The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (11 page)

Work on a new version of the Wildcat fighter is continuing. The F4-F3 version has been in operation service since the summer, but after reviewing data from the FAA of its combats, it has been decided to increase the armament to 6x0.5" machine guns, as well as a number of other changes to make the aircraft more survivable. The new model will also have fully folding wings to allow more to be carried. It is hoped to have this model available by the end of 1941.

The speeding up of the naval aircraft has been mainly due to increasing information on the IJN capability. A new fighter, the A6M2, has been deployed in China. While some of the reports on its performance have obviously been exaggerated, (the USN treats reports from the China theatre with deep reservation), it is obviously an improvement over the existing carrier fighter, and the USN feels it needs the Wildcat and the improved Wildcat to keep its advantage in capability. The IJN is also going ahead fast with its carrier construction. The USN has the design for its new Essex class ships ready, and they expect to lay the first ship down in April. Orders for some of the equipment have already been placed, and the ships construction will be a priority.

10th January

Germany and Russia signed a new economic agreement in Moscow today. The agreement is of special value to the Nazi war machine, for the Russians are sending the Germans industrial raw materials, oil products and foodstuffs, particularly grain.

It is believed by the British that among the raw materials are rubber, manganese and chromium. Vital in the production of weapons, these materials are in short supply in Germany because of the British blockade. The Germans will also get petroleum products and trainloads of wheat from the Ukraine. In return the Russians will receive German machine tools to re-equip the Soviet Union's out-of-date factories. According to the official Soviet communiqué: "This new economic agreement marks a great step forward."

On the previous day, Force H had headed back to Gibraltar having handed its merchant ships over to Admiral Renouf's force for escort to Malta. While there had been a number of high-level attacks from Italian bombers, the raids had been broken up by the CAP from Victorious, with the loss of three bombers, and the only result had been the washing of a number of ships under the waterspouts of missing bombs.

At dawn, Admiral Cunningham received a report from the cruiser Bonaventure that she had sighted two enemy destroyers, which had closed the force under cover of darkness. Increasing speed to close the cruiser, he found her and the destroyer HMS Hereward firing into an Italian destroyer which soon blew up. The fleet then turned east to follow the convoy.

Almost immediately the destroyer HMS Gallant had her bows blown off by a mine. It was decided to tow her into Malta (backwards!), and while this was happening two Italian torpedo planes which had slipped in low attacked HMS Valiant, without success. The planes were chased off by the CAP, one of them being shot down. A large formation of enemy planes was then detected to the north by radar, and Implacable turned into to wind to fly off her ready aircraft. As she was the only carrier present, her fighter group had been increased to 24 planes from the normal 24 by using some of the Goshawks normally tasked to defend Alexandria, and her CAP of eight planes would be increased to sixteen once the ready aircraft were in the air.

The new contact was in fact not the Italians, as surmised, but Fliegercorps X. Although the presence of this unit had been detected on Sicily through the use of Ultra and other intelligence, through a mistake the Mediterranean fleet had not been informed. As a result, the defence was working on the assumption that the attack would be by high-level and possibly torpedo planes. This meant they were not in the best formation to defend against dive bombers.

The formation consisted of Ju87 and He111 bombers, escorted by a dozen Me110 fighters. As the defending planes attacked, one of the two groups of eight was drawn off by the fighters. The other group attacked the estimated 45 dive bombers, and succeeded in shooting down 10 of these (the Stuka was an easy target when unescorted), but the remaining 35 attacked, concentrating on the Implacable.

While the carrier had a formidable AA defence, aided by her escorts, this had never been intended to stop an attack by this number of aircraft. Although they managed to shoot down four of the Stukas, and damaged others, this was not enough to stop their attack.

Implacable was hit by a total of five 550kg bombs. One on her forward elevator, which blew the lift itself out of the shaft, one which hit the S2 pompom and exploded against it, two which penetrated the deck and exploded inside the upper hangar, and one which just missed, but exploded very close to her stern, damaging her steering. The ship was left on fire and unable to steer. Although the fighters shot down two more Stukas as they withdrew, they now had nowhere to land.

The Navy was paranoid about fuel fires on its carriers, and as a result the shock of bombing did not damage the avgas tanks, and none of the aircraft in the hangers were fuelled. Many were damaged or destroyed, and a number of large (but containable) fires broke out in the upper hangar. Meanwhile the fighters were ordered to head for Malta (fortunately in range) and land there.

It took three hours to get her fires under control and steering with her engines, before she could head for Malta, escorted by the rest of the fleet. As they headed for the island, there were further attacks by Stukas and He111's. Although two He111's and three more Stukas were shot down by the fleet's defences, the Implacable received two more hits from 550kg bombs. One of these hit her port forward 4.5" guns, and although these were destroyed no serious damage was caused to the structure of the ship. The other bomb hit close to the aft lift, putting it out of action and causing damage in the lower hanger.

Despite all these hits from heavy bombs, the ships machinery had not been damaged - the hanger deck armour had successfully protected them as designed, although the upper hanger was effectively destroyed. The ship staggered into Malta harbour, where she would be subject to yet more attacks.

11th January

In Berlin Hitler issues his 22nd war directive, ordering preparations for reinforcements to be sent to aid Italian armies in North Africa (Operation Sunflower) and Albania (Operation Alpine Violets).

"German support for battles in the Mediterranean area. The situation in the Mediterranean area, where England is employing superior forces against our allies, requires that Germany should assist for reasons of strategy, politics, and psychology. Tripolitania must be held and the danger of a collapse on the Albanian front must be eliminated. Furthermore the Cavallero Army Group must be enabled, in cooperation with the later operations of 12th Army, to go over to the offensive from Albania."

The Mediterranean fleet headed back to Alexandria, less the carrier Implacable. In order to provide air cover, the Indefatigable had been ordered to join them (she had been supporting Operation Compass), which she did later that day. Until she arrived, air cover was provided from Malta, but this was not as effective as the fleets own organic air support. Further attacks were made in the morning on the fleet by Stukas, although this time by smaller formations. Most of these were driven off or broken up by the fighters, but the cruiser Southampton was hit by a bomb which caused serious damage, although fortunately it did not explode. The attacks only petered out after the Indefatigable arrived and added to the air cover.

14th January

General Wavell, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, and Air Marshal Longmore are in Athens today and tomorrow for talks with Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas and the Greek Commander in Chief, General Aleksandros Papagos. The Greeks ask for nine divisions and a substantial air component to be sent to support their forces. The Greeks have the equivalent of thirteen divisions facing the larger Italian force in Albania and four facing the Bulgarians. At this stage the Germans have twelve divisions in Romania and more in Bulgaria. To meet such a force Wavell is able to offer only a small contribution now, but more later. Since the British have barely enough strength to counter the Italians on the ground, Wavell recommends that the main contribution is by air power and by naval support.

General O'Connor's Imperial force attacks Tobruk at 0830 hours. The attack is strongly assisted by naval and air forces and is led by elements of the Australian 6th Infantry Division. 16th Australian Brigade use "I" tanks to break through the perimeter (these tanks are immune to Italian antitank guns) and these are closely followed by the elements of the 4th Indian Division. Free French troops also played an important part in the attack.

The Australians reach their first objectives by midday; but then the Italians brought their coastal and AA guns into action, and there are several hours of fierce fighting around and about the middle of the perimeter. By dusk the Commonwealth forces are ranged along the edge of the escarpment overlooking the town, and the western and south-western portions of the perimeter are safely under control. Meanwhile HMS Gnat, HMS Ladybird and HMS Terror bombard Tobruk.

15th January

Tobruk falls to O'Connor along with 30,000 prisoners.

For the past two days the Italian defenders have had to endure a bombardment of thousands of tons of HE hurled into Tobruk from land, sea and air. The barrage has matched the intensity of that at Ypres in 1917 and stopped only this dawn. Australian sappers went forward to cut the barbed wire on the outer perimeter and clear the way for the infantry who had moved to within 1,000 yards of the Italian trenches during the night. Backed by British armour, the Australians faced stiff resistance at first with many Italians dying at their guns. But eventually the resistance faded and white flags were seen above the defending trenches.

With the outer ring of defences breached, the tanks could attack the defenders from the rear. Of the three forts within the town, the first was taken by the infantry after fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the other two surrendered quickly afterwards. With the forts taken the town surrendered. No Union flag could be found so an Australian "Digger's" hat flies from the flagpole over Tobruk.

HMS Implacable is bombed again in harbour. Although the Maltese-based fighters take a toll of the high level bombers and Stukas, the ship is hit again in the upper hangar. A number of bombs land very close in the water, causing shock damage and leaks. The dockyard is working to get her mobile so she can get to Alexandria, as she is too tempting a target at Malta.

A Greek success has been obtained in Albania by the capture of the Trebeshine massif in early February, having forced the heavily fortified Klisure Pass in late December. However the Greeks did not succeed in breaking through towards Berat, and their offensive towards Vlore failed. In the fight for Vlorë, the Italians suffered serious losses to four divisions, but by the middle of January, due to a combination of Italy finally gaining numerical superiority and their own poor logistical situation, the Greeks' advance was finally stopped.

16th January

An advance guard of the Australian 6th Division, supported by British units, is ordered to advance on Derna located about 100 miles (161 kilometres) by road west-northwest of Tobruk. The Australians, now fully equipped, are leading O'Connors advance, allowing the 4th Indian Division to repair its losses so far in the campaign.

19th January

A chastened Mussolini arrived at Berchtesgaden today to plead with Hitler for military aid. The location is significant - until now, the two dictators have met on "equal terms" on their borders. Count Ciano found the Duce "frowning and nervous" on his special train - clearly worried that Hitler would be insultingly condescending to him after Italy's string of defeats in North Africa, Greece and Albania. Much to his surprise and relief, Mussolini found Hitler cordial and welcoming. The Fuhrer has already agreed to bolster the Italian army in Libya with antitank formations and squadrons of the Luftwaffe, and to send an army corps of two and a half divisions to Albania. The price to Mussolini is merely total subordination to Hitler in all military matters.

British forces of the 4th and 5th Indian Divisions in East Africa under Major-General William Platt, acting on information obtained by breaking the Italians' coded messages, invade Italian-occupied Eritrea. British Intelligence had been privy to secret Italian communiqués from Africa for the past five months; every instruction sent from one Italian military unit to another was analyzed by them. The Italian viceroy in Ethiopia was unwittingly receiving and transmitting every Italian military secret and weakness.

A South African Division is to be sent to North Africa; it had already been intended to use this is Ethiopia, but the logistics of the area mean that it would not have been able to support it. The division will serve as a reserve until it is fully operational.

Implacable is again the subject of attacks in Malta harbour; this time a bomb hits her already-ruined forward elevator to cause more damage in the hanger and sending splinters into her forward compartments. This seemed to be the last of the heavy raids (the combination of the initial attacks on the fleet, plus the attacks on the Malta defences have caused heavy losses to the Stukas in particular, and Fliegerkorps X requires time to rebuild to its normal strength.

As a result of the damage to Implacable, the Admiralty reorganises its carrier disposition. Because the Kreigsmarine now has the Scharnhorst, Bismark and Graf Zeppelin operational, it is reluctant to have less than three carriers available to the home fleet in case of a breakout (having to allow for one carrier in dock at any time). Illustrious, Formidable and Colossus will remain at Scapa. The steadily worsening convoy losses mean that the light and escort carriers are needed in the Atlantic. The solution is to send the fleet carrier Victorious around the Cape to join the Mediterranean Fleet. If more than one carrier is needed for a large operation in the Western Med, a carrier can be released temporarily from the Home Fleet. After what happened to Implacable, the Admiralty is reluctant to use the light carriers within range of enemy air bases on a long term basis - they simply are not built to withstand the sort of damage inflicted on Implacable.