The Apostates (54 page)

“Large American task force on an intercept course, spotted bearing twenty miles northeast. Admiral Ozawa reports American force split.” The news made Inoguchi heart sink. The only thing left for the Japanese Central Force to do was to break off the attack and make for the San Bernardino Strait to slip away. But, the Musashi was immobile.

“Ensign! Respond to the Admiral! Report to him the damage we have sustained. Inform him that we will cover the fleet’s retreat to the San Bernardino Strait, and act as a rear guard,” Inoguchi ordered. The Captain hoped that they would regain propulsion, so that they could join the Central Force in retreat, but if not he would have the Musashi act as a static fortress. In the meantime, Captain Inoguchi ordered their turrets to attack all American targets within range, continuing her reign of terror.

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Aboard the Iowa, Captain McCann had received the news of the continued devastation being wrought by the lone battleship: Musashi. He received word that the rest of the Japanese attack force had broken off and were heading for the San Bernardino Strait. His ships would not be able to catch them. Captain McCann surmised that the Musashi was covering the retreat. It was doing enough damage to the landing forces at Leyte Beach to make it the number one priority for McCann’s task force. Captain McCann had also received the report that the Musashi was currently immobile: struck by a torpedo plane attack. However, the attack could not be followed up because the Musashi had formidable anti-aircraft defenses. Two planes had been lost attempting another sweep. The job would fall to the Iowa and her task force.

Captain McCann stepped out onto the
observation deck, and he could smell the fumes of carnage in the air. Black clouds
had risen and formed to intermingle with other condensation in the sky. He
could here the exchange of volley fire from ship guns in the distance, and it
was getting closer. Further back in the American task force formation was the
escort carrier, St. Lo, which was the lone carrier that was assigned to
McCann’s force. The St. Lo was scrambling her relatively light, air-wing of
twenty-five fighter aircraft. McCann felt that this would be enough to provide
immediate air superiority and would assist in defeating the Musashi. After
months of hunting the Japanese super battleships and being denied surface
action, the showdown was at hand.

Down in the fore, Mark Seven turret, Burke, and Jones were hard at work prepping for fire. Burke wondered what sort of battle they were to be involved in. Men of his rank was never really told anything about that nature of the battle, just that they were needed to keep the salvos going. Burke wished that he had an officer’s rank or that he worked on the bridge so that he could actually witness the battle first-hand, instead of being relegated to shooting in the dark. Burke sat nervously, waiting for the havoc of battle to begin. Thoughts of his home: California, filled his head. Also, he thought of that nurse; he wanted to see her again. So, the waiting continued, and the waiting was always the worst part.

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“Damage report! Get me a status on propulsion! We need it now!” Captain Inoguchi was furious. The Musashi was now being engaged by an entire air-wing from an American escort carrier. The bow had taken a dive bomb that had exploded but had done only minor damage. The anti-aircraft screen still held the attackers at bay, but that last hit was one too many for Inoguchi.

“Sir! Propulsion is back online. The bomb killed three sailors but failed to penetrate the deck,” an ensign shouted.

“Full steam! Take us out of here—set a course for the San Bernardino Strait! Run their infernal blockade!” Captain Inoguchi now acted on instinct. The helmsman set a course straight for the oncoming American picket line. Inoguchi knew that his guns out ranged the smaller American cannon, so he would have the first shots in the coming engagement. Inoguchi gave clearance to gunnery crews to pick targets and to fire at will. The three, type ninety-four turrets turned this way and that, selecting targets independently. Meanwhile, outside on the deck, the flack guns were putting up a withering anti-aircraft screen. The American air wing of twenty-five planes circled just out of range, waited to coordinate the attack with surface vessels. Inoguchi realized that he would only have moments to punch a hole in the American battle line to escape to the safety of the Strait. The Musashi steamed onward to its fate.

At long last some American ships were in range of the Musashi’s guns. The turrets opened fire independently, aiming for three different vessels. The fore turrets gunned for an American destroyer, and its three barrels let loose high-velocity shells. The first two rounds overshot their mark, passing harmlessly overhead, but the last round plowed into the very top of the superstructure, destroying the RADAR and communications array. The ship was rocked to one side by the force of the impact. Another of the Musashi’s guns fired upon a cruiser on the outer tip of the American chevron formation. The rounds penetrated below the water line, rupturing the hull and flooding the lower decks with seawater. It had appeared that damage control crews had sealed off the flooded compartments, because although it listed to port side, it did not sink. The turret closest to stern fired its salvo against the battleship New Jersey. Two of the rounds were low and plunged into the sea, one shot skimmed off the weather deck, ripping apart cargo, men, and anchor chains the laid upon it. However, it was a glancing shot and failed to do severe damage.

Inoguchi’s hand had been played, as he had
hoped to do much more damage with his advantage of initiative. Captain Inoguchi
stood up at the Conn, and picked up the horn, to make a general announcement to
the officers and crew,

“Fellow sailors of the Musashi and brave men of the Japanese Imperial Navy. It has been a pleasure serving as your Captain for what may be the last days of the war for Japan. This may very well be our last action at sea. We find ourselves, surrounded against impossible odds, in a moment’s time we will be set upon on all sides. Now I will not hold it against any man who desires to save himself, by swimming for it. Your safety will not be guaranteed, but at least you may yet live. However for any man who wishes to remain at your post and continues to fight, I ask you not to do so for the Emperor, or for the High Command or Admiralty. I ask you to do it for your family, for your friends and loved ones, back home. My family is the reason I continue this fight, and I expect it is why you all continue on as well.

Now then, any man who desires to save his
skin should remove himself from the ship now, otherwise, any man who remains at
his station shall be considered a willing participant in the fight to come,” He
paused in his speech, giving any man time to vacate the ship. No man on the
bridge abandoned his post, “Right then, now we sail to our fates, in mortal
combat with the hated enemy. Tonight we join our ancestors in the Yellow
Springs!” Inoguchi removed his cap and held it the air. The entire crew of the
Musashi stood and cheered in unison, “Bonzai! Bonzai! Bonzai!” The men raised
their arms to the heavens. The crew’s morale and motivation shot skyward.
Inoguchi took in the blissful moment and silently said a prayer to his God, then he returned to the Conn.

It was at that moment that elements of the American air-wing saw an opening and three fighters swooped down from their holding pattern, flying low, approached the Musashi which had momentarily halted its flack guns. The fighters strafed the weather deck of the Musashi with machine gun fire, sending sailors diving for cover. Rounds impacted against the observation screen on the bridge of the Musashi, which resulted in cracks forming in the glass. The strafing was a bitter reminder to the bridge crew that there was still a fight to be had.

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The Iowa, being subordinate to Rear Admiral Badger, had been ordered to draw up in a massive, inverted chevron formation. The Iowa was located in the center, at the convergence of the two wings, which extended outward, forming two outstretched arms that were set to surround the Musashi. Captain McCann had just witnessed the fearsome barrage let loose from the Musashi, followed by the strafing action from American Hellcat fighters. The Musashi steamed forward, ever defiantly. McCann’s formation held, despite one ship being put out of action, but McCann knew that the Musashi had played out its last advantage. Now it was McCann’s turn, at long last the Musashi was in range of the Iowa’s guns. He ordered a slight turn to port, enough to expose all guns to the enemy. With that action completed, he ordered all guns to fire.

Deep in the forward turret, Burke received the order and loaded the shells into the barrels via the rammer. The guns fired with a monstrous thunder. Burke’s ear protection was almost not enough. As soon the guns had fired, he disposed of the spent cartridges and waited for new shells to be sent up the conveyor from the magazine store. Jones’s job was to load the shells from the magazine and send it up the conveyor to Burke’s station. Jones appreciated working down in the depths of the ship; he felt safe there. He could give a damn about personal glory, as he just wanted to return whole to his family, he had told Burke as much. Burke, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Burke worried that he would die without knowing what had happened. He tried not to dwell on that feeling and lost himself in his work.

On the bridge, McCann saw that his first salvo had missed the Musashi completely; it had been too low. Other ships on the extremities of the chevron formation, were now positioned abeam with the Musashi: a potential crossfire situation took shape. Both cruisers from several miles out opened fire with their nine, eight-inch, fifty-five caliber guns. The shots careened into the armor on the side of the hull of the Musashi but were not powerful enough to punch through. A well-placed shot did destroy a flak gun toward the stern of the ship, taking several crewmembers with it. The Musashi responded alternating its turrets to target each of the cruisers in both directions. Two turrets opened up on its port side, sending shells screaming through the sea air that penetrated the superstructure of the cruiser, destroying the bridge. The remaining turret fired to starboard and missed that cruiser completely.

McCann witnessed the carnage and saw that the armament on American cruisers was completely useless against the thick armor of the Musashi. He ordered the remaining cruisers to fall back behind the destroyers and battleships, thinning the line. The Musashi approached ever closer, threatening to send the entire American formation into disarray. MacCann received word that the air-wing was satisfied with the progress of the ships, and they would now begin an attack en masse.

Captain McCann and his ranking officers ran out to the observation deck to witness the attack. The Hellcat fighters of the air-wing broke off into two squadrons and formed-up for a staggered pass over the Musashi. The flack guns on the ship opened up sending exploding rounds into the sky that pockmarked the air with black smoke. The first squadron began their assault. One after another the Hellcats strafed the deck with tracers that tore into the wood of the weather deck and several unlucky sailors lost their lives at that moment. The anti-aircraft fire from the Musashi struck the fuselage of two hellcats. One crumbled into flaming wreckage off the starboard side and fell into the sea, the other hellcat trailed smoke but was still maintaining altitude; it broke off to return to the carrier, St. Lo.

Still the Musashi advanced forward. The second wave of fighters fell in strafing the deck of the Musashi with withering machine gun fire, barely making any effect. Another Hellcat went down in a flaming ruin from the deck guns of the Musashi. On the water’s surface, three destroyers had taken up position to fire broadsides. One destroyer let loose, punching a hole through the armor nearest the bow of the Musashi, and smoke rose from the wound. Next up came three American Avenger torpedo bombers, which had formed a small attack squadron, where they flew low to avoid the massive barrage of flack in the air. They came in off the port bow of the Musashi. One Avenger was caught by the Musashi’s forty caliber anti-aircraft turrets; it fell into the sea. The other two Avenger bombers released their two torpedoes into the water, then broke off into a roll, where another Avenger was struck by machine gun fire; it too was claimed by the sea. The third Avenger tried to gain altitude but flew directly into the path of a shell fired from the Musashi’s main bow turret, which shredded the Avenger like kindling. The torpedoes moved at a steady pace through the water and the warheads armed, closing the distance fast. The Musashi did not have time to take evasive measures. Both torpedoes struck home on the port side bow, and the hull was torn open under the waterline, then, sea water poured in. The Musashi began to list to port by one degree. The speed of the Musashi dropped by a third. Another lone Avenger had been armed with a five hundred pound bomb and had avoided flak and machine gun fire to fly high overhead of the Musashi. The Avenger angled into a dive attack, racing through the smoke and flak. At the last minute, it dropped its payload and the bomb continued down at the same angle the aircraft attacked in. Hitting its mark the bomb exploded directly against the number one, forward turret, but it failed to penetrate.

Captain McCann, upon seeing the toll the
air attack had been taking on the Musashi ordered the Iowa forward. He wanted
to get within point blank range. The other destroyers and battleships took his
lead. Eventually the ships formed a perimeter around the injured beast of a
ship, smelling blood, they closed for the kill. McCann ordered a broadside
against the starboard bow of the Musashi. Several of the fired shells missed
their mark, but three blew a hole wide into the starboard-side armor. Other
destroyers fired, doing negligible damage to the Musashi. And still the Musashi advanced, albeit wounded.

Another attack wave of fighters strafed the deck of the Musashi, followed by another torpedo attack. Two more Avengers were shot down, but then two more torpedoes had been dropped into the water heading for the starboard-side of the Musashi. One was a dud and hit harmlessly off the starboard bow, the other smashed into the hull below the water line, blowing another breach into the bow, directly below where the Iowa had done its damage. More compartments were flooded to compensate, but the Musashi’s speed was now down to twenty-two knots. Captain McCann could sense victory was at hand; there was not much fight left in the Musashi.