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Second Battle of the Santa Cruz islands

26 OCTOBER 1975

With the US 7th fleet and Japanese Self Defence Force barely holding on under the Chinese
onslaught, the Soviet Union seeks to push the Allies out of their bases in the western
and south Pacific. In a shocking move, Soviet marines have landed on New Guinea, and the
Allies are scrambling to stop them from building a bomber base there, which would threaten
Australia and all shipping in the south Pacific.

USS Enterprise and USS Saratoga were enroute to the area when they were caught in a major
storm east of the Solomons, preventing any and all air operations. During this time,
The red fleet's 2nd carrier division has closed in on the American formation, intent on
crushing their attempted counterattack.



This mission is heavily inspired by the battle of the Santa Cruz islands on 26 october 1942,
where USS Enterprise CV6 and USS Hornet CV8 faced off against the japanese carriers Shokaku,
Zuikaku, Junyo and Zuiho. The battle ended with Enterprise damaged and Hornet as well as the
destroyer USS Porter sunk, whilst the japanese took damage to Shokako and Zuiho. However,
this battle is often regarded as the death of the japanese naval air service because of the
ferocious casualties their aircrew suffered. 99 of the attacking aircraft were shot down, with
the loss of 149 aircrew. After this battle, Enterprise was the only battle-ready carrier that
the US navy had until the arrival of the Essex class the following year.

In this mission set in 1975, you face off against a soviet force centred around 2 Orel class
carriers. Enterprise has the brand new F-14 Tomcat, whereas Saratoga has the older F-4J Phantom II.
I wanted to make a mission where the Soviets have a slight edge in missile technology, which is why
most of the escorting American ships are still armed with Rim-2Fs and Rim-8s, with a handful having
just been upgraded to use the SM-1.
The AGM-84 Harpoon also hadn't entered service yet in the timeframe of this scenario, so you have the
option of adjusting the difficulty simply by which payload you choose for your strike aircraft.