Well it was an interesting frame of the Nightmares VMF-101. We were tasked with protecting the Western Fleets so we upped 14 pilots in Hellcats out of TF39 and losted one on takeoff. We proceed to vector down to 3,17,3 and then turned back north when we heard reports of N1K2s from the 412th who were tasked with reporting the Northern Fleets.
Basically it made sense that the IJN would try to skirt our forces by swing out north and west to get around the attack forces that were hunting their own ships and trying to outflank the USN forces. So the Nightmares swung north toward sector 4,18 when we heard the reports of lone N1K2s being spotted by the 412th. We played a hunch and bet that these were scouts looking for our Northern fleets and when they found them would call in the main IJN strike force. Only reason for lone N1K2s to be so high and by themselves would be for doing such a thing.
We got up to TF35 in 4,18 in time to spot several N1K2s 1 low and 2 high. Four hellcats dropped on the low single N1K2 and whoever he was he put up a hell of a fight and ended up taking 2 Hellcats with him. Meanwhile up high we chased off the high NIK2s but lost one hellcat.
Then we spotted 5 JU88s skimming the water to the north of TF35 and we dropped en masse and attacked. We killed 4 and then some N1K2s came in and distracted us to the point that the last JU88 got close enough to draw fire from the DDs but the we dropped him before he could get his fish in the water.
So we had managed to kill 1 N1K2 and 5 JU88s for the loss of 3 Hellcats. We were now on vapors with most of down to 1/8th a tank of gas and some out of ammo. So we had no choice but to land even with reports of another IJN strike force looming neaby.
Now this is where things got funky. AKcurly said he had the fleet on a straight course but for some reason the CVs kept doing shallow turns as if they were doing evasives to avoid enemy attacks. Now its possible that the main CV (the one we spawn from) stayed under AKcurly's control since to me that one seemed to stay straight. But the other two kept doing this weaving maneuver while heading in the direction set by AKcurly.
This shallowing weaving played havoc with our squad trying to land on fumes. Instead of landing all on one CV (the 412th was landing at the same time) we decided to spread out to all three to make sure if a IJN strike force came in that we would not be all sitting on the same deck refueling. So as we came in and the CVs started weaving again (except for the main spawn one) and this caused us to suffer 4 crashes. One other pilot who was wounded managed to land before he blacked out and obviously he could not reup .. was just great that he made it wounded and blacking out.
On the main CV I came in and suffered a prop strike as well as did Fdutchm and 1ama, so we were down but could not relaunch. BFD set down and was safe and refueling and then suddenly flipped off the deck. Was the strangest thing and possibly could have been do to the CV maneuvering to avoid the IJN high level bombers at this point. Then we lost Ramesis trying to take off .. CV turned as he was launching. So only Nucks got airborne.
He did his best but by then the IJN had high level JU88s coming in and N1K2s capping TF35. The N1K2a had the alt advantage and mopped up the surviving 412th. Nucks survived up to the point where we lost our 2nd CV out of the 3 in TF35 by keeping low and in our AAA. With the lost of the 2nd CV he decided to try to break N away from the IJN before they got the third CV. A couple of N1K2s spotted him tryng to break out North and ran him down and killed him.
So in the first part of the night we did well .. then in the second part we lost the bulk of the Nightmares to either out right crashes on landing or prop strikes resulting in some cases in actual headstands do to CV maneuverings.
14 Launched
4 Survived
4 KIA
6 Crashed (1 on first hop take off)
Although it is possible that we suffered 5 KIA and only 6 crashes; I am not sure of what happened to one of my pilots (Dobe) but thought I saw him trying to land.
Killed 1 N1K2
Killed 5 JU88s
Well fought IJN! It was quite enjoyable.
[ 12-08-2001: Message edited by: GhstDncr ]
