Okay, just loaded up the American campaign, I had forgotten that Espiritu Santo has no fighters or dive bombers. A Transfer Mission allows you to transfer aircraft between bases and I believe that you can also transfer from but not to aircraft carriers. Henderson has a hanger capacity of 100 but if you can get more Wildcats and Dauntless's there it will help.
One way to do this is to fly them off damaged carriers that can still run flight ops. Repairs may take weeks or months and the air groups will be far more use at Henderson.
The B-17s are useless against ships and not much better against the Japanese ground forces on Guadalcanal but any attrition helps the Marines. For air defence, a CAP of 25% to 33% is generally adequate. One problem with aircraft management in the game is that all planes of the same type need the same loadouts AND once the ready process starts, no additional planes can be readied until the process underway is completed. This is an unfortunate function of the game system and bares no relation to reality. This means after an air to air fight, the replacement CAP will hold up the ready queue for the 30-minutes it takes to ready the next wave of the CAP.
You can send air strikes into the blue but you cannot redirect them after launch and therefore doing so is generally a bad idea. But if it means clearing the flight deck in the event of an imminent Japanese attack on your carrier, sacrificing the planes might save the ship from the additional fires and damage caused when ready planes are hit by bombs.
The Japanese can strike further than the Americans and this range advantage can be a big problem for the US carrier groups. I have found that dispersing the CVs in single carrier task forces is better for the USN while the Japanese have poorer flak and benefit from concentration. Indeed, transferring carrier planes to Henderson and laying up one or more CVs might even make a viable strategy in some situations.
You win the whole enchilada if you can clear the Japanese garrison from Guadalcanal and only the Marines can do that. Remember Capt Wayne P. Hughes, USN (Retd) and one of his fundamental Cornerstones of Naval Warfare is "The Seat of Purpose is on the Land". In GNB2 this is absolutely the case.
-C
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