At the start of mission 1, I thought we'd be doomed. With so many people showing up at the last minute, missing squadron leaders, and lots of walkons, we didn't have much of an idea how the squadrons were filled out. I tried for at least a 10 minute delay in takeoff time, but it was no good -- takeoff for the allies started at T+0, right when it was supposed to regardless of the our disorganization. That being the case, I just had everyone take off and head west. I thought this mission would be a disaster.
As we left Bangkok, we could see first Raheng then Phitsanulok give out field warnings. So, the allies were scouting aggressively.
By one sector out of Bangkok, our formations were starting to coalesce, which started to reduce my sense of dread.
Then, as we approached Tovay, its field warning went off, and I started to imagine the allies sorting us all out and attacking us all the way down south, which would have been quite humiliating. At this stage, though, there was no way we could deviate from heading west -- formations were still getting settled. We'd just have to go for it and hope that escort could take out the allied scouts before they spotted too much. Fortunately for us, it seems like the scout headed S, as I saw some field warnings S of Tovay go off. We just flew W, and I don't know if anyone even saw the allied scout or him us.
About 3 sectors W of Bangkok, Bangkok's field warning went off, and that made me smile. Whoever was over there was comfortably out of position for us. Also, about this time, our formations where coming together better. This was where I realized B1 had 3 planes in it (and one pilot), whereas B2 had 8 planes and 8 pilots. This was probably the worst result of our disorganization at the start. But it wasn't a total disaster -- we did have 11 bombers up in total.
We did start to get reports of some enemy squadrons this far south. The allies though committed themselves in smaller groups at a time, whereas we were fortunately fairly well concentrated. Our detached escort for B1 destroyed them, and the allied scouting flights did not get close enough to spot the bombers. B1's detached escort did an outstanding job here, and this is one of the critical elements of the mission -- that the allies didn't find the bombers down here. We lost a couple of bombers in B2 as we headed W due to disconnects, keyboard screw ups, etc., including the B2 Squadron leader, but others stepped up and organization was good.
As we headed W nearing column 7, we got some more reports of enemies N of the bomber formations. We had some room -- I was hoping the bulk of our formation would get W to column 7 before the enemies came S and hit us. Also, I believe the detached escort was hitting them or slowing them down. I was very relieved when we hit column 7 without the enemy formations pushing S to the bombers.
We hit column 7 and started north. Up to this time B2 was really lagging B1. I'm not sure why B2 was not catching up. We had B1 at low throttle setting for a very long time, but it remained a bit too far ahead even with B2 at full throttle. To compensate, I had B2 cut the corner on the turn N. So, once we were all heading N, everything seemed to be in very good shape, with B1 at 2 o'clock of B2 and about 1/3 sector away.
Now as we headed N, we had a lot of breathing room. It seemed the bombers were very safe and that there weren't any enemy formations vectoring in toward them or in a dangerous position. I felt at this stage that we were very lucky, and as we got to within 2 sectors of Rangoon and vectored NE for the run to target, I could hardly believe our luck. The bombers at that point were unmolested all that way. This was to change shortly.
B1 with its excellent protection made it to Rangoon, plastered it, and headed SE toward home. B2, trailing by about half a sector, got to within about a sector of Rangoon, and we started to get enemies close enough to see the bombers. From about a sector out, all the way in, enemy resistance got heavier and heavier. At first, it was just a few, then more, then more. We were doing quite well until about 0.25 sectors to Rangoon, just about the time B2 was ready to go into bomb sights for final on the target. At that point, the enemy had managed to add enough pressure to overtax the escort. I think the final straw was a fresh 12 SBD's (Buffalos) right into the bombers where the escort was already mostly occupied with other enemy aircraft.
I remember this as the start of the rapid carnage of B2. The escorts got most of the Buffalos, but not before they got some bombers, and there were P40's, Spits, and Hurri's already in the mix. The enemy shot down 4 of our bombers before the escort was able to disperse or kill them.
The remaining two bombers got in on Rangoon and did multiple passes. In future missions, we'll want the bombers to do 1 or 2 passes only (probably just 1), but they did a good job and got lots of buildings. The escort did a good job of keeping the enemies off the bombers and controlling the area, but during the multiple passes, another of the bombers was shot down. The remaining bomber eventually got headed SE out of the area with a decent sized escort, although that escort was quite dispersed. It kept him safe enough to make it back to Bangkok.
As for my tactical experiences, I felt fairly ineffective. Much of my time was spent in radio traffic and looking around the vicinity of B2. During attacks on B2 I tried to clear the tails of bombers, and was effective a time or two, but didn't get any kills or assists.
Overall, considering how it started, mission 1 turned out better than I could have hoped. It went well for us thanks to people getting decently organized in flight, escorts staying disciplined and not all chasing after the first few enemies sighted, and good coordination -- and thanks to some luck, too.