Report from Imperial Japanese Forces: The arrival of the Ki-61 Tony greatly boosted our moral; finally we had an aircraft with some speed and strength. We lifted with a four ship defensive patrol from A12 and headed down to A9 to fly CAP. At the same time Hawk took a lone G4M Betty bomber and headed south to attack the American base at A12, relying on his speed and skill to avoid any enemy CAP and get hits on the airfield.
We had flown a couple of circuts of our BARCAP line, when radar picked up bandits ESE of A9. We pointed our Tonys east and moved to intercept but when spotted it was clear that the bandits were fighters and they seemed to be trying to draw us to the SE. Figuring this was a deliberate feint, we broke off from the enemy fighters and headed due west at full speed as we expected the main attacking force to come from that direction.
At the same time our carrier had been send to the SW to act as a radar picket. This also put it at risk but the hope was that the Americans wouldn't expect it to be there. Sure enough the carrier radar picked up a lone bandit coming up from the south.
We nosed our Tonys down to pick up maximum speed as surly the bandit was going for the carrier. Imagine our surprise as we approached a lone B-25 who was blissfully flying right by our carrier! The pilot must have been drunk on the rice beer the Americans captured at Henderson Field! He made no effort to evade and was quickly shot down by our fighters.
Meanwhile Hawk was approaching the enemy airfield which apparently had no fighter cover, so he proceeded to make several bombing runs hitting many installations on the field.
Once the first B-25 was down and no more showed up, we figured this too must have been a decoy attack so we headed back to A9 and sure enough radar picked up contacts coming in from the east. Enemy fighters, co-alt, the fight starts and Tango got a good burst of gunfire on one of them, but just as quick the Wildcats dove away and were lost over the jungle terrain.
Just as we were reforming, A9's radar picked up bandits to the NW heading SW towards our carrier! Back we went and we were able to get to the trailing B-25 before he could drop but the second had too much of a lead. He dropped but the carrier stayed afloat! The B-25 started what looked like a loop, but it was too late for him, a burst of fire into the right wing tore it off and down he went.
After that enemy forces retreat south and we landed at A9 in our much loved Tonys.
