Complex sentence: In a typical Mitscher style air attack fighter aircraft would come at the targets first, strafing the enemy ships to suppress their defensive anti-aircraft fire, which is to say that he intended his fighter pilots to kill or maim the ship's anti-aircraft gun crews.
Split into simpler sentences: In a typical Mitscher style air attack fighter aircraft would come at the targets first, strafing the enemy ships to suppress their defensive anti-aircraft fire. In plain terms he intended his fighter pilots to kill or maim the target ship's anti-aircraft gun crews.