This is the “prequel” to my IJN Guadalcanal and Solomons campaigns which I published earlier. It begins shortly after the Japanese occupation of Rabaul with the arrival of the Mitsubishi A5M equipped Chitose Kokutai at Lakunai airfield.
After a few missions in this plane you start flying the A6M-2 Zero, and relocate to Lae in Papua New Guinea, after this airfield has been seized by the Japanese army. Shortly thereafter you become part of the Tainan Kokutai, as this unit is transferred to New Guinea. Your missions are mostly bomber escorts and fighter sweeps to Port Moresby, but as the American forces there build up, you find yourself defending your own airbase against bomber and fighter raids.
This continues until the beginning of August 1942, when you find yourself back at Rabaul, and from there the Guadalcanal campaign picks up.
I added a few missions later in August and into September, which cover the IJNAF operations during the battle for Milne Bay. These end when the 2nd Kokutai took over the fight in New Guinea and the Tainan Kokutai pilots were used against Guadalcanal.
Submitted by skylane
After a few missions in this plane you start flying the A6M-2 Zero, and relocate to Lae in Papua New Guinea, after this airfield has been seized by the Japanese army. Shortly thereafter you become part of the Tainan Kokutai, as this unit is transferred to New Guinea. Your missions are mostly bomber escorts and fighter sweeps to Port Moresby, but as the American forces there build up, you find yourself defending your own airbase against bomber and fighter raids.
This continues until the beginning of August 1942, when you find yourself back at Rabaul, and from there the Guadalcanal campaign picks up.
I added a few missions later in August and into September, which cover the IJNAF operations during the battle for Milne Bay. These end when the 2nd Kokutai took over the fight in New Guinea and the Tainan Kokutai pilots were used against Guadalcanal.
Submitted by skylane
