Three came for Argos Fire, but her Aster 15’s were able to take them head on and kill them. Commander Dean was riveted at the radar screen, seeing his ship now engaging missiles heading for the stricken carrier. They saw the frigate Iron Duke maneuvering between their position and Vengeance, and then the YJ-18’s found the frigate and blew it to hell. Destroyer Edinburgh took the next hit off the starboard side of Argos Fire, and both those ships would sink that hour.
Then Dean and Mack Morgan watched in horror as another set of four YJ-18’s fired up their rocket boosters, surged away from two more Sea Darts, and then slammed into the listing hulk of HMS Vengeance. With one more mighty explosion, the carrier was swallowed by the sea, her fires boiling into steam as it started the long journey down, men sliding off the aft deck into the water. There had been over 1500 officers and crew aboard that carrier, which took down all the remaining planes and helicopters that had somehow survived that first strike. Aboard Prince of Wales, Admiral Wells got conformation of the sinking of those three ships, his jaw tight.
“Victorious reports four Sea Harriers ready with Sidewinders for close in defense, and two F-35’s in an hour,” said Hurly, his faithful adjutant. “Captain Kemp tells me we now have six fighters on deck in Sundog Flight, and ready for operations. We’ll have a dozen more still rearming.”
“Thank you Mister Hurley. Please have the Captain put out a fleet wide message. All ships to assume a heading of 058 degrees northeast, and make your best speed. We’ll not linger here. The fleet will move to support the Victoria landings, and if the Chinese want to follow us out into the Deep Blue, we’ll carry on.”
It was stiff upper lip, as might be expected of a British Admiral, but the fact that the fleet was being horsewhipped and relentlessly driven east was evident to all, if unspoken. Things were bad, but they were going to get much worse, and Wells could feel the pressure mounting.
The Chinese were still pursuing, and at good speeds as they attempted to bring their frigates and the trailing groups in the line into range. At 12:15, some of those groups, led by Jinlong, (Golden Dragon ), began firing salvos of YJ-18’s at the retreating British ships. DDG Lightning was the first to feel their wrath, bore sighted by a string of 16 Sizzlers. The ship still had Asters, but with targets moving that fast, and maneuvering, they would have to empty the barn.
The missiles raced in, the Asters speedy enough to catch them, and the defensive missile stream was slowly eating them up—but they just kept coming. There were still six more at the tail end of the missile train, and the ship was down to its last four SAM’s. Two of those six Sizzlers were going to get through, and that would end the career of yet another Type 45. Lightning would sink at half past noon.
Type 23 Class frigate Sutherland had been 16 miles ahead of Lightning, running for all she was worth at 34 knots. Then the Captain and crew saw a train of eight missiles coming for them, and with SAM’s dry, it was down to guns and chaff. It seemed as though the frigate was doomed, but to the amazement of the crew, they saw the demons tip nose down and knife into their boiling wake. It was their speed that saved the ship, for the enemy had fired at extreme range, and the missiles simply ran out of fuel. The margin of safety had been slim, just five miles being the space between life and death for the ship and every soul aboard.
Yet the measure of life granted them was equally brief. At 12:33, another series of eight YJ-18’s locked on to Sutherland and this time they had the energy to ride its wake all the way to the ship. Elation would soon turn to utter misery. The frigate blazed away with its Gatling guns, got two of the eight, and then the rest stormed in to blast Sutherland from the sea. Only three men would survive.
Next it was Gloucester’s turn on the hot seat, with eight more Sizzlers storming over the horizon. The destroyer had 52 Sea Darts in the magazines, but could only fire them in pairs. The first four YJ-18’s were hit and killed, but the number five missile skewered the ship, damn near blowing the entire aft section of the destroyer apart.
The enemy was slowly killing one ship after another as the British fleet fled northeast, and Admiral Sun Wei was beaming ear to ear with the news when his radar crews would confirm those kills. The death of Type 26 Class frigate Coventry was the last for that action, all but eliminating every ship that had sailed with HMS Vengeance. Admiral Wells now had 2500 souls in the sea to try and save.
The Royal Navy was bleeding out, having suffered the loss of fifteen warships since the opening of hostilities in the Med. Of those, eleven had been killed by the dread YJ-18, which was proving to be a war winner for the Chinese Navy. The British had nothing to match it, and very little that could kill it when it was out on the hunt. That made for the painful loss of so many proud ships, and the men and women who served on them. Helicopters would flutter off the decks of the two carriers to save as many as possible, but Admiral Wells’ worst fears had come home to roost on his bridge.
As Admiral Sun Wei gloated over his rather decisive victory, he was now to be reminded of the uncertainty and danger inherent in every moment of war. There had been two Astute Class attack subs attached to the fleet, and instead of running escort, they had moved out towards the enemy, sailing right across their line of advance. Moving fast and deep at 32 knots, they were able to get into position to attack as the churning ships above pressed home their pursuit.
Anson and Howe bore the names last hung on a pair of King George V Class battleships from the WWII era, and now they were Britain’s most stealthy and dangerous attack subs. They had crept into the heart of the Chinese advance, like wolves stalking a fold of sheep, and they were completely undetected.
Anson had taken position just north of the Chinese Golden Dragon Group, composed of Type 55 destroyer Jinlong, a pair of Type 052D destroyers, Chaowu and Kangji, and the Type 054A class frigate Sanya. The British Captain on Anson had a famous name, Francis Drake, and he was perfectly cast for this part, an undersea pirate of the highest order.
Drake was using the new Advanced Common Combat System, which was integrated with all the boat’s sensors and sonars to track and process its firing solutions. The first torpedoes, the heavyweight Spearfish, were not even seen by the enemy until they were just three miles out, and they were coming at 80 knots. The Chinese ships had no weapon capable of targeting the torpedoes. Steaming at 30 knots, all they could do was turn and scatter in a desperate effort to evade the enemy lances.
Kanji had launched its ASW helo, and then turned completely about, the water surging about the ship, as it ran due west. Seconds later, the first spearfish hammered its sister ship, and Chaowu was gutted by a big explosion, the watersplash rising high above the mainmast. Three more Spearfish were hot in the turbulent wake of the Golden Dragon, which was now racing southwest with Sanya. The three torpedoes were just too close, and neither ship had the ghost of a chance at evading them, or surviving this attack.