While all the frigates were relatively new, commissioned between 2007 and 2009, they had not been given a modern offensive weapon. In truth, it was never thought that they would attempt to fight a major adversary like China, and for any scrap that might occur in the constricted waters around Singapore, the Harpoon would certainly do the job—but not here, not now.
Admiral Wu Jinlong was still in hot pursuit, his ships like a pack of marauding hyenas out after the wounded beasts ahead. Now he ordered the Type 052 destroyer Hefei to use four of its YJ-18 Sizzlers to see if they could reach and hurt the retreating British carrier. These fired at 20:40, making their way on a path north of the target at 530 knots, but programmed to swing south and accelerate to 1900 knots when they got close. Invincible was alone, following her escorts destroyer Liverpool and frigate Marborough, which were eight miles ahead. But Captain Hargood knew he had six RSN Frigates carrying 192 Aster-15’s behind him, and was not concerned.
His problem now was the fact that the Chinese had seen the frigates, and plotted an attack path that would take those four missiles well to the north, and out of any harm’s way. That might have spelled the end for Invincible, but it was the presence of those F-15 Eagles that would make all the difference. They had sparred earlier with a pair of Chinese J-31’s, losing two of the six planes and seeing the enemy slip away for its home deck with impunity. But this time the remaining four planes were ready when those Sizzlers made their approach. They saw them on radar, and swooped down like the great birds of prey they were, putting their AIM-120’s into the air. This missiles were so good, that they found and killed all four Sizzlers before they began their high speed terminal run. Invincible would live out that hour, and might just survive the long day.
At 22:00 the three British ships would enter the eastern mouth of the Strait of Malacca, a chastened and dispirited lot. As they turned for the harbor at Changi, their thoughts were heavy with the loss of so many ships and crewmen. Illustrious, Lookout and Loyal were gone, along with frigates Sheffield, Newcastle, Portland and Trinidad. The Royal Navy had not suffered such a loss since the Battle for the Falkland Islands, where six ships went down in that campaign, including one HMS Sheffield, which was a Type 42 Class Destroyer at the time.
Only the support group with Admiral Pearson on HMS Ocean had been unscathed. It still had three frigates in attendance, (Battleaxe, Singapore, and Malaya ), making a total of six surface warships remaining in the British Far East Fleet. While disaster had been averted, it was still a stinging defeat, and the Chinese South Seas Fleet was still advancing.
So the enemy army is fleeing for the refuge of their castle walls, thought Wu Jinlong. Unfortunately, I have only 36 missiles remaining on my destroyers with the range to strike them now. All my remaining SSM’s are with the frigates, the YJ-83’s, with a more limited range. Yet they are getting close. Soon I will be able to make a combined strike. Singapore’s navy has also sortied, but they pose little offensive threat. On defense, however, those frigates will be able to throw up a wall of SAM fire that could seriously degrade my attack. I have a total of 68 YJ-83’s, and with those 36 longer range missiles, my offensive strength now sits at 104 SSM’s, and anything more I can send with my J-31’s.
But the River God is coming… Yes, the River God, another of our fine Type 055 destroyers, and that TF will bring 64 more missiles to this argument. It was stationed in the Bay of Bengal, and given my success here, the General Staff decided to move it into the Strait of Malacca from the west to support my battle. That force raises my offensive strength to 168, and I think that will be enough to prevail and complete this victory. By midnight, we should be in position to attack, but I must wait until all my ships are in range.
That time was very near, and by 01:00 on the 19th of November, orders were given for all ships in range to strike their assigned targets. The two sides had exchanged inconsequential air strike in the last minutes of the 18th, with neither side able to get good target locks with the anti-radiation missiles they had been carrying. Ships running in EMCON mode offered nothing for the missiles to find and home in on, and so the Admiral was convinced he had to use his cruise missiles to achieve the decisive result he was hoping for.
By this time, Captain Hargood and his escorts had reached the port at Changi Harbor. The Singapore Strait itself was now being defended by the escorts from Admiral Pearson’s TF Ocean, when that ship and other fleet support vessels also took refuge in Changi Harbor. This left the British frigates Battleaxe, Malaya, and Singapore to join with the RSN frigates, four still in action, and two withdrawing due to damage suffered in the air exchanges earlier.
The opening salvo of 40 missiles was soon clouding up the sea as the missiles fired, tipped over, and turned on their assigned headings. They would all take varied routes, but inevitably converge on the mouth of the strait, where the frigates stood in lines like soldiers on a battlefield, ready to volley fire with SAM’s. The RSN ships all had the Aster 15, and it would get many kills as the attack began, the missiles screaming in, SAM’s leaping off the decks of the frigates to chase them down. Of the 40 Zulus that came charging in, all but four would die, and those fearless survivors, all the speedy YJ-18’s off the Chinese destroyers, would press through that thick defensive fire and score hits.
Frigates Singapore, Tenacious, and Formidable would be skewered by those missiles and die, and another RSN ship, the Intrepid was damaged and dead in the water. A Harpoon counterstrike was aimed at the Chinese TF Subi, and it was able to even the odds a bit, hitting and sinking corvette Hanzhong, and more importantly, the 052D class DDG Yinchuan was also damaged so badly that it would sink within the hour.
The missiles on both sides, of every kind, were slowly running out. This was what made the kill count rise so dramatically in those hours around midnight. Ships without SAM’s in the VLS bays were defenseless, and with each salvo fired by either side, the offensive power diminished. The battle was simply burning itself out.
What had happened here? In the twelve hour duel, the Chinese had sunk or damaged 60% of the British Far East Fleet, and put the RAF airbase at Changi out of commission. But what were the Chinese really trying to do? It was inconceivable that they would want to see the Strait of Malacca closed, and equally dubious to think they could ever control it. They certainly could not land forces on Singapore Island itself, which had three full divisions mustered and ready for battle. Somehow, in some equation being drawn out at the Naval General Staff HQ, the purpose of the battle was only to do what it actually accomplished—to so attrite the Royal Navy forces here that they could not offer meaningful resistance against any future Chinese operation on this scale. That was coming.
Perseverance, thought Wu Jinlong. Water always prevails over stone, as long as it perseveres….