Discussion of Developer Diary #02

[JFM]

2 hours ago, Jason_Williams said:

 

@Amiral Crapaud Which ship was hit and by what squadron? I don't recall.

Jason

IIRC a PBY hit an invasion fleet transport in a night attack. 

[Lusekofte]

Great DD. 

[CPT Crunch]

Just over 80% of the Navy's inventory of torpedoes were propositioned for war readiness at Cavite Naval base, in Manila..... and they're gone.   Why not one pilot in any carrier group had even had a practice run or actual loaded carrier take off prior to go time during Midway, they weren't even sure a Devastator could do it, no one in the group had done one before, let alone know the real parameters for effective employment.

[kissTheSky]

Thanks!

[Boom]

Wonderful work on the F4F. Great to see it taking shape. 

[Amiral Crapaud]

7 hours ago, JFM said:

IIRC a PBY hit an invasion fleet transport in a night attack. 

Aye! @Jason_Williams as what can probably be best described as a feat akin a cosmic pendant to the inability of waves of dedicated torpedo aircraft using doctrine to score a single hit, PBYs rigged with Mk13 torpedoes attacked the invasion fleet at night during a nerve-cracking mission, finding their target in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles away from Midway, slipped one into tanker Akebono Maru and found their way back home ^^

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Midway_PBY_torpedo_attack_pilots_in_June_1942.jpg

Quote

The U.S. Navy pilots of the four Consolidated PBY-5A Catalinas of Patrol Squadron 24 (VP-24) and VP-51 that flew the torpedo attack mission against the Japanese fleet's Midway Occupation Force during the night of 3-4 June 1942.
Those present are (left to right): Lieutentant (Junior Grade) Douglas C. Davis, of VP-24; Ensign Allan Rothenberg, of VP-51; Lieutenant William L. Richards, Executive Officer of Patrol Squadron 44 (VP-44), who flew in a VP-24 aircraft on this mission; and Ensign Gaylord D. Propst, of VP-24.

Richards hit the Japanese oil tanker Akebono Maru, flying PBY "24-P-12". This was the only successful air-launched torpedo attack by the U.S. during the entire Battle of Midway.

TROM entry at Combinedfleet (Japanese PoV)

Quote

4 June 1942:
About 2354 (JST), the convoy is attacked by four torpedo-carrying Consolidated PBY-5A "Catalina" amphibious patrol planes of Patrol Squadron 24 from Midway. Lt William L. Richards, the flight leader of the mission, scores a hit on AKEBONO MARU's bow with an obsolete Mark-XIII Mod 1 torpedo at 26-34N, 174-14W. The torpedo hit detonates AKEBONO MARU's AA shell magazine and tears a 10-meter long gash in her side. Ten crewmen are KIA and 13 wounded. [2]

[2] Some sources claim the hit was made by Ensign Gaylord Propst's PBY.

The coordinates logged by the Japanese ship puts it at 528 miles away from Midway, just to give an idea of the needle in the haystack part of the adventure

Edited September 1, 2023 by Amiral Crapaud

[Amiral Crapaud]

11 hours ago, CPT Crunch said:

Just over 80% of the Navy's inventory of torpedoes were propositioned for war readiness at Cavite Naval base, in Manila..... and they're gone.   Why not one pilot in any carrier group had even had a practice run or actual loaded carrier take off prior to go time during Midway, they weren't even sure a Devastator could do it, no one in the group had done one before, let alone know the real parameters for effective employment.

That was true of Hornet, but both Enterprise and Yorktown had had their fair share of action - Yorktown in particular used torpedoes at Tulagi and Coral sea (with some success, but these were possibly from the pre-war Mod 0 stocks that might have suffered from less issues than the Mod 1 used at Midway)

As for the parameters for efficient deployment, these were at any rate hampered by doctrine, which last time I checked asked of US pilots drop distances which would have made their IJN counterparts feel ashamed of themselves, to be honest ^^

[Wolf_Harms]

The works on the "Wildcat" look great - the "interior" of the backfolding wing is just sweet to see in such detail! Carry on & good luck!

[ZachariasX]

Another US torpedo that didn't really torpedo, the Mark 14:

A presentation by someone who knows about buoyant things.

[Mission_bug]

I'm late again, not to worry though.

Amazing detail in the models, they look superb, great to see these coming together.

Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[javelina]

thanks for the DD!

[IckyAtlas]

Excellent. Finally torpedoes. Now we need the planes to launch them 🙂 

Thumbs up to the new dev team.

[Feldgrün]

I can't help but wonder how similar this sims Wildcat will be to the Martlet in IL2 CloD/DW. I love flying that plane. Here I painted it as a Wildcat as I chase a He-111 over the English Channel.

[MustangMike]

Very excited!!!! Love love love me some Wildcats and I can't wait to land one on a carrier in VR. 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

@Jason_Williams I see in the Wildcat renders that the internal structure is modeled with pretty high detail. Is the goal here to have that become visible when the aircraft gets some holes from battle damage?

If so, that's very cool.

[Ribbon]

Cant wait to drop them torpedos from Devastator and Kate second before being shot down😄

[Trooper117]

4 hours ago, Ribbon said:

Cant wait to drop them torpedos from Devastator and Kate second before being shot down

At least that would be historically accurate...

[Ribbon]

2 hours ago, Trooper117 said:

At least that would be historically accurate...

One thing i wish to be gamey....after being shot down to stay in game as a ghost to see will torp hit the target

[Calos_01]

3 hours ago, Ribbon said:

One thing i wish to be gamey....after being shot down to stay in game as a ghost to see will torp hit the target

It’s not necessarily gamey. Well there are indeed various theories but in fact none of us knows exactly what happens after death. 🙂

[Feldgrün]

5 hours ago, Ribbon said:

One thing i wish to be gamey....after being shot down to stay in game as a ghost to see will torp hit the target

Yes, that would also be my wish. More like IL2 CloW/DS than IL2 GB (where the mission ends with your death and you never see if the planes you shot up end up crashing).

[Jason_Williams]

15 hours ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

@Jason_Williams I see in the Wildcat renders that the internal structure is modeled with pretty high detail. Is the goal here to have that become visible when the aircraft gets some holes from battle damage?

If so, that's very cool.

Yes of course.

Jason

 

 

[Blooddawn1942]

Glorious DD! 

Looking so much forward to the Wildcat. Just the Zeke and the Wildcat over a remote generic little island would keep me busy for Month! 🙂

Good times ahead! 

[BlitzPig_EL]

Which begs the question, what will the mission builder tools be like?

[Jason_Williams]

8 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Which begs the question, what will the mission builder tools be like?

We have a long way to go before that is answered. Obviously though, I want to it to be powerful yet easy to use.

Jason

[PikeStance]

Awesome stuff... keep pushing ;)