325th Mission: Escort mission for about 40 - 50 D3A's and Kates from the Koga to the Hornet and then to the BIG E and then to Midway and return to KOGA.
Lift off of Koga was delayed by 5 minutes while the Koga made circles
For a while I thought I was on the Exxon Valdez
Desiding on a direction to sail the Koga seemed to be a chore..... But the view from the Officers club deck was pretty amusing as the bombers slide back and forth around on the deck as the Koga went around and around
And O yes a few went into the drink. Lesson learned again: Set the course of CV's 5 minutes before game start and leave it alone. And yes into the wind
Finally got up and the "cat" herding began... 16 zero's escorting 40 - 50 bombers spread out between 4 squads with varied flight routes went much better than expected.
Of course I expected a complete disaster, but much to my surprise the "cats" all pretty much stayed together in an area 25 miles long and 15 miles wide.
We ran straight into the enemy strike package from the Hornet and called in the location and alt. hopefully that helped. 325th did not engage and we waved as we passed. Our mission was to escort and escort we did. Had to leave half of the squad back to fight what I believe was the escorting F-4's that turned on us to attack. We got a few and they got a few. That left 8 planes to herd the "cats"
Once at the Hornet search area I had 4 planes spread out and conduct a grid search. Hornet located and called in. No enemy fighters defending Hornet. Bombers came in and attacked. Ships sunk.
325th then moved to the BIG E grid area. Again had 3 planes spread out and conduct a grid search. BIG E located and grid called in. No fighter cap at BIG E high and in fact never saw any until the bombers attacked. Bombers came in and attacked. While this is is going on the first half of the 325th had disengaged the F-4's and proceeded directly to Midway where they ran into the entire enemy force either taking off or landing
We got a few and kept them busy and low and called in situation reports to the bombers. We got a few and they got a few. Ships sunk
The 325th plane (me) left at the BIG E then moved to Midway. Called in situation reports to the bombers and once the bombers were on station dove in on the attack.
As I departed Midway much of the base was a fire and it appeared that the main targets were destroyed or at least heavily damaged.
Now this is where the story gets hazy... I saw AKilz engaged with 6 SBD's I then engaged a single SBD only to find that he had friends..... in fact about 12 friends and SBD's, empty and mad because Midway was capped
Needless to say about 1 minute later after nearly being rammed 4 times, out of cannon rounds and down to BB's and involved in the smallest and tightest furball in the histroy of any FSO by myself I went down in a explosion which I can only hope blinded the SBD pilots as they were so close
I also hope that the SBD's who were shotting at me at least hit each other in that melee as at one point I had 6 behind me all with a shotting solution at ranges from 10- 100 feet and O yes the ones in front of me were shotting at me from their tail guns
The SBD is a great little turn fighter. I had an observer with me that was shotting video, if it comes out I post some screenies.
All in all a really fun FSO to finish the series with. To me it looked like the AXIS did really well. But the score will tell.
325th upped 16, 9 killed, destroyed 10, landed 7. The important stuff: Sighted the Koga strike package and called it, found the Hornet and called it, found the BIG E and called it. Got the "cats" to the last target before we disappeared as a squad element.
Viper 61
Ops Officer
325th VFG
