Game report: Operation Torch off Oran, 8 November 1942.
6 Fleet Air Arm Sea Hurricane II's (1 flight in 3 sections of 2) escort 8 Albacores in 2 boxes of 4 each. Mission complete, they're returning to the fleet when 9 French D.520's (GC I/3 in 3 loose vics of 3) are spotted closing in to intercept.
The Hurris firewall their throttles and peel off to confront.
Yellow 3's pair of Hurris manage to gain a advantageous position on the lead French patrouille, Blue1, and attack. The Brits are spotted at the last moment and the 3 D.520's scatter in every direction. Each Brit takes after a separate opponent but are unable to get a shot. Both formations are ruined.
Seconds later it's Yellow 3's turn to evade as 3 more D.520's of Blue 3 go after them. French weapons fire but nothing is hit.
Meanwhile, Yellow 2 mixes in with Blue 1 and a serious dogfight breaks out. After much firing on both sides, Yellow 21 latches onto Blue 13's tail and shoots him down. Blue 12 returns the favor and riddles Yellow 21 badly, leaving his crate barely able to fly. The survivors are low or out of ammo and decide to call it a day.
Yellow 1 is now forced to choose between rescuing Yellow 3 flight from Blue 3's persistent attention or trying to break up Blue 2's approach to the bombers. Yellow Leader decides to help his mates and, wingman close behind, executes a spectacular bounce of the very distracted French. When the smoke clears Blue 33 is shot down, Blue 32 is limping away trailing smoke, and both Hurris are out of ammo. All this was bad news for the Albacores who suffered 1 shot down and 1 shot to ribbons, ditching shortly after. Rear gunner return fire was ineffective and all 3 D.520's broke off unscathed.
Yellow 21 was also forced to ditch short of his carrier.
Final Tally: 2 D.520's shot down and 1 crippled, and 1 Sea Hurricane and 2 Albacores lost. Much less bloody than the actual combat.
