Day 5 (August 8) and Air strike (Bag the Hun battle report)

 

Turn 5 Day (August 8)

The weather is fine.

US aircraft fail to spot the withdrawing remnants of the South-east area force.

The Japanese air forces basted at Rumbal launch a significant air attack made up of 3 sections of fighter aircraft protecting 3 sections of dive bombers and 1 of naval bombers. These are aimed at the landing sites and so do not need to search for targets, they are intercepted by 3 sections of carrier based fighters at a distance of 25000 yeards. The submarine I-123 sights the Task Unit from old TF 16 again but again cannot get into a good position due to the escorts.

The transports are divided into north and south sections. The north is protected by the Cruiser USS Vincennes and by destroyers USS Blue, Henley and Ellet. The south is protected by the anit-air cruiser USS San Juan and destroyers USS Hull, Buchanan and Monssen.

Transport group Yoke is to the north and X ray to the south.

The Battle

The Japanese air strike made up of 3 dive bomber sections and 1 torpedo bomber section with 3 fighter section escorts is intercepted by 3 US fighter sections a good distance out from the transport ships. The fighters are all operating 1 height band above the bombers at the start. The weather is clear.

The US fighters sweep in from the front left and the Japanese escorts move to engage but are caught slightly out of position.

The US CAP sweeps in from the top while the Japanese escorts begin to react.

The first shots are exchanged by both sides head on but all fail to hit and one pilot jams his guns. (gun jamming will be a recurring theme this game.)

The US red section is able to get behind the torpedo bombers but are shook off by tail gun fire and fail to hit. However, US white section coming in from the left fires and one of the bombers suffers a catastrophic structural failure and begins to fall out of the sky as the crew bail out.

One of the torpedo bombers (center) is shot down.

Next a chaotic fight in the centre behind the bombers erupts. The plains all fire and manoeuvre The result is some jammed guns and light damage. US Red section fires again on the torpedo bombers and red leader shreds the cockpit of one, killing the pilot. Japanese Green 2 suffers critical instrument damage and begins to withdraw from the battle. US red leader suffers a cut flue line.

A second torpedo bomber is shot down and a Japanese fighter is damaged (right)

In the next turn US red leader finishes off the last torpedo bombers causing it to fall from the sky, then begins to escape the area as the planes have all used their ammunition. Also fire from japanese fighters causes US yellow leader to suffer engine damage. This plane is flown by the carrier's group leader. 

The last torpedo bomber goes down as US red section tries to escape (top left).

Now the fight seems to break up, US red section flies off to the upper left and is pursued by the Japanese red section. US white sections continues to follow the bombers and is in turn followed by the Japanese green section. Finally, the Japanese and US yellow sections begin a small dog fight as one plane from each tries to get back to base.

The fight spreads out.

The faster Zero fighters catch up with US red section and the leader is hit, suffering a catastrophic structural failure the pilot bails out as the planes falls into the sea. In the centre, one of US white section has his wing damaged by the Japanese behind him. However one of the bombers is shot down by White 1. Behind the main fight, one of the Japanese fighters is hit and the pilot wounded.

US red leader is shot down

The US red section's remaining fighters now split up and the unfortunate red 1 is followed before being shot down. The pilot will bail out before hitting the water. Meanwhile, US yellow leader's engine will give up and the fighter group leader will be forced to bail out.

 US red 1 is also shot down.

US white section continues to follow the bombers while the Japanese yellow section can do little as they miss and use all their remaining ammunition. White will shot down two more bombers before they too run out of ammo. All the other sections now begin to break off due to damage and ammunition problems.

US white section begin to take down bombers as the escorts are out of ammo.

The remaining dive bombers approach the vulnerable transports. They seems to target the USS President Hayes which carries mend and equipment for 11^th marines and the USS Formalhaut which is carrying heavy equipment. However, the heavy fire from the USS San Jose and other ships will shoot down 3 of the bombers and damage the other 3 during the fight. 

The bombers reach the transports

Despite this some bombs are successfully dropped, 2 of which hit, 1 on each ship. The damage is severe and the President Hayes will swiftly sink, while the Formalhaut will take longer before sinking beneath the waves. 

The bombers attack.

Both ships have already begun to unload with many of the men from 11^th marines already ashore. Still 2 platoons and a weapons platoon are lost with the ship. The heavy equipment on the Formalhaut takes longer to unload and the losses are heavier with 2 platoons worth of artillery and 6 light tanks going down with the ship.

The last 3 bombers make their escape as 2 ships are left to sink.

The conclusion

This was a chaotic battle with the US CAP at a relative numbers disadvantage, however they did well taking out half of the bombers before they got to the ships. Of the 12 bombers and 9 fighters sent by the Japanese only 3 damaged bombers will return. The fighters got off more lightly with only 1 damaged.

As for the US CAP 3 of the 9 fighters went down with all pilots successfully bailing, despite being in friendly waters on a clear day the results were not good for the pilots. Red leader (L. Miller) from USS Wasp was not recovered and so declared lost at sea. Red 1 (M. Cox) who is a veteran pilot is recovered successfully. The worst news is of the group leader from the US Enterprise (J. Sanders) he is not recovered by the US and is in fact washed ashore where he is captured by patrolling Japanese forces.

The loss of 2 transports in not too terrible, but if this becomes a regular occurrence things could become bad. The loss of heavy equipment was the worse of the two losses.

I made some small rules mistakes again, but less than last time. With such a large number of planes on the table I need to improve my way of keeping track of them.