AHC/WI: Akagi or Kaga?

Akagi or Kaga?

  • Akagi

    Votes: 58 92.1%

  • Kaga

    Votes: 5 7.9%
  • Total voters
    63
Kantai Kessen

Kantai Kessen

Imagine you are an ASB who is partial to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and you can choose one of the carriers of the IJN's 1st Carrier Division at the Battle of Midway to survive that unfortunate rendezvous with destiny. Alas, all three of her colleagues are going to die.

Would you rather have Akagi, the Red Castle
1628155194226.png

or Kaga, the Blue Province
1628155210017.png

survive? If so, why?

Your challenge is to contrive a situation such that your chosen flat-top survives the battle and makes it back to Japan. Then what might happen? What further adventures will this carrier get up to?

The choice is yours, Admiral Space Bat!
 
Admiral Jellicoe

Admiral Jellicoe

Akagi - faster as based on a battlecruiser not a battleship hull. Akagi only took a 500lb hit. Better damage control and she could have been saved
 

RousseauX

Donor
for Midway itself you want the Akagi to survive, it had the finest torpedo bombing squadron in the world at the time and you really needed that squadron to sink the US carriers

If the Akagi survives and its torpedo squadron added to Hiryu's strike the Yorktown is done afternoon of June 4th, and then the battle is actually fairly even between the Hornest+Enterprise vs Hiryu+Akagi
 

1Big Rich

Kantai Kessen said:
If so, why?

Your challenge is to contrive a situation such that your chosen flat-top survives the battle and makes it back to Japan. Then what might happen? What further adventures will this carrier get up to?

The choice is yours, Admiral Space Bat!
Click to expand...

I voted Akagi, she's a faster carrier, and the IJN will have more than enough 'slower' carriers with their conversions.

Somewhat useful


though not 100% accurate.

As for a scenario where she survives, as I recall, one of the B-26s shot down narrowly missed her bridge. Have the bridge and flight deck hit, Nagumo and ship's commander killed and the flight deck damaged. Akagi retires east to try to restore the bridge and repair the flight deck, misses the disaster and is withdrawn damaged when the rest of the carriers are put down.

My thoughts,
 

RousseauX

Donor
The Akagi survival scenerio is actually pretty simple: just have its crew more on alert during the combined Yorktown/Enterprise dive bomber strike and it dodges Lt best's bomb which otl sank it.

Then in the afternoon US scouting is just a bit worse than otl. In otl the Hiryu was sank because one of the SBD scout plane pilots pushed past the limit of his range and spotted the Hiryu in time for a strike to be launched to take her out.

In atl IJN scouting is a bit better and the USN a bit worse, Akagi/Hiryu change course after the morning strike and remains unspotted long enough to unleash their squadrons on TF16/TF17, they sink/disable 2/3 US carriers even while taking heavy losses in planes to the degree where they can't effectively fight anymore. Maybe the Japanese tries and fails to do the landing anyway but the naval battle in effectively a tactical draw: a second coral sea. Yamamoto pulls out his remaining 2 fleet carriers and they live to fight another day.
 

GuildedAgeNostalgia

According to wiki, Kaga could hold 90 aircraft compared to Akagi's 66 and Kaga had more AA weaponry. I think that's more important than the extra 3 knots per hour that Akagi gets in speed.

Edit: I was wrong, Akagi has 91, not 66.
 
Last edited:
CV(N)-6

CV(N)-6

GuildedAgeNostalgia said:
According to wiki, Kaga could hold 90 aircraft compared to Akagi's 66 and Kaga had more AA weaponry. I think that's more important than the extra 3 knots per hour that Akagi gets in speed.
Click to expand...
Actually wiki gives 72+18 in storage for Kaga and 66+25 in storage for Akagi, so they are pretty much equal, plus Akagi isn't slowing down the entire Kido Butai.
 
Resurgam

Resurgam

I wonder much good this will really do for the IJN. They've still lost three carriers and the cream of their naval forces, and the US will hunt the survivor down in due time.
 

GuildedAgeNostalgia

Resurgam said:
I wonder much good this will really do for the IJN. They've still lost three carriers and the cream of their naval forces, and the US will hunt the survivor down in due time.
Click to expand...
It could certainly make the US a bit more cautious at the beginning of the 43 Central Pacific offensive... Might slow down their advance.

If Akagi survived to 44, could it have a impact during the Battle of the Phillipine Sea? It was a one sided battle in otl, but could Akagi's presence even the odds?
 

David Floyd

RousseauX said:
for Midway itself you want the Akagi to survive, it had the finest torpedo bombing squadron in the world at the time and you really needed that squadron to sink the US carriers

If the Akagi survives and its torpedo squadron added to Hiryu's strike the Yorktown is done afternoon of June 4th, and then the battle is actually fairly even between the Hornest+Enterprise vs Hiryu+Akagi
Click to expand...
You mean Enterprise vs H and A. Hornet's air group simply didn't contribute.
 
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