Kirov III-Pacific Storm (Kirov Series) (8 page)

A second division was designated as a
strategic reserve for the operation, the Osaka 4th Division, presently in the
home islands and again headquartered at Osaka Castle. These would be the only
bones they would throw the navy for some time, still obsessed with their
campaign in China, but they would have to do. The Lucky Division would be moved
forthwith to Rabaul, where sufficient transport would be gathered to enable
operations aimed at Noumea and Suva Bay. The Osaka division, sometimes called
the
Yodo
Division after the river that wound its way
through its home province, would eventually be moved south to stand as a
theater reserve for all Navy operations associated with ‘Operation FS.’ In the
meantime, positions recently secured on Guadalcanal and at Tulagi would be
strengthened as forward bases for this campaign.

With the Midway operation canceled,
planning went forward from May through August of 1942, when it was deemed that
all was now in readiness, awaiting only the final approval and order of
Yamamoto himself. The date was finally set: August 24, 1942, and the Darwin
operation would begin hostilities led by the 5th Division carriers
Zuikaku,
Shokaku,
and the light carrier
Zuiho
, as it would most likely prove
a compelling distraction to draw enemy attention to the west.

 In the meantime, the Combined
Fleet would embark from Rabaul and Truk with two more assault elements. The 2nd
Carrier Division with
Hiru
and
Soryu
would cover the main amphibious thrust southeast from Rabaul, while Yamamoto
would lead the heart of the fleet with the 1st Carrier Division under Nagumo
comprised of the venerable
Akagi
and
Kaga
, the largest carriers
in the fleet, and a strong surface action group centered around his own
flagship, the largest battleship in the world,
Yamato
. And there was
more…
Yamato’s
sister ship, dubbed “battleship number two” for the long
years of its top secret construction program, was now also ready for
operations. The ship was over three months ahead of schedule, commissioned into
the fleet as
Musashi
in April of 1942. She would take her rightful place
in the First Battleship Division alongside
Yamato
and the older
battleships
Mutsu
and
Nagato
by June. Her gunnery trials had been
completed at Kure by August 5th, the original date scheduled for her
commissioning, and so Yamamoto ordered the ship to sail for Truk, where it
arrived August 10th.

Yamamoto’s thought was to keep the
ship at Truk as a reserve, and use it for headquarters operations there,
freeing
Yamato
for operations at sea. As a last component of her
training, he had
Musashi
work out in aircraft drills with the carrier
Zuikaku
before it was released for the Darwin operation, and when he met with the
Commander of the 5th Carrier Division, Admiral Hara, he received a request for
one more battleship to be assigned to the western prong of the operation at
Darwin.

“Why not send
Musashi
,” Hara
smiled. The big man was nicknamed ‘King Kong,’ not only for his size but also
for his disposition after too much Saki. He was proud of his victory over the
Americans in the Coral Sea, the operation that had given the empire Port
Moresby, and ready for yet more glory. The thought that he might wrangle away a
new battleship for the Darwin operation was enticing. “
Musashi
performed
very well in our recent drills, and so she is already well coordinated with my
carrier staff. She would be a wonderful addition, and her guns would pound any
garrison in Darwin into submission very quickly. Yamashita will simply waltz
ashore and set his men to cleanup operations.”

“You’ve already got three of my
carriers, Hara, and now you are after my battleships! I assigned you this
mission based on your skill as a carrier commander. You did a fine job with
Vice Admiral Takagi in the Port Moresby Operation. I must tell you that Takagi
wanted this operation as well, but Imperial General Staff has sent him to
Taiwan to take command of the
Mako
Guard District. So
you’ll have complete control of the carriers this time out. As for
Musashi
,
the ship is just commissioned,” said Yamamoto.

“A perfect first trial for her,” Hara
pressed. “Leaving her in Truk while everyone else is out on operations will be
bad for morale. We built these ships to use them, neh? You’ll still have plenty
more battleships at Truk. Give me
Musashi
, and I’ll return her in short
order with her first battle star.”

Yamamoto smiled. “I’m afraid that is
impossible.
Musashi
will be assigned to fill out 1st Battleship
Division. And remain with
Yamato
at Truk. Combined Fleet Headquarters
will be moved to that ship. In its place you will be assigned
Mutsu
and
Nagato
,
both to be sent to Amboina where elements of the ground operation will embark
for Darwin.”

“Very well,” Hara relented. “They will
do. We do not expect any serious naval threat in the Darwin Operation. With our
air base at Port Moresby operational now, the Americans cannot enter the Coral
Sea without our knowing about it, let alone try to navigate the Torres Strait.
This will be a very simple operation.”

“I am glad to hear your confidence,”
said Yamamoto, “because after you secure Darwin you will bring your carriers
into the Coral Sea and stand by for further orders. Your destroyers may refuel
at Moresby if necessary. Pending the success of Operation FS, you may either be
ordered to strike the allied airfields at Cairns and Townsville, or to move
southeast to support our operations against Noumea. Bring
Nagato
and
Mutsu
with you at this stage, as they will return to Truk when the overall operation
concludes. And of course, you also have the battleship
Kirishima
in your
carrier screen force. Bring all those ships as well.”

“Captain Iwabuchi is on
Kirishima
,
and I would be most happy to trade him and his ship for
Musashi
.” Hara
tried one more time, this time with a smile. Both men knew the irascible and
unpredictable nature of Captain Iwabuchi, and Hara would just as soon be rid of
the  man, though he needed his battleship for his screening force as it
was one of the very few that could run at 30 knots and keep pace with his
carriers.

“Nice try, Hara, but I’m afraid you
will have the pleasure of commanding Iwabuchi and his ship for the moment.
Musashi
stays at Truk.”

“Very well,” Hara concluded. “We will
smash Darwin and then come east to the Coral Sea and be ready for any operation
you devise, I can assure you.”

“Good.” Yamamoto looked at the clock.
“Our submarine screens should already be deploying, and air search operations
will commence in two hours. Now it is time to see if we can wake up these
sleeping dogs and get them into a fight.”

Even as the Admiral finished, he
realized the true meaning of the idiom, ‘best to let sleeping dogs lie.’ It was
an obvious warning, yet with nine carriers seven battleships and a host of
cruisers and destroyers at his command the threat seemed remote. If this was to
be the great battle he had sought from the beginning of the war, then Japan
must surely win it decisively.

It will buy us at least another year,
he thought, his mind turning to a distant future that he could dimly see. How
many carriers do the Americans have in their shipyards at this very moment?
They lost one in the Atlantic before the war even started and have been holding
the others in a tight fist ever since. I have to find them this time, and
finish them…Before they finish me.

Chapter
6

Lt. Commander
Kennosuke
Torisu
peered through his periscope, a surge of both fear
and excitement animating him now. The Captain of
I-63
, he had been
cruising south, heading for the Australian coast to scout out the area prior to
the planned operation. The Timor Sea and coastline of Australia had been a
backwater sideshow in the Pacific war thus far. 1942 had seen Japan occupy
Papua New Guinea and conclude successful operations aimed at Port
Morseby
and the Solomons. The Allies still clung to a
makeshift base at Milne Bay, but had otherwise fallen back on New Caledonia and
the Fiji-Samoa Island groups where they were slowly building up supplies and
resources for a counteroffensive that was certain to come in the near future.

The American Admirals and war planners
had been uncommonly cagey and elusive. The battleship squadrons Japan had
planned on targeting with their abortive attack on Pearl Harbor had been proven
as useless as more contemporary strategists had argued. A few had been moved to
Suva Bay, the
Maryland
,
California
and
New Mexico
had been
identified there to provide a little muscle as a deterrent to any major
Japanese attempt to bombard the nearby island facilities from the sea. But the
remainder of the older battleships once thought to be the backbone of the fleet
remained berthed at Pearl, too slow to operate with the fast carrier groups
that were the real striking power in the Pacific now.

As 1942 grew into late summer, both
sides had consolidated their positions, with Guadalcanal being the front line
in the Solomons and the place most likely to see conflict in the immediate
future. The Japanese had troops at Tassafaronga, Lunga and Tulagi, though these
places were not yet well established or fortified. The newly won Port Moresby
was being prepared for use as a forward bomber base, but was itself visited
daily by small squadrons of American B-17 bombers out of Cairns and Townsville.

A simmering stalemate had developed in
the Pacific, with the Americans apparently not yet ready to take the offensive,
and the Japanese fretting over how they could best provoke the United States
into committing its forces to a decisive engagement. The Army and Navy had been
squabbling with one another for long wasted months, thought
Torisu
as he scanned the horizon. Now they have finally decided to act.

I-63
was at the forward edge of that action, a major
operation aimed at Port Darwin, the westernmost thrust of a two prong attack
that was now finally underway. Two hundred miles northwest of
Torisu’s
position Admiral Hara steamed with the navy’s
newest carriers,
Zuikaku
and
Shokaku
, and the light carrier
Zuiho
,
their crews already arming the planes to make the initial air strikes on Darwin.

Two hundred miles further, the
transports at Kupang were already loading troops of the 21st Infantry Regiment,
5th Infantry Division,
as well as the Kure 26th SNLF battalion and one
mountain artillery battery, all forces that had been combed from General
Yamashita’s 25th Army in Indonesia. The remainder of the forces slated to make
the Darwin attack would come in the second wave, embarking from Amboina and
Kendari. The 2nd Recon Battalion was released to support the operation by Lt.
Gen.
Ilatazo
Adachi commanding 18th Army in New
Guinea. Other forces consisting of engineers and IJN Base force personnel would
move in once the port had been secured. A reserve force of the 1st Amphibious
Brigade was to be used to make secondary landings at Wyndham and perhaps even
Broome. These troops had been scheduled for deployment in the Marshall Island
group, but were diverted by Imperial General Headquarters for this mission.

Torisu’s
mission in
I-63
was simple and
straightforward. Scout the way forward and report any enemy naval activity. The
first three days of his mission had been uneventful, but now he was rubbing his
eyes and squinting through his periscope at a large and dangerous looking warship
cruising in the distance, too far away for him to do anything about it, yet far
too close to the area of planned operations. It could pose a dangerous threat
to the landings, and he knew he had to report it at once.

He looked away to consult his navigation
charts and determine the ship’s position, and when he looked again he was
surprised to see his scope empty, with no sign of the contact. Yet a moment
later he saw what looked to be a shimmering mirage on the horizon, and seconds
later the ship was there again, a dark silhouette above the clear blue sea, set
in sharp relief against the azure sky.

There must be low lying clouds
obscuring his view, he thought when the ship seemed to fade and vanish again.
He turned to his executive officer and ordered a radio buoy sent up at once.
“Signal one ship, cruiser, perhaps bigger, and give our present coordinates.
Heading is presently north as far as I can make it. There is something wrong
with the periscope today—either that or my eyes,” he finished.

“It’s the headache you have from all
that toasting to victory in the ward room yesterday. Time to settle into
operations, Captain, and make good on our hopes. Can we attack this ship?”

“Not at this range,” said
Toriso
. “Our Type 95 torpedoes do not have the range of
their older brothers.” He was referring to the lethal Type 93 torpedo carried
by most Japanese surface ships, capable of ranging out to 40,000 meters. It was
so effective at long range that it would be dubbed the “Long Lance” by
historian by Samuel Eliot Morison after the war, though it was largely unknown
to the Americans in 1942—until their ships exploded far outside any perceived
range of torpedo attack.