Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "IJN Zuikaku - Guide 404" video.

  1. One thing about early war Japanese Carrier Divisions - was that the Japanese looked at these Divisions as One Ship - Two Hulls. The problem was - that it took to long to get a full - Balanced - strike launched from one ship - the way the Americans did it - so they'd break their strikes up into two strikes, first launching one strike and then the other from one Division. They also, of course - might have multiple Divisions. Thus - for their 1st Carrier Strikes from a Division - they'd have one ship supply the Torpedo Bombers and the other the Dive Bombers - while both contributed Fighters. For the 2nd Carrier Strike from a Division, the Carrier that had provided the Torpedo Bombers - now - Provided the Dive Bombers and the Carrier that had provided the Dive Bombers provided the Torpedo Bombers - with again - both Carriers contributing fighters. The Americans ended up sending out independent squadrons of different types and - they didn't have enough fighters to always provide a separate escort for the Dive and Torpedo Bombers - as well as their CAP. The thing the Americans did - was split up their Carrier Divisions into separate Task Forces so that when the Japanese found one of them - they didn't necessarily find the other. Of course - this further hurt the Americans ability to operate a single, large Strike. One of the things about Midway - was that the Americans committed their aircraft in largely unescorted separate squadrons that all kind of dribbled in - letting the Japanese CAP deal with them one or two at a time. With 4 Carries to provide CAP at Midway they largely slaughtered these separate American Squadrons. It was only pure luck that had the Enterprise and Yorktown Dive Bombers both show up while the Japanese - suffering from Target Fixation - had all their CAP down attacking VT-3 and VF-3. At the Battle of Santa Cruz - the Americans had Enterprise , Hornet and Wasp - but - had detached Wasp to refuel so she and her Air Group missed the Battle. At the beginning of the war the Japanese Carrier Forces - and their Navy in General - were superior to the Americans - but - the Americans gave as good as they got over all - and the Japanese could not replace their losses. So - as the war went on - the Americans got better and the Japanese got worse. .
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