Thor's Anvil (Kirov Series Book 26) Page 8

  This was a blow that could cost us Ceylon, thought Wells. Every plane we’re carrying will go down with this ship, and what we have left on the other two carriers may not be able to hold the enemy off. If I had it to say, I would get those planes to bases on Ceylon, and get those last two carriers well west to safe waters. We weren’t ready to mix it up with the Japanese carriers like this, but what else could we do but our best?

  Paladin, Panther, Hotspur, and Foxhound, would soon arrive on the scene to lend assistance as Formidable began to list heavily. There would not be enough boats for all the men, but those six destroyers would be able to pull the lion’s share out of the sea. In the end, they would lose only 76, mostly those already killed in the attack itself, and some to mishaps during the evacuation. That was the only solace Somerville could take from his fate, but the real sting was that Britain had lost a very valuable ship, and his carrier force as a whole was now much diminished as a defensive foil.

  In fact, Indomitable had repaired most of its damage, though Illustrious was a little worse off. Both carriers were still seaworthy, and after being pull up onto Indomitable three hours later, Somerville now had to decide what to do. They had 44 planes left between the two carriers, and Wells sought him out to offer his own thoughts.

  “Sir, if the enemy is still coming, and I think he is, then wouldn’t our remaining planes be better served ashore? Hermes has twelve more at Trinco, but that just leaves us 56 aircraft. We could be facing twice as many enemy planes from what I saw in that attack. If they joined the Hurricane squadrons ashore, our defense there might be thicker.”

  “Sound thinking, Wells, but rather emasculating to order our boys landward like that. We’ll run west for Trinco, and then take stock of the situation.”

  “They can’t sink the island, sir,” Wells put in one last argument. “We can hold back a few fighters on the decks, but move most of the strike planes ashore. The carriers would become a scouting force to try and locate the enemy on his approach, and they might do better southwest of Colombo. That way, if we have to retire, we’ve a clear route and open sea. As it stands, if we linger off Trinco, we can only go south to get around the island, and that could put us in a fix if the enemy is heading southwest from their last position.”

  Somerville nodded, smiling inwardly. The man was already thinking about tomorrow, when he hasn’t even got the seawater out of his ears today. I like that.

  “I’ll keep your suggestion in mind, Mister Wells. Now then… I think we’d best present ourselves to Captain Troubridge and inform him the flag is now planted firmly on his ship. I’ll post you to the plotting room, and do sound off if you have anything more to say.”

  “The plotting room… Yes, sir.” Wells seemed a little despondent.

  Somerville gave him a look. “Don’t worry, Welly,” he said, using the nickname he had heard the other men hang on Wells. “We’ll get you another ship. All in good time.”

  Dusk, 24 SEP 42

  Off to the southeast, Admiral Hara was also counting the eggs left in his nest. When darkness settled over the sea, Hiyo had 27 planes, Junyo 22, and Taiho 65, for a total of 114 aircraft now available to carry on the operation. It had been a costly day, but the pilots were still jubilant. They had hurt their enemy much more, and knew they had sunk at least one of the three enemy carriers.

  This cruiser Yamamoto sent me was at least of some use, thought Hara. It covered that landing at Port Blair well enough, took down that first enemy squadron, and sent me a lot of useful and accurate information as to the location of the enemy carriers. So I will continue to post it as a picket, only this time I think it will operate with Tone and her seaplanes. Together they will make an excellent scouting force.

  Losses were heavy. We lost twelve fighters, twenty-three dive bombers, but only six torpedo bombers. Forty-one aircraft gone… but I still have enough to carry on. I will move southwest now, for if the enemy retires west, that course gives me every chance of cutting them off. Tomorrow should see us in a very good position, and I will post Ozawa’s force about 30 miles north of my position as a screen.

  The short night was ahead of them, and the service air crews worked feverishly to repair damage, refuel, and rearm all the planes scheduled for operations the next day. That night, the Japanese also flew in four seaplanes to Port Blair, and they began preparing for scouting operations. One plane went up that night for a long range patrol, scouting west to look for the British at their last reported position. With the night clear it was able to spot the wakes of several ships gleaming in the wan light of an evening crescent moon, low on the horizon as it began to set.

  Hara got the report at 22:15, one carrier, one battleship, with numerous destroyers, and additional light units spotted further southeast of that position. It was immediately clear to him that the British were now running on a parallel course, possibly to attempt to cover Trincomalee, or perhaps in an effort to reach Colombo. He immediately gave orders for all fleet units to increase speed, ahead full, and the race was on.

  Ozawa’s 7th Cruiser Division was about 65 miles northeast of his position and within 45 sea miles of the closest enemy contact. Confident in night actions, he signaled Ozawa to attempt to engage. At the very least, he might get better information on the size and composition of the enemy force. So at 22:30, the cruisers turned on a heading of 265, along with the 17th Destroyer Division. Even as they turned, contact was suddenly lost with that seaplane out of Port Blair, and this further reinforced Hara’s suspicion that the enemy carriers were there.

  Hours passed as the day slipped away beyond midnight. The moon was down and darkness made the sea a sable cloth beneath increasing low clouds. With each passing hour, the positions of the enemy ships grew more uncertain, and no word had come from Takami, which had turned on a heading of 295 to look for the enemy. Finding nothing, Ozawa resumed a heading of 242, again running parallel to the carriers, but now over 100 sea miles to the north.

  As dawn came, Hara altered his course 20 points to starboard, coming to 256. He immediately ordered fighters up to look for the enemy fleet. Departing on a heading of 320, they overflew Ozawa’s cruiser Force at a few minutes before 06:00, continuing on to the northwest.

  Nothing was seen.

  Frustrated, and thinking the enemy may have elected to run for Trincomalee, he nonetheless decided to check due west of his position, sending up another pair of Zeros off the Hiyo at 06:20. Then, at 06:37 the scouting group off Taiho suddenly radioed a sighting report—enemy carrier!

  All that night, the British had moved towards the east coast of Ceylon. That first seaplane that had spotted them got entirely too curious, descending to an altitude that prompted the battleship Revenge to open up with its flak guns. A hit damaged both the engine and radio, sending the plane down.

  All the destroyers that had come to the aid of Formidable, were then dispatched to Trincomalee with the survivors, save the senior officer party that had come aboard Indomitable. Somerville had cruised on a heading of 225 all night, intending to skirt very near the curving southeast coast of Ceylon. He was taking Wells’ advice to heart now, thinking only of how he might save his remaining carriers. His intention was to get down past the southern tip of the island at Koggala, where a small seaplane base was fueling up two Catalinas for their morning patrol.

  All that night, Cruiser Force, with Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Emerald and Enterprise, had been steaming about 80 miles to his southwest, in a very good position to become entangled with Hara’s fleet, but they had seen nothing in the inky darkness after moonset.

  Hara had moved to a position about 220 miles east of Koggala on the southern tip of Ceylon, and though he did not yet know it, he had already cut his enemy off, as Wells had feared. That first contact with the enemy came when Scout 1 off Taiho reported a carrier about 100 nautical miles to Hara’s north, and then a second carrier, 45 miles ahead of the first, and 116 miles northwest of Taiho. If those reports were good, both were in strike range, but why had the ene
my separated? One must have battle damage or engine problems, he assumed, and ordered his planes to begin spotting to attack immediately. He elected to go with his torpedo bombers, all 17 then available on Taiho, and a fighter escort of two Shotai would launch from Junyo.

  At the same time, Takami sent over information that there were two airborne contacts, most likely search planes originating from Koggala. They were on headings that might find the Japanese within the hour, and so Hara elected to go after them, ordering Hiyo to send up a Shotai of three more Zeros off Hiyo.

  Takami watched the little drama unfold on its screens, the Zeros taking a heading that brought them right over the ship. At that point, about 07:50, the contact was 58 miles off, and Takami messaged the Japanese pilots, guiding them in. While this was happening, Scout 2, was able to refine its sighting report to three cruisers and a pair of destroyers. Thinking these must be an advanced screen, the planes turned to follow the enemy wakes in the opposite direction, thinking they might point them to the main body.

  As the little engagement ensued, the Catalina, flown by one Leonard Joseph Birchall. Already famous in Fedorov’s history for spotting the approach of the Japanese fleet, he was out to double down on that fate line. All he had seen up to this point was a single cruiser, leaving a medium wake on the sea. He took it for what it was, a lone picket forward of the enemy fleet, and pressed on.

  Then the Zeros found him.

  Coming out of the eastern sun, barely visible, Birchall had no chance against those swift winged fighters. On the first pass they raked the wing and set the left engine afire. He struggled with the yoke to try and get the plane down, his only thought now being to land in one piece.

  “Send out that we’ve found the Japanese,” he shouted over his shoulder to the radioman. “Send ‘Leading screen at our position.’ They’ll sort the rest out.”

  Down he went, the smoke from that engine getting worse with each passing minute. The Zeros could have followed, but they stayed aloft, reporting back to Hara that the contact had been shot down. Birchall would descend until his smoking trail vanished into clouds, and eventually land his Catalina on the sea. In the meantime, Scout 2 off Taiho had followed those wakes and found the British carriers, which scrambled fighters to get up and challenge them when the Zeros were spotted. The report came back: Main body, three battleships, two carriers, five destroyers.

  Chapter 9

  07:15 Hours. 25 SEP 42

  After both sides ran all night, on roughly parallel courses, round two of the battle was now underway, and the situation if viewed on a plotting table looked very confused. Gurēgōsuto, the Grey Ghost as Takami was now being called, indicated the presence and position of the leading British carrier sighting that had been spotted by Scout 1 earlier that morning. They believed there was also a battleship present, and at least three destroyers, that this enemy force was following right in Takami’s wake, perhaps 32 sea miles behind.

  Ozawa’s position now put him directly behind the other reported carrier sighting, following its wake. He was soon given permission to take his 7th Cruiser Division and intercept. Suzuya raced ahead, a fleet footed ship at 33 knots. The other cruisers followed, guns loading for action. Tense moments passed, the watchmen straining their eyes at the binoculars, but nothing was seen in the low marine layer.

  The two fleets, now widely dispersed, had nearly collided with one another, but the darkness and low weather had obscured all until sunrise. Even the planes had difficulty finding contacts through small breaks in the cloud cover, which meant there might be difficulties with the strike wave. Hara looked at his watch, then leaned heavily in his chair on the bridge of Taiho, watching the Kates lining up for takeoff. He would probe with this first punch, a jab at the enemy’s chin. If all went well, he was ready to launch a much heavier strike on short order.

  * * *

  It was no longer a question of whether they should have been west of Ceylon. Now it was a question of whether they could get there safely at all. All through the night, Somerville had deliberately elected not to fly any cover. He knew where his enemy was going, and Wells had called it exactly. Now, with the sun up, he looked at his hand and found few cards worth playing.

  He had 44 planes between the two carriers, but they were mostly fighters. His strike planes had suffered heavily in the action of the previous day, and he had lost a good many of the new Barracudas when Formidable went down. He had only 15 of those left, and that was all the sting at his disposal. All of his dual purpose Fulmars were gone. The rest were the 16 Martlets, 9 Fireflies and 4 Seafires, all new model planes that had only recently been delivered to F.A.A. squadrons. He considered arming them with bombs, but knew that was useless. None of those fighter pilots had ever been trained for naval bombing.

  Again Wells’ admonishment came to mind—get the planes to bases on Ceylon. If the enemy were to find him this day, and strike his carriers again, all these planes would surely be lost. It was all a sad testimony to support Wells’ other assertion, that the fleet should not have been where it was at all, and that the effort to try and ambush the enemy landing at Port Blair was ill-considered. He ordered every Barracuda armed and aloft at once, with six Fireflies. Even as he did so, his radar crews reported a flurry of long range contacts loitering about 125 miles to the southeast, on a heading of 160.

  He had found the enemy carriers, for those were obviously planes forming up for the attack. As the seconds ticked away, he had to decide what to do with those Barracudas. Trinco was 150 nautical miles to the northwest, and they could still reach that base. Colombo was a good deal farther, about 225 miles, and over the high central mountains on Ceylon. The enemy carriers were 125 miles to the southeast, but how many of those 15 planes would get through, and would they find a deck waiting for them if they made it back? If he sent them to Trinco, they could still act in defense of that base, and Wells was correct, the Japanese could not sink the island. But he would forfeit anything they might do to defend his carriers by bringing harm to the enemy.

  He decided. They were heading for Ceylon.

  When the startled pilots got that order they were quite put off. What were they doing up here if they were simply going to run for home when the going got rough? Just before they turned, one saw the long wake of a fast ship through a break in the clouds, and reported a single cruiser, requesting permission to attack.

  Somerville relented. “Very well,” he told the signalman. “Order them to go on in. If that is an enemy cruiser, it’s right on the trail of Illustrious. Maybe this will buy her some time.”

  Damn, he thought. Illustrious has a gimpy leg after that action yesterday. She’s been falling farther and farther behind all night, and without proper escort. I’ll detach a destroyer to look after her. There’s another thousand souls on that ship to worry about now.

  By 08:00 hours, the last five planes aboard Illustrious were off the deck and climbing into the grey skies, three Fireflies and a pair of Seafires. That group of Barracudas went after their cruiser contact, which was the forward ship in Ozawa’s force, Suzuya. Some never got close enough. The Zeros sent on ahead to sweep the target area for enemy cap had already spotted them, and fell like hawks on doves, their talons sharp with bright MG fire. They would get three of the seven Barracudas in that group, but the other two would get to Suzuya, and with sheer will to put hurt on their enemy, they braved the thickening flak and got their torpedoes in the water.

  Both ran true.

  Suzuya rolled with a heavy explosion, then another as both torpedoes hit. The results were flooding amidships that could not be controlled, and the British, as intimidated as they were at the approach of the Japanese fleet, had finally drawn blood. Only two of the seven Barracudas survived, and decided to follow their original orders, heading off for Trinco.

  Now, her decks and hangars empty, Illustrious was running for all she was worth, finally working up to 29 knots. Air alert was sounded, and the crews began opening up on a group of low flying enemy planes
that began circling their prey. Illustrious had 48 two-pounder AA guns on six Octuple mounts, and they began chopping op the sky, their chattering fire accented by the dark roses of the bigger 4.5-inch dual purpose guns. They would put down at least five Kates, but one scored a hit, aft, where the flooding threatened one of her propulsion shafts.

  Like jackals nipping at the legs of their prey, the Kates had slowed the carrier from 29 to 21 knots again, and the second squadron of torpedo planes was now vectoring in. Those five British fighters were in a swirling dogfight higher up with the Japanese Zeros, so they could not help. It would be Hara’s pilots against the gunners on Illustrious now, and the balance of power in the Indian Ocean was riding on the outcome. The Kates saw the thin stream of grey smoke from the carrier, and turned to follow.

  Her speed still falling off, Illustrious was also starting to go into a slight list to port when those last nine Kates found her and made their attack. Gunner Jake Morton saw a pair of planes swoop down to line up for their attack. He was right on them, his 2-Pounders hot with fire, and had every confidence he would take both down. One had already been hit, its left wing streaming a thin train of smoke. Then, with a wrenching thud, his gun mount jammed. Someone had failed to mount a round properly, and at that critical moment, the stream of fire he had been putting out was cut off.

  The other gunners could not hold them at bay, and soon the seas were streaked with the wakes of enemy torpedoes. Expert in their craft, and with a very deadly and accurate weapon, the Japanese would find their mark again that morning. The carrier rocked with two more explosions, and like Formidable the previous day, she would sink that same hour.

  The outcome of the entire engagement had come down to one moment, but it was not Jake Morton on his 2-Pounders. It was Gunner’s mate Ed Wicker, two hours earlier, when he had failed to properly replenish that gun mount magazine after a long, sleepless night. Yet no one would ever know that. It was one of a thousand Pushpoints on the history, hiding in the seeming insignificance of a billion simple moments that made up that flow of time. Wicker’s woe was Morton’s mishap, and the end of Illustrious along with any hope that the Royal Navy could ever sortie here again to defend Ceylon.