Changing of the Guard

Southwest Pacific 1943  

 

  In 1942 the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy fought four great carrier battles. With both carrier fleets spent and rebuilding the USN and IJN carriers would not face each other again until June of 1944. As 1943 progresses the air battles in the Southwest Pacific consisting of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are left to the land based air units of both sides to conduct. Land based squadrons of the Japanese Naval Air Force originally performed all of the Empires air operations over New Guinea. Once the Allies started moving up the Solomon Islands chain it became evident the Japanese Naval Air Forces were spread too thin. The Japanese high command sensing the disaster about to befall the Empire starts introducing Japanese Army Air Force Units to the theater in December 1942 with the arrival of the 11th Sentai and their Ki-43 Hayabusas soon to be followed by more Ki-43 units consisting of the 13th 24th and 33rd Sentais .On 3 January 1943, another Japanese Army-Japanese Navy Central Agreement was signed which designated the areas of responsibility of the Army and Navy's air units. The Army air forces were given the mission of supporting the ground forces on New Guinea and providing their air defence, and supporting the transport of supplies to New Guinea. The Navy air forces would be responsible for air operations in the Solomons, and for air operations in New Guinea other than those assigned to the Army. 
 
New aircraft for both sides are beginning to replace the war weary P-39s, P-40s, F4Fs, and A6M2s. In early 1943 the USAAF's P-38 and USMC's F4U-1 are starting to give the Japanese a mere glimpse of the ordeal by air they will be facing the remainder of the war. In an effort to stem the tide of the Allied advance through the Solomons and New Guinea the Imperial Japanese Navy has managed to replace many of their ageing A6M2 Model 21 Zekes with the A6M3 Model 22. The arrival of the IJAAF's 68th and 78th Sentais in the spring of 1943 brings real hope of countering the ever growing Allied aerial might with the new Ki-61.1942 is over and a changing of the guard has taken place. Legendary names like Sakai and Foss will soon be replaced by new warriors with names like Bong, Boyington, Sugita, and Takeuchi who will leave their own mark in the skies over the Southwest Pacific.

 

Setup

Side Split 50/50  

 

 USAAF	 USMC	  RAAF
 A-20G	 F4F	  P-40E
 B-25C	 F4U-1	 Spitfire MkVÂ
 P-38G	 SBD	 Boston III
 P-39D	 TBM	Â
 P-40E	Â	Â

Japanese Forces= Knights   

 IJAAF	IJN
 Ki-43	A6M3
 D3A ** Ki-51 Sub	B5N
 Ki-61	D3A
 Ki-67** Ki-49 Sub	G4M