Operation C - Attack on the British Fleet Carriers

Time - 4.30pm April 9th 1942

Scenario - Attack on the British Fleet Carriers - This time the Shotai pilots must escort a strike of 6 D3A2 Val dive bombers as they finally get to launch an attack on the fleet carriers of Admiral Somerville's Eastern Fleet. Due to the Japanese victory achieved in the last scenario the British are aware that they have been sighted and have abandoned any thought of a second attempt at a dusk strike against the Japanese carrier force. Instead they are now retiring at high speed to the South West towards the "secret" anchorage at Addu Atoll. Any defending FAA fighters will be already airborne as the British will be expecting a Japanese strike on the retreating fleet.  

Victory Conditions - In order to attack the targets the two Val dive bomber flights must fly the length of the playing board. Each one that survives inflicts 1D6 points of damage on the target. If the total damage inflicted exceeds 25 points the target is considered to be destroyed and the mission to be sucessful. 

 

The defending British fighters are vectored onto the strike by the fleet's Fighter Direction Officer....for this scenario the first defending fighters to appear (tope right) are a flight of 3 Fulmars flown by two regular pilots ("A" and "C") and a junior ace (in "B"). The 2 flights of Val's are in the middle and the Zero shotai is bottom left.

 

The Fulmars are slower than the Zeros in the rules I am using (Fulmars get 1D6 basic movement while the Zeros get 1D6+2), allowing the Zeros to close with them quite rapidly. After some very helpful discussion online with BigJackMac about some of the eariler campaign games I tried once again to play the defending fighter's tactics a little differently by having some of them engage the Zeros while others attack the strike aircraft.

PO1c Watenabe as always leads the shotai by example (I rolled a 6!!)...he barrels into the Fulmars as they attempt to close with the Vals and attempts a front quarter shot at Fulmar "B" (top right) but misses completely (next roll was a 1!). PO1c Ashai and PO2c Fujimi can't match his speed and so veer right to meet the other Fulmars as they close on the first Val flight.

The junior ace flying Fulmar "B" finds he cannot manuvere against his much more agile opponent (kept on rolling very low dice) and soon finds the A6M2 Zero on his tail. This time PO1c Watenabe makes no mistake and the Fulmar's crew is forced to take to the silk after as his 20mm rounds lace the British fighter.

Meanwhile Ashai and Fujimi both attack their British opponents as they pass, but no hits are scored. Val "B" hopefully fires off a burst from its forward guns, but Fulmar "C" 's pilot easily avoids the Japanese fire as he Immelmann's onto PO2c Fujimi's tail.....

And fires a long burst from dead astern of the A6M2 fighter.....which riddles the plane with hits. Fujimi stands no chance as the unarmoured Zero explodes in midair...(centre right). The shotai has suffered its second fatality of the campaign!

PO1c's Watenabe and Ashai can only watch events unfold (bottom right) as simultanously Fulmar "A" makes a firing pass at Val "C", which smokes and dives vertically into the Indian Ocean far below (centre). Fulmar "A" then heads on towards the second Val flight.

The two remaining shotai pilots will have to act fast if they're going to prevent any further casualties amongst the remaining Vals. 

PO1c Watenabe throttles up and pursues Fulmar "A" , latching onto his tail, but at the critical moment his shots fly wide of the mark. Meanwhile PO1c Asahi loops over and fires at Fulmar "C", but misses yet again!. Undaunted the pilot of Fulmar "C" lines up behind Val "B" and scores his second victory in as many minutes as the Val falls to his guns.....

But the Fulmars both still have much more manuverable fighters behind them and their luck is about to change.....PO1c Watenabe turns sharply in behind the British section leader in Fulmar "A" (bottom) and sends a long burst into the fighter which explodes. Fulmar "C" seems to have suffered from target fixation as he doesn't react when PO1c Ashai turns onto his tail and fires....as the crippled Fulmar dives towards the sea the crew somehow manage to bail out. Ashai has in turn shot down PO2c Fujimi's nemisis, but he takes little satisfaction from that knowledge.

No more FAA fighters appear to challenge the remaining Vals as they approach the British carriers from astern. They dive down through a thick curtain of both light and heavy flak to attack an Illustrious class carrier with a white "F" painted on its round down right at the stern....its HMS Formidable. Dispite its violent manuvering the speeding carrier is hit by three 550lb bombs dropped by the veteran Val pilots, causing major damage.  

Result - Partial Japanese victory.....The 4 remaining D3A2 inflict 17 points of damage on the Formidable, enough to heavily damage but not sink the British carrier, which will be out of action for many months to come.        

Kills - PO2c Watenabe -  2 Fulmars, confirmed. PO1c Ashai - 1 Fulmar, confirmed,  PO2c Fujimi - None. Killed in Action 9/4/1942.

The surviving Japanese planes return to the Akagi in the evening twilight and are quickly struck down to the hanger decks below. 

Once recovery operations are complete the Japanese ships turn towards the East to begin the long voyage back to Japan. 

Rumour soon spread that after refitting and leave in Japan the fleet will once more sortie against the Americans in the Pacific Ocean to cover an operation to take a small group of islands to the west of Hawaii, the largest of which is called Midway....