All that impossible never happened stuff

[spence]

From the TROM of HIJMS AOBA at Combined Fleet

"3 April 1943:
Moewe anchorage. Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortresses" of the Fifth Air Force's 43rd Bomb Group attack moored AOBA. The big bombers skip-bomb from between 75 and 250 feet with delayed-action fused 500-lb. bombs. A direct hit on AOBA explodes two Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes stored aboard and sets the ship afire while the B-17's .50-cal. machine guns strafe her decks. HATSUZUKI assists in fire-fighting. AOBA is flooded and has to be beached to avoid sinking. Destroyer FUMIZUKI is also damaged lightly by a near-miss. The Americans suffer no losses and the 43rd claims two 'probable cruisers' sunk."

Now let's everybody focus on the fact the flyboys made claims that did not turn out to be completely true.

[pad152]

The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor

A group of Japanese H6K4 Mavis float planes flew from Kwajalein to French Frigate Shoals, were refueled by subs and attacked Pearl Harbor at night in Jan. of 1942.

[Yamato hugger]

Back in the 90's I owned a print shop and I had several WWII vets as regular customers. One day me and one of them (he happened to be a "plank owner" of the 7th CB) were talking about some research for a game I was working on and this other guy that just happened to walk in after listening to us for a while said he had an uncle that was a bombadier on a B-17 and got a Navy Cross for sinking a cruiser at Midway. I told him I would look into it.

Turns out that (I dont remember his name now, but he was a USAAF Sgt or Ssg IIRC) this guy was awarded the Navy Cross for a "confirmed" sinking of a Jap CA at Midway. (side note, I believe this was the only Army man that ever received it but I could be mistaken on that). The papers back home published the story and the guy was sent on a bond tour. A few weeks later it was discovered that they had attacked and forced to submerge a USN submarine damaging its radio mast (again, its been a few years so the name escapes me) and they couldnt report what happened until they returned to Pearl. It was all very quietly forgotten.

[spence]

The cruiser (submarine) sunk (submerging) was USS Grayling.


I thought it interesting that the same TROM reports that AOBA took up to 40 6" and 8" shell hits at The Battle of Cape Esperance and managed to steam away from the battle (albeit badly damaged).
But when two of its own torpedos explode it has to be beached to prevent sinking. Incidentally, the damage from the secondary torpedo explosion was apparently so severe that it couldn't be completely repaired and AOBA's top speed was permanently reduced to about 25 kts.

[Richrd]

Wouldn't the skip bombing itself have caused signifigant hull damage?

[Iridium]

ORIGINAL: Richrd

Wouldn't the skip bombing itself have caused signifigant hull damage?

It would have caused some but consider the size of two 1080 pound warheads sitting on Aoba's deck going off compared to a single 500 pounder.

[Dili]

two 1080 pound warheads sitting on Aoba's deck going off compared to a single 500 pounder.

Worse than that. The warhead of a 500lb is 40-50% or total weight for a GP one.

[spence]

The 500 lb bombs used were delay-fuzed. Standard GP had an instantaneous fuze. The bomb that hit Aoba may have penetrated the armor or the shell plating (since the armor didn't extend from keel to main deck). Aoba's didn't have that much armor either since the IJN made an attempt to keep them under the 10000 ton limit.

[Feinder]

Wouldn't the skip bombing itself have caused signifigant hull damage?

 
Not in WitP...[;)]
 
-F-