soc.history.war.world-war-ii

On Mar 20, 11:18am, "Scott M. Kozel" wrote:
> "Keith B. Rosenberg" wrote:
>
>
>
> > "Rich Rostrom" wrote:
>
> > > I think it would be extremely difficult
> > > for the Japanese to invade and capture
> > > Midway while their transports were being
> > > bombed repeatedly.
>
> > And what was the success rate for the B-17 against
> > ships at that point in the war?
>
> They came close to hitting warships maneuvering
> at about 30 knots.
>
> Slow or stationary transports would have been
> much easier to hit. They would have had to hit
> only part of them to disrupt the invasion.
>
> IJN fighters did poorly against B-17s at that
> point in the war.

One possibility - though not an optinium solution would be to use PBY
Catalina as bombers
Problem was that PBY was too slow and vulnerable to fighter
opposition. Thing would
be to hit island at night - radar equipped PBY were starting to come
into use. During
Midway 4 of these Catalina equipped with torpedoes struck at invasion
convoy during
night attack - 3 were able to drop, 1 driven off by heavy AA. Damaged
oiler AKEBONO
MARU and strafed auxiliary crusier KIYOZUMI MARU. There are numerous
small atolls
between Hawaii and Midway - French Frigate Shoal being one. Japanese
actually used it
to stage attack on PH using Kawanishi H8K "Emiliy" flown from Jaluit
and refuel by submarine
in lagoon. PBY could refuel from tenders at these islands - during
Midway campaign
used as staging grounds for PBY in case Midway too hot for them to
operate.