This is meant to be an historical campaign, based on the carrier battles of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons (22-25 August 1942) and the Battle of Santa Cruz (25-27 October 1942. I named the campaign “Desperate Battles” because at this stage of the war the US Navy was fighting uphill. That is, they had fewer resources than the Japanese, in many ways inferior aircraft and less experienced pilots. In both battles, the Japanese are the attackers and the USN has to fight a defensive struggle. The dates, times and locations of each engagement (mission) are as close as possible to the actual ones. Ship names, locations and courses as well as aircraft numbers and types are as accurate as possible. Attack angles and targets are set up to give historical results, but you, the player can change history (slightly). The campaign consists of various missions; recon, strike, defensive and land based as well as carrier based. Random chance plays a big role in the numbers of defensive aircraft and in some cases, whether or not a target will be there at all. Call signs 2 and aircraft skins however are not historical. Carrier task forces are set up to sail into a 15 knot wind on takeoff and landing. Using the alternate dps provided for the Usio ships and the FDG alternate files for US aircraft should make this campaign even more realistic and challenging.

This campaign is a mostly historical commentary of the World War 2 exploits of the USS Essex. The US and Japanese task force compositions, ship names, dates, and most locations are as accurate as possible. In this campaign, the USN is on the offensive. Out of all the actions in which she participated, I chose a good, representative sampling of the major engagements of this great ship from her first action until near the end of the war in the Pacific. Random choice will have you flying either a fighter, dive bomber or a torpedo bomber or maybe as a wingman.

This is a quasi historical, 16 mission campaign, encompassing the World War II battles in which the Saratoga participated – from 1941-1945. I say “quasi historical” because there was so little information about the details of her engagements. Exact locations and composition of strike groups were extremely hard to find. I tried to keep the amount of downloads required low, but most were unavoidable with all the changes in aircraft and ships over time.

Proposed in 1944, the Macchi C.207 was equipped with a 1,750 hp DB 603 engined. The main change was an increase in armament. It was armed with four 20mm cannon mounted in the wings. Work began on the prototype, but it was never completed. After the War, Castoldi proposed a version equipped with a Packard Merlin engine. Italian authorities preferred to invest in a similar version of the Fiat G.55 and the Fiat G.59 was born.

The proposed Type 26 Global Combat Ship for use as an AI ship in CFS2, features landable deck and full weapons/damage profile. Also included are a sample mission to try her out and the .fsc source files for you to tweak in FSDS if you wish.

The C.205N1 first flew on 1 November 1942, with armament consisting of a 20 mm cannon firing through the propeller hub, and four cowling-mounted 12.7 mm (.5 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns for which it carried 300-400 and 1,400 rounds of ammunition respectively. The maiden flight of the second prototype, the C.205N2, took place on 19 May 1943. It was equipped with one engine-mounted 20 mm cannon, two wing-mounted 20 mm cannon, and two fuselage-mounted 12.7 mm (.5 in) machine guns.

A Type 45 destroyer for use as an AI ship in CFS2, features landable deck and full weapons/damage profile. Also included are a sample mission to try her out and the .fsc source files for you to tweak in FSDS if you wish.

Barkhorn Realism Patch - hard to find. Quote from Combatsim.com "the AI wingman are little more than shadows in CFS2. Barkhorn's Realism Patch makes changes to all thirty USN missions."

Just copy to your CFS2 Aircraft folder. Files adds more details to your Ed Cooks Hart derivative biplanes.

With this beauty we close the Furies Series.