dgaad
Posts: 864
Joined: 7/25/2001 From: Hockeytown Status: offline
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by osros [B]What surprised me was the attack was not planned I got a report of a CV TF next thing I knew my Surface TF was pouncing on a CV TF at night. :eek: I was able to fire first and with out any air stike fron the CV TF before or after. :D [/B][/QUOTE] This is a good reason for Carrier groups to be set to "Retirement allowed". A number of times during the war, surface fleets attempted to close (or considered making the attempt) with carrier groups. It is possible to do this because carriers usually have to spend a couple of hours recovering strikes. Lets say a carrier engagement is happening at a distance of 180 miles. First, the range of the big guns on battleships is about 5 miles. The Battleships travel 30 miles an hour, some 32 miles an hour. A cruiser force can travel 33. Carriers, in order to launch, had to turn into the wind. If the predominant wind direction is towards the enemy, that means you have to steam at about 20-25 miles an hour to launch the strike. It can take a good 40 minutes to launch a strike, so lets call that an hour. Lets also say that the surface force becomes aware of the carrier force due to spots simultaneously. For the first hour, the carrier force is launching strikes and steaming towards the enemy, while the surface force is heading directly for the carriers. This is a mutual close rate of close to 50 miles an hour. By the time the strike has been launched and formed, the distance is only 125 miles now. It might take 1 hour or more for the strike force to reach the target, form up for attack, launch the attack and then head out. During this time the carrier force is moving away, so the close rate is 32 miles an hour, taking the total distance down to around 93 miles. This assumes the carriers take an oblique path in order to remain within range of the strike for recovery purposes -- Japanese carrier forces generally did not have to do this because the ranges of their planes was so much greater. Now to recover the strike, which might take 1/2 to 1 hour, again the carrier force has to turn into the wind, making the close rate about 50 miles an hour. Guess what, the range is now only 43 miles, or only 38 miles from gunnery range, which is just over an hour steaming time. At this point, it might be night, there might be enemy subs or other hazards, and the carrier group may NOT be able to take a direct line away from the surface force. There are about 12 hours of night in the Equatorial region, so you only need a close rate of 4 MPH to be able to catch the carrier group. Carrier groups are usually faster than a fast battleship group. However, as I said, unless the carrier group can take a direct line away from the surface force, it is possible to catch a carrier force at night in a surface action. It was seriously considered by fleet commanders throughout the war. Halsey himself nearly caught the Ozawa group (known as the Decoy Force) and got to within 60 miles of it with battleships before Nimitz essentially ordered him to turn around and come to the aid of the 7th Fleet, which was under attack by Japanese heavy battleships under Admiral Kurita. In fact, in that action, known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Japanese battleships did in fact sink an American escort carrier.
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Last time I checked, the forums were messed up. ;)
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