Managing your route is an equally important implied task. Maybe a little inward reflection is in order. IMHO. The frame was challenging; demanding thought and planning. Remember, tracers work both ways!
Great event.
Hunter
Exactly, I believe our squad was their escort but Im' not 100%. We were high and above the B25's to cover them when we ran into a group of 20 enemy cons at co alt, the B25's knew we engaged the cons. We had plenty of time, their bomber group could have went off target and regrouped with us once it was safe to do so. Instead they decided to continue to the target while their escort was engaged.
As escort we had 2 choices.. engage the co alt A6m's or run away from them. If we would have run away from them, it also would have also left the B25's with no escort and a bunch of A6m's near the B25's. I didn't see a single B5N in the group of cons I only saw A6M's. So far as we knew those were cons there to defend the CV's.
If we would have flown past them they could have followed us and attacked the B25's. If we ignored them, would they have flown past us at co alt, knowing we were likely otw to sink their CV? I highly doubt it, I know if I was lead on the other side, I would have ordered an attack to defend the fleet.
The end result is the bomber group was able to sink the CV, even without escort all the way to the target. The bomber group lost some planes but tis is war, pilots were expendable in ww2 the objective was to destroy the targets.
Best anyone can expect is to learn from things that happen. Maybe next time it's best to set regroup points. If your escort has to engage enemy cons the bombers should run off to a predetermined safe spot before continuing on to the target.
