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Some carriers to attack Midway, some to defend the fleet, some to increase recon, some to prepare strikes against any US groups.Seven carriers to surprise attack a six-mile wide coral atoll?
In addition to four Japanese fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū, let's have the fleet carrier Zuikaku (no matter the state of her CAG), and the Zuihō and Jun'yō join Nagumo's main fleet. The good Admiral now has seven carriers.
Quite potentially, but at least the Japanese are concentrating their forces to provide the best odds of any success that day. Having an advantage in numbers of carriers and then to leave one at home and another two to sail away on some tertiary project is foolhardy. Heck, I'd throw in Ryūjō as well for an even eight carriers.More for the Americans to sink?
That's what I was going to say, the Japanese didn't need more carriers, they needed better damage control, better designed carriers with realistic training.More for the Americans to sink?
Are they all going to Midway? What about the Aleutians? Does the US still get the drop on them?In addition to four Japanese fleet carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū, let's have the fleet carrier Zuikaku (no matter the state of her CAG), and the Zuihō and Jun'yō join Nagumo's main fleet. The good Admiral now has seven carriers.
I'm thinking that with Zuikaku part of a strengthened Kido Butai, the little guys could continue on with their pointless mission.Are they all going to Midway? What about the Aleutians? Does the US still get the drop on them?
The CAP was a disorganised mess as well as also requiring the decks to be clear for refueling and rearming hampering the attacking force switching munitions below decks, if I had extra carriers I'd load them with zero's and use them as an autonomous force dedicated to fleet defence.The 3 carriers listed above had 36 A6M's between them plus the survivors from Coral Sea on the 4th carrier.
A useful addition but expensive. And with 18 on one carrier,12 on another and only 6 on last trying to coordinate missions, especially with the 4 original carriers is going to be difficult.
Turning into the wind to launch and recover gets a bit tricky for one large fleet. Or 2 to 3 small ones which invites destruction in detail.
It is a good point. If you're facing Nagumo's Dilema and have multiple carriers, if you use them as a single organic force one could assign two carriers to keep clear decks for refueling and rearming the CAP, with the other carriers readying, launching or receiving strikes. But that's not what we have here. Instead we're just having Yamamoto assign three more carriers to Nagumo's main force.Also consider that the IJN's carrier groups operated independently from each other - so if one carrier had six A6Ms and another had twelve, they wouldn't combine under a co-ordinated force.
This was their Achilles Heel from day one and their eventual undoing.