Great fight in FSO 3 A6M2 vs 30 P39D

[humble]

FSO frame 2 sucked for me this week. our 15 zeros hit 30 plus p39's. we got roasted.  the zeros refused to take the fight to the deck. they were slaughtered. i managed to get low but had 6 cons on me and no zeros left alive for help. my plane got lit on fire and had to bail out. we have been outnumbered in FSO for 2 weeks. we need a new strategy. engaging p39's at 19000 ft is suicide. you cant catch a p39 at that alt. if you turn on ones tail your toasted by another p39. you cant ho a p39 either with all those guns in the nose. take them NOE and out turn them.

All the zekes we've seen had significant alt to start with...a P-39 at 19,000ft is basically topped out and a non threat vs a co-alt or higher zeke. The P-39 shines at lower alts and we dropped down as quickly as we could. If you take me down to the deck in a P-39 your dead meat sooner or later, the way to beat a P-39 is to take the fight up. 

Numbers and initial positioning go along way in FSO. The overall pilot quality is pretty high and most squads have decent teamwork so if your getting bounced your normally gonna take a beating. I'd say you lost more because of numbers and the ability of the 39's to hit and run. I'm far from uber but the only time a zeke even got a wiff of me thru the 1st two frames in when the mission required it. The p-39 is actually the dominant plane in current FSO and the zeke is simply at a disadvantage at anything below 18K or so...

[humble]

were you smart enough to dive away and re-group?

In FSO your often hampered by orders & objectives. Since Icon range is so short you dont know what you've got till your engaged. You cant "dive out" till you've identified if you've got bombers mixed in. I dont know what max alt for the F4F's is but once you hit 20K in a P-39 its almost impossible to maintain in even a gentle turn.

We (USMC/71) ended up split into three sections with a "scout" flight that enegaed a large number of B5N's before they could strike. Our main body of 8-9 (not sure exactly) that got heavily engaged at A37 and Ramon and I as "CAP" at our designated assignment (A35). When we arrived we had a large number of zekes at roughly 30K. The moment we identified them we dove out...since we were just 2 they didnt follow en mass.

Had our "main body" been there undoubtably they would have been more aggressive. In FSO small scout elements are often ignored, run off or engaged my a small element. When you (as primary defensive CAP) are engaged by a previously unengaged strike force you normally end up playing "ball" to there "bat"...the flip side is that if you are vectored to an inbound strike that has been engaged and strung out your normally the hammer that breaks the entire attack up.

Anytime a defensive CAP actually engages over its assigned target its already lost most of the time....just the way it is IMO.

[Motherland]

Valdals,
Diving to the deck in an attempt to turnfight the P39's is pretty close to suicide. The A6M2 is, believe it or not, a GREAT fighter. It's zoom climb and sustained climb are great, and it's not exactly slow against other EW aircraft (faster than the F4F avove 5k and about the same as the P39). By diving to the deck your allowing the P39's to conserve their energy and BnZ you.

you cant ho a p39 either with all those guns in the nose.

HO'ing anything in FSO is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

[NOT]

at one point i had a zeke 200 on my 6.......not my fault he cant shoot.




NOT