same buker twice – and is pounced
on in unison by the outraged Americans!
We manage to suppress a couple of bunkers and the twin gun and John kills the AA gun. Whoop whoop! We’re on the move!
But Mark fails to call in the aircraft again….and the Russ gets all 3 Japanese suppressions off! So its almost back to square one again. And time is getting on.
Turn 11
We manage to get out of the AT trench and John kills the famous AT bunker that descimated his Amtraks.
Another Japanese tank comes down the runway and I fail to suppress it as it lines up for a run on my infantry – who are overrun.by tank and killed.
Behind them – getting into the fight before night falls – is another Japanese division. Oh Lordy! We need to wipe them out while the sun is still in the sky.
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| John celebrates the death of the AT bunker. |
Turn 12
We try to call in everything on the tank.
And miss.
As for the infantry in the open we suppress a couple (but they unsuppress immediately).
Mark does his duty and the aircraft called in in the nick of time – killing the 20mm and the MG supporting the infantry on the runway.
But the artillery missed the tank, which continued to cause mayhem in my ranks.
John suddenly becomes “King Of The 6”, gets 3 ‘6’s and wipes out an infantry bunker! Good lad!
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| John on a roll. Unlike Mark in the background who has failed to hit the island, never mind the Japanese |
I join in by suppressing the Japanese HQ and killing another platoon. But I fail to unsuppress my units though and I’m still stuck at the antitank trench. As a consequence we’re snagged up and I desperately manouvre to get out of the tanks’ way,
But I manage to kill the HQ! Ho ho ho. Not that it makes any difference to the Japanese and they keep on coming. And as we advance, we come into range of another Japanese gun and we lose another unit.
But miraculously I manage to repel a Jap unit in close combat! Miracles do happen after all…
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| The Japanese are stunned - we manage to kill some of their troops! |
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| And John has a clear run to the command bunker. |
Turn 13
John clears the majority of stuff in front of him and makes a dash for the command bunker. But while ressitance weakens in his sector, it stiffens in mine. Close combat and shooting manages to keep the Japanese back a bit.
Turn 14
We kill the tank – take that Tojo! I then try to straighten my line to get ready for the night.
We realise at this stage how effective the smoking has been – keeping much of the incoming fire quiet and giving us room to manouvre. If only we’d had the artillery in on the island early…
Turn 15
The Red Ball express is working well – supplies are piling up next to our troops and we have no problem moving our troops up and onwards.
Our indirect fire kills another Jap platoon as well. Finally we feel that the boot on the other foot. The Japanese start missing and we start hitting – and the 6’s finally come at the right time and I get in on the act by killing / suppresses the banzai japs and John gets into the main command bunker and takes it over.
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| Attack on the Command bunker |
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| CHAAAAAAARRRRGGGEE!!!! |
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| The Japanese flag falls |
Turn 16
This became the last turn for me and Russ as I had to get home to keep Mrs B happy (and I was giving Russ a lift).
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| The Boys look forward to consolidating the victory I've set them up for.... |
We’d killed nearly all the Japanese infantry – but not all of them (crucially)
Shots were exchanged and then we headed home.
But Ian sent me an e-mail of how the battle actually ended – which you’ll get next time (together with John’s views on our tactics).