by Brooke, pilot, Hiryu Sentai
Hiryu Sentai was assigned Ki-67's, initially out of A18. Our squadron consisted of Toadflak (GL), AceJoeI, BadHorse, Becinhu, Brooke (me), Col999, Cw1, Easycor, Evilm3, Heeler, Kermit, MartyB, MGD, Mussie, Rolex, Soupcan, and Taxi.
Four pilots were assigned to immediate scouting, two in Ar 234's up from a12 and two in Ki-67's up from a119. A while later the rest of us took off from a18 for scouting or being ready to attack any fleets found by the other scouts. We scouted out NW of Japan for a while (into the 9,17 area and various sectors around there). Once there, reports started to come in of US CV's SE in the 6,3 area. We scouted around for just a little more, didn't find anything, and headed back to Japan to land at about the 1-1.5 hour mark or so.
Six of us were given permission to take off from a31, with three of us carrying torpedos and three carrying bombs, as we weren't sure yet what would be best against the US fleets. At the very least, the torpedo bombers would draw enemy fighters lower, perhaps helping the higher level bombers. AceJoeI, Cw1, and I took torpedos; and Soupcan, MartyB, and Mussie took bombs. We climbed SW from a31. As MartyB and Mussie took off a bit after the rest of us, we levelled off at 20k and throttled back for MartyB and Mussie to catch up. Cw1 and AceJoeI disappeared and probably got dumped.
Carriers were reported in 6,3,7 and 5,4,3, with the 5,4 report being most recent. So, we headed south along the middle of column 5, heading for the 5,4,3 area. Near there, I started spotting some CV groups, then more and more. I called them out, eventually counting 8 CV groups before I stopped counting, and gave their heading as west. The airspace at 20k was clear of enemy fighters, so the level bomber guys would be OK. I chopped throttle to zero and did a max-speed descent over the fleet. The Ki-67 is fast and the airframe starts to complain around 300-325 mph indicated, which limits the ability to descend very steeply.
As I got down to about 15k, I saw a lot of enemy fighters down lower. This didn't look good, as I'd have to go through all of them down low to make a torpedo run. Ki-67 torpedos need to be dropped at less than 400 ft and slower than 175 mph. I dove down away from the fleet, then did a descending turn back into the fleet, and continued descending. On my way in, I was swarmed. I shot up one F6F quite thoroughly (no kill, though), got down to about 2000 ft, and close to the fleet before I got shot down. I didn't bail out and rode the bomber into the water.
During this process, Soupcan sank a CV, and perhaps some other folks did, too.
I took off from a8 in a Ki-67 with eight 100 kg bombs this time. I headed east, then SE, then S to the US fleet, working to get around some reported enemy fighters around 4,4. I did see one enemy fighter as I went south, still 2-3 sectors from the fleet, but he was much lower than I was, and there were a couple of IJN fighters in the area, so I was OK. I saw more bogies up near my altitude (I was at 20k) as I got into the area of the fleet. However, I was able to get over the fleet unmolested. I lined up on a CV, 1.5 CV lengths in front, and dropped my bombs. Unfortunately, I missed -- so I am not one of the glorious pilots of Hiryu Sentai who sank a CV. After that, as there were others still coming in for bomb runs, I decided I'd feign another attack run down low to drag enemy fighters down.
I did that and got swarmed again, but this time at 10-13k -- the enemy fighters were much higher than in mission 2. I knocked the engine out on one attacking F4U-4 and did drag some down to 10k or lower, but I got shot down before getting to the deck. I did ride the crippled Ki-67 down and bailed down at about 1.5k ft -- at least one US fighter chased me down as I went, oddly enough.
I took off to get to the fleet again, but didn't make it before end frame was called.
Hiryu Sentai seemed to do very well, with several pilots getting CV kills and MartyB getting two CV's, it seems. All I did was drag some fighters a bit lower, with zero ships hit, 1 death, and 1 bail.