S3 Series

Thanks MuskieZZ for allowing me to make the solo NOE torp run. I monitored all the coms and had thought I might get in and out with no problem.. However as I lined up for a release I was pounced upon and went down. Think I still may have taken out a ship and if so the score will at least be a wash !
BTW, I don't have a TORP thing! I just know we seldom have a series where TBDs and torps were historically used so that was my choice and I might add I don't recall reading of any high altitude bombings on truk during Operation Hailstorm. Oh, why do I bring that up, because over my S3 years I have repeatedly read about "this is not historical"--but that is only when it fits someones point view I guess.!
Again thanks!

It depends on what you consider high altitude.

In this S3 the bombers are going in at nearly the identical historic altitudes (10,000-15,000 feet)

Sorry things didn't work better. As soon as I got jumped I figured you were in trouble. They had a bunch of guys on the deck. I was trying to get a hold of you before the frame start and have you circle outside the ring. Jabo posted that there were AI leaving the area also, that would have been a better target. Oh well

Well, I never mentioned "going in" I said "bombing" Again to my knowledge of the OHS history, the majority, if not all damage within the Truk Lagoon was inflicted by fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes. the only exception was when Adm Spruance, had fighters called off from sinking a crippled IPJ cruiser named Katori to allow one of his battleships to take it out. Some US subs may have taken out other shipping and in fact one sub Cmd and crew were cited for the heroic efforts to rescue some 20 (?) downed pilots and crew. But don't recall bombers where using the Nordon! Won't be 1st time I was wrong. >BTW I understand "high"!

I know that we like to be realistic as possible but we are still in a "game" where we have to do things a little differently.
The biggest problem we had was not having the correct aircraft. Everything I can find indicated the attack was carries out by F6F's and TBF's (not obsolete TBD's).
The other issue, the IJ were out of the air in the initial sweep of the F6F's. The attacks by the TBF's were unmolested by IJ aircraft, they only had to worry about the AA. That, of course, would not be a S3 event.

I found a neat web site on the battle http://www.cv6.org/1944/truk/default.htm
The TBF did do level bombing, ingress at 15K and dropping at 2K. So using the TBD as a bomber wasn't totaly out of bounds.

This series was fun, even if not historically accurate. Would have been interesting if we would have had a torpedo plane that had a chance to live.