LargeSlowTarget -> RE: Convince me WITP will be worth playing (4/24/2004 9:44:52 AM)
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ORIGINAL: ZOOMIE1980 That's probably fairly correct, early on, like Coral Sea and Midway. Carrier tactics were still in their infancy at that time. In fact, those battles actually formulated the genre. But by late 1944 and in to 1945, when fleet tactics concerning carrier operations began to reach a level of maturity, the US had pretty much relegated their largest non-carrier ships, specifically battleships and heavy cruisers, to performing nothing but AA duty to such a degree that very little actually got through to the carriers by then. Even Kamikazi attacks seldom got close to a carrier by spring of 1945, getting shot down well before they got close. I will not take issue in the AI debate since that's not my field, but I can comment on the 'history book' sideline. What you say is essentially correct, but does nothing to support your earlier claim that air attacks against TFs usually did not concentrate on the largest ships. To the contrary, above you say yourself that the Japanese even in 1944/45 still tried to attack the large ships, but didn't succeed most of the time because LRCAP interceptions and heavy AA prevented them from reaching the ships, and that's why they resorted to Kamikaze tactics. Now, I do not claim that attacks concentrated exclusively on capital ships - of course numerous attacks were carried out against smaller ships, especially the ordeal of the radar pickets off Okinawa comes to mind, but if larger game was in sight, it usually had priority. I don't know what you consider seldom, but in the books I count Kamikaze hits on Saratoga (5), Enterprise (2), Essex (1), Intrepid (4), Franklin (3), Ticonderoga (2), Randolph (1), Lexington II (1), Bunker Hill (2), Hancock (2), Bellau Wood (1), Cabot (1), Illustrious (1), Formidable (2), Victorious (3), Indomitable (1) and Indefatigable (1), as well as hits on 17 different CVEs. Damage ranged from superficial to serious, with St. Lo, Bismarck Sea and Ommaney Bay being sunk as a result of Kamikaze hits. But well, history is a matter of perception. The Air Force is well-known to have its own peciluar views of naval-air warfare - that's why the Navy always insisted on having its own air assets...[:D] (sorry, couldn't resist)
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