Second Front (Kirov Series Book 24)

by John Schettler

  The German force there would soon be comprised of the Battleship Tirpitz, the battlecruiser Scharnhorst, two new Panzerschiff super heavy cruisers, Rhineland and Westfalen, and the two older commerce raiders, Lutzow and Admiral Scheer. Reaching Nordstern first, the Tirpitz made one threatening run to let the British know the game had now changed. Admiral Ciliax took the ship out with three destroyers to get after convoy PQ-12, but the presence of British carrier borne aircraft forced a hard lesson. Albacores bravely harried the foe with their torpedoes, forcing Tirpitz into a wild evasive dance on the sea, with every AA gun firing as it ran for the cover of friendly planes to the east. While no hits were scored, Raeder immediately ordered a halt to sorties into the Norwegian Sea until the Northern Fleet was further reinforced.

  Five more ships would be sent, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, and the first of his fast ocean going destroyers in the new Valkyrie Class. This last group would form the main escort for one more notable addition—the aircraft carrier Peter Strasser. That was really what Raeder had been waiting for, a ship that could again provide the necessary aerial reconnaissance for the fleet. The workmen had been working feverishly in the shipyards to get the ship operational, and now it was finally ready.

  With that single ship the entire balance would be upset in the north, for now the Germans could take out sea based fighter cover, and the British would be forced to double down on their own carrier assignments to PQ convoys. Raeder had kept all these ships ‘in the cupboard’ for long months after the heavy losses off Fuerteventura in the south. All the while, he husbanded precious fuel oil to support a major operation, and quietly shipped it to Nordstern with the small convoys lifting troops, workmen, and supplies. Now, with the completion of the new base, and the arrival of Peter Strasser, it was time for his knights to sally forth.

  The news of this major naval move coursed like ice through the veins of the Admiralty. Admiral Tovey had been busy planning the raid on Saint Nazaire when the word came in, and he was forced to depart on a plane from the Azores immediately. Up until that time, Admiral Holland had been Chief of the Nore while Tovey was operating in the South, still aboard the ship that should have been sunk the previous May, the venerable HMS Hood. The much needed support from the Americans had relieved the British on Iceland and the watch on the Denmark Strait. There, an older battleship, the Mississippi, and a new addition, the Massachusetts, had been holding down that patrol zone, allowing Holland and Hood to watch the Faeroes Gap.

  “Gentlemen,” said Tovey. “This is a most unwelcome turn of affairs. King George V has been the mainstay for convoy covering operations, backstopped by the Hood, but I’ve had to send her south now to reinforce Duke of York in Force H. Now this new German battle fleet settling in at Trondheim is the most powerful threat we have faced in the north since Lütjens first began his major breakout sorties. Lütjens is gone, and there’s no telling who the Germans might be sending in his place, but those ships intend mischief. Under the circumstances, the entire PQ convoy schedule could be ripped to shreds.”

  “This new base at Trondheim is getting more than ships,” said Admiral Pound. “The Germans are reinforcing their air squadrons there as well, and we must also expect that Döenitz will send more U-boats. PQ-16 had 36 ships, and all but 8 arrived safely. We’ve been lucky thus far with these runs up to Murmansk, but now it looks like they’re going for the jugular.”

  “PQ-17 is up next,” said Tovey, shuddering inwardly as he considered all that Fedorov had told him. “Might we postpone that convoy until we sort this all out?”

  “We might,” said Pound, “but the Prime Minister won’t hear of it. The Germans are on the move again in Russia. They’ve been repositioning most of their mobile forces on the southeastern segment of that huge bag they’ve been in all winter. That Soviet winter offensive was remarkable, and a godsend to the war effort as a whole, but the Soviets are played out. Their divisions are spent, troops exhausted, and they need new equipment, trucks, and more than anything, aircraft. Churchill insists that we maintain the convoy schedule. Sergei Kirov has made a direct appeal that every effort be made. Gentlemen, if we lose the Soviets now, we lose this war—it is just that simple. The American President Roosevelt is equally insistent, and the belief now is that we should proceed, even if we sustain heavy losses. If even half the ships get through, that would be acceptable to the war cabinet. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work here. What can we do?”

  Tovey shrugged. “Up until now, we have only had to worry about the Scharnhorst up near Tromso. The Germans have restricted their surface sorties to the North Cape region. Now, with this buildup at Trondheim, we must consider that they could just as easily sortie directly from that port, meaning we’ll have to provide much stronger escorts in the close covering force. Rear-Admiral Hamilton’s cruiser squadron will have to be reinforced,” said Tovey.

  “More easily said than done,” said Pound. “We lost Edinburgh when it was hit by U-boats while escorting PQ-15. Jerry tried to finish her off with destroyers, but there was nothing wrong with Edinburgh’s guns and they put the destroyer Hermann Schoemann down for good. But they managed to get off one more torpedo, and that finished our cruiser off. Trinidad was up at Murmansk and nursing a wound on the way home. The Luftwaffe got to that one. Even with our new Knight Class cruisers coming active, we’re still stretched thin on that count.”

  “At least we’ve taught them they can’t sortie with destroyers as long as we can still cover those convoys with cruisers. The catch is finding those ships. Norfolk was scheduled to return, but I had to order her to remain on station with Force H, along with both the Knight Class cruisers. That leaves us with very little to spare. Kent has been on the Murmansk Runs for some time, and was scheduled for refit. I’m afraid her Type 273 radar set will have to wait. We’ll need her for one more run. We’ve assigned London, and Cumberland is now available after her repair and refit. We were going to send Shropshire to the Australians, but that’s impossible with this news, so count on that ship as well. Nigeria is available, along with Jamaica, and both of those ships are presently watching the Faeroes Gap. They could join Hood for the distant Covering Force. Newcastle and Sheffield are at Scapa Flow if needed, and they’ll sail with the two new battleships, Anson and Howe.”

  “Here-here,” said Pound, tapping the conference table. “It’s about time we got some fresh blood for the battleships. The Americans will also send their fast battleship Massachusetts for the close cover force. That should help out immensely.”

  “Hopefully so,” said Tovey. “Now then… The waters east of Bear Island have been the real danger point all along, but with this new naval facility the Germans have established near Trondheim, I’m inclined to think we may find trouble well before we reach the cape. Logistically, it’s much more economical for the Germans to Operate from Nordstern.”

  “The North Cape was always a choke point,” said Pound. “The ice forces us south near the Norwegian coast, and under their air power at Kirkenes and Petsamo. And the U-boats love those restricted waters.”

  “Yes, well the arrival of Peter Strasser changes all that. Now the Germans can take their air power out to sea, and so we’ll need a second aircraft carrier on this run. Ark Royal is the only candidate, and I propose that we add her to the Home Fleet Squadron coming up from Scapa Flow.”

  “Very well,” Pound agreed. “Four battleships, two carriers, eight cruisers…. With these dispositions, I’m prepared to go forward with PQ-17, and Godspeed, gentlemen.”

  Bf-109-A, Norwegian Sea, 200 Nautical Miles East-Northeast of Jan Mayen, June 15, 1942, 15:18 Hours

  The convoy was two weeks early in this history, and already on its third day out from Halva Fiord when first contact came. Flight Leutnant Eric Meyers was elated to have been the very first pilot to take a plane up off the Peter Strasser on a bona fide combat patrol. The carrier had rendezvoused with the battleship Tirpitz, which was now 180 nautical miles west of Tromso with Rhineland, Westfa
len, and three of the Z-Class Destroyers, Valkyrie, Brynhild and Grimhild. Another 42 nautical miles to the south, Kurt Hoffmann was cruising in the battlecruiser Scharnhorst with the heavy cruiser Hipper and two more of the new destroyers, Gunnar and Sigurd. Once again, the German Navy was now operating in a manner that was quite different. Instead of isolated raiders, those two battlegroups now sailed in close support range, and Peter Strasser had just begun routine recon operations to the west. Meyers soon had an eyeful.

  He had come down from the north, ready to make a turn and head back towards the carrier, when the clear creamy wakes of several ships were evident on the calm seas beneath him. The weather had been excellent, and he had come down to 12,000 feet to get a better look at what he now believed was the main British covering force for their next convoy. There was a battleship, a cruiser, several destroyers and a carrier. The battleship was unmistakable, long, sleek and with four twin turrets, not the old fat profile of the Queen Elizabeth class. This was the Hood. Knowing there would most likely be fighters up, he decided to look for his wing mate and head east,

  With Ciliax taken ill, General-Admiral Rolf Carls had been given overall responsibility for coordinating the maneuver. When he got the report, he realized that his advanced scouts, the Admiral Scheer and Lutzow, would be very close to that contact, but clearly no match for the Hood. He immediately sent a signal ordering them to turn southwest, thinking that they might best slip by the British to see what may be lurking beyond. At 16:20, however, he received yet another sighting report, this time from Kapitänleutnant Friedrich-Karl Marks on U-376. He had taken his boat out from Bergen on June 7th, looking for British merchant shipping coming up from Iceland. This time he saw a good deal more—another British battleship, two cruisers and two destroyers about 140 nautical miles west of the two Deutschland class raiders.

  It was now quite clear that something big was up. This convoy had to be very important to warrant the commitment of so many British ships. Then again, Kapitan Topp on the Tirpitz had little doubt that the British had observed the new addition to their own fleet. They had to know Peter Strasser was at sea, and perhaps they intended to try and sink that ship. Would there be naval rockets this time? The old commander of Graf Zeppelin had been fished out of the sea in the Atlantic—Kurt Böhmer. Instead of retiring him in shame, Raeder had put him right back in his old position as Kapitan Sur Zee of Flugzeugträger Nord, a most desirable position. Familiar with the class, Böhmer was getting a second chance now, but he had been told, in no uncertain terms, that he must always operate with a destroyer off each side of his ship. That was a thankless job for the destroyer Kapitans, to realize their ships were there to shield the carrier from rocket attack. Yet it was just one way an escorting ship would stand on defense of its charge.

  So there it was, two strong battlegroups on either side, each with an aircraft carrier at hand in what was about to become a classic duel in the north. When Flight Leutnant Eric Meyers found Topp’s battlegroup again, the sky above it was already dark with crows. The Stukas had formed up over the carrier in two squadrons of 9 planes each, and six more Bf-109s were already heading west to engage any enemy CAP that might be up on defense. Meanwhile, at 16:48, U-376 signaled it had positively identified the cruisers London and Shropshire, asking for permission to attack. It was granted.

  The long agony that was PQ-17 was about to begin.

  Chapter 11

  Even though Meyer’s sighting would be over 40 minutes cold by the time they launched, the Stuka pilots would simply head west with every confidence they would find the enemy again. Only a few of the Ju-87 pilots had seen much combat in Russia. Most were specially recruited for the navy, with training on carrier based operations, but not in the grueling mill of close ground suport. As such, few had ever really attacked an enemy ship at sea, but they were now about to get their first real opportunity. The long white wake of HMS Hood was soon spotted by one of the leading fighters, and word was flashed to the strike squadrons to follow his lead.

  Victorious had six fighters up that afternoon, in three groups of two, with another two planes spotted for immediate takeoff. The Martlets, as they called them, were really the American F-4F Wildcat, already a proven carrier based fighter in the Pacific. While it was not a match for the Bf-109, it would be good enough in numbers to provide a decent CAP over Holland’s group. They had spotted Meyers earlier, chased him briefly until he sped away to the north, and then lost him. When CAP 2 saw the first BF-109 again, they thought it might be the same bandit still lurking about to try and shadow the battlegroup, but they soon learned the enemy was bringing uninvited guests.

  Word was flashed to Victorious, and Captain Henry Bovell immediately ordered up those two ready Martlets as CAP 4. Soon the dizzy fighter duel began, which was just what the Germans intended while the 18 Stukas made a beeline for the enemy ships below. They had two primary targets, that battleship and the carrier, and each of the two squadrons took one ship, screaming down with their Jericho trumpets wailing like banshees. More planes were launching from Victorious even as the enemy came in, the sea suddenly erupting with the tall splashes of the bombs. Most fell very wide, their thunder exploding beneath the surface and sending shock waves against the hull, but Victorious was a sturdy ship, and weathered the blows easily enough. The same thing was happening to Hood, which was straddled but largely missed by the bombs, her heavier side armor shrugging off the shock of two very near misses. Finally, one bomb hit, but it was well forward on the newly armored deck, and caused little real harm.

  It looked to be a mediocre showing, until the last Stuka came in and put a bomb right through the flight deck near the island on Victorious. It would reach the hanger deck and explode to take out three Martlets and six Albacores, though fortunately none of those planes were armed or fueled, and so the damage was restricted to the loss of the planes, which was bad enough. For that hit, the best of the lot, the crows lost one plane coming in, and two more were taken down by the Martlets on the way out. But those Bf-109s were also exacting a toll on the British fighters, and five of twelve that eventually got up into the fray would not make it home. It was all over by 18:00 and the planes were heading home to their respective carriers. The long hours of day light in these northern latitudes made for easy flying, but it was still several hours before Peter Strasser had collected all her aircraft again.

  General-Admiral Rolf Carls, with his flag aboard the Tirpitz, immediately sent over an order to get all the Stukas rearmed and fueled, and that would again take over two hours, given that several more Stukas had minor damage that needed to be addressed. In the meantime, he had four fighters spotted on deck in case the enemy decided to launch a counter strike.

  “I doubt they know where we are,” said Kapitan Topp. “We’ve seen no enemy planes over our task force this whole time.”

  “But yet they know we are out here,” said Carls. “The question now is what to do this evening.”

  “Hoffmann is south of us with Scharnhorst,” said Topp. “He’s too close, and we will not want him tangling with Hood alone if they find him there.”

  “Agreed. We also have the two Deutschland class ships well to the south. My inclination is to order Hoffmann to turn and give this enemy covering force a wide berth. As for us, Peter Strasser aside, we will continue west on this heading.”

  “You intend to look for Hood?”

  “And that enemy carrier as well.”

  “Good enough.” Topp had been wanting to get his ship back into action for many months now. The news of what had happened to Bismarck off Fuerteventura had been most disconcerting. But at 21:15, a series of messages from two U-boats would begin the real game. Kapitan Max-Martin Teichert was also out from Bergen in U-456, and he had taken up the watch on another covering force first seen by Marks on U-376 earlier. Together they had identified two British cruisers, and then Marks turned further west, leaving Teichert to shadow the enemy force. Now he added a battleship to that contact list, an American ship
.

  “Most likely the Mississippi,” said Carls. “It has been operating in the Denmark Strait.” He was wrong, of course, for the Germans did not yet know that a much newer and faster ship had come on the scene, BB Massachusetts. That report sent tumblers clicking in the Admiral’s mind, and knowing his enemy well, he realized this must be the close covering force. That meant the real prey was probably close at hand, the nice fat merchant ships of PQ-17.

  That was the very same thing Kapitan Marks had in his mind when he turned west at periscope depth, and a little after 21:30 he spotted two groups of enemy merchantmen. After maneuvering for position for some time, torpedoes were in the water at 21:50. Firing in salvos of two, his first fish ran right between the lead ships in the formation, the Hartelbury and Olpana, missing both. The number two salvo had no better luck, skirting past the bow of the Samuel Chase and passing harmlessly through the formation. Frustrated, he put two more torpedoes in the water, grateful that there was no sign of enemy destroyers yet. They would also miss, and he cursed under his breath, this time determined to line up better before his next shot. His determination paid off, much to the chagrin of the Hartelbury, which he hit amidships with torpedo 5.

  “Got him!” he shouted. “Now fifteen points to port, I can get one more off.” He would then hit the Richard Bland, both ships penetrated and with flooding and fires lighting up the scene and undoubtedly getting the Convoy Master to grit his teeth. Now he needed time to let the men manhandle more torpedoes from the magazines and get them mounted in the tubes. So he turned east away from the two ships he had set afire, still running at periscope depth. There was another group of eight merchantmen off his port side, and he was thinking to line up on the nearest ship when his careful eye spotted trouble in the high foaming bow wash of a destroyer. That was enough to dampen his ardor.