Building an Il-2 Mission: Step 2 The Real Attack

For my next mission, I will simulate the Japanese attack on Clark Air Base on December 8^th 1941. I already gathered some information about the attack.

Initially the Japanese intended to coincide the attack with the attack on Pearl Harbor, but foul weather prevented a morning attack. Instead they had to attack the base at noon. When they arrived at Clark, 17 B-17's together with 18 P-40B's from the 21^st Pursuit Squadron were stationed at the base.

Another Squadron of P-40's from a nearby base were tasked with defending the Clark Air Base, but the aircraft failed to arrive in time. Instead some P-40's of the 21^st squadron took off while the remainder was refueled. Just as the fighters took off the first wave of Japanese bombers followed. The first wave of 27 bombers was followed by a second wave of bombers, which leveled several hangars and buildings on the airfield. To finish off the parked planes on the ground a third wave of fighters arrived to strafe the airfield for up to an hour.

P-40's tried to take off from Clark, some succeeded others were destroyed on the ground. P-35 aircraft from a nearby airfield took off and tried to come to the rescue of Clark Air Base and claimed 3 Japanese planes. It appeared that during the attack one B-17, arrived on the scene, got pounded by the Japs and limped back to another base. (source: The Army Air Forces in World War 88 – Volume 1 [pdf])

SPOILER WARNING: reading parts of this post, might reveal events that will appear in the final mission.

Now that I know the real mission, I can design a basic script for my mission. The player will lead the four P-40's from the 21^st Pursuit Squadron flying protection above Clark Air Base. Just as the player takes off the first waive of bombers arrives, closely followed by the second waive. These will provide a tempting target for the player to climb to their altitude and fight it out with them. However if the player remains at lower altitudes and is not focused too much on the bombers, he will spot the fighters strafing the airfield.

During the attack a lone B-17 will appear, circle around the base and return to another airfield. Simultaneously a group of other US fighters (simulating the P-35's that came to the rescue of the base) will also arrive on the scene and attack the fighters.

END OF SPOILER

With the basic premise set for the mission, it is time to search the web for appropriate skins, if there are any available. I'll keep you posted on my results. Meanwhile I wrote another AAR: Tunis. This will be a four part AAR, describing the events surrounding a German fighter patrol in the desert. You can read the AAR at SimHQ or at this blog.

For now Happy Reading and Flying