Part III
Pearl of Great Price
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
Chapter 7
It would come to be called the Pearl Harbor of the West, an effort by Yamamoto to smash the main British bastion in the Indian Ocean and drive them all the way back to Madagascar and Cape Town. If successful, it would be the perfect complement to the Army’s operation then underway in Burma, which had already seized Rangoon, and now intended to drive the British back into India. After that, Japan would stand on defense there, and no further offensive operations against India or Africa were contemplated.
The Army’s sobering experience in China had led it to determine that it could simply not invade another country as populous as India. There was too much ground, and the British would have an almost endless source of manpower for recruits that would likely flock to their banners after such an invasion. They already had great forces there in the British Indian Army, so it would be enough to drive them from Burma, and then secure that flank. Hara’s Operation C was the naval element, aiming to supplant Britain’s valuable naval bases at Colombo and Trincomalee with Japanese forces. From there, Japanese air power could pose a constant threat to enemy shipping in the Bay of Bengal, and force British convoys to Australia deeper into the Indian Ocean.
Hara’s carrier group was 150 sea miles southeast of Port Blair when Takami fought its first defensive duel against those incoming Barracudas. They had traded seven irreplaceable missiles for eight enemy planes, which was the dilemma of these interlopers from the future. Every time they used the power they possessed, they grew weaker.
Receiving that report, Hara dispatched a pair of Zeros off Taiho to overfly the channel between the Big and Little Andaman Islands where Ozawa intended to take his task force. That was where Takami was now heading, and the planes would vector in on her coordinates, and then proceed northwest for a recon sortie. A little before 13:00 local time, the fighters made their rendezvous with Takami, and proceeded north.
“Come to 300,” said Harada, noting the time. They were now going to run up towards the Sentinel Island, passing south of that and continuing on this heading to scout the way into the Bay of Bengal. Ozawa’s Cruiser Force was just under seventy miles due east as they made that turn, bound to make that same transit of the channel. Eight minutes later, that recon sortie produced results when the Zeros spotted large wakes combing the sea.
“Sir,” said Shiota, “I am monitoring a signal from Scout 1. They have numerous contacts, 60 to 70 nautical miles out. Several destroyers and cruiser class ships, and three carriers. They now report the enemy is launching planes.”
“Notify Hara immediately.”
“Aye sir.” Shiota passed the information on to Ensign Teppo. She was at the comm station to be ears, but any communications with the Japanese fleet would go through Teppo’s mouth. It still would not do to have a woman make such a call in 1942.
“Scout 1 heading home, but they have what they think is a flight of fighters in pursuit.”
“Don’t worry about them,” said Fukada to the Captain. “Our Zeros can outrun anything the British have, and out fight them if they do try to intercept.”
“Very well,” said Harada. “Track those fighters, but take them off the missile targeting board.
“If they do persist,” said Fukada, “they may get close enough to spot us.”
“Lieutenant Otani, how far out are they?”
“47 nautical miles at a little over 12,000 feet and now climbing through 12,500. Speed 160 knots. If they continue on their present heading they’ll pass about 10 to 12 miles east of us.”
“Given all these other contacts reported, we’re sailing towards a lot of trouble. Helm, let’s come to 270.”
“Aye sir, coming to 270.”
“Mister Fukada, what is our Admiral likely to do here?”
“He’s about 200 sea miles southeast of the reported position of those enemy carriers. His dive bombers could get up there, but the Torpedo planes will only have a 160 mile strike radius, so he’ll hold those until the range closes.”
They did not have long to wait before Fukada’s prediction was verified. Otani reported planes forming up over Hara’s carriers, at 13:40, and soon they began to head northwest.
Aboard HMS Formidable, Admiral Somerville was still stinging from the loss of those first eight planes. Enemy rockets—a most unexpected development, to say the least.
“Opinion, Mister Wells,” he said to his new Captain. A rising star in the Navy, Wells had just come over from HMS Glorious, the ship he had single handedly saved from almost certain destruction when it was caught unawares by the Twins in the Norwegian Sea.
“Well sir, and with all due respect, I don’t think I would want to be here just now, not with the whole of the Carrier Squadron, and not for Port Blair.”
“You would not defend it? There it sits, like a good pawn in the center of the board. From there we can get search planes well down into the Strait of Malacca.”
“True sir, but we have very little at risk there beyond that single utility, and we haven’t even got planes there. Its usefulness now is limited to coast watchers, and its proximity to both Singapore and Rangoon will make it a very difficult square to cover.”
“Do go on,” said Somerville, wanting to hear Wells out.
“So we’re the gallant knight, sir, posted here to cover that pawn. And you’ve sortied the Slow Force battleships like a rook to watch this file we find ourselves on, but Vice Admiral Willis can’t really offer us much in the way of support. We’ve called it the Slow Force for good reason. The Japanese won’t come after us with a surface action group. They’ll strike with their carriers. It’s a fairly good bet those Zeros are on a heading back to their mother ships as we speak, but we don’t know just how far out those carriers are. Our fighters reported one contact, a lone ship passing south of Sentinel Island, but no carriers and only that single ship.”
“Most likely a picket,” said Somerville, “which could mean the main body is southeast of Little Andaman.”
“Yes sir, but those Zeros have a good long mission radius, 800 nautical miles for a recon like this. That could put the enemy carriers anywhere from 200 to 400 miles out.”
“All the same, wouldn’t you get a strike group ready?”
“If I had to stay here, yes sir, I would.”
“Yet you would rather be elsewhere. I see…”
“It isn’t that I’ve lost my stomach for a fight, sir,” said Wells.
“Of course not.”
“It’s just that I would take the fleet west of Ceylon, and not operate here where they could cut us off by simply turning southwest now, and bottle us up here in the Bay of Bengal. We can’t get around the north tip of Ceylon. The reefs and shallows there make such a move impractical.”
“I see. Yet it was my thinking to keep the fleet interposed between the enemy and his obvious objective.”
“That would have been a fine strategy, sir,” said Wells, “assuming…” He hesitated now.
“Assuming what, Mister Wells? Go right on and speak your mind.”
“Assuming we could at least match them.”
That pricked at an inner sore spot Somerville had been rubbing himself for a good long while. He knew his carriers were tough with their armored flight decks, and he had good, experienced crews. But they did not have the planes to match those of the Japanese, nor the skill to match their pilots in a duel like this.