British Pacific Fleet - Battle of Okinawa

[gx007]

Saw this link and very informative with documentary evidence and videos. I wasn't aware of the RN contribution to battle. 

 

http://www.armouredcarriers.com/task-force-57-british-pacific-fleet/

 

Plenty of seafires, corsairs, etc. Hopefully this chapter of the battle gets included in release.

 

cheers

[TP_Jacko]

Yes when tangmere pilots used il2 1946 we had an excellent campaign master minded by prangster who even made one of the maps

[unreasonable]

Saw this link and very informative with documentary evidence and videos. I wasn't aware of the RN contribution to battle. 

 

http://www.armouredcarriers.com/task-force-57-british-pacific-fleet/

 

Plenty of seafires, corsairs, etc. Hopefully this chapter of the battle gets included in release.

 

cheers

 

Excellent pages - thanks for the link. I can assure you that many people in the UK are unaware of the RN contribution too: it was very much an afterthought after the relief of victory in the battle against Germany. Same with the 14th Army in Burma, often referred to as the "Forgotten Army", the press being so focussed on the european fight.

 

Not an afterthought to the men who had to serve there of course!

[Dakpilot]

Thanks 

 

Great site! and loads of detailed info on Task force 57 and the whole campaign

 

Also a lot of good stuff from the home page here

 

http://www.armouredcarriers.com/landing

 

Sakashima map was a favourite of mine in old IL-2, my thanks to the mapmakers,  would be great to see a new one in BoS world, and Task force 57

 

Cheers Dakpilot 

[wtornado]

Brits went in with their steel deck carriers the US Navy did not want to risk their wooden deck carriers with the Kamikazes. 

 

I made Pacific  co-ops on M4T with a BPF co-op in the folder.

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

British steel decked carriers stood a better chance of survival against Kamikaze attack than the wooden decked American  types.

[unreasonable]

That has just given me an idea ( a little late ) for an anti-kamikaze ship.  

 

Take a BB hull and put on top a superstructure that looks like a carrier, but without any of the internal giblets, and top it off with a tremendously thick armoured deck.

 

Steam conspicuously around ahead of the main TF - splat!

[hames123]

Well, the original plan for the invasion of Japan was to sail a large fleet of emepty ships past Japan and draw out all the Kamakazis. The transports used would be filled with AA guns instead of troops.

[Trooper117]

Many thanks to the OP... a great site with lots of relevant info.

[gx007]

Truthfully, I want to fly a seafire. I can't imagine the difficulty of landing with its narrow undercarriage.

[Finkeren]

That has just given me an idea ( a little late ) for an anti-kamikaze ship.

 

Take a BB hull and put on top a superstructure that looks like a carrier, but without any of the internal giblets, and top it off with a tremendously thick armoured deck.

 

Steam conspicuously around ahead of the main TF - splat!

Now to find the volunteer crew to sail the giant bullseye into the fray.

 

Also, many kamikaze attacks were aimed at the sides of the carriers, with the planes coming in at extremely low altitude to avoid AAA and try to strike the target as close to the waterline as possible, where the armoured deck would do no good.

Edited October 8, 2016 by Finkeren

[armouredcarriers]

The RN carriers did have hangar side protection.

 

Saying they are armoured deck aircraft carriers is something of a misnomer.

The Illustrious class and her sisters had an 'armoured box hangar'.

This incorporated 62 per cent of the flight deck (the area between the lifts).

The idea was to both protect the hangar from damage, but also to protect the ship from the hangar if things went bad inside.

 

 

 

The side of the hangars of the first three ships (Illustrious, Formidable, Victorious) was protected by 4.5in armour.

The following three ships (Indomitable, Implacable, Indefatigable) had 1.5in sides.

As did the Audacious class (Ark Royal, Eagle).

 

While the RN carriers had the stamina to take hits, they didn't really have the endurance necessary for extended operations in the Pacific.

[hames123]

Armoured belt! We need the hood, with her 15" belt armour.

[SOLIDKREATE]

[unreasonable]

Now to find the volunteer crew to sail the giant bullseye into the fray.

 

Also, many kamikaze attacks were aimed at the sides of the carriers, with the planes coming in at extremely low altitude to avoid AAA and try to strike the target as close to the waterline as possible, where the armoured deck would do no good.

 

I would rather crew that than be an AAA crew in an unarmoured merchant vessel as per hames 123's account! As he says, BBs had armoured belts and torpedo bulges.

 

Anyway, volunteers not really needed.  Did the USN not have an equivalent of a punishment battalion?