Ozawa’s 7th Cruiser Division was about 65 miles northeast of his position and within 45 sea miles of the closest enemy contact. Confident in night actions, he signaled Ozawa to attempt to engage. At the very least, he might get better information on the size and composition of the enemy force. So at 22:30, the cruisers turned on a heading of 265, along with the 17th Destroyer Division. Even as they turned, contact was suddenly lost with that seaplane out of Port Blair, and this further reinforced Hara’s suspicion that the enemy carriers were there.
Hours passed as the day slipped away beyond midnight. The moon was down and darkness made the sea a sable cloth beneath increasing low clouds. With each passing hour, the positions of the enemy ships grew more uncertain, and no word had come from Takami, which had turned on a heading of 295 to look for the enemy. Finding nothing, Ozawa resumed a heading of 242, again running parallel to the carriers, but now over 100 sea miles to the north.
As dawn came, Hara altered his course 20 points to starboard, coming to 256. He immediately ordered fighters up to look for the enemy fleet. Departing on a heading of 320, they overflew Ozawa’s cruiser Force at a few minutes before 06:00, continuing on to the northwest.
Nothing was seen.
Frustrated, and thinking the enemy may have elected to run for Trincomalee, he nonetheless decided to check due west of his position, sending up another pair of Zeros off the Hiyo at 06:20. Then, at 06:37 the scouting group off Taiho suddenly radioed a sighting report—enemy carrier!
All that night, the British had moved towards the east coast of Ceylon. That first seaplane that had spotted them got entirely too curious, descending to an altitude that prompted the battleship Revenge to open up with its flak guns. A hit damaged both the engine and radio, sending the plane down.
All the destroyers that had come to the aid of Formidable, were then dispatched to Trincomalee with the survivors, save the senior officer party that had come aboard Indomitable. Somerville had cruised on a heading of 225 all night, intending to skirt very near the curving southeast coast of Ceylon. He was taking Wells’ advice to heart now, thinking only of how he might save his remaining carriers. His intention was to get down past the southern tip of the island at Koggala, where a small seaplane base was fueling up two Catalinas for their morning patrol.
All that night, Cruiser Force, with Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Emerald and Enterprise, had been steaming about 80 miles to his southwest, in a very good position to become entangled with Hara’s fleet, but they had seen nothing in the inky darkness after moonset.
Hara had moved to a position about 220 miles east of Koggala on the southern tip of Ceylon, and though he did not yet know it, he had already cut his enemy off, as Wells had feared. That first contact with the enemy came when Scout 1 off Taiho reported a carrier about 100 nautical miles to Hara’s north, and then a second carrier, 45 miles ahead of the first, and 116 miles northwest of Taiho. If those reports were good, both were in strike range, but why had the enemy separated? One must have battle damage or engine problems, he assumed, and ordered his planes to begin spotting to attack immediately. He elected to go with his torpedo bombers, all 17 then available on Taiho, and a fighter escort of two Shotai would launch from Junyo.
At the same time, Takami sent over information that there were two airborne contacts, most likely search planes originating from Koggala. They were on headings that might find the Japanese within the hour, and so Hara elected to go after them, ordering Hiyo to send up a Shotai of three more Zeros off Hiyo.
Takami watched the little drama unfold on its screens, the Zeros taking a heading that brought them right over the ship. At that point, about 07:50, the contact was 58 miles off, and Takami messaged the Japanese pilots, guiding them in. While this was happening, Scout 2, was able to refine its sighting report to three cruisers and a pair of destroyers. Thinking these must be an advanced screen, the planes turned to follow the enemy wakes in the opposite direction, thinking they might point them to the main body.
As the little engagement ensued, the Catalina, flown by one Leonard Joseph Birchall. Already famous in Fedorov’s history for spotting the approach of the Japanese fleet, he was out to double down on that fate line. All he had seen up to this point was a single cruiser, leaving a medium wake on the sea. He took it for what it was, a lone picket forward of the enemy fleet, and pressed on.
Then the Zeros found him.
Coming out of the eastern sun, barely visible, Birchall had no chance against those swift winged fighters. On the first pass they raked the wing and set the left engine afire. He struggled with the yoke to try and get the plane down, his only thought now being to land in one piece.
“Send out that we’ve found the Japanese,” he shouted over his shoulder to the radioman. “Send ‘Leading screen at our position.’ They’ll sort the rest out.”
Down he went, the smoke from that engine getting worse with each passing minute. The Zeros could have followed, but they stayed aloft, reporting back to Hara that the contact had been shot down. Birchall would descend until his smoking trail vanished into clouds, and eventually land his Catalina on the sea. In the meantime, Scout 2 off Taiho had followed those wakes and found the British carriers, which scrambled fighters to get up and challenge them when the Zeros were spotted. The report came back: Main body, three battleships, two carriers, five destroyers.
Chapter 54
After both sides ran all night, on roughly parallel courses, round two of the battle was now underway, and the situation if viewed on a plotting table looked very confused. Gurēgōsuto, the Grey Ghost as Takami was now being called, indicated the presence and position of the leading British carrier sighting that had been spotted by Scout 1 earlier that morning. They believed there was also a battleship present, and at least three destroyers, that this enemy force was following right in Takami’s wake, perhaps 32 sea miles behind.
Ozawa’s position now put him directly behind the other reported carrier sighting, following its wake. He was soon given permission to take his 7th Cruiser Division and intercept. Suzuya raced ahead, a fleet footed ship at 33 knots. The other cruisers followed, guns loading for action. Tense moments passed, the watchmen straining their eyes at the binoculars, but nothing was seen in the low marine layer.
The two fleets, now widely dispersed, had nearly collided with one another, but the darkness and low weather had obscured all until sunrise. Even the planes had difficulty finding contacts through small breaks in the cloud cover, which meant there might be difficulties with the strike wave. Hara looked at his watch, then leaned heavily in his chair on the bridge of Taiho, watching the Kates lining up for takeoff. He would probe with this first punch, a jab at the enemy’s chin. If all went well, he was ready to launch a much heavier strike on short order.