Operation C - The Japanese Carrier Raid on Ceylon April 1942

Background

This is a scripted solo campaign depicting the main events of the Japanese carrier raid on Ceylon from 5 – 9 April 1942 using BigJackMac’s simple (but very effective) WW2 air warfare rules with some additional tweaks of my own that I originally put together for my Kapito Squadron campaign set in Singapore that I played last year. 

I have been interested in gaming the events of Operation C for some years and recently re-discovered some old half-finished notes that I must have made way back in about 2005-6 for a campaign using 1/300th aircraft using the Mustangs ruleset. 

In order to follow the whole course of the campaign I felt it best to depict it from the Japanese point a view. Therefore I modified my original ideas so that the campaign is now seen through the eyes of one flight (Shotai) of 3 A6M2 Zero fighter pilots based on one of the five carriers that took part in the raid (Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku). 

The Shotai Pilots 

The fictional Shotai I have chosen to represent in the campaign is part of the IJN Akagi’s Fighter Squadron equipped with Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. 

The Shotai leader is Flight CPO 1st Class Honda, an experienced junior ace with 4 previous kills made during the IJN First Air Fleet’s operations over China, Pearl Harbour and the Netherlands East Indies. 

Number 2 is Flight PO 1st Class Ashai, also a veteran of several previous campaigns. Ashai serves mainly as Honda’s trusted wingman, though he has only been credited with one kill so far. 

Number 3 is Flight PO 2nd Class Watenabe. He is a sprog pilot fresh from flight school. Operation C will be his debut operation. Watenabe is keen to prove his worth to his fellow pilots and is willing to take some risks to gain that proof. The squadron commander has therefore placed him in Honda’s Shotai to enable Honda to watch and mentor him during the raid. 

Campaign Mechanics

As the raid progresses various events (broadly based on the actual events that took place in April 1942) will occur as outlined in the flowchart below. Beginning in the upper left corner each campaign box represents a game that must be played out on the table. If the victory conditions for the campaign box are met follow the green Y arrow to the next box. If the campaign box victory conditions are not met then follow the red N arrow to the next box instead.  

If the Japanese meet the majority of their objectives then there is a chance that they can achieve a greater level of victory than they did historically. This is depicted by assuming that Admiral Nagumo's search aircraft manage to locate Force A of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, including the fleet carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Indomitible, operating south of Ceylon. 

However if the IJN fail to meet their victory conditions the opposite can occur, with Admiral Somerville being able to locate the Japanese carrier force and manuvere into a position to be able to launch a dusk/night strike on the Japanese carriers with FAA Albacore torpedo bombers.

I now have played the first three games of the campaign which I will write up shortly.