“A point well taken,” he said slowly. “Yet match them we must. Ceylon is at stake here, and we’ve got to stand up.”
“I understand, sir. Shall we get a strike spotted?”
“I think we should.”
“Aye sir. May I suggest a mixed group, Albacores and Fulmars armed with the 1000 pound bombs. Seafires in escort.”
“Give the order and the fleet will come to 265. The wind has cooperated with us today. As we turn into it now, this new course will also take us off that enemy sighting vector, and towards our Cruiser Force.” And it will also take us west, he thought, for much in what Wells had argued stuck to him now, and he was beginning to see the potential trap he might find himself in here.
“Shall I pass the ready order on to the other carriers?” asked Wells.
“Please do so. Have Illustrious post a squadron of Martlets on CAP.”
Somerville knew he was at a decided disadvantage here. They could not match their enemy. The Japanese Admiral now had his location, and planes that could reach him, while he had nothing more than a good guess as to the position of the enemy carriers. He had to be ready to launch in any case, but now he wanted the support of his cruisers and destroyers. The game was on, but who would move next?
A moment later, they saw the enemy making their first big move. “Sir, Type 281 reports a large contact out at maximum range and bearing on our position. 130 miles out.”
Somerville looked at Wells. “Here they come,” he said. “Notify Indomitable to spot a second squadron of fighters.”
“Sir,” said Wells. “If those are strike planes, then they would be Vals or Kates. The former would probably launch no more than 250 miles from its intended target, the latter 160 miles. So I would now estimate their mother carriers to be somewhere here.” He circled a finger on the plotting table. “If I’m right, sir, we can hit them. At the very least we should clear our decks of anything armed and get it airborne while we can.”
“A wise precaution,” said Somerville. “Make it so.”
“We’ve got those two Martlets returning now. I’ll launch as soon as they are recovered.”
They saw Illustrious spotting aircraft as well, and Indomitable was already sending out a group of Martlets, the American Wildcats renamed by the British. Aboard Takami, the screens were suddenly alight with over 36 contacts, all designated friendly as the British planes launched and then were vectored southeast to look for the enemy.
As the British squadrons proceeded, there was one pair of Japanese Zeros out on long range CAP that spotted them, and went after a flight of Barracudas, downing one in a swirling fight that sent the others off in wild directions. The planes carried on, and the fact that they were not massed into one coordinated group would now weigh in their favor. A group of six Seafires with 1000 pound bombs were out in front, but by the time they had expended half their fuel, they had seen only a pair of enemy destroyers entering the gap between the islands. One by one, they began to reach Bingo fuel, and were forced to turn for home.
Other squadrons in the long train pressed on through the Channel, but more Zeros greeted them east of Little Andaman Island and they still had not spotted the enemy carriers. In the meantime, the enemy planes were drawing ever nearer, but Somerville’s sideslip to the west now paid him good dividends. The Japanese Vals had carried on with the heading given them for the initial contact, and they missed the British carriers. For a time, they persisted north, a few chasing and attacking a lone British destroyer, before the strike leader realized his error and turned. Seeing enemy planes to their southwest, he reasoned those must be British planes returning to their carriers, and turned in that direction.
The Vals were almost at the point where they would have to head home, but at least now they were headed the right way, the costly hunt to the north behind them. Finally, they saw the large wakes of enemy ships scoring the cobalt sea beneath them, and began to make their attack run. They were going to be too late. Most would be nearing Bingo fuel soon, but they pressed in to attack, with none of them dropping bombs on Formidable as the skies began to light up with Ack Ack fire. Most bombs fell wide of the mark, but one was very close, no more than 150 feet off the starboard side of the ship. The blast sent shrapnel raking over the flight deck, damaging several Fulmars spotted there, and effectively putting them out of the game.
Crews ran to move the planes below decks while others were already rising on the elevators, this time armed with 1000 pound bombs. The last of the Vals swooped through the flak, then the formation swarmed off like angry bees, heading south. They had put one stinger into their enemy, and those results were none too good considering that these were veteran pilots. Two stubborn pilots still had bombs when they got the order to return to base, but they could not go without attacking and bear the shame of having to jettison those bombs. Ignoring their fuel situation, they turned, braving the flak, and bored in on that carrier.
They each got off two 125kg bombs, but all fell well over 500 feet from the carrier. Wells and Somerville had dodged the first enemy attack, and now Formidable had frantically launched another group of Fulmars to try and follow those Vals home and find their unseen enemy.
Down south, the other squadrons of Barracudas had still not sighted the Japanese carriers, but they did find what looked to many like a battleship below. It was actually the Heavy Cruiser Tone, out in front of Hara’s group by some 30 miles. The British had come that close to finding the carriers, but now, in desperation, low on fuel, they decided to take the bird in hand. The first two Fulmars put their bombs nearly half a mile from the target in their haste, and the gunners aboard Tone actually laughed at their enemy. Most of the other British squadrons got hung up about 40 miles north of Taiho, where Hara had posted his long range CAP. The slashing attack of the Zeros was enough to so disrupt the enemy formations, that the strain on their fuel was now forcing them to turn for home.
So it was that these initial probing attacks saw both sides frustrated, shadow boxing with an enemy that neither one could clearly see. But Hara now had a very good idea where his enemy was, and he was determined to strike again with the remaining daylight. At 15:40 he gave orders for all carriers to launch a second wave. He would get those planes up and off the decks just as a group of eight Zeros were returning. As his squadrons headed out, he saw more Zeros launching from Hiyo as ordered to replace his defensive CAP. They were soon in a wild fight with anything the British had near Tone, as the Fulmar was a fighter bomber, and those pilots too far off to get an attack in, could jettison their bombs and take on the role of that fighter. Both side would take losses, but the net effect was that Hara would effectively parry and block the last punched the three British carriers had thrown at him.
An hour later, by 16:40, the first groups of that strike wave had already arrived at the last reported location of the carriers, and then turned west to look for those long wakes. The British could see them coming on radar, and they would surely vector in all the other groups in their train.
“We had better look to our defense,” said Somerville.
“Indomitable reports they have six Seafires ready on deck for immediate launch. Illustrious has two more on ready standby. I’ll have them scrambled at once. As for us, I’m afraid we’ve just got the Barracudas left below deck.”