Against the Tide Imperial: The Struggle for Ceylon (The Usurper's War: An Alternative World War II B by James Young (story reading txt) 📕

a blazing “comet,” Lieutenant Commander Maki’s attack dive terminated in the center of the Victorious’s flight deck. His two wingmen, realizing their leader’s distress too late, released their weapons too low and had their bombers damaged by their own hits as well as the Victorious’s guns. Slightly less determined, the twelve other dive bombers attacking Vice Admiral Cunningham’s flagship only managed to put one more bomb onto the flight deck and three more close enough to damage Victorious’s hull.

If the Victorious had been an American or Japanese carrier, the damage would have been enough to see her off. Instead, the vessel’s armored flight deck reduced the severity, even as serious fires broke out and crew casualties were immense. With smoke pouring from her flight and hangar decks, the carrier’s bridge crew scanned frantically for the torpedo bombers they knew were approaching through their escorts’ smoke screen.

Eagle was nowhere near as fortunate as her younger, more modern cohort. Built on the hull of an intended battleship, still nursing the repaired wounds suffered during the Dutch East Indies campaign, and less ably handled by her new captain, the Eagle absorbed three 1,000-lb. bomb hits. Unlike Victorious, Eagle’s flight deck was not heavily armored. This did not stop the first weapon from detonating just as it passed the hangar deck roof, causing a massive bulge forward. The next weapon detonated in the forward crew spaces, killing twenty-five men in a damage control party there and starting a roaring fire. The final bomb also started a fierce blaze, this one in the carrier’s stern from the ready ammo for the 6-inch guns.

The remainder of the Japanese dive bombers missed due to a combination of factors. The aircraft had just barely cleared their drops when the Tenzans began the final phases of their runs. The sixteen bombers that targeted the Prince of Wales had their attack disrupted by a late launched Seafire. Piloted by Flying Officer Eric Brown, the British fighter downed the Soryu leader with a quick burst, then caused another torpedo bomber to dip its wing into the ocean before reaching the drop point. With one half of the hammer and anvil attack disrupted, the Prince of Wales was able to narrowly turn to starboard and comb the tracks from that direction.

Unfortunately for the Eagle and Victorious, their large companion’s turn to starboard took her light anti-aircraft battery out of protective range. Despite the valiant effort of the remaining destroyers, there were far too few guns to prevent both flattops getting caught in the classic bracket attack. The carriers’ own anti-aircraft guns made their assailants pay dearly, with the Eagle shooting down three and the Victorious six of their attackers.

In response, both carriers were hit by two of the Sandaburo warheads. Victorious’ first torpedo struck the No. 1 fire room’s forward bulkhead. Whipping the carrier her entire length, the blow killed every man in the compartment as well as knocked many of the crew off their feet. Oil bunkerage fell back onto the already burning hangar deck, adding to the fires there.

The vessel had barely finished whipsawing from the first hit when the second weapon hit just below the carrier’s avgas storage. Although not as instantaneously fatal as such hits had already proven in the war, the torpedo did immediately ignite a massive fire. Now with her aft third fully engulfed, Victorious hove to an immediate stop as her crew set to work attempting to save their vessel.

H.M.C.S. Eagle’s damage was both less and worse than Victorious’. The first torpedo struck her starboard prop shaft, blowing the propeller off the hull. Even as water rushed through the glands around the shaft and into the hull, the second torpedo ripped open the carrier’s No. 2 engine and fire room. The shock from the damage tripped the vessel’s electrical system, and in an instant the Eagle was left in darkness belowdecks and without means to fight the myriad fires visible to her escorts.

With two carriers burning behind them, the battered survivors of the first wave initiated their egress back to the Japanese carriers. Commander Fuchida, making one last circuit with a pair of Shiden, quickly determined that the Victorious and Eagle were no longer a threat. Looking towards the rain squall that Ark Royal and Illustrious had slipped away into, Fuchida made his report back to the Kido Butai. It was clear that the British Far Eastern Fleet would need another strike beyond the one already on its way. The question would be how quickly the Kido Butai could land, refuel, spot, and relaunch it.

Looking behind his fighter, Isoro could saw the columns of smoke that indicated the Kido Butai had landed a strong blow.

But at what cost?

The Kido Butai’s formations were ragged as they staggered back to the rendezvous point. A Kaga Shiden had joined up with him and Petty Officer Takahashi. Warrant Officer Oda remained nowhere to be found, and Isoro was beginning to think the man had perished.

Unless he is very good at navigation, he will not make it back to the carriers alone.

Isoro made one last weave around the rendezvous point, then joined up with the two squadrons’ worth of bombers just starting to stake out their own formations. Although every one of the IJN fighter pilots could navigate, their aircraft lacked the homing radios in their bomber counterparts. The vastness of the Indian Ocean, plus the increasingly poor weather, could kill a lost pilot just as well as a British fighter aircraft.

I’d much prefer that had been the Americans, Isoro thought. The Royal Navy had been Japan’s ally for many years, but their home island’s subjugation by Germany meant they were no longer a major threat to his country. The Americans, on the other hand, were Japan’s mortal enemy.

Better to kill them here, far away from their homes, than fighting them on the way to Japan. However, I have to wonder who is guarding things in the Pacific while we fight the enemy here?

U.S.S. Yorktown

1400 Local (0400 Eastern)

Northern Indian