But, rules of engagement being what they were, a NATO captain had to be fired upon first, before he could retaliate to defend himself. Trevellion could still hear the sigh of relief in his ops room when the plot showed the enemy turning away on a reciprocal course for the Barents Sea. He was thankful he had not flown off the Lynx with her Sea Skuas — her remaining twenty-five hours of flying time might be needed yet.
'Thanks, Rowlans.' His leading steward slipped the coffee cup between the fiddles on the table top: discreet and unobtrusive, Rowlans was a first-rate steward; Trevellion valued the sense of comradeship which was growing between them. 'Give me a shake in half an hour if I drop off, will you, Rowlans?'
''Course, sir — rough night for you last night,' and the steward slipped away as silently as he had entered.
The enemy's carrier force had slipped back into the darkness of the Barents Sea. Even with calmer sea conditions our ships could not keep up… Kiev (or she could have been Minsk] and her group had an edge of at least three knots and so drew away rapidly. By 0104 on this Monday morning, having lost contact, the Commodore reversed STANAVFORLANT'S course to resume its patrol line to the south-west.
The Commodore also wished to make a southing because the second old carrier,' Furious, was at last emerging from the English Channel with her ASW group, to support the second vital amphibious force of channel ferries which were crammed with troops for the northern flank. When Glorious finished disembarking her commandos at Narvik, she too would join STANAVFORLANT which, disposed on a line of bearing of 290°-110°, her RAS ships in the centre, was settling down again on its ASW sweep towards North Cape. Trevellion was fighting drowsiness when he heard the tapping on his door-frame.
'Communications Officer's compliments, sir. Flash Report from CINCNORTH to Allied Forces Northern Europe.'
Trevellion held out his hand, took the message board. He motioned the radio supervisor to the chair opposite.
SITREP 0932 31 Z DEC: FOLLOWING IS APPRECIATION OF CONFUSED NORTHERN SITUATION. PARACHUTE ASSAULTS BRIGADE LEVEL AT 0715 ON HARSTAD, BARDUFOSS AND FRAMNES AIRFIELDS. AMPHIBIOUS LANDINGS BEING ATTEMPTED FROM NORTH-WEST THROUGH MINEFIELDS AND INTO MALANGEN-FJORD THENCE ORLSBERG AND ANDSELV PRESUMED OBJECTIVE TO ISOLATE BARDUFOSS FROM TROMSO AND RAMSUND AREA WHERE NORWEGIAN SIXTH DIVISION ARE COUNTER-ATTACKING. SITUATION IN OFOTFJOR0 REMAINS CRITICAL WHERE TWO POLISH MERCHANT VESSELS SUNK ACROSS MAIN CHANNEL. HMS GLORIOUS CLEARED NARVIK AND OFOTFJORD AT 0615 FOR RENDEZVOUS WITH WHISKY COMPANY. NORWEGIAN BRIGADE NORTH ATTEMPTING LANDINGS THROUGH SOLBERGFJORD TO CUT OFF ENEMY BUT OPERATION HAMPERED BY LACK OF DEDICATED. AMPHIBIOUS LIFT. ENEMY INTENTION TO ISOLATE RAMSUND AREA WHERE AIRBORNE REINFORCEMENTS ARE DEPLOYING HOURLY. OWN TACTICAL AIR HITTING BACK MAGNIFICENTLY IN CRITICAL AREAS BUT OVERWHELMED. 45 COMMANDO HOLDING MASSIVE MOTORIZED INFANTRY ATTACKS IN NORDLAND. 42 COMMANDO NOT YET COMMITTED BUT DETACHED UNITS BELIEVED OVERWHELMED ON £78 FINNISH BORDER. ENEMY OBJECTIVES AND DEMANDS NOT YET PROMULGATED BUT POLITICAL SITREP WILL BE ISSUED WHEN SITUATION CLARIFIES. CINCNORTH'S OBJECTIVE REMAINS UNCHANGED: RESIST TO END TO GAIN TIME FOR ARRIVAL REINFORCEMENTS IN BATTLE AREAS. MESSAGE ENDS.
Captain Trevellion glanced across to his radio supervisor who had risen to his feet. 'Thanks, I'll talk to the ship's company immediately. Warn them on the broadcast, will you — five minutes time?'
'Yes, sir. It's war, isn't it, sir?'
'How can we avoid it? The Russians have got to withdraw — or it's hot, hot war.' He remained in his chair long after the chief petty officer had left the cabin. He could see it all now, the trap we had fallen into last night.
Last night at 2200, after receiving CINCEASTLANT'S orders to make contact, COMSTANAVFORLANT had acted in the best traditions of the Service: he had raced into the attack when the enemy's carrier force turned away. The Commodore had done exactly what his commanding officers had expected him to do: by chasing the superior force, determined to give the Russians a bloody nose if they were asking for it, was exactly what the enemy proposed we should do. By charging north-east after Kiev and her supporting forces the Soviet amphibious squadron, slipping away beneath the umbrella of ECM jamming, had been able to make its undetected landfall precisely on time off the entrance to Malangenfjord.
Trevellion heard the officer of the watch calling through the intercom:
'It's beginning to snow, sir.'
'What's the vis.?'
'Down to half a mile, sir.'
'Quite happy?'
'Yes, sir. No problem.'
'Call me if you're worried.'
Trevellion wanted half-hour of uninterrupted peace, just a few minutes to read Ro's letter again — and he needed a moment of calm in which to weigh up the implications of CINCEASTLANT'S depressing sitrep… but the radio supervisor was back at the cabin door. A sardonic smile creased his grey face:
'From MoD, confirming our rules of engagement, sir — remain the same, pending political decisions.'
'Thanks.' Both men smiled at each other wryly.
Trevellion climbed to his feet when the curtain was drawn again across the doorway. He had better see how the sub. was getting on. He disliked this tension, this fighting with one hand bound behind his back. There was little comfort, bobbing about in your life-jacket in the Arctic Ocean, in knowing that you had the right of self-defence once you were yourself attacked. No one doubted that a Russian captain would fire first: it was his privilege.
This was going to be a long day, and a longer night, waiting for the issue to be decided ashore by those gallant commandos and Norwegians. Patience was no quality of Trevellion's and he sighed deeply as he pulled the heavy sweater over his head.
23
It was a few minutes before the faint twilight finally dissipated when Gloucester's Flash Report blistered through the radio. Convinced that a Backfire at medium height was carrying out a determined attack upon her, Gloucester shot it down with her Sea Darts seconds after the bomber fired her missiles. The DLG'S ECM dealt with the air-to-surface attack, the missiles going wide, but the incident did not augur well for the first day of the year. There were no survivors from the Backfire which disintegrated in mid air. STANAVFORLANT was at extended disposition, dispersed across the horizon as it awaited the inevitable counter-attack.
Trevellion had kept Icarus at action stations; men remained at their quarters, fed with sandwiches from the galley. The captain remained in the ops room, waiting, alert, tensed. By 1400 that afternoon the picture on the Norwegian front was beginning to piece together.
Little definite news had emanated from the Norwegian battle-fronts, only that the commandos were carrying out their duty as everyone knew they would, dying at their posts, refusing to budge while the Russian armour rolled over them, thrusting down the main artery of North Norway. The Royal Marine Brigade Commander had closed his last broadcast with words that would be remembered for years. 'We Royals shall stick where we are.'
Due to the sinking in Ofotfjord of the two Polish ships, Glorious could not now land her reinforcements at Narvik. The air was totally dominated by the enemy, and AAFCE (Allied Air Force Central Europe), faced by the Russian Air Divisions massing on the Central Front, had refused to be drawn, except to send two token squadrons of Phantoms. They had been torn out of the skies within hours, as much because of the unaccustomed severity of flying conditions as by the prowess of their adversaries; and so Tromso was also denied to Glorious for the safe disembarkation of the vital back-up force. The troops, existing under miserably crowded conditions 'tween decks, were becoming bloody-minded because of seasickness and the continuous shilly-shallying. At no time was a massive helicopter lift more desperately needed: but the squadron was either already airborne or non-existent. Glorious was now steaming south, bound for Trondheim, in the hope that the troops could be sent up by rail to Lonsdal, on the edge of Nordland., Furious, at last freed from the dockyards, was on passage to Europe to lift more troops. With her five Sea Harriers, she was to cover the amphibious convoy which consisted of Intrepid and three Channel ferries about to sail from Antwerp. Neither Furious nor her squadron were fully worked-up, but the convoy was a juicy target for the enemy's Backfires. These Mach 2.5 bombers heavily outnumbered the Force; they were a major threat and a bloody menace…