Continued from Chapter 10

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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. In this article I’ll be playing through a scenario meant to be representative of a “typical” encounter for the joint US service branch “Cactus Air Force” defending the island of Guadalcanal in the latter part of 1942. To that end it is a simple interception of a bombing raid of G4M1 “Betty” bombers by Marine, Navy, and Army pilots flying F4F Wildcats and P-400 Airacobras. The Airacobras would shortly be withdrawn from this type of service, finding more success in ground attack roles, but for now a pair of them will struggle along in the game. After the action I’ll briefly go over the post game book keeping for the Squadron Forward supplement. Life got in the way and it has been a few months since I actually played this game, so some of the details are a bit fuzzy. With that being said this will be a shorter, more abbreviated report with less crunchy details. My apologies for that.

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Order of Battle

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Cactus Air Force
USMC/Navy Flight One
Lt. Doug Gray / Veteran / F4F-4 Wildcat
Ens. Matthew Miller / Regular / F4F-4 Wildcat
Ens. William Cooper / Regular / F4F-4 Wildcat
Ens. Christopher Blake / Regular / F4F-4 Wildcat

USMC Flight Two
Lt. Kenneth Pitts / Veteran / F4F-4 Wildcat
Ens. Vincent Priest / Regular / F4F-4 Wildcat

USAAF Flight One
Ens. Marsh / Regular / P-400 Airacobra
Ens. Rose / Sprog / P-400 Airacobra

IJNAS Fighters
First Fighter Shotai
Zero One / Junior Ace / A6M2 Zero
Zero Two / Veteran / A6M2 Zero
Zero Three / Regular / A6M2 Zero

Second Fighter Shotai
Zero Four / Veteran / A6M2 Zero
Zero Five / Veteran / A6M2 Zero
Zero Six / Regular / A6M2 Zero

IJNAS Bombers
First Bomber Shotai
Betty One / Veteran/ G4M1 ‘Betty’
Betty Two / Veteran / G4M1 ‘Betty’
Betty Three / Sprog / G4M1 ‘Betty’

Second Bomber Shotai
Betty Four / Veteran / G4M1 ‘Betty’
Betty Five / Regular / G4M1 ‘Betty’
Betty Six / Regular / G4M1 ‘Betty’

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TURNS 1 & 2

The weary pilots of the Cactus Air Force vibrate in their seats as they urge their mounts upward. In the distance is a glint and some small black spots which grower larger by the second, their enemies, a bombing raid by the Imperial Japanese Navy in its desperate attempts to destroy Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. Vincent Priest follows behind near Pitts’ Wildcat as the forces rapidly close distance. Suddenly the sky erupts into action as the two opposing forces clash, Zeros diving out of the sky to intercept the prowling F4Fs.

Cooper and Blake ignore the fighters, making a dash for the bombers despite a hail of defensive fire from the Bettys. Their first pass finds no success, but after wheeling around for a second one Cooper manages to land a hit that starts a fire aboard one of the Japanese bombers.

Doug Gray and Matthew Miller tangle with the Zeros and Miller is quickly dealt a blow by the Zero. With fuel leaking from his aircraft and the smell of fumes filling the cockpit Miller hurries away from combat. Nearby Pitts and Priest do the same and though Pitts lands some rounds, they’re mostly ineffectual. As the fight spirals downward the pair of waiting P400s flown by Williamson and Carson dash into action against the Zeros but find no purchase.

The first turn in this game was mostly the two forces merging, after the merge the action quickly took off though it was fairly anticlimactic with pilots failing tests and missing shots left and right. The exceptions here were Miller being dealt Fuel Line Damage forcing him out of the fight, Pitts’ hit on a Zero resulting in Cockpit Damage (-3d6 dice to future shooting or spotting) and Cooper’s attack which left a Betty with a Fire.

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TURN 3

Christopher Blake holds his controls tight as he wheels around for a third pass at the bombers. He continues to fly through a hail of enemy fire but hasn’t seemed to get so much as a scratch…. yet. Moments later Blake is twisting and turning following Cooper as they evade a Zero that appeared behind them. Only seconds after that the attacker is gone and the Marines turn back towards the Bettys once more.

Priest only catches a blur as Pitts dives away, a Zero appearing on his tail. Priest goes after them and finds himself embroiled in a swirling dogfight. He finds himself a target and lines up a shot….

Gray emerges from his fight with the Zeros and sights the bombers nearby. Doug turns towards the bombers but struggles to catch them. The Bettys are now closing in on their target: Henderson Field. One of the Japanese bombers which had been spewing a trail of flame ceases to do so, leaving only a thin trail of smoke now that the fire is extinguished. The P400 pilots suddenly find themselves without a good target and so turn to pursue some distant Zeros.

This was yet another turn of ineffectual combat. Really no one could manage to do much of anything this turn. The card draw order and the luck of the dice left things rather uneventful.

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TURNS 4 & 5

Williamson and Carson twist and turn away as they find themselves hunted by a pair of diving Zeros. In the brief dogfight the P400 pilots are unable to line up a good counter-attack before the Zeros dash away. Cooper and Blake charge through the bombers for a fourth time with no luck. Cooper takes damage as some of the defensive fire damages the glass of his cockpit.

The G4M1s make their bomb run over Henderson, but the high altitude level bombing leaves only minor damage behind. Their mission complete the Bettys hastily turn away and run for their home base.

Doug Gray sights a lone Zero and goes on the attack. He swoops in an lets loose a single burst, destroying the Zero handily. Nearby Priest does the same, leaving a Zero in pieces after his own attack. After passing his destroyed target Priest spots Pitts still attempting to avoid the Zero on his tail. Priest dives to the rescue, damaging the Zero and allowing Pitts to escape. Unbeknownst to Priest the Japanese pilot has passed out. Priest pursues the damaged fighter down but the Zero miraculously recovers at treetop level and zips away as Priest’s own guns go dry. The battle peters out as Zeros individually run for the coast. The Cactus planes, low on fuel themselves, turn back for Henderson Field. The battle is over as suddenly as it began.

The final clash of the scenario saw some Zeros go down whilst the bombers completed their mission nearly unscathed. Yet just as in reality the high level bombing proved lackluster, as only minor damage was applied to the target. No doubt the few craters will be readily filled in and Henderson Field is safe for another day. Now let’s move on to our post game items:

POST-GAME
(Squadron Forward)

Losses (VF-2 only):
-None

Gains:
-Priest is reunited with VF-2. (Rolled a 6 on a 3+) What this will mean for the campaign is that VF-2 will be joining the Cactus Air Force briefly on Guadalcanal. We’ll cover this more in the next Chapter.

Events and Other:
– Ens. Steve Turner has a run in with Group Commander Ellis Cox late one evening and they share a friendly conversation about deer hunting in Pennsylvania. Both characters increase their opinion by one level. Commander Cox now has a +2 opinion of VF-2. Well done Steve.

Squadron Status:
-Twelve pilots available to fly
-Twelve F4F Wildcats available to fly
-Ben Wilson leads the VF-2 ace race, with 13 kills to Dan’s 9, Evan’s 8, Priest’s 4 and Bastard’s 2

Thanks again for reading, sorry for the long wait between chapters!