Continued from Chapter 6

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Preface

Welcome back to another installment of my first Bag the Hun campaign. If this is the first time you’re reading about it, I recommend going back and catching up here if you want the full story. This article is part two of the scenario started in Chapter 6. In this article I’ll finish the battle narrative and go over the after action book keeping for Squadron Forward.

Last time the pilots of VF-2 intercepted Japanese G4M1 betty bombers, escorted by A6M2 Zeros. In a furious four turns VF-2 claimed a number of bombers, damaging several more. However in the fourth turn the Navy pilots were dealt a grievous blow when four of their F4F Wildcats were destroyed. Two pilots, Gunnar Shaw and Owen Murphy were killed instantly when their planes exploded. Two more, Vincent Priest and Calvin Digty, are now in free fall trying to open their parachutes in time. Junior Ace Dan Fletcher was forced out of the fight with damage while the squadrons other Junior Ace, Ben Wilson, has bagged three G4M1 Bettys in quick succession. Anthony Stewart has stuck loyally to Ben’s wing, performing the role of an excellent wingman. Dick ‘Bastard’ Blanchard is unable to get anything going and has spent the battle fruitlessly maneuvering. Archie Marsh avoided Japanese Top Ace Kazato Toshiki but has since remained at low altitude. Mike Charge caused Izumi Kosaku’s G4M to burst into flame. Evan Richards and Casey Palmer are currently tangling with a pair of Zeros on the periphery of the fight.

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TURN FIVE

Dick “Bastard” Blanchard’s fight has been uneventful up to this point. His attack run on a Betty was sloppy and he missed a chance at a shot. Frustrated he pulls his Wildcat around in a tight left turn to get back in the fight. As he comes out of the turn he sees a handful of the Japanese Betty bombers ahead. He selects one and advances his throttle to close the distance when suddenly over the radio someone says “Bastard one on your tail”. Without even thinking Bastard firewalls the throttle and pushes the stick hard over into a steep dive. He is lifted out of his seat by the negative g-forces and strains to get a glimpse above and behind him. He manages to see a Zero streak by above him, apparently caught unawares. As he eases out of the dive he sees he is amongst the bombers now, but far too low.

Casey Palmer tangles with a Zero. He is in a turning fight with the agile Japanese plane, exactly where he doesn’t want to be. He spots Evan nearby trying to get back into the fight with him after having scared off or damaged or killed the other Zero in this pair, Casey isn’t sure which. Finally the Zero makes a mistake and Casey is able to get his sights on the enemy plane. He fires on the Zero and is rewarded as it transforms into a flaming comet streaking for the sea below. Casey grins after claiming his first kill.

Mike Charge just caused a Betty to erupt into what looked like a serious fire, yet he decides he can’t leave the Zeros behind him to chase it down. Charge breaks into a hard turn back towards the Zeros who claimed his wingman, Owen Murphy, only minutes before. As he comes around he sees a Zero ahead and fires a short burst but is disappointed as the tracers fall behind the Japanese fighter.

Anthony Stewart streaks into a fight where Charge is turning with several Zeros. No sooner does he enter the furball than he sees tracers flash by him from a failed attack on him. Before Anthony has time to consider where the fire came from he sees a Zero ahead and below him. Anthony pushes his nose over and slices by the Zero firing as he goes. Abruptly his guns stop firing, having jammed. Anthony lets out a curse as he sees he never hit the Zero.

Evan Richards watches as Casey takes down the Zero he was tangling with. However there is little time to celebrate as Evan sees another Zero streaking in on the attack. Evan turns into this newcomer.

Kazato Toshiki is involved in a fight with several American Wildcats. He was unable to stay on the tail of his intended prey but instead followed the pilot’s wingman into this melee. He turns, skids, dives, and rolls through the melee unable to find a suitable target.

Ben Wilson races back into the fight after his evasive actions. He sees Anthony dive into a fight and hurries to catch up himself.

Izumi Kosaku’s number two engine is sputtering. The fire is burning all around it while his crew struggles to fight it. Kosaku reduces power to the damaged engine and suddenly, miraculously, the fire begins to sputter out. Kosaku reduces the power to idle and the fire seems to extinguish. He lets out a sigh of relief, the battle with fire having been won for now. He looks around and sees they have gone far from the fight. Ahead several other bombers and fighters straggle northwest towards Rabaul.

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Welcome back. Turn five was actually pretty slow from a gameplay perspective. There was lots of maneuvering and flying around the table as the the fight started to dissolve beyond the two smaller fights left over. Casey was able to take down a Zero in a single burst which is always fun to roll. Bastard continued to be unable to get anything going this turn. Anthony was the unlucky one while firing and managed to roll more 1’s than combined 5’s and 6’s resulting in jammed guns. He’ll have to fly straight ahead and roll a d6 to see if he can unjam them in future turns.

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TURNS SIX, SEVEN & EIGHT

Anthony works on his guns for several seconds but is unable to clear the jam. Luckily for him his Wildcat careens out of the zone of the fight with no one chasing him.

Bastard sees some prime targets in a pair of Bettys ahead but he can’t quite catch up. He is weighing his options as a Zero streaks out of the sky towards him. The pair of pilots tangle for a few minutes, neither able to gain that decisive position on the other. Finally, almost as if by mutual consideration for fuel remaining, both pilots break off their fight. The Bettys are too far gone now and Bastard angrily looks at their retreating forms before turning back towards his squadron mates.

Ben sees his ammo is precariously low, but here he is in a swirling fight with several Zeros. He sees an opportunity below him and dives on a Zero. Ben holds his fire until that critical moment when it seems perfect. He pours out a short burst of fire which still leaves virtually no ammo left in Wildcat. The sparing burst is enough though as the Zero is mortally wounded, immediately belching smoke and flipping onto its back before careening down. Ben pulls out of his dive and suddenly the fight seems to be gone. The Zeros are turning away and the Bettys are all too far to catch. Nearby he spots Anthony’s Wildcat, and rejoins with his wingman before turning around to rejoin and set course back to the carrier.

Toshiki’s head slams into the canopy as his Zero violently flips over. He tries his control column and is unable to get any response from his aircraft. He battles with it trying to regain control but realizes it is futile. Like many Zero pilots, Toshiki has opted to not use a parachute...

Evan fights with the Zero who just entered the fight with him. Quickly Evan manages a glancing shot but it seems to have an effect as the Zero breaks combat and streaks away. Evan intends to follow until he realizes two more Zeros have joined the fray. Evan is evading one behind him when he sees another getting behind Casey nearby. Suddenly one of Casey’s wings erupts into a fireball, taking most of the Wildcat with it. There is no parachute.

Mike Charge sees the fight around him sputtering out, but nearby he sees a lone Wildcat twisting with two Zeros. He charges into the fray with the three fighters. The Zeros soon think better of their odds and break off, the bombers now safely away from the fight. Evan and Charge form up and turn back, looking for the others who are left.

Vincent Priest is falling. Has been falling. The blue ocean below gets bigger and bigger by the second. Finally he is able to deploy his parachute, which thankfully opens. Priest splashes into the waters of the Pacific a few minutes later, noting he is actually fairly close to some shoreline. Several hours later he is approached by a canoe of locals who fish him from the sea. Now it is just a matter of getting back to friendly lines.

Calvin Digty gets his chute open and lazily drifts down towards the sea below. He can see he is fairly close to the shore of what he assumes is still Guadalcanal. After splashing into the water and getting his life vest inflated Calvin begins working his way towards shore. However he tires out and slows down. Calvin soon realizes the land ahead is getting further away. “Help will be coming for me soon” he thinks. Minutes turn to hours, hours crawl into days…

Archie Marsh isn’t even sure what happened. Before he could even get his bearings and make a plan, the fight is over. He sheepishly rejoins with Ben and Anthony, guilty for his lack of contribution. He notices Calvin’s Wildcat is nowhere to be seen. For that matter there are only six F4Fs in this group period. He looks around, knowing there must be another group nearby with some of the other planes in it. Surely they couldn’t have lost half of their planes that quickly? A pit forms in Archie’s stomach as the realities of a ferocious day of air combat sink in.

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As I often do I combined the final few short turns into one because it works better. The conclusion to the battle saw each side claim a final plane in the melee before it dissolved to nothing. What started as a promising battle for VF-2 quickly turned into a hard fought day that will certainly go down in their history as their worst so far. Now I’m going to go through the post-game steps from Squadron Forward to see what happens. A few of these I’ve already integrated into the story above as well.

1. Returning Home – Two of the VF-2 pilots have to see if they can return home. This is a D10 roll.

1-3: Lost at Sea

4-7: Okay / POW

8-0: Gets Home

Priest rolls a 5. I then rolled a D6 to see if he becomes a POW (1-3) or is recovered by friendly forces (4-6). With a roll of 5 again Priest is safely in the hands of some Pacific Islanders who are sympathetic to the allied cause. This felt appropriate as it was a common enough occurrence historically.

Calvin sadly rolled a 1. This is unfortunately was also a reality in the Pacific Theater during the Second World War.

Dan has a damaged aircraft and so will have to make a check for his landing. A 5+ is a good landing and Dan rolls an adjusted 11, which I suppose makes it a perfect landing.

2. Reputation – VF-2 managed to shoot down seven Japanese planes during the mission. Four G4M1 Betty bombers and three A6M2 Zeros. This is commendable yet the cost was high. I’ve decided it’s ‘Unlikely’ they will gain glory for this mission. That means on a 3 or less result from a D10 roll they gain a glory point. I’ve rolled a 2 which means they do. Perhaps word has gotten out about the hard fighting men of VF-2 who are willing to take a black eye to get results! Yet with a better reputation now comes higher expectations for future results…

3. Repairs – Dan’s plane is the only one that needs repairs, and they wont be done anytime soon thanks to my dicing.

4. Pilot Replacements – VF-2 is now down four pilots. That means we get to make a 5+ Replacement roll for each one. I’ve rolled 3,5,6,1 so we’ll get two replacement pilots now, and a +1 to future rolls for the two other slots.

Ens. James Jackson
Average Pilot
‘Egotistical’ Personality
‘Wealth’ Motivation
‘Military Family’ Background

James Jackson is from a proud Navy family. He is a fourth generation Navy Officer who fell in love with aviation in the late 1930s. Freshly arrived on the Lake Erie he is hoping to make a name for himself…and turn that name into a good retirement if he can.

Ens. Christopher Hill
Rookie Pilot
‘Pleasant’ Personality
‘Engineering’ Motivation
‘Average Joe’ Background

Christopher Hill is an academy graduate originally from New Mexico. A lifelong tinkerer, Hill can often be found chatting with mechanics when off duty. Hill finds it easier to get along with the average joe aboard the ship than the officers of higher pedigree.

5. Plane Replacements – This is the same as step four above except with planes. The squadron is down five planes now. I’ve rolled 3,6,5,2,5. Three new Wildcats are immediately available for VF-2 while two more are now on order.

6. Events
Archie Marsh is having a hard time processing the squadron’s losses on the last mission. A visit to the Flight Surgeon for these troubles has landed him a temporary grounding from flight operations. This will last for the next two missions.

Double Ace Ben Wilson isn’t thrilled to find out he’s been awarded the Navy Cross for the costly battle. He’s paraded out with the public relations folks again. Newspapers carry the story of his heroism in the battle on front pages stateside, carefully avoiding mentioning the true cost of the mission. There are now rumors on the ship that Ben will be sent home for a War Bond tour if he keeps it up…

Evan Richards made his fifth kill today, technically making him an ace. Ace status has never been a serious goal of his, so he tries to not bring it up. The squadron won’t have that though and he’s soon celebrated in the ready room. Evan Richards is now a Junior Ace skill pilot.

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That’s all for now. Historically Admiral Fletcher opted to withdraw the Navy carriers from support of the Guadalcanal landings on August 8th, 1942. The campaign will track that decision and we’ll catch up with the pilots of VF-2 on August 24th, 1942 during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.

As for the end results for VF-2, here’s my ‘behind the curtain’ tracker if you’d like a detailed look at how it is going:

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