Battle of Midway USN and IJN ships

[P38man]

Thanks to you guys on this thread I have it all working - just did exactly what was here.

Awesome fun - using Vertigo's Dauntless that Rich (and others) of Flying Stations helped me with in an older thread.

I wonder if it is possbile to save a flight being on one of the carriers?

[Sieggie]

Thanks to you guys on this thread I have it all working - just did exactly what was here.

Awesome fun - using Vertigo's Dauntless that Rich (and others) of Flying Stations helped me with in an older thread.

I wonder if it is possbile to save a flight being on one of the carriers?

I have a somewhat convoluted technique for getting on the carrier. Create a waypoint and an empty airport at the height of the carrier deck using ADE then place the carrier group at the waypoint and start the airplane at the airport. Sometimes you have to start the aircraft a couple of times cause if will fall through the deck (most likely I have the height slightly incorrect) but eventually it will be on the deck of the carrier. Then just start the group moving and you are on the deck of an underway carrier. The carrier placement requires a waypoint and the airplane requires an airport so you have to have both at the same location for it to work. I have created "Yankee Station" using this technique so it should also work for Midway.

Dave

[TeaSea]

Remember,


5 - 6 MINUTES.....

Time it took the USN to destroy the IJN's fleet and essentially shut Japanese Imperial expansion down.

"Five minutes! Who would have dreamed that the tide of battle would shift completely in that brief interval of time?

Visibility was good. Clouds were gathering at about 3,000 meters, however, and though there were occasional breaks, they afforded good concealment for approaching enemy planes. At 1024 the order to start launching came from the bridge by voice-tube. The Air Officer flapped a white flag, and the first Zero fighter gathered speed and whizzed off the deck. At that instant a lookout screamed: 'Hell-divers!' I looked up to see three black enemy planes plummeting toward our ship. Some of our machine guns managed to fire a few frantic bursts at them, but it was too late. The plump silhouettes of the American 'Dauntless' dive-bombers quickly grew larger, and then a

The Douglas SBD Dauntless

number of black objects suddenly floated eerily from their wings. Bombs! Down they came straight toward me! I fell intuitively to the deck and crawled behind a command post mantelet [rolled mattresses providing protection from shrapnel]. The terrifying scream of the dive-bombers reached me first, followed by the crashing explosion of a direct hit. There was a blinding flash and then a second explosion, much louder than the first. I was shaken by a weird blast of warm air. There was still another shock, but less severe, apparently a near miss. Then followed a startling quiet as the barking of guns suddenly ceased. I got up and looked at the sky. The enemy planes were already gone from sight.
The attackers had gotten in unimpeded because our fighters, which had engaged the preceding wave of torpedo planes only a few moments earlier, had not yet had time to regain altitude.
Consequently, it may be said that the American dive-bombers' success was made possible by the earlier martyrdom of their torpedo planes. Also, our carriers had no time to evade because clouds hid the enemy's approach until he dove down to the attack. We had been caught flatfooted in the most vulnerable condition possible - decks loaded with planes armed and fueled for attack.
Looking about, I was horrified at the destruction that had been wrought in a matter of seconds. There was a huge hole in the flight deck just behind the amidship elevator. The elevator itself, twisted like molten glass, was drooping into the hangar. Deck plates reeled upward in grotesque configurations. Planes stood tail up, belching livid flame and jet-black smoke. Reluctant tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched the fires spread, and I was terrified at the prospect of induced explosions which would surely doom the ship."

- Fuchida Mitsou

The torpedo bombers were of course from VT8 and VT6, neither of whom scored any hits upon the IJN, having been intercepted by 50 AM6 fighters. However, the fighter CAP was now off station....right at the time Enterprise and Yorktown's Dauntless bombers found the fleet and merged on it from different directions. I've always been fascinated by how all factors came together. Historians always point out that the USN was exceptionally lucky in hitting when and where they did...maybe so....but most military people know that you make your own luck.

[PRB]

In the AICarriers CFG file, in what units are the "offset X and Y from center" numbers? Feet, yards? In the book Shatterd Sword, there is a diagram of the IJN fleet disposition just before the dive bombers from CV-5 abd CV-6 arrived. It's sort of a ragged line abreast, after all the maneuvering from the doomed torpedo squadron attacks. I'm gonna make my IJN formation to match, then take off and look at it from 15000 feet in an SBD...

[Butcherbird17]

Paul,
The first set of numbers is for forward or back using the (-) sign for back. Second set is for left or right, (-) is for left. I believe that the distance is in feet but not sure.
I've been going through my books but couldn't find any overhead view of fleet setup (for IJN or US), so i just went with a diamond formation that i posted earlier in this thread.
If you would be so kind to post what ever you come up with i would be very thankful for it.

Joe

[PRB]

Thanks Joe,

Here is the diagram from the book. The caption reads: "Kido Butai immediately before attack. The carriers are in a loose line abreast, with the two carrier divisions widely separate. Positions of the other vessels are approximate (at best) and not neccessarily to scale."

This is from the book Shattered Sword, The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully.

[Butcherbird17]

Thanks for the diagram Paul. From the looks of it, it seems they had their carriers in a battle line before all turning into the wind. Pretty easy to set this up in aicarriers2.
(into the wind formation) I would guess that the carriers were atleast a mile apart from one another? I'll see what i can come up with.
Might be a little more work using a carrier track, where they are steaming in battle line then turn into wind. (which would be cool if someone
could do this) but i'm not that talented.
Its to bad that we don't have all IJN ships that were there that day for fsx. Would make for a very impressive site from the air.

Joe

[Butcherbird17]

Ok, here is a quick and dirty Midway task group for the IJN steaming into the wind. The ships are spread out over a 6 mile radius, so lots of area to cover.
When you start up aicarriers you will be centered on Soryu, as thats the ship i started with.

[formation.xx]
title=IJN Midway Task Force
unit.0=VEH_Soryu_yanco, 0, 0
unit.1=VEH_Hiryu_Yanco, -5280, -250
unit.2=VEH_Mogami_yanco, -10560, 0
unit.3=VEH_Akagi_Yanco, -15840, 0
unit.4=VEH_Kaga_yanco, -19800, 750
unit.5=VEH_Mikuma_yanco, -21120, -250
unit.6=VEH_Mogami_yanco, -4000, -10560
unit.7=VEH_Mikuma_yanco, -13240, -10560
unit.8=VEH_Akigumo_yanco, -10560, 15840
unit.9=VEH_Nowaki_yanco, -10560, -15840
unit.10=VEH_Arashi_yanco, 7920, 0
unit.11=VEH_Hamakaze_yanco, -29040, 0
unit.12=VEH_Akigumo_yanco, -2640, 3960
unit.13=VEH_Nowaki_yanco, -14520, 4000
unit.14=VEH_Arashi_yanco, -19800, -5280
unit.15=VEH_Hamakaze_yanco, 3960, -14400


Joe

[PRB]

Cool, thanks BB!

[TeaSea]

I've two questions for you more expereinced Naval Aviation simulators types:

1) I use AICarriers 2, but I'm not sure how to put any additional simobject units into the program. I've not found documentation that indicates how to go about that. Could someone point me the way?

2) If I wanted to leave these carriers out there off Midway, for instance IAW the code above, what's the best utility to do so and again, is there documentation that lays this out?

Thanks so much. I'm a bit new to the carrier utilization aspect of the sim.

[PRB]

To add ships to your AICarriers, locate the AICarriers installation folder, then find the aicarriers.cfg file in that folder. Open this file with notepad. If will have stuff like this inside:

[formation.0]
title=TF-16
unit.0=USS_Yorktown_CV5, 900, 300
unit.1=USS_Enterprise_CV6, -900, -300
unit.2=CVE73_AI, -1200, 500
unit.3=CA25_ai, 1200, -500

[formation.1]
title=Lone carrier
unit.0=veh_carrier01_high_detail_sm, 0, 0

[formation.2]
title=Lone destroyer
unit.0=VEH_destroyer01, 0, 0

So, to add the Midway fleet that Butcherbird17 posted, just copy and past to the aicarriers.cfg, making sure that the [formation.x] is sequential. Just like adding a panel to the panel.cfg file. In the case of these Yanco Midway ships, do go inside each ship folder in the SimObjects\Boats and make sure the SIM.cfg file is actually named SIM.cfg, and not “asSIM.cfg” as some of them are. Open the SIM.cfg files and make sure the wake effect is not commented out (remove the “\\” in front of the line.) If you look at the “title=” line, this is the name of the ship that goes in the aicarriers.cfg line. Just like airplanes, there can be several textures here, and possibly more than one ship listed.

Then when you're flying in FSX, hit SHIFT-J to bring up the AICarriers application, find your new formation and select it. You may have to hit “0” to page through if you have a lot of formations installed.

I don't think you can use AICarriers to permanently place a task force someplace. I think you would need to setup actual AI for that.

OT: Here's Butcherbird17's IJN formation. Thanks Joe!

[Butcherbird17]

I've two questions for you more expereinced Naval Aviation simulators types:

1) I use AICarriers 2, but I'm not sure how to put any additional simobject units into the program. I've not found documentation that indicates how to go about that. Could someone point me the way?

2) If I wanted to leave these carriers out there off Midway, for instance IAW the code above, what's the best utility to do so and again, is there documentation that lays this out?

Thanks so much. I'm a bit new to the carrier utilization aspect of the sim.

1: Paul beat me to it

2: I don't know if the ships keep going or stop as i never tried flying back to start point then flying back with aicarriers running. (will test this out) If you want a fleet to be permanent you can use Lamont Clark's AI Boat Traffic Compiler and google earth to setup a track that will run on a scheduled time. David Wilson (dwso) did a track for the SOLOMON ISLANDS 1943 scenery by roger-wilco-66 that you can use to see how this is set up.

thread: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...reply&p=462961


I've never used this program, but i do believe there is a tut for it.


Joe

[vora]

Lamont Clark's AI boat traffic compiler (aibtc) can be found here.
The description how to use it is on this site as well.


Merry Christmas

[TeaSea]

Well hey, that was easy!

Thanks for the info. I've both fleets up and running....hard to land that F4U though!

[Butcherbird17]

Here are a couple more entries for aicarriers, first is for US side, second is a revised IJN from my first attempt posted earlier in this thread.
I have the fleet spread out over a 3 mile radius instead of 6.
I also have most of the ships sitting lower in water as they don't look right to me at stock height. Working on getting the bow splash adjusted
to new height, then i will post these fixes.
Another thing i'm trying to figure out is CA32's texture do not show. Yes the texture is in the texture folder. I've tried a different texture from
CA34 (same ship) and the mdl from CA34, but then i get same textures showing (Hull number). So this tells me its in the MDL file, but i have no
idea where in it to change/add the texture. Does anyone know there way around a mdl file using a hex editor that can point me in the right direction?
Thanks for any help with this.


[formation.xx]
title=US Midway Task Force
unit.0=VEH_Enterprise_1942_yanco_CV6AI, 0 , 0
unit.1=VEH_Hornet_1942_yanco_CV8AI, -2640, -800
unit.2=VEH_Yorktown_1942_yanco_CV5AI, 2640, -1000
unit.3=VEH_DD352_yanco, 0, 2640
unit.4=VEH_DD433_yanco, 5280, -500
unit.5=VEH_DD410_yanco, -5280, -600
unit.6=VEH_CL51_yanco, -1320, 800
unit.7=VEH_CA33_yanco, 1320, 600
unit.8=VEH_CA32_yanco, -1320, -1320
unit.9=VEH_CA24_yanco, 1340, -1380
unit.10=VEH_CA34_yanco, 0, -2640
unit.11=VEH_DD412_yanco, 0, -5280
unit.12=VEH_DD363_yanco, -3960, -2000
unit.13=VEH_DD360_yanco, 3960, -2100

[formation.xx]
title=IJN Midway Task Force
unit.0=VEH_Soryu_yanco, 0, 0
unit.1=VEH_Hiryu_Yanco, -5280, -75
unit.2=VEH_Mogami_yanco, -7920, 0
unit.3=VEH_Akagi_Yanco, -10560, 0
unit.4=VEH_Kaga_yanco, -14520, 375
unit.5=VEH_Mikuma_yanco, -13200, -125
unit.6=VEH_Mogami_yanco, -2000, -5280
unit.7=VEH_Mikuma_yanco, -9240, -5280
unit.8=VEH_Akigumo_yanco, -5280, 7920
unit.9=VEH_Nowaki_yanco, -5280, -7920
unit.10=VEH_Arashi_yanco, 7920, 0
unit.11=VEH_Hamakaze_yanco, -13200, 0
unit.12=VEH_Akigumo_yanco, -2640, 1320
unit.13=VEH_Nowaki_yanco, -7920, 2000
unit.14=VEH_Arashi_yanco, -9240, -1320
unit.15=VEH_Hamakaze_yanco, 3960, -7200


Joe