Coral Sea: First Air Fleet

In April 1942, the Japanese Combined Fleet offered Fourth Fleet the carrier Kaga (then completing repairs to the hull damage that kept her out of the Indian Ocean operations) for the upcoming Operation MO, the capture of Port Moresby. Fourth Fleet’s commander, Shigeyoshi Inoue, had been the pre-war head of naval aviation and recognized that one carrier would not be enough. Combined Fleet gave him two, and these ships fought the Battle of the Coral Sea.

First Air Fleet is a Campaign Study based on Inoue’s recommendations, that in obedience to the classic principle of concentration of force, all six carriers of First Air Fleet should be deployed for the operation. We’ll study how that might have played out, and also Isoroku Yamamoto’s initial idea to use just one heavy carrier (Kaga) and then to use three (Kaga, Shokaku, and Zuikaku). And of course, possible American responses. With ten new scenarios for Coral Sea, using additional pieces from Midway.