Coral Sea After-Action Report, Frame 2

by Brooke, GL1, VT-2, USN

VT-2 consisted of me, Vladd, SA2, Have, Leigh, HB555, Klem, and GaB with walkons Hoop47, Moocher, MrPluto, and SEseph. Missing were Furzy, Jazbo, ROK, Octavius, Curval, Straydog, Witch, and Taiaha. Curval got upset about our possible use of PT boats and quit (missing an excellent frame with, as it turns out, not much use of PT boats by VT-2). I haven't seen yet Furzy, Jazbo, or ROK. Octavius has missed Frames 1 and 2, and Straydog was to be in Frame 2 but didn't make it.

At the start of Frame 2, we weren't sure if we were going to be in PT boats or TBM's -- it depended on how close to Port Moresby the IJN was. As it turns out, they didn't start right next to Port Moresby, so we were ordered to put half of VT-2 in PT boats and half in TBM's. I went in PT boats with some of the folks, and Vladd went into TBM's with the others.

PT-Boat Action

We motored away from Port Moresby in our PT boats and headed south. After about 10 minutes or less of driving, we could see the enemy task force on the horizon. We also saw the waves of enemy divebombers headed in to Port Moresby and called them out. There were about 6 Zeros with them, but they didn't come down to tangle with our PT boats. There were two or more enemy task forces in the general area (I think it was three -- two carrier groups and the remains of the group whose carrier was sunk in frame 1). Before we got there, other groups (probably our aircraft) got one of the carriers burning, then another. We made for the northern-most carrier.

As we motored in, we came through the remains of a carrier-less task force. I was the lead boat of our group, and so I was first to come under fire. I couldn't tell if it was autogunner (low-lethality) or manned guns. So, I launched a spread of torpedoes at the carrier, which was still a good ways off, and jumped to various other positions to help sink enemy ships in the area. I got started putting some shells into the cruiser. Other folks must have hit it with more, as it went down shortly. Then I put a load of rockets into a destroyer and jumped to my 40 mm to continue hitting it.

Around this time, enemy PT boats had closed with us, and we were taking some fire from them. I saw one enemy PT boat die. I reoriented to put some fire on one of the PT boats, got some hits, but was killed by enemy PT boat fire.

VT-2 in our PT boats sunk the cruiser, a destroyer or two, a PT boat or two, but were eventually all killed.

Attacking the IJN Fleet

After our one ride in PT boats, we were ordered to take up TBM's from the Lexington. We jumped to the Lexington and at the same time, Vladd and the folks in the TBM half of VT-2 were lining up to land. As we were waiting for them to land, an enemy strike showed up inbound on radar. I ordered all VT-2 to launch and anyone landing to land and launch right away.

We launched and ran south from the fleet on the deck. Reports came in that there were many Zeros in the enemy attackers, so we stayed running south for a while, then SW, then W. We were lucky in that, although the enemy aircraft could see us as bogies, they didn't seem to be chasing us down. If they did, I was planning on calling for us to form up tight and head back toward the fleet and its protective AA. As we turned west, it looked like one enemy was going to try to chase us down. We joined up tighter, but he reversed course before coming within ID range. We then started to climb, then turned to climb north.

As we travelled north a bit, we heard from Klem who had not been able initially to join up with the rest. We weren't sure if he was able to get off the Lexington before the attack, but he did. He was about 5 miles behind us, so we circled back to have him join us, then continued north.

On our way north, we heard reports of the enemy CV's. We knew the general location -- 6,11,6 -- and got confirmation that any carrier was an acceptable target. We headed north for a while, climbing up to 18k. Then we headed NW for a bit, then headed east. After about a minute of flying, we ID'ed an enemy carrier group exactly 12 o'clock to us, with the carrier burning. Very shortly after that, we sighted the other carrier group just north of it. It, too, was burning. The southern carrier group had more bogies over it, so I called for us to go hit the northern-most carrier group, which looked clear. As we flew towards our target, the CV in the southern-most group was sunk. Pilots and VT-2 could see that it was missing out the middle of the formation.

We headed in at 18k, and the north carrier group looked clear of everyone but us. We split up into group 1 (me, HB555, Hoop, SEseph, and Jungle, who joined on our way away from the Lexington) and group 2 (Vladd, Klem, Leigh, SA2, Have, Gab, and Moocher). We spiralled down and picked our sides of the carrier, which didn't appear to be maneuvering.

The attack was quite well formed, and without enemy CAP, much easier to get in. Group 1 and group 2 called their descents and their turn in toward target. As Group 1 was just about ready to drop torpedoes, the CV sunk -- Group 2 got enough torpedoes into it to polish it off. Vladd, SA2, and Leigh reported hits, and SA2 got the "ship sunk" message. Outstanding!

I was able to save my torpedo, as were others in Group 1, as the CV sunk just before we dropped. I kept it and turned and jinked to get out of AA. There was an enemy PT boat or two in the mix. Those of us with torpedoes reoriented and went for a run on the cruiser. I dropped mine and missed just barely (by about 50-100 feet) in front of the cruiser. Damn! I saw three other torpedoes miss just aft of the cruiser.

About this time, there were reports of one enemy Zero coming in. I called for exit to the south and kept an eye out. I saw the Zero diving in on someone to my rear, so I did a high yo yo and came back in to attack the Zero, which was now pulling out on the deck after a run at someone. I was feeling brave with all these hotshot VT-2 pilots around me and only one Zero. I took a forward-quarter shot, seeing water spray up behind the Zero, and he went into a hard climb. I turned hard, pulling lots of g's to come in behind him, and followed him up. I followed him up as he continued into a loop, closing to within 200 yards and getting some good hits onto him. At this point, as I was coming up to vertical and running out of airspeed, still firing, and the Zero was coming to the top of his loop. I must admit that I briefly wondered if I had made the right choice in turning back to attack, now that I was running out of energy. But HB was right there doing the same, and the Zero exploded. I'm not sure if HB or I got the kill -- probably HB, as it looked like he was getting more hits than I was.

Now that felt very nice.

At this point, we were closer to Port Moresby than the Lexington, so we headed for Port Moresby, but during the fight with the Zero, some had already headed back toward the Lexington, so they headed back that way.

On the way to Port Moresby, we called to check status of it, and it seemed clear. We could vector to the Lexington if needed.

Defense of Port Moresby

We came up to Port Moresby, and it was clear. Along with us, there was Sik and some of the VT-5 boys who probably had participated in the sinking of the other CV. We were told to be careful of the crosswind at Port Moresby -- it was quite strong. Indeed, the landing was quite tricky. All of VT-2 that went that way made it, I think.

We came back up and, flying out of Port Moresby, heard about LVT's in the area. I asked if we should attack the LVT's and was told to do so. I didn't know if machine guns would do much, but people said that mg's could damage LVT's. I called for the VT-2 folks with me to attack LVT's, which we did.

The LVT's were hiding in the trees. This made them hard to spot and hard to hit. Apparently, the trees disrupted the ability of some attacks (like bombs) to hit the LVT's. But the LVT's were having a hard time because the town was still up, so they couldn't deploy their troops. They hung out in the trees and tried shelling the town.

About this time, lots of enemy PT boats started to show up. I feared that the enemy PT boats would be able to destroy the town, and then the LVT's would be able to launch troops, so I went after the PT boats. I launched my torpedo (no big ships around anyway), and then proceeded to attack the PT boats with my machine guns. Knowing that PT boats have quite good AA, I generally picked my time to attack when it seemed like they were getting ready to launch rockets or were fighting some of our PT boats. I would swoop in, get some hits, then jink my way out.

After a bit, I was out of ammo, so I went back to land and rearm at Port Moresby. After that, I noticed that some enemy destroyers were sailing into the area! They didn't seem to be maneuvering or shooting, but their guns might really wreck the town. I set up for a torpedo run on one of them, came in, released, and hit it square in the middle of the ship with my torpedo. One torpedo didn't sink it, but it was beset by a host of our PT boats and shortly went down. There was one other destroyer up, and I strafed it with my belly gun while overflying a couple of times while lots of our PT boats attacked it, and soon it sank, too.

I landed and rearmed again in case any other enemy ships were incoming. I flew out over the water and didn't see any. At this point, there weren't many enemy PT boats either, so I figured I'd try dropping my torpedo on LVT's. I had heard it didn't work, but better that than putting it in the water and have it hit one of our ships. I dropped near the LVT's and didn't hear or see any explosion, as expected.

In a little bit, a lot more enemy PT boats showed up again, and more LVT's. Calls were coming out that all the Japanese fleet ships were sunk, so there should be no more LVT's or PT boats after this. I attacked some more PT boats. Soon the PT boats seemed mopped up -- we were starting to have a lot of USN PT boats around by this time. I went back to the LVT's. I wasn't doing much good strafing the LVT's, so I circled them tightly to point out the location to our PT boats at the shore.

The LVT's gathered in the tree line west of town and really starting shelling the place. We on the USN side all tried attacking them -- planes strafing, and PT boats using guns. The SBD's at this point (and we had several, rearmed from Port Moresby) were holding their ordinance for when the LVT's moved out of the trees or when the troops were launched.

Finally, the LVT's, surrounded and totally outnumbered, started to move forward. As soon as they made it out of the trees, they were beset by fire of every sort. PT boats, aircraft with machine guns, SBD's. They died quickly. One or two of them tried to make it back into the trees, but only made it to the edge before being destroyed.

That seemed the end of it, but we weren't sure if there were any other LVT's lurking around. I scouted around the forest from the air. I didn't see anything. I saw an enemy Ki-61 coming in and was getting ready to do a headon pass on it as it came toward me, but I could see that it was smoking heavily and diving. It went into the trees about 1000-2000 yards in front of me.

I scouted a little bit more, then the call came in to get back to the carrier asap. VT-2 turned south and went to max power. We all made it back and landed safely a few minutes before the end of the frame.

Conclusion

Wow! This was quite a frame. My only regret is that I didn't get my torpedo into that Japanese cruiser, but VT-2 did a great job.

Vladd, SA2, and Leigh got torpedo hits into the carrier; SA2 getting the kill message. Gab must have hit a ship, as he's got objects destroyed. Moocher and SEseph must have hit ships, as they got objects destroyed. Klem and Brooke got torpedo hits on destroyers. Also, we got a lot of kills and assists (probably a lot of assists on killing enemy PT boats). I got 2 kills and 7 assists; Gab got 1 kill and 7 assists; HB555 got 1 kill and 2 assists; Vladd got 3 assists; Klem got 2 assists; Leigh got 1 assist; Moocher got 2 assists; SEseph got 1 kill and 3 assists.

I will be very interested to hear the after-action reports from others.