While the Zero was still an excellent fighter, the Navy knew it would need a successor soon, and while they accepted the proposed A6M3 designs, the loss of range was a serious concern, and in this history it was rejected until that could be corrected in the A6M3-A variant, which included self-sealing gas tanks, better protection, and a radio that actually worked.
There was much more that could be done with the existing Zero, and Volkov pointed this out. Its wings could be extended and strengthened to give it much better speed and performance in a dive. The magazine could be increased to at least 100 rounds on the Type 99 cannon, and better machineguns for the wings needed at least 250 rounds. Wing mounted drop tanks extended the range. This plane would actually be put into production in mid-1942 in this reality, and it would receive the designation A6M4 Reisen.
Beyond that, Volkov would have another answer for Yamamoto as well, suggesting the plans for the many new bomber interceptors might be used to adapt these designs for carriers. One looked very promising, and the N1K Shiden-Kai would be one of those alternate history variants in this war.
In place of the “Divine Wind” to shield Japan from the ravages of US carriers and bombers, why not opt for planes capable of stopping them? The Army was eyeing the designs of the three companies mentioned above, and now the Navy wanted into the game. The N1K3-A, Model 41 Shiden-Kai, was finally born. The “Violet Lightning” instead of the Divine Wind would be Japan’s shield, and this one was built to fly from carriers. The Americans would come to call the NK1 “George,” perhaps the best enemy fighter they actually faced in the War in the Pacific. In the old history, only 71 came off the production lines in 1943, and no more than 1007 were ever built. Volkov was doing everything possible to see the US would face more Violet Lightning in this war, sooner, and in greater numbers… If Japan could ever build enough to matter.
The skies over the Pacific would soon be darker and more dangerous, for these superb piston and prop designs would fly much sooner. Production, not design, was now the great liability for Japan. In 1942, the Empire built 8,861 new planes of all types. They would nearly double that number in 1943, building 16,693. In that same time period, the United States built 47,836 planes in 1942, and 85,898 more in 1943. If only a third of those went to the Pacific, the Americans would still bring twice as many planes to the war as Japan in those years. In 1944, the US would build 96,318 new planes, more than Japan, Germany, and the UK combined. That was the grim reality that Yamamoto feared when Japan awoke the sleeping giant.
For now, however, Halsey could only crow about the Navy’s new Fighter and torpedo bombers beginning to arrive in small numbers. “If this new Hellcat is as good as they say, our boys will do a whole lot better against the Jap Zero,” he said. “And Lexington has all new TBD-5s and the new Avenger torpedo bombers in her strike wings. We’ll see how Lady Lex looks on the dance floor with that new outfit.”
“Lady Lex?” said Nimitz, somewhat surprised. “Is the crew still calling it that?”
“Naw, just me. I’ve a soft spot for the name. The crew has taken to calling it the Blue Ghost. I didn’t think we’d have either Lexington or Yorktown this soon, but Essex will be glad to have company. They may be a little raw, but once those pilots get airborne, they’ll know how to fight. I rounded up all the vets I could find from their old ships, so they have a bone to pick. Good men.”
“Well now they get their second chance,” said Nimitz. He paused, his thoughts lingering somewhere, his eyes on Halsey as he thought. “Bull,” he said. “We’ve got to win this one. If they knock us down here, it will set us back another six months. I’m counting on you.”
“Admiral, you just point me where you want me to go.”
“In harm’s way,” said Nimitz. “And may God go with you.”
Part II
Everything Honorable
“It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.”
Chapter 4
Admiral Tovey had a great deal on his mind, as always, and it was also swirling around ships and planes. The losses had been mounting, and the fleet was beginning to feel the strain. The heavy cruisers have done quite well, he thought, but we’ve taken appalling losses among the light escort cruisers—14 ships sunk, to cut us in half in that vital category. Among the heavier ships we’ve lost Prince of Wales, Rodney, Valiant, Malaya, Queen Elizabeth, Barham, and then Renown. That’s a third of the battle fleet gone, and nothing coming to replace those losses.
Now that the Torch landings have been covered and carried off, the burden is lessening somewhat, but I still have the problem of re-establishing a secure convoy route to Murmansk, and now, the loss of Ceylon has been a major setback in the Indian Ocean. Those two valuable bases at Colombo and Trincomalee are now in Japanese hands, and those equally valuable aircraft carriers, Formidable and Illustrious, went down trying to defend that island. That makes three gone now, along with Courageous, and only the little escort carriers have come along to replace them. I suppose Somerville was lucky he was able to save Indomitable. We had no business trying to mix it up with the Japanese carrier squadrons. They’re just too skilled at that type of warfare, and our ships are not up to snuff when it comes to the carriers.
It was then that a knock came on the door, and in walked Admiral Fraser. Tovey had been expecting him, and the two men shook hands warmly. Fraser, along with Cunningham in the Eastern Med, was now one of Tovey’s ‘recruits’ to the ranks of the secret organization established within the Royal Navy known as the Watch. Its original purpose had been to keep watch for a mysterious Russian raider, but those moments existed now only within the mind of Tovey himself, and that of Alan Turing. Both men had been plagued with these strange feelings of déjà vu, odd recollections, snippets of memories they thought they had lived, and then there was that file box in the archive at Bletchley Park that seemed to document it all.
Little by little, Tovey was waking up. He was able to take hold of those memories now, and trace them back to their roots. He was remembering. Fraser still struggled with his own recollection of the events he experienced, unable to make any sense of the memories, which seemed to have him in the Pacific. Tovey listened with a very understanding ear when he spoke of them, but decided he could do nothing to speed things along. Fraser would either remember, or not, and in his own good time if he ever did.
Now the purpose of the Watch involved something else, still a guarded watch on the seas as always, for if one ship like the Russian battlecruiser Kirov could appear, and then the submarine Kazan, the Argos Fire, and the Funnies, what might turn up next?
Today’s meeting with Admiral Fraser was to discuss a few other mysterious ships, not at large on the high seas, but right in the slip yards and dry docks of the kingdom. A year ago, Fraser had taken some interest in the little engagement involving a pair of small American hybrid cruiser/carriers in the New Hebrides. They had intervened at a critical moment to defend a vital convoy, engaged and sunk the French carrier Bearn, and routed their small Pacific Squadron, and even tangled with the Japanese.