ground attacks at 100 feet

[AirGriff]

Does anybody do this, and if so, what are the results? Just wondering if fighter bombers, or other aircraft with cannons and heavy armament will do any appreciable damage or disruption to lcu's in AE. Thanks.

[Mike Solli]

I spent a couple of days trying to dispatch some PT boats in Manila Harbor using Zeros at 100 ft. on naval attack (late Dec 41).  They were pretty much ineffective.  The few 7.7mm and 20mm hits caused no appreciable damage.  Maybe FOW.  *Shrug*
 
I know this isn't a ground attack.  Just thought I'd share.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I spent a couple of days trying to dispatch some PT boats in Manila Harbor using Zeros at 100 ft. on naval attack (late Dec 41).  They were pretty much ineffective.  The few 7.7mm and 20mm hits caused no appreciable damage.  Maybe FOW.  *Shrug*

I know this isn't a ground attack.  Just thought I'd share.

I have been on the recieveing end of this, and can only agree with you on this one. Usually 2-3 hits were scored on each PT, resulting in 20-30 sys dmg which repairs in a few days anyway.

[USSAmerica]

P-39's are great for barge busting with their cannon.  Oh, wait, only the Good Guys get those toys.  [:'(]

Nothing to do with ground attack, of course.  [:D]

[LoBaron]

Naval attack, yes, sometimes.
Sweep, yes, depends on AAA concentration and fighter opposition.
Ground attack, no. You get the worst of AAA, level bombers get a penalty below 5k and for divebombers its useless anyway.

[NormS3]

When I played the Guadalcanal campaign, I used the P39s at that height on the foces trying at Port Morsby, it might have been fog of war, but my Aussie brigade easily repulsed the japanese force by itself after about a week of the attacks. On the bad side, the Zeros mauled the ground attackers at the end of the week.

[sven6345789]

would only use it for fighter bombers or planes with heavy guns (p-39 is a perfect example); get ready for high losses in planes and a fast drop in moral though

[Halsey]

Against LCU's outside a base hex is fine.

It's a definite no, if they are in a base.

[Barb]

Against LCU in bases - even infantry squads fire up to 2000 ft. While the AA fire is "light" it is very "dense". And whan you add and Base force with flak, its certainly a NO-GO for light, unarmored planes. Even planes like P-39s, A-20s, B-25s, P-47s will get shot up really badly.

I run a test on this in WITP, but I presume nothing significant was changed in AE.

[AirGriff]

This is what I figured. Too bad. You'd think a proper fighter bomber would have some appreciable disruption on strafing attacks.

[PresterJohn001]

Ive had some decent airbase damage using Oscars against a lightly defended airbase (with air superioritory) at 100. This was after i'd noted the light AA.

[xj900uk]

US fighter escorts in Germany were often given 'free chase' after their charges had dropped their loads and were hightailing it.  this meant they could come down on the deck and shoot up everything they could see,  the P47 with it's 8 50's was in particular very useful at straffing targets of opportunity.
Given the lack of viable targets outside of bases in the Pacific War, don't exactly know how useful this tactic was in the Far East...

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I spent a couple of days trying to dispatch some PT boats in Manila Harbor using Zeros at 100 ft. on naval attack (late Dec 41).  They were pretty much ineffective.  The few 7.7mm and 20mm hits caused no appreciable damage.  Maybe FOW.  *Shrug*

I know this isn't a ground attack.  Just thought I'd share.

it´s no FOW, from my experience the PTs don´t take any notable damage. Which is another of the problems that still existed in WITP. Aircraft MGs of for example cal.50 do no real damage but the same gun on a PT can shoot up a DD... no idea why but that´s how it is. 20mm cannons on ac, no damage to ships, 20mm cannons on ships chew up the enemy at close range. [&:]

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: terje439

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

I spent a couple of days trying to dispatch some PT boats in Manila Harbor using Zeros at 100 ft. on naval attack (late Dec 41).  They were pretty much ineffective.  The few 7.7mm and 20mm hits caused no appreciable damage.  Maybe FOW.  *Shrug*

I know this isn't a ground attack.  Just thought I'd share.

I have been on the recieveing end of this, and can only agree with you on this one. Usually 2-3 hits were scored on each PT, resulting in 20-30 sys dmg which repairs in a few days anyway.

which is far more damage than I have ever seen so far and if 3 hits cause 30 sys damage on a PT than it´s not bad at all IMO. You shouldn´t sink a PT with 3x20mm cannon shells. You can´t take down an Allied bomber with 3 20mm hits, so I doubt you should sink a floating PT.

[AirGriff]

I'm admittedly no expert, so I will naturally defer to the more learned on this forum, but I see all that footage of Corsairs and such working over positions in the war and wonder why they don't have more effect in the game. Maybe I'm not using them right. The ground attack missions with FB's above 100' don't have much effect either, in my experience (though most of that experience is based on WitP, so maybe AE is different).

[John Lansford]

For several turns I forgot I had a squadron of A-20's at Lunga set for 100' (naval attack mission) and switched them to ground attack vs some troops still on Tulagi.  Every time they attacked, I saw a "A-20 strafing" report but no bombs were dropped, and the combat reports showed very light casualties for a lot of shot up bombers.

[mgoldstein]

I'd like to see this problem addressed. I have also observed boat battles at night where .50 machine guns cause fires, explosions, and engine damage. But my numerous attempts at strafing fat, slow merchant ships usually results in no hits or just a handful that don't appear to cause any significant damage. These results are typical, even when the merchant ships are caught unloading cargo, even when I'm attacking with a dozen or more planes, even when the attacking aircraft are fighters whose pilots have high strafing skill, high morale, low fatigue, etc. The game mechanics just seem broken.

[AirGriff]

Well, we're kind of getting away from the original subject of ground attacks at 100', but yeah, I agree the strafes are a bit weak on nav attack, too. In WitP, I did some testing and found that .50 cals or better wouldn't do much damage to the ships themselves, but would tear up the cargo rather nicely--can't remember the exact stats, but I know a half dozen or more hits could eliminate close to 50% of the cargo (supply points in the testing). I think this is appropriate concerning ships. You'd think barges and pt's would suffer a good amount of damage. Haven't tested all that extensively on this in AE, but my initial findings were that the strafes don't do much to the ship or the cargo in AE. It certainly bears more attention.

I'd like to see FB's more effective in general--both in cargo/barge damage, and at least able to inflict a little more disruption in ground attacks. The trick, of course, is making them a little more effective but not turning them into modern A-10's or the like.

[jomni]

Strafing an ammo ship will make it explode right?
There should be exposed ammo crates one way or another.