Yesterday we tested the system for a detailed air to sea attack and it worked a treat! Like so many plans, it had been in 'gestation' for a while, then came about quickly.
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| Yorktown's Scouting Five (SB-5) approach Shōkaku, which is closely followed by Kinugasa and Furutaka. The models were simply placed on the table at this stage and adjusted to the scaled distances before we began. |
After our second go at Denmark Strait and successful initiation into the world of Seekrieg 5, Julian and I had planned to have a catch up for a build 'n chat session and/or perhaps a first go at a carrier action. Then, opportunity knocked. We were both available on Sunday and Thursday. We used the latter for the former and the former for the latter—clear?
Amongst all this I had made a bit of progress with how to do a carrier action in detail. It was/is chiefly a downscaling of Seekrieg 5, with added Scramble! for air to air combat, plus a few house rules for taking off and landing and to allow for the reduced time scale. Finding two sensational videos helped this immensely:
Epiphany achieved, there was much to do. Firstly, forming ideas and notes into a sensible set of rules/guidelines to use. I produced a first, rough draft by Sunday, but it required that extra effort for the last 10%. Then there was the 'equipment' for the tabletop; stands already constructed (fortunately), but still planes to be painted and mounted so as to go on the stands, ships to be painted and the details of the historic action extracted from my sources. A little bit more pressure was added since we'd be three.
With a game planned, I let Stephen know and asked if he'd be interested to join us, telling him that it would be a test and that we are deliberately taking a detailed approach, each turn representing six seconds. He was a willing to be a 'bunny' too. Marvellous. But, given that he was travelling the 100-odd km for the game it had to be worth his while.
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| The stands were completed previously (well known to readers of this blog). |
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| Planes needed to be painted and have bits of magnet glued on so as to be able to sit on the stands. A first coat of paint completed the night before, gluing the morning of: JIT* logistics! (*Just in time) |
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| Ships had been assembled, but could do with more paint. Only a bit more was done in time, so would have to suffice for the occasion—not quite JIT. Left to right: Kinugasa, Furutaka, Zuikaku and Shōkaku. |
My 'resource gathering' for this entire recreation-in-miniature of the naval actions of the Pacific War has been chiefly focussed on the ships. A lot of good quality information, first-hand accounts and declassified reports (in English) are available on the interweb on sites like the Naval History and Heritage Command, US Naval Institute, plus websites compiled by enthusiasts, including the NavWeaps and the Imperial Japanese Navy Page. I have found some excellent articles from journals such as the Naval War College Review on these sites and others, but you still can't go past a good book. For the early war, John B. Lundstrom's two volumes "First Team : Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway" and "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign : Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942" are the duck's nuts. The relevant pages of Volume 1 would be our guide for the action.
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| Lundstrom's sensational The First Team: our tour guide for the day. |
The Japanese fleet, 'steaming' south at 30 knots so as to reduce the gap to their attacking planes, had become terribly strung out. "Taking the lead were three destroyers; then came the heavy cruisers Myōko and Haguro of the 5th Cruiser Division. The Zuikaku sailed about 10 000 meters [sic.] ahead of the Shōkaku, and nearly the same interval separated the Shōkaku from the heavy cruisers Kinugasa and Furutaka bringing up the rear" (Lundstrom p. 228). So, at our scale of 1:700 Shōkaku would be the only ship on the tabletop.
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| Seeking shelter from the in-coming planes, Zuikaku sailed into the front to the south... |
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| and disappeared from view, taking the four Zeros that she was yet to launch. |
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| Around 10 000 m north, Shōkaku her remaining two Zeros ready to launch. |
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| She was not entirely alone, "at low level were five Zeros in two shotai led by PO1c Minami Yoshimi and PO1c Miyazawa" (Lundstrom p. 228). Another two Zeros circulated at nearly 13,000 feet (~4 000 m) above Shōkaku and PO1c Iwamoto Tetsuzō with his two wingmen from Zuikaku were also aloft. |
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| Having circled for sometime, hidden in clouds to the southeast of the Japanese carrier, Burch's Scouting Five prepared to attack. |
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| Seeing the SBDs dive to the attack, Iwamoto' shotai plunged after them. |
Iwamoto "...ripped into a firing pass on the lead bomber, which happened to be Burch's Dauntless, opened with his 20-mm cannons at close range, and flashed past, certain that he had downed the American" (Lundstrom p. 230).
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| Action a plenty. Burch and Jorgenson have dived on Shōkaku, Iwamoto and co. attacking them as they did. Shōkaku launched the first of her remaining fighters, as the Zeros defending the carrier circled overhead. |
In the historic action, Iwamoto missed, but in ours he hit, causing 8 points of damage (against a possible 17) peppering Burch's machine with holes and increasing its stall speed. In the historic action, it was Burch's wingman, Ens. John H. Jorgenson, attacked by Iwamoto's wingmen, whose plane was damaged, but he escaped unscathed in ours. As with history, the two Dauntless completed their dives and released their bombs which fell in the Coral Sea around Shōkaku, escaping the anti-aircraft fire from the carrier as they attacked.
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| Shōkaku launched her remaining Zero. Beautifully captured by Vice Admiral Stephan-san. |
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| The next three Dauntless dived on the carrier, similarly missing,... |
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| but not all escaped the AA fire—a 1 in 100 hit! One of the Dauntless, badly damaged, disintegrated moments later, her crew successfully ejecting into the Coral Sea. |
There was more happening. One of the Wildcats escorting Scouting Five dived to attack the defending Zeros, missing his mark. The four Zeros from Zuikaku entered the 'arena', The remaining pair of Dauntless from Scouting Five prepared to dive...
What a marvellous thirty seconds that was! Not a heap of photos, but plenty going on. We had planes attacking carriers, in air to air 'jousts', anti-aircraft fire from the carrier, planes taking off, some damage and a plane lost.
We debated for a while the fate of the pilot and gunner of that ill-fated Dauntless. Would a Catalina or such be sent to their rescue, or were they to be casualties? I expected the latter, Julian argued strongly that a search would be sent once the entire battle was complete "the morale effects of 'no man left behind'". It remained unresolved and a story for another time...
With set-up, discussions, lunch and then getting right into the swing of it, there was not time to bring in the remaining 17 Dauntless, nor the 9 Devastators, but the test was enough to show that the system would work. A few tweaks and adjustments had been indicated in this first outing, but it had survived first contact with the 'enemy'. With better preparedness, a complete (part) action such as the attack of the Yorktown group on Shōkaku could be carried out in a single session. It is unlikely that the attack by the Enterprise group could also be done—although you never know, I guess—but that's fine. The attack of the two groups occurred over some 40 minutes (400 turns!), so I'd expect at least two-sessions to complete it.
Julian said to me afterwards, "You must have been worried that it would not work and pleased that it did?" In fact, I was not. More dangerously, I was convinced that it would work—so set up for disappointment. Part of that confidence was that it was based on a sound footing (Seekrieg 5) with added/adapted bits based on historic information.
This test completed and 'resources' gathered(ing), it's time to systematically get on with construction of the fleets, terrain (firstly Pearl Harbor, which we'll do chiefly at 1:6000) and making notes to produce a scenario/guidelines for each action from 7/12/41 on—at a slow but steady pace.
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| Construction of the fleets will continue, systematically by action, at a slow but steady pace. |
Details of the game
Scale
Models are 1:700, each turn represents 6 seconds, 1.5 mm = 1 yard, planes and ships travel 5 mm per 1 knot (10 mm per 2 knots).
Vertical scale nominally 1:20 000, except for 'wave-top' height which is represented at 1:700.
Rules
A descriptive game adapting Seekrieg 5 to reduce the length of a turn from 2 minutes to 6 seconds, all assessments and movements done by individual plane (and ship), torpedos tracked with the effect of any potential hits (intersections of course) conducted per Seekrieg 5, bombs falling according to the relative location of the plane and target ship with affects of any hits according to Seekrieg 5. Probabilities of hits from anti-aircraft fire determined according to Seekrieg 5, but by plane. Mechanics from Scramble! used for air to air combat and assessment of the effect(s) of anti-aircraft fire.
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