Actually, this is not the case. I prefer to have a look at the information we have myself and then make up my mind.Seeing as I compiled the initial damage assortments, I know too well the state of the fleet. I also know that you must have taken my assessment of the US fleet docked at Saipan,
I assigned two escorts per every capital ships, so I am wondering what I could have missed in your opinion.I fear Adm.Baltersar, your proposals are leaving our heavier capitals without adequate screening, we should always have enough escorts in the fleets that they just outnumber the capitals so that in a pinch our fleet admirals can sacrifice an escort to save a capital.
That might be useful if we planned for a long siege. I do not, I plan for taking Saipan back as soon as our fleets and marines are in place. That may take a week or two but not much more. Instead of wasting fuel in the hope of hunting down a few supply transports, I'd rather have the capital units maintaining the blockade. If your read carefully, my plan does account for the supply ships, though I suggest that we used smaller and much faster squadrons to deal with those.I shall reiterate that we should use the second battlefleet here to try and raid the incoming supply convoys to Saipan, while the 1st fleet sets up the blockade with the Carrier Support Fleet (CSF) provides the additional torpedo bomber and CAG fighter cover for the Battlefleet.
I wonder if the result is worth the effort, but on the other hand, it's your pilots being sent into the enemy anti air barrage. I merely suggested to spare them the burden.What you must recognise Adm.Baltersar is that our CAGs, while getting shot up, are weakening the US fleets for more successful surface engagements.
It is doubtful that the US have anything left in terms of air support. Their carrier has been involved in fightings for more than a month already and we know how our more numerous CAGs look like after that period of fighting. Since our planes did bomb the US fleet in port already, I doubt that they have brought in fresh units from further away. Even more reason to leave our shattered units out of this, in my opinion.Double folly to run heavy without air screening and thus vulnerable to what American air assets are on Saipan.
This can be achieved by the two light fighter wings based at Guam.For all we know in the next few days a squadron of naval bombers and interceptors will land at the captured airfield there. That is why it is imperative that we maintain air superiority around the islands.
I did suggest nothing of this sort. The blockade fleet(s) will guard the harbor exit, the landing fleet will approach the island from the west. That's about the opposite direction.However the invasion fleet should not initially sail with the Battlefleets, this is because if the Americans go for a suicide run at our transports, they will do the same to us, as we have done to them.
I know it has been a while but if you remember the lessons learned at the cadet training, you'll recall that unlike land warfare, it does not pay off to keep reserves in naval warfare. That said, both battlefleets must block the port. If they Americans try to run for it, they'll have to face the whole blocking force, not just one of them. If need arises, we can station our subs, those who are not employed near enemy ports, to the east of this battle zone to slow the fleeing enemy down, shuold he make it that far.We need to see if they will make a break from port and engage. In this case we hopefully sink another vessel or two and keep them confined to port, if they escape our second battlefleet will be east of Saipan ready to deal with them rather than the convoys it's been hunting.
Even if they do not slow him down, the enemy is not faster than we are. We can still harry them all the way to Midway or Hawaii, especially so since you insist that the CAGs participate in this battle.
This would indeed be folly. We have at least six (6) US battleships not accounted for in this whole thing, plus the ones that escaped from the earlier battles already. Leaving the ASW groups in between our battlefleets and the potentialy approaching enemy would mean that they would be likely to be engaged and sunk.Then we begin the invasion, we can screen our transports with a wide net of the ASW fleets to insure that if the Americans are bringing a new fleet (or elements of the port fleet at Saipan) to engage our troop ships we shall have the heads up to redeploy our CAGs at short notice to intercept, and if the second fleet is nearby they can provide the support.
Our battlefleets, on the other hand, pack the punch of six (6) battleships plus escorts and your Carriers are nearby. If the enemy approaches, he'll find us ready to engage him as well as the shattered remains of his fleet at Saipan harbor.
At least we agree on that.Once the Counter-invasion is under way we need to be extra vigilant for an American relief fleet. Hence it makes a lot of sense to split our sub fleets up into single packs, and send them on intelligence missions to Wake, Midway and Hawaii, on a passive role, and the rest to picket out in a broad net to the east of Saipan to act as early warning posts.
Agreed.With Saipan retaken, we should take a brief rest bite for a couple of weeks for more light repairs
Agreed, tough I strongly suggest to push onward from there towards Hawaii and to their southern holdings quickly. The reason being that if we can show them that we can knock out their strategic ports in the Pacific in short order, they'll see the folly in their attack on us.We should then push on to Wake while the US is still reeling.
For the latter reason, I propse to set the Panama Channel as another target for us. This should only be attempted once the other islands are taken, but it'd give us a unique position. By occupying that channel, we can force the US to either try and take it back or send their ships all around South America to fight us. I believe that we do have a window of opportunity to do this, possibly by the end of the year. It would not only be a blow to their morale but would grant us access to the Atlantic as well. This in turn would mean that if the UK declared war on us, we'd be able to block them from approaching through that channel, forcing them to send all their assets through the Indian Ocean. It'd go a long way to help us predicting where the enemy would strike next, simply beause it would greatly limit his possibilities.