Now he looked to Kurita, cleverly giving him face as he continued. “Vice Admiral Kurita has been promoted to commander of the fast battleship squadron, and he will accompany my carriers in support. Where would you prefer to position your ships?”
Kurita knew where he would prefer them, well out in front, but he had been ordered by Yamamoto to stay very close to the carriers, where his armor and AA defense would provide them with good cover. While Yamamoto did not expect to encounter an enemy using naval rockets here, he nonetheless wanted Kurita to begin adopting this tactical deployment, as it would now become the primary role for his fast battleships—defense of the carriers.
“I will be cruising right with you, sir, with one battleship off your port quarter, and the other to starboard.”
“Very well, Taiho will be honored to have such a strong escort.” He offered a shallow bow. “As for the new ship, Takami, it will be an advanced radar picket, also fitted out with our very latest equipment. Its mission is to report enemy contacts directly to me so that we may take appropriate offensive action.”
Now Harada offered a shallow bow in confirmation of those orders. He could still feel Kurita’s eyes on him, and did not speak, knowing he should not presume to stand with the Admirals.
“A small detachment of SNLF troops has already gone forward under cover of this weather to land at the enemy outpost of Port Blair on the lower Andaman Islands. They may have scout planes there, so it must be taken. We should arrive in time to cover that operation, and then, once the area is secure, the transports will follow us, and we will proceed to Ceylon for the main landings. Any questions?”
There were none, and so Hara continued. “It is just over a thousand sea miles to the Andaman Islands from here. I propose to cruise at 18 knots and therefore arrive within 60 hours, on the 24th of September. Once Port Blair is secured, it is then another 800 sea miles to our planned strike position off Southern Ceylon—a little under 48 hours sailing time. I presume we can be there by the 28th of September, with our primary mission being to neutralize any enemy naval forces, and to bomb their airfields and prevent them from interfering with our landings. Covering the transports will be a primary part of this operation. The landings will be scheduled for the period September 28 thru October 1st, depending on events. The entire operation should conclude by October 15th.”
That was a lot to bite off and chew, thought Fukada, though he said nothing, being the most junior officer present. Afterwards, when they were back on the launch heading for Takami, he expressed doubts to Harada.
“This force is much smaller than the one sent in the history we know,” he said. “Yamamoto sent five fleet carriers and a light carrier, with four battleships, seven cruisers and 19 destroyers. We have half the carriers and battleships, though we’re fairly thick on the lighter ships. That’s the Tone over there, behind Taiho, and I’ve spotted a couple light cruisers anchored with the Hiyo and Junyo. The real operation had no land assault planned. We’ll have to protect those troops, and handle anything the enemy throws at us, and with just 150 planes compared to the 350 Nagumo had. I don’t like it, but I wasn’t stupid enough to say anything in there.”
“You left out one ship Hara has that was never there before,” said Harada with a smile. “So we’ll just have to fill in for those shortfalls you mention. Those battleships look pretty mean as well. Any idea what the British will have?”
“Admiral James Somerville,” said Fukada for a start. “He was no slouch, and if the history here rhymes at all, he’ll have a pair of Illustrious class carriers, the light carrier Hermes, as many as five battleships and cruisers, and destroyers to match us pound for pound.”
It was actually worse than Fukada knew, for the intrepid Christopher Wells had arrived with HMS Formidable, and now the British would also match the Japanese plane for plane, though the edge in carrier operations and actual aircraft was still held by the Japanese. Yet it was going to be a much more ambitious operation than the historical raid, and with the odds much more even.
Harada was going to have to weigh heavily in the outcome, because Somerville had been alerted to the operations, and he was already making preparations to put out to sea and intercept it.
The move up through the Strait of Malacca was accomplished without incident. Takami was well out in front, her radars scanning the sea and sky ahead, sonars listening for any enemy that might be lurking beneath the sea. On the 24th of September she was steaming about 15 nautical miles off Port Blair, and they had a helo up to give them a look over the island. Nothing had been seen due north, and Fukada asserted that Somerville would not be there, but Harada knew they were in a different game now, and he was taking no chances. Once they were confident nothing was east of Andaman Island, he turned west, intending to approach Port Blair and cover the landing operation there by those SNLF troops, with the light cruiser Sendai.
The port was at the southern tip of the big Andaman island. The smaller Rutland island nearly kissed the tip of Andaman, and some 20 miles south of that, was Little Andaman. Hara was taking his carriers south of Little Andaman Island, intending to move west of the long main island to begin his approach to Ceylon. Ozawa was heading instead for the 20-mile-wide channel, and that was where Takami would be heading soon.
It was then that the enemy showed his first teeth. A pair of fighters came out of the northwest, and Harada presumed they were simply out on a recon operation. He gave them a pass, knowing the enemy coast watchers at Port Blair must have already reported the approaching Japanese ships. But at 11:30 hours that morning, eight more contacts were seen approaching the island on the same vector at about 24,000 feet, and cruising at 195 knots.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” said Fukada. “That has to be a strike group. Probably torpedo bombers off Somerville’s carriers.”
“The ship will come to battle stations,” said Harada. “Stand up the SM-2s. We can spend a few to make sure those troops get ashore.”
The strike wave hit the western shore of Andaman Island at 11:38, and Harada gave orders to get after them at the 20 nautical mile range. The first missile was away at 11:40, just as the enemy planes, a group of 8 Barracudas, were descending to make their attack approach. They saw the contrails coming, yet much too fast to be from enemy fighters. Instinct serving, they continued their diving descent, thinking to get down and avoid the threat, but the missiles were not in any way fooled.
The crewmen on the Japanese transport Tatekawa Maru saw those contrails too, and now their blood froze, for they did exactly what all the rumors had been reporting, climbing into the sky, then descending. Several thought their ships were now under attack, and fearful shouts of Mizuchi were heard. Gunners on the cruiser Sendai even started firing at them, though they had no chance to hit those sleek arrows. Then to their great surprise and relief, the Japanese saw those rockets fly right over their ships, streaking towards the northwest. There they now saw the distant specks of enemy planes in the sky, and the gunners on the Sendai were retraining their weapons in that direction.
They saw the missiles home true, infallibly tracking and hunting those planes. Then the first exploded in a bright orange fireball, and the fearful shouts turned to cheers. “They have missed us!” one man shouted. “They have gone after their own planes!”