Postcard Shumshu, August 1945

A couple days after the Japanese surrender the Red Army and Navy unexpectedly and prematurely launched an amphibious occupation of little Shumshu Island at the top tip of the Kurile Islands ... unsupported by our US Navy ... as an apparent stepping stone to the rest of the Kuriles and possibly even Hokkaido of the Home Islands. (Imagine a North Japan as well as North Korea.) But the Japanese fought, and things did not go well with 5 of the 16 Landing Craft Infantry Large we had Lend-Leased the Russians lost, and some accounts claim the Russians losing 3 times as many men as the Japanese while the battle lasted - the reverse of our bloody Iwo Jima loss ratio. The Japanese even had their toy store tanks which were very effective in the complete absence of any of the far superior Russian ones. The Japanese also had air supremacy, thanks to their 4 antiquated Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters and 4 naval bombers. A member has pointed out to me that Shumshu is in Pacific 1941-45 (2021), so I guess mine's not first, after all, but that is a much larger scale map - more hexes - down to company and lower level, so slower gameplay in the same AM/PM turns, plus 1 more day. 10 AM and PM turns and very simple I go you go game mechanics but with my Disruption system and another feature to show the qualitative difference between the Russian troops and the Japanese who were veterans of both Nomohan in Manchuria and even Guadalcanal! And the wretched terrain we also have on the Aleutians and in many northern locales. Nut-cracking Russian (101st Division) 4-factor regiment unit pieces are substitute pieces providing an extra combat factor and command control advantages enjoyed by the Japanese. No "zones of control" except when retreating. —description from the publisher