by gerald hall
Edgar and Phillip had been with the Cassowary program from the beginning, as had the bombardier, Sergeant Terrance Christopher. The navigator and gunners had been pulled off of whatever military Cavaliers were back home undergoing maintenance. This was largely a scratch crew, but they all knew the importance of the mission.
There was scattered cloud cover over the ocean north of Australia where the coastwatchers had indicated that the Japanese carriers might be. Captain Cowens flew for over an hour as everyone aboard the bomber looked for the telltale wakes of Japanese warships.
“It will make things a lot easier when Mister Cavill gets us that search radar. We wouldn’t have nearly as difficult of a time finding ships if that had already been installed on this bird.” Sergeant Christopher noted.
“I know. Unfortunately, the Japanese interrupted our plans as enemy forces so often have a habit of doing. So we just have to make do with what we have right now.” Edgar answered back.
“I have a sighting of multiple ships, six o’clock low.” Sergeant Adam Sikes called out. Adam was the bomber’s belly turret gunner and made the report just as the bomber flew over a break in the clouds.
“I got them too.” Terrance quickly echoed.
“Have you found any of those carriers yet? Those have to be our priority targets.” Captain Cowens asked.
“I think that I have one in view right now, Sir.” Terrance reported as he looked carefully through the telescopic sights of the guided bomb controller.
“Let me know when you have confirmation. I will turn towards it to give you a better shot.”
“Sir, can you please turn another five degrees to Port?”
After Captain Cowens made the turn, the bombardier called back to him on the intercom.
“Sir, I’m going to drop one of the external bombs first so that we can cut down on our drag a bit.” Terrance said over the intercom.
“That is much appreciated, Sergeant.”
“OK, Sir. We are in the basket now.” Terrance announced, meaning that the Cassowary was now in a position where he could drop the bomb and guide it to the designated target.
A few seconds later, Captain Cowens felt the bomber lurch upwards and bank slightly to the right as over twelve-hundred kilograms of mass released from the portside hardpoint. Looking out of one of the cockpit windows, the Cassowary’s pilot could see the bomb falling down towards its target for a few moments, a pair of bright flares burning at the rear of the bomb.
The flares provided a visual beacon for the bombardier as he selected radio guidance channel Number One on his control panel and began to manipulate the joystick on the control unit. Now, Terrance had to watch both the bomb and the target so that he could steer the bomb manually onto the latter. Harold had wanted to use infrared or radar guidance for the bomb. However, he then realized that doing so right away would have influenced the technology level too much. Harold had to be patient for another year or two before carefully making such innovations in a truly ‘timely’ manner. For now, he had to rely on a manual command line of sight guidance for these bombs.
Even so, Harold was terribly worried. He had wanted to wait to deploy these weapons until he had enough bombers and guided bombs to strike a decisive blow before the Japanese could develop any countermeasures. The Japanese invasion forced Harold’s hand though. Now Harold hoped that the Japanese did not detect and identify the control signals used by the guided bombs this time.
The targeted Japanese carrier briefly disappeared underneath a line of low-lying clouds. Edgar lost sight of the flares on the back of the bomb as it and the carrier disappeared under the clouds. Unfortunately, the Cassowary’s bombardier also lost sight of both bomb and target for a few moments. By the time Terrance regained line of sight on them, the carrier had made a slight change in course. He quickly twisted the joystick controller in an effort to get the bomb back on target.
A few tense moments later, a large fountain of water erupted next to the starboard side of the Japanese carrier. A few seconds later, the warship made a radical turn to port in an effort to avoid this unexpected threat.
“Damn, missed the first one.” Terrance angrily growled over the intercom as he watched his first bomb fail to hit its target.
“Let’s make the next three count then.” Edgar said as he gritted his teeth. So far, no Japanese fighters had come near the Cassowary. There were beginning to have a few black puffs of smoke appear below them, but none of the bursts were close enough yet to damage the bomber.
Terrance’s first target had once again disappeared under some cloud cover. However, two more Japanese carriers then came into view.
“Can you drop bombs on both of those carriers?” Edgar quickly asked.
“No, Sir. I can only control one bomb at a time. But if you can turn eight degrees starboard, I can launch my next bomb.”
The Cassowary’s pilot made the requested course adjustment within a couple of seconds. Immediately, Terrance released the other externally carried bomb. The bomber once again leaped upward and increased speed, relieved of another part of its burden.
This time, the clouds did not interfere with Terrance’s aim. The bomb plunged through the carrier’s flight deck and several additional decks. The bomb’s armor–piercing seven hundred kilogram warhead exploded just as the bomb was exiting the bottom of the target’s hull. Smoke and water spray erupted from the warship’s hull as the vessel immediately began to slow down. It was obvious to the bomber’s crew that the targeted carrier had been badly damaged by the hit.
The crew of the Cassowary did not have time to celebrate though. A third and fourth carrier had appeared from under the cloud cover. Terrance quickly hit the switch to open the bomb bay doors.
The Japanese were frantically trying to deal with this single bomber. Every long range antiaircraft gun on the carriers and their escorts fired as rapidly as possible at the bomber. Because of the height that the bomber was operating, all of the shells were falling short.
“How many fighters do we have available to intercept that bomber?” The aircraft carrier IJN Zuiho’s captain quickly asked his air wing commander.
“Only four, Chu-sai. The rest are escorting our attacking bombers.”
“We need to get those fighters into the air immediately. That bomber must be shot down!”
The captains of the other three carriers were issuing similar orders. However, Shosho’s flight deck and engines had been too badly damaged by the hit for her to be able to launch her remaining fighters. Ryuho had taken fragmentation damage that caused some flooding from the near miss. But she was still capable of operating aircraft. The carrier Ryujo remained completely undamaged though.
Only Zuiho and Ryujo had any fighters available to launch in any event. Eight Zeros were launched as quickly as possible in an effort to reach and intercept the high-flying Cassowary.
“Mates, whatever you are going to do, I suggest that you please hurry. We are about to have some unpleasant company coming up here to visit.” The Cassowary’s belly turret gunner advised after looking down and seeing several Japanese fighters climbing up toward the Australian bomber.
The bombardier already had another bomb on the way down and under radio guidance when he explained over the intercom.
“I’m doing the best that I can. However, I’m going to need a few more minutes if we are going to be able to deal with these carriers. Mates, can you buy me some time with your guns?”
“We sure as hell are going to try.” The belly turret gunner defiantly answered back after he crawled back into his turret and rotated towards the slowly approaching Japanese fighters.
The Cassowary had gained altitude with each bomb release as it lightened up. It had started the attack at the height of about nine thousand meters. Now, it was over ninety-five hundred meters over sea level. This was already making it harder for the Zeros to begin to engage the big bomber as they approached their own service ceiling.
A couple of the Zeros had already tried
a couple of long-range bursts of fire from their twenty-millimeter cannons but the low velocity rounds fell well short of the Cassowary. The thin air was already making it difficult for the Japanese fighters to maneuver. Their pilots had to be very careful because of the danger of stalling and falling out of control at this altitude.
A column of flame and smoke blossomed from another Japanese carrier as the third guided bomb found its target near the warship’s forward aircraft elevator. As with the second bomb, the fuze didn’t initiate until the bomb had passed through half a dozen decks and was just punching its way through the ship’s bottom. But the ten meter diameter hole that was blown out of the carrier’s hull still caused extensive flooding and heavily damaged her engineering spaces.
“We’ve got just one more bomb left, Sir.” Terrance reported
“Then let’s hit that last carrier, Sergeant. The others either have fled to hide under that cloudbank or have been obscured due to the smoke from our bomb hits. We have a couple of Japanese destroyers who are making things even worse by laying smoke screens all around. Just tell me where I need to point our aircraft so that we can drop that final bomb and get the hell out of here.”
“We will need to swing back around about eighty degrees to port, Sir.”
The sharp left turn that the Cassowary made not only put the last undamaged Japanese carrier into ‘the basket’ but also ruined the approach angle for the Zeros climbing up to try to intercept the lone Australian bomber.
Just as soon as Edgar got the wings level, Terrance released the last bomb. But the Cassowary could not leave yet. Terrance still had to keep both the target and bomb in sight. So Edgar began a gentle right hand turn to accommodate this. Unfortunately, this also meant that the pursuing Japanese fighters could close this distance.
Edgar cringed as he heard Japanese machine gun rounds begin to hit the Cassowary. At almost the same time, he heard heavy machine gun fire from both the bomber’s belly and chin turrets. The tracers from those guns streamed towards the enemy Zeros as the latter struggled to climb up to reach the Australian bomber. One of the Zeros was hit and set ablaze, falling from the sky like a comet. The other enemy fighters began evasive maneuvers to try to avoid the deadly Brownings. The maneuvers themselves proved to be dangerous as two Zeros lost control and fell into flat spins. The other Zeros continued to attempt to make attacks while dodging tracers from the Cassowary’s guns.
Edgar patiently waited while the bombardier carefully aimed his weapon at the carrier below. Terrance watched the carrier below attempting evasive maneuvers to avoid the bomb. The bombardier doubted that the Japanese could even see the incoming bomb. Finally, the bomb struck the carrier’s flight deck just forward of the arresting wires. Then a huge fireball erupted from the after half of the carrier. The bomb had plunged through the flight deck and several decks below it as the other bombs had done. Only this time, the warhead detonated right in the middle of the warship’s magazine. Nearly a hundred tons of bombs and torpedo warheads began to detonate, tearing apart the carrier’s stern and much of the flight deck.
Edgar saw the flash and detonation immediately before hearing Terrance’s shout of triumph. Within seconds, Edgar had his bomber turning away from the Japanese fighters and back towards friendly territory. A nearby cloudbank finally allowed the Australian heavy bomber to break contact with the pursuing Japanese fighters.
As the Cassowary flew home, the Japanese were struggling to keep their ships afloat and recover their surviving aircraft. Out of the four carriers, Ryujo, the last carrier hit, was ablaze and settling rapidly by the stern. Zuiho and Ryuho were badly damaged and burning but still underway, while Shoho had suffered the least amount of damage. So Shoho was the only carrier of the four capable of operating aircraft now. A Mutsuki-class destroyer was next to Ryujo attempting to pick up survivors as explosions continued to rock the doomed carrier.
Acrid smoke, a combination of smoke from the burning ships and the smoke screens laid by defending destroyers, filled the air around the Japanese carriers. There was little that they could now do to influence the battle now.
“We need to leave here before we are all destroyed. I will assume the responsibility for any dishonor to the Emperor.” Shoho’s captain Kaigun-daisa Izawa Ishinosuke told the crew on the bridge. Carrier Division Four’s commander Kaigun-shōshō Kakuji Kakuta had chosen to go down with Ryujo. The Japanese carrier then slowly turned to the north and sailed away from Australia. Shoho was slowly followed by Zuiho, Ryuho and their escorting cruisers and destroyers.
An hour later, the Cassowary landed back at the Derby airfield. The bomber’s crew was surrounded by soldiers and ground personnel after word had gotten out about the success of the mission. As soon as Edgar, Terrance and the others were able, they boarded a truck that took them to the main command post.
There, both Harold and Major Burke were waiting in a small conference room that was frequently used to debrief militia personnel. Harold patiently sat and listened while Major Burke was debriefing the crew about the mission. The crew was then congratulated for a successful mission before being sent back home to rest.
“Mister Cavill, you are probably going to need to build some more of those bombers and the bombs that it was carrying.” Major Burke said after the last crewman left.
“Yes, but it will take a while to build more Cassowaries. They take just as long to build as our Cavaliers and each require just as much in terms of resources. The bombs are something that we can make much more quickly. But, sooner or later, the Japanese are going to figure out that these weapons are radio guided. Then they are going to try to jam our guidance signals. We will have to come up with other forms of guidance for our weapons that will be harder to defeat.”
“Well, Mister Cavill. I will leave that in the capable hands of yourself and your engineers. I am just glad to have these fine tools to work with.” Major Burke replied with a smile before finally leaving the debriefing room.
Harold sat and thought for a few moments. He knew that had to be very careful about just how many technological advancements that he incorporated into any new weapons. Radio-controlled bombs had indeed been used during this period of the war in the previous timeline. The Germans employed the Fritz-X and HS-293 guided bombs to great success against Allied warships until the Allies began to use radio jammers to confuse their guidance commands. The Allies used radio-guided bombs of their own like the Azon towards the end of the Second World War.
The United States had also used a radar-guided bomb called the BAT during the latter part of the Pacific War to heavily damage a Japanese escort ship. Perhaps, Harold could quietly develop a similar weapon and still not disrupt the overall technology level of the period. Still, Harold worried about the implications of everything that he did or that he changed.
At least now, Harold knew that his newest designs worked. While Major Burke and the rest of the Commonwealth military might want large numbers of Cassowaries and guided bombs, there were a lot of other pieces of military hardware that also needed to be produced as well for the Commonwealth. Harold did not have the means to build all of them. But at the same time, he did not want to lose control of the technology either. There was always the risk that someone could take one of Harold’s ‘innovations’ and expand upon it in a way that accelerates technological change beyond what Harold intended.
When the air cover disappeared for the Japanese invasion force, all of the remaining loaded transports decided to turn around and head back north towards Luzon. They left behind more than a thousand troops that had already landed on Australian soil. But despite many calls for the trapped Japanese troops to surrender, the invaders continued to fight to the death.
“Well, we got the last of the buggers out finally. Not a single one of those Japanese soldiers surrendered either. They just came charging at us with those damned swords of theirs or they blew themselves up with grenades. We tried to reason with them. But the Japs apparently weren’t having any part of that.” M
ajor Burke explained shortly after the end of the battle. He and Harold had just returned to the auxiliary command post bunker where Dorothy and the children had been taking shelter.
“How many did they lose?” Harold asked.
“I don’t know yet. We are still picking up bodies with more washing up on the shore every day. But we figure that the Japs lost somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand men. They lost that battleship, four cruisers and eleven destroyers in addition to all of the transports that were sunk by our forces. Only a couple of their transports got away along with a cruiser and a few destroyers. Our aircraft hit a couple of their aircraft carriers, but we don’t know how badly damaged they are. Who knows how many aircraft the Japanese lost in the battle? Our fighter pilots have claimed over fifty kills, but those scores are usually exaggerated a bit.”
“That’s a hell of a lot of people and equipment. How about our own losses?” Harold asked.
“We didn’t lost too much in terms of materiel. We lost a pair of torpedo boats, four Dragonflies and a pair of Whirlwinds. Our coastal defense batteries are a little beat up, but still fully operational. The rest of it can all be repaired and brought back into service pretty easily, I believe.”
“You still haven’t said anything about our personnel losses, Harlan.” Harold pressed.
“I know. It’s just that I know how important your people are to you. This is going to be very painful, but we believe that our casualties are approximately thirty nine hundred people. This includes several hundred civilians who were caught in the Japanese bombing of Derby.
Unfortunately, that included dozens of women and children. The hospital is full of casualties.” Major Burke sadly replied.
“Sweetheart, I want to go see them. It’s important for us to show in person that we care about what happened to them.” Dorothy quickly said.