Japan 45

[Elxaime]

Regarding Japanese operational and tactical approaches to Olympic, I thought this was interesting:

https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/MacA...1/ch13.htm

"The Japanese tactical plan called for a rigid defense of the beaches which would be reinforced as rapidly as units could be sent from other parts of Kyushu and the western regions of Honshu. The ridges immediately to the rear of the anticipated landing areas were fortified by a network of large caves and tunnels covered by a series of strong artillery and mortar emplacements and manned by large forces of coastal-combat ground troops. These troops would meet the first assault waves and, together with the line-combat divisions, would endeavor to hold all positions until the arrival of the mobile reinforcements at the beach battleground. If the primary target of the Allies could be ascertained before the landings, then the main Japanese forces would rush to that point. If the Allied target should be unclear or if all points should be invaded simultaneously, then the main enemy strength would be committed to Ariake Bay, while delaying actions were fought on other fronts. In all cases, the decisive engagement would be waged in the beach areas with all available forces moving toward the southern Kyushu coasts. The whole object of the Japanese was to repel the invaders before they could put their heavy armor and artillery ashore."

So basically, the Japanese ground combat plan was to engage in close combat on the beach, something that might be called a "grab them by the belt" approach which would keep the US assault forces in the beach "kill zone" and an apparent willingness, on the Japanese part, to accept catastrophic losses doing so. This stands in contrast to the Okinawa "defend back from the beach in rough terrain to extract losses" approach, although likely in practice they would not be considered mutually exclusive necessarily. Since the Japanese lacked a real armored force, waves of fanatical infantry would substitute - sort of like Rommel's plan for Normandy but using foot troops instead.

In the current version of the game, this is the deadly strategy that people have discussed on the Eastern Beaches. Significant high morale Japanese infantry groups are within march of the initial US landing zones. They will get pummeled to some extent by air and naval, but they can keep the US forces on the beaches in many sectors and even launch Banzai attacks on the beach troops. In game, the Allied naval support is not all that overwhelming and the Allied air is decent but also not decisive. Once you have stacks of Japanese A and B morale infantry hosing packed beaches - 200% terrain plus over-stacking - the US forces take unbelievable losses. According to post-war surveys of the defeated Japanese officer corps, they had a reasonable expectation they could throw the US back into the sea assuming they guessed right on where the landings would be. They do not appear to have contemplated an Okinawa type "fall back into the hills" approach as being their first choice.

In game, the Japanese player has some fascinating choices therefore. He can roll the dice - at least on the Eastern Beaches and, perhaps, the eastern side of the Ariake Bay landing - and see if he can throw the US into the sea. Or he can try to conserve his forces and defend further inland...an approach that can lead to an early stalemate.

What would be fun would be to create a scenario that really throws uncertainty into where the initial landings will be an in what force, as well as multiple Japanese defense plans. This is sort of what was done with some of the campaign variants in France 1940.