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Influence Levels

1. Industrial Capacity:

IJA - 60%

IJN - 40%


War with China means that we need heavy investment in the army and that most of the produced supplies and required IC for reinforcements and upgrades will be used for IJA's purposes.

2. Leadership

IJA - 50%

IJN - 50%


However, we cannot allow ourselves to fall behind in naval technologies, so LP distribution is still 50:50.

3. Manpower

IJA - 70%

IJN - 30%


No changes here, because it's too early to do that.

General Influence Levels - IJA 60% / IJN 40%

*Note that the General Influence Level doesn't mean much by itself. It's just there to show the average influence levels of both factions.
 
Chapter Three, Part One: Sino-Japanese War
Apr 1939 - Aug 1939





On 18th of July 1939, a relatively minor incident on the Chinese-Japanese border paved way for a major conflict in Asia. Everybody knew that it would come to this sooner or later. Aggressive Chinese policies and Japanese resource shortages meant that there was no other real option.

The greatest Chinese weakness comes from their lack of unity, which the Empire decided to exploit to the fullest by signing an alliance with one the Chinese cliques. Some of the Japanese generals expressed their concern that the Guangxi Clique would betray Japan on the first possible occasion, but fortunately, such fears did not materialise.





Almost immediately after the incident happened, thousands of Japanese soldiers started crossing the northern border with China and thousands more attacked the Chinese from the south. In the first naval clash of war, the Japanese SAG defeated a Chinese transport group consisting of several light cruisers and transport ships.

Overwhelming firepower from the guns of the Japanese battleships aided the Japanese marines and infantry in the battle of Haikou. It was expected that the enemy soldiers would fold quickly under such pressure. Meanwhile, two full Homegun landed on the shores of southern China and started advancing inland.






All major Chinese ports have immediately been put under naval blockade and the Japanese submarines began their hunt for the Chinese convoys.

The Japanese scored first victories in the north, too. The first really bloody battle of war was the battle of Tianjin. Brave Japanese troops inflicted massive casualties on the enemy - it was expected that the casualty ratio was almost 5:1 in our favour. However, the Chinese had many divisions in the area and this was just the first battle of many.






As expected, the Chinese defenders of Haikou did not last long and the Japanese troops quickly secured the biggest port on Hainan. Casualties on the Japanese side were minimal.

Battle of Beiliu was an important event on the southern front. Its positive outcome could seal the fate of several Chinese divisions and would be a first step on a road to victory in the south. The Chinese were desperately trying to avoid being encircled, while the Japanese and pro-Japanese Chinese troops attacked from all sides.





Right from the beginning of the war, the Japanese heavy bombers started bombing the communist foothold of Yan'an. The intention was to reduce the potential of the Chinese communists to the minimum and keep them busy in order to prevent them from aiding the nationalists in their struggle against Japan. The token AA defences could not have possibly stopped the onslaught of the Japanese bombers and soon most of Yan'an was reduced to rubble.






On 26th of July, the Japanese emerged victorious from the battle of Beiliu and thousands of Chinese soldiers were encircled. The enemy was desperately trying to create a breakthrough, but the Japanese did not budge. It was crucial to contain the created pocket.

In the north, progress was slow but steady. Still, the Chinese resistance was more stubborn than anticipated and contrary to the Emperor's expectations, the enemy's armies were not giving ground easily.





Beiping was a major city in the north which was defended by several Chinese divisions of varying quality. Its strategic importance was significant and thus it was expected that the Chinese would try to hold it at all cost.

Some of the commanders of northern formations were asking for reinforcements. The enemy forces in the region were numerous, which was delaying the Japanese advance. However, the High Command planned to establish a beachhead near Qingdao in the near future, which meant that the Japanese reserves were stationed in Korea and Kyushu, waiting for the arrival of the transport ships.





What looked like a decisive victory in the south soon turned out to be a bitter disappointment. The Japanese soldiers were brave and disciplined, but the pro-Japanese forces of the Guangxi Clique failed to hold their part of the frontline, which resulted in the anti-Japanese Chinese breaking through. Moreover, they even managed to conquer parts of the Guangxi's territory and forced the Clique's troops to withdraw in several places.

This marked the first operational failure of the Sino-Japanese War. The Emperor was furious.






However, good news arrived from the north. On the 2nd of August, the Emperor received a report that stated that the defenders of Beiping were defeated and that the city was now under the Japanese control. Since it was the biggest enemy fortress in north, it was expected that after its fall further advance in this region would be quicker.

Even this success did not manage to save the Konoe's Cabinet. The repercussions of the operational failure in the south and the growing popularity of fascists meant that this cabinet lost all of its political capital. Hiranuma Kiichiro will now lead the new government.





The campaign in southern China reached its second phase. Growing logistical problems meant that new ports needed to be secured. Therefore, another Japanese Homegun bolstered the Japanese forces in the south by landing in several places to the east of Hong Kong. The plan was to capture Guangzhou and secure the mining facilities of the region.





Several weeks after the start of hostilities, the results are both encouraging and disappointing at the same time. They are encouraging because it is evident that even on defence, the Chinese forces are no match for the Imperial Army unless they enjoy significant numerical advantage, which most likely means that progress will continue. However, the results are also disappointing because it is believed that the Japanese strike in the south could have been better coordinated with the Empire's allies and that the northern armies would fare better if they received another Homegun at the beginning of the campaign.


Southern Front






Numbering 4 Homegun and 1 SF Corps, the southern front received the most attention from the Japanese generals. Due to terrible logistical problems, it is expected that the outcome of the battle of Guangzhou will be of utmost importance to the outcome of the whole southern campaign. Unfortunately, the urban terrain does not favour the attackers.


Northern Front





After the capture of the city of Beiping, the main aim of the Japanese armies is now to move southward. The Emperor has recently received a report that enough transport capacity is now available for the three Homegun stationed in Korea and Kyushu to start their operation, but it will only be possible to transport two Homegun at the same time. Still, it does not seem that the Chinese have enough reserves to successfully oppose a planned landing near Qingdao or Shanghai. It should be noted, however, that one of our Homegun lack the heavy equipment and that the quality of its commanders is questioned.


Economy of Japan






War had important repercussions on the state of the Japanese economy. Even the mobilisation process alone was expensive and consumed most of the available industrial capability, but it was nothing compared to the amount of equipment and supplies required for the war effort. Apparently, the Army needs everything.

Supply production and upgrade costs sky-rocketed, while aircraft production diminished. New production orders for radars require additional capacity, too, while the process of industrial expansion continues. The stockpiles of rare materials are at critical levels and if the Empire does not secure additional resources in the near future, its industry will suffer the consequences. It should also be noted that the Americans reduced their shipments of crude oil after the start of the conflict with China and that our fiscal situation is troubling, too.
 
War diary of General Surt, Army HQ North.

18th July
A day of destiny, the Chinese attacked us without provocation, this gives us a casus belli for our attack if anyone should ask. Maybe they thought our artillery exercise was an attack on them. Only the Commies and Shanxi comes to the help of the Kuomintang, Guangxi helps us and the rest of the warlords keeps out of the conflict for now.

Luckily for us 200000 men of the southern Ichigun was accidentally sailing by southern China when they heard of the Chinese attack and decided to execute the contingency plan for pacification of China. The first troops landed unopposed on the south Guangdao coastline, only the marines landing on Haikao met resistance. The marines who was planned for landing directly on Guangzhou must have landed on the wrong spot, hopefully this wont have any repercussions later.

22nd July
The attack in the north is going slowly as expected, facing almost half the Kuomintang army in the first wave, the massive upgrades of our equipment seems to have born fruit as we defeat twice our number for five times our casualties.
The slow going isn't that big a problem as we need to suck all troops in north China to the border region to make phase 2 easier.
No attack has yet been make on Guangzhou, that is worrying, have Canton I HQ forgotten that they need it for supplies?

23th July
The pocket in the south is closing, but how many will be enclosed, a third of the enemy troops seems to be on the way out, Canton I. 2nd Homengun appears to not attack northerly enough, nor are they attacking Guangzhou.

At least our bombers will teach the commies not to interfere, better send them a reminder that the commies have 2 industrial centres.
 
*Note to General Surt from the commander of the 1st Canton AG

Sir, Guangzhou was heavily defended and the resistance in the south was heavier than anticipated in general. Due to harsh terrain and large number of enemy troops, we were unable to push further inland until reinforcements arrived and forced the Chinese to spread their defence lines. Despite these setbacks, I firmly believe that the encirclement would have been successful if our pitiful "allies" had held their lines.

However, this is all history now. In my opinion Guangzhou should be our top priority at the moment. It can be taken and we can push the Chinese back, but we need more air support. Since there are few airfields in the region, it will most likely have to come from the sea.

*
 
*Note to General Surt from the commander of the 1st Canton AG

Sir, Guangzhou was heavily defended and the resistance in the south was heavier than anticipated in general. Due to harsh terrain and large number of enemy troops, we were unable to push further inland until reinforcements arrived and forced the Chinese to spread their defence lines. Despite these setbacks, I firmly believe that the encirclement would have been successful if our pitiful "allies" had held their lines.

However, this is all history now. In my opinion Guangzhou should be our top priority at the moment. It can be taken and we can push the Chinese back, but we need more air support. Since there are few airfields in the region, it will most likely have to come from the sea.

*

There is a nice airport in Hainan, we can use that? also we can fly supplies in from Taiwan as a stop gab measure.
 
*Note to General Surt

Yes, we can. However, rebasing more planes to the Hainan's airfield will make our logistical situation even worse. This is something you northerners do not understand, since you have big airfields in near vicinity and additional air cover from the bulk of the Navy's CAGs AND you do not have fight in the jungles and in the mountains.

I will see what can be done about the transport aircraft.
*
 
War diary of General Surt, Army HQ North.

26th July.
AG Canton I, 2nd Homengun seem to strike out to the north, the pocket should be secured now.

28th July
I start think the planner should have considered making a pocket at Peking, I'll think about that if we ever get an comparable situation again. The major cities usually holds longer therefore they could potentially be surrounded, but it's difficult to make reasonable orders the corps commanders can follow.

29th July
Yes there could have been make a pocket there, even if the fighting in the city would have been difficult with a lot of divisions encircled there, lets see if we can do that on any other major city.

30th July
Bad news from AG Canton I.1 the Chinese breaks through the Guangxi front.

31th July
AG Canton I.1 Homengun tries to close the pocket again, well done.

2nd August
Peking, the northern Capital, falls, again we fought 2:1 but due to the city our loss ratio was only 3:1, on all other battlefields in the north our divisions push back the Chinese against overwhelming odds, soon we will encounter the Shanxi and Commies which will shore up the KMT armies.

3rd August
The Konoe government falls to be replaced by the Old Admiral Kiichiro, he has more fascist tendencies than his predecessor. Someone must have threatened Konoe to leave the position to an Old Admiral, hmm who could that have been.

Canton II.1 Homengun invades east of Canton to try to establish supplies, the diversion west of Canton seems to have worked as they land unopposed in the harbours and an attack on Guangzhou is started.

Haikou must also be cleared totally cleared soon so our troops there can leave and join the main event. Which reminds me I must check up on if we have started training the Gar to hold the harbours.

12th August
The southern pocket seems elusive now though an attack directly north by Canton I.2 might still be able to close the pocket. The GuangXi troops north of the river are of a better quality than the original closing division they used.
And Canton II can stop attacking eastward now as the eastern most harbour of the plan is secured, they should also move in a more northerly direction now.
We will soon need 5 Garrison division for the ports here, I see a note here that the production continues on many infantry divisions which is both good and bad, good as we always need more infantry, bad as we need the Gar more as they use less supplies, frees up trained troops and are faster trained.
I will have to write a note to the armaments minister that he puts most or all of the infantry builds on hold until we have the required Gar, that will also help on our backlog of support unit production. Those that takes the longest to complete should be put on hold, on closer examination all 3 should be put on hold and 1 discontinued once we finish the current run. And as soon as we free the 3 rare material mines we need some MP's there to stop sabotage of the mines.

The north-western Homengun seems to have a little trouble fighting its way forward, but it has 2 months or more to reach its target, the 2(3?) others seems to be on schedule. Also we don't want Shanxi to fold just yet, it will just make the rest of the warlords join the KMT. The Shanxi and ChiCom are now fully engaged on the north front according to our air recon, now is the time to strike at Shanghai.
Jinan is soon in our reach and the landing in Shanghai/Qingdao might be able to make a pocket in the Qingdao peninsula, but I don't have high hopes on the number of enemy units there.

Faster advances would require motorization of more of our divisions which is not an option right now, even if it would have made closing of the southern pocket easier but also used more supplies, we have made our bet and now we must live with it.

The southern campaign is also now just a 100km south of the rares we need for our industry as we only got 40 days left of them, coincidentally that is how many days it should take to secure Nanjing too! and my agents tells me there should be at least 3000 tons of rare materials there alone.
Despite the AG Canton's request for more air power, HQ north will not endorse this in excess of the already allocated 1 tactical bomber and 1 ftr, a H.Ftr can be stationed on Taiwan to cover much of the front. Any CaG the navy can provide to AG south will be appreciated, much of Peking and Shanghai AG's needs can be coved either with ftr on the continent or heavy fighters at islands.
The 3 LB must continue to support AG Shanghai also due to supply problems in the south. For the same reason no ships may be stationed in any port that draws supply form the continent. See army post #146 for planes allocation.

When all 4 Homengun in the south moves a bit more inland the marines might have to be withdraw if we don't get enough supplies through the 5 available ports, note there will be supply problems anyway so we are only talking massive as in a substantial number of provinces are overloaded.
I also got my hands on the armaments ministry report on the economy, the upgrades and reinforcements looks roughly right, but the 40IC need on supplies is worrisome, luckily my logistics officers tells me that some of the need is due to double ordering and bad storage management* causing excessive demand hence the 30IC allocated is right but that won't help us as the supplies are moved to the storage depot in Asia.
The new radars are also more expensive at start than anticipated, but we are going to be glad for them later.

Our financial troubles looks like it comes from import of supplies, maybe we need to cancel some deals again, on the other hand our deficit in energy is due to storage problems and the iron might be the same, so only the rares and to some degree the oil is a problem. The oil situation can be improved by trading more with the us, hence we need more money and for that purpose we need to cancel some supplies import.
Also a war tax should be introduced now.**

Otherwise I expect the plan to continue, as the only thing gone mildly wrong yet is the pocket in the south not forming yet. I expect the next meeting of the General Staff and the Emperor around the time of the fall of Nanjing, earlier if some catastrophic event happens.

OOC:
* both the supply bugs are still in here so too much is transported to the mainland, check the northern supply depot, also supply convoys don't get started correctly like we talked about earlier.
** did we do that? or can't we afford it right now? might have to turn off auto trade and cancel some imports until we can pay for it :(
 
*Technical note

* both the supply bugs are still in here so too much is transported to the mainland, check the northern supply depot, also supply convoys don't get started correctly like we talked about earlier.
ATM all supply convoys are working properly. I monitor the situation closely. Also, I can always delete some routes if the depots get too big, but it's too soon for that.

** did we do that? or can't we afford it right now? might have to turn off auto trade and cancel some imports until we can pay for it
Tax raises weren't implemented in the end. Yes, we are importing some supplies, but considering our needs... Still, I can cancel the imports if necessary, especially that we don't even have enough money to implement new laws.

We don't lack energy and we don't import any. This bug has been fixed long time ago. We import some metals, but it's ok. We import a shi*load of rare materials and we still lack them. The situation will get even worse in the future, because our industry is still expanding.

*
 
Message from Admiral Baltasar to Imperial command,

our navy engaged and successfully repelled Chinese attempts to make a run for the deep ocean, presumably to split up afterwards and conduct trade interdiction. With this show of force, we assume that the Chinese will not try to force the blockade again anytime soon. However, we consider the blockade important to our war effort, hence the fleets are to remain on station until further notice.

The submarines are currently hunting for Chinese convoys. Although they are hitting ships, we think we can speed this up a little. Ships from the IJNR are to form three auxiliary fleets of 1x CL, 2x DD each. These fleets are to hunt in sink convoys from or to China, especially on the route south and south-east of mainland China. If neccessary, these forces can be based on Taiwan to extend their effective range.
 
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*Note to Admiral Baltasar from the Commander of the 1st Canton AG

Admiral Baltasar, what is your stance on the deployment of surface action groups? Should they support the attack on Guangzhou, the attack in the Qingdao/Shanghai region or both of these operations?

*Note to Admiral Grull from the Commander of the 1st Canton AG

Admiral Grull, what is your position on the deployment of carrier task forces? Currently they are mainly supporting the northern armies and we could really use some additional air support here in the south.
 
To C-i-C 1st Canton AG from Admiral Baltasar:
- Surface fleet will support all operations in range, with two divisions helping out in Guangzhou and the rest around Shanghai.
- Landing forces at your disposal, coordinate with Gen. Surt and C-i-C 2nd Canton AG.
- Direct air support request by Navy assets to C-i-C Northern armies.


To Gen. Surt, from Adm. Baltasar:
With the Chinese engaged in two fronts, we could open yet another front. Secondary landings should start soon. The more we confuse the Chinese, the better.


To administrative Clerk, from Adm. Baltasar:
Which fleet(s) engaged the Chinese fleets so far? I need a damage report, reports about confirmed sinkings and which ships gained honor for the Emperor by sinking enemy ships.
 
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*Note to Admiral Baltasar
Admiral, there were several minor engagements with the Chinese Navy and we emerged victorious from all of them. The enemy's actions were poorly coordinated and his numbers were slim. Moreover, according to our spies, the Chinese have only two light cruisers left.

Most of the losses were inflicted by the battleships Nagato and Mutsu, which operate in the southern Chinese coasts and are currently supporting the land forces in their siege of Guangzhou. The CTFs are stationed in the north and so far they did not have the chance to engage the enemy. Their CAGs are currently performing interdiction missions.

*Technical note
BTW guys, we lack leaders. It may be a good idea to rethink the future army organisation.

I also want to note that garrison troops don't have leaders attached to them, as requested.
 
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"Bloody Hell!, why wasn't I notified!" Yelled General Cody as he stormed into the Imperial Headquarters.

"Sir, that is what you get when you spend a Night with a Geisha or two..." Said my Aide

"Fine, Fine. So as I see we have struck down into Canton, We must secure Guangzhou, that is what will link the two fronts together."

"Already pointed out."

"Ahh, Well, I advise an Assault on Shanghai or the Qingdao Peninsula with any reserve we have. If pulled off right, we can force the Chinese to fall apart, and then tonight, we will DINE IN NANJINNNNNG! Call General Surt for me and tell him of my plan"

"Understood Sir!"

"Thank you. I Suppose I will need to see if we have reserves."
 
"Thank you. I Suppose I will need to see if we have reserves."
General, we have three Homegun ready in Korea and Kyushu. However, one of them lack heavy weapons and is being led by "green" commanders, if you know what I mean.

These forces are supposed to take part in the Qingdao/Shanghai landing.
 
Understood, I advise that one to Qingdao, and 2 to Shanghai and surrounding areas. I will take Personal Command of them.
 
To Imperial Command:
- Chinese fleet not a threat. Fleets will remain in position to support land operations where possible.
- Dispatch afore mentioned fleets (1x CL, 2x DD) to support convoy hunting operations.
 
I wonder if we could device a plan for a future attack on the far west, such as the Suez canal?

OOC: Sorry for my inactivity, been busy :(.

While I approve the idea, that may be too far ahead in time and space. Also, we should consider what strategic goals we have and then identify tactical objectives.
 
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