The Setting Sun - Gotterdammerung, Japan 1944.

[PrawnStar]

Good updates as always - I like the naval stuff simply because you actually do stuff with ships well.

Looks like Burma really is turning into a race against time - but don't you need those forces in India and Manchuria?

Also, did your stockpiles gain much from Nepal?

[Sokraates]

Hirohito will sleep much better, now that threat of Nepal is removed.

Now go after Yemen quickly, befor they attack you with flying camels, swimming camels, armored camels ... and if you have really bad luck, they might iven have some soldiers.

[Electric Sheep]

Well. I finally read all 50 pages of this excellent AAR (there were 42 when I started, so i was starting to feel I'd never catch up). Keep up the good work!

[elbasto]

Amazing progress for such a delicate position you started with...

When are you going to upgrade your divisions?

Any thoughts on releasing India?

[Pwn*Star]

I doubt it, since he has a policy of total annexations.

I too was wondering when you're gonna start upgrading. Those upgrade costs are just insane. It might actually be quicker to just scrap your old stuff, as new becomes avaivable. That'd free up some MP and TC, if only you didn't need everything you've got to stop the red blob from swalloving you.

[Panzer6]

Amazing progress for such a delicate position you started with...

It has been good progress so far. But so far the bear has not intervened, and in my opinion that is when the real war begins.

When are you going to upgrade your divisions?

I'd expect him to upgrade when he gets enough IC. Right now Remble is struggling to reinforce units, so upgrading is not a top priority.

Any thoughts on releasing India?

If China was not released, India will not be either. Besides, that would ruin the yellow world map at the end of the aar.

edit: Pwn*Star it is always cheaper to upgrade over replacing units. Besides, Remble needs all the divisions he has right now and can't afford to waste any.

[Maj. von Mauser]

I too, think that Burma/Thailand is becoming a race against time, you might need to step up the pace. It definitely looks like not only the Bear, but the Allies are coming as well.

[Remble]

Panchito - Thank you The Soviet situation is approaching the point where I just want them to DoW me and get it over with.

harezmi - I have the +10% manpower minister in office. The foreign IC minister is no use as Japan gains nothing from overseas conquests.

PrawnStar - Thank you. It is a race yes, something I failed to appreciate too much as Germany. Nepal yielded very little. A few hundred resources here and there.

Sokraates - For some reason I seem to choose the Foreign Ministers for lack of sleep. Hirohito sleeps very well. Yemen is not close to the top of my priorites for the time being.

Electric Sheep - Thank you and welcome to the boards and this AAR

elbasto - Thanks. Upgrades come after repairs. Pwn*Star is correct, I will release nothing.

Pwn*Star - Scrapping older divisions and building new results in a large manpower deficit. I get roughly 4 MP for disbanding an infantry division and it costs 10 MP to build a new one. I cannot afford to lose that manpower. Everything will be upgraded in time.

Panzer6 - Correct on all counts

Maj. von Mauser - The Allies are quickly becoming nothing more than a toy for my airforce to play with. The forces they have in India are nowhere near sufficient to get anywhere once my aircraft switch targets.

April was a fairly quiet month and, as I have an odd amount of screenshots left for the month, I will just put them all out at once. The next update will be three posts as a result.

Update to follow ...

[Remble]

Operation Dilemma

20

0100 April 9th 1945.
The Skies Above the Palau Trench.

Japanese interceptors had fought off the Strategic and Close Air Support attacks throughout the Marianas but at a cost. There remained more work to do before the tiring squadrons could get some rest.

A Canadian Naval bomber squadron had returned to try and bomb the Submarines in the Palau Trench. Eight interceptor squadrons made sure that it would not return for some time, but they failed to completely destroy it.

0100 April 9th 1945.
North China Army Headquarters. Lashio, Burma.

The main Japanese force in Burma was marching towards Prome and its date with the defenders of Rangoon. Higashukuni was moving his headquarters towards the vacant Shan States to reduce the enemy held territory.

There remained one force to deal with in the north. Field Marshal Wilson had dug into the jungles of Toungoo and waited for the inevitable assault. It began at 0100 hours on April 9th as six divisions, led by General Yamashita, tried to attack his defences. Air support would arrive in a couple of hours to assist the attack.

By 1300 hours things were not going Yamashita's way but the main Japanese ground force had arrived in Prome. These troops were tired from their march but joined in the attack to try and force Wilson to retreat. It would be in vain on this occasion as the British forces held despite the odds against them.

At 1400 hours on April 11th Higashikuni ordered another attack. The target on this occasion was the mountainous province of Nakhon Sawan. Field Marshal Hata led ten divisions against the defenders, again with air support bombarding the rear areas of the defences. At 0000 hours on the 12th four more divisions joined in the attack, after capturing Chiang Rai, to provide an envelopment. The defenders would hold and more Japanese troops needed a rest period before they could try again.

Two fairly major attacks had both failed and it was becoming obvious that the remaining Allied forces in Burma were in no hurry to leave.

0100 April 14th 1945.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, Gulf of Martapan.

Another enemy Transport fleet tried to penetrate the blockade in force around Rangoon. There was no indication of whether it was carrying troops or was there to extract some defenders.

Yamamoto's ships opened fire and the point became moot. The Captain of IJN Yamashiro added another ship to the growing list of vessels sunk by his crew.

A second Canadian Naval bomber squadron was sighted over the Palau Trench. This one would not be so lucky and it was totally destroyed by the hastily scambled interceptors.

0300 April 14th 1945.
North China Army Headquarters. Shan States, Burma.

Higashikuni had arrived in the Shan States which would allow another avenue of attack for his tired troops. Japanese bombers had been relentlessly bombing the British forces in the ever reducing pocket and he gave orders to try and advance into two provinces that had held his troops up.

Hata led a second assault on Nakhon Sawan with fifteen divisions as Higashikuni himself led ten divisions against Wilson in Toungoo.

The fighting was bloody with no quarter given on either side but the results were different this time. Both Allied defensive forces would be forced to abandon their trenches and retreat.

Higashikuni would advance towards Toungoo with just his headquarters division. Hata would advance with the three divisions from Phitsanulok.

The battles in Burma had turned Japan's way but the situation in India was deteriorating fairly quickly. Allied forces had advanced into Nagpur and Hyderabad in central India and enemy forces continued to build up in the north of the Country.

A multi-National force attacked Ueda's defences in Lucknow at 1400 hours on April 16th. Four different Countries forces attacked from Jabalpur as well as Canadian and British troops from further north. Ueda was not ready to withdraw just yet and held this assault off after a sixteen hour battle mostly fought at night.

The next batch of new infantry divisions began to deploy on April 17th. They would initially move to Fukuoka before being transported to their defensive positions in northern China and Manchukuo.

[Remble]

The collapsing Allied lines in Burma had allowed Higashikuni to turn his attention northwards for a time. Several divisions from northern Burma and Siam found themselves boarding trains heading for provinces in northern China to begin to form a defensive line in the area. The extra divisions would be of little use in Burma now and the extra time they would gain to dig in might prove important in the north.

0900 April 17th 1945.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, Gulf of Martapan.

Yamamoto's naval patrols kept him well informed of any hostile shipping moving at sea anywhere near his own forces. They had been spotting less ships as the days went by but some sightings were followed by action from the Imperial Japanese Navy.

BB Division 2 had sallied forth from Singapore to track down and sink an American Transport Division. The guns of IJN Nagato did just that in the Gaspar Strait. Having accomplished his task Koga ordered his fleet back to Singapore to avoid any possible attack from a major enemy fleet.

One such fleet was encountered in the Palau Trench by Ozawa on April 18th at 0500 hours. Spruance was transitting the area with his powerful Battleship fleet. He would escape the bombers before they could sink anymore of his ships.

0900 April 18th 1945.
North China Army Headquarters. Shan States, Burma.

British forces had made another advance into Japanese controlled territory. Higashikuni was completely unconcerned with their latest move.

The province of Hotan in north western China was of no use to Japan and did nothing to weaken Higashikuni's defences.

0000 April 20th 1945.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, Gulf of Martapan.

Carrier Group C had waited patiently for enemy troops to provide an opportunity to invade western India. They had not provided such an opening and the fleet was ordered back towards southern India along with the Transport fleet. Another mission would utilise the Transports shortly.

An American Transport Division was found in the Nine Degree Channel and sunk by aircraft from IJN Hiyo.

At 0100 hours another attack was reported against the defenders of Palau. Enemy dive bombers had returned in an effort to weaken the defences. Eight interceptor squadrons forced them to abandon their attempts after a two hour dogfight.

The interceptors had repaired most of their damage and had recovered enough to provide air patrols over the Mariana Trench. They did not have to wait long to find enemy aircraft.

At 0200 hours on April 22nd six interceptor squadrons found four American Strategic bomber squadrons over the North Mariana Trench. The bombers were still showing some signs of previous losses but were more than capable of conducting bombing runs. Four hours of air combat would force them to rest again after suffering high casualties. Several Japanese squadrons would also need to rest as result of the battle.

0100 April 22nd 1945.
North China Army Headquarters. Shan States, Burma.

The situation for Allied forces in Burma deteriorated further when Higashikuni ordered another attack against their weakening defences.

Lt. General Ishiwara led four divisions against the two depleted and exhausted motorised divisions of Wilson in Sittang.

Constant bombing and the new attack would force him to retreat again. The loss of Sittang would isolate Allied forces in the south from their supply depot in Rangoon.

0400 April 23rd 1945.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamashiro, Gulf of Martapan.

Carrier Group C was escorting the Transport fleet west when it encountered another enemy Transport fleet in the South Bay of Bengal.

The British Transport Flotilla would sink to aircraft from IJN Hiyo. Carrier Group C had found other small enemy fleets on route but had failed to damage them to any degree. The weather throughout the region was still bad with frequent squalls hampering the Carriers operations.

[Remble]

1700 April 23rd 1945.
North China Army Headquarters. Shan States, Burma.

One extra division had strengthened Ueda's defences in Lucknow as he was attacked again by Allied forces. The additional division had come back down from the mountains of Nepal.

Eight Allied divisions would push Ueda's troops hard and he was left with little choice but to withdraw east towards Darbhanga.

Fukui's four interceptor wing had been rebased to the Mariana Trench to assist with the air defence of that region, which left only Mj. General Yasuda's interceptor wing to cover Indochina and India.

Seven Allied squadrons had begun to bomb advancing Japanese troops in Phitsanulok and Yasuda was ordered to stop them. His three squadrons performed well and defeated the enemy formations forcing them to abandon their attacks. They would have a hard time recovering on the overpopulated Rangoon air base.

Yasuda rebased his wing to Mandalay where a South African interceptor squadron was keeping half of Japan's bombers grounded. His force was still sufficiently well organised to remove this threat as well, which would allow the bombers to continue with their mission of reducing Allied ground forces in Burma.

After two more days of bombing these bombers were ordered west to Calcutta to begin to halt the Allied advances in India.

Admiral Kato had sailed to Bangkok to embark two divisions from the defensive force in that province. He had orders to drop them in another province.

Lt. General Hirota began his invasion of Sittang at 0300 hours on April 27th and would land at 0600 on April 29th. His forces would arrive almost a week ahead of the ground troops marching from Chiang Rai and he would isolate the southern British forces if he was successful.

At 1800 hours on April 18th a Transport fleet entered the Gulf of Martapan and tried to embark Allied troops from Rangoon. The guns of IJN Yamashiro would prevent it from succeeding.

Yamamoto received another report early on the 29th as a Japanese Submarine fleet encountered an American Transport Division in the Madura Strait. The Submarines had left their repair base in Batavia to patrol this small sea corridor while they awaited the chance to conduct further repairs. Even these more modern Submarines would fail to sink even a single Transport Division.

Hirota landed in Sittang on schedule and was attacked by forces led by Field Marshal Alanbrooke in Rangoon. Higashikuni had wanted this to happen as it would weaken the defences of Rangoon. He did not order an attack for the time being as he wished to try and completely isolate Rangoon before doing so. Should he force the defenders of Rangoon to retreat now, he would have to leave troops behind to capture them, after waiting for over a month for them to march to Toungoo.

By 2300 hours on April 29th the rain had turned into a thunderstorm which was hampering the attacking force and causing it large problems. Hirota's two divisions held firm and were still in good condition at 1000 on April 30th. The beginning of May would see two of Alanbrooke's attacking divisions withdraw from the assault and the remaining three were making little progress in the continuing thunderstorm covering the area.

Hirota would hold his position and manage to enforce the current blockade on supplies to Allied troops in the south. These troops would be out of supply until the British could divert a supply convoy to an alternative depot in the southern area.

Japanese troops were not due to arrive in Sittang to reinforce Hirato for another five days and Higashikuni would not capture Toungoo until that time. Hirato would have to hold.

[thatguy]

My advice to Hirato and his troops, start diggin!

[Deus]

A lovely series of update while I was gone. A very uplifting read indeed. I hope that you manage to keep your defenses intact and Hammer that stack in Rangoon.

[Sokraates]

*sniff* *sniff* ... hmmm ... I smell another secret operation coming up. I hear Vladivostok is a very pleasant place this time of the year.

Congratulations on your advances in Burma. You maneuver in Sittang may be the single most decisive action in the "liberation" of Burma. Had the Allies remained entrenched, removing them would have cost you a lot of time and many divisions worth of manpower.

How many troops will you spare for actions in India, once the Allies have been removed from Burma? I assume the largest part will deploy to defensive lines.

By the way: Which is the current flagship of Carrier Group C, now that IJN Zuikaku is repairing. IJN Hiyo?

[Thurak]

Well timed thunderstorm in Sittang

[Pwn*Star]

How odd, i always assumed that you would get all your MP back when you disbanded a division. I've never had to disband a division anyway, so i've never checked. What happens to the rest of the division?

How come the upgrade costs are so high? Are you running full drafted army? Since you don't have that many infantry divisions, i guess its your planes who are out of date.

[TimEmm]

At 1800 hours on April 18th a Transport fleet entered the Gulf of Martapan and tried to embark Allied troops from Rangoon. The guns of IJN Yamashiro would prevent it from succeeding.

From the picture it looks like divisions are trying to board the transport in the ocean. If they are "moving" towards the transport, will they lose their "dig in" bonus?

[Manziel]

as soon as a division executes a movement order, the dug-in bonus is lost, no matter where they move to and for how long. if they have moved for at least one hour, their bonus is lost

[Elias Tarfarius]

I decided to write a little something in tribute to Remble's great work on this aar (with my favorite country in game and irl) along with a lingering curiosity. I have been wondering what the Allied (or a least American) reaction to the sudden return of Japanese good fortune would be. Obviously the AI is putting up a somewhat lackluster performance in comparision to a human, but not all to far of I think from, perhaps, what humans would have done if things turned pear shaped for the Allies in 1944-5 in the Pacific Asia. In OTL, we are just luck that China is not as easy to conquer as it is in HOI, even in Gotterdammerung.

With that said, I present my little interlude, set in the safety of Washington DC, far way from the blood cover jungles of Burma and the littered seas of the Pacific.

******

0900 April 9th 1945
Washington D.C. - The White House, Oval Office

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Harry Truman, and Gen. Curtis LeMay meet to discuss how to renew the hope of Allied victory in the Pacific War

“So this will win the war, General?”

President Harry S. Truman was asking an honest question, since the military tactics and science of the matter truly puzzled him. All he needed to know was if the project would end the thousands of deaths occurring in the Pacific every month… sometimes everyday. That would be peace of mind enough.

“Yes indeed, sir! By God, the Japs will regret ever starting this war once Dr. Oppenheimer completes the project and we get two or three operating bombs,” replied Maj. General Curtis LeMay, formerly head of XXI Bomber Command, and recently made Supreme Allied Commander of Air Corps. It was LeMay that had come up with the new bombing campaign against the Marianas and had strengthened Allied air power in the Burma theater by bring in South African and Canadian squadrons freed up by the end of the war in Africa and Europe.

“How soon will we have these bombs and, furthermore, what do we do in the meantime, General? The American people want righteous vengeance for Pearl and all the other atrocities, but how much blood will we have to spill to gain that.”

LeMay coolly pointed to an aide to bring in a map of the Pacific while the usually more verbose Douglas MacArthur finally chimed in.

“Sir, Dr. Oppenheimer has only completed 20% of the preliminary research, as President Roosevelt only approved the project shortly before his untimely passing.” MacArthur smirked at the President and continued. “Therefore, it might be two years before everything is ready, but I and General LeMay already considered this prospect.”

Pointing to the red lines on the map, LeMay interjected, touting as always the importance of air power. “As of now, amphibious invasions of all the islands in the Jap defensive line have failed, except for New Guinea, and that was only because they gave it to us after failing to take Port Moresby. Why did the other assaults fail? Lack of air superiority! So, we have begun a campaign to break Japanese air power in the Marianas by attacking their bases and fighting them in the air when they dare to challenge our bomber fleets. When we break them, both their navy and their garrisons will be defenseless…”

“And then we can invade,” MacArthur briskly interrupted. “With air cover, the navy will actually be able to defend and support our landings. I have planned for a two pronged assault once this situation comes about; one force will proceed from New Guinea to retake the Philippines while another force will strike from Midway to take the Marianas.”

LeMay looked at the General, wondering if he was finished and then went on. “With these missions accomplished we will be able finally to rain destruction on the Home Islands and the coastal Chinese cities. The industrial base of the entire country will be destroyed and Jap fighting power will have sunk to nil even without the conclusion of the project!”

“Well gentlemen, this sounds like a fine proposal, but I come from Missouri. We always say one thing to fine sounding promises… show me.”

[Electric Sheep]

Harry Truman was troubled. All this talk of 'atom bombs' worried him. A bomb, made of atoms?? It was a sublimely ridiculous notion. Although he had humoured his enthusiastic subordinates, he would not reveal that all funding of Oppenheimer's impossible dream was being abandoned, in favour of a secret operation only he and a few well-placed naval commanders knew of. Operation Typhoon, the secret naval doctrine that had operated since Pearl Harbor. According to the top scientist leading the project, it only required aproximately 150 more Allied transports and 20 more capital ships for the total displacement of sunk allied shipping to cause the Japanese Home islands to disappear beneath the waves. It would be glorous victory swept from the jaws of ignominous defeat. He imagined that fateful day with relish.

Sorry Elias, coudn't resist