Amagi was taking hits from the sheer volume of fire being pumped out by San Diego, which had lost one of her 127mm turrets, with a second damaged, but still had ten more of those gun tubes in action. But Amagi had twice the armor at 210mm, and she was shrugging off many of those hits. When San Diego got walloped, the heavier 12.2-inch shells were doing a great deal of harm, forcing Captain Perry to order a sharp turn to come about and attempt to break off. He realized he was tangling with something more than a heavy cruiser, and at that time, had no knowledge that a ship like the Amagi even existed. Few did, for this was the Shadow Fleet.
With Nicholson sinking, and San Diego beaten off, Amagi was about to turn its guns on the San Juan, when large caliber rounds began arcing in to stir up large dollops in the sea. Lee had given the order to his lead battleship, South Dakota, and she was firing by radar with her two forward main gun turrets. Lee was getting the reports from his lead ship, and now he wanted San Juan to turn and disengage.
“Whatever it is,” he said, “the cruisers have no business with it. Does Washington have the range yet?”
“Sir, they report no visual contact, but they do have radar.”
“Then tell them to use it and double team that enemy contact with South Dakota, we should be in range in a few minutes ourselves.”
Five US ships had now engaged Amagi, and all this time she had served to screen off the battleship Hiraga, which was following about a mile behind. It was South Dakota weighing in that set the battle off in a new direction. Her 16-inch guns had more than enough power to hurt the battlecruiser, and she did. A round struck aft where the 324mm triple torpedo tube was mounted, and set all three off in a massive explosion. The resulting damage and fire aft on Amagi had an immediate effect on her speed. She signaled Hiraga for a turn to port, intending to try and get out of range of those heavy guns, and this prompted Captain Tomaya on the Hiraga to come to 000 north to make room for Amagi to maneuver.
That was going to take Tomaya’s ship out of the action temporarily, the heavy smoke put off by Amagi serving to mask the enemy ships that were now moving into action. He could see the enemy on radar, but at this point, the Japanese used that system for long range spotting, and not fire control. Yet he was wise enough to know it was not a cruiser that had done this, and signaled to Admiral Kurita aboard Satsuma that he now believed two enemy battleships were bearing on the Mataso Strait. He was wrong. There were three enemy battleships, but his radar had not yet picked up the Indiana.
Kurita was now steering 045 towards the Amagi, and her nine 16-inch guns were already being trained on South Dakota, firing long range at the distant silhouette only now discernable on the horizon. Hiraga was making a loop to come about and rejoin the action, and the second battlecruiser, Kagami, was following Satsuma’s wake, about three miles behind.
The main event was now about to begin. Amagi had her way in the overture, sinking the US destroyer and beating up a pair of AA cruisers, but she was overmatched when South Dakota struck her that heavy blow. Now the battleships would square off against one another in the first such action of the war.
* * *
Aboard Satsuma, Admiral Kurita was eager to get into action, though he was surprised to encounter such a strong enemy force here. He had been detached by Nagumo and ordered to move south to Efate and support the landing of the 79th Regiment of 20th Division. If enemy carriers were spotted by any of his float planes, he was to abort the mission and withdraw north towards Luganville, which was now the principle Japanese air base in the New Hebrides.
The Americans have been operating their battleships with the carriers, he thought. And so when the carriers withdrew, I assumed the battleships would have gone with them. But it now seems that the American Admiral Halsey has read Nagumo’s mind. This enemy surface action group can have but one purpose, to attack our beaches in the north of Efate, or to destroy any transports lingering in the bay off Port Havana. Amagi has given the enemy a good fight, but now she reports heavy shell damage, and flooding aft. What was Captain Tomaya on Hiraga doing all that time? I must get Satsuma into action immediately.
He could already see the long guns on the triple 16-inch turrets turning, elevating, ready to fire their next spotting salvos. The range was very long now, too far to expect a hit on the enemy, but at least he could announce his presence, a bold Samurai warrior coming on the scene, and drawing his sword. Up north, he had done nothing but watch helplessly as those incredible rocket weapons flew past his battleships, but there was no sign of that here. The strange AA cruiser, Takami, had been ordered to break off and steam to Yokohama, and that, too, was most unusual.
Seconds later the forward turrets fired, the smoke fuming out of the guns, the heavy shells chased by fire and smoke. This weather is only now beginning to clear, and it prevented our float planes from getting up earlier this morning, he thought. So we come like two men with canes, tapping our way forward. Yet our new radar has proved to be very useful….
“Sir, Hiraga now reports that Amagi is burning badly aft and is nearly dead in the water. She must have severe engine damage.”
It was much worse than that. The American cruisers, with 32 6-inch guns between them, had pummeled the ship from two directions in the intense gun duel. Amagi had lost her port side torpedo mount, but before the fires made it impossible, she fired her starboard tubes and put three long lance torpedoes in the water. One would strike the San Diego, causing so much hull damage and flooding that the ship could not be saved. But now it appeared that Amagi herself was going down at the stern. Her forward turrets were still firing, but she would not likely survive this encounter, having only the satisfaction of taking two enemy ships with her to the bottom of the sea, and damaging a third enough to force it to break off.
It was time for the battleships to settle the matter, but Kurita was beginning to surmise that he was at a considerable disadvantage here. His radar now showed three prominent contacts, all throwing large caliber rounds at his ships. Kagami was trailing him, with shorter range guns, so that ship would not get into action until he was already heavily engaged. Hiraga was coming about in a very wide loop, but temporarily out of the action as well. Satsuma was alone, and facing the wrath of what he believed to be three enemy battleships.
In fact, only two had directed their weapons against his ship, South Dakota and Indiana. The Washington had the range on the battlecruiser Kagami, and was directing its fire there. Kurita gave an order to put on all possible speed and come about in 15 degree increments, turning away north. All the while he directed his fire at the South Dakota, and as Kagami drew closer, it followed suit. Kurita’s ship had taken three heavy rounds, and one of his turrets was now reporting damage, its guns silent as the crews fought fires breaking out on the foredeck.
In the course of the engagement, Captain Glen Davis on the Washington had stayed right in the wake of South Dakota, and so when that ship turned to port, he followed it closely, the two ships steering first through 270, and then further through 250 southwest. Lee, however, was still steady on at 270 west, and about three miles north of Washington. It seemed that the Admiral was about to get himself into a private little war. The action was now at about 10 nautical miles, all of 20,000 plus yards, and Lee was firing by radar. Seeing what the other two battleships were doing, he gave the order to come to 245 and turned his broadside to the enemy.
This maneuver was going to see Satsuma slip off to the north, but both Kagami and now Hiraga were still in the fight, the latter having finally completed the extremely wide loop it made after breaking off from Amagi. They directed their guns on South Dakota, and Kagami scored a number of hits with her smaller 152mm guns that had little effect.
Lee’s aim was as true as his sharp shooting that day. As the other two battleships turned south, he could see that both enemy ships still in contact were doubling down on South Dakota. He directed Washington to take on the battlecruiser, and then went after the last enemy battleship, getting by his count, at least fou
r good hits with his forward main guns. His own ship took several hits, but the damage was not serious.
Ten minutes later, Hiraga had followed Kurita north. It had been like two knights jousting, each one denting the other’s armor and drawing blood, but neither scoring a fatal blow. Lee had just encountered ships that never were, scratching his head as he tried to discern their identity. As he saw the enemy recede over the horizon, he had the strong feeling that this would not be the last time he would lead his battleships into harm’s way, and he was very correct in that assessment.
Chapter 26
Far to the north, at the distant home of the Japanese Combined Fleet, another dark knight was approaching the wide cobalt blue expanse of Chuuk Lagoon. Called Truk in the war, it was a small group of islands, the largest no more than five miles wide, and all surrounded by a ring of coral reefs extending nearly 40 miles across, in roughly the shape of an irregular triangle. Within it were some 820 square miles of lagoon surrounding eleven major islands. It was the calm center of the Japanese war in the Pacific, the eye of the storm. The protective reef had several breaks that permitted the safe passage of ships into the lagoon, where numerous anchorages presented themselves.
In the west, the Plaanu Pass allowed for two ship channels to the north and south of the large island group of Poto, Polle, and Tol. There was also a north pass, one in the south and one to the northeast of the main island, which was Weno, also called Moen, where the largest anchorage lay off its western shore. The principle airfield was also on that island, a busy field nearly 4000 feet long that had over 90 planes, nearly half of them A6M2 Zero fighters for defense and carrier fleet replenishment.
On this day, there were 14 warships in the anchorage, which included the main fleet headquarters aboard the battleship Musashi, the light carrier Zuiho, six destroyers, a patrol boat and five submarines. At other scattered anchorages, there were five AK cargo ships, the fleet oiler Notoro, troopship Hikawa Maru, three more fast APDs, a pair of smaller merchantmen and two heavy tankers, one loading to make a scheduled oil delivery to Rabaul.
There were two logistic supply routes leading to the Japanese possessions in the South. One went through Manila, and then into the Dutch East Indies, though ship soften delivered fuel to Momote it the Admiralty Islands and Rabaul as well. The second outer route ran past Iwo Jima, through the Marianas to the Carolines, where Truk sat like a castle at the center of a web of many scattered islands. In effect, Truk was the main defensive base supporting all the Japanese outposts seized in the Marianas, Marshall, and Gilbert Islands, and was the principle rallying point for the Combined Fleet carrier groups before they would sally forth through that coral reef castle wall and out onto the wide Pacific. It was Japan’s Pearl Harbor, and it was about to become the target of an attack every bit as surprising as the one Nagumo had led against the American base.
Kirov had been hastening south, slipping through the Marshall Islands where the Japanese had spotted a lone ship, sending the Shadow Fleet to investigate. Yet their planned intercept never happened. They were too far off the mark, reaching Tarawa when Kirov was still about 600 nautical miles to the north approaching Wotje. When Kirov moved south to Majuro, the Shadow Fleet, seeing nothing of the lone raider, had moved southeast of Naruru bound for the New Hebrides.
Karpov lingered in the Gilberts for some time, doing some reconnaissance of Jaluit and Tarawa, but seeing little of military interest there. The Japanese had not yet built these distant outposts up, and he did not want to waste valuable ammunition on nascent airfields, seaplanes, and coastal light artillery positions. So as the Shadow Fleet continued south, he turned west for the one place that certainly promised him some worthy targets—Truk.
The only island that had any air search assets that might have spotted him from that direction was Ponape, where six Emily flying boats were operating. He decided to navigate well north of that island, as Fedorov said he did not expect the Japanese to be searching much in that direction. So Kirov made a run past the island on the night of the 30th of January, intending to get into missile range by dawn. The sun would rise at 07:12, and the weather didn’t matter, only the range.
Karpov’s missile selection would determine that range, and he was discussing his options with Fedorov in a pre-dawn meeting on the bridge, eager for battle after the long journey south.
“Our longest range missile is the P-900,” he said. “That will have a 300-kilometer range and still hit hard with that 200kg warhead. The only problem is that we have only seven left, and one will be in the number ten silo, reserved for special warheads. The Moskit-II hits a little harder with a bigger warhead, and comes in much faster, but its range is only 120 kilometers. Obviously the closer we get, the better, as any reserve fuel adds to the fire damage that missile can inflict.”
“Use that and we’ll be well inside air strike radius of virtually any plane they have there,” Fedorov warned.
“Have you looked at the helo footage?” They had slipped in the KA-226 earlier that night with long range night vision cameras to have a look at the base.
“A lot of fighters,” said Fedorov. “Those won’t be a problem as I doubt they would use them in any strike role against a lone ship if they find us. But there were a couple dozen planes that matched the profile for the G4M light bomber, the planes the Allies called the Betty. They can carry bombs, and also the Type 91 Torpedo, and we won’t want to let any get close enough to make an attack run. It looks like they also have nine G3M Nells, another torpedo capable plane.”
“You certainly know your history,” said Karpov. “How can you tell them apart in that image?”
“Note the twin tail fins on this plane—those are the Nells. These others are the Betty, with a single fin.”
“Interesting. Well, I intend to catch them on the ground. That airstrip is only 200 feet wide, and we can time the warhead detonation at low altitude, right over those bombers. Anything else you see here that could pose a threat?”
“Just seaplanes. I wouldn’t worry about them. However, there may be strike aircraft on that light carrier. Yet if you want to hit the airfield, and the anchorage as well, how many missiles can we afford to use?”
“That is the question,” said Karpov. “We’ll make our approach well before sunrise, and the ship will run black. If they do have anything up that might spot us, I can easily knock it down. I want to be inside 120 klicks by 06:00. That way we can use any missile in inventory.”
“Why attack at dawn? Why attack in daylight at all. We could do this at night, and remain completely immune to the enemy air threat.”
“Mister Fedorov, we’re already immune. Don’t forget about those S-400s. I understand what you are saying, but I choose to attack at dawn for a reason. It’s what they would do—it’s what they already did at Pearl Harbor. They’ll understand it on that level, and then, when the time is right, I’ll show them the darkness is no impediment to the power I can wield. For the moment, I want them to think I may have limitations—that I may therefore be predictable in terms of warfighting rules that they use themselves. That increases the element of surprise later when I call upon it. Understand?”
Fedorov had no idea that Karpov ever ruminated on this level when he considered his operations. It was as if he was waging a kind of psychological warfare with his enemy, hoping to shock them, dupe them, and keep them constantly off balance.
“You’ve certainly thought this through,” he said. “You want to wear down your enemy—outwit him, and best him by turning his own assumptions against him at a moment of your choosing.”
“Precisely,” said Karpov. “For one day it won’t be a small island lagoon I stand off with Kirov at the edge of battle. One day I will take this ship into the home waters of Japan, and with utter impunity. The lessons I teach here today will be remembered.”
Fedorov narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps,” he said. “But you may find the Japanese of this era to be more stalwart and unmovable than you realize. You talk of these
shadowy tactics, but understand that these are the men who saw their empire burning to the ground all around them, quite literally, and still fought on. The US sent B-29 bombers in a single massive night raid on Tokyo. Each plane was capable of delivering 20,000 pounds of bombs—9,000 kilograms, and they were dropping napalm bomblets, jellied gasoline and white phosphorus. Each plane delivered more than the weight of every missile we have, and there were over 330 planes sent. They saw the heart of Tokyo reduced to ashes in a single conflagration that killed at least a hundred thousand people overnight. And that figure may be low. The population density of Tokyo was over 100,000 per square mile, and nearly sixteen square miles burned that night. And still they fought on. They would not surrender. This was six months before Hiroshima. They say that the walls of flame were so high that whole neighborhoods were cut off, tens of thousands trapped in the streets, with nowhere to flee…”
Karpov let him finish, realizing what he was trying to convey.
“And here you stand discussing how you’ll spring a night attack on them one day when they think you need daylight to do so as they might, and you think of this as some kind of winning strategy? You need to realize who these people are. Admiral, know thy enemy.”
“Very dramatic, Fedorov, but you forget that I can trump all those B-29s on any day I choose, and with a single missile. In fact, I was considering the use of just one missile here—the number ten silo on the P-900 system. After all, this is the headquarters of the Combined Fleet, is it not? Imagine the shock value of learning I just vaporized it, all their little ships and planes, and yes, even the mighty Musashi. Then again, I may have bigger fish to fry with those missiles, quite literally, if Japan continues to oppose me. So I choose to take things… incrementally. Don’t worry, we’ll make this a conventional attack, but we’ll also make it one they’ll not forget.”
1943 (Kirov Series Book 27) Page 23
