Bushido Code - an HOI3:SF Japan AAR

Operation Ryuudai - October 16th to 25th, 1937

Air Summary, the IJAA gives the Chinese hell.


Progress of IJN Operation "AC"


Chicom kicked in the second half of October with a counter attack at Yuxian.


Beijing finally falls to the 3rd Corps


1st Army decides on attempting an encirclement on the the forces holding up the Motor Corps. 1st and 3rd Corps are given the appropriate orders by the staff.


Where the Chicom counter attack in the north fails, the KMT attempts to hold back 2nd Army's forces.


In the center the right wing of 1st Army continues forcing its way into the rear of the forces in front of the Motor Corps.


Late October Air Summary, the IJA continues to give it's all in controlling the air and Army support.


This again?

IJN decides to split off a task force from the Assault Fleet to take station between Formosa and Okinawa.


The Cavalry Corps forces its way into the crucial Togtoh region.


IJN TF AF-2 puts paid to the Guangxi snarkiness...


...and then keeps them moving along


Togtoh falls to the 2nd Army...

October 25th, 1937 -- Shanxi submits to Annexation; Operation Ryuudai continues 25th to 31st, 1937

The end of Shanxi...


2nd Corps and Motor Corps get a breakthrough at Yongqing


Naval Summary, October 25th


2nd Army holds at Togtoh

they really don't want us there, do they?

Along the army boundary the progress is not as quick.


The KMT counters in the center...


1st and 2nd Army agree to attempt an encirclement utilizing Cavalry Corps from 1st Army and 4th Corps from 2nd Army. 4th Corps immediately begins making good progress, but Cavalry Corps is far from it's start positions for the envelopment.


On the coast, 1st Army isolates Dagu


Cavalry Corps begins to make progress on its part of the pincer movement.


1st Army's assault on Dagu begins, the KMT fails to raise a releif.

November 1937, Operation Ryuudai progress to date & the Mystery of the Missing Division


IJA operational situation November 1st, 1937 in North China.


Air Summary
Operations towards Inner Mongolia moved beyond the range of the bombers based at Dalian. During November all 5 squadrons are moved to Beijing along with one of the fighter squadrons.


Production Summary
Kanin creates an appraisal of the need for specialist mountain troops to operate in the wild interior of the Chinese mainland. Yamamoto concurs with the logic. They disagree on exactly how many mountain troops are needed, and Kanin accepts a corps of three divisions instead of five.



Once again the Machiavellian inner workings of the Army General Staff begin to rear their ugly heads as a curious query arrives on Minister of War / CoAGS Prince Kanin's desk, a direct message from LGEN Nishihara of the Motor Corps.

"Still awaiting arrival of 4. Senshahidan in theater, please advise."

A "Guards" quality motor division was still somewhere in the home islands...and with the deployment of all the combat brigades overseas there would be little to stop it if foul play were afoot.

Operation Ryuudai : Battle of the Shanyin Gap - November 1st to 7th, 1937

The Shanyin Gap, November 1st

Cavalry Corps and IV Corps move to close the gap

4th Corps routs the KMT forces trying to hold the inner side of the gap open, most attempting to escape to the south out of the pocket.


However pressure from 4th Corps and Cavalry Corps collapses the resistance to the south in Daixian.


Some of the KMT divisions escape the pocket, others do not...


North of Shanyin some formations start to make the attempt to move south and escape.


The bulk of forces may even make a clean escape, with spoiling flank attacks from the south slowing up the Cavalry Corps in shutting the door on them.


To the dismay of the Chinese the 4th Corps closes the door instead, cutting off their escape and capturing thousands of KMT and Chicom troops making the attempt.

Operation Ryuudai : The Fall of Dagu - November 1st to 12th, 1937

Since shortly after the 2nd Corps had moved into Huanghua on October 30th, the 1st Corps had been besieging the port region of Dagu. The bulk of 1st Corps had swung all the way around Dagu to invest it from the south, leaving divisions along the way, while 2nd Corps covered them.

Investment of Dagu, November 1st


Motor Corps expands the buffer and investment continues drawing the noose on Dagu, November 4th


Progress was slower for the next six days as the besiegers closed in on the entrenched defenders of the port city while 2 Corps expands the coastal buffer to the south.


By the evening of the 12th, the 1st Corps had broken all resistance and only minor mopping up was required to take the port.

Operation Ryuudai : Anchoring the Right Flank in the Great Blue Mountains, October 30th to November 7th, 1937


The 2nd Army's Cavalry and 6th Corps battled their way into Hohot from October 30th to November 4th.


While 6th Corps attempted to force a foothold over the Yellow River, the Cavalry took Baotau on the 7th and cemented Army Group A's right flank in the two cities on the south flank of the Great Blue Mountains.


Seemingly a simple move, this allowed the Cavalry and 6th Corps to redeploy more forces to close the Shanyin Gap and reduce the Liangcheng Pocket. Although the Cavalry had achieved their original operational objectives in securing the right flank of the army group, this additional tasking by the agreement of the two Army Commanders in the forces allocated to closing the Shanyin Gap would cause considerable concern in 2nd Army, and potentially open the way for the right flank to become unhinged.

Dhimmi said:

a fine update ( even got some sub action ) i'm wondering though why you didn't puppet them instead?

Click to expand...

The IJA's objective was to annex Shanxi outright, in a roughly historical manner. The main obstacle was the IJN in this instance, who if they were calling the shots would likely have expected the punitive nature of the fictitious ground portion of Op "AC" to result in a puppeting or something of that nature, this would be doubly true if Koki Hirota was still involved in the government, as he would put his support behind the IJN's view.

However, the IJA was actually pursuing Op Ryuudai instead, their aims being to add directly to the empire.

Operation Ryuudai: Crushing the Liangcheng Pocket, Nov 7th to 12th, 1937

While the 4th and Cavalry Corps were closing the Shanyin Gap, the 5th Corps had been applying pressure to the north end of the pocket centered around Liangcheng.


Who is hiding in there?

The Chinese within the pocket received a temporary reprieve when MGEN Umezu's 4th Osaka simply could no longer mount an organized attack, which soon would not be a unique situation in Army Group A after a month and a half of heavy campaigning without rest.


While the Chinese in or out of the pocket had no idea of Umezu's status, they were trying to force open an escape route for their trapped forces, their first attempted was at Togtoh but were rebuffed by the 6th Corps.


In the meantime the 4th Corps was order to hit Liangcheng from the south and with the continued excellent air support from Watanbe's air wing, these relatively fresher troops put the Chinese on the move.


By the 10th, the Datong end of the pocket was closed and occupied by the 5th Corps pushing from the east. The Chinese forces made another last ditch attempt to force the pocket open by attacking Shenchi where 4th and Cavalry Corps forces denied them their objective.


All in all it was far to little to late for the Chinese. The 11th saw the majority of the Chinese in the pocket surrender, and by the 12th the Liangcheng pocket was no more.


12th November, the pocket is no more...


The drawing off of the Cavalry was about to give the gift of stomach ulcers to 2nd Army's operations officers...

Battle off Liaotishan Point, November 12th, 1937

The morning of the 12th of November, 1937, Chinese cruiser Ning-Hai and Hai-chen escorting a single transport stuffed with seasick soldiers attempted an audacious amphibious landing against the Kwangtun Theater HQ and airfield at Dalian.

Their goal was to land the troops in Pigeon Bay opposite the old forts of Port Arthur. Even though they used inclement weather to cover their approach, the Ki-27 combat air patrol from Dalian detected them still well off Liaotishan Point at dusk the evening of the 11th, and the ships of the MBF-3 task force were alerted and immediately began steaming to intercept.

MBF-3 was still far off performing shore fire support for the Army, even steaming all night the Chinese were still able to begin to disembark their troops at Pigeon Bay.

The 6th Border Guards division had deployed one of its brigades towards the Russian fort ruins when the alert was sounded the evening before, and now these troops were the first to engage the Chinese as they roughly came ashore in a collection of ship's boats and small craft at first light.

This was not to last long as the ships of MBF-3 arrived around the same time and made short work of the transport and the Hai-Chen...the Ning-Hai ducked into a squall to evade fire and disappeared back towards safer waters...the IJN LC Kiso and DD Minekaze took light damage.


Suicide by any other name...

Operation Ryuudai : The Chinese defense of the Ordos Loop - November 12th to 20th, 1937

The calling away of part of the Cavalry Corps and the overly ambitious efforts of LGEN Hata to force a crossing of the Yellow River were about to bear some unsavory fruit. To date the IJA forces in Operation Ryuudai had not come close to having to surrender ground they had taken from the Chinese in battle.

This dishonorable spectre was to raise it's head on the 12th of November when the 6th Corps division holding Hohhot was put to flight, potentially cutting off a portion of the Cavalry Crops in Baotou and opening up the right flank of Army Group A to the strong chinese forces located in the mountainous redoubt of Dongsheng province.


MGEN Komoda's 3rd Nagoya goes walkabout...

It was reported that strong forces were crossing the Yellow River to occupy Hohhot. The Cavalry Corps dispatched a division in an act of potential self preservation as much as anything else in the face of these reports.

Komoda's command fell back on the corps headquarters for reorganization, another victim of the relentless pace of nearly two months of campaign.

On the 17th the cavalry arrived to find Hohhot unoccupied by hordes of enemy soldiers, but their report was not in time to prevent or repair the five days of anxiety given to 2nd Army and Army Group A headquarters.

What enemy there was on the wrong side of the great river the cavalry put to flight and went about securing the positions the fatigued 3rd Nagoya division had abandoned.


Chinese hordes? Where?

One immediate side effect of the flanking scare was GEN Hata's abandonment of his aggressive attempts to push 6th Corps across the river.


This portion of the campaign in the north during November was rounded out on the 20th when a Chinese attempt to force a crossing at Togtoh was roughly handled by Ishiwara's 5th Corps. Any remaining semblance of 6th Corps effective organization had fallen apart during this final Chinese attempt, no matter how hardened the new 3-year conscripts training and operations to date had made them, they were not ready for the crushing demands placed on them keeping pace with the Cavalry Corps in the drive across Inner Mongolia to the Yellow River, holding the Togtoh saliant, and lastly trying to force the river. GEN Hata's command was ordered to fall back en mass to Datong for reorganization.

back from whence thee came...

Warlordtheft said:

Hey some comments/questions from the Sake bar after finnishing my Japan game (SF2.0, normal difficulty)

1. How is your supply situation? 5. The level 10 port on Hainan turned into a supply sink.
The supply situation is alright, there may be calls to make a new theater for china, which I'll RP in. I'll keep an eye on the Hainan issue, thanks for the heads up. I'll get some more supply views going in the future.

2. Why don't you have Cags in production for the carriers (they may not be IC intensive, but they take a long time to build)?
I plan on squirting out the CAGs so as they finish closer to the finish of the ships...which will of course find its way into the RP aspects as most of the production does


3. What are your espionage settings for the Soviets, USA, Britain and France and others? (I went with increase threat for USSR, Britain, France, as well as Communitst and Nationalist China, and support our party in the USA).
Some of the minors from the first post were dropped...annexations and absence of interest in some of them at present combined with the constriction of leadership during the parliamentary scandal. However, the prime players are still on the board as stated in the first post -- USSR, USA, UK, KMT with full priority for spies, France comes in the 2nd priority level) The more valuable information is the general intel, giving the condition of resources, national unity, unrest, etc.

4. Sub are nasty, you should devote resources to ASW ASAP.
IIRC Radar is either being done or will be one of the next things done by Yamamoto. This kind of goes together with relative build times...once the capital techs are at a certain level we'll be devoting attention to the DD techs (inclusive of ASW) and spitting out a grip of new DD's)


6.Are you planning to attack the US or not? I decided it was foolish to poke the sleeping giant, and diplomatically kept them out of the war.
The interesting/perhaps sad thing about HOI is that it does allow the Japanese to not feel compelled to DoW the US in order to expand in Asia. From an RP POV at present I can't find any reason for Japan to go to war against the US for direct reasons -- no imperative cassus belli of resources or supply. However, a German "Call to Arms" if they end up at war in Europe may be irresistible to those in the IJA with dreams of asian empire and eyes towards India...)

Click to expand...

answered in quote

Operation Ryuudai: The Ryuma Tsumi Maneuver, Part 1 - November 12th - 30th, 1937

So far in the Ryuudai campaign the much vaunted Motor Corps had little opportunity to utilize the primary reason for it's excessive pre-conflict costs. In fact, the grand maneuver battle results in the center had used the decidedly less costly troops backed by the artillery the former Minister of War Sugiyama had insisted on including in the new divisions added to 4th and 6th Corps, and of course the yeoman duty of the Cavalry Corps.

In the fighting to the south-east of Beijing, the planned advances of the Motor Corps in conjunction with 2nd and 3rd Corps never really had time to mature, and the Motor Corps found itself occupied in rather conventional advances and stemming one counter-attack after another on a rather static front.

The firebrand armor advocate, Baron Nishi, was not the only officer of the Motor Corps stewing in their juices as they read reports of the great encirclement completed at Shanyin and the subsequent victory at Liangcheng and the stunning number of Chinese taken there. It just would not do for the Motor Corps to not have the decisive part in what they were fearing was looking like an end game to the Shanxi War.

With frequent visits to the Motor Corps, Baron Nishi prompted and guided the development of a planned coup de main even grander than that at Shanyin. Planned to involve the entirety of the 1st Army, with the Motor Corps taking the starring position, the goal of which was nothing less than bagging the majority of forces then in front of the 1st Army, the best troops of all the Chinese forces...if successful the IJA would have absolute supremacy in North China, and would likely have a commanding position to demand terms from the other Chinese.

Their plan was termed the Ryuma Tsumi Maneuver and called for the following actions:

4th Corps would make a surprise eastern run around Xiao Wutaishan, sweeping south from there through Wutai itself to end up at the road and rail nexus at Yangquan and the Pingding coal fields.

3rd Corps will hold the current Baoding front.

1st Corps will continue down the coast and occupy Haixin, then hold the Cangzhou-Haixin line.

2nd Corps will protect the south flank of the Motor Corps, moving behind it at best pace and then holding the line Hungshui-Xingtai, and support the Motor Corps 2nd column moving on Shiajiazhuang.

Motor Corps will breakthrough at Hungshui move to Xingtai, then one column will via the Sonyang and Licheng passes "back door" Yushe and make contact with 4th Corps at Yangquan, while a second column will take the city of Shiajizhuang.

Once the encirclement is complete elements of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and Motor Corps will contract the main enemy forces thus trapped around Baoding.

Baron Nishi quotes his German friend during his trip to the Olympics, Guderian, from that worthy's new work Achtung Panzer!; in the operational brief, saying "Ryuma Tsumi encompasses the three factors which guarantee a great mechanized victory, surprise, concentration, and suitable terrain."

General Kuribayashi wholeheartedly agrees with the plan and immediately orders preparations be made for the 1st Army to organize to implement it.

Motor Corps opened the offensive by breaking through the Chinese around Hungshui and with much dash and elan moving rapidly south down the plain towards Xingtai, leaving it to 2nd Corps to push the remnants out of the way. At Motor Corps and 1st Army HQ it already seemed as if the hardest part was over.


The Chinese had light forces at Xingtai which were not interested in standing up to the full weight of the Motor Corps barreling down the road on them, however, the Chinese were not blind to the danger posed by this sudden thrust and over the next week they desperately contested Xingtai, and it was not until the morning of the 19th that they conceded the town to the Japanese.





Meanwhile 1st and 2nd Corps were executing their portions of the southern pincer of Ryuma Tsumi



The north pincer did not have as much territory to show, as 4th Corps surprise move around Xiao Wutaishan was not as surprising as they would have liked, their advance was contested and they found themselves fighting all around the eastern slope and foothills of the mountain to get into the town of Wutai itself, which was finally accomplished on the 20th.


However, with the fall of Wutai, the Chinese forces in the hills around Fuping decided that their lines of communication were threatened and gave way to the holding pressure of 3rd Corps.


Back at the Motor Corps the other surprise move of the first column through the Songyang pass failed to get organized before the 2nd column was off on more favorable ground to threaten the rear of the enemy forces around Shiajizhuang, this actually filled the roads that the 1st column was supposedly going to use through the Songyang and Licheng passes with hordes of Chinese retreating from Shiajizhuang; troops with the late starting 1st column were reduced to taking pot shots at the retreating enemy passing across their front instead of be trapping and destroying them against 3rd Corps.


The column moving against Shiajizhuang turned back onto the Songyang and Licheng passes in pursuit, leaving the 2nd Corps to physically occupy the city, and combined with the first column the Motor Corps surged into the two passes and occupied the hill town of Yushe. While not technically behind schedule themselves, this misstep prevented a number of Chinese formations from being caught.


By this point the Chinese had learned the lesson that was so costly for them from the Shanyin Gap battle, and they began rushing reinforcements to the chokepoints around Taiyuan to hold open the developing salient, they also began withdrawing their troops trapped in the pocket, allowing Baoding to fall as they began collapsing towards the gap and safety.


In the north pincer, the 4th Corps' single division at Wutai was virtually surrounded by a sea of Chinese troops. The progress of the north pincer halted in the face of the rushed fresh reinforcements from Taiyuan and the less fresh, but exceedingly desperate troops streaming through road and rail arteries of Luanquang. The Chinese made a strong counter-attack against Wutai and virtually besieged the 4th Corps there, a weaker counter-attack was launched against Yushe which was entirely inadequate to dislodge the Motor Corps.


On the 1st and 2nd Corps front they achieved their Ryuma Tsumi objectives, buffering the Motor Corps by taking Dezhou and putting the enemy forces in Handan to flight.



As November came to a close the concepts of Achtung Panzer! had shown their worth in the open plains of Heibei. Yet 1st Army had been unable to close the gap, and 4th Corps was actually barely holding their positions at Wutai. As a final denouement, the troops of 3rd Corps after tenaciously holding and advancing in constant combat from the Great Wall on October 1st to keeping pressure on the Lingshan salient, could no longer mount any further attacks, like the 6th Corps in the north, 3rd Corps had simply run out of juice.

Operation Ryuudai: North China Overview


the birds-eye view of north china...


a birds-eye view with marks...

Operation Ryuudai: The Ryuma Tsumi Maneuver, Part 2; Closing the Lingshan Pocket - December 1st to 11th, 1937

The unremitting Chinese pressure on the weak 4th Corps position forces them to give up their Wutai positions. This keeps the gap open for even more Chinese to escape from the Lingshan salient.

Before the situation at Wutai gets out of hand, Ishiwara's 5th Corps to the north again saves the day with by exploiting an opportunity at crossing the Fen River and compromises the northern approaches to Taiyuan, obliging the Chinese to pull back to protect the city.
Simultaneously the Motor Corps assaults up the Heshun - Yangquan road, while large numbers of Chinese continue to poor out of the Yangquan gap overland through Yuxian. The Motor Corps slices through these troops and shatters the KMT troops facing Wutai from the rear at Xinzhou and closing the gap.



Between the heroics of the 5th Corps and the hard charging of the Motor Corps to close the gap, not only was the Wutai position secured, but with pressure from 2nd Corps there was the immediate bagging of seven Chinese divisions.


And then 2 more Chicom divisions...




The end of the Lingshan Pocket marked the completion of all the original Ryuudai objectives, and effectively brought the operation to a surprisingly successful end. The IGHQ publicly declares the operation complete and successful on the 13th at the same time as announcing a new requirement in service to the Emperor.



Discussions within the IGHQ had brought about this new drafting policy, as it had become clear that Chiang Kai-shek had created a pan-Chinese coalition to wage a total war with Japan. The officers of the Admiralty were less than thrilled at being dragged into a full scale continental conflict. CoNGS Admiral Yamamoto directly called on his counterpart, Prince Kanin, to elaborate on what plans the Army General Staff had for waging this massive new war, and more specifically how they intended to bring it to successful conclusion, in short...what was the exit strategy?
Unfortunately for the Minister of War Prince Kanin, there was no off the cuff - easy answer to provide the agitated Navy, because there was no total war plan. So he could only answer Yamamoto with silence and the two highest Japanese officers were left regarding each other with stoic stares, as were the their accompanying officers arranged around the IGHQ conference table, Navy to one side, Army on the other.

1st Army: Arriving at the breaking point, December 9th to 30th, 1937

As with the 2nd Army's 6th Corps, the three months of campaigning, especially the extra demands of the crescendo Ryuma Tsumi maneuver, had exhausted the troops of the 1st Army, and it began to show on the battlefield.

The results would cost the 1st Army not just anxiety as had occurred to the 2nd Army during the collapse of 6th Corps, they would loose actual territory and be forced to give ground because there was no semi-fresh corps to act as fire brigade.

The first warning sign was during the Motor Corps drive to cut off the Lingshan salient and the 2nd Corps being tasked on multiple fronts, effectively fighting along 270 degrees, holding the south flank while also being called on to apply pressure to the pocket. With no reserves to call on, the 2nd Corps holding position at Handan collapsed under the weight of fresh Chinese troops on the 9th of December.


There being only the retreating 2nd Corps troops between the rapidly moving Chinese at Handan and the rear of the Lingshan pocket, it looked as if they may have had a chance to effect a relief. This obliged Baron Nishi to stop his advance on Pingshun and instead take the Chinese at Handan in the flank to slow them down.



Seeing the potential problem, 1st Army took the disheveled 3rd Corps off the line and put them in reserve at Fuping to rest and reorganize. Realizing that a form of breaking point had been reached, and that it was time to rest and consolidate after the gains of Operation Ryuudai, 1st Army on the 21st and 22nd called a halt to pyrrhic Motor Corps attacks at Songyan and Taiyuan.



At noon on the 22nd the situation looked like this for 1st and 2nd Armies:


2nd Army


1st Army


Baron Nishi's spoiling attack on Handan barely slowed the Chinese, and the deteriorating situation further obliged him to withdraw north and leave Xingtai for the Chinese to retake.


2nd Corps had taken over the defense of Yushe, but was obliged to surrender it as a contraction in the line was being made by 1st Army because it was clear the combined 1st/2nd Corps troops at Dezhou were not going to hold.


Four days later the troops in Dezhou were beginning to pass through their own Corps HQ in retreat.


However by the 30th the elastic defense had paid off with a stabilized line that the Chinese tide was unable to budge. A larger crisis being averted, the forces of Army Group A and the Chinese eyed each other warily after three months of hard combat. However, the Chinese were on the line in force and with fresh troops...the Japanese needed some rest, how much would the Chinese give them before they struck and would it be enough?

1st Army, some Corps HQ repositioning.

On the trail of the missing division mystery

The mystery of the whereabouts of the 4. Senshahidan division only got deeper the longer it was off the Army HQ's radar. The CoAGS had confirmed that the troops had been trained, they had marched out of training barracks to join the rest of the Motor Corps at Nagoya...and...that was it.

Chief of Staff Kanin began to suspect the former Minister of War, Sugiyama, as being the guilty culprit in the mystery. After all, Sugiyama had served as head of the Kyoiku sokanbu, the Inspectorate General of Military Training, both before replacing Kanin after the Hirota Affair, and had returned to that position after Kanin in turn usurped him from the Minister of War position.

The divisions commander, Hatazo Adachi, was not known to be especially political, in fact the man had avoided Army politics his whole career, so it was unlikely that he had taken a sudden decision to jump in at this late date. Which would seem to only deepen the mystery further. Prince Kanin had a discrete query placed to Adachi's relations, and they knew nothing of his whereabouts in the Army at present, he had not communicated with them since taking command of the division, excepting a single short note which informed them he would be unable to communicate for awhile.

Now that was truly odd. Prince Kanin decided to "follow the money" and consulted the Army Paymaster's Department on where the division was taking its disbursements from. The only information from them was that the division's pay was still being delivered to the depot in Nagoya. Contacting the army depot in Nagoya, the 4th's pay was simply collecting there.

Prince Kanin decided to have the Inspectorate General of Military Training Sugiyama watched...closely. He also had his "discrete inquisitors" begin checking the relations of the rank and file of the division from highest to lowest to see if any information had leaked out regarding their whereabouts.

The Dragon Strikes Back, January 8th to 13th, 1938

The answer to the question of how long the Chinese were going to give 1st Army to rest was found in about a week. On the 8th the KMT forces, reinforced with fresh troops brought from Guangxi and KMT puppet Xibei San Ma, began a major counter-offensive at Yangquan with over six divisions. Not nearly enough time had passed for the weakened Japanese forces to recoup or prepare positions. 1st Army issued an immediate order for the 3rd Corps in rest and reserve to begin moving south for action.


By the morning of the 9th, the 2nd Corps had been roughly handled with the loss of much territory as the broken divisions moved into safer territory; 3rd Corps moved back into the line and immediately onto the counter-attack. The fresh and rested troops of 3rd Corps came as a terrible shock to the Chinese who had gotten used to the new found idea of seeing the backsides of Japanese. The 4th and Motor Corps were mounting their own counter-attack at Yangquan. The last sector held by any 2nd Corps troops (along with 1st Corps) was Hengshui and the Chinese attacks there were coming on strong.


On the 13th the 1st and 2nd Corps troops were evicted from Hengshui. In the center of the Chinese offensive the 3rd Corps had regained the city of Shijiazhuang.



This was good news, but the really surprising, if not shocking news for the Minister of War on the 13th did not come from the north of China, nor even from Japanese sources, but from reports of the neutral press agencies that the great southern China port city of Guangzhou had fallen to the Japanese!

Prince Kanin was wondering...just what, exactly, the hell was going on?

Just an aside note before I go on - I've taken the time to go back and elaborate on some points, clarify some titles and positions, and clean up some continuity, grammar, spelling, etc. errors.

That being done I'd like to spell out how I've interpreted the IGHQ within the HOI framework.

As we all are aware, the political positions in HOI are COS, Army COS, Navy COS, Air COS...which corresponds more or less with the USJCOS, which is fine and dandy.

The IGHQ, while the equivalent body to the USJCOS, was composed of the Minister of War, the Army COS, Navy Minister, and Navy COS as the prime actors.

Within this context and with the way the Japanese personalities are divided up I've decided to make the COS = Minister of War, and have allocated this position as the "lead" position in the IGHQ, this seemed to be a traditionally Army filled position anyway. The HOI Army COS position is what it says it is, and the position is referred to as the Chief of the Army General Staff (CoAGS)

The Navy Minister is the HOI Navy COS, while the Navy COS is the HOI Air COS, so during this game the Air COS position will always be filled by a Navy Officer, and whomever is in that position will be referred to as the Chief of the Navy General Staff (CoNGS)

As stated in the first "Emperors Birthday 1936" post, following the February 26th Coup Attempt (which is not an actual HOI3 event, but we are assuming that some form of this Coup happened in a historical manner) -- as stated in that first post, one of the measures (non-historical) which our IGHQ has decided on to prevent such future unpleasantness was effectively combining the CoAGS with the Minister of War and the CoNGS with the Navy Minister positions...this was obviously not a permenant arrangement as General Sugiyama had shown when he had taken the Minister of War position from Prince Kanin, but had not been able to remove the well placed officer from the CoAGS position.

Obviously, concentrating more power in two persons is likely not a recipe for better oversight...which is what we will likely learn as the game progresses.

Also there is an independent Inspectorate General of Aviation Training, which could serve as the closest equivalent to the HOI Air COS position, yet there was little political power in this position and no real oversight of the operating air forces as one expects of a US or UK Air COS; which is why I felt that the CoNGS substitution for this position was more fitting.