SCENARIO:
Hurricane on Biak – Complexity 4

DATE:
28 May, 1944 – 18 Turns

LOCATION:
Off the Northern Coast of New Guinea, Pacific Theater

TYPE:
Combined Axis forces attacking prepared allied positions.

FORCES:
Enemy forces consisted of mainly infantry and Mortar forces. Later, they were reinforced by several M4 tanks. They also had 4 airstrikes available and naval bombardments. Our forces were also mostly infantry and field guns along with 6 Light HA 95 tanks and 3 Medium 97 Tanks.

OBJECTIVES:
5 - 50 HEXs and 2 - 25 Hexs

Major Defeat –50
Minor Defeat 40
Minor Victory 110
Major Victory 200

TERRAIN:
This was a jungle war with very slow advancements. All the objects were at or near the coastline which was on the right. There were two exit points at the very top of the screen.

OPPONENT: Tom Myers

It looked as if all of the enemy forces were concentrated near the coast. Because of this, I decided to have three separate thrusts using 3 companies of mixed forces on each group. Group 1 was to do a frontal assault on enemy using tanks and field guns support by infantry platoons. Group 2 was to move into enemy’s left flank to envelop the front line units. Group 3 was to head toward north from the western side of the map and cut off reinforcements from reaching the Group 2.

Initially, Group 1 had difficult time breaking through. Only with heavy mortar bombardment, this group was able to break open and capture the first objective on the turn 5 which was only 4 hexes from the starting position. Group 1 had heavy casualties capturing this (3 Lt tanks and 3 Medium tanks were gone already!). At this point, Group 2 and Group 3 were advancing toward their objectives without being noticed.

On turn 6, the enemy finally noticed the intention of Group 2, but it was too late. Group two took the middle objective on turn 8 and cutting off 2 companies of allied forces. 2 other companies escaped, but with heavy casualty. The two trapped companies tried to break through but were further weakened by heavy mortar fires. By turn 8, Group 1 made assaults and captured a few remaining forces.

Group 3 engaged the enemy on turn 8. This was a disaster. This group was near the enemy’s reinforcement point and quickly turned into trench warfare. The enemy was attacking from 3 places and almost surrounded my forces. Quickly, I started to withdraw my forces to limit losses, but the objective was not achieved.

A renegade enemy took one of objectives on turn 11, but this company was soon captured by Group 1. At this point, I abandoned my plan for double envelopment and decided on frontal assault by combining Group 1 and 2. A few platoons were detached from Group 1 to defend the objectives (This actually came in handy at the end). Group 3 was reduced to one company and 2 platoons. The purpose of this group was to engage the enemy and keeping reinforcements from reaching my main group. This was successful. Eventually, I captured all the objectives. On last turn, enemy desperately tried to capture one of the rear objectives by breaking through Group 3, but my detached units were able to hold them off.

RESULT:
Axis Minor Victory – 194 point (I was 6 points short on Major Victory). This was due to heavy losses by Group 3 and Group 1 during early stages.

LESSONS:
1. Japanese tanks were quite weak against allied infantry. Do not use them for main attack.
2. Infantry guns were most effective in jungle terrain. However, they are helpless against mortar attack. Make sure they are well supported.
3. Only AT gun was useful against M4 tanks. MG did no damage.
4. Use mortar and artillery fires. They are most damaging to infantry in Jungle terrain.

Tom Myers was an aggressive opponent, but he made a mistake early by confronting my forces head on. This was the reason Group 2 was able to encircle and destroy about 3 companies worth of allied forces. He would be very good when he is on the offensive.

This was very interesting scenario to say the least. This was my first scenario from Rising Sun. Since there were not too many tanks in Pacific theater, many of these battle turned into a trench warfare like Stalingrad battle or Verdun during WW I. If you like these kinds of battle, you will enjoy this.