Cold Warriors: The Essex Class in the Cold War

November 1, 1957
Over Ambon, Indonesia

Allen Pope pulled his Havoc out of its shallow dive. He had just dropped his bomb load on Liang Airfield and strafed the flight line. He was flying just above the tops of the trees and as ground based anti-aircraft fire sought him out. Ground fire was more intense today than it had been on his previous runs. For the last week, the CIA had been having him strike targets on Ambon to soften it up for the Permesta rebels to land on the island and seize it.

He had just turned for home when tracers snapped past his cockpit and he felt his aircraft shudder as the right wing was hit. Turning as had as he could to the left, he spared half a second to look at his instrument panel and make sure his engines were still running. They were. Calling his radio operator over the intercom, Allen asked if he was alright and if the man could see any damage. The answer he got back was yes to the first question and no to the second. Twisting his head around like it was mounted on a swivel, Allen tried desperately to see who was engaging him.

Skidding his light attack craft back and forth to try and spoil the aim of whoever was shooting him, Allen felt his blood run cold in his veins. There was a MiG curving around behind him. In a desperate bid to escape, Allen pulled every trick in or out of the book that he could think of. But he was flying a World War Two cast-off. And that was a brand new MiG on his six, matching each and every move he made. Firewalling his engines, he put the Havoc into a climb. Short of a miracle, he and his radio operator would need to altitude to bail out safely.

As he passed through five thousand feet, the control column was ripped violently out of his hands and 23mm cannon shells ripped into his elevators. Ordering his radio operator to bail out, Allen struggled out of the cockpit, made it to the door and jumped into the sky over Ambon just seconds behind his radioman. It was just in time too. Not three seconds after jumping from his doomed bomber, the A-20 Havoc, a veteran of many battles in the war, exploded.

Looking down as he swung from his parachute, Allen could already see Indonesian ground troops assembling to capture him. Sighing heavily, the former Air Force Officer consigned himself to his fate. Crashing to the ground, he was surrounded by soldiers before he could even get out of his risers. Lifting his hands in the air, he surrendered to the Indonesian Army.

Above him, Shang wei Zhao had just scored his tenth kill.

I assume the Indonesians are going to make it look like a Indonesian pilot was the one who shot down the A-20, ore are they going to tell the truth.

Officially it was an Indonesian aircraft and pilot. In OTL, he was shot down by an Indonesian pilot in a P-51 Mustang. Here, a MiG-17 gets him.

Now the question if he is released as OTL ore will suffer a different fate here

November 2, 1957
Over Sulawesi, Indonesia

The flight of four Beagle light bombers made their bombing run in a perfect attack formation. This was the combat debut of the bomber in Indonesian service. Each bomber had four 250kg bombs in their bomb bays. This was far less than their maximum payload of 6,000 kilograms, but it did give them their maximum range. And the four bombers should be more than up to the task at hand.

Ahead, their target was visible rising up out of the forest. The transmitter tower of the CIA funded radio station was just ahead. With their bomb bay doors open, the four aircraft streaked in at 2,000 meters. Making a formation drop, the sixteen bombs fell onto the target. Of the sixteen bombs, fourteen fell into the jungle surrounding the radio station. Two of them however, slammed into the structure and detonated. The radio station that had been broadcasting anti-Sukarno propaganda ceased to exist.

On board the four bombers, the crews were jubilant. They had just completed their first mission. Even more remarkable, every member of the flight crews but one was Indonesian. There would be celebrations in the barracks tonight.

Two strike missions claiming a first, that is going to be fun at the barracks when they encounter each other.

Nope stevep, on a different forum he made it clear it is not a double post, look at the locations the strikes happen and you come to the conclusion that there will be a barracks brawl coming up.