Recaps

The Island Nation seized the Philippines and launched an invasion of German-held Borneo, but German air, submarine, and ground forces inflicted heavy losses on its expeditionary army. The battle for Sennah Port remained unresolved as German naval reinforcements arrived and the Island Nation ordered its transports to retreat.

• Fumimaro Konoe and Seishiro Itagaki formed the Southern Army under Hitoshi Anami, and the Island Nation occupied the Philippines with American cooperation.
• Hitoshi Anami sent the Netherlands East Indies Expeditionary Army toward Borneo, but German fighters devastated repeated Island Nation air attacks.
• German submarines attacked the invasion convoy in the Sulu Sea, sinking nearly thirty ships and leaving more than ten thousand soldiers missing.
• The Island Nation's 2nd Division and 33rd Army landed at Sennah Port and Lahad Datu under German bombardment, while German aircraft and artillery inflicted heavy casualties.
• Yoshimoto Teiichi committed the 2nd Division to repeated assaults, and Sakurai Shōzō ordered the 54th Division to join the night attack.
• German heavy artillery and defenders repeatedly drove back the Island Nation's assaults, though its troops breached parts of the German line.
• The German fleet arrived near Sennah Port and engaged the Tone, while Sakurai Shōzō ordered the Island Nation's transports and merchant vessels to retreat.

The Island Nation’s forces suffered a devastating defeat at Kinabatangan, then regrouped and advanced across eastern Borneo under Masaharu Honma. The arc leaves the 35th Army stalled before German defenses in the Crocker Range, with its artillery shattered by German counterfire.

• The German fleet sank Tone, Tenryū, and fleeing Island Nation transports before withdrawing from the Sulu Sea, leaving the landing forces badly depleted.
• As the Island Nation’s Army advanced toward Kinabatangan, German forces lured it into an ambush and destroyed the 31st Division with armor and artillery.
• The survivors retreated in a rout, and fewer than ten thousand soldiers escaped as German forces pursued them toward Sennah Port and Lahad Datu.
• Hitoshi Anami ordered a major buildup on Borneo, while the defeated expeditionary army withdrew to the Philippine Islands and Kawabe Masazō was removed from command.
• Masaharu Honma took command of three area armies and split their advance toward Brunei City, while Wilhelm Adam prepared German defenses across the Crocker Range and near Beaufort.
• The 35th Army reached the German line on April 11, and Sōsaku Suzuki ordered Asasaburo Kobayashi’s 30th Division and Tōkichi Hōjō’s Independent Mixed 54th Brigade to attack.
• After Island Nation artillery inflicted little damage, German counter-battery fire destroyed guns and killed artillerymen, nearly wiping out two Island Nation artillery units in minutes.

The Island Nation Army’s repeated assaults failed to break the German defenses, so its Navy sailed to support the campaign and clashed with the German fleet. The German fleet sank Suruga and Ōmi, but Kitakami’s torpedo strike sank four German ships before it pursued the Capital Ships formation.

• Sōsaku Suzuki sent wave after wave of troops against the German defenses, while Masaharu Honma ordered the 41st Army to take over after the 35th Army was devastated.
• Shojiro Iida’s 15th Army attacked the German 226th Infantry Division, but German artillery and aircraft destroyed most of its guns and inflicted heavy losses on its infantry.
• Hitoshi Anami persuaded Chuichi Nagumo to send the Island Nation fleet to help the Army, and the fleet sailed from Subic Bay on April 14.
• Otto Schneewind’s German fleet detected Takasu Shirō’s task force and opened fire on its Capital Ships, using radar to target them in the night battle.
• German battlecruisers set Suruga ablaze and crippled its turrets, then sank it after Takasu Shirō and Suzuki Yoshio evacuated to Mutsu.
• The German fleet shifted its fire to Ōmi and sank it with a forward-magazine explosion, prompting Takasu Shirō to order the remaining ships to withdraw.
• Takasu Shirō sent Kitakami, Oi, and destroyers to attack the pursuing Germans, but German cruisers and destroyers surrounded and battered the torpedo formation.
• Masao Ueno ordered Kitakami to fire all forty torpedoes, sinking two German light cruisers and two destroyers, then ordered the ship to pursue the German Capital Ships formation.

The German Navy destroyed the Island Nation fleet’s capital ships and carriers, leaving Japan’s remaining forces unable to challenge Germany at sea. With naval support gone, German ground forces advanced toward Beaufort and began bombarding the 18th Area Army.

• Kitakami and Oi led devastating torpedo attacks, but German gunfire sank Oi and later destroyed Kitakami and its escorts.
• The German carrier forces overwhelmed the Island Nation Capital Ship Squadron, sinking Ise and leaving Mutsu badly damaged.
• Chuichi Nagumo’s carrier aircraft launched against the German fleet, but German fighters nearly wiped them out and German aircraft sank Togakushi and Hotaka while damaging Ibuki and Kurama.
• Wilhelm Canaris reported the German victory, while Takasu Shirō and Chuichi Nagumo prepared to report their losses to Yamamoto.
• Yamamoto learned that Japan had lost most of its capital ships and ordered shipbuilding accelerated, while Yoshida Zengo asked for six months to rebuild the fleet.
• Akito Nakamura’s generals recognized that the 18th Area Army could not resist German naval bombardment after losing fleet support.
• William Adam sent three German divisions toward Beaufort, and Otto Schniewindt brought five battlecruisers to the coast and opened fire on the Island Nation Army’s positions.