Three Kings (Kirov Series) (26 page)

Tovey
left that in the silence as each man considered the situation. The Royal Navy
had always been the master of the seas, and could presume to back down any
other navy in a one on one conflict. Yet the actions against the new
Kriegsmarine, and off Dakar against the French, had exposed a weakness in the
fleet that was of some concern.

 The
Royal Navy was aging, with 80% of its ships still dating from the last war,
many which had seen service with Jellicoe and Beatty at Jutland. Where it had
the speed to catch its foe at sea, the armor was thin, except on HMS
Invincible
.
Where it had the guns and armor to stand in any good fight, the battleships
were slow, and could be easily out maneuvered by the fast new ships of their
enemies. There were too few ships combining the speed and power necessary to
prevail in the new war at sea, and the
Invincible
could not be
everywhere.

“Well,”
said Admiral Volsky. “The consequences of a defeat would be too severe to
contemplate. So the solution is a simple one. We will win. Yes. I have an
answer for you, Admiral Tovey. We will not be defeated. I will give orders that
my ship be made ready for action immediately, and if you would be so kind as to
entrust me with your naval ensign, I will proudly raise it and stand with you,
here and now. We will fight and we will win. Of this I have no doubt.”

Tovey
was the only other man in the room who knew that Admiral Volsky’s words were no
idle boast. “That’s the spirit,” he said quickly. Cunningham nodded his
approval.

“We
thank you for your offer,” said Tovey, “and I will accept it and be grateful if
you would receive my own naval standard as a way of welcoming you to the fleet.
It is no ordinary ensign. In fact, it was flown by our very own Horatio Nelson
at Trafalgar, and I have been privileged to raise it on my mainmast aboard
Invincible
.
Now I am honored to offer it to you in trade for your able services, and I know
it will be in good hands.”

Volsky
fully appreciated the significance of this offer, and knew the history that had
been sewn into that flag over many centuries. “The honor is mine,” he said.
“And whenever you see that ensign raised on my mainmast, you will be looking at
HMS Kirov.”
He smiled, extending his hand, which Tovey shook with eager
warmth.

“There
we are,” said Wavell. “A rescue operation for General O’Connor, and a new ship
for His Majesty’s Fleet. I’d say that is a favorable turn of affairs given all
this bad news of late. As for this search and rescue operation, I have a man I
should like you to meet, Admiral Volsky, a man named Vladimir Peniakoff. We
call him Popski, as most have trouble with his real name. He’s a bit of a self
styled soul, expert in special operations in the desert, and he has a private
little army of like minded fellows that may come in very handy during this
mission you are planning.”

“Excellent,”
said Volsky. “We would be honored to operate with him, and it will serve to
solve the communication issue between our people and yours. Our Mister Nikolin
here will be needed aboard my ship, so perhaps this man of yours can accompany
our team and serve as a guide and liaison with your own forces.”

“My
thoughts exactly,” said Wavell. “Popski is fluent in English, and a very useful
man. I know your people must be very capable, but there are many hazards in the
desert that can trip the best of men up if they are not aware of them. Popski
knows the desert very well, and I would feel much better to have a man like
that on your team. I will make the arrangements. Might I have him sent aboard
your ship?”

“Certainly,”
said Volsky, and the matter was settled.

“Now all
we have to worry about are those damnable Fallschirmjagers over Malta.”

“Fallschirmjagers?”
Admiral Volsky tried to repeat the word, though he mangled it a bit as he did
so

“The
German word for Paratroops,” said Fedorov. “It loosely translates as ‘Parachute
Hunters,’ but I have always called them the Hunters from the Sky. They are
elite troops, and the garrison on Malta will have a hard time if the Germans
throw their entire 7th Flieger Division at the island. Malta had only one
Brigade in defense in late 1940…” He stopped himself, realizing he was rambling
on, and referring to present events as past history. Wavell could not help
overhearing him, picking up the Russian easily.

“You
seem to be very well versed in military matters and up to date on current intelligence,”
he said to Fedorov. “We’ve only just confirmed that the German 7th Flieger
Division went operational. Now I’m afraid they’ve gone an done exactly as you
suggest and thrown the whole division at Malta. We have some good men there,
but only four or five battalions and too few fighters and anti-aircraft guns to
hold off the Luftwaffe. This is the second time Jerry has surprised us, and
caught us unprepared to make a good showing. I know our boys will fight, but
frankly, I give them no more than a week, and until we settle this naval
business, there is no hope of sending them any reinforcements.”

“Agreed
sir,” said Fedorov. “Yet in one respect, we may look at this as a bit of a
godsend. Had you sent the 2nd New Zealand and 6th Australian Divisions off to
Greece, your situation now in Libya would be very much in jeopardy.”

“I’m
inclined to believe things hang in the balance even with those good divisions
still in hand.”

“Might
I ask what your plan is, General?” Fedorov knew he was being presumptuous. Here
he was, a Captain in the Russian Navy trying to stir the borscht with the
Theater Commander of the entire Middle East. Yet Wavell was most gracious in
responding.

“To be
frank about it, we won’t stop this General Rommel in Libya. I’ve ordered the entire
Western Desert force to withdraw to Tobruk. If we can’t hold there, then it’s
back to our positions near Bardia and
Sollum
on the
Egyptian border.”

“Then
you’ll abandon Tobruk?” Fedorov knew the British held on to that key fortress
in the withdrawal.

“Not
bloody likely. We’ll hold it as long as we can. It will be a difficult decision
should it come to a siege. I’ll have to leave the 6th Australian Division
there. The Aussies were a leg division, and we had them well to the west when
this German counteroffensive began. Thank God for the Italian trucks and fuel
we captured on the way over, or we would have never been able to get those boys
back to Tobruk. The 6th Division would have had to foot it over a hundred miles
from their present position, and with enemy tanks nipping at them like a pack
of wolves the whole way. So I pulled them into Tobruk. Now, however, most of
those trucks have empty fuel tanks or broken axles after the mad dash to the
east. If need be, we can get them out by sea, but it is my preference that they
hold on there as long as possible. We’ll cover their desert flank, if
feasible.”

“Tobruk
is certainly a port of great strategic value,” said Fedorov. “That and the best
airfield in North Africa at El
Adem
make it a prize
worth holding, and it will tie down an entire Italian Infantry Corps if Rommel
wants to move east towards Egypt.”

“Precisely,”
said Wavell. “My, you are well versed in military matters. May I ask if you
have served in the Russian Army?”

“No
sir, I was always a navy man, a navigator by trade when I signed on, so I can
read a map, and I have studied military history all my life.”

“I see.
Well, Captain Fedorov, what do you make of our chances in this fight? We’ve had
a fairly rough ride since things started last September.”

“Germany
is, and will be, a formidable foe, sir.” Fedorov knew he had to speak carefully
here, and not sound as if he knew the outcome of these events. In truth, he did
not know, for the German Malta operation was now another major point of
divergence in the overall course of the war. “Something tells me the British
Empire has a good bit of fight left in her. This is far from over.”

Admiral
Volsky had been listening in, with some pleasure, seeing the delight Fedorov
had in speaking to Wavell, as if he had leapt into the pages of the history he
so loved, to interact with these towering historical figures. In fact, he had
done just that, and now they were all about to write a new chapter of that
history together.

“Well,”
he said. “I think we had best get our own Sky Hunters on the move, Mister
Fedorov. Your General O’Connor is out there somewhere, so let us not keep him
waiting.”

Part VIII

The Devil’s Teardrop

“When the stars threw down their spears, and watered
heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see?”

―
William Blake

Chapter 22

Admiral
Cunningham’s fleet
was well out to sea, a long column of four battleships,
Queen Elizabeth,
Malaya, Warspite
, and finally Admiral Tovey in HMS
Invincible
. They were
accompanied by the heavy cruisers
Kent, Berwick
and
York
, light
cruisers
Calcutta, Coventry
,
Orion
and
Ajax
along with
twelve destroyers.
Kirov
was ten kilometers off the starboard bow, her
radars sweeping the sea for signs of enemy activity. This left only a few
cruisers and destroyers in the cupboard to cover Alexandria and Suez, but it
was a risk they thought acceptable given the probable locations of the Italian
fleet. There were also two aircraft carriers at sea to provide fleet air
defense, though both were aging warriors by 1941.

Hermes
had been laid down
22 years earlier, in 1918, a design built on a light cruiser hull. A light
escort carrier, she would carry no more than 18 to 20 planes, mostly fighters.
But the ship had managed to get in on a few choice assignments, hunting both
Graf
Spee
and
Admiral Scheer
in the South Atlantic, and then
participating in the watch on Dakar before that place was finally taken. She
had been slated to go to the Persian Gulf to harass the German effort to
reinforce the incipient rebellion in Iraq, but the loss of Gibraltar prompted
the Admiralty to re-assign her to Admiral Cunningham’s fleet for the planned
raid on Taranto. Now that was frustrated, but her Captain, Richard Onslow, was
eager to get in the action again as part of the fleet covering force for this
operation.

HMS
Eagle
was the same
age, a larger ship that was first planned as a dreadnaught for Chile, designed
as an
Almirante
Latorre
class Battleship at
about 28,000 tons, with ten 14-inch guns. She was later purchased by the
British for conversion to an aircraft carrier. The guns were removed,
lightening her displacement to 22,000 tons by 1924. The ship spent the first
nine months of the war in the Indian Ocean, hunting German commerce raiders
before joining Cunningham’s fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. With mostly
Swordfish
,
she managed to sink three Italian destroyers and a submarine in raids off
Tobruk along the North African coast. She also had three old
Gladiators
that had been found crated up in
Dekhelia
, the only
fighters available to the FAA at Alexandria before new squadrons arrived. Now
she had the new Fairy
Fulmars
assigned to 803 Squadron, planes that had
been transferred from HMS
Furious
.

The two carriers,
Eagle
and
Hermes
, would be going in ‘light,’ with a preponderance of fighter
aircraft.
Eagle
would embark 12
Fulmar
fighters of the 803
Squadron, and six new
Martlets.
She would also retain her 12 Swordfish
in 824 Squadron,
30 planes in all.
Hermes
would carry 800
Squadron with 12
Skua
fighters, and a small flight of 6
Swordfish
that were waiting for her at Alexandria.

It was a strong sortie on paper,
4 battleships, 8 cruisers and twelve destroyers covered by 48 planes, and the
addition of the battlecruiser
Kirov
was the icing on the cake. That
said, the fleet would now face its greatest challenge of the war.

Prior to this time the Royal Navy
had sparred with the Italians at inconsequential engagements off Crete and Cape
Spade and
Passero
, which had decided nothing in the
balance of power in the Mediterranean. Now however, the enemy was sending out a
well coordinated fleet. The Italians had the battleships
Roma,
Venetto
and
Littoro
near Messina, sailing to join Andria
Doria
,
Duilio
and
Conte Cavour
from Taranto, with
four heavy cruisers, six light cruisers and fourteen destroyers.

The Vichy French would contribute
another powerful fleet led by the pride of their navy, the battleship
Normandie
,
battlecruisers
Strasbourg
and
Dunkerque
, with two heavy and four
light cruisers, and ten destroyers. And arriving from Gibraltar the Germans
were sending the formidable
Bismarck
and
Hindenburg
, escorted by
their light carrier
Goeben
and the new fast
battlecruiser
Kaiser
, which the British did not even know about,
mistaking it for a heavy cruiser in the
Hipper
class when it was first
spotted. They now outnumbered the British 12 to 5 in capital ships, 6 to 3 in
heavy cruisers, 10 to 5 in light cruisers and 24 to 12 in destroyers, almost a
solid two to one advantage in every category… almost.