We show gameplay from MAG-23 Guadalcanal, the WW2 solitaire air war game (historical conflict simulation) from Historic Wings. Scroll down for the example of a full logbook entry from this mission! Instructional video, watch and you're ready to play!
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Logbook
It is Monday, 24 August 1942, our fourth day on Guadalcanal. Yesterday night, we experienced heavy shelling from Japanese naval ships offshore and multiple salvos hit the runway of Henderson Field.
With clear weather, a combat air patrol of four Wildcats was sent up to protect against any surprise attacks. Lt. Campbell, VMF-223’s XO, had Lt. Fox on his wing. A second pair of Wildcats was led by Lt. Harpin with Lt. Quaid as his wingman.
We had one Coastwatcher report from Wickham and Kennedy on New Georgia, who spotted six Japanese Zeros heading southeast and called it in. The signal was relayed to Australia, then Pearl Harbor, and finally through the fleet at sea to Guadalcanal.
The CO, Major Tango decided to lead the attack with Lt. Lewis as his wingman. Lt. Harrison lead the second element with Sgt. Byrd, one of the squadron’s two sergeant pilots, to fly as his wingman.
At take-off, two CAP Wildcats crashed. One of the pilots, Lt. Fox, is injured. The Navy Corpsmen say it isn’t serious and he’ll be back on flight status in three days. As the two Wildcats orbited the field, Lt. Harpin took station on Lt. Campbell’s wing before headng off to the patrol area northeast of the field to guard against any surprise attacks.
When it was time to launch the four Wildcats to intercept the incoming raid, one more crashed on take off, one plane suffered an accident. No damage done and no injury, but the plane will be checked by maintenance and the pilot is a bit shaken up. The other three Wildcats forged on, with Major Tango taking Sgt. Byrd as his wingman.
Spotting the incoming formation of Val divebombers, the Wildcats dove to attack and caught the Japanese by surprise. In seconds, four of the Vals were hit and spun down in flames. Major Tango got two of the kills, as did Lt. Campbell. That was Tango’s fifth kill, which made him the first ace on Guadalcanal.
Lt. Campbell headed straight into the heart of the Zero formation with Lt. Harpin close by. It was two against nine Zeros and the Japanese pounced. The two went into a Thach Weave, and Lt. Campbell caught in his sights and shot it down. The Zeros couldn’t break the defense. Meanwhile, our other three Wildcats made a second pass into the remaining Val divebombers.
Lt. Campbell’s valiant stand held off the Zeros allowed our pilots to knock down another two Vals. The remaining three turned for home. Our pilots broke off and the Japanese Zeros followed the Vals to escort them back.
On landing, we had three planes suffer mishaps. The CO ground-looped it but no damage done. Lt. Campbell hit a hole in the runway from last night’s shelling and damaged the plane. He was injured, however, and the Navy Corpsmen are saying that he’ll be out of action for two days. Then Lt. Harrison also crashed it, damaging the plane but repairable. He walked away without a scratch.
Overall, a good day on Cactus. The boys knocked down six Japanese planes, five of them were Vals and one Zero. Late in the night, two Japanese destroyers came in close and shelled the field - again. This time, they got lucky and hit one of five P-400s, destroying it. A real loss. By morning, they had run back up northwest through the Slot, and were already out of range of our SBDs. A good piece of news was that the guys from Cub ONE did some work on the runway and repaired it up pretty good. So we should have fewer accidents now, as long as the Japanese don’t bomb it more or the rains come. We are told that Marston Matting is coming in the future, which should improve the runways a lot.
Thomas Van Hare has published over 450 articles on aviation history since 1997 at Historic Wings - www.historicwin.... He is an author, including along with Matt Lawrence, of the bestselling book, "Betrayal: Clinton, Castro & the Cuban Five", about the shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
Story Research and Photo Credits: National Archives and Records Administration + Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale Museum + US Department of Defense + US Marine Corps + US Navy + US Air Force
Music Credits: Limitless - MusicbyAden & tubebackr / musicbyaden / tubebackr
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