Mindanao 1945:
Scenario Preview, Part Two
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
January 2026

Panzer Grenadier: Mindanao 1945 is a Campaign Study, featuring 11 new scenarios based on the battles for control of the Visayas and Mindanao. You'll need Saipan 1944, Dragon’s Teeth (two pieces for one scenarios), Marianas 1944 and Leyte 1944 to play them all.

It’s pretty easy to class the battles for the southern Philippines as a backwater. The war had passed them by; the “real” fighting had taken place on Luzon, and now the Americans looked toward further conquests to the north: Taiwan, Okinawa, Japan itself. What did it matter that a few third-line Japanese units held out in the jungle-covered islands? They could be starved out and collected after the war, just like the isolated garrisons on dozens of much smaller islands across the Pacific. There was no military necessity, and no strategic imperative, to capture Mindanao and the Visayas.

None of that mattered. The United States had made a promise, to protect the people of the Philippines from the oppressive rule of Japan’s imperial fascists. And in those days, the United States kept its promises. Let’s have a look at the scenarios from the second chapter of Mindanao 1945:

Scenario Five
Jungles of Zamboanga
23 March 1945
The Japanese defenders of Zamboanga did not wait around for the American naval bombardment that obliterated the city, pulling back into the harsh jungles that covered the hilly spine of the Zamboanga Peninsula. The National Guardsmen of the 41si Infantry Division followed them there, trying to break through their fortified line in a series of brutal frontal assaults.

Conclusion
The Americans simply went straight up the middle, counting on numbers and firepower to carry them through. The brutal tactics succeeded, though at a substantial cost in casualties. The Japanese line had been broken and the defenders would not be able to establish a new one.

Notes
This is a fairly large scenario, as this set goes, with a pretty traditional challenge for each player: the Japanese must establish a line, but they don’t know where the Americans will strike. It might be wise to hold back a reserve, but then those guys won’t have the benefit of fortifications. The Americans get to choose the location of their attack, and they get some Filipinos wandering around behind the Japanese to help out.

The seizure of Zamboanga, and the fighting that followed.

Scenario Six
Collision on the Sayre Highway
27-28 April 1945
Surprised by the fast-moving American 124th Infantry and 149th Field Artillery moving north of Pulangi on the Sayre Highway, elements of the Japanese 1st Battalion, 74th Infantry moving south on the same highway ran head-on into the Americans in the tropical darkness. A confused, close-range fight broke out, with neither side sure of who or what they had encountered.

Conclusion
After the opposing units collided, gunners of the 149th Field Artillery hurriedly unlimbered their 105mm howitzers and opened fire while the Japanese still had not fully reacted to the shock of finding enemies where they should not have been. The Japanese battalion scattered, leaving 50 dead behind but taking their wounded (and possibly more dead men) with them.

Notes
It’s a meeting engagement in the dark, with the Japanese and Americans hitting one another head-on. The Japanese are at a great disadvantage, but all they have to do to win is survive while the Americans must accomplish many more things.

Scenario Seven
Defiant Stand at Maramag
6 May 1945
The Japanese 30th Infantry Division left one battalion at Maramag to halt the American advance up Sayre Highway while the rest of the division escaped into the mountains. The 124th Infantry would need to get past this roadblock before turning into the rear area of the 100th Infantry Division. So far, Japanese attempts to stop the American advance had not amounted to much more than speed bumps, if that.

Conclusion
Until now, the Japanese troops of 30th Infantry Division had folded whenever confronted by the Americans. This time they fought with fanatical courage, and despite being vastly out-numbered and out-gunned, they held their ground for six days. That allowed the rest fo the division to pull back into the rugged wilderness, but in the end did not save their comrades from starvation, disease, and death.

Notes
The Japanese have no support weapons, and a touch task ahead of them. What they do have is immense morale and initiative, the currencies of Panzer Grenadier. The Americans do indeed out-number them, but not by enough of a margin to just bull-rush the defenders and overwhelm them.

And that’s all for Chapter Two. Next time, the Battle of Davao and Chapter Three.

Order Mindanao 1945 Here.

Pacific Island Battles
Fight for Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Leyte, Luzon, and Mindanao: six maps, 671 pieces, 151 scenarios. One hundred and fifty-one scenarios. 

Read More Here

• Saipan 1944
• Pacific Armor
• Mindanao 1945
• Leyte 1944
• Marianas 1944
Retail Price: $211.95
Package Price: $180
Gold Price: $144

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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