Shipbucket

fair enough fair enough
your tactical situation absolutely dictates your aircraft loadout

One feature that bothers me is why does this ship have a closed ("hurricane") bow when this was typically a postwar feature.

klagldsf wrote:One feature that bothers me is why does this ship have a closed ("hurricane") bow when this was typically a postwar feature.

No, it was not.

Just because the USN had open bows on most carriers does not mean everybody has to have open bows.

Well if it's a cruiser/battleship conversion (and from the looks of that big belt it might be) then it's not that unusual: Hermes and the Lexington/Saratoga had enclosed bows as well.

Kilomuse wrote:Well if it's a cruiser/battleship conversion (and from the looks of that big belt it might be) then it's not that unusual: Hermes and the Lexington/Saratoga had enclosed bows as well.

Not a conversion. The armor belt is there because many of our carriers operate within range of land-based enemy aircraft when operating in the continental theater, as well as enemy warships. During the 1930's our CV's typically would have similar protection to what a heavy cruiser would have.

Another problem with the airwing (sorry shipmate) with the Firefly and the Corsair, we're looking at two different aproaches to the same role. the Brits persisted with the two man fighter, whereas the USN, like the Japanese navy, stuck with single seaters and that was the way forward; so in that sense the two types don't fit together. Also, by the time the Corsair went to sea with USN (after the RN proved it could be shipped) the Dauntless was obsolete. I'm not wanting to be negative here, because I know we've had problems with the OGFL AU when getting air wings sorted.

You could shoehorn the Firefly in some sort of fleet scouting role. That's basically what they were used for once the FAA Corsairs, Sea Furies and Sea Hornets started serving in number.

Or give them 3" rockets and a surface search radar for sinking subs.

The Firefly is for scout/recon purposes, which is why there are only 4 of them. I don't use bombers for scouting. The single-seat fighters are for, well, fighting. During this timeframe we can use either Goshawks (F4F) or Tigersharks (F4U). I just happened to choose the Tigershark for this one.

As far as aircraft fitting or not fitting together, well, this ain't the RN, USN or IJN. It is the GHRN, and what may have been true for the others is not necessarily true for us. In this AU (and I know I've said this before) those nations do not exist. I use RW type aircraft for a single reason, because I suck at trying to design my own unique aircraft.

Using various contemporary navies as a general yardstick for what can and cannot be done as a general rule is not a bad thing, and can keep a person on the right track for determing what ships can do and look like. But, I do kinda bridle at the lockstep "The USN didn't do this so you can't either" observations.

Inspired and encouraged by Bombhead, (and by 'encouraged' I mean him sending me the basic top view and saying "Lets see what you can come up with!" I love this place.) I am trying my hand at an Escort Carrier, the HMS Quinn Bay, the first of the class commissioning in late 1941 with 15 more to follow over the course of the next year. The last ship of the class, HMS Corsair Bay, commissions in early 1943.

While the hull is based on a merchant design, these are not straight conversions, but built from the keel up as baby flattops.



Obviously, I have a ways to go yet, just having the basics done up. I'm still in the process of trying to work out what and where and why I ought put things like boats, rafts, etc along the sides (and shamelessly hoping somebody here will give me a brilliant idea on "this should go there"). While I am useing the Bogue class as a general guideline, I don't want to do a line-for-line copy of it. If I did that, I may as well just use the actual Bogue instead of trying to come up with something on my own.

I figure the air group would be somewhere in the 18-20 aircraft range. I also figure that since their primary mission is convoy escort, they would not have the most 'up to date' aircraft and would have the TBD's and F4F's (or even a few Skua's too. Hnh. Probably not.) replaced on the fleet carriers by TBM's and F4U's. (since my own names for these aircraft is not widely known, hell, even I have to look them up on my list most of the time, I'll just keep useing the RW designations when posting here. Its just simpler that way. )