Leyte 1944, Scenario Thirty-Four: “Hello, Where Are Your Machine Gun?”

In 2010 or 2011 I wrote this scenario for Nihon Silk, called The Burauen Raid, Wa Operation. Now ten years later, I got to do it better and correctly, as now Panzer Grenadier has all the counters and maps to do this scenario “Hello, Where Are Your Machine Gun?” properly in the Leyte supplement.

The Japanese start things off with their parachute/airborne drop, which is a really fun section of every scenario with actual parachute landings in it. The Japanese had one of their best landings to date, as they rolled and landed well with only one unit disrupted and another one shot at with opportunity fire. After a bloody fight the Japanese controlled all three airfields before the American reinforcements arrived. In fact the far airfield in the northwest corner on map 83 needed the Japanese reinforcements to arrive on turn 12 before they could control that one. Right or wrong I defended all three airfields with equal forces for the American and divided my Japanese attacking forces the same way. It was like having three battles going on at the same time with some transfer of forces as needed. By turn 15, the Japanese had dug-in around all three airfields like the Americans before them. Turn 15 also brought into play a pretty large American reinforcement group which decided to all attack the closest Japanese airfield to their entry point on map 100. It looked at first to be easy but it wasn’t and took me about 15 turns to pry the Japanese out of that airfield, as the Americans had used all their artillery on the earlier turns defending. The Japanese had some successes with their rare air-support on turns 1-2. At about turn 30 the Americans had their eyes on a second Japanese airfield but were in such a bad shape and scattered a bit, there was no way to even group together again and dig-out another group of Japanese defenders. The American 5 values Direct Fire Airborne Infantry are not exactly the fire power wonders, there maybe be good for surprise offenses of defending but not so great for digging out Japanese dug-in Paratroopers with a high Morale.

The Japanese win a minor victory, controlling two out of three airfields. Talk about a bloody scenario with both sides getting to attack and defend. The Japanese lost 21 steps and 4 leaders, while the Americans even more, 30 steps and 4 leaders. Both sides have some reduced steps to start with, so calculation has to be careful, not that losses matter in this scenario for victory points.

This is a very fun scenario to play and a unique one at that, as not many games model a late war Japanese para-drop! You will need all 34 turns to play this one out but I highly recommend this scenario!