Admiral's Conference Room, HIJMS Shokaku, South China Sea.
Admiral Idzumo tapped the staff table. “Admiral Soriva has ordered us to produce a full account of the action fought with the enemy submarines. There will undoubtedly be an inquiry into the events today and we must have our reports ready. It is my understanding that we were engaged by a minimum of three enemy submarines, that we sank one while sustaining no significant damage ourselves. While Agano has been damaged in collision and Noshiro crippled, those are the risks of the sea and we must accept that accidents occur when handling high speed ships in close formation. Any additional comments before we reconstruct our own and enemy movements?”
Each captain, and each helicopter pilot started to add their details of the action. From the confused and contradictory data, a cohesive picture started to emerge, three possibly four submarines had taken part, two off to one side, one, perhaps two dead ahead. The enemy plan had undoubtedly been to make the fleet turn so that it would be caught in a classical hammerhead torpedo attack. The only great mystery was the strange bump that had affected Shokaku, was it possible she had collided with one of the enemy submarines? If so they could claim two certain kills and that would be a great achievement. After an hour, they had talked themselves into accepting that Shokaku had indeed rammed and sunk an enemy submarine. Nobody noticed that the Captain Iraya of Niyodo had failed to join in the conversation. Indeed, his face was growing steadily more worried. Eventually, Idzumo noticed his silence.
“Come Captain Iraya, have you nothing to say?”
Iraya looked at the chart. Honor demanded he speak even if it ended his career. “Sir, I have to raise an unwelcome possibility. I do this reluctantly and with the greatest respect but I must say this. Sir, we have no solid proof whatsoever that we faced any enemy submarines at all.”
There was an eruption of anger around the room, shouted challenges and abuse. Idzumo banged a gavel hard on the table, over and over again. Eventually the room quieted. “Captain Iraya, you have said either too much or not enough. Please elaborate on your comment and give us your explanation of what all the rest of us are confident is the case. Perhaps you would like to start with the enemy radar transmission that was intercepted by every one of our ships?”
“Sir, it is that transmission that concerns me the most. We are agreed on its bearing are we not?” Iraya went to the plot and marked the bearing of the transmission. “But Sir, if we extrapolate the bearing backwards, we see the following.” He added the extended bearing to the large strategic plot. It intercepted the position of the Japanese transport fleet exactly. Once done, the correspondence was obvious.
“Sir we are in the South China Sea, and the weather is very humid. Under these conditions, a layer of air, saturated with salt spray, forms above the sea. This acts as a duct and traps radar emissions, allowing them to propagate far beyond normal limits. This phenomena is called anomalous propagation or anaprop and the South China Sea is notorious for it. Sir, our helicopters followed that radar bearing using their dipping sonars until they came upon a water disturbance. I ask our pilots, if it had not been for that radar intercept, would they have assumed that water disturbance was a real signal?” The two helicopters pilots looked uncomfortable, itself an answer.
“As for the rest sir, sightings of periscopes, never confirmed. We never detected a sonar transmission, we never picked up another radar transmission, we never heard a torpedo being fired or a torpedo in the water. We never saw a single torpedo wake. Sir. We have nothing except an ambiguous radar detection and some sightings. And how often have our lookouts mistaken whales for periscopes this voyage alone? There may have been submarines down there sir, there may not, But I say we cannot state with certainty that there were.”
The room was silent. Too many people knew in their hearts that Captain Iraya had made a strong case - and that any inquiry into this debacle would do the same.
Flag Bridge, INS Hood, South China Sea
It had taken them twelve hours to catch up with the troop convoy. As the three Indian ships started to take up their previous positions, a message lamp started flash from the force flagship
“Message from Sydney Sir. Reads 'Request you honor us by leading the fleet to Rangoon.'“
“Acknowledge and accept. Order Rana and Rajput to form up on our port and starboard beam. Set course for Rangoon.”
More signals lamps were flashing. “Message from Canberra Sir. Reads 'More proof it is the size of the fight in the dog that matters not the size of the dog in the fight.'
“From Western Star, 'You big bully.'
“From Warramuga. 'The Indian Navy walks tall today.'
“From Hobart 'The beer is on us.'
“From Arunta 'Request recipe for your ship's curry. It is obviously a man's meal.'
“From Melbourne 'Dammit Hood, you let them get away.'“
Jim Ladone relaxed in his Captain's chair. His ship's honor was restored at last.
Chapter Eleven Changing The Plays
Chipanese Naval Headquarters, South East Asian Fleet, Hanoi, Indochina
The senior Admirals filed back into the conference room, their faces impassive. On the other side of the table Admiral Soriva, Admiral Idzumo, Admiral Iwate and the ship captains awaited the results of the deliberations. Even though the room was cool, all were sweating.
“This committee of enquiry was formed to make an emergency investigation of the fiasco surrounding Operation A-Go, the transport of a naval attack force to seize control of Rangoon and, by implication, Burma. Operation A-Go was part of a much larger strategic plan which has now been compromised by this failure. It is particularly disturbing to this Committee that the collapse of Operation A-Go took place without a shot being fired by the enemy.
“'It is our finding that the collapse of Operation A-Go was initiated by the arrival of American land-based maritime attack bombers that threatened the Surface Action Force with destruction unless it ceased its effort to close on the Australian/Indian troop convoy. This caused Admiral Soriva to call for air support to drive off the bombers in question. When such air support was not forthcoming, he was forced to comply with the American demands or face immediate nuclear destruction without having any opportunity to reply to the threat or to defend himself against the attack. Unable to prevent the Australian convoy from reaching Rangoon and faced with certain destruction if he tried to continue, Admiral Soriva aborted the operation and set course for Hanoi.
“At this point the Committee finds that no blame can be attached to Admiral Iwate, commander of the troop transport force. His ships were handled professionally throughout and the withdrawal of the covering forces left him with no option other than to comply with the orders to abort the operation. The Committee does, however, find that the force assigned to him was inadequate in quality and quantity. The troopships used were too slow and their escort was inadequate for close-in protection.
“The Committee also expresses its doubts as to the adequacy of the landing force assigned to this mission. However, none of these concerns affect our favorable judgment on the conduct of Admiral Iwate who is excused from further attendance at these proceedings.
“The Committee has concluded that the key question is why the Carrier Screening Force failed to provide the Surface Attack Force with the necessary air cover. Admiral Idzumo had stated that his force was under heavy attack by a coordinated force of enemy submarines that forced him to take violent evasive action and thus prevented him from launching aircraft.