Pacific Pinpricks

There were only four American heavy carriers in the Pacific during the first 3 months of the war and only three were operational after a Japanese submarine torpedoed the Saratoga south of Hawaii on Jan. 11th, 1942 forcing her to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs. That left only the Yorktown, Enterprise Lexington to contest the Japanese navy throughout the entire Pacific.

With the US Battleship fleet put out of action by the attack at Pearl Harbor these  three carriers were the only heavy units left to the USN until american ship yards produced new carriers and battleships.  Or until Battleships from the Atlantic fleet were redeployed to the Pacific. So it was decided to build a task force was around each carrier and have each carrier task force to start conducting hit and run raids through out the Pacific while additional forces were built up to contest the Japanese march of conquest.

On Feb. 20, 1942 the Lexington launched a raid against Rabaul on New Britian. 

On March 10th, 1942 planes from Yorktown and Enterprise raided Lae and Salamau on New Guinea, just two days after the Japanese capture them in the face of no resistance.

On May 4th, 1942 the Yorktown launches a raid against Tulagi in the Soloman islands which turned out to be the opening to the battle of the Coral Sea.

 

All the Americans could hope for was that these "pin pricks" would keep the Japanese off balance and guessing what allied intentions were until they U.S. fleet recovered from its losses at Pearl Harbor.

Country Percentages
50% Allied (rough estimate)
50% Axis (rough estimate)


Plane Set

Australians
========
Boston III
P40E

USAAF
=====
P39D
P40E

USN
===
F4F-4
SBD-5
TBM-3


IJA
===
JU88 (Sub for Betty)

IJN
===
A6M2
B5N2
D3A1


Restrictions
- Boston IIIs can fly in formation
- TBMs can only use torpedoes
- JU88s can fly in formation and can use bombs or torpedoes
- B5N2s get a second life

Further restrictions will be delinated in the objective orders for each frame.


Victory Conditions

AIR TO AIR
========
5 pts - Single or dual Engine AC with 1 crew
10 pts - Single or double engine AC with 2 crew
15 pts - Double Engine AC with 3+ crew
20 pts - large quad engine AC with 3+ crew

GROUND TARGETS
=============
0.124 = Gun
0.124 = Mannable Gun
6.250 = Ammo Bunker
6.250 = Fuel Bunker
6.250 = Barracks
6.250 = Radar
55.624 = Vehicle Hangar
55.624 = Fighter Hangar
55.624 = Bomber Hangar
6.250 = Town Building
6.250 = Factory at strategic target
1.562 = Truck in convoy
3.124 = Train
40 = Destroyer
80 = Cruiser
160 = Carrier


Arena Settings
- Coral Sea terrain
- Fuel 1.00
- Icons short
- .4 Ack
- Fighter and Bomber warning range 52,000 (about 10 miles)
- Tower range set to 52,000 (for display only to match the above setting)
- Clouds / visibility
Frame 1, 8 miles
Frame 2, 12 miles
Frame 3, 9 miles
- Radar off
- Friendly collisions off
- Enemy collisions on
- Kill shooter off
- Calm winds below 26K ft.
- Time: 11 AM

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