Battlestations: Midway/Defence of the Phillipines

This mission acquaints you further with controls of a PT boat. Unfortunately you don't have any real warships in this mission - fortunately for you, the enemy doesn't either. All you have to do is shoot down enemy aircraft, sink the enemy LCPs, and torpedo the enemy troop ships. The Japanese invasion fleet doesn't stand a chance against you - unfortunately, your boat's engine refuses to start.

Defend the Phillipines against an enemy landing force!

Primary Objectives

• Leave the Harbour
• Sink the first wave of Daihatsu LCPs
• Sink the enemy transport ships and LSTs
• No more than 5 enemy landing craft may enter the harbour
• PT-108 must survive

Secondary Objectives

• Completely destroy the first wave of Daihatsus

Hidden Objectives

• Sink the Kasumi
• Down five G4M Betties

Leave the Harbour

The first wave of Betties appears between these mountains on your right.

All attempts to get your boat's engine to start have failed. You're a sitting duck in the water. Unable to leave the port before the first attack squad arrives, all you have to do is shoot down as many enemy aircraft as possible. Fortunately for you, the Japanese don't consider your PT boat much of a threat, and they are more than content to bomb the living daylights out of the base instead; therefore, ignore the Kates and Vals. Focus instead on the Betty level bombers approaching from in between the two mountain ranges on your right. More also come from the front, so shoot as many Betties down as possible to fulfill the hidden objective.

Betties always come in pairs, so all you have to do is count the number of squadrons of Betties you shoot down. Three squadrons is more than enough to fulfill the requirement.

Soon your crew announces "We've got juice!", and your engines come online. If you haven't downed your quota of Betties yet, stick around and wait for more to arrive. Regardless, get moving and make yourself a not-so-easy target - Vals will begin strafing you now, so be on guard. A new Japanese unit appears here as well - the Ki-43 Oscar, a fighter. It as well is more than content to strafe you, so leave the harbour as soon as you've downed five G4M Betties.

You have a single, rather famous ally in this mission - PT-109, led by John F. Kennedy. Fortunately for him, his PT boat is invincible. Unfortunately, he is of limited use in this mission.

The First Wave

Once you're out of the port, a cutscene will appear showing you the enemy fleet. It consists of three transport ships, two LSTs, and a single Minekaze-class destroyer, the Kasumi, as well as an infinite number of Daihatsu LCPs. You don't have torpedoes yet, so start on the Daihatsus. As soon as you come in firing range, pull the trigger on your guns and sink them. They don't have a lot of armour, and simply follow the gold objective markers to completely eliminate the first wave of Daihatsus.

Your PT boat is quick, but if a Daihatsu is given a head-start it can easily enter the lagoon, so make sure you don't miss any.

For some odd reason, the enemy ships are scripted to not use their main cannons - the SB boats in future missions (namely the next one) and the enemy transport ships will not employ their main cannons against you. Keep in mind therefore that the enemy ships will not be so accommodating to you in the future - primarily in the submarine challenge missions, where transport ships in particular enjoy shelling your sub if you're on the surface.

Historical Trivia

Lt. Junior Grade John F. Kennedy, later President of the United States, commanded PT-109 during WW2. After being assigned command of her at Tulagi, she was one of fifteen ships ordered to make attack runs on the Tokyo Express, a nickname for a Japanese supply line supplying Japanese forces operating in and around New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. While idling on one engine to not create a wake detectable by planes, PT-109 was run over by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (either accidentally or intentionally). PT-109 exploded and was cut in half, killing two crew members immediately. Kennedy led the survivors to a nearby island (towing an injured crewman in a lifejacket by his teeth) and immediately started looking for food and help. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions.

Once the first wave is destroyed, you gain the ability to deploy torpedoes. PT-109 announces they're going to make a torpedo run on a transport (why didn't he just torpedo the transport earlier, since you were shooting the LCPs?) so focus on the nearest transport and simply lodge a pair of torpedoes in it to send it to the bottom. Once PT-109 sinks the transport, Kennedy announces "We're returning to defend the lagoon", leaving you on your own for the rest of the mission.

Torpedoing the Kasumi

Don't forget about the armoured LSTs though. They're much quicker than the transport ships and attempt to enter the harbour, so torpedo them as soon as you can. All it takes is a single torpedo to send the LSTs down.

Once the LSTs and two of the three transports are down, mop up some of the Daihatsus before making a run on the Kasumi. The Kasumi (which coincidentally shares the Japanese name of a famous Pokémon character) is more than content to shell the land installations protecting the bay and its anti-aircraft defences often focus on PT-109, so you should have no problem closing in and lodging a pair of torpedoes into her hull. Two torps is more than enough to sink the Kasumi, fulfilling a secret objective.

Now all that's left is to mop up the final transport ship and the mission is a success.