This chapter represented a slight departure as Brazen who also lurks here helped my grammar etc and fleshed it out for me . I have kept my original grammar and mistakes in the previous chapters for this reason . Yes I can and will return and rewrite this story one day with some changes but I posted it as is so the progression in writing could be seen .
Part 4.
Time 0045,
Flag quarters on the HMS Warspite.
127nautical miles south of Christmas Island.
James Somerville was rudely awakened from a rather pleasant dream by the shrill ringing of the phone from the bridge.
“Captains compliments Sir, he requests that you join him in the navigation room”
"Thank you, I’ll be there shortly".
Admiral Somerville stretched himself, and pulled on the fresh white dress shirt his steward seemed to have an endless supply of, took a quick bite of the rather stale corned beef sandwich and proceeded to the navigation room. As he entered the room another message was received. The message slip was offered to the captain. He took one look at it grinned and handed it to the Admiral. The news was definitely good but a cause for concern.
"3 cruisers sunk and a battleship damaged admiral, that’s a very good effort for a green squadron, let’s hope the other attacks bring similar results.” said Captain Hutton.
Somerville examined the flimsy “I doubt they sank three cruisers, it’s almost certain they hit something but I think they may be overestimating. The message definitely states 2 Fuso or Ise battleships though.”
“Might be a bit of a handful for us sir, they outgun us pretty comprehensively” Captain Fitzroy Patrick Hutton said as he passed an enamel mug of tea to the Admiral.
“I’m aware of that Pat, but this could our only chance of intercepting battleships with next to no air cover. Ask the Pilot to work out an interception course please. “
Several minutes later the Pilot approached his captain and Admiral Somerville.
“They are approximately 210 nm away from us on a bearing of 54 degrees according to the information the Aussie Flyboys have passed on; they are heading straight for Christmas Island on a heading of 264 degrees. We could intercept them before they get into position to bombard Christmas Island at around 0500 if we maintain 20 knots. We should be in position off Christmas Island and have the rising sun at their backs to silhouette them. Our calculated point of interception is 15 nm off Christmas Island at 05:00.
“That’s a very precise report Pilot”.
“I try my best Sir, if the Aussies can be trusted to know which end of the compass to use.”
“Ha, you better not let old Frank Getting in the Canberra hear you say that pilot, he might bring back keel hauling” said Somerville, lightening the mood in the Plotting room, bringing smiles form some of the nearby ratings.
“Back to work, let’s make it happen please Gentlemen” returning to the job in hand, Somerville turned to his Staff.
“Pass instructions to the rest of the fleet, standard battle formation as we have practiced. Send the carriers to the far side of the Island with their usual brood and have them operate well away from the area we will be meeting our oriental visitors. I want search aircraft up at 1st light, the Albacores ready for a Torpedo strike and a CAP up ASAP in case of scout planes“
“Yes Sir” replied the slightly haggard looking Flag lieutenant.
“Got that?”
“Yes Sir” acknowledged the suddenly alert Flag lieutenant, repeating Somerville’s instructions.
“Excellent! We will go to action stations at 04:00, could we make sure the ships crews have been fed and watered by then as well please. Wake me in 3 hours, until then I’ll leave things in your capable hands Pat and retire to my sea cabin".
“Good night Sir” Replied Captain Hutton, saluting as the Admiral left the plot house.
Admiral Somerville left the bridge, knowing full well that he wouldn’t sleep but needing some time alone to plan, if any more information became available they would soon let him know. Captain Hutton however began the process of preparing the proud old girl for action. Orders were passed to the rest of the fleet via VHF and the striking forces started to take shape.
Slowly the 2 divisions took formation and then separated, Formidable and Indomitable pulled over port with their companions HMS Caledon and HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerk, while the destroyers HMS Express, HMS Fortune, HMS Inconstant and HNLMS Isaac Sweers formed a protective cordon around the precious carriers.
HMS Warspite held steady on the interception course while the rest of the fleet formed around her, HMAS Canberra formed on her starboard side with HMAS Perth on her port side, with HMAS Nizam, Nepal and Napier took position ahead and to either side while HMAS Norman swept along behind.
The scouting force of HMS Frobisher, HMS Emerald and HMS Enterprise worked up to 27 knots, foaming bow waves effervescing in the moon light as the 3 old cruisers sped ahead to form a scouting line, HMAS Nestor and HMS Panther powered past HMS Warspite to form up on the 3 scouting cruisers, the 5 ships making an impressive sight in the soft moon light as they swept NNE to their forward positions.
HIJMS Ise
Flag bridge 01:30
On the flag bridge of the Ise Admiral Kondo put down his cup of tea and turned towards Captain Isamu Takeda.
“The Sankaidan shells seemed to be effective in the last attack Isamu?”
“I think so Admiral, if for nothing more than scaring the pilots off”
“Well I don’t doubt that we will be seeing the torpedo bombers again, so we will go with your proposal, load all main guns with the Sankaidan shells and have them ready to fire as soon as they come into range, However Isamu we don’t want to fire more than 2 more salvos of those wretched things as they ruin the liners”
“Understood admiral, the Gunnery officer will be most upset if we fire more, some of the rifles are quite worn as it is.”
“Would you like some more tea captain?”
“No thank you admiral, I wish to return to the bridge and keep an eye on the situation”
“Ahh most commendable, I would like to launch our Type Zeros in a search pattern to the south, can one also see if they can contact the invasion force, I would like to know where our fighter cover is”
“I will pass on the orders to your staff admiral and ready our scouts”
“Excellent, according to our intelligence the Royal Navy has 4 Battleships in the Indian Ocean, Most of those are supposedly supporting the invasion of Madagascar, and one of our submarines was reported to have sunk one. However I’m a little sceptical of the performance of our underwater brothers so I would like to make sure we will not be surprised. Admiral Nagumo swept through the Indian Ocean a few months ago; in theory they should be in no fit state to interfere with our plans, however it’s always wise to take precautions”.
Christmas Island 2:15
The Briefing tent at Christmas Island was very very quiet, with quite a lot of pensive looking aircrew; a Flight Lieutenant stood up and said what they were all thinking.
“No more bloody flares, they lit us up like training targets for that 2nd run, I’d prefer to take my chances with a low level run in the dark”
The rest of the room murmured their agreement until the Wing commander cleared his throat.
“Well it shouldn’t be a problem this time as the sky will be getting light, we will attack from the dark towards the sunrise, we will be going back in a soon as Keith’s Beaufort has been dragged off the runway and the old girls are rearmed”.
The wing Commander continued the briefing outlining the attack plan to the gathered crews, only 14 MkXIV torpedoes were ready for the next attack so 10 Beauforts would be going in with 500lb bombs, using shallow dive-bombing attacks synchronized with the torpedo carrying Beauforts attack. Once again Sunderland “C” would be providing a homing signal for the attack. The group broke up and some of the pilots went to watch the Beaufighters coming in to land.
The Beaufighters floated into land and taxied to dispersal, one of them looked a little ragged with bullet holes in the starboard wing and slightly blackened paint work, the pilot jumped out and excitedly started talking to his ground crew, who gave a little cheer which attracted a crowd of people to the happy looking crew, soon the word was out the Beaufighters had managed to inflict some serious damage on the Japanese carrier leaving it in flames but still steaming, this was an added bonus to most of the aircrew but especially to the Beaufort pilots who feared that the ships may have a fighter escort. The ground crew set about re arming the Beaufort strike with a renewed vigour, animatedly chatting while arming the next strike.
03:30 hours Christmas Island
“BANG”
The puff of smoke from the starter cartridge was whipped away to nothing as the rough, unharmonised coughing turned into a throaty roar as the Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp run up to full power. This was swiftly followed by 47 more of the big radials being brought to life as the Beauforts got ready to assail the Japanese fleet once again. The strip was becoming covered with billowing dust clouds as the lead Beaufort taxied from it’s dispersal to the end of the runway.
Running the engines up to full power the Pilot released the brakes and trundled down the runway kicking up dust, the tail came up at the halfway point but the overloaded Beau was struggling to reach her take off speed. Just as the pilot started to call the Beau some really interesting names the big Bristol bomber floated into the air and easily cleared the trees at the end of the runway, quickly clearing his flaps and landing gear the pilot banked to port to see another Beau lifting off the dirt strip and turning in to join him in the circuit.
Within 30 min the 24 bombers formed up into 2 loose formations and turned towards the beacon signal coming from the ever reliable Sunderland ”C”. At a point approximately 40 miles from the Japanese battle group the smaller formation started their climb up to 6000ft while the torpedo carrying aircraft slowly descended to 500ft for the initial run in. The experienced pilots selected for the torpedo attack started to spread out into the attack pattern and started to gradually reduce height for the attack run.
Battlespace
The Japanese gunners had been kept on edge over the past few hours by the close attentions of the circling Sunderland, listening to the big flying boat lazily keeping the formation under observation while out of gun range had been slowly driving the gun crews crazy, now they final had a chance to open up on the incoming torpedo bombers. The cruisers and Destroyers opened up with their main weapons, sending water spouts up into the air in front of the bobbing and weaving torp bombers.
On the Japanese battleships twelve 14” turrets ominously trained to starboard and elevated slightly, then fired at the incoming torpedo bombers, 23 projectiles sped towards the Beauforts exploding in front of them, too far away to cause any real harm to the attacking aircraft, however one of the Sankaidan shells exploded seconds after leaving the barrel of the Ise almost directly overhead the destroyer Shimakaze.
The people on the front end of the Minekazi class destroyer didn’t know what had hit them, the blast and shrapnel from the shell ripped into the forward gun mounts and bridge structure of the hapless destroyer, almost everyone on the front end of the destroyer including the Captain, bridge staff and the crew in the wheel house died before they had a chance to register what had happened as the forward part of the ship was lacerated by shrapnel, the destroyer was also well ablaze by now, the incendiaries taking advantage of the lack of able bodies to fight the fires, smoke billowing from round the forward guns and the bridge.
The Beauforts eased down to 80ft for the final run in, bucking and lifting from the rising air currents the pilots sweated profusely as they worked on keeping the big torpedo bombers level while slewing from side to side to put the Japanese gunners off their aim. The barrage they were having to fly into looked awe inspiring in the morning twilight, light tracer whipping past the aircraft and tall water spouts splashing up in front of the speeding aircraft, one of the Beauforts took several rounds in the port wing and engine, a trail of oil falling from the nacelle, the pilot jettisoned the torpedo and pulled the bomber up into a climbing turn, struggling for height with a misfiring engine and turned towards Christmas island.
The remaining 13 started selecting their targets, helped by the brightly burning Shimakaze acting as a marker, as the range closed a Beaufort in the second flight flew into one of the water spouts thrown up by the cruiser Abukuma’s 5.5” guns, the speeding aircraft stopped dead as if it had hit a concrete wall and was dragged down into the sea, taking her unfortunate crew her, still the remaining 12 aircraft bored into attack the Japanese fleet.
The range was quickly decreasing as the Beauforts closed to release range, but the response from the Japanese ships was intensifying, close range machine guns throwing up walls of tracer as the bombers neared the outer line of escorts, a 3rd Beau was hit and fire started to spread along it’s port wing but the pilot held formation with the other aircraft unfortunately in his bravery he was acting as a beacon for the AA gunners.
At ranges between 1000 to 1500 yards the Beauforts released there deadly payload and traded a little height for extra speed as they swept through the formation, the rear gunners got in the act sweeping the ships with their .303” Vickers guns achieving very little but being glad of the chance to hit back. The burning Beaufort released its torpedo at the Ise and tried to pull out, but the weakened port wing started to buckle and the bomber side slipped into the rear super structure of the Ise disappearing in a cloud of flame and smoke, the battle ship shrugged off the impact and carried on in formation while the damage control crews fought the flames around the rear 4.7” secondary turret and the rear superstructure.
Signals flashed between the ships as the fleet strangely turned into the oncoming torpedo’s, the Starboard turn was a credit to the discipline and control of the Japanese crews and officers as the fleet turned almost as one into the oncoming threat, however there was one small problem that Admiral Kondo had not taken into consideration, the stricken Shimakaze continued on her present course due to loss of all her command officers and crew to the Sankadian shell, the massive bulk of the Hyuga tore into the wounded Destroyer just in front of the bridge, tearing through her thin hull plates, severing and driving the front portion of the destroyer under the battle ship, the aft section became entangled for a few moments then started to grind down the Starboard side of the battleship gouging holes in the un-armoured front end of the ship, it was then that the only torpedo that found it’s target smashed into the aft section of the sinking destroyer.
The torpedo demolished the starboard side of the destroyer, tearing the engine rooms open to the sea and driving the hull back against the Hyuga and renting the battleships TDS open to the sea for around 100ft, the remaining section of the destroyer hull slid free and turned onto her beam ends as some of the crew tried to escape the rapidly sinking ship she fell behind the rapidly disappearing battleship.
The rest of the torpedo’s caused a few moments of stress and worry as they passed through the rest of the fleet but none found a target, as the crews of the ships relaxed the dive bombers nosed over into their attack, the big Beauforts had never been built with this kind of attack in mind so a shallow dive was the best they could manage, building up speed the pilots aimed for the battle ships in the centre of the formation, slowly the Japanese gunners reacted to the new threat and light flak started to worry the bombers.
No one could fault the bravery of the 10 dive bombers, but it was an attack they had never been trained for so it came as no surprise that the results were poor, 6 of the bombers selected the burning Ise as their target, the battleship disappeared in a deluge of water spouts but emerged unscathed if a little shaken, and maybe just a little cleaner, on the other side. Four of the pilots nosed over towards the Hyuga once again the bombs were released this time they got a little closer, one off the 500lb bombs landing close to the damaged starboard side of the battleship, inflicting slightly more damage to the TDS and knocking out some electrical fittings with the impact.
The dive bombers streaked away catching up with the torpedo bombers as they headed back towards Christmas Island, which was now less than 100km away tiredness now started taking an effect as they climbed to join the landing pattern
Sunderland “C” 04:28
To the crew of the circling Sunderland the attack had looked impressive but after the last of the Beauforts had raced back towards Christmas Island only 1 less blip was present on the radar as the crew settled back into their routine shadowing of the Japanese formation.
Fifteen minutes later as the Sunderland reached the extremity of the western leg of its search pattern; a faint blip was detected at maximum range on a bearing of approximately 225° heading towards the Japanese ships still stoically heading towards Christmas Island