Altered States

Chapter 11

June, 12, 1940 ~ CiC, Home Fleet, Scapa Flow

They were called mystery ships, decoy ships, or simply Q-boats, armed merchantmen disguised as humble tramp steamers or cargo vessels and intended to lure in unsuspecting German U-boats. If they sighted a periscope the crews were trained to stage a “panic party” on deck, running this way and that so as to entice the U-boat to surface and use its deck gun as opposed to the limited and more expensive torpedo in an attack. Then, when the enemy was up and out manning its gun, the Q-ship would raise its skirts and reveal a row of three pounders, all ready to blast the submarine to pieces.

That morning the mystery on Admiral Tovey’s desk was the strange report from Q-ship Prunella concerning an unidentified ship that had set off a bit of a panic party at the Admiralty right in the middle of Operation Juno, the evacuation of Norway. It had come on the heels of another warning from Convoy HX-49 out of Halifax about a large warship sighted off Cape Farewell. It seems the navy was seeing ghosts and mystery ships everywhere.

Tovey shook his head, bothered as he read that no further sighting could substantiate the report from Prunella, though it had caused quite a row and sent off the battlecruisers Renown and Repulse, with two cruisers and five destroyers on a wild goose chase to look for these ships. RAF reconnaissance later verified that the Twins were still at Trondheim, so it was all for naught.

That left the evacuation convoys dangerously exposed, and was, in part, one reason why the Germans very nearly sunk their teeth into HMS Glorious. There had been only two destroyers available to escort her home, and only one came back. In fact they did take a good bite out of Glorious, hitting the ship twice and killing most of the bridge crew. Were it not for the actions of a junior officer, who arrived on the bridge at a crucial moment and took command, the carrier would certainly have been lost.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, chasing a headache as the memory of a similar incident in his own career returned to him. Then he was a young Lieutenant, newly arrived at the British China Station in the Pacific at Weihaiwei and lucky to be posted to the squadron flagship, HMS King Alfred. He remembered it now, a distant look in his eyes. There had been another panic party underway in the Tsushima Strait, and another mystery ship as well. A Russian dreadnaught had been raiding Japanese shipping and threatened to impose a naval quarantine on the whole region, which was preposterous in itself, as a single ship could not hope to live up to such a boast.

Yet this ship was a real mystery indeed. It fought and won several engagements with elements of the Imperial Japanese Fleet, the very same fleet that had so devastated the whole Russian navy just a few years earlier in the famous battle of Tsushima Straits. And then it bore relentlessly down on the narrow channel there where Admiral Togo had sortied again with the Japanese Fleet to intercept the rogue. There was another battle there, he thought, still shivering inwardly as he remembered the distant shadow of the Russian ship, enormous and threatening on the sea ahead as it rounded the headlands of several small islets south of Iki Island.

King Alfred was leading in the entire squadron of six cruisers to support the Japanese, the Captain and First Officer out on the weather bridge. Tovey had been with them there, but was sent in by the Captain to make a course correction. That order had saved his life, for just seconds after he left the weather bridge where he had been posted as First Officer of the Watch, a shell from the Russian ship struck there and killed both the Captain and First Officer. King Alfred was at the edge of battle, leaderless, and Tovey took command.

It was the first real battle at sea he had ever seen, and now he was in the thick of it. He had always had ideas about how he would fight, and here was a chance to prove himself. So he pointed the bow of King Alfred right at the enemy and forged ahead, intending to close the range as quickly as possible before ordering a turn hard to port to bring the whole squadron behind him around and concentrate their firepower in broadside.

He could still see it all in his mind, hear the sharp crack of the enemy guns, amazingly accurate. But he held steady, and then made his turn, giving the order to fire. What he saw next was a memory that haunted him to this very day. The shells were falling very near the dark silhouette of the enemy ship, some finding the mark with bright fire and smoke that soon masked the scene in cinder grey. Then there came a shimmering glow, as though a pale moon was shining through heavy mist, rippling with St. Elmo’s fire.

He remembered looking away to check his compass heading, then back again…and the Russian ship was gone! What had happened, he wondered. It was there, bristling with fire just a moment ago, and then it was simply gone! Had it been struck by the heavy weight of shot and shell his squadron was throwing, or by fire from the Japanese? Was it an unseen torpedo that had struck home, fired by one of those brave Japanese destroyers that had charged boldly forward through the gauntlet of the Russian ship’s deck gun fire? Was it a hidden mine? He did recall that explosion forward of the ship…

Tovey closed his eyes, lingering on the memory, and the mystery of that seminal moment in his career, and then letting it go. He had more to concern him that day, much more.

It’s all coming apart at the seams, he thought. I’m here to sort things out. Forbes was a good man, the former CiC here, but they’ve given Home Fleet to me now, along with those extra stripes on my cuff there, and much earlier than I ever thought I would see them. Tovey had been quickly recalled from the Med where he had been commanding the 7th Cruiser Squadron. They could have picked anyone else. Why me? Was it because Cunningham was heading for Gibraltar to plan an operation aimed at securing Dakar and denying the Vichy French Navy any use of that port? North and Somerfield are already there and waiting for ships to build Force H. So it’s all in my lap now, the whole of Home Fleet, right here in this pile of reports and dispatches. But thank god for Daddy Brind. There’s a clear head and steady hand as Chief of Staff.

Now he looked at the stack of reports again, taking heart to read the dispatch concerning the young Lieutenant Commander who had taken command and brought HMS Glorious safely home. There is hope, he thought as Brind stepped briskly through the door after a quiet knock. The two men were going to see what they could do about the mess up north where the Twins, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, were causing so much trouble.

Brind arrived his cheeks red with the morning air, a fistful of cable intercepts in his hand and a determined look on his face. Wizened and grey, Brind was nonetheless a vital and energetic man, and perfect for the role he now found himself in.

“Good morning, Admiral. I hope I’m not disturbing you, but this is about our little hunting expedition with Force F,” he said. “Rodney and Renown are heading for Trondheim with Ark Royal. Word came in that Gneisenau and the cruiser Admiral Hipper were out to sea there. With any luck we just might get lucky and catch those brigands but we have more than Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to worry about now. We’ve just received word that Bismarck and Tirpitz have left Kiel and they were spotted in the Kattegat at 18:00 hours last evening with a number of merchantmen. We got a Beaufort reconnaissance flight in a few hours later. Cloud deck was too thick to confirm the report, but there's an awful lot of activity shaping up south of Kristiansand as well. It looks like the Germans may be planning to another sortie.”

Brind turned to the wall map fingering the position of the sighting. “Coastwatchers report Graf Zeppelin and a few of their new destroyers were working up steam off Bremen even as we speak. Then we got this latest report concerning Bismarck moving up through the Kattegat, and I'm willing to bet they are heading for Kristiansand, sir, which would give the Germans two strong battle groups to sortie into the Norwegian Sea at a moment’s notice.”

“Any word on the Hindenburg?” Tovey asked.

“Nothing yet, sir. It’s still in the shipyards fitting out, though we haven’t any recent photography. There’s bad weather over the whole region and damn near down to ground level in places. But we don’t think that ship is ready, sir. How could it be?”

“Let’s pray to god it is not ready,” said Tovey “Obviously the Germans are taking advantage of our situation to move some heavy units.”

“This has all the markings of a major operation,” said Brind. Radio traffic is off the scale, sir. What do you make of it, sir?”

Tovey was very quiet, thinking. “Now here we are with Rodney and Renown out after the foxes and a pair of real wolves shows up.”

“It looks that way, sir.”

“This is the last thing we need now. They aren’t giving us a moment to breathe. Kicked out of France and Norway, this news of Italy formally joining the war in the Med, and now they tee up another operation.”

“Italy was no surprise, sir.”

Six days ago intelligence from the Med had revealed the fact that large numbers of Italian submarines were leaving ports from La Spezia to Taranto and heading out to designated patrol positions. So the Admiralty knew that it was only a matter of time before Italy entered the conflict, and ordered similar preliminary moves with their fleet units in Alexandria.

“If they throw Bismarck and Tirpitz at us now we’ve a real nightmare on our hands,” said Tovey. God only knows what they're up to with the rest of the fleet. Intelligence has been rather spotty from the Admiralty in recent days.”

“Do you really think they would risk this many capital ships in a major operation at this time, sir?”

“The movement of Graf Zeppelin is somewhat disturbing,” said the Admiral. “It’s their only carrier of any note, and with it they can provide good air cover over the Norwegian coast or anywhere else for that matter. It’s even a threat to the fleet here, though I think RAF and FAA would hand them their hat if they dared.”

“They could be running these ships up to Kristiansand just to thumb their nose at us while they slip the Twins out to sea,” Brind suggested. “They know Home Fleet will have to stay put here is they do that.”

“Possibly, but if I were going to make a run for the Atlantic with the battleships I’d certainly want the carrier along as well. Coastwatchers must have had an eye full.”

“That they did, sir.”

“In light of all these movements this business with the Twins could also be aimed at drawing us up north. It’s a real shell game here. Given this news I think we must immediately recall the Rodney group. We can’t have them up near Trondheim with Bismarck and Tirpitz holding knives at their back off Kristiansand.”

“Agreed, sir, but it would put them in an interesting position if the Germans do head west with an eye towards breaking out.”

“Yes, and it might be an uncomfortable position as well. I think we better have a look at our cards, Brind. What’s our situation with the convoys?”

“A good number are at risk now, sir. We’ve seven inbound long haul convoys at sea at the moment, three from Halifax, two from Freetown and two from Gibraltar. Then we have three outbound convoys out of Liverpool heading for Gibraltar. That’s 350 merchantmen to look after. A troop ship is scheduled to leave Halifax tomorrow, and at least ten more long haul convoys scheduled before month’s end.”

That reminded Tovey of the odd sighting by the escort ship Ausonia, and he asked Brind about it. “Anything further from HX-49?”

“You mean the sighting report we received? No sir, all’s quiet there. It was most likely a Canadian ship returning to Halifax. If it was a German raider they had a real feast in front of them and there wasn’t much Ausonia was going to do to stop them.”

“Probably true, but just the same I think we’d better confirm that assumption with the Canadians. Well…A lot on our plate today. Where’s that report on current fleet dispositions?”

“I have it here, sir.” Brind handed the Admiral a folder, and he opened it slowly, deliberately, indeed like a poker player sliding his hand open in a crucial game:

HOME FLEET:

2nd Battleship Squadron:Resolution, Rodney, Valiant

Under Repair: Nelson, Barham

Working up on sea trials: King George V, Prince of Wales

Battlecruiser Squadron:Invincible (G3 Class), Renown, Repulse

Under repair: Hood (at Greenock)

Aircraft Carriers:Ark Royal (at sea), Furious at the Clyde

Under Repair: Glorious, Working up: Illustrious

Carrier Cruiser Escorts under repair: Cairo, Enterprise

1st Cruiser Squadron:Devonshire, Sussex, Norfolk, Suffolk

Under repair: Berwick

2nd Cruiser Squadron: Galatea, Arethusa, (at Sheerness)

Under Repair: Aurora, Penelope

18th Cruiser Squadron:Southampton, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield (in the Humber), York (at Rosythe), Newcastle (in the Tyne)

Under repair: Glascow

36 Destroyers (16 of these under repair)

He looked at the suggested assignments for the new Force H being assembled for Admiral Somerville at Gibraltar.

“Well,” he said after some time. We’ve given Valiant a facelift, but old Barham is still wearing grease paint from the last war. She’s scheduled to head for the Med for the buildup at Gibraltar. If we send Hood and Resolution along with them that won’t leave us much here at all if the Germans do sortie.”

“We have Invincible ready again, sir. They just fitted her with the new radar sets for fire control.”

HMS Invincible was conceived in the early 1920s as an answer to the growing naval might of both the United States and Japan. At the time the design was revolutionary in that it proposed a ship combining incredible firepower, speed and armor protection. They were approved on 12 August, 1921 with orders for four ships placed soon after. When the Washington Naval Conference met that same year to negotiate fleet size and ship specification limits, the Royal Navy was faced with the prospect of having to cancel all four planned ships. Instead they chose to eliminate two older dreadnoughts then in service, scrapping them to make room for at least one new G3 class ship as a trial of the concept. Invincible was the result of that wise decision.

She was 856 feet long with a beam of 106 feet, much like the previous design of HMS Hood, but the gun placement and superstructure and funnel arrangement was quite different. 16 inch guns were chosen for the design, the same as those slated to be used in the Nelson Class ships, in three triple gun turrets, but with a very unusual arrangement. Two turrets were mounted forward of the main superstructure and conning tower, which got 203mm of armor. The turrets themselves were among the best protected in the navy, with 432mm armor. The third was mounted amidships, between the conning tower and twin funnels just aft of these guns. This unique arrangement saw the main turrets and barbettes and magazines grouped closer together, which meant the heavy side armor and bulkhead length could be shortened to reduce weight.

The result was amazing speed, with powerful engines that could drive the ship to 32 knots, and range exceeding any other battleship in the fleet. Invincible was the pride of the Navy, still state-of-the-art twenty years after she was conceived, and Tovey found himself regretting that the Admiralty had been forced to cancel the last three ships slated for that class.

They were scuttled by the Washington Naval Treaty, he thought, and thank god for the clause we managed to negotiate that allowed us to retain this one ship. We should have built more G3s, Tovey knew. Instead they fuddled about with the Nelson class trying to use the work done for the N3 battleship designs, after scaling it down to meet the requirements of the treaty. What we got was too slow for the war that we find ourselves in now. As it happened, both the Americans and Japanese were busy building new designs that violated the treaty. We were snookered and lost our chance to have all four G3s at sea today. But by god, at least we’ve got Invincible.

Just as HMS Hood had been the only one of four ships planned for the Admiral Class battlecruisers, Invincible was an only son born of the G3 class design proposals. Really a fast battleship, it was nonetheless decided that the ship would form the flag of the speedy Battlecruiser Squadron, which is where Tovey planned to be if things heated up, replacing Admiral Whitworth who was taking the position of Second Sea Lord.

“How is she working out, Brind?”

“Very good, sir. New ears for the old girl, and better anti-aircraft protection. Gunnery trials were entirely satisfactory after the new 4.7 Dual purpose guns were refitted. Engines and propulsion are still top drawer.”

“Good to hear it, as I intend to place my flag there tomorrow.”

“You’re going to sea, sir? Tomorrow?”

“Mister Brind, where else would an Admiral of the Home Fleet better dispose himself than at sea with his ships? Tomorrow will do quite nicely. We’ll settle in for a day and depart on the 14th. That will give Rodney time to get south and stand a watch closer to home. As for Renown I want to her within arm’s reach in 48 hours.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Now then…We’d better have a good look at everything else. Something tells me the Germans are up to something big here, and we had best be prepared for it.”

Tovey’s nose for battle was serving him well.