Who says Bombardments are weak?

[Numdydar]

I thought this was so impressive, I thought I would share it [:)]. I had 50% moonlight. Townsville is a lv 7 AF and lv 4 port. The spotter pilot will get a medal out of this one lol.

Night Naval bombardment of Townsville at 92,144 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 65 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 8 destroyed on ground
B-26 Marauder: 22 damaged
B-26 Marauder: 2 destroyed on ground
P-39D Airacobra: 50 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 5 destroyed on ground
P-38F Lightning: 76 damaged
P-38F Lightning: 3 destroyed on ground
Kittyhawk IA: 60 damaged
Kittyhawk IA: 3 destroyed on ground
B-25C Mitchell: 45 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed on ground
C-47 Skytrain: 26 damaged
C-47 Skytrain: 2 destroyed on ground
Catalina I: 7 damaged
Catalina I: 1 destroyed on ground
Wirraway: 21 damaged
Wirraway: 3 destroyed on ground
S.23 Empire: 11 damaged
B-339-23 (PR): 3 damaged
Hudson I: 4 damaged
Hudson I: 1 destroyed on ground

3 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima
BB Hiei
BB Haruna
BB Kongo
CA Kako
CA Furutaka
CA Aoba
CA Kumano
CA Myoko
CA Maya
CA Chikuma

Allied ground losses:
217 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 16 destroyed, 34 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 12 disabled
Guns lost 7 (2 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 17 (10 destroyed, 7 disabled)

Light Industry hits 1
Airbase hits 40
Airbase supply hits 12
Runway hits 100
Port hits 26
Port fuel hits 2
Port supply hits 4

F1M2 Pete acting as spotter for BB Kirishima
BB Kirishima firing at Townsville
BB Hiei firing at Townsville
BB Haruna firing at Townsville
BB Kongo firing at Townsville
CA Kako firing at Townsville
CA Furutaka firing at Townsville
CA Aoba firing at Townsville
CA Kumano firing at Townsville
CA Myoko firing at Townsville
6th RAN Base Force firing at CA Maya
CA Maya firing at 6th RAN Base Force
CA Chikuma firing at Townsville

[JocMeister]

Thats a nice one! Those P38s are going to take some time to repair!

[Lokasenna]

Overstacked?

[tigercub]

Naval bombardment are the way they should be good recon and a spotter..bingo!

Tigercub

[Dobey455]

Way, WAY too many A/C on that field.

[witpqs]

I have found that MASSIVE FOW is often involved in naval bombardments of airfields when it comes to planes destroyed on the ground. Whenever I see really high numbers, they have been just plain false. Hope it's different in your case, of course!

[Numdydar]

It's still a 'feel good' feeling whether it is true or not. If it is written, it must be true right lol. I'd still be happy if this was 50% accurate [:)]

Lokasenna
There is a lot of AV support in the hex since I own Cooktown and he has benn interdicting my supply convoys and bombing troops/AF there. It looks like there are about 11 squardons at Townsville. So I have no idea if the AF was overstacked enough or not to account for an increase in the damage. I did this because my puny one squadron of 32 A3 Zero's at Cooktown was just not cutting it [:(].

[SuluSea]

Hi Numdydar, what was the DL ? I'd bet upwards of 10?

[Numdydar]

The DL was 9/10. I have a recon AC at PM looking at Townsville every day [:)]

However I think it is the spotter planes from the ships that make the biggest difference imho. I have no idea if having a larger DL on a base has that much of an impact on bombardment or not. If someone knows the answer, I'd love to hear it [:)]

[tigercub]

I think DL helps but spotter plane is the main guy! and with high DL you will have a good idea how much damage you have done anyway.

Tigercub

[Numdydar]

Just to let everyone know I ONLY used ONE float plane to spot for the entire TF. So you definitely do not need every ships FP to do spotting. Just one out of the TF will do ya [:)]

Just make sure it is set to Night flying and not day.

[Peever]

How do you use the float planes as spotters? Put them on a recon mission for the intended target?

[Itdepends]

Yes- and unless you've got the TF on cruise speed and timed for a daylight bombardment- you need to set the float planes to night missions. Careful though- set them to night mission first and then recon. They switch to a default/previous mission type when moving from day to night missions.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Itdepends

Yes- and unless you've got the TF on cruise speed and timed for a daylight bombardment- you need to set the float planes to night missions. Careful though- set them to night mission first and then recon. They switch to a default/previous mission type when moving from day to night missions.

Yes, what he said, and I just want to point out that the squadron(s) does not need to have the base set as a recon target. Having no target is just fine, AFAIK. This was said by Michael a long time ago, and I just recently had a bombardment with a float plane group on recon but with no target, and got the '...spotting for...' message during combat.

[Gunner98]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: Itdepends

Yes- and unless you've got the TF on cruise speed and timed for a daylight bombardment- you need to set the float planes to night missions. Careful though- set them to night mission first and then recon. They switch to a default/previous mission type when moving from day to night missions.

Yes, what he said, and I just want to point out that the squadron(s) does not need to have the base set as a recon target. Having no target is just fine, AFAIK. This was said by Michael a long time ago, and I just recently had a bombardment with a float plane group on recon but with no target, and got the '...spotting for...' message during combat.

I can confirm that, night mission, recon, no specific target needed and results go way up. Since I found this out I have Bombardment Sqns of 2 old BBs and a DD escort - 1xBB FP group on Night recon & 50% Search, the other BB day flight 40% search, 40% ASW & 20% rest. Put a TF leader with decent Naval and Land skill and the results are good. I have no idea if the land skill helps - can't hurt. I also think - but don't know for sure - that a high DL will help.

B

[Lifer]

I believe that you are seeing that you damaged a plane 2,3,4 or more times and that planes you destroyed are also counted as being damage one or more times also. I had one of these results against me and the total number of damaged and destroyed far exceeded what I had at the base. Add FOW in there too.

[Barb]

However a plane damaged 10 times could be written off as result of damage... so not so bad anyway ...