I just got done beating that mission. It was hell for me at first, believe me, but the hardest part to me was getting used to commanding my team. You have to know when to hit UP on the d-pad to switch from attack to defend, using defend when you are getting your ass kicked. I also caught on during that mission to hit LEFT on the D-PAD and fix yourself immediately after you are on fire. Do these things, have your team attack most of the planes in the air, and focus on the ground attacks and the ships. This mission took me about 2 hours to beat at least, and pissed me off a lot. Good Luck

Im playing this mision right now and it is Pure Hell!!! Is there an Order of what to blow up?? I take out the strip of planes and tower in the 1st run.. then the anti-air, but the planes still take off..? Is there a checkpoint on this level.? when do you reach it?

Who the hell knows...you all need to get a life and quit wasting it on meaningless video games....kidding!

The Holding Guadalcanal is where Blazing Angels begins to get difficult. I agree, it's not easy. Try a strategy of alternating back and forth between missile fire on the Japanese ground attack and dogfighting with the Japanese zeroes.

What is occurring is that once you have wiped out a string of the Japanese ground force, the zeroes come in to support, so you need to shift your focus to dogfighting to get the Japanese air attack back on its heels so you can then go back to firing missiles at the ground force strings.

You MUST be adept at repairing your plane and more importantly, directing your wingmen, because the zeroes are more maneuverable and use each other to set you up, so you might have one in your sights while his wingman has come up behind you. You will need support from your own team.

You might want to practice directing your wingmen back and forth between attack and defense on lower levels to get used to it, but when your in the middle of the Guadalcanal dogfight, you should have your wingmen in defense mode and you should try to get Tom to taunt the zeroes to relieve some of the pressure. And once you're showing smoke or flames, break off from any attack, get vertical as quickly as possible and repair your plane.

After you and your wingmen have sufficiently decimated the zero formation, get back to bombing the ground attack. You will need to alternate between the ground attack and the dogfighting a couple of times. Remember the real goal of the mission is to eliminate the ground attack and navy attack on Guadalcanal.

There are 3-4 checkpoints before you change planes and bomb the Japanes navy. When you are landing your plane, remember to lower the landing gear and try to touch down as close to the end of the landing strip as possible to give yourself plenty of room to taxi to a stop.

The second part of Guadalcanal is much easier, although not as easy as the Dunkirk mission bombing or even the Surprise Attack. Remember to slow down once you get in bombing range of a Japanese navy ship and try to be at an angle to pull away to the left or right, as the bomber you are in is built to carry heavy armament and isn't extremely maneuverable and has very poor vertical pull, which means if you're completely level, you run the risk of becoming a kamikaze.

Hope this helps.

how do you manage to land the plane. when it tells you to change planes on holding guadalcanal you get hit by flak it it is near impossible to land.
i can get back to the airfield but cant land because as you try to it pulls you to the right and you crash.

Any ideas ???