Alternative Titles/Edition History:
1st Edition, 1992. In 2013, Multi-Man Publishing released a combined 2nd Edition Code of Bushido and Gung Ho under the name Rising Sun.
Publisher/Date:
Avalon Hill (1992)
Product Type:
Core Module
Contents:
2 8" x 22" mounted mapboards (38-39); five countersheets; 8 scenarios; pad of terrain overlays; Chapter G, part 2
Gung Ho concludes the introduction of the PTO to ASL. It includes the Chinese (both Nationalist and Communist), the US Marine Corps, and early war Filipinos. It also introduces new rules such as amphibious landings and caves. Although aficionados of the USMC will love this module, which allows them to recreate actions from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima, it is one of the less successful ASL modules in conception. One reason for this is the portrayal of the USMC, who are (probably inaccurately) given a higher morale than other elite US forces, and whose late war squad is represented as the most powerful infantry unit in all of ASL. Additionally, USMC forces (who were, after all, only a handful of divisions among tens of millions of combatants in World War II) are represented with four different squad types, which is probably twice as many as needed.
Also problematic are some of the rules added with Gung Ho, some of which are extremely complicated, more than they needed to be–in particular the amphibious landing rules. Landing craft, beaches, NOBA, and every other facet of amphibious landings are represented in excruciating detail. The great complexity of these rules mean that many people are intimidated into avoiding them (and in some cases, avoiding the whole PTO). The cave rules are also quite complex.
Update: Finally, in 2013, MMP released a combined 2nd Edition Code of Bushido and Gung Ho under the name Rising Sun.
I believe that the reason that he USMC counters are
1) of 4 types is first off due to the evolution on Marine Ground forces at the beginning of WWII. The Marines had at that point usually given cast off equipment by either the US Navy or US Army. Marines were still using Springfield bolt action rifles at the beginning of the war. As time progressed the Marines were getting better equipment if for no other reason that the supplies were being driven by US Army supply chain.
2) by the end of the war the Marines had a different command structure and deployment of forces. So a Marine Squad itself was larger than the US Armies squad size.
3) Marines by tradition have had and still have higher standards in Marksmanship than the Army, at the least on the basic levels. By no means a slight meant to US Army Special Forces.
4) Also to take into consideration the Higher moral level of Marines is, in my opinion, due to 2 maybe 3 reasons. 1 – Marines if I recall were a volunteer force you opted for the Marines. 2-the overall size of the marine squads were larger the more the merrier. 3 – Surrendering was not an option against the Japanese. 4-Also the mentality of the Japanese being sub-human. Revenge.
5) I would probably agree to a point that maybe that the US Army should have a higher moral rate due to theater.
Just my opinion
John
By 1943 draftees were being fed into the Marine Corps too. Marine Corps training methods, then as now, are different from the other services. Teamwork, elan, and esprit de corps are inculcated from the first day of boot camp to every recruit. Unlike the Army every Marine is trained like a basic rifleman and expected to maintain the skillsets of the infantryman irrespective of their occupational specialty. In WW II heavy casualties in the infantry required that the rifle companies be reinforced by rear echelon Marines and in most cases they performed well. There is one other quality which is hard to explain but it essentially boils down to a common shared experience along with a determination to never let another Marine down. On Iwo Jima many of the rifle companies took off the island only a tiny fraction of the men who had made the initial landing. Some companies lost two or three commanders on a single day (one company lost three in a single morning) yet the men fought on until the last of the Japanese were exterminated. I saw an interview of one Marine who explained that only he and three other Marines left the island of Iwo Jima unscathed of the 40 who had made the initial landing.
There is historical evidence to prove that when Marines say “Semper Fi, do or die” that is exactly what they are prepared to do and have done.
I agree about your comments on Marines, though I served with them but was a fleet sailor. We were trained by the Marines at Fleet Marine Landing Force school at NAB Little Creek, VA. We were taught small unit tactics by Marines and in some cases by other units as well. We were expected to take this training back to our parent Command, usually a destroyer. We only had an extended version of a rifle squad and a medium machine gun section and grenade launcher.