January 10, 1943 - Operation Torch – Formosa, Tiato-Cho
Private First Class Hitoshi could not believe his eyes. In the bay were more ships than he had ever seen in his life, more ships than he had ever imagined could exist. But instead of awe, he felt fear. The ships were America. He had been assigned as a sentry here. In part it was because he had made the first sergeant feel inadequate. Hitoshi had attended school in Tokyo and his polished accent contrasted sharply with the Sergeants’ almost guttural Hokkaido speech. If Hitoshi had been any less likeable it might have led to trouble in the company, but it was almost impossible to dislike him. Hitoshi made every effort to help the sergeant, writing most of the reports required and working hard to keep the other soldiers in order. As a consequence Sergeant Sato could never bring himself to punish Hitoshi, but he did go to some length to keep the private out of sight. Often this meant long patrols on the beaches of the island. This was fine with Hitoshi as he considered the patrols more like long walks rather than hard duty. Today it was definitely duty.
It had started in the early morning. The fog had clung to the shore as it did most mornings. Hitoshi had drawn simple rations, slung his Arisaka rifle over his shoulder and started to walk his long post. Suddenly he saw several large flashes, far out to sea. Moments later his world erupted. Some time later he realized that these flashes must have been the fire of a battleship’s large guns, the light racing to the shore first, only later followed by long rolling percussions of sound. But before the sound could arrive the shells landed. The first hit the small guard shack he had left maybe 15 minutes before. When the smoke and sand settled he raced back. He found nothing. Not a trace remained, instead a large crater sat slowly filling with brackish water. He ran blindly up the short dunes and threw himself down. For what seemed like days, but what was probably hours the shelling continued. The explosions moved up and down the beach finally ‘walking’ back behind the dunes. He could still hear them, but they were some ways to the West.(1)
Hitoshi was curiously unafraid. He had only gone over to the Philippines for a few weeks, before the retreat. While there he hadn’t seen much combat. When the 48th(2) came back he often strutted in front of the replacements like a veteran, but never truly felt like one. He wondered if the Americans were coming to invade the island or just to raid it. The American Air Corp had been bombing the island regularly for a few months, but he hadn’t ever considered it possible they would land. Now as he crouched behind on of the short dunes he looked anxiously out at the ocean. The smoke of the earlier bombardment had lifted finally and now he could see. There weren’t dozens of ships off the shore, there must be hundreds. As he watched he could seen boat after boat detach itself from the ships and move slowly towards the shore. Now at last he felt a panic. So far as he knew he was the only imperial soldier on the shore. Hitoshi knew his duty, but fear gripped him. Now the American boats were drawing up onto the sand, and green figures were jumping out into the light surf. He raised his rifle and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He had forgotten to pull the bolt and put a bullet into the chamber. With trembling hands he tried to pull back the bolt, but it was jammed. He frantically tried to free the bolt, but it stubbornly refused to give. Now he could see the features of the Americans. He fumbled to pull the bayonet from its sheaf, but it was too late, the Americans were too close. He stood up and screamed at them. His dry throat give only a pitiful sound, but it was enough to draw the Americans to him. He felt several painful tugs against his side and then a flash of light and he went down.
January 10, 1943 - Beach Gable, Formosa – Beach Master CP
The semi-circular ring of sandbags and crude sign surrounded Captain Ward. Messengers ran in and out of the ring handing slips of paper to Ward while he talked constantly on his field telephone. Ward had been pleasantly surprised at the lack of serious opposition. Apparently the Japs had been caught flat footed here. He was running the Alpha table for unloads, which meant he was feeding better than 40% of the offload directly into the advance. All of this made his job much easier. He grabbed his field glasses and looked at his beach. Several of the new Sherman tanks were coming off the beach now. Ward shook his head, those things were monsters! They weighed better than 30 tons. That has to be pushing how big tanks can get he thought. He noted with satisfaction that several of his ‘refs’ were directing the Shermans up towards the hastily improved road leading West.
He aide tapped him on the shoulder and handed him the field phone. “It’s General Patton again Sir” said the aide, rolling his eyes just slightly. Ward took the phone. “Captain Ward, beach master.” He said. Immediately the voice snapped back “God Damn it Ward you need to get off your ass! In case you didn’t know it we are in a friggin war here. I need my tanks off the beach now! All of them.” Ward looked over at his aid, it was the third call this morning from the General. “General, I am moving your units off the beach and to the shore master with all speed. In fact General we are well ahead of schedule. I just passed on 8 more of your Shermans and that should complete the first regimental offload.” Patton replied “I don’t need a single regiment. I need the whole division. The Japs are out there somewhere getting ready to counterattack and I need to beat them to the punch. My tanks have priority, is that clear Captain?” Ward knew that the General was harassing him more out of frustration than anger, but he was a General. War chose his words carefully. “I will get your tanks up General. You have priority.” The phone clicked off, typical of Patton, no goodbye or over.
January 11, 1943 – HQ “Yasuoka” Force
The air raid sirens sounded the all clear. General Yasuoka climbed out of the air raid shelter and rushed back to his office. He shouted for his communication officer to Get the General back on the phone. In a moment the familiar voice of Yamada spoke on the other end of the line. “Yasuoka you are well?” “Quite all right General, it was a nuisance raid. The Americans just want to keep us pre-occupied.” “You need to take care. I did not bring you back to be killed by some Yankee dive bomb. What is the status of your force?” Yasuoka replied quickly “I have three of the tank regiments moving East now. The roads are quite bad however and they can’t move quickly. I expect that is one of the reasons the Devils chose to attack where they did. It will be at least two days before I can get sufficient force close to the beach head to launch a counter attack. Until then the 48th Division will simply have to hold.” There was silent for a moment. “I do not think the 48th Division exists any longer. They had been scattered along the coast before the attack. What wasn’t destroyed in the landings has been defeated piecemeal. In fact that ass order attacks all day today. Instead of forcing the Americans to come to his own position, he left them to run straight into the American guns.” Yasuoka knew the type well, brave but arrogant. “At least they died defending the Empire. Their shades will surely fair well in the Shrine.” “I would prefer that they lived to do some good. Masaomi you are one of the few that have experience with Western armor.(4) You have the best we can gather on this island, use it wisely. Have a good night General.”
The first light of dawn was coming up as Yasuoka mounted his armored car to drive towards the front. He had ordered the headquarters to move up to a small village about 15 kilometers from where he thought the front would be. He was anxious to be on the road. Until the defeat of the Army in the Philippines he hadn’t ever expected to command another armor force. But now the army staff could see that the Western Armies were tougher than they thought. As he raced up the road he could see where it had been churned up by the tanks. Some might have found the bumps and rattles his car shook with as annoying, for him it was a sweet rhythm. By late morning he arrived at the village only moments behind the tanks. He could see the new 97s, several were dug into positions exposing just their turrets. Nodding in approval he walked over to the nearest tank and crew.
Lt. Saeki had just finished backing his tank into its position when he saw the General marching up. Quickly he yelled for the crew to come outside and come to attention. They all fell into line, just as the General arrived. Yasuoka tossed off a salute and told them to stand easy. “So Lieutenant are you ready to face the Yankees?” Saeki replied immediately “We will drive them back into the sea General!” The rest of his crew nodded agreement. Yasuoka smiled back. “I will hold you to your boast Lieutenant. “
Excerpt from “Eagle’s Claws versus the Sword’s Edge, Armor Combat in the Pacific” Van Ross Press, 1995
Yasuoka attack against the American beachhead was launched 48 hours after the initial landings. While some criticize Yasuoka for waiting his experience in Mongolia with the Russians had taught him to avoid ad hoc attacks and to wait for joint infantry and armor attacks properly supported with artillery. Initially Yasuoka pushed the 3rd armor regiment into the gap between the 2nd and 4th Marines who had pushed a perimeter out 5 miles from the landings. The 3rd was a regiment that had been withdrawn from the ‘Southern Advance’ and had recently been rebuilt with Type 97 Chi Ha tanks which had been rushed from Japan. The Marines were unpleasantly surprised at the Chi Ha, which they quickly dubbed needle noses, at least among mixed company. The new tanks had a larger gun and better armor that what they Marines were used. The Marines traded ground for time and by 10 AM the 3rd had advanced more than a mile into the American lines.
General Patton arrived on the scene and ordered the American units to continue a slow withdraw. While no Japanese tactical records survived the battle, it seem apparent that Yasuoka must have believed that the attack was succeeding and he commited two more regiments to the advance. When the Japanese were 3 miles into the American lines Patton called in Naval gunfire support. The huge guns of the American Battleships and cruisers landed square along the line of the Japanese advance. When the shelling lifted the Japanese regiments had been smashed. Now Patton ordered in his Armor regiments. Soon the American had regained all their lost ground and were driving into Yasuoka’s assembled forces. A sharp fight between some light American Stuarts and ‘Needle Nose” tanks stalled the American advance and Yasuoka attempted to flank the American spearhead, by driving North around its flank. Patton however had sent his new Sherman equipped regiments to the North to attempt his own envelopment. A deadly armor duel was fought between the Japanese tanks and the Americans. The Japanese had a 47mm gun and 33mm armor, the Americans had a larger 76mm gun and 66mm of armor. In the open fields the result was a slaughter. Soon most of Yasuoka’s tanks were burning wrecks and the Shermans pushed into the Exposed Japanese flanks.
Yasuoka still had significant infantry force at his disposal and several regimental artillery units. With fanatical courage the Japanese delayed the Americans by throwing themselves at the tanks. American tank commanders, anxious not to be overrun often pulled back to await infantry support. Courage however does have its limits. By late in the day of the 13th most of Yasuoka’s infantry was spent. The Japanese artillery had been silenced by coordinated air strikes and the American were 3 miles into the Japanese lines. Losses had not been light. The Japanese had lost 256 tanks and armor vehicles, 612 guns and more than 10,000 men, Yasuoka among them. American loses were 57 tanks, mostly the older Stuarts, 14 guns and 789 killed. The road to Taipei was open.
(1) Ideally in shore bombardment you can isolate the beach head with a ‘box’ barrage hitting the shore first, then moving steadily inland. With a range of 20 miles the large 15 and 16 inch guns from BBs could isolate any point from reinforcements.
(2) The 48th Division in our TL was a Formosa based division raised for the invasion of the Philippines
(3) In our TL Torch landed the 1st US Armor, 2nd US Armor, 1st US Infantry, 3rd US Infantry, 9th US Infantry and part of the 34th Infantry.
(4) Masaomi Yasuoka had been retired in part because he was trounced by the Russians in 39. In our TL he remained in retirement.
