Kirov (25 page)

Admiral
John “Jack” Tovey
looked
at the list of all his available ships that morning. A professional man, well
schooled in the operational arts and dedicated to the Navy from an early time
in his life, Tovey was an amiable, quick to smile, but just as likely to redden
up with a temper when things did not suit him. Strong-willed and highly
disciplined, he could be relentless when focused on a mission or a particular naval
objective. Yet in the heat of battle his one great virtue was that he would
remain cool under fire in spite of the temper that he was all too willing to
show if things did not go as he expected.

A
natural leader, Tovey was a student of tactics and ship handling, as capable a
captain as the Royal Navy possessed until he was promoted to acting Admiral of
the Home Fleet. He was a sea going admiral, seeing the duty aboard ship as
essential to morale. What was good enough for his sailors was good enough for
him, and his men had both great admiration and respect for him. The man at sea,
he believed, had the best information at hand to make a decision in any
engagement. As such he sometimes resented the overweening interference by desk
laden officers in the Admiralty, including the First Sea Lord, Admiral Pound,
who had a predilection for sticking his thumb in the pie whenever possible.

This
evening he was looking at the long list of ships still operational under his
command, still the most extensive and well armed navy in all of Europe, and by
a considerable margin. He had all of fifteen battleships, with one sunk and one
consigned to the far east, leaving thirteen of the big ships in theater.
Admittedly, it was an aging fleet, but still imposing on paper. Only three on
the list would be considered modern battleships by 1941, his own flagship
King
George V
, and her sister ships
Prince of Wales
and
Duke Of York
,
the latter still running through trials. He wouldn’t even have that third ship
were it not for Churchill’s earlier urging that the Germans were up to
something in their shipyards and the Royal Navy had better be ready to answer.
Two more ships in that class would come on the line later in the war,
Anson
and
Howe
, but these three were the only true fast battleships he had in
hand, and that said, they could make only 28 knots on a good day. For modern
ships they had very little range but compensated with decent firepower and very
good protection.

The
heart of his fleet, however, were the ships laid down before or during the
Great War, all aging, yet proven and capable designs, even if they looked
somewhat antiquated with their reverse inclined bows and stodgy smokestacks. He
had three
Revenge
class battleships and five in the
Queen Elizabeth
class. They could plod along at 18 to 21 knots under normal circumstances, but
had good firepower with their 15 inch guns. The two
Nelson
Class
battleships were the only ships in the fleet carrying larger 16 inch guns. With
an ungainly design they were well armored yet also slow at a maximum speed of
23 knots. For all practical purposes, these ten ships would be excellent convoy
escorts, enough to deter lighter and faster German raiders, and also capable of
standing with anything bigger.

Tovey
also had a small squadron of fast battlecruisers, once led by the pride of the
fleet, the mighty HMS
Hood
. A little over 60 days ago,
Bismarck
had run this stalwart knight thru with a fatal lance from her fearsome 15 inch
guns, and put
Hood
, along with Admiral Sir Lancelot Holland, at the
bottom of the Denmark Strait. The
Renown
and
Repulse
were the
last of the British battlecruisers, with a little less firepower, carrying only
six 15 inch guns for the extra speed that gave them. Yet, their speed alone
made these ships suitable for hunting and interception roles, and he could pair
these lighter ships with his three
King George V
class battleships to
form fast search and intercept groups capable of confronting and dealing with
any known German raider. The campaign against
Bismarck
proved that, even
though both
Hood
and
Prince of Wales
had a rough time of it in
that first, awful engagement.

This
role would be ably supported by divisions of strong and capable cruisers, both
heavy and light, and these ships could serve as escorts to any convoy or
capital ship squadron he put to sea. They were also excellent as picket line
scouts along the main breakout corridors used by the Germans. At any given time
a string of cruisers stretched from Iceland to Scapa Flow, plying the seas with
forward searching radars and the eyes of many able seamen.

Tovey
also made good use of his fleet of aircraft carriers, though these were lighter
ships carrying anywhere from sixteen to fifty planes, mostly old bi-planes:
Swordfish torpedo bombers or other search aircraft, and a few Fairey Fulmar
dive bombers. They had only a fraction of the striking power of the bigger modern
carriers in the Japanese or American navies, but they served him well as
escorts, hunters at sea, and could manage a sting or two if their torpedo
squadrons could close with an inviting target.

In
all it was a capable fleet given the primary role it had in securing the vital
Atlantic shipping lanes. If anything, it lacked speed in its heavy ship
elements, and range. Yet the Royal Navy made up for its deficiencies by sheer
weight and quantity, and the considerable experience it had at sea. It tripled
the size of the German Fleet, even though it mostly sailed with older designs.
Yet Tovey still had to assign ships to Cunningham in the Eastern Med, and
Somerville at Gibraltar, and this thinned out the ranks of capital ships
available for home waters and Atlantic operations. God forbid that he should
ever lose Gibraltar. The Rock was the gateway to the Med, and an excellent dual
purpose base. Ships there in Force H under Somerville could sortie to aid
Cunningham in the Eastern Med, or venture out into the Atlantic, particularly to
cover the French ports or receive southbound convoy traffic.

His
Chief of Staff, Patrick “Daddy” Brind would be in shortly with the latest
reports, and together they would plan the fate of
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
,
the next two German raiders on his list for quick elimination. At present they
were both holed up in the French port of Brest on the Atlantic coast, and that
is precisely where he wanted to keep them. Yet when Brind arrived he was all in
a fluster, a fistful of cable intercepts in his hand and a look approaching
shock on his face.

“I'm
afraid there's some bad news this evening, sir,” said Brind. “It seems we have
more than
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
to worry about. A new German
raider was spotted southwest of Jan Mayen earlier today. The signal suggests it
might be
Tirpitz,
or possibly a
Hipper
class cruiser again.
We
got a Beaufort reconnaissance flight off to have another look at Kiel, but it
will be some time before we hear on that.
Something is up, sir, and
we're going to have to be on our toes up are going to catch up with it.”

Brind
laid out a map on the table, leaning heavily on one hand as he gestured. “The
Norwegian weather team on Jan Mayen also reported the landing of an odd
aircraft with a squad of marines. The men said nothing, searched the place and
then left. Very strange, sir. Wake-Walker is up there with Force P, and he
forwarded the report yesterday. Perhaps it was a search plane off this new
raider, wanting to make sure they had not been spotted passing the island. A Fulmar
off
Victorious
overflew the contact yesterday and gave a confused
report. The pilot thought it looked like a heavy cruiser, except for the guns.”

“Except
for the guns?”

“That’s
just it, sir. He said he couldn’t see any large guns or turrets, except a few
smaller caliber secondary batteries. He claimed the forward decks were largely
empty. And another odd thing was the fact that the ship held its fire. If it
was a German cruiser they would have lit up with everything they had.”

“No
photographs?”

“In
the heat of the moment the plane was not properly fitted out. Wake-Walker was
hurrying off to the east, but thank god he at least had the presence of mind to
have a second look by sending out a scout detachment, though I can’t say much
for his choice of ships. He sent the mine laying cruiser
Adventure
up
with a destroyer yesterday, and it seems they bumped noses with this contact
this morning. Destroyer
Anthony
took three hits on her bow, putting a
gun turret there out of action, and the scout force wisely broke off action.
This is looking very suspicious, sir.”

“Well,
they damn well fired on the ships, even if Walker’s planes caught them
napping,” said Tovey. “Yes. It has all the markings of another Atlantic sortie.
Strange that they didn’t blow that destroyer out of the water.”

“German
radio traffic has been very quiet. It looks like Jerry is making an effort to
keep his cards close to his chest this time around. What do you make of it,
sir?”

“Damn
bloody business,” said Tovey. “And just when we've got convoys spread out over
half of the Atlantic, with Mr. Churchill due in next week on the hush, hush.”

It
was going to be a long night, thought Tovey. Weather was bad across the board,
seas were rising, and the crews on the ships riding fitfully at anchor in Scapa
Flow were ever more edgy. The fleet was put on yellow alert, with eight hour steam
up, meaning his main battleships could be ready to put to sea first thing in
the morning.

“We
haven't got a solid fix on this ship’s position yet,” said Brind. “If it is
Tirpitz
we've got a real witches brew again. Do you really think they would risk this last
battleship in a major operation now, sir?”

“It
could be a feint,” said Tovey. “They might have gotten wind of our Russian
convoy planning, and could be running this about just to get our attention. Our
last fix on
Tirpitz
had her at Kiel three days ago. They would have had
to move very quickly after that if she’s up near Jan Mayen now. We'll have to
watch this very closely, and of course we'll have to take Home Fleet to sea as
well, just in case.

“Aye,
sir,” said Brind. “The crews are restless enough as it is. Time to put some of
that energy to good use. I've taken the liberty of informing Captain Leach on
Prince
of Wales
as to our intentions. He’s still shining the decks for that
official visit next week, so I’m afraid we may have to leave her in port, sir.
But we've a few other knights we can put in the saddle as it stands.
Repulse
is available, and she has the speed we need for something like this.”

“What
in the world is Winston up to this time?” said Tovey. “All we have is this
notice to hold
Prince of Wales
for an official visit. Damn inconvenient
when Hitler and the Germans have other ideas.” He sighed, resigned to the machinations
of command after all these years. “I suppose we'd best start rattling the
sabers here and get the cavalry up in good order. It’s a pity
Duke of York
isn’t ready for action yet. After what we went through with
Bismarck
, I
won’t risk a battlecruiser like
Repulse
in another engagement like that.
Thank god for
Rodney
. The old girl gave
Bismarck
quite a
pounding. Where are
Nelson
and
Rodney
?”

The
Admiral wanted to know where his big 16 inch guns were. The
Nelson
and
Rodney
had been built between the two wars to an odd looking configuration that saw
three big 16 inch gun turrets mounted on the forward end of the ship. The
weight of the big guns made for slow going, which made them very suitable for
convoy escort duty. Yet with nine 16 inch guns, they had more firepower than
any ship in the fleet. In a tight spot, a well armored ship like that would
come in very handy.

“
Rodney
is still in Boston for a refit and scheduled for sea trials again on August 12,
sir. Her sister ship
Nelson
is presently at Gibraltar with battlecruiser
Renown
, preparing to escort another Winston Special convoy out to Malta.”

“Yes,
Sir Winston has too many chips on the markers for our battleships these days,
doesn’t he? It may be prudent to inform Admiral Somerville of this development.
That operation may have to be delayed if we need those ships. We had better
take a look at the Atlantic convoy situation as well. We may have to pull some
ships off escort duty if it comes down to it. But I want to make sure those
convoys have all the protection we can give them.”

“Right,
sir,” said Brind. “We've got at least one battleship with every convoy over 24
ships. Anything less gets an escort of at least one cruiser. We've been moving
most of the OB series well north of Ireland after departure, so that's going to
put them in a rather vulnerable spot if the Germans push anything down into the
Atlantic in the near run. These are rather large convoys, sir. Upwards of 40 to
50 ships each. Their official designation is to move on to the Middle East and
reinforce Cunningham.”

Something
told the Admiral that the ships in those convoys would have more to do along
the way than they bargained for. “If Jerry is planning another raider
operation, then they'll certainly have to coordinate with their U-boats as
well.”