116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> Scenario Design and Modding >> 116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway

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116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway - 5/30/2020 11:11:41 PM

afspret

Posts: 851
Joined: 2/19/2004
From: Hanahan, SC
Status: offline

This is something I been pondering recently. What is the rational behind having the 166th USAAF Base Force at Midway at the start of all the full scenarios? I can't seem to find anywhere that says there was a large USA presence on Midway, even during the actual Battle of Midway.

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RE: 116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway - 5/31/2020 7:41:23 AM

Alfred

Posts: 6685
Joined: 9/28/2006
Status: offline

Do you believe VP-21 should be therefrom the start?

Do you believe that there should be the ability to stage in aircraft?

Think about that and game mechanics.

Alfred

(in reply to afspret)

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RE: 116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway - 5/31/2020 10:08:37 AM

wernerpruckner

Posts: 4148
Joined: 5/5/2005
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quote:

I can't seem to find anywhere that says there was a large USA presence on Midway, even during the actual Battle of Midway.

during Battle of Midway:

Midway Naval Air Station (with Sand Island Seaplane Base & Eastern Island Airfield & Naval Air Station Utility)

Midway Local and Ground Defences
6th Marine Defense Battalion (reinforced)
3rd Marine Defence Battalion
3rd Marine Raider Battalion, AA and Special Weapons personnel
2nd Marine Raider Battalion, Company"C" (Sand Island)
2nd Marine Raider Battalion, Company"D" (Eastern Island)
22nd Provisional Infantery Company
23rd Provisional Infantery Company

(in reply to Alfred)

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RE: 116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway - 6/1/2020 1:35:31 AM

CaptBeefheart

Posts: 2301
Joined: 7/4/2003
From: Seoul, Korea
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I think by "USA" he means "U.S. Army." Good question. As we know from the movie, there were no Army people there.

EDIT: After a quick google I now remember there were B-26s and B-17s there. So, it makes sense to have a USAAF base unit.

Cheers,
CB

< Message edited by CaptBeefheart -- 6/1/2020 1:41:29 AM >

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(in reply to wernerpruckner)

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RE: 116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway - 6/1/2020 3:54:31 PM

LargeSlowTarget

Posts: 4443
Joined: 9/23/2000
From: Hessen, Germany - now living in France
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VP-21 should be there from the start because that's where it was historically.

And there should be the ability to stage in aircraft, because historically B-17s had been ferried before the war from CONUS via PH, Midway, Wake, Port Moresby, Darwin to the Philippines.

However, those planes were just staging through Midway on a ferry flight, their servicing was limited to refueling by the Marines present at Midway and none of the staging bases had the infrastructure nor the avgas / bombs nor the ground crews needed for a combat deployment.

Therefore, Midway should not have an USAAF base force but a Marine Corps or Navy base force with some limited AV support.

In the game, Wake has a CPNAB base force with 12 AV support, representing the civilian contractors building the base facilities and probably the PanAm Clipper base. Something similar could have been done for Midway, since it also had CPNAB and PanAm present.

But the presence of the USAAF base force at Midway is propably a concession to the AI in Japan vs. AI setups.

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AE Mod "Bottlenecks" UPDATED 01/2022

(in reply to Alfred)

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RE: 116th USAAF Base Force @ Midway - 6/1/2020 10:33:25 PM

Kull

Posts: 2625
Joined: 7/3/2007
From: El Paso, TX
Status: offline

Agreed that it should be a Marine unit, but not a CPNAB. The WW2 Midway Bases database has this nugget:

19 Nov 1941 A ground echelon from US Marine Aircraft Group 21 was dispatched to Midway Island to prepare the island to receive aircraft.

And in fact, VP-21 was based there on December 7th - it was intended to continue on to Wake, but that didn't occur for obvious reasons. As for the presumed Marine Base Force unit, there's good reason to think it would have significant air support capacity since construction of the air fields at Midway was already complete (it's no accident that the base is a 4(1) in AE). Interestingly, a Congressional survey listed Midway as second in importance only to Pearl Harbor as "an advanced military base of operations" in the Pacific, and in 1939 they appropriated $63M to build up the infrastructure - that was a lot of money in those days.

Some really good information on the pre-war activities on pages 9-15 of this document.

If I was re-doing the database, Midway would get a copy of the Guam USN Base Force, possibly with additional damaged Aviation Support (so that it expands over time, as happened historically)

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(in reply to LargeSlowTarget)

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