As I see it, you’ve got:
1 TacB from SZ97 which lands on Malta.
1 Fg from Malta which returns to Malta.
1 Fg from Gibraltar which lands on the carrier.
& another Fg from the UK which lands on the carrier.
Am I missing something? I’ve always heard this referred to as roughly a coin flip–which is is, with only 2 fighters–but it’s much better than that with the extra UK fighter.
@hengst Well, normally the sb from London comes as well. The choice 1-2 ftrs depends upon your comfort level with attack. +1 ftr (assuming 3 ftr scramble) = 80/20, +2 = 95/5. Since a scramble +loss for the Italians means they will be non factors for quite awhile (if ever), most would not take a 4:1 dog as a gamble and thus the Taranto raid will work, and 1 ftr is all you need.
BTW the ftr from Gibraltar is usually sent to SZ 96 to help sink the DD + trans–don’t want to forget about that one, and lands in Malta. I assumed that in the above calculation.
This only works if there are only Italian aricraft scrambling. I usually use two fighters from the United Kingdom terirtory, and the fighter from Malta-the fighter from Girbraltar should be used along with the cruiser off of Girbraltar (it takes three submarines to have more than an 80% chance to kill it, my normal standard to win a battle, so the submarines are usually used for easier prey in the north, especially if Germany attacks the Soviet Union in the first turn, which will nessecitate one submarine in sea zone 125) to destroy the Italian navy off of Malta. If a German aircraft lands in Southern Italy, I usually will call of the attack, as there is a less than 80% chance to win. All of this assumes Germany invades the Soviet Union in the first turn.
