Battle of Midway, Fight #11

All,

1700 local time
4 June 1942
Midway

It's 4 June 1942, the dawn of the epic "Battle of Midway," a clash of giants, three US carriers vs four Japanese carriers that proved to be the turning point of the war in the Pacific. For more information, both real-life and how I'm running this campaign, please check here:
https://oldleadbreed.blogspot.com/2019/11/battle-of-midway-campaign-plan.html

Yesterday at 0900 a US Navy PBY Catalina spotted Japanese ships 500nm west southwest of Midway; B-17s from the island were dispatched but failed to hit anything. US Navy PBYs continued to shadow the Japanese surface force, and actually attacked at 0100 this morning, scoring a torpedo hit on a Japanese merchant ship. Unbeknownst to US personnel, the Japanese carrier task force, as yet still unspotted, launched its first strike group against Midway at 0430. At 0530, the PBYs spotted the Japanese carriers, and noted their strike group inbound.

At 0610, the VMF-343 "Dirt Divers" scrambled six F4F Wildcats to intercept an inbound group of six D3A "Val" dive bombers escorted by four A6M "Zeros," but were roughly handled, having three Wildcats shot down and the other three damaged, as the Japanese lost one Zero and one Val. The Japanese aerial attack caused 18/30 damage points.

At 0625, Captain Haynes led six Wildcats to intercept an inbound group of six B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers escorted by four A6M "Zeros." Again it was rough: the Marines lost five of six aircraft, with one pilot KIA, one MIA, and two WIA, while the Japanese lost four of their six torpedo bombers, which did light damage to Midway's shore installations (26/30, total).

At 0645, Major Chandler led four Dirt Divers in escort of a flight of six TBF torpedo bombers to attack the Japanese carriers, running right into the Japanese CAP of six Zeros, and it was a debacle: the Americans lost one Wildcat and five TBFs, the last being damaged and forced to return to base without even spotting the Japanese carriers. Oh, and the Japanese did lose two Zeros, but they were both to the TBFs!!!

At 0715, 2nd Lt Herman led a flight of four Wildcats in escort of six SBD Dauntless dive bombers from Marine Scouting-Bombing Squadron 241 (VMSB-241), up against six Zeros of the Japanese Combat Air Patrol. The mission was sort of a success: five Zeros were downed (two by SBDs!) and the sixth was shot up, no Wildcats were lost, only three Dauntlesses were lost, but no hits were scored on the enemy carriers.

At 0800, Major Chandler is led a flight of four Wildcats on an escort mission for four US Army Air Corps B-26s specially modified to carry torpedoes. The Marines lost two Wildcats and had another damaged, and two B-26s, with another damaged, while the Japanese lost all four CAP Zeros, though one was shot down by a US bomber. The lone B-26 to reach the Japanese fleet missed on its torpedo run and, to add insult to injury, Major Chandler was one of the Marines shot down, and he was badly wounded.

At 1010, LtCmdr Case, the Ace squadron leader of the Killer Pelicans and winner of the Medal of Honor, lead a flight of four Wildcats in escort of six TBD Devastators against the Japanese carriers. They faced six Zeros, and it wasn't pretty: Ensigne Warren was shot down, two more Wildcats were damaged, and all six Devastators were shot down, at the cost of only three Zeros, two of which were shot down by the torpedo bombers!

At 1025, Lt (jg) Dahgren led a flight of four Wildcats in escort of six SBD Dauntless dive bombers, hoping to replicate what their real life predecessors did ("Scratch Four Flattops!"). They faced a Japanese CAP of four Zeros and couldn't quite live up to history: only one Dauntless got through, managing to put a 1000-lb bomb into the deck of the Kaga, but four others were shot down and the last had to return to base. The Wildcats didn't do much better, shooting down one Zero and damaging another (the Dauntlesses managed to shoot down one Zero themselves) while having one of their own shot down and one more damaged.

At 1035, Lt Cmdr Case re-formed a group of three Wildcats and lead the final strike of six SBD Dauntless dive bombers from VB-6 ("Bombing Six"). They shot down both Zeros they faced, the Dauntlesses sunk a carrier all by themselves (in addition to the other three that went down), and Lt French became an Ace!

At 1200, the Japanese strike group found the USS Yorktown! Ensign Manly managed to shoot down a Japanese super Ace, and the Wildcats were able to damage the remaining three Zeros and one Val, but five of six American fighters were shot down, the last was damaged and forced to return to base, and three pilots were killed or missing. The disaster was capped off by the Yorktown suffering two direct hits and a near miss.

At 1425, Lt Fitzsimmons led six Wildcats up to intercept a flight of B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers escorted by four Zeros. Lt Fitzsimmons, Lt Allen, and Lt (jg) Head each scored two victories to become Aces, but one of the Japanese Aces went on a tear, racking up four victories of his own, resulting in two Kates getting through. Lt Fitzsimmons is listed as MIA, two Rookies were lost (one KIA and one MIA), and one Rookie was badly wounded, as were Lieutenants Allen and Head. All in a all, a disaster.

It's now 1700, and as the sun is settling into the ocean, LtCmdr Case is escorting a flight of SBD Dauntlesses out to sink the fourth Japanese carrier, the Hiryu.

This is my arena for aerial combat; simple, yet durable and, to me, beautiful (in a simple, durable way). I'm using tiny aircraft designed by my buddy Thomaston; not sure what size they are, just that they are much smaller than 1/600. They're 3D printed models that I mounted on cut-down bases from Litko, and I'm using a very simple rules system called "Battle of Britain," which I found for free over on The Miniatures Page (I've already played a good 20 or so fights with them). Left is north, with the Japanese CAP there, and the American strike group at right.

The US strike group, from top left to bottom right:

Ensign Bryant, a Regular with no kills on two sorties

Lt Cmdr Case, the Squadron Leader, Ace, and Medal of Honor winner, with 11 kills on 7 sorties

        SBD 02   SBD 05
SBD 01   SBD 04
        SBD 03   SBD 06

Lt (jg) French, an Ace with five kills on four sorties

Lt (jg) Dahlgren, a Regular with two kills on six sorties

The Japanese CAP, from top right to bottom left:

Zero 02, a Veteran
Zero 01, a Veteran

Zero 03, an Ace

We fast forward through the first three turns in order to bring you straight into the action. Time to fight!

Lieutenants Dahgren and French push north.

LtCmdr Case jinks into the center.

As Ens Bryant pushes straight at Zero 02.

Who runs in, head to head, on him.  Both pilots open fire...

Ens Bryant's Wildcat is damaged as the Japanese pilot pulls right, looking to get after the dive bombers.

Zero 01 cuts right, eyeballing LtCmdr Case (bottom right).

As Zero 03, the Japanese Ace, runs straight in, head to head, on Lt (jg) French.  Again both pilots open fire, but this time both pilots miss.

The Dauntlesses push north.

Ens Bryant's Wildcat is okay, so he jinks past Zero 02 and makes a high-side run on Zero 01...

But he misses and flashes past.

LtCmdr Case pulls hard right and lines up a high-deflection shot on Zeroo 01...

And pulls right as the Zero comes apart!

Lt Dalgren sputters, defensive.

And Lt French pulls right, also defensive, but giving Zero 03 free access to the bombers (off camera to top right).

Which he immediately takes advantage of.

As does Zero 02: he swoops in and runs head to head with SBD 02.  Both pilots open fire...

And the elegant Dauntless goes down as Zero 02 continues his attack, running head-on with SBD 05, though both pilots miss.

LtCmdr Case pulls around right, hoping to get after the Zeros.

As Ens Bryant pulls an Immelman to do the same.

Lt French pulls right.

And Lt Dahlgren follows.

As the Dauntlesses continue to push north.

Zero 02 swoops back around onto SBD 06's tail, dodging defensive fire as he cuts loose.

But the plucky tail gunner scores, knocking Zero 02 down!!!

Seeing that, Zero 03 gets cold feet and pulls back around, in good shape on Lieutenants French and Dahlgren (far left).

Lt (jg) Dahlgren pulls hard right, running head to head with Zero 03...

The Zero is damaged, but the enemy Ace scores!  Lt (jg) Dahlgren is able to bail out, but he's hurt and is out of action for the next couple months.

Lt (jg) French immediately follows his wingman, making a high-side pass on Zero 03...

But he misses and pulls left.

LtCmdr Case pulls hard right to help out.

And then, screaming in out of left field, Ens Bryant zooms in and takes a high-deflection shot at Zero 03, but misses.

The Dauntlesses keep pushing.

Ens Bryant pulls an Immelman, defensive.

As Lt (jg) French sputters right.

And LtCmdr Case jinks through the dive bomber formation.

Zero 03 has got his nerve back up, so he jinks over onto SBD 03's tail and opens fire...

But he shouldn't have!  He does manage to down the Dauntless, but her tail gunner blasted him and he went down with the ship, so to speak.  With no more enemy fighters in sight the Dauntlesses broke into perfect Vee formation for the attack.

And they made their runs, planting four or five 1000-lb bombs on the Hiryu (history isn't sure whether four or five hit, but these guys scored 28 points of damage, so I figure they did pretty damn well) and setting her ablaze.  The returning Japanese strike group, the one that just planted two torpedoes in the Yorktown, would have to ditch in the sea.

The triumphant American aviators form up for the long flight back.

Well, a successful mission, but a bit anti-climactic, owing to the SBDs scoring two of the three fighter kills...  But I'll take it, a win's a win.

Lt Cmdr Case scored a kill and returned safely to base

Lt (jg) French failed to score

Lt (jg) Dahlgren failed to score, was shot down, wounded, and will be out the next two months
Ensign Bryant failed to score

That evening three Japanese carriers were lying at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, with the Soryu finally going under at 0500 the next day after burning all night.  That left a whole lot of surface ships milling about; the US carriers would fall back, but more attacks would be made by aircraft out of Midway.  The Yorktown was reeling after the two torpedo hits, to the point she was listing and all but a skeleton crew were evacuated, but then, just when things were starting to look okay, the Japanese submarine I-68 snuck in and finished her off.

So that is it, the last fight of Midway.  I'll do up my usual epilogue with all the stats and posts ASAP.  Next I figure I need to go back to the US Army's Chickenhawks for a week in New Guinea, but then there's nothing left to do but get in there and invade the Solomons!

V/R,
Jack