Admiral Yamamoto: IJN Kaga
The opening battles were interesting. Stop. We have tested our metal against theirs and come out in a victorious position. Stop. While we may have taken in relative terms more damage to our fleets than the Americans we have garnered a strategic victory with Guam and a successful taking of beachheads in the Philippines. Stop.
We should aggressively pursue the liberation of the Philippines ahead of welcoming them into our Empire. Stop. We do this by once the encirclement in the north is completed we move our marine assets to the island hopping in the south to secure the two ports, which must then be garrisoned to prevent a diversionary attack against our weak underbelly. Stop.
The loss of these grounds will have shocked the Americans and they will likely take steps to fortify themselves on their other island assets. Stop. For the Americans to regain the initiative they will be looking for an attack avenue against us. Stop. This may likely be cheap targets such as Narha in the Home Islands, possibly Ponape or Saipan or Guam. Stop.
I say that we wait for that opertunity to stike them. Stop. Patrolling in search of engagement is the perfect way to get our ships sank. Stop. As we have seen in my pursuit of the damaged American fleet, when their backs are against the wall they fight like eagles. Stop. I am not personally in favour of patrol fleets. Stop. I believe Admiral Baltasar sub hunting fleets are strategically dangerous, since while I would speculate the American subs are operating on the Tokyo-Kawaliagen, Tokyo-Saipan/Truk/Ponape etc. routes, not in our home waters. Stop.
Sending green water fleets to hunt for these subs out in the wide pacific is a somewhat silly proposition, since it just presents the Americans with nice easy juicy targets for them to throw the full combat force of the American Pacific fleet against. Stop. We would not only have to have the sub hunters patrolling, but also our blue water fleets as well just to protect them, and then if an engagement is met, it will be on unfavourable terms. Stop.
Our strategic operations should focus on taking the American held islands islands hard and fast to push their submarine fleets out of range of the home islands. Stop. This then removes the need for green water fleets for home patrol. Stop. Our pacific islands will not be out of range of American submarines until Hawaii is ours, and even then I believe we will need Phoenix and Marvis island in the south-pacific to fully give us security. Stop.
When Hawaii is ours we can give our Hawaiian convoys an escort that the American submarines can never break. Thus strategically we have won the merchant fleet war. Stop.
Our priority should be on counter engagement fleets. Stop. If the Americans invade our islands, we must have a fleet ready in the area to engage the landings, disrupting them. Stop. That way we engage on favourable terms always. Stop. Other than that they must be ready to support our own invasions. Stop.
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Letter to the Admiralty:
Even before the Philippines are fully 'mopped up', we need to keep our momentum going. We need to strike at Midway, and Wake within the month! and we need to do so with strength, just like at Guam. Having seen the results there it is my suggestion that we utilise all the active fleets in these operations with our submarines, if they are organised into a 'Grand Shoal' we can use them to pursue American damaged fleets for a short distance, launching a single attack under the cover of night to really 'send them packing'.
This will push us far, but if we instead of spreading our fleet out, we concentrate it and use the suggested 'ASW groups' as reserve/flank fleets supporting the operation directly replacing screens and escorts at sea as they are damaged we shall have the staying power we didn't have at Guam.
The IJN Hosho shall be part of the 1st fleet I consent to this.
I do approve the overall combat fleet compositions;
1st fleet: 2x BB, 1x CVL, 3x CA, 3x CL
IJN Nagato (flagship)
IJN Yamashiro
IJN Hosho
IJN Mogami
IJN Mikuma
IJN Haguro
IJN Yubari
IJN Tama
IJN Oi
12.4 hull
2nd fleet: 3x BB, 3x CA, 3x CL
IJN Ise (flagship)
IJN Hyuga
IJN Fuso
IJN Maya
IJN Nachi
IJN Myoko
IJN Kuma
IJN Kitikama
IJN Kiso
3rd fleet: 2x CV, 1x CVL, 3x CL, 3x, DD
IJN Kaga (flagship)
IJN Akagi
IJN Zuiho
IJN Kinu
IJN Isuzu
IJN Abukuma
25. Kuchikusentai
26. Kuchikusentai
27. Kuchikusentai
4th fleet: 3x BC, 1x CA, 3x CL
IJN Kongo (flagship)
IJN Hiei
IJN Ibuki
IJN Aoba
IJN Izumo
IJN Furutaka
IJN Chokai
5th fleet: 2x BC, 3x CA, 3x CL
IJN Haruna (flagship)
IJN Kirishima
IJN Kinugasa
IJN Kako
IJN Asama
IJN Yahagi
IJN Tatsuta
IJN Tenryu
But I warn not to have the ASW groups acting out in the pacific. On an operational level I would put them to sea only in the Sea of Japan, East China Sea, and the Taiwan strait, until we have taken Hawaii.
Furthermore we need to keep our combat fleets out of direct confrontation until they are needed, so keeping them on the west coast of the Philippines, and on a defensive stance would be a good suggestion. Our merchant seamen will be running great risks to the pacific islands in the meantime, but if we strike fast, by the end of the year we could have the Americans ousted from the pacific wholesale. They won't be defeated, but their ability to force project at us will be greatly lessened.
The Submarines shall be organised into the 'Grand Shoal' and put out to Saipan, since it is fairly central, thus for the attacks on Wake and Midway they can put out just behind the main attack and lie in wait for the American counter-engagement if it materialises.
Phase 0.
Place our NAV bomber on convoy raiding aggressive from Kwajalein (I believe it has an airbase, but I may be mistaken and its Enteiok(sp?))
Phase 1.
With north Philippines pocket taken, redeploy our marines units to Marcus along with the transport fleets, leaving one unit of marines for island hopping. Prioritise these special forces divisions for reinforcement and upgrade. Organise our a wing of tactical bombers to Kwajalein or Saipan if they are within bombing range of Wake, if not we shall have to use the heavy bomber wings.
Phase 2.
Use all 4 fleets, but only with the 1st and 2nd initially along with our marine corps to attack Wake. Bombers to support with air artillery, as well as CAGs so long as they are not needed for naval operations.
Phase 2a.
If the Americans bring in support, engage like we did at Guam. As we take damage rotate in the other fleets in the area. This time we should have the fleets on standby for a more decisive course of events.
Phase 3.
With Wake taken, we can rebase additional fighters there, some ships shall have to be rotated back to Japan for repair, while it is unlikely we can have the last lot of damage repaired for replacement, with wake taken we have a good airbase.
Phase 4.
We roll on to Midway, if Wake has been taken, then the American fleets have likely taken a fair amount of punishment. Rinse and repeat, even if we don't have the garrisons to keep Wake well defended, once Midway is taken we are in a powerful position, our Tokyo lines will be somewhat more secure.
Phase 4a.
If we lost at Wake, then we need to pull back to the home islands.
Phase 4b.
Roll on Johnston, possibly at the same time as Midway since the fleets will be operating in the same area. It's not a particularly strategic target, but we don't want our supply ships cut off.
Phase 5. [Next update: We need some intel on Hawaii like sticking a sub on passive there]
Hawaii. The campaign in the Philippines should hopefully be wrapping up, so we can pull a couple of divisions from there. We need two attacks, and they need to be swift, like the last two islands before the Americans can bring in better equipment to defend the islands. Our marines will attack the port head on, thus disrupting the Americans from closing down our beachhead from across the island. Those corps will attack from the north of the island Waialua, and push south to Honolulu as well as a token landing at Hana to complete the encirlement.
If we get to Hawaii it will be a tough battle, where we may loose some ships, on the other hand, we might not. Given this operational path we are focusing nearly our entire fleet at each of these three islands. We have well trained, experienced troops, (A side note: Let's put our best captains in charge of these fleets. I don't have the available list at the moment, but I'm sure there may be one or two of the fleets with a sub par admiral.) and we'll have just won two battles.
The Americans will have been badly hurt over these few weeks and the ships we shall find at Pearl Harbour will already be damaged. With Hawaii taken, we can take the war back to the Americans, we can then damage their supply lines to Phoenix, and the Christmas Islands, we'll be within bombing range of them, and we can bring our light bombers and fighters to the 'Pacific front' and make our stand from Hawaii. That way the war will be towards the American end of the Pacific, putting the home islands and the rest of our pacific holdings at much less risk.
I believe a brutal frontal assault conducted with confidence will show the Americans that their planned war of flexing imperialist muscle in Asia to subdue us was a truly bad idea. It will also make the American public loose confidence in their leaders and war planners which will make suing for peace later much easier.
However the Americans won't surrender just because we took their islands, at least not yet. Once we have those islands however the Americans will have to engage us at Hawaii or the Christmas islands to turn the tide. That gives us knowledge of where they will focus, and we can make it a death trap of them. If the Americans can't move out at us we have defacto beaten them, and we only need damage destroy their new productions as they put out to sea to keep them in check.
If we don't take their ports, then these ships will have free roam of the pacific and we won't be able to concentrate our own fleets to be a match for the American ones, I can't place emphasis enough that we need to wage economic as well as military warfare here.
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Letter to the General Staff
We need more CAGs, we need more garrisons, and we need more infantry. These are priority. Also we need more escort cruisers. When we have finished training carrier pilots on attacking land targets on rotation, we also need to start teaching them about attacking American ships. Our CAG forces need to be both land and sea proficient.
Similarly we need our Marines to be rotated out to training programs during this year so they can let the officers know what the troops are up against and to thus plan for it. We need better special forces training!...and it's not just the Marines, I don't know how up to date or not our Naval Air Control doctrines, or CAG training programs are but if they are anyway lagging, they need the highest of research priorities, below the industrial ones.
Talking about industry, our industrial plants should be able to look into advanced methods of aircraft design. If we can give our CAGs and INTs some kind of additional fuel capacity then we should be able to create better 'zones of control' throughout the pacific.
Operationally:
In the short term I envisage a short and sharp, albeit possibly costly, island hopping campaign to Hawaii. This puts us on the medium term grounds of having pushed the submarine and invasion threat away from the home islands and giving us an incredibly strong point from which to operation out of in the Pacific. This [Hawaii] should be fortified, along with Wake, Saipan and Kwajalein/Enietok since these are the best air and port bases in the pacific. Any other port we can afford to loose, at least on the short term, but making these islands citadels sends a clear message to the Americans that we are going to fight to the last man.
In the long term, with Hawaii we have created a bottleneck for the American pacific fleets. They will have to go through Hawaii to conduct any strong operations on our pacific holdings. We can dominate Phoenix and the Christmas islands and invade them at our leisure.
As contingency this quick attack is sound, since if the Americans bring the Colonials against us then they'll have access to Commonwealth ports as well. The American industrial juggernaut will always outpace us and if it can get fleets out into every part of the pacific then it will be able to pick us apart at their leisure since we cannot focus everywhere at once.
Hence why we need to make the Americans come to our bottleneck at Hawaii.
But as contingency if we've already denied them their own ports that puts us on the tactical advantage of only then having to shut down Commonwealth ports. Given the relative close proximity of the South China seas islands, green water navies and land operations should for the majority of the time cut it against the RN. We only need push them back to past Singapore for that, but Borneo and Guinea would also need to be incorporated for that contingency planning. At least in the short term. On the long term, this contingency would require the shutting down of the Commonwealth islands of Australia and New Zealand.
The point is, should that course of events come to pass we are in a vastly better position with at least Hawaii in our possession
Because we have to focus on the economic war, we cannot go half-heartedly at anything. If we are not going to pursue high technology, then it needs to be numbers and training. We shall use CAGs as NAV, and aim to operate about half as many CAGs in the long term than there is space on the carrier decks. Similarly, modern escort production should be prioritised. If we are not going to lay down any more capital hulls during the near future we should halt any research teams in these fields and instead switch them over to doctrinal and training methods until such time as they are as up-to-date as they can be before returning to design research. Although escort cruiser design tech should still be pushed somewhat, since once a hull is laid, and we are laying them, it will be the best we can get. Although it looks like the administration has already been good on this. Although it would be nice if we could get a modern update from the technical teams...
Finally we need spies. We need lots of them, I advocate at least 2Ls should be invested in home spy rings, and setting up our own in America to disrupt their production or research. With the slightly higher priority on homeland counter-espionage.
I invite the general staff to speculate on this medium term objective, and long term prosecution of the pacific war.
