Reconquest of Sumatra

[tbridges]

What's the best way to go about the reconquest of Sumatra once the Allies have the strength to do so? (Allies vs AI, Nik Mod)

Should I just invade Palembang and ignore all the other small bases? Or should I land at Sabang and march all the way down the island, recapturing all the small bases as I go?

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: tbridges

What's the best way to go about the reconquest of Sumatra once the Allies have the strength to do so? (Allies vs AI, Nik Mod)

Should I just invade Palembang and ignore all the other small bases? Or should I land at Sabang and march all the way down the island, recapturing all the small bases as I go?

I'd say marching is too slow ... go by water ... Sabang is good place to start, especially if you already have Andaman and Nicobar built up. Then Sabang, then K-town, then Medan, just like stepping stones. Build each one up and stock with good planes before jumping to the next one and use the airborne brigade as a shoe horn. Use the air bases to the rear to supplement the smallish RN Carrier force. The Japanese (at least in PBEM) can severely punish this impudence, if they so choose. But likely that will open a hole for the Americans, so it still is worth it. Once you can bomb the resource and oil bases, you will be adding to the demise of IJ immensely.

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: tbridges

What's the best way to go about the reconquest of Sumatra once the Allies have the strength to do so? (Allies vs AI, Nik Mod)

Should I just invade Palembang and ignore all the other small bases? Or should I land at Sabang and march all the way down the island, recapturing all the small bases as I go?

I usually try to hold Sabang against the AI with the troops evacuated from Malaya.

[tbridges]

Do you continue on and recapture all the bases on the island? Or just the one's on the East coast...and starve out the others?

[niceguy2005]

I agree with JWilkerson, if your goal is to take the whole island, but what is the purpose of messing with Sumatra at all? It's a long way from your ultimate goal of Tokyo...just curious.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: tbridges

Do you continue on and recapture all the bases on the island? Or just the one's on the East coast...and starve out the others?

Well I'm just playing my first game as allies ever .. and my first game against the AI ever (all previous games were as Japanese as PBEM). I have taken ( or reoccupied to be exact) Sabang (already had Andaman and Nicobar built up) and just took "K-town" ... next target is Medan.

After that an air campaign against Malaya will be attempted ... especially to shut down the resource extraction and to do enough recon to determine whether we can jump across to Malaya or whether we should continue on towards Palembang (or both).

Oh it is 12/3/43 in my game.

Since I have a simultaneous offensive going in Central Burma .. and since I am still requiring myself to maintain significant garrisons on all Indian ports and large cities ... I may not have enough troops for a while to go to mainland Malaya. But air campaign will be useful by itself.

As to why go to Sumatra "since Tokyo is the goal" ... I'd say shutting down the resources and the oil of the SRA is a key strategic goal. This forces Japanese to reduce production. And I'd argue that shutting down production is as much a goal as anything geographic. If you can shut down Japanese production, it is all over except the occupation. Of course if you can do coup-de-main against Honshu in Dec 43 ... I'd say go for it ! But at least against PBEM player, I'd predict that would be met with disaster for the Allies !

[niceguy2005]

jwilkerson, I don't disagree. I have yet to play a campaign, either PBEM or AI past mid-43. I just started a campaign against the AI starting at 6/44 to see what it is like. The reason for my question is that I noticed historically the allies took a more direct route to Japan then I had thought. They were definitely fighting for geography, not resources. However I agree with you that hurting Japans resource production could be as valuable as anything.

Interestingly, in my one game against the AI where I did make it into mid 43, I did invade Northern Sumatra with UK forces. I took the Northern two most bases. However, I found that supporting them all the way from India was difficult - the AI countered with massive air power from Malaya and early UK losses were high. I'm not sure that a PBEM player wouldn't have punished me severly for such a bold move.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: niceguy2005

jwilkerson, I don't disagree. I have yet to play a campaign, either PBEM or AI past mid-43. I just started a campaign against the AI starting at 6/44 to see what it is like. The reason for my question is that I noticed historically the allies took a more direct route to Japan then I had thought. They were definitely fighting for geography, not resources. However I agree with you that hurting Japans resource production could be as valuable as anything.

Interestingly, in my one game against the AI where I did make it into mid 43, I did invade Northern Sumatra with UK forces. I took the Northern two most bases. However, I found that supporting them all the way from India was difficult - the AI countered with massive air power from Malaya and early UK losses were high. I'm not sure that a PBEM player wouldn't have punished me severly for such a bold move.

The Allied (or more correctly the US) Plan had long been to achieve a position from which Japan could be blocaded, i.e. cut off from her necessary imports. This was seen (since about 1906) as the weakness of Japanese "insular" position. In WWII the general planning called "WPO" was in fact implemented. The debate was slightly complexified by the desire on the part of some for political satisfaction of returning to the P.I. But the P.I. had long held a central position in US planning. So when you compare the 35 years of planning to what actually happened, it is pretty amazing how well the planning held up !

So it is not "geography" versus "resources" as mutually exclusive strategies .. but more like "geography to deny resources" as a combined strategy.

p.s. See Edward Miller's excellent book ( published by USNIP ) on the WPO ...