The Great Climax - The Second Battle of Bermuda
A photo of two Royal Navy flying boats stationed in Bermuda prior to the second battle for the island, circa 1943.
Ever since it's inception in 1775 during the American Revolution, the primary enemy of the United States Navy (otherwise known as the Union Navy) for much of it's wars was the Royal Navy. During these conflict such as the Second Mexican War and the First Great War, the one island that was contested the most between both navies in the Atlantic was Bermuda, which covered an area of 20.5 square miles and was 768 miles away from Cape Hetteras, North Carolina, thus making it's location an ideal one for both sides, even more so during the Second Great War as the island featured an airfield and seaplane base. During the First Great War in 1915, the United States Navy and Marines would launch a successful assault on the British Colony, following the island's fall, the US Navy would use it as a base to impinge on British shipping between the UK and Argentina.
A F-3A Katzenjammer fighter preparing to takeoff from the
USS Sandwich Islands during the First Battle of Bermuda in August of 1941. During that Battle, the joint Anglo-Confederate forces would trick the local US Navy forces which comprised of the aircraft carriers
USS Remembrance and
Sandwich Islands, the battlecruiser
USS Brandywine, 2 cruisers, and 6 destroyers by forcing them away from Bermuda to pursue a British forces which comprised of the aircraft carriers
HMS Ark Royal and
Glorious. This move would open the island for it's quick capture by the British forces, and for the next year and a half, would be under their control.
At the start of 1943, US Naval High Command would decide that the time has come to re-take Bermuda, this was in the wake of the Confederate defeat at Pittsburgh. The potential benefits if Bermuda was taken was tempting to the Union Commanders, this would mean an airstrip and a naval base in the Middle of the Atlantic, which could cut the Confederacy off from it's European Allies on the other side of the Atlantic but also open a door to a launch a further offensive into the Confederate held Caribbean Region. For this task, Admiral Bull Halsey was in the charge of the Operation (which was by late February was codenamed Forager), one of Halsey's subordinates during the Operation would be Admiral Raymond Spruance, who was a veteran of the Pacific Northwest Campaign with experience against both the Russian and Japanese Navies. The forces under Halsey's command had included the aircraft carriers
USS Enterprise,
Yorktown,
Ticonderoga,
Independence, and
St. Lawrence (The carriers
Ticonderoga,
Independence, and
St. Lawrence were brand new carriers in the inventory of the Atlantic Fleet). In addition, the new battleship
USS Maine was to be part of the fleet in addition to the older battleships
USS Michigan,
Washington,
Oregon,
Pennsylvania,
Nevada and
Dakota, 7 heavy cruisers, 11 light cruisers, 25 destroyers, and a large number of amphibious assault and support ships.
An overhead photograph of the new aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga prior to the Second Battle of Bermuda, circa March of 1943.
Aboard the carriers Enterprise and Ticonderoga was a new fighter aircraft known as the Grumman F-4A Wildcat, which superior to the previous Katzenjammer in terms of armament and performance.
The middle of February of 1943, Bletchley Park would information about the planned Union attack on Bermuda. As a response to this, the Admiralty would put together a plan to counter to the US Navy's forces. This force which they dubbed as Force H, would be commanded by Admiral James Somerville, who too had significant experience under his belt, notably for commanding the Home Fleet in the Battle of the North Sea during the previous year, which saw the destruction of the German High Seas Fleet as a major fighting force. Somerville's forces would include the aircraft carriers
HMS Illustrious, Courageous, Formidable, Victorious, and
Ark Royal, the battleships
HMS King Edward VIII, King George V, Albion, Dominion, Queen Elizabeth, Valiant, the Battlecruisers
HMS Renown and
Repulse, 5 heavy cruisers, 7 light cruisers, and 22 destroyers. Somerville's forces would be augmented by a squadron each of land based fighters and torpedo bombers as well as the light cruiser
HMS Ajax and 4 destroyers at Bermuda. After being passed on the information from the British, Jake Featherston would authorize the deployment of the powerful forces of the Confederate Atlantic Fleet to Somerville's command. These units consisted of the battlecruisers
CSS Robert E. Lee and
Camp Hill, 4 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers, and 15 destroyers.
The Battleship HMS King Edward VIII in Portsmouth, which during the Second Battle of Bermuda, would serve as Somerville's flagship.
On March 29th, 1943, the greenlight for Operation Forager would be given, in which Halsey's Second Fleet would depart from Boston, Massachusetts in the direction of Bermuda. One day later, Somerville's Force H would also depart from it's home base of Scapa Flow for Bermuda, thus setting the stage for the upcoming battle. Within two days, the Union Fleet would be within striking distance of Bermuda with it's aircraft, to which Halsey would order an air attack on the British forces on and around the island.
An SBD Dauntless dropping it's payload during the March 31st Raid on Bermuda. A large force consisting of Dauntlesses, Katzenjammers, and Avengers would assault the British at the island, where they destroy many of the coastal defenses, ground equipment, grounded aircraft, sinking a destroyer and two minelayers, and shooting down two Sea Hurricane fighters in return for the loss of two SBDs and a Katzenjammer.
The next day, the Confederate Naval Forces under Vice Admiral Willis Lee had arrived at Bermuda, in which almost immediately, Lee would order his ships to scout for the enemy fleet as well as setting a small force consisting of the light cruiser
CSS Houston and two destroyers to take position for a rendezvous with Force H. On April 2nd, the forward ships of Force H would meet up with these three Confederate warships just 74 miles from Bermuda. By April 4th, the Anglo-Confederate forces would organize their warships in battlegroups and would send these groups out to go hunt down any Union warships that might be in the vicinity of Bermuda. It would not take long before on April 5th, the first naval action of the battle would take place 163 miles north-west of Bermuda where a British battlegroup consisting of the cruisers
HMS Dorsetshire,
Achilles,
Cleopatra, and 5 destroyers would run into a US Navy force consisting of the cruisers
USS Minneapolis, Baltimore,
Helena, and 6 destroyers. During the two and half hour engagement, the Union ships would sink the destroyer
HMS Isis and damage the
HMS Achilles and another destroyer while the
USS Baltimore and three of their own destroyers sustained damaged themselves. On the same day just 194 miles to the east of that battle, the air groups from the carriers
USS Enterprise, Yorktown, and
St. Lawrence would attack a British battlegroup that consisted the aircraft carriers
HMS Illustrious and
Ark Royal, the capital ships
HMS King George V and
Repulse, 2 cruisers and 6 destroyers. During the engagement inspite of ferocious anti-aircraft fire and the Fulmar fighters, the Union bombers managed to cause severe damage to the
Illustrious and the cruiser
HMS Edinburgh and would also send the battlecruiser
HMS Repulse to the bottom.
A photo taken from the
HMS Arethusa of the aircraft carrier
Illustrious being bombed by by USN SBD dive bombers, that caused her immense damage, forcing her to retreat back to England, thus removing her from the battle.
A still photo taken aboard the
HMS King George V of the
Repulse exploding following a torpedo hit from a TBF Avenger.
On April 6th, the British would launch a reprisal attack on the Union Fleet, where a flight of Blackburn Skua dive bombers and Swordfish torpedo boats backed up by Fulmars would attack Task Force 34 which had the aircraft carriers
USS Enterprise and
USS Independence. During this action, the British would manage to cause some damage to the
Independence and the light cruiser
USS Topeka as well as sinking the destroyer
USS Hall for the loss of three Swordfish, two Skuas, and a Fulmar. For the next two days, there would be a lull in the fighting, where both sides took the chance to lick their wounds. On April 9th, a scout plane from the heavy cruiser
USS Portland would alert Task Force 38 to the presence of a Anglo-Confederate forces consisting of the battleship
HMS Valiant, the battlecruisers
Renown and
Robert E. Lee, the heavy cruiser
CSS Virginia, 2 light cruisers, and 5 destroyers that was heading in it's direction. In response, aircraft would be launched from the
USS Ticonderoga and the
St. Lawrence piecemeal, and within half an hour, would meet with the enemy. In the resulting battle, the Union planes would sink the
CSS Virginia and a single Confederate destroyer as well as damaging the cruiser
CSS Havana and the destroyer
HMS Nubian.
Later that evening, the submarine
USS Darter would locate a British battlegroup which was patrolling the the north-eastern approaches to Bermuda which had consisted of some rather tempting targets. After firing a salvo of 6 torpedoes, 5 of them would make of their mark, one each on the destroyer
HMS Onslaught and the cruiser
HMS Sussex (in which the
Onslaught would be sunk). The other three would strike the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which list heavily to starboard. Later that night, the Ark Royal would capsize and had sunk, which would prove to be a blow to the British forces as they had lost another aircraft carrier. Around the same time that the Ark Royal slipped beneath the waves, another engagement was underway. A Union force consisting of the battleships
Oregon and
Nevada, the heavy cruiser
Lansing, two light cruisers, and 5 destroyers would clash with a British force consisting of the battleship
Valiant, the heavy cruisers
Suffolk and
Ulster, the light cruiser
Penelope, and 3 destroyers. In that battle, the Union warships would catch the British by surprise, sinking the battleship
Valiant, the cruisers
Suffolk and
Penelope, and 2 destroyers while only the
Lansing and a single destroyer sunk and the light cruiser USS
Philadelphia suffered heavy damage. The next morning, the British would get their revenge on the Union aircraft carriers, when a force of Bristol Beaufighters from Bermuda with some support of Fulmars and Skuas from the aircraft carrier
Courageous would conduct and attack on Task Force 34, and during the action would destroy the
USS Independence as well as damaging the Enterprise.
An explosion from a torpedo hit on the
USS Independence, which would go down just 15 minutes after this photo was taken, in the foreground is the light cruiser
USS San Diego.
On the next day on April 11th, the most significant action of the Battle for Bermuda would take place, when the forward elements of Task Force 27 would run into a Anglo-Confederate force comprising of the battlecruiser
CSS Camp Hill, the heavy cruisers
HMS Ulster,
Hampshire, and
CSS Alabama, two light cruisers, and 7 destroyers just 90 miles west of Bermuda. Within 20 minutes, more Union warships, which comprised of the battleships
USS Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Dakota, and
Nevada, the 2 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and 5 destroyers. Around the same time, a Radius forces comprising of Somerville's flagship
HMS King Edward VIII, the battleships
HMS Albion, Dominion, and
Queen Elizabeth, the heavy cruiser
Dorsetshire, 2 light cruisers, and 4 destroyers would also show up on the scene. The engagement would last for three and a half hours, and it would end with a Union victory, for which the Radius would lose the battleships
King Edward VIII and
Albion, the heavy cruisers
Ulster and
Dorsetshire, the light cruisers
Savannah, Richmond, Nigeria, and
Cleopatra, and 6 destroyers. In return, the US battleships
Michigan and
Nevada would suffer heavy damage along with the loss of the cruisers
USS Chicago and
Scranton, and 4 destroyers.
An aerial photograph taken from a TBF Avenger of the battleship
HMS Albion detonating following a broadside from the
USS Oregon.
For a couple of days after the April 11th action, a couple of actions would be fought, would see the the loss the
HMS Courageous, two cruisers, and 4 destroyer for the British, the Union forces losing three more destroyers. On April 15th, the surviving British forces would withdraw from Bermuda and the Confederate warships shortly thereafter. By April 20th, the US Marines would hoist the Stars and Stripes over Bermuda after several days of fighting the British defenders of the island. The Union victory in Bermuda would tip the balance of naval power in the North Atlantic to the favor of the Central Powers. For the Royal Navy, it was a crippling blow that they would not recover from, indeed, Bermuda was the worst defeat in the Royal Navy's history. Half of the British aircraft carriers either sunk or badly damaged, many veteran officers, sailors, and aircrew lost, and one of it's best commanders, Admiral Sommerville, dead.