AAR: Waking The Sleeping Giant
Kenta Kusuhara climbed into his A6M2 fighter and began his pre flight check. The Zuikaku gently swayed, barely noticeable from the calm morning. The young pilot was going over his orders in his head. Take care of the bombers and neutralize any opposition. A few minutes later and he was in the air, the D3A1's following him down the flight deck.
Not long after making formation they approached their targets. Taii Takeru Kuramoto and his gunner Nishikido Ryo took the lead of the formation. With Hirokazu Fujita and his gunner on the right, and Kurakazu Furukawa piloting the plane to the left.
The island was in sight now and they continued the approach. Two American P-40's were in the process of switching morning patrols (rolled dice for positions based on the options given by the author). They were still unsuspecting.
Noticing the enemy plane taking off, Kenta Kusuhara made a risky move and moved through the formation to protect the left side (somehow I avoided a collision here).
The landing P-40 had abandoned the approach at the radio request of his wingmans to check out the unidentified aircraft.
And the lead P-40 (just snagged this model up this week after a long search for it) put a very well placed burst into Kurakazu's Val, who returned fire but with little effect.
The lead Val's gunner shot at the P-40 along with the Zero, careful not to hit the friendly.
The P-40 returned fire at the Zero with some effect.
At this point the second P-40 joined the action and fired at the Captain's Val who had trouble aiming back as his bomber absorbed the .50 cal rounds.
The first P-40 flew by Kenta's guns, combined with the gunner from the bomber they did serious damage but true to the armour it failed to destroy the P-40.
Simultaneously the second P-40 and the Captain's Val nicked each other in the pass. Feeling the jolt Takeru checked his instruments and any visible part of his aircraft. With nothing coming to his attention he leveled out and continued flying.
A well placed reverse soon had the enemy on the tails of the two Val's. Both gunners trying their hardest to bring him down but to no avail. Takeru's expert flying avoided a solid burst from the fighter but he was unable to dodge the full assault (Evasion used).
Meanwhile the first P-40 pulled the same maneuver and it put him right on the Zero's tail. Kenta Kusuhara believed that was it for him but miraculously his plane held.
Things were not looking good for the Japanese flight. They hoped that their comrades were faring better than them as they seemed to be getting bad luck, their luck was about to change however.
The combined fire brought the P-40 down, though slowly. He was able to ditch in the water after pumping lead into the final Val that had up until then been the only plane to not take damage.
At the same time Kenta Kusuhara reversed and though his cannon fire was too sporadic his machine guns hit true and the last enemy was shot down. He too was able to ditch, not taking any serious damage, just enough to bring him down.
With the opposition down the bombers were free to commence their runs. And Kurakazu scored a direct hit on the destroyer. At the same time the Cruiser opened up with AA fire and scored a hit themselves.
As everything was going smoothly, disaster struck (made a bad turn) and as the bombers were focused on jettisoning their bombs they clipped wings with each other. As before, the Captain's plane held true. The other Val lost it's wing and plummeted into the ground below, just near the harbour.
The bombs struck the Cruiser directly and with no more bombs, and the only target left being a hospital ship, the Captain gave the order to return to the carriers. It was beneath him to strafe hospital ships.
The Japanese attack had been a success, even with the loss of the one Val and her crew.
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Originally Posted by Skafloc
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