Gents:
I've uploaded my newest Rising Sun scenario -
"The Battle of Manila" into the H2H Testing area!
Looking for players to help test my design!
You may download the game files and register for a test game
HERE.
The Battle of Manila
March 2, 1945
[Manila, Luzon: [H2H] [HISB] [GD]: On January 9, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur fulfilled a promise "I will return" as he strode ashore through shin-deep waters to the island of Luzon, accompanied by the Sixth U.S. Army under Lt. Gen. Walter Kruegar. These forces rapidly moved south. Three weeks later, elements of the Eighth U.S. Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger, landed unopposed at Nasugbu in southern Luzon, and began moving north toward Manila. By February 4, the rapid drive to Manila by U.S. forces began. Using intelligence provided by Filipino guerillas, American forces were able to find intact bridges and shallow rivers to speed their converging advances. Initial Japanese defense plans had called for an evacuation of Manila. Gen. Yamashita, field commander of the Japanese forces on Luzon, considered Manila too flat and, with its sections of thatched-roof bamboo houses, too flammable to be defended; and he knew he could not feed its 700,000 citizens during an attack. He planned to evacuate all his troops, except a small contingent that would protect supply routes and blow up bridges as the Americans approached. But the Japanese Naval troops there had other ideas. As the infantrymen of the 37th Division approached and entered the capital on February 4, they found themselves confronted by a defending force of 20,000 men, consisting of 16,000 Naval troops under the command of Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, and 4,000 soldiers who had been trapped by the American advance. When Gen. Yamashita had ordered his soldiers to evacuate Manila and head east, Iwabuchi decided it was his duty to stay there and keep the city's harbor installations out of the hands of the Americans for as long as possible. He deployed his troops for a last-ditch defense. Iwabuchi's troops had fortified Manila with barbed-wire entanglements and barricades of overturned trucks and trolleys. Houses were converted into machine-gun nests, with their entrances sandbagged, stairways barricaded and walls ripped open for firing slits. Big guns had been removed from Japanese ships in the harbor and were dug in on strategic street corners. MacArthur had been planning a victory parade as his troops entered the capital city, instead, the battle of Manila lasted for one month and was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater. This scenario depicts the end battle of the Manila "squeeze play" as elements of the U.S. 37th Division, 1st Calvary Squadron, and attached armor and artillery units, battle the Japanese Manila Naval Defense Force. [ALL] [N EA] [N VV] [Special - no Banzai]
Regards, Mike / "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - George S. Patton /