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It's not only the in-game random number generator that produces freak results... sometimes the Cosmical Random Number Generator also produces completely unexpected outcomes in real life.

So, which battles had freak, unexpected results?

My pick: Midway... if only that search plane had gone out...


Cheers
fbs

History is brokenm LOL
omg we could sell this stuff!!!
Anywho, I just saw a pbem result, a night Bomber attack agaisnt a CV! wow, I forgeotten to change the units to day, they had been making night runs against the Rising son empire at Rabaal.. anyway seemd appropriate.. anyone know did any night air attacks against cv's uccur?

Yes, the early 43 attack against Truk saw a successful night torp attack against a US CV.

 thanks

Midway is good, but how about Nagumo sending the second strike as planned from two carriers, then when the Yorktown group was sighted, sending the reserve planes armed for sea attack on them. When the US strikes come in there would be far less "critical hits".

Image the howls if this ever happened in the game ...


9 August 1944
PB4Y (VB 116) crashes on takeoff from Stickell Field, Eniwetok, and burns amidst the 340 planes in the carrier aircraft replacement pool area; 106 (F6Fs, FMs,SB2Cs, and TBMs) are destroyed

ORIGINAL: fbs


It's not only the in-game random number generator that produces freak results... sometimes the Cosmical Random Number Generator also produces completely unexpected outcomes.

So, which battles have freak, unexpected results?

My pick: Midway... if only that search plane had gone out...


Cheers
fbs

sorry, while I agree that 'history can be stranger than fiction', I don't feel Midway is a good example.

Yamamoto put Nagumo's carriers in a very difficult situation. Nimitz (with the benefit of excellent intel) but Spruance and Fletcher in a very good situation.

Blame often gets placed on a single float plane, but the whole search pattern to the NE was weak because Nagumo did not expect the US CVs to be there--which is why Nimitz had put them there...

While the KB was a suberb offensive weapon, the 4 CVs were very fragile and CAP coordination was rudimentory.

The US pilots and were adequately trained and the SBDs were a very good offensive weapon. Although the US CVs were not well trained in multiple carrier strike coordination, the size of the airgroups were adequate to overwhelm the rudimentory IJN CAP coordinaton even with poorly coordinated strike packages.

Predictable outcome in my book. Luck always plays a role, but remember the USN came very close to not losing a single carrier. It would have been more of a miracle if Nagumo had been able to pull off any sort of victory in the situation in which his boss placed him.

ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace

sorry, while I agree that 'history can be stranger than fiction', I don't feel Midway is a good example.

Alright, then I change my election to the torpedo on Bismarck's rudder. That was like roll 20 twice on d20.

ORIGINAL: fbs

It's not only the in-game random number generator that produces freak results... sometimes the Cosmical Random Number Generator also produces completely unexpected outcomes.

So, which battles had freak, unexpected results?

My pick: Midway... if only that search plane had gone out...

Problem was not a single float plane...entire doctrine was broken, among which was search.

agreed. The 818 and 810 squadrons rolled a "20".

I still argue that Mutsu blowing up at random or a single spread of torpedoes sinking a CV, a DD and damaging a modern BB would cause a revolt on the AE forum if it happened in the game.

Yes I have to agree there; that Midway was more about faulty IJN operational doctrine, than it was about freak results. I have always wonder that if the Japanese could put a perfectly coordinated strike package together from up to six Carriers. Why did they no have any form of coordinated Fighter direction above their Carriers, other than their CAP basically directing itself with dire results.

On another note I find that the Battle of Midway, and the sinking of the German BC Scharnhorst off North Cape are very similar in the way these operations unfolded. Both the IJN and Kriegsmarine were faced with an enemy force from an unexpected quarter, and of an unexpected force compensation. That both Command structures reacted similarity, insofar as they both though the force they were facing was not a threat.

ORIGINAL: freeboy

History is brokenm LOL
omg we could sell this stuff!!!
Anywho, I just saw a pbem result, a night Bomber attack agaisnt a CV! wow, I forgeotten to change the units to day, they had been making night runs against the Rising son empire at Rabaal.. anyway seemd appropriate.. anyone know did any night air attacks against cv's uccur?

Intrepid took a torpedo from a Betty flying at night. I think that was the '43 example posted above.

ORIGINAL: Bradley7735

Intrepid took a torpedo from a Betty flying at night. I think that was the '43 example posted above.

The night of 17 February 1944 an aerial torpedo struck Intrepid's starboard quarter, 15 feet below her waterline, flooding several compartments and jamming her rudder hard to port.

According to some sources, the plane might have been radar-equipped Kate.

I think if this one was replicated - there would be some screeming -

In the last two weeks of May, 1944, [USS] England destroyed six Japanese submarines: I-16, RO-106, RO-104, RO-116, RO-108 and RO-105.

B

Alright, then I change my election to the torpedo on Bismarck's rudder. That was like roll 20 twice on d20.

Dont forget it was from an attack of 5 bi planes in really bad weather. Her rudder/3 shafts layout was a fatal flaw though.

ORIGINAL: DivePac88

Yes I have to agree there; that Midway was more about faulty IJN operational doctrine, than it was about freak results. I have always wonder that if the Japanese could put a perfectly coordinated strike package together from up to six Carriers. Why did they no have any form of coordinated Fighter direction above their Carriers, other than their CAP basically directing itself with dire results.

Bad quality of radio equipment. While its importance was clearly understood as early as 1939, the Japanese industry was simply unable to make radios that were both good and small enough to fit on fighters.

Anyway, by standards of 1942 Japanese fighter direction worked great. And stopping multiple strikes from different directions, coming in the middle of carriers' own strike operations, was a huge problem even for American carrier TFs late in the war. The primary cause of Midway debacle was overconfident operational planning which put KB at a massive disadvantage.

To think of it, RL day-one Japanese attacks were one long string of lucky breaks. Pacific Fleet and AA defenses in PH being in the lowest theoretically possible state of readiness (for example, on December 7th airmen and ground support on Oahu were just given a rest after particularly intensive week-long drills), all early warnings being ignored until it was too late, the raid delay on Philippines actually working in Japanese's favor and so on.

On two occasions ships loading ammunition in the US blew up.  Port Chicago is the better known.  An LST at Pearl harbor blew up while loading ammunition for one of the invasion in 1944.  It took out several other ships nearby.  The Pearl Harbor incident caused the Navy to change their procedures for ammunition handling and loading on invasion ships.

At Midway, the Japanese had stacked the deck against themselves with bad doctrine and bad operational planning. The USN also had a major stroke of luck with two carrier loads of SBDs appearing over the KB at almost the exact same moment from two different directions virtually undetected. At that, Commander Best of VB-6 saved the day by redirecting his vic of SBDs against orders and going after the Akagi while the rest of Enterprise's SBDs went after the Kaga. If Best hadn't done that, the US would have faced the Hiryu and Akagi in the next phase of the battle.

At Midway, the US did have a lot of luck that allowed them to capitalize on Japanese mistakes on a scale almost never seen in naval history. Chances were low that the Japanese were going to win at Midway, but the chances the USN was going to win on that scale was also low.

Bill

How about losing 3 DD's and hundreds of planes to a typhoon?  Is that modeled in the game?

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

Image the howls if this ever happened in the game ...


9 August 1944
PB4Y (VB 116) crashes on takeoff from Stickell Field, Eniwetok, and burns amidst the 340 planes in the carrier aircraft replacement pool area; 106 (F6Fs, FMs,SB2Cs, and TBMs) are destroyed

Probably a 4-5 pages thread? [:D]