BRT AAR CG3 Marine Player, 20 AM scen date. Finished day 1 of BRT CG 3. It took two days of play, over 30 hrs play time, including setup. My honorable Japanese opponent setup a lethal forward beach defense. Wire was strewn over most of RED 1 and 2 beach hexes, stone pillboxes were plentiful. I'll leave it to him to go into more detail on the Jap setup/plans. But briefly here are some highlights of his defense: lots of 37* IG SWs (great against LVTs), wire and bunker complexes in depth along the birds beak, 3-5-7 Pillboxes in S34/S35, he brought up his tanks and reserves quickly towards the beach as able. The BIG Jap SNAFU was he forgot to setup his ocean TETs/wire in the Red 3 setup area. He didn't even notice it until our second day of play. 8-0
US Naval bombardment: Got good results; used 2 missions at S34, one drifted to devastate the pier (V33/X33 rubbled, W 33 rubbled which later caught fire from burning M4 in hex and now is an ocean hex) but that initial smoke helped a lot in landing on Red 2&3. The other 2 missions were around the birds beak, which broke up his trench-bunker lines somewhat with some Shellhole placements.
US air support: Got 3 FBs right away. Those FBs, when they were onboard, deterred a lot of Jap movement. Used them against the easiest targets for aerial sighting TCs, like vehicles and the 8" gut turrets (both taken out by FB MG/Bomb attacks). Frustration factor was high when one FB bomb attack got a CH on a stack of Jap infantry moving along Green Beach only to get a DUD !!!, right when everything seemed to be going wrong for the Marines. A second near fatal air attack was a misguided attack late in the game. On TN 7, just as the Marines were moving into a hinterland location (R32) they get strafed and bombed by Americans !!! Luckily damage was light. That naval aviator was subsequently court-martialed and shot upon return to his carrier.
Smoke and weather: Mild breeze from SW kicked up around Tn 2. This gave better cover from the drifting smoke from burning wrecks, BUT it slowed wading infantry considerably, I think it was more of a plus. On US Tn 7, there was hvy winds. All of a sudden the cover disappeared (YIKES!), and Marines were busy putting out the flames in the X33 rubble. The high tide of battle: Turns 5-6 were the high water mark in Jap success. It got really discouraging for the Marine commander. The highest losses were in those tns, with the only success coming from increasing Jap weapons malfunctions. My best hopes were for low or no Jap ROF, each additional shot by those 37 IGs and 50cal MGs and HMGs were horrifying.
Turn 5 Diversionary attack: With my TN 5 wave on Red 2, I used some uncommitted LVTs (about 6-7) to enter around Z21-Z27 and move straight toward shore. The goals were to perhaps get a few ashore on the last player TN with an advance from the ocean into beach hexes, thus getting some end of scenario locations to control, and to attract his advancing reserves from around the pier area (where the only breakthru looked possible). Results, it did divert some infantry and enemy fire from the crowded pier area, but only 1 wounded 9-1 made it to R25 (isolated). He survived the refit phase and will begin the next scenario still hung on the wire, slowly bleeding.
Turn 7 Breakthru: Some success finally came on US Tn7. The hinterland was reached and a break in the Jap line came at S32/S33. The pillbox hex at S34 was taken after CC on the last tn. Although R31 was cleared of all Japs, I was unable to advance anyone into on the last Tn, to control it. US MMGs, with -3 ldr mods begin to take there toll on tns 7 and 8. The last JAPs were beginning to finally Break (i.e. they were step reduced enough to break) near the pier. Wired / Beach hexes S29 to S32 were taken on Tn 7 by wading infantry and 1 M4.
Marine Losses: 422 CVP without LVT losses, 462 total. That makes it that much harder to win, but I believe still winnable with the CG victory cap at 805. At RED 1: 178 CVP lost; at RED 2&3: 244 CVP lost, not counting LVTs. What's Left for the Marines: On the Red2&3 beachhead the perimeter is S29-S32-R32-R33-T34-T35. Retained forces (not incl immobile tanks in the ocean): 1 M4, 3 M3, LVT2m, 81 MTR, 7+1/2 7-6-8, 7 6-6-8, 6 2-4-8, 3 2-2-8, 2 SFCP, 17 ldrs (incl wounded LT Hawkins) and mucho SWs. On RED 1 the perimeter is T9-V10-V11. Retained forces are (not incl an immobile M4 and an immobile LVT in the ocean): M4, 2 6-6-8, 2-2-8, 3 2-4-8, 5 ldrs, 10 sw. RED 1 is in CRITICALLY BAD SHAPE ! The Japs were massing and moving in to eliminate this beachhead as the scenario ended. The M4 in V10 was crucial in stopping a Jap counterattack on Tn7, as was Sgt Stryker, a former SL hero counter brought in for this crucial scenario. 8-)
Sgt Stryker died in hex S9, wounded and throwing DCs to his last breath, he single handedly stopped a Jap infantry attack during tn 6. Wire and TETs all around red 1 made it a tough going to get in, and once on the beach they were whittled away by enemy fire.
BRT Landing Schedule : Here it is by beach area:
Red 3 BLT 2/8 Wave 1= F2 w MG Pltn / Wave 2= F3 w MG Pltn, F10 / Wave 3=
rem. F5, F6 w F1attached
Red 2 BLT 2/2 Wave 1= F2 w MG Pltn, F11, SctSni Pltn on pier / Wave 2= F6 w
F1 attach, rem F5 exc MG Pltn / Wave 3= F4 w MG Pltn, F3
Red 1 BLT 3/2 Wave 1= F2 , F11 / Wave 2= F3 w MG Pltn, F6 / Wave 3= rem F5 w
F1 attached, F4
Marine Commander Hindsight is 20/20 : Things I may have done differently include: trying to wade in the HW coy with its dm 81Mtrs; bringing in the M3 tanks on this scenario date; losing too many assault engineers; opting to retain 7 immobile AFVs in ocean hexes during refit and now subject to CVP loss in the next scenario.
Other insights/problems: Difficult not to stack wading infantry as you try to move thru holes in the tet/ wire lines or use covering smoke, especially around the pier and birds beak. More SW than men to man them by scenario end. Pathfinders hold up well under fire and can draw MG fire away from other wading infantry , but tanks with out a pathfinder bog/immobilize quickly. Retain those concealment counters on the wading infantry as long as possible, firing wading infantry is a waste; then advance onto the beach with concealment (the seawall generally makes the beach non-open ground for concealment loss purposes). Just make it to the beach and control some locations for the next date, just SURVIVE !! Use AFV AP fire on pillboxes from the ocean. And don't worry about the Jap fire, their weapons will malfunction eventually just from the sheer number of shots taken, although cringing on every successful ROF die roll is understood ! OOh the pain! Play the Game, ASL !
This page last updated 2/6/00
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