Kenny & b-17e

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Uncommon Valor - Campaign for the South Pacific >> Kenny & b-17e

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Kenny & b-17e - 1/8/2003 12:05:21 AM

zed

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Joined: 5/20/2002
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I was reading history of Army Air Forces in WW2, Pacific Theater
last night, while waiting for my pbem turns, and saw that on August 26th, 1942 Kenny & the 5th airforce had 70 b-17e and about 40 b-25s. I dont play the allies that often, but I dont remember getting that amount of b-17es. Do the allies have 70 by August 26th?

19th bomber group(h)
43rd bomber group(h)

Post #: 1

Re: Kenny & b-17e - 1/8/2003 1:26:18 AM

panda124c

Posts: 1692
Joined: 5/23/2000
From: Houston, TX, USA
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by zed
[B]I was reading history of Army Air Forces in WW2, Pacific Theater
last night, while waiting for my pbem turns, and saw that on August 26th, 1942 Kenny & the 5th airforce had 70 b-17e and about 40 b-25s. I dont play the allies that often, but I dont remember getting that amount of b-17es. Do the allies have 70 by August 26th?

19th bomber group(h)
43rd bomber group(h) [/B][/QUOTE]
Three squadrons per group
12 A/C per squadron
makes 72, may not have had that many but that would be full strength, not counting spare A/C

(in reply to zed)

Post #: 2

- 1/8/2003 2:04:15 AM

Nikademus

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From: Alien spacecraft
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during mid 1942, the logistical situation was such that a BG would be lucky to have even 50% of it's heavy bombers operational. Spare parts and whole engines were particularily scarce at the time and one must remember that all of the B-17's (excepting those BS's that arrived as reinforcements) present at startup were survivors of the PI. Thus the planes would already have seen some hard time in the air and would be partially worn out.

Morale was also a problem too. IIRC, Kenney actually sent the entire 19th BG home in november that same year and dispersed the unit due to 'exhaustion' At the time, this was an unusual move as army units were not rotated with the same frequency as naval and marine units.

(in reply to zed)

Post #: 3

- 1/8/2003 11:39:46 AM

D Delo

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From: Seattle/Tacoma
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nikademus
[B]Morale was also a problem too. IIRC, Kenney actually sent the entire 19th BG home in november that same year and dispersed the unit due to 'exhaustion' At the time, this was an unusual move as army units were not rotated with the same frequency as naval and marine units. [/B][/QUOTE]

This is not quite the whole truth. Last year I met my co-workers father who was the lead navigator in the 19BG, over lunch he told us of their exploits. The 19BG ferried the B-17s over to Clark Field, in a time when air navagation was far less developed that it is today. The 19BG was operation at Clark prior to 7 Dec. They fought a retrograde action through the southern PI into Dutch indonesia finally ending up in Australia.

The 19BG was one of the few US units in the Pacific during the first year of the war. Not only were the troops worn out, but so were there aircraft. Additionally, the crews of the 19BG had learned valuable lessions in combat which needed to be passed along to the units being formed in the States.

My co-workers Dad spend time in the training pipeline as an instructor, and later worked operational development issues at Eglin Field.

Somewhere I have a powerpoint presentation of his story, if anybody is interested let me know and I'll dig it out

Dave

(in reply to zed)

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- 1/8/2003 2:50:48 PM

Nikademus

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From: Alien spacecraft
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eh....what truth? :)

all i was saying was, is what i've been saying all along, that UV tends to favor the "paper" strength present in this theatre vs what was actually available in terms of actual strength.

I was not attempting in any way to judge the merit or courage of any particular unit. Only to explain the difference between the statistical strength and the actual strength on-hand.

(in reply to zed)

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- 1/9/2003 12:40:33 AM

D Delo

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From: Seattle/Tacoma
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sorry, bad word choice
replace "truth" with "story"

no slam intended

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- 1/14/2003 4:20:27 AM

Reg

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From: NSW, Australia
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For some info on servicability levels from the Australian Official History, have a look at the thread at:
[URL=http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29312]http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29312[/URL]

Cheers,
Reg

(in reply to zed)

Post #: 7