At the same time, Takami sent over information that there were two airborne contacts, most likely search planes originating from Koggala. They were on headings that might find the Japanese within the hour, and so Hara elected to go after them, ordering Hiyo to send up a Shotai of three more Zeros off Hiyo.
Takami watched the little drama unfold on its screens, the Zeros taking a heading that brought them right over the ship. At that point, about 07:50, the contact was 58 miles off, and Takami messaged the Japanese pilots, guiding them in. While this was happening, Scout 2, was able to refine its sighting report to three cruisers and a pair of destroyers. Thinking these must be an advanced screen, the planes turned to follow the enemy wakes in the opposite direction, thinking they might point them to the main body.
As the little engagement ensued, the Catalina, flown by one Leonard Joseph Birchall. Already famous in Fedorov’s history for spotting the approach of the Japanese fleet, he was out to double down on that fate line. All he had seen up to this point was a single cruiser, leaving a medium wake on the sea. He took it for what it was, a lone picket forward of the enemy fleet, and pressed on.
Then the Zeros found him.
Coming out of the eastern sun, barely visible, Birchall had no chance against those swift winged fighters. On the first pass they raked the wing and set the left engine afire. He struggled with the yoke to try and get the plane down, his only thought now being to land in one piece.
“Send out that we’ve found the Japanese,” he shouted over his shoulder to the radioman. “Send ‘Leading screen at our position.’ They’ll sort the rest out.”
Down he went, the smoke from that engine getting worse with each passing minute. The Zeros could have followed, but they stayed aloft, reporting back to Hara that the contact had been shot down. Birchall would descend until his smoking trail vanished into clouds, and eventually land his Catalina on the sea. In the meantime, Scout 2 off Taiho had followed those wakes and found the British carriers, which scrambled fighters to get up and challenge them when the Zeros were spotted. The report came back: Main body, three battleships, two carriers, five destroyers.
Chapter 9
After both sides ran all night, on roughly parallel courses, round two of the battle was now underway, and the situation if viewed on a plotting table looked very confused. Gurēgōsuto, the Grey Ghost as Takami was now being called, indicated the presence and position of the leading British carrier sighting that had been spotted by Scout 1 earlier that morning. They believed there was also a battleship present, and at least three destroyers, that this enemy force was following right in Takami’s wake, perhaps 32 sea miles behind.
Ozawa’s position now put him directly behind the other reported carrier sighting, following its wake. He was soon given permission to take his 7th Cruiser Division and intercept. Suzuya raced ahead, a fleet footed ship at 33 knots. The other cruisers followed, guns loading for action. Tense moments passed, the watchmen straining their eyes at the binoculars, but nothing was seen in the low marine layer.
The two fleets, now widely dispersed, had nearly collided with one another, but the darkness and low weather had obscured all until sunrise. Even the planes had difficulty finding contacts through small breaks in the cloud cover, which meant there might be difficulties with the strike wave. Hara looked at his watch, then leaned heavily in his chair on the bridge of Taiho, watching the Kates lining up for takeoff. He would probe with this first punch, a jab at the enemy’s chin. If all went well, he was ready to launch a much heavier strike on short order.
It was no longer a question of whether they should have been west of Ceylon. Now it was a question of whether they could get there safely at all. All through the night, Somerville had deliberately elected not to fly any cover. He knew where his enemy was going, and Wells had called it exactly. Now, with the sun up, he looked at his hand and found few cards worth playing.
He had 44 planes between the two carriers, but they were mostly fighters. His strike planes had suffered heavily in the action of the previous day, and he had lost a good many of the new Barracudas when Formidable went down. He had only 15 of those left, and that was all the sting at his disposal. All of his dual purpose Fulmars were gone. The rest were the 16 Martlets, 9 Fireflies and 4 Seafires, all new model planes that had only recently been delivered to F.A.A. squadrons. He considered arming them with bombs, but knew that was useless. None of those fighter pilots had ever been trained for naval bombing.
Again Wells’ admonishment came to mind—get the planes to bases on Ceylon. If the enemy were to find him this day, and strike his carriers again, all these planes would surely be lost. It was all a sad testimony to support Wells’ other assertion, that the fleet should not have been where it was at all, and that the effort to try and ambush the enemy landing at Port Blair was ill-considered. He ordered every Barracuda armed and aloft at once, with six Fireflies. Even as he did so, his radar crews reported a flurry of long range contacts loitering about 125 miles to the southeast, on a heading of 160.
He had found the enemy carriers, for those were obviously planes forming up for the attack. As the seconds ticked away, he had to decide what to do with those Barracudas. Trinco was 150 nautical miles to the northwest, and they could still reach that base. Colombo was a good deal farther, about 225 miles, and over the high central mountains on Ceylon. The enemy carriers were 125 miles to the southeast, but how many of those 15 planes would get through, and would they find a deck waiting for them if they made it back? If he sent them to Trinco, they could still act in defense of that base, and Wells was correct, the Japanese could not sink the island. But he would forfeit anything they might do to defend his carriers by bringing harm to the enemy.
He decided. They were heading for Ceylon.
When the startled pilots got that order they were quite put off. What were they doing up here if they were simply going to run for home when the going got rough? Just before they turned, one saw the long wake of a fast ship through a break in the clouds, and reported a single cruiser, requesting permission to attack.
Somerville relented. “Very well,” he told the signalman. “Order them to go on in. If that is an enemy cruiser, it’s right on the trail of Illustrious. Maybe this will buy her some time.”
Damn, he thought. Illustrious has a gimpy leg after that action yesterday. She’s been falling farther and farther behind all night, and without proper escort. I’ll detach a destroyer to look after her. There’s another thousand souls on that ship to worry about now.
By 08:00 hours, the last five planes aboard Illustrious were off the deck and climbing into the grey skies, three Fireflies and a pair of Seafires. That group of Barracudas went after their cruiser contact, which was the forward ship in Ozawa’s force, Suzuya. Some never got close enough. The Zeros sent on ahead to sweep the target area for enemy cap had already spotted them, and fell like hawks on doves, their talons sharp with bright MG fire. They would get three of the seven Barracudas in that group, but the other two would get to Suzuya, and with sheer will to put hurt on their enemy, they braved the thickening flak and got their torpedoes in the water.