“And the enemy ship… They have more missiles than Takami?”
“If this is a standard loadout for a Kirov Class battlecruiser, then they will have at least 20 SSMs—a designation we give to ship killing missiles. Some of these have already been used to strike our ships, but let us assume they will have at least 16 remaining.”
“Twice as many as your ship.”
“Correct sir, and it might be fair to say that the Russian missiles are quite good—perhaps better than our own SSM design. Yet we will have at least 70 fighters to stop those 16 strike planes, to continue with your analogy. I believe our chances are very good.”
“And can they stop your missiles?”
Fukada took a deep breath. “Sir, their chances are also very good in that.”
“I understand,” said Yamamoto. “Of course, the God of Chance must always have his say. Things in war seldom go as we might expect.”
“There is one other consideration sir,” said Fukada. “If we do lock horns with this Mizuchi, then it may be necessary to expend a considerable portion of our missile inventory to do battle effectively.”
“Of course.”
“Well sir, please realize that we cannot replenish or replace any weapon we use. Once these planes are launched, these missiles fired, they go to their sure and certain death, much like our Kamikaze pilots.”
“Kamikaze? Ah, yes, I read of this in your ship’s library. I suppose that is a very good analogy.”
“I mention this because the aid we can provide is therefore limited. We could surprise and put serious damage on these last remaining American carriers. Or we might successfully protect this operation planned for the north, but as you have said, we cannot throw a stone in two directions.”
Yamamoto nodded. This man wants to go south, he realized. He would prefer the clear superiority his ship has against forces from this time. He believes the surprise and shock his ship could deliver to the Americans might be decisive… But I prefer to handle that myself. The Americans I can face on equal terms, and then, may the better man win. This Mizuchi… it is a demon from hell, and I would only waste my forces in trying to find and oppose it. That is a task their ship was designed for, and so that is what they will do. He did not waste any further breath explaining this to Fukada, but simply repeated his orders, an air of finality evident in his tone.
“Gentlemen,” he said. “You sail tonight. Join Admiral Kurita’s Cruiser Squadron. Protect the fleet. Stop this Russian ship… And may the Thunder Gods go with you.”
“Very good sir,” said Harada. “We will do our best.”
The only question in the Captain’s mind was whether their best would be good enough. He could see what Yamamoto was doing here, his mind grasping the same logic that the Admiral had run down in his own thinking. Takami was born and bred to do what Yamamoto was now ordering, in this era or in their own time.
He had listened to Fukada’s explanations, and was satisfied with them. The best we might hope for up north is a stalemate, he thought. But even that would be good enough to complete the mission the Admiral is handing us. We signed on to protect and defend Japan? Well, I’ll admit I had reservations before when it came to cutting down the Americans from this era. It just seemed so underhanded, though this Karpov certainly had no qualms about turning his missiles on our ships.
Perhaps I can use that—the other fellow’s hubris could be something I can take advantage of. We will have that single edge in this thing—the element of surprise. Yet they have a lot of muscle on that battlecruiser, and a man at the helm that had no reservations of his own when he faced down the US 7th Fleet… My God, that was just a few weeks ago, but now it won’t happen for eighty years—if it ever happens at all. Everything we do here is shuffling the card deck. Our own future history may not look anything like the time we lived in. Thinking about that is somewhat frightening. Have they considered any of this? If they have, it hasn’t stayed their missile fire orders. I’m going to have to be just as tough in this situation.
The Captain was thinking he had a fairly good chance in the fight up north. Yet neither he, nor his executive officer, had any idea that Kirov had departed Severomorsk with her magazines burgeoning with reloads. The ship had intended to use live ordnance for those exercises in the Norwegian Sea, and then still have a full bar after the party was over. But they had never fired those rounds off, and so Fukada’s math was just a little off that day.
Kirov had better than a two-to-one advantage in SSMs. In fact, instead of 16 SSMs as Fukada had explained, the ship was carrying 37 of the dread Moskit IIs, with 20 of those crated in a deep interior magazine. It also had seven more P-900s and another ten MOS-IIIs. Kirov would therefore enjoy a six-to-one advantage in ship killing missiles, but Fukada did not know that. To make matters worse, the ship possessed another 20 torpedoes, twice as many as Takami had. On defense, the Russian ship still had 61 of the superb S-300 long range SAMs, 127 of the Klinok Gauntlet type missiles, and 64 of the short range Kashtan system missiles, a three-to-one advantage in SAMs. Kirov was, without any doubt, the undisputed champion of the world when it came to a surface action ship. Fukada had said nothing of another weapon deep within the maw of Mizuchi, a breath of fire and destruction that had not yet been seen in this half of the world. Kirov had nukes…
Yet as Yamamoto had warned, the Gods of Chance must have their say, and there were also weapons and systems aboard Takami that the Russians were not aware of—and the fact that they would never expect that ship to be present in 1942 would also go a long way towards balancing the odds.
That night, Takami departed Rabaul as ordered, cruising with Admiral Kurita, who was now deemed their nominal superior officer. They had joined the Japanese navy to protect and defend Japan, and that was what they were now setting off to do.
Chapter 24
Eager to get in to the action after joining the Halsey Group, the Wasp went south immediately, joining in on the strikes made against the Japanese lodgment. On the 28th of April it was detached to rendezvous with a tanker and refuel, temporarily reducing TF-16 to only two fleet carriers. After having pounded the facilities lost to the Japanese at Nandi, the powerful US battlegroup also withdrew east to Pago Pago, more to replenish ammunition than fuel. Halsey kept station north of Viti Levu, but coastwatchers and PBY sightings soon confirmed that the Japanese carriers were again heading south.
“Thanks for taking the basket ride over here to see me,” he said to Captain Marc “Pete” Mitscher from the Hornet, conferring with him aboard the Enterprise. Mitscher was a tall, lean man, with a well weathered face and a career dating back to 1910 in the Navy. Halsey wanted to run a few things by him, and share some intelligence.
“Pete, this will be the big one. We either toe the line here or they’ll push us all the way back to Samoa. The only question I have is whether we should cut Reeves and the Wasp loose to operate independently, or keep all our carriers together in one group.”
“Easier to coordinate our strikes from one group,” said Mitscher. “Also more planes available for CAP.”