For a relatively small package, our Second World War at Sea: Coral Sea tells a pretty full story, with 14 scenarios breaking down the Japanese operation to capture Port Moresby in the spring of 1942, and the American effort to stop them. The Americans suffered heavier losses (with one large carrier sunk, against one small Japanese carrier sunk), but claimed victory since they had foiled Japanese plans to threaten Australia.

We’ve actually published two games about Japanese designs on Port Moresby. Thwarted by sea, the Japanese tried to force their way over the jungle-encrusted Owen Stanley Mountains but were driven back by a brigade of Australian Militia. Panzer Grenadier: The Kokoda Campaign tells that story, one of enormous Japanese sacrifice and some pretty determined Australian resistance.

So what was so valuable about Port Moresby? In 1942, it was a pitiful town, something that endures today. Port Moresby has been ranked as the worst place to live on this planet, with the highest murder rate, intermittent water pressure, a fire department that hasn’t answered calls in years, an unemployment rate over 90 percent and, worst of all, the local soccer side, Vitiaz United, lost the 2020 Papua New Guinea Grand Final to Lae City 1-0.

Nevertheless, the Japanese wanted it, and the Australians were determined to hold it. Part of that had to do with those Owen Stanley Mountains; it was believed that aircraft of the time couldn’t fly over them (this would eventually be proven untrue). From Port Moresby, Japanese planes could fly over the northwestern Coral Sea to attack the northern coast of Queensland, where the Australians had bases at Cairns and Townsville. And thus they could support Japanese landings there, which the Japanese had little intention of carrying out but the Australians greatly feared, even building a fortified line in southern Queensland to keep the rampaging Japanese from advancing southward to threaten the country’s urban centers.

Our first Campaign Study, Coral Sea: Defending Australia, extends the Coral Sea story to look at how such an operation might have played out. It’s a small book, with just one chapter featuring a dozen new scenarios – four operational scenarios and eight battle scenarios.

The operation takes place in July 1942, following the mutually destructive results of the Battle of Midway. The Japanese have suffered as badly as they did in the actual battle, but this time Chuichi Nagumo actually followed his orders and had a strike ready to attack the American carriers as soon as they were spotted and the Japanese have dealt as well as received punishment.

But they do hold Port Moresby, taken in June and now ready for use as an operational airbase. The Japanese First Air Fleet now numbers two large carriers (Zuikaku and Shokaku) and one small one (Ryujo). Following the new doctrine issued after Midway, but not actually followed, Ryujo is tasked with carrying only fighters to protect the two big carriers rather than hying off on a sacrificial mission of her own.

On the Allied side, the British Eastern Fleet has steamed to Australian waters to carry out Britain’s obligation to defend the Dominion of Australia. The fleet also has three aircraft carriers (Formidable, Illustrious and Indomitable), though each of these is individually much less capable than either of the two big Japanese flattops. But the British are on the defensive, trying to keep the Japanese from first raiding and then invading Australian shores.

The Japanese have the aid of long-range flying boats based at Port Moresby and at Tulagi in the lower Solomons, which helps ease the lack of aerial reconnaissance that proved so deadly to their cause at Midway. On the other hand, the RAF and RAAF have plenty of planes based at Cairns and Townsville to contest the air over the Coral Sea. That will redress the imbalance in carrier-borne aircraft at least a little.

It’s a close-run thing, as the Japanese have the firepower to knock out the British carriers and then conduct their invasion. The Eastern Fleet was extremely fortunate not to have to trade strikes with the First Air Fleet off Ceylon in April, and though the imbalance is not quite so overwhelming, the two Japanese carriers are potent weapons platforms that the British simply can’t match. They will have to resort to the Royal Navy’s specialty, guile.

How likely was such an operation to actually take place? The Japanese did nothing like this in the summer of 1942, as they had thrown away the strategic initiative at Midway. But even at Midway, they attempted to invade the island – a speck of coral and sand of dubious strategic value – because they couldn’t think of anything better to do. The proposed operations against Fiji and Samoa at least had the benefit of isolating Australia from American supplies and reinforcements.

With the initiative, the Japanese would have felt compelled to do something. Anything. The Japanese had no chance of invading Hawaii, the continental war was the Imperial Army’s show. The invasion of Queensland would do little to improve their strategic position, but the terror felt by the Australian government and people at such a prospect was very real. Ultimately the Japanese could never have held their conquests there, but they could have forced the Australians to spend years digging them out of their foothold, effectively taking the Dominion out of the war.

For Britain, the perceived failure to honor the defensive commitment to Australia would permanently alter the post-war political landscape. In truth, the Australians had already failed to uphold their responsibilities for Imperial defense, spending but a fraction per capita of what the British laid out during the pre-war re-armament phase. Fair or not, in the eyes of the Australian public, the graves of Diggers littered the Middle East, Crete, Greece, Malaya and Burma while it was the U.S. Navy that fought and died for Australia in the summer of 1942.

In our story, the Eastern Fleet steams to Australia’s rescue to completely alter that perception. It’s a fiercely-contested campaign, with the wily British and their night-fighting biplanes matched against the remaining veterans of the elite Japanese carrier force.

As our first Campaign Study, Defending Australia is a self-contained story. You’ll need Second World War at Sea: Coral Sea for the map and the Japanese forces, and Eastern Fleet for the Eastern Fleet and some more Japanese.

You can order Coral Sea: Defending Australia right here.

Australian Seas Package
      Coral Sea (Playbook)
      Eastern Fleet (Playbook)
      SWWAS: Islands
      Defending Australia
Retail Price: $142.96
Package Price: $115
Gold Club Price: $92
You can experience the Australian Seas Package right here.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his dog, Leopold, who was a good dog.

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