After-Action Report
6/21/2014
by Brooke, GL, VT-IJN
This was a scenario that ran in the multiplayer on-line air-combat simulation Aces High.
VT-IJN consisted of me (Brooke), Popsman, tudza, 1stpar3, HB555, KillrDan, 1ijac, Tex78, and Tunes (in his many incarnations). Our main mission today was to sink enemy cruisers.
A look back from my B5N2 torpedo bomber at 1stpar3, tudza, Tex78, KillrDan,
McTunes, 1ijac, HB555, tunes2, and Popsman. Some of us are loaded with
torpedoes and some with bombs. Above us is our deadly escort of Zeroes:
HighTone, TxCoyote, Splatt10, Mogex, and EmanHill.
We flew south while scouts looked for enemy task groups and carriers and while our Zeroes went out hunting for enemy aircraft. Enemy carriers and task groups were found in 16.12.5. Enemy fighter sweeps were reported off to our east at one point, so VT-IJN continued south to row 12 and then east, hoping to go around enemy fighters. Also, I didn't now if they would put all their cruisers and carriers together or push some task groups out ahead. I was hoping to attack any out ahead, to defang them for our cruisers sailing in their direction. I heard a report of cruisers in among carriers and some cruisers out with only destroyers.
Coming across a main US armada -- a jumble of carriers, cruisers, and
destroyers. tunes2, 1ijac, and KillrDan are going in with Mogex covering.
Flak and AA are firing at them. I'm asking for the other guys with me to
push forward with me in case we can spot cruisers ahead.
Tunes puts bombs on one of the cruisers. Way to go, tunes!
1ijac puts his bombs into the same one. Way to go, 1ijac!
KillrDan was going for the same cruiser but got chased down and set on fire by an F4F.
I see two task groups ahead with cruisers but no carriers. I call them out
and ask for the rest of the guys to go in. I prefer these to start
because, without carriers nearby, they can't launch fighters at us as we do our
attack runs.
I call out the these leading cruisers as the targets, and in we go: me, 1stpar3,
HB555, tudza, Popsman, and Tex78. Some escorts are over near 1ijac,
KillrDan, and Tunes (HighTone and EmmanHill) and TxCoyote and Splat10 are with
us.
I flew toward the leftmost cruiser ahead, calling for anyone with bombs to dive in and attack as they saw fit. At this point, I suffered a mechanical difficulty, but fortunately was able to get it sorted out in a minute. (My Aces High program froze up. I did a Ctrl-Alt-Del, killed it, restarted, and it popped me back into my aircraft. I didn't get my film back on for the next three pictures, but 1stpar3 was kind enough to provide his film to me.) Over the enemy cruiser, I chopped throttle and dove.
As I'm diving, Tex78 nails the right-most cruiser with a torpedo and sinks it.
Way to go, Tex!
I dove to the deck out away from the left-most cruiser, then turned hard back in, scrubbing off speed. I got to under 100 ft. altitude and under 200 mph and bore in on the cruiser.
Torpedo away.
A
hit, and down she goes! 1stpar3 is zooming up after his torpedo drop,
which was on target at the same cruiser. Popsman is back there after his
drop, which missed by yards to the stern. HB555 is circling back.
After my drop, I ran northwest, along with others. Unfortunately, F4F's chased down and killed several of the guys behind us, leaving me, HB555, and 1stpar3 as the only survivors. One F4F almost chased down the last three of us as well, but HighTone got on him, and Splatt10 was kind enough to escort us all the way back -- and it was a looooooong flight.
VT-IJN sank two cruisers and heavily damaged a third on this first mission.
HB555 and me, landing on c61. It is a rare sight for us torpedo bombers to
make it back for a landing.
It took the three of us a long time to fly back to our carrier. In the meantime, we launched the other guys on a second mission with KillrDan in the lead, calling the group "B5NB", consisting of KillrDan, Popsman, Tudza, 1ijac, Tunes, and Tex78. There was a single enemy fighter capping c61, and he shot down Tudza and perhaps one other person before he was in turn shot down or driven off. B5NB relaunched and headed back toward the enemy ships.
I am back up along with 1stpar3 and HB555. We have an escort of HighTone,
TxCoyote, and Splat10 (who is doing a barrel roll over my B5N).
We flew a long route south then east. We had some confusion on where the enemy cruisers were. B5NB flight got near the cruisers, but they were attacked by a larger group of F4F's and shot down except for Tunes who was away from the main group. 10 minutes later, Tunes got through the now-clearer airspace, dropped bombs on the same cruiser he and 1ijac hit earlier, and sank it. Way to go, Tunes! I vectored us south of the reported enemies, then north toward a very-solid cruiser location provided by Dantoo.
We come across the remaining US cruiser, with two carriers flanking it on each
side. HB555 is picking up some AAA.
I pull up and right -- hard -- to evade an attack run from Bruv's F4F. He
attacked from my 12 o'clock high as I flew to a postion over the cruiser.
Behind Bruv, there were two other F4F's. I called out "Three F4F's on the B5N's!" on the range channel. With F4F's starting to attack us, I decided it was time to go for it and called, "I'm diving in!" on range mic. As I was diving, I saw the carriers start to disgorge SBD's and F4F's. I called it out on my radio.
On my dive, I have to pull another hard evasive to keep Bruv from filling my B5N
with holes. HighTone, TxCoyote, Zoney, and Dantoo are on their way to
help.
Down near the deck, I was very anxious, as one F4F was trying to lock onto me, and several SBD's and F4F's on the deck were racing toward my position. I headed one way, but there were too many SBD's. I headed another way and saw some F4F's ahead of me. So, I decided it was a good time for my reverse into the cruiser to start my attack run.
I'm lining up on the cruiser, diving down to under 100 ft. I've got my
throttle chopped and am stomping full right rudder to bleed off speed to get
under 200 mph. HB555 is ahead approaching the same cruiser. At this
point, I can't look around -- I have to focus on the cruiser and my approach.
I can only hope that the F4F's can't shoot me for the next five seconds.
Torpedo away! It looks like HB555 has launched his as well and is peeling
off.
I
turn and look back to see if my torpedo is on target, not looking at the
enemies, as I know I'm dead soon. My torpedo track is visible just right
of my plane in the picture (in among the traces from the F4F's gunfire).
Bruv's F4F is the one 200 yards away and landing hits on my B5N. I'm dead
a moment later.
Then my torpedo slammed into the cruiser, sinking it. Yahoo! VT-IJN got two cruisers on mission 2.
While we in B5NA were inbound to target, B5NB took off again, in a race to see if they could make it to the enemy ships prior to end of hostilities. We other three from B5NA at this point did not have enough time to make another trip from our carriers to the enemy ships, so we became ship gunners. HB555 and I manned 8" guns on our cruiser that was close to enemy ships. It took a while for our ships to close, and then we saw enemy ships on the horizon, 18,000 yards away.
I
score hits on an enemy destroyer at 18,000 yards.
I scored more hits on the destroyer, but we had only minutes to end of hostilities and weren't able to sink it in time. Also, B5NB was just a few minutes away from enemy ships at end hostilities.
I got two torpedo hits and sank two cruisers. For that to happen, others had to put damage into it before me, as cruisers take more than one torpedo to sink. So, the sinking is just lucky placement of being the last guy to land hits.
Overall, VT-IJN got three torpedo hits and many bomb hits on enemy cruisers, sinking four cruisers. Good work, guys -- and now, we are done with torpedo bombers, to be moved into a fighter squadron for defense of the homeland.
-- Brooke, GL, VT-IJN