This Day in WW2: The Doolittle Raid!

[Flossy]

Join us to commemorate the Doolittle Raid, which occurred on April 18, 1942.
 
Starting with the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor, Japan went on to rout US forces wherever they were engaged. To show that mainland Japan was not invincible and to help US morale at a time when progress in the war was bleak, Col. James Doolittle formulated a stealthy raid on Tokyo and other targets in Honshu using B-25's launched from the USS Hornet.
 
 
Welcome to This Day in WWII: the Doolittle Raid!
All are welcome to play.
Runs on April 18 in Special Events II arena at two times:
-- at 3 pm Eastern US time
-- at 10 pm Eastern US time
-----------------------------------------------------------
 
Objective: Kill enemies and destroy enemy ground objects.
 
Event duration: 2 hours, but show up anytime during that and play as much or as little as you want.
 
Unlimited lives.
 
Allies (Bishops):
-- B-25C (glass nose only).
-- Planes enabled at carriers (in sectors 19.11 and 19.10).
-- Formations not enabled.
-- No radar, no sector counters.
-- a16 and a17 are bishop owned and represent China for landing.
-- Auto ack set to 25% of Main Arena.
 
Axis (Knights):
-- Ki-43 (at a2 and a105, no bombs).
-- Sector counters for planes above 500 ft.
-- No dot radar.
 
Points:
-- 1 point per kill of an enemy.
-- 0.1 point per ground object destroyed.
 
Side split = 2:1 allies:axis.
 
Arena Settings:
Terrain = japan
ArenaFlags = 13358
ChangeCountryTime = 0
ColorFog[Day] = 169/169/172
ColorSky[Day] = 211/211/214
ExitWhileMoving = 508
FlightModeFlags = 5120 (auto calibrate -- no formations)
FuelBurnRateMult = 2.0
GroundAutoLethality[Armored] = 0.25
GroundAutoLethality[Hard] = 0.25
GroundAutoLethality[Soft] = 0.25
RadarMode[Bishops] = 48 (disable friendly counters, disable enemy counters)
RadarMode[Knights] = 144 (counters above radar, disable friendly counters)
RadarMode[Rooks] = 48
ResetAirfieldCnt = 1
ResetTotalFieldCnt = 1
SectorCounterAlt = 500
StratFlags = 1
 
Object Settings:
Bomb Hgr, Down Time = 1
Ftr Hgr, Down Time = 1
Disable bombs on fighters and have glass nose only on B-25C.

[BaldEagl]

Best model of the USS Hornet I've ever seen:



Many more pictures here:  http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/cv/cv-08/350-kk/kk-index.html  Definitely worth a look.

[Nefarious]

Best model of the USS Hornet I've ever seen:

(Image removed from quote.)

Many more pictures here:  http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/cv/cv-08/350-kk/kk-index.html  Definitely worth a look.

Wow! Awesome!

[715]

Best model of the USS Hornet I've ever seen:

Was the deck really that full of B25s?  How did the ones at the front have enough runway to get airborne?

[shotgunneeley]

Was the deck really that full of B25s?  How did the ones at the front have enough runway to get airborne?

Yeah, that jumped out at me, too. Looks like they have all 16 b25s crammed on that carrier and I had always thought they had them split between Hornet and Enterprise.

However, according to www.historynet.com article (Jimmy Doolittle and the Tokyo Raiders Strike Japan During World War II):

"Late in March, 22 B-25s and their crews flew from Eglin to McClellen Field near Sacramento, California. After final maintenance, they continued on to Alameda Naval Air Station near Oakland, California. There, cranes hoisted 16 of the planes aboard the carrier Hornet."

[BaldEagl]

Was the deck really that full of B25s?  How did the ones at the front have enough runway to get airborne?

First of all the B-25's were stripped of any excess weight and carried just enough fuel to get to mainland China.  Then they turned the Hornet into the wind and timed their launches to leave the deck one by one as the bow reached it's high point going over swells.

The model depicts the in transit deck arrangement.  Here's a real life photo showing the pre-launch deck arrangement.  This arrangement would have precluded certain maintenance in transit:



And this real life photo shows that they had about half the deck length to get the first planes off.  Still a pretty impressive feat:

[nooby52]

Wow! That's the best model of ANYTHING I've ever seen!

BTW, this is my new wallpaper, for a while anyway:



Note: When this photo was taken there were five survivors; Hite, who's name I placed in upper right corner in blue, was unable to attend the reunion due to poor health. No there are only two remaining: Cole and Thatcher. Cole is 100 y.o.

[Brooke]

Footage of the takeoffs: