"Betty" Question

[Shadow4ce]

Quick question, and if it's been answered, please just restate without too much bashing. :wink:

Was the Japanese "Betty" Bomber ever used as a Torpedo Bomber as it is listed in the Rulebook?

My understanding is the "Betty" was a Medium Altitude Bomber similar to the US B-24, 25, 26 types. Not quite as big as the B-24, but bigger than the other two.

I never recall reading it did any low altitude wave skimming torpedo attack runs, just dropping large payloads from way up above.

 

[Captain_Nemo]

Yes it was. check out this wiki article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Bomber

and this: But beware of popups

http://www.angelfire.com/fm/compass/G4M.htm

And this from the Smithsonian

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/g4m3betty.htm

Enjoy

 

[Brass]

Also, from Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II:

"Bomb-bay beneath wings can accomodate one 1,760 lb. (800 kg.) torpedo or bombs to a maximum weight of 4,480 lbs. (2,200 kg.)."

LT

 

[DM]

Force Z was attacked by torpedo-carrying Bettys, so that would have to be a most definite "yes"

 

[Shadow4ce]

Cool! With bonus "courage" points to Captain_Nemo for actually quoting Wikipedia and being right!

Now for the obvious follow-up question...

What if I want to use my Betties for altitude bombing?

What AD and DD should these birds have?

 

[DM]

Not a lot - level bombing was pretty ineffective.

 

[Wishbone]

effective when it hit...
which addmitedly wasn't very often...

 

[Captain_Nemo]

How about 1AD 1DD per Flight. and that's generous.....

 

[DM]

I've used a two stage approach, similar to General Quarters.

1) using the aircraft's original attack dice (the number for torpedoes works OK), roll against a Target Number of 6 with no modifiers. This gives the number of ADs that come close.

2) Then roll that number of ADs against the Target Number of the target ship as for a normal attack.

 

[Wishbone]

sounds good. would be nice to have an armada of Italian medium/heavy bombers flying around dropping bombs!

high level bombing in the supplement?

 

[DM]

To be honest I can't remember