MIDWAY REVIEW by Jon Parshall (jparshall@wamnet.com>)

Hi there,

Haven't had a chance to play your Midway game yet, although it looks very
interesting. I am currently writing a book on the Battle of Midway, focusing
on the Japnaese side of the battle. As you might imagine, I know a fair
amount about the Japanese carrier operations during that day, so I will be
very interested to explore your flow charts. You should be aware, though,
that it is likely that the Japanese carrier flowchart would need to be
different from the U.S., as they operated their carriers differently than
ours, and had different physical constraints (enclosed hangar decks, for one
thing) imposed upon them. For more on these issues, see my recent article in
the Naval War College Review:

http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2001/Summer/sd1-su1.htm

Also, I was looking at your Order of Battle, and there are some problems on
the Japanese side. At present, you list the following:
        Zeros    Kates    Vals    Judys
Soryu   2        2        2       1       
Hiryu   2        2        1       1               
Kaga    2        2        2       1               
Akagi   2        2        2       1

In actual fact, the situation was a good deal more complex than that.  Kaga
was carrying 27 Kates, so she should get a "3" in that column.  *NO* Judys
were carried by *any* other carrier other than Soryu, and she carried only
one, and was used for only search purposes.  And then we get to the matter
of Zeros.  Each of the Japanese carriers, in addition to the 18 Zeros
normally carried (in Akagi's case, 19) also were ferrying aircraft of the
6th Kokutai to Midway as well.  These were all carrier capable aircraft, and
were flown by carrier-qualified pilots.  A shotai of three of them actually
was used in the battle, being launched from Akagi.  Their numbers were as
follows:

Akagi: 6
Kaga: 9
Soryu: 3
Hiryu: 3

In effect, that might give Kaga the nudge to a "3" in the Zero department as
well, since she carried a grand total of 27 Zekes.  If you abstract the
situation a little further, and bump Akagi's to a "3" as well, that accounts
for the extra planes carried by her, Soryu, and Hiryu.  All totaled, the
Japanese carried 94 Zeros in the battle, so they oughta get at least 9
counters, and maybe even 10.

Also, you probably ought to model the Japanese cruiser and battleship
floatplanes as search assets as well, since you have American Catalinas in
the mix.  The total loadout was as follows:
 
Haruna: 3 E8N (Dave)
Kirishima: 3 E8N (Dave)
Tone: 2 E13N (Jake), 2 E8N (Dave)  (Tone had lost a Jake sometime in May, it
appears)
Chikuma: 3 E13N (Jake), 2 E8N (Dave)
Nagara: 1 nighttime observation plane (Laura)
All totaled, that's 15 floatplanes.  I would be tempted to give the Japanese
at least one counter of these aircraft.  The Daves didn't have the range to
do good searching, but the Jakes certainly did.

Hope that is useful.  I will look over your flowcharts in more detail later
and see if I have suggestions.  Nice work.

Cheers,

-jon parshall- 
Imperial Japanese Navy Homepage 
http://www.combinedfleet.com