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Wow, these are some spectacular battles. Keep at destroying the USN! Tenno heika banzai!
Journal entry #1
昭和19 12月 18日
Honestly, this is the worst assignment I have ever been on. Snow, freezing cold, and red bandits taking potshots at me and my men. Seriously, this weather makes Abashiri in the winter seem pleasant by comparison. As far as equipment is concerned, what we have works, but more than a few of my men have told me that the Type 100 is a piece of [expletive deleted]. Having tried it out myself, I agreed; although I (almost) never need to use it, I prefer the Thompson honestly. I bought it up with some of the SNLF and Teishin officers and they agreed that we could probably use these designs and improve on them for our own purposes. That is, if we could get the [expletive deleted] brass to listen for once. But that doesn't really matter right now: That slimy [expletive deleted] Chiang and his minions are scurrying like the rats they are before we finally stomp them once and for all.
昭和19 12月 18日
Honestly, this is the worst assignment I have ever been on. Snow, freezing cold, and red bandits taking potshots at me and my men. Seriously, this weather makes Abashiri in the winter seem pleasant by comparison. As far as equipment is concerned, what we have works, but more than a few of my men have told me that the Type 100 is a piece of [expletive deleted]. Having tried it out myself, I agreed; although I (almost) never need to use it, I prefer the Thompson honestly. I bought it up with some of the SNLF and Teishin officers and they agreed that we could probably use these designs and improve on them for our own purposes. That is, if we could get the [expletive deleted] brass to listen for once. But that doesn't really matter right now: That slimy [expletive deleted] Chiang and his minions are scurrying like the rats they are before we finally stomp them once and for all.
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It's only possible thanks to NAVs.
As far as naval warfare, probably my biggest mistake was ignoring naval bombers with some fighter cover. Once I did that, so much of the hair-tearing difficulty of naval combat evaporates.
MastahCheef: Apart from my home island defense fleet "bonus" I've still got enough fleet carriers to get what I need done. Besides, the USN isn't going to throw its carrier deathstacks at me until I get to Wake and Hawaii.
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三: Salvaging China and New Guinea, Problems in Europe
With the US Navy reeling from the defeat in the Marianas, Ozawa's naval bombers took two more figurative scalps from the retreating fleets:
The Wisconsin and Alaska were too slow to join the American relieving fleet and sent to the bottom by yet another round of aerial bombardment. With the way cleared, Japanese forces retook Saipan with minimal resistance, but the American resistance took until the 9th to subdue completely:
The US Navy, intent on cutting their losses, attempted to evacuate the small garrison force from the island to little avail. Not only failing to arrive in time to rescue the token force defending the island, said fleet, much like so many others, were obliterated by Ozawa and the Combined Fleet. The latter portion of the naval engagement proved a Japanese victory, but not without cost: After two weeks of on-and-off battles, the Hiryu went down after an American torpedo struck her already-compromised port hull, while the Zuiho and Ryuho succumbed to the last wave of American aircraft. Granted, there was still a ways to go before the situation could be considered stable, the recapture of Saipan and Ozawa and Tanaka's breach of the inevitable blockade made the Japanese situation still salvageable.
But the situation of the empire's faithful (and not so faithful) allies was not nearly so rosy:
While a superpower on paper, the German Reich had several dangerous weak points by August of 1944: The Americans had broken out of their Normandy beachhead and were advancing rapidly across the French countryside, to be followed with more amphibious landings along the western and Mediterranean coasts. Advancing like a powerful, murderous glacier, the Soviet Red Army had already broken through the Axis defensive line in the Carpathians and were flooding into Hungary and Slovakia. To make matters even worse, the Soviets were already threatening Romanian territory, one of the last real sources of German petroleum. Finally, the British and Americans had shattered the Gothic/Green Line and were threatening Germany itself and Croatia:
Meanwhile, the Japanese had successfully turned last month's offensive by the NRA into a decisive rout, forming a north-south defensive line and trapping many Chinese divisions in a pocket along the coast. Operation Ichi-go, General Okamura's brainchild, accomplished one of its main objectives. After a brief rest, the Imperial Japanese Army would set out to finish the primary objective of the destruction of the Republic of China.
After his capture and execution (condemned as a "vile murder committed by bandits" by Foreign Affairs Minister Tōgō Shigenori) by partisans, Mussolini's "Italian Social Republic" was put out of its misery in the early morning hours of August 28th. While the remaining German forces resisted bravely for several weeks more, the sheer force bought to bear by Anglo-American forces in the peninsula allowed London to put Germany and Croatia in grave danger and overrunning Austria and Hungary not even two months later.
But there was little time in Tokyo to mourn the loss of a less-than-reliable ally, as the Americans still held several important positions across the Pacific, not least of these was Truk Lagoon:
Meanwhile, the thinly-stretched lines in the north of China were being increasingly strengthened by reinforcements from Manchukuo and the home islands, driving the joint KMT/Communist forces back from their gains:
As reported to Okamura by General Shinji Tanaka after the recapture of Hequ, it was "of the utmost necessity" that the reds be contained in the mountains around Yan'an, " lest our entire northern line be thrown into chaos."
Particularly after the disastrous defeat at Wewak, the American and Australian forces on New Guinea considered the campaign all but won. Nonetheless, in one of the most spectacular feats in jungle warfare of the 20th century, the skeleton divisions stationed in the island's west gave their Western opponents far more than they had bargained for:
With the Americans routed from Birab, Saipan retaken and Truk in the process, the next course of action was clear to High Command: Retake the port of Hollandia and return to world's second-largest island and contest the American/Australian control over it. Ozawa even declared New Guinea "as vital to a successful end to the war as Truk and Saipan."
Nonetheless, there were still a few problems in the overall stabilization plan:
The abortive assault upon Truk proved to be a bone of contention among the members of Daihon'ei for some time: In addition to the faction which expressed no preference, some were supportive of Ozawa's order to withdraw and land on the considerably-less-heavily-defended Kwajalein. Others, Tojo included, felt that the area was well covered by the Combined Fleet and that the Americans would have eventually broken with enough air support.[3]
But the Kuomintang incursions south proved Chongqing, even in its heavily weakened state, to have eyes far too big for their collective stomach:
Ever since taking over administration from the Vichy French government four years prior, the empire had not seen it necessary to heavily defend Indochina, with two Japanese divisions overseeing the remaining French colonial forces. However, were the KMT forces to make a habit of such advances and invest more men in them, they could have very well become much more than a mere nuisance.
- Letter from Col. Jiro Kajiwara to Maj. Kazuo Yamamoto, dated December 5th, 1944
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[3] Recognizing fully well the importance of the lagoon and normally in agreement with the pro-landnig faction Ozawa still wished to preserve his pilots and craft for the inevitable American defense of New Guinea and the Coral Sea.
With the US Navy reeling from the defeat in the Marianas, Ozawa's naval bombers took two more figurative scalps from the retreating fleets:
The Wisconsin and Alaska were too slow to join the American relieving fleet and sent to the bottom by yet another round of aerial bombardment. With the way cleared, Japanese forces retook Saipan with minimal resistance, but the American resistance took until the 9th to subdue completely:
The US Navy, intent on cutting their losses, attempted to evacuate the small garrison force from the island to little avail. Not only failing to arrive in time to rescue the token force defending the island, said fleet, much like so many others, were obliterated by Ozawa and the Combined Fleet. The latter portion of the naval engagement proved a Japanese victory, but not without cost: After two weeks of on-and-off battles, the Hiryu went down after an American torpedo struck her already-compromised port hull, while the Zuiho and Ryuho succumbed to the last wave of American aircraft. Granted, there was still a ways to go before the situation could be considered stable, the recapture of Saipan and Ozawa and Tanaka's breach of the inevitable blockade made the Japanese situation still salvageable.
But the situation of the empire's faithful (and not so faithful) allies was not nearly so rosy:
While a superpower on paper, the German Reich had several dangerous weak points by August of 1944: The Americans had broken out of their Normandy beachhead and were advancing rapidly across the French countryside, to be followed with more amphibious landings along the western and Mediterranean coasts. Advancing like a powerful, murderous glacier, the Soviet Red Army had already broken through the Axis defensive line in the Carpathians and were flooding into Hungary and Slovakia. To make matters even worse, the Soviets were already threatening Romanian territory, one of the last real sources of German petroleum. Finally, the British and Americans had shattered the Gothic/Green Line and were threatening Germany itself and Croatia:
Meanwhile, the Japanese had successfully turned last month's offensive by the NRA into a decisive rout, forming a north-south defensive line and trapping many Chinese divisions in a pocket along the coast. Operation Ichi-go, General Okamura's brainchild, accomplished one of its main objectives. After a brief rest, the Imperial Japanese Army would set out to finish the primary objective of the destruction of the Republic of China.
After his capture and execution (condemned as a "vile murder committed by bandits" by Foreign Affairs Minister Tōgō Shigenori) by partisans, Mussolini's "Italian Social Republic" was put out of its misery in the early morning hours of August 28th. While the remaining German forces resisted bravely for several weeks more, the sheer force bought to bear by Anglo-American forces in the peninsula allowed London to put Germany and Croatia in grave danger and overrunning Austria and Hungary not even two months later.
But there was little time in Tokyo to mourn the loss of a less-than-reliable ally, as the Americans still held several important positions across the Pacific, not least of these was Truk Lagoon:
Meanwhile, the thinly-stretched lines in the north of China were being increasingly strengthened by reinforcements from Manchukuo and the home islands, driving the joint KMT/Communist forces back from their gains:
As reported to Okamura by General Shinji Tanaka after the recapture of Hequ, it was "of the utmost necessity" that the reds be contained in the mountains around Yan'an, " lest our entire northern line be thrown into chaos."
Particularly after the disastrous defeat at Wewak, the American and Australian forces on New Guinea considered the campaign all but won. Nonetheless, in one of the most spectacular feats in jungle warfare of the 20th century, the skeleton divisions stationed in the island's west gave their Western opponents far more than they had bargained for:
With the Americans routed from Birab, Saipan retaken and Truk in the process, the next course of action was clear to High Command: Retake the port of Hollandia and return to world's second-largest island and contest the American/Australian control over it. Ozawa even declared New Guinea "as vital to a successful end to the war as Truk and Saipan."
Nonetheless, there were still a few problems in the overall stabilization plan:
The abortive assault upon Truk proved to be a bone of contention among the members of Daihon'ei for some time: In addition to the faction which expressed no preference, some were supportive of Ozawa's order to withdraw and land on the considerably-less-heavily-defended Kwajalein. Others, Tojo included, felt that the area was well covered by the Combined Fleet and that the Americans would have eventually broken with enough air support.[3]
But the Kuomintang incursions south proved Chongqing, even in its heavily weakened state, to have eyes far too big for their collective stomach:
Ever since taking over administration from the Vichy French government four years prior, the empire had not seen it necessary to heavily defend Indochina, with two Japanese divisions overseeing the remaining French colonial forces. However, were the KMT forces to make a habit of such advances and invest more men in them, they could have very well become much more than a mere nuisance.
- Letter from Col. Jiro Kajiwara to Maj. Kazuo Yamamoto, dated December 5th, 1944
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[3] Recognizing fully well the importance of the lagoon and normally in agreement with the pro-landnig faction Ozawa still wished to preserve his pilots and craft for the inevitable American defense of New Guinea and the Coral Sea.
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And now we can see first interesting alt-history outcome,its a Hungarian republic.Guess Britian did a job of 50ths revolutionares
Jesus, Ozawa is wiping the floor with the US Navy. While the carrier losses hurt, you still have momentum to capitalize on.
What's the IJN current force disposition/organization like? And known USN force concentration?
What's the IJN current force disposition/organization like? And known USN force concentration?
Wow, it looks like your allies will lose the war but you could come out with a status quo peace rather than a loss.
四: Gyakuten (Landing at/Battle of Port Moresby)
With the the Marinara Islands secured for the time being and the tide turning decidedly against the KMT and red forces in China, the attention of High Command was increasingly turned to the other vital islands to the south, one which, while nowhere near as vital as Saipan or Iwo Jima, would give the Allies a platform for continued harassment and offensives against the empire. This island of course, was New Guinea; poor infrastructure, hostile terrain and Australian-slash-American defenders even more so all made an effort to retake the island a daunting task. Nonetheless, on October 14th, Lieutenant General Hong Sa's landing force made landfall at noon at Hollandia to a conspicuous lack of resistance. Of course, the US Army and Marine Corps immediately welcomed them:
Despite noticeable air supremacy, the most formidable American adversary proved to be the terrain itself as opposed to the lieutenant general's recuperating force, the attempt to retake the port called off that night:
Three days later, the South Seas Task Force assaulted the island of Manus with the express goal of retaking the airbase and port facilities on the island:
While outnumbered three-to-one, the American marine division was well-entrenched and well-equipped while air support for the Japanese was sparse at best, most support coming from the transport fleet's guns. The Americans fought fiercely, their defense showing little sign of tapering off even after two weeks of fighting. Indeed, it was of such concern to the navy, that Ozawa ordered two more divisions to the islands to reinforce the assault. Nonetheless, after nearly a month of fighting, the surviving American defenders finally laid down their arms, much to the chagrin of Lieutenant General Akira Muto and many of his men:
With the Combined Fleet engaged in the Solomons, under sparse naval cover, the South Seas Detachment succeeded where the attempts two years previously had failed and secured the essential Port Moresby on November 21st. Much like with Hollandia, the landing met with very little resistance:
But for the men of the South Seas Detachment, this respite from combat would be intensely short-lived:
Also much like Hollandia, the American counterattacks were fairly impotent, at least at first. Nonetheless, Washington correctly saw the port as vital for continued successful operations in the Pacific and over the next several weeks, would mount (at least) five major attempts to retake the area.
British forces in the Croatia and the Reich itself. While the Germans had successfully pushed the British skeleton force out of Hungary and would later expel the sizable force from Austria, said incursions would make clear to the remaining Axis members just how precarious the German situation was, even with natural defensive barriers such as the Rhine and Bavarian Alps.
In China, the mountains were not proving nearly as beneficial for the empire's enemies:
Along the coasts, Okamura's forces had finally crushed the last pockets of NRA resistance, freeing up eleven more divisions to take the fight to the Chinese interior and destroy the ROC:
Long enjoying advantageous positions from their mountain strongholds, constant air pressure, encirclement to cut off aid, and rotation of fresh troops into the battle had allowed Generals Mutaguchi and Kosio to break the red lines, the forces commanded by the former giving chase into Yan'an.
While the relative successes of the past two months had led some to become complacent, Hirohito, somewhat non-characteristically, expressed concern about the strategic situation regarding the Indian Ocean, particularly British Ceylon and its potential for later use against the empire in Southeast Asia. While some such as Tojo and Doihara were dismissive of the need to do so, Ozawa, realizing fully well that the Allies already had a considerable advantage in naval technology, concurred with his sovereign about the need to head off the British before the island could be fortified. Humiliated by his "uselessness" during the battle for Manus, Muto was keen on redeeming himself in the eyes of High Command:
Much like Port Moresby, Colombo was secured without any real resistance, the attempts of the British authorities to incite the local populations against imperial forces amounting to nothing.
With the the Marinara Islands secured for the time being and the tide turning decidedly against the KMT and red forces in China, the attention of High Command was increasingly turned to the other vital islands to the south, one which, while nowhere near as vital as Saipan or Iwo Jima, would give the Allies a platform for continued harassment and offensives against the empire. This island of course, was New Guinea; poor infrastructure, hostile terrain and Australian-slash-American defenders even more so all made an effort to retake the island a daunting task. Nonetheless, on October 14th, Lieutenant General Hong Sa's landing force made landfall at noon at Hollandia to a conspicuous lack of resistance. Of course, the US Army and Marine Corps immediately welcomed them:
Despite noticeable air supremacy, the most formidable American adversary proved to be the terrain itself as opposed to the lieutenant general's recuperating force, the attempt to retake the port called off that night:
Three days later, the South Seas Task Force assaulted the island of Manus with the express goal of retaking the airbase and port facilities on the island:
While outnumbered three-to-one, the American marine division was well-entrenched and well-equipped while air support for the Japanese was sparse at best, most support coming from the transport fleet's guns. The Americans fought fiercely, their defense showing little sign of tapering off even after two weeks of fighting. Indeed, it was of such concern to the navy, that Ozawa ordered two more divisions to the islands to reinforce the assault. Nonetheless, after nearly a month of fighting, the surviving American defenders finally laid down their arms, much to the chagrin of Lieutenant General Akira Muto and many of his men:
With the Combined Fleet engaged in the Solomons, under sparse naval cover, the South Seas Detachment succeeded where the attempts two years previously had failed and secured the essential Port Moresby on November 21st. Much like with Hollandia, the landing met with very little resistance:
But for the men of the South Seas Detachment, this respite from combat would be intensely short-lived:
Also much like Hollandia, the American counterattacks were fairly impotent, at least at first. Nonetheless, Washington correctly saw the port as vital for continued successful operations in the Pacific and over the next several weeks, would mount (at least) five major attempts to retake the area.
British forces in the Croatia and the Reich itself. While the Germans had successfully pushed the British skeleton force out of Hungary and would later expel the sizable force from Austria, said incursions would make clear to the remaining Axis members just how precarious the German situation was, even with natural defensive barriers such as the Rhine and Bavarian Alps.
In China, the mountains were not proving nearly as beneficial for the empire's enemies:
Along the coasts, Okamura's forces had finally crushed the last pockets of NRA resistance, freeing up eleven more divisions to take the fight to the Chinese interior and destroy the ROC:
Long enjoying advantageous positions from their mountain strongholds, constant air pressure, encirclement to cut off aid, and rotation of fresh troops into the battle had allowed Generals Mutaguchi and Kosio to break the red lines, the forces commanded by the former giving chase into Yan'an.
While the relative successes of the past two months had led some to become complacent, Hirohito, somewhat non-characteristically, expressed concern about the strategic situation regarding the Indian Ocean, particularly British Ceylon and its potential for later use against the empire in Southeast Asia. While some such as Tojo and Doihara were dismissive of the need to do so, Ozawa, realizing fully well that the Allies already had a considerable advantage in naval technology, concurred with his sovereign about the need to head off the British before the island could be fortified. Humiliated by his "uselessness" during the battle for Manus, Muto was keen on redeeming himself in the eyes of High Command:
Much like Port Moresby, Colombo was secured without any real resistance, the attempts of the British authorities to incite the local populations against imperial forces amounting to nothing.
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Jeez, you're just taking the fight to them everywhere. Those landings in New Guinea and Ceylon will certainly prove annoying for the UK and US to deal with; hopefully it forces them to either delay whatever offensives they had planned or, better yet, forces them to draw troops from the ETO.
You seem to have really turned things around in the theaters of war you are fighting in!
五: New Year, New Allies, New Problems (New Guinea and Central China offensives)
With veteran, battle-hardened Imperial Japanese Army troops freed up from duties along the Chinese coasts, the forces in central and southern China, already having had quite a toll taken by the poor infrastructure and equally poor terrain, were able to rest, reinforce, and reequip for the final offensive against the ROC. Of course, this was not universally true:
General Inagaki's forces took Yan'an in late December of 1944 and the red Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, expressed a combination of anger and abject terror at the loss of the fortress city and the surrounding province, ordering his forces to retake it at all costs, an attempt which came to nothing. Interestingly enough, it was largely this frenzy to repel the Japanese which eventually doomed the Chinese Communist Party:
The extensive damage done to red forces by the attempts to retake Yan'an had left them exhausted and disorganized, prime for a counterattack not from Yan'an, but from Lt. General Tanaka's forces in the east. With the provisional capital of Yulin completely surrounded by imperial forces and under constant aerial bombardment, it was only a matter of time before the Japanese red sun burned the Chinese reds into complete oblivion.
Meanwhile, after weeks of hunkering in place around Port Moresby, the army brass in High Command was becoming increasingly tired of reports of ineffectual, semi-human wave attacks by the desperate Australian-American forces and the difficult "honor" of retaking Buna and breaking out of the vulnerable beachhead was given to Lieutenant General Suzuki:
While at first glance, the American positions, especially in contrast to their Japanese counterparts, seemed extremely strong and the first day of the assault seemed to make little progress. Given the already precarious situation, a number of Suzuki's staff officers actually advocated pulling back to the port to regroup and reorganize. However, by the afternoon of the 29th saw an unexpected turn of events:
While the retreating American forces would continue to contest the area until January 11th when imperial control was uncontested of the area, it seemed the jungle conditions agreed even less with the Allied preparations and fighting abilities in this instance.
Co-Prosperity Sphere territory as of January 1st, 1945. While not a good strategic prognosis by any means (particularly given the dire straits of Germany), any immediate peril to the Empire of Japan had largely, but by no means entirely, passed.
Also in less-than-disputed control of Truk Atoll, the United States, still hesitant to commit naval forces to a large fleet engagements, had turned to a strategy of picking off isolated, poorly-defended islands, with a special emphasis on those with functional port facilities. While China and New Guinea took import above all, it was clear that some effort would have to be made to reinforce the Marshal Islands:
Once again, the German situation, while not immediately critical, illustrated some critical weaknesses which would become apparent for all to see in mere months. While considered unfortunate for both practical and sentimental reasons, there was little, if anything which the Empire of the Sun could do to save the her ally apart from occupying some British and American forces:
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe had spent the final weeks of 1944 in Manilla on a series heavily classified diplomatic missions attended by high-ranking figures such as Jose P. Laurel and Benigno Aquino.[4] At that time, the government which ruled the Philippine Archipelago was officially known as the Second Philippine Republic in the aftermath of the destruction of its predecessor. Konoe made clear that the empire had, in the interest of stability and inter-Asian cooperation, little interest in displacing the traditional Philippine elite. However, some concessions to traditional rulers in the Muslim south, especially in Mindanao, were encouraged:
On January 3rd, after weeks of tense negotiations, the deal reached was announced to the people of the Philippines and the world: The Philippine islands was to be reorganized into a confederation of states, the positions of power and influence in the government to be divided among prominent leaders, drawn primarily from the pre-war elite not especially loyal to Washington and traditional rulers of the southern sultanates. Unsurprisingly, under heavy Allied pressure, few states outside of the Axis powers recognized the new Philippine Confederation, the United States issuing particularly harsh denunciations.
As mentioned previously, Mao's desperation to expel imperial forces from Communist territory would eventually prove the downfall of Chinese communism. But few in Washington, Moscow, the other Allied capitals and their well-wishers, had no idea how quickly said reckoning would come:
Already routed from the red provisional capital of Yulin, Japanese forces in Pingliang drove a joint NRA-Communist force from Wuzhong even further into the mountains of Ningxia. In concert with Tanaka's march on Yulin, the lifespan of the aspiring "people's republic" could legitimately be (apparently) measured in weeks as opposed to years.
- Letter from Maj. Kazuo Yamamoto to Lt.Cdr. Hirokazu Omori, dated January 20th, 1945
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[4] While having a somewhat sheltered upbringing, as a monarch having seen some of his country's worst times in centuries, Hirohito was no fool: Sending the disgraced Konoe to the Philippines allowed the ever-present tensions in the wartime government to become somewhat dispersed and empowering the overwhelmingly Muslim sultanates of the south (between whom and the Americans there was no love lost whatsoever) gave the new governments a real stake in keeping the Americans out of Asia.
With veteran, battle-hardened Imperial Japanese Army troops freed up from duties along the Chinese coasts, the forces in central and southern China, already having had quite a toll taken by the poor infrastructure and equally poor terrain, were able to rest, reinforce, and reequip for the final offensive against the ROC. Of course, this was not universally true:
General Inagaki's forces took Yan'an in late December of 1944 and the red Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, expressed a combination of anger and abject terror at the loss of the fortress city and the surrounding province, ordering his forces to retake it at all costs, an attempt which came to nothing. Interestingly enough, it was largely this frenzy to repel the Japanese which eventually doomed the Chinese Communist Party:
The extensive damage done to red forces by the attempts to retake Yan'an had left them exhausted and disorganized, prime for a counterattack not from Yan'an, but from Lt. General Tanaka's forces in the east. With the provisional capital of Yulin completely surrounded by imperial forces and under constant aerial bombardment, it was only a matter of time before the Japanese red sun burned the Chinese reds into complete oblivion.
Meanwhile, after weeks of hunkering in place around Port Moresby, the army brass in High Command was becoming increasingly tired of reports of ineffectual, semi-human wave attacks by the desperate Australian-American forces and the difficult "honor" of retaking Buna and breaking out of the vulnerable beachhead was given to Lieutenant General Suzuki:
While at first glance, the American positions, especially in contrast to their Japanese counterparts, seemed extremely strong and the first day of the assault seemed to make little progress. Given the already precarious situation, a number of Suzuki's staff officers actually advocated pulling back to the port to regroup and reorganize. However, by the afternoon of the 29th saw an unexpected turn of events:
While the retreating American forces would continue to contest the area until January 11th when imperial control was uncontested of the area, it seemed the jungle conditions agreed even less with the Allied preparations and fighting abilities in this instance.
Co-Prosperity Sphere territory as of January 1st, 1945. While not a good strategic prognosis by any means (particularly given the dire straits of Germany), any immediate peril to the Empire of Japan had largely, but by no means entirely, passed.
Also in less-than-disputed control of Truk Atoll, the United States, still hesitant to commit naval forces to a large fleet engagements, had turned to a strategy of picking off isolated, poorly-defended islands, with a special emphasis on those with functional port facilities. While China and New Guinea took import above all, it was clear that some effort would have to be made to reinforce the Marshal Islands:
Once again, the German situation, while not immediately critical, illustrated some critical weaknesses which would become apparent for all to see in mere months. While considered unfortunate for both practical and sentimental reasons, there was little, if anything which the Empire of the Sun could do to save the her ally apart from occupying some British and American forces:
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe had spent the final weeks of 1944 in Manilla on a series heavily classified diplomatic missions attended by high-ranking figures such as Jose P. Laurel and Benigno Aquino.[4] At that time, the government which ruled the Philippine Archipelago was officially known as the Second Philippine Republic in the aftermath of the destruction of its predecessor. Konoe made clear that the empire had, in the interest of stability and inter-Asian cooperation, little interest in displacing the traditional Philippine elite. However, some concessions to traditional rulers in the Muslim south, especially in Mindanao, were encouraged:
On January 3rd, after weeks of tense negotiations, the deal reached was announced to the people of the Philippines and the world: The Philippine islands was to be reorganized into a confederation of states, the positions of power and influence in the government to be divided among prominent leaders, drawn primarily from the pre-war elite not especially loyal to Washington and traditional rulers of the southern sultanates. Unsurprisingly, under heavy Allied pressure, few states outside of the Axis powers recognized the new Philippine Confederation, the United States issuing particularly harsh denunciations.
As mentioned previously, Mao's desperation to expel imperial forces from Communist territory would eventually prove the downfall of Chinese communism. But few in Washington, Moscow, the other Allied capitals and their well-wishers, had no idea how quickly said reckoning would come:
Already routed from the red provisional capital of Yulin, Japanese forces in Pingliang drove a joint NRA-Communist force from Wuzhong even further into the mountains of Ningxia. In concert with Tanaka's march on Yulin, the lifespan of the aspiring "people's republic" could legitimately be (apparently) measured in weeks as opposed to years.
- Letter from Maj. Kazuo Yamamoto to Lt.Cdr. Hirokazu Omori, dated January 20th, 1945
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[4] While having a somewhat sheltered upbringing, as a monarch having seen some of his country's worst times in centuries, Hirohito was no fool: Sending the disgraced Konoe to the Philippines allowed the ever-present tensions in the wartime government to become somewhat dispersed and empowering the overwhelmingly Muslim sultanates of the south (between whom and the Americans there was no love lost whatsoever) gave the new governments a real stake in keeping the Americans out of Asia.
Do you believe you'll have more trouble fighting the allies once Germany is taken out thus freeing them to redirect their full attention towards you?
六: The Gallows of Szechuan (South-Central China offensives)
Cut off from almost all outside aid and an ever-increasing share of its manpower and industrial capacity under imperial control, the Republic of China was, after little more than three decades, on its last legs. Cognizant of the increasing desperation of the situation and a material situation even inferior to that of the war's beginning, Chiang Kai-shek, in a bid to make trouble behind Japanese lines (at the very least hoping to prolong the inevitable), returned ever closer to his populist roots, imploring the Chinese people to "return to the spirit of the White Lotus and expel the barbarians from our beloved country." While the exhortations had some effect, the overall results were disappointing for both Washington and Chongqing:
While Japanese control over a few provinces (most alarmingly Huayin to the immediate north of Nanjing) was questionable by the middle of January 1945, Okamura was less-than-concerned: With more IJA forces en route by sea and dedicated anti-partisan forces from Manchukuo and Mengkukuo making better time than expected, the situation was little more than a distraction for Tokyo.
With Suzuki's forces in complete control of Buna, the Australian-American force on New Guinea was becoming increasingly desperate to drive imperial forces back:
If the region could be sufficiently reinforced, the vital port of Lae would become extremely vulnerable to a Japanese attack and a major Allied staging point could very well be taken away, with the remaining under-supplied Allied forces at imperial mercy.
With the American assault on Buna called off by midnight on the 23rd, High Command breathed a sigh of collective relief. However, other island expeditions, were not proceeding as smoothly as had been previously hoped:
Muto had divided his forces in half: One to defend Colombo and its port, the other to take the fight to what remained of the British garrison. Unfortunately, the half which was to pursue the British Army was woefully under-equipped for the vast expanses of jungle in the area. Combined with British experience in fighting on the island and general attrition, the Japanese assault on Jaffna, while starting out promising, ran gradually out of steam.
While not exactly under ideal circumstances (as later admitted by Okamura himself), imperial forces in south-central China were in a race to prevent the Chinese from reinforcing the province of Fuling, from which the eventual assault on the provisional capital would come:
By the 2nd of February, the Imperial Japanese Army was in complete control of Fuling, with the NRA attempts at resisting all shown to be in vain:
With the empire mere days away from Chongqing and the bulk of the ROC's remaining industrial capacity, panic began to take hold within the ranks of the Kuomintang; some plead with Chiang to finally accept a negotiated peace, some proposed fighting to the bitter end, others simply gathered their valuables (ill-gotten or not) and prepared to take up residence with friends and relatives in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.
Two illustrations of the German situation as of February 23rd, 1945. While Poland and Slovakia were lost to the Reich, their fortunes seemed to be holding somewhat steadier in France, the Americans, despite the massive troop numbers deployed and the entire Italian peninsula reduced to a giant British staging area, had been having a great deal of trouble breaking out of the initial beachhead.
Finally, in the early morning hours of the 28th, came the battle that had either been long-awaited or dreaded depending upon one's viewpoint:
General Otozō Yamada was given the task and eight divisions with four more en route: Take Chongqing and rip the heart out of the rump Republic of China. While Chiang and the rest of the NRA brass made a strong, defiant showing for the Chinese people and their American backers, privately, most of them knew that the war was all but lost.
Five days later, Okamura's gambit bore its fruit for the entire world to see, as the final defenders of Chongqing were either destroyed, captured, or deserted en masse:
With the imperial army literally days away, Chiang had acquired the dubious "honor" of being one of the few (if not the only) wartime leaders to exhort his people to "resist the Japanese barbarians to the last man, woman, and child" immediately before his flight to the neighboring city of Chengdu. Whether the American official comparison to Napoleon's exile to Elba or the aggravated whispers of nuòfū [5] among the citizens of Chongqing was closer to the truth, either way, Yamada's forces had complete control of the city and the surrounding area by March 7th:
To add insult to injury, Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima's forces seized control of the city of Kunming and environs the following day after sweeping aside some KMT militias.
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[5] Mandarin Chinese for "coward"
Cut off from almost all outside aid and an ever-increasing share of its manpower and industrial capacity under imperial control, the Republic of China was, after little more than three decades, on its last legs. Cognizant of the increasing desperation of the situation and a material situation even inferior to that of the war's beginning, Chiang Kai-shek, in a bid to make trouble behind Japanese lines (at the very least hoping to prolong the inevitable), returned ever closer to his populist roots, imploring the Chinese people to "return to the spirit of the White Lotus and expel the barbarians from our beloved country." While the exhortations had some effect, the overall results were disappointing for both Washington and Chongqing:
While Japanese control over a few provinces (most alarmingly Huayin to the immediate north of Nanjing) was questionable by the middle of January 1945, Okamura was less-than-concerned: With more IJA forces en route by sea and dedicated anti-partisan forces from Manchukuo and Mengkukuo making better time than expected, the situation was little more than a distraction for Tokyo.
With Suzuki's forces in complete control of Buna, the Australian-American force on New Guinea was becoming increasingly desperate to drive imperial forces back:
If the region could be sufficiently reinforced, the vital port of Lae would become extremely vulnerable to a Japanese attack and a major Allied staging point could very well be taken away, with the remaining under-supplied Allied forces at imperial mercy.
With the American assault on Buna called off by midnight on the 23rd, High Command breathed a sigh of collective relief. However, other island expeditions, were not proceeding as smoothly as had been previously hoped:
Muto had divided his forces in half: One to defend Colombo and its port, the other to take the fight to what remained of the British garrison. Unfortunately, the half which was to pursue the British Army was woefully under-equipped for the vast expanses of jungle in the area. Combined with British experience in fighting on the island and general attrition, the Japanese assault on Jaffna, while starting out promising, ran gradually out of steam.
While not exactly under ideal circumstances (as later admitted by Okamura himself), imperial forces in south-central China were in a race to prevent the Chinese from reinforcing the province of Fuling, from which the eventual assault on the provisional capital would come:
By the 2nd of February, the Imperial Japanese Army was in complete control of Fuling, with the NRA attempts at resisting all shown to be in vain:
With the empire mere days away from Chongqing and the bulk of the ROC's remaining industrial capacity, panic began to take hold within the ranks of the Kuomintang; some plead with Chiang to finally accept a negotiated peace, some proposed fighting to the bitter end, others simply gathered their valuables (ill-gotten or not) and prepared to take up residence with friends and relatives in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.
Two illustrations of the German situation as of February 23rd, 1945. While Poland and Slovakia were lost to the Reich, their fortunes seemed to be holding somewhat steadier in France, the Americans, despite the massive troop numbers deployed and the entire Italian peninsula reduced to a giant British staging area, had been having a great deal of trouble breaking out of the initial beachhead.
Finally, in the early morning hours of the 28th, came the battle that had either been long-awaited or dreaded depending upon one's viewpoint:
General Otozō Yamada was given the task and eight divisions with four more en route: Take Chongqing and rip the heart out of the rump Republic of China. While Chiang and the rest of the NRA brass made a strong, defiant showing for the Chinese people and their American backers, privately, most of them knew that the war was all but lost.
Five days later, Okamura's gambit bore its fruit for the entire world to see, as the final defenders of Chongqing were either destroyed, captured, or deserted en masse:
With the imperial army literally days away, Chiang had acquired the dubious "honor" of being one of the few (if not the only) wartime leaders to exhort his people to "resist the Japanese barbarians to the last man, woman, and child" immediately before his flight to the neighboring city of Chengdu. Whether the American official comparison to Napoleon's exile to Elba or the aggravated whispers of nuòfū [5] among the citizens of Chongqing was closer to the truth, either way, Yamada's forces had complete control of the city and the surrounding area by March 7th:
To add insult to injury, Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima's forces seized control of the city of Kunming and environs the following day after sweeping aside some KMT militias.
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[5] Mandarin Chinese for "coward"
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It seems that Chen Gongbo will became the next president of China 
or do you plan to occupy the entire country?
or do you plan to occupy the entire country?
He died in november of 1944, the leader of the national government is Chen Gongbo now