Dutch East Indies, #3

All,

Dogfights in the Dutch East Indies, Sortie #3 (VMF-343 Dirt Divers)

It's 21 January 1942 and the Marines of VMF-343, operating out of Palembang on the island of Sumatra, are back in action.  Nearly a week ago their CO, Captain Chris Chandler, led them in an intercept of Japanese aircraft that saw them defeat an enemy aerial reconnaissance effort, but lose an aircraft and have two more damaged.  Since then the Marines have been maintaining a two-aircraft Combat Air Patrol over Palembang during daylight hours; at 1445 local time, when word came in that Japanese fighters were sighted inbound, Captain Chandler immediately ordered two more F4F Wildcats aloft.

Overview, north is up.  The Marines have two fighting pairs: the CAP in the northeast (top right) and southwest (bottom left).  The Japanese have looped around to the south on their fighter sweep.  This is nothing but a brawl, the Japanese sending fighters over the ABDA airfield in order to provoke a fight, hoping to gain air superiority, presumably in support of future offensive operations.

In the northeast, the CAP is made up of Dirty 02 and 03, piloted by 1st Lt Broussard and 2nd Lt Tuggle, respectively. Both pilots are rated as Regular.  They are at speed 5/alt 5, searching for the enemy.

In the southwest, Captain Chandler is once again up in Dirty 01, as is Lt Gardner, in Dirty 04.  Capt Chandler is okay after receiving shell splinters in his upper back during the first fight, and Lt Gardner showed up at the base with nothing more than hurt pride after being shot down in that same engagement.  Capt Chandler is a Veteran pilot, while Lt Gardner is a Regular.  They are also at speed 5/alt 5, having just rapidly climbed to get into the fight.

The Japanese, three IJA Zeros coming in fast and low (speed 5/alt 2, with the third fighter a bit higher), looking for a fight.  Zero 01 is an Ace, Zero 02 is a Veteran, and Zero 03 is a Regular.

The opening moves of the engagement see everyone moving straight and level, with both sets of Marine fighters spotting the Japanese, but the Japanese only spotting Dirty 02 and 03, leaving Captain Chandler's section in great position to bounce the enemy fighters.

Lt Tuggle coaxes Dirty 03 a bit right to get a lead on Zeroes 02 and 03, but Lt Broussard is a bit overeager: he charges Dirty 02 straight into the fight, taking a horrible deflection shot at very long range, unbeknownst to him, he's firing on the enemy ace...  The seasoned Japanese pilot smirks and watches nonchalantly as the American tracers fall away off his right rear quarter.  Not even close...

And then it's time: the Japanese ace rolls Zero 01 hard over and climbs, going nose to nose with Dirty 02, standing on the trigger.  Lt Broussard tries to go evasive, but loses sight of the enemy fighter climbing up below him and 20mm and 7.7mm rounds strike the bottom of the sturdy Wildcat.  The plane is okay, but one of the machine gun rounds punches through and strikes Lt Broussard in the thigh!

The enemy ace (Zero 01) wants to go after Dirty 03, but he knows he doesn't have the power to climb more and turn into him in time to bring is guns to bear, so he quickly performs a 'Split-S,' reversing course, diving, and picking up speed, right onto Dirty 02's tail.  Capt Chandler, in Dirty 01, sees the enemy fighter first climb and shoot up the underside of Lt Broussard's aircraft, then whip the Zero around and stay right on his tail; wow, that's quite some flying there, Capt Chandler thinks to himself.  But he forces himself to focus as he's already got one in the bag: he moves straight in on Zero 02, who is completely oblivious to Capt Chandler's presence until .50 cal bullets begin smashing his plane to bits.  The Zero suffers structural damage and is going down.

Lt Broussard, bleeding badly from his thigh in Dirty 02, pushes his aircraft into a steep dive, heading for the deck and picking up speed, trying desperately to escape Zero 01.  Lt Tuggle, in Dirty 03, sees Dirty 02 running and decides the best way he can help him is to turn into the Japanese ace and try to shoot him down, but Zero 01 is way too slippery.  Lt Tuggle gets so turned around he can't hardly tell up from down with all the Japanese pilot's juking, and he ends up bunging the turn, losing speed and altitude and barely avoiding a collision with Zero 02, the plane Captain Chandler just shot up.  Lt Gardner, in Dirty 04, comes hard left, right onto the tail of Zero 03, but the Japanese pilot saw what Capt Chandler did to Zero 02 and is aware of the threat to his rear.  Just as Lt Gardner mashes his trigger, the Japanese pilot of Zero 03 begins evasive maneuvers and shakes off the American fire.

Then he immediately performs a wingover, bleeding speed but reversing course and flipping the tables on Dirty 01 and 04, maybe even lining up a pursuit of the wounded Lt Broussard in Dirty 02!

The pilot of Zero 02 bails out as his Zero crashes to earth.

Lt Broussard, feeling faint from loss of blood, pushes Dirty 02 for home as fast as it can go.  Suddenly Zero 03 realizes he's in the middle of three Yankee fighters; he's not sure if he should go after Dirty 02 or flip around to engage the other three.  He decides to stay in the fight by pulling an Immelman, but his indecisiveness has already cost him: he sees Captain Chandler in Dirty 01 flip his plane around, passes within feet of Lt Gardner's Dirty 04, and suddenly has his section leader, Zero 01, filling his windscreen.  He panics and bungs the maneuver, losing speed and altitude.

And that indecisiveness immediately costs him: Lt Tuggle flips Dirty 03 into a tight left turn and drops down, .50 caliber rounds hammering Zero 03, damaging it, as Zero 01 cuts right and lines up a long range shot on Dirty 02.  Normally this would be inadvisable, but 1) he's an Ace, 2) it's zero deflection, 3) he's got 20mm cannons, and 4) he knows he's already hit Lt Broussard's aircraft once, so it's likely he'll have a hard time performing any type of evasive maneuvers.  Lt Broussard sees the winking of gunfire in his mirrors and tenses up as 20mm cannon rounds begin chewing up his aircraft's tail.  Dammit, he thinks to himself, I'm going down.  I hope this bastard stops shooting at me long enough for me to get out, and then I hope I don't bleed to death down there on the jungle floor...

Dirty 04 rolls left to see if he can help out with that damn Japanese ace!

Only to have that damn Japanese ace (Zero 01), smiling to himself in the knowledge that Lt Broussard's aircraft is irreparably damaged, climb and cut hard right straight into him!  Capt Chandler keeps Dirty 01 straight and level with his eyes out the right side, waiting to see what develops between the Japanese ace and Lt Gardner (Dirty 04).  Lt Tuggle finds himself in a pickle: Dirty 03 has just shot up and damaged Zero 03, but the Japanese aircraft has lost airspeed and altitude and Lt Tuggle is about to blow on by the wounded Japanese fighter.  It takes quite a bit of luck and more than a little skill, but Lt Tuggle manages somehow to climb a bit, bleed some speed, and avoid a collision with Zero 03 in order to stay on his tail.  Once there, Lt Tuggle takes a deep breath, then sends a hail of .50 cal rounds into the enemy fighter...

And Zero 03 burns into the jungle below.

While Lt Broussard, weak with loss of blood, manages to roll his plane over and bail out, parachuting to safety.

Lt Gardner finds himself nose to nose with the Japanese ace (the sole remaining Japanese fighter); he's about to pull a 'Split-S' to reverse course, drop down, and pick up speed on the enemy fighter's tail, but as he draws even with the Zero he sees the Japanese pilot staring at him, blowing a giant bubble with some chewing gum, and the sight so unnerves Lt Gardner that he bungs the maneuver, zooming straight past, losing speed and altitude and leaving himself incredibly vulnerable to the Japanese ace.  "Dammit! yells Captain Chandler to himself, "get your @#$% together, kid!," having seen how talented the enemy pilot is.  Bravely, Capt Chandler holds Dirty 01 straight and level, hoping maybe he can entice the enemy ace to come after him, rather than Dirty 04, and then maybe, just maybe, Dirty 03 and 04 can get the drop on him by converging on him from opposite directions.  What no one has realized is that Zero 01 is too low and slow, doesn't have the energy to engage anyone right now, so he performs a power climb to gain altitude and pick up speed.

And then quickly the tables turn on the Japanese Ace: Dirty 04 performs a wingover, placing him on the Zero's tail, and Captain Chandler performs an Immelman, climbing and turning into the Zero, while Dirty 03 turns gently right, patiently waiting to see what the Japanese pilot does next.  Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, the Japanese climbs, turns right, then ducks into a cloud bank and makes his exit, racking up another kill and living to fight another day.

So the Japanese fighter sweep did not work out as planned!  The Marines send them packing, killing two Zeroes to their one loss of a Wildcat.  Lt Broussard was picked up by local Dutch troops and brought back to Palembang, but he's in pretty bad shape and will be out of the cockpit rotation for a bit.

V/R,
Jack