SALUTE!

The results of Frame 4 were excellent.  We finished off 7Car and damaged the carrier at 4Car severely (it will start Frame 5 with 14 hits).  At the same time, we kept ESSEX (at 3Kubo) at 100%.

My friends, despite our success in frames 3 and 4, the U.S. Forces will NOT be able to win this battle.  Consider that to win, we would have to: A. Finish off the carrier that was at 4Car.  B. Find and kill the remaining untouched IJN carrier.  C. Kill AGAIN 6Car or 7Car (you have to destroy a carrier TWICE for it to be removed from the scenario). and D. Prevent 3Kubo from being sunk.

We have to be realistic.  In our best frame (4) we still only got 10 (out of 32) TBFs to target.  And that under the cover of 1/2 visibility ranges.  The visibility in frame 5 will be full, weather will be clear!  To win, we would have to get 15 TBFs to target with minimal escort, as we would need many defenders to prevent the sinking of ESSEX.  Please note that the IJN has Kamikazes in this frame, these aircraft count as 6 bombs if they hit the target.  4 of these are enough to sink a carrier.  Honestly, I don't think that we'll be able to stop them!  Not in RR where the IJN pilots don't have to worry about compressing and/or ripping off their wings in a power dive.

To try and defend ESSEX is, imho virtually futile.  Jordi is a very smart opponent, he's going to throw everything at ESSEX.  Even if we held all of our F4Us and F6Fs back to defend, some of the Kamikazes would get through, and then a few Vals at target is all the Japanese would need.

This brings me to our plan.  We will NOT defend our carriers AT ALL!  We will be doing 100% attack with the F4Us running recon and sweeps and the F6Fs and F4Fs doing close support.  Our goal?  Sink the 2 remaining mobile carriers.  If we do this, the IJN will not have any mobile carriers so no matter what they do to our carriers on the east side of the ocean, they will not be able to win.  See the rules.  To win, a side must have one more moveable carrier than their opponent.

This is a desperate plans, but as Lemur (VF-18B) reminds me: NO GUTS NO GLORY!

Thus I am committing the US Forces to fight for the draw!  Considering the setup of this situation, and the quality of our opponents, a draw will be an excellent result for the US!

The ESSEX will move to 4Kubo to bring us closer to the enemy.  Wasp's aircraft will take off from 2Kubo.

Here are your orders:

Our forces will be split into the following groups:

ALBATROSS (VF-18A Fozzie)
Total strength: 4 F4Us
Takeoff from 2Kubo, F4U, 100% fuel.  Climb to 40K.  Send 2 aircraft to 5Car, 2 aircraft to 4Car.  Recon for ack by diving to 10K.  DO NOT ENGAGE ENEMY AIRCRAFT UNTIL BOTH GROUPS HAVE RECONNED THE CARRIERS!  Report ack at carrier to command.  Once both carriers have been reconned, rendezvous your group in 12,12,1, 35K.  Report to CO.  You will be ordered to proceed to a live carrier.  Begin doing sweeps of the live carrier!  ENGAGE ALL ENEMY AIRCRAFT AT TARGET!

SEAGULL (VF-18B Lemur)
Total strength: 4 F4Us
Takeoff from 2Kubo, F4U, 100% fuel.  Climb to 40K.  Send 2 aircraft to 1Car, 2 aircraft to 2Car.  Recon for ack by diving to 10K.  DO NOT ENGAGE ENEMY AIRCRAFT UNTIL BOTH GROUPS HAVE RECONNED THE CARRIERS!  Report ack at carrier to command.  Once both carriers have been reconned, rendezvous your group in 14,21,5, 35K.  Report to CO.  You will be ordered to proceed to a live carrier.  Begin doing sweeps of the live carrier!  ENGAGE ALL ENEMY AIRCRAFT AT TARGET!

RAVEN (VF-18C Awulf)
Total strength: 4 F4Us
Takeoff from 2Kubo, F4U, 100% fuel.  Climb to 40K.  Send all 4 aircraft to 3Car.  Recon for ack by diving to 10K.  DO NOT ENGAGE ENEMY AIRCRAFT UNTIL BOTH GROUPS HAVE RECONNED THE CARRIERS!  Report ack at carrier to command.  Once both carriers have been reconned, rendezvous your group in 11,18,8, 35K.  Report to CO.  You will be ordered to proceed to a live carrier.  Begin doing sweeps of the live carrier!  ENGAGE ALL ENEMY AIRCRAFT AT TARGET!

TYPHOON (VT-9A Rall, VT-9B Turtl, VT-19A Boa, VT-19B Wezul, VF-11A Hornet, VF-11B TCO, VF-9A BigH, VF-9B Beavis)
Total strength: 16 TBFs, 8 F4Fs, 8 F6Fs (plus support from ALBATROSS)
VT-9 and VF-9 take off from 4Kubo.  VF-11A and VF-11B take off from 5Kubo.  VT-19 take off from 2Kubo.
100% fuel for fighters, 79% for TBFs!  TBFs load 4 BOMBS ea.
TBFs fly at 15K.  F4Fs fly at 18K.  F6Fs fly at 20-25K.
Rendezvous at 16,13,5.  Loiter at target until live carrier has been spotted.  Proceed to target.  Fighters engage all enemy aircraft.

CYCLONE (VT-11A Kken, VT-11B Han, VT-18A Gnatz, VT-18B Whels, VF-11C Hollywood, VF-19A Modas, VF-19B Smitty, VF-19C TOAD!)
Total strength: 16 TBFs, 12 F4Fs, 4 F6Fs (plus support from SEAGULL and RAVEN)
VT-11 and VF-11 take off from 5Kubo.  VF-19 and VT-18 take off from 2Kubo.
100% fuel for fighters, 79% for TBFs!  TBFs load 4 BOMBS ea.
TBFs fly at 15K.  F4Fs fly at 18K.  F6Fs fly at 20-25K.
Rendezvous at 20,20,9.  Loiter at target until live carrier has been spotted.  Proceed to target.  Fighters engage all enemy aircraft.

Some general comments:
4Car has *5* acks around it (thanks for the report arjay).  If the Japs put a carrier there, we will have to get rid of some of the acks or we'll lose many TBFs to ack.  Therefore, one of the F4U units MAY be ordered to strafe the ack!  Even knocking out just 1 or 2 acks will be a tremendous help to the TBFs.  Wait for the call!  The acks regenerate very quickly in this frame.  The strafing will have to be done just before the TBFs arrive.

Remember, visibility on bombers is 10K, on fighters 8K.  TYPHOON and CYCLONE must take care to stay together.  Don't get overwhelmed with visuals.  The GLs should communicate on channel 2 to co-ordinate movement and positions.  SET YOUR BIAS TO ENEMY USING /*re.

The TBFs are the only things that matter in this last frame!  They MUST get to target or we will lose and lose badly.  Without any defenders, the Japs are gonna get away with sinking all of our ships.  Attacked TBFs should dive down and circle to give the escorts time to clear them!  If your TBF is NOT attacked, STAY AT ALT!  ALT is LIFE!

This is a desperate plan, but if we do it right, we will stop the Japanese and despite whatever losses we may take, the IJN will never be able to reach mainland USA!  If we can stop the Japanese here, the American War Machine back home will have time to build up enough force to push the Japanese back to homeland and win this war in the long run!

We stand on the edge between worldwide disaster and Allied glory!  Without carriers to return to, our lives will almost certainly be lost.  However, our families and most importantly, our descendants will remember the day that this motley group of men and women took off from their damaged carriers, facing a terrifying and overwhelming force of the enemy, and gave their lives so that their children may continue to live in FREEDOM and with LIBERTY FOR ALL!

Dismissed!

[situation map] [recon]
thanks to arjay for the excellent map and recon
SITUATION MAP:

RECON: