Playing Monday Morning Quarterback here and to be clear, I am only speculating on this one.
It would appear that there could have been between 6 minimum to 24 maximum defenders over the city strats last night.
They were all in the LA5. Depending on when you got to target, they may have been refueling.
I know our group of LA5s were starting to go deadstick as the Axis attack group was bombs out over A49. Wishing I held their launch for an additional 10 minutes when it started to unfold. I usually plan better than that but had a very busy week and didn't fly any test runs or use the fuel calculator this week.
But I wasn't there so I am not for sure. Assuming they were where they were supposed to be, I'd bet they were refueling...