The Whale Has Wings Vol 3 - Holding the Barrier

by Row, David

  Force Z arrives in Ceylon to fly on replacement aircraft and to load more supplies (torpedoes in particular). The carrier Bulwark will replace Illustrious while her deck is properly fixed, then Illustrious will rejoin to equip Somerville's force with three fleet carriers. He also intends to strengthen his cruiser force, although he still suffers from a shortage of destroyers. He has suggested that ships that have had to retire from the Philippines are sent to Singapore where they can add to his escort force, but this has to clear political objections in the USA.

  A large convoy leaves the UK headed for the Far East. It is intended to take it straight through the Mediterranean to save time, and plans are made to give the maximum possible protection. The convoy carries supplies for Burma as well as Malaya, as the Chiefs of Staff expect it only to be a matter of time before the Japanese launch an attack to gain the Burmese oil fields and push the British back to make supporting Malaya more difficult. Part of the convoy escort will remain in the Far East to increase Somerville's force. The Chiefs of Staff are also looking at sending squadrons from the Mediterranean and Middle East areas out to the Far East and replacing them directly from the UK.

  The RAF has been following up its raid on Hamburg with raids on Bremen and Wilhelmshaven. As before, the main target has been the docks and heavy engineering to reduce the production of U-boats. It is intended to carry on these raids for another month before evaluating the effect on U-boat production. It is also practice for a much larger bombing campaign planned for when the high-altitude Coventry bomber is available in suitable numbers.

  Discussions have been taking place with the French regarding support in the Far East. The Admiralty has already expressed its satisfaction with the French naval support, and while the bulk of French forces will stay in the Med for operations closer to France, it is agreed that a token force of some squadrons of aircraft and a Brigade of the Foreign Legion will be sent east to show the mutual support the Allies are giving to each other's fights. It is as a result of this, and the increasing French army force in North Africa, that French representatives will be going to the Arcadia conference in Washington. While it is accepted that the USA and Britain are the big players, France will also go to speak for themselves as well as the other occupied nation forces, as the UK will for the Empire. There is a certain amount of self-interest by Britain here, as they consider the French rather more understanding of the realities of the war than the Americans are at present, and indeed at the moment the French are supplying considerably more divisions than the USA to the conflict.

  Dec 22nd

  A reinforced Japanese landing force known as the Wake Occupation Force leaves Kwajalein bound for Wake Island. It is under the command of Rear Admiral Kajioka Sadamichi. Air attacks are continued by the Japanese carriers Soryu and Hiryu. The attacks by 'carrier-type planes' have been reported by the island, and are seen as likely intelligence that at least one Japanese fleet carrier is in the area. There is some pressure on the USN to abandon Wake rather than risk a carrier engagement which could result in the loss of a carrier. Although this is seen a risk not normally worth taking, it is pointed out that refusing battle because an IJN carrier is around, especially after the recent South China Sea action by the Royal Navy, would have severe effects on the morale of the Pacific fleet. The relief of Wake is authorised to go ahead, although 'with caution if a Japanese carrier is encountered', which leads at least one US Admiral to mutter about "making sure we carry the blame whatever happens".

  The Japanese land the 38th Division at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. The Japanese soon establish a strong beachhead and finish unloading their troops by the 23rd.

  The Arcadia Conference between the Allied governments in Washington DC begins with talks between the two main countries, the USA and the UK. They confirm the policy from Placentia Bay in August of 'Germany first'. They also establish the Combined Chiefs of Staff for the entire Allied military effort. Since this will be in the main a US-UK effort, in order to keep the organisation to a manageable size the representatives will be from the UK and USA. Other countries such as France, Canada and Australia will have representatives, but they will not sit on the Combined Chiefs of Staff. A general strategic program is approved of a US build-up in Britain, particularly in air power, to continue the bombing offensive. The concept of further losses in the Pacific is accepted with the understanding that a stiff defence will hold these to a minimum. This conference will last through to the 7th of January.

  The Japanese force which landed at Miri has a problem. The plan had been to move down the coast by ship to take the airfield at Kuching. However, the transports necessary for this plan are either sunk or disabled, and only 3,000 of the planned 4,500 men were landed. They are told to remain where they are while the IJN sends more transportation for them, however the commander does send some reconnaissance forces down the coast. They are a constant worry to the British petroleum engineers at the oil fields; the fields have been comprehensively prepared for demolitions, but they have been told to wait, if possible, until they see the Japanese moving in their direction. The Allied forces in the area around the invasion are little more than armed police and militia, and have no real chance of stopping the Japanese if they decide to advance.

  Discussions are ongoing between the Chinese, British and Americans about the idea of Chinese divisions being sent to Burma to help defend it. The Chinese are of course worried about the road links over which most of their supplies come. The British are concerned about seeing Chinese troops in what is, after all, a British possession. A compromise is finally reached; the Chinese will send a number of 'observers', to keep an eye on the situation and be ready to advise Chinese troops if they are deployed. The Chinese will keep the equivalent of two western divisions available, but they will not enter Burma unless the Japanese invade. It is not a perfect solution, but at least it is acceptable to all sides.

  The USS Wasp, the USS Ticonderoga and their escorts sail from the West Coast, destination Pearl Harbor. The availability of light and escort carriers in the Atlantic has allowed the USN to allocate all its fleet carriers to the Pacific theatre. They are also acting as escorts carrying more Wildcats for the fleet and a load of the new Corsair fighter (which is not yet carrier-qualified)

  In reward for the results of the Battle of the South China Sea (and also to give him more leverage in dealing with Allied forces), Somerville is promoted to full Admiral.

  Chapter 6 - Second Battle of Wake Island

  Dec 23rd

  On the afternoon of Dec 23rd, the USN had managed to concentrate two carrier-centred Task Forces only some 400 miles from Wake; the fleet was currently refuelling (Halsey's high-speed run to catch up meant he needed to refuel as well). There had been talk about sending the supply ships on ahead with some cruisers, but the intelligence reports of at least one Japanese carrier in the area seemed quite definite, and the risk was simply too great - if the supply ships were lost so was Wake. Halsey and Fletcher had also had it pointed out to them that while relieving Wake was important, it was not worth a carrier.

  The US carriers had sent off reconnaissance planes, searching for any Japanese carriers in the area, as much for their own protection as to locate the enemy for a strike, but nothing had been located. The intention was to close the island during the night and land the supplies the following afternoon, also taking off unneeded civilians. The fleet was still closing Wake when the Japanese started the second attempt to invade the island. The Wildcats had been in combat over the last few days, first with bombers then with Zeros which the defenders were certain had come off a carrier. Although they had shot down some six Zeros, as well as over twenty land-based bombers, there were now no Wildcats left to defend the island.

  The second Japanese attack went in before dawn on the 24th, two old destroyers running aground to allow the troops they were carrying to unload. Although the gun defences set one on fire, the Japanese considered them expendable and by dawn over 1,000 men had been disembarked, quickly occup
ying the southern wing of the island. The news was quickly passed to the task forces, which caused consternation and not a little anger - just a few more hours and they would have been in a position to stop the attack. While it was already looking too late for Wake, it was not too late to make the Japanese navy pay a high price for their action.

  The Saratoga and Enterprise launched their search planes at first light. Unlike the Japanese and British carriers, who when operating in pairs kept fairly close together, the two US forces were over 10 miles apart. Since the commanders knew that there would be Japanese warships in the area, anti-shipping strikes had been readied. It was still felt that there could be a small chance of saving Wake if an invasion fleet could be hit (it was not appreciated at this point that the force transported in the two sacrificial destroyers had already doomed the island).

  The search planes set out to cover a wide arc across Wake Island, with some additional planes tasked to cover the area around the island. These were the first to report in, informing Halsey that they had spotted two cruisers and some other vessels off the island. It was decided to strike these immediately, using half the carriers' attack force, while getting ready for a second strike if the other search planes spotted a suitable target. Halsey also proposed to send off two heavy cruisers and a destroyer escort at full speed to aid the island defenders with their heavy guns, and if necessary sink any other Japanese ships in the area. Even before the strike had formed up, the cruisers Astoria and Minneapolis and four destroyers were heading for Wake Island at high speed.

  The Americans were not the only people sending out search planes that morning, although the Japanese were using floatplanes, preferring to hold their TBR planes back for a possible anti-shipping strike. While they did not know if any US ships were in the area, there was always the possibility a force had been sent to reinforce Wake, and if so, they wanted to be ready to sink it. In fact the first indication that they had that US carriers were in the area was an urgent call from the cruiser Yubari, who had been detached to aid the landings at Wake, that she and her two destroyers were 'under attack by carrier aircraft'.

  At least one of the search planes altered course to see what was happening, as 30 Dauntless dive bombers, escorted by five Wildcats, turned into their near-vertical dives over the unfortunate Yubari. The dive bombers were carrying 1,000lb bombs, which meant certain death for a cruiser if they were to hit home. While the captain manoeuvred his ship with great skill, the attack of that many bombers, untroubled by any defending fighters, meant it was hopeless. Five hits later, the Yubari was rolling over, the waters closing over her as she sank in a matter of minutes. The dive bombers also hit one of the two destroyers with her, causing her stern to break off, although the final destroyers evaded the remaining few dive bombers, only to suffer the indignity of having over 20 of her crew injured or killed by the strafing of the Wildcats.

  The two search planes had watched the sinking of their ships while slipping in and out of cloud cover. The US planes were concentrating on the ships, and did not notice them slip behind them as they turned and formed up for their run home back to their carriers.

  Meanwhile the US search aircraft had finally found something. Aided by earlier information from the island's defenders, they had made an educated guess as to the likely location of a Japanese carrier force which was in fact reasonably accurate. At 1100, they radioed a report of 'two carriers and escorts sighted, 120 miles west of Wake Island'. Halsey immediately ordered the remaining dive bombers and torpedo planes to be readied for a strike on the Japanese carriers. The strike would launch as soon as the inbound planes from Wake, now almost back, had landed and been struck below. While this was going on the carriers would head northwest to close the distance (they were now some 150 miles south-east of the island, outside of comfortable strike range)

  While the US carriers were fitted with radar, they as yet had nothing like the capability of the RN carriers to process and handle the data and the airborne planes. Such a capability had been proposed by the 'Canadian' observers on the Royal Navy Fleet Carriers, but peacetime procedures had held such improvements up. It didn't help that while well trained, the operators were somewhat distracted by the recovery of the first successful US carrier strike of the war. As a result the two Japanese search planes were able to get a good look at the force and radio its position without being discovered in all the excitement. Indeed, it wasn't until the planes started to be launched and form up for the strike against the Japanese carriers that an operator realised that there were a couple of echoes on his screen that didn't seem to correspond with any of their own planes. A pair of Wildcats was sent to investigate, and a short time after they reported shooting down a Japanese floatplane which had failed to dodge into cloud cover fast enough.

  While the American force had been closing the Japanese carriers and readying a strike, the Japanese had been doing exactly the same thing. Before it had to head home to refuel, the final US plane had spotted activity on the flight decks, but the need to keep hiding in clouds to avoid the prowling Zeros had made anything else too dangerous. As he headed home, the Japanese carriers were turning into the wind to launch their strike. With only two carriers available, and only 32 TBR and 32 dive bombers available, they had decided to launch a full-strength attack against the American carriers spotted. For their part, the US carriers were sending off some 32 dive bombers and 16 TBR with a small fighter escort (at this stage of the war, despite warnings from the Royal Navy, the US carriers were still operating with small fighter groups - as they expected to be fighting in mid-ocean rather than in range of land based strikes, more offensive power was seen as more useful than a better defence).

  Although the US carriers had actually started to launch first (having had the planes pre-prepared for a strike), the Japanese were much more efficient at launching a daytime strike from two carriers, and their planes were heading for the US ships while the American planes were still forming up. In fact, the two US carriers never succeeded in joining up their planes into one large strike, and it would arrive at the Japanese ships in two separate groups.

  The two strikes actually passed each other on their separate ways, although neither side spotted the other. By reason of their higher efficiency, it was the Japanese strike that was first detected inbound on the radar plot of the Enterprise. The two carriers immediately started preparations to receive an attack, fortunately the recovered strike from the cruiser was safely below decks and the fighters had by now been refuelled and rearmed. This was just as well, as the two carriers only had 25 Wildcats between them, and ten had been sent off with the strike at escort. One of the planes from Wake was unserviceable due to AA damage, but by the time the Japanese planes were within 40 miles the remaining fourteen were up to protect the ships.

  The Japanese were in fact heading directly for the Saratoga; later reports indicated they had initially missed the Enterprise, not realising how far apart US carriers tended to operate at this stage in the war, and having seen one very large carrier had headed straight for it. The strike consisted of 32 Val dive bombers and 32 Kate torpedo bombers, escorted by twelve Zeros. The Wildcats intercepted the strike some 15 miles out from the carrier, going for the torpedo bombers (seen as the more dangerous of the attacking planes). The Zeros had been waiting for this, and moved in to protect their charges. Although information from the British on the results and suggested tactics against the Zero had been passed on to Pearl, the carrier force had already left and so was still using the pre-war doctrine. This was a mistake. While the Wildcats did succeed in shooting down three of the torpedo planes, and four of the Zeros, far too many allowed themselves to be drawn into low speed turning fights, and only five of them finally managed to get away from the Japanese, two of them damaged.

  The attack by the Wildcats had succeeded in one thing - it had decoupled the dive bombers from the torpedo planes. The result was that the dive bombers would be the first planes to attack the Saratoga. The Japanese aircrew were still
searching for the second carrier they believed to be in the area, and so the first attack was by sixteen Vals, which dove down towards the huge US carrier in nearly vertical dives. The AA fire from the ship and the two close-by cruisers, while heavy, was not nearly enough to deflect the attack. In quick succession, three 250kg bombs struck the flight deck of the carrier, despite her best efforts at dodging (sadly, the Saratoga was not the most agile of carriers). One sliced in forward of the hangar, destroying the catapult and the first 50 feet of the deck. The other two did more serious damage, penetrating the thin wooden flight deck, one bursting in the hangar, the other going even deeper, splinters shutting down the forward engine room in a burst of escaping high-pressure steam. The planes in the hangar were not fuelled, but the bursting HE bomb did considerable damage and started a large fire which quickly plumed into the air above the ship.

  While the Saratoga was still reeling from the impact of the bombs, her lookouts spotted the Japanese torpedo planes boring in. With no fighter opposition left, they had split into two formations, allowing a classic hammer and anvil attack. The Saratoga, still manoeuvring despite her heavy damage, managed to slip past the first wave of torpedoes, but two of those launched on her other side hit; the one that struck amidships did minor damage, the big ship absorbing the hit, but the second hit further aft, starting to flood her engineering spaces, the shock damage cutting her power and causing her to start to slow to a stop. Ironically the sudden loss of speed actually helped her to avoid some of the second strike, the torpedoes passing her forward, but the Japanese naval pilots were highly skilled and she was hit by three more torpedoes, causing the now almost stationary carrier to start to list steadily to port.