""Yatamoto’s Last Flight" Hunters in the Sky Scenario" Topic

Yatamoto's Last Flight Scenario
Hunters in the Sky
Battle Report Nov 17th, 2006 at WOW

Eight P-38 Lightning's were sent to shoot down Admiral Yatamoto's plane. The Admiral was flying in one of two Betty bombers with a escort of 8 Zeros.
The P-38's started their attack in groups of 4 from the north and the south. The P-38's attacking from the south was engaged by Zeros. The P-38's attacking from the north engaged the Betty's. The first pass was less than satisfactory. The P-38's scored fuselage and maneuver hits, but not enough to bring down the first Betty. The Betty couldn't maneuver and it couldn't out run the P-38's. On the other hand the P-38's were coming in full speed and had a hard time maneuvering to get in on the Betty's tail. The P-38's attacking from the south manages to put the fatal hit in the injured Betty.
In the pursuing dogfight 3 Zero's were shot down, one Zero had one fuselage & maneuver hit and one weapons hit. Four P-38's were shot down. Two flew off the table because they had lost their maneuverability. The last two P-38's gave chase to the one remaining Betty as the Zeros were lining up on the 2 P-38's tails. The last Betty diving in hopes to get away finally losing its ability to maneuver. The two P-38's lost their ability to maneuver in the same turn and one had lost its ability to fire, but they were in line with the Betty. The one last P-38 that can fire gets in close and blazes its guns. Scoring hits on the fuselage of the Betty. The Betty with the Admiral goes down in flames. The two remaining P-38's with fuselage & maneuver hits just flew off the table, out running the Zeros. It was a very close game and everyone had fun.

Pictures at: westernoregonwargamers.com

Wargamer1999

Fictional scenario? (My recollection is that historically, the Bettys had no escorts…)

Actually no, it is historical, since there were escorts.

Apparently though, many had a hard time intervening before the two Betties were shot down.

Also, apparently only four P-38's actually engaged the Betty group, with others apparently preoccupied with the other escorting fighters, and/or providing cover for the shooter flight.

Various accounts list the escorts as between 6 – 12 escorting Zeroes (2, 3, or 4 Shotai vics). Apparently 6 were fairly close by, and at about the same level as the Betties, and there was a high cover Shotai or two as well.

Placement of the escort varies as well, depending upon which account you read. One vic being forward and to one side, with one to the rear and the other (can't remember which). Others place them either both in front of and to either side of the bombers, and/or both to the rear. Sorry, I can't recall which, but think they may have been to the rear to cover their tails, since that was the most dangerous avenue to be attacked from.

When we ran this game at Fall-In 04, the theme was lost causes, our research showed 13 Lightnings and 6 Zeros. Many of the Lightnings were not actually involved in the fight though, so we ran the game with 6 Zeros and 8 Lightnings, it was pretty playable that way, and Yamamoto was put to the bottom of the sea.

link

Burke Davis' book shows 6 zeros, two Bettys, and originally 18 P-38s! Two P-38s turned back shortly after take off due to malfunctions. The remaining 16 were there for the attack. Four were supposed to actually attack the bombers, 6 were to take care of the Zeros, the remaining 6 were to stand by in case needed. Of the 4 going after the bombers, one developed mechanical problems, and flew off with his wing man. That left two, Rex Barber and Tom Lanphier, to tackle the bombers. Each took on one plane, and shot both down. There's been a good deal of argument about who shot down Yamamoto's plane. From what I've seen, coupled with the Japanese reports and the pilots reports, it looks to me like Tom Lanphier shot him down. The plane Barber appears to have shot down had another Admiral in it, who survived.

I ran this game at Historicon this year. During my research I found that actually only 4 P-38's were in combat with the Betty's and its 6 escorts. But there is some confusion as to whether some Zero's from a near by airfield joined the escort. Historically both Betty's and 2 Zeros were lost while 1 P-38 failed to return home.

Phil

For a more balanced game, depending upon the rules you are using, and the players' experience levels, I would recommend 4 x P-38's vs. 6 x Zeroes.

The American and Japanese pilots should be rated as very experienced. I believe that at least one of the Japanese pilots was an ace, and there may have been several in their formations from accounts I have read.

Since the admiral that was shot down by P-38s was Isoroku Yamamoto, one must conclude that Bill is right and it is indeed a fictional scenario.

Unless of course the Japanese were in the habit of having their admirals shot down by P-38s and that was one I missed…

Sorry, sometimes I can't help myself from being picky. Sounds like a fun game, though.

There were 16 Lightnings in the attack. Eight went after the bombers. There were two Betty's. The pilots claimed they shot down three. Ain't that interesting? I hear IY was dead before the plane crashed too, but I dunno how they figured that unless there was an autopsy published. They must of shot the hell out of the fusilage. Too bad for IY that he was a stickler for punctuality. There has got to be a study somewhere that shows slackers live a bit longer than the rest of us.

I have read that four of the P-38's were designated as the shooters, and that two of the four turned broke off, when one of the wingman's droptanks failed to release.

These supposedly got back into the fight later, and mixed it up with the escorting Zeroes, as I assume some of the other Lightnings did.

I ran this scenario at Hurricon last September. Great fun, but alas the Americans failed to shoot down either Betty. When the Americans were first spotted, the Bettys began to climb, which the Yanks didn't notice as they were occupied with the zeros. By the time the P38s got close enough to shoot, the game was over, out of fuel.