ok, so the next mission was Lifeguard ChiChi Jima which is just about exactly what you described in your post above.
so, we shoved off and saw a lot of IJN a/c, almost all of them at night. The little-buggers dropped explosives on me. How rude!
it's tough to make out details because of the darkness.
the first flyover, one of the a/c exploded or collided with his wingman.
that is the top circle. the bottom circle is whatever they dropped.
needless to say, both missed us.
now, the bad news.
the downed flier no-showed us.
i went back and reviewed the mission and the downed flier is the only a/c that you never spawned.
so, i added a trigger or two and an event or two in order to get the raft to spawn. shoving off very shortly to repeat the mission.