1275psi
Posts: 7979
Joined: 4/17/2005 Status: offline
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9/5/43 we launched, and formed up a nice formation , I was in the 1st wave, a mere 17 Am3a, and 9 am3. We escorted a solid strike of 38 kate, 54 vals Soon the forbidding cloud covered hills overlooking Milne bay came over the horizon. Enemy fighters! some 2 dozen Kittyhawks, coming up towards us. The Am3s dived -shokaka fighters, and a melee began below us, We watched eagerly, but discipline was good, and we stayed with the Bombers. We attack! i dived ahead of the bombers, swooping down over the field, looking for targets, there!!!, an AA gun spitting death at the Vals. .I winged over, lined them up, the chatter of my guns, I swoop away, over the bay, impressions of bomb bursts everywhere, 2 burning ships, a submarines bow vertical in the sky , and then we are away. Again, how quickly the action happens! We head back -we are missing quite a few planes, some dozen vals, and another dozen kates are gone Shokaka has lost 10 zeros against the kittyhawks. A AV, a ss only have been sunk, terribly dissapointing. Even as we climb again a huge formation passes overhead, the second strike! Anxiety as we return -is there going to be a counter strike! relief as an intact KB comes into view -how good to land on her untouched deck, yes the counter strike was fierce -40 plus beaufighters and bueforts, plus some old vengence bombers. Our CAP defended successfully. I climb wearily out of the cockpit -how frantic the action on the flight deck, I notice Nagato steaming very fasy down our port side, she and 5 other battlewagons are peeling off the formation to finish the job! Soon the second strike returns, I launch onto CAP, , climbing hard as the sky fills with circling planes. AA fire to the south ! I waggle my wings, and some 7 other fighters follow me - Throttle to the wall, the straps banging hard into my shoulders as we race towards the action. A large floatplane cruiser is under attack!, even as its shape becomes clearer 2 mighty explosions against her side -torpedoed! Scurrying shapes zooming away -beaforts! one is cutting left, climbing below my wing! I alter radically, down, hard left, we cross in a flash, i firing automatically -a sharp, sharp burst, , the zero speed stalls visously, and I spin, damnation to hell!, I have made an error. I recover a bare 500 feet above the sea, too close that! The sky is empty, and the Mizuho is all I can see -her spot marked by a terrible column of smoke and fire. I return, and am ordered to remain in the cockpit, soon I am away again, 3rd mission for the day. it has been a big day. As I write this we take stock. We have lost nearly 40 odd planes today, but taken out some 70 odd! And tonight its my brothers turn -nagato is going in!
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