It was clear to Beijing, at least on one level, that their fighting Admiral was instinctively moving to maintain communications with Pakistan, and by extension, the homeland. If he had gone to Aden, there is no doubt that the entire fleet would have been isolated, and either have to fight its way out of the Gulf of Aden, or simply sit out the war in the Red Sea.
As to their other fighting Admiral, Hong Buchan, a private communique from Sun Wei to Beijing revealed his lack of cooperation, and the subsequent destruction of so many ships when they were isolated from the main fleet. Hong was therefore ordered to assume a new post as Military Liaison to Pakistan, and facilitate the buildup of air units as planned, much to his chagrin.
“Sun Wei seeks to blame me now for his incompetence!” he would complain to subordinates. “He must have poisoned the tea in Beijing with my name, saying I am to blame for the loss of those ships, while it was he who insisted on bombarding that port, losing valuable time. The fleet needs to be near the Gulf of Oman! Now the Americans are increasing speed to try and get there first. Liaison to Pakistan? See that the air reinforcements are properly based? I am not in the Air Force. I am a Navy Admiral!”
He complaints fell on the ears of all around him, but he did not say anything further to Beijing. Yet his heart darkened with ill will towards Sun Wei, and he was scheming on how he could recover face, and besmirch the Admiral, making all right again under heaven and earth, and with him in charge of the Indo-Arabian Fleet.
Captain Sir Francis Drake was on the prowl again, and he had come a long way to get into the position he now held. There were seven contacts ahead, skunks on the sea, and the closest had been identified as DDG Chaoyong, Type 052D. The destroyer was the outer picket of a formation moving at 25 knots, hastening up the coast of Oman. Behind it, five more contacts were detected in its wake. Chaoyong was now about 9 miles away, and Anson was creeping at 5 knots. As the destroyer came on, the range would diminish rapidly to about eight miles, and he would fire his first Spearfish.
“We have to be stingy here, gentlemen,” he said. “We’ve only four Spearfish left, so make tube one ready.” Normally, he would have used two torpedoes to ensure his kill, but the ammo was running low.
“Tube one ready, sir!”
“Sonar?”
“We have him sir. Generated bearing good. Solution confirmed.”
“Range to target?”
“Sir, eight point five miles and closing.”
“Good enough,” said Drake. “Shoot on generated bearings. Then come left twenty degrees and steady at five knots. Make your depth 500 feet.”
“Sir, aye, torpedo away, coming twenty degrees left to 380 and diving to 500 feet.”
“Torpedo running true,” said the fire control station. “Sir, torpedo has not acquired. Circling…. Reacquired target, and closing at 80 knots….”
“Explosion in the water,” came the sonar report. “It’s a hit!”
“Good show. Give me fifteen knots.”
“Aye sir, ahead fifteen.”
That hit was fire and flood aft aboard Chaoyong. Its towed sonar array equipment was destroyed, along with a triple 324mm torpedo tube. The fires had spread to one of the two 32 cell VLS bays, and it was now useless as the crews desperately tried to extinguish the flames before the missile blew.
A Z-9 helo that had been on ASW watch was now hovering at 150 feet, and using its dipping sonar, but it had a very short range. Now it moved toward the location where they fleet had heard that torpedo launch. It then hastened southwest, finding another spot to dip, but could not find the stealthy British sub.
Chapter 32
Chaoyong’s flooding went from bad to worse, and the ship slowed to three knots. The rest of the fleet hastened on, like a herd of bison running from a leopard
“Come about,” said Drake. “Make your heading 122 degrees southeast, and steady on sixteen knots.” The undersea pirate had just taken the number one spot in for hits, and only time would tell as to whether that hit would become a confirmed kill. That would happen at 18:30 that night, and Drake was now the top Sea Dog.
It was the first bite by the undersea predators lurking nearby, and now a tiger was about to pounce. The three Chinese oilers, a pair of Type 908 Fusu Class, and one Type 933 Fuchi class replenishment ships had been trailing the formation, about 30 miles behind. They would have the misfortune of being found by Captain James Wade, USS Seatiger, and they got six torpedoes sent their way, all but one struck hulls, the last registering as a dud.
While the blow was not as colorful as that delivered by Captain Drake, who had braved the entire formation of enemy ships to get his kill, it was nonetheless a significant hit. All three tankers had fire and flooding, and were mission killed in terms of being able to lend any further support to the fleet. A Z-9 investigated, dipping three times, but could not get a whisper of the stealthy Seatiger.
At this juncture, OMCOM took stock of the situation and concluded that short of engaging them immediately by air strike from Roosevelt, they could not stop the Chinese from reaching the Gulf of Oman. Given the results after three strikes, and with so many ships still operating in the Chinese fleet, Captain Simpson informed Theater Commander Admiral John Randall that he did not have sufficient ordnance to make more than one good strike. It was therefore decided to wait for the Independence to get into range, and then combine the weight of two carriers.
What this meant, of course, was that the 1st USMC Division could not go to Muscat, not if the Chinese reached the Gulf of Oman in strength. Admiral Randall explained the situation to Military Sealift Commander, Admiral Thomas Shannon.
“Alright,” he began, “another change of plans. After the bombardment at Salaha, we opted to try and bring the Marines into Muscat, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon. Repairs to the naval docks are going round the clock at Salaha, and so we’re going to stick with the original plan.”
“They thought they were going to burn the place down.” said Shannon.
“That they did, but only one of the four major docks was really beaten up to a point where it couldn’t be helped, and we had time to move most of the cranes and other dock equipment out of harm’s way. So now we think that port will be operational by the time the Marines get there. We’re moving the Roosevelt group, and the Royal Navy units, into a position where they will block any movement towards Salaha from the gulf of Oman. The Chinese may roost there a while. They’ll be needing fuel, because we got three of their oilers, so we think they may put into Karachi.”
“Better there then out where they can get after my transports.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t let that happen. But there is one other task force we have to deal with. We hit it earlier, and it retired to Aden. Those ships could make a stab towards Salaha from the west, so they’ll have to be engaged if they do. All the more reason to have the Independence in position.”