Frame 1 AAR comments from the squads

[Viper61]

Always a good read to hear from the squads and what they saw and why they did what they did.  Post'em if you got'em.

325th VFG SBD attack to Shokaku

  Lifted off of the Lex at H+01 and climbed to 20K.  Coming north our strike package minus the TBM's and a couple of F4 escorts desided to maneuver to the east around the Japanese held islands directly south of the target box's as to avoid setting off the radar and vectoring in the "horde".
  Route seemed to work well. Our group - JG2 (SBD's) with 412th (F4's) and ourselves seemed to slip around the radar and enemy held bases unseen.  We then turned to move towards the southeast corner of our search box's and begin the search pattern.  Without scouts the 412th in their F4's spread out to the front to act as escorts and scouts.
  Soon afterward a IJN Task Group was spotted at 13.13.5 and the attack was on.  1 key pad away I put the squad into a decent of 2000' per minute to pick up speed and start descending down a bit.  This brought the SBD's speed up to about 325-350mph
  I believe the 325th VFG SBD's got to the Task Group first.  30 seconds from our roll over position about 6-8 Zero's attacked our tight little group SBD's.  And the tail gunners went to work.  Our descending speed and bobbing movements allowed us to stay on course and fight off the Zero's long enough to get to the drop positions.
  We scored at least 3 hits and probably 4 or 5.  The CV was still up but damaged and burning with between 1500 to 2500lbs of ordnance in her.  The zero's descended with us but really couldn't maneuver at the high diving speeds.  Plus the 412th F4's were giving it to them by then so they had to go defensive and leave the SBD's alone.
  We turned SSW worked through the radars to the south.  Slowed down to form back up about 50 miles south of the target area.  And moved south towards the CV's for landing.  Both CV's were under attack.  So I routed us to the center between the CV's believing there was a less likelihood of running into a RTB'ing IJN Strike Package heading North.  Route worked and we never saw the enemy.  Continued on the route until we were slight south of CV41 (Lexington), turned east and moved into the landing pattern.
  Lifted with 9 SBD's landed 9 SBD's (8 on CV41 and 1 at a near by land base).  Most all of the SBD's were damaged from ACK and the zero's.  Amazingly however no engine or fuel hits all control surface hits and damage allowing all to RTB successfully.

  Hindsight being 20/20 -

  Not sure if we hit the Shokaku it very well could have been the other CV given they were in the same general area.  But it was undamaged and at the time of the attack no other CV sightings.  So if you only have one target and your close you need to go and kill it I say.
  The descending 2000' per minute SBD maneuver starting 1 keypad away worked well both in closing the distance to the target during the last 90 seconds when the ACK and fighters are attacking.  Watched the history channel interview with WWII SBD pilots who did the same thing.
  Didn't use the dive brakes so as to dive faster, lessen the engagement time for the ACK and make it really hard for the zero's to chase and engage.
  Dropped ord's at 3-5000' approaching from the stern and using the "Knight" paint mark on the bow as a target.
  Without dive brakes on - The SBD's were moving at nearly 400mph after they pulled out at wave top level and that energy allowed us to get away from the target area quickly.  No SBD's suffered any damage from the speed.  Only minor damage from the ACK.  Most of the real damage happened from the zero attack.

  Final thoughts:

  Overall a good plane setup and scenario setup - I think in Frame 1 the ALLIES just got real lucky.
  The overlapping CV movement box's can cause confusion - My opinion, I think TG's should be separated by at least 50 miles and not placed within 50 miles of a land base.  And this is only for game play reasons and has nothing to do with what might have really happened.

[CAP1]

Great write up. we hit c34 though, which was the zuikaku.

 

[Devil 505]

I believe the 325th VFG SBD's got to the Task Group first.  30 seconds from our roll over position about 6-8 Zero's attacked our tight little group SBD's.  And the tail gunners went to work.  Our descending speed and bobbing movements allowed us to stay on course and fight off the Zero's long enough to get to the drop positions.
  We scored at least 3 hits and probably 4 or 5.  The CV was still up but damaged and burning with between 1500 to 2500lbs of ordnance in her.  The zero's descended with us but really couldn't maneuver at the high diving speeds.  Plus the 412th F4's were giving it to them by then so they had to go defensive and leave the SBD's alone.

... I think in Frame 1 the ALLIES just got real lucky.

Nice write up, viper.

No, you did not get lucky, the outcome was very expected in my point of view. I'll give you some perspective from those zekes you faced.

The total defense of c34 was 9 a6ms from KN. Similarly, the other IJN CVs were defended by sole 7-10 squads. We had our work cut out for us when your 40 plane strong attack group showed up. 1v1, the zeke is great, 4v1, not so much.

You slipped through those bases, because there were no planes available to investigate the bases flashing to the south. We had to wait closer to our CV.

The F4F's weren't really a factor because they stayed high, but those SBD' of Jg2 that I encountered came to fight, god love 'em. Found myself in a crazy 3v1 furball after the bombs were dropped. Too bad I auggered, because I had lit Speed up like a Christmas tree. My guys were spread out in mini furballs at the same time, kills were very hard to come by, but like you said, we shot the hell out of every plane in sight.

The second wave of SBD's (which I guess were your boys) sunk the carrier, and the bulk of the TBM's were too late to the party.

[FiLtH]

 Us Nightmares, all 5 of us   took off in TBms. On the way north we decided to stay on the deck. It only took a few seconds to realize there was no good way in to the target area, as the gaps were surely heavily capped. Me and Sirb went east towards the east gap, and RC,Bigkev and matelot went north. We flashed all the bases we could. As expected Sirb and I ran into about 14 dots and amazingly they saw us on the deck at like 5ft above the water(they have much better graphics than I do).

  After a stellar dogfight that lasted atleast 10 seconds me and Sirb were dispatched to the deep. I jumped in as a gunner for Bigkev and we continued to target. Kev found the CV group at 13 13 5 and later the one further west. He made his attack, and we managed to survive the sole cap zero that found us (he crashed).

   We reported the location of the first CV and as we escaped west we saw the SBDs dive in (looked awesome) and slam that cv hard. then Kev found the second CV and after reporting that one we boogied west. RC and Matelot started attack run, Mate was shot down but RC got his torp off with no results, but was shot down soon after. Kev got us to a base safely.

    I like to think the sacrifice me and Sirb made bought time for the other groups and allowed Kev to locate the CVs. I mean come on, throw us a bone here, we need sumthin