Yamamoto's fleet off Pearl spotted

[I'm goin' down]

TMO2.0/RSRDC with Fred's Pre Pearl Harbor Start Mod plus map contacts enabled.

To: Subsim Command
From: SS Barbarinna
Date: December 7, 1941
Time: 0610 hrs.
Location: 25 deg., 40' N; 157 deg., 40' W.
TF sited: 10 + warships incl. two CV and 4 dds. Range 6 miles, heading North/East.
Query: What is a Japanese TF doing in our backyard? Is this a goodwill visit? Please advise.

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

Query: What is a Japanese TF doing in our backyard? Is this a goodwill visit? Please advise.

Japanese? It's probably just some of our ships in from the mainland.

"Don't worry about it."

[TBear]

HAI we just tourists...passport....good good.....we have dollar...sake...only fishing boats...no danger..

[I'm goin' down]

Originally Posted by Dread Knot

Japanese? It's probably just some of our ships in from the mainland.

"Don't worry about it."

A well framed response for reasons you do not need explained. It is appreciated, and is not unnoticed.

Lurker did not miss much when he created RSRDC, plus Fred's pre Pearl Harbor career start makes the intercept possible. There are maps on the internet showing the TF course and coordinates, so finding it only took a two attempts. I am after the first wave of the TF, which split between two locations. The second wave of fighters launched 10 minutes after the first, and embarked from ships located further east. I will run a second career start, and hunt for it later. First I want to go after the two CVs my crew has spotted. The kids are getting NERVOUS. Maybe I should have not brought those nurses along for a holiday cruise? (They are a frisky bunch, those young ladies, plus one of them is straddling a torpedoe right now. She says she is going to ride it. Hey, that gives me a great idea! Maybe I will ask Gunfighter to create a signature for our boat.)

[Armistead]

Strange, I wonder if Fred included the message for RSRD, as far as I know RSRD wouldn't had the message or location since it starts you past Dec.7.
Yes, Lurker included most the TF starting Dec 7, many you can't attack or get to in time unless you use Fred's mod, but as you know I've caught the Pearl group on it's return leg in the Bungo leaving Manila and going flank not stopping along the way you get there just in time.

GJ on finding it near Pearl.

[I'm goin' down]

There is no info on Fred's mod re the TF that attacked Pearl.

I was tracking that TF today when a friend asked me to show him how the game is played. He got on the periscope and watched the TF sail off, and then started asking questions re SH4. Before I knew it, my computer went into sleep mode, and SH4 shut down before I saved the mission. I am know 0 for 3. I have sited the TF twice, and missed attacks both times.

My friend left with the SH4 disk, and the subsim forum internet address, so I think he is going to give a shot at joining the submarine corp.

[I'm goin' down]

On the fourth attempt my boat sunk two ships in Yamamoto's TF, prior to the start of hostilities on 12/7/41--a Kuma Light Cruiser at 0618 hrs and a Kongo at 0733 hrs. The attack at Pearl was at 0800 hrs, so a message on the screen noted that my boat had sunk neutral ships (neutral my a--!). But my boat got credit for the tonnage (nice!), and I was awarded the Silver Star, as was a crew member (since the admirals are probably still at the golf course, I will take myself to dinner.) The Kuma was sunk by a single torpedo. The Kongo took a long time to sink, and is another story. A three shot salvo slowed it down to 6 kts, and I hit it just before I sunk the Kuma. When its escorts departed, I hit it with another two torpedoes. It did not sink, so I surfaced and attacked with the deck gun. Fifty shots later it was still making a couple of kts., but was on fire and listing. I hit it with two more torpedoes (seven in total) and it finally exploded. It took over an hour between when it took the first hit and when it went under.

On the way back to Pearl, we received notice of the air attack. None of the dds in the TF moved against my boat, probably because hostilities had not been declared rather than my brilliant evasion tactics (i.e. silent running and firing at long range.)

My intial attack was at long range, over 4,000 yds, using the O'Kane method, but firing on the TF at a bearing of 345 degrees. The TF was doing 20 kts. Two of the intial shots missed, one hit the Kuma and three hit the Kongo. Actually, I was aiming at two carriers, one a Hiryu fleet carrier, but I armed the the torpedoes with a 31 kt. speed and contact influence setting to ensure they would make it to line of ships in the TF. I just missed hitting one carrier that must have seen the torpedoes coming as it was turning away, and ended up sinking the cruiser (6,100 tons) and hitting the battleship (32,000 tons) instead. I'll take what I can get.

[fred8615]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Strange, I wonder if Fred included the message for RSRD, as far as I know RSRD wouldn't had the message or location since it starts you past Dec.7.

I tried but I couldn't get contact reports to work at all before the attack, and even for a while afterwards, so no messages about it are sent or acknowledged. It seems to be a time issue, which I don't know how to fix.

...but as you know I've caught the Pearl group on it's return leg in the Bungo...

I've done that too. It's why I included orders to patrol Bungo in a couple of the missions in the mod.

Mmmm, I bet the neutral issue could be fixed....glad you finally got at it, shame you couldn't sink a carrier or two and save Pearl.

If anybody knows how, I would love to update the mod.

[Rooster]

[peabody]

Originally Posted by fred8615

I tried but I couldn't get contact reports to work at all before the attack, and even for a while afterwards, so no messages about it are sent or acknowledged. It seems to be a time issue, which I don't know how to fix.


I've done that too. It's why I included orders to patrol Bungo in a couple of the missions in the mod.


If anybody knows how, I would love to update the mod.

Roster folder, Defside.cfg. Entries 4 and 5 for the USA. As you see there we were neutral on the 7th, War was not actually declared until Dec 8th.

BUT if you want to get technical, we sank a minisub outside the harbor BEFORE the war started, so we fired the first shot. Now that doesn't declare war but we certainly didn't wait for them to declare war before we started shooting to the attacking planes either.
The other point is we would have know about their intentions before the attack if the Ambassador had delivered the message on time. Not soon enough to attack them but at least we may have gotten our planes off the ground.

But some feel that we were better off not believing they were going to attack. If we had known and actually left Pearl and found the attack force, we most likely would have lost more ships and men, and in deep water where they could not be repaired. And we may have lost our two carriers (the third was in the US for repairs.) which may have made a big difference in other battles such as Midway. And because they could not sink in the shallow harbor all but 2 of the BBs were back in action during the war.

5 of the Battleships that were "sunk" were on duty when the Japanese came up Surigao Strait in the Philippines. If we had attack at sea they probably would not have been since we were so outnumbered in the Pearl Harbor attack.