All,
1130 local time
13 May 1942
New Guinea
Greetings all, having just wrapped up the Coral Sea battles, I figured it's time to head back to my U.S. Army Air Corps fighter squadron, the 565th Tactical Fighter Squadron, better known as the "Chickenhawks." The last we saw of the Chickenhawks was back in February of 1942; they'd started out fighting the Japanese over the Dutch East Indies before falling back to Australia and becoming embroiled in the fighting over Darwin. After things quieted down there, they ended up moving over to Brisbane, where they had a quiet period of daily patrolling to bring in replacements and get them trained up. But they got word at the end of April that they'd be moving soon, and immediately after the Battle of Coral Sea they packed up and shipped out, heading up to Port Moresby on New Guinea, making Kila Kila Airfield, AKA "3 Mile Drome," their new home on 11 May 1942. They only had a couple days before they were called to action, air raid sirens warning of incoming Japanese aircraft called the Army pilots to their planes, with six of them getting aloft to intercept the enemy.
The Americans are facing Japanese fighters of the Tainan Kokutai based at Lae, New Guinea. I created a table and rolled up the Japanese pilot skills; they have eighteen fighter pilots, ranked as follows:
2 Natural Born Killers
2 Aces
8 Veterans
5 Regulars
1 Rookies
The Americans have:
2 Aces
2 Veterans
7 Regulars
7 Rookies
I plan to play out my (semi-)normal series of seven fights. I've created a table that I roll on to determine if its a fighter sweep, Americans defend, or Japanese defend.
The Americans bravely take their P-40 Warhawks into combat, and the Japanese are their usual, bold selves…
With their usual, bold, results.
But the Yanks are doing what they can to make it interesting.
To see how the Chickenhawks fared, please check the blog at:
link
More to come!
V/R,
Jack
