This mission is about Captain Yoshio Yoshida, ace on the Ki-44 of the 70th Sentai who shot down 6 B-29s, with at least 5 by night. You will fly on one of his sortie, on 15 april 1945, where he shot down 1 B-29.
By Spring 1945 Japan's air defenses was increasingly ineffective to counter the Allied attacks on its soil. The quality of the pilots was bad, shortages in supplies (fuel, materials) leading to the decreasing manufacture quality of the planes, the deployment of P-51 Mustangs to escort B-29s, shortages of ammunition for the AA network, etc. All of this meant it was a lost war for Japan. By the end of April it was decided to withdraw the remaining fighters from combat and to put them in reserve for the Allied invasion of the mainland.
The Ki-44 is an interesting plane. The IJA knew they needed an interceptor capable of shooting down heavy bombers that were beginning to be developed in some countries. During the war with China, before WW2, a raid by chinese bombers above the mainland (they only dropped leaflets on Nagasaki and Fukuoka) in May 1938 definitely convinced them of the need of a fast, powerful, sturdy and well-armed interceptor. Nakajima, which was the favorite manufacturer of the IJA, was chosen to create this new interceptor, but also to create the Ki-43, as the IJA could not decide between a "light" or a "heavy" fighter... Created with speed and rate of climb as priorities (quite the complete opposite of the japanese standards at the time), the pilots didn't like the Ki-44 at first, they were more used to light, easy to fly and nimble aircrafts. After some disapointing results in real conditions in Burma, and even if it saw action in China, Korea Formosa and the Philippines through the war, the Ki-44 mainly served in a Mainland Defense role.
In this mission, for the Japanese side I am using Wolfi's Ki-44, as there are more skins available for it, notably a skin of Yoshida's plane (please see the skins pack by Morton, there is the skin for Yoshida's plane, 2 more skins for the 70th Sentai and 2 for the 47th Sentai as I also put them in use). I don't know if it's the case for everyone but when on the ground Wolfi's Ki-44 model/textures are acting weirdly, like ailerons or parts of the wing visible through the fuselage, things like that, but in flight everything is normal so I don't understand what could be the cause. It kind of breaks the immersion a little when in external view but the plane flies well and the different skins available are enough reasons to put a version of this mission with it. I am listing links for everything available for this mission on SOH regarding Wolfi's Ki-44.
I am also using Akemi's Ki-45 with a skin from Morton (5thS 3rdC Capt Fujitaro Ito). I took the DP from UncleTgt in his Akemi Ki-45 Nick skins UT pack and just changed the category in the misc data (changed to 1) to have a true fighter.
I am also including a version with the Ki-44s by AcWai/Andrew. Yoshida flew a Ki-44 Hei, with 4 x 12,7 mm. The planes with a reflector gunsight are Ki-44 Hei (4 x 12,7 mm, no optional provision for 2 40 mm Ho-301 cannon) so please use the AW_Ki-44-3 textures.
You could also use the 1% Ki-44, in this mission the 1JA_Ki-44IIc_Tojo (Hei) as it has the correct 70th Sentai textures.
For the US I am only using William Dickens/Bismarck13's AI B-29 with prop textures from Kelticheart.
As it is a night mission this time I wanted to try to use some dedicated mods. I am using the inf_search created by (or uploaded) by Rami and the Night Missions Mod for CFS 2 by NMG (W. Porochnuk Jr. ). I tried the Searchlight Aus by Westfront but the light beam is a little "weak" and doesn't go very high. Again it could be my performances/graphics limitations messing up things a little. But I am including the link so you can download and try it, maybe it will work better on your end.
I am also using UncleTgt's new JAP Flakguns 1 UT pack, with the JAP_13mmAA_twin_grnd_UT and the JAP_25mmAA_twin_grnd_UT, mostly to have some "fireworks" in the air.
For both versions (Wolfi's Ki-44 and AcWai Ki-44) of the mission I am including a MB by default mission and an edited mission, mainly the more accurate name for wingmen and a different plane for each of your wingmen, also for the 47th Sentai formation. Preferably use the edited versions.
Thanks again to Cody Coyote for his Mission Building Handbook, I am trying something new on every mission but I am still not sure if I'm doing enough in terms of triggers/events, for a "lively" mission. But I like making some research about the planes, units, missions etc so it's still fun (even if sometimes it's hard finding a lot of different ressources). Again, feel free to change/modify everything and anything you want.
Thanks to all the creators of every objects, aircrafts, skins, scenery etc used in this mission, I hope I didn't forget someone and that I was clear enough in this readme. Please see the readme of the different downloads. Feel free to change, modify anything and everything in this mission.
These missions are freeware and should be available only on sim-outhouse.org.
Ludo
By Spring 1945 Japan's air defenses was increasingly ineffective to counter the Allied attacks on its soil. The quality of the pilots was bad, shortages in supplies (fuel, materials) leading to the decreasing manufacture quality of the planes, the deployment of P-51 Mustangs to escort B-29s, shortages of ammunition for the AA network, etc. All of this meant it was a lost war for Japan. By the end of April it was decided to withdraw the remaining fighters from combat and to put them in reserve for the Allied invasion of the mainland.
The Ki-44 is an interesting plane. The IJA knew they needed an interceptor capable of shooting down heavy bombers that were beginning to be developed in some countries. During the war with China, before WW2, a raid by chinese bombers above the mainland (they only dropped leaflets on Nagasaki and Fukuoka) in May 1938 definitely convinced them of the need of a fast, powerful, sturdy and well-armed interceptor. Nakajima, which was the favorite manufacturer of the IJA, was chosen to create this new interceptor, but also to create the Ki-43, as the IJA could not decide between a "light" or a "heavy" fighter... Created with speed and rate of climb as priorities (quite the complete opposite of the japanese standards at the time), the pilots didn't like the Ki-44 at first, they were more used to light, easy to fly and nimble aircrafts. After some disapointing results in real conditions in Burma, and even if it saw action in China, Korea Formosa and the Philippines through the war, the Ki-44 mainly served in a Mainland Defense role.
In this mission, for the Japanese side I am using Wolfi's Ki-44, as there are more skins available for it, notably a skin of Yoshida's plane (please see the skins pack by Morton, there is the skin for Yoshida's plane, 2 more skins for the 70th Sentai and 2 for the 47th Sentai as I also put them in use). I don't know if it's the case for everyone but when on the ground Wolfi's Ki-44 model/textures are acting weirdly, like ailerons or parts of the wing visible through the fuselage, things like that, but in flight everything is normal so I don't understand what could be the cause. It kind of breaks the immersion a little when in external view but the plane flies well and the different skins available are enough reasons to put a version of this mission with it. I am listing links for everything available for this mission on SOH regarding Wolfi's Ki-44.
I am also using Akemi's Ki-45 with a skin from Morton (5thS 3rdC Capt Fujitaro Ito). I took the DP from UncleTgt in his Akemi Ki-45 Nick skins UT pack and just changed the category in the misc data (changed to 1) to have a true fighter.
I am also including a version with the Ki-44s by AcWai/Andrew. Yoshida flew a Ki-44 Hei, with 4 x 12,7 mm. The planes with a reflector gunsight are Ki-44 Hei (4 x 12,7 mm, no optional provision for 2 40 mm Ho-301 cannon) so please use the AW_Ki-44-3 textures.
You could also use the 1% Ki-44, in this mission the 1JA_Ki-44IIc_Tojo (Hei) as it has the correct 70th Sentai textures.
For the US I am only using William Dickens/Bismarck13's AI B-29 with prop textures from Kelticheart.
As it is a night mission this time I wanted to try to use some dedicated mods. I am using the inf_search created by (or uploaded) by Rami and the Night Missions Mod for CFS 2 by NMG (W. Porochnuk Jr. ). I tried the Searchlight Aus by Westfront but the light beam is a little "weak" and doesn't go very high. Again it could be my performances/graphics limitations messing up things a little. But I am including the link so you can download and try it, maybe it will work better on your end.
I am also using UncleTgt's new JAP Flakguns 1 UT pack, with the JAP_13mmAA_twin_grnd_UT and the JAP_25mmAA_twin_grnd_UT, mostly to have some "fireworks" in the air.
For both versions (Wolfi's Ki-44 and AcWai Ki-44) of the mission I am including a MB by default mission and an edited mission, mainly the more accurate name for wingmen and a different plane for each of your wingmen, also for the 47th Sentai formation. Preferably use the edited versions.
Thanks again to Cody Coyote for his Mission Building Handbook, I am trying something new on every mission but I am still not sure if I'm doing enough in terms of triggers/events, for a "lively" mission. But I like making some research about the planes, units, missions etc so it's still fun (even if sometimes it's hard finding a lot of different ressources). Again, feel free to change/modify everything and anything you want.
Thanks to all the creators of every objects, aircrafts, skins, scenery etc used in this mission, I hope I didn't forget someone and that I was clear enough in this readme. Please see the readme of the different downloads. Feel free to change, modify anything and everything in this mission.
These missions are freeware and should be available only on sim-outhouse.org.
Ludo
