Steel Reign (Kirov Series Book 23)

by John Schettler

  Something tells me I may never lead that Darwin invasion. This may be the last operation we conduct in the south. Come May, we will be looking over our shoulder in the north. We feared a war on two fronts. Yes, I warned Ugaki about it before Pearl Harbor, but he said it was simply too late to change any of the plans. Now look at the situation. We are fighting the British in Burma out west, the Americans here in the south and now the Siberians in the north—a three front war! Ugaki should have listened to me….

  * * *

  That same day the invasion forces made their approach to Fiji, and the pilots of Carrier Division 1 finally got their chance to get into action. Sweeps were conducted by the A6M2 squadrons, finding a surprising number of enemy fighters up to oppose them. But the enemy planes were all older P-39s and P-400s, a variant of that same plane. They had been delivered there months ago by the Pensacola Convoy, uncrated and assembled into the 67th Pursuit Squadron. The inexperienced pilots would now get their chance against the Aces of Carrier Division 1, and though a few got lucky with an occasional shot that damaged or downed an enemy plane, they paid a high price.

  There had been 42 operational planes available on the airfield near Suva at the southeastern corner of Fiji. By the end of the first day, that number had been reduced to twenty. Then the dive bombers came off the carriers, pounding the field and blasting another six planes on the ground, older Buffalos that had no business in the skies above, even though they had tried to scramble when the air alert sounded. Four were caught on the tarmac, another two gunned to firing wrecks as a pair of Zeroes swooped low to strafe the field as the Buffaloes were trying to take off.

  Job one for the carrier strike group led by Yamamoto was to neutralize that airfield and any chance that the Americans could use those planes to attack the troop transports. Through all this action, DDG-180 simply provided services as an early warning picket. The Phased Array radar could spot any enemy planes unfailingly, and the information was quickly radioed to Akagi. No missiles were needed, as the Japanese pilots were more than capable in this situation, and the P-39s posed no real strike threat.

  There had also been a variant of the SDB-Dauntless Dive Bomber crated up in the Pensacola Convoy, dubbed the A-24 Banshee by the Army Air Force. Yet those planes had been sent to Pago Pago, and were not available at Suva when the attack finally started.

  The invasion groups had been well coordinated, and the order Nimitz had sent to Halsey meant that Carrier Division 1 would impose its Steel Reign over the scene on the first three days of the battle. The main objective of the landings was not Suva Bay, but Nandi on the western coast of the main island of Viti Lavu.

  Fiji Was a large island, some 95 miles at its widest point and 65 miles top to bottom. It was surrounded by long archipelagoes of smaller islands, with one large sister in Vanua Levu to the northeast. That island was over 110 miles long, but no more than 20 to 30 miles wide, and much less developed. Most of the primary installations were on the big island of Viti Lavu that most associated with the name “Fiji.” The main port and airfield was at Suva, but there was also a port at Nandi and Lautoka, on the northern edge of Nandi Bay.

  This would be the main objective of the Japanese landing, for they had determined that there were only two Brigades of troops from New Zealand, the 8th at Suva and the 14th at Nandi. It was thought that they could then overwhelm the defense at Nandi to secure a lodgment on the main island, and Nandi Bay offered a good anchorage site for the transports to offload their supplies.

  But things had changed in the early months of the war. The arrival of the 132nd Infantry Regiment of the US 23rd Division at Suva had seen the 8th Brigade moved to reinforce Nandi, and so when the Abe Detachment began to storm ashore under the thunder of Yamato’s great guns, they would meet twice the force they expected to find there. The many combination that ensued in the naval maneuvers had set the scene, but now it was time for the grinding endgame as the invasion itself got underway. As always, no plan ever survived first contact with the enemy, and this one was no different.

  Part VII

  Endgame

  “Play the opening like a book, the middle game like

  a magician, and the endgame like a machine.”

  ― Spielmann

  Chapter 19

  15 April, 1942

  On the western perimeter of the reefs and atolls surrounding the main islands of the Fiji Group were the Yasawa Group, a string of long thin islands that seemed to rise like bubbles from the snout of the great flat fish body of Viti Lavu below. They were mostly hilly wooded land, but the main island in the north presented some reasonably open land where an airfield might be built. It was there that elements of Base Force 9 would be put ashore to survey the island, clear it of any enemy coastwatchers, and select the best site for an airfield. In this effort, it was supported by the 2nd Yokosuka SNLF battalion, and so a Tulagi sized operation was well underway there before dawn.

  Further south, the leading elements of the main invasion group were carrying the 47th Regiment, otherwise known as the Abe Detachment, which was intending to land north of Nandi Bay at Laotoka. That was defended by 29th Battalion, 14th New Zealand Brigade supported by the brigade artillery group. The preliminary bombardment here was fairly intense, with salvoes by the battleships Kirishima, Kongo and Haruna, the heavy cruisers Tone and Maya, and finally, a booming attack fired off by Yamato. They were unopposed, as the only Allied naval presence in the whole region was limited to the cruiser Chester and destroyers Dale and Hull at Suva that had been refitting with new radar equipment delivered earlier. They got no orders to sortie that morning.

  It was a surface action group that could not have been challenged, even if Halsey’s entire cruiser escort had been present. Given that his carriers were still far to the north approaching the Ellice Islands, the Japanese would have absolute naval supremacy during the invasion.

  Major-General Koichi Abe’s veteran 47th Regiment began its landings in the narrow coral fringed channel leading to the port, which was hotly defended in spite of the pounding delivered by those ships. 3rd Battalion landed first, storming onto the quays and docks, but was soon pinned down by withering machinegun fire from well sited positions in the buildings adjacent to the harbor. Fires were already beginning in the town where the initial bombardment had fallen most heavily. But it was not until 1st Battalion landed on the narrow coastal strip between the town and Vunda Point to the south that the deadlock at the harbor began to break up.

  Japanese troops rushed into the warehouses, bayonets fixed, and killed anyone they found, whether or not they had a weapon or uniform on. They then infiltrated into the town as the Kiwis attempted to regroup, and were soon stopped again with the timely arrival of the 36th Battalion from 8th Brigade, which had been moving to the scene for the last hour. This force was strong enough to counterattack, and soon the Japanese found themselves being pushed back toward the wharf and warehouse sector.

  Major-General Abe was finally ashore, and he wasted no time reorganizing a renewed attack, gathering all three of his battalions to make the push. It was going to be a shock attack, with the veteran Japanese infantry advancing with fixed bayonets into the very fluid house to house fighting that was now underway.

  Meanwhile the 48th Cav Recon Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Kuro Kitamura, was landing well to the south in Nandi Bay with his raiding force. He had fast troops with light vehicles, and even horses to give the infantry element additional mobility in the rugged inland country. Before they would land, the battleships Kirishima and Haruna were detached from the bombardment group and met up with the heavy cruisers Tone, Chokai and Kinagusa in Nandi Bay. Their fire was mainly concentrated at the port of Nandi itself, the adjacent airfield, and shore batteries that had been position to oppose a direct landing there.

  The 6-inch shore batteries positioned in well fortified sites along that coast began to return fire, and a small duel began when the two batteries protecting Nandi Bay returned fire on the Japanese warships.
A heavy mist lay over the bay, obscuring the positions of the enemy ships, which could only be identified when they fired. Well to the south, Kitamura’s men were already ashore and pushing into lightly cultivated ground south of Nandi. The enemy transports had not been seen, and so the opening bombardment had served as a big distraction, focusing the Kiwis defensive response right there near the harbor.

  Kitamura’s first objective would be the small airstrip at Momi, defended by 1st Company, 35th Battalion of the 8th New Zealand Brigade. These troops had only just arrived on the scene, having been posted much further south at another possible enemy landing point, Likuri Harbor. The battalion there had detached this company to scout up the coast along the rail line that had been built from Nawa on the south coast to Nandi. They arrived just as Kitamura’s raiders made their push for Momi Airfield, and a brisk meeting engagement ensued. Outnumbered three to one, the Kiwis held for as long as they could, but within an hour they had been relentlessly driven back from the airfield and forced to retreat into the jungle.

  All these early landings were further supported by a daring raid by the elite Rikusentai paratroopers of the 1st and 3rd Yokosuka SNLF battalions. Flying out of Noumea, these veteran troops had already fought in Borneo, at Kupang in West Timor, where they suffered severe casualties, and in the ill fated operations against Sumatra and Java. The survivors had been reinforced with fresh replacements from Japan, and flew by night all the way from Rabaul to Luganville on the French controlled island of Vanuatu in the New Hebrides. The Ki-57 Troop transport planes had just enough range to make the trip, and the French had agreed to refuel the planes that night, making them ready for the final leg of their journey by air to the Fiji Islands, another 700 air miles.

  Along the way the transports had been escorted by fighters off the Zuiho, which was now arriving on the scene of the action after coming all the way from the Solomon Sea south of Port Moresby. The careful planning and coordination of this operation was something that was simply beyond the capabilities of the Allies at this time. Like a fighter that had been dropped in the first round, pummeled on the ropes and staggered in the early going, the Allies were still covering up on defense as Japan moved in for the battle they hoped would clinch the fight in a knockout.

  While this was going on, the second regiment scheduled to make the Fiji assault landing was still at sea, navigating the treacherous gaps between long coral reefs that surrounded most of the island group. Major General Shizuo Sakaguchi was leading his regimental sized detachment to the far north of the island, intending to land near the small port of Tavua. Even as the paratroopers of the 1st Yokosuka SNLF landed about seven kilometers to the east of that harbor, his transports were threading their way into the narrow Manava Passage leading to the port. They would be supported by naval gunfire from the heavy cruiser Aoba and a fist full of destroyers that were already in a hot gun battle with a battery of Kiwi coastal artillery.

  For the Allies, with many miles of coastline to watch and defend, it was a frustrating morning. They could not make any major redeployment of ground troops because the Japanese could land anywhere they pleased, so the entire US 132nd Infantry Regiment was simply ordered to hunker down on the ground it held along the southern coast of the island, mostly around Suva Bay.

  This was a former National Guard Regiment, that had come a long way from Camp Forest in Tennessee, loaded aboard trains guarded by FBI agents in those early fearful days of the war, and then onto transports in Task Force 6814 bound for Australia. It was to become the first regiment of what would soon be called the “Pacifica Division” in this history, and it was going to get but a brief respite before its baptism by fire would begin.

  The troops had already seen the white winged Japanese fighters overhead, some swooping down to strafe their position near Suva, and then the Vals came in, their bombs whistling down to strike the anchorage sector. It was their own mini version of Pearl Harbor, made by airmen off two carriers that had been in on that raid months earlier. Informed by Takami that the seas and skies were clear, the pilots off Akagi and Soryu were free to impose their reign of steel over the island. If Nimitz had not diverted Halsey, this action might have met a strong challenge from the planes off Enterprise and Hornet. But Nimitz was playing a different game now, carefully husbanding his remaining pieces on the board, and planning to mount a counterattack once the Japanese carriers had run out their lease on these waters.

  As it seemed clear that the other big island of Vanua Levu was not being targeted, the only move the US made was to transfer several squadrons of A-24 Banshees from Pago Pago, which was now a beehive of activity in Samoa. The Americans already had a full Marine Regiment there, with several more on the water heading for that location. They were being covered by the Wasp and light carrier Shiloh, and with them would come a new battleship division sent all the way from the east coast, newcomers Washington, and the newly commissioned North Carolina.

  These two ships were the first foray made by US designers into the art of the ‘fast battleship.’ The US had seen the Japanese building the Kongo class battlecruisers, and someone suggested they were intended to run with their carriers. Since all the older US battleships were too slow for such a role, the North Carolina Class was conceived. Originally designed to carry twelve 14-inch guns, the main armament was ‘upgraded’ when Japan reneged on the Washington Naval Treaty. So these new ships would now carry nine 16-inch guns, while still being able to make 28 knots, fast enough to stay with the carriers, or to serve as a formidable commerce raider. They were going to be over 45,000 tons full load, and the icing on the cake was the first appearance of the class of 39, the South Dakota.

  A new class, this ship had corrected several shortcomings perceived in the North Carolinas, which would end their run with the Washington. They were given better underwater protection with the main belt extended well below the water line, and a double bottom. Conceived as a flagship vessel, the ship also got a new deck on the conning tower to make room for command staff, and in spite of the added weight, it still maintained a speed of 27 knots. South Dakota was to be the first of four in the class, and it was being delivered to the fleet about 90 days early, a much needed reinforcement.

  So there was a method to the madness in those orders Halsey received from Fleet Headquarters. Nimitz was mustering all the muscle he had in the deep South Pacific. He was going to build a fast carrier group with Enterprise, Hornet, Wasp, and the light carrier Shiloh, and he was going to add considerably more firepower with the addition of these three new battleships. The Marines were all huddled aboard what was now being called “The Presidential Convoy” heading for Pago Pago. It was called this firstly because it sailed on Roosevelt’s direct order, and secondly because the transports that carried the troops all bore the names of past US Presidents.

  With the 1st US Marine Division soon to arrive in Samoa, the US was going to have some punching power for their first real offensive of the war. The only question now was where that punch should be aimed. The Japanese were already wading into the shallows of the Solomon Island Group, though their presence there was strongest in the north on Bougainville. They had begun setting up a seaplane base at Tulagi, and put small survey detachments ashore at Lunga on Guadalcanal and a few other nearby islands, looking for the best places to build airfields.

  Admiral King was eager to get in the fight, and largely responsible for making sure the 132nd Regiment got to Fiji as it did. Now he wanted his Marines to get busy, and flatly stated that to go anywhere other than Fiji would be most unwise.

  “We need Fiji’s airfields and harbors, and now that the enemy is already there, that’s where we should hit them,” he said in a meeting of the Joint Chiefs.

  “What about something a little more daring?” said Marshall. “The 132nd Regiment is already on Fiji, and we could hold our ground and keep the Japanese busy there. Then we could swing north and hit the New Hebrides. Take this island—” He fingered the big Island of Vanuatu, “right in the cente
r of the board. In effect, we’d be outflanking the Japanese at both Fiji and Noumea once we got airfields and good air support established at Luganville. And from there we can also cover the Santa Cruz Islands and springboard into the lower Solomons. As serious as these penetrations are with the enemy on New Caledonia and Fiji, the Japs are out on a limb. If they want to supply those troops they’ll have to come down through the Solomon and Coral Seas, and from Luganville, we’d have a base that could keep a watch on both those approaches.”

  “Right,” said King. “Then how do we keep Luganville supplied if the Japs have planes on both Fiji and Noumea? General, those bases have to be taken, no if, ands, or buts about it.”

  It was going to be much debated before a decision would be reached, and the matter would eventually end up in Roosevelt’s lap again. At the moment, however, the fate of Fiji itself still rode in the whirlwind. It looked like Operation FS was going to be a complete success. Hara’s 5th Carrier Division had met and all but destroyed Fletcher’s Task Force in the Coral Sea. Port Moresby had been invaded and secured in five days time, the base at Tulagi was unchallenged, and troops were already safely ashore on the main island of the Fiji Group.

  “We have done all of this, I might add,” said Admiral Ugaki, “without any magic tricks by that ship out there.”

  “Don’t underestimate them just yet,” said Yamamoto. “The situational awareness they provide has been most useful, even if it has not been necessary for them to use those advanced rocket weapons. I remind you that we can operate now with such impunity only because they have assured us no enemy task force is within striking range of our forces.”

  “Where do you think those other enemy carriers have gone?” asked Ugaki.