The Run Home pt 2
By the next morning, the fleet was well clear of both Germany and Norway, steaming north east to get back home. However there was one more action before they finally made it clear. It was obvious that the Luftwaffe was still searching for them; as the weather today was cloudy, and it would not have been possible to detect a searchplane before it reported in, it had been decided to use the radar. They were now too far away for coastal monitoring to be useful, and it seemed unlikely that any plane could pick the emissions up. They did, however, stay under radio silence (all necessary reports had been made yesterday while under attack, since at that point it didn't make any difference).
The radar showed an occasional echo which they thought were planes searching for them, but the only close contact came at 1300. This was a single plane, and as they did not detect any signals from it, it was thought they hadn't been spotted. In fact they had, and the planes radio was picked up shortly afterwards, by which time there wasn't much point in sending a fighter after it.
As it seemed likely there was time for an attack before dusk, the carriers sent up a new CAP and landed the old one so as to give the ones airborne maximum endurance. After yesterdays experience, 9 fighters were spotted on each carrier, 3 fully warmed up. At1600 a large formation (22 planes) was detected approaching from the south at 50 miles. The ready planes were launched, and the rest warmed up to be launched as soon as possible. Meanwhile the CAP gained height, as these planes were at 15,000 feet. It wasn't clear what the planes were until they got visual contact; the formation was coming in fast, and at first it was thought they might have been Me110's, which were thought capable of a fighter-bomber role. When they were seen, they were identified as Ju88's.
The first interception was made at about 15 miles from the carriers, the Goshawks bouncing the enemy from above. This was made easier as they were steadily losing height, and it was assumed that they would try a level bombing at around 10,000 feet to gain accuracy. The Ju88 was a fast plane, as had been found out at Scapa, and as a result it took time to make multiple attacks against it. The earlier actions against the plane had, though, shown it was very vulnerable to the defenders 20mm cannon. The first group of planes shot down 4 Ju88's in their initial attack, then turned to close and attack again. After the debacle yesterday, it had been decided that the planes would not be called off until they attack closed to 5 miles, and at that point the decision was up to the carrier.
Nive more fighters were heading for the formation, and as they were now only 10 miles from the fleet they made a head-on attack, which resulted in 3 more Ju88's either shot down or turned away with damage. There were still 15 planes heading for the fleet. The original CAP had by now caught up with the fast bombers again, and another 2 were brought down, 2 more retreating with obvious damage and trailing smoke. The remaining 11 saw yet another group of fighters heading for them, and at this point obviously decided to pick a target and get home, leaving the carriers alone as too difficult a target.
Instead, they went for the nearest ship, which was the cruiser Southampton. What they did next surprised the defending fighters - they dropped into a dive-bombing attack. No-one had expected such a large plane to have this capability, and as a result the fighters did not react until they had started their dives. Sounthamptons close range AA engaged the first group of 3 planes, while the fighters went for the 4 that still had not started their dives; due to the confusion, only one of these was shot down, the other dropped their bombs at random into the North Sea and escaped.
The cruiser wasn't as heavily equipped with light AA as desired, but she was firing everything she had. It was noted later that the defence seemed to confirm what had already been suspected (and would also be confirmed by the after-strike reports from the FAA own attacking planes), that the tracer streams seemed to make the attackers react more. The light AA failed to shoot down any of the 3 attackers, however none of them managed any hits, although the impressively tall waterspouts were close enough to the ship to soak men on the upper deck and bridge.
The second group of 3 were more successful. One bomb hit right forward, destroying the ships cable locker and some crew quarters - fortunately empty as everyone was at action stations, and starting a fire in her paint locker. The other was far more damaging, the 250kg bomb penetrating the ships armour and impacting in her forward boiler room. the ship slewed to a stop as power was temporarily lost due to shock damage, and a large fire developed around the ships seaplane, probably caused by a shell splinter igniting the fuel.
It was lucky for the Southampton that this was the last attack that day. While the fire would take a considerable time to quell, the one forward was not terribly dangerous, and once the fuel had burnt the one amidships was also brought under control. Power was restored quickly - the aft boilers and generators were undamaged, and while there was flooding due to the bomb, this did not spread further through the ship. As the air threat seemed to have passed, the fleet split into two section. Two destroyers and the AA cruiser HMS Curlew remained with Southampton to aid her, the rest of the ships continued to head for home. Half an hour after he damage, Southampton signalled she could make 20knots (in fact, she actually worked up to 23, the engineers understandably reluctant to take longer than necessary to get home)
By the next morning, the fleet was well clear of both Germany and Norway, steaming north east to get back home. However there was one more action before they finally made it clear. It was obvious that the Luftwaffe was still searching for them; as the weather today was cloudy, and it would not have been possible to detect a searchplane before it reported in, it had been decided to use the radar. They were now too far away for coastal monitoring to be useful, and it seemed unlikely that any plane could pick the emissions up. They did, however, stay under radio silence (all necessary reports had been made yesterday while under attack, since at that point it didn't make any difference).
The radar showed an occasional echo which they thought were planes searching for them, but the only close contact came at 1300. This was a single plane, and as they did not detect any signals from it, it was thought they hadn't been spotted. In fact they had, and the planes radio was picked up shortly afterwards, by which time there wasn't much point in sending a fighter after it.
As it seemed likely there was time for an attack before dusk, the carriers sent up a new CAP and landed the old one so as to give the ones airborne maximum endurance. After yesterdays experience, 9 fighters were spotted on each carrier, 3 fully warmed up. At1600 a large formation (22 planes) was detected approaching from the south at 50 miles. The ready planes were launched, and the rest warmed up to be launched as soon as possible. Meanwhile the CAP gained height, as these planes were at 15,000 feet. It wasn't clear what the planes were until they got visual contact; the formation was coming in fast, and at first it was thought they might have been Me110's, which were thought capable of a fighter-bomber role. When they were seen, they were identified as Ju88's.
The first interception was made at about 15 miles from the carriers, the Goshawks bouncing the enemy from above. This was made easier as they were steadily losing height, and it was assumed that they would try a level bombing at around 10,000 feet to gain accuracy. The Ju88 was a fast plane, as had been found out at Scapa, and as a result it took time to make multiple attacks against it. The earlier actions against the plane had, though, shown it was very vulnerable to the defenders 20mm cannon. The first group of planes shot down 4 Ju88's in their initial attack, then turned to close and attack again. After the debacle yesterday, it had been decided that the planes would not be called off until they attack closed to 5 miles, and at that point the decision was up to the carrier.
Nive more fighters were heading for the formation, and as they were now only 10 miles from the fleet they made a head-on attack, which resulted in 3 more Ju88's either shot down or turned away with damage. There were still 15 planes heading for the fleet. The original CAP had by now caught up with the fast bombers again, and another 2 were brought down, 2 more retreating with obvious damage and trailing smoke. The remaining 11 saw yet another group of fighters heading for them, and at this point obviously decided to pick a target and get home, leaving the carriers alone as too difficult a target.
Instead, they went for the nearest ship, which was the cruiser Southampton. What they did next surprised the defending fighters - they dropped into a dive-bombing attack. No-one had expected such a large plane to have this capability, and as a result the fighters did not react until they had started their dives. Sounthamptons close range AA engaged the first group of 3 planes, while the fighters went for the 4 that still had not started their dives; due to the confusion, only one of these was shot down, the other dropped their bombs at random into the North Sea and escaped.
The cruiser wasn't as heavily equipped with light AA as desired, but she was firing everything she had. It was noted later that the defence seemed to confirm what had already been suspected (and would also be confirmed by the after-strike reports from the FAA own attacking planes), that the tracer streams seemed to make the attackers react more. The light AA failed to shoot down any of the 3 attackers, however none of them managed any hits, although the impressively tall waterspouts were close enough to the ship to soak men on the upper deck and bridge.
The second group of 3 were more successful. One bomb hit right forward, destroying the ships cable locker and some crew quarters - fortunately empty as everyone was at action stations, and starting a fire in her paint locker. The other was far more damaging, the 250kg bomb penetrating the ships armour and impacting in her forward boiler room. the ship slewed to a stop as power was temporarily lost due to shock damage, and a large fire developed around the ships seaplane, probably caused by a shell splinter igniting the fuel.
It was lucky for the Southampton that this was the last attack that day. While the fire would take a considerable time to quell, the one forward was not terribly dangerous, and once the fuel had burnt the one amidships was also brought under control. Power was restored quickly - the aft boilers and generators were undamaged, and while there was flooding due to the bomb, this did not spread further through the ship. As the air threat seemed to have passed, the fleet split into two section. Two destroyers and the AA cruiser HMS Curlew remained with Southampton to aid her, the rest of the ships continued to head for home. Half an hour after he damage, Southampton signalled she could make 20knots (in fact, she actually worked up to 23, the engineers understandably reluctant to take longer than necessary to get home)
However some improvements can be made, and will be later.
