Action Report The Slot

[_AH_Rumely]

This is a test thread for the slot campaign

Here you will be able to submit a report of your last mission

[Foxbat]

S! Report for Slot mission 1.
B and D flight's were assigned cap operations over shipping which was attacking an airfield.
We formed up and flew to the cap area. I assigned B flight to maintain cap at 3K meters and D flight to hold cap at 4K in same position. We observed the ships shelling the enemy airfield and followed them as they made their way along the strait. About 35 mins in, Two B5N's were spotted approaching the ships at low altitude. Pilots from the lower B flight engaged the B5's and they were splashed without hitting any of the ships. A few minutes later a few more B5's were spotted approaching the ships again at low altitude. At the same time enemy Zero fighters also arrived and came in at low and medium altitudes.
At this time both B and D flights were fully engaged. At least six enemy A/C were destroyed in the engagement. B and D flight suffered losses as well. We had one CTD, Viper, and Rgaa got the dreaded transferring mission screen. All in all pretty good job by B and D flights. Surviving members of the flights remained on station until they were relieved by incoming P-38 flight.
As flight leader of B and D flights I could have done a little better. When the furball began with the fighter types, I should have had a better plan for positioning of the flights to engage more orderly.
As a result a couple guys were put in a bad spot and myself collided with a friendly A/C and went in.
What I learned is to next time be more detailed in exact assignments and to hold some of the flight back if we have an edge in numbers. That should help to keep track of who is where and better protection from second wave attacks.
Had a great time and I hope others will post their experiances here too.

Foxbat

[_AH_Ring]

S! all...AAR on the Slot mission1.
Flights A and C  (and yes..managment was with us too)were split into two groups. the first group was scheduled to fly Cap (A6M,s) The second group was 3 manned Bn5,s and 2 escort. I flew in the bomber wing. Flight time to Target was approx 30 min. Now if any of you have flown a "kate" you know not only do they not have trim, but they have alot of engine torque. I feel we did and excelent job making our way to the target. It was a fight just to keep the aircraft flying straight. About 5 min out of target we lost 2 bombers. My take on this is Moggy, s wingman (AI) Hit an invisable tree. I believe that the AI,s explosion took moggy out. Afterwards I noticed that some of the trees extended into the water on the coast...so be carefull in future missions. When Target was sighted, we noticed that there was a furball right over the ships. Our escorts went to engage. The two remaining bombers (Bong and Myself)
went to engage targets. Our first pass was aborted because we went for the larger ships that couldn,t be destroyed with one torp...on the second pass Bong got his fish away but was PK by naval AAA.  His torp blewup on the coast.
On my second pass I noticed the my arm had gone numb and I couldn,t get a good lineup on the target. I had to go around for the third time. I had to use 2 hands on the stick to get a line up on the target, fighting the aircraft all the way....as AAA was bursting all around me ...and  watching flaming aircraft dance with each other from the corner of my eye I lined up for my third and final run......fighting to keep the nose down, trying get the proper angle on a moving target, I dropped my fish too close to the target and got caught in the back blast of the explosion that took the enemy ship to the bottom of the straight. My wing came off and as I went into that death spirial that I knew would take me to that watery grave. The words came over the radio that made this whole experiance worthwhile.....ENEMY SHIP DESTROYED......

Postscript...Kudos to Dave, and Rebel, a fine bit of flying from both gentlemen, Also Jack and BBQ were there at the end. Great job guys....Ring

[_AH_Toccs]

Wow, Ring, that read like a good WWII history article. 

and DealinDave should be renamed DeadlyDave.  :lol-029:

[_AH_Moggy]

Both good AAR's!

Ring:  I looked at the track, and my idiot wingman decided to deliberately crash into me.  No trees.  He closed from directly behind me, dipped low below me, then pulled up & sawed my fuselage in half.  Never seen that one before!

[_AH_Ring]

S! All AAR Report Mission2:

The Mission...Bomb run to vella base: Bombers...Myself and Short....escort Bong,Jack and Olds:

Airspawn....The drone of the 4 powerfull engines loud in my ears I quickly do a systems check, Bomb doors, flaps mixture, prop pitch. I quickly setup my pitch , throttle and level stabs  to  settle in for a long flight to target...Coms chatter is light as the escorts go for a high postition over the top of the bombers.Short and I setup our game plan on the fly. I plug in the alt and ground speed into the bomb sight table and come up with the proper angle to drop.....since I'm going to be the lead bomber...Short will drop delayed on my mark. it seemed like a good plan at the time....I went in and setup my bombsight and discovered that controls were setup in feet and mph...a quick adjustment to the speed bar and all was set...Flying to target was pretty routine...slight adjustments to the rudder trim to keep on waypoint..Short calls and says he is concerned about forming up with me because we have a couple of AI with us...one winging with me and one winging with him. We try to get the AI to back off abit...This does
not seem to work...I do a quick flashback to last week with Moggy....and I get alittle nervous. It is what it is so I take a deep breath and deal with it . As we hit the last waypoint before target i get into my bombsight and recheck all my settings. Flying in my bombsight I hear the call.....Tracers ahead, escorts are off to investigate. I give Short a quick shoutout that I intend on  only dropping half of my bomb load on the first pass. As I fly over the Target I see only one strip...I am confused, As I remember several taxi ways from the brief...I overfly the strip looking for the bigger field.... About 15 sec later Short lets me know I over flew our target....no time setting up a long run back to the target I take level stabs off and turn hard back into the target...I get on a return heading...keeping my eye peeled for enemy...the escorts are fully engaged at this time..over the target...it looks like a swarm of angry bees.
Comms are going off fast now as the escorts are fighting for their virtual lives. As I jump back into my bombsight I have about five seconds . to sight and drop....I let my bombs go.I notice My alt isn,t right....I watch helplessly as they hit just long....At this time Short calls that he is going in for a low Alt run...I figure at this time I have nothing to lose....we need to hit the Target...I start to go into a diving spiral....enemy and allied jocking for position, I know I,ll only have one shot at this. The aircraft wasn't made to be as aggressive as I was flying her ....I hoped she'd stay together..She was responding like I was flying through molassas...I finally got her down to  about 1000m and started my  Run....I sighted the fuel depot and went in full throttle...made my drop and hit my target....Ok I thought now ll I have to do is get my bomber flight out of here....As SHort ,myself and our AI formed up leaving the target area...It looks like the enemy took an interest in us...as Short calls out incomming.I hit the level stabs and jump into the top gunner position.... going from there to the rear gunner I get some good hits on the attacking zero.....Splash one..(Duff4r I believe) Shorts call out that another one is comming in....I cut my power to form up closer to short for better protection. I believe Short was at my high4 oclock as the fighter came in on us...I jumped into the top gunner as the zero pulled in behind short....I saw his guns blazing then I saw the zero and Short go up in a hugh fireball.
I felt bad....since I was the lead I felt it was my responsability to get everyone home....after that it was basicly a long flight home....going over in my mind everything that happened and didn't happen........It sure was a long flight to  make.


Postscript: Ok guys....even though I hit the Target ,got an airkill.and made it back..I consider my part to be a failure.
What it comes down to is LACK OF PREPERATION. I really did,not read the brief untill about an hour before launch.
I did no prefight check of the targets.As you can see I mixed up My Bases and thought MUNDA was Vella and vise-versa. I feel the if I was more prepared I would have made that first drop with SHort and we would not have had to low level bomb the target.....there by exposing the flight to unnessary risk. SO even though we donot know what our slot is going to be. GO OVER THE BRIEF, PREPARE ,you never know when you will be in the position that other pilots will be depending on you to make decisions that may mean success or failure

See you boys in the skies
Ring

[_AH_Moggy]

From:  Adjutant, AH Slot Campaign
To:     Commanding General, AirSols
Subj:  Adjutant's Report, mission # 1

Mission Summary

1.  Combat Losses:  Our aircraft losses due to combat amounted to 15%.  The enemy's was 45%. 

2.  Kill Ratio:  The air-to-air kill ratio was in our favor, at 2.5:1.

3.  Enemy ships sunk (confirmed):  Two enemy destroyers, two enemy merchant vessels, plus one enemy landing craft.

4.  Award Recommendations:*
AH_Boosher ("C" Flight):  Air Medal
Citation:  "On 1 April 1943, flying an A6M3, D Flight's "Vals" found themselves over the target area alone, and were bounced by four enemy P-38's.  "C" Flight quickly arrived on-scene, and AH_Boosher single-handedly destroyed three of the four Lightnings, thereby allowing "D" Flight to escape intact.  AH_Boosher's actions enabled "D" Flight to RTB back to Munda entirely intact.  In addition, Boosher added one enemy F4U to his kill tally for the day, for a total of four confirmed kills.  AH_Boosher's actions reflect great credit upon himself, Aces High and the Imperial Japanese Navy."

*NOTE:  Award recommendations are preliminary and, as always, will eventually be subject to command staff's approval.  Actual awards will be distributed following the campaign's conclusion.

[Foxbat]

S! Fun mission!
I wanted to say great job to B flight and C flight. Awesome job flying in and making the ralley point spot on. From there an excellant job keeping the fighters off our bombers working the ships and airfields.
The 2 flights covered each other all the way back home. I believe it was Gator who came in and took down a couple bad guys who were after some of the C flight guys. Heard lots of that all around.
Really good job by all.

[_AH_Zipzag]

 Due to technical difficalties , I had to abort on the runway, wasnt able to complete my mission , my crew cheif tell's me ill be flaps up for the next action ~S~
 

[Foxbat]

S! No worries Zip. You'll get em next time. Wow! D flight really hit the mother load. Musta armed with tactical nukes.

[Foxbat]

S!
B flight action report for the slot campaign mission 2. B flight was assigned to fly cap with flights of P-38's and P-39's.
When we arrived at the patrol area, the flights of planes split up and flew high level and mid level cap over the area.
At approximately 28 minutes in, received a report that enemy planes had been spotted near Savo island and were headed toward Henderson field.  P-38 flight was nearby so headed in that direction for intercept. After a few minutes P-38's spotted a small formation of Zero fighters escorting a small flight of single engine bombers. The enemy planes were engaged and all were splashed.
The action continued at a point near Savo and Guadalcanal island as within minutes more enemy AC were encountered.
P-39's of B flight also engaged over and around Henderson and they were able to splash several more enemy planes.
A report came in that enemy multi engine bombers were seen near Savo. B flight P-38's headed out to intercept.
An Emily four engined bomber was spotted just North of Savo and it was attacked jointly by elements of C and B flights.
The Emily was splashed with the loss of P-38 flight leader. The loss was the only combat loss for B flight in this mission.
All other Pilots from B flight returned to home airfield. B flight accounted for a total of 15 enemy kills with a 16th, the Emily, as a probable kill. Hats off to B flight for the outstanding job and the turnout. Well done guys!

[DealnDave]

Slot Campaign Mission After Action Report
Date: January 6th, 2009
Report on "C" Flight

Flight Leader: Deal'n Dave
Flt Officer: Ring
Flt Officer: Boosher
Flt Officer: Crash
Flt Officer: Bong (Mission Commander)
Rookie: Bision

Report:  "C" Flight took off from Henderson, orbited the field until all aircraft were able to join the flight.  Once the flight was assembled, the flight then vectored to our briefed patrol area.  We arrived to our patrol on time.  The Tulagi harbor was clear of any enemy aircraft at this time. 

I then vectored "C" Flight to orbit the harbor area.  Seeing that no enemy aircraft could approach without detection, I extended our patrol area to include the south-east portion of Salvo Island. At this time we noted that a flight of F4F's detected inbound enemy aircraft over the northern most portion of the Florida Islands.  I vectored "C" Flight to take up an intercept course to assist the F4F's. 

Once we arrived to the combat area, the F4F's were engaged with numerous Zero's.  I noted numerous Val's flying unmolested toward Tulagi harbor.  I ordered "C" Flight to attack.  At this time is when their was a serious issue with computer lag taking place.  Flt Officer Boosher, had attacked a Val and damaged it.  He then attacked another and the lag caused him to collide the bandit. 

During this period I attacked 3ea Val's and destroyed them.  "C" Flight continued to press the attack on the Val's until all were destroyed.  Once the Val's were destroyed I ordered "C" Flight to join up and re-assume our patrol area.  At this time both Flt. Officer Ring and Flt. Officer Crash had computer issues causing a disconnect from the mission.  This left myself, Bong and Bision in flight for "C" Flight. 

Once we arrived back to our patrol area, we were hearing numerous calls for support over our home base at Henderson on Guadalcanal.  The mission commander (Bong) ordered "C" Flight to head for home plate to support our units under attack.  I vectored "C" Flight to Henderson.  We pushed the throttles forward and flew as fast as we could go.  Once on station, numerous aircraft were engaged with enemy Zeros.  I saw a float Zero and proceeded to press an attack.  I came in from his six and fired setting him on fire.  I then saw another standard Zero and was able maneuver onto it's six.  I fire and it blew up.  Lastly, I saw another float Zero, I maneuvered in for a shot.  I fired and cut the Zeke in two.  The plane splashed down in the harbor and did not show a "Enemy Aircraft Destroyed" message.

Once Henderson was cleared on the immediate threat of enemy aircraft, radar picked up more enemy planes coming down the slot heading for Henderson.  I vectored "C" flight to the north-east coast of Guadalcanal, taking up position between Salvo Island and Guadalcanal. 

Once on station, a enemy HK float plane was spotted.  I ordered "C" flight to attack using a boom / zoom tactic as the enemy plane is know to have numerous guns aboard.  I made the first pass getting some hits.  Then the Rookie, Bision, made an attack.  He severely damaged the enemy's #2 engine and left wing.  Also assisting in the attack was Foxbat's "B" Flight using P-38's.  "B" Flight made their passes damaging the enemy plane further.  Then Foxbat made his attack, hitting the enemy's cockpit killing the flight crew.  The enemy plane crashed and was destroyed.  However, we lost Foxbat during his engagement as he took a mortal wound to the head and was killed.

Once this threat was cleared, the mission commander (Bong) ordered all aircraft to home base.  I vectored "C" flight back to Henderson.  Bong landed his aircraft slightly damaging his prop, however the aircraft over-all was airworthy.  The rookie, Bision, got lost on the way back to Henderson, at this time I want to thank Jack for his assistance in vectoring Bision back to home plate.  I flew to Bision location and made sure he was able to get home.  Bision landed without incident and taxied to parking.  I then landed and taxied to parking.

Over all, "C" Flight had a total of 10 enemy aircraft destroyed, Crash had two kills before being disconnected.  We had a single combat loss (Boosher) which in my opinion was due to the excessive lag issue noted during the mission.  Wanted to sat that "C" Flight did a great job on this mission, well done all.  I also wanted to note that Bong did an awesome job as the mission commander on this one.  Great job Sir !!!!

[_AH_Bong]

As I pulled the "OD" armband on and sat down in the Co's chair to go over the daily reports, I had no idea how busy the Squadron was going to be today. The daily reports had the usual mumbojumbo in them the only thing of note was that "A" and "D" flight were due to get new F6F's sometime this week. I rummaged in the Col's goody drawer and found a good cheroot to puff on as I read.  Then the phone rang it was one of our coast watchers calling in a Large flight of Japs headed our way. When he told me the number of planes I had the company clerk double time to the Co's hootch to roust him and The adjundant outta bed. I ran to the door and hollerd to the guys who were outside playing a little baseball "Scramble all flights in the air in 5 minutes! I'll breif you on the way" We needed every pilot we had for this one so "B flight ran and grabbed a couple of 38's an 39's from the Aircorps guys. Not even the Army argues with a Marine on a mission. The Co and Our adjundant ran to a pair of P40s at the field for maintanance as their planes were still being serviced from the last mission.  We all turned over and taxied out. I got on the radio and told the Guys "We have 30 plus flying SE down the slot at 10'000 well setup patrol over Lunga and Savo island. Col you and Jack  fly Cap over the field." I heard the crackle of replys over my headphone followed by CPT Vipers mumble "This damn thing has 2 of everything"..... Then the radio got quiet as Everyone settled in for the flight ot our assigned patrol areas. About 28 minutes in to the flight  calls of contact started to pop in my ears. The next hour or so was a blur of  whirling airplanes and shouted warnings.  As soon as I had a free second I called for the flights to check in.  We had slaughtered the incoming raid. They didn't get a chance to even get near our ships in Lunga harbor. We returned to base and landed. At the debrief I learned that the Col had taken a direct hit in the engine and crashed on final totaling the plane but he was walking in and the mechanics on the flight line said he was steaming mad cussing the Japs and anyone unlucky enough to be within earshot. We had also Lost Capt Viper to a zero but he was picked up by a Destroyer and was on the way back in. Overall an outstanding mission. The "ACES" had racked up a 10-1 kill ratio and lost only 3 planes to enemy action. The same can't be said about our ground skills as we lost 3 more planes due to poor ground handling.

  LT Bong

Great mission lastnight guys I had a ball. OUTSTANDING turnout as well ~S~

[_AH_Col._Hogan]

Nice report Bong.

After I parked wings folded and engine off I esploaded, did anyone happen to see how that happened?, any video clips?

Just curious.

Well done all.........S! 

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~.

nice reading, guys.. thanks..

    i've got a track.. it's kinda small for a track, though.. haven't had a chance to give it a look yet.. if it did work.. still might not show anything more than what you saw.. tracks are usually more full of  oddities than the actual mission..  no i'm not talking about the guys that flew it.. the graphics.. bullets look like they're missing.. surging.. sliding.. all the tricks.  i'll look specifically for your hesplosion, hogan,  when i have some time..

i know if i ever make it back to base in this campaign..and don't break my gear or prang my prop.. i'll be lookin for a rebuttment to park mine in.  :happy-016:

nice job keeping our assets, guys.     

* UPDATE... i watched the track.. it was kinda surgerific..but it did work..   was a domino crash... a plane that was parking  surged forward..watching the track, i couldn't really tell if it was a lag surge  or the brake letting go.. but doc was parked next to you, got bumped and his debris hit you, hogan..  i say we call it doc's fault.. if he hadn't parked there, the other plane would have had room.  (tongue)   

not sure how that kind of thing will affect scoring.. i know in the past, if you have been down and parked.. you're thought of as out of your plane and in the O club..  not sure with this campaign how that's gonna work.. guess we oughta ask Moggy.. Last night he said what ya do parking and taxiing counts.. but i'm not sure how being KIA'd  as a crashee after you're parked is  gonna be counted.