Update (September 1st 1944)
0000 Spetember 1st 1944.
Imperial Palace. Tokyo, Japan.
"Good morning your Highness, Gentlemen. We will start with Diplomacy today. Hopefully you have better news from Europe this month Foreign Minister." Hideki began the meeting.
"Your Highness. Gentlemen, good morning." Mamoru began. "Unfortunately the news from Europe is not good."
"Our European Allies are losing and badly. German forces continue to lose ground rapidly and their Armed Forces are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Romania is at the point of total collapse with Finland not far behind. The only bright point in the entire region is that the British have been almost contained in northern Italy. Both Soviet and Allied troops are no more than two weeks away from Berlin."
"Current ground strength makes for particularly bad reading. Whilst our own forces are completely stable the same cannot be said for our allies. They lost one hundred and fourteen divisions in July but they managed to eclipse that by losing a further one hundred and fifteen in August. Japan is now the senior force in regards to ground and naval forces in the Axis. We can look forward to having the undivided attention of the Allies in the not too distant future. There is nothing else to add really.
Our own trades are going as well as can be expected with some energy trades slowly reducing our losses. The Soviets cancelled all of their trades with us and I will attempt to restart those again during September. Venezuela is probably our best trading partner and is likely to remain so. I will continue to acquire any technology from our allies that I can before they totally collapse. That is all." concluded Mamoru.
"Not the sort of start to the meeting I was hoping for and certainly bad news. Minister Kuniaki do you have any better news on the Intelligence front?" asked Hideki.
"Your Majesty, Gentlemen. No major news just some standard intelligence updates, which are not particularly accurate but are the best I can provide without funding." replied Kuniaki.
"The Soviet Union have acquired an additional twenty three factory complexes from their advance into Germany and the Balkans. Their industry is now almost as productive as that of the United States.
The numbers are not all that accurate as they have definately not lost over one and fifty infantry divisions in a month. Their ground forces are still the largest in the World with no sign of any other Country closing the gap. Fortunately their Navy is still of little consequence."
"The United Kingdom have also seen a small increase in their industrial output.
Our intelligence is not good at all with regards to this enemy and the numbers are probably not even close in most cases. They show an increase of almost twenty infantry divisions and two armoured for ground forces. One extra bomber squadron. A gain of four Aircraft carriers and a loss of six Battleships. The Naval losses are easy to cross reference and they have not lost even one Battleship let alone six."
"The United States have also gained some industrial output from captured territory. Slightly less than the Soviets but not by much.
Their infantry strength has remained constant but apparently they built an additional ten armoured divisions. Its possible but not likely.
The United States Navy has a constant number for Battleships and Carriers. As long as they built at least one Carrier these numbers are close to last month. The only major difference is the drop in smaller ships of forty two. We can verify a lot of these losses by checking our own reports on ships sunk. Their small ships are certainly taking a beating at the hands of both the Imperial Japanese Navy and Air Force.
I have not included an up to date report on Nationalist China this month as it is really not worth noting. They are dieing and fairly quickly as I am sure our Armed Forces ministers will point out. We have captured most of their industry and they no longer pose much, if any threat.
We should begin some technological advances this month but these will continue to be slow to arrive. Nothing further." concluded Kuniaki.
"Thank you Minister Kuniaki. We shall move on to Armed Forces with a round up of the ground position first."
"Your majesty, Gentlemen. Good morning." began Satoru. "The Minister for Intelligence provided an insight into the current situation in China but I will start with Burma."
"Some reinforcements have now arrived on the Siamese border to improve our own situation a little. The only thing this will do is slow the British down as they still have far superior numbers and technology in the area. The terrain, and a nice move by the Yunnanese, are slowing the British down considerably. Once their forces are all mustered at the front though we shall be forced to withdraw again without further strengthening of our forces. This is not planned until China, both Nationalist and Communist, are destroyed. We wish to keep one strong front to conclude that war as quickly as we can before moving on to another."
"The situation in China is very good. We captured the Nationalists capital during August and are currently advancing to improve our postion in the north. We should capture the Yunnanese capital within a week which may well force them to be annexed by their puppet master. Nationalist China has been completely isolated from its puppet regimes to the west and we are currently trying to increase the territory caught in the center by moving north to also surround Communist China. We can then crush both at once as we shrink the pocket.
Advancing west into the mountains and marshes is going to take a very long time, several months at least, and this can be done after we occupy the center with a significantly smaller force. Air support should allow us to move almost unhindered once we begin this process.
Six new infantry divisions have just become available and they will be moved to China to strengthen the east and south a little to enable us to reduce the pocket at a higher speed. We can only produce so many troops for now and these are all needed urgently in many places. We will soon have to look towards strengthening the border with the Soviet Union and this will require a fairly large deployment of troops. A strategy for slowing the Soviets down, should they decide to come our way, is being devised, but it is unlikely that we could stop them totally if they send the majority of their forces. We shall do all that we can of course.
I will hand you over to the Chief of the Navy for a briefing on the Pacific and some loss reports." concluded Satoru.
"Your Highness. Good morning Gentlemen. We are slowly winning the war of attrition in the Pacific but that will likely change once we become the only target for the Allies." Osami began.
"There has been little change in territory over the last month with only some small gains in New Guinea for the Americans. They have continually attempted to make landings in the Marianas all of which ended in defeat for them. Their Transport fleet in particular is suffering huge casualties although they are now escorting these fleets to some degree. There is a chance that we could make some advances in the Pacific but it would be risky to try and do so.
The United States Navy have almost no undamaged Carriers that we know of and some of their Battleships are also badly damaged. Yamamoto believes it could be possible for us to retake Wake Island, which is no longer defended, and possibly even advance into the Marshalls. Even if we did this we could not hold the islands gained as we are already stretched a little to thinly elsewhere. Making these advances now, while most of the United States Army is in Europe, is probably the only chance we will get for some considerable time.
We did think about this option but it was decided to use the new divisions in China instead to hasten the end of that front. We will therefore continue to play a defensive game in the Pacific and hope to further our current success in the region.
There is one piece of fairly bad news in the area. A very large British fleet has shown up between the Philippines and the Marianas. Its current heading places it heading for Saipan but we do not know its full intentions. It would be nice to sink this fleet but the only way we could do that is to use the entire Combined Fleet which is not possible at this time. Yamamoto will not engage this fleet with his own Battleships as it is likely to be far to bloody if he does. We do not have the capacity to replace our losses like the Allies do and so we will be content with causing what damage we can by using aircraft alone.
Should a major invasion fleet also show up with this Battleship fleet then we will lose an island or two. Better to temporarily lose a little territory than risk losing most of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Losses for the last month have been very one sided and are as follows:
Japanese Losses
2 x Submarine Flotillas - 9 and 10 Sensuikantai.
Siamese Losses
1 x Light Cruiser.
1 x Destroyer Flotilla.
United Kingdom Losses
3 x Transport Flotillas.
United States Losses
2 x Aircraft Carriers.
4 x Light Carriers.
1 x Heavy Cruiser.
4 x Submarine Divisions.
11 x Light Cruisers.
2 x Destroyer Divisions.
12 x transport Divsions.
Intelligence estimated forty two American small ships losses. The actual number was thirty four. The loss of two more Aircraft Carriers, with several more damaged, is causing problems for our enemy. Still no sign of their Battleship fleets at all.
Yamamoto wishes to move his own fleet to Indonesia this month as there has been an increase in naval activity through this area in recent weeks. Our Carrier fleet is still waiting for more escorts before it becomes a viable force but could use some of the small spare capacity on our Battleship fleets once those ships are repaired. Our tactics will remain unaltered for the coming month, concentrating on hit and run with superior intelligence provided by our aircraft. We have no intention of engaging in any major sea battles that could cause significant damage to our fleets. Nothing more from me.” concluded Osami.
“Anything for the Imperial Japanese Airforce?” asked Hideki.
“Your Majesty. Nothing much. We have begun the construction of additional Tactical bomber squadrons to increase our bombing capacity. These aircraft were chosen because of their flexiblity. Our naval bombers are beginning to suffer unacceptable losses and will need to rest soon. Nothing more.” concluded Jun.
“Industry then please.”
“Your Majesty, Gentlemen. Good morning.” began Ginjiro. “The bomber squadrons already mentioned will lead to almost no spare industrial capacity to reinforce damaged forces and certainly none to upgrade any. Additionally there will be no additonal supplies available for any type of offensive supply for the time being. Apparently you Gentlemen decided the aircraft are more important right now.”
“Our Industrial output has increased slightly due to the capture of some Chinese factories. This will increase a little more as we make more of these facilities available.
Stockpiles have improved, mostly due to the capture of Chongqing. Energy is still a major concern and continues to fall at a fast rate. Other resources have eased considerably and there are no real worries with any of them although oil is still low.
Manpower is sufficient for our current production needs. We will begin research into a more advanced infantry division once spare research capacity becomes available, this means that we will probably only raise another twelve of our current model.
Transport capacity is slightly strained as troops are redeployed to Burma and a few are also moved around China. It is considerably quicker to use trains than to march across most of China.
Some new ships and troops are due in October, at which point I will switch the production to reinforcements and upgrades as I can. Nothing to add.” concluded Ginjiro.
“Japanese forces appear to be the only ones within our alliance that have a superior fighting spirit. We shall take on the World if need be to ensure our continued survival as an independant Nation. Continue on with your excellent work Gentlemen.” Hirohito said as he stood and left his audience chamber.
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