Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

Blimps were excellent coastal ASW assets; they could loiter over a spotted sub's location for hours, couldn't be detected by the sub unless it got so close to the surface it could be spotted itself, and carried plenty of ordinance.  Speed wasn't a problem; at 60mph they were almost 10x faster than a submerged sub, and had a great range as well.  Not so good at escorting a convoy due to weather issues, but coastal ASW patrolling was well within their capabilities.

I recall reading a great book called "Aircraft Versus Submarine 1912-1945" by Dr Alfred Pricesimilar that mentioned ASW blimps but described them as being reasonably ineffective due to their slow speed, ie little chance of sucesfully attacking a sub.
BUT just doing a google on blimp and anti submarine reveals heaps of really interesting stuff. on them.
so thanks for the heads up on this one.

Blimp Squadron ZP-14 in Mediterranean Theatre

http://www.warwingsart.com/LTA/portlyautey.html

http://www.warwingsart.com/LTA/zp-14.html

ORIGINAL: Jorm

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

but we have blimps.

[:)]

Blimps ? wow, they were in the pacific ?, did they do any thing useful ?
Didnt one sink a uboat once when it surfaced directly below it ,else they were too slow to be of much use ?.
Interesting

cheers

There were blimp bases at Tillamook, Oregon (nice aviation museum in one of the old blimp hanger, BTW), Moffett Field, California and Tustin, California. The Army also maintained minor blimp facilities in places like Fort Chroncite (now Golden Gate National Seashore) and most of the other major coat artillery facilities (no references immediatly at hand, these are all places I've personally observed the old hangers).

Nope no fire control devices in WITP or AE. This is another aspect that is modeled "more abstractly" rather than "less abstractly".

And there are no sonar devices.

And there are not even any bathothermometer devices!!!

If we ever do a "from scratch" rewrite - some of things things will definitly be on the list (especially sonar) - but for now - for WITP and AE - they are still absent.

Of course as soon as this is done people will get all wound up about modelling layers, knuckles and all manner of propagation effects, plus somebody will insist that their program develops sqs 56 sonars and mk 52 torpedoes in 1944.

ORIGINAL: W T Door
There were blimp bases at Tillamook, Oregon (nice aviation museum in one of the old blimp hanger, BTW), Moffett Field, California and Tustin, California.

And in AE you'll get a Squadron of blimps at each of those three locations.