My Wildcats upgraded to Corsairs

[Shaggy]

Its early Aug 1943 in a scenerio Im playing. All my carriers were docked, to get their Wildcats upgraded to Hellcats amoung other reasons. All my Wildcat units had upgraded to Hellcats except VF-2, a 36 plane unit on the Saratoga.

I wanted to send the Saratoga out shortly and I had a 24 plane Hellcat unit (VF-38) which had arrived as reinforcements. I decided that Id rather have Hellcats on Saratoga even if it ment fewer planes, so I transfered VF-2 to a shore base to await upgrade and VF-38 to Saratoga.

2 turns later I noticed that VF-2 was now flying Corsairs. I double checked the UV upgrade path list I have and it lists the Wildcats as upgrading to Hellcats.

At the time I had ony a few Hellcats in the pool but lots of Corsairs, more then enough to cover the 36 planes in VF-2. But Id had enough Corsairs in the pool to cover all my Wildcat units for a while and none had changed to Corsairs until I transfored VF-2 to shore. All my other Wildcat units had been constantly on carriers. So does the upgrade path for Wildcats change depending on their being based of a carrier or on shore?

A second question: are there any penalties for using Corsairs from carriers in '43? The rules say they can fly off of carriers, but I know the USN had some trouble operating Corsairs from carriers when they first came out. As I recall the Corsairs wernt used for combat operations from Carriers until 1944 (after the Brits had worked out the bugs).

[sparks]

If the BuAir boys say that you can have them, and if they are already in squadron service, stick those birds on the roof and let'em kick it. The Brits were doing it before some of those bureaucrats in the Navy Office finally got the anchors out of their hip pockets and the sand out of their heads. Wonder how much Uncle Roy paid the Air Chief anyway.

[jcjordan]

In my experiences the is no penalty in using them, I regularly used them on the CVE's by tranferring a VMF unit to it. As to why it switched not sure unless the program considered it a land based air unit so it followed the path that land based VMF units follow.

[RevRick]

earlier, he said. Flew both Wildcats and Corsairs in SoPAC in '43.

Personally, if 3-4 G4Ms escorted by A6M2s and A6M3s can fly into an roughly equally number CAP protected base and get three to four torpedo hits on ships at dock in port (a rather dubious proposition at best, IMO), or several 7-14 G4M's can fly to Cairns or Townsville, elude the CAP flying at 6Kft, and then sink ships in harbor (a downright regular event in my games) then the USN ought to be able to use F4U's if the game permits it. Matter of fact, if those things can happen, then I think the Gyrenes ought to have a chance to fly them earlier than they did, because the beast went into production long before it shows up in the game - somewhere around October 42 IIRC (also a dubious proposition). Turnabout is fair play in this case.

[Shaggy]

Originaly posted by jcjordan
In my experiences the is no penalty in using them, I regularly used them on the CVE's by tranferring a VMF unit to it.

No problems using them, I was quite pleased with the results . I am preparing for an invasion of Bougainville and wanted to hit Rabaul to put a dent in the Jap air power and also hit some surface combat TFs Id seen comeing in and out of Rabaul. I had a P38 escorted B17 raid hit the Rabaul airfield while my carriers moved up to hit the ships. The Rabaul raid was supposed to go 1 day before the CVs got into range, but weather interfeared so they got a couple of strikes on my TFs, but the Corsairs anf Hellcats did a fine job of cap:

I was expecting more cap at Rabaul, intel put the # of fighters at 130. So I used every P38 I could.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/19/43

Air attack on Rabaul , at 21,28

Japanese aircraft
A6M2-N Rufe x 3
A6M5-B Zeke x 8
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 6
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 14

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 136
B-17E Fortress x 69

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2-N Rufe x 1 destroyed
A6M5-B Zeke x 6 destroyed
A6M5-B Zeke x 2 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 5 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 1 damaged
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 11 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 6 damaged
Ki-21 Sally x 2 destroyed
Ki-46 Dinah x 2 destroyed
Ki-46 Dinah x 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning x 6 damaged

1LT J. Jackson of 41st FS is credited with kill number 3

LT J.Hagiri of FF2/801st Chutai is KILLED

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 306
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 32
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 102
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Rabaul at 21,28

Japanese aircraft
A6M5-B Zeke x 2

Allied aircraft
TBF Avenger x 9

no losses

Allied aircraft losses
TBF Avenger x 1 destroyed
TBF Avenger x 8 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Ashigara


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Bonis at 26,31

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 25
SBD Dauntless x 13

Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless x 1 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Suzuya, on fire, heavy damage
CL Abukuma
CA Chokai


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Bonis at 26,31

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 8
SBD Dauntless x 30
TBF Avenger x 18

Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless x 1 damaged
TBF Avenger x 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Nagatsuki, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Chokai
CA Atago, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Abukuma, Bomb hits 1
CA Suzuya, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Bonis at 26,31

Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 13

no losses

Japanese Ships
CA Atago, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 22,34

Japanese aircraft
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 4
Ki-48 Lily x 6

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 30
F4U-1 Corsair x 20

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 4 destroyed
Ki-48 Lily x 6 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat x 1 damaged

LTJG J. Wolf of VF-2 is credited with kill number 2

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 22,34

Japanese aircraft
D3A Val x 18
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 3
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 14
Ki-21 Sally x 11
Ki-48 Lily x 3

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 30
F4U-1 Corsair x 20

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val x 16 destroyed
D3A Val x 2 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 1 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 15 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 1 damaged
Ki-21 Sally x 6 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally x 2 damaged
Ki-48 Lily x 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat x 2 destroyed
F6F Hellcat x 6 damaged
F4U-1 Corsair x 1 damaged

FO M.Sparks of 896 Sqn is credited with kill number 5

LCDR E.Adams of VF-27 bails out and is CAPTURED

Allied Ships
CA Shropshire, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVL Princeton

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The CA Suzuya was sunk (it had been damaged the day before by SBDs off of Villa). Im hopeful the CA Atago will sink. My CA Shropshire is not hit too bad and is in no danger of sinking.

My intel report put the losses as: Air to Air: Allied: 3 Jap: 61
Destroyed/Field: Allied: 0 Jap: 8
Destroyed/Flack Allied: 2 Jap: 6
Operational: Allied 4 Jap 3

78 to 9 in my favor. All in all Id say a good days work :p