Utsunimiya's War
(HoI3 TFH - Interactive Japan AAR)
Chapter Fifty-Seven: Thirteenth Week - 23.9.1937 To 29.9.1937
The Land War
The Imperial Japanese Army was engaged in five battles by the start of the thirteenth week. The Battle of Jinan, the Battle of Suide, the Battle of Yulin, the Battle of Guangrao, and the Battle of Pingyin.
At this point it was easy to see the gaps in both the Japanese and the Chinese lines. Each side could take advantage of those holes IF they have the units available to do so. And with the fall of Qingdao the Nationalist Chinese now had a few units in their reserve.
It was the Communist Chinese who started a NEW battle by hitting the Province of Shilou with a Mountain Division attacking a Japanese Mountain Division. The Japanese troops had the protection of a river AND outnumbered the enemy. But were badly organized after months of fighting.
By the time the sun started to glance over the mountain peaks the Japanese mountaineers had won. They had lost 3 men while the Communists had lost 38.
A few hours later the Army also announced a victory at Pingyin. The Japanese had lost 106 soldiers while the Nationalists had lost 242 soldiers.
Major General Imamura, the Leader in charge of the Assault on the Province of Jinan, announced that he would be taking the region, with its airbases, any day now. General Shō-ichi Utsunimiya pondered if such statements should be released to the press. What if the man FAILED again in taking Jinan?
During the morning hours of the 25th the Japanese Army announced victory in Guangrao. The Army lost 181 men while Nationalists lost 162 men. The difference wasn't very much but taking the Province would threaten the Nationalist units still returning from the attack on Qingdao.
While this was going on the Imperial Army was trying to find a way to plug the hole in the middle of the front. It didn't really have much in the way of reserves and it was like trying to stop a flood with a napkin.
Around the time breakfast was being served to Utsunimiya and his staff the Army reported the victory at Jinan. The Japanese Army had lost 114 soldiers while the Nationalists had only lost 100 soldiers. But in the end what mattered was if the Army could TAKE the Province.
Then, by the end of the day, around midnight, bad news was announced by the Imperial Army. The Battle of Suide was a defeat. The Army had lost 1,654 soldiers while the Communists had only lost 1,278 soldiers.
On top of that the units fighting the Communists were starting to show the strain. Some of the units, in fact, seemed to be withdrawing.
Funny enough it was at this moment that the Imperial Army's Air Force decided to START bombing Suide (See Air War).
As the sun started to peak over the horizon on the 26th the Army reported, with great fanfare, the Province of Jinan officially being occupied.
Many within the Imperial Army let out a silent sigh of relief. This Province was hugely valuable to the enemy and Intelligence calculated that the Republic could only lose another one or two provinces before 'tossing in the towel'. It also forced the Republic to station their aircraft farther to the west.
Shortly after lunch on the 28th the staff brought the General some bad news. The Battle of Yulin was a defeat. The Army had lost 874 men while the Communists had only lost 788 men.
The fighting in the mountains and hills of the People's Republic of China was proving to be a great advantage to the defending enemy. Who would have guessed?
At this point it was rumored that the HQ staff of 'China' Operations were asking for 27 Tank Brigades and 21 Infantry Brigades. Utsunimiya wanted to laugh. The Japanese tanks were still on the drawing board and there were no infantry divisions to hand over for the fighting in southern China but for those facing the Russians in the snowy north.
And NOBODY would agree to that. Field Marshal Minami would have to work with what he had.
By the end of the 29th of September the front had gone silent. As if all three armies were too exhausted to continue fighting. The Imperial Army claimed four victories, and celebrated the capture of Jinan, and tried to downplay the massive defeats. The losses of the Army during the week, to the Land Combat, did not help much. 2,932 Japanese soldiers had been killed and more than 80 percent of those dead soldiers were just from the two defeats.
The Nationalist Chinese had lost only 504 to Land Combat while the Communist Chinese had only lost 2,104 to the Land Combat. Many critics within the press suggested this was the “turning point” of the war and that the Imperial Japanese Army had “gone too far” and was “doomed to failure”.
The Army's Air Groups started the thirteenth week with one of them continuing to bomb the Province of Jinan. Major General Nakajima, the officer in charge of the attack, had become very experienced at attacking armoured vehicles and was becoming a superior air tactician. There was a total of eight bombing runs and 848 Nationalist soldiers were killed. Then the Air Group went on to bomb Suide.
The other Army Air Group was launching an attack on the Province of Guangrao. Lt. General Obata, in charge of this second Group, was also very good at busting up ground vehicles but not much else. There was eight attacks and the Nationalists lost more than 579 soldiers. At least one report was scrambled or lost. Then the second Air Group moved onto Yulin.
The problem with the first Air Group starting to bomb the Province of Suide on the early morning hours of the 26th was the fact that the battle was already over. And the Imperial Army had lost. If the bombers had been available earlier they might have tilted the battle towards victory. Now, the bombing attacks felt more like revenge against the Communists than a logical choice. There were only three attacks which killed 230 Communist soldiers.
By noon of the 26th the second Air Group had moved into the region to bomb the Province of Yulin. At lease THIS battle against the Communists was still in progress and maybe the aircraft could help the Army grab a victory? There were five bombing runs which killed 526 Communist soldiers.
Due to the distance between the Communist targets and the available airbases the Japanese Bombers were barely getting back with any fuel left! And with the Imperial Japanese Army not doing so well on the front their Air Force was being ignored. In fact some critics even blamed them for the failure of the Army to crush the Communist Chinese! Their success early on in the conflict was backfiring on them now that they didn't seem as effective as before.
The Navy's week started out with good news. On the 23rd of September the Imperial Japanese Navy announced that the 48. Hohei Shidan Division had completed their withdraw. The unit was now safe and sound on the transport ships of the 2nd Task Group. And the commander of the division, Sakabara, was seen as a Hero for keeping his men under control and disciplined during the naval operation.
The 2nd Task Group was ordered to rebase at Gaoxiong where it could return the unit to it's home port.
The 3rd Task Group was ordered to go to Hangzhou Bay and the 1st Task Group was ordered to the North Taiwan Strait. There they could support the footholds of Operation 'Pitch-Fork'.
The Naval Bombers were continuing to bomb the Province of Jiande to try to damage and slow down the enemy units moving south. On the 24th the Chinese Fighter Wing pounced on the Naval Bombers trying to chase them away. They failed of course. Again, on the 26th, the Chinese Fighter Wing returned to jump the bombers. And failed. There were fifteen bombing runs during this time period before the unit was recalled back to Shanghai for new orders (See Operation : Burning Nanjing). It was reported the bombers killed 707 Nationalists during the week.
By the morning of the 23rd Chinese militia were spotted outside the Port of Fuzhou.
At this point it was decided to call the 9th CAG back to China. The IGH had decided that they needed all combat ready air units in the battle for survival. The 9th CAG was sent back to the airbases in Taiwan. Major General Kawabe M. was looking forward to more combat.
For some reason that name bothered Utsunimiya. And after going through some of his files he found out why. The man had TWO Commands! Not only did the man have two commands but he had the balls to use the same name for both Commanders. Even the photos in the files matched!
"The bastard is trying to get double pay!" exclaimed the General as he glanced back and forth between the two open files. "This may explain the performance of the Cavalry unit. He is with the air units and is likely controlling the cavalry via letters."
"Maybe they are twins," stated one of the staff members who had helped with the search,
Utsunimiya fought the impress to punch the man and said, "We'll have to deal with this AFTER the conflict. Otherwise we screw up the Chain-Of-Command and open both branches of the military to a scandal."
The 9th CAG was ordered to start bombing the militia outside of Fuzhou in the Province of Minhou. On their third bombing run they were joined by the aircraft from the 1st Task Group. In the middle of the 27th the pilots reported NO militia available to bomb. The enemy had fled the Province after eighteen bombing runs and they had lost 489 of their Nationalist comrades. The 9th and the other CAGs were recalled late on the 27th. There was nobody left in the Province of Minhou to attack.
By noon on the 23rd the 3rd Task Group was stationed off the coast of Ningbo. Ready, just in case, to give air support or help the Japanese division withdraw from the port.
By late afternoon the 1st Task Group was stationed off the coast of Fuzhou. Yamamoto ordered his CAGs to support the 9th CAG in attacking the Nationalist militia.
By the morning of the 24th the 2nd Task Group had dropped the 14. division at Taiwan and was ordered to South Taiwan Strait. There it could give the troops in the Port of Xiamen air support if needed.
On the 25th, shortly before midnight, it was noticed that the Navy's Tactical Bombers were having problems hitting the Province of Neze. The distance to the target used up much of their fuel and it seemed they were having issues regularly hitting the enemy. It was decided that the bombers should be rebased in Dalian. Which was closer to Neze and would allow them to hit....just about anything they wanted. This would prove to be a horrible mistake.
Once they were ready, refueled and rearmed, they were told to start bombing runs on the Province of Tai'an.
But it was noticed that by the 26th the Tactical Bombers were not getting any fuel. The Port was getting fuel delivered to it daily but none of it was getting to the airbases. It was ALMOST as if all of the fuel was being snatched up by the Army before it could get to the Navy's aircraft. They were receiving zero fuel from the cargo ships. On the 27th the 1. Hikoutai was ordered to Shanghai with the last of their fuel.
Once back in Shanghai the bombers found plenty of fuel for their tanks and more than enough supplies to rearm their aircraft and fill their bellies. They were asked to join in Operation 'Burning Nanjing' on the 28th.
Back up north, next to the Port of Ningbo a Nationalist militia unit had stationed itself and started to dig in. The CAGs from the 3rd Task Group were ordered in to blast them to pieces. Soon the Province of Shenxian was being bombed. Nine bombing runs were carried out and 254 Nationalists were killed.
On the 27th it was noticed that Nationalist militia had entered the Province of Minhou again. And once again the 1st Task Group sent in its CAGs to hit the enemy before they could become too comfortable. The Nationalists were attacked eight times and 223 of them were killed.
In the early morning of the 28th enemy units were seen in the Province of Zhangping right next to the Port of Fuzhou. They attacked the militia eight times and killed 242 Nationalists.
On the 28th the 9th CAG, having spent the time recovering in Taiwan, was ordered to attack Nationalist militia that had appeared in Zhangzhou near Fuzhou. They launched five bombing runs and killed 97 Nationalists.
Operation : Burning Nanjing
Operation 'Burning Nanjing' was a simple idea the Navy came up with. It they couldn't kill enough soldiers to bring the war to a stop they would bomb the enemy's Capital back to the Stone Age. The Navy's Naval Bombers, the G3Ms, would start strategic bombing on Nanjing starting on the 26th of September. The factories would not be the only target. The Capital also had stockpiles of metal and coal that could be blasted to nothingness. The Tactical Bombers joined in on the 28th and started carrying out their own bombing runs. The Naval Bombers were told to take a break on the morning of the 28th and would spend the rest of the time catching up on their sleep while the bombers were given a once over.
Of course the Navy's Tactical Bombers continued to hit the Capital.
By the end of the thirteenth week the Capital's factories were destroyed, the metal stockpile was empty, and the coal stockpiles had less than one percent left of what they had started out with before the bombing runs had started. Between the two Navy's Air Bombing Groups they had bombed the Capital fifteen times.
In the end the Imperial Japanese Navy announced how they had saved the Heroes of Qingdao, reported beating back the Chinese Air Force TWICE, and pointed out to the press just how many thousands of Nationalist soldiers had been killed by their air forces. Few critics could debate these facts and much of the public felt a TAD warmer towards the Navy.
Most events outside of China had to deal with Intelligence. For example, it was known to much of the government and military that the populace of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the USSR all thought that Japan was a threat to their nation. Only the people of Germany felt that the People's Republic of China was a threat to their nation.
The Head of Intelligence announced, by the end of the thirteenth week of the conflict with China, that the Canadians had captured one agent, the Communist Chinese had captured three agents, and the Americans had captured one agent.
This was all well known facts.
A secret paper, from the Head of Intelligence, was passed among the government Heads and Chiefs. It was also sent to many of the higher ranking Generals and Marshals of the military. It showed that the Japanese populace was starting to learn towards the Comintern even while publicly seeing the Communists in China as a threat to Japan. This was NOT well known to the public and many within both the government and military were upset about this information.
Others were not so surprised. It wasn't like Germany was a attractive ally and the "Allies" owned much of the territory Japan WANTED. Maybe the USSR would be the best ally?
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Author's Notes:
OOC: Behind The Scenes -
