Colonel William J. "Wild Bill" Whaling's 1st Marines had just captured the airfield at Gloucester, located in the west of the New Britain landing sites. The residual elements of the Japanese defense, led by Colonel Koki Sumiya's 53rd Infantry Regiment, remained unknown. Overlooking the airfield to the south was a feature known to the Marines as Razorback Ridge. Assigned the task of securing this objective was Colonel John T. Selden's 5th Marines. In an area previously thought deserted, Lieutenant Henry w. Stankus, commanding officer of 3rd Platoon, Company F, stumbled upon a small outpost located near a hill feature just north of Razorback Ridge. Like a swarm of angry bees, Japanese from the 53rd Infantry emerged from the neighboring jungle, ravines, and streams. Soon Stankus faed a full Japanese company supported by heavy weapons.
Attacker: Japanese (1st Company, 53rd Infantry Regiment and Service Troops)
Defender: American (USMC) (3rd Platoon, Company F, 5th Marine Regiment)
5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:13.0 D:15.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:1
Year-41 Type Mountain Gun Type 89 Heavy Grenade-Launcher
D:0
M2 60mm Mortar x 2
Misc Rules:
PTO (G.1), LJ (G2.1)
Map Board(s):
39
47
Overlays:
O5
O2
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Tight, tight, and my Americans won by one pip on the absolute last CC DR of the game. Historically, my average DRs have been higher than my opponents' in 63% of our sessions (and, when I do roll lower, it's only by a scooch), but just one pip was enough to win this one. I need to do a better job remembering to throw smoke and WP. I liked my two mortar teams' position on 39F7, but both teams had 0.00% effect on all of their fairly plentiful TH or IFT DRs (I'm thankful they didn't malf.). Ernie's sniper was on a tear while my IJA-SAN-activating DRs didn't really help me much (e.g., I'm thankful that I passed this MC, but I also activated his sniper!). Great scenario, fun opponent.
2023-03-01
(A) Simon Staniforth
vs
Mark Blackmore
Japanese win
Tough ask for the USMC, as the IJA player I pushed out cautiously T1 to slow the oncoming forces then gradually fell back into the victory area where the Gun was situated. Whilst the US took both pillboxes, there is a fair bit of Advancing vs Difficult Terrain and the Japanese took advantage of this in the final Close Combats
2022-06-16
(A) Eric Partizan Eric
vs
Gerard Gambin
Japanese win
2022-06-02
(A) Rich Weiley
vs
Neil MacPherson
Japanese win
Had the defending Japanese in this one. My opponent setup the 9-1 MMG and one squad from the at start force in the level 2 jungle hex in his setup area. I setup my long range weapons to waste this hex in my initial prep fire phase. Most of my remaining units were dedicated to expanding my perimeter to deny the US easy entry and allow me to trade space for time. Net result of the opening salvo from my mountain gun, mortar and two leader directed MMGs was a pinned squad. The bulk of the US forces entered on board 39 around A7. The 9-1 stack decided to stay and duke it out and prep fired in his turn. My return fire was much more effective, resulting in a broken leader and reduced squad and I had enough fire power to break most of the remaining half-squads. A quick counterattack reduced this force to two half squads and while the 9-1 managed to rally he fled into the jungle and spent the remainder of the game trying to link up with the reinforcements. With that flank relatively secure I was able to leave a force to garrison the huts and redeploy the remainder to hold off the US assault from the north and west. The US attack was able to capture one hex of the trail but with a turn remaining he had no chance of achieving the rest of the the victory requirements so he conceded.