Chapter 220 |
< World War II - The Awakening of a Giant (6) >
October 28, 1941
Waters near Ceylon Island, South of India
The Imperial Japanese Navy’s transport convoy had just departed from Sumatra Island and was now sailing toward Ceylon.
The troops aboard the transport ships were the priceless soldiers of the Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF).
They were the Navy's own ground troops, independent from the Army. Driven by a refusal to be outdone by their rivals, their training was intense, making them an elite force—the Navy’s ambitious creation.
Since the Army, which had overextended its front lines, constantly complained of troop shortages and refused to cooperate with the Navy’s proposed operations, the Navy had desperately recruited and expanded the SNLF.
Although the motive was far from pure, from the Imperial Japanese Navy's perspective, they were a tactically valuable force that could be mobilized without having to beg the Army for help.
Moreover, with the Army and Navy mired in factional strife and rivalry, a successful capture of Ceylon Island by the SNLF alone would be a perfect opportunity to knock the Army down a peg.
It was a testament to the high expectations the Imperial General Headquarters' Naval Department had for this landing operation.
Aircraft carriers, leading the future of the Great Japanese Empire, would crush the fleet of the white imperialists, and the SNLF, protected by the Imperial Residence Ship, would land and capture Ceylon Island!
It sounded glorious and would mark the grand opening of a full-scale war against the Allied Forces with a spectacular victory.
For the Navy's high command, it was of paramount importance.
…At least, that was the high command's view.
In reality, the formation of the Imperial Japanese Navy ships surrounding the transports carrying those precious SNLF troops was incredibly sloppy and far from offering the protection of a proper, efficient escort.
Aboard one of them, the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Yukikaze, the crew moved at a leisurely pace.
“This is so boring.”
For the Japanese Navy, which believed its true worth lay in sinking enemy ships in combat, not in menial tasks for the Army like escorting transports, convoy duty was the second-most avoided mission.
While the fleet under Admiral Nagumo’s command was out crushing the old, fat lion—the cursed white imperialists—they were stuck escorting a transport convoy.
Escorting transports is a core mission for most navies, but the Imperial Japanese Navy was too obsessed with military glory to be enthusiastic about such a duty.
This was especially true now that Sumatra Island and the Andaman Islands had been seized, and the safety of the surrounding waters had long been secured.
“Tsk, why do we have to escort the likes of the SNLF?”
Furthermore, while the SNLF was tactically valuable, it was considered unbecoming of the Navy and was, within the Navy itself, the number one most avoided assignment, even more so than the escort fleet.
Naturally, the commanding officers of the SNLF were mostly demoted personnel, and despite their value, their treatment was poor.
Just because the high command had high expectations didn't mean the perceptions of those on the front lines would change overnight.
Consequently, the morale of the escort fleet protecting the precious SNLF was not just low; it had hit rock bottom.
Of course, it wasn’t as if no one in the Imperial Japanese Navy sensed a problem in this mess.
'This can't be right, no matter how you look at it. To be so lax on a mission assigned to His Majesty the Emperor's own ship!'
Although his motives were not born from concern for the SNLF, the captain of the battlecruiser Hiei, Nishida Masao, sensed a problem and spoke to the admiral.
“Admiral, isn't the fleet's formation a bit too scattered…?”
However, the fleet's commander, Vice Admiral Abe Hiroaki, merely yawned and replied leisurely.
“I doubt anyone here took on this menial task because they wanted to.
Since the enemy fleet is being attacked near Ceylon anyway, isn't it fine to let them relax a little?”
“…Understood, Admiral.”
With the admiral saying so, Captain Nishida, who had no authority to interfere with the other ships, fell silent.
'I hope nothing happens.'
Unfortunately, Captain Nishida’s wish was shattered in the very next moment.
“Lookout reports from port and starboard! Torpedoes approaching!”
“What?”
“Bearing and distance! We need that to evade!”
While Admiral Abe was flustered, Captain Nishida barked orders, but there was a reason for the lookout’s vague report.
Outside the ship's bridge, the Hiei's lookouts were watching the torpedoes approach across the sea, their faces dumbfounded and at a loss for words.
“…Ah…”
What were they supposed to do when torpedoes were coming from all directions at once?
---
A series of deafening roars erupted as the water surface exploded upwards.
Through his periscope, U-boat captain Günther Prien watched as their battlecruiser was engulfed by multiple columns of water, shaking violently.
Shifting the periscope slightly, he could see the Japanese Navy in a state of utter panic, with transport ships being torn in two left and right. The pathetic Japanese soldiers were flailing in the sea.
“Isn't this a little too easy?”
Even accounting for the fact that the Japanese Navy's escort wasn't focused on anti-submarine warfare, it was far too lax. Even after the submarine attack began, the enemy was in such a panic that they couldn't mount a proper response.
The U-boats, which had surrounded the enemy fleet with the simple plan of firing a simultaneous torpedo volley and making a quick getaway, were themselves baffled by the absurdity of it.
Those bastards clearly had no proper anti-submarine equipment, let alone any preparation for anti-submarine warfare.
“Send the signal. Tell them not to pull back just yet.
We’re going in for a second strike.”
Günther Prien peered through the periscope at the precarious enemy battlecruiser, a sly grin spreading across his face as he licked his lips.
“When they're serving it up on a platter like this, it'd be rude not to eat.”
It was, without a doubt, the face of a wolf before its prey.
As the signal was relayed, the sixteen U-boats surrounding the defenseless Japanese transport convoy repositioned themselves.
They were positioned on all sides, leaving no room to escape, and prepared to fire a simultaneous volley of torpedoes.
“Fire!”
“Tubes one through three, fire!”
For the Imperial Japanese Navy, which would have struggled to respond even with a dedicated submarine defense due to their lack of proper sonar, the wolf pack tactic they were seeing for the first time was a disaster in itself.
Just as the volley of torpedoes began to slice through the water…
Aboard the ship's bridge, Vice Admiral Abe Hiroaki, who should have been commanding his destroyers to begin anti-submarine warfare, was just staggering to his feet, having been knocked unconscious after hitting his head.
The torpedo salvo that struck the Hiei had paralyzed the flagship’s bridge. The destroyers were in disarray, and transports were being sunk out of nowhere, leaving the few surviving SNLF troops thrashing in the sea.
“Ugh, ahhhhhh!”
All Admiral Abe could do was let out a shrill scream as he watched the torpedoes race toward the Hiei and the transport convoy.
Ultimately, unable to withstand the successive impacts, the hull of the Hiei broke apart and sank, swallowing its unfortunate crew whole.
The remaining transport ships were all sunk, and before their eyes was the shocking scene of the Emperor's ship sinking.
The surviving destroyers burned with a belated desire for revenge, but without a commander to lead them or sonar to guide them, there was no way they could hunt down the U-boats.
All that remained before their dumbfounded eyes was a sea so full of Japanese soldiers crying for help that even if they filled every surviving ship, they couldn't rescue a tenth of them.
---
At the same time, the Royal Navy was fighting for its life, doing everything it could to hold on.
Though it was less of a battle and more of a one-sided beating.
“Enemy aircraft approaching!”
“Hard to port! Evasive maneuvers!”
The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious cut through the water, turning sharply.
A torpedo from a Type 97 Torpedo Bomber missed by a hair's breadth.
But a bomb dropped by a Type 99 Dive Bomber diving steeply struck the Illustrious's deck squarely, causing an explosion.
“Aaargh!”
“Fire on the flight deck!”
“Damn it, send in the damage control party!”
The proficiency of the Japanese pilots was second to none; they had already landed three successful dive-bombing hits.
If not for the unique armored deck of the Illustrious-class, she might not have survived.
The Illustrious was not the only one taking a hit from the Japanese.
Even the Hood, with Admiral Somerville aboard, showed the ghastly scars of a dive-bombing attack.
“Admiral, our losses are mounting!”
“Damn it.”
Admiral Somerville clicked his tongue.
They were being pummeled, and there was little they could do about it.
They had drawn the battlefield as close to Ceylon as possible, but whatever their carrier aircraft were made of, they seemed to suffer almost no issues with their operational range and were striking the fleet relentlessly.
The British fleet, having learned from the war with France, had done extensive research on anti-air defense formations and was managing to reduce the damage. But with their own air cover being so disastrously overwhelmed, even that was reaching its limit as they were attacked unilaterally.
Yet, to retreat now to avoid further losses was unthinkable; Admiral Dönitz of Germany had informed them of the departure of the enemy's transport fleet.
MI6, which had confirmed it through local resistance forces just in case, had also verified the convoy's departure.
“Is this how Admiral Abriel felt?”
The admiral of the Channel Fleet, who had charged to his death to stop the French landing, had been annihilated along with his fleet.
Being on the receiving end of the same tactic—using transport ships as bait to prevent the Channel Fleet's retreat and force them into a desperate charge—made Admiral Somerville feel doubly disgusted.
If they retreated here, they would be handing over Ceylon Island. But if they held their ground, the skill of the enemy pilots was just too high.
The sight of them weaving through the fleet's anti-aircraft fire to launch torpedoes and bombs was chilling the bones of the British forces, who had inwardly dismissed them as Asia's "yellow monkeys."
As Admiral Somerville deliberated, another explosion roared.
“A-Admiral!”
"The Glorious has been sunk!"
The aircraft carrier Glorious was breaking in half, engulfed in a rising pillar of fire as it sank.
“God, damn it…”
In the end, this disgraceful battle, where they couldn't even fight back properly, had cost them a precious aircraft carrier.
Should they retreat now? Or should they try to wear down the enemy's carrier aircraft with anti-aircraft fire, knowing they weren't infinite?
What if they lost another capital ship in a battle where they were just holding on, praying for the enemy's planes to be attrited?
As Admiral Somerville agonized, a piece of good news arrived.
“Admiral! A telegram from Admiral Karl Dönitz of the German Navy!”
Snatching it, Admiral Somerville’s eyes widened as he read.
“Finally, we can escape this damn battlefield.”
“S-Sir?”
As his subordinates looked on in confusion, Admiral Somerville let out a hollow laugh.
“It seems those damn wolf packs have eaten their fill while we were taking the hits.”
---
The Royal Navy, which had been taking a beating from the five Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers—the Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, and Shokaku—could not withstand the sinking of one aircraft carrier and the damage to many of its capital ships, and finally began to retreat.
The Japanese Navy, receiving reports from their returning carrier pilots, was in a festival-like atmosphere.
“The enemy fleet is retreating!”
“Oh, ooooh—!”
“We won, we won! A great victory!”
“Long live the Great Japanese Empire! Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”
The men, who had been crushed under the pressure of fighting the world's strongest navy, cheered at a victory that had come all too easily.
The atmosphere was as if the whole war had been won. Admiral Nagumo Chuichi, however, felt an uneasy feeling…
'If possible, I'd have liked to sink at least one of their battleships. '
The pride of the Royal Navy, which had postured as the world's strongest only to be rendered helpless, lose an aircraft carrier, and have most of its capital ships damaged, was now in the gutter.
But in terms of actual damage, aside from the sinking of one carrier and the heavy damage to another, no other ships had suffered a fatal blow.
It might have looked like a one-sided attack by Japan, but that damage hadn't come without a price.
Unlike in land-based dogfights, where a pilot could return to fight again and again as long as they survived, a pilot shot down over the sea had almost no chance of returning on their own.
Furthermore, having been hit hard by French air raids, the Royal Navy, unlike in the original history, had maintained a tight formation and put up a dense anti-aircraft screen even while being unilaterally attacked.
To inflict that damage, Nagumo had sacrificed a considerable number of elite pilots to their dense anti-aircraft fire, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
Training elite pilots was not something that could be done in a day or two. A significant number had been sacrificed in this single battle; if they kept fighting like this, would any elite pilots be left?
This time, the enemy had been caught off guard because it was a type of battle they had never seen before, and their first time facing the Zerosen.
But to expect the same next time would be overly optimistic.
That was why Nagumo had wanted to use this golden opportunity to land a decisive blow on the Royal Navy.
He had even gone so far as to make a show of preparing the transport convoy and announcing its departure to everyone, yet they had retreated faster than he expected.
After making such a fuss, had they truly not detected the convoy's departure?
“A truly magnificent battle, Admiral! This is a victory as great as that of the great Admiral Togo Heihachiro!”
“Divine strategy is the only way to describe your brilliance, Admiral!”
Of course, Nagumo didn’t dislike hearing the jubilant words of his subordinates.
In any case, the Imperial General Headquarters had only ordered him to strike Ceylon and return with all his capital ships intact. By that measure, this was clearly a great victory.
He had lost a fair number of carrier aircraft and pilots, but he had sunk an enemy carrier and driven off their fleet without any damage to his own ships. He had to be satisfied with that for now.
“Well done, everyone. We have shown the white imperialists the true justice of Greater East Asia! Now, the seas of Ceylon and India will come under the rule of His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Long live Admiral Nagumo! Long live the Great Japanese Imperial Navy!”
The bridge of the flagship Akagi was in the midst of this festive mood.
Then, from a corner, came a soft thud.
As everyone turned to see what it was, they saw the communications officer, who had been decoding a telegram, slumped on the floor.
“What is this? What is this disgraceful conduct from a sailor of His Majesty the Emperor’s Navy!”
Admiral Nagumo was instantly displeased, but the communications officer, his face pale, raised a trembling hand.
“A-Admiral.”
Admiral Nagumo furrowed his brow and strode over, snatching the telegram from the officer’s hand.
The sender was the captain of the escort destroyer Yukikaze.
[Transport convoy annihilated by enemy submarine fleet attack. Hiei sunk.
Vice Admiral Abe Hiroaki presumed killed in action with the sinking of the Hiei.
My deepest apologies, Admiral.
I will take responsibility for this and commit seppuku.]
His face draining of all color, Admiral Nagumo also slumped to the floor with a thud.
The admiral crawled on his knees across the floor and grabbed the communications officer by the collar with a trembling hand.
“You, you misread it, didn't you!”
“A-Admiral, I checked it over and over, but…”
Admiral Nagumo staggered to his feet and, with a dumbfounded expression, stared off in the distant direction of Ceylon Island.
The Royal Navy had been driven off.
All that was left was the capture of Ceylon.
But the landing force was gone.
“Abe, Abe.
The Imperial Residence Ship…”
Abe Hiroaki, that fool, had lost the Emperor's ship.
Along with the priceless Special Naval Landing Forces he was supposed to protect.
“Give me back my victory, Abe!!!”
With that cry, Admiral Nagumo clutched the back of his neck and collapsed.