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Of the 115 aircraft on Sardinia, I see:
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27 x CR 42 (biplane fighter),
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14 x G.50bis,
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8 x Z1007bis (lumbering trimotor),
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20 x Z506B (flying boat / bomber),
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10 x Z501 (early flying boat),
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11 x Ro 37 (recon biplane),
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2 x S.66 (very early flying boat airliner / search and rescue),
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18 x S.84 (trimotor bomber, similar to SM. 79) and
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26 x SM 79.
Does this in any way resemble what I suggested upthread? yes or no?
This would have been a state of the art air armada - during the Spanish Civil War. By the time of Operation Pedestal, this collection of early war innovations was pretty long in the teeth. Nowhere near comparable to what the Japanese had available at Coral Sea or Midway or Guadalcanal ...
The next page is basically more of the same, with just as I pointed out upthread, modern fighters and strike aircraft forming a distinct minority. Really neat list of antiques and oddballs there, and truthfully some of my favorite planes of the war, (it's quite interesting to note that those two S.66 were actually used in a combat zone, I thought they were just pre-war experimental planes) but none of these are even close to being on par with the Japanese Naval or Army air forces. Should we do a side by side comparison of the CR 42 and G.50 vs. the Ki-43 and A6M? Or of the Z 506B vs. the G4M? The CR 42 "Dive bomber" version with the D3A?
Of the 659 planes, it looks like less than half were what you could call modern fighting planes, and more than half of those were limited to very short range. The best asset they had were a large number (124) of Ju 88s. But given the short range of the relatively limited number of modern fighters (39 x Bf 109 and 27 x MC 202) many of their strikes had to be unescorted. And lets not forget, in addition to what the Royal Navy had on their four aircraft carriers, there was also the aircraft on Malta, and the Desert Air Force in North Africa, which also had ~600 aircraft. So whenever the fleet was close to the North African airbases, they wouldn't have to worry to much about those Ju 88s.
Of the 115 aircraft on Sardinia, I see:
4) But regardless, according to the Axis accounts, the Ju 87 itself was very limited in range, this was a constant complaint. To be honest, I flat out don't believe any Stuka had an operational range of 700 miles during the war. Even if they did carry a ton of extra fuel in external tanks, that would severely limit the bomb load they could carry as I already pointed out upthread.
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*SNIP*
In fact it was the RN that went up against KB with two fleet carriers when the Kido Butai had 5 fleet carriers at Ceylon, versus 4 at Midway, against 3 USN fleet carriers and a much stronger land based airforce on Midway, than the FAA/RAF had on Ceylon.
The Axis aircraft were operating from 'unsinkable aircraft carriers' and had much more staying power than IJN carrier aircraft as a consequence.
The 89 CR42, G.50, Re2000, and Mc200s were at least as good as the A5M4 Claude which was still a common aircraft in the 1942
IJN inventory. Biplane and flying boat recon aircraft were still common in the IJN.
The MC 202 is probably comparable, but better? I don't think so. Keep in mind the Zero had 20mm cannon. The Re 2001 was a promising design but I don't think it was up to the level of an A6M.The 78 x M202 and Re2001 were as good or better than the Zero.
I counted 176 trimotor RAI bombers - these all had similar performance to the G3M Nell and G4M Betty and typically the same or better bomb loads and many carried torpedoes.
Lol, yet another very long reach. 41 Ju 87 are not equal to 41 D3A1 let alone 4 times as many. In a naval strike, how much ordinance were they carrying? More importantly, how far could they carry it? The Ju 87 carried a single bomb capable of harming a large ship, same as the D3A1.41 x JU87 = 164 x D3A1 Vals in terms of bomb load.
So now the Ju 88 is a carrier aircraft?144 Ju88 = 1126 x D3A1 Vals in terms of bomb load.
total strike bomb load = 1290 x D3A1 Vals.
The 43 x Bf109Fs were far superior to the Zero and to any Allied naval fighter at that time. The Bf110C was also faster than any Allied naval fighter and had fearsome firepower and would be devastating to Allied strike aircraft. In the fighter bomber role they were extremely hard to intercept.
Range is a yes/no binary. Did the Axis aircraft have the range to escort and/or attack Allied naval forces? = yes.
Late to the party as usual but I'm a bit confused by:
Um, did I miss a major battle in the Pacific War? It's a bit of a stretch to say the RN "went up against the KB" because yes, both fleets were in the same ocean if that's what you mean. As memory serves, Sommerville spent most of his time keeping well away from KdB. Granted I believe he was angling for the much adored night radar torpedo attack, but I don't see much correlation to the Coral Sea action soon afterwards, and certainly not the battle off Midway in June.
The Barracuda was another disaster on so many levels, apparrently for the most part killed in the pre-design specs phase. I often wondered if this was the main issue with all the FAA designs, naval battleship officers just couldn't get their head around aviation.
Trying to jam too many roles in the multi-role design is another chronic problem with American designs
The Swordfish successor should have been a monoplane.
I also meant nothing pejorative by the appellation "tiger". It was meant in the spirit of friendly banter, nothing more.
The Axis aircraft were operating from 'unsinkable aircraft carriers' and had much more staying power than IJN carrier aircraft as a consequence.
The 89 CR42, G.50, Re2000, and Mc200s were at least as good as the A5M4 Claude which was still a common aircraft in the 1942 IJN inventory. Biplane and flying boat recon aircraft were still common in the IJN.
The 78 x M202 and Re2001 were as good or better than the Zero.
I counted 176 trimotor RAI bombers - these all had similar performance to the G3M Nell and G4M Betty and typically the same or better bomb loads and many carried torpedoes. Again, the IJN was never able to assemble a Multiengine strike force this large against the USN from 1942 to mid 1944.
41 x JU87 = 164 x D3A1 Vals in terms of bomb load.
144 Ju88 = 1126 x D3A1 Vals in terms of bomb load.
total strike bomb load = 1290 x D3A1 Vals.
These aircraft alone probably had more striking power than the IJN ever assembled in the mid war period and to them we can add 10 x He111Hs
The 43 x Bf109Fs were far superior to the Zero and to any Allied naval fighter at that time. The Bf110C was also faster than any Allied naval fighter and had fearsome firepower and would be devastating to Allied strike aircraft. In the fighter bomber role they were extremely hard to intercept.
Range is a yes/no binary. Did the Axis aircraft have the range to escort and/or attack Allied naval forces? = yes.
I'm well aware of the information in both of those paragraphs thank you. Fact is, Fletcher WAS there to stop an invasion like it or not. Although he did have the luxury of reinforcements in the form of Enterprise and Hornet i.e. TF16, which was hauling ass down from Pearl Harbor after the Doolittle strike. So if KdB showed up in force (5 - 6 CV's), Fletcher could have bided his time until help arrived. Then it's mano a mano boys, bring your A game and may the best carriers win. Also remember, American carrier air groups were larger than their IJN counterparts, so the USN may be outnumbered in flight decks but would have almost parity in numbers of aircraft engaged. As it was, the IJN came whithin a whisker of losing all three carriers devoted to the MO operation.That's not true. On the afternoon of April 5 Somerville's two carriers closed to within 150nm of the KB (and 5 IJN fleet carriers), located the KB via recon Albacores, whilst being undetected themselves and were preparing to launch a night strike, when the IJN intercepted the 2nd Albacore and prevented it from sending an accurate position report. The KB, which knew it had been detected by RN carrier aircraft, turned east to disengage and didn't move west again for 3 more days. Somerville spent that entire night probing for the KB with a strike prepared to go, but thought the KB had moved north west and could not reacquire them. On 6 or 7 April Somerville learned that he was up against the entire KB (less one fleet carrier), but also learned that no invasion was imminent, and then sent his older battleships to Kenya and his fast carriers north to Bombay.
If Fletcher had learned that the entire KB was heading towards him at Coral Sea, he too would have had to disengage or risk complete destruction. At Midway, the KB was down to 4 fleet carriers, whilst the USN had 3 and the equivalent of one or two more via strike aircraft at Midway Island, including ASV equipped PBYs.
I'm well aware of the information in both of those paragraphs thank you. Fact is, Fletcher WAS there to stop an invasion like it or not. Although he did have the luxury of reinforcements in the form of Enterprise and Hornet i.e. TF16, which was hauling ass down from Pearl Harbor after the Doolittle strike. So if KdB showed up in force (5 - 6 CV's), Fletcher could have bided his time until help arrived. Then it's mano a mano boys, bring your A game and may the best carriers win. Also remember, American carrier air groups were larger than their IJN counterparts, so the USN may be outnumbered in flight decks but would have almost parity in numbers of aircraft engaged. As it was, the IJN came whithin a whisker of losing all three carriers devoted to the MO operation.
No disrespect to the RN in the Indian Ocean at the time, but Sommervile was a one trick pony, he could hazard a night torpedo attack, which in my estimation stood a very good chance of success. But that was all, once daylight comes it might get ugly, but I tend to think he could have put down a couple of IJN carriers in the night attack. I don't like his odds fending off a daylight attack from KdB the next morning if he's still in range. I think he would have been savvy enough to get the hell out of Dodge as soon as the night strike was back.
What? Ju 87B-2 could carry 1000 kg bomb only as an overload and it meant that the rear gunner was leaved on the ground. A Ju 87 B as a single seater carrying a 1000 kg bomb would be a sitting duck for any enemy fighter. And if a Ju 87 R was carrying droptanks for extra range, its bombload was limited to one 250 kg bomb.
Ju 87 B/R could carry in short range attacks heavier loads, that is true because Val's load was either one 250 kg bomb OR two 60 kg bombs, the latter was really a rather laughable load for an anti-shipping strike. But for long range missions both Ju 87 R and Val carried the same max. bomb load, namely one 250 kg bomb
I'm well aware of the information in both of those paragraphs thank you. Fact is, Fletcher WAS there to stop an invasion like it or not. Although he did have the luxury of reinforcements in the form of Enterprise and Hornet i.e. TF16, which was hauling ass down from Pearl Harbor after the Doolittle strike. So if KdB showed up in force (5 - 6 CV's), Fletcher could have bided his time until help arrived. Then it's mano a mano boys, bring your A game and may the best carriers win. Also remember, American carrier air groups were larger than their IJN counterparts, so the USN may be outnumbered in flight decks but would have almost parity in numbers of aircraft engaged. As it was, the IJN came whithin a whisker of losing all three carriers devoted to the MO operation.
No disrespect to the RN in the Indian Ocean at the time, but Sommervile was a one trick pony, he could hazard a night torpedo attack, which in my estimation stood a very good chance of success. But that was all, once daylight comes it might get ugly, but I tend to think he could have put down a couple of IJN carriers in the night attack. I don't like his odds fending off a daylight attack from KdB the next morning if he's still in range. I think he would have been savvy enough to get the hell out of Dodge as soon as the night strike was back.