Reaching for the Sun, a chinese AAR

[Bryaxis]

I know I promised a german AAR, but I'll make a chinese one instead. Indeed they are too many german AAR right now and how could I succeed in one after the marvel given to us by the yogi ?

So here I am, using the world's most populated nation in a attemp to unite all of China under one single governement and to hold the japanese at bay, before taking Mandchuria, Korea and mainland Japan in my bloody hands...

I'll be using the "Stony Road Professional 0.1" mod set at normal level. Since China gets at war very early, I won't ally with anybody and will use China's main advantage : number. So don't be surprised if I send some admiral from my command pool to hunt the japanese fleet with 20 elderly WW1 submarines divisions... I don't care how many comes back, only how many ennemy ships were sunk... Same for the infantery : 24 or 48 divisions will be the norm more than the exception...

This gives you some ideas about my technological devellopement too : infantery, artillery, doctrines. And some industry. No armor, no naval tech until the later are needed to go to Japan.

With that said, I let you discover this new AAR

 

[unmerged(11439)]

good luck!

<subsribes>

 

[Bryaxis]

Part 1, The Dragon's bowels

China in 1936 was not a peacefull nation. Far from it. It's children where fighting themselves while hostiles power creeped in the dark. Field Marshall Chiank Kai Tchek, leader of the official chinese nation, knew this well. Between the ultra nationalist from inner mongolia to the communist followers of Mao Tse Tung, he had a lot of warfare to take care of. Not speaking of all the work needed to protect his nation from the japanese, who had already conquered Mandchuria and would certainly come after the rest of the great empire...

Under Tchek's command were 15 regular infanteries divisions, 4 cavalery divisions, one armored division made of elderly FT-17 and 28 divisions made of poorly equiped volunteers using more white weapons like knifes and peaks than guns...

First, he had to deal a fatal blow to the communists. To do so, he decided to mass all the forces not dirrectly surrounding the communists' held lands in the province Handan, before lauching a huge assault upon the Xingyang province, set for the 27 of march.

The first part of the plan went well, everybody being were it should at the right time, a miracle for the chinese army. The attack was launched on time too. But she lasted too long ! The 34 divisions under Tchek himself were fighting against 5 divisions. Yet they could'nt force the battle, delays allowing the communists to send three new divisions... Finally, in late august, they won with 75% hight casualities... But the communist had lost 4 full divisions and the other 4 were in such a bad shape that they would'nt be able to fight for quite some time...

During this great battle, a other attack was lauched by 6 divisions against Yanan, a dire faillure which costed 2 divisions. But in early october a new full assault was launched, begining of a new battle which would last untill late january 37, with a loss rate most horrifying...

 

[unmerged(19303)]

Originally posted by Seidita
good luck!

<subsribes>

Same

 

[elbasto]

wow! china...
try to make it like in the C&C generals...
good luck

 

[Bryaxis]

thanks to you all ! and now, an update...

Part 2 : A short pause in the war

The annexation of the communist chineses in february 37 gave the force of Chek some time to rearrenge their positions ant to Chek the time to reassess his strategy. He was still at war against the Sinkiang warlords, but they were no real power. Oh, yes, they had gained some territories... Only because they were unopposed ! No, the real trouble was Japan. They could use lots of strategies : blow his carefully prepared northern defenses, land along the coasts in the norts, south or center of the country...

So, first of all, Chek had to professionalise his army. So he disbanded all the militias and cavalery divisions, leaving him with 54 standart infantery divisions divided in 4 armies of 12 divisions and one smaller of 6 divisions. This one was put in Hohot, the less likely target for an invasion of China from the north, and the rest defended the northern front from their to the coast, the last protected province being Tianjin. Fortifications known as the mandchurian wall were build too.

But the defensive abilities of his men were not good enough, far from it. So Chiang Kai Tchek decided to create a second, parallel, army, the so called "elite mountain warriors", a 50 divisions strong force of better trained and equiped soldiers.

In the same time, he was doing as much research as possible with his limited ressources, working to get basic rifles and some guns of a modern conception. After all, 18th century guns would'nt do much against the japanese ships and soldiers were not expected to assault ennemy trenchs with sabers and peaks...

 

[Bryaxis]

Part III : The Tiger's bite

The semi-peace lasted untill the midst of July 37, when the japanese declared war upon China due to a change of internal politics... It was a well planned and well executed operation.

The Japanese Empire had a total of 91 divisions, 70 of which being infantery ones. This large force was equally divided between a Mandchurian Command of some 25 divisions and a Offensive Operation Force ( OOF ) under overall command of admiral Yamamoto. His large fleet allowed him to make three landings on the chinese coasts in the five first days of the war. The Chinese forces were not prepared. The first mountain divisions were just commisionning and men had to guard the northern front. Soon, Shangai and Nankin fell, the later being the theater of a horrible massacre...

Despite heavy attacks, the Tianjin Defense Force held during nine month before succumbing to a two probed attack from the front and from the back, allowing the japanese to unite the newly occupied territories and the previously held Mandchuria. The whole coast was in japanese hands and the rich plains of the center had fallen too. Yet the situation was not so deseperate for divisions after divisions of mountain divisions were readied for battle and an almost continuous front was build from the ex-communist Yanan to the mountainous south-west of the country. They were no fear of being stabbed in the back too for the Sinkiang warlords had decided to help Greater China in her mighty struggle for freedom.

Such was the situation in May 38...

 

[Bryaxis]

Part IV : The Dragon's awakening

From May 38 to January 40, the Japanese hit a wall of hard bricks. The Great Chinese Wall as it would later be called by the historian was made of some 110 divisions, as much standart infantry than mountain divisions.


During this period, the Chinese dragon was not iddle. In the factories transported from the coastal regions to the interior and mountainous provinces, thousands of new cycles and cars and trucks were build to carry 50 divisions of motorised infantery...

The troops mainly trained and waited for the japanese assault. Some divisions were put to new locations so as to give better diffensive positions, others build new fortifications too.

During this period, a lot happened in Europe too. A man called Hitler had broken treaty uppon treaty, and declared war against the Poles in September, 1939. The vicious fight which came took place after this date are poorly documented for all the rare survivors were germans. But it is sure that in september 1940 the Poles were annexed.
But they had allies, the French and the British being the most potent. Those two countries sent an occupation force across the Rhine and took the Saarbruck province, before meeting a wall of mens and iron.

The Japanes allied with the germans in january 40, threathening the french possessions in the far east. So it was decided by the Chinese High Command to defend those lands so as not be taken from behind. 6 mountain divisions went to the border between french indochina and japanese held China, reppeling a weak attack. Some divisions were sent to the southern provinces so as to prevent any Japanese moves. At the same time, diplomatic talks made the chinese nation a full member of the Allies. Soon the new found friends of Asia's most populated land gave a lot of technological help, all that they could spend in these desesperate times.

In august 40 began operation "Southern Typhoon", designed to retake some southern provinces and, more important, some ports to help the starving economy. During this operation, 4 divisions of mountain infantery were lost but the provinces Naning, Jiangmen and Bobai were back in chinese hands

 

[Bryaxis]

Part V : The Dragon's fury

After the signature of the alliance and the succefull conclusion of operation "Southern Typhoon", the Chine High Command launched a new operation, codenamed "Southern Dragon" whose target was to take the south of the country up to Hong Kong. An objective achieved by late december 40. Not willing to break the momentum of their forces, the chinese generals continued their victorious march against the japanse. By september 1941, 50% of the fallen provinces were back in Chinese hands, Nankin and Shangai included... Yet the narrower front allowed greater concentration of the japanese armies and an increased resistance... Not counting the remnant of chinese fortification now turned against their builders...

A full year later, in september 1942, the japaneses had been taken back to the Huang He/ Huang Ho river which became the new border. After this huge success, which had showed the effectivness of motorized divisions and submachine guns, the chinese reorganised themselves to launch a new string of combats known as "Northern Flamme"...

 

[Bryaxis]

Part VI : The Dragon's kick

Now that he had most of his country back under control, Chiang Kai Tchek could look to a brighter future. But that future could'nt happen before he had all of China and Mandchuria and Korea under control. This was the target of operation "Northern Flamme".

His plan for the operation was to divide his 75 mountain divisions in 3 stacks under his brightest leaders, supported by his 50 motorised divisions and his 100 standart infantery divisions. The first attack across the river was planned for the 21st of march 1943. Unluckily, poor equipment led to a disaster, with 50% losses suffered by most of his units... So a second attack was planned with new river crossing methods for the 10th of june 43, a succesfull attempt. So succesfull that his 4 motorised armies were able to take 5 other provinces before the Japs could form new defensives lines. During this period war erupted between the Axis and the USSR too, opening a second front upon the back of the japanese. It now was a run to get as much territories as possible... In july, no japanese were left in Mandchuria and China. In December, the last japanese on the Asian mainland was killed and all of Korea became chinese.

But it was not peace yet, for the japanese had won a lot of ground in the small islands of the pacific ocean and the chinese had no fleet, nor did the allies whose ships had all been sunk...

 

[unmerged(11439)]

wow nice work, for a second there i thouhg tyou would have to hold the great china wall until hgelp came from the americans

 

[Bryaxis]

Yes, I've had some trouble but the tech sharing from the allies helped me a lot, mostly in the doctrinal area ( I had to give them techs in infantery and artillery, including field hospital and basic smg ). But in the end it was numbers that did the trick : I had much more men and I had shortened my lines in order to get free troops to move around while they had to guard all the land they had taken. In the north, close to Mandchuria, they had lots of men. In the south they were too tin. Swift action allowed me to concentrate lots of men one one province thus destroying their technological bonus. Then I took the key provinces, those easily defended while surounded by lots of others, forcing the japs to spread even more. When the motorized divisions came into the game, I went much more quickly and pushed them back in the sea... The fact they were occupied in the pacific island ( almost all the non US ones are japanese now ) meant that they had no reinforcement to send.

 

[elbasto]

pictures?

 

[Bryaxis]

I would have to know how to proceed to put picture. Not only to post them but to take them too... Sorry about that...

 

[Bryaxis]

Part VII : The Dragon goes to sea

Now that the japaneses had been put out of China, Korea and Mandchuria, the Chinese high command began to prepare plans for the conquest of Japan Home Islands. The first plans were to land 75 mountain infantery divisions on the southern islands and move from there toward the Kuriles. In order to do so, the chinese industry had to build 25 transports divisions. Since the surface fleet had been destroyed when the Japs had taken Shangai in 37, it was decided to take a radically new course for the navy. 50 submarines divisions were ordered. Yet chinese technology in that domain was still that of World War 1, and those boats were not very good... High losses were expected against the powerfull japanese navy...

That period was a time of technological sharing too, in both direction. The French were very surprised to see a enormous chinese junk armed with machine-guns and mortar enter the port of Brest and offload a dozen of 70mm anti-tanks guns with ammo, which proved most effectice against the german panzer... In the same load came some crates of submachine guns and new 70mm AA guns which did wonder against the italian air force... For the situation on the frenc front was bad, very bad : the italians had taken all the lands south of the Loire river and the germans had broken through the lines in Sedan, taking Amiens in the same move before being stopped... The remnants of the belgian forces fought alongside with the frenchs while the british campaigned in northern africa, middle east and pacific islands...

 

[Bryaxis]

Part VIII : The Dragon's water gamble

In july 44, the chinese forces had build enough ships to try some naval and amphibious operations. The german general Von Falkenhausen, promoted Field Marshall by Chang Kai Tchek, was put into overall command of the First Assault Army, 25 divisions of Mountain Infantery. Operating from Kowloon, he captured Taiwan. He was preparing to re-embark his forces when the first japanese ships were sighted. So the 25 Transports divisions were left in port while 35 submarines divisions went out to sea. The battle which followed lasted a full month, with 3 submarines divisions destroyed while some 14 ships were sunk ( including an aircraft carrier ) and 3 others heavily damaged. A total victory for the Chinese Mass Operations theory.

Invasion of the japanese main islands followed quickly and by augustus 45 all the provinces had been captured excepted Sapporo. There, 30 divisions of elite marines and other crack troops waited in heavy fortress. During a full year, the japanese were besieged, their naval lanes shut. 4 assaults were lauched by mounting forces. In April 46, Chiang Kay Tchek ordered a full scale assault by the 75 mountain infantry divisions. In front of them, 100 divisions, half of them militias. Then the untinquable happened.

Field Marshall Von Falkenhausen betrayed the Chinese upon direct orders by Hitler and large bribes from the japanese imperial treasuary. The 75 divisions were lost.

The japanese began to take their northern islands back and redeployed in southern pacific to crush the Australian who had retaken some lands. This new offensive saw the complete annexion of New Zealand by the Japaneses. In September of this same desastrous year, France fell, Paris being the last province taken by the forces of an all powerfull Mussolini who took 80% of the territory formerly called France and now renamed Gallia.

The british forces fighting in Africa lost Alexandria to the Italians while unsuccesfull assault upon unsuccesfull assault were lauched by indese forces against Persia and Afganistan.

The URSS was als having a bad day, with germans at the doors of Moscow.

This was the grim situation faced by the allies in september 46...

 

[unmerged(10371)]

Originally posted by Bryaxis
I would have to know how to proceed to put picture. Not only to post them but to take them too... Sorry about that...

just put {img]Picture URL{/img]

replace { with ]

but for ingame screens it's more complicated.

press f11 to take one. then save it as a .jpg then you must get a site to put your picture on. such as village photos Then post that URL Here. Complicated yes and i aint the best at explaning so........


good luck!

 

[Bryaxis]

Thanks ! I'll try it soon and you'll get some maps of what the world looks like...

 

[unmerged(11439)]

75 divisions gone! THat doesn't seem fair. But I'm sure yo can recover and beat the Japs.

 

[Bryaxis]

Originally posted by Seidita
75 divisions gone! THat doesn't seem fair. But I'm sure yo can recover and beat the Japs.

Well, by september 46 were 25 new mountain divisions build... Almost all my research IC went to the production of new troops... I'm gonna use them soon with a chinese general this time... A good thing about the long battle of Xianyang in 36 was that it gave lot of experiance to lot of my officers... Level 4 field marchalls is the norm in my army...