On Board USS Skipjack SSN-585, South China Sea
The control room erupted into cheers and high-fives as the sounds of the collision were picked up on the passive sonar. Then, Skipjack charged forward again, her speed eating up the distance between the outer screen and the carriers. But first, the task was to freak out the commander of the lead destroyer. “OK boys. Get ready for periscope depth again.”
Flag Bridge, HIJMS Shokaku, South China Sea
Admiral Idzumo looked at the chart in horror. His screen was a complete shambles, two destroyers disabled off to port, the trailing and one starboard destroyer working to ready their replacement helicopter. “Sir, Oyodo reporting periscope contact sir dead ahead.”
Idzumo scanned his tactical plot, what was happening out there? There were three submarine contacts now, all widely separated and this last one was in a perfect position to rake his carriers with torpedoes. Somehow, the enemy had worked out exactly where he would be and set up a perfect ambush. There would be more submarines he was sure of it. He had no choice, no choice at all.
“All air operations to cease. Carriers to execute maximum evasive action, maintain highest possible speed. Detach Agano and Noshiro to proceed to base on their own. What was that!” A vicious jar had just shaken the ship.
On Board USS Skipjack SSN-585, South China Sea
After giving the lead Japanese destroyer a periscope flash, Skipjack had gone deep, then swung up, heading at the bows of the approaching lead carrier at an up angle of around 40 degrees. At the last minute Runken reversed the ascent, taking the submarine back down but leaving a massive wake surge in the water. It was that wake surge that hit Shokaku in the bows, giving quite convincing but inexplicable imitation of a serious collision.
“OK boys, games over, get below the inversion layer and clear. We'll shadow from a distance.”
Flag Bridge, HIJMS Shokaku, South China Sea
“Admiral Soriva Sir. He's threatened by maritime attack bombers, he needs air cover to drive them off now. “
Idzumo looked out at the scene. His ships were zigzagging violently, trying to evade any torpedoes that might be coming for them. If he stopped the evasive action to launch aircraft, he'd be wide open to torpedo attack - that crash might have been a hit already, and he'd lucked out by catching a dud. He couldn't take the risk..
“Make to Admiral Soriva. Regret under heavy attack by estimated three to six enemy submarines. Two destroyers damaged one possible hit on a carrier. No flight operations possible due to evasive action.”
Flag Bridge, HIJMS Musashi, South China Sea.
Admiral Soriva re-read the message and felt his blood pressure climb another couple of notches. Just what was 'Regret under heavy attack by estimated three to six enemy submarines. Two destroyers damaged one possible hit on a carrier. No flight operations possible due to evasive action,' supposed to mean? How could there be a “possible hit” on a carrier, either she was hit or she wasn't. Soriva wanted to pound his head on a bulkhead, or more precisely, wanted to pound Admiral Idzumo's head on a bulkhead. His chest started to hurt so he took a deep breath and told himself to calm down. The situation was stressful enough as it was.
Yamato and Musashi were running parallel with the three Indian ships, distance just under 20 nautical miles. Just out of gun range. The line the American bombers had drawn on the sea surface had long since dispersed and faded but he knew where it was and they knew he knew. They were lashing his ships with their fire control radars just to remind him. He couldn't close with the Indian ships until the bombers were driven off and he couldn't do that until Idzumo got his fighters up. Then he gets this.
Whatever was happening back there was serious. Two destroyers torpedoed, fortunately it seemed both were still afloat. The message must be corrupted, the original must be 'carrier hit, damage possible'. Since Idzumo would know very well what was the situation if his flagship, Shokaku had been hit, the stricken carrier must be Zuikaku. Things were making a bit more sense, he'd probably seen the tower of water from a hit but also seen Zuikaku was apparently undamaged. So the hit was a dud or had only done superficial damage.
This was beginning to make a lot more sense. What he didn't know was whether Idzumo had actually successfully counter-attacked the enemy submarines. And he needed those fighters desperately. Every minute he was held up here would mean it would take him three minutes longer to catch the Australian convoy - and that meant it was a nautical mile closer to friendly air cover.
“Signalman, send following to Admiral Idzumo. Air threat of utmost seriousness. Launch air cover soonest. Have you engaged the enemy?”
Flag Bridge, HIJMS Shokaku, South China Sea.
Admiral Idzumo paced the bridge anxiously. After the flurry of contacts, there had been no more and the pause was deeply worrying him. There were four helicopters now trying to localize and destroy the original contact but they were losing it. They'd dropped depth charges and torpedoes but the crafty submarine crew had evaded them all. They were still there though and dropping behind the group, submarines just didn't have the speed to catch up with a fast carrier group once they'd fallen behind. That meant the task group had probably outrun the ambush. It was time to get a final damage report off to Admiral Soriva. Then he could see about getting his aircraft up.
“Take this to the signals room. 'Damage to fleet, two destroyers collided while prosecuting submarine contact. Shokaku hit by an unidentified object possibly a dud torpedo.'“
The signals officer was gone only a few minutes, barely more than enough to get to the radio cabin and back. When he returned, Idzumo could see his face was forced into impassiveness. He handed the message flimsy over to the Admiral. Idzumo read it, and was first outraged. 'Air threat of utmost seriousness. Launch air cover soonest. Have you engaged the enemy?' Surely this was an insult, an implication that he was evading his responsibilities. Then he thought more carefully. Admiral Soriva was a respected, indeed admired, officer with a reputation for skill and ability. A handful of point defense fighters couldn't possibly be an air threat of utmost seriousness.
Then it clicked. Idzumo realized what Soriva was telling him and he mentally flayed himself for not spotting it earlier. Both the Indian and Australian Navies were British trained and the British always had two groups escorting a convoy. A close-in group of cruisers and destroyers and a screening group of carriers, some distance from the main body but ready to engage an attacker.
Soriva must have located that second carrier group, the screening group. Idzumo remembered the Indians and Australians had purchased two Essex class carriers each. They were supposed to be working up, six months or a year from commissioning but perhaps they'd been thrown in early. Admiral Soriva must be expecting an air attack from their combined groups, no wonder he was describing the threat as utmost seriousness. Well, carrier warfare doctrine was clear. Do unto them before they do it unto you.
“What is the news from the helicopters? Have they got that sub yet?”
“Helicopters say they have her sir. Contact disappeared after last torpedo attack. There was an explosion and she can't have broken clear. They got her.”
“Make to Admiral Soriva. 'Have outrun enemy ambush. One enemy submarine sunk. Am readying air strike. What is position of second enemy carrier group?' Then cease our evasive maneuvers and prepare a strike for launch. Anti-ship. Rocket torpedoes on the bombers, fighters to carry air-to-air missiles. We'll be getting the target co-ordinates from Admiral Soriva.”