Again, I would like to thank everyone for there effort and supporting me! Your all a great group to play with.
So, I was late to the frame, like I thought I would be. I had Cool lined up to take over for me but he had a last min. RL issue pop up. As such Dewolf took command and really helped me out! Thanks Wolf!
The IJ decided to send everything they had straight at the CV's in hopes of getting us spread out. Several folks had warned me that this might happen when I didn't plan to have any CV CAP. But also like I thought, I didn't want one squad to be alone like what happened with the 352nd. When the IJ forces were seen on DAR, the 352nd changed plans and stayed at the CV to meet the incoming horde.
They fought valiantly against the IJ horde but I think took heavy losses. With the 4th and 23rd coming from so far away they did everything they could to protect the CV's and we only lost 1 in that initial wave. It could have been far worse. When the 4th and 23rd finally got on site, the IJ slaughter began. GREAT JOB! We actually killed too many IJ and so they had a tremendous force for there Kamikaze run at the end of the frame.
This is where I wish Cool or I were there. The thoughts were that if we saw a mass of cons in-bound we were going to hold the strike package in the tower. unfortunately, most got up just in time to be swarmed by the IJ forces. The 352nd had no chance to help as they were overwhelmed at the CV's. A lot of TBF's went down. A lot of the DR made it east and were able to recover and go towards the end of the frame. The Nomads got beat up but Gums and NoFly still managed to get to head north looking for targets.
After we chased the initial IJ attack off the boats, I ordered the 23rd to go to the Nomads and provide cover. The Nomads made a valiant attack on shipping but none of there torpedoes fond the mark. They did manage to make it back to the CV.
After the DR got back to the CV, I had them up and head to the 4,6 cross to find those ships again. The 4th volunteered to provide close cover and started escorting them up north. At that time I also asked the 352nd to head north to prevent the IJ from coming back to the ships. About half the way to the 4,6 cross, the 4th became engaged and had to brake off the escort, but the DR pushed on with the 23rd waiting for them. By now, all the fighters were about 20~30 miles from the CV when the crazy Kamikaze flight showed up on DAR. I immediately asked the 352nd to haul ass back to the CV's but I was about 3min. too late. They ended up merging right over the CV's. When the "turkey shoot" started, there were so many IJ around that Hawk managed to sneak in and sink another of our CV's.
It was getting dicey so even though I wasn't going to fly I jumped into a F4u-4 and upp'd to help the 352nd. I am sure they wished I stayed back in the tower but WOW that was fun.
I didn't realize, we killed almost all of the IJ in that early fight so the 23rd cutting off the north had no one to look for and the 4th hit the west edge of the run but that was it. I had no idea that at T+130 there wouldn't be another IJ in the sky for the night.
The DR finally found some ships and lit up the buffer with kills. Great Job! I hope they made up for the loss of the TBF's and the CV. With the number of kills at the end of the frame, we had to make up for that last CV.
all-in-all a very stressful night for me
Sorry for the early losses and thanks for the sacrifice everyone made!