Dutch East Indies, #5

All,

Dogfights in the Dutch East Indies, Sortie #5 (VMF-343 Dirt Divers)

It's 8 February 1942 and the Marines of VMF-343, operating out of Palembang on the island of Sumatra, and, after nearly two weeks of inaction, have another fight on their hands.  Nearly two weeks ago their CO, Captain Chris Chandler, led a flight airborne to duke it out with a Japanese section of Zeroes conducing a fighter sweep, and the Marines sent them packing with two losses, having lost one of their own and getting Lt Broussard pretty shot up.  About a week before that Captain 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.  At approximately 1530 local time the Marines received warning of an incoming bombing raid; Captain Chandler immediately scrambled two additional fighters to join the standard two-ship Combat Air Patrol.  They quickly linked up and headed out to intercept the Japanese bombers.

Overview, north is up.  The Marine flight is in the southwest (bottom left), while the Japanese have fighters in the east (right) and bombers in the northeast (top right).  The goal of the Japanese is to have their bombers exit the left table edge (from there, on to bomb Palembang), the goal of the Marines is to stop the bombers from getting through.  The Japanese fighters will try to stop the Marines from stopping the bombers ;)

The Marine flight:

Dirty 01: Capt Chandler, Veteran with one kill
Dirty 02: Lt Tuggle, Regular with one kill
Dirty 03: Lt Haynes, Regular with one kill
Dirty 04: Lt Gardner, Regular

The CAP (Dirty 01 and 02) are loitering at high altitude (spd3/alt6) while Dirty 03 and 04 have just gotten off the deck and are climbing (spd3/alt2).

The Japanese fighters: Zero 01 is an Ace, Zero 02 is a Veteran, and Zero 03 is a Regular.  They're chilling at speed 4/alt 2, waiting to see how things develop.

The Japanese bombers, three Ki-21 Sallys, are coming in low and slow, speed 3/ alt 1.

The opening moments of the engagement see the enemy bombers trolling ahead mindlessly while the US and Japanese fighters spot each other and begin climbing to engage.  "I thought they said there were bombers out here," Capt Chandler says to himself.  "Guess it's just another Jap fighter sweep," as he fastens his mask.

The fight starts with Lt Tuggle (Dirty 02) diving in on the Japanese ace (Zero 01) and opening fire at long range.  The seasoned Japanese pilot laughs to himself and easily jukes the Yankee's errant bullets.

The Japanese ace then returns the favor: Zero 01 turns into Dirty 02 and opens fire, though the enemy ace is quite shocked at Lt Tuggle's flying ability as he jukes the stubby Wildcat, dodging the Japanese fire.  Following the ace's lead, Zero 02 engages, turning into Lt Gardner's Dirty 04 and opening fire at moderate range.  Lt Gardner jinks, but a single 20mm cannon shell strikes the windscreen, shattering it and wounding the good Lieutenant!

Though wounded and spitting glass from the shattered cockpit out, Lt Gardner charges straight into Zero 02, guns blazing at point blank range, wounding the Japanese pilot in turn!  The Japanese Sallys continue towards their target, unbeknownst to the Marines...

With the furball developing further north, Captain Chandler pushes Dirty 01 straight and level, picking up speed, trying to outflank the enemy fighters, hoping he hasn't pushed too far and finds himself out of the fight, while Dirty 03 holds straight and climbs, following Dirty 04.  Captain Chandler looks over just in time to see Zero 03 charge in on Lt Tuggle's Dirty 02; the enemy fighter sends a stream of tracers at Lt Tuggle's Wildcat, but again he's able to gracefully juke out of the line of fire.

Captain Chandler cuts Dirty 01 hard left to get into the flight, hoping to get on Zero 03's tail, but the move was just a bit too hasty and the Japanese pilot was able to flip his Zero around and turn into him.  Meanwhile, the Japanese ace kicks Zero 01 hard right and takes a bad deflection snap shot at Dirty 03, and a round punches through and strikes Lt Haynes in the forearm!  This happened just as Lt Haynes was about to bank right and fire on Zero 01, but the round's impact caused him to bung the maneuver, his Wildcat losing speed and altitude as it continued straight ahead, his eyes on his profusely bleeding arm...  The wounded Japanese pilot in Zero 02 is thinking only of getting home and so he pitches his aircraft left, running straight into the stream of fire coming out of his section leader, Zero 01, and he's quite fortunate not to be hit.

Lt Tuggle is in Dirty 02 and is about to pull a wingover to get back in the dogfight when sunlight causes a glint off to his left: "Jap bombers, hordes of them, 10 o'clock low!!!"  Of course, it's really only three bombers, but Dirty 04 immediately calls 'tally ho!' on them while Lt Tuggle loses his concentration and bungs his wingover, instead heading off to nowheresville while losing speed and altitude...

The action really picks up as the wounded Zero 02 pulls straight and level and heads for him.  Lt Haynes, in Dirty 03, is unsure whether to engage a fighter or a bomber, and so he ends up being indecisive and holding straight and level, which allows the Japanese ace (Zero 01) to pull an Immelman and pull in behind him.  Captain Chandler (Dirty 01), just like Lt Haynes, is unsure of whether to go after the fighters or find the bombers Dirty 02 called out, so he ends up just heading straight and level, which actually worked out as Zero 03 was intent on coming left and getting onto Dirty 02's tail, but when a Yankee Wildcat (Dirty 01) suddenly appeared out of nowhere and flashed across his nose it threw off his concentration and he bunged the maneuver.  Dirty 02 finds himself travelling in the wrong direction, lots of speed but not much altitude, so he begins a climb, looking to bake a move to reverse, dive, and pick up speed here in the very near future (a 'Split-S').

Meanwhile, Lt Gardner, still picking pieces of canopy glass from his face, turned to chase the enemy bombers.  As he roared in the Sallys opened fire with their defensive waist and tail machine guns, and while none found the stubby Wildcat, they were enough to throw off Lt Garder's aim...

Dirty 04 keeps duking it out with the Japanese bombers as Capt Chandler (Dirty 01) closes in to help him.  Dirty 02 and Zero 03 finds themselves flying parallel in some sort of Mexican standoff, while the wounded pilot of Zero 02 continues heading for home.  The Japanese ace (Zero 01) is so taken aback when Lt Haynes (Dirty 03) busts and Immelman (getting into a turning dogfight with a Zero) that he bursts out laughing on the Japanese radio net, confusing the hell out of everyone.

Zero 02 continues making good on his escape, pulling even with Zero 03, who's eyeballing Dirty 02 (off camera to his top right).  But the big event is thus: the Japanese ace is apparently still laughing at the idea of a wounded Yankee pilot in a stubby, overweight little fighter, trying to get into a turning dogfight with him, because when Zero 01 tries to perform a wingover to pull onto Lt Haynes' tail, he bungs the maneuver, and not only does he bung the maneuver, he actually stalls his aircraft!!!  The Japanese ace now finds himself in an aircraft with zero power, falling from the sky, in the middle of a dogfight!

Lt Haynes, wounded, sees the enemy ace stall, and for a moment there is indecision: do I head for the deck, pick up speed, and get home safely, or do I wheel this bird around and engage the stalled Zero, knowing that it's going to be a tricky maneuver, trickier still because I'm wounded.  Lt Haynes makes the decision to head for home...  The Japanese ace absolutely cannot believe his good fortune!

While in the east, Zero 03 turns into Lt Tuggle's Dirty 02 and opens fire, but Lt Tuggle performs a magnificent wingover under fire, dodging the enemy fire and reversing into the Japanese fighter.

Lt Tuggle is turning into quite the little aerial acrobat: that's three times this fight he's dodged enemy fire that should have ate his lunch.

In the north, Captain Chandler (Dirty 01) and Lt Gardner (Dirty 04) press home their attacks against the Japanese bombers' defensive fire, damaging one Sally.

Dirty 01 and 04 keep up their grim work against the Japanese bombers while Dirty 03 and Zero 02 both head for him.  Dirty 02 and Zero 03 are locked in a knife fight, and the Japanese ace, Zero 01, is still out of control in a stall!

Lt Gardner pushes his Wildcat forward to point blank range, enduring Japanese machine gun fire that damages his fighter, but he mashes the trigger...

And sends a Sally careening into the jungle below!

Zero 02 gets close to escaping as his partner, Zero 03, turns hard into Dirty 02, but one more time Lt Tuggle manages to perform evasive maneuvers that allow his Wildcat to escape unscathed!  Zero 01 is still stalled and falling to earth!

Capt Chandler's blood is up: he ferociously dashes in, cutting right through Lt Gardner's incoming stream of tracers and the Japanese bombers' outgoing stream of tracers, and pumps .50 cal rounds into the far Sally, damaging it.

Lt Haynes (Dirty 03) makes it to safety, and just as Dirty 02 is realizing he's got a stalled out Zero dead ahead, the Japanese ace regains control of his aircraft.  In the north, Lt Gardner is a bit miffed that the Captain jumped in front of him, but Capt Chandler presses home his attack, emptying his guns into the far Sally...

The final Sally turns back (bottom center) as Captain Chandler's target crashes into the jungle, ending the fight.

Another technically successful mission for the Marines, in that they stopped the bombing raids.  And I guess I should be happy they finally had a mission where they didn't lose any aircraft, even though two more pilots were shot up.  But the real aggravation is that in two out of three dogfights the Marines failed to shoot down a single enemy fighter, and letting that Japanese ace that stalled out his Zero off the hook really burns my ass!!!

V/R,
Jack