Attack on Pearl (Intercepting unescorted "Vals")

[Warhawk]

"Are all you Canadians this full of sh**" Said Jimmy the US Pilot sitting across from me at the bar. "Let me get this straight," He continued, "You not only managed to take off and pursue one of those bast***s out to the open sea where no one, conveniently, could confirm your story. Then you lost him in cloud cover but sprang upon a new wave of Vals and took all three out" The look of disbelief was all over his face. "Fair enough" I thought, "I wouldn't believe it either". "Look," I returned, "I trained extensively on the Kittyhawk, er, P-40 as it were, with the 111th back home. I know how she handles and I know what a punch she packs, I'm telling you, I shot down three of the bast***s before they even reached the island!" "WAIT, you're the pilot of that P-40?!" A navy officer interrupted after overhearing our conversation. He stood up from the bar stool he had been perched on for the past hour or so and walked over to where we were seated. "Bartender! A round for my two friends here". He noticed the bartenders hesitation, what sort of Navy man orders a round for a couple of zoomies. "I mean it! This pilot right here, he downed 3 of those enemy dive bombers, I saw it, da** near my whole crew saw it". By now, with all the shouting, a fair crowd had gathered around us. Men started pulling up chairs and the bar had become fairly quiet, everyone wanted to hear some good news after the beating we had taken at Pearl. I was hoping the recognition would boost morale, and of course the personal prestige was pretty enticing. "There we were," He continued once everyone settled down, "looking for one of them mini subs in our Corvette when one of the men shouts that he sees another wave of bombers coming in". "There also appeared to be a lone fighter, which we identified as a P-40 flying towards them".





"He attacked them and got right into the third machine's blindspot, the gunner had no idea he was there it seemed"



"Then he got onto the plane's tail and the 6 .50's seemed to pour so much led into the plane that the gunner didn't have the will to return much fire and missed badly, after that the rear gun was silent and the plane started flying slower, might have been that both the crewmen were wounded".



"Our boy here just didn't let up and there it was! Scratch one Dive bomber"





"Even with the Vals trying to evade he kept right on them pouring bullets into the second machine, careful to stay out of range of the lead plane"





"I don't think he noticed but a lone enemy fighter was approaching, he was far out but gaining fast, again he just kept up the fire until the second plane succumbed to the damage and went down"





Then he went for the third machine, this time not so aggressively, from hearing your story I assume this is when your engine gave you trouble?" I nodded, "yeah, that gunners aim was good, it's why I chose not to engage the fighter, that and my machine had soaked up quite a bit of damage".



"He pressed the attack anyway," The officer continued





"...Even with that Zero closing in."





"Then he bagged himself his third kill, we couldn't believe it"



"The zero gave chase and we half expected that glory seeker to turn into the threat but his machine had taken a beating so he headed for home. I imagine that enemy fighter could have caught up with him what with the engine trouble and all, but maybe he was low on fuel. Maybe he just didn't have the guts for a fight with a guy who just shot down three of his planes. Whatever the reason, he turned and headed for home"





"I told myself I'd buy the man a round, don't care if he's a zoomie, so here I am, buying him a round". My friend looked at me with wide eyes, "That's exactly how you told it, I guess I was wrong, you're not full of S***, just freaking crazy." The room erupted into a storm of laughter and cheering and it was the first time since the attack that a few of us forgot for a moment just how terrible it was.


The Tally: Japanese







Allies:



With only 9 damage and one engine damage I was continually surprised by my good fortune during this round. I had intended for no enemy fighters but by the time the Vals reached halfway to their goal I decided to see if it could change the tide. I guess I started him just a little too far out. I rolled for the bombers flight in formation, evens they did a fast straight, odds a slow straight, and if a 6 was rolled while I was behind them they would try an evasive maneuver (Right or left turn).

Overall a mission success, planned to be the first in my Pacific campaign, a story about a Canadian who is transferred to a US unit to gain further training but gets caught up in the attack at Pearl Harbour and agrees to continue flying with them. The original unit being the RCAF 111 Squadron which got transferred to the Aleutian islands after the attack and flew support missions for the US using Kittyhawks mainly.

Hope you enjoyed and that it wasn't too long!

[Warhawk]

Of course now that I look at it I probably should have toned down the P-40's armament because it would have been an earlier version with the two .50's in the nose and four .30's in the wings... I wonder how that would have affected the game.

[fast.git]

Makes one wonder how much things might have gone differently if the USAAC had been able to mount a credible CAP on 7 Dec. Regardless of firepower questions, a nice engagement and report. Thanks for the AAR!

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

Nice report. Check the Midway and PTO threads for our campaign so far. We have house rules that lower the Zero damage to 12 but they do gain 90 degree turns. Luck either way a wrong damage chit and your P40 would have gone down gun mistake or no gun mistake. Nice AAR, well done.

[fast.git]

Check the Midway and PTO threads for our campaign so far. We have house rules that lower the Zero damage to 12 but they do gain 90 degree turns.

I'd forgotten about these... I'll need to give them a try the next time I'm able to drag out the WGS minis.

[Warhawk]

I'll look into those! Thanks for the pointers and input gentlemen.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Makes a good story however you tell it, and helps adjust all those games where tow of your aircraft go down in the first two rounds.
I totally enjoyed your AAR Wes.
Please keep 'em coming.
Rob.

[Gotham Resident]

Very nice indeed. I will file this one away into the collection to pull out vs Lil GR. Or maybe when he's asleep, so I can finally win!