-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Yeah, the BB's were a shame as they were going to get away and the American fleet was going to be engaged by my carrier fleet. But the Americans started causing casualties to me! and that carrier of theirs had only 30 str left... And then I lost my fleet. Now that annpying fleet has only 1 carrier left with its 21 escorts (11 Capital and 10 screenies 
) are wreaking havoc to the Okinawa naval base (0,79 Nav base damage per month ). And always when I engage them they lose so fast that they don't even have time to lose any ships ...
) are wreaking havoc to the Okinawa naval base (0,79 Nav base damage per month ). And always when I engage them they lose so fast that they don't even have time to lose any ships ...
A Draw
The December 1942 saw the Japanese strengthening their positions in the Marshall Islands. Six new divisions were transported to the Northern Marshalls thus pinning the Americans to two islands. Still the Americans had two armoured divisions and eight infantry divisions in the two islands, so the Japanese stood little chance to assault an island and win. Therefore the front remained silent and both sides dug in well. But on the 23rd of December an American armoured division landed to Mili, an island in the Southern Marshalls that did not hold any Japanese troops. Six Japanese divisions were launched against the Americans who made fierce resistance. The cost was high for the Japanese, losing almost three thousand men. The Americans fared no better, they lost five thousand men dead and the rest of the division captured along with one hundred armoured vehicles and trucks.
In Borneo the Allies suffered another great loss. In the wake of the Japanese encirclement of the Allied divisions, eight Allied divisions were destroyed, including the two Turkish, two English and four American divisions. As Borneo was now secured again, the troops could be ferried to fight on the other fronts.
On the sea the battles were random. The USN was forced to reduce operations due to the amount of losses suffered and the Japanese had free hands to roam around. The Japanese 3rd Kaigun was situated at the Marshall Islands and the puny American Carrier taskforce tried to cause losses to it in vain.
Battles in the waters surrounding the Marshall Islands during December ’42-March ‘439
In the Iraq front the Brits made their move. They assaulted the small force situated at Kirkuk and overwhelmed it with seventeen divisions. The province was lost, but the Japanese counterattacked from all directions reclaiming the province.
In February 1943, Japan shipped more divisions to the Marshall Islands. Three more divisions found their way to the Northern Marshalls and now the Japanese force was three times bigger than the American garrison in Kwajalein. The attack followed shortly. The Japanese made great progress in the beginning, gaining multiple beachheads and exploiting deeper into the island, but the lack of specialist equipment for destroying armour caused the Japanese loss as the troops had only few ways to deal with the American armoured counter-attacks. After suffering too many losses the Japanese commander called off the attack. The defeat was the most costly one the Japanese armed forces had ever suffered and now the troops rested and were reinforced. Later in March three more divisions arrived, but also unfortunately the Americans received reinforcements too, increasing the amount of infantry divisions of the island by one.
The winter ’42-’43 hadn’t brought any decisive victories and the battle lines in the Pacific had remained still for too long. If the Japanese were going to win the war, they were going to knock America out of the war, fast. And that was not going to succeed if the Summer ’43 would go like this too.
-Sorry for the short update, but the battles in the Marshalls are impossible to win without massive numbers of troops and there hasn't been any other major happening during the december-march perioid.
Turning a stalemate into a checkmate
In the beginning of the year ’43 the fighting on all fronts had grinded down to halt. Both sides had prepared positions and were determined to hold at all costs. The Allied attacks in Iraq had caused a shift in the front; the Japanese troops in Kirkuk had been forced to retreat. The large scale of Allied operations in the area called in for the Japanese air force to contribute and the veteran bomber wings there were finally committed. Only in few days several American and British divisions were destroyed, including an elite American mechanised division. Japanese operation began immediately, but they were halted by the immense amount of Allied troops in the Middle-East. The Japanese estimated at least one million strong allied forces facing the nimble four hundred thousand men large Japanese forces. During the period of March to the beginning of July the front lines shifted, the Allied troops advanced to Bakhtaran in the height of their offensive in June. The Japanese were able to rally their troops and reclaim Bakhtaran and start attacking Kirkuk and Mosul that had been captured by the Allies.
The Japanese offensive operation picked up speed and as Mosul’s defences hadn’t been overcome yet, due to the large size of defending Allied forces. Field Marshall Hata ordered the city to be encircled. The 18th Motorised Corps were assigned to the task. They had a simple mission: Take Dair az Zawr and hold it until the Allied troops in the Mosul pocket would be overrun. On 28th of July the troops in Mosul received supplies for the last time, and the Japanese troops started their attacks.
The attack against the Mosul pocket was the beginning of the Japanese success in the Middle East.
The battle took two days, and the last British and Turkish units were destroyed or captured on the 30th of July. The 18th Motorised Corps was under attack from all sides and the Japanese intelligence counted nearly ten enemy divisions attacking its positions. 18th Motorised was ordered to retreat on the 1st of August after two days of fighting. The Korean Sergeant-Major Kim Tan-Puy served in the frontline during the two-day offensive and he wrote of the events there to his diary:
Kim’s diary said:
American soldier posing with a captured Japanese tank, this was rare because the Japanese usually blew their tanks up instead letting them to end up in the enemy’s hands.
After that the Japanese started their offensive. This was not planned, but an improvised offensive. The Japanese saw their chance and grabbed it. The result was surprising, the 18th Motorised attacked Hims, taking it in few days, this opened up the route to Damascus and the recapture of Dawr az Zawr gave the Japanese the opportunity to take the coast of the Mediterranean. The Japanese air forces in the area contributed greatly, destroying all retreating units and all moving enemy units. Soon the Allies were forced to stay in their positions, in fear of artillery and air-to-surface rockets. This left the Japanese with only the mopping up of the Allies and by the end of November the Suez Canal had been taken, blocking the Allied fleets from the Arabic Sea.
The Japanese objective in the East is fulfilled! All of Asia has been nearly liberated!
The only countries still under dictatorships were Communist China and Tibet, which would get the attention of Japan soon enough.
The stalemate in the Marshall Islands was breaking too. After multiple failed attempts, the island of Maloelap was attacked on the 1st of June by twelve divisions and after a day of fighting the Americans surrendered. The Americans lost two infantry divisions and one armoured division in this embarrassing defeat.
The Americans in Maloelap are attacked.
The offensive continued twenty days later when all Japanese forces in the Marshalls, eighteen infantry divisions, attacked the American base at Kwajalein. There were eight infantry divisions and an armoured division defending, but their resistance was crumbled by the Japanese carrier air wings that were used as mobile artillery, taking out American pockets of resistance and preventing supply. After their destruction the Americans sent four new infantry divisions to the island, but they were also overcome. The Marshalls were finally in Japanese hands again and now it was time to take advantage of that. The battles in the Marashalls cost the Americans ten divisions of infantry, two divisions of Marines, three armoured divisions, two aircraft carriers and numerous battleships, battlecruisers and other vessels. Their vigorous attempts to reinforce their garrisons there also caused the destruction of over twenty transport flotillas. The American press tried to keep the events in secrecy, but the Japanese propaganda sent through Mexico, caused the American public’s opinions to turn even more negative towards the war.
On 5th of November the Japanese troops took control of Midway Island, and attacked Wake Island. The defences at Wake Island were too powerful for the Japanese and the carrier fleet there just bombed the harbour, which had thirteen transport flotillas anchored.
The capture of Midway Island and the battles at the Wake Island.
In December the Japanese Pacific Command decided to take the most important American base in the Pacific: Pearl Harbour. Both Carrier fleets operating at the Pacific Ocean were mobilised for the task and twelve divisions, experienced in Island fighting in the Marshalls, were earmarked for the invasion. On the 5th of December 1943 the first six divisions attacked the small island of Niihau and overwhelmed the armoured division posted there. A day later the island of Hawaii was invaded, the coastal guards completely surprised. In the beginning of January 1944 the whole chain of Islands was in Japanese hands.
The American declaration of war is avenged and the Pearl harbour lies in the Japanese hands!
Now the Japanese government had strong positions for peace negotiations, but if there weren’t going to be any, they could continue the war for a long time. The stalemate had been converted into a checkmate and now it is time for the Japanese army to gain total control of the Pacific.
The Americans have now seven carriers, but I haven't seen a single one of them yet, and I suspect that they are using them against the Italians.
Last edited:
All right! All the way up to Suez
Can we have a political world map to see your conquests?
Can we have a political world map to see your conquests?
And a diplo one please.Alexus said:All right! All the way up to Suez
Can we have a political world map to see your conquests?
And who won the SCW? If it was the nats, and and invade, and take Gibraltar.
Thank you Mosby. Now, someone wanted to see the sphere if influence of Japan and I made the picture so here it is! The humongous from the Pacific to the gates of Europe! Japan:
My gains are so huge! And that doesn't even include the marshalls or the Hawaii
My gains are so huge! And that doesn't even include the marshalls or the Hawaii
very nice! now lets see it in partsian mode take that island off india! sri lanka or something like that
take that island off india! sri lanka or something like that 
Holy Sh*t !, thats a huge empire i mean wow, Japan seemed to expand a lot. Keep it up, and keep that empire growing
In matter of fact there are't any partisans anywhere else than in China. And they're being killed by my lovely Garrison divisions. And of course the middle east is riddled with partisans...
Yes! They work under the oppressing rule of the evil and oppressive buddhist monks who whip them and behave in an oppressive capitalist way!