April 13th, 1943
Indian Ocean (Andaman Sea) - Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall of Sqn 413, in Port Blair, spends a long time in front of the map. If it is indeed a Japanese fleet the Catalina had spotted the day before, if it is heading straight for Port Blair at 25 knots, by dawn, it will be... here. Right on the ocean. No need to watch the waves
closer to the Andaman. The Wellingtons will take off well before dawn, they will have nothing to see during the first hour of flight anyway. But as you never know, the Catalinas will take off at first light.
.........
The Wellington A for Able takes off in the middle of the night like its six teammates (the eighth had an engine problem). The pilot-officer L.A. Leicester is at the controls.
"It's very beautiful, a sunrise over the Indian Ocean, especially from the air. But hey, of course, we weren't looking at the colors that made the sky look like a shimmering silk fabric... We were wearing out our eyes trying to spot a wake, and preferably several. The first one to spot something would get a free drink at the mess in the evening. At my post, I was far from being the best person to see something. But I was the one who hit the jackpot - in my radio headphones.
A frying sound of the same kind I had learned to recognize over occupied Europe the year before. There was a German-made radar in the area. On a guess, I tried to head to the side where the frying was stronger and bingo! It was the forward gunner, Sgt. Ira Bennett, who started yelling:
"Skipper! I see them, I see them! Tonight, I want a free drink too!"
I told him OK - if there was anything left to drink after the Japs passed. Because you could see two aircraft carriers launching everything they had..."
Either the radar operator of the Junyo (which has the best radar in the fleet) was distracted by the launch of the raid, or that the fighters on patrol were not properly directed: A for Able is not worried.
.........
At Port Blair, the Wellington's message, quite accurate (two aircraft carriers, two battleships, four or five cruisers and ten destroyers at least), triggers effervescence. The Spitfires wait until the last moment to take off and climb in order to welcome the enemy. The Blenheim IVs take off alone, counting on the cloud cover to sneak up on the enemy fleet before a semi-diving attack.
But on the seaplane base, the distance to be covered is estimated. About 400 miles.
"Nautical miles," growls Andrew Sewell, 804's commander, "not statute miles!" At this distance, his Floatfires would have difficulty escorting the Northrop N-3PBs of the 10F. It is to be expected that time will be lost searching for the target and that a fight will consume a lot of oil... "Don't worry," smiles CC Jean Maudron, of the 10F, tapping his nose, "I have a nose for it, we'll go straight there!"
But he too knows that it is unlikely that he will still have an escort when he arrives on the Japanese fleet.
Nevertheless, the eighteen N-3PBs take off in great sprays of water, followed by the twelve Floatfires.
.........
Leaving first, the Japanese raid strikes around 08:40. Forty bombers escorted by twelve Zeros. The 14 operational Spitfires of Sqn 132 are waiting for them, but the Japanese fighters interpose themselves and the pilots of the bombers show their usual Japanese impassivity - despite the losses, they do not break formation and carru out their attack to the end. The Port Blair facility is hit hard, and, as the Japanese planes fly away, great plumes of smoke rise into the sky. The attackers lost nine aircraft (two Zero, two Kate and five Val) in exchange for three Spitfires.
.........
About an hour later, the Blenheims of 211 arrive at the supposed position of the fleet, but see only a deserted ocean. They turn around for more than twenty minutes before spotting the enemy. During this time, the Japanese radar detected them and all their available Zeros - twenty-two - take off. But as the fighters begin to climb, one of the fighters that had taken off from the Ryuho lets out a cry of alarm: torpedo bombers! They are indeed the N-3PBs of the 10F. Ensign Georges Lejoyeux follows his leader closely - it is his first combat.
"The Pasha did not lead us straight to the Japanese, but almost: we only had to turn about ten minutes before we saw them. But we all knew that ten minutes were too long for the Floatfire and that we were going to be naked when it came time to attack. All of a sudden, the sky and the sea, just below us, were filled with tracers and shell explosions, I felt like the Fourteenth of July, in the role of a firework! In the headphones, the Pasha was calmly giving his orders: Blue (it was him, and eight others including me) by the right, Green (the nine others) by the left, it was necessary to take the aircraft carriers in pincer, but where were they, these aircraft carriers? He seemed to know, and I followed him, telling myself that I would end up seeing them too. Someone shouted, "Zero's overhead, at eight o'clock, they're coming towards us!" I realized that we had lost the other wingman of the Pasha, I never knew whether it was the flak or a Zero that got him. And then we heard the most wonderful music in our headphones: the voice of Squadron Leader Sewell. "Hullo Blue Leader, this is Red Leader, I take care of your ass. Yellow Leader is covering your Green buddies!" The Floatfire of the 804 had not let us go!
The rest of the fight remains confused in my memory. I finally saw the aircraft carriers. I saw the carriers and dropped my torpedoes, I could hear my gunner yelling at the Zeros and firing everything he could.
I tried to follow the Pasha but he wasn't there anymore, so I headed for Port Blair and found myself alone between sky and sea.
On the way back, I first got lost, then I found my way back, in the end I was almost out of oil, fortunately, you couldn't miss Port Blair, with columns of smoke visible for I don't know how many miles. I landed easily, but when I got out of my cockpit, I was as wet as if I had been in the water. The mechanics were making a funny face. I quickly realized that by now, no one was expected to return, and nine of the eighteen planes were missing. One of them was the Pasha's. The eight others that had returned were pierced like skimmers, but mine was intact!
As for the guys of the 804... None of the twelve had returned. Well, no Floatfire.
Sewell had told his guys at the last minute that there was no way we were going to be left alone and that they would be picked up on the way back by Catalinas...
And it was true: six of their guys got away with it (the Catalina pilots said they were yelling so loudly on the radio to be picked up just before they went to the bathhouse that we had to hear them from Tokyo!). But Squadron Leader Andrew Sewell stayed there.
Since that day, the planes of the 10F also carry the 804 badge and those of the 804 the 10F insignia."
.........
The Floatfires of the 804, at a great disadvantage because of their floats, nevertheless shot down four Zeros (including one by Lt. R.J. Cork and one by Lt. Blake, both of whom were among the survivors). Most importantly, they prevented the total destruction of the 10F.
But the courage of the English and French aviators could only obtain a mediocre result: only one torpedo hit the target, and it did not hit one of the targeted aircraft carriers but the small heavy cruiser Kako. Hit at the level of the front boiler room, it has to stop.
It is then that the twelve Blenheims appear. It seems that the cries of the Japanese director of the fighters who had spotted them on his radar screen were drowned out by the noise on the frequencies as the Zeros fought the Floatfires and N-3PBs. As a result, the twin-engine semi-dives went unopposed.
But the Blenheim crews only ever bombed ships during training, and the conditions of the battle are quite different!
Three of them attacked the biggest target in sight: the battleship Mutsu. A 500-pound bomb scratches the colossus, destroying a double-masked 127mm AA mount and killing or wounding most of its crew, while the flak shoots down one of the twin-engine planes.
Six aircraft attack the easiest target : the Kako, immobilized. The cruiser receives a 500-pound bomb which explodes at the level of the avia installations, destroying a seaplane and starting a fire. A 250-pound bomb disembowels the connecting duct between the already hit boiler room and the forward stack, causing steam to billow from a boiler already damaged by the torpedo explosion. Another 250-pound bomb demolishes a 120mm anti-aircraft mount. The Japanese safety teams respond effectively and bring the fires under control, while the front boiler room is isolated, to allow for a controlled flooding. The cruiser sinks slightly but keeps a stable list and attitude.
Finally, three Blenheims attack the Junyo, but only succeed in shaking it as two near-misses riddle the hull with shrapnel, but without much damage.
That's the end of it. The first round of the Battle of the Andaman was a close call.
The most notable result is that the Japanese have lost the Kako, which is out of action. However, the cruiser is able to resume its course at 10 knots, with the forward boiler room drowned and fires extinguished. It is sent back to Singapore, accompanied by the only destroyer Yugiri.
.........
On board the Mutsu, Kondo is reasonably satisfied. He has suffered limited losses and is convinced that he has eliminated the Andaman air strike force - this is true, given the Blenheims' lack of expertise. His plan can follow its course.
In the afternoon, he would launch the battleships towards Port Blair, with the Naka and six destroyers. In addition to their original mission, they will target two interesting prey that the airmen had reported: a cruiser and a light aircraft carrier! It is of course the small Tynwald (whose dense anti-aircraft fire was an illusion) and the poor Commandant-Teste, which never carried a single aircraft*...
Meanwhile, the aircraft carriers, with the Chokai, the Abukuma and the other destroyers, will sail straight to Rangoon.
.........
As Kondo had predicted, the afternoon is calm. The defenders of Port Blair were prepared for a second wave that would not come. Not having the means to launch a new attack, the British are content to watch from afar, thanks to the Wellingtons and Catalinas of Sqn 413, the movements of the Japanese fleet. However, it seems that the separation of the fleet into two groups was not spotted, or that it was considered temporary and due to the normal maneuvers of the launching and maneuvers of the carriers launching and recovering their CAPs.
Far to the west, Somerville and the Eastern Fleet had sailed, of course, but slowly, slowed down by the heavy Nelson and Rodney.
* In addition to the hundreds of aircraft it flew - from December 31st, 1939 to June 18th, 1940, it flew about 300 aircraft from France to Algeria and Lebanon, mainly training aircraft, before devoting itself to the delivery of American aircraft to NAF.