And Now for Something Completely Different...

In a post from a session or two before my most recent, I mentioned in passing how I was going to begin including some World War II battles fought on the tabletop. At the time I mentioned that my father had served in the Southwest Pacific for some 44 months, beginning with Guadalcanal (as the Marines were withdrawn, Army troops replaced them, finishing up the campaign). He was assigned as a gun director in a 40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft battery. He once told me that they assigned him that job because the battery (originally a Georgian Coast Artillery) had so many men with deep Southern accents in it that no one could understand them. So having a fairly neutral New England accent, he got the job. Whether that story is true or not, I have no idea. 

But I must confess that I had a similar experience when I was a young lieutenant stationed at Fort Benning (also in Georgia). The fellow whose BOQ was next to mine was from Americus, Georgia. For the first 4 or 5 days we knew each other, we were mutually unintelligible. We eventually became good friends (once we got over the "language barrier").

A Marine M3 GMC (a 75mm mounted on a half-track)

Anyway, back to gaming! Back in the early Fall of 2022, I started a Chain of Command "Pint-sized Campaign" written by a group calling itself Table Top CP based on the first few days of the American invasion of Saipan in June, 1944. I don't have the URL, but a search for "Table Top CP" should put you in the right place. There are six scenarios in the campaign ladder, and so far we've gotten to the first three. In a big part I might add due to the stubborn IJA resistance that required the replay (actually allowed for in the campaign book) of the first two: Red Beach and Securing the Beach Head.

The third, Radio Saipan, was completed in the most recent game. At this point, it is definitely a near run thing. Both sides have taken heavy losses. Both sides started with two platoons. Now, with casualties, each side is down to a single platoon with a handful of replacements (survivors of the first platoons) to make up losses. 

The Japanese move to attack

The Marines position themselves for the final push!

"Radio Saipan" actually saw two battles: the original, which forced the IJA troops back, and a follow-up counter attack (a campaign option available to the Japanese). The photos here were taken from the counter attack. It failed to accomplish its mission, so next month, we move on to the fourth scenario, "Sugar Rush".