Allied SSO - Guadalcanal AAR 09-18
Our strike package split into two separate groups tonight, with Maj. OldBull running a flight path to the west and then up around the main island searching for the enemy CV, in a B-25, while Lt. Oceans and Lt, Xray flew two B-25's around to the east end of the island, then turning to the northwest, up the slot searching for the enemy cv on that end. The fighters, Capt. Raptor, Lt Chemdawg and Myself climbed directly over the main island in search of any enemy strike package that might of been inbound our fleet.
Due to our limited range, we had drop tanks and had to climb out with the engine trimmed way back to conserve fuel; this put us well below our target alt as we crossed the north shore of the island, as well as below the enemy fighter sweep we found patrolling the area. We turned away from our initial heading in an attempt to drag them away from either strike package, but they only followed us for a few minutes and turned away, back to the west, forcing us to turn back towards them. To our dismay, the aircraft we encountered were of a new type, that seemed to have much more speed than the Zero and we were not able to close on them again.
About this time we heard a report on the radio that Maj. OldBull had been attacked and shot down during his initial bomb run on A-9. A few minutes later we sighted them again and all four were co-alt when we turned for a merge; up until now, we had been encountering Zero's, flying co-alt or below us and mainly alone, but these aircraft were winged up and had a major speed advantage, forcing us to disengage and dive out of the fight. Unfortunately, Capt. Raptor's aircraft was badly damaged in the engagement, but he was able to get it back to A-7 and ditch it at the airfield safely.
The short engagement did manage to buy Capt. Oceans and Capt. Xray enough time to make a bomb run on the enemy CV; they did get some bombs on the cv, causing some damage, but lost both B-25's in the process. Lt. Chemdawg and Myself, took the opportunity to make a strafing run on the Ammo Bunker at A-9, destroying it, before we started for home; both of us made it home safely to A-7. While we were on approach we heard a report of a high altitude bomber hitting A-12, but the only damage reported was an anti-aircraft gun position destroyed.
That was the end of the flying for the night, I believe the round went to the enemy this evening, largely due to the new aircraft type they seem to have introduced into the campaign; that said, we have requested some new F4U aircraft from HQ and should have them soon.
Col. Luttrell Aka "Lut"
CO ~Avengers~
