Thor's Anvil

Chapter 4

The plans that then developed from the meeting between Yamamoto and the officers off the Takami were clearly aimed at finding the strategy that would win the war, achieving some decisive advantage in the time frame Harada had put forward. They had six to eight months to prevent any US counteroffensive from gaining traction in 1943. With winter coming, Yamamoto ordered all his fleet carriers to leave the Home Islands and muster at Truk. He wanted them as far from the unseen raider in the Siberian north as possible. The Siberians would be opposed by the Army and air force instead, and no longer challenged at sea. All remaining carrier power would be concentrated in the South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean operation.

Now Yamamoto took stock of the forces he might have available. The 2nd Infantry Division, savaged by the eruption at Krakatoa, was slowly being rebuilt from new conscripts in Japan for anticipated operations in the south. One regiment was being built in Nasu, another at Sato, and the third at Fukushima. With the 48th Division already committed to Fiji, if the Ceylon operation should ever materialize, it would be given to the 5th Division, which was still a strong two regiment nucleus that could receive replacements and become a full triangular division, though it would never again be the powerful force it was as a square division under Yamashita. The Battle at Tengah Airfield on Singapore had killed many of its toughest veteran troops.

If necessary, General Nishimura stated that he would consider releasing one regiment of the Imperial Guards for deployment on Ceylon after it was taken, but only if the Army could not make a similar force available at Rangoon from the troops already committed to the Burma campaign.

All in all, Japan now bet its fortunes on the outcome of these crucial operations in the south. The additional land territory they might take was minimal, but the strategic windfall in being able to control the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean, and in isolating Australia from the US, would be significant if they could be achieved. Everything would be risked on achieving that outcome, but the one factor the planners were leaving out of their thinking, the sea monster they had come to call Mizuchi, would still remain a dangerous wildcard.

Yet Yamamoto was a realist, and the images he had seen in the library aboard Takami still haunted him. He was well aware that other staff officers at Imperial General Headquarters thought that even the push into the Solomons was an overextension of Japan’s military capabilities. Now, to add the Indian Ocean as an objective seemed an even greater reach. So we will simply aim higher, he thought.

To win in the south he had to first secure Fiji, and that could only be done if he achieved decisive naval superiority there. If he could not do that, then the Americans would have a strong base to organize further offensives into the Solomons, or against the French New Hebrides. He knew that New Caledonia, and particularly the major port there at Noumea, was a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it thrust like a dagger between Fiji and Australia, but if Fiji were to fall, it would then be subject to attack from both those enemy camps.

Australia was also of great concern, for in it the Allies possessed what appeared to be an unassailable anvil upon which to forge their weapons of war. The vast Pacific Ocean offered endless sea lanes. Though it would take much longer, American convoys could venture deep into the South Pacific if they had to, and approach New Zealand from the southeast. In time, they would still get enough troops, supplies and equipment to Australia and New Zealand to pose an offensive threat.

In the north, though New Guinea had been mostly cleared of enemy presence, there was still a nest at Milne Bay that had to be taken, and the Port of Darwin on the North coast might be used as a base for a thrust into the Arafura or Banda Seas. That would be possible only if the enemy achieved naval superiority, but he had to always keep it in the back of his mind. Perhaps he should take Admiral Hara’s advice, and permit him to make a landing at Darwin, anchoring the defense there instead of at Dili on the Island of Timor.

Then there were the British, who had a division at Perth to use if they should want to strike at the barrier islands again. That was why he decided to send Harada and his ship into the Indian Ocean. If Hara’s carriers could defeat the British squadron, and occupy Ceylon, any threat from the British would be completely neutralized. And then, there was always the possibility that the Americans might use their base at Hawaii to strike directly into the Marshalls, or attempt to retake Wake Island. From those bases they could attack the Marianas, and such a strategy would completely bypass the Solomons, New Hebrides and New Guinea. That was what they actually did in those books the Admiral reviewed. And then there was the problem on Karafuto Island, where the Siberians had been stopped by the Japanese 7th Division, but still represented a serious danger.

So many threats, from so many directions, and the defense rested primarily with the navy. At first glance, it seemed that all the dramatic gains achieved in 1942 were war winners, but Yamamoto knew that even his face cards could be taken by the enemy trump cards. Yet ‘life was not a matter of holding good cards,’ said Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘but of playing a poor hand well.’ Yamamoto was considering how to play out the hand he now held to win this game, and it was time to lead. He wanted no shadow over his shoulder when he finally turned to face the Americans again.

In the high summer of 1942, Great Britain, which had stood alone in the west since the fall of France, at last had a powerful Ally in the United States. In spite of that, the British Empire still remained under grave threat, and Churchill could see shadows everywhere he looked. The German Occupation of Norway, with their new major base at Nordstern, was a constant threat to the northern seas, and served to sever the line of communications to Soviet Russia at Murmansk. The U-Boat threat was at its height, making cross Atlantic communications with the US precarious. Britain’s Pacific holdings, chiefly Hong Kong and Singapore, had been smashed and occupied by Japan, and now the Japanese were in Burma.

In this light, the British occupation of Madagascar, taken from the French in May of 1942 in this history, and its strong presence on Ceylon at Colombo were now the two bastions of power aimed at securing lines of communications through the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. Those lines reached out to Australia and New Zealand, and had once linked India with the Empire’s Pacific holdings before the war. Now they served commercial shipping to ports like Madras, Calcutta and Bombay, where the Jewel of Britain’s occidental empire, India, was slowly coming under increasing threat from the Japanese.

The brief but violent British assault on French held Madagascar had taken place right on schedule, between the 5th and 7th of May. As such, it was eclipsed by the far larger battle off Fiji then underway, and the decisive collision in the Koro Sea. Yet for the British, seizing Madagascar was of great significance. It was one of two vital possessions Vichy France held that the Allies dearly coveted, the other being the New Hebrides.

“We already know what the French have suggested,” said Churchill to Brooke when the matter had come up. “They’ll go so far as to hand the entire island right over to the Japanese. Then what? From there they will have cut us off from Ceylon and India, and if they take that naval base, they can put bombers on Durban, and stop every last convoy we send around the Cape. It would be a disaster of the first order, so that place simply must be taken. I don’t care how we do it, or where the troops come from. You must find them, and carry it off like a thief in the night before the Japanese realize what they’ve lost.”

Brooke handed the matter to Tovey for the naval arm, and he teed up Illustrious and Indomitable with 82 planes to cover the operation. He then scraped up the 29th Independent Brigade, the 13th and 17th Brigades of 5th Division, the 7th South African and Rhodesian 27th Brigades. Number 5 Commando would be on the cutting edge of the attack. This was a force of some 15,000 troops against the French garrison of 8,000 troops and six tanks, with 32 antiquated planes.

The landings had occurred at the northernmost tip of the island where the vital protective Diego Suarez Bay provided one of the best anchorages in the Indian Ocean. The 29th Brigade was the hammer that struck that anvil, with the other British forces following later. The action in the north was a great success, and though low level fighting continued for the next 45 days, Churchill had Madagascar, and saw it as a great outer bulwark protecting the vital Cape Town region.

When ULTRA intercepts indicated that the enemy was now planning a sortie into the Indian Ocean, it was therefore cause for some alarm in Whitehall. It was clear what their objective might be—Ceylon. If japan were to take that, they could use it to base aircraft, naval units and submarines that could pose a threat as far away as the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Beyond that, Ceylon was also a source of over 90% of Britain’s rubber, and it would produce 60% of the rubber all the Allied powers used, a resource that was much needed in wartime. All those tires on trucks and planes needed it, and it had many other wartime applications. Ceylon was also a major producer of tea, and that, too was a vital resource insofar as the British were concerned.

Yet for all that virtue, Ceylon’s liability was that it could not produce enough food to feed its local population. As Hara’s carriers headed west, there was no more than 14 days supply of rice on the Island, and the island needed to import over half a million tons of rice per year. Some of it came from India, more from the Middle East, and that meant the waters around the island were full of merchant shipping on those thin, highly vulnerable sea lanes. The Japanese knew this, and therefore one of Vice Admiral Ozawa’s chief objectives, in addition to screening Hara’s carriers, was to seek out and destroy merchant shipping off the coast of India.

And so just one brief look at a single piece of the great puzzle that had been the British Empire, was quite revealing. This piece was particularly important, for it connected directly to great segments of the puzzle on either side, the Australian and New Zealand Commonwealth to the east, and India to the north. Remove it from British control, and a deadly gap appeared in the puzzle that could only be filled again by fire, steel, and blood. In many ways, it was more strategic then Malta was in the Med, or even Gibraltar, and perhaps even the equal of the Suez Canal in terms of importance to that theater. Churchill himself commented that the approach of Japanese naval units to Ceylon filled him with dread.

“The most dangerous moment of the War, and the one which caused me the greatest alarm, was when the Japanese Fleet was heading for Ceylon and the naval base there. The capture of Ceylon, the consequent control of the Indian Ocean, and the possibility at the same time of a German conquest of Egypt would have closed the ring and the future would have been black.”

British power to protect and secure the vital resources and lines of communication flowing through Ceylon now rested on Somerville’s Indian Ocean Squadron, three carriers, three old battleships, three heavy cruisers and a few other light cruisers and destroyers. After watching the Japanese destroy Pearl Harbor, seize the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, push boldly into the Solomons and all the way to Fiji, Churchill had every reason to be fearful with the coming of this news.

In early July, he had very little to defend that island. He had pleaded with Prime Minister Curtin to allow him to keep two regiments of the Australian 6th Division there, but the loss of Port Moresby and the brief Japanese air raid on Port Darwin had ended any hope of achieving that. So it was then down to the British 34th Indian Division, reinforced earlier that year with the arrival of the 16th British Regiment, and the HQ and 21st Regiment of the 11th East African Division. A few security battalions had been raised among the locals, but that was it, with service troops in the two major ports, some AA guns and radar crews.

A squadron of Blenheim bombers arrived at Colombo from Greece, and was operating at the improved airfield at Ratmalana with a squadron of Fulmars. Two squadrons of Hurricanes came all the way from North Africa to China Bay at Trincomalee, where the racecourse had been converted to a makeshift airfield. At Trincomalee, or ‘Trinco’ as the British called it, the posh country club, became a headquarters; the tennis courts were used to grow vegetables, and the Cricket Fields and club became the domain of the R.A.F pilots. On the southern tip of the island, a small lake at Koggala was a perfect basing spot for Catalina search planes. Up on Adams Peak east of Colombo, one of the highest in the central island mountains, the British had deployed an air search radar set to sweep the seas in all directions around the island.

There, an imprint in a boulder was said to be the left footprint of the Buddha itself. The Hindus claimed it was the footprint of Lord Shiva, the Muslims that of Adam. Others said it was the tread of the god Saman, the deity of the rising sun, and so all these legends made the place a sacred site that drew many pilgrims in better times. Now it was the searching eye and ears of the Royal Navy, for this time, a different rising sun was coming to Ceylon with Admiral Hara’s 3rd Carrier Division.

As on Singapore, rumors of impending doom began to spread. The locals had all heard what happened in Hong Kong, of the Chinese massacred at Singapore and other tales of Japanese atrocities. Many were already heading for the highland, thinking it would be a sanctuary in the event the Japanese invaded. The exodus from the coastal areas was so pronounced, that the ship repair company at Colombo, which normally employed 3600 locals, suddenly found that only 76 showed up for work. Fear was a toxin that could spread faster than Malaria, but it may have been well justified.

The Japanese were coming, and with some of the very best troops in the army, the survivors of numerous campaigns in China, Malaya and the costly battle for Singapore. The 11th Regiment of the 5th Division was already boarding the transports at Singapore, and the clock was ticking.

Somerville was not enthusiastic about his chances. He knew that the Japanese were masters of naval air operations involving carriers, and that their planes were in many ways superior to those on his own ships. He had a small outpost at Port Blair on Andaman Island that he hoped to use as a trip wire to alert him to the Japanese attack when it came. When communications were suddenly lost with that outpost, he knew the storm was coming, and gave the order for his squadron to assemble in two flotillas, one fast and one slow.

The fleet footed carriers would be his sword, and the lumbering battleships his shield. He gave some thought to simply sending those battleships west out of harm’s way, to Addu, but discarded it thinking he would need every ship he could get his hands on. If Prince of Wales had met her fate off Malaya as it did in Fedorov’s history, he might have thought twice about sending his fleet out to face the Japanese naval aviators.

But that had never happened….

Chapter 5

That meeting with Yamamoto at Truk had occurred on the 30th of June, and Takami lingered there for several more weeks. Taiho was commissioned, but still cutting her teeth in the waters off the Philippines, working in the new equipment, pilots and planes During this period, Takami sortied once with Carrier Division 1 to help cover a supply run to Fiji. Fukada had hoped they might encounter the Americans, but that operation was unopposed. On the 15th of August, Admiral Hara informed Yamamoto that he was now prepared to head south to rendezvous with the remainder of his new 3rd Carrier Division and other fleet units.

Takami departed for Singapore, arriving there on September 15th after a stop at Davao. They tried to be discreet. Anchoring several kilometers off the island, but the local commander, the irascible General Nishimura, took a personal interest. He had a launch approach the ship, and a message was delivered, inviting the ship’s Captain and Executive Officer to dinner ashore in Singapore. To decline such an invitation would be a serious affront, and knowing that Yamamoto was relying on Nishimura to provide troops for the Ceylon Operation, Harada agreed.

“Sit down, gentlemen,” said Nishimura. “Please excuse the gloomy weather. Yet the cooler summer caused by all that ash and soot in the sky has at least given us some relief from the heat.”

“Thank you, General, you are most gracious.”

“I had hoped to see Admiral Hara at this dinner, but it seems he is still rounding up carriers and battleships. I understand that he will have our newest carrier, Taiho.”

“Yes sir. At least we were told that by Admiral Yamamoto.”

“You spoke with him personally?”

“He was kind enough to brief us and relay our orders.”

“I see… Tell me, Captain, is it true that the Siberians have invaded Karafuto?”

“Yes sir, they have.”

“Most astounding. I’m sure that will be on Yamashita’s plate soon. Let us hope he does a better job than he did during this campaign.”

“Taking all of Malaya in five weeks wasn’t good enough?” Harada smiled. There was something about this man that he did not like, but he kept those feelings as opaque as possible.

“Singapore is part of Malaya, is it not?” said Nishimura. “In fact, it was the only part that really mattered. I took that for the Empire after Yamashita failed. It was no surprise to me when he was relieved here, and I was given command in his place. Now the city is well in hand. I have rooted out most of the undesirables, particularly the Chinese, and things are running smoothly again.”

“Things seemed to be in order,” said Harada, his smile a bit thinner.

“I have also heard you have a most unusual ship.”

“Oh? Not really. It is a prototype heavy destroyer, with our very best new radar sets.”

“And more,” said Nishimura. “Don’t think I have not heard all the talk about rocketry.”

“Yes, those are prototype weapons as well, but if you will excuse me, we are not permitted to discuss them. I’m sure you will understand.”

“Of course.” It was enough for Nishimura that the existence of such weapons was confirmed. Now he wanted to see what this operation would require of him. “Good that you were in the right place at the right time to rescue general Imamura. He still speaks highly of you. Now I understand you will be heading into the Indian Ocean—a very good idea. There isn’t much threat the British can pose now, not with the Air Force posting strike planes here on my airfields. Yet the British cannot be left to ripen out west. Soon the stench will begin to blow this way. It is about time Yamamoto decided to go and prune the tree.”

“Yes sir,” said Harada.

“Then you will attack their bases on Ceylon?”

“Sir, Admiral Hara will have been fully briefed on this operation, and he will have orders for us when he arrives here. I am only a Captain.” Harada thought he had better say as little as possible.

“Well, I am a General,” said Nishimura. “You see, the Navy needs me to provide troops for this operation, and so I already know a good deal.”

“Probably more than we know, sir. Care to enlighten us?”

Nishimura smiled. “Attacking Ceylon is certainly the mission. What else? So I will provide two regiments of my 5th Infantry Division, and hold a regiment of my Imperial Guards in reserve. They were the heroes of Singapore, under my personal command, I might add.”

“Most extraordinary, sir. A lot has been said about them.”

“Oh? What is going around?”

“Why, in the operations up north, the troops of the 7th Division were told to remember what happened here, and how your troops crushed the last of the enemy resistance.” Harada was, of course, buttering the General’s bread, even if none was being served that evening.

“Indeed? Well that is very true.” This one is sly, thought Nishimura. He is clearly trying to say as little as possible about this ship, the Takami, or so I am told. No one seems to have heard anything about such a ship before it appeared. Most interesting. It seems Yamamoto keeps a few flowers hidden in his garden these days. After the loss of so many carriers, he has every need to be cautious.

“So the newest carrier, and your ship, will join our two newest battleships. I was told to expect Satsuma and Hiraga here in three days. Yamamoto must be very serious about this campaign. There is only one thing I cannot seem to understand. Your ship was up north with those battleships, neh? And I believe there were two fleet carriers out to sea with you as well. How is it nothing came of that?”

Harada had no idea where this man was getting his information, or what he might have heard. “I don’t understand,” he said. “We were to cover the transfer of reserve units to Karafuto, and that mission was completed.”

“Yes, but not without incident. Didn’t Haruna take damage in that operation?”

“If I may, sir, how is it that an Army General knows so many things about naval operations?”

Nishimura inclined his head. That skirted the border of impertinence. “It may interest you to know that I am being considered for a higher position on the Imperial General Headquarters. I must therefore keep abreast of more things than the number of Chinese heads I take here each day.” He smiled, but behind it was the tension of a look that said ‘don’t question me like that again.’

“Of course,” said Harada.

“May I ask if you have heard anything concerning this rogue Siberian vessel in the north. The name Mizuchi is being spoken even here, and in fearful whispers.”

“Respectfully, sir, I was told to discourage such rumors by the Admiral.”

“Of course,” said Nishimura, a little mocking echo of what Harada had said a moment earlier. “However, rumors do not compel the fleet admiral to pull all his most important ships out of the home waters, do they? I think there is more to these stories than the wild imaginations of sailors in the bars of Yokohama. Very well, I see that dinner is being served. Let us enjoy the meal, and talk again after. Would you be interested in a tour of the island? I can certainly arrange that.”

“You are most kind,” said Harada, “but I have pressing business aboard ship.” And no, there won’t be a tour arranged for you there, he thought. That’s what this one was angling for. He’s heard something, and more than he should. Either that, or interests on the Imperial General Staff have contacted him and asked him to go fishing here with this little dinner party. I must be very cautious.

Throughout this exchange, Fukada remained discretely silent, but he could easily perceive the polite thrust and parry in the conversation, and he knew enough to stay out of it. If asked a direct question, he would speak, but otherwise, his was to be a quiet presence, but one without opinions. Deference to the Captain was expected, and he knew how to play the part.

At that moment, and half way through the dinner, there came a quiet but persistent knock on the door. Nishimura turned his head with a look of displeasure. “What is it?”

A man entered, walking quickly up to the General and handing him a slip of paper, which Nishimura read silently. “Well,” he said. “It seems we have an uninvited guest tonight. An enemy submarine has attacked a supply ship in the Strait of Malacca. Kasigi Maru has been hit!”

Harada stood up immediately. Bowing as he did so. “General, I thank you for your hospitality, but it is clear that I have urgent business to attend to. Mister Fukada, we must depart for Takami immediately.”

Urgent business indeed, thought Nishimura. See what you find out there, Captain, because this message was, of course, pre-arranged. I’ve had my time with you, and I see that you are just another tight lipped Navy man, most likely thick with Yamamoto if he entrusts you with this mission. You will find nothing, for there is no submarine, nor any ship by the name of Kasigi Maru. Let us see how you like chasing after ships no one has heard of.

He smiled, then turned to an aid waiting quietly by the door. “Bring my pen and paper. I must draft a special message to go out in a secure pouch on the next plane north.”

That message would be sent to the Imperial General Staff, and was also a pre-arranged code, just a single kanji character that read “Sakura,” the word for Cherry Blossoms. Only one man would understand what it meant—that the ship Nishimura had been told to look for and report on was there at Singapore.

Nishimura was not the only one interested in the doings of that ship. The Imperial General Headquarters was also curious, particularly one Hajime Sugiyama, Chief of Staff. It was a ship, he was told, that had already demonstrated the ability to fire and use rocket weapons similar to the secret ‘Project Okha’, or Cherry Blossom. There was a great deal of rivalry between the Army and Navy, and Sujiyama wanted to know everything he could about the rumors now circulating—of a ship called Mizuchi, of battles fought in the Sea of Okhotsk, and of a ship named Takami that appeared nowhere on the official register of commissioned vessels in the Navy.

Yes, he was most curious.

When they returned to Takami, Harada and Fukada went straight to the bridge, immediately checking sonar and radar stations for any reports. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

“We have what looks like a small commercial freighter in the Strait of Malacca,” said Ryoko Otani, the Lieutenant on the SPY-1 System. “I’ve tracked them heading southeast around Pulau Sugi, and into the South China Sea.”

“Probably supplies for the forces still at Palembang on Sumatra,” said Fukada. “Those airfields have been abandoned due to the heavy ashfall, but the garrison left there still has to eat.”

“Ensign Shiota,” said Harada. “Have you been monitoring local signals traffic here?”

“Yes sir, but there’s been nothing unusual.”

“No S.O.S. or distress calls of any kind on the military channels? Nothing from a ship designated Kasigi Maru?”

“No sir, nothing.”

“Look that ship up in the WWII ship registry.”

A moment later Shiota reported that there was no ship by that name. “I’ve got a Kasi Maru, Hasuga Maru, Kage Maru, Kasato Maru, but no Kasigi. That oiler that serviced us was the Kuroshio Maru. Could that be it, sir?”

Harada gave Fukada a look. “What do you make of this?”

“The General seems to have been pulling our leg.”

“Yes, but I wonder why? Was he just irritated that I wouldn’t say anything about the ship or the operation?”

“Anybody’s guess, sir. He was a sly bastard, that much was certain.”

“Right,” said Harada. “Finished his little interview and then got rid of us…. But if that is so, the messenger thing had to be all pre-arranged.”

“It seems that way, sir.”

Harada filed that away mentally, with a note to be extra cautious with Nishimura in the future. He thought about reporting the incident to Yamamoto, but it sounded too trivial to bother the Fleet Admiral with something like that. Yet it was clear to him that the General had gone on a little fishing expedition, and that was grounds for some discomfort.

Three days later they picked up two contacts at 18 knots rounding the cape and entering the Singapore Strait, and they were not commercial ships. Two grey sisters emerged from the low rolling fog in the strait, and the bridge crew finally got a close look at the new battleship class they had fought with up north, but never really got close enough to see.

“Beautiful beasts,” said Harada, his eyes lost in his field glasses. “They look a lot like the old American Iowa class in profile, clipper bow, built for speed, and triple turrets.”

“Ships that never were,” said Fukada. “You won’t find them in the WWII ship registry database either. That has to be Satsuma and Hiraga.”

“Then Admiral Hara can’t be far behind with the carriers.”

He arrived two days later, on the 18th of September, in a well escorted group that now hove to in the strait off Bantam Island, about 30 kilometers south of the main city of Singapore. Hara wanted no prying eyes noting his ship types, and planned to transit the Singapore Strait the following day, after the oiler Kuroshio Maru serviced ships needing to refuel. There was Japan’s newest carrier, the Taiho, looking very much like the one that had entered service much later in the war by that same name.

“Strange how the history here rhymes,” said Harada.

“The Great Phoenix,” said Fukada, looking at the ship with equally great interest and admiration. “That one is over 37,000 tons out there, but it could still make 33 knots if this one is anything like the original design. It was supposed to have belt armor up to 152mm, and two armored decks. I just hope they filled those voids around the aviation fuel bunkers. Look at those guns. We’ve got that single 127mm deck gun forward, well that baby has twelve 100mm guns, dual purpose, though they were really there for air defense. And she’s supposed to have over fifty 25mm guns as well, on seventeen triple mounts. That’s a lot of lead when they get to firing.”

“I’ll still put my money on the SM-2,” said Harada. “The enemy plane will be killed long before the pilot gets anywhere near us. I just wish I had a whole lot more than we’re still packing under that forward deck.” They had expended one on that target drone, two more against the American B-17s, and 33 in the battle against Mizuchi. He had 38 left, and 12 more SM-3s. So Takami could take down 50 enemy planes before they would be forced to rely on their close in defense Phalanx guns. Available rounds for those wouldn’t take them very far, and then all Harada’s bets were off, and those fifty 25mm AA gun barrels on the Taiho would be looking pretty good to him.

“Aye sir,” said Fukada.

“Looks a lot like the British Illustrious Class.”

“I think they may have taken a leaf from their book. Remember, a lot of early navy ships were built by the Brits, way back at the turn of the century. Admiral Togo’s ship, the Mikasa, was a modified Formidable Class battleship of the Royal Navy.”

“Those other two smaller carriers must be the Hiyo and Junyo. Can they keep up with us?”

“Hiyo was built on the hull of an old ocean liner,” said Fukada. “That’s her there, the Flying Hawk, and it will make a hair over 25 knots, and carry over 48 planes. Junyo there, with the oddly bent stack on the island, was built the same way. The Peregrine Falcon will have roughly the same stats as Hiyo, and these conversions were just finished recently, at least in our history. Looks like Yamamoto is debuting a brand new carrier division here, and herding all the older girls off for his Fiji operations.”

“Seems that way. Well, we’d better look after this bunch. Yamamoto was more than a little edgy over the losses to his fleet carriers. He’s already taken as much damage as the Americans inflicted on him at Midway, and that battle never happened. Isn’t this Indian Ocean raid a little late?”

“It was supposed to have been staged late March to mid-April,” said Fukada, “a little Easter Sunday surprise for the British.”

“You were pretty blunt with Yamamoto, particularly concerning the Taiho.”

“He needs to know what could happen,” said Fukada. “Our presence here, if anything, has to be about steering a course around the icebergs that sunk us.”

“Icebergs? In the Pacific?” Harada smiled. “The only one we really need to worry about is still up north.”

“How can we know that?”

“We can’t, really, but it’s a fairly good bet that this Karpov will continue to cover his Sakhalin Operation.”

“You mean Karafuto,” Fukada corrected. “I guess we’d best be thinking about it from the Japanese perspective these days.”

“Well, Karpov has a few more months to lay in a store of supplies on that island to sustain his garrison there over the winter. From what I can gather, we moved fresh troops there as well.”

“I spoke with Ugaki briefly while we were waiting,” said Fukada. “He says that they’ve been making night runs from Sapporo and Ominato. They run up the eastern side of Hokkaido, reaching Karafuto after dark, where they can unload and slip away. If anything has to go by day, they throw up a fairly thick air cover. Frankly, I don’t think Karpov can really mess with those operations. He can try standing off and using a missile or two, but the Empire has a hell of a lot more transport ships than he has missiles.”

“Right,” said Harada. “His primary threat is to important capital ships the Navy needs to sustain operations. That’s why Yamamoto pulled all the best ships south. He was counting on us taking Mizuchi out, and when we let him down, that was his only smart option.”

“If we had coordinated better we might have gotten that bastard.”

“I’m not so sure. It was all going to come down to those eight SSMs we threw at him. Maybe if we did have four fleet carriers, and they threw a couple hundred planes at Kirov, then one of our missiles might have had a better chance to get through. Yamamoto was correct, two carriers were not enough, and we botched the one good chance we had.”

“So how will we operate now?” asked Fukada. “What would you do?”

“Me? If he’s got a head on his shoulders, and I think he does, then he knows he’s really a lone shark when it comes right down to it. He’s a sea wolf, and that’s how I would sail that ship. Look, they have to know the history every bit as well as we do. It shouldn’t be hard for them to find out from signals traffic what the Japanese Navy is up to down here. So that’s where I’d be, skulking about like a wolf at the edge of a herd. I’d leave commercial shipping alone, unless I could get hard ID on troop transports. But better yet, I’d hunt Japanese carriers. That’s where this war will be won or lost. Yamamoto still has an edge. He knows that and he’s husbanding his resources here in the south and hoping he can dominate the waters around Fiji now. If I were this Karpov, that’s where I’d be, and soon.”

“And how do we operate?”

“Well,” said Harada. “We’re one toothless wolf now, but at least we can still bark. Face it, we’re a sheepdog now. Our job here is to spot the enemy with that SPY-1 system, and cry wolf. If they throw planes at us that look like they can do harm, then we take them down, while we can. I’ll be stingy with the missiles, but if we get pressed hard, I’m ready to use them.”

“Don’t sell the Japanese Zero short,” said Fukada. “Those carriers out their can defend themselves, and the British better know it.”

Chapter 6

That evening they had the pleasure of taking a trip over to the Taiho for the final mission briefing. There they met the bull necked Admiral Hara, and Captain Ichibei Yokokawa, former commander of the carrier Zuikaku. Kurita was also there, commanding the battleship squadron, and he gave them both a dark glance, still smoldering with inner anger over what had happened during the last operation. He still burned with shame, for instead of leading this attack, he was now subordinated to Admiral Hara. This was, in his mind, what he deserved by abdicating his own authority and listening to the advice of these two new officers, men he had never heard of before, but apparently men who were also close to Yamamoto. Yet that did not mean he had to like them, and he didn’t, blaming them in part for his own perceived failure.

The Captains off Satsuma and Hiraga, and the other carriers were also present. Decked out now in official period Navy uniforms provided to them by Yamamoto, Harada and Fukada fit right in, but Harada had told his XO to say nothing unless spoken to directly. They would play the part of the dutiful officers now, there to receive orders, and not plan operations.

Hara told the assembly that Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa was presently in the Mergui Archipelago, a group of islands off the coast of the northern Malay Peninsula, about 200 nautical miles southwest of Bangkok. The navy had moved in a squadron of long range torpedo bombers there at Bangkok, the plane the Allies called the “Nell,” and they could serve in bot a recon and strike role.

“Ozawa has the four cruisers of Kurita’s old 7th Division,” he said, Kumano, Suzuya, Mogami and Mikuma. That last ship is fitted out with our latest search radar, capable of seeing planes out to 90 kilometers, or ships at sea 18 kilometers away. Ozawa also has destroyer Division 17 with him, and this entire force will be designated the northern scouting detachment, also tasked with attacking any enemy commercial shipping encountered.”

Now he looked to Kurita, cleverly giving him face as he continued. “Vice Admiral Kurita has been promoted to commander of the fast battleship squadron, and he will accompany my carriers in support. Where would you prefer to position your ships?”

Kurita knew where he would prefer them, well out in front, but he had been ordered by Yamamoto to stay very close to the carriers, where his armor and AA defense would provide them with good cover. While Yamamoto did not expect to encounter an enemy using naval rockets here, he nonetheless wanted Kurita to begin adopting this tactical deployment, as it would now become the primary role for his fast battleships—defense of the carriers.

“I will be cruising right with you, sir, with one battleship off your port quarter, and the other to starboard.”

“Very well, Taiho will be honored to have such a strong escort.” He offered a shallow bow. “As for the new ship, Takami, it will be an advanced radar picket, also fitted out with our very latest equipment. Its mission is to report enemy contacts directly to me so that we may take appropriate offensive action.”

Now Harada offered a shallow bow in confirmation of those orders. He could still feel Kurita’s eyes on him, and did not speak, knowing he should not presume to stand with the Admirals.

“A small detachment of SNLF troops has already gone forward under cover of this weather to land at the enemy outpost of Port Blair on the lower Andaman Islands. They may have scout planes there, so it must be taken. We should arrive in time to cover that operation, and then, once the area is secure, the transports will follow us, and we will proceed to Ceylon for the main landings. Any questions?”

There were none, and so Hara continued. “It is just over a thousand sea miles to the Andaman Islands from here. I propose to cruise at 18 knots and therefore arrive within 60 hours, on the 24th of September. Once Port Blair is secured, it is then another 800 sea miles to our planned strike position off Southern Ceylon—a little under 48 hours sailing time. I presume we can be there by the 28th of September, with our primary mission being to neutralize any enemy naval forces, and to bomb their airfields and prevent them from interfering with our landings. Covering the transports will be a primary part of this operation. The landings will be scheduled for the period September 28 thru October 1st, depending on events. The entire operation should conclude by October 15th.”

That was a lot to bite off and chew, thought Fukada, though he said nothing, being the most junior officer present. Afterwards, when they were back on the launch heading for Takami, he expressed doubts to Harada.

“This force is much smaller than the one sent in the history we know,” he said. “Yamamoto sent five fleet carriers and a light carrier, with four battleships, seven cruisers and 19 destroyers. We have half the carriers and battleships, though we’re fairly thick on the lighter ships. That’s the Tone over there, behind Taiho, and I’ve spotted a couple light cruisers anchored with the Hiyo and Junyo. The real operation had no land assault planned. We’ll have to protect those troops, and handle anything the enemy throws at us, and with just 150 planes compared to the 350 Nagumo had. I don’t like it, but I wasn’t stupid enough to say anything in there.”

“You left out one ship Hara has that was never there before,” said Harada with a smile. “So we’ll just have to fill in for those shortfalls you mention. Those battleships look pretty mean as well. Any idea what the British will have?”

“Admiral James Somerville,” said Fukada for a start. “He was no slouch, and if the history here rhymes at all, he’ll have a pair of Illustrious class carriers, the light carrier Hermes, as many as five battleships and cruisers, and destroyers to match us pound for pound.”

It was actually worse than Fukada knew, for the intrepid Christopher Wells had arrived with HMS Formidable, and now the British would also match the Japanese plane for plane, though the edge in carrier operations and actual aircraft was still held by the Japanese. Yet it was going to be a much more ambitious operation than the historical raid, and with the odds much more even.

Harada was going to have to weigh heavily in the outcome, because Somerville had been alerted to the operations, and he was already making preparations to put out to sea and intercept it.

The move up through the Strait of Malacca was accomplished without incident. Takami was well out in front, her radars scanning the sea and sky ahead, sonars listening for any enemy that might be lurking beneath the sea. On the 24th of September she was steaming about 15 nautical miles off Port Blair, and they had a helo up to give them a look over the island. Nothing had been seen due north, and Fukada asserted that Somerville would not be there, but Harada knew they were in a different game now, and he was taking no chances. Once they were confident nothing was east of Andaman Island, he turned west, intending to approach Port Blair and cover the landing operation there by those SNLF troops, with the light cruiser Sendai.

The port was at the southern tip of the big Andaman island. The smaller Rutland island nearly kissed the tip of Andaman, and some 20 miles south of that, was Little Andaman. Hara was taking his carriers south of Little Andaman Island, intending to move west of the long main island to begin his approach to Ceylon. Ozawa was heading instead for the 20-mile-wide channel, and that was where Takami would be heading soon.

It was then that the enemy showed his first teeth. A pair of fighters came out of the northwest, and Harada presumed they were simply out on a recon operation. He gave them a pass, knowing the enemy coast watchers at Port Blair must have already reported the approaching Japanese ships. But at 11:30 hours that morning, eight more contacts were seen approaching the island on the same vector at about 24,000 feet, and cruising at 195 knots.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” said Fukada. “That has to be a strike group. Probably torpedo bombers off Somerville’s carriers.”

“The ship will come to battle stations,” said Harada. “Stand up the SM-2s. We can spend a few to make sure those troops get ashore.”

The strike wave hit the western shore of Andaman Island at 11:38, and Harada gave orders to get after them at the 20 nautical mile range. The first missile was away at 11:40, just as the enemy planes, a group of 8 Barracudas, were descending to make their attack approach. They saw the contrails coming, yet much too fast to be from enemy fighters. Instinct serving, they continued their diving descent, thinking to get down and avoid the threat, but the missiles were not in any way fooled.

The crewmen on the Japanese transport Tatekawa Maru saw those contrails too, and now their blood froze, for they did exactly what all the rumors had been reporting, climbing into the sky, then descending. Several thought their ships were now under attack, and fearful shouts of Mizuchi were heard. Gunners on the cruiser Sendai even started firing at them, though they had no chance to hit those sleek arrows. Then to their great surprise and relief, the Japanese saw those rockets fly right over their ships, streaking towards the northwest. There they now saw the distant specks of enemy planes in the sky, and the gunners on the Sendai were retraining their weapons in that direction.

They saw the missiles home true, infallibly tracking and hunting those planes. Then the first exploded in a bright orange fireball, and the fearful shouts turned to cheers. “They have missed us!” one man shouted. “They have gone after their own planes!”

More explosions followed, and in those first hot minutes, four of the eight enemy planes were blasted from the sky, with one other suffering fragment damage from one of its dying comrades. The three remaining planes were getting lower, swooping over the long inlet of the bay and turning to come around and take the Japanese ships from the south.

“Three more,” said Harada. “I know it’s a lot to spend, but if they get one torpedo off it could deep six one of those transports. Then what good are we here?”

So they fired, three more precious SM-2s, and the result was inevitable. The missiles ran true, tracked their targets, and killed them, and Somerville would get the report five minutes later where he stood with Wells on the bridge of HMS Formidable.

“Sir,” came the signalman. “We’ve lost them. All eight, sir. They’re gone.”

“Damn!” said Somerville. “They must have seen our recon group and got up fighters. We tried to bugger them, but they were on to us.”

“No sir,” said the man. “It wasn’t Jap Zeros, sir. It was rockets. Bill Whitman was the last, and we heard it clear as day. Rockets, he said. The Japs have naval rockets!”

Somerville’s carriers were in a very good position to stop this little raid by the enemy, about 90 nautical miles slightly northwest of Port Blair. Indomitable was in the lead, followed by Illustrious and then the flagship, Formidable. Six destroyers accompanied them, in three groups of two, and the cruiser force, with Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Emerald, Enterprise and the destroyer Legion were some miles to his southwest steaming for the channel.

“Indeed?” said Somerville, looking at Wells. “Naval rockets is it?” Virtually everyone in the fleet had heard of them. There had been lots of talk of the big battles fought in the North Atlantic, and the Med. But the rockets had always been on their side. To now learn that the enemy had them as well was most disheartening.

“What do you make of this, Mister Wells?”

“I’m not quite sure, sir. I wonder if Admiral Tovey knows about it?” Wells had seen a good deal of action in this war. After saving Glorious, he had served briefly aboard HMS Invincible, and that was where he had his first glimpse of what this was all about. A mysterious ally had joined the Royal Navy, though Wells had never been aboard the ship. He knew it had Naval rockets as its primary weapon of war, but not much more. He certainly did not expect the other side had these weapons, least of all, the Japanese.

Somerville frowned, thinking. He was considering whether he should now launch a second strike, but reports arrived minutes later that the Japanese were landing troops at Port Blair. It was too late. All his planes would hit now were empty transports, as this was most likely a light SNLF battalion of Naval Marines. That would be enough to overcome the small garrison at Port Blair, no more than a company in strength, with a few 40mm Bofors and service troops for the port.

A day late and ten pounds short, he thought. But what we do know is that our enemy is out there, somewhere south of the Andaman Islands, and right where I expected them. We knew the Sunda strait was still too hazardous for them to use. So they had to approach through the Strait of Malacca, which is why I deployed here, and not farther to the southwest. I must move that way now, and seek to cut him off as he approaches Ceylon.

It was sound military thinking, but a maneuver he would soon find fraught with danger.