Toaw Scenario: Tarakan 45

Tarakan Island,
May 01, 1945,

Australian army of 67 units opposed to Japanese army of 24 units
for a battle of complexity 0.78 at Company(I) level
on a 2.5 Km/Hex map
for 42 turns of Full Day each.

by Nick Dowling submited on 29-01-2003

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Briefing

TARAKAN 45
An Australian Tragedy

Note: This scenario is intended to be played only as the Australian side

UNIT COLOURS

AUSTRALIA

Green on Tan: 26 Brigade
Tan on Tan: Pioneer/Engineer units
Green on Yellow: Dutch East Indies forces
Dark Blue on Tan: USAAF Air Squadrons
Light Blue on Tan: RAAF Air Squadrons
White on Sky Blue: RAAF base units
White on Dark Blue: Australian Naval Support
Red on Dark Blue: US Naval Support

JAPAN

Grey on White: 455 Battalion
Blue on White: Naval Troops
Olive on White: Provisional companies
Yellow on White: Japanese Air Force

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

  • The Japanese will initally overestimate the size of the invasion force as being a full division, and abandon their strong positions on Tarakan beach. The size of the invasion force will be correctly estimated within 4 days of the invasion, and the Japanese will recieve a minor positive shock from the extra confidence this gives them.

  • Australian morale will drop if fighting lasts longer then 1 week (7 turns)

  • Japanese get 1 VP for each day that they hold the airfield

  • Japanese get 1 VP for every week that they hold out.

  • Instant Japanese victory if RAAF Tarakan is destroyed

  • Small Chance Japanese forces will recive reinforcements

  • Most Allied naval support will be withdrawn once the beachead is secure.


    • THEATRE OPTIONS

  • Australian player may choose to withdraw the 2/2 Pioneer Battalion from the 2 Beach Party and use it as an extra combat formation. Doing so will reduce Australian supply by 50%


    • HOUSE RULES

  • The Australian player may not base any aircraft on Tarakan Airfield

  • The Australian player may NOT disband their inactive AA Battery, Beach Party and RAAF Ground units. These units are inteded to suck up supplies like they did historically.


    • PLAYERS NOTES

  • The ONLY Allied supply hex on Tarakan is Lingkas Beach. While other sites on the Island were considered as potential landing beaches, and are included in this scenario, 26 Brigade planners believed that Lingkas was the only place where sufficient supplies could be landed to support a signinficant force.

  • To represent what the RAAF official history diplomatically called their 'unsuitable bomb patterns' [read: tendancy to bomb Australian troops], the USAAF B-25s are set to internal support.

  • All Allied air and artillery units have low proficiencies. This is meant to represent the navigational and targetting difficulties which they experianced when providing close support over Tarakans rugged and poorly mapped terrain.

  • The Australian's suffer a pestilance level of 2% and the Japanese 1% This is meant to simulate the effects of malaria. (Australian casualties from disease exceeded combat casualties by a very signinficant degree)

  • Australian movement bias is set to 75% This is meant to simulate the many problems caused by the crowding of Tarakans limited road grid by 26 Brigade, RAAF ground personel and Tarakanese refugees.

  • The Japanese AT Teams are intended to simulate Japanese infantry teams armed with fused 75mm shells and anti-tank booby traps.

  • The use of escarpments is meant to represent the extreamly steep hills in the centre of Tarakan Island.


    • HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

    In an effort to keep Australian forces engaged until the end of the war, the Australian government somewhat reluctantly agreed to General MacArthur's proposal that the Australian I Corps liberate the island of Borneo from the Japanese.

    As the first stage of this operation (code named OBOE), the veteran 26th Brigade Group was assigned the task of securing the oil rich island of Tarakan and repairing it's important airstrip. It was hoped that this airstrip could be brought to operational status within days and could be used to provide air support for the next steps in the liberation of Borneo.

    However, this task proved harder then expected. While the airstrip was secured in the first days of the invasion, the Japanese forces on Tarakan sucessfully withdrew to prepared positions in the extreamly rugged interior of the Island. In order to secure the Island and safeguard the new airbase, the weary troops of 26 Brigade were sent after them.

    After much furious fighting, it was found that only strikes from B-24 bombers were sufficant to force the Japanese out of their bunkers. Hence, the progress of the ground campaign was dependant on the quantity of air support available, which in turn was dependent on the weather conditions over Tarakan.

    Instead of the expected week, the task of securing Tarakan took over a month, and cost 26 Brigade over 1000 casualties, or one in every five members of the Brigade.

    These high losses were all the more cruel as when Tarakan airstrip was finally repaired a full month after the landing, it was found to be totally unsuitable for supporting the high-intensity air operations for which it was intended. As a result, 26th Brigade's sacrafices were in vain, and achieved little more then taking a worthless island off an already defeated foe as part of a wasteful and ill-concieved campaign.

    SOURCES

  • The offical Histories of the Australian Army, Air Force and Navy in WW2

  • An Atlas of Australia's Wars

  • The Australian Army. A History of its Organization 1901-2001 by Albert Palazzo

  • www.britwar.co.uk


    • by Nick Dowling ('Case' at TDG and WarfareHQ)
    (nick_dowling@hotmail.com)
    January 2003