S3 Series

The Allies can use their heavy bombers to strike in the USAAF area.

The B29 carries a very heavy load BUT the forced minimum fuel means they will only get to 22,000 feet if they head straight for for Japan from Iwo Jima (220 miles)

If they climb straight from IWO to target they will arrive 40 to 50 minutes after takeoff in the heart of the Ki84 performance envelope.

I seriously doubt the Bomb Groups on the Allied side will have the patience to climb the B29 to arrive over Japan at the historic 31,000 feet but if they do they will arrive much later over the target.

They may choose to use B24's instead but again, forced minimum fuel will restrict its climb capability to historic levels.

The Allies were reluctant to fight beyond friendly radar range and we need to take advantage of that reluctance.

The 352nd can be relied upon to be in the enemy vanguard and we need to MASS our fighters against them early in the frame.

Numbers always are the deciding factor in S3 fighter versus fighter and in a slugfest between this planeset doubly so. The other critical factor is practice in the airframes. Get in the ACE arena (The MA DOES NOT HAVE S3 FM's) and FLY the Japanese planes. They ALL break at +10 G and -5.5 G. However, in keeping with the Japanese engineering of highly capable aerobatic airplanes they have VERY quick and effective elevator controls. This must be trained so that panic does not cause broken wings, especially folks who are accustomed to jamming the stick forward.

The Allies may launch TBF's under radar again but it was suicidal the first time because all of their fighters were above the tropopause.

If we can bring superior numbers to bear with Ki84's the Allies will be forced to run away or die. If we keep our deaths due to structural failure minimized we can easily win the kill count.

RCAF would combine with 475th again to give us a 16 aircraft group. If the other fighter groups are not too far away they can jump in if we tangle with the 352nd and give us a numbers advantage

Maybe stick the 8th & AE with the knights and their fighters and LF6 can be close to 475th & RCAF.

Couple of thoughts.

Knights, what would you hit if you went offensive and what resources would you need? We may have some time early to get some points but I also don't want to end up losing a good chunk of our forces in the process. The other idea is using you guys to bolster our fighter forces if you are up for it. Downside is a possible long loiter time.

I'm debating on using a small scout force to get early Intel into what kind of strike they have in mind before radar picks it up. They could easily fly around it however...

Overall the defensive plan is to behave like antibodies. Find the infection and collectively attack it.

Fly together, ignore everything above 30,000 feet or more than 20 miles from the coast and kill everything below 30,000 feet AND closer than 20 miles from coast.

The question is, what hard targets are available to us. I don't think there are any bases we can hit which leaves nothing my ships. We could let the CV alone for this one and put us all in fighters to protect the coast. I like the idea of doing a faint on the CV and could use a couple of us Knights to do this so not to tie up other fighter squadrons.

I am open to whatever you need us to do.

The CV kill in frame 1 was our salvation.

If they go all out escorting heavies, the CV's may be unprotected. The only reason the divine wind failed is the enemy was RTB to the CV's.

In the general they posted testing the B29. Either a clever ruse or that is their plan. We'll plan on everyone fighters and wait. Well get the ships with a massed attack and kamis. Basing will be figured out when I get home tonight but expect consolidated groupings in a general east, central, west formation.

Ok, how about this.We will take our Betties and hang out till you think we can get it. There are 2 areas for the CV so we'll do our best again to sink it. I will send all us bombers on the CV and hope we get in there.

The Betty isn't as fast as the Ju-88 but we'll give it a go.

I forgot to mention something.

The USN operating area in the east is almost entirely covered by our radar at Izu and Miyake. I would expect strikes on those radars from the US carriers early in the frame. A careful radar watch may pinpoint the US carriers at frame start. If we dont spot their takeoff on radar we can work out their range from target at 5 miles per minute if hit by Corsairs or 3 miles per minute if hit by TBF's

Example:

If Corsairs hit Izu radar at T+6 this puts the US carriers on a 30 mile ring from Izu. Any strike we send looking for CV's need only guesstimate that ring's location in the depicted CV ops area and fly its approximate location to locate the US CV's