Operation AL Scripted Campaign - June 1942

 

Background

Following on form my reasonably sucessful Operation C campaign (played earlier this year) this is a scripted solo campaign depicting the main events of the attacks of the Japanese 2nd Carrier Striking Force (commanded by Rear Admiral Kakuta Kakuji) against the US held Aleutian Islands from 3 – 6 June 1942 as part of the northern thrust of the overall Operation MI, the Japanese attack on Midway.

 I'm once again 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 partially played in 2020. For the Aluetians campaign I have also added some simple weather related rules to take into account the extreme weather often encountered by both sides during the course of the fighting.

The Shotai Pilots 

The Shotai flew from the carrier Akagi in the previous campaign in the Indian Ocean, but the strikes against the Aleutians will be the Junyo’s first mission. Junyo is the latest carrier to be commissioned into the IJN and her air group is made up of largely inexperienced personnel. Watenabe’s Shotai has been transferred to add some much needed experience to the new fighter squadron accordingly.      

The Shotai leader is Flight CPO 1^st Class Watenabe, a now experienced junior ace with 6 previous kills made during the IJN First Air Fleet’s operations over Ceylon.

Number 2 is Flight PO 1^st Class Ashai, also a veteran of several previous campaigns. Ashai happily serves mainly as Watenabe’s trusted wingman, though he has been credited with three kills so far.  

Number 3 is Flight PO 2^nd Class Kobe. He is a sprog pilot fresh from flight school. Operation AL will be his debut operation. Kobe is a quiet but seemingly competent pilot who is unwilling to take too many risks. The squadron commander has therefore placed him in Watenabe’s Shotai to enable Watenabe to watch and mentor him during the upcoming operation. 

Campaign Mechanics

As the raid progresses various events (broadly based on the actual events that took place in June 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 Kakuta's search aircraft manage to locate Task Force 8, the USN's main force in North Pacific waters. To make the campaign a bit more challenging for the Japanese in my typical "what if" manner I have enhanced TF 8 by including the fleet carrier USS Saratoga, which could have theoretically been operating in northern waters by June 6 1942. 

Historically Saratoga just missed the events of the Battle of Midway, arriving at Pearl Harbour on 6 June 1942 with a full load of replacement aircraft. She had been torpedoed in January 1942 and was just finishing repairs in late May 1942 when she was ordered to Pearl ASAP. It is not outside the bounds of possibility that "Sara" could have dashed north to join Rear Admiral Theobald's TF8 by early June 1942, which without the carrier only consisted of a handful of light cruisers and destroyers. 

As well as the replacement aircraft Saratoga did also carry her own partial air group of F4F-3 Wildcats and SBD Dauntless dive bombers. Therefore it is a pretty even match up aganst the two smaller Japanese carriers (Ryujo and Junyo) that formed the 2nd Carrier Striking Force.

However if the IJN fail to meet their victory conditions the opposite can occur, with TF being able to locate the Japanese carrier force and manuvere into a position to be able to launch a strike on the Japanese carriers.

I have yet to actually start the campaign but will write up the various encounters as they are played out over the next few weeks.