Untimely Designs

by gerald hall

  The two Coalition capital ships maneuvered to try to avoid Japanese fire, firing now at maximum rate. The Nagato was now being hit at least once per salvo while she continued to single out Strasbourg. Once again, Strasbourg was straddled by the Nagato. This time, the shots were even closer, spraying the battle cruiser’s decks and washing away some of the blood that had been spilled on them earlier.

  “We’ve got to sink that battleship before she is able to destroy Strasbourg. Close the range and continue firing.” Admiral Phillips quickly ordered.

  Nagato’s third salvo scored a hit on Strasbourg. The sixteen-inch shell plunged through the center aft quadruple gun turret before wrecking the battle cruiser’s seaplane facilities. A large fire erupted on the Strasbourg’s aft deck, fueled by aviation gasoline and threatening her secondary magazines.

  Prince of Wales scored telling blows of her own upon Nagato with her fourth salvo. A fifteen-inch shell punched through Nagato’s B Turret and knocked it out. Strasbourg kept on fighting in spite of her own damage and scored a pair of hits of her own, destroying much of Nagato’s port secondary battery and starting a heavy fire.

  The range between the two forces continued to close, with the Coalition cruiser force beginning to add their own fire against Nagato. Soon, much of the Japanese battleship’s superstructure was ablaze and her fire control equipment disabled. Nagato continued to fire with her three remaining turrets, but their effectiveness dropped dramatically.

  “Keep getting closer. We have to score more hits.” Admiral Phillips fiercely ordered as the big guns continued to roar.

  For what seemed to be an eternity, but was actually only a few minutes, dozens of shells riddled Nagato’s hull and superstructure. One of Prince of Wales’ heavy shells pierced Nagato’s aft engine room and destroyed it, reducing the Japanese warship’s speed to less than ten knots.

  Finally, one of the Commonwealth heavy cruisers, HMS Cornwall sailed up to less than five thousand yards from Nagato and fired a trio of torpedoes from her portside tubes. Two of the torpedoes hit, followed shortly by a massive explosion aft. One of the torpedoes had struck the aft magazine and caused an explosion inside. A huge fireball erupted from the stricken dreadnought as her shattered hull folded and began to rapidly sink. Admiral Nagumo died aboard Nagato along with nearly thirteen-hundred members of her crew.

  Hundreds of stunned Coalition crewman watched the fiery end of Nagato. Their silence was finally interrupted by a call over Prince of Wales’ intercom.

  “Prepare to pick up survivors.”

  Out of over eight thousand Japanese sailors aboard the sunken warships, the Coalition ships were only able to rescue less than three hundred of them from the ocean where their ships had gone under.

  The battle was finally over. Now, the butcher’s bill needed to be examined for the Coalition side.

  “What are our losses, besides Repulse?” Admiral Phillips quietly asked.

  “We lost two heavy cruisers, HMS Exeter and HMS Devonshire to those damned torpedoes. The French lost the light cruiser Emile Bertin while the Dutch lost the light cruiser Java and the Americans lost USS Marblehead. We also lost five destroyers, one British, two French, one Dutch, one Australian and one American. Most of our remaining cruisers and destroyers have varying levels of damage from shell and torpedo hits also. Only about half of our original fleet remains combat-worthy at this time.”

  “So basically, our fleet has been crippled for large scale operations for the near-future. What a bloody mess. I just hope that we have accomplished the same thing to the Japanese as well.”

  “I hope so too, Sir. I just wonder why were the Japanese focusing on our battle cruisers? We’ve hardly had any shells fired at us by any of the Japanese capital ships during this entire battle.” Captain Leach asked.

  “I am guessing that they are trying to get the easier kills. But that Nagato targeted specifically Strasbourg for another reason as well, I believe. Strasbourg is the last Free French capital ship in the Pacific. The Japanese may have been trying to break the power of the Free French here to try to convince them to change sides and join the Vichy. The loss of Strasbourg would be very demoralizing to the Free French cause here for certain.”

  “What is Strasbourg’s condition? I would hate to have to pick up even more survivors, Sir.”

  “She will be able to make it back to Haiphong alright as long as we don’t run into any Japanese bombers or submarines. But the initial reports from her captain don’t sound good. All those near misses have made her flooding even worse because of sprung hull plates. A quarter of her secondary armament is gone. The French have also reported that Strasbourg’s main guns are all badly eroded and need to be relined after all of the shells that she fired.”

  “So she’s going to be out of action for a while? My ship is going to feel pretty lonely out there being our only operational capital ship.”

  “I know. But the Prime Minister has promised that HMS Tiger will be joining us after she finishes having some yard work done to her. But for now, I think that it is time for us to go back home.” Admiral Phillips said before turning and leaving the battleship’s flag bridge to go to his cabin.

  Those ships of the fleet that needed fuel met with a tanker. Then the fleet split up with each nation’s ships returning back to their port for rest and badly needed repairs until time to be called upon again to go into battle.

  Chapter Nineteen:

  Prime Minister’s Residence

  Ellesborough, England

  October 4, 1943

  Harold had been quickly escorted to the Prime Minister’s residence by several armed British soldiers. He had immediately traveled aboard a Cavalier flying boat less than a day after receiving a message from Prime Minister Churchill. Harold had received Churchill’s personal message from the British Ambassador to England less than a week earlier. It only said this.

  “Harold, it is imperative that you come to England and meet with me as soon as possible. The course of the war is at stake here.

  Sincerely,

  Winston”

  There was no other explanation given. Derby was still recovering from the Japanese invasion attempt but there was actually very little that Harold needed to do himself. Lieutenant Colonel Burke was handling the improvements to the militia quite well. The recently-promoted Australian officer was also spending his spare time developing ideas for taking the war to the Japanese.

  The large Japanese ocean liner Tatsuta Maru that had been used as a troop ship for the invasion had already been quickly patched up, refloated and then towed to the Cavill shipyards for conversion into an escort aircraft carrier. If Harold’s engineers could upgrade her diesel engines sufficiently, the salvaged Japanese liner might even prove to be fast enough to have an even larger combat role than being a mere escort carrier. She would soon join the former German raider Kormoron in Harold’s own little private navy.

  The number of other ships that Cavill’s people had decided were worth salvaging had actually grown to five others. They were in the process of being refloated for towing to the shipyard as well.

  A steady stream of barges were being towed back and forth from the northern islands to Cavill’s steel mills. The barges were loaded down with steel that had been cut away from other sunken and grounded Japanese ships. Some of the steel would soon be melted down for use in the construction of several other warships on order for the Australian and Free French navies. The rest of the salvaged steel would be used to produce more tanks, guns and artillery for Harold’s customers.

  Everyone in and around Derby was pitching in after the realization that the Japanese were willing to invade Australia. Harold could leave everything in good hands. His individual plant managers were proving to be every bit as competent as anyone that Harold had worked with during the time when he was known as James Stevenson and the year was 2040. Harold’s people now would be able to do what was necessary in his absence.

  The only difficult part was telling Dorothy
and the children that he needed to go to England by himself. Harold had guessed when Churchill had not said anything about inviting Harold’s family. Churchill needed Harold for something that Dorothy could not be a part of. Then Harold got aboard a civilian model Cavalier along with several dozen British and French officers and began a three day long journey to England.

  Shortly after arriving in London, Harold was driven to the Prime Minister’s residence. Harold now stood by the front door while a British soldier knocked on it and announced that Harold had arrived.

  The door opened up. Harold was then quickly ushered inside to meet a waiting Churchill.

  “Good afternoon, my friend. It is indeed a pleasure to see you again. I trust that you had a pleasant journey here.” Churchill said as he vigorously shook Harold’s hand.

  “It is getting a little harder to travel as I get older, Mister Prime Minister, I’m afraid. I have too many aches and pains anymore. When you add to that the necessity to travel hundreds of extra miles to avoid being shot at, it takes much of the joy out of traveling.”

  “Come now, Harold. None of this ‘Mister Prime Minister’ garbage has a place here. We have been friends for far too long.”

  Harold finally cracked a smile. “Indeed, we have, Winston. But I am curious about why you wanted me to come halfway around the world to meet here with you?”

  “I wanted to let you know how very important that your efforts before the war turned out to be for us. The changes that you suggested for the King George V class battleships, our battle cruiser force, the Hawkins class cruisers and our antiaircraft cruisers have all made an astounding difference in their performance. I absolutely believe that those changes made a decisive difference in the battle against Bismarck and Scharnhorst. Our modified ships performed magnificently as a result of your suggestions.”

  Harold was actually embarrassed about the praise that Churchill gave him. Harold did not want that much attention pointed in his direction. Who knew what it might dig up, perhaps even an old prospector’s body near one of the mines that Harold had first exploited to earn his first million?

  “That’s not the only reason or even the main reason, is it Winston?”

  “No, it isn’t. Even before Hitler’s demise, there had been a variety of efforts on the part of influential Germans to try to bring an end to this conflict. You remember when Rudolf Hess parachuted here to bring his own personal peace offer. Of course, Hess is still sitting behind bars here inside one of our military prisons.

  But lately, the Germans have not only been cleaning out the Nazis from leadership positions, they have been enlisting the use of neutral nations in trying to start peace negotiations. They have even sent businessmen from Sweden to approach our diplomats there to arrange for the beginning of negotiations. I want you to go to Geneva and represent me in negotiations to end the conflict in Europe.”

  “But why me? You have the Foreign Office for those sorts of things.” Harold asked.

  “It’s very simple, my friend. I have implicit trust in you that you would negotiate the best possible settlement for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. You certainly did so years ago when you convinced me to work for you to help improve the Royal Navy between the wars. You showed a rather uncanny sense of what we needed even before we knew that we needed it.

  I also chose you because you know the Germans. You did business with them before the war, even before the Nazi’s took control. You understand their mentality. If they are being less than honest in their dealings with us, I believe that you will detect it before any of my diplomatic types have a clue. I have lately learned not to be overly trusting with diplomats. They seldom tell you the whole truth, I’m afraid. But I do trust you, Harold.”

  “Thank you for your confidence in my abilities, Winston.” Harold hesitantly said.

  Initially Harold was shocked at the Prime Minister’s seeming acceptance of the idea of a potential negotiated peace with Germany. Historically, Churchill wanted nothing less than to utterly crush the Nazis. He would have accepted nothing less than unconditional surrender from the Germans.

  There had to be a reason why Churchill had changed his mind. Harold already knew that the British economy had been pushed to the breaking point. At the same time, Harold strongly believed that the same was true for Germany and Japan. Of course, Churchill had no idea that Harold had been approached by the Germans already in regards to potential peace talks only a short time earlier.

  Harold now saw his opportunity to ensure that another nation did not develop nuclear weapons that would eventually doom humanity.

  “Sir, we have to ensure that Germany is not able to develop weapons that allow it threaten other nations. But at the same time, it is important that if we write a peace treaty this time, that is does not sow the seeds for the next war. You know that the Versailles Treaty was too harsh and made it possible for Adolf Hitler and his people to come to power.

  The Germans are a very proud people. There is German blood even within England’s royal family. It would be better to have them as an ally in case of conflict, instead of an enemy. By building that relationship, we can also use it to leverage the Germans to moderate their more war-like behavior. Don’t you agree, Winston?”

  Churchill sat there smoking his cigar, his brow furrowed in deep thought for what seemed like an eternity. He finally breathed a heavy sigh before speaking.

  “You’re right, as usual. It will be a tough sell to Parliament and to the British people after all of the blood that has been shed. The Germans are on the verge of defeating the Soviets. But all of my intelligence reports tell me that the effort is bleeding the Germans dry. This is the time to make the peace, I am certain.

  Harold, I must say that I am curious about what sort of German weapons that you are referring to? Please tell me more. “

  “We have all been terrified of the continued use of lethal war gases. So far, we have been fortunate in that these terrible weapons have not been used in the war in Europe. But knowing how the Germans have been so innovative in the development of new weapons, we must make this a part of the negotiations. While we must acknowledge Germany’s legitimate needs to be able to effectively defend themselves, we have to eliminate all weapons that leave nothing but mass indiscriminant destruction in their wake.

  This would include all sorts of lethal war gases, biological weapons and any new technological devices that can create large areas of destruction overnight. This includes weapons that have been suggested by physicists as being possible using the elemental energy of the atom. They may seem to be little more than something out an H. G. Wells novel. However, we cannot ignore the danger that they pose.

  If we make this part of our peace negotiations, these requirements would be seen by the rest of the world as being reasonable in view of the vast destruction that this conflict has already caused. We simply want to avoid something worse in the future.” Harold cautiously explained, not wanting to give up too much information about what he knew of the German nerve agent and nuclear weapons programs.

  “What about the German and their U-Boats? They have been a plague upon us for the past two wars. We must do something about them. There is also the issue of their armored forces and the Luftwaffe.”

  “That, my friend, is a genie that we cannot put back into the bottle. The Germans can choose to build more submarines whenever they wanted. We could not stop them before it was too late anyway should the Germans choose to become aggressive against their neighbors once again. We could however demand that they limit the numbers of U-Boats that they have in their inventory. Call it a gesture of good faith on their part. Their tanks and fighters are good, but we know that building Tigers and Focke Wulfs is a very expensive business as well.

  Still, we can the Germans spend their money on their U-Boats, aircraft and tanks. We will simply work to develop the technology to defeat them at a fraction of the cost necessary for the Germans to build and maintain such forces. I am sure that I can come up with e
ffective counters for anything that the Germans develop if necessary.” Harold confidently said.

  “Something tells me that you actually could, Harold. Besides, we can’t afford to engage in expensive arms races any longer, much less continuing this war. That is why it is so important why we must find a way to end the war in Europe. In any event, the Germans will have to return to their borders. Then, once the peace has been established, we can devote the necessary resources to end the conflict in the Far East. Defeating the Japanese will finally end the threat to Australia and Singapore.”

  “The Japanese will not be so easy to negotiate with, Winston.”

  “One problem at a time, Harold. Germany is far closer to England than Japan is. I know that you want to take care of Australia’s needs. But I have to look at the larger picture also. By dealing with Germany, England can then throw far more resources into defeating Japan later on.

  In the meanwhile, I have another proposal that I would like to ask of you. This has to do with something that your factories have already started producing.” Churchill began to explain the rest of the details after pouring Harold a glass of fine sherry. Harold listened intently before agreeing to what Churchill asked for.

  German High Command Headquarters

  Berlin, Germany

  October 11, 1943

  Most of Germany’s military leaders had been quietly called back to Berlin for a secret high-level meeting. This did not happen very often, even after Hitler’s death. But recent developments demanded that the meeting occur among the handful of German leaders who knew what really happened to the Fuhrer and who wanted to end the war before Germany was destroyed.

  “We have received a message back from Herr Cavill. He is willing to meet with us privately in a neutral site to discuss a possible peace treaty. He says that while he is not an official representative of any government, but that he does have the full support of Prime Mister Churchill in this matter.” General Hans Speidel explained to the room of senior officers, many of whom had just come back from the Eastern Front.