So the Japanese would come with a fairly light strike group, just 11 Zeroes escorting in 21 Kates, and they would meet 32 fighters alert on overhead CAP. In the tangled fight over the small task force, the US pilots would get only two Zeroes but nail 10 of those 21 Kates. Those that got through made a plaintive run on the Vicksburg, which hit nothing but seawater.
Ten more Kates and eight Zeroes had followed a few minutes later and found an equal number of US Fighters still on the scene. Armed with bombs instead of torpedoes so they could extend their range, the Kates also made an awkward attack from 9000 feet, saw five of their group shot down, and hit nothing.
Aboard Yamato with Carrier Division 1, Yamamoto met with Ugaki to review their options.
“Three sightings are now confirmed,” said Yamamoto. “One reports only two ships, but one must be a carrier, as it attacked our picket.”
“What happened?” asked Ugaki, curious as to whether Takami could survive an attack by an American carrier.
“Takami prevailed, though they report no more than two dozen enemy planes were detected. Your advice to use the torpedo planes in a long range bombing role was clever, but it ultimately failed. Those pilots are not trained in that role. I know you believed it imperative that we launch the first blow, but we should have waited and hit them with a better coordinated strike.”
The weather looks too bad for further operations today,” said Ugaki. “We can close the range tonight, and be ready to strike at dawn. Shall we move west above the New Hebrides?”
Yamamoto thought for a moment. “They know we are here, as the strike on Ndeni and this skirmish with Takami would lead them to believe that is exactly what we are doing. So I intend to take a more indirect approach. We will sail south instead, and remain west of the New Hebrides. We also have a few planes left on Efate, so I think we will rendezvous there, perhaps 50 miles west of that island. When we attack, I will order those land based planes to lead the way. That may confuse the Americans even more, particularly when our main strike comes in like Donryu, behind that first wave.”
Donryu meant “Storm Dragon,” and it would be a good description of what a massed attack from all the Japanese carriers might look like.
“Very well,” said Ugaki. “I will see that the orders are given. But what if the Americans do move north?”
“We shall see,” said Yamamoto, knowing that this chess came had to be played out one move at a time.
The same question was now in front of Halsey, and he would answer it for reasons very similar to those that had brought Yamamoto to his decision. The two American strike groups had lingered in the north near the gap between the New Hebrides and Santa Cruz Islands, but no major battle developed. There had only been the inconsequential Japanese sniping at the US scout carriers, which came to nothing.
“What do you make of this,” asked Captain Duncan on the Essex. “The Japs are playing things fairly cool up here.”
“I don’t like it,” said Halsey. “I’ve been standing out on the weather deck for the last four hours with this big fat white helmet on to give them something to aim at, but we haven’t seen a single plane. That business with the Vicksburg group was a little odd too. Rockets? Hansen reported they started taking down his planes before they ever got anywhere near the ship that fired them. So they had to be radar controlled, and that is good reason to be worried out here. How’d the Japs come up with this dog and pony show?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” said Duncan. “You figure that was an advanced picket?”
“That’s what it looked like, a lone ship out like that, but there was nothing behind it. So now I’m starting to think the Japs are up to something else. They either intended this operation against Ndeni as nothing more than a nuisance raid, or they have other fish to fry—down south.”
“Ndeni isn’t anywhere near the top of our list now,” said Duncan. “I can see that they might want to hit the place, but not with the number of carriers we had a line on yesterday. So you figure they went south?”
“That’s their main beat,” said Halsey. “Every time they sortied in the last three months it was to cover the supply runs out of Noumea into Fiji. Things are heating up on the ground over there now that MacArthur has taken over. That man won’t waste any time getting himself a headline, and he’s got a bone to pick with the Japs after the Philippines. So I think we’ll move south as originally planed and stand west of Efate to wait for the Marines.”
Duncan’s question echoed that of Ugaki. “What if they do come through the north channel behind that picket?”
“We’ll still be able to hit them from where I plan to be. We’ll proceed with our original operation, and see if they want to do anything about it. If they did come south, then they’ll be west of the New Hebrides, that much is clear, and I think that’s where they’ll stay. In fact, our job is to keep them there, and out of the waters between there and Fiji.”
“What if we head south and nobody shows?”
“Then we do what we came here to do—put those Marines ashore at Efate. After that I’m going to visit Noumea, and then pound the Japs on Fiji for good measure.”
That night both sides moved south on roughly parallel tracks, and as it happened, both Yamamoto and Halsey were in the vanguard. Hara’s Carrier Division 3 had been up near Ndeni for the raid, then rendezvoused with the Tosa, battleship Fuso and two heavy cruisers. That force had planned to finish the job at Ndeni, but the sudden detection of enemy carriers scuttled that operation. Instead Yamamoto decided to reinforce Hara with that additional carrier as both divisions headed south, but Hara was over 100 miles behind.
As for Halsey, he led the Spruance group by about 50 miles, and the two scout carriers were even farther north after that encounter with the strange lone picket with those disturbing rocket flak weapons. That was going to bring the principles into direct confrontation on the 14th of January, like two rams butting heads. Halsey would pit his three new Essex Class carriers against Yamamoto’s Carrier Division 1, composed of the venerable Kaga, Akagi and Soryu.
The Japanese threw the first punch, their long range Kate torpedo bombers out on patrol spotting the US fleet and getting a report off before the American CAP ended that sortie. At the same time, several Dauntless search planes passed north of New Caledonia and spotted the Japanese west of Efate. Three were shot down, but Lieutenant Commander Hamilton got off his report before he died—spotted three Jap Carriers, course and estimated speed to follow. That last data never came in, but knowing his flight patrol pattern, the US had a good idea where he was when he made the sighting. That got the hair on the Captain’s necks up, and they threw every plane they had into the great skies, keeping their fingers crossed.
As it happened, they were the closest task force to the little action then under way east of Efate, and so they threw up a probing raid that might have been stronger had the information on the location of the American carriers been more refined, or the weather a little better. As it was, several squadrons of Kates veered off course in the heavy cloud cover, and they would all be late to the party.