Panzer Grenadier Headquarters - Library: Saipan 2 #19

Panzer Grenadier Battles on October 24th:
Afrika 1944 #22 - PAKfront	Leyte '44 #12 - Flying Wedge
Fronte Russo #9 - Potemkin Village	Leyte '44 #13 - Failure at Buri Airfield
Red & White #28 - Bastion

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Gas Alarm Saipan 2 #19
(Defender) Japan	vs	United States (Attacker)

Formations Involved
Japan		43rd 'Honor' Infantry Division
United States		23rd Marine Regiment
United States		24th Marine Regiment

	Total
Side 1	0
Draw	0
Side 2	1

Overall Rating, 0 votes
5 4 3 2 1 0
Scenario Rank: --- of 1093

Parent Game	Saipan 2
Historicity	Historical
Date	1944-06-18
Start Time	10:00
Turn Count	20
Visibility	Day
Counters	59
Net Morale	0
Net Initiative	1
Maps	1: 83
Layout Dimensions	43 x 28 cm 17 x 11 in
Play Bounty	168
AAR Bounty	168
Total Plays	1
Total AARs	1
Duplicates	Saip016

Battle Types
Hill Control
Inflict Enemy Casualties
Cave Control

Conditions
Caves
Reinforcements

Scenario Requirements & Playability
Saipan 2	Base Game

Introduction
With 4th Marine Division preparing for a general attack to sweep across the island to its east coast, the strongly-fortified Japanese positions along a ridge line north-east of Mount Fina Susu first had to be cleared. By this point the Japanese command on the island had lost any semblance of control of their units; the infantry and support elements would have to fight and die where they stood. Even if 31st Army had wished to pull back, they had no idea of their units’ positions and lacked effective means of contacting them.

Introduction

With 4th Marine Division preparing for a general attack to sweep across the island to its east coast, the strongly-fortified Japanese positions along a ridge line north-east of Mount Fina Susu first had to be cleared. By this point the Japanese command on the island had lost any semblance of control of their units; the infantry and support elements would have to fight and die where they stood. Even if 31st Army had wished to pull back, they had no idea of their units’ positions and lacked effective means of contacting them.

Conclusion
The 23rd Marine Regiment had avoided sacking 1st Battalion’s commander by assigning his rifle and mortar elements to Lt. Col. John J. Cosgrove of the 3rd Battalion, sending them back into action when the attack of the 3/24th Marines stalled in the face of heavy Japanese machine-gun and mortar fire. A Marine shell touched off a Japanese stockpile of explosives, sending forth a cloud of poison gas. At least, this is the Marine Corps official history’s explanation.

Conclusion

The 23rd Marine Regiment had avoided sacking 1st Battalion’s commander by assigning his rifle and mortar elements to Lt. Col. John J. Cosgrove of the 3rd Battalion, sending them back into action when the attack of the 3/24th Marines stalled in the face of heavy Japanese machine-gun and mortar fire. A Marine shell touched off a Japanese stockpile of explosives, sending forth a cloud of poison gas. At least, this is the Marine Corps official history’s explanation.

Additional Notes
The USMC HMG's called for in the scenario book should actually WPN's.

Display Relevant AFV Rules

AFV Rules Pertaining to this Scenario's Order of Battle
Vulnerable to results on the Assault Combat Chart (7.25, 7.63, ACC), and may be attacked by Anti-Tank fire (11.2, DFT). Anti-Tank fire only affects the individual unit fired upon (7.62, 11.0). AFV's are activated by tank leaders (3.2, 3.3, 5.42, 6.8). They may also be activated as part of an initial activating stack, but if activated in this way would need a tank leader in order to carry out combat movement. AFV's do not block Direct Fire (10.1). Full-strength AFV's with "armor efficiency" may make two anti-tank (AT) fire attacks per turn (either in their action segment or during opportunity fire) if they have AT fire values of 0 or more (11.2). Each unit with an AT fire value of 2 or more may fire at targets at a distance of between 100% and 150% of its printed AT range. It does so at half its AT fire value. (11.3) Efficient and non-efficient AFV's may conduct two opportunity fires per turn if using direct fire (7.44, 7.64). Units with both Direct and AT Fire values may use either type of fire in the same turn as their opportunity fire, but not both (7.22, 13.0). Units which can take opportunity fire twice per turn do not have to target the same unit both times (13.0). Demoralized AFV's are not required to flee from units that do not have AT fire values (14.3). Place a Wreck marker when an AFV is eliminated in a bridge or town hex (16.3). AFV's do not benefit from Entrenchments (16.42). AFV's may Dig In (16.2). Open-top AFV's: Immune to M, M1 and M2 results on Direct and Bombardment Fire Tables, but DO take step losses from X and #X results (7.25, 7.41, 7.61, BT, DFT). If a "2X" or "3X" result is rolled, at least one of the step losses must be taken by an open-top AFV if present. Anti-Tank Gun Carrier: half-track with anti-tank gun, NOT a Tank Destroyer

AFV Rules Pertaining to this Scenario's Order of Battle

Vulnerable to results on the Assault Combat Chart (7.25, 7.63, ACC), and may be attacked by Anti-Tank fire (11.2, DFT). Anti-Tank fire only affects the individual unit fired upon (7.62, 11.0).
AFV's are activated by tank leaders (3.2, 3.3, 5.42, 6.8). They may also be activated as part of an initial activating stack, but if activated in this way would need a tank leader in order to carry out combat movement.
AFV's do not block Direct Fire (10.1).
Full-strength AFV's with "armor efficiency" may make two anti-tank (AT) fire attacks per turn (either in their action segment or during opportunity fire) if they have AT fire values of 0 or more (11.2).
Each unit with an AT fire value of 2 or more may fire at targets at a distance of between 100% and 150% of its printed AT range. It does so at half its AT fire value. (11.3)
Efficient and non-efficient AFV's may conduct two opportunity fires per turn if using direct fire (7.44, 7.64). Units with both Direct and AT Fire values may use either type of fire in the same turn as their opportunity fire, but not both (7.22, 13.0). Units which can take opportunity fire twice per turn do not have to target the same unit both times (13.0).
Demoralized AFV's are not required to flee from units that do not have AT fire values (14.3).
Place a Wreck marker when an AFV is eliminated in a bridge or town hex (16.3).
AFV's do not benefit from Entrenchments (16.42).
AFV's may Dig In (16.2).
Open-top AFV's: Immune to M, M1 and M2 results on Direct and Bombardment Fire Tables, but DO take step losses from X and #X results (7.25, 7.41, 7.61, BT, DFT). If a "2X" or "3X" result is rolled, at least one of the step losses must be taken by an open-top AFV if present.
Anti-Tank Gun Carrier: half-track with anti-tank gun, NOT a Tank Destroyer

Display Order of Battle

Japan Order of Battle

Imperial Japanese Army
Foot Leader Towed

Imperial Japanese Army

Foot

Leader

Towed

United States Order of Battle

Marine Corps
Foot Leader Mechanized

Marine Corps

Foot

Leader

Mechanized

Display Errata (1)

1 Errata Item
	The 8-3 Marine Infantry counter appears in most of the Saipan 1944 and Marianas 1944 scenarios, replacing the 10-3 DF valued Marine counters for those scenarios and is currently published in the most recent Saipan printing. (JayTownsend on 2015 Dec 26)

Display AARs (1)

Saipan 2nd Edition, scenario #19: Gas Alarm

Author	JayTownsend
Method	Solo
Victor	United States
Play Date	2026-08-23
Language	English
Scenario	Sap2019

Saipan 2nd Edition, scenario #19: Gas Alarm

In this one, two battlegroups of Marines try to clear the Japanese out of hill covered caves and the second group of Marines comes in as reinforcements and the Japanese have setoff and ammo dump with gas in it on hex 0905, in a perfect bottleneck area forcing the Marines into more rugged terrain.

The early group of Marines take their lumps and even lose their FLM unit, which made the reinforcement arrival paramount. To get the best assault results against Japanese dug-in and cave embedded units, the Marines started using three units per assault with leaders. After a bitter struggle the Marines achieved all their goals towards the end of the scenario but couldn’t have done it without their reinforcements and losing the FLM Engineer unit made it that much more difficult.

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