Kirov (41 page)

“Well,
sir, we've driven off Home Fleet for the moment, but as I said earlier, I don't
think we seriously damaged either
Repulse
or
King George V
. The
Prince
of Wales
is at sea, and that ship will likely be on Admiral Tovey's mind.
Given the shock and surprise they must have experienced with your missile
attack, I believe they have probably fallen back to consolidate and reassess
the situation. But they are out there sir, and they'll have several heavy
cruisers to throw in the mix as well. If
Ark Royal
sails from Gibraltar,
she will most likely be escorted by the battlecruiser
Renown
, and
possibly the battleship
Nelson
with several more cruisers.
Nelson
is slow, however, but given what has happened, I would have to believe the
British would put everything they have to sea. In a few weeks time her sister
ship
Rodney
will also be on the list. She was refitting at Boston and
was ready for action again later this month. They could bring her out early in great
need. If, however, we turn east, I think we could safely slip through the net
and out to sea to get in a better tactical position.”

He
was hoping this array of ships would give the Captain second thoughts about
keeping on this heading, but Karpov was simply stacking these ships up in his
mind. They were nothing more than names to him. Unlike Fedorov, he could not
quote their speed, gun caliber, armor thickness, but these things did not
matter, as his navigator was always close at hand. For now they were nothing
more than targets to him, and he was mentally pairing them with various missile
systems aboard ship, deciding how he would engage each task force the enemy was
likely to assemble against him. Then the same question occurred to him that
Brind had asked Tovey.

“What
about the Americans, Fedorov? They're not yet involved in this war, yes?”

“Officially,
they are noncombatants. They've only just begun to relieve the British garrison
on Iceland, and to take responsibility for the sea route we are sailing on at
this very moment. In fact…” Fedorov thought hard for a moment. “If I’m not
mistaken they have a convoy ferrying more troops, planes, supplies and
equipment to Iceland even now.”

“I
saw such a notation in your book,” said Karpov, “but the dates were vague.”

Fedorov
wished he had never told the Captain about that book but nothing could be done
about it now. “Just a second, Captain. I think I can get more specific
information.” He was hoping that the added weight of the American presence in
the region would be enough to tip the argument in his favor. He reached for
another volume from the shelf above his station, and quickly looked up a
reference while Karpov watched with some interest, his eye drawn to Fedorov’s
small book collection, noticing them for first time. “Here it is, sir. Two
groups: Task Group A with the carrier
Wasp
, the heavy cruiser
Vincennes
and two destroyers. They were ferrying those Army P-40 fighters to Iceland—”
His eyes widened. “They’re due to arrive on August 6th, Captain! They must be just
south of us, and very close by now. It would be best if we steered to avoid
them.”

“Rodenko
has seen nothing south of us for hours.”

“We
may pick them up soon, sir. And behind them will come Task Force 16 with the
battleship
Mississippi
, heavy cruisers
Quincy
and
Wichita
,
five destroyers and several transports.”

“Another
battleship?”

“An
older ship, sir. Her keel was laid down in 1915. She’s slow, perhaps no more
than 21 knots, but had decent protection with belt armor just over 340
millimeters thick, and she has twelve 14 inch guns and fourteen more 5 inch
guns. We cannot get anywhere within twenty kilometers of that ship, sir. The
carrier may pose no immediate threat, given that she is on a ferry mission and
probably not at full battle readiness.”

“Well
we’ve already beaten off the professionals,” said Karpov, speaking of the Royal
Navy. “I suppose it’s time to send the amateurs packing as well. Rodenko!” He
shouted at his radar Chief. “Let me know the moment you have any contact south
of our position. Samsonov, how is the missile reprogramming progressing?”

“The
men are working on it now sir. I have a few Sunburns reset to disable their low
altitude descent. They’ll just come right down on the target, sir.”

“A
few? How many, Samsonov?”

“Four,
sir,” the Chief said sheepishly. “But we’ll have another four ready in a few
hours. As for the other missiles, some will have to be taken out of their
firing tubes to get at the guidance module. It may take a while.”

Karpov
was not happy. All his ship’s weapons were still largely calibrated to fight
another class of warship altogether. “Will the Americans be hostile?” Karpov
turned to his navigator again.

Fedorov
was thinking what to say. Was the Captain seriously thinking of engaging the
Americans too? What could he say to dissuade him?

 “If
they believe us to be a German raider, I fear they will treat us that way, sir.
As I explained earlier, there were policies in place at this time to treat any
hostile contact within a hundred miles as an enemy and sink her. There was a
great deal of discussion about it, but the end of it was that the Americans
decided to consider any German surface raider or U-boat as a hostile threat if
found in these waters. Their naval forces were given the orders to engage and
destroy such contacts if encountered.”

“Then
we must consider any American ship hostile as well,” said Karpov. “What else
may lay ahead?”

“But
sir, you don’t want to engage the Americans, do you? I thought your plan was—”

”What
else is out there, Fedorov. Don’t concern yourself with my plans.”

“Well,
sir, they’ll have two battleships anchored in Argentia Bay, the
Arkansas
and
New York.
And they will also have another available on the East
Coast, the
Texas
. The Carrier
Yorktown
is also operating with the
Atlantic Fleet at this time, but she is in the Caribbean at the moment. The
heavy cruiser
Augusta
is already en route to Newfoundland with the
American president aboard. There will be other ships in that group as well.”

“My,
my,” said Karpov. “Their entire Atlantic Fleet, and most everything the British
can put to sea on top of it! And they are all within a few days cruising
distance from us at this very moment. Get busy, Samsonov. We’ll be needing
those missiles as soon as possible.”

“But
sir,” said Fedorov. “We must be very cautious now. There were several incidents
involving German submarines and American destroyers in these months leading up
to Pearl Harbor. None of them were serious enough to force an early American
entry into the war, but if we engage any of these American ships and do any
significant damage, that could change everything. Sink an American capital ship
in these waters and it could have the same effect as the sinking of the
Maine
before the Spanish-American War. Give the Americans a rallying cry and they
will become implacable enemies.”

“Are
they not already our enemies?” said Karpov. “They have worked ceaselessly to
impede, degrade, and humiliate the Russian Republic for decades. Make no
mistake, Fedorov. The Germans may be our enemy now, but we handled them well
enough. It is the Americans who will make an end of us later.”

 “I
understand, Captain, but if the Americans enter the war early against Germany,
then they will also have to declare hostilities against Japan. This could
preclude the Japanese from having to plan or execute their attack on Pearl
Harbor. It could change everything, sir. The entire course of the war could be
altered.”

“Has
it not already occurred to you, Fedorov, that is exactly what we are here to
do? You think I can tiptoe quietly past all these ships out into the Atlantic
to find that comfortable tropical island the Admiral was speaking about? This
is war. These are our enemies. I am the Captain of a ship of war, and I intend
to use her for exactly that purpose. We’re heading south. They are cruising
north. Let us see who gives way. If you don't have the stomach for it, then go
below and I will put someone else in your station.”

Fedorov
was silent, realizing now that every bit of information he revealed to Karpov
was dangerous—that Karpov himself was dangerous, and without the Admiral
available as a countervailing force, there was no telling what he might do
next.

Chapter
24

On
the 23rd
of July,
the
warm sun dappled the waters of Willoughby Bay and Hampton Roads
where the carrier USS
Wasp,
moved with the gentle incoming tides at dock
seven of the American naval operations base at Norfolk, West Virginia. The
stevedores had been working all day, loading long wooden crates up on to the
ship where they were quickly unpacked to reveal several squadrons of Army P-40C
fighters earmarked for deployment at the new American airfields on Iceland.
Curious sailors watched the planes being brought aboard with three PT-17
trainers, all assigned to the 33rd Pursuit Squadron out of Mitchel Field, on
Long Island, New York. And with them came a gaggle of Army Air Force pilots,
saluting as they came aboard reporting for temporary duty on the big navy ship,
and seeming just a little bit out of their element.

The
Wasp
was a scaled-down version of the
Yorktown
class carrier, but
lighter, with smaller engines, virtually no armor, and a displacement under
20,000 tons with full load. The Navy had been looking for ways to cut corners
while adding another carrier to its inventory, trying for a smaller ship that
still had the same aircraft capacity of the larger
Yorktown
class.
Wasp
was the result. She wasn’t rigged for battle yet. Most of her VF-7 flyboys
would sit this one out on nearby airfields, as her mission was just a ferrying
operation. A few days later, she cast off her moorings and eased quietly away
from her berthing to slip out into Chesapeake Bay and make her way into the
North Atlantic. There she rendezvoused with the heavy cruiser
Vincennes
,
and destroyers
O'Brien
and
Walke
for the run up to Iceland.

Along
the way she encountered a larger US task force also bound for Reykjavík. Task
Force 16 was led by the hulking presence of the battleship
Mississippi
with cruisers
Quincy
and
Wichita,
and five other destroyers. They
were escorting three transport ships and a naval maintenance ship,
Semmes
,
carrying Army Air Corps gear and supplies, heavy road building equipment, and
other personnel assigned to duty as America took up its watch on this distant,
cold outpost. The Marines were already there, setting up in the abandoned
Nissen huts the British had left them, but they needed planes to provide air
cover and secure their lodgment on the island. As
Yorktown
was still
down in the Caribbean,
Wasp
got the job.

Now,
on the morning of August 5th, she and her escorts were just a long day’s cruise
from Iceland at the leisurely speed of 15 knots they were making.
Wasp
signaled farewell to the
Mississippi
, and angled away, out to sea where
she could get some maneuvering room, turn into the wind, and begin launching
those Army P-40s. The planes would then fly into Reykjavík on their own, a
little over 400 miles to the northeast.

When
the P-40s were spotted on the flight line, the navy crewmen razzed and called
to their army brethren, telling them that now they would finally learn what it
takes to fly off a flattop. As the first plane spun its engines up to full power
and was flagged for takeoff, the sailors hooted and cheered when they saw the
P-40 dip and finally rise into the sky. Then, one by one, the other twenty-nine
fighters were spotted and launched, until the whole wing of thirty were
circling noisily overhead. When they had assembled into their squadrons and sub
flights, Captain Jim Reeves aboard
Wasp
radioed his best wishes and bade
them farewell. The planes started north by northeast on a heading of about 45
degrees and slowly winged away toward the horizon.

“Message,
Captain,” said a signalman.

“What
is it, Yeoman?”

“It
says to look out for a German raider exiting the Denmark Strait, sir.” The
yeoman looked down at his signal decode, reading it now. “Presume hostile and
very dangerous. Proceed with caution.”

“A
German raider? I thought the limeys had everything under control out here.
Well, there’s nothing those Army flyboys can do about it. They’re not even
armed. But signal them to be on the lookout, just in case. Maybe we can spot
the damn thing and send in the
Mississippi
to see about it.”

“Aye,
sir.”

~
~ ~

Minutes
later
the
American planes appeared on Rodenko's long-range air detection radars aboard
Kirov
,
and he immediately notified the Captain. “Con, radar air contact bearing on our
position, speed one-eight-five at 10,000 feet, range 180 kilometers I read a
large group of aircraft, sir, possibly twenty-five or thirty discrete
contacts.”