AAR--P40 Flying Tigers v. A6M2 Zeros Round 2

[Setarius]

Date: Unknown
Place: South China Coast

Voice: Tiger 1-5, Tiger 1-5. We have 4 Bogies crossing the coast south of Jinghai. Coast watchers report 4 A6M fighters are inbound.

Marion Baugh: Tiger 1-5 Roger that. Is there any help in the area?

Voice: Tiger 1-5, I have Tiger 2-4 and 2-7 joining you from the northwest. They should be on your 8 about 4 kicks back. Use channel 3 for contact.

M. Baugh: Roger that, switching to 3. Tiger 2-4 This is Tiger 1-5, over.

William Fish Jr: Tiger 1-5 This is Tiger 2-4. Over.

M. Baugh: Tiger 2-4, this is Marion Baugh in Tiger 1-5 and Herb Cavanah in Tiger 1-8. Over.

W. Fish Jr: Hello Meatball! Will Fish in 2-4 and Lester Hall in Tiger 2-7.

M. Baugh: Hello Guppy. We have the enemy in sight. Proceed with the attack.




As the forces close on each other M. Baugh (0) and the yellow dotted Zero exchange long range shots with the Zero (4,2) taking heavy damage.


As the forces come together there are shots fired by everyone in range and most take some kind of damage.
M. Baugh hooks a left and fires on the Zero crossing his nose and almost collides with another Zero coming in from his right.
H. Cavanah(0)
M. Baugh (0,2,3)
L. Hall (0,2,5NL)
Zero pink dot (0,3,4)(0,2,EXP)
Zero orange dot (3,4,Eng)
KILL--L. HALL (1)



The orange dot Zero fires on Will Fish (5SMK) causing thick black smoke to start belching out of the exhaust.


As planes cross each other's noses, shots are fired as collisions are barely avoided.
W. Fish (0,0,1)
L. Hall (0,0,1)
Zero green dot (0,1,2)


20mm cannon shells wreak havoc on Will Fish's P40, ripping it apart for the MG to ignite the fuel tanks causing a massive explosion raining flaming debris on the ground below. The Japanese pilot's celebration is short lived as Lester Hall hits the offending Zero hard causing it to slowly roll over and also go crashing to the ground below.
William Fish (3ENG,3NR,EXP)
Zero yellow dot (2,3,4)
KILL--Zero yellow dot
L. Hall(2)


L. Hall's victories are also short lived as 20mm cannon shells go off crippling his plane and seriously injuring him as his plane is blown out of the sky.
L. Hall (0,8,6P)
KILL--Zero orange dot (1)

[Setarius]

Marion Baugh is the next victim of the orange dot Zero, as it makes a hard turn to port behind H. Savannah and opens up at close range once again demolishing another plane.
M. Baugh (2,3,8)
KILL--Zero orange dot (2)


As Cavanah circles around and sees the odds are three to one against him, he realises he will need to run the gauntlet to get home safely.


The green dot Zero sends a cannon shell whistling past the tail of Cavanah's plane.


As both planes circle right another cannon shell roars over the top of Cavanah's plane just behind the cockpit.


Cavanah tries to shake the Zero having temporary success. But, like a blood hound the Zero reassures the scent doing significant damage to the plane.
H. Cavanah (8)



Another long range shot finds its mark adding more damage to the battered plane.
H. Cavanah (3)


Another 20 mms cannon shell crashes through the right wing of an already badly damaged craft.
H. Cavanah (5)


As H. Cavanah takes to the silk another 2omm shell rips the rest of the right wing off sending what used to be Cavanah's P40 spinning to the Earth below.
H. Cavanah (5)
KILL--Zreo green dot (1)

[Setarius]

Butcher's Bill

AVG Left to Right

Marion Baugh--Tiger 1-5 green Star SD 18 DMG

Herbert Cavanah--Tiger 1-8 green dot SD 21 DMG

William Fish Jr.--Tiger 2-4 orange dot SD EXP ENG 12 DMG

Lester Hall--Tiger 2-7 yellow dot SD WIA 22 DMG 2 KILLS


Japanese Left to Right

Zero pink dot SD EXP 9 DMG 0 KILLS

Zero yellow dot SD 15 DMG 1 KILL


Zero orange dot RTB 7 DMG ENG 2 KILLS

Zero green dot RTB 3 DMG 1 KILL

Note: I accidentally mixed up the damage for these two planes in the picture. I have corrected it in the Butcher's Bill.


NOTES:

I took these cards from my WGF WWI L deck and allowed the Zeros to use them as needed. A couple of their shots would not have been possible without these cards. Since this particular L deck is a spare I am keeping it with my Zeros for future use. I considered these turn to be made at slow speed.

[Naharaht]

Thank you for the good A.A.R., Dale. Once again we learn that it does not pay to dogfight with Zeros. Using the cards from a WW1 L deck for slow tight turns is an interesting innovation. Were you using altitude rules?

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Really a master class in what not do do when meeting a Zero. Did they really need the extra maneuverability cards? I would like to see how it plays out with the standard deck.
Thanks for bringing us this very interesting scenario Dale.
Rob.

[Setarius]

I also forgot to mention that I dropped the Zeros HP to 14 instead of the 16 listed.

Rob, I flew a similar mission a couple weeks ago and posted it on here using the Zeros as they came out of the box. The results were similar to this with 1 P40 escaping and 2 Zeros surviving.
It has been suggested in a couple of different posts on the forum that the Zero was more maneuverable than what they are shown in the game. After reading through one of the discussions where using the L or O deck would make the Zero a little more realistic I decided to try it and see what would happen.

David, in this scenario I did not use altitude, really didn't think about it at the time.

I'm not sure if I will use the L deck cards for the Zero in future games, but it will be available if I decide to use it.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Now you mention it Dale, I'm sure that I saw it. i must try to remember these things better. It must be all this seawater getting in my G&T these days.
Rob.