@CentralCommando
Map be for sale this week. Rules and charts will get to download pretty quick
Panama Canal
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I have noticed that none of the versions of A&A accurately reflects the economic value of the canal. Both Japan and Germany dreamed up several plans to try and close the canal due to the economic and military effects it would have on the US. The Japanese had a mission underway to attack the canal when the war ended. So my question is.
Has anyone created house rules to reflect the economic effect of either closing the canal to taking Panama?
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Japanese Plan to Attack Panama Canal: 1942-1945
"At the end of May 1945, final preparations for a special secret mission were taking place at the aerial operations division of Imperial Japanese Headquarters. The secret operation was intended to shatter the USA like the raid on Pearl Harbor: It was a bombing raid on the Panama Canal. The plan was born right after the Doolittle Raid, the first US raid on Tokyo back in April 1942. Ever since, Japanese strategists had been determined to launch a counterstrike against the USA. At the instigation of Admiral Yamamoto, a series of giant class I-400 submarines were ordered, each able to carry 3 special-duty aircraft. These 5,223-ton submarines, with a range of 37,500 nautical miles, were twice as large as th largest vessels in the US Navy and could remain at sea for 4 months without added fueling. A catapult stretched from the spacious cylinder-shaped hangar in the starboard hold, forward to the bow.
"The aircraft built to take off from the submarines were twin-seater Aichi M6A1 Seiran seaplanes specially designed for the Panama Canal operation. The Seirans were all equipped with German Daimler-Benz DB 601 A 1,400- horsepower engines and were designed as the world’s first ‘throwaway airplanes’ , which would drop off the crew after the raid, be ditched beside the submarines and sink at once.[1] To help insure that the raid on the Canal came as a surprise, the Japanese planned to attack not from the east, but from the Caribbean Sea on the west. The four submarine aircraft carriers would launch their 12 Seiran aircraft shortly before daybreak. A twenty-five-year-old pilot, Lt. Atsushi Asamura, was assigned to lead the operation, which was planned for mid-July 1945. The plan was to drop bombs and torpedoes on the canal gates and other nerve-centers of the Panama Canal. As soon as the crews had been taken back on board and the aircraft sunk, the submarine motherships would submerge as rapidly as possible.
"The Seiran unit had been formed on 15 December 1944 and was officially known as the 613th Air Corps. Its commander was Captain Ariizumi, an officer of the 1st Japanese Submarine Flotilla to which the giant submarines belonged. The new unit was under the overall command of the Sixth Fleet in Kure. Two of the best-known members of the newly-formed Seiran Corps were officers N.Fujita and S.Okuda, both of whom had been involved in the first and only previous air raid on the USA, from Submarine I-25 on 9 September 1942. The Yokosuka E14Y1 that they had used on that raid, was also a direct ancestor of the Seirans.
"The Seiran and submarine crews began minutely-prepared exercises on 2 April 1945. It was determined that 1,760 pounds was the heaviest bombload the Seirans could risk carrying on their catapult takeoff. The hangers had been camouflaged with dummy chimneys to disguise the huge submarines from US reconnaissance planes. …
“On 25 June 1945, Imperial Japanese Headquarters halted preparations for the Japanese 1st Submarine Flotilla to attack the Panama Canal, and issued new orders: In view of the American threat to the Japanese islands, the 12 Seiran aircraft were ordered to find a suitable opportunity to launch a kamikaze raid (Operation Hikari) against US aircraft carriers; but the surrender came before the operation was carried out.”[2]
[1]They were ordered in mid-1942, which was before the kamikaze and the German cobble-jobs where a manned fighter was attached atop an unmanned explosives-loaded bomber, the latter of which was released as a huge flying bomb.
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This is absolutely fascinating. It’s amazing how many plans there were for operations against the Allies that had the possibility of prolonging or possibly even reversing the course of the war, but were never put into action because of the advance of the Allied powers once they got going against the Axis.
I remember one idea that claimed there was a large Japanese population in Ecuador, South America that was supposedly waiting on orders from Tokyo. Now, whether or not that was true I don’t know. It could have been true or it could have been equally possible that the Japanese in Ecuador had no more to do with Japan than the Japanese-Americans that were interned in 1942 did. Whichever was the case, Ecuador could have possibly had air bases within bombing range of the Panama Canal.
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An attack like this in 1944 or 1945 would have been completely pointless because by that time most of the US Navy’s ships were already in the Pacific, so cutting off the Panama Canal route linking the US east coast to the Pacific would have had little effect on the transfer of US ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
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Well it would have reduced lend lease via Barents sea, plus some support to Australia. The Panama Canal should have been one of the US NO’s, pretty obvious in fact.
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Doesn’t it seem like a rather remote chance that the Axis could really get there in a game? I mean in the real war there was the element of surprise, however in a game you’d be able to see it coming.
Adding it to a N.O. seems fine, but it still seems like a pretty remote terr. to ever be taken.
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I think allowing an axis transport in either side would suffice as control, the idea being the ship is sunk in the canal to close it. Japan considered sending and sinking an ocean liner in the canal before the war started. A transport would work too. The rule could be that if the axis send any ship to Panama is is removed from play, but for 3 turns no allied ships can pass in either direction.
Other than that, the US player loses 5 IPC for 3 turns, representing the dredging operations and cost of sending supplies by other means.
Alternatively, you can add a convoy token to this area, but it counts as double value or some other fixed value close to max damage of 5-10 IPC a turn.
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I like the idea of the axis being able to sacrifice a ship to close the canal for three turns along with the loss of 5 IPC for three turns is a very good idea. I think I will be adding that to my games.
Thanks,
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Doesn’t that seem out of proportion? Measure that against damaging and repairing a Major Industrial Complex.
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I’ve thought about adding a Naval Base to Panama and adding an American NO +5 IPCs if the naval base was undamaged at the start of the US turn. Thoughts anyone?
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Giving easy money to US player just imbalances the game. I would replace an existing NO that is also easy to keep.
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@Imperious:
Giving easy money to US player just imbalances the game. I would replace an existing NO that is also easy to keep.
Sounds fair to me.
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Or make Panama worth more IPCs and Mainland USA less.
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