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I'm playing a PBEM in which I recently lost 1 carrier and had a couple damaged. The planes from these carriers diverted to nearby land airbases but I'm now left with a large number of "splinters" of air groups.

Some are of a decent size ( 18 or 20 planes) while others are only of 5 to 10 planes. What I'm interested in finding out is if there is a way to build these "splinters" up to full strength squadrons again.

I have the planes in the pool to do so and I remember reading something about rebuilding splintered units but I'm not sure of the precise details. DO I need to move them back to Noumea or am I fine leaving them in forward fields etc etc?



This is a PBEM of scenario 19 IIRC and I've been following a deliberate policy of trying to spark as many air battles as possible ( even at ruinous cost to myself) in order to inflict air crew losses on the Japanese.

It is now 7th July and the Japanese appear to have lost about 140 Zeroes, 150 Kates, 60 Vals and 70 Bettys/Nels. Total Japanese losses are about 475 ( 120 of which were on the ground) while I've lost 575. ( Most of the disparity is taken up by operational losses... It is my 1st PBEM and I've suffered about 120 operational losses vs only 40)


Now, what I'm wondering is if that loss rate ( about 100 fighter pilots and 240 level/dive/torpedo bomber pilots) in 2 months is unsustainable for the Japanese? I know he can make up a lot of these losses with new arrivals BUT how many well-trained pilots does the Japanese player have in reserve? How many do I have to kill before I start seeing low-experience pilots in the front lines?

You have to transfer the splinter sqdn's back to their 'mother group' - if this doesn't exist, you can't rebuild them.
They will not receive reinforcement pilots or upgrade to new ac models either, so you have to use them as smaller units or merge them with understrength sqdn's equipped with similar ac.

Japanese pilot quality will suffer immediately when their initial airgroups take heavy losses. They start with almost 'elite' pilots, but have to replace these one with less quality ones. After the latter pool is spent, quality will sink; 60-50-40-30-20-15 [:'(] You'll notice when Jap op losses becomes heavier - that is a good indicator of diminishing aircrew quality!

I'm not sure how many replacement pilots Japan got in scen 19, but they receive better replacements than in the historical scenarios. So while the historical replacement pilots seldom were better than 50-60 exp, the ones received in scen 19 are more numerous and of a better brand, so it will take longer before you notice the deterioration in pilot skills.

Hi,

'splinter' air squadrons as far as i know do not recieve replacements , if the parent squadron servived then the splinter part should automatically try to rejoin. You may have to help by bringing the CV into transfer range.
If the parent squadron was destroyed when the CV was sunk , it should appear in the reinforcements list , again once it arrives placing both 'splinter' and parent unit at the same base they should combine.

Cheers

Ah ok, I've just amalgamated the couple of "splinters" and will await the return of those squadrons ( they were on the carriers sent back to Pearl).


Question: I'm having trouble intercepting enemy raids on Luganville etc... I have surface combat TFs out at sea with react on... Are there any other special circumstances I need to create to get these TFs to react?

Should they be stationary at all times, I have been moving them around... I'd really like to start crippling enemy CAs in range of my LBA instead of having to always fight on his turf.

The same thing happens in AI mode as well. Prior to sending the Lexington back to Pearl for repairs, I switched VF-3 and VF-2 around (VF-2 should be on the Lex and VF-3 should be on the Sara). I then sent the Sara TF out on patrol but had trouble keeping VF-3 on board. Somehow wound up with a splintered unit, 1/VF-3 with F4Fs at Luganville. A few turns later 1/VF-3 had split into 1/VF-3 with 36 F4Us and 2/VF-3 with 24 F4Fs while VF-3 had 36 F4Fs on the Sara. About two turns later I noticed both splintered units were equipped with 36 F4Us each and VF-3 on the Sara still had F4Fs. On the last turn of the night, 2/VF-3 reverted back to F4Fs, but with only 9 a/c while 1/VF-3 had 62 F4Us, man, I so confused!
I've also got two split B-26 units which have B-25s in their split off units.

Re- surface combat TF's ,

I usually position them within 5 hex's of the base I want to protect, usually on the opposite side to the enemies axis of advance and ensure an aggresive commander is assigned to the TF.