Publicado: 02 Jul 2007
Hablando sobre el bombardeo naval de Oahu:
The purpose of a naval bombardment of Oahu would be:
1) To destroy the United States Pacific Fleet in port (the silencing of Williston and Hatch would probably be a prerequisite for such an attack).
2) To conduct saturation bombardments of various targets. (The IJN could perform this mission with the US Army 16" guns operational).
Long range and short range bombardment of Oahu
The general procedure sketched out for an IJN bombardment of Oahu are drawn from the USMC Landing Operations Doctrine, Chapter V - Naval Gunfire, 1938. It is assumed that if faced with the task, the IJN would have employed similiar tactics
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref ... ous-5.html
The initial purpose of a bombardment of Oahu would be to eliminate the ability of the island's major bases to project air or naval power. The list of potential targets of such an attack would be the United States Navy itself, the large air stations, the naval base, the oil tanks, power generation stations, communications centers and supply dumps. Different guns were better at attacking different targets. Smaller guns were good for precision fire and support work. The large battleship guns were more appropriate for area attacks, as would be the case if striking the navy yard or an airbase.
Protecting Oahu against attack relied upon an interlocking system of defenses for success. The fleet, sitting in harbor, provided the vast majority of the anti-aircraft defenses available to the island. These were of a scale such that Kido Butai could not conduct sustained attacks against the navy yard over a period of days without suffering heavy losses.
But the United States fleet could only sit in harbor if no enemy fleet came up to Oahu and destroyed it at pierside. The things that prevented this were the aircraft at Hawaii, the coastal defenses designed to ward off such assaults, and any fire the ships themselves could muster (USN ships were not netted into the coastal defense network, and therefore would have to rely upon their own spotter aircraft). On paper, the coastal defenses looked impressive. But in fact there were only two positions of four guns in total capable of contesting a serious massed attack by battleships and heavy cruisers. These were Battery Hatch and Battery Williston, situated southwest of the harbor, each being open-air 16" guns capable of hurling battleship-killing shells 20 miles out to sea.
If these two coastal batteries were silenced, then IJN fleet could approach closely enough to attack targets in the harbor with indirect fire. If the USN were still in harbor when this happened, then it risked immediate wholesale annihilation. But if the USN instead went to sea to avoid an attack, then Oahu no longer had adequate anti-aircraft defenses to protect itself, and Kido Butai could then do tremendous damage at very little cost.
Tinkerbell proposes that the solution to the problem was combined arms - IJN airpower destroys the 16" coastal guns and sweeps aside any defending ships at sea, operating outside the protective cocoon of massed A.A. in the harbor. IJN heavy surface ships then would approach and clear the port of US ships, which would remove the majority of A.A. defenses and allowing Kido Butai and the surface fleet to destroy Oahu's capability to project air and naval power. To achieve success, significant casualties amongst attacking surface ships was acceptable.
The targets for bombardment:
1) Airfields.
"Airfields" are defined in area as the zones of infrastructure, not the airbase including all runways and parks. There are several measurements for effect of shells against airfields. First is their effect on buildings, supplies and equipment. Next, the destruction of the runways and parkways themselves. Finally, the damage/destruction of aircraft caught on the ground. Each shell's effective radius was different depending on which of these objectives it was used for. It was easiest of all to damage parked aircraft, after that buildings and equipment, and finally the runways themselves. As the job got harder, the effective radius of each shell diminished.
2) Oil storage tanks.
Four fields required attack. In Tinkerbell, surface vessels initially attack the oil tanks, with the Strike Force responsible for follow-up strikes against any tanks which escape destruction.
A) Tank Field 1, by Naval Hospital. 156,000 yards sq.
B) Tank Field 2, east of CINPAC HQ. 156,000 yards sq.
C) Tank Field 3, south of CINPAC HQ. 74,000 yards sq.
D) Tank Field 4, on south side of Ford Island. 105,000 yards sq.
3) Navy Yard, Submarine base and Cinpac HQ.
4) Battleships trapped in port or drydock.
5) Schofield Barracks
The purpose of a naval bombardment of Oahu would be:
1) To destroy the United States Pacific Fleet in port (the silencing of Williston and Hatch would probably be a prerequisite for such an attack).
2) To conduct saturation bombardments of various targets. (The IJN could perform this mission with the US Army 16" guns operational).
Long range and short range bombardment of Oahu
The general procedure sketched out for an IJN bombardment of Oahu are drawn from the USMC Landing Operations Doctrine, Chapter V - Naval Gunfire, 1938. It is assumed that if faced with the task, the IJN would have employed similiar tactics
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref ... ous-5.html
The initial purpose of a bombardment of Oahu would be to eliminate the ability of the island's major bases to project air or naval power. The list of potential targets of such an attack would be the United States Navy itself, the large air stations, the naval base, the oil tanks, power generation stations, communications centers and supply dumps. Different guns were better at attacking different targets. Smaller guns were good for precision fire and support work. The large battleship guns were more appropriate for area attacks, as would be the case if striking the navy yard or an airbase.
Protecting Oahu against attack relied upon an interlocking system of defenses for success. The fleet, sitting in harbor, provided the vast majority of the anti-aircraft defenses available to the island. These were of a scale such that Kido Butai could not conduct sustained attacks against the navy yard over a period of days without suffering heavy losses.
But the United States fleet could only sit in harbor if no enemy fleet came up to Oahu and destroyed it at pierside. The things that prevented this were the aircraft at Hawaii, the coastal defenses designed to ward off such assaults, and any fire the ships themselves could muster (USN ships were not netted into the coastal defense network, and therefore would have to rely upon their own spotter aircraft). On paper, the coastal defenses looked impressive. But in fact there were only two positions of four guns in total capable of contesting a serious massed attack by battleships and heavy cruisers. These were Battery Hatch and Battery Williston, situated southwest of the harbor, each being open-air 16" guns capable of hurling battleship-killing shells 20 miles out to sea.
If these two coastal batteries were silenced, then IJN fleet could approach closely enough to attack targets in the harbor with indirect fire. If the USN were still in harbor when this happened, then it risked immediate wholesale annihilation. But if the USN instead went to sea to avoid an attack, then Oahu no longer had adequate anti-aircraft defenses to protect itself, and Kido Butai could then do tremendous damage at very little cost.
Tinkerbell proposes that the solution to the problem was combined arms - IJN airpower destroys the 16" coastal guns and sweeps aside any defending ships at sea, operating outside the protective cocoon of massed A.A. in the harbor. IJN heavy surface ships then would approach and clear the port of US ships, which would remove the majority of A.A. defenses and allowing Kido Butai and the surface fleet to destroy Oahu's capability to project air and naval power. To achieve success, significant casualties amongst attacking surface ships was acceptable.
The targets for bombardment:
1) Airfields.
"Airfields" are defined in area as the zones of infrastructure, not the airbase including all runways and parks. There are several measurements for effect of shells against airfields. First is their effect on buildings, supplies and equipment. Next, the destruction of the runways and parkways themselves. Finally, the damage/destruction of aircraft caught on the ground. Each shell's effective radius was different depending on which of these objectives it was used for. It was easiest of all to damage parked aircraft, after that buildings and equipment, and finally the runways themselves. As the job got harder, the effective radius of each shell diminished.
2) Oil storage tanks.
Four fields required attack. In Tinkerbell, surface vessels initially attack the oil tanks, with the Strike Force responsible for follow-up strikes against any tanks which escape destruction.
A) Tank Field 1, by Naval Hospital. 156,000 yards sq.
B) Tank Field 2, east of CINPAC HQ. 156,000 yards sq.
C) Tank Field 3, south of CINPAC HQ. 74,000 yards sq.
D) Tank Field 4, on south side of Ford Island. 105,000 yards sq.
3) Navy Yard, Submarine base and Cinpac HQ.
4) Battleships trapped in port or drydock.
5) Schofield Barracks