You are right. You may not remember it, but it was explicitly stated in the thread preceding this AAR:

This is correct, I am playing the ahistorical Japanese scenario. They have gobs of BBs, CVs, and CVLs they didn't have historically. They are also in greater numbers in land forces as well. I am battering them, but they keep coming. I fear Truk cannot be neutralized until the Marianas are taken. Thing is, Guam is within striking distance of Truk. My plan is to attack the northern islands (Pagan, Saipan) first and deploy LBA to support the Tinian and Guam invasions. All my CVs are in PH about to get their 10/43 upgrades so the invasion is tentatively scheduled for Nov 1 departure. I have 7 divisions assigned to the Marianas campaign and I still feel like I need more. Pagan is looking lightly defended from the intel I'm getting, but it will take time to make it a viable base. The Marianas are going to be bloody...

In good news, the New Guinea entry campaign is successful, with the IJA routed in and around Lae. Shortlands campaign is looking up and I may have eradicated the Japanese up to Rabaul in another month.

I had forgotten that you gave the Japanese forces those advantages.


Wheels

Ok, boys 1943 is wrapped up and in the books. The Marianas campaign was hellacious and more with a surprise twist. Update coming this weekend!

God, how I hate these teaser announcements.

January 1, 1944: Haymaker!



August - December 1943

I believe this is the time period historians will look back upon as the beginning of the end for the Japanese Empire. This five month period marked the ascendancy of Allied air power and vital blows that have breached the Japanese inner perimeter. We shall start with the Allied push in the South Pacific.

Operation Cleanup Aisle 4

Lae and surrounding areas captured AUG-SEP1943
The capture of these bases has driven the Japanese to the remote north coast of New Guinea. Offensive operations are on hold here due to the law of diminishing returns. Pushing further has been concluded to be a waste of resources. With Rabaul isolated, the IJN/A threat to the South Pacific is negated.

Tulagi Captured 16SEP1943
Tulagi, the last bastion of Japanese strength near Guadalcanal was overrun, eliminating their last chance at threatening the US-AUS supply line.

Shortlands Captured 15OCT1943
The fall of Shortlands (and previously Torokina) removed the last defenses from Rabaul proper. Allied 4E bombers now routinely sweep the ports of Kavieng and Rabaul. This has put a serious hamper on IJN submarine operations, with over 10 SS destroyed in port.

Operation Hammerstrike

Operation Hammerstrike, the recapture of Wake Island, succeeded on 11AUG1943. Adm. Nimitz rightfully concluded that gaining the use of Wake during the upcoming assault on the Marianas would be of paramount importance. Throughout the assault on the Marianas, Wake was used as a safe harbor for replenishment ships, a ferry point for aircraft en route to the Marianas, and a resupply point for the CV TFs.

Operation Welcome Mat II



A second bombardment was carried out on the airfields of Truk resulting in significant losses (>800) in aircraft. However, the Japanese war machine lumbers on and the losses were replaced in 3 weeks. One wonders how long Japanese industry can keep up with losses of this magnitude...

And finally....

Operation Yuletide

The full cost of the Marianas assault for the IJN/A cannot be understated. It may not have been a knockout blow, but they are certainly on the ropes. Japanese air power was close to overwhelming in the early phases. Early intel reports indicate that over 1000 Japanese aircraft were lost in the defense of the Marianas with an Allied loss of roughly 300. The difference was the use of Wake Island as a resupply point. USN CVs replenished their fighter complements at will at Wake, and with a roughly 3:1 margin of victory in air battles, it was only a matter of time before the pendulum swung to the Allied side.

Intelligence found that Tinian was far better defended than originally thought and the assigned two regiments would not be sufficient to take the island. The Tinian invasion has been assigned an additional division and will commence some time in January.

The IJN sortied the Shokaku and Zuikaku in separate TFs to stop the invasion. Thus comes our unlikely heroes: SS Guardfish and SS Hake. Hake torpedoed the Zuikaku a day before she arrived on scene, forcing her back to Tokyo. She eventually sank before reaching port. The Shokaku was torpedoed by Guardfish and was dispatched by carrier aircraft from TF 25.1 supporting the Saipan invasion. This was critical as CAP levels were falling drastically and the appearance of 2 CVs full of trained airmen would have evened the scales against the Allied assault force. The losses would have been much higher if they had not been damaged (which put their flight decks out of action) before reaching striking distance.

IJN subs scored as well, hitting the CV Saratoga and BB South Dakota. They did, however, make it back to Pearl.

The CV Yorktown and BB Alabama received torpedos from Bettys that fought through the CAP screen. They, too, returned to Pearl for repairs, and came back online in December.

IJA casualties were in excess of 30k men, with the 21st DIV completely lost on Guam.

See below for battle maps.

Nice !

Keep 'em coming.

Thanks!

The Mariannas campaign was quite difficult. Five capital ships damaged and sent back to Pearl in under 2 weeks! The appearance of the Shokaku and Zuikaku really worried me. Those flight decks combined with the substantial air garrison in the Mariannas may very well have trashed my invasion fleet. My CAP was getting 3:1 odds in losses, but my flight decks were finite while the IJN LBA was seemingly manufacturing Bettys and Zeroes out of thin air. Their manufacturing base is way pumped up in this mod. If not for those two lucky sub strikes, I would have been likely forced to leave the marines, resupply and come back. Once I landed the situation was never in doubt, but I do believe ship losses would have been much higher.

Now for the next phase....do I go straight for the jugular in the Phillipines? Or shore up the Marianas by taking Yap, Ulithi, and Iwo Jima? And where are the last IJN CVs? Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu, Junyo, and a few others are unaccounted for. This is disturbing as the Phillipines are undoubtedly loaded with aircraft...or so I suspect.

Why bother with the Phillipines at all, and not turn north to get closer to Japan. The main reason for the Phillipine Campaign (in my uneducated opinion) was McArthur's ego, that promise of "I'll be back" and all. I'd give it a try and see if you can stab a mortal wound right at the emperor's heart, and shorten the war by a year or more.

The amount of Data is overwhelming