34. The Invasion, part 9
(16th - 31st August 1942)
Shortly after Round Mountain has been secured 2 US militia divisions stationed in
Moapa found themselves under strong Japanese attack. Nearly 76,000 Japanese were attacking almost 24,000 US militia men. The result was catastrophic for the US as IJA held numerical, equipment, tactics and experience advantage. In the battle which lasted for 7 hours
56 Japanese soldiers died while US lost
1499 men.
Yet another opportunity for encirclement has been spotted. One US infantry and one Canadian infantry divisions have exposed themselves into vulnerable position and the US division even dared to attack IJA division guarding Oakland while Canadians realized danger and started retreat to safety. Despite immense effort of Japanese bombers which executed interdiction with almost broken planes Canadian division managed to escape.
Shortly after escape of the Canadian infantry division all Japanese bombers apart from one light bomber air fleet which just arrived to San Francisco were ordered to stop bombardment and undertake repairs as biggest opportunity has been spotted and for this all planes must be in better shape.
In the vicinity of
Flanigan an interesting situation occurred. Japanese cavalry was attacked in Flanigan just shortly before their arrival to
Reno where probably the most famous IJA division,
10 'Kurogane' Hoheishidan, were defending itself against US attack. However the attack on Flanigan, doomed to fail, have slowed reinforcements for division fighting in Reno. Therefore an attack on
Ely, source of the pinning attack, was ordered. In the moment when US troops, most of with half or less organization, found themselves under attack they've immediately stopped attack on Flanigan and reinforcements for 10 'Kurogane' Hoheishidan were free to arrive to Reno.
Just as Round Mountain was secured 3 Imperial Japanese Army divisions were allowed to march to
Caliente as it was defended by one completely disorganized motorized division. Few skirmishes for Caliente were fought in the following days with passing US divisions, but superiority of Japanese army was unexceptionable.
US attack on
Reno was stopped and after some time Imperial Japanese Army was the only one who was attacking. US
83rd 'Thunderbolts' Division was surrounded by IJA forces and yet another US division was taken prisoners of war, weakening US forces (the division consisted of 3 infantry brigades and 2 horse towed support brigades).
In the East coast of the US more and more US divisions are arriving and Japanese divisions are retreating without a fight into a more favourable positions behind river.
Authors note: I've preferred to take also Norfolk as there was some (4 or 5) IC in addition to port and airfield. Denying 4 base IC to US for 2 months and then peaceful retreat into more favourable position for defense seemed like offer one couldn't refuse.
Imperial Japanese Army is pushing harder and harder. This time IJA is attacking
Grand Canyon. Even with terrain and rivers playing into US cards their resistance is quickly crushed and Japanese divisions are about to pass desert area of the West Coast.
While army is busy fighting there are also aerial combats for air superiority. Whoever wins the skies can bomb the other side into oblivion. US are not willing to gave up the air superiority without a fight but even their fighters which are designed for purposes of aerial combat can't match Japanese carrier air groups in equal numbers.
More with intention to show the US they have to fear Japanese army strategic bombardment of
New York was executed. Almost no real damage was done but US were shown they won't have rest until they surrender.
IJN carrier task force and SNLF have arrived to Brest from Washington D.C. and they're prepared to open gates of British isles to out German and Italian allies.
With 10 divisions in vicinity of Washington D.C. a defense in depth has been established. These 10 divisions are ready to draw attention of US army so the main force on the West coast has freedom to operate and execute so far biggest offensive.
Pleasant news came on 29th August where improvements in ground attack tactics were achieved. This will come handy during and upcoming offensive.
So far the biggest operation during the invasion to USA have started with an attack on
Prairie City (highlighted). One US militia division fought 2 cavalry and one infantry division. In the battle which lasted for 5 hours 29 Japanese and 634 US soldiers died.
Authors note: Those cavalry divisions with motorized support are real militia killers thanks to 0.5 armor representing armored cars. Militias without support brigades are unable to pierce them thus are providing armored advantage to the cavalry.
Main attacks of the operation which main targets are to link beachheads and to trap as many divisions as possible at the West coast have started. Main target of 10 mobile divisions is to link beachheads which are separated by 4 provinces so every province will be held by at least 2 mobile divisions, this will be hopefully enough to stop US counterattack. At the flanks infantry is already awaiting orders to attack the flanks and provide relief to mobile divisions so they aren't immediately attacked by all trapped divisions.
Attacks on
Winnemucca and
Redmond are the most important attacks as they will open the path to linking both beachheads and trapping bulk of US army at the West coast. Fortunately none of those provinces were heavily fortified nor guarded and the battles were quick victories. Shorter battle for Redmond lasted 11 hours during which
105 Japanese and
1212 Canadians died. During longer battle for Winnemucca, which lasted for 30 hours
239 Japanese soldiers and
2130 US troops died. In both the casualty ratio was 10 times higher for the allies.
Naval base in Los Angeles was improved and is now able to ship more supplies and in the following days additional ports will be completed in many provinces between San Francisco and Los Angeles in order to increase amount available supplies. Also Night Mission Training has been researched which will help Japanese aircraft.
Authors note: I've discovered that Night Mission Training is available to be researched too late, If I have noticed sooner and started research 1st January 1942 as its 1942 tech US casualties from bombardment could be higher. Also I am expecting the supply system to go completely crazy when I link the beachheads.
Casualties:
| JAP (this update) | JAP (total) | USA (this update) | USA (total) | Allies (this update) | Allies (total) |
| Bombing | 449 | 7142 | 3457 | 65842 | 3457 | 69603 |
| Combat | 7740 | 84124 | 19437 | 170413 | 22806 | 203341 |
| Total | 8189 | 91266 | 22894 | 236255 | 26263 | 272944 |
Even with decreased bombing effort from Japanese side due to repairs the causality ratio has risen to 2.99 from 2.97.
Detailed information about every event can be found in this Google docs spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q_g63z2AukTXzsBXtEoxhE7lhIOtfjT7zyzA8WNl3dA/edit?usp=sharing
Surrender progress of the USA is still at 20% and afaik HPP lacks any decisions/events regarding puppet state in the Western Coast.
