Matrix Games Forums

Yes i made this question while ago and was surprised to discover that several japanese AV's had catapults.

The fact is that the game has a bias towards floatplanes. Specially those submarine based ones.
Game also should impose a speed penalty when they are employed.

ORIGINAL: wdolson

I stand corrected about the catapults. Though I don't know of any Japanese ship using float fighters. Pete's aren't really float fighters. They are recon planes that sometimes flew CAP.

Bill

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Not sure about that.

"14 September 1942:
Guadalcanal. During an attempt to retake Henderson Field, the R-Area Air Force provides air support. The tenders CHITOSE and KAMIKAWA, SANYO and SANUKI MARUs launch 19 F1M2s, each armed with 60-kilogram bombs, escorted by two of KAMIKAWA MARU's A6M2-N Rufes. At 1730, near Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, Gruman F4F-4 “Wildcats” intercepts the Rufes. "

Not clear though whether they were being operated from anchorage or at sea. The use of only 2 of the 11 carried Rufes does suggest they were launched from the two catapults.

This must be the big problem with CAP or strikes launched: you can only catapult two planes at a time and, presumably, it takes a while to get the next pair of planes onto the catapults and launched.

Upon some reading, it does appear the Kamikawa Maru deployed two Rufes for a short while and a couple of other ships carried some Rufes for a short period. It doesn't look like they were used all that much and I don't see if they were ever launched while underway. While those AVs had catapults, I don't know if they had the towed skids for underway recovery. I know American warships had the skids, and I assume Japanese warships did too.

Bill

I don't know about you guys, but when I read threads like this (and the countless others like it), I realize just how much I've learned about WWII history, tactics and equipment as a result of playing this game and reading the forum. So much so that I think Matrix should contact a few major universities around the globe and propose that all AE forumites with more than 1000 posts should be granted an honorary PhD in history from the school closest to their hometown. I think I'd be the world's only long-eared, hockey-playing cartoon character with a doctorate.