The USS W. H Taft

I found my fictional Korean War flat top, USS William Howard Taft, or "Big boy." (Navy pilots call her the "bath tub" after a famous incident wherein the 340lb President Taft became stuck in the White house tub)  its a pencil sharpener bought in an RNLI shop in Seahouses.  Seems fitting! She will be the focus of a few Korean War Air Strike games. 

The "ship" will sit on an A4 blue felt square as a control board for the squadron, showing readiness states, numbers and Air ops, as well as take off/ landing protocols.  

I'll give the break-dancing guy with the table tennis bats a miss though.  If this game ever arrives at Durham Wargames group I can think of several members who would look the part.  Although interpreting an air combat through the medium of mime is a multiplayer option I suppose.

In addition to the carrier I'm making an A3 Foamcore map of the campaign area of Korea and tiny aircraft pins as markers and targets.

Game Sequence 

1 carrier takeoff 

2 way point crossing the coast

3 approach

4 Over the primary 

5 Any secondary

6 Home run

7 Carrier landing

Target cards are part of a random draw deck, done as art that goes onto the tabletop for Air Strike attacks.  As such they have a flak value and strike points required.

Encounter cards for way points 2-6 list enemy aircraft, unexpected flak, and the run of other encounters and weather cards

3rd July 1950

The USS W.H Taft has arrived on station in the Sea of Japan amid the deteriorating political and military situation in Korea.  Reports of armies massing in North Korea had been downplayed in the UN and the US, but on 25th June an invasion had shocked onlookers.  It had become clear that a war was beginning.

USS W.H Taft, "the bathtub," hosts a mixture of squadrons but is primarily a Corsair carrier.  The spearhead squadron are the 27th, the "Wolverines" The first missions will be training, CAP and armed reconnaissance sorties.  The section of photo reconnaissance aircraft carried by Taft, two corsairs, will be used to overfly the military zones and send the aerial photographs to General McArthur at his headquarters.

As and when any verified military targets are identified tasked missions will be awarded.

Many of the missions flown by carrier-based Corsair squadrons were known as ‘armed reconnaissance’ sorties – a term borrowed from the USAF. These would typically see F4Us hunting for targets of opportunity in two- or four-aeroplane sections. As a rule, each flight would cover up to 70 miles of supply lines, both rail and road, in an effort to stop the enemy moving equipment and ammunition to the front. As an example, on one of the combat cruises made by the USS Valley Forge (CV-45), its Carrier Air Group Five (CVG-5) launched 3444 missions, more than half of which were armed reconnaissance sorties. The results were 2000+ enemy vehicles destroyed, including no fewer than 161 locomotives.

My Wolverines' initial missions are over the Pyongyang airfields as the USN attempt to wrest air superiority over the outdated soviet aircraft of the North Koreans.

Air Strike.

The Pyongyang airfields.  

The corsairs sweep in against MIG 3 and Yak 9 opposition.

The corsair pilots hammer the enemy.  A win for the forces of the hamburger economy.

Note to self: Air strike reminder

3 cards in hand, random deck draw.

BRS turn

Play a tactical or doctrine Card

Shoot

Move & turn

Pilot action, 

---Shoot again, 

---Manoeuvre, 

---Climb for advantage.