WITP Book' A little spare time.. the next Hibiki?

[Rising-Sun]

Heh i wanted to do something like this when this game first release and the book would be use as a reference. Getting all that details put together will take time and need to find a publisher have the book publish and wont be cheap either. Good luck with your project

[Commander Stormwolf]

A primary component in Japanese strategy was the concept of land-based torpedo planes.
The concept being to strike at the allied battleships and carriers from a range
that no retalliation could be made.

So fundamental to this strategy was the torpedo plane, that a separate command was formed.

The torpedo command was given control over long-range reconnaissance planes, and escorts to support
the strikes.

Two divisions of Reisen IIb fighters were allocated, totalling 162 units.
There were 226 Rikko II (Nell), 137 Hamaki I (Betty), 69 Taitei IV (Mavis) and 2 Seiku I (Emily) torpedo planes
in service on the day the war broke out.

There were also 188 Type 97 (Babs) land-based recon planes attached to the torpedo command to provide naval
search. These were selected because of their superior speed and that was considered preferable to
short range floatplanes or flying boats.

[Commander Stormwolf]

The war in china had been instrumental to facilitating the gains of pilot experience
in the japanese air forces. The chinese air force was kept small due to repetitive losses, despite
acquiring large numbers of foreign planes from the soviet union and the western allies.

After two years of fighting, most japanese fighter pilots would have engaged in a number of battles
and many had 500 or more hours of flight experience. This was a stark contrast to the poor quality of their planes,
that is by european standards.

The bomber pilots were even more experienced. Chinese anti-aircraft defences were generally ineffective,
and chinese ground forces were bombed and strafed with near impunity. There formed a large corps of experienced
bomber pilots whose expertise was once again contrasted by the obsolescent nature of their equipment.

On the eve of the war, 300 of the best bomber pilots had been stationed at Takao on formosa.
At their disposal were 288 Juhbaku (Sally) medium bombers. Their task was a special one. These pilots
were not to fight a prolonged attritional campaign but rather to perform a single mission against
the ports at Manila and cause the destruction of the allied submarine fleet in the harbor.

After the mission, the planes would be surrendered to other pilots and the 300 would be kept in reserve
to form the nexus of the strategic bombing corps, to be re-equipped with heavy bombers as they were developed.

[Commander Stormwolf]

To achieve air supremacy above the phillipines, the tactical command was assembled on Formosa.
89 Hayabusa I (Oscar) fighters, 9 Shoki I (Tojo) fighters, 10 Toryu II (Nick), and 164 Sokei (Lily).
These were the forces allocated to cause the reduction of Clark Field and the surrounding aerodromes.

Despite their superior training, there was anxiety among the airmen of the J1 fighter division.
What the Hurricane was to the Spitfire, the Hayabusa was to the Reisen. Poor aerodynamics
had caused a retardation of speed. When equally loaded with fuel and with the 20mm guns removed,
the Reisen was 40mph faster than the Hayabusa and had the same wing loading.

The Hayabusa was detested by many of its pilots, who were eagerly awaiting conversion to the Reisen,
specifically the new short-range dogfighter variants being considered, that promised even more maneouverability.

Others awaited the new inline engined designs that promised speed, heavy firepower, and armor protection.

[Commander Stormwolf]

There were still other planes in the Japanese inventory.
One of the best examples was the Shiitei II (Dinah) high speed reconnaissance plane, of which only 24 examples existed.

As the war broke out, efforts were being made to convert the design into a bomber and it was renamed 'Ginga'

This was done after the lessons learned from the war in europe. Japanese observers were appalled by the heavy losses
suffered by the luftwaffe among their medium bomber units. There had been a time when it was believed "the bomber wil always get through"
since the twin engined designs of the early 1930s such as the SB-2 were faster than the fighters opposing them.
Even in china, the Sokei (Lily) bomber was almost immune to interception by the I-15 fighters of the chinese air force.
In the age of the inline engined fighter, this was no longer possible.

There existed only two possible answers to overcome these calamities, one was to have a high-speed bomber capable of speeds greater than
the fighters, using high powered engines and a minimum of weight. The other possibility was large, heavily protected bombers that were capable of
protecting themselves, in concert with fighter escorts and heavy defensive armament.

It was hoped the Ginga would be able to replace the Hamaki and Rikko in the torpedo bomber role, but in its current form it was devoid of
defensive armament, and most importantly range. Nevertheless, the resources were allocated to Tomio Kubo at the Mitsubishi bomber team and
Honjo's team was made subbordinate, development of the Hamaki and Rikko variants being cancelled.

[Commander Stormwolf]

Japanese aviation personnel were a paradox. There were the tradionalist, conservative clique
that were in favor of light, maneouverable dogfighters, and other radical elements in favor
of unorthodox concepts, in hopes of overcoming the numerical disadvantage that would be faced.

For some time, experiments had been performed with submarine-launched floatplanes.
There were several submarines in the japanese fleet capable of deploying these aircraft
for patrols and spotting. 16 of the Yokosuka submarine floatplane (Glen) were in service at the
outbreak of the war. The minister of aviation had not been oblivious to these developments,
and both Aichi and Yokosuka were handed a set of secret first priority specifications for the development
of this concept. To what end? only time would tell.

[Commander Stormwolf]

Sitting off the shores of Yokosuka naval base was a small group of Type 98 (Dave) floatplanes.
One of the silver biplanes flew overhead the lagoon and dropped a pair of metal barrels at a buoy being towed by a patrol craft.
It was the beginning of the anti-submarine warfare program.

The effects of the submarine had been demonstrated during the war in europe, already the british battleship Royal Oak had been sunk
in its harbor by a german submarine a month after the start of hostilities. A massive ASW corps had been envisaged by the air ministry,
intent on protecting its supply lines. The design best suited to fighting submarines was still in question.

Once the floatplane had dropped its barrels, it landed on the water. The small biplane then struck the next wave, toppled over and sank.

[Commander Stormwolf]

There were 186 observation seaplanes in the japanese arsenal.
These were to be used for artillery spotting for naval warships.
They were seized by the new air ministry and put to another use.

New cadets were put into these planes and being told "here is your fighter"
There was some confusion, as it was assumed they would begin operational
training on the Type 97 fixed undercarriage plane.

Why learn to fly a fighter with a float? Did it not reduce the performance by 20%?
Furthermore training was divided both into dogfights and the interception of flying boats and patrol planes.
Why was this being done? Clearly there was some larger scheme at hand.

[Commander Stormwolf]

Perhaps the most radical of all measures was the indication that
the light bomber force would not be utilized in the direct army support role.

Members of the army had objected to this radical change in doctrine.
The light bombers were to be used as a training platform for level bomber pilots.
There were 562 of them in the inventory, and they would mean significantly
fewer casualties for the ground forces if they were employed.

Furthermore, on Dec 7 1941, the day the war began, the order was given to cancel
the production of most of the light bombers to allow more engines for fighters.

[Commander Stormwolf]

The final component of the japanese air force was the transport units.
These could be used to deliver supplies to forward bases, and drop parachutists behind enemy lines.
The best of these was the Showa II transport (Tabby), a copy of the Douglas DC-3 transport,
another example of japan's skill at replicating foreign designs.

[Commander Stormwolf]

Chapter 3: a race to put up numbers

It was believed that it would take 3 months to consolidate the resource areas
and a similar amount of time for a significant counter-attack to be made by the USN

Japanese aviation industry was being re-organized, however significant time was required
for the expansion of factory facilities, jigs, and tooling. The maximum practical rate of expansion
was estimated at a poor one hundred engines per month, much slower than the allies.

At the start of the war, Japan was producing approximately 700 aviation engines per month.
There were also several obsolete engine types in the stockpiles.

The following production objectives were set to be achieved by march 1942.

These included a monthly production rate of the following:

200 Reisen carrier fighters
100 Shoki Interceptors


50 Kankoh Torpedo planes
50 Dive bombers and floatplanes
50 light bombers

100 twin-engined bombers
50 flying boats

[Commander Stormwolf]

Twelve. This was the number of major design teams available to the empire of japan.
After the air forces had been unified, the ministry of airpower had been developed and
given significant authority. Several radical elements had been allowed to infiltrate.

The orders were given to the design teams, and all other projects were to be cancelled immediately.
It appeared to some that the fate of japan's airpower was now in the hands of one sadistic,
megalomaniacal demigogue.

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Mitsubishi Fighter Design team, under Jiro Horikoshi

First priority: Reisen II airframe to the parameters of the short-range dogfighter suitable for carrier use

Second priority: Reisen III airframe into a long-range escort

Third priority: modification of Reisen airframe to accept new generation small diameter radial engines

After being pressured to develop the Raiden interceptor, Horikoshi was now being told to put this on hold
and also to neglect the development of the next generation carrier fighter. The air ministry was putting
all its faith in the Reisen.

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Nakajima Fighter Design Team, under Yasushi Koyama

First priority: adaptation of 1530hp Ha-32-12 radial to Shoki interceptor

Second priority: adaptation of 1850hp Ha-32-21 radial to Shoki interceptor

Third priority: development of next generation fighter

A major objective of the fighter arm was the expedient production of an effective interceptor
capable of defending the oilfields that were to be captured by the japanese advance.

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Kawasaki team, under Takeo Doi

1) Rapid development of the Hien inline engine fighter with high performance

2) Next generation inline engine fighter design

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Hitachi team

1) Rapid reverse-engineering of Heinkel-100 fighter

2) Acquisition of new licenses for german or italian designs

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Aichi team

1) Advanced seaplane with small diameter

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Yokosuka team

2) Advanced seaplane with small diameter

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Mitsubishi Bmr team under Tomio Kubo

1) Adding Type 100 Shiitei with a torpedo capability

2) Development of next generation high speed Bmr

[Commander Stormwolf]

To the Nakajima Bmr team

The Nakajima company as a whole had been embarassed by the failiures of the Shinzan 4-Engined Bmr
and the failiure of the Tenzan to reach prouction, much the result of the faults of the engine, the 1870hp mamoru.
The Nakajima company had been told to establish plans for the prouction of carrier based torpedo planes
at a rate of 50 per month, in a pre-planned sequence.

1) Kankoh I with obsolete hikari engines in stock
2) Kankoh III with mitsubishi Ha-33 engines
3) Tenzan II with mitsubishi Ha-32-21
4) next generation carrier torpedo plane