Steel Reign (Kirov Series Book 23)

by John Schettler

  “He who sews the wind shall reap the whirlwind.”

  ― Hosea 8-7

  Chapter 34

  The Japanese had been quite busy on Sakhalin Island since they occupied it in 1908. They had settled most of the habitable land there, which was mainly restricted to coastal sectors and some inland valleys that separated the rugged, tree sewn mountains. It was largely considered to be a military zone, though a good number of Japanese civilians from Hokkaido had also migrated there, part of the work force necessary to build out the infrastructure. Over the years, they had improved existing roads and built new ones, established numerous airfields and expanded ports. One significant addition was the building of railroads to improve overland communications from north to south.

  Cultural influence and civilian occupation was heavier in the south at Ezu Province, the nearest to Hokkaido. That portion of the island extended like a great crab claw, which opened to embrace Chitose Bay, the approach to the first of two major ports on the island at Otomari. The Siberians had once called that place Korsakov, but now it was thoroughly Japanese, a thriving commercial port augmented by the fishing port of Aniva 20 kilometers to the east on that same bay.

  The island then extended north along the crab leg through Maoka and Shikuku provinces, with rail lines winding north along both coasts. There, another well established port at Shikuka presided over the wide curving coastal region of Taraika Bay. It had formerly been called the port of Poronaysk , and from there a single rail line ran north into the central inland valley between two rugged spurs of highland mountains. It would pass through South Karafuto Province, following the line of a long winding river into North Karafuto, the beginning of the oil development region on the island.

  Here Siberian influences were more pronounced, and there were still large inland segments of North Karafuto that were largely uninhabited by the Japanese, the province of the Ainu, Orok and Nivkh tribes, which were very friendly with Karpov’s troops and worked for them in small guerilla groups, the local partisans.

  The northernmost port worthy of the name was at Okha, where there was also considerable oil field development already underway by the Japanese engineers. Earlier that winter, Karpov had flown in what amounted to a single battalion of Naval Marines and a few supporting troops to seize the northernmost tip of the island, occupying an area extending about 50 kilometers south. Now, with the sea ice finally permitting approach to the region, he was out to seize all of North Karafuto, which extended all the way as far south as the port of Lazarev on the Tatar Strait. That province sat right astride the mouth of the Amur River on the mainland, and the port of Nikola there. Karpov wanted to control that, and all the Tatary Strait as far south as Lazarev.

  With limited sealift capacity, he would only be able to move a single regiment and its supporting guns and supplies, but he had all four mountain regiments of the 32nd Siberian Division earmarked for this operation. It began on the 15th of May, three days before Kurita was to rendezvous with Kutaka’s carriers off Sapporo, so there would be no possibility for the Japanese to interfere with those initial landings aimed at Okha, which was all of 710 miles north of Sapporo.

  Kirov was now standing off Okha, about 50 kilometers out into the Sea of Okhotsk, and so Karpov ordered Sergeant Troyak and his Marines to support the initial landing. Two KA-40s would be used, transporting all of Troyak’s contingent, and another group of twenty men from Karpov’s personal guard. Their mission was to land south of Okha, and seize the airfield the Japanese had built there, destroying any enemy aircraft they found. In spite of the growing threat, there was only a single company of Japanese troops at Okha, and when the Siberians transports arrived, they had no difficulty in getting ashore. Karpov soon had his port, and now the Naval Marines that had landed earlier were sweeping south to link up and complete his control of the northern segment of the island as far south as Okha.

  Troyak and the other guard contingent then mounted up and took the helos due west to a point just north of Lupolovo on the west coast. The Japanese had two small airfields in the region, and they were to secure those, and then use the helos to keep an eye on the northern entrance to the Tatary Strait.

  On the mainland opposite that strait, horsemen of the Bakshir, Yeseni, Ussuri, Amur and Siberian Cossack tribes were very active. They gathered in small battalion sized formations, securing all the vital roads and airfields in the region of the Amur River Mouth, where there was no Japanese military presence. The small port of Nikola would be secured without a fight, whereupon the horsemen, their mission accomplished, proceeded to loot the village and eat whatever food they could find in the region. It would be some time before Karpov moved regular units in there, but he technically had his access port to the lower Amur region, where he planned to eventually build up a considerable force for the planned move up that river.

  South of Okha, two companies of air guardsmen had been lifted in by airships to take up positions and block enemy reinforcements. There they ran into a company of engineers, and numerous other small detachments that had been working on those southernmost oil fields. That was also the headquarters for the single battalion that the Japanese had posted in the area, which was now making frantic calls to the south that the invasion had begun. He was informed to hold his ground, destroy the oil facilities to prevent their capture if necessary, and that two battalions were already en route from the south.

  Colonel Kumida of 1st Battalion, 25th Karafuto Brigade, slammed down the radio handset, enraged that the Empire had not taken this threat more seriously. How could his single battalion possibly defend all of North Karafuto Province? His five rifle companies were scattered all along the coast, and now, a deep shadow suddenly shrouded the scene, he rushed out to see the massive shapes of many airships overhead. The wink of fire from an undercarriage recoilless rifle was most unwelcome.

  The remainder of the 25th Karafuto Brigade was itself scattered all over Sakhalin Island, each of the five battalions having a specific province to garrison. 5th Battalion was detached from that duty and was coming up by train from the south west coast, a region deemed unlikely to see enemy landings any time soon, but it was stopped near the village and airfield at Nogaliki, where a tribal partisan group had cut the rail about 50 kilometers south of Kumida’s position. He still controlled the major oil fields, with three of his rifle companies, an engineer company and a machinegun company, so he set about ordering his men to dig in near the main well sites while his engineers began to set demolition charges. Everything north of that area, all the way up to Okha, was indefensible, and his retreat south was already cut off by enemy troops off those damnable airships. Where was the air force?

  It was well to the south. Given that the weather was always very bad in North Karafuto, none of the fields there had any aircraft assigned. The nearest Squadron was well south, at the northernmost end of the long inland valley, where the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion had been established to guard the rail line and the road to Aleksandrovsk on the Tatary Strait. There were three Shotai there, a total of nine Ki-27 fighter bombers, the plane the Allies would come to call the ‘Kate.’

  The planes took off, soon running into a phalanx of airships under Karpov the Young, who had settled in quite nicely now as overall commandant of the Siberian Air Corps. He had six airships up south of Okha, and three more to the north. Odessa, Narva, and Novosibirsk began pouring out a hail of AA fire as the Japanese planes swooped down like jackals around a herd of water buffalo. Soon their fire was joined by Orel, Angara and Abakan, the 20mm top mounted guns proving very effective in discouraging those planes. A few Ki-27s made brave passes, with three quickly shot down, and the fourth seeing his machineguns seemed to have no effect on the unwieldy targets. Those self sealing gas bag liners were doing their job, and the Japanese would find it would take a much heavier cannon to put any real harm on the airships.

  2nd Regiment of the 32nd Siberian followed the first into Okha on the 16th to begin pushing south along the east coas
t. On the night of the 17th, The Siberian Karpov informed his younger self that he would be lifting the 3rd Regiment into the Tatary Strait for a surprise attack on the vital ferry site at Lazarev. There the Japanese had a single company of Kumida’s 1st Battalion on the island side of the ferry, and the mainland side had been garrisoned the previous day by a company detached from 5th Battalion. That company held Lazarev itself, but by mid-day on the 17th the opposite shore had been taken.

  Destroyer Maikaze had been anchored at Nayoshi, the only Japanese warship in the Tatary Strait at the time. It was quickly ordered north with orders to interfere with that landing operation, and interdict the ferry site. This was going to set up a little duel there, as the younger Admiral was in Tunguska, heading south to support those landings with two other new T-Class airships, the newest additions to the fleet, Siberia and Baikal. Maikaze had begun to shell the Siberian positions ashore when the air squadron began closing on the scene, their recoilless rifles primed and ready.

  On the bridge of Tunguska, Karpov was thinking this would be a time to have Fedorov handy, but he was far to the north, on the other side of Sakhalin near Okha aboard Kirov. He wanted to know what kind of main guns this Japanese destroyer might have, then simply decided it would likely have something in the range of four or five inch deck guns. He was lucky the troops had all stormed ashore the previous night, because Maikaze also had 16 Type 93 torpedoes that would have wreaked havoc on the transports. But those six 5-inch dual purpose deck guns could also pose a grave threat to any of the airships, and Karpov was justifiably cautious.

  He might put damage on the destroyer with one of his Koronet ATGMs. It would certainly penetrate, start a fire, or destroy any system it struck, but the warhead was only seven kilograms. These missiles were excellent bag busters against enemy airships, and he felt he would need many hits to truly mission kill that destroyer. He would also have to close to within 8 kilometers to fire, and that was well within the range of the enemy guns. In this instance, the best defense was his caution, and then he put in a call to Kirov on the other side of the island informing them of the situation.

  As if sensing his brother self’s thoughts, the Siberian sat up higher in the Captain’s chair, suddenly alert. “Mister Nikolin,” he said, “anything to report on comm links?”

  “Well sir,” said Nikolin, casting one eye towards Rodenko, as if checking to see if the Senior Lieutenant would give him any sign that he should make a report to Karpov concerning those odd signal intercepts. At that moment, his board lit up with an incoming call. Somewhat surprised, he toggled the switch and listened for the call sign. “Sir… I have Tunguska on the secure channel.”

  “Very well,” said Karpov. “In my ready room.” He got up and strode to the hatch next to the chart room where he had installed a radio set for these special communications. There he soon learned that his brother wanted a missile.

  “We completed the landing, but if that destroyer persists in the straits, it may put unnecessary damage on the ferry terminals and dock at Lazarev. I can feed you telemetry from our Oko panel and you’ll have a pinpoint on its position.”

  “Good enough, and well done, brother. The operation is proceeding very smoothly, thanks to your able supervision. Standby. I will see what I can do for you. Siberian One, over and out.”

  The Admiral strode back out to the bridge. “The ship will come to battle state one and make ready for surface target missile launch.”

  “Aye sir,” said Samsonov, “sounding alert one and ready on SSM board.”

  “Mister Rodenko, we will be receiving telemetry from Tunguska any second now. Feed it directly to the CIC.”

  “Aye sir, getting a signal now.”

  “Watch closely, Grilikov. This will be a good example of live fire action.” The big Sergeant was hovering near Samsonov’s position, where the two men often worked together now as Samsonov was training Grilikov on how to operate the missile launch systems. Grilikov settled into a chair next to Samsonov, and the two Goliaths hunched over the system board.

  “Mister Samsonov,” said Karpov. “What is the range to the target.”

  “Sir, I’m reading a single target at 228 kilometers—in the Tatary Strait, off Lazarev.”

  “Correct. That will be a bothersome Japanese destroyer. It is right at the outer edge for our Moskit IIs, but the P-900s have the range easily. Sound inventory.”

  “Sir, we have seven missiles remaining in the P-900 bank, including missile number ten.”

  “Ready a single P-900, and fire. Set missile guidance to accept remote assist from the Oko panel on Tunguska on terminal approach.”

  “Aye sir…. Missile ready, sounding launch warning and firing now as ordered.”

  And that would soon be the end of Kagero class destroyer Maikaze, and a good number of her crew. The ship’s name meant ‘Whirlwind.’ It had sewn the wind with shells from its deck guns that day, unaware that a dangerous enemy was watching and waiting to strike. Now it would reap the whirlwind. The P-900 was effectively a cruise missile, and the longest range SSM in Kirov’s larders. Now there would only be six remaining, but the Japanese would have to trade a destroyer for that missile, and Karpov would secure both ends of that vital ferry site on the 18th of December.

  * * *

  Ryoko Otani was quick to spot the missile fire as the P-900 climbed to altitude for the subsonic cruise segment of its flight path. Takami was well out in front of Kurita’s task force, which was now slowly escorting the troop laden transports towards Karafuto. The safest and easiest port to debark them would be Otomari on Chitose Bay in the grasp of the lower crab claw made by the island. To screen them, Takami sailed off to take up station as a forward radar picket, well up the southeastern coast off a long spit of land that framed the eastern edge of Taraika Bay, called Cape Kira-Shiritoko. From that position they had a good look north up the long eastern coast of the middle and upper portion of the island. If Kirov moved south to get into any position to threaten the troop convoy, Takami would see that move easily enough.

  The ship had assumed a stealthy EMCON mode, attempting to radiate as little as possible. Now that they were ‘in theater,’ a possible combat zone. Harada had ordered EMCON Alpha, total emissions silence. Since the SPY radar system was a passive phased array it could run in a mode known as ‘SPY-1 Silent’, and still receive and process signals radiated by the enemy, even while restraining its own signal emissions, and Kirov was radiating with no restraint, all over the spectrum, absolutely heedless of the fact that anyone might be out there listening.

  The SPY system could see airborne threats out to about 175 nautical or 200 standard miles in this mode, and it wasn’t until the P-900 was descending into its terminal phase that Otani saw it, for it had just then come inside that detection range. It was there, there, then suddenly gone. The missile had descended to just a few meters in height, down on the deck to skewer the Maikaze, and was below Takami’s detection threshold when it finally struck home. But Otani knew what threats she might be looking for, and this one filled the bill.

  “Con, radar. I just picked up what looked like a missile descending to sea skim mode. Sending coordinates to the CIC now.”

  Chapter 35

  “Understood,” said Harada. “Process it and tell me more. In the meantime…” He reached for the 1MC intercom to broadcast a message to all ship’s stations. “Now hear this, now hear this. We just got a whiff of our Russian nemesis out there, and it looked like they were already throwing some lead at somebody. Court’s in session and all stations will now come to order. For all you 90-day Blunders out there, that means rack time is over and it’s battle stations. I want everyone to emulate that time honored sailor of endless note—A. J. Squared Away. Do it now. This is the Captain. That is all.”

  Harada’s time in training with the US Navy had seen him pick up a lot of the typical slang bantered about by their sailors. Now he looked to his radar station. “What was that contact, Lieutenant?”

  “H
ad to be a missile sir. I’m figuring it was a P-900.”

  “Get a line on its angle of approach?”

  “Aye sir, just a few seconds, but it traces out to our estimated position based on SIGINT data.”

  “Good enough. So who are they shooting at, and why all the way on the other side of the damn island?”

  “Sir, that’s right at the Lazarus ferry crossing site,” said Michi Ikida, the ship’s navigator.

  “So there must be an operation underway there,” said Fukada. They’d want that ferry site to establish communications with the mainland. It’s also the choke point on the strait. They can set up artillery there and then control access to the mouth of the Amur River from the south. How do you want to play this, Captain?”

  “I don’t see anything we can do for that situation at the moment. Our watch is out here on the Sea of Okhotsk. The Siberians know that we’ll reinforce from Hokkaido, but they don’t seem too awfuly concerned about it.”

  “They’ve accepted that in lieu of getting their own troops ashore in the north.”

  “It sure seems that way. Well, once they are ashore, and well established, then they’ll push south. That’s when this Mizuchi comes south right along with them, and the fur starts flying. So this is my plan.”

  He walked over toward the navigation station, looking over the map on Ikida’s screen. “We’ll move here,” he said, pointing to the long spit of land that framed the eastern edge of Taraika Bay. “We’ll take up station just west of that isthmus. We’ll know they are coming, but they won’t expect us here. Hovering west of that long isthmus gives us a little screen from their Fregat system. We stay silent, EMCON Alpha. But my bet is we’ll hear them coming like a bull in a China closet. They’ll be radiating, just like they are now, and when they get close, we get our friends to attack with any land based air power they have on lower Sakhalin. During that attack, we pop up a Sea King, and fix their location. Kurita must have his carrier based aircraft ready and also vectoring in on them at this time. With any luck they’ll just think it’s another plane. Then we throw everything we have at them, all eight Type 1 SSMs, and we keep our fingers crossed. Comments?”