“You are telling me you drove off the Twins with your deck guns? I find that a bit of a stretch, Captain.”
“We were unseen at the time, Admiral, yet we were able to put accurate fire on the lead German ship. I do not think the German commander was driven off as much as he simply decided that bothering with your cruisers, which he believed to be the source of the fire we put on him, was of no further advantage to him. It was our assessment that the Germans were keen to rendezvous with a refueling ship before proceeding south. Though they had clearly broken through your cruiser screen and positioned themselves to evade your capital ships, the need to replenish was, in our estimation, their Achilles heel.”
Tovey was taking all this in with equal surprise, but with quite a different reaction. The Russians, a neutral state, had willfully violated their own neutrality to intervene on behalf of embattled Royal Navy units that were clearly overmatched by the enemy. He saw in that a ray of hope, but said nothing for the moment, allowing the young Russian officer to continue.
“On Admiral Volsky’s orders, we located their replenishment ship, the Altmark, and sunk it, hoping this might dissuade them from continuing south. It seemed we were wrong, for after rendering assistance to Altmark, the Germans took a heading due south, and on a course that saw them encounter us while we were performing routine maintenance some hours later. The Twins, as you call them, decided to attack. We suppose they believed us to be one of your ships, but we defended ourselves, engaging and damaging one ship, which we subsequently determined to be the Gneisenau. The Germans then broke off their attack and reversed their course. They are now well to the north effecting a rendezvous with the force Admiral Tovey encountered earlier northeast of Iceland.”
Fedorov finished, and the British seemed dumbfounded by what he had told them. Holland looked at Tovey, as if to see whether he believed what the Russians were saying here. It was clear that he had real doubts about it as he summed up what Fedorov had said, an edge of incredulity in his voice.
“You are telling us now that you attempted to aid our cruisers, then found and sunk the Altmark to prevent the Germans from refueling and beat off an attack by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to send them north to look for assistance?”
“That sizes it up fairly well, Admiral Holland.”
“You left one thing out, Admiral Holland,” said Tovey diplomatically. “They also happened upon the wreckage of Birmingham and saved at least fifteen souls there, Captain Madden among them.”
“Here, here.” Captain Bennett, who had been listening quietly, took it upon himself to raise his glass of gin in a toast.
“Well you have been quite busy, it seems,” said Tovey. “I will gladly second your toast, Captain Bennett, and allow me to extend our thanks and appreciation for all these gentlemen have done. You realize, of course, that you have violated the terms of your own neutrality by taking these actions.”
“Admiral,” said Volsky. “Even though my backside has become much more substantial than I would like at this age, I found it most uncomfortable to sit on the fence in this situation. While we sail under the flag of a neutral country, I do not think there is much time for that luxury in this war. We are all going to have to choose sides here, at one time or another. Our homeland has not as yet made that decision, but you have just lost your only ally in Europe with the fall of France, and I can imagine that prospects look fairly bleak to you just now. So I would like to offer you my hand in friendship here, perhaps a gesture that you might see as having some value. I fear that as soon as Hitler settles himself in the house he had lately broken into, he will not rest there. No, he will quickly turn his greedy eyes on the villas up the street. There are only two directions he might take, and we are both his neighbors now, your country and ours. It seems to me our mutual cooperation and understanding would be a great help to you at this dark hour.”
* * *
Lindemann and the others listened as Hoffman and Fein explained what they saw—a rocket, incredibly fast and deadly accurate. It had been fired from a range of at least 18,000 meters and bored in mercilessly, so fast that the eye could barely follow it as it thundered home.
“It maneuvered,” said Hoffmann gesturing with his hand to show how the rocket swooped up from the sea. “I could clearly see the exhaust trail in the sky. It arced up from the enemy ship, climbed, and then dove for the sea, skimming right over the wave tops. Then, at the very last minute, it leapt at the ship’s vitals above the waterline, as if it was deliberately guided to avoid our heavy side armor. The explosion was terrible to behold.”
“The warhead must have been at least 300 kilograms,” said Fein “and it penetrated the superstructure amidships easily. Then came the fires. It was as if someone had sprayed gasoline all over the interior compartments and then tossed in a match, but many times worse. The heat was intense. Every compartment involved was completely immolated, and no one in those sections survived. I lost forty three men there.”
The testimony of these two experienced officers was sobering, to say the least, and there was no more sentiment of jubilant celebration in the room.
“I know we, ourselves are working on this technology,” said Lindemann. “Most of it is top secret and hidden away at the Peenemünde Army Research Centre. There have been proposals for remote controlled aircraft such as Project Erfurt, and men like Goddard in America and our own von Braun have proposed models for rockets as well. They are thinking to send remote controlled aircraft over the channel carrying 1000 kilogram bombs! But it is no more than an idea at the moment, and most senior officers I have spoken with seemed to dismiss it as having no real military applications. How would you control such a plane? A rocket would seem even more daunting. Yes, they have been used for centuries, ever since the discovery of gunpowder, but all current rocket development is unguided and likely to stay that way for some time.”
“Not these rockets,” said Hoffmann, shaking his head. “Unless the aim was flawless, this rocket seemed to have a mind of its own. Remember, we are not sitting there like a toy in the bathtub! We were cruising near thirty knots. The British hit a ship moving at that speed from over 18,000 meters away, and with accuracy that was more precise than our finest naval gun directors and optics. Now, anyone who wishes to see the result is welcome to visit Otto here aboard Gneisenau after this little conference, but the question before us now is how do we proceed?”
Silence. All eyes turned to Lindemann, who folded his hand slowly, considering. “We have heard from Wilhelmshaven,” he said. “I must tell you, Hoffmann, that Raeder was not happy with your decision to engage that ship. It would have been better if you had kept to the plan and simply ran south for the Atlantic.”
“That is what I decided, Lindemann. Then we came upon the ship and thought it was another British cruiser, even though I could not recognize the silhouette.”
“Well, perhaps you should have avoided engagement. That said, here we are. Raeder was not happy that I engaged the British with our carrier aircraft either—until he received the news concerning Renown. Seekrieigsleitung made it evident that they believed my decision to elect the Denmark Strait as a breakout point instead of the more open seaways in the Iceland-Faeroes gap was not what they expected. So we are both in the soup together, Kapitan. Now that we have come here to this rendezvous point at your request, we have considerable power at our disposal. It is no longer a question of trying to slip a raider or two out into the Atlantic as I view the situation. In spite of this rocket you speak of, now we have the power to fight our way through.”
“Raeder has approved this?”
“I made the request. They are undoubtedly scouring the intelligence to see what we may be up against if we do proceed south now. It is either that, or the whole operation must be postponed, and if we turn for home now it will be a long winter before we see these waters again. This is my belief.”
“Then what do you propose, Lindemann?”
“I have conferred with Seekrieigsleitung and L
ütjens. You all know that he is a careful and cautious man. Yet even he sees the advantage we now have with our present concentration of forces. This was not what Raeder wanted, but choices we have both made have brought us here. So my request was that we refuel now and proceed south by 18:00 hours this evening. What do the rest of you think?”
Karl Topp, the Kapitan of Tirpitz, spoke next. “I’m an old U-boat man, so you may dismiss whatever I say, but I know what the men our ships are named after might advise. Here we have clenched a hard fist. I say we strike south and bludgeon anything in our path. We will have air cover, Stukas, and the finest ships in the world. We either use them or continue playing hide and go seek with the Royal Navy. This is what I believe.”
That sentiment found immediate support from the two cruiser Kapitans, and Böhmer from Graf Zeppelin. “We have two battleships, a pair of battlecruisers, two heavy cruisers and three destroyers,” he said. “Gneisenau took a hard blow, but there is nothing wrong with the guns, eh Fein? I say we move as Lindemann and Topp suggest.”
“One thing, gentlemen,” said Lindemann. “If we top off our tanks here we will take every drop of fuel Nordmark has. Once in the Atlantic we will be a long way from home, and our control of French ports is tenuous at this point. We have only just occupied Brest, St. Nazaire and La Pallice. Word is that the British took heavy loss at St. Nazaire. We hit a nice fat ocean liner packed to the gills with troops, but it will be some time before the docks and quays, or adequate supplies can be made ready for us there. So we cannot count on those ports being available to accommodate the entire fleet. This means that operations will have to be supported by the tankers remaining in the Atlantic if we push too far south, and we have seen what happened to Altmark here. Lose another tanker, or god forbid two, and we could be hung out like fish on a wire.”
“Logistics will be uppermost in the minds of Raeder and Lütjens,” said Hoffmann. “I will be frank and say that my decision to turn north and refuel was based on this same logic. Yes, we can fight here, but we may need to consider more limited operations.”
“Exactly,” Lindemann agreed. “I suggested that we fight to secure access to the Halifax-Liverpool convoy route, there are a pair of nice fat convoys within easy reach even as we speak. If we can get south in 48 hours, we will have a hundred ships to feast on. That will make Raeder happy. Then we retire north, and not west to France. This is what I proposed to Wilhelmshaven. Now we wait to see what Raeder and Lütjens have to say about it.”
“Have they been informed of the damage to Gneisenau?” asked Fein.
“They are aware your ship was hit, but this business about the rocket sits here between us at this table and has gone no further. Frankly I do not know what they would make of it, and so I suggest we do not complicate the matter trying to explain through signals traffic what Hoffmann has told us here.”
“But be forewarned,” said Hoffmann. “If this ship is spotted again, perhaps your Stukas can deal with it Kapitan Böhmer.”
“True,” said Lindemann. “Perhaps we should assign a code here to alert all the others if we sight this ship.”
Hoffman chuckled at that. “No Kapitan Lindemann, we will not need such devices. If this ship appears again you will all see it with your own eyes, plain enough, and believe me, you will never forget it as long as you live.”
Part XII
The Witching Hour
“Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on.”
― William Shakespeare ~ Hamlet
Chapter 34
Tovey sat with the latest dispatch from the Admiralty, his mind heavy with foreboding. Operation Ariel, the final evacuation from France had just been dealt a heavy blow. The old Cunard steamship liner Lancastria had been crowded with both civilian and service and support troops, one of the last to leave St. Nazaire as the Germans closed in. With a stated capacity of 1300 passengers and 300 crew, the ship had packed in over 8000 souls, ready to sail for England. The Captain of the escorting British destroyer Havelock urged them to get out to sea, but a U-boat warning caused her Captain, Rudolph Sharp, to delay. It was a fatal decision.
At a little before 4pm the previous day, June 17th, the Germans sent in the Luftwaffe to attack the desperate flotillas attempting to flee the continent. JU-88s from Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30 scored three direct hits on the lumbering steamship, causing her to list and then quickly turn over. One bomb had penetrated her fuel bunkers, and the sea around the stricken ship was soon black with oil. As if this heavy blow were not enough, the JU-88s made additional strafing runs, killing many as they struggled for life in the water and setting the fuel afire where thousands of desperate men and women were now adrift on the dark oily sea, burned and drowned in an agonizing death of fire and water. It was a brutal act of cruelty masquerading as a wartime operation, the most severe loss at sea ever suffered by a British ship.
“Most secret – Not to be disclosed or disseminated below flag level,” he read aloud, then lowered his head, sitting down, his hand covering his eyes. The loss was more than twice that suffered during the sinking of the Titanic, and it would account for a third of all casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force on the continent. Fearing news of the disaster would cut home morale to the bone, only the most senior officers were advised, and a blackout concerning the incident was imposed on all press and media.
It was one damn catastrophe after another, thought Tovey. France and Norway gone, the fate of the powerful French fleet still hanging in the balance, the threat of imminent invasion of the homeland, and now this. On top of it all we are now facing this powerful formation of German ships, easily a match for us, and who could foresee such a thing coming to pass? God help us if they do win through the straits and get at those convoys. I must immediately request HX-50 and HX-51 either re-route south or return to Halifax, and there can be no further sailings from that port until this issue is decided. There are ninety ships between those two convoys, and I also have TC-5 to worry about, another nine ships there, with the Empress of Australia carrying over 3700 troops. It’s another bloody disaster in the waiting, and all that stands between those ships and the bottom of the sea is Home Fleet.
At least that last convoy has some escort. Revenge is presently on station with TC-5. There’s another eight good 15-inch guns there that I could dearly use right now, but she can make only 23 knots and is too far south and east to matter now. Admiralty has already pulled Devonshire off of convoy duty to escort Illustrious. There simply isn’t anything left, and something tells me the Germans are coming in force this time. We’ll just have to face them down with what we have. But if we lose this fight…He did not want to contemplate the consequences.
The offer of friendship and support extended by the Russians seemed more inviting now, though he knew the matter would have to be sent on to the Admiralty first. What could they do, really? He had taken their testimony concerning the engagement with the Twins with a grain of salt. But being diplomatic, he had thanked the Russian Admiral, saying he believed his government would be most interested in further discussions on their mutual cooperation. In the end, however, he had to urged him to remain well south of the action he anticipated soon in the Denmark Strait. Their young Captain seemed troubled, still believing that this was a battle we might not win, but there is little help the Russians could offer us. As imposing as this new ship appeared, Holland was correct to point out it had only half the firepower of a small British light cruiser, in spite of their claims to the contrary. He was of a mind that the Russians had spun out a bit of a bender, stretching the truth concerning their engagement with the Germans.
Yet, as he stood on the weather deck watching the Russian ship haul in its massive anchor and slowly make way, that haunting feeling of déjà vu returned to him. He
felt certain he had seen this ship before. It was completely irrational. There was no reason why he should feel this way, but he could not deny the clear sense of anxiety he felt to look on the long lines of the cruiser, easily as big as Hood or his own flagship.
So he issued his orders. Admiral Holland, with Hood and Repulse would continue to operate together and take up a position on the right. Tovey would take Invincible and the destroyers Fortune and Firedrake in the center, steaming some 18,000 yards west of Holland’s position. Vice Admiral Wells with the two British carriers would hold down the left flank, escorted by the heavy cruisers Sussex and Devonshire, with destroyers Tartar, Javelin and Jackal in escort, led by the redoubtable Lord Mountbatten aboard Jackal. This force would steam west-southwest of Tovey’s position, with the cruisers well out in front.
As for Kirov, Admiral Volsky offered to take a place in the line, but Tovey politely declined. The Russians were again urged to move off to the south pending developments.
“Well Admiral, we will be on your left should you need us,” the Russian had told him. Then he smiled. “I have heard there is good fishing near the ice this time of year. God go with you.”
* * *
Far to the north, the German fleet winked goodbye to the tanker Nordmark at 18:00 hours as planned. The sun was low on the horizon, but it would not set this day, up to bear full witness to what was now about to transpire. Lindemann had received permission to attempt to force the strait on the condition that he should break off the engagement if any of the capital ships were heavily damaged and in danger of being sunk.
Kirov Saga: Altered States (Kirov Series) Page 29