Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: RogerJNeilson

OK I have recently done just this, but in a rather different context.

It is 1945 and for the whole of the war up to spring 1945 I deliberately kept the theatre as quiet as possible... encouraging my opponent to think this was a backwater and to concentrate his troops and defences on the other side of the map. What I did do was build up Adak Island in the Aleutians which can go to Lvl 7 airbase and currently is building beyond Lvl 7 Port. This has plenty of naval support units there so I am hauling large cargo convoys there. The reason for this is that the Kuriles have poor basing limits in terms of air base level and port level so most of my supplies are picked up by Amphib convoys and taken to the Kurile Islands from Adak. This is working fine to date.

What this has enabled me to do is take Paramushiro and then island hop right down the chain. I now have airbases that essentially can support fighter sweeps over the Home Islands, and also my CV forces etc can be replenished from those bases using the AE and AO fleets. You can base your heavy bombers in Okinawa etc and the Marianas and they can strike targets all over Japan, but fighters can struggle to sweep all bases. I was able through the sudden Kurile switch to bottle up and eliminate all of the remaining Japanese navy.

This has now offered me the opportunity to land on Hokkaido and use it a bit like Sicily before we hit the mainland.....

So if you go now into the Kuriles you run the risk of a backlash and you miss the opportunity in the end game of using the sudden unleashing of this theatre and unbalancing the japanese defence posture. Not sure how relevant that is of course against the AI.

Cheers

Roger

quote:

ORIGINAL: Podolano

Greetings,

I’d like to have your advice if you consider it’s worth invading the Kuril islands?

I’m playing against the Jap AI and I have built up a considerable force in the Aleutians, by mid-Dec 42.
I’m thinking about invading Paramushiro-jima and 2 other islands in the region and conduct an aerial warfare from there, aiming to reach Hokkaido.

Would that attract a heavy retaliation by the Japs and may be soften other fronts?
And Would you believe that they would render those bases non-operational by bombing them extensively from Japan?

Thanks,

Felipe

quote:

ORIGINAL: spence

In reality the Japanese worried greatly about an invasion through the Kurils and committed significant resources to their defense. Their invasions of Attu and Kiska were specifically in order to forestall such an invasion.

Possibly due to map distortion in that region though many allied land based aircraft that could and did bomb Paramushiro are unable to reach there from the closest (ultimately) bases in Aleutians (Attu): PV-1s/PV-2s from USN squadrons VPB-135, VPB-136, VPB-139 (and another sqdrn I can't recall) participated in bombing Paramushiro starting from Attu as part of the Empire Express.

An interesting article re the Empire Express can be found here: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/february/flying-empire-express

Squadron histories and official reports of some of the missions can be found at vpnavy.com