by Row, David
Somerville and his staff were busy analyzing the night's actions, and working out what to do next. It was clear from the action photographs and the surface action that the Japanese covering force had been shattered and was effectively unable to interfere in the area until reinforced. The new Sea Eagle had proven itself in combat, and the carriers themselves had taken less aircrew losses than had been originally feared. On the other hand, he had lost a cruiser and a destroyer and had a carrier and a battleship severely damaged, which reduced his own options until he could regroup. In any case, his remit had never been to destroy the Japanese Navy in the area, but merely make it unable to support the invasion of the British possessions. Of course, destroying it was one way of accomplishing that. It also was looking increasingly as if the IJN had a fast, very powerful torpedo that no-one had known about. While the initial strike on the Ceres could have been a submarine, the later hits on the Prince of Wales and the timings made this unlikely, as any submarine would have had to be right between the ships even though they were moving at high speed. Judging from the power of the explosions, it would be a big beast, which probably explained the range as well - it looked like it could go at least 10,000 yards. This would be a problem in future surface actions if the Japanese could mass their ships to ensure a decent number of hits.
The staff deliberations were interrupted by the news that the fleet had been spotted by a Japanese scout plane - fighters were trying to shoot down the shadower, but the cloud cover meant that for once the Japanese plane got away - base had not ordered it to keep close contact no matter what, so the pilot managed to evade the fighters who seemed to have a surprisingly good idea of where he was. Somerville estimated he had no real choice but to fight off today's attacks, unless he wanted to abandon the Melbourne and the Prince of Wales. He had no wish to do this unless the situation got far worse, and by tomorrow he would have additional land-based cover, and two more days should see him in Singapore. He decided to fight it out. The question now was how much had the Japanese managed to reinforce their land-based strike force since yesterday?
The problem the IJN faced was a lack of fighter cover. Only six Zeros were available to cover the 27 G4M Betty bombers, but they took heart from the reports of the damage done already to the British force. A carrier sunk, and another carrier severely damaged yesterday, as well as a battleship damaged. And it seemed that their cruisers had had successes overnight, while the reports were fragmentary, it seemed that before they had died bravely they had sunk another battleship as well as some more cruisers and destroyers. While it was possible the British had two carriers left (judging by the night attack), they knew that their own planes had shot down large numbers of their fighters in exchange yesterday - they couldn't have many left now. Their targets were the remaining carriers – removing them would leave the British fleet naked to the power of the Japanese air force.
Force Z had been waiting for an attack ever since the spotter had been detected, and they finally saw it approaching at 1430. The fleet still had 30 operational fighters, and 24 of them either were already in the air or would be sent up to meet the raid. This was a gamble by the controllers - it left them more vulnerable if there was a second attack soon after, but with two slowed and badly damaged ships that would have difficulty evading and indeed surviving more torpedoes they wanted to have the best chance of driving the raid off rather than just surviving it. The fleet had also adopted a different pattern - the damaged Melbourne and Prince of Wales were between the two fleet carriers, this group surrounded by the other three battleships and the remaining AA cruiser.
The confidence of the Japanese airmen was rather discommoded some 25 miles from the fleet when two groups of fighters drove in on them, and they realized that a third was already engaging their top cover of Zeros. The twelve Sea Eagles had used their speed and power to climb above and then dive onto the Zeros at a speed approaching 500mph. While the experienced Zero pilots in fact spotted them as the dove in, they were simply unable to cope with the sheer speed with which the Eagles arrived, and the heavy cannon armament of the British fighters sent four of them spiralling down to the sea before any of them could get a shot off. The FAA had learned from the last few days, and instead of staying to fight the Zeros they just pulled hard out of their dives to come around for another straight-on attack.
While the Zeros were being engaged, the Goshawks had gone for the Bettys in two groups of six. To the delight of the fighter pilots the Betty proved as delicate and as combustible as the Nell. Without any interference from the remaining Zeros, who were busy fighting for their lives against the Sea Eagles, the Bettys were doomed. Still 20 miles from the fleet they had hoped to bomb, the Goshawks kept driving in towards them, determined that they would not reach the ships they were protecting. They didn't, although no one could fault the skill and bravery of the Japanese pilots in trying. In the end, some 20 of the Bettys were lost before the remainder, some damaged, dropped their bomb-loads to turn and escape. None of the six Zeros survived. The victory was not without cost to the defending fighters; despite the advantage of their initial surprise, one of the Sea Eagles was lost to a Zero, and three of the Goshawks were shot down or damaged so badly the pilots had to bail out due to the Betty's defensive fire. Two of the pilots were picked up by one of the escorting destroyers.
It was the last air attack of the day; just as well, as the carriers were now down to only19 operational fighters between them (although a few more would be fixed by morning). It was also the end of the IJN air attacks for the time being. This wasn't realized at the time, and the 15 Goshawks that had flown to Borneo the previous day were flown onto the two fleet carriers the next morning to improve the Fleet's defence. Force Z carried on its slow withdrawal, covering the damaged ships and praying that the weather would stay favourable - a bad storm could easily have finished the Prince of Wales. As it was, the battleship barely made it into Singapore on the 17th, her stern so low she had to crawl into the dock at high tide. The Melbourne was not in quite such a critical state, her buoyancy reserve not having been so badly damaged. While Singapore was a fully equipped dockyard, it was also in range of Japanese air attacks, and it was decided that Melbourne would be patched up quickly and then sent to Ceylon for proper repairs. The Prince of Wales would need more work, due to the considerable amount of water she had taken in, but as soon as enough had been done to make her seaworthy she would go to Durban for what was expected to be another 4-6 months of work to make her operational again. The Richelieu, although hit by three 8" shells, had no major damage, and was expected to be fully repaired in a few weeks.
While Force Z had been making its withdrawal, covering its damaged ships, the Covering Force had been doing the same. The main damage to the Haran was to her bow, and this was so bad that she couldn't move forward - the resistance of her damaged bow, and the pressure of the water on her repairs, was simply too great. So after a discussion, the cruisers Miami and Suzy took her under tow. Backwards.
Which view was of considerable interest and in fact a certain amount of amusement to the Captain of HMS Triumph as he looked at them through his periscope that morning. He'd already been lurking in the general area, hoping that the Japanese force would come in range, but last night's sighting report from the FAA planes had been all he needed for an estimate of how to intercept the force. He was quite surprised to see so few ships; he assumed that the rest of the force was elsewhere, leaving him this nice fat damaged battleship all for his very own.
The Triumph was one of the earlier T-class boats, having four external bow tubes as well as the more usual six internal ones. While the external tubes were a nuisance and impacted her performance, they gave her a very heavy initial salvo indeed. The sight of the Japanese battleships was simply too tempting not to go for all ten torpedoes at once. The Triumph had no problems lining up her shot - being towed backwards by two cruisers wasn't exactly the fastest form of propulsion - and the captain allowed the boats turn to ripple fire the torpedoe
s across the battleship. Normally he would then have dived to start his evasion on the assumption that the enemy would be looking for him as soon as they saw the torpedo tracks, but he had only seen one destroyer, which was a good distance away, and he just HAD to watch what was going to happen.
Being towed as she was, the Haruna could do nothing to escape, and the shout from a lookout of "torpedoes!" was greeted with despair on the bridge. In quick succession three huge plumes of water burst over the ship as the torpedoes detonated against her side. With the damage already done, that was more than enough to overcome the old ship. Reconstruction could do only so much, and as with all old rebuilt ships, she suffered from weak underwater protection by modern standards. The cruisers had no option but to slip their tows before the increasing weight of the Haruna broke the cables, and could do little more than circle back to her, watching as she slowly, even gracefully, heeled over on her final trip to the bottom.
The destroyer accompanying the ships made for where she supposed the enemy submarine was, but by the time she got around to her estimated position the Triumph had slipped away, slow and silent, and the depth charges did little more than rattle her slightly and kill a considerable quantity of fish. The boat did, after the depth charges died away, take another look - there was, after all, always the chance that a ship might have hung around, and her internal bow tubes were reloaded, but after taking off the crew the cruisers had decided that there was no point in them hanging around and had headed for port at well over 20 knots, followed by the destroyer (who was already claiming a kill on the submarine) The final act of the Battle of the China Sea was over.
The reports by both sides on the results of their actions were interesting, and it was a shame that an impartial observer was not able to correlate the two, as they made quite different reading.
From the British point of view, the action had been successful. Force Z had lost an AA cruiser and a destroyer, and had a light carrier and a battleship put of out action for a considerable time. However they had sunk two light carriers, (granted, old, small ones), two battlecruisers, three heavy cruisers and two destroyers, a quite satisfactory ratio. They had also destroyed the IJN land-based air force until it could be rebuilt. On the tactical side, the performance of their fighters had been adequate, and the new planes in particular had performed well, although it had been noted that the Japanese pilots were brave, determined and the fighter pilots in particular were highly skilled. The Japanese strikes had been as good as anything the Luftwaffe had done in the Mediterranean, and future missions would have to be undertaken with this in mind. The Staff analysis was that, for the time being, the Japanese surface force in the area was so severely weakened as to probably be unable to act. Somerville intended to keep reasonable pressure on the Japanese, especially with his submarines, but did not intend to pursue aggressive actions unless necessary to protect British possessions - the amount of airpower the Japanese had deployed was still uncertain, and his force was not powerful enough to wage a full-scale air battle on its own. However for the time being it looked like the east coast of Malay was safe and life was looking difficult for the Japanese convoys, which he intended to harry as much as feasible. Somerville intended to replace his losses from the ships finishing working up at Ceylon, although he wanted more ships if possible - he was in particular short of carriers and destroyers, and he needed replacement aircraft urgently. He also wanted a small commando force - he thought around 1,500 men would do, plus sufficient landing craft to lift about twice this. He had in mind using the current naval dominance of the area to consider the possibility of landings behind the Japanese front line, as had proved so successful in General O’Conner’s North African battles.
While the night attack had been a major success, he warned there were still issues. The attack had concentrated too much on the carriers; a more careful approach might have sunk the entire Japanese force. Also, although radar helped, there was still no true counter to a night attack by air, and the Japanese airmen had proved skilled enough to learn how to do this. He wanted immediate action to determine how best he could defend against this type of attack, and what needed to be developed to help this defence.
The Japanese report was surprisingly optimistic - at this stage in the war, their command seemed rather uncritical of the combat claims of its men. While it was accepted that the covering force had suffered heavy losses, this was only to be expected in action with the Royal Navy, especially as they had been outnumbered. Despite this, they had inflicted serious losses on Force Z, and pointed out that the British ships had withdrawn as a sign that they too realised how much damage the Imperial Navy had inflicted on them. A battleship had been nearly sunk, and would not be in action for a very long time, and a second battleship had been hit by the aircraft; it too would no doubt be out of action for some time. A carrier had been sunk by the aircraft torpedo attack, and another one left in flames; since there was no sign of it in Singapore dockyard it had probably sunk from that damage. At least two cruisers and a number of destroyers had been sunk. While it was admitted that they had suffered heavy losses to their land-based air force, the British carrier airgroups had also been savaged. The British had obviously had four carriers with them (as shown by the strength of the night attack), now they only had two, and would need to rebuild their air groups. At least one British submarine had been sunk.
While the Japanese command admitted that their own losses meant it would be difficult to take much offensive action at sea until they had received reinforcement, the same applied to the Royal Navy, and they were much further away from their home bases. This meant that there was no overriding reason why the next phase of landings could not go ahead broadly on schedule, although they would need more planes before this would be entirely safe. Regarding the longer-term plans, they pointed out that if the Royal Navy was reinforced again, with the current forces they expected to have it might be difficult to keep pressure on Malaya at sea. They therefore suggested two possible courses of action; first, to send significant reinforcements, this would mean battleships from home waters as well as at least part of the carrier striking force. If this proved impossible, a modification of the plan could be made. Instead of moving on the DEI by means of two pincers from the PI and Malaya, as the actions in the Philippines seemed so far to be going satisfactorily they could keep the pressure on the British in Malaya with the army, then roll up the DEI from the east against the anvil of their advance into Malaya. This would allow them to keep the planned attack into Burma as soon as the Army had moved sufficiently far into Malaya.
All in all, although they had received a setback at the hands of the Royal Navy they had damaged their opponent equally severely and the overall plan was still going well, although small modification might have to be made to keep abreast of the changing situation.
Chapter 5 - Holding Actions
Dec 14th
In Europe, Germany blames the failure of the attack on Moscow on the bitter Russian winter, and vows that as soon as it finishes German troops will march through the ruins of the Kremlin over the bodies of Josef Stalin and his commissars.
In the north of Malaya the Japanese army keeps pressure on the defenders of Jitra, although at the moment the Australians defences are holding firm, thanks to the delaying tactics that gave them extra time to prepare. After being forced to withdraw down the eastern coast due to the pressure of Japanese attacks, Imperial troops have formed new defensive lines and positions. This has been helped by the use of some Australian troops and tanks to form blocking positions to allow the retreating force to recover and re-establish their lines. Reports from the Australians report that the Indian troops appeared badly shaken after their retreat, but steadied once they realized reinforcements were to hand to cover them and allow them to reorganise.
The government of Siam signs a treaty formally legitimizing the Japanese invasion as 'necessary to prevent a British invasion of our country'. This was a disappointment to the British, as they had been
hoping their battle against the Japanese invasion would at least make the Siamese government wait until the outcome was more certain. It was not realised until after the war that the men in charge of the government had already made an arrangement with the Japanese.
In the Mediterranean, the cruiser HMS Galatea is sunk by a U-boat. Cunningham, while no longer having much to worry about from surface ships, and currently having the air situation under control (especially with the bulk of the Luftwaffe currently frozen to the ground in Russia), is having problems with the U-boats sent to harass him and the convoys. A study is underway as to the best way to neutralize this threat, as the situation in the Far East will be much easier to supply if the route through the Mediterranean remains reasonably loss-free.
The results of the Bomber Command raid on Hamburg have been analyzed, and are impressive - even Dowding considers it a success. The raid involved some 500 Lancaster and Halifax bombers, and had resulted in the estimated destruction of 70% of the cities shipyards, a major producer of U-boats, mainly due to the large fires caused by the incendiary loads. Bomber Command has a number of other raids planned, on differing targets, to evaluate the new techniques before starting a major campaign. 23 bombers were lost during the raid, which is considered acceptable. Work is also continuing to find a way to destroy the huge U-boat pens the Germans have been constructing.