Dutch East Indies, #1

All,

Dogfights in the Dutch East Indies, Sortie #1 (VMF-343 Dirt Divers)

It's 15 January 1941 and only days before a squadron of US Marine Wildcats under Captain Chris Chandler was sent to Palembang on the east coast of the island of Sumatra, to aid in the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) defense of the Dutch East Indies (DEI) from the marauding forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.  Captain Chandler and his men with their six stubby, Grumman Wildcats (I'm running small squadrons of six aircraft as to use more pilots would make it too much for me to handle following three different US squadrons) quickly settled into life on the dusty tropical airfield, happy to see a handful of Americans, and Marines no less (the infantrymen of Captain Moon's platoon, recently arrived from the Philippines)!

It wasn't long until Capt Chandler's fighters were being scrambled to meet the Japanese.  At approximately 1545 local time on 15 January 1942 a picket boat radioed that Japanese aircraft were inbound: three Zeros escorting a Ki-21 "Sally," apparently conducting a reconnaissance of ABDA forces in the Palembang area.

Overview, north is up.  The Marines are on the left (west) and the Japanese on the right (east).  The Japanese objective is to exit the Sally off the left board edge (accomplishing its recon mission), the Marine objective is to stop it.

The Marine flight of four Wildcats, callsigns Dirty 01 through 04.
Dirty 01 is the squadron commander, Captain Chandler, rated as a Veteran pilot.
Dirty 02 is 2nd Lieutenant Rison, a Regular pilot.
Dirty 03 is 2nd Lt Haynes, Regular.
Dirty 04 is 2nd Lt Gardner, Regular.

The Marines are low and slow (Capt Chandler's section is at 2 speed and 2 altitude, Lt Haynes' section is at 1 speed and 1 altitude), having just got off the deck to intercept.  Red dice is speed, green is altitude, white is how much ammo they have.

The Japanese formation, all Imperial Japanese Army aircraft.  Zero 01 is an Ace, while his two wingmen are both Veterans, so it's got potential to be a bit rough for the Leatherneck pilots.  The leader, wingman, and Sally are really moving (6 speed), but pretty low (2 altitude), while the third Zero is moving quick but a bit higher (6/4).

Time to go!

The Marines, coming up low and slow, easily spot the Japanese and begin climbing to intercept, but the Japanese, moving faster and impaired by having to look down for aircraft amongst the tropical foliage, don't spot the Americans until relatively late, at which time Zero 02 peels right and climbs to flank Dirty 01 and 02, who have also climbed and speed up.

The veteran Japanese pilot in Zero 03 kicks over hard right and lays on the guns; Capt Chandler should go evasive but he's fixated on the Japanese leader and doesn't even see Zero 03 until tracers start zipping by.  Unfortunately they didn't all zip by, and several 20mm shells slammed into the plucky Wildcat, damaging the squadron leader's aircraft!

Dirty 04 comes left as Lt Haynes in Dirty 03 lines up a shot on the enemy fighter that just shot up his squadron leader.  The enemy pilot tries evasive maneuvers but he's late owing to his own gun run, and .50 caliber rounds chew up his aircraft, damaging it and wounding him!

Despite being damaged, Captain Chandler lines up a shot on the enemy recon aircraft.  He yo-yos in, dodging defensive fire from the Sally's forward facing machine guns, and gets off a good burst, damaging the Sally.

With Dirty 01 laying into the Sally, Lt Rison in Dirty 02 charges straight in, too!  He cuts loose with his .50 caliber machine guns, further damaging the Sally, but he comes nose to nose with the enemy bomber her machine guns meet Dirty 02, wounding Lt Rison!

Zero 02 cuts hard left to get into the fight while the enemy Ace, Zero 01 dives on Dirty 03, firing as he goes, but Lt Haynes pulls off some nifty evasive maneuvers and manages to dance between the rain drops!

We've got a full on furball now...

The enemy Ace drops and pulls hard right, straight into Dirty 04.  Lt Gardner sees the twinkling on the enemy's nose and wings and grits his teeth as he Wildcat shudders.  He feels the engine sputtering, the stick going dead, the pedals floating; there's not doubt about it, he's going down...

Zero 02 cuts hard left and takes a long range shot on Captain Chandler's Dirty 01, but the Japanese shells miss as he jukes the damaged Wildcat.

And not feeling too confident of his chances for survival, Captain Chandler dives his stricken Wildcat to the deck, picking up speed and hoping to get lost amongst the ground clutter.  Dirty 02, also damaged, joins him, as Zero 03, himself damaged and over enemy territory, decides to climb and pick up speed (yep, Zero's can do that).

Lt Gardner bails out of his burning aircraft, happy to see the silk pop open above him.

Meanwhile, the only Marine aircraft still in the fight, Lt Haynes' Dirty 03, kicks over hard left.  He charges in as tracers from the Sally's machine guns zip by mere feet away from his head.  He involuntarily hunkers down, then mashes the trigger on his stick...

And smiles as the Sally dives and crashes into the lush, green jungle below!

The situation at the end of Turn 4: Dirt 01 and 02 damaged and just hoping to survive, Zero 03 damaged but pretty confident he'll survive, and Dirty 03 sort of caught in the middle between a Japanese Ace and a Japanese Veteran.

The Japanese Ace, Zero 01 (bottom left, sorry I didn't get his number on him for some reason) performs a wingover to line up a shot on Dirty 03 as Zero 02 zooms in, hops on the tail of Captain Chandler's Dirty 01, and opens fire.  The Japanese veteran pumps 20mm rounds into the Wildcat, which amazingly absorbs the hits, but a lucky hit sends shell splinters into Captain Chandler's upper back, wounding him!

Lt Rison, in Dirty 02, sees his commander slump forward.  "Get your nose up Boss!  Hang in there, just stay on my wing and I'll get ya home!"  The two damaged Wildcats continue to make good their escape.

The damaged Zero 03 pulls right to head for home, while Lt Haynes gets a little fancy and flummoxed, all at once.  He spies Zero 02 leading up Captain Chandler, so he begins pulling right to line up a shot, but just as he does that he realizes that Zero 01 had pulled around on his tail, so totally bungs the maneuver, his indecisiveness costing him speed and altitude...

Lt Haynes figures he's a dead man, so he might as well go all out.  He jams the throttle forward and cuts hard right onto Zero 02's tail, then opens fire with his .50 cal machine guns, but the tracers sail harmlessly past as the veteran Japanese fighter pilot has his airplane shimmying and shaking like a pro.

Zero 03 finishes nursing his stricken fighter around to turn for home as Capt Chandler and Lt Rison manage to escape (Dirty 01 and 02)!

The enemy ace, Zero 01, rolls in on Lt Haynes in Dirty 03, and opens fire.  He's close enough that 20mm and 7.7mm tracers rip into the hapless Wildcat, wounding Lt Haynes.  The Marine pilot rolls inverted, looking to bail out before his aircraft blows up, when suddenly the enemy fire ceases and the Zero flashes past!  The enemy aircraft fighters, operating over Palembang near the limits of their maximum range, are bingo fuel and turn for home, fate sparing the young Lieutenant's life!

And with that, VMF-343's first taste of combat is over, quick and deadly.  The Marines lost one aircraft (Lt Gardner was able to find his way back to Palembang in matter of a few hours) and had two pilots wounded in two aircraft damaged, including the squadron commander.  They did manage to deny the enemy reconnaissance mission by shooting down the Sally, but they didn't fare very well against the enemy fighters, managing only to damage one.

V/R,
Jack