Thursday, 15 July 2021

Bag the Hun Khalkhin Gol Junior Aces

In the scenario that I re-designed earlier this week, I had omitted to name any of the pilots involved as I didn't have much information and my research hadn't turned up anything useful. However, I've now identified the commander of the 2nd Chutai, 11th Sentai, Captain Koji Motomura, so will incorporate him as a character and as the 1st Shotai leader. Captain Motomura was also a Junior Ace, eventually going on to shoot down a total of fourteen aircraft during the conflict before being killed in action on 22nd August. He could even qualify for the Banzai! card, as he had dived to intercept thirty Soviet fighters that were strafing and bombing Japanese troops on his own when he was shot down! 

Kravchenko's I-16 Type 10

To balance the scenario I also need a Soviet pilot of a similar level, so I have decided to allocate Major Grigori Kravchenko to the 22nd IAP as the leader of the first zveno. He was a highly experienced and skilled fighter pilot, as a veteran of the Chinese Civil War and Hero of the Soviet Union, having been given command of the 22nd IAP as one of the ace pilots flown in to stiffen the Soviet fighter force.  He's an ideal candidate as a squadron leader in this scenario, with six kills to his name over China and four more at Khalkhin Gol, so I will rate him as a Junior Ace. The rest of the pilots were going to be allocated skill ratings based on random generation, but I think I'll just make them either Veterans or Regulars instead.

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