Kirov (29 page)

“And
no sign of enemy aircraft?” the Admiral asked his weary, frightened men.

“No
sir,” said Stewart-Moore, the 827 Squadron leader. “No sign of enemy aircraft
at all. What could they possibly have out that far anyway, sir? We were well
beyond the range of German fighters from Norway, and there’s no Me-109 I ever
heard of that could chop us up like that in one pass—not
ten
of them.”

“Could
the Germans be using a rocket, sir?” Captain Bovell knew something of the new
rockets being used now in artillery divisions of many armies.

“That’s
it!” said Langmore, the leader and odd man out surviving the blast that had
devastated his 828 Squadron. “Rockets! They looked for all the world like
incoming rockets, but they moved like lightning. Came right in on us as if the
damn things had eyes. I was well up above the main body when they hit. Just
lucky I suppose, or I’d be in the drink along with all the others. It was
horrible, sir.”

The
Germans must have some awful new weapon, thought Wake-Walker. Bovell was right.
There was no question that it wasn’t a plane, and there were no German flak
subs that he had ever heard of. Only a rocket made sense as he pieced together
the descriptions from the others. Yet they were still seventy five miles from
the contact Grenfell’s Fulmar spotted on radar as the planes turned for home.
Seventy five miles? What rocket could travel that distance, and strike with
such precision? Could the Germans be experimenting with rocket systems aboard
one of their cruisers? He resolved to get word off to the Admiralty as soon as
possible.

~
~ ~

When
this
intelligence
did come in, it created quite a stir. The Admiralty passed it on to Bletchley
Park, and asked them to see if they could ferret out anything more on the
matter. Then they set their minds to working on exactly what this new weapon
could be. Too many cuff stripes around the same question at a table often
created what Tovey like to call an “Admiral’s Stew.” When he finally got word
of the fate of 828 Squadron off
Victorious
, he couldn't imagine what the
Germans might be up to.

Home
Fleet was a day out of Scapa Flow, steaming west and ready to make their turn
northwest to come up on the southern outflow of the Denmark Strait into the
Atlantic. It was here that Admiral Holland had stood his fateful watch with
Hood
and
Prince of Wales
when
Bismarck
ran through. And it was
here that Tovey would take up his patrol as well.

“Bletchley
Park says they think the only ship the Germans might have operational at this
time would be the
Admiral Scheer
,” he said to Brind. “Eleven inch guns?
That I can deal with. Rockets with the range and accuracy of this nature?
Clearly impossible.”

“Somewhat
bewildering,” said Brind. “But consider, sir, most of the German fleet is laid
up for refit or repair right now. Suppose they're all getting fitted out with
this new weapon system?”

“My
god, Brind. We would've heard something about it. Yes, we've known the Germans
have had an interest in rocketry for years. If these reports are accurate, and
this German ship was able to swat down Wake-Walker’s Albacores at a range of seventy-five
miles, then this speaks of a highly sophisticated detection system as well.
Think of it! The ship would need to spot the incoming squadrons well before
they fired. They would have to track them with absolute precision to be able to
hit anything at that range. Why, it would be like a sharp shooter knocking a
man's hat off at a range of ten miles! How the world could they make advances
of this nature without us knowing about it?”

“The
German radar must be better than we realize, sir.”

“That's
well over the horizon, Brind. They would have to have aircraft up with
long-range radars to see out that far.”

“Our
own type 279 radar is good up to 100 miles under decent conditions. Admiralty
suggests they may have a pair of spotter planes up to either side of the ship
setting up kind of triangulation. That would improve accuracy considerably if
they were reading three signals and somehow managing to coordinate them.”

“Yes
I suppose that's possible, but guiding the rockets in like that? Almost every
rocket in use today is unguided, like the Russian Katyushas. This is something
altogether new. It changes everything. We’ll have to throw out the book and
completely reevaluate the way we operate with our carriers now. If they can cut
our torpedo squadrons to pieces like this before they get anywhere near the
target, then ships like
Victorious
and
Furious
are practically
useless as an offensive threat. We can use them as radar pickets and scout detachments,
or to provide air cover over our own fleets, but not for very much else. Trying
to throw Swordfish torpedo bombers, or even these new Albacore at the enemy is
just throwing lives and planes away, not to mention the torpedoes.”

“Then
again this could have been the lucky hit, sir. And if Wake-Walker had vectored
in his squadrons from different approaches, the Germans might not have been
able to track them as well, particularly if they are using some sort of
triangulation system.”

“Good
point. I suppose only time will tell. But for the moment, it's beginning to
look again like this bloody business is a job for the battleships. They can
fling all the ack-ack rockets they want at
King George V
and they won't
put a scratch on us.”

Brind
had another thought. “This may be a wild shot, sir, but what about
Graf
Zeppelin?
It was a converted cruiser, that long forward deck reported on
this contact might've been a landing strip, it explains how Jerry could have
airplanes up triangulating like this, and the biggest gun reported to be on
that ship is in the range of the weapon that struck the destroyer
Anthony
.”

Tovey
considered that for some time, and then said: “You might be onto something
there, Brind. We've heard nothing about
Graf Zeppelin
, yet we know the Germans
have her in the works. You might pass that one on to the Admiralty and see what
they think of it. In the meantime,
Graf Zeppelin
or not, my fourteen
inch guns may have something to say about it soon enough.”

Chapter
17

August
3, 1941

Kirov
raced south
into
the Denmark Strait, and behind her a dark, rolling front of bad weather surged
in her wake. The British had been chastened, but not put off in the chase. They
saw no further aircraft squadrons vectoring in on their position, but did note
a single plane popping on and off their screens, a little under a hundred miles
out. Admiral Volsky sent up a KA-40 helo to assist their over horizon coverage
in the face of the oncoming storm, and they noted the British task force was
still bearing on their heading, matching their speed knot for knot. As if
anticipating their course, the angle of the enemy approach had change earlier,
however, and they managed to cut twenty-five miles off the lead
Kirov
had for the moment.

They
rounded the northernmost headlands of Iceland, and continued southwest,
paralleling the distant icy coast of Greenland. With the KA-40 up, Rodenko had
a good fix on the shadowing British task force, noting that it had broken into
two groups, one out in front slowly gaining on their position, and a second
body falling behind.

“What
do you make of this?” Admiral Volsky asked Karpov.

“They
are deploying a screen,” said the Captain. “They want to make sure they can
adequately protect their carriers.”

Fedorov
could not help overhearing the conversation, and though he thought it risky to
contradict the Captain, he cleared his throat and ventured to speak up. “If I
may, sir, we know the exact composition of this task force. It's been matching
our speed for the last six and a half hours now, and we're running at thirty
knots. The only ships in that force that could move out in front like this
would be the destroyers, they could make thirty-five or thirty-six knots, which
is why that leading group is slowly gaining on us. I believe they may have decided
to try and catch us with these fast destroyers, sir. They did the same against
Bismarck
,
detaching destroyers assigned to convoy duty to catch up with her and harass
her until the bigger ships could come up.”

“More
of those tin cans?” said Karpov. “We should've sunk that first destroyer when
she came upon us earlier. That would have given them pause.”

“Mister
Fedorov has a point,” said Volsky. “Keep an eye on this leading group, Mister
Rodenko.”

“They
are at the edge of our surface radar coverage now, sir. Unless we keep a KA-40
up I won't have a good fix on them at this range. But if they do close on our
position, I'll see them in plenty of time. Our difference in speed is no more
than five nautical miles per hour. At the rate they are gaining on us they
could not pose a threat for quite some time.”

“In
that case, I do not think it's necessary to keep the helicopter airborne. We
must conserve aviation fuel whenever possible.”

Kirov
, in its original configuration,
had used a combination nuclear and steam turbine propellant system. The new
ship relied entirely on its nuclear propulsion system, and the space used by
the old steam driven turbines had been utilized to add reserve stocks of
aviation fuel for the three helicopters. But even this was a finite supply, and
the Admiral was looking far ahead in his thinking.

“In
the meantime,” said Volsky, “there is another consideration we must discuss.
According to Mister Fedorov's history book the Americans are now taking over garrison
duty for the bases on Iceland. They have their flying boat patrol craft at two
locations, and there may still be American naval units in this sector as well.
I don't have to remind you that the United States has not yet entered the war,
and will not do so for another four months. We must be careful, and do nothing
that might prompt them to reconsider their situation.”

“Why
should we worry about that?” said Karpov.

“Because
at this time Roosevelt is struggling with strong anti-war sentiment within the
United States,” said Fedorov. “If we are reported as a new German raider, and
we make a direct attack against American ships or planes, that could quickly
change the situation. An early entry of the United States in this war would
serve to undo
your
plan, Captain. Suppose the Americans end up getting to
Berlin four months early?”

“Thank
you, Mister Fedorov,” Karpov said dryly. He resented a junior officer
countering him, particularly in front of the Admiral. Fedorov was becoming just
a bit too forward, and he decided to have a word with Orlov about him. Then
Volsky continued, extending his reasoning as he now saw the situation.

“Very
well… the British believe we are a German raider as Mister Fedorov suggests. What
else? At this very moment they're trying to determine what ship we might be,
and eventually they will narrow down the list and find the Germans have nothing
whatsoever that can do the things they have been observing. They may well be
wondering now what could have destroyed their aircraft so easily, and at such
range. They're not stupid, and soon their intelligence system will begin to put
the pieces of this puzzle together, just as we did. We had the advantage of
longer range detection systems and high-powered HD video. We faced the
impossible question first, and eventually realized what had happened. At some
point they will do the same. But until that time, we have the considerable
advantage of surprise, in more ways than one. They have not yet seen a fraction
of what we are capable of doing. I want to keep them in the dark as long as possible.
We have played out the Jack, but still hold the Queen, King and Ace close to
our chest.”

“And
let us not forget the trump cards,” said Karpov. When they see those, there may
be very many other things they pause to reconsider.”

“All
things in time, Mister Karpov,” said the Admiral. “All things in time. Just
remember your bridge game…Never lead into a suit unless you know you can pull
their high cards and win.”

~
~ ~

 
Aboard
Victorious
, Admiral Wake-Walker could see that his destroyers could not
keep up their advance for very much longer. They were simply burning up too
much fuel running full out in the ever more difficult seas. But at least they
were headed the right direction. The Allied bases and fuel depots of Iceland
lay ahead of them at Reykjavík and Hvalsfjord where the Americans were setting
up their long range PBY patrol squadrons.

 His
thinking on exactly what this enemy ship might be had been given a nudge in an
unexpected direction when Admiral Tovey sent him a message with Brind’s idea about
the German carrier
Graf Zeppelin
. As far as they knew that ship was still
in the dockyards. In fact, naval intelligence believed the Germans had removed
many of her AA guns due to a shortage in Norway, where they were now deployed.
That thought struck him—what if they were installing these new rockets in their
place?