Operation C - RAF Recce

Time - Early Morning April 5th 1942 about 200 miles South of Ceylon

Scenario - RAF Recce - a lone RAF Catalina flying on a recce mission to locate Japanese ships has just sighted part of the Japanese carrier fleet South of Ceylon. Part of the defending Japanese Combat Air Patrol (CAP) orbiting over the task force sights the Catalina and moves in to attack.

Victory Conditions - The Catalina must survive for at least three turns against the Japanese fighters in order to fully transmit its sighting report to RAF HQ in Columbo. If the Catalina survives that long then the British defences will considered to be alerted and be able to have defending fighters airborne to meet any Japanese attack against Columbo. If not then the defending fighters can only be scrambled once the attackers appear overhead. 

 The Catalina enters from one end of the table while CPO1c Honda's shotai (flight) of three A6M2 Zeros enters on a random edge no more than 1/3 down the table from the opposite end. In early 1942 both the Japanese and British still used the 3 aircraft "Vic" formation rather than the more effective "Finger four" that was later adopted from German and American practices.  In the pictures CPO1c Honda flies A6M2 "A", PO1c Ashai is in A6M2 "B" and PO2c Watenabe has A6M2 "C".

The rules I am using do not have a height compenant built into them but do allow defending fighters one extra D6 for movement on the first turn if the number is even. This represents the added speed of diving into combat from a higher altitude.  The Zeroes rolled a 6, so.....   

The Catalina pilot banks away to port as the Zeros come screaming down to intercept......

  

The Zeros all make firing passes at the Catalina, but its wild manuvering means all three pilots miss completely. As PO1c Ashai flashes past one of the Catalina's waist gunners gets in a solid burst with his twin Vickers K mount, peppering the Zero with numerous .303 rounds (red dot), but Ashai soon finds the damage is not severe and decides to continue the fight.

Now its Turn 3 - if the Catalina can survive this round it will be able to send its sighting report.....Starting just astern of the Catalina (see previous picture) CPO1c Honda's training kicks in and he uses the energy he has built up in his dive and the superb manuverabilty of his aircraft to perform a perfect immelmann turn to get into position for another rear quarter attack. This time he makes no mistake and 20mm rounds rip into the hapless flying boat, which explodes as it hits the water. 

Result - Japanese victory. The British defenders at Columbo will have to scramble to meet the incoming Japanese attackers.

Kills - CPO1c Honda 1 Catalina, confirmed.