British Pacific Fleet TF37 Attack on Japan

[UncleTgt]

LOL DD, that's the middle of the ocean. You mean 37*52.21 N

Here's a 1945 pic of Niigata

Awesome find CK

 

[Devildog73]

DD

Building on what Bearcat was saying, by now the FAA tactics honed off Sakishima were pretty standardised. Ramrod first, low level strafing to suppress flak, quickly followed by strike element (almost exclusively 500lb MCs).

1 section would say high just in case of air opposition, sometimes to draw the flak for the low level ramrod flights.

Time & again naratives speak of the Jap AA not responding until they are over the airfield, sometimes not until after bombs gone. I think this can be reproduced by waiting & spawning the flak after the first attackers payload has been released. It means no flak layouts for ease of mission construction, but it might mean less dumb Player AI flak losses.

Unfortunately, the Kamikaze Hunters by Iredale doesn't mention the Ramrods going in ahead of the strikes. I did see in the book that Seafires equipped with P-40 external drop tanks were doing escorts and Ramrods.
Nothing about Hellcats though?!!

I may have to take journalistic liberties and make some Ramrods with both.

DD

 

[No Dice]

Here are the GSL airfields of Japan in you are interested.

Lee download Airfields

 

[UncleTgt]

Unfortunately, the Kamikaze Hunters by Iredale doesn't mention the Ramrods going in ahead of the strikes. I did see in the book that Seafires equipped with P-40 external drop tanks were doing escorts and Ramrods.
Nothing about Hellcats though?!!

I may have to take journalistic liberties and make some Ramrods with both.

DD

Lee,

Same tactic as Meridian & Iceberg, just on a smaller scale. Let's say 1836 sqn was targeting an airfield, We'd have 4 x Corsairs for high cover, 4 or 8 x Corsairs for "Ramrod" flak suppression, then the last flight of 4 would be for pinpoint strike (if required). Even the Ramrods could be toting bombs.

Hank Adlam's musing are quite illustrative, he mentions flights doing rotations: A flight is TARCAP whilst B & C Flights beat up the airfield - if no air opposition & the target needed a further beating up, A Flight would get replaced by B or C on TARCAP & go in to finish the job. He hated flying in A flight in this example, because if they were called on down to strafe any flak that wasn't already suppressed was ready & waiting for you!

 

[Devildog73]

Interesting: http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/attractions/aircraft-exhibits/item/?item=tbm_avenger

The Royal Navy called them "Tarpon" instead of Avenger...

I do like the .50 cal wing and dorsal mounts.
Not so keen on the .30 cal in the ventral.

DD

 

[Devildog73]

Here are the GSL airfields of Japan in you are interested.

Lee download Airfields

Got 'em. Thanks

 

[Devildog73]

First Firefly mission against airfields east of Tokyo.

 

[Devildog73]

First Firefly mission against airfields east of Tokyo.

I aired'd the air file to put the correct 230 US gallons instead of 62 gallons of fuel into this Firefly... WORLD of difference!
I'm not adept enough to add the either 2X90 US gallon or 2X54 US gallon drop tanks to her, but at least I can now fly missions further than from one carrier to another a mile away...

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Lee,

I just finished my Rhumba-based install, and am very close with my normal Pacific installs, which have both been rebuilt from scratch, so I'm beginning the Meridian-Iceberg-TF 73 installation process, likely tomorrow.

 

[Devildog73]

Lee,

I just finished my Rhumba-based install, and am very close with my normal Pacific installs, which have both been rebuilt from scratch, so I'm beginning the Meridian-Iceberg-TF 73 installation process, likely tomorrow.

Sounds great my friend!

 

[Devildog73]

Putting together the fighter missions into a campaign configuration file.
Should be ready for beta testing by anyone interested.
PM me if you are interested in testing the BPF fighter only missions.

Oh, and they are a composite of all fighter Ramrod and escort missions from both Meridian and Iceberg.
I am working on the only dogfights TF-37 BPF had with the IJAF on July 25 and August 15, 1945.
Once done I will include those two with the others.

Lee

 

[Devildog73]

Okay,
Just got a fresh install of CFS2 and finished the painstaking aspects of removing all CFS1 junk.
Got them removed and both CFS2 and MB work fine in this new install.


I will be adding aircraft, ships, objects, scenery, and then missions one at a time from my malfunctioning MB Iceberg install starting with only TF-37 missions.


Hopefully it all works fine and I can get on with the tasks at hand.

 

[CrisGer]

Due to interservice rivalry the British efforts in the Pacific late war were very limited and often dependent on USA supply support. The Limey carriers which had armoured decks were a real plus.

Chris

 

[Devildog73]

Due to interservice rivalry the British efforts in the Pacific late war were very limited and often dependent on USA supply support. The Limey carriers which had armoured decks were a real plus.

Chris

From everything I've read from both US and British sources, the only inter-service rivalry was from a specific US Admiral (King) piloting a desk in the Pentagon. Admiral Halsey liked and got along with Admirals Rawlings and Vian very well and they with him.

Both FDR and HST had a very good relationship with Churchill.

The main issue at the time was our senior military leadership's desire for punishment of the Japanese people for Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, as well as the barbarian treatment of our POWs by the Japanese.

Yes, the BPF did suffer from lack of sufficient supply trains to support the fleet battle group. So did we in the initial months of the war in the Pacific. By 1945 we had it down to a science. It was routine.

What is not well published, though true, Halsey supplied the BPF with fuel and stores from about May 1945 through to the end, especially when the BPF became Halsey's Task Force 37. Also, some pilots from both fleets had occassions of being onboard each other's ships when downed pilots/aircrews were picked up by the other's ships.

So, yes there was a bit of inter-service rivalry, but not really at the operational levels where the sea meets the hulls.

DD73

 

[Devildog73]

Okay,
Just got a fresh install of CFS2 and finished the painstaking aspects of removing all CFS1 junk.
Got them removed and both CFS2 and MB work fine in this new install.


I will be adding aircraft, ships, objects, scenery, and then missions one at a time from my malfunctioning MB Iceberg install starting with only TF-37 missions.


Hopefully it all works fine and I can get on with the tasks at hand.

Okay,

The new TF-37 CFS2 install is all set up with aircraft, ships and scenery.
I am currently trying it with Yoshi's excellent Japan mesh LOD 8, 9, 10 layers.
Tried the John Benn's Japan Lakes flatten but it was very aggressive and adversely affected my coast lines lowering ground texture below water leaving several ponds and lakes on airfields close to the coast.
Yoshi's mesh is only compatible with stock mesh and coasts, but makes for very nice Japanese mountain ranges and rivers.
I also used the stock city textures as UncleTgt's tropicals were too dark and too green for a 16 square mile sparse and burned Tokyo.
There just isn't a really good set out there for a burned out city.

Lee

 

[UncleTgt]

needing some new targets then?

TF37 ready to roll ehh - might be needing one of these targets then.
Yashico's B7A2 Grace redrawn & recoloured.
MDLmat edits to reduce the weird poly shading & given a slight sateen shine.
Shima 2D panel updated to work in WIN7+, added gunner view.
VC resolution increased from 256 to 1024 pixels.
Next steps, dp file & check out airfile etc.

 

[Devildog73]

Great work UncleTgt!

I can see I am going to have to get into Rami's routine of making an Allied version and then coming back at it from the Axis side.
In my setup mission for positioning ships and targets I actually have the first USN 3rd fleet mission.
The BPF TF37 was positioned on the north end of the 3rd Fleet. Therefore, on some missions RN aircraft flew past/over USN ships.
They are 10 NM apart, so one only encounters one fleet TF in view at a time so it doesn't affect frame rates.
It does however require a bit of time putting them all together in some semblance of order.

Now for planning the IJN/IJAF response side of the campaign.....