Kirov III: Pacific Storm k-3

by John A. Schettler

  “But he will not have his decisive engagement—not here at Darwin.”

  “That remains to be seen, Nagano. If not at Darwin, then he will have it in the Solomons. The Americans are not stupid. They will quickly surmise the danger that any thrust at New Caledonia will portend. They fought to save Port Moresby for a reason. If we take Darwin and threaten New Caledonia, and they will fight again. Mark my words. With Australia isolated they will have to come at us from somewhere else, the mid-Pacific, and this will take long-ranged sea power protected by aircraft carriers. Yamamoto will have his opportunity to smash the last of their carriers right here. At the moment you outnumber the Americans by more than two to one in that category, is that not so?”

  “At the moment.”

  “Then use this advantage to press for our most promising strategic options now! The isolation of Australia, and control of all the sea lanes from Guadalcanal and New Caledonia to Timor is a decisive advantage. Neutralize the waters north and east of Australia! Striking at Midway is stupid. It makes no sense!”

  “I cannot say I disagree. But Admiral Yamamoto…”

  “Yes, Yamamoto. Always ready for a decisive engagement yet ever the reluctant admiral when it comes to the real necessities of strategic warfare.”

  At this Nagano raised an eyebrow, and Yamashita was quick to sweeten his remark. “I mean no disrespect, of course.”

  “Of course… but you must be careful, Yamashita. Tojo was not pleased to see you in the limelight after your Malaya Campaign. He wanted to get rid of you and send you to useless garrison duty in Manchukuo. It was Tojo who issued those travel orders to prevent your rightful welcome as a hero in Japan, and it was he who prevented your audience with his Imperial Highness.”

  “I am well aware of Tojo’s opposition, both to these plans and to me personally.”

  “Then you must realize that you can ill afford another enemy—particularly Yamamoto!”

  “I understand…” Yamashita shook his head, lamenting his long rivalry with Tojo ever since the fateful Ni-niroku jiken, or 2-2-6 Incident as it was now called—the ‘deplorable incident in the capital’ that had seen an attempted coup. His appeal for leniency for the officers involved was not looked on kindly by the Emperor and, ever since, Yamashita had been skating on thin ice. Yet his military prowess was undeniable, and compensated for his failure in the more personal power squabbles involving army personnel.

  “That said,” Yamashita moved on, “if Yamamoto could be persuaded to use your current naval advantage with this operation, I will deliver Darwin as the icing on the cake. I have the troops I need now. Just give me two carriers to cover the invasion, and enough transport, and I can take Darwin within a week. Please convey this to him, Admiral. Only you have the standing and authority to make this argument in a most convincing manner. I implore you. If we can convince Yamamoto, and the Navy can stand fast, then the Army will give us enough troops for the limited operations we propose. With two divisions, three at most, we could isolate Australia and perhaps even knock them out of the war.”

  “A worthy goal,” Nagano agreed.

  “Yes! The Americans will see this as surely as I do now, and they will fight. They tried to stop our Port Moresby operation and lost a carrier for it. The Lexington is at the bottom of the Coral Sea. Thankfully Shigeyoshi Inoue had the backbone to press the invasion home in spite of the American counter operation. Now we have Port Moresby, neh? Now the Americans are denied a base from which their B-17 bombers would be pounding Rabaul. Soon we can also have Darwin and deny them that base as well. The Americans will see the noose tightening around Australia, and believe me, then Yamamoto will have his decisive engagement, I can assure you.”

  Nagano breathed deeply, nodding his assent. “I will present your proposal at the next meeting of the Imperial General Staff. Captain Tomioka in the planning division has also argued that we could take Australia with a token force. You are not alone in your views.”

  “Tomioka has a good head on his shoulders. Remember the Army-Navy agreement earlier this year which determined the strategic importance of Papua New Guinea and the Solomons in the first place. We must deprive the Allies of key positions they will most certainly use in their counter operations, and Australia is the foundation of their whole defense in this region. This plan is merely an extension of those same ideas. But do not say we will ‘take’ Australia. Argue that we will secure vital bases to defend Indonesia while isolating Australia at the same time and forcing the Americans to a decisive engagement here, where we have adequate resources and land based air power to support our carrier operations—not at Midway, a thousand miles east on an axis that leads us nowhere. This whole operation can be done with two divisions. Throw in one more, or even a few brigades for the Fiji-Samoa operation and we will have a decisive advantage in the Pacific for years.”

  “Very well, General. It is at least encouraging that someone in the Army is willing to side with the Navy and see the big picture. If the Tiger of Malaya says these things can be done, perhaps others will be convinced as well.”

  “Do not flatter me, Admiral. Just support me.”

  Nagano smiled. “Between the two of us,” he said “we can hardly muster a single handful of hair, but our heads may prove to be of some use to the empire after all.”

  Chapter 5

  Admiral of the Fleet Isoroku Yamamoto sat in his private cabin aboard the Battleship Yamato, and considered. His eyes played over the map, thoughts moving from one island to another in the long chain of the Solomons, imagining the position he would have three months from now, six months, a year. And always as he considered, it was the establishment of vital air bases that was uppermost in his mind. He had been a strong proponent of the Naval Air Arm for decades, opposing the construction of large unwieldy battleships like the one now serving as his headquarters—‘Hotel Yamato,’ the men called it, for the ship had done little in the way of real fighting thus far in the war.

  Now, as his eye strayed east to the tiny islet of Midway, he still pictured the great ship leading a long line of battleships, the heart of the fleet, but to what end? The carriers were tasked with finding and destroying the enemy fleet, not his battleships. If he took the big ships east what would they do beyond burning up enough fuel to run the entire navy for the next three months? Did he really expect the Americans to sortie with their battle fleet at Pearl Harbor? Those old battleships were already obsolete, he knew. They could not find his fleet, nor could they catch it if they did.

  No… It was the carriers that would decide this war. He had been wrong about Pearl Harbor and was inwardly glad the operation had been deemed unnecessary. Was he wrong about Midway now? The more he considered, the more Nagano’s arguments began to make sense to him. It was the carriers, the carriers, the carriers. Every operation conceived by the navy thus far had begun with the assignment of the vital carrier division to be responsible as both a primary strike force and defensive covering force. And where were the American carriers now? Were they east at Midway? Were they in Pearl Harbor? Intelligence answered both these questions with a certain negative. No. They were operating southeast of the Solomons, from Noumea on New Caledonia and Suva Bay in the Fiji Islands. He wanted a decisive engagement, but where would he find it, in the east against Midway and Pearl Harbor, or right here in the Solomons?

  He had three carrier divisions at his disposal now—right here, right now. There were at least three enemy carriers operating in these waters—right here, right now. To launch his Midway operation he would have to take all these ships home to Kure and other bases in Japan to refuel and rearm for the long sea voyage east. Yet he could launch this operation “FS,” as it was now being called, from his present position, right now. And Yamashita’s plan for Darwin was also correct, he knew, though he could not condone any further attempt to occupy the vast Australian mainland. But Darwin could be taken easily enough, particularly with Yamashita in command.

  He sighed…What was he waiting for? They
called him the ‘Reluctant Admiral’ behind his back, though no man would ever dare such disrespect to his face. In some ways it was true, he knew. He had vigorously opposed the useless invasion and occupation of Manchuria, and strongly argued against war with the United States. These were positions that made him a very unpopular man, so unpopular at one time that he had been informed of plots against his life. So the Navy sent him off to sea, away from the mainland, and believed in his promise that if war ever did come, he would raise hell…for six months…for a year he had told them, and then he could guarantee nothing more.

  Of course they did not wish to hear that last bit. But thus far it was the American Navy that had been most reluctant to engage him. When Pearl Harbor was wisely canceled, he thought the attack on the Philippines would immediately trigger their War Plan Orange, and was surprised to see that the Americans did not rush boldly in as so many believed they would. Nimitz and Halsey had been crafty, and very elusive. Instead they began to build a center of gravity in the southeast, on New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa. They had begun moving vast amounts of equipment and supplies to Australia, and avoided major engagements until the recent ‘Operation MO’ had forced them to fight for Port Moresby. And now he realized that this was the only way to bring them to battle—by threatening a key base of operations that they dearly wanted to retain.

  What did they prize now? Where were they building strength? Midway was said to have no more than a single battalion and a few old fighters and seaplanes in garrison. Yet at Noumea the enemy strength was building day by day. What would he use that force for? The answer was obvious: they would begin a drive northwest into the Solomons aimed at eventually reaching Rabaul. From there they would be able to outflank our new bastion at Port Moresby, and our positions at Buna and Lae in Papua New Guinea as well. From Rabaul they would have a strong air base to strike this very place where he sat in Hotel Yamato, pouring over his maps—the island of Truk, Japan’s chief naval base in the Pacific.

  The longer he considered it, the more he saw the truth in Nagano’s words, and the wisdom in Yamashita’s plan as well. Yamamoto was a gambler in his heart, and had once remarked that ‘people who don’t gamble aren’t worth talking to.’ He had embraced his Midway operation for its daring element of surprise, and the risk inherent in the operation was a cherry he savored at the top. Yet even as initial preparations were being made for the operation he knew he would get if he wanted it, joint staff planning for ‘Operation FS’ continued as well. Imperial General Headquarters Army and Navy Section orders, were already being formulated, and he had the initial drafts in hand…. ‘Carry out the invasions of New Caledonia and the Fiji and Samoa Islands; destroy the main enemy bases in those areas, establish operational bases at Suva and Noumea; gain control of the seas east of Australia, and strive to cut communications between Australia and the United States….’

  Now he saw that the safer play, the wiser play, was to push his chips out onto the Solomons, and beyond, as these orders envisioned. His Midway operation would be nothing more than a grand distraction and a waste of valuable fuel, and above all, a waste of precious time. If he moved east he might find and destroy anything the Americans sortied against him from Pearl Harbor. If he moved south—he would find and destroy their carriers. It was now so obvious to him that he was amazed at his own bull-headedness in not seeing it sooner. And so he decided, with a heavy sigh, and let go of his dreams of landing on Midway and threatening Hawaii.

  The enemy is right here, and I will fight him here, he thought, as he pushed the map aside, reaching for the bell to summon his personal attendant. It was time to write his letters, a ritual that he kept to every night, and tonight he would spend time in his mind and heart with his friends and family back home, and with his dear Chiyiko, the Geisha that waited for him in Tokyo.

  I will give this to my Chief of Operations tomorrow, he thought. Kuroshima will know what to do. Let him seal himself in his quarters for a week in a fog of incense and cigarette smoke and he will deliver a plan worthy of our efforts. In the meantime I will tell Yamashita to get his men ready for Darwin, and the stubborn mules in the Army can go to hell. I am Isoroku Yamamoto, Admiral of the Combined Fleet! What I put my will to, and name to, will be done. But first…the plan….the operation. It must be honed and sharpened like the finest sword, and balanced and timed like the workings of a clock. Yes, the operation.

  ~ ~ ~

  Weeks later Yamashita had what he wanted. Nagano informed him that the Navy’s 5th carrier Division, would be dispatched by Combined Fleet to support a limited operation to seize Darwin and deny the Allies that vital base as part of an overall plan aimed at isolating Australia. Reconnaissance as far south as Katherine would be permitted, but no further. The Army had been pacified with assurances that no attempt would be made to seriously occupy the continent, but they had been finally convinced that the occupation of Darwin would both anchor the defensive line that stretched all the way back to Singapore, and also provide a base from which Japanese bombers could pound and neutralize most other enemy holdings in the Northern Territories of Australia. Yamashita’s boast, that he could take Darwin with troops he already had in hand, was called. There would be no further troop assignments for the Darwin operation unless they came from the 18th Army on New Guinea. But they reluctantly released the Nagoya 3rd Division, Ko-heidan, the Lucky Division as it was called. One of the oldest veteran formations in the Imperial Army, it had a long record of achievement as far back as the first Sino and Russo-Japanese wars, and it had served with distinction in Manchuria.

  A second division was designated as a strategic reserve for the operation, the Osaka 4th Division, presently in the home islands and again headquartered at Osaka Castle. These would be the only bones they would throw the navy for some time, still obsessed with their campaign in China, but they would have to do. The Lucky Division would be moved forthwith to Rabaul, where sufficient transport would be gathered to enable operations aimed at Noumea and Suva Bay. The Osaka division, sometimes called the Yodo Division after the river that wound its way through its home province, would eventually be moved south to stand as a theater reserve for all Navy operations associated with ‘Operation FS.’ In the meantime, positions recently secured on Guadalcanal and at Tulagi would be strengthened as forward bases for this campaign.

  With the Midway operation canceled, planning went forward from May through August of 1942, when it was deemed that all was now in readiness, awaiting only the final approval and order of Yamamoto himself. The date was finally set: August 24, 1942, and the Darwin operation would begin hostilities led by the 5th Division carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku, and the light carrier Zuiho, as it would most likely prove a compelling distraction to draw enemy attention to the west.

  In the meantime, the Combined Fleet would embark from Rabaul and Truk with two more assault elements. The 2nd Carrier Division with Hiru and Soryu would cover the main amphibious thrust southeast from Rabaul, while Yamamoto would lead the heart of the fleet with the 1st Carrier Division under Nagumo comprised of the venerable Akagi and Kaga, the largest carriers in the fleet, and a strong surface action group centered around his own flagship, the largest battleship in the world, Yamato. And there was more… Yamato’s sister ship, dubbed “battleship number two” for the long years of its top secret construction program, was now also ready for operations. The ship was over three months ahead of schedule, commissioned into the fleet as Musashi in April of 1942. She would take her rightful place in the First Battleship Division alongside Yamato and the older battleships Mutsu and Nagato by June. Her gunnery trials had been completed at Kure by August 5th, the original date scheduled for her commissioning, and so Yamamoto ordered the ship to sail for Truk, where it arrived August 10th.

  Yamamoto’s thought was to keep the ship at Truk as a reserve, and use it for headquarters operations there, freeing Yamato for operations at sea. As a last component of her training, he had Musashi work out in aircraft drills with the carrier Zuikaku be
fore it was released for the Darwin operation, and when he met with the Commander of the 5th Carrier Division, Admiral Hara, he received a request for one more battleship to be assigned to the western prong of the operation at Darwin.

  “Why not send Musashi,” Hara smiled. The big man was nicknamed ‘King Kong,’ not only for his size but also for his disposition after too much Saki. He was proud of his victory over the Americans in the Coral Sea, the operation that had given the empire Port Moresby, and ready for yet more glory. The thought that he might wrangle away a new battleship for the Darwin operation was enticing. “Musashi performed very well in our recent drills, and so she is already well coordinated with my carrier staff. She would be a wonderful addition, and her guns would pound any garrison in Darwin into submission very quickly. Yamashita will simply waltz ashore and set his men to cleanup operations.”

  “You’ve already got three of my carriers, Hara, and now you are after my battleships! I assigned you this mission based on your skill as a carrier commander. You did a fine job with Vice Admiral Takagi in the Port Moresby Operation. I must tell you that Takagi wanted this operation as well, but Imperial General Staff has sent him to Taiwan to take command of the Mako Guard District. So you’ll have complete control of the carriers this time out. As for Musashi, the ship is just commissioned,” said Yamamoto.

  “A perfect first trial for her,” Hara pressed. “Leaving her in Truk while everyone else is out on operations will be bad for morale. We built these ships to use them, neh? You’ll still have plenty more battleships at Truk. Give me Musashi, and I’ll return her in short order with her first battle star.”

  Yamamoto smiled. “I’m afraid that is impossible. Musashi will be assigned to fill out 1st Battleship Division. And remain with Yamato at Truk. Combined Fleet Headquarters will be moved to that ship. In its place you will be assigned Mutsu and Nagato, both to be sent to Amboina where elements of the ground operation will embark for Darwin.”