S3 Series

Night Stalkers were tasked with scouting duties in combination with the nomads.

Leaving from midway Island I launched my TBF Avenger along with 3 wingmen and headed to scout the northern area of possible Japanese approach. Flying the Avenger with a full bomb load and a full load of fuel is like driving a big truck around. Once I got some speed and altitude things leveled out and I was able to climb to 11 thousand feet with the wingmen slowly in tow.

Gums, PD & Gundoc all took SBDs and searched the remaining areas of approach (southern and mid)

After a long period of time and a misshap with a wingman I had fully scouted the north and felt free to search the south east target area. I eventually stumbled across the enemy fleet finding 4 carriers, circled them and gave contact reports. I attacked (level bombing) from the rear and got one hit on a CV. When changing to my wingmen all 3 crashed into the sea leaving me with my original plane somewhat damaged. a lone zero had locked on to my tail but I think he was out of cannon. I was fortunate enough to be able to knock him down with the .50 cal.

Long flight back to base, rearmed with torpedos this time. Went up again and headed north intending to dogleg west in case the carriers had turned east. Eventually the DR found the carriers and reported their location. I saw a lot of AA and burning planes in the distance. Dove into the ship formations and got my wing shot of just as I was dropping the torp. I believe that was a hit. Switched planes and was able to do the same with each wingman. the first three planes got torn up by AA but all told I think I got 2 hits in that attack. My last plane was able to survive and made it back safely.

<S> to the fighters who took on the Japanese horde and seemed to knock them from the sky at every turn, also to DR who made my second attack possible.

Totals:
2 CVs credited, I'm sure the DR aided in their destruction.



WINGMEN NOTES (impressions)
-flew in Bomber log in mode
-Wingies seemed to get off the ground slowly but did make it into the air and took a long time to catch up.
- First flight had me sending wingmen all over a couple grid areas and switch to them.
- TBF falls out of the sky when pilot switching... early they were at 11k with me and got lower and lower thru the night.
when I finally needed to use them to attack they were at wavetop height ... nose pitched up as soon as I jumped in along with the
throttle cutting out... it took a long time to power back up. They just stalled and fell from the sky.
- Second flight I chose ladder formation so they would be above me... then I sent them to different locations. This seemed to work
better or because I wasn't switching back and forth it worked well.
I was able to use them as expected.

note: the TBF flight model has a lot of torque and was difficult to get into the air.. the problem with switching wingmen etc was probably due to their low speed and low altitude where they were just pigs with wings.