40. The invasion, part 15
(16th - 30th November 1942)
With winter about to come skirmishes in vicinity of Salt Lake City intensified, while battle of
Escalente was one of the bloodier ones as
1571 Japanese and
3210 US soldiers have died during the battle.
In
Challis IJA cavalry has been attacked by Canadian light armor which proved to be far more inferior than anyone would expect. Canadians suffered over 50 times bigger casualties and managed to loose all organization during their futile attack.
After skirmishes in the South during which another 5 allied divisions has been destroyed,
Lordsburg is once again secured. However as soon as IJA forces have arrived there they've found themselves under attack of lone Canadian division which lasted almost for three days. During this three days Canadians have lost almost seven times more soldiers then well-equipped, well-trained and experienced Japanese soldiers which also had the river as crucial defense point.
During their patrol sail from Brest towards central America IJN carrier air groups intercepted an air raid which targeted the carrier task force. Allied airplanes were probably operating from Bermudas and this set the future objectives for SNLF - allied bases in Caribbean must be denied to them.
Lone militia division without support brigade attached located in
Black Range had not enough power to resist concentrated assault of Japanese forces. During skirmish which 8 hours IJA forces have lost 36 men while US militias suffered 18 times higher casualties.
Attacks in the South are continuing without any substantial interference of weather and it's likely that offensive in the south will continue unhindered during whole winter.
Holbrook was one of the tougher nuts to crack - 2 regular infantry divisions dug in behind the river. However even this battle had to be fought as this province is blocking further advance in the south.
For some reason I had no pop-up or log with battle summary after this battle has been won so casualties for this one are unknown.
SNLF arrived to Panamá and are ready to purge every piece of Allied existence in the central America and Caribbean. Pointless attack on San José which USA executed maybe diverted focus of SNLF elsewhere but it also cost US yet another division.
Top secret rocket research facility was completed in Kitaimi, Hokkaido. With no threat coming from the sea Japanese war ministry have decided to allocate resources used previously for Imperial Japanese Navy needs elsewhere. Further expansion of the facility has been ordered and research of rocket tests has begun immediately.
I am seriously thinking about nukes. Nukes anyone?
In my opinion USA will be finished in late 1943 but should I fail it would be nice to have nukes and replay history with different outcome. Your thoughts about nukes?
Battle of
Salt Lake City was much easier than anyone in IJA would expect. The city felt into Japanese hands after day long skirmish where
71 Japanese and
1203 allied soldiers have fallen. This victory also means that Japanese bombers and fighters can be relocated closer to the front which will come handy during attritional winter war.
IJA tactic has changed in the cold north, instead of grand battleplan approach seen previously, specialist missions represented by surgical strikes against handpicked targets are to be seen there. One of those surgical strikes was
Missoula, where IJA fought multiple US militias and despite the fact that Japanese forces were attacking in winter into terrain which favored defenders, US casualties were ten times higher.
Casualties:
| JAP (this update) | JAP (total) | USA (this update) | USA (total) | Allies (this update) | Allies (total) |
Bombing | 61 | 8325 | 1137 | 95067 | 1137 | 100043 |
Combat | 2140 | 118586 | 7690 | 272668 | 9197 | 314017 |
Total | 2201 | 126911 | 8827 | 367735 | 10334 | 414060 |
Causality ratio has yet again increased from 3.24 to 3.26 and Allied casualties from bombing has climbed over 100,000 which is very nice as Japanese airforce has only two weak medium bomber wings which are the ones wreaking most havoc into enemy lines.
Detailed information about every event can be found in this Google docs spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q_g63z2AukTXzsBXtEoxhE7lhIOtfjT7zyzA8WNl3dA/edit?usp=sharing