John 3rd
Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005
From: La Salle, Colorado
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April 18, 1943
Port Moresby
Until the P-47 deploys, the P-38 is the BANE of Japanese fighter resistance in 1943. Considerable 'ink' has been used in the last couple of pages describing their amazingness. Well...there are ways to combat those Forked-Tail Devils. For the last 4-6 weeks, the Japanese have been improvising their aerial defense over the last bases in NE Australia. With the fall of Portland Roads, this has all changed.
The Japanese have replenished airframes, rested pilots, and prepared for a renewal of the fight. Quietly nearly 400 navy and army fighters begin redeploying into the area. The only thing needed is a good, strong test.
That test comes April 18, 1943.
At Port Moresby, radar picks up incoming waves of fighters and this provides ample warning as Allied Fighters Sweep into the area. A small standing combat air patrol is rapidly reinforced by dozens of planes. For this fight, they do not climb to any sort of altitude. Tony's set up at 11,000 Ft, Zeros at 9,000 Ft and Tojos at 7,000 Ft. By the time the first squadron of 23 P-38 arrive, 94 Japanese planes wait for them. The low altitude defense gives the enemy the bounce and that costs a few aircraft, however, at that moment the less agile P-38 are down where the Japanese are most dangerous.
The enemy squadron is beaten up badly, same for the next wave of 25, and the next wave of 22, and a final wave of 25 planes. The tallys look to be a near 1-1 exchange in planes. This is excellent since many Japanese pilots bail out over a FRIENDLY Base so only a few are lost. That cannot be said for the Allied pilots. Many are certainly killed, some taken prisoner, while other get lost in the jungle.
In terms of tactics, a 2-3 to 1 advantage in numbers, coupled to the low altitude spell relief and a little bit of hope to the Japanese defenses...just as importantly, a number of empty Allied pilot seats appear in four squadron's Ready Rooms.
NICE!
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< Message edited by John 3rd -- 12/6/2021 9:16:29 PM >
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RE: Rising Sun, Falling Skies: BTSL Bigred vs John 3rd - 
It's not just a figure of speech from him. In one of our abbreviated games, I did what you are doing with them set for high altitude sweeps....kill numerous Tojos in masse with few losses. 
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