DOA Carrier strikes

Talon

Members +
A couple of pics of the Carrier strikes on Lae March 10,1942.The Carrier planes had to fly over Owen Stanley Range.


Talon
 
Looks good Al.

A bit of trivia: The TBDs, carying their warloads, did not have enough power or ceiling to get over the Owen Stanly Mountains, but the squadron commander learned to fly in gliders. He quickly found a thermal and the Devestators were able to get enough altitude from the rising air to make it over the spine of one of the highest mountain ranges Asia. Mount Victoria is over 13,300 feet (4,072 Meters) above sea level.

For those of you who don't have Maskrider's "Kokoda Track" scenery installed, go to his site and get it. It is a great way to add detail and a few airfields to the Owen Stanleys.
 
Jagd,

I didn't know that, that's hairy stuff!

Talon,

Great work! :ernae:
 
Nice work Talon!
:ernae:



To improve the C-47 landing characteristics for the Maskrider Kokoda Track mission, change the Main Wing Center of Lift in Section 1204 'Main Wing' from the stock setting of 35 to 16. The mods in the air file appear to correct the landing problem. I noticed that The B24 Guy already has this correction in his air file for his CFS2 overhaul.

Some Air file Section 1204 mods:
 
A bit of trivia: The TBDs, carying their warloads, did not have enough power or ceiling to get over the Owen Stanly Mountains, but the squadron commander learned to fly in gliders. He quickly found a thermal and the Devestators were able to get enough altitude from the rising air to make it over the spine of one of the highest mountain ranges Asia. Mount Victoria is over 13,300 feet (4,072 Meters) above sea level [/QUOTE]

That's the reason not all Devastators carried a torpedo ( 13 carried a torpedo ),the others carried a 500lb bomb.

Talon
 
Mount Victoria is over 13,300 feet (4,072 Meters) above sea level.

Forget about Mt. Victoria, the poor underpowered Devastators of VT-2 couldn't even make it over the mountain pass at 7,500ft!

As Talon mentioned VT-2's 13 TBD Devastators were each armed with one torpedo. One approaching the 7,500ft mountain pass Jimmy Brett (VT-2 leader) found that the Devastators couldn't climb as fast as the terrain rose beneath them. Then Brett...

"saw a green, flat area in the sunshine - and remembered his glider training. He got his Squadron over this area and found an updraft of about twelve hundred feet a minute. This just washed him up over the pass and got him started down the other side."

(extract from 'The First Team' by John Lundstrom)

VT-5's 12 Devastators, each armed with two 500lb bombs (half the weight of an aerial torpedo) had no trouble climbing through the pass. They eventually level-bombed from between 13,000 and 14,000ft.
 
If aeroplanes had trouble with the Owen Stanlys, consider the poor Japanese and Australian infantrymen. It was beyond the endurance of many of them as they marched and fought back and forth accross the mountains on the Kokoda Track. There are reports of the Japanese being reduced to canibalism during their ordeal in the mountains.

On a lighter note, CFS 2 shows many of the mountains to be snow capped due to their elevation. There are reports of frost in the higher elevations of the Owen Stanlys (Name of the first British man to see them), but I don't think snow is normally seen on them. Is it possible to alter the land class for them to show just rocky outcrops at the peaks?
 
Jagd,
There are several books on the campaign in New Guinea, but I think the best of them is Raymond Paull's "Retreat From Kokoda: the Australian Campaign in New Guinea 1942". Cerainly worth searching for, it is well researched and well written.
I may be wrong here but I think that Pen32Win did some textural changes for those peaks in the Owen Stanleys. At the highest elevations there are huge moss forests and rocky outcrops.
 
New Guinea Land Class

Revana,

Yep, your right. It's zip file name is: af_pm_lc2.zip

I'm unable to sim on this computer, but it looks to be a pretty extensive file and should cover Port Moresby and the Owen Stanlys. I now remember the thread with photos of the mountains. I've wanted to visit and walk over the trail ever since I found out about the trail via CFS 2. What a history machine CFS 2 is.
 
Back
Top