AGAINST THE ODDS #52: Operation Ichi-Go

1-ATO052

Operation Ichi-Go ('Number One') was the largest ground offensive in Japanese history, with 500,000 troops, 800 tanks, and massive logistics and artillery support. They used their tanks in armored divisions -- the only time in the war they deployed such concentrations.

They had three broad objectives: Open a land and rail route across China to their southern conquests in Indochina and the Dutch East Indies (and bypass the US submarine blockade along the Chinese seacoast); Eliminate all the US B-29 bomber bases in China; and at a minimum, severely degrade Nationalist Chinese capabilities and in the best case, maybe even knock the Nationalists out of the war.

Magazine includes two-player wargame with 22x34-inch mapsheet and 252 die-cut counters to fight out the entire operation, as well as bonus solitaire rules with the player commanding Japanese forces to capture B-29 bases (using the same map and counters).

In the two-player game, depending on Japanese success, the US might launch Operation Causeway, the invasion of Formosa and the Chinese mainland, which had been drawn up and contemplated at the time instead of invading the Philippines.