During the 90-minute dogfight, Imperial and ork aircraft often were intermixed in a confused but deadly dance.

“Tango Five, close up. You’re outside the combat box. Over target in 60 seconds. Stay in formation, and be ready to rain hell and damnation on the greenskins.”—Vox chatter from Third Squadron, Second Wing, 149th Bomber Group

* * *

Continued from Part 1 . . .

Second attacks succeed

As the 149th Bomber Group made a wide circle to strike at its target again, it was beset by continued ork strafing runs, Imperial reports indicate. But its fighter escort did good service: shooting down 31 ork fighter aircraft to the loss of five Imperial fighters and four bombers.

During its second attempt at the ork forge, the 149th once again braved intense anti-air fire, but fortune was with the Imperial pilots. As the lead bombardier approached the target, he found a gap in the black smoke that revealed the target. He dropped his bombs and, for the next 90 seconds, each wing of the bomber group followed in turn and accurately struck home.

Nearly 20 kilometers to the south,  the 1,273rd Bomber Group—having only dropped half its bombs on its initial attack run—opted to break away from the ongoing dogfight between Imperial and ork fighters in the center. Turning south, Imperial bombers accelerated away and sought to target the southernmost forge before the orks could respond.

This tactic partially worked, Grytt said.

“The 1,273rd managed to gain a 10-kilometer lead on the orks left behind,” he said. “About a third of the ork fighters eventually noticed the bomber group’s maneuver and gave chase. The rest of the greenskin pilots appeared more than happy to continue the fight with the fighters, without regard to the larger strategic picture.”

Among those that did give chase, the ork Fighta-Bommers were unable to catch up with the 1,273rd, and 20 xeno aircraft were shot down as the 1,833 Fighter Group finally turned to defend the rear of the bomber force.

The faster Dakkajets, however, did harass the 1,273rd . Forming up into a tight combat box, the Maurader heavy bombers fended off the ork fighters for five minutes until they reached their target.

“Six more bombers were lost, and it took immense bravery and focus to follow their bombing run under such conditions,” Grytt said. “The bombs were dropped, and at that point, all Imperial aircraft turned and headed back to base.”

An ork Dakkajet is too enthusiastic in its strafing run and races past its target, allowing the Marauder heavy bomber to shoot down the greenskin aircraft with its forward autocannons.

Moderate Success

After briefing the returning pilots, Air Marshal.  distributed this statement:

“Operation Animus proved a solid victory for the Imperial cause. . For a loss of 22 aircraft, naval pilots shot down 53 ork aircraft. Surveillance of the bombing sites indicate the northernmost forge was entirely destroyed, the southernmost forge suffered heavy damage, and the center forge took minimal but observable damage.”

“We consider this mission a moderate success, despite a strong ork defense and the unexpected visibility problems caused by smoke rising from the forgeworks.”

One other result of the raid, eagerly publicized by naval command, was the announced promotion of ace pilot Olic Zane, who was introduced the the public for his actions during an ork air raid over Susa City earlier this year. The young flying officer was promoted to second lieutenant after shooting down two ork aircraft during the operation, bringing his career kills to 21.

+ + END TRANSMISSION + + 

TheGM: This fight was between TheGaffer and TheBurgermeister, a two-year veteran of the Corvus Cluster. This was our biggest battle yet using the out-of-print Aeronautica Imperialis rules, and we tried out a scenario involving a bombing raid.

This game also featured air-to-ground attacks and anti-air guns—rules we’d never used before. What we learned, in these rules, was that AA fire isn’t as scary as we thought. But, when you think about the bomber crews of WW II, that’s easy to say that when you’re playing a board game with your mates.

Still, great game.

Click here to return to Part 1 of this battle.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.