1943 (Kirov Series Book 27)

by John Schettler

  Now the two ships sat in the harbor at Sasebo, just turned over to the fleet at Nagano’s order, and with the newest planes off the production lines, ready for trials. There was still a good deal of fitting out to do, and the crews were still adjusting the boilers for proper pressure. Normally, these ships would take another six months before being fully commissioned, but the need was very great, and Admiral Nagano had decided to put the ships into the hands of his navy professionals and see what could be done. The first was Kinryu, the ‘Golden Dragon,’ and its sister ship was the Ryujin, the ‘Dragon God,’ mythical ruler of the sea.

  Without the other main gun turrets and barbettes, and a much simpler superstructure, the weight of the ships was reduced from an anticipated 48,500 tons to 38,000, about the same general displacement as Kaga and Akagi. Along with that weight reduction, four knots of extra speed were gained, pushing the ship to an expected 34 knots. Endurance was also improved by 50% to 12,000 nautical miles. A single vertical stack was retained but moved to the port side allowing for a long flight deck of 200 meters, only 5 meters shorter than the Blue Dragon. Interior spaces allowed for a carrier air wing of 48 planes to be stored on the hangar deck, with additional room for 12 planes on the flight deck.

  The twin 16-inch gun turret up front also made this ship a perfect commerce raider, and one that could either outrun or engage enemy cruisers at the Captain’s discretion. The ship also had 16 of the new 10 cm/65 (3.9") Type 98 AA guns, eight per side, which was perhaps the best Naval AA gun Japan would produce in the war. To compliment these there were 16 upgraded 25mm AA guns on each side with improved elevation, range finding, and magazine capacity. Radar gave the ship night vision, making it a good ship for forward picket deployment as well.

  These new dragons were going to be pressed into service as soon as possible, and complete the lengthy testing and shakedown period during active service. The very existence of these ships had been a closely guarded secret, and they were also a reason why the Navy was so desperately short of carrier strike planes. The wings allocated to Kinryu and Ryujin, along with those for the Shirane and Mikasa fleet carrier conversions, had been segregated from the main fleet and jealously protected. They were being allocated the newest aircraft off the production lines as well.

  When Admiral Nagano first toured the Golden Dragon, he was so impressed that he quickly authorized several other conversion proposals that had been subject to debate. The carriers always needed fast cruisers to run with them. The four Takao class ships were excellent in that role, and later, four more ships were planned with improvements, two of which were built out as Tone and Chikuma. That was a new class that combined the firepower and speed of a heavy cruiser with the scouting ability of a seaplane carrier, with six Aichi E13A float planes that could range our 1300 miles.

  “Why not use these hybrid designs to fulfill that same role?” asked Nagano, and the answer was soon to come. Two additional hulls had been completed for another pair of Tone Class cruisers, but they had been cancelled, the hulls scheduled for scrapping to provide steel for other projects. That order was quickly rescinded when Chikuma was beaten to near scrap by Mizuchi, along with the old battleship Mutsu.

  “There is the steel we need,” said Nagano. “It will take two years in the repair yards to restore those ships to what they were. Then all we will we have is old Mutsu back again. I know there has been talk of converting that ship, and the Ise and Hyuga, to hybrid seaplane carriers, but they would all be too slow at only 23 knots to serve as a fleet scout ship. This is why we sent the Hawks back to their cages.”

  Nagano was referring to the Taiyo Class, all with names relating to hawks. They were three Escort Carriers converted from ocean liners acquired by the navy before the war, and activated in Phase I of the Shadow Fleet program, but the Navy was not happy with them because of their slow speed. They served well enough in the first months of the war, mostly as invasion escorts. Now the Navy needed faster ships to dance on the high seas with the Americans, and so the Hawks were sent back to the dry docks to improve their propulsion systems. They began with four Kampon water tube boilers, and they would each get two more, hopefully improving power and speed from 21 knots to 30.

  Nagano’s idea had a lot of merit. “Why not scrap Chikuma and Mutsu, and then build out more ships like the Tone? Better yet, why not build more of these fast hybrid carriers like Gozo and Mezu, only bigger, on a hull the size of Tone? Then it could carry both seaplanes as well as fighters.”

  Nagano’s logic was sound, and his authority, supported enthusiastically by Yamamoto, would see the project come to life. It would be called the Okami Class, named for the Fox Kami that was a bit of a shapeshifter in Japanese Mythology, renowned for its stealth and far seeing abilities. What the Japanese would do is take those last two hulls that had been reserved for the Tone class, and build yet another hybrid design. It was much bigger and heavier than the Gozo class, at 15,000 tons. Okami and Kitsune were the first two conversions, and they could run at 34 knots, with a very long service range of 14,000 nautical miles. Like the Vicksburg, they would carry 24 planes, twice as many as the smaller Gozo Class that had trail blazed this hybrid concept.

  The idea was further enhanced when designers decided that a special aircraft might be used to give the ships that long seeing vision that a scout ship would need. The Navy had issued a specification in early 1942 for a long range, high speed, single engine carrier based recon plane—and the need for speed was going to rule out any float plane design. Nakajima won the contract and the C6N Saiun was the prototype they delivered, and much earlier than in the old history because of the ships waiting for such a plane.

  The Homare 24-Ru turbocharged engine was fine tune to develop better power at altitude, and the plane became a reality in January of 1943. The first models were being assigned to the scout carriers, and they soon demonstrated some remarkable abilities. Able to fly at 380 MPH, with a service ceiling of 35,240 feet and the astounding range of 2886 nautical miles due to its low mounted laminar flow wing housed fuel tanks. Named after the iridescent high altitude clouds it could reach, the Saiun would soon prove very useful on these smaller capacity carriers, allowing the larger fleet carriers to use all their dive bombers and torpedo planes in the strike role.

  The designers were now wholly embracing the shapeshifting mindset themselves, particularly after what they had seen the Americans do with the Vicksburg Class. They already had a third Gozo Class scout carrier ready at Kobe, the Kiryu, armed with 12 fighters. It would now be joined by these two new Okami Class hybrid scouts.

  This work, and the steel required to build all these ships, came at a price. The Unryu Class Fleet carrier project was not started in August of 1942 as it had been historically. Instead, the Japanese were opting for faster hybrid conversions, even if they could not carry as many planes. These ships would all appear at least a year earlier than the Unryu fleet carrier design, and given the pace of US production, sooner and smaller was deemed better than later and bigger.

  “Even the fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants,” said Yamamoto. “But if we build these hybrids, there must be enough of them to matter. Build four of these foxes instead of two.” The last two would be Tenko and Tama, to be available later in 1943.

  So they were all building, in various stages of completion, some being rushed past the lengthy breaking in of sea trials and right into service. When completed, they would lengthen the register of Japanese ships considerably, adding fleet carriers Shinano and Shingen, which would be the largest carriers in the world when complete, with enough deck and hangar space to hold 96 planes. The Amagi hull conversions, Shirane and Mikasa, could each carry 84 planes; then Kii Class hull conversions, Kinryu and Ryujin, would bring another 48 plus 12 spares each. The smaller Tone hull conversions Okami, Kitsune, Tenko and Tama could carry 24 each, and the Gozo Class Kaya and Kiryu had 12. All together that would send up to 540 planes to sea, assuming the industry could produce them in time. It would dou
ble the striking power of the carrier squadrons, and help Japan maintain some edge in that category for the next six months. Some wings already existed, and work was now feverishly switching over from Army type production to carrier capable planes.

  Then there was one last addition to the fleet spawned by the need to have destroyers with the carrier fleet at sea. Many of the existing classes were too short in range, so the plans for the super destroyer Shimakaze were expanded to build out a complete destroyer division. That ship was the only one of its class ever built in the old history, but here they would start with a full division of five: Shimakaze, Kitakaze, Hayakaze, Natsukaze, and Fuyukaze. Among the fastest ships in the world at 40 knots. They were much like the Russian Destroyer Leader Tashkent, or the French Le Fantasque, which still held the record at over 45 knots. They would steam 8000 nautical miles, and carry both the Type 93 Torpedo as well as depth charges, along with decent AA protection. In them, the fleet was getting a superb destroyer screen capable of engaging both enemy surface ships and submarines.

  This was the shadow fleet, Phase II of the program now being rushed into production at all levels at Yamamoto’s urging, and fully approved by the Emperor. Even though it might appear that the Japanese would be able to keep pace with the Americans into 1943, the production effort had but one flaw. The carrying capacity of the hybrid ships was much lower than a purpose-built carrier designed from scratch. Even if it could join the war twice as fast, with would hit with half the punch.

  When the fleet finally arrived at Rabaul on the 17th, both the stricken carriers docked and engineers swarmed aboard to make an assessment of the damage. Kaga had the most serious problems, and it would take at least 38 days to repair, even with an all-out effort. Soryu was expected to be back in service in 16 days, and the cruiser Maya in two weeks. Both Yamamoto and Ugaki were greatly relieved when they heard the news concerning Soryu.

  Now all Ugaki had to do was find the planes to rebuild the shattered air wings. If necessary, he could order Ozawa’s two light carriers at Singapore to move to Rabaul, bringing in another 60 planes. To do so he had to cancel a planned supply run to Ceylon, as there would be no carrier covering force, and the British had replenished their losses in the Indian Ocean, restoring their Far East Fleet to three carriers again. As for fighters, there were plenty of Zeroes in theater, but many were assigned to land bases. He wanted those valuable carrier capable planes and pilots reserved for use by the carriers, and got very tough with the Army, demanding they take over responsibility for bases on the front lines.

  As a result, 27 Ki-27B “Nate” fighters had already been transferred from a rear area assignment at Kavieng, hopping first to Tulagi, and then on to Efate. 30 Ki-30 “Ann” light level bombers would follow and land at Luganville on Espiritu Santo. They had been at Port Moresby to watch the North Cape area, but sea traffic was very light in that region.

  The message Ugaki sent to Admiral Nagano concerned those planes being held in reserve for the new carriers. He wanted the strike wings from ships that could still not enter into immediate operations, and he also asked for permission to utilize any ship in the shadow fleet that was deemed seaworthy at this time. Nagano had been wanting to wait until the Emperor’s birthday in April, delivering the new arrivals as a present, but he replied that the request would be taken under consideration. When Ugaki learned that ships like Kinryu and Ryujin were close to delivery, he was elated, for neither he nor Yamamoto thought they would be ready for at least another six months.

  Things were beginning to shape up, until two more bits of bad news arrived. The first was a submarine sighting of two unidentified medium sized carriers training near Midway. They later learned these with the light carriers Independence and Princeton. Then, on the 17th of January, word came in that the American fleet was landing Marines on Efate….

  Chapter 17

  That night Yamamoto convened a meeting to discuss options. Efate was considered to be the most important island in the French New Hebrides, and it was no wonder that it had been targeted. It was fairly large, 25 miles long and 18 miles wide. The northwest was thickly wooded highland country, with hills peaking at a little over 600 meters. The southeast was a broad and flat plain, cut in half by the thin Teouma River, with plantations, and lighter woodland. It was well suited for much more development if additional airfields were needed.

  “What is the defense on that island?” he asked, and Ugaki was ready, knowing this would be one of the first questions the Admiral posed.

  “Two battalions of French infantry from their Tonkin Division that transferred from Saigon last year,” he said, “along with a few coastal guns and aviation support crews for the airfield at Vila off Meli Bay.”

  “There are no Japanese troops?”

  “Not at the moment.”

  The Admiral frowned, but he knew where all the Japanese troops were, locked in a death struggle with the Americans on Viti Levu. The Ichiki Regiment had been posted to New Caledonia, and the recently arrived Kawaguchi Detachment had been meant to reinforce that garrison and also provide additional troops for other islands like Efate and Espiritu Santo, but it had just gone to Fiji.

  “Not a very satisfactory situation,” said the Admiral. “In this we see the reason the Americans withdrew their better Marine troops from Fiji. Now they tie down our best troops there, while they are free to begin a counteroffensive. Our setback at sea has opened the door for them, but we cannot allow this attack to go unanswered. The question now is what to do if we have no troops available to reinforce that island?”

  “Dai-nijū Shidan, has just arrived at Rabaul,” said Imamura, the same man that had been plucked from the sea by the crew of Takami, and now acting as overall commander for Army operations in this theater. The unit he spoke of was the 20th Division under General Shigemasa Aoki, newly arrived from Korea where it had been a back waters garrison division for some time. It was there to begin fleshing out bases seized in Papua New Guinea, and the Solomons. Now it would stand as a good source of reserve ground troops for the entire theater.

  “So we have more rice in the bin than I first thought,” said Yamamoto. “Are these troops combat ready?”

  “They had limited experience in Manchukuo,” said Imamura, “but a few weeks hard training should get them ready.”

  “Limited experience? The Americans will be using some of their toughest troops to make an assault landing like this.”

  Imamura shrugged. “Considering that the Navy has been unable to prevent that, the Army will do what it can to correct the… situation.” That skirted very close to the thin line that separated comment from insult, and Imamura had been deft enough to stop himself from using the word ‘error’ at the end.

  Yamamoto gave him a long look, the silence carrying the weight of his displeasure, though it would remain unspoken. Both he and Imamura had the enormous burden of ‘face’ to carry for their respective services, where the rivalry was often too hotly pursued.

  “Then the Army will make troops available for a counterattack?”

  “If necessary,” said Imamura. “And I would select the Ichiki Regiment, replacing it with troops from Dai-nijū Shidan. Then they can use the time on New Caledonia to acclimate to this area and continue training and preparation for combat. As for the American Marines, Kiyonao Ichiki and his troops will be more than a match for anything they send… Assuming our men can be safely landed on the island in question.” The General’s remark again skirted the frontier of insult and accusation, though Yamamoto said nothing.

  He knew Imamura’s troops were having some difficulty on Fiji, where they had been unable to protect two of the three key airfields. The Army decried the lack of air support from the Navy; then Ugaki had demanded the Army send its own aviation squadrons, saying it was not the navy’s job to use its carrier trained pilots to defend Army held airfields. Those planes could not be found in time to matter, and the last obsolete A5M that had been at Nandi was shot up and made a forced landing there on the
19th of January.

  “General,” said Yamamoto. “May I have your opinion of the overall strategic situation—specifically, the prospects for either taking or holding Viti Levu?”

  “It would have been taken long ago, but the enemy was permitted to reinforce it by sea. That is the root of all our difficulties. Now we have been forced to commit far more troops there than we ever anticipated, leaving very little to hold all the other territories occupied last year. If you continue to allow the Americans freedom of movement on the seas around these islands, what can the Army do to save the matter?”

  Without addressing the obvious blame in Imamura’s discourse, the Admiral pressed him further. “As a strategist, do you believe it was wise for us to undertake Operation FS?”

  “It would have been a near mortal blow if it had been well coordinated and control of the seas had been maintained.”

  Ugaki could bear no more, and at the risk of reprimand, he interrupted. “The Navy maintained control of the seas from the moment of the invasion until December of 1942. We defeated the enemy in the Coral Sea, and again in the Koro Sea, though not without cost. In spite of that, we have held the American carriers at bay all this time, yet now they return in much greater strength. And may I also remind you that were it not for the Navy, you would not be here at this moment to offer these opinions.” He folded his arms, a sour expression on his face.

  Imamura took a deep breath, thinking to answer, but Yamamoto intervened. “We do not look to assess blame here, only to ascertain the course we must now take to assure victory. General, my real question is this—should we continue to contest Viti Levu and further strive to clear and occupy the other nearby islands, particularly Vanua Levu? The enemy has now built at least two more airfields, and the ground action on the main island has made use of the fields there… problematic. Without well defended local airfields, we must maintain a constant carrier presence to contest air superiority. This, too, is problematic, and now this news of the American invasion at Efate is most disturbing.”