"August 21: Enjoyment of the fruits of victory."
|
Battlefield Location: Guadalcanal, 1942 Conditions: Clear Time of Day: Night
Japanese Order of Battle American Order of Battle American Reserve Platoon |
Morale All Japanese units are Veteran. All American units are Qualified.
Terrain and Setup Use the rough map provided to create the playing area. The Ilu River should be 5 MU across at all points. On the Japanese side of the river, consider a 2 MU space to be rough terrain. On the Marine side of the river, evenly scatter rough and jungle terrain. Consider the sandbar to be rough. Scatter jungle terrain at random behind both sides of the river. This scenario should be fought using the "Tactical Scale" rules. To sum up:
Japanese units may set up anywhere within their starting area 3 MU or more behind the river. American units may set up anywhere along the river bank or behind it within their area, and may be considered fully dug in as the scenario begins. |
On August 7, 1942, the first Allied amphibious offensive of the Pacific War commenced as thousands of U.S. Marines under the command of General Alexander Vandegrift came ashore on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon chain. While transports were still unloading supplies for the Guadalcanal forces, General Vandegrift was informed that they would be pulled out early due to the fact that the aircraft carriers protecting the operation had been withdrawn. The Marines were assured that supplies and reinforcements would be coming back once the carriers had refueled and rearmed. In the meantime, ten thousand U.S. soldiers were left with a mediocre supply situation and an uncertain future.
Over the next week, Allied naval forces in the area took an embarrassing beating in night battles against the Japanese fleet and day battles against swift, deadly rocket planes. Imperial General Headquarters was eager to re-take Guadalcanal with its well-equipped airfield, which the Marines had christened Henderson Field. Mistakenly believing that the U.S. force on Guadalcanal was very small and had been completely abandoned, they decided to commit no more than a single regiment to the reconquest. On the night of August 18, Japanese destroyers slipped a force of 1,000 crack soldiers under Colonel Ichiki's command onto the island. Their armored support was light, consisting of a single reinforced platoon of walkers.
Ichiki decided to attack the American position with his available forces rather than wait for another complement of troops equal in size to his own. After two days of scouting and skirmishing, he brought his force west along the beaches where the U.S. Marines had landed barely two weeks previously. At 3 AM, his men fell upon U.S. Marines in a prepared defensive line on the opposite bank of the Ilu River. By the harsh green light of flares and star shells, one of the wildest and most bitterly-fought engagements of the Pacific war began. Due to a misread map, it would go down in Marine Corps history as the Battle of the Tenaru River. Nonetheless, it was the Ilu that would run scarlet in the coming sunrise.
This scenario is High Mission Priority for both sides.
The Japanese objective is to cross the Ilu river, destroy the American defensive positions, and breach their lines as a precursor to an attack on Henderson Field. The Japanese objective is to uproot enough of the Marine defensive line to move at least seven units onto the American bank of the river, and move them at least 5 MU past it.
The Marine objective is to defend the river line until the last man, destroying any Japanese units that manage to cross the river.
Enough light is being provided by flares, star shells, fires, and weapons discharges to negate the usual condition modifiers for night combat. Do not use them.
American dug in as the game begins are considered to have 20 points of protection if dug into jungle terrain and 15 points of protection if dug into rough terrain. Dug-in American units receive a +1 bonus to Morale rolls.
At the beginning of Turn 5, the American player may place the Reserve Platoon on the board within 2 MU of the American edge of the map. These forces may then move into combat.
Don't forget the Japanese option to make Banzai attacks, as detailed on page 82 of the Gear Krieg rulebook.
The American guns are each prepared with a supply of 15 canister shells for use against the Japanese. These shells do not suffer a -2 attack penalty when used against infantry units.
The American side of the river has been strewn with barbed wire and other obstacles. Any Japanese unit that reaches the American bank of the river must immediately make a Dangerous Terrain Test against a difficulty of 4. A Japanese infantry unit may spend a turn clearing these obstacles. After they have done so, place a marker of some sort on the map to indicate the clear MU.
The river is shallow and may be forded even by non-amphibious units. A 1 MU span along the beach is also shallow enough to be similarly forded. Units crossing the river must make the usual Dangerous Terrain tests while doing so.
Historical Infantry Assault
For a more historically inclined (but still not entirely accurate) version of the attack, remove all the walkers from the scenario. Add another reserve platoon to the American forces, also to become available at the beginning of Turn 5. Add ten Rifle Squads to the Japanese order of battle.
This scenario is based on one of those fascinating and bloody incidents which show how the Japanese military philosophy often failed the soldiers that practiced it. To wit, the Japanese would routinely commit small, elite forces against American troops in prepared positions, underestimating American resolve while overestimating their own survivability. Sending waves of men charging into the face of machine-gun, small arms, and cannon fire without any subtlety of maneuver always resulted in a slaughter, though as an American and a friend of several veterans, please don't construe that as any sort of complaint on my part.
On the banks of the Ilu, the twentieth century met the middle ages. Colonel Ichiki's force suffered the loss of eight hundred men before dawn, and the mortified Ichiki burned his regimental colors and committed ritual suicide shortly thereafter. A set of memorials marks the position and events of the battle for the Ilu, though today most of them are overgrown by the jungle, lost in its green expanse.
