-----------------------------------------------------------------------------This AAR is based on a mission flown as part of the “White Sun, Blue Sky”-campaign from Chris Blair
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Two P-40's are ready to fly over the Burma jungle. Reconnaissance flights have indicated that the Japanese have a seaplane base nearby. They are unaware of the location of our base (we occupy an abandoned RAF field). If we can destroy the seaplane base, the surrounding sky will be in our hands.
One by one we take off. Both me and my wingman carry a single bomb. Our mechanics have devised a way to rig the P-40 with bombs, so now we have something more heavy then bullets to throw at the enemy.
We reach the waterways and start to follow the river, leading us straight to the base.
There is the base. The Japanese are completely caught off guard, there is no AA fire and all the planes are moored alongside the docks. I quickly order my wingman to attack on his own while I prepare my own dive.
As I dive towards the target, my wingman drops his bomb. Unfortunately it lands to short, showering the bridge next to the base in water.
“Bomb away”, I pull the makeshift lever and my bomb tumbles towards the ground. I have to pull up quickly to avoid the blast of my own bomb.
My bomb misses the docked seaplanes and blows instead a nearby building up. Lets hope it contained some supplies or perhaps it was the pilots barracks.
This means we will have to use our machine guns to pepper the base and destroy the airplanes.
I turn the aircraft around and start making run after run on the base.
My bullets kick up water around the seaplanes. Perhaps that building I hit, did indeed accommodate the pilots, because no one is rushing towards the planes.
It's a real slaughterhouse. Again and again, my wingman and I dive onto the base, guns blazing, destroying aircraft after aircraft.
As I fire my last bullets, I buzz the target for a final time. Its time to form up and head back for home.
But we have company, a lone seaplane arrives overhead just as we are pulling out. I have no more ammunition so my only option is to make a run for it.
But the fighter gains on us. As we close in on our own base, I realize that if the Japanese pilot spots it, he will warn his superiors, who will certainly send a raiding party. The enemy fighter closes in on me, eager for an easy kill. I order my wingman, who still has some ammunition left, to attack the fighter while I will lure him away.
Initially the plan succeeds, the Japanese pilot comes first after me. But he spots my wingman, on his own tail and turns on him. Now my wingman is in trouble.
I have nothing to throw at the Japanese fighter and if I don't do anything he will kill my wingman. In a desperate move, I dive after the fighter. I hope that by sticking on his tail, I might unnerve him and make him break off the attack.
My plan succeeds, the Japanese pilot breaks of the attack on my wingman and start to fly up and down in a vain attempt to shake me off. But I stick to his tail, pinning him so that my wingman can close in for the kill.
After loosing the Zero, my wingman climbed to higher altitude, return back towards the fighter and dives with a screaming engine towards the Zero, still trying to outrun me. Both my wingman and Zero fly head to head. But the Zero pilot is still to busy, shaking me off.
A quick burst of machine gun fire is enough to send the Zero spiraling to the ground, trailing smoke and fire. The pilot manages to bail out.
Low on fuel and definitely too low on ammunition, we return to our own base. The Japanese pilot never saw our base, and even if had seen it, he is now stuck deep into the jungle, miles from any friendly support. I would not want to be in his shoes.
The End
