Downfall 1943

[joegrundman]

fall 1943

Aftermath of Battle of Marshalls



The US decided to withdraw the battered Task Force back to Pearl, while the second Task Force, TF3, remained searching for the Japanese fleet.

Sailing hard in the direction from which the Japanese strike originated and scouting thoroughly, no contacts were made.

In disbelief, the US admiral continued searching fruitlessly for a further three days. When a radio intercept identified the carrier Kaga's callsign already back in Truk harbor, the Admiral in charge of Task Force 3 gave the go ahead for the planned invasions.

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

Mush Morton says "Don't give up until they are on the bottom"



While the news from the surface may have been grim for the allies, the news from under the surface has not been.

The Americans are getting their groove and are now sinking Japanese merchantmen with a vengeance.

6 tps sunk and 1 damaged for no losses to the americans. These losses exceed Japan's abilty to replace them

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

Allies fight their way to the New Guinea North Coast



Having crossed over the Owen Stanley mountains, American and Australian troops reach the beach just north west of Lae.

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

US Navy captures Majuro and Wotje in the Marshalls



After the Battle of the Marshalls, which is already being optimistically touted as "a tactical defeat but a strategic victory", the invasion fleet moved in to take control of Majuro and Wotje. Majuro was first, and the well dug-in defenders fought hard for the two days it took to pacify the atoll, with significant losses.

Lessons were learned and applied to the following attack on Wotje which was taken with far fewer casualties.

Americans take CA2 as losses, both islands captured

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

Invasion of Singapore



Anglo-American forces with Royal Navy support make landings at various points around Singapore and across the Straits at Johore. Within a few days they had surrounded the beleaguered Japanese garrison, which as normal for the Japanese, fought to the death in a terribly violent battle.

4 factors lost to the allies. Singapore is now in allied hands again, and this is serious threat to the viability of Japan's oil fields in Borneo.

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

Air raids over Burma



Allied air forces attacked Japanese air force positions in Mandalay and Rangoon in Burma. Japanese lost 4 AAF, Allies lost 3 (2 US, 1 GB)

[joegrundman]

Fall 1939

Soviet forces advance into Manchuria


Red Army units advanced into Manchuria to attrition Japanese positions

2 counters lost to Japan

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

Surrender of Italy



Once the reality of the Allied Invasion of Italy kicked in, Italian morale and order disintegrated, with military units rushing to surrender to the nearest allied unit, and in many cases simply going home. The Italian army no longer exists.

At the same time the government collapsed and the Italian dictator fled with his family. His whereabouts are currently unknown. At present a German military commission has established control of Rome and several other northern cities.

Quite a lot of Italian soldiers in the North offered their services to the Germans, and the remaining ships of the Reggia Marina sailed through the Adriatic to Trieste, where it put itself under German command.

Italy is now out of the war.

[joegrundman]

Fall 1943

Stalin Dead! Russia Announces Ceasefire!
Lavrenty Beria new General Secretary



No official reason has been given for Stalin's death, but a week of public mourning has been announced.



Fellow Georgian, Lavrenty Beria, head of the NKVD, has assumed control and announced a ceasefire with Germany and the signing in the near future of a formal peace treaty.

The terms of the ceasefire include some small rationalisation of the areas of control, and war reparations to be paid to Germany to the tune of 20brps/turn.

A separate ceasefire has been announced with Japan, which Japan has also confirmed.

US Political Crisis provoked by Russian Surrender



House Republicans led an effort to oust the Democrat President, citing the Russian surrender as evidence of his incompetence to run the war. However the Democrat campaign citing the important successes of the United States and the British Commonwealth, including the surrender of Italy and the invasion of France easily won and reaffirmed confidence in FDR's leadership.

[joegrundman]

Winter 1943

Americans prevent Japanese supply to Aleutians




American units in Dutch Harbor prevent Japanese ships from supplying the small garrisons in the Aleutian islands

[joegrundman]

Winter 1943

US subs and planes maintain isolation of Japanese forces in New Guinea



US subs with air cover sink the merchant ships attempting to supply New Guinea

The Japanese forces there are suffering from severe depletion of strength

[joegrundman]

Winter 1943

Battle of Midway



American codebreakers worked out that Japan, wanting to take advantage of American weakness after the Battle of the Marshalls, planned to recapture Midway and cut the supply line to the American forces in the Marshalls.

The Americans raced their remaining operational fast carrier force to the region and waited for the Japanese fleet to appear ... on schedule.

An American submarine radioed in the location of the invasion fleet, and the Americans finding themselves luckily bypassing the Japanese support fleet, launched an attack.

The americans launched in the dark before dawn and found the Japanese force, with their approach masked by the rising sun.

Coming in low the Japanse radar failed to pick them up until too late. The American hellcats crushed the small Japanese CAP with almost no losses to themselves.

The Japanse air defense was also unready, and many stations were not even manned by the time the American torpedo bombers began their attack run.

The carrier Zuiho was hit by two torpedoes from American torpedo bombers and burst into flames. With raging fires and secondary explosions the order to abandon ship was made and people started jumping overboard to escape the inferno. The ship eventually sank an hour later.



Other American planes attacked the BC3 Hiei, getting a bomb hit on a forward turret. The battlecruiser is now trailing smoke, but still operational.

The other American planes attacked the cruisers, destroyers and transports escorting the invasion force. 2 heavy cruisers, several destroyers and merchant ships were sunk, causing about a quarter of the Japanese infantry contingent to be forced into lifeboats.



In this first round of the Battle of Midway, Japan loses CVL2 Zuiho, CA2, DD2, 1-2 infantry, 2NAS, 1 hit on BC3 Hiei. US suffers no losses.

[joegrundman]

Winter 1943

Battle of Midway round 2



It was later found out what happened. The Japanese carrier strike force was positioned 60 nm north east of the invasion force, intending to hit any american forces in the flank and cut off the line of retreat.

But with the American approaching from the South, they hit the invasion fleet while the Japanese carrier force was out of position.

Worse than that, the loss of the light carrier Zuiho denied the Japanese the scouting planes which could have found the Americans and enabled a long range strike from the Japanese carrier force.

The Japanese admiral in charge of the invasion fleet broke radio silence to report the probable direction of the americans, but in fact the airstrike from the south had changed direction to approach from the morning sun and so the direction reported was inaccurate, and operating at extreme range the planes of the carrier strike force could not spend time searching thoroughly.

So the Americans remained undetected as the strike force returned, hurriedly rearmed, refueled and relaunched for a second strike.

With no CAP able to prevent the strike, it was only the guns of the air defense able to prevent the American planes. Although ready this time, the anti-aircraft gunnery of the Japanese proved woefully inadequate and almost all the American strike planes got to make an attack on target.



Hit by bombs and torpedoes, the already lightly damaged battleship lost all power, and the order to abandon ship was given after two hours of fire fighting.

The rest of the American squadrons attacked the cruisers, destroyers and merchantmen escorting the troops and invasion equipment. Two more cruisers were lost, as well as destroyers and another heavily laden troop transport was sunk.

The Americans returned to their carriers with only light losses to themselves having severely damaged the Japanese Task Force

BC3 Hiei sunk, CA2, DD1 damaged. 1-2 inf lost. No losses to the Americans

[joegrundman]

Winter 1943

Battle of Midway Rd3



After landing the American planes were again hastily rearmed, refueled and relaunched. In the early afternoon, the the Japanese invasion fleet was milling around trying to collect the survivors of the previous attacks when the Americans came in for their third strike, sinking two more cruisers, some more destroyers and more transports, again for no losses.

The invasion fleet is now shattered.

However, at about the time the americans launched their third attack, a float plane from the Japanese carrier strike force made visual contact with the American Task Force. The Japanese launched a carrier strike with the elite naval aviators, veterans from Pearl Harbor and many of the other encounters of this war, to attack the Americans at extreme range.

The Japanese attack encountered the American CAP as the American strike planes were landing after their third successful attack on the invasion fleet. Already exhausted from the mornings activity the Americans struggled to clear the decks of strike planes fast enough to get more fighters airborne before the Japanese closed to attack. The air combat between Japanese and American planes saw substantial losses on both sides, and the withering anti-aircraft gunnery on modern American warships shot nearly fifty irreplaceable Japanese planes, but nonetheless, enough Japanese planes were able to attack.

The Japanese focused their attack on the CV3 USS Yorktown, which was hit several times with bombs.

The carrier was abandoned after 45 minutes, and sank the next day, after a mysterious explosion occurred in the middle of an attempt to set up a tow system to salvage the wrecked carrier.



3 Japanese eNAS shot down. US CV3 Yorktown sunk, 2US NAS lost, 1 NAS lands at Midway

total losses to Japan, 3enas, 2 nas, ca6, dd5, cvl2, bc3

Japanese submarines in the area fired torpedoes at the American Task Force, but they missed

[joegrundman]

Winter 1943

Aftermath of Battle of Midway



With the effective destruction of the invasion fleet, Japan called off the attempt and went home again. The sinking of the Yorktown put a tarnish on the American victory, but clearly this was a decisive event that means the Imperial Japanese Navy is now on the defensive (after resolving Singapore, that is).

The carrier striking power of Japan remains a formidable threat and the US will still have to take into consideration with every move.

The American fleet stayed around to pick up many of the abandoned Japanese troops left floating in the water. At least those that agreed to be rescued.