August 16 Air battle, (Bag the Hun battle report)

2 fighter sections engage 2 sections of CAP

The transports finish unloading and leave the area.

August 16^th air battle, 2 sections of Zeros vs 2 sections of Wild cats

The sections approach each other and the leading planes exchange fire, causing little damage except for the gunsight on one of the zero leaders. The planes fly past each other on one side Blue zero section gets behind US red and on the other US white gets behind zero green.

In the turn to follow zero green, The rookie leader and number 2 of US white section fail to keep up, with number 2 loosing control of his plane. This leaves only white 1 behind the zero section. US red section has zeros approaching from the rear. A hard turn could help, but with one of the wing men a rookie the change of loosing him is high, should he fail, with a full zero section behind, his chances are slim. Thus the red leader tries a daring manoeuvrer, he turns gently towards the other zero section and US green and flies through them. His section dodges all the planes, both US and Japanese. The following Japanese section does the same thing. Both wing men avoid the wing men from the other section. The leaders are not so lucky as they clip each other. It is a disaster, blue leaders plane stats to fall apart as a wing sheers off. Green leaders plane is engulfed in a fireball. Which cause 3 of the 4 wing men to loose control.

Now the tides have turned. Over the next few minutes US red section will shoot down 2 more Zeros.

Meanwhile, of the remaining 2 zeros, one will struggle to regain control, and after taking damage break off.

The other follows US white leader who is now alone, the other rookie having struggled with the controls so much he leaves the area. A burst from the Zero causes critical instrument damage to US white leader who attempts to break off. The zero follows him and puts round after round into his plane. Before his other wingman can arrive to drive off the zero US white leader will take heavy damage to both wings, his cockpit and have his flue lines damaged. However he makes it back to the carrier alive and still in his plane.

The result is 4 downed zeros with 1 more damaged. The US losses are 1 damaged fighter. Group leader C. Powell has also become a junior ace after his great performance. The second ace in the task force and both from the same carrier.