Fukada had been listening quietly, his wings clipped in more than one way with both the loss of Takami and his grand campaign to destroy American carrier production. Now he finally spoke.
“With your permission sir, I’d like to suggest an alternative.”
“I thought we laid that Panama Canal thing to rest a moment ago,” said the Admiral.
“Yes sir, I’ll agree that is impractical, at least for the time being while Kirov is still at large. Yet I’d suggest that we’ve been going about this the wrong way. We went looking for Kirov, and we damn well found that demon. It should be on the bottom of the sea right now, but you are correct in what you said about this Karpov. That said, I don’t see our primary mission here is this hunt for the Russians.”
“Well then please enlighten us, Lieutenant Commander,” said Kita, folding his arms.
“Sir, respectfully, I think we should simply coordinate with Admiral Yamamoto, and operate to preserve and protect his remaining ships—and to put harm on those of the Americans—Kirov and the Russian sub be damned. If they want a seat in the kabuki theater, then let them come. We’ll deal with them at that time. But otherwise, I think we should simply fight for Japan, and engage Kirov as we would any enemy contact, if and when that scenario should present itself.” He looked around the briefing room, as if to gauge reaction and see what kind of support he might have. Then Kita spoke, and he was surprised by what he said.
“Lieutenant Commander, I like what you just said. This whole idea of trying to remain in the shadows here and hunt down the Russians aside from everything else going on never quite sat well with me. That’s why I called off that last engagement and took this time to think things over. We thought we just had Kirov to worry about, but now we know what we’re up against. While I still hold that we need to be able to operate autonomously, a close cooperation with Yamamoto appeals to me. Opinions?”
“May I ask what’s happening now?” asked Captain Kenji Namura from the Kirishima. “In the war…”
“Nothing you could read about,” said Fukada. “All the action has been a-historical. The Japanese invaded the Fijis—Operation FS superseding the Midway operation. They’ve been dueling with Halsey’s carriers in a number of engagements supporting that campaign, but our Communications Officer has been listening to radio traffic and tells me things on Viti Levu are not going well. We’ve lost the use of the airfields on Fiji. The Americans have complete air superiority there now. That’s our Guadalcanal—at least for the moment. The decisive battle that this war turns on will be fought there, and we’re already losing it.”
“Agreed,” said Captain Harada. “This is the critical phase of this entire struggle,” he said. “The Americans have just been reinforced with new Essex Class carriers and they have finally begun offensive operations against Japanese occupied territories. They have nearly won the battle for the main island in the Fiji Group, just as Fukada says, and now they have invaded New Caledonia at Noumea, and put Marines on Efate in the New Hebrides. Of course, none of these battles were ever fought in the history we know. It was Guadalcanal and Operation Cartwheel that was underway at this time as we know these events. Things have clearly changed, and it seems the decisive battles will be fought on these other islands. We can do a good deal in those campaigns, and I also like Fukada’s suggestion. If we simply work to defend and support Yamamoto’s prevailing operations, Kirov and the Russians will have to come to us. There’s no need to go racing off to hunt them down.”
That would be the decision they would come to, all Captains signing on to this new plan. And even though both Fedorov and Karpov had thought to fight the decisive battle in 1908, many things would happen before they would get there. Their duel with Kita’s task force was far from over.
Chapter 2
Admiral Halsey’s position was nowhere near as strong now as Yamamoto may have believed. The sheer audacity of the Americans, attacking at every opportunity, presented the façade that they were now strongly reinforced, but that was not the case. TF Halsey, with Enterprise and Yorktown II, had only 137 planes ready for duty to cover Efate. TF Spruance was in Sydney, where Lexington II had just finished repairs. Along with the Essex, that force had only 112 planes. Ziggy Sprague was shepherding in the two new light carriers, Independence and Princeton, and they had 62 planes between them. The light battle carrier Vicksburg was at Pearl finishing up repairs, and her sister ship was doing the same at Suva. Between them they had another 24 planes, which meant that if he collected all his carriers into one group, Halsey could bring 335 planes to sea. He had replacements for his CV squadrons at Pago Pago, but would have to leave the scene of operations to go fetch them.
He wasn’t worried about the Fijis any longer. The ground game there was rolling towards the end zone, though the Japanese continued to put up a tough defense. But they had lost their airfields, and the US ruled the skies. The US now had 123 planes at Brisbane, including 34 bombers that could hit New Caledonia. There were then 103 planes on the main island of Fiji, and 52 more on Vanua Levu. Throw in 80 more Marine and Navy planes at Pago Pago, and that was an impressive 358 land based planes. Beyond that, there were 175 more at Pearl, including a good many of the newest P-38’s.
In spite of all this, Halsey was counting every leaf on the tree as he cruised southeast of Efate. In another few days, he would have to withdraw to Pago Pago to refuel. The oilers were up north, meeting up with the ships that had been damaged in recent engagements and topping them off for the long journey back to Pearl. The Admiral figured he could get replenished, flesh out his squadrons, and then get back out to sea to meet up with Spruance and Ziggy. MacArthur had taken the airfield near Noumea, and the Ichiki Regiment was retreating north. So that meant the planes could be ferried in from Brisbane to provide local air cover for the 41st Division on New Caledonia, and all Halsey had to worry about was Efate.
So Halsey had it in mind to unite all his flattops into one big fleet. That would give him the muscle he might need if Nimitz wanted to do anything more with the 1st USMC Division, which had been resting on Pago Pago, but was now ready for operations again. Nimitz had been looking at Luganville on Espiritu Santo, thinking to put those fighting leathernecks in there and really saw off the tree limb that supported Fiji. Neither he, nor Halsey, had any idea of the dramatic developments that had shaken the tree in Japan. US Intelligence had picked up the movement of Japanese troops out of the Nanjing sector towards the coast, but made no firm conclusions about it. The last thing on anyone’s mind was that the Japanese would double down on their overextended position in the Fijis, sending their crack 3rd Infantry Division to Vanua Levu….
General Toyoshima had the 3rd Division, one of the toughest in the entire army, a crack veteran unit that had been involved in fighting during virtually every major battle in Central China since 1937. He had narrowly escaped death during the 3rd Battle of Changsha along the Louyang River, when his division and two others had fallen into a well laid Chinese trap. That battle, and the tremendous losses sustained by the Japanese, had done much to convince the army that their campaign in Central China was fruitless, and it would be better to seek an alliance with Chiang Kai-shek. So there was a shadow over the division’s reputation as it withdrew from China, and the troops were eager to restore their standing as one of the Army’s best.