April 19th, 1943
Sabang, 00:15 - Shortly after midnight, the fighting suddenly revives. But it is not the Japanese who attack! The defenders decide to eliminate before daylight the threat of the paratroopers, now entrenched near the airfield.
However, the paratroopers, who had not been supplied since their release, are exhausted, hungry and lacking ammunition - convinced that they would be cleared in a few hours, they had taken the minimum. The counter-attackers are almost as tired, but at least they have enough to eat and had ammunition. In about an hour and a half of savage fighting in the dark, what remained of the 1st SNLF is cut to pieces and the survivors scatter.
But during this time, the units that had landed on the beaches had reinforced their positions. Above all, with the precious help of the four Daihatsu from Kiso, the 3rd SNLF landed without a hitch with all its heavy weapons and even those of the 1st SNLF.
It is now ready to fight at daybreak.
.........
Off the coast of Sabang, 02:30 - It is not only on the island that the night is agitated. Knowing that the defenders of Sabang are in a bad shape, Somerville decides to launch a night raid, although he is not sure where the enemy is. From the decks of the Illustrious and Victorious, a total of eight radar-equipped Albacores take off. Poking around in the night, six of them manage to spot Kondo's fleet and attack.
But Kondo learned of the destruction of the Kako. Fearing that other enemy submarines were stationed near Sabang, he orders his fleet to maneuver all night to deceive possible submarines. And these frequent changes of course mean that the six torpedoes that could be launched in acceptable conditions arelost... On their side, the Japanese only notice the presence of suspicious planes not far from their fleet, without imagining that they could be attacking them!
.........
Andaman Sea, at daybreak - The day starts with a stroke of luck for the Japanese. One of the H8K [Emily] seaplanes sent to reconnoiter the entire area along the Andaman-Nicobar arc spotted the aircraft carriers of the Eastern Fleet. Unfortunately for the British radars, which directed no less than four Martlets straight at him, he did not go unnoticed. After an epic battle, the big seaplane is sent to join its ancestors, but not without having severely damaged a Martlet. Of course, he had time to alert Kondo.
The two admirals now know that the enemy is there, within striking distance. And suddenly, Sabang's fate seems less important. Kondo, informed by Rear Admiral Ishimaru that the 21st Koku Sentai was going to prepare a strike, refuses to coordinate the two attacks: it is better to launch the carrier planes without wasting a second: it was better to launch aircraft from the carriers, which were much closer to the enemy!
Somerville did not have the luxury of this choice - he had already decided to send all his people to the assault, since he knew where the Japanese fleet was, thanks to night actions, and even though his slow Albacores are likely to play ducks and drakes in front of the Zeros. The big biplanes take off, 18 in all - the crews of the two planes that had operated the previous night without being able to attack the Japanese fleet decided to leave! With a delay, the Indomitable launches its 30 Barracudas, armed with bombs. These are at the extreme limit of their current range. The British have indeed realized with astonishment since the Indomitable passed the Red Sea that their beautiful modern bombers did not appreciate the tropical heat! The attackers are accompanied by all available Martlets of the Eastern Fleet, 36 fighters, half with torpedo bombers, half with Barracudas. The protection of the fleet relies on the Sea-Hurricanes (30 in all) and the Seafire (15).
While the British planes are flying towards the enemy, the Japanese launch a total of 27 D3A [Val], 2 D4Y [Judy] and 16 B5N2 [Kate], escorted by 10 Zeros.
.........
Andaman Sea, in the morning - Strangely, the two following battles are going to be almost symmetrical, but for very different reasons.
On the Imperial Navy side, the fighter patrols, which had been instructed to be particularly wary of torpedo bombers, see several dozen aircraft approaching from a distance at low altitude. All the available Zeros (23 in all) take off immediately. At that moment, the radar of the Mutsu, then the Junyo, detect the approach of the Barracudas at high altitude. It seems that the two groups are of equal importance, but the Nipponese fighter director is convinced that the British have no dive bombers. He concludes that it is a question of the fighter cover of torpedo planes, thanking the gods that the performance differences between fighters and torpedo bombers had apparently forced them to separate. With that, he directs five Ryuho Zeros towards this group, sending all his other fighters towards the torpedo bombers.
When the five Zeros climbing towards the Barracudas realize that some of the aircraft are obviously bombers of an unknown type, it is too late. Too late, especially for the crews of the Albacore, harassed by the Zeros despite the intervention of the Martlets and targeted by a Japanese flak much denser than a year earlier (even if it remains far from the efficiency of the Allied or German flak). Seven biplanes are shot down, five others come back damaged beyond repair and none of them managed to launch a torpedo in good conditions. Their escort however shot down five Zeros, at the cost of three Martlets.
But it is also too late for the Ryuho. Meanwhile, the Barracudas arrived above the Japanese fleet. There are only 25 of them left (five of them had to return due to mechanical failure, although they too would play a role in the battle).
But the five Zeros that tried to disturb them are swept away by the escort, which destroys four of them, at the cost of a single Martlet. Unwilling to linger and risk running out of fuel, the bombers rush to the first flat-top they spot: the Ryuho. This one takes five or six near-misses and only three direct hits, but these are 1,000-pound bombs, which is too much for the ex-submarine tanker. Devoured by the flames, she sinks about an hour later. Only one bomber is shot down by the flak.
On the Royal Navy side, the fighter command knows one thing: the British aircraft carriers are relatively well protected against bombs, but the torpedoes are relatively well protected against bombs, but Japanese torpedoes are very dangerous! So, as soon as the first radar contacts were made, only one squadron of Sea-Hurricanes is sent to altitude, while the other squadron of Sea- Hurricanes and the Seafire squadron are ordered to stop the torpedo bombers. "We decided to apply the method that had worked well in 1940, with the RAF during the Battle of Britain," Danny Potter told Yvon Lagadec some time later. "The Hurricanes had to take care of the bombers and we had to protect them from the escort fighters. And it worked out pretty well."
Typical British understatement: although the Japanese deliberately had chosen to devote the entire meager escort of ten Zeros to the sixteen B5N2s, the raid is massacred by the FAA fighters, ideally placed by the fighter director, and by the flak of the Eastern Fleet. Seven Zeros and twelve B5N2s are shot down, in exchange for three Seafires and two Hurricanes. Potter himself takes two Zeros.
At altitude, the picture is quite different, but for reasons that had more to do with the battlefield than to the combat science of either side. The Japanese raid is made up of 18 D3As from the Junyo and 9 from the Ryuho, but their pilots are not used to flying together. That is why a D4Y is assigned as a guide to each group.
While they are still at a distance from the British fleet, the radar operator of the Indomitable suddenly sees a small group of echoes appearing on his screen, coming from more or less the direction of the enemy. But these planes are quickly identified as the five failed Barracudas, which limp back. As the Japanese are waiting, the carrier maneuver to come into the wind to pick up the cripples. The attack surprises the cruiser Cornwall, recently assigned to the escort of the Indomitable. It is now difficult to know what happened on the bridge of the cruiser, but in a few minutes, it finds itself well away from the aircraft carrier. It is at this moment that, in the group of the Ryuho, someone yells:
"A battleship!"... it is the Cornwall. Enthused by this beautiful target, the nine D3As rush to the attack without listening to the orders of the D4Y pilot who is supposed to guide them...who end up following them. In the absence of any British fighter and having to face a weak flak, the bombers carry out their attack and the unfortunate cruiser takes four 250 kg bombs and as many 60 kg bombs, other projectiles falling in the sea nearby. The only shot down aircraft is... the D4Y, which seems to have been a victim of the structural weakness of the wing of this model more than of the flak. But this is not a good thing for the Cornwall, as the Judy crashes into the cruiser - the impact, near the bridge, is devastating, killing the cruiser's commander and several of its officers. When the Ryuho's planes moved away, the cruiser is in agony.
Meanwhile, on the Indomitable, where it was finally decided to order the Barracuda to go elsewhere for a while, the fighter director directs to the Junyo's bombers the Sea-Hurricane squadron kept for this purpose. Without escort, barely outnumbering their opponents, the Val's attack is broken. Those who cross the defensive curtain of fighters are the target of a very efficient flak, particularly that of the CLAA Charybdis. No less than ten are shot down, and the others get only one hit on the carrier. But the bomb does not damage the armor (similar to that of the Illustrious, which had proven itself against the twice as heavy Stuka projectiles) and the carrier is left with a large black spot... and five dead and as many wounded.
.........
Andaman Sea, mid-day - After this exchange of raids, the Royal Navy has the advantage in terms of naval air power... But the Imperial Navy has one more card to play: the aviation of the 21st Koku Sentai.
Learning that Kondo had ordered his carriers to launch their attack without delay, C-Am. Ishimaru rushes the preparation of his squadrons, but the raid is nevertheless hours late when it arrived in the combat zone. From the confusion, the coordinates of the British fleet were not transmitted with precision (unless they were wrong at the beginning). This vagueness has little effect on the 48 G4M2s [Betty] that launch themselves to the assault, 24 armed with bombs and 24 with torpedoes: they will eventually find their target after having wandered for a moment. On the other hand, the Zeros that must cover them are not the old A6M2s.
They are A6M3s, slightly less vulnerable, but with a range that is 20 % shorter. As a result, the Japanese ground-based fighters will not be engaged, either because they lost the bombers they were supposed to protect, or that the planes had to return to their base to avoid running out of fuel...
When the British radars announce the arrival of the twin-engine bombers, it is panic. The aircraft carriers had just recovered their planes to complete the refuelling of the fighters, which will take off progressively and launch themselves on the G4Ms in a scattered order. Danny Potter's account to Yvon Lagadec is typical: "Everyone got restless all of a sudden, me and the others.
I dropped the sandwich I was eating and jumped into my Seafire, which fortunately the mechanics had just refueled. When I took off, the radio was announcing bandits at 110, I switched to them, congratulating myself for not being on a Martlet, where I would have had to crank up the gear!
A few seconds later, I was right in front of a Betty coming in low to the water. I opened fire on instinct - with our combined speeds, I was sure to miss. Hey well, I saw my shells hit him right on the cockpit, there was some splintering and he dove into the sea. While I had many other things to worry about, I thought of you and said to myself, "That damn Frenchie is going to make fun of me and tell me that with such luck, not one, all my girlfriends are cheating on me!"*
While thinking this nonsense, I did a reversal and found myself behind a whole wave of Betty's heading for our aircraft carriers. Here, however, I was in a very good position in their six o'clock position and I soon adjusted one of them. I hit him in the right wing, the engine caught fire and the wing was torn off. I immediately spotted another bomber running parallel to the first one, course correction, aiming, fire, boom, I got it on the left wing! That's when my engine started to knock - it must have a piece of Japanese scrap metal - and a red light came on on my dashboard. I looked up and saw, right in front of me, the Indomitable, back to me - in fact, of course, he was painting the trajectory of the torpedoes that the Japs were firing at him. Well, I thought to myself, I'm in a good position to land!
Apparently my luck was still good, because I made it. Well, almost.
At the last moment, my engine completely failed and the last few feet of my flare were, uh, out of control. My landing was so rough that I probably would have blown a hole in the deck of an American aircraft carrier, but as everyone knows, our carriers are designed to withstand the impact of a sinking Seafire without any difficulty. And I found myself in the middle of the deck, flying half an aircraft. Well, the yellow dogs were kind enough to pull me out before pushing the wreckage into the sea...
It hadn't been five minutes since I had taken off."
After "a very lively time," as Somerville said, the Japanese bombers fly away (they lost a dozen of them, notably to anti-aircraft cruisers) and the Eastern Fleet takes stock.
The bombs, dropped in horizontal flight by planes whose crews did not have the experienceof their predecessors who fell at Guadalcanal, raised impressive sprays of water, but no ship was hit.
However, the Victorious was hit by a torpedo. It hit on the port side.
Thanks to its 4-inch armored belt, the hull resisted rather well, but a boiler air supply box was smashed. The water rushed in through the heating fans; it extinguished one of the six boilers by the combustion chamber and the speed of the aircraft carrier fell sharply to less than 10 knots. However, after an hour of frantic work to isolate the affected boiler and better distribute the steam intake to all the turbines, the ship was able to resume its course at 14 to 15 knots.
Finally, the unfortunate destroyer Ithuriel, already shaken by a bomb, was crucified by a torpedo which was probably not intended for it, but which broke it in two.
It sank in a few minutes.
.........
Sabang - While the fleets are fighting, the fighting resumes on the island. The 3rd SNLF, supported by Japanese artillery fire and even by the big guns of the battleship Hyuga, breaks through the allied front. Around noon, the whole defense line collapses.
The defenders, who had hoped to be evacuated by the fleet in case of a Japanese landing, it is panic. In the evening, all resistance ceases.
.........
Andaman Sea, at the end of the day - With rage in his heart, Somerville realizes that he has no means to come to Sabang's aid. It's a good thing the Victorious can withdraw without too much trouble.
In the afternoon, a Catalina reports that the three Japanese battleships are heading north and estimate their speed (somewhat excessively) at 25 knots. Will they inflict the ignominious fate of the Glorious in 1940? The arrival of the Nelson and the Rodney calms the English worries a little. Shortly afterwards, the Victorious reports that she can now make 20 knots - indeed, the damage control teams had secured the water inlet to the fresh air supply and recommissioned the boilers adjacent to the one that was flooded.
Regardless, it's time to call it quits.
.........
Across the street, Kondo initially believed the reports of his airmen, who announced that they had sunk a carrier and those of the pilots of the 21st Koku Sentai, who claimed another aircraft carrier and a battleship! At that moment, he briefly ordered his battleships to "move north as quickly as possible to finish off the enemy."
After reflection, it became clear that the damage inflicted on the Royal Navy had to be reduced. Since the SNLF, on their side, had finally cracked the defenders of Sabang, it was time to take a step back... Kondo turns the battleships around and pulls back everyone.
The battle of the Andaman Sea is over.
* Danny Potter was known for his success with women. The specialized press has echoed after the war, of his affair with a young woman of the royal family...
