Second World War at Sea:
Strike South
Designer’s Preview

The newest Second World War at Sea game, Strike South, covers the Japanese advance into the Philippines, Malaya and Java. Opposed by a ragtag collection of British, American, Dutch and Australian warships and aircraft, the Japanese Navy drove south, capturing one base after another and relentlessly forcing the Allies back.

The need to guard the vulnerable transports of the invasion and resupply convoys tied up many of the Japanese warships, but with the bulk of the Imperial Japanese Navy committed to protecting landing operations there were opportunities for the Allies to hit back. Time and again the Allies attempted to attack landing forces, succeeding once and nearly doing so a second time.

In Strike South, players operate the Japanese army and naval forces fighting to take Allied possessions in Southeast Asia, and the American, British, Dutch and Australian air and naval forces defending them.

I have enjoyed making this game probably more than any other. The desperate nature of the fighting, the incredibly ambitious Japanese plans and the presentation of conclusive proof that airpower was to be the dominant weapon in naval warfare combine to make the opening phases of the Pacific war an incredibly rich situation for gaming. Who can pass up a difficult task, impossible odds and a ship to sail in harm’s way?

These descriptions from Strike South scenario book will give you a feel for the game and the situations players will face in it.

Battle Scenario 1
Balikpapan
24 January 1942

After a string of successful landings, the Japanese had grown accustomed to putting troops ashore without opposition. At Balikpapan the landing force was surprised by a weak American destroyer force. Two Dutch submarines known to be near the scene of the battle confused the Japanese escort, who believed the landing force to be under submarine attack and went searching for the attacker, leaving their charges all but unguarded. Complacency almost cost the Japanese an entire task force of irreplaceable transports.

Battle Scenario 2
Badung Strait
19 February 1942

The Japanese landings on Bali in late February came as no real surprise, but they did catch the Allies with their ships at sea, spread across the theater. Admiral Karel Doorman collected what warships he could and led a multi-national task force in an attack on what he hoped would be a large number of Japanese transports. The time spent gathering the Allied ships allowed the Japanese to land their invasion force and clear most of the transports from the anchorage before the Allies struck.

Dutch cruiser Java, in happier days

Battle Scenario 3
The Battle of the Java Sea
27 February 1942

Not yet back in Surabaya from another fruitless search for a Japanese landing force, ABDA fleet commander, Admiral Doorman, received orders to attack a Japanese force east of Bawean. The Allied ships quickly refueled, rearmed, and sailed, again without time to properly prepare a plan for the upcoming engagement. Doorman’s fleet used two languages and three sets of naval instructions. Disaster was almost preordained, but desperate times demanded desperate measures. The Japanese turned their Eastern Java Invasion Force back while the covering forces sought battle.

Battle Scenario 4
Kota Bharu
10 December 1941

Force Z set sail from Singapore on the afternoon of the 8th of December to attack Japanese landings reported to be taking place off the eastern coast of Malaya. Spotted briefly by the Japanese, but lost before they could be attacked, the two British capital ships and their escorts steamed north. A false report of an additional Japanese landing on the evening of the 9th diverted the British task force for several fateful hours. The next day Repulse and Prince of Wales were sunk by Japanese aircraft. But what if they had not turned away and instead reached Kota Bharu in the early morning hours of the 10th as intended?

The ghost of the Sunda Strait

Battle Scenario 5
To the Last Round
1 March 1941

As the ABDA command disintegrated, all ships attempted to make their escape from Java. From Batavia the American heavy cruiser Houston and Australian light cruiser Perth headed west, intending to exit the Java Sea through the Soenda (Sunda) Strait between Java and Sumatra. Having been told that no Japanese ships were in the area, the two cruisers were surprised when they encountered the largest of the Japanese western Java invasion forces shortly after midnight on the 1st of March. There was no option other than to attack. Following on their heels was the Dutch destroyer Evertsen, trying hard to catch up to the two cruisers in their bid to escape.

Battle Scenario 6
Wounded Lion: Loss of HMS Exeter
1 March 1941

The British heavy cruiser Exeter had been badly damaged on the 27th of February and could only manage 24 knots. Long past due to leave Java, the wounded ship, escorted by two destroyers, one American and the other British, sailed from Soerabaja for Tjilatjap. As the three ships exited the port on the morning of the 1st of March they ran into the covering force of the Japanese Eastern Java Invasion fleet. With Exeter reduced in speed, the end was never in doubt and not long in coming.

Battle Scenario 7
Endau
26-27 January 1942

An additional Japanese landing along the east coast of Malaya at Endau had been reported. With Prince of Wales and Repulse gone, the Allies could collect only a token naval strike force. Despite the long odds, two destroyers were dispatched north to make a night attack on the landing force. Luck attended their voyage and they managed to reach the Japanese landing force late on the 26th. Unfortunately luck then left them.

Battle Scenario 8
Palembang
14-15 February 1942

The best chance the ABDA naval forces had to significantly delay the Japanese timetable came in mid-February. A Japanese invasion force was spotted moving south toward southern Sumatra and western Java. Every available ship was quickly collected and dispatched north. In reality the Japanese turned their transports north and attacked the Allied force with aircraft, resuming their move south after the danger had passed. If the Allied ships had been able to attack the Japanese in the process of actually landing, they might have inflicted serious damage. Unfortunately the Allied ships had, by this time, been operating against great odds for 70 days straight with little upkeep and less rest and were about played out.

Crew of HMS Prince of Wales abandons ship

Operational Scenario 1
The Invasion of Malaya
8-12 December 1941

Japanese operations to conquer Southeast Asia began with the invasion of Malaya. Singapore represented the largest Allied naval base near Japanese objectives in Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies and its reduction would leave Britain’s Royal Navy unable to intervene outside the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately the war in Europe and a reduction in the number and quality of military forces in India, Burma and Malaya left a rather threadbare defense to face the massive Japanese invasion force.

Operational Scenario 2
Opening Moves: The First Six Days in the Philippines
8-13 December 1941

Japanese operations against the American-held Philippine Islands were an intricate affair, involving no less than four separate landings in the first week across the length of the Philippines, a chain of more than 7,000 islands stretching over 800 miles. All that stood in the Japanese path at sea was the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, a haphazard collection of outdated warships assigned to the post because they could be spared.

Japanese light cruiser Naka approaches the burning Tarakan oilfields

Operational Scenario 3
South from the Philippines: The Landings at Tarakan and Menado
7-15 January 1942

The campaign in the Philippines was under way. The American Asiatic Fleet had retreated south and the Imperial Japanese Navy made ready to continue after them. Japanese airpower and the lack of adequate facilities meant the Allies did not attempt to base their ships in Borneo or Celebes. For a while a sort of no man’s land existed between the two sides. It came as no real surprise when the Japanese moved south to grab Tarakan in northern Borneo and Menado in northern Celebes. With no forces deployed forward, the Allies reacted too late with too little. The two Allied strike forces were recalled when it was realized that the Japanese landings would be well under way before they arrived.

Operational Scenario 4
Advance South: The Invasions of Balikpapan and Kendari
21-28 January 1942

Following landings in the southern Philippines, the Japanese jumped south to capture Tarakan in early January. From the new bases at Davao and Tarakan the next steps began against the Dutch East Indies. But at Balikpapan, in Borneo, the Americans succeeded in surprising the Japanese invasion force and sinking several transports and escorts. At Kendari no Allied resistance was offered and the writing was on the wall. These new bases would allow the Japanese to reach even further south, perhaps to Java itself.

Operational Scenario 5
Softening Up Java: The Air Battle Begins
1-9 February 1942

The British in Malaya had withdrawn to Singapore Island. The last convoy to chance the ever-tightening grip of the Japanese was on its way to Singapore. The Dutch had withdrawn their air force to Java and the Japanese Army and Navy air forces made ready to attack Allied airpower in strength before commencing landing operations.

Karel Doorman,
determined Dutch admiral

Operational Scenario 6
Approach to Eastern Java: The Invasions of Bali and Timor
15-25 February 1942

With Borneo, Celebes and Ambon Island in Japanese hands, the next move was expected to be the isolation of Java from Australia. Supplies and aircraft, the few sent to Java, mostly came from the south. Allied bases on Timor and Bali were the logical Japanese targets. The Allies hurriedly gathered reinforcements and readied and a convoy at Darwin. But it was already too late and the invasions of both islands were only days away.

Operational Scenario 7
The Invasion of Java
24 February 1942 – 8 March 1942

Japanese operations had gone well and the Allies driven from the Philippines, Sumatra and Borneo. As the only Allied position remaining in Malaya and the East Indies, Java had already been pounded as the Japanese made ready to invade the island. With few aircraft and a worn out and largely unsupported multinational naval force, the ABDA command began to fall apart. The British and American commanders on Java made ready to withdraw their forces as the Japanese bore down on them with an all but unstoppable force. Only the Dutch were determined to resist, even though they held out no hope that they could win.

Brian L. Knipple
January 2005