Frame 3 AAR comments (ALLIED)

[Viper61]

All ALLIED squads:

  My pleasure being able to plan the last frame of the last FSO for 2012.  BIG <S> to all of the squads and flyer's that attended.  BIG <S> to the squadron CO's that planned their individual missions most notably KOOL of the 327th.

AAR comments:

  I wanted to plan quickly and get the orders out by Sunday which was accomplished.  I know early orders are always welcome.

  Intent was to plan a mission which would flood B-29's over Japan (90 - 120 pilots in formations = 300+ B-29's) with little fighter support other than to meet the min's of the rules.  The Op Plan from Warloc I miss interupted as min 48 pilots for bombers and not use 48 flyer's.  This lead to the change late Wednesday night.  I appreciate all of the squads that rolled with the changes and got it organized and off of the ground.  The Task Org was amended and the plan generally went the same, just less bombers.

  My targets give me 2 at mid range, 1 long range and 1 close range:  I estimated that if I could send in NOE strikers to the close target then this would lead to AXIS confusion in the buffer and that fighter defenses at the remaining targets would have to pull assits from high alt to cover NOE strikes.  Would like to know from the AXIS side if that worked?

  I lead the Tokyo Strike Package so my comments will be focused on that.  Not sure what happened but it appears that 1/2 of the Tokyo strike package air spawned into the wrong location causing them to plan a different route and link up was not possible until we reached the target.  I slowed down our group as best I could but still had to strike Tokyo at  or before H+60.  I believe we dropped at H+57.  My group generally dropped on the western strats ACK, RADAR and CITY.  I'm not sure if the other guys got bombs off before H+60.  But the target was hit by 3 squads dropping ords prior to H+60.

  VF-17 was the Fighter Sweep and they began engaging the enemy about 10 minutes before the bombers arrived or about 50 miles ahead of the main effort.  From what I could see and read it looked like it worked well.  BIG <S> VF-17 and CO Branch37 as you made them maneuver and worked them out of position and being outnumbered 3 to 1.  Nicely done sir.

  A squad of KI-84's attacked my section head on about 2 minutes before we dropped.  We only took minor damage and the KI-84's didn't seem to turn around.  I never saw them again.  Only damage I received was a fuel tank hit.  I lined up and placed all of my bombs on the radar factory, turned hard left 180 degrees put the WEP on and flew south.  Once we went feet wet I throttled back to form up the bombs and we RTB'ed to A125 landing H+110.  Minor damage and I landed all 3 bombers.

  On the way out we passed the second half of the Tokyo Strike package coming in.  Although not intended I am hoping that added some confusion on the AXIS side.  I can tell you it covered me section of egressing bombers.

  Also I detached the THUNDER MOB to preform a NOE strike on the Tokyo targets as well.  Never saw them or had radio comm's.  Would like to know how they did.  Hopefully that was a fun mission <S>

  Please post any squad AAR's below.  Always a good learning experience to see how the others guys do it.

[Dantoo]

Can give you some feedback from the Tokyo strike.

The low strike at the other airfield didn't have much effect.  Since it was known that you were the planner we kept an eye down low anyway, even before that happened.  The lateness of your arrival was more disconcerting as initially we were worried that you may have got round us somehow.
The P51s coming in early was generally effective in preventing a fully coordinated strike against your bombers.  It wasn't overly hard to lose them however, then form up and take on the buffs.
I was leading the Ki84s that hit you nose on.  We made a fair pass and I am surprised that damage done was on the light side.  Butt kicking and time on the range needed.  Having said that, most people find it hard to focus on a particular target and then shoot straight on a head on merge with buffs.

We "disappeared" because we had a closing speed of about 700 mph.  There's little point in turning, chasing and then slowly climbing up the butt of all those guns.  We simply positioned again to hit you on the way out.  This was about as successful as the first strike. You did lose a couple

The low raiders were later to the target than your pass and had all three defence groups bounce them at some time.  They were still fast enough and furious enough to fight their way out.

Was fun <S>

[Nefarious]

The Osaka strike was so spread out that I made more passes on bombers than I did in Frame 1 and 2 combined, Damaging several and finally shooting down 1.

[SlipKnt]

Defense of Tokyo (G3-MF)

Having been fooled by you once before in a FSO, and knowing you are CiC this frame, and that Tokyo was a target, we expected the following:

1.  Fighter sweep at least 10 minutes in advance of the bombers. (to push us down)
2.  A high set of many B-29s (we get one pass then start trying to climb up)
3.  A NOE or very low set of B-29s (realize a NOE and start diving in while your fighters finish us off)
4.  A final set of maybe 3, B-29s high (now we are low and you have a few from a large squad that already struk us, come in to clean up)

As a result, we set up 2, 4 ship scouts from G3-MF.  One of the 4 ships (Mace's BAKER Group) located and reported the P51s and started trying to mix it up and hold them or occupy them as long as safely possible.

We kept our other scouts to the NE thinking that is where your 3rd sweep would come in from high.

We made our pass on the initial B-29 strike then were forced to fight and try to stay high.  Fortunately for us, the fighters got spread out trying to go after all 3 squads that decided to stay high.  A small handful of us got low in teh fight and started climbing out to the strats again.  At about 13K, we heard of the NOE coming in.  My group leveled out and started a slow descent to them.  As we approached, we saw the ack firing and engaged immediately, getting a few passes.  Fortunately for them, I was low on cannons and got 3 passes before haviong to break and rearm.

After rearming, we upped again and started tracking a lone B-29 limping home.  BFOOT1 and Taint kept tracking it until they were in position with 3 of us deep 6 to them.  Thinking the B-29s were attempting to scrub us at a potential fleet, BFOOT1 attacked as soon as he could and sacrificed his plane for the Emporer and nailed that last B-29.  We all RTBd from there and towered out.

Overall, JDog did our planning.  He communicated with Rodent57 and me to see what made sense and he flew all potential routes you guys could take to see how a plan like that would play out.  Fortunately, he was spot on with his prediction and we were ready this time to give you a run for you rmoney.

Overall, we thought things went well for us and were able to do what we were supposed to do.  You guys still broke through and got your iron on target.  Hopefully, we made you pay for it a little bit!

Well planned Viper61.  Well planned indeed!!!!

 

[BFOOT1]

To add to Slip's comment.

We saw the fighter sweeps coming and we pushed through them. We eventually found the buffs at high altitude, and engaged. I made a single pass on the high set of buffs pepperring to sets of bombers. Taint who was 800 off to my 5'0 clock. Taint came in and added more damage to the buffs. After that we were jumped by three P-51's.

We fought them with either us nor they getting any kills. Taint and I were about 3k with a high con trailing us, when he spotted the bombers. I was the element lead, but had no vis on the NOE strike, and told Taint to lead me to them. We found the bombers on the outskirts of Tokyo at 2k. We engaged I shot down one, while taint shot down two of the B-29's. While enroute to Alpha 2 for rearm, a P-51 had the bounce on me, and I never saw him until the tracer fire skitted above my canopy. He went back up came back in, and I turned to the left climbed up, rolled, down and he broke off.

We rearmed and took off, headed to Klippers report of a B-29 on the deck. I had visual from probably 6-7k out. Taint had no visual so I took him in. I saw an explosion in the distance which confirmed the bomber was out there.

As we closed in on the bomber, there were four us. Taint, Biggamer, SlipKnoT, and I. SlipKnoT and Biggamer were about 3k out when the B-29 came in to visual ID range. I told Taint, that I would go in first and sweep across from the B-29's, right angle, while Taint would come in right after me sweeping in from the angle. I closed in to about 800 meters, and was at his 7'0 clock about a 1000 meters higher, when I began my attack. I opened up at 600 meters observing hits on the right wing, and in the meantime my hit makers swept across the cockpit, and to the left wing. As a fire broke out from engine number 1 on the B-29, the tailgunner opened up, and shot me down.

 

[Viper61]

Dantoo / Slip:

  Seems I am going to have to start planning differently if your starting to anticipate my moves   

  I never thought about any effect of appearing nearly at H+60 at the target.  From my side we didn't have a choice as the distance from the spawn to the target was 275 miles one way.  Meaning I needed to maintain at least 300mph in order to get there in time.  At best I really couldn't get there before H+49 best case.  And the reality is that bombers have to slow down to form up.  In fact about half way there we were running a little behind so I adjusted our speeds up a bit recalculated and decided on a H+57 arrival time.  In my mind I had decided that a late frame strike to Tokyo was the only option and you guys knew it thus no surprise.

  At Tokyo sounded like having lots of moving parts all converging in one spot added to degrading the defenses.  Appreciate the comments.  Always great to understand what the other side saw and how you reacted.

  I am hoping that we will see other AAR's from the other 3 targets:  KOOL lead the strike to Nagasaki, TracerX lead the raid to Hiroshima and DACE lead the strike to Osaka.  If not some posts from the guys who were there and see and fighting their very own little pieces of the fight.

  Have to say also that this scenario turned out to be more fun than I had thought it would.  At least from the ALLIED side it was.  Sure there are some changes I would like to see for next time but a BIG <S> to Warloc on the scenario and set up.

Dantoo / Slip - <S> you guys run 2 of the more aggressive and organized squads.  And I appreciate your comments.  Go figure my luck of having you both at my target area!!  LOL

[PuppetZ]

I can comment on my standpoint and that of VF-17 to a lesser extent. As a sweep, our priority was not bomber defence. We pushed ahead and came in about 30 miles in front of the main bombers package. We knew we probably would be outnumbered so the word was disrupt instead of destroy. The defenders were very disciplined in that they saw us and completely ignored our P51's as much as they could, instead focusing on the bombers coming in. I was flying wing with bigrat and we soon found the whole squad scattered to the 4 winds, trying to cause as much havoc as we could, focusing on not giving up our E advantage and forcing the defenders to give up their perch.

At some point we(me and BR) spotted a 4 ship of KI-61. Apparantly they didn't see our 2 ponies until BR blew of the left wing of the trailer, at which point the remaining 3 turned of us as we blew through. As I was in trail, I had to dive a bit to extend from a bandit a little too close for comfort. I nosed down, looked back and to my surprise, he was not pursuing.

About that time, the bombers were beginning to get over the target. We headed for them while looking for fighters that were to focused on them to pick-off. I rolled in on a N1K2 and he was apparantly too focused on the B-29's. I blew of his whole tail and saw him plummet to the ground as I zoomed back up.

And that's the story of the sole 2 kills VF-17 got last friday. It was a very fun fight and, I must say, we could tell we were up against peoples that knew 'the heck they were doin'.

<S> to all that flew defense last friday. I say, well played! And it was an honor trying to shoot you down 

[SNIPER30]

Viper61,

[SNIPER30]

Viper61,
     
          Thunder Mob unfortunately launched from the wrong airspawn,however we did make it to target after the high b29's hit Tokyo.We were unopposed to the target and over the target .we did encounter some cons after all ord was expended then it was like shooting fish in a barrel .seriously <S> to the Japanese, not very easy to down b29's with what you had, except those Niki's

[CAP1]

the beginning of the end of Tokyo.

[wmills]

The mission worked out great for us.  We were the NOE contingent (orange flight, I beleive) for the Nagasaki raid.  All of the radars started flashing about the same time south of the target. I'm sure it confused the axis about which direction we were coming from. We ingressed from the east at 5k and laid waste to the fuel and radar factories.  Egressed to the west dragging 3-4 bandits.  They just couldn't catch us, though. 

<S> wmills
CO ~Air Raiders~

[KOOL]

The 327th flew Black Flight to Nagasaki with AAA and Radar as our targets. We attacked our target from the South at 1K.  Two of our formations were able to drop on our targets, the other formation didn't (he had engine trouble, was late to the area, got jump and was shot down).  The two that made it to Nagasaki got shot down on egress.  I saw a higher flight over the target area as I made the drop on Radar. It was probably the Air Raider's flight. Glad to see the plan was effective and that some made it home.  

[tunnelrat]

I was able to get some lucky hits on AKTSgt from way out when he was far under my nose... he was north of 4 bills and I was pushing 520.  If anyone sees him, ask him what happened... I think he got too far away for my film viewer to record what happened I was VERY surprised I even got hits on him, let alone a kill.


Easily the best formation of B-29s I have seen to date....