The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (23 page)

The fleet had nine
Goshawks in the air, with another nine ready on deck. They knew that they were in range of German aircraft, and while the reports were still of heavy air activity against Norwegian ground forces in the south, they assumed that at some point someone would decide to do something for revenge against the fleets sinking of German ships.

The strike had managed (more by luck than by judgement, it must be said) to coordinate the low level and high level strike. The radar had picked up the high level bombers, and sent the CAP in that direction as the carriers turned in
to the wind to send up another nine planes. This had the unfortunate effect on making the controllers, still not terribly experienced at this, concentrate on the He111's and not notice the 10 torpedo planes boring in below them.

As the fighter escort was considered woefully inadequate to defend both forces, it had been decided to protect the high level strike. The carriers radar had given them clear warning, and the Goshawks had climbed above the attack. So that when they dove down into
their attack, they managed to shoot down two of the He111's in their first pass. As they turned to re-engage, the Me110's escorting the bombers turned to engage them, and it turned into a dogfight between the fighters as the bombers kept on towards the fleet. The Goshawk pilots were starting to get used to the Me110 now, and knew that while it was powerfully armed, and fast, it had poor agility and a lack of the acceleration often needed to get out of trouble. As a result, the nine Goshawks were able to shoot down four of the Me110's for the loss of only one plane (the pilot bailed out and was lucky enough to get picked up from the icy North Sea by one of the British destroyers. The other two Me110 turned away at full speed, and after a minute or two the Goshawks realised they couldn't keep up, and turned back to the bombers.

While the duel between the fighters had been going on, the newly-launched fighters had been climbing to intercept the bombers (as a result of which, they still hadn't noticed the torpedo planes). While ideal practice was to gain height on the bombers for an initial diving attack, this wasn't possible if they were to engage them before they could start their attack runs on the fleet. So instead they attacked head on as they climbed - a dangerous tactic, but a workable one against unescorted bombers.

There were still 10 He111's heading in when the Goshawks attacked, but this was rapidly reduced to five, two of which broke off trailing smoke and headed back to Norway. By now, the final three were inside the fleets AA zone, and the Goshawks gained height to regroup for a new attack. The air around the remaining three bombers was almost immediately black with the explosions of AA shells, and as they held their course for an attack on HMS Illustrious, one of them was hit, falling into the sea not far from HMS Mohawk. The other two, with impressive bravery, held their attack. Sadly, the chance of a hit on a fast moving carrier with a handful of 250kg bombs was small, and although some of the waterspouts were fairly close, the ship was never in any danger. It was spectacular enough, however, that HMS Illustrious would be claimed as sunk by the Luftwaffe. Again.

While this was happening, 10 torpedo planes had, without being noticed, reached the fleet. At which point they gained the undivided attention of every close in AA weapon that could be brought to bear on them. As soon as they were spotted, the original CAP patrol was ordered to engage them, but despite the advantage of diving from altitude, and getting dangerously close to the fleets AA (two Goshawks were damaged by this, fortunately not critically), only two of the planes were splashed before they could make attack runs. The remaining eight were somewhat split up
by the combination of heavy AA and the diving Goshawks, fortunately preventing them from managing a mass attack.

Five of the torpedo planes attacked HMS Formidable, in one group of three and one of two, both from the port quarter. While a carrier was a good choice from the targeting point of view, it was not such a good choice in view of the weight of defensive armament the carrier luxuriated in. HMS Formidable had 32 40mm guns (plus a number of 20mm) than could engage an incoming torpedo run, and her close escort destroyer another 8 40mm. A hailstorm of fire enveloped the first of the attacking planes before it could get into dropping range, and it was
quickly brought down. The He115 was a fast, twin-engined torpedo plane, and the delayed in engaging the next bomber did allow it to get into range (although nowhere close to optimal range). Seeing the amount of tracer surrounding them, both planes dropped from around 1,500 yards, before turning. This didn't help them; one was destroyed before it got out of AA range, while the final one succumbed to a vengeful Goshawk. The carrier, turning with a grace that belied her 25,000 tons, evaded both of the torpedoes.

The second two planes had decided to attack the nearest large ship, which was the cruiser HMS Manchester. While a modern ship, she could not manage anything like the mass of close AA firepower the carrier enjoyed. Although her defensive fire was seen to damage one of her attackers, they both dropped their torpedoes from around 1,200 yards. The cruiser evaded one, but unfortunately this moved her into the path of the second, which hit and exploded on her port quarter. Fortunately for the ship, this was an aerial torpedo, not the heavy 21" version used by submarines, and although damaged and taking in water the strike was not critical. Both the attacking planes made their escape at zero feet.

While the attack was going in, the fleets own sea
rch planes had been reporting. Overnight, one of the SeaLance fitted with the very new (experimentally new, it might be more accurate to say) ASV sets had reported a large contact to the north, heading south at speed along the coast. This wasn't enough to identify, but the speed indicated warships, and the carriers pre-dawn search had allocated two aircraft to examine the suspected route. At 0940 she reported in 'two battleships (sic) heading south along the coast'. This was what the fleet had been hoping for, and while the carriers were ordered to prepare a strike against heavy surface units, estimated were being made as to how it would be possible for the fleets battleships to intercept.

All these preparations were abruptly halted when the air attack was seen on the radar screens. The carriers had only just started their preparations, and as the radar gave them some 15 minutes warning the ordnance loading was halted and the handful of torpedoes sent to the hanger deck sent back to the magazine. As was normal practice, there would be no fuelled or armed planes in the hangers, or fuel in the fuel lines, in case of a bomb hit
.

At 1100, the last of the attackers having fled over the horizon, the decision had to be made about how best to attack this new target. The search plane, aided by intermittent cloud that allowed it a certain degree of safety, was reporting that the targets were the Twins, heading south at over 30 knots. The attack had wasted over an hour of time, and the carriers restarted their preparations. The delay had allowed the German ships to get nearly 40 miles further south, and this was a problem. There was not enough time left for the battleships to engage them before they slipped away, and at 30 knots they would never catch them.

The plan was therefore for the carrier planes to attack and slow them down so that they could be caught. The fleet split into two parts; HMS Warspite, the cruisers HMS Sheffield and HMS Glasgow, and four destroyers, would advance as fast as possible (the reconstructed Warspite could make 24 knots (in fact her engineers managed to get her up to 25), while the other ships (less the damaged Manchester), could only make 21 knots.

The need was for speed, and in order to speed up the preparation and launch of the strike, it was decided to use 18 torpedo planes from HMS Illustrious, and 18 dive bombers from HMS
Formidable, with an escort of six Goshawks. It was considered likely the battlecruisers would have air support on their run south, but in view of the fact that the fleet had been spotted and attacked once already that day, it was not thought wise to reduce the fleets own fighter defence by too much.

At 1245 18 torpedo planes and 18 dive bombers set course in the attempt to be the first planes in the war to sink a battleship in open waters
.

Chapter 16

1315, the North Sea, over the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

The orders given to the strike leader had been simple and quite specific. Make sure that if you can't sink them, slow them down enough for them to be caught up. Concentrate on one ship first, only go for the second if the first looks like sinking - better to be certain of one of the twins than try for both and get nothing.

More carefully than they had been doing before their recent experiences, the pilots scanned the sky for any sight of the Luftwaffe. This time, the Goshawks stayed above the strike, ready to pounce if any German pilot was as unfriendly as to break into the entertainment they had planned for the Twins. First to go into their attack were the SeaLance torpedo planes. Considerably faster than the old Swordfish, their speed allowed them to close to range without exposing themselves to more enemy AA than they had to. As usual, they attacked in two groups of nine, in flights of three planes, targeting the closest battlecruiser, which happened to be the Gneisenau.

For such a large ship, she maneuvered with considerable skill and managed to avoid all nine of the torpedoes coming at her from the starboard quarter. Unfortunately against a classic hammer-and-anvil attack that made it more difficult to dodge the attack from the other side, and in a few minutes she had been hit by three torpedoes. Two hit forward of her centerline, causing damage and flooding, but nothing that couldn't be handled. The third, though, was much more critical. It hit aft, close to where one of the ships propeller shafts entered the hull, the shock damaging and distorting the shaft, rendering it useless and also damaging one of the other propellers. The ships engineers cut power to that shaft as soon as they could, but it was clear there was no chance of it being used again without a long period in dock.

As the torpedo planes drew away to reform, the dive bombers dove in. Again, they all targeting the Gneisenau. Despite her shaft damage, the ship was still snaking and trying to avoid the falling 1,000lb bombs, something she did quite successfully. Sadly in this case quite wasn't good enough.

The first bomb hit the Gneisenau close to her aircraft, causing considerable damage and starting an aviation fuel fire. The explosion and the fires also caused serious injury and damage to the adjacent AA guns and their crews. The second hit her on her port secondary batteries; wrecking the guns and again causing injuries to the AA crews. The final of the three hits was the most spectacular; hitting the deck just forward of A turret, the bomb exploded (fortunately without penetrating the 11" magazine) with enough force to raise up the front of the turret and jam it into immobility, as well as leaving a rather impressive hole in the deck.

Two more bombs were close enough to cause splinter damage to the superstructure and any exposed crew, but no severe structural damage. The ship didn't stop, but had slowed drastically as thick clouds of smoke billowed from her deck and superstructure.

The planes departed with minimal losses; one torpedo plane and one diver bomber. It would seem that the Kriegsmarine AA fire wasn't much more effective than that of the Royal Navy. As soon as the attack was completed, the planes headed back to the carriers, although one SeaLance stayed on station to report.

The news that one of the battlecruisers had been seriously damaged and slowed was greeted with jubilation at the fleet. The question now was could they be intercepted by HMS Warspite and her consorts, or would this only be possible with another air strike? There was a certain amount of argument about this; there was also the issue of what would happen if the fleet, its position now known, was attacked while in the middle of spotting a full strike on deck. While losses so far had been thankfully low, the two carriers were now down to 28 fighters between them, and they had to maintain a CAP over the Warspite as well as the fleet. This was achievable, but would be much easier if the deck was clear for the fighters. It was also necessary to keep a flight of Swordfish in the air to keep any inquisitive U-boats firmly underwater.

In the end it was decided by the fact that Warspite was already closing with the damaged battlecruiser; the ships had been 'cutting the corner' in their interception, and would be in range in under an hour. As a result it was decided to plan another strike, but not launch it until the result of the Warspite's action was known, or if the damaged ship managed to regain enough speed to get away from the pursuing force.

1
530, the North Sea, HMS Warspite and Gneisenau.

The decision for the German Admiral, w
hile logical, was still cruelly difficult to make. It was already clear that the Gneisenau was badly damaged, reduced to half the speed of her consort. If they stayed together, it was quite probably that both would be sunk. The harsh decision had to be made to leave her, and hope she could evade the British fleet until nightfall. Urgent and demanding messages had been sent, requesting the maximum air cover and also an airstrike on the British fleet, but as yet there were no signs of friendly aircraft. The last time the Scharnhorst saw her sister ship was the sight of her, still burning, disappearing over the horizon to the north as they made their way south at maximum speed. This was reported back to the British fleet. The orbiting SeaLance was ordered to follow the Scharnhorst south as soon as the Warspite was in visual range of the burning battlecruiser.