Battle of Denmark Straits Pt V
HMS Neptune
North Atlantic
February 7 1939
Commodore Sir John Walker was not having a good day. He had assumed command of the Royal Navy’s Carrier Flotilla that was covering the landings on Iceland and Greenland a few hours ago. At the start of the day he had been the senior operation officer within the flotilla. But the bulk of the senior staff had brought the farm when the HMS Vindictive was attack earlier today. Hell you could see the burns on Walker’s hand and the scorch marks on his face. He had been lucky to get out of the CIC on the Vindictive when he did as he was the only one to make it out there alive. He had moved his flag to the Neptune, the only carrier that was still operational after that attack by the Yankees.
The Yankees hit the Carrier Flotilla hard. The Vindictive and Superb had both been sunk by the earlier attack. The Indomitable could only make five knots at the moment and was still listing 7 degrees to port. The Centurion was better off as she could still make 12 knots before the boilers would bust. She also had a slight list of 2 degrees to starboard. But the fire on her had gutted the hanger below the decks killing countless support personal for her air wing. But there was no way for her to perform flight operations. Not that were that many planes left for flight operations. His air wing was now limited to 43 Griffon Fighters and 11 Amberjack Torpedo Bombers. The rest had either been shot down, damaged and forced to ditch, or in the case of about 23 Amberjacks pushed over the side to allow for flight operations on the Neptune to keep going for the rest of the day.
A major problem for the Neptune was she had been rated for 60 aircraft. That had been when she was commissioned through. With the growth of aircraft since then now she could only handle 54 aircraft. Even through with the poor performance of the Griffon against the Yankees he had decided they stood a better chance against the Yankees instead of the Amberjacks so he had them push them over the side to allow him to keep the remaining Griffons that he had. He was being forced to recreate squadrons after the thrashing they took at the hands of the Yankees today.
Currently he had ordered the Carrier Flotilla to retire back east to Belfast. Both the Indomitable and the Centurion were going to need major yard time to get them back into the fight. Never mind the fact the whole of the Fleet Air Arm had been badly damaged in under 10 days of heavy fighting with the Yankees. The Fleet Air Arm was going to have to rebuilt from the ground up basically at this point. But Walker wasn’t about to tempt fate with only one carrier able to perform flight operations against three Yankee Carriers that his remaining air crews were reporting that were still operational. A pair of light carriers had already been sortie from Belfast to help pick up the slack from the gutted air wing of the Carrier Flotilla.
Flight operations had just ended for the day. It was another 10 minutes before the sun set and he believed that the Yankees wouldn’t be crazy enough to try a strike this late in the day. Then again Walker had never fought the Yankees before today either. He had sent the Great War fighting the Krauts in the North Sea and Channel with his biplanes. He had even been awarded the DSO for his part in the strike on Dunkirk late in 1917. He however didn’t know the Americans. As he was making his way to the CIC to work on getting the remaining carriers home when the general quarter siren started to ring throughout the ship. At that he started running back to the bridge of the ship.
Once there the only words that could come out of Walker’s mouth were, “Mother of God.” He could see at least four hundred Yankee aircraft coming down on his flotilla. Walker was just totally shocked by this move. The sun was about to set and the Yankees just coming down on him without any of his Griffons up in the air to challenge them. They would get a clean shot at the Neptune and the rest of his carriers and only being slowed by the Triple-A being fired by his ships. It was going to be a bloodbath and he knew it.
The captain of the Neptune yelled out, “Hard to port!” As saw a squadron of torpedo bombers was making their way to the Neptune. Only there was dive bombers already dropping on the Neptune. One thousand pounder armor piecing bombs started falling around the Neptune. Then one bomb hit center on the flight deck. It cut through the armor on the flight deck and when off in the hanger below the flight deck. It destroyed 31 aircraft that had been below the decks and started countless fires. This wasn’t counting the dozens of dead aircraft machines, ordnance, and fuel handers taken out by the blast. Then another 1,000 pound bomb dropped on the flight deck near one of the twin 4.5 inch gun turrets. The bomb when deeper than the first one and hit the magazine armor that was guarding the 4.5inch rounds just before it when off causing a massive explosion.
As the explosion from this second bomb hit rocked the ship the first of the torpedoes fired at the ship hit. This was a hit near the prop shafts that popped the seal on the third and four shafts allowing the cold water of the North Atlantic into the ship. Not even seconds later a second and third torpedo hit the Neptune and their hits were so close together that many on the Neptune thought it was one massive torpedo hit instead of two hits. Together with the pop shafts the Neptune was listing heavily to starboard as the ice water of the North Atlantic flood into the ship. She was slowing quickly as she had been working up to her flank speed of 31 knots when the attack started, but now she was dropping speed quickly. Further her boilers were starting to be shut down as the steam pipes were cracked. She was doing now 11 knots and slowing.
By the time the last American aircraft dropped its ordnance, the British Carrier Flotilla had been gutted with not one carrier still afloat come morning on the 8th.
North Atlantic
February 7 1939
Commodore Sir John Walker was not having a good day. He had assumed command of the Royal Navy’s Carrier Flotilla that was covering the landings on Iceland and Greenland a few hours ago. At the start of the day he had been the senior operation officer within the flotilla. But the bulk of the senior staff had brought the farm when the HMS Vindictive was attack earlier today. Hell you could see the burns on Walker’s hand and the scorch marks on his face. He had been lucky to get out of the CIC on the Vindictive when he did as he was the only one to make it out there alive. He had moved his flag to the Neptune, the only carrier that was still operational after that attack by the Yankees.
The Yankees hit the Carrier Flotilla hard. The Vindictive and Superb had both been sunk by the earlier attack. The Indomitable could only make five knots at the moment and was still listing 7 degrees to port. The Centurion was better off as she could still make 12 knots before the boilers would bust. She also had a slight list of 2 degrees to starboard. But the fire on her had gutted the hanger below the decks killing countless support personal for her air wing. But there was no way for her to perform flight operations. Not that were that many planes left for flight operations. His air wing was now limited to 43 Griffon Fighters and 11 Amberjack Torpedo Bombers. The rest had either been shot down, damaged and forced to ditch, or in the case of about 23 Amberjacks pushed over the side to allow for flight operations on the Neptune to keep going for the rest of the day.
A major problem for the Neptune was she had been rated for 60 aircraft. That had been when she was commissioned through. With the growth of aircraft since then now she could only handle 54 aircraft. Even through with the poor performance of the Griffon against the Yankees he had decided they stood a better chance against the Yankees instead of the Amberjacks so he had them push them over the side to allow him to keep the remaining Griffons that he had. He was being forced to recreate squadrons after the thrashing they took at the hands of the Yankees today.
Currently he had ordered the Carrier Flotilla to retire back east to Belfast. Both the Indomitable and the Centurion were going to need major yard time to get them back into the fight. Never mind the fact the whole of the Fleet Air Arm had been badly damaged in under 10 days of heavy fighting with the Yankees. The Fleet Air Arm was going to have to rebuilt from the ground up basically at this point. But Walker wasn’t about to tempt fate with only one carrier able to perform flight operations against three Yankee Carriers that his remaining air crews were reporting that were still operational. A pair of light carriers had already been sortie from Belfast to help pick up the slack from the gutted air wing of the Carrier Flotilla.
Flight operations had just ended for the day. It was another 10 minutes before the sun set and he believed that the Yankees wouldn’t be crazy enough to try a strike this late in the day. Then again Walker had never fought the Yankees before today either. He had sent the Great War fighting the Krauts in the North Sea and Channel with his biplanes. He had even been awarded the DSO for his part in the strike on Dunkirk late in 1917. He however didn’t know the Americans. As he was making his way to the CIC to work on getting the remaining carriers home when the general quarter siren started to ring throughout the ship. At that he started running back to the bridge of the ship.
Once there the only words that could come out of Walker’s mouth were, “Mother of God.” He could see at least four hundred Yankee aircraft coming down on his flotilla. Walker was just totally shocked by this move. The sun was about to set and the Yankees just coming down on him without any of his Griffons up in the air to challenge them. They would get a clean shot at the Neptune and the rest of his carriers and only being slowed by the Triple-A being fired by his ships. It was going to be a bloodbath and he knew it.
The captain of the Neptune yelled out, “Hard to port!” As saw a squadron of torpedo bombers was making their way to the Neptune. Only there was dive bombers already dropping on the Neptune. One thousand pounder armor piecing bombs started falling around the Neptune. Then one bomb hit center on the flight deck. It cut through the armor on the flight deck and when off in the hanger below the flight deck. It destroyed 31 aircraft that had been below the decks and started countless fires. This wasn’t counting the dozens of dead aircraft machines, ordnance, and fuel handers taken out by the blast. Then another 1,000 pound bomb dropped on the flight deck near one of the twin 4.5 inch gun turrets. The bomb when deeper than the first one and hit the magazine armor that was guarding the 4.5inch rounds just before it when off causing a massive explosion.
As the explosion from this second bomb hit rocked the ship the first of the torpedoes fired at the ship hit. This was a hit near the prop shafts that popped the seal on the third and four shafts allowing the cold water of the North Atlantic into the ship. Not even seconds later a second and third torpedo hit the Neptune and their hits were so close together that many on the Neptune thought it was one massive torpedo hit instead of two hits. Together with the pop shafts the Neptune was listing heavily to starboard as the ice water of the North Atlantic flood into the ship. She was slowing quickly as she had been working up to her flank speed of 31 knots when the attack started, but now she was dropping speed quickly. Further her boilers were starting to be shut down as the steam pipes were cracked. She was doing now 11 knots and slowing.
By the time the last American aircraft dropped its ordnance, the British Carrier Flotilla had been gutted with not one carrier still afloat come morning on the 8th.
