1st USA Air Raid vs Lae, New Guinea

New Guinea Campaign
Mission: Link air, naval and land action in a campaign and story context
----------

Game #3
November 6, 1942/2019

Allied 1st Wave Air Attack On Lae, New Guinea

After two Japanese air strikes on Port Moresby, New Guinea a week ago, it was payback time. The 22nd Bombardment Group was ordered to stage forward from Australia to Port Moresby's Seven-Mile Field and to then fly north to Lae to hit 'em hard. On mission day, I flew second in B Flight behind Captain Charlie Inverson. Carl Guilfoyle flew third. I'm Jackson Bolton from Milwaukee. My buddies call me Blatz after the beer brewed there.

Flying very low, Charlie led us to the coast. I swear I could have reached out and grabbed a coconut. Palm fronds actually flew off a couple of the trees we were so low.

After we banked left, the Japanese fighter base was just up ahead. The enemy had still not noticed us. Flying among the trees on the deck probably helped. We pushed full throttle praying we would remain unnoticed. Then, I found out why they had left us alone.

While we had been barnstorming among the trees, they had seen A Flight to our left. Zeros briskly pressed home to engage them.

Our guys were getting hit pretty hard too. One of our  B-26s fell out of the sky and the third plane was smoking in a bad way losing speed. Flight leader Walt Krel got away though, thank God.

Then two Zeros were suddenly on our left chattering away. My top turret gunner took pieces off of one of them but the other....

Got Charlie.

But Guilfoyle's air gunner and mine got him. Now I had to lead us to drop our eggs. The thing is, the brass did not have intelligence to order us to specific targets. Instead they left it up to us to decide what to bomb when we got there! How's that for yah?

Well it worked out great for Guilfoyle and I. A fat tanker was moored at dockside probably waiting to offload aviation fuel into nearby tanks. We got it good. She sank in a ball of fire. Cross off one Maru. Then we banked right flying near the storage tanks....

As Gabe Crossen's wounded A Flight ship came up dropping bombs on one of the tanks.

 Then it was back to the beach again racing for home; four of us. Man these ships are fast.

But Crossen didn't make it. A/A got him.

We suffered 50% losses and the Japanese lost all four Zeros that engaged us. At the end of our time over Lae, the foe was able to engage us only with anti-aircraft fire. That's when I dubbed the closest battery to us Rapid Robert. See you next time buddy. I need a Blatz.

CLOSING REMARKS

Japanese Score
3x Allied Bombers Downed: 12 pts.

Allied Score
Sunk Tanker: 8 pts.
1 Fuel Tank Destroyed: 8 pts.
2x Zeros Destroyed: 2 pts.
2x Zeros out of action for one day: 0 pts.
Total 18 pts.
---

Campaign Score From Three Air Battles:

Japanese:
27: Port Moresby #1
07: Port Moresby #2
12: Lae #1
46 points

Allies:
07: Port Moresby #1
16: Port Moresby #2
18: Lae #1
41 points

Next Things
Allied 2nd Wave Versus Lae which took place 11/07/1942/2019.

Thank you for looking in.

----------          ----------          ----------