Could A Single F-15E Have Stopped The 1941 WWII Pearl Harbor Attack? (Naval Battle 46b) | DCS 

Next Sim, please send a flight of 10 B-52s to carpet bomb the fleet!

What the in-game AI can't simulate is the sheer awe and terror a pilot from 1941 would feel at seeing what looks like a spaceship from an afternoon sci-fi serial, moving at impossible speed, attacking your fleet from what to you is an impossible distance. Plus it's carrying the markings of your enemy.

Even more scary is the F15 was flying 30 years post WWII and here we are 50 years since the Eagle first flew…

Dropping flares against bullets. Brilliant.

In reality, once the protective nose cone was compromised, your radar would fail from the brute force of air pressure.

To the Japanese fleet, it would have seemed an alien craft appeared, destroyed their carriers, and flew away straight up into the sky -

There's two scenarios to consider here. If the F-15 would have discovered the Japanese carriers prior to them launching their aircraft it could have easily sank all of them using precision guided munitions. In air to air combat the F-15 would have run out of ordinance well before it ran out of targets.

When he said “we got hit.” I heard the line from “The Final Countdown” “Why are we playing with these guys?”. I love that movie.

I was a f-15E crew chief before I ended my enlistment, that is the general mechanic and marshaler for those who don’t know, the footage at the beginning was a good bit of nostalgia, especially seeing jets from my old squadron.

The F-15 was designed with the philosophy "Not a pound for air-to-ground." Only decades later did the Air Force admit that with a few changes it would make a top notch medium bomber, and that's what they did with the F-15E. More recently they've developed the F-15EX to turn it into a "bomb truck" or "missile truck" able to rain destruction on air and land.

That intro sounds like a commercial for Americans who wants to have thier own Amazon delivered F-15Es for home defense 😂

I think there's a Simpsons episode where something similar to this happens. New aircraft tries to intercept old time fighter planes, and they zoom right past them not able to do anything. This is actually not as easy as I thought. I get it it's a modern airplane but the sheer amount of enemy planes makes it difficult to use modern day weapons systems. Goes to show how badass the WW2 pilots were to fly through flak and dive bomb and hit the target without any guidance systems to speak of.

I saw the movie "Final Countdown" in the early '80s, which was a great time travel flick. This simulation made up for what they didn't show in the movie.

Another thing you could have tried to do was dive and drag them to lower altitudes so they had to take their time to climb again.

Very reminiscent of The Final Countdown (1980) where a supercarrier travels back in time to the Pearl Harbor attack. Although in the movie they never touched the Japanese fleet.

Top work, Gents. Cap, you guys put so much work into these scenarios, and it really shows!

If you damage the carriers, ALL the japanese planes would then become kamikaze planes.

Thank you Cap and the Reapers! Always a pleasure to work with you and the team, I need to go start reading F-15E checklists and do some familiarization in the Strike Eagle - cheers!

Amazing video, never played a flight sim, but this managed to be engaging and tense.

It's interesting that when all six F-15's were in the air, there was so much confusion over who was targeting which carrier - and this was casual fun. Imagine how much room for error there is in a stressful real-life situation.

My father flew f15s for 8 years after his unit transferred to them out of the f4, which he flew in towards the end of Vietnam sometimes doing weasel missions. They were honestly hesitant about all the new tech and didn't think it would work as well as claimed, but one by one after their first flight in it they were immediately converted 😂

One correction. The Japanese force (KIDO BUTAI) was not split into multiple task forces. All 6 carriers (Carrier Divisions 1, 2, and 5) and their supporting ships were in a single formation. That is what gave KIDO BUTAI the ability to mass, what was for 1941, an unprecedented number of aircraft in a single group. What was split was the two waves of aircraft, but that was a function of time between each wave, not a split force.

Thank you for putting this all togethe

This one is so awesome! Love your content!

You used mostly 2D tactics. You can climb and descend faster than the Zeros. If too many get airborne, drop to dive to 7500, take out a carrier and move out of range. Depending on the reaction of the Zero's, climb to 20 and turn in for another run. Also, leave more time between drops to lure fighters away from your drop point to increase odds you won't be engaged. For the two minute dog fight, you should have climbed to 25 and singled out and picked off stragglers.

When I first saw an F-15C I badly wanted to see them become an element of my country's air force. In the mid 1970's I was an air traffic controller at RAAF Base Amberley when the US was flying one around the air force bases in Australia in a demonstration sales pitch. The Australian government was looking to replace the ageing Dassault Mirage III fighters [which they did with the F/A-18 fighter jets]. McDonnell Douglas were trying to sell their F-15s and had it demonstrate it's capabilities... WOW! What it did was incredible, from a slow almost stall down the length of the runway [relying almost only on the pure power of it's engines with minimal lift to keep it in the air] to having the pilot pull it's stick back and go vertical. I thought for sure that it would crash back into the ground but then the engines went to full power and it just went vertical like a rocket. It was one of the most impressive displays of raw powered capability I've ever seen.

That whole "two groups 100 miles apart" bit would have been a.... wait for it... GAME CHANGER😂😂😂

The brief historical overview of the F-15 made this video so much better!

"Wombat, what happened?" - Cap "The defense department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid" - Wombat, probably

What's the point of using the F-15's countermeasures? The Zero doesn't have radar or heat-seeking missiles.

Honestly the only way I see a single jet making any actual difference in the outcome is by offering a response to the attack FAR before the Japanese thought was possible. And the element of surprise and the fear caused by 5-6 planes just spontaneously blowing up and being lost to an invisible enemy would've created some serious questions.

Wow this vid was amazing 👍

why dont you re-run the scenario at night, the F-15E's ideal theatre, no zero's to worry about then lol. Be cool to see too

How did the Japanese fleet detect you 30 miles out? No radar, never seen a jet before, All 6 carriers should have been hit without any warning or realization of what just happened.

Hang on! I know that voice!!! I freaking LOVE these collabs with Tog.

I love this content. You have a sub.

Once the zeroes are up to 20k feet why not dive to like 3k. A lot fewer zeroes down there, and if they follow you down then you can climb back up to 20k a lot faster than they can and have a nice clear attack run or two before they get back up to you.

Finally “The Final Countdown” ending we all wanted 👍🏼

Finally, I can answer the question I am always asked. What would you do if you were transported back in time and also had an f-15??

Strong 'The Final Countdown' vibes here! Thank you very much for this video! 😃👍

Really digging the idea of having a brief historical block at the beginning to refresh us on the aircraft in question like this. People may not still know the significance of how the F-15E changed the role of the F-15's mission in air combat, so having a quick rundown of what the F-15E is and has been helps bring the viewers up to speed on why this scenario is being done. Well done, Reapers. Well done.

Must have been an incredible sight to see the three carriers hit during the Battle of Midway.

Fun video 😅! I loved it ❤️!

Legendary! All skulls on! Great sim, boys! That was tense!😅

Super entertaining video! Just curious why you were releasing chaffs to counter the zero bullets?

One point to note though. While the F-15 has never lost in air to air combat there have been two lost in combat. Both of them where F-15E lost to ground fire.

My DCS can not simulate this what mods are you using for the WWII items?

Grim Reaper: ugh I need a back seater. I’m having to fly the plane and bomb the target. F-16 Pilot from Desert Storm that dodged 6 SAMs without countermeasures and dropped his bombs successfully on target: Amateur

Made me almost go dig up the old MicroProse F-15 game...gods, that was fun and intense back in the day...

When you sink a carrier (or other ship with helicopters), your scoreboard should also count all the aircraft onboard as lost.

you guys absolutely opened up a new play field here using the engine to illustrate documentaries

Since That Fleet Did'nt Have RADAR, How Would They Know Where The Attack Was Comeing From ???

when zero's reach altitude, you should just drop to the deck let them come down to engage. then just power climb back up for your next bombing run, it will be over before they can climb back up.

Brings back fond memories of Harry Turtledove's WORLDWAR novels, in which aliens with a roughly 21st century level of tech try to invade our planet in the middle of WW2

Reminds me of a 1980 movie called 'The Final Countdown' starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. The USS Nimitz encounters an electrical storm vortex at sea and gets transported back in time to 1941 Pearl Harbor.

With the Strike Eagle being a night / all-weather platform, you could make your attack at night and the Zeros would be eliminated as a factor.

Something this Sim doesn't take into consideration is the psychological effect seeing a plane that fast, with no prop, afterburners kickin' in, etc. would have on any WWII pilot.

So if most of the planes took off from the carriers and now have no place to land back on them...I guess they will "land" eventually near Pearl Harbor.

After my escapade on to an installation with an A10 Wing EXO, sitting in the A10 cockpit with the APU on and him showing me the Maverick visual targeting system (training no live weapons) and selecting a few targets, I had been at the base flight desk and noticed distinguishing patched on the uniforms of Marines on desk duty. I told them about my parents' place on a mountain, the flight path, what they did on cloudy days as opposed to sunny, and then got them to break out a topo map where I showed them the property and told them to come closer, that we were an Air Family. (They swore that they were never that low, but when they flew by, by the time I heard them, they had passed over me, and were then below me..) The word must have gotten out to everyone on the flight path, even the Air Force. The EA6 did the most spectacular move one day. It was said that the plane was heard for quite a bit longer than the usual 1.5 seconds on approach. It was over the house and descending as usual, but lower, inverted, all flaps and surfaces extended. It was said by the observer (my Dad) that all 4 of the crew were looking down at the property through the top of the canopy and you could see that there was writing on the helmets. That was an even more epic move than the flight of 3x F15E Strike Eagles out fly by of Seymour Johnson : - One breaking over the West Ridge 300 yards from me canted over left looking for me to the East, then followed by: - the second breaking from the trees where I was on the East Ridge canted over Right looking at me as they passed (he was probably 50-60' over me as he passed), then followed by; - the final third descending down the basin/bowl terrain of the mountain, past the house and clearing the house on the next property by about 50'-60' and both the Pilot and Weapons Officer facing me but looking slightly up as they descended (already below me) waving as they went by. I was hunting, so they got the 'Forward to Target' salute from the rifle. Always a thrill looking down at a US Fighter Jet passing you on your property. Neat place. They could power down, drop 200 ft. and not blast the property as they passed. After 4 seconds of reduced speed descent the terrain drop off gave them over 1000' of altitude in another 2 seconds. The smell of JP was a brief benefit to the ambiance of the events.

This reminds me of that one movie the Philadelphia experiment. Where a Nimitz class aircraft carrier goes back in time to Pearl Harbor.

To lose the zero's temporarily you could have dived and used your afterburners to gain altitude very quickly and have some free time at altitude

Really impressed that Cap managed to do it on himself. Those AM6 piston engines had superchargers, but the oxygen must've been quite precious for them up there!

this needs to be a movie

Since it takes the zeros so long to ascend and descend wouldn’t changing altitudes on each pass be effective?

one thing that could have made a difference, Once the strike eagle spotted the fleet it could have alerted Pearl Harbor and perhaps given them time to scramble.

In 1980 two F-14's on patrol were engaged by two Zeros after CVN68 time warped to 1941. The F-14's subsequently shot them down. I saw a documentary movie about the incident. The carrier launched multiple aircraft to attack other assets in the area but the mission was aborted due to a weather anomaly.

I see you do videos like this and it makes me wonder - how would the climactic battle in The Final Countdown have unfolded?

Imagine being on one of those carriers as a plane you have never seen the like of before, one your planes can barely track, let alone successfully engage, starts casually taking out ship after ship with weapons stronger than anything you've ever seen.

I’d love to see a flight of 15’s vs the invasion of Poland 1939 Or a troop of M1 Abrams

There was a movie back in 1979 I believe called The Final Countdown that put an F-14 against 2 Japanese Zeros who were likely scout aircraft. I'm sure most here know about it. It was AWESOME!!!

That inro sounds like something straight from interdimensional cable

What game is this, and what platform are you running it on? Thanks! PS - Very cool!

In the second battle, put 2 eagles on air defense after they drop their first bombs (and equip them to do it). Of course, flying the mission at night would have pretty much solved everything. The first sign of trouble would be the bombs hitting the carriers.

Imagine what that would look like to the IJN. An aircraft that looks like that, flying at that speed, wiping out an entire carrier with one bomb. Fear. Terror. Horror, even..

This is hella interesting, wow.

Triggers memories of Final Countdown. The movie that introduced me as a child to the potential to alternate histories.

My uncle was a native Hawaiian who was 6 years old on 12/7/1941. He watched some of the planes until his mother grabbed him and took him inside.

Wait.....whaaattt? Photogamus Maximus and the Grim(y) Reapers are compadres? Honestly it makes perfect sense and it's a perfect match for us beautiful humans/viewington wooingtons! LOL! Mr. Tog knows I'm a huge fan of his work and I never miss a GR presentation. (I've had 5 spinal surgeries in the last 5 years after tumors were removed so I have a LOT of couch time for my YouTubian educational degree.) Thank you both, as well as ALL the talented GR pilots and programmers, for all you do for the aviation community!

The is a movie about just this scenario. A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier travels through time from 1980 to 6 Dec 1941...the day before the attack on Pearl Harbour. See "The Final Countdown".

Reminds me of that old movie The final Countdown where a whole carrier of f14s go back in time to pearl harbor.

That’s beautiful - never seen a nose cone shot off before. Cap always delivers!

Liam as WSO was the MVP of that perfect first mission. I can only imagine the commanders of the rest of the IJN fleet as they watched ONE plane get six bomb hits and six kills on their carriers, to say nothing of all the Zero pilots with nowhere to land. =^[.]^=

The question at hand is if the F-15E could have stopped the attack. Of course it would have. The chief weapons of the Japanese was surprise. As soon as they realized that they were discovered they would have turned for home.

Once the carriers are taken out, the planes would have nowhere to land

Is Kirk Douglas in it and The Nimitz?

First bomb hit! Did you see how the zero jerked back and forth? Cant believe the modeling.

Curious. Why flares deployed? They didn't have missiles back then. Or is there something a miss?

When the tpod is moving about, is that MC desync?

Can... Zeroes even achieve those heights? Iirc they didn't have pressurized cabins

My understanding is that the F15 was used to demonstrate it could take out an ICBM. It would be interesting to see a simulation of the F15 taking out V1 and V2 rockets.

I would really like to see a flight of spotter aircraft lasing each carrier on different codes while one or two bomb trucks dump out loads of GBUs all set to each of the friendly laser codes. It'd be magnificent to watch a swarm of GBUs flying out and navigating to each of their respective targets.

What the music form the intro, a very nostalgic game has that song and i want to know what it was called. thanks

F-15E replaced the F-111 and both were used for the deep strike role, but I think if the F-111F refitted out with the F-15E avionics' and weapons would have been better aircraft. They have a longer range, faster, and could carry a larger bomb load than the F-15E. The F-111 was untouchable in its day.

The grunting in his voice during the sharp banking. Those high G menuvers must really take its toll on him.

It would be hilarious if you guys did a video where you tried to emulate a precision flight team like the Red Arrows or the Blue Angels.

Imagine being those pilots trying to intercept an F-15E. How terrifying would it be to watch your only way to survive blow up while this foo fighter completely ignores entire carrier wings?

Stay on target...stay on target ....use the force cap

There is no way a Japanese Zero (or any other warbird for that matter) would be able to even fire on a modern jet as they would never be able to compensate for the speed difference they would be seeing. In this game, the computer doesn't realize that so the AI Zero Pilots stand a much better chance than reality.

What is the mod used that give target vallues? Thank in advance

What is the point of dropping chaf? Is it to confuse the Zero's heat seeking missles?