The fish fell about a mile in front of the steaming warships. The fleet was making maximum speed and had no chance to turn or stop before charging into the area. As the warheads struck home, the high speed of the fleet added its destructive force to the wound.
The bombers were able to turn away before encountering the worst of the enemy’s defensive fire.
Most of the force managed to get away untouched.
Oddly, the transport fleet fared better. Anchored in shallow water many of the American torpedoes stuck in the mud, some struck the nearby island. The lower, slower Libs suffered from Japanese defensive fire, several crashing in spectacular burning arcs.
Night fell quickly as it does at that latitude, the Japanese flag staff spent the night counting their losses.
Of six carriers, four took at least one torpedo hit and suffered varying infirmities to their speed or maneuverability. One was listing too badly to land or launch aircraft. One unlucky battleship absorbed three American warheads and would not survive the night. Five of the less-robust destroyers were sent to the bottom by the raid. Losses to the transport fleet were less severe. Only six ships suffered fatal hits and nearby landing craft were at hand to remove most of the crews and passengers. Still, the Army force suffered from the loss of almost ten percent of its equipment and found its units scheduled for Luzon landed on Batan adding to a confusion of mixed units. Despite the losses, the Fourteenth Army could continue their planned landings.
Ike pretended to play bridge with his aides and a couple of staff officers roped into keeping him away from the map room. “Enough of this,” he threw down his cards and walked down a busy corridor. He met the Chief of Staff coming to find him.
“It is too dark to get a photo plane up, but we have been listening in on their tactical nets. They lost a battleship, a carrier is out of it with damage, so are a half-dozen minor ships. We sunk six transports, but the landing craft got most of the men off.”
“But the supplies are on the bottom?” Ike asked.
“It seems we sunk most of their trucks and all of a field hospital. Most importantly, an ammo ship is burning and has been abandoned.”
The general leaned back in his chair, a wide smile on his face. “What about our guys?”
“Four Boeings, and six Libs. Of the B-17s, two crashed on landing, so we may get them back in the air.”
Eisenhower had just fought his first battle, his grin melted away.
“OK, let the submarines take a crack at them.”
The first three American boats reached Valley Cove in the early hours of the night. The wolf pack was loosely commanded by the senior skipper, a lieutenant commander all of 23 years old. Submarine operations required the boldness found only in the young. Forming a line abreast the three boats dropped twenty mines each into the tropical water. It was almost dawn when they turned back out to the narrow sea and settled on the bottom to silently wait with almost twenty others.
The Japanese Admiral knew his fleet was damaged, but the distance he had to cover was less than two hundred miles. Leaving three transports unattended to finish the occupation of Batan, he moved the rest under the protection of his antiaircraft guns and set off at maximum speed to the south before dawn.
They made smoke to provide cover from the bombers.
The channel between Luzon and Caminguin was the last deep water the fleet would have to cross.
Beyond it the Philippine Sea was too shallow to provide much cover. Each commander poked personally manned his periscope hoping for a clear shot at the invading fleet.
Three navy Liberators kept and eye on their course from miles away, the thick smoke marking their progress and allowing a running commentary to navy headquarters in Manila. From there it flowed to the boats themselves. Like nervous wolves looking down on their prey, the submarines twitched slightly, moving a mile from one side or the other to the perfect position.
The Crab saw the plume of smoke as the Japanese approached. “Down scope, sonar, what is your bearing?”
“Bearing 285, distance is six miles and closing.”
“Sing out changes in bearing”
“Aye” The tension on the little bridge was almost unbearable.
“Bearing 285 and steady.”
“Up scope,” the smoke from the approaching ships was wide, but not so wide that the fleet was crossing, they were coming right down his throat. “Down scope. Set bow and stern torpedoes to begin pattern at three thousand yards.”
“Bearing steady, range now four miles, bearing steady,” the sonarman repeated himself.
“Range two miles, bearing steady.”
“Stand by all tubes.”
“Range one mile”
“Fire front battery in sequence,” every man aboard counted as six torpedoes left the tubes.
“All ahead on motors, make your course 285.”
“Course 285”
“Fire stern battery in sequence. Make your depth 200 feet.”
“Take her down to 200, sir.”
The last weapons swam away, “Make your course 048.”
The executive officer grinned, “Now comes the hard part, the waiting.”
They did not wait long, the first sound of the first explosion reached them before the captain could reply.
The evening meeting in the basement of the Marsman Building was a navy affair. “We were unable to get bombers over them today. They kept up a very heavy combat patrol from dawn to dusk. The airfield in Batan is now operational and providing additional cover.” Tom Hart reported. “We managed to get twenty submarines in place in time. It seems fifteen of those were able to take a shot.”
“What’s in the bag, Tom?” Ike could see the navy man wanted to grin.
“Our listening on the unencrypted TBS traffic says we got all their carriers, and two more capital ships.
That is to say they were hit. Once carrier is still able to conduct flight ops, the aircraft on their CAP had to recover to Batan. We also put at least nine destroyers and a dozen or so merchantmen on the bottom.”
“So what do they have left?”
A light cruiser is the largest thing untouched, they have transferred the flag to her. Twenty troop and supply ships are now off the landing beaches, and we cannot hit them there with subs of air torpedoes.”
“Guided bombs?”
“Not as long as they keep the smoke up.”
The Air Corps man interrupted, “We did nothing all day today with the bombers. We were hoping for a chance to finish them off, but it didn’t happen. Now our recon is showing Formosa is coming up again.
We can expect then to try to hit us tomorrow.”
“Okay, the navy battle is over, they will land tonight or tomorrow. We’ll try to put the rest of their ships on the bottom once they return to open water. Tomorrow I want bombers to plaster Taiwan. Close them down for good this time. We will keep fighter cover over our fields in case they get past us.”
The operations officer objected, “That means they can land with our airpower elsewhere.”
“Yep, what’s left of them.” Ike turned to the corps commander, “You’re up next. Swing for the bleachers.”
Chapter 17 Philippines II
Ten hours later dawn came to the Philippines. With it came a wave of long-range aircraft headed for the American airfields on Luzon’s southwest coast. Over one hundred aircraft decoys were blasted as they sat in neat lines on the fields. The Filipino fields were even more heavily protected by air defense batteries than Pearl Harbor. Dozens of the attacking aircraft were lost over their targets. As they turned for home, Air Corps Mustangs pulled out of their lazy holding patterns and pounced upon their prey. The melee became a classic confused ‘furball’ with the inexperienced Americans pounding the lightweight Zeros with their eight fifty caliber machine guns. The Japanese had a difficult time scoring each of their two dozen kills against the armored American machines.
After less than twenty minutes, the Japanese raid commander orders
his forces to break off the combat, worried about his fuel status. The Americans pursued for over a hundred miles out to sea, keeping their opponent from throttling back their hungry engines. A few with punctured fuel tanks never reached their bases on Taiwan. The others returned home just a hour after the last B-17 had laid scatterable mines over the grass strips. It would be an awkward afternoon for the Japanese fliers. Less than half of the Japanese planes that took in the morning off would ever fly again.
Eisenhower left his bunker at Clark Field to survey the damage. The repair crews were filling the smaller craters with gravel. The larger ones were being marked with large yellow flags. His air commander was alongside.
“We will have this cleaned up in three or four hours, sir.”
“OK, we need to move everything to the dispersal fields by tonight. See what you can do to get the decoys repaired. I expect a carrier attack from the north today or tomorrow.” Ike returned the one-star’s salute and motioned for his staff car. He had an invasion to sink.
Winston Frederick was met at Union Station by a White House car. He and his three keepers were ushered into the oval office by a butler who moved with quiet catlike grace. President Roosevelt was in an upbeat mood, he motioned his visitors to a coffee table.
“How bad was it, Mr. President?”
“Bad enough, but it could have been worse.” The President moved to face the fireplace. “One battleship sunk, the Arizona, she can be raised, a number of smaller ships burned out beyond repair.
Perhaps a thousand killed.”
“How about enemy losses?”
“I am getting all sorts of reports, I take them all with a grain of salt. Their naval air has been savaged, I am certain of that. Still the their ships got away scot-free.”
“And the base?” Frederick asked.
“The Japs hit the oil tank, but that is only about half of local storage now I understand. Just the fact that they did that points to you having a Japanese counterpart. Otherwise, we lost about half of our B-17s” he paused for the punch line “the decoys anyway.”
“What now?” Admiral Hereford asked.
Roosevelt waved his hand dismissively. “The gloves come off of course. I will address Congress in a few hours and call for war with Japan and Germany. The country is in a foul mood. No need to wait for Germany to invite us in. Germany first of course, they are the only ones who can really hurt us, but we are on the verge of being able to hold The Philippines and I have told the commander out there to hang on for help.”
“MacArthur?” Frederick asked.
“Back to West Point as Superintendent a few months ago. Ike is charge out there, he has a lot of experience in the region. I am expecting a good show. Mac? He may charge in here at any moment demanding a clipper ticket back out there. He won’t get it.”
“So Germany first?”
“Yes but let’s try to do Japan at the same time if we can.”
“A tall order.”
“We will do what we can. The Navy will be mostly dedicated to the Pacific, the Army to Europe.
Marshall does not want to lose Manila just to have to take it back later. He says he does not want to
‘pay for the same land twice.’ I like that.”
“As long as we have Manila, they can’t do a thing in the DEI.” Tom said.
Frederick looked puzzled.
“Dutch East Indies, where the oil is,” the President said curtly. “If the Japanese cannot get the Dutch oil, they will peter out pretty darn quickly. I am sure the Navy Department has some figures for us to look at. Now what I need from you, good Doctor,” Roosevelt indicated the time traveler,” is an informed opinion if the Japanese have an advisor from the future or not. The caught us with our pants down. As if they knew that we were focusing on the first week of December.”
“Yes, Mister President.” Winston answered.
With that the group was waved away and a military aide conducted them to a very secure office in the War Department across the street. On the table was a large pile of telex messages dealing with the Japanese attack and its results. The military men began to mull over their contents.
“Nearly simultaneous attacks on Singapore, Pearl and The Philippines,” that is no change from the last time. Larry observed.
“Late October instead of early December is a huge change.” Frederick countered. “In my time a couple of the carriers came straight from the yards to the attack. Why did they speed up the construction?
“Butterflies?”
“Maybe, maybe the Germans tipped them off, but I doubt it,” Frederick continued, “Also they had enough sense to hit the oil storage at Pearl. In my time everyone said it was a mistake to pass that up. I still think they have someone like me.”
“If they knew what would happen, why would they provoke us?” Larry asked.
“As I understand it, the Japanese leadership is simply stiff-necked. Also anyone showing ‘weakness’ is in danger of being cut down, literally cut down, by some subordinate. Groupthink raised to an art form.”
“If you were advising them, what would you tell them to do?” Bob asked.
“More carriers, more subs, fewer battleships. Stockpiles of critical materials beforehand. All in all, the main change would have been to leave us alone and hit Stalin in the butt when Germans reach Moscow.”
“One problem with that, Winston.”
“What’s that?”
“No oil in Siberia, and the Japanese navy needs oil.” Bob replied.
“We will tell the President we think the Japs have a guest.” Larry said, his voice indicating he spoke as the senior officer present.
“How does that impact our plan?” Winston asked.
“Except for what the President just told us, nobody has told me what the grand strategy is. I presume we will not do the same as last time, the Nips will be expecting it.”
“You really need to stop calling the Japanese ‘Nips,’ you know.” Frederick chided.
“They can be Japanese again once we are in Tokyo, until then they are Nips,” Admiral Hereford said with certainty.
Chapter 18 Atlantic
“So, all in all, we are ahead of your schedule in the Pacific?” FDR looked out over the Potomac River from the presidential yacht. Thanks to the casual atmosphere, Winston found himself able to unwind for the first time in the man’s presence.
“The Pacific Fleet is still the biggest piece on the board. The British are OK in Singapore. The Japanese have lost fewer ships than we have, but as a percentage they are hurting more.”
“Just looking at a map shows the Jap landings in the Dutch East Indies are, or soon will be, untenable.
We just need to keep Luzon in working order. Without the oil fields they simply have no navy and no chance.” Admiral Leahy observed.
“Hard days ahead, but the Japanese have largely shot their bolt? How about those other people?”
“Mister President, the Japanese don’t seem to have told the Germans about their plans. While they were probably ready for something, the exact date and so on caught them unawares. So in the Atlantic they were not especially ready as far as we can tell,” the navy man said.
“Further, I bet they hoped we would go after the Japanese and let them alone. Hitler was big for wishful thinking.” Winston added.
“I caught hell for declaring war on the Hun, but after Pearl Harbor Congress would have declared war on Mexico if I asked them to. So how is it in the Atlantic?”
“The navy is ready,” the admiral had pride in his voice, “We have extended our escorts from midway across all the way to the British ports. The Royal Navy has done the same and now they are able to refit in our ports. Our hunter-killer groups have less experience, but newer ships and more enthusiasm than the Brits, I’ll bet.”
“We’ll see, we’ll see,” the President wheeled himself to the large coffee table that dominated the room.
“General Marshall, what now?”
“As soon as the Navy is ready
, we can dispatch troopships to the Mediterranean, but we really need to wait for the u-boats to be cleared. With luck, we will be able to launch Operation Torch in May or June.”
“We need to get into the fight now, the people want to get into the grapple.”
Marshall defended himself, “Mustang squadrons are already moving; they will be flying air defense with the British in a couple of weeks. We will make sure that gets into the papers. The delay will be getting spare parts and support people over there. A good chance to get some experience.”
“Make sure our radar and radiomen get a chance, Churchill has been singing the praises of his people, and we will need to give some seasoning to both air and ground crew.” Winston wondered where the President picked that tidbit up.
Roosevelt lit another cigarette, not bothering with his usual elegant holder. “Agreed then, the Air Corps in Britain as soon as possible, the Navy to clear the sea in the next six months, then the Army goes through to North Africa. Is that right?”
The three other men nodded.
The departure of ships has always been dictated by the unchanging tides. So the first American wartime convoy sailed from New York in broad daylight. Once out of the harbor, the destroyers began to single out ships and lead them to their proper place in the formation. Liberty California was in the second rank, a half mile behind a tanker, with a refrigerated fruit ship on one side and the broad ocean on the other.
Paul Adkins Page 11