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Zanza

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Jul 28, 2003
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This is my third attempt at writing a Japan AAR with HoI1&2. The first one had some 40 posts by me or so, the second one only 8. So it's unlikely that this one will ever finish, but I can at least try again. ;) I'll use a similar style as the last time. I won't use as detailled reports as I did in my first AAR as that's kinda repetitive and dull to write.

It's with the 1938 scenario as that will put me right into the action and dispense with all that boring build up. Japan is in a pretty good position versus China in this scenario, so I'll probably quickly conclude the war there and come to the interesting part about Japan, the war in the Pacific against the USA. :)


 
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A New Offensive In China - September 1938

A New Offensive In China

As the car sped through the torrential rain the night was only illuminated by the occasional fire in a hut on the side of the road, passed by too fast to discern anything. The road was just a bumpy sand track, like most roads in China. The sound of rain on the canvas roof was somehow soothing and after the long flight from the frontlines he was tired. It had been a long day. But he would have to stay up for a few more hours. From the rumors he had heard, this would be an important meeting. Most of the generals in China had been ordered to come to General Hata’s headquarters. He would like to take at least a brief nap to relax a bit, but Lieutenant General Amemiya next to him didn’t stop talking. He boasted of his latest exploits against the Chinese peasants and how he would crush them for the Empire. He didn’t seem to mind or perhaps even notice that he only got some mumbled noises as answer. He only stopped when the driver announced that they had reached the headquarters. It was in an old Chinese palace, just outside Beijing, a beautiful building in the classical Chinese style. It had probably been used by the Chinese emperors or for some religious purpose.

They hurried through the rain towards the main building were a guard opened the door for them. An orderly accompanied them through several antechambers filled with guards, adjutants and secretaries into the big war room. Several big tables with maps on them were in the center of the room. Around them the generals and their aides stood in small groups and talked to each other. The atmosphere was tense and concentrated. Some people looked up to see who the newcomers were and he greeted a few people while walking towards the group around General Hata. Hata turned around when he and Amemiya approached him. Both bowed deeply as the etiquette demanded.
“Welcome, General Amemiya, General Yamashita. I think you were the last ones still missing so we can begin now.” He walked towards the biggest table in the center of the room and his group followed him.

“Generals, officers, we are here today to discuss our operational goals for the next few months. The general staff has decided that we will commit more troops to the theatre in order to deal a quick, devastating blow to the Chinese. We had hoped that we could subjugate them with a limited campaign, but alas, they were more stubborn than expected. We had thought that conquering the coastal cities and the fertile plains in the northeast would be enough, but they resisted even after we had reached these objectives. So the decision has been made to start a new offensive to break their military capabilities once and for all. We will commit more troops, we will commit more aircraft and we will widen our operations to areas not touched so far. This operation is entering a new phase.

The general staff has agreed on two main measures. We will use troops of the Kwantung Army commanded by General Sugiyama to support combat operations. This will leave our border to the Soviet Union dangerously unguarded, but according to our intelligence the Red Army is not ready for war after the purges of the last year. These troops will be committed in Central China. Colonel Ishiwara, could you show that please.”


china1hq1.jpg

Colonel Ishiwara took a pointer and started to explain were each division would be used. Yamashita knew him, a very able man. He worked for the very influential Bureau of Operations of the general staff and had probably devised the whole plan. He must have faced a lot of resistance when suggesting using the troops of the Kwantung Army for the new offense. Several of the older generals in the general staff still saw Russia as the main enemy. But it was a good and necessary plan. With the troops now committed to the theatre they would have bogged down earlier or later, it was just not enough. The influx of new troops could change the balance in their favor and finally deal the crushing blow the Chinese military they had tried to deliver since starting the operation half a year ago. After Ishiwara had explained the deployments in detail, Hata continued to outline the general strategy.

“As I had said before, there are two main measures. As you know, we have started a limited offensive in the South to cut Chinese supply lines. We have secured some beachheads there and taken control of several important ports. However, this is not enough to stop the Chinese from getting support and important war materials, so we deem it necessary to widen our operations in South China too. Eventually, we will establish a whole new front there. General Terauchi will command this front. Its task will be to make a pincer northwards. The troops there will meet with General Higashikuni’s troops advancing southwards and cut the resistance in Eastern China in halves. This will disrupt their defenses and open up the Southern coast for further conquest. The ultimate goal of the Southern Front will be to cut off the Nationalist army from all coastal supplies. At the moment, we can’t seize military supplies on ships sailing under European or American flag. We can however deny them the ports. Hopefully, they won’t be able to establish supply lanes from French Indochina to supply the Chinese. When that happens we will see how we can counter it.

As military measures are just one of our tools, we will also step up diplomatic pressure on those European nations still supporting China. We won’t be able to stop the Russians from supporting the communist guerillas under Mao in the North, but we may be able to convince the Germans that we are Asia’s future and that they should rather cooperate with us than with China. As you all know, von Falkenhausen and his team of advisors have strengthened the Chinese army considerably. If we can convince Hitler to withdraw the military mission, Chiang will lose his most important advisor. The foreign ministry has agreed to talk with the Germans about this. This should be enough on the general strategy. We have briefed the commanders of each part of the front already so you will now be briefed by Generals Sugiyama, Higashikuni and Terauchi.”


hatashunrukoqs8.jpg
terauchihisaichisx9.jpg
sugiyamahajimewm1.jpg
higashikuninaruhikoau5.jpg

Generals Hata, Terauchi, Sugiyama and Higashikuni​

Higashikuni was an able commander, not outstanding, but not too bad either. A bit conservative for Yamashita’s taste, but at least he was a sympathetic man. Unlike his half-brother, Prince Asaka, this scion of the imperial family did at least not show the utter arrogance of the former. They walked to a table where a more detailed map of South Eastern China was spread. One of Highashikuni’s adjutants had already prepared the map to show the operational goals. His troops would have to advance into the mountains. Yamashita didn’t like that. In the plains, the Chinese peasants couldn’t do much harm to his much better organized and equipped men, but in the mountains, where heavy support like artillery was hard to use, even Chinese militia would be able to slow their advance and inflict considerable losses. They were also told that while they could expect air support it wouldn’t be much as the bigger part of the available bombers would be used further north.
 
Lookin' real nice stuff there.
 
Zanza, good to see you have decided to take up Japan again with this new work. The old HoI1 aar is one of my all time favorites, so I cant wait to see where this one goes. :cool:

Tennōheika banzai!!!


ET
 
Nice! I always like Japan AARs. It's my favourite nation to play in HOI2.

Though I have to ask before you get far, if you have considered taking a look at (and maybe using) the Community Leader and Minister Improvement Project leader file for Japan. We improved a lot of stuff, and made Japan's leaders actually historically accurate in terms of dates, skills, traits, etc. We also added a bunch. It's really worth giving a try, and it would help us a lot if a popular AAR used our work, since it would probably give it a boost.

Still, self-advertisement aside, carry on your AAR whichever way you wish. No pressure, since I am absolutely sure it will be a great story with or without the file.
 
I didn't know you wrote HOI2 AAR's Zanza :D . Good start, I like the graphics in the screenshots also, it goes nicely along with the setting :)
 
Fighting in the Mountains of South-Eastern China, October 1938

Fighting in the Mountains of South-Eastern China

He slept until he heard the droning noise of aircraft motors. None of his comrades had noticed and they all slept on. He couldn’t blame them. They had marched far in the last days and fought against remnants of Chinese militia troops for the last week. Bombers, he decided. Our own for all I know. The Chinese didn’t seem to have any bombers in the region while he and his brigade had gotten air support from a group of Mitsubishi Ki-21 based in Hangzhou since they had gotten orders to advance southwards into the mountains. He could see them now, a group of bombers flying in pointed formations. He guessed that they flew less than two thousand feet high. He counted fifteen aircraft that zoomed overhead further down the valley. They would bomb the Chinese positions there. He guessed that it would be another two minutes until he would hear the bombs. The pounding roar of the aircraft had grown to a crescendo now and all his comrades were awake too.

He heard the explosions now and a few hundred feet to his left the artillery started firing too. Two of the other battalions would now attack the Chinese forces in the village under the cover of the artillery barrage. The sun was just rising over the mountain ridge in the East. He always felt elated by the first sunshine of the day. It was the sign of the Empire and brought new strength to him. He also loved the mountains, he felt home there. They reminded him of his small home village west of Nagano. His platoon now got ready to have breakfast. They would later have to march further south and eventually attack a small village if the scouts found resistance there.

He walked over to where the captain had slept and saw that he was already awake and working. “Ah, Lieutenant Kobayashi, I was looking for you. We have gotten orders from the Colonel. We will start advancing along the Western side of the valley in about an hour. Have your men ready by then.” “Yes, sir.” And he would have them ready. His platoon was the best in the whole regiment.

mitsubishiki21ry1.jpg

Mitsubishi Ki-21 bomber​

Scouts had reported mortar fire from a small ruin on top of a ridge and the captain had told him to take them out. With his binoculars he tried to make out a way to attack the position. He would have his men advance over a small path towards that ruin as the terrain around it was too rough. If the Chinese had a machine gun up there, his men would be in deadly peril on the small path. While there was an ample amount of rocks to take cover, it would be hard to advance if there was serious resistance from above. Perhaps he should ask his best snipers to climb the mountain just west of the ruins. They may be able to fire onto the Chinese from there. Yes, that was probably a good course of action.

He followed his snipers as they made their way up the mountain and slowly advanced towards the ruin with his binoculars. So far, there had been no fire from the ruin. Perhaps it was already deserted? His men slowly continued toward the ruin, and circled behind it. He could see one of his men signal with his hands that ruin was empty. Oh well, better err on the side of caution than losing men to folly or negligence. He could live with that. He ordered his troops to advance further down the valley. They passed the ruin and went further towards the pass. He wondered if the Chinese would try to mount a new resistance on the pass. They would see. His troops weren’t as used to the mountains as he was and their equipment was too heavy for the mountains too, but in the end the Chinese were only a pack of peasants with a few rifles and small artillery. They would be no match for them, no matter where they chose a fight.

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Chinese pocket in South Eastern China

They had bombed small Chinese villages in mountainous valleys for some time now. It was easy as the Chinese lacked anti-air artillery and also had no fighters stationed anywhere nearby. They were virtually untouchable and only had to take care of the rough terrain. They had lost an aircraft with crew two weeks ago in one of these valleys when a motor stopped and the pilot couldn’t land the aircraft safely anymore. But apart from that they had absolutely no casualties. And from what he could tell, the ground forces benefitted immensely from their bombing runs. They had proceeded further and further south and broken all resistance on their way.

But he didn’t want to change with them. He liked the comfortable airbase just south of Hangzhou where they had beds to sleep in and got real food, not just the field kitchen crap. He had been in the army before, but the air force was definitely more his thing. He had always dreamed of flying and now that he could he loved every minute of it. At the moment, he was just the co-pilot, but he was sure that he would get his own aircraft eventually.
They were approaching their target now and he signaled the bombing engineer to get ready to drop their payload. They would bomb a supply camp of the Chinese militias today. He had heard that they had serious supply problems already as the army had cut them off further west. They couldn’t be supplied via sea either as their navy couldn’t even dream of breaking the blockade by the Japanese. Hitting the supply camp would seriously hamper them and make the job for the army easier. This would be one of the last missions in this area as the focus of the offensive had shifted further to the west and his air wing would soon be redeployed to an airfield near Nanchang to support a new offensive into the Chinese heartlands.

“Engineer, we are approaching our target, get ready to drop the bombs. Thirty seconds.” “Yes, Lieutenant Sato.” The engineer dropped the bombs just in the right positions and he was sure that they would hit their target. They had been successful again.
 
Sir Humphrey, rcduggan, Admiral Yamamot, Fernando Torres, chefportnen, Quanto: Thanks. :)

Elias Tarfarius: Thanks, I'll try to at least match my previous attempts. :)

General Jac: One of my previous attempts at AAR writing is linked in my sig. It's a HoI1 & CORE AAR with Japan from 1936 until the start of hostilities with the USA in 1940. It was permanently abandoned when I joined the HoI2 beta...

Phoenix Dace: Sorry, I am already several months into the game and I don't feel like replaying all of that and as HoI2 saves the information in such a convoluted way, I don't feel like editing the savegame either. Have you read Richard Fuller's Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai? It gives you a nice overview on the Japanese generals and admirals of the period. Good luck with your project. :)
 
How many planes do you have? Do Japan start with many in the 1938 scenario? ;) (edit: I must apologize for the noobishness of this post, but Im slightly curious :p ).
 
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I really do like the map...
 
Ho do you build those awesome maps and pictures?
It's incredible!

Please give me another update.
I would hate to see this AAR abandoned.