This aircraft challenge mission is relatively easy - if you know what to do. Your objective is simple - sink the enemy fleet.
You have two airfields, one each to the northeast and southeast of the center of the map. Both have three kinds of aircraft: the Ki-43, the G3M, and the G4M. The latter two are bombers, and the Ki-43 is the only plane that can attempt to stand toe-to-toe with the enemy fighter wing.
The enemy fleet consists of a few destroyer escorts, the HMS Repulse, the HMS Prince of Wales, and the HMS Hermes, which spawns 12 Hawker Hurricanes which are more than capable of shredding your own aircraft to pieces. Unfortunately, aircraft are all you have for this mission.
Primary Objectives
- Sink the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse before they escape across the eastern border.
Hidden Objective
- Sink the HMS Hermes
The HMS Hermes
As mentioned before, the Hermes is the biggest threat to your operation, so deal with it first. It may seem odd, dealing with the hidden objective first before the primary ones, but accomplishing the hidden objective makes the primary objective considerably easier.
For starters, have all four squadrons rendesvous in the space a little west to the space between the airfields. Have them fly bombers and load them with multiple bombs. Although the G4M carries more bombs than the G3M, the enemy will be in no position to stop you, so it becomes irrelevant.
Once all your bombers are at the rally point, have them mesh and loop around a little bit to mix them up a little before sending every last one at the Hermes - all at once.
Immediately the hurricanes will rise to stop you, but the bomber's machine guns will at least keep them occupied long enough for your bombers to drop a massive torrent of bombs over the enemy carrier. If you're lucky, you may even score a kill with your bomber's machine guns.
The Hermes should sink after a single wave of bombers. Mop up any remaining Hurricanes with a squad or two of Ki-43s. Henceforth, the skies are yours.
The Battleships
With the skies completely yours, all you have to do is prepare massive torpedo campaigns on the enemy battleships to send them to the bottom. Attack the enemy warships from the sides to present a large, suitable target and drop the torpedo at point-blank range to ensure a hit.
Battleships have extremely tough deck plating, so bombs won't work here. Only torpedoes will. The good news is that your bombers sport torpedoes. The bad news is that you have to use the carpet bombers, which are slow, easy targets. The only thing you'll have on your side for the most part, therefore, are numbers. Send bombers in massive groups, consisting of about 4 squadrons each, on the battleship. Don't worry if most of them get shot down - both the G3M and the G4M have torpedoes, and when you run out of one aircraft type you can switch to the other.
Don't bother attacking the other warships. You'll need all the torpedoes you can muster against the battleships. When both enemy warships have been destroyed, mission is completed.