It was no longer a question of whether they should have been west of Ceylon. Now it was a question of whether they could get there safely at all. All through the night, Somerville had deliberately elected not to fly any cover. He knew where his enemy was going, and Wells had called it exactly. Now, with the sun up, he looked at his hand and found few cards worth playing.
He had 44 planes between the two carriers, but they were mostly fighters. His strike planes had suffered heavily in the action of the previous day, and he had lost a good many of the new Barracudas when Formidable went down. He had only 15 of those left, and that was all the sting at his disposal. All of his dual purpose Fulmars were gone. The rest were the 16 Martlets, 9 Fireflies and 4 Seafires, all new model planes that had only recently been delivered to F.A.A. squadrons. He considered arming them with bombs, but knew that was useless. None of those fighter pilots had ever been trained for naval bombing.
Again Wells’ admonishment came to mind—get the planes to bases on Ceylon. If the enemy were to find him this day, and strike his carriers again, all these planes would surely be lost. It was all a sad testimony to support Wells’ other assertion, that the fleet should not have been where it was at all, and that the effort to try and ambush the enemy landing at Port Blair was ill-considered. He ordered every Barracuda armed and aloft at once, with six Fireflies. Even as he did so, his radar crews reported a flurry of long range contacts loitering about 125 miles to the southeast, on a heading of 160.
He had found the enemy carriers, for those were obviously planes forming up for the attack. As the seconds ticked away, he had to decide what to do with those Barracudas. Trinco was 150 nautical miles to the northwest, and they could still reach that base. Colombo was a good deal farther, about 225 miles, and over the high central mountains on Ceylon. The enemy carriers were 125 miles to the southeast, but how many of those 15 planes would get through, and would they find a deck waiting for them if they made it back? If he sent them to Trinco, they could still act in defense of that base, and Wells was correct, the Japanese could not sink the island. But he would forfeit anything they might do to defend his carriers by bringing harm to the enemy.
He decided. They were heading for Ceylon.
When the startled pilots got that order they were quite put off. What were they doing up here if they were simply going to run for home when the going got rough? Just before they turned, one saw the long wake of a fast ship through a break in the clouds, and reported a single cruiser, requesting permission to attack.
Somerville relented. “Very well,” he told the signalman. “Order them to go on in. If that is an enemy cruiser, it’s right on the trail of Illustrious. Maybe this will buy her some time.”
Damn, he thought. Illustrious has a gimpy leg after that action yesterday. She’s been falling farther and farther behind all night, and without proper escort. I’ll detach a destroyer to look after her. There’s another thousand souls on that ship to worry about now.
By 08:00 hours, the last five planes aboard Illustrious were off the deck and climbing into the grey skies, three Fireflies and a pair of Seafires. That group of Barracudas went after their cruiser contact, which was the forward ship in Ozawa’s force, Suzuya. Some never got close enough. The Zeros sent on ahead to sweep the target area for enemy cap had already spotted them, and fell like hawks on doves, their talons sharp with bright MG fire. They would get three of the seven Barracudas in that group, but the other two would get to Suzuya, and with sheer will to put hurt on their enemy, they braved the thickening flak and got their torpedoes in the water.
Both ran true.
Suzuya rolled with a heavy explosion, then another as both torpedoes hit. The results were flooding amidships that could not be controlled, and the British, as intimidated as they were at the approach of the Japanese fleet, had finally drawn blood. Only two of the seven Barracudas survived, and decided to follow their original orders, heading off for Trinco.
Now, her decks and hangars empty, Illustrious was running for all she was worth, finally working up to 29 knots. Air alert was sounded, and the crews began opening up on a group of low flying enemy planes that began circling their prey. Illustrious had 48 two-pounder AA guns on six Octuple mounts, and they began chopping op the sky, their chattering fire accented by the dark roses of the bigger 4.5-inch dual purpose guns. They would put down at least five Kates, but one scored a hit, aft, where the flooding threatened one of her propulsion shafts.
Like jackals nipping at the legs of their prey, the Kates had slowed the carrier from 29 to 21 knots again, and the second squadron of torpedo planes was now vectoring in. Those five British fighters were in a swirling dogfight higher up with the Japanese Zeros, so they could not help. It would be Hara’s pilots against the gunners on Illustrious now, and the balance of power in the Indian Ocean was riding on the outcome. The Kates saw the thin stream of grey smoke from the carrier, and turned to follow.
Her speed still falling off, Illustrious was also starting to go into a slight list to port when those last nine Kates found her and made their attack. Gunner Jake Morton saw a pair of planes swoop down to line up for their attack. He was right on them, his 2-Pounders hot with fire, and had every confidence he would take both down. One had already been hit, its left wing streaming a thin train of smoke. Then, with a wrenching thud, his gun mount jammed. Someone had failed to mount a round properly, and at that critical moment, the stream of fire he had been putting out was cut off.
The other gunners could not hold them at bay, and soon the seas were streaked with the wakes of enemy torpedoes. Expert in their craft, and with a very deadly and accurate weapon, the Japanese would find their mark again that morning. The carrier rocked with two more explosions, and like Formidable the previous day, she would sink that same hour.
The outcome of the entire engagement had come down to one moment, but it was not Jake Morton on his 2-Pounders. It was Gunner’s mate Ed Wicker, two hours earlier, when he had failed to properly replenish that gun mount magazine after a long, sleepless night. Yet no one would ever know that. It was one of a thousand Pushpoints on the history, hiding in the seeming insignificance of a billion simple moments that made up that flow of time. Wicker’s woe was Morton’s mishap, and the end of Illustrious along with any hope that the Royal Navy could ever sortie here again to defend Ceylon.
When Somerville got the news that he had lost her, he lowered his head, rubbing his brow. His defense had been rash, ill-managed, and now he had lost two ships Britain depended on greatly for her continued survival. He was learning the hard lesson that the American Admirals Fletcher and Halsey had been taught when it came to carrier duels with the Japanese. If you locked horns with the Imperial Japanese Navy, be ready to suffer losses. They were just too good at this deadly art of war, and not to be ever taken lightly. He knew nothing of Ed Wicker at that moment, but stripes on his cuff meant that he would certainly shoulder all the blame for his lapse.
Meanwhile, Takami had been monitoring the complex situation on her SPY-1D radars. Otani spoke up, a warning in her tone. “Sir, that skunk I reported on a minute ago is getting close, and they’re three big mothers behind it, cruising at 20 knots.”