Air cover from Wake

[Patton42]

Greetings all,

During the 6 june air attack on Cruisers Mogami and Mikuma during the Battle of Midway, how far were the vessels from reaching air cover in the form of Japanese bombers stationed on Wake Island? Also, can anyone list what type and how many planes were positioned on Wake during the battle?

Thanks!

[AltDess]

Thought I read in Shattered Sword they were something like 600 miles away.

Found this on pg 369 "both ships were making close to twenty knots" and "However, they were still at least a days steaming from friendly fighter cover".

[LWD]

Was the bomber part a typo? If not how would bombers at Wake provide aircover to the Japanese ships?

[Patton42]

Yes, meant fighters, not bombers. Mental lapse. Still wanted to see if anyone had a list of what aircraft Japan had stationed on Wake during the battle of Midway.

Thanks.

[LWD]

You might want to ask over at the IJN aircarft board. A fair number of experts on things like this frequent it. Here's a link:
http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php ... ww;board=3

A quick search showed a number of sites such as this one:
http://www.zipcon.net/~kestral/ijn.html
and this one:
http://www.microworks.net/pacific/order ... _japan.htm
mentioning 10 bombers at Wake.
This news article mentions 4 zeroes and 2 others.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/38330300
but I'm not at all sure how accurate it is.
This TROM list 6 Claude's unloaded at Wake on 12 March 1942:
http://www.combinedfleet.com/Goshu_t.htm

[Patton42]

Thanks LWD, good stuff.

[Larry D.]

Chitose Kōkūtai

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24 Feb 42: on receipt of a report that the U.S. carrier Enterprise had hit Wake Island with a 42-plane strike, the Kōkūtai dispatched a number of bombers from Roi but these could not locate the carrier.
Mar - Aug 42: the fighter complement in the Marshalls was redistributed during March with 14 based on Wake Is. and 14 at Roi, and the A5M CLAUDEs were gradually replaced with Mitsubishi A6M Type 0 carrier fighters (ZEKE). Responsible for air defense over Wake and Roi, both contingents trained new pilots who were later reassigned to other groups in the Solomons.
Mar 42: the bomber complement departed Rabaul-Vunakanau for Roi at the end of March and did not return until 2 September 1942.
31 May 42: elements of Chitose Air Gp. based on Wake Is. were under orders to fly covering patrols for the carrier strike force approaching Midway, and then transfer to Midway after it was taken by the landing force.
14 Jul 42: under 24th Air Flotilla/11th Air Fleet with 36 G4M1 BETTYs and 36 A6M2 ZEKEs, according to a fleet-wide order of battle promulgated by the Navy Ministry in Tōkyō this date.

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