A pained look flickered in his eyes.
“You will be aware that one of HMS Blake’s escorts, HMS Londonderry was destroyed in the attack on the port, and further, that the frigate Salisbury and the destroyer Decoy were later sunk by enemy aircraft while attempting to block the invasion of Cyprus via the east coast. I must now report that all of the men on the Londonderry and all bar forty-eight men from the crews of the Decoy and the Salisbury are now presumed missing in action and therefore, dead. Given that HMS Dreadnought and reconnaissance aircraft flying out of Akrotiri, Malta and Aviano had identified as many as fifteen major Red Dawn-flagged surface units and detected the presence of diesel-electric powered submarines operating in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, resupply of Cyprus by sea remains impracticable at this time due to the superiority of enemy forces in this area. I can confirm that the Red Dawn fleet appears to include at least two former Soviet cruisers, the old Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz, and numerous former Soviet destroyers. In the next few days United States Navy nuclear-powered attack submarines will take up station in the Eastern Mediterranean. As soon as they are on station Admiral Christopher will proceed with the preparations to resupply and to relieve our garrison on Cyprus. I have assured Admiral Christopher that the resources will be made available to him to mount a major amphibious assault to recapture the whole of the island of Cyprus. I have no specific timescale for this operation at this time but Admiral Christopher is keen for it to be mounted before Red Dawn has time to ‘get a second wind’.”
“What of HMS Dreadnought, Sir David?” Margaret Thatcher inquired.
“She will shortly be returning to Malta, Prime Minister. We’ve worked her hard these last three months and she’s badly in need of time in dockyard hands.”
Next page.
“Eastern Mediterranean,” the First Sea Lord continued. “You will know that HMS Victorious was badly damaged by fire after a submarine attack employing a nuclear warhead-tipped torpedo sank her close escort, HMS Undaunted. Victorious’s condition is under assessment at Alexandria. HMS Undaunted was lost with all hands and HMS Victorious suffered over a hundred-and-fifty fatalities and a similar number of seriously injured casualties. All in all, in the twenty-four hour period prior to the Red Dawn nuclear first strike on Malta, the targets in Italy and the Balkans, and on Egypt, the tactical and strategic situation in the Eastern Mediterranean was rapidly deteriorating.”
Admiral Sir David Luce stopped momentarily, ready to field questions on anything he had said to date. The room was silent.
“Malta. Malta was targeted by at least three inter-continental ballistic missiles, the warhead of one of which failed to initiate. There can be no doubting the enemy’s intention was to destroy Malta as a base of operations and to kill everybody on the archipelago. The missile which failed to go off landed in the sea approximately one mile from the southern coast of the main island. Given that the two warheads which did go off were in the low megaton range, it may be presumed that had the third weapon functioned correctly we would be discussing the deaths of eighty percent of the population and the destruction of ninety-five percent of the military infrastructure, assets and capability of the Maltese Archipelago. We believe that it was a no more than a cruel misfortune that the USS Enterprise, the USS Long Beach and the five vessels of the 7th Destroyer Flotilla were operating in the general area of the second air burst.”
Another brief pause for reflection.
“Shortly before the attack on Malta a two megaton airburst occurred in Egypt seventeen miles south-east of the Great Pyramids of Giza, a desert region. Some minutes earlier a weapon with a probable yield in the one to two megaton range airburst over the centre of Ismailia in Upper Egypt. It is feared that as many as a quarter-of-a-million people perished in Ismailia. You will know that the city lies on the Suez Canal, which at this time is blocked to all traffic as a result of two ships transiting the Ismailia section of the canal having been sunk.”
The First Sea Lord glanced at his wrist watch; time was always pressing but he was concerned not to inadvertently commit an error of omission.
“Casualties. Since the bombing of Limassol the Royal Navy has suffered the loss of two thousand and seventy-four men killed, or missing presumed killed. Over one thousand two hundred men have been seriously wounded in action. The cruiser HMS Blake, the destroyers HMS Decoy and HMS Undaunted, the frigates HMS Londonderry and HMS Salisbury, and the submarine HMS Amphion have been sunk. In addition, the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious has been seriously damaged. In this period the Royal Fleet Air Arm has lost seven aircraft supporting operations at sea, and four in operations-related training accidents. HMS Victorious’s entire air group, other than two Sea Vixens flying a combat air patrol over the battle group and one Westland Wessex flying a search and rescue mission at the time HMS Undaunted was attacked, was lost when the ship was attacked. Many other ships have sustained damage and will require significant periods in dockyard hands before they rejoin the fleet. Our best information about casualties among the ground forces defending Cyprus is that we have sustained over two hundred dead, and about twice that number wounded. Perhaps, as many as fifty civilian dependents and contractors have also become casualties. The relatively low rate of casualties among the garrison on Cyprus reflects the fact the garrison withdrew in good order into defended enclaves in the centre of the island and around Akrotiri in advance of the invasion, and that the enemy’s artillery and air support was poorly handled.”
The First Sea Lord looked around the table.
“I have three more things to cover then I shall surrender the floor, Prime Minister,” he explained, knowing how the Angry Widow hated meetings to drag on unnecessarily no matter how important their purpose.
Margaret Thatcher nodded. Sir David Luce was the one man in her Cabinet she could trust not to ‘drift off his brief’.
“I will not attempt to seriously address the question of why there has been no second nuclear strike; although last Friday’s exercise was so badly executed one might venture the opinion that Red Dawn lacks the capability to mount an effective strike.” True to his word he did not delve further into this conundrum. “What I will say is that the subsequent cessation of aggressive action against our forces in the Mediterranean could not have come at a more opportune time. The USS Enterprise is currently docked in Malta undergoing emergency repairs preparatory to returning to the United States; in the meantime the fleet carrier USS Independence has anchored off Gibraltar where urgent remedial work is being carried out on two defective catapults. On the completion of this work Independence with take up station in the Western Mediterranean with a substantial task force in company. In the meantime elements of the USS Enterprise’s battle group will remain based at Malta and will be available to support operations in the Eastern Mediterranean. In addition, the fleet carrier HMS Eagle, in company with the cruiser HMS Belfast sailed from Portsmouth last night en route for Malta. At Malta they will join HMS Hermes, at presently refitting, the Commando carrier HMS Ocean, and the Big Cats — forgive me, the cruisers Lion and Tiger — to form the basis of a fleet that will retake the whole of the island of Cyprus.”