Operation Olympic Scenario: Niitakayama Nobore 1-2-0-8

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

(I first shared this on a Bolt Action Facebook group last August)

Operation Olympic Scenario: Niitakayama Nobore 1-2-0-8
BLUFF
A platoon has been sent ahead of the main Allied force to seize a vital wireless transmitting station and its intelligence until support arrives. Meanwhile, Japanese defenders are hurriedly destroying machinery and burning all possible intelligence before the inevitable.

Japanese naval security forces need to maintain control until they have destroyed all transmitting equipment and intelligence inside the transmission room.

OBJECTIVE
Allied forces must hold the transmission room by the end of turn six, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory if the Japanese hold it for five turns. The Japanese objective is to hold the transmission room at the end or turn six or hold it for a total of five turns, consecutive or non-consecutively, representing the time it takes to destroy all classified documents, logs, code books, and the portrait of Emperor Hirohito. If both sides meet their objectives, then the side with the most remaining points on the table (troops) wins.

SET UP
Please refer to the map for ideal setup based on the real world location. Play on a 6’ x 4’ gaming table with the transmission room in the middle along with a nearby barracks. Allied forces set up on the short edge facing away from the transmission room entrance. US Army Rangers may deploy on the short edge designated ‘water side.’ The assumption is that the fight has begun as soon as Allied forces have gotten with the radio tower perimeter.

Defenders must deploy within 18” of the board’s center. (see red circle on map) A single squad may be held in reserve and deployed later from any table edge to represent a roving patrol joining the fight.

The transmission room itself is a semi-submerged building which can only be entered from the side facing away from the main Allied deployment zone. It is considered to have no windows or weak points on any but the entrance side. A large bunker can stand in for it. The barracks facing the transmission room is a simple wooden building.

FORCES
The Allied player may field a 1250 point force and the Japanese may field a 1000 point force. Neither side may bring vehicles.
For the Japanese player, at least two squads deployed at set up must be composed of regular infantry, to represent base security personnel. All other infantry options will be at commander’s discretion; though the player is obligated to commit seppuku prior to the game if he attempts to set even a single “bamboo spear fighter” on the board.

GAME DURATION
Six turns. Were you not paying attention before? Six. Not five. If you have reached seven, you have gone too far. Six.

VICTORY
Allied forces must hold the transmission room at the end of turn six, but it will be a pyrrhic victory if the Japanese hold it for five turns. The Japanese objective is to hold the transmission room at the end of turn six or hold it for a total of five turns, consecutive or non-consecutive; representing the time it takes to destroy all classified documents, logs, code books, and the portrait of Emperor Hirohito. If both sides meet their objectives, then the side with the most remaining points on the table (troops) wins.

SPECIAL RULES
There are children present! (Gakuto-doin)
When fighting inside the transmission room, Allied forces lose one dice from their attack. This represents the presence of gakuto-doin (‘student draftee”); these are high school girls drafted to serve as clerical personnel and their presence adds an element of chaos to the room to room fighting. They stand less than five feet tall and very much look like children to the average American GI.

FLUFF
Dec. 8, 1945
Niitakayama Nobore 1208. Four years ago this infamous coded phrase ordered the Kido Butai to strike Pearl Harbor Dec. 8, 1941 (Japan Standard Time) and it was relayed through your next objective, the Imperial Japanese Navy Sasebo Naval District Hario Wireless Transmitting Station.

Recent intelligence has uncovered that the southern naval air defense command center is in an underground bunker complex within Sasebo City and coordinates all naval antiaircraft batteries, radar and search stations, and intercept aircraft for the whole of Kyushu and southern Honshu. Seizing the transmitter will greatly reduce their ability to communicate and render defenses disorganized; intelligence captured in the transmitting room may also help future code breaking.

The 446-foot tall concrete-clad triple transmitting towers occupy a rise on Hario Island’s south side and are surrounded by Satsuma orange (“Mandarian orange” or “mikan”) groves, which are now in season. The facility overlooks the Hario Strait, which joins Sasebo and Omura bays, to the south. The strait has well known whirlpools, which complicate any attacks on the objective from that direction. The attacking force will approach on foot and begin their assault after defenders are distracted by a ‘show’ put on by naval air forces.

The facility is guarded by a naval security detail from the Sasebo Kaiheidan naval barracks, though other troops may be present. Civilians will also likely be inside the transmission room.

The long-wave wireless transmitting station became operational in 1922 and was considered a technological and engineering marvel of its time. Its three towers are 300 meters apart and form a triangle with the transmission room in the center.

(Scenario, game map, and all photography by David Krigbaum)
For more information on the towers check out:
The Japanese Homefront IV: From the Beginning to the End: Hario Wireless Transmitting Station and Uragashira Repatriation Center Peace Museum
https://www.wayfarerdaves.com/?p=1787
Hario Wireless Transmitting Station English Pamphlet
https://www.city.sasebo.lg.jp/.../doc.../pamphletenglish.pdf
Hario Wireless Transmitting Station Photogrammetry
https://hacosco.com/hario_en/




Due to distance, the towers themselves are off the board but there's few facilities as dramatic in appearance as Hario.


Your main objective. Not the tops of windows peaking out from the ground.



Inside the submerged first floor.


Viewing up inside a tower. In service, large wires would have run up these.

[BillK]

Interesting scenario.
Reallly appreciate all the work on the narrative, map, and reference photos.
Thanks for posting.

[fred]

Cool - those wireless transmitter towers are certainly different!

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

Interesting scenario.
Reallly appreciate all the work on the narrative, map, and reference photos.
Thanks for posting.

I'm glad you like it, hope you can give it a try some time.

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

Cool - those wireless transmitter towers are certainly different!

They're a unique part of the landscape out here, these massive concrete towers on a hilltop surrounded by orange groves and waterways. Visiting them is free and fun to do atleast once a year.

[CapnJim]

Interesting.  But December 1945?  Did the Japanese (or the Rangers for that matter) not get the memo?  Or did the Allies have to go ahead with Operation Downfall?

[Sakuragi Miniatures]

Interesting.  But December 1945?  Did the Japanese (or the Rangers for that matter) not get the memo?  Or did the Allies have to go ahead with Operation Downfall?

It's an Operation Olympic scenario, the first operation of Downfall was the invasion of Kyushu. Troops would land in Kagoshima and move up the island. Since that was planned for November, I set this in early December as an advanced party is moving to cripple naval communication. (The Japanese army and navy didn't cooperate in air defense so had redundant systems)