Three Kings (Kirov Series) (5 page)

“I must first apologize to you,
Admiral Tovey, and to all present, as it was my insistence that Home Fleet
deploy west in the Iceland passages that was largely responsible for what
happened. Had I permitted the Commander of Home Fleet to decide his course of
battle and dispose accordingly, we might have caught the German movement well
north of the convoy. It was my feeling that our newly established air base on
the Faeroes would provide sufficient coverage of the inside passage, and yet the
Germans were able to run heavy ships right up to those islands and shell our
boys senseless. I realize you did your best when the alarm rang, rushing HMS
Invincible
to the scene and shadowing the bandits as they fled south.”

“That we did, sir but with
King
George V
and
Prince of Wales
unable to catch up, I thought it unwise
to engage the enemy with my single ship.”

“The responsibility is entirely
mine,” said Pound, “and I am prepared to place my own head firmly on the
chopping block this time, and will fix blame nowhere else.”

“If I may, sir,” said Tovey.
“We’ll have need of every head at our disposal in the weeks and months ahead.
Your assumption that R.A.F.
Vagar
might provide us
with adequate warning of any German movement near the Faeroe Islands was entirely
sound—save for one factor—the
Graf Zeppelin.
That single ship has
changed the equation considerably, and we have not given it adequate
consideration. It was fighters off that ship that blinded our air search effort
from
Vagar
. Now that it has happened once, we must
take every precaution to assure it never happens again.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” said Pound.
“Yet it was also my bull headed order that you move both
Illustrious
and
Ark Royal
well west. Had they been closer perhaps we could have put up a
challenge to this German carrier.”

“Perhaps,” said Tovey. “Our
pilots are certainly capable and determined, yet we must get to work to give
them a plane that can match what the Germans have aboard that ship. Their
Bf-109 is superior in every respect to our
Skuas
, and even the new
Fulmar
may not be able to match it.”

“Agreed,” said Admiral Fraser,
pleased at the gracious and diplomatic manner in which Tovey had eased the
First Sea Lord down from the hangman’s scaffold. He was correct. They were
going to need every head they could bring to the task now, and there was no
longer any margin for error in these deliberations. “What we need is a plane
like the
Hurricane
or the
Spitfire
. Mister Fairey proposed he
could build a carrier-borne
Spitfire
a year before the war, and we were
fools not to listen to him then.”

“It was Churchill who skewered
that project,” said Pound. “He thought it would impede production of the land
based variant and, as it stands, we’re barely able to keep production on those
up to hold off the Luftwaffe. We do have the
Fulmars
coming on line now,
though they are few in number. Yet, for the time being, they will have to
suffice. At the same time I will listen to my Home Fleet Commander on this
matter, and make every effort to see what we can do about a seaborne
Spitfire
or
Hurricane
. We already have a few
Hurricanes
modified for use
on carriers. I believe those went to HMS
Furious
, did they not?”

“Yes, I believe so,” said Fraser.
“At least we know those planes can match the German Messerschmitts pound for
pound, but we have all too few of them.”

“We had an order for 50
Sea
Spitfires
set to go,” said Pound. “I presume we’ll be calling them
Seafires
if we ever get them. I will see what I can do to move it along. There has also
been some discussion about purchasing the American Grumman
Wildcats
.
We’re calling them
Martlets
.”

“We already have hold of 81 of
these American planes,” said Fraser. “The French had them on order, and we
filched the delivery after that apple went bad. More will be coming.”

“All this is well and good,” said
Tovey. “Yet we must also look to how we can augment the striking power of our
carriers. At the moment it seems to be tit for tat. Our
Swordfish
may be
a bit long in the teeth, but they still get hits, and we have the only torpedo
bomber of note in that plane. The Germans have nothing comparable. That said,
their seaborne variant of that damnable
Stuka
has been giving us fits.
Those planes are largely responsible for a good bit of the damage that was put
on our Battlecruiser Squadron. Our battleships have better deck armor, but even
they won’t like 500 pound bombs careening down in the thick of a fight at sea.
We must look to a similar design.”

“The
Fulmar
is being
adapted as a fighter bomber,” said Fraser.

“Yes? Well I’m afraid it may not
handle either role well enough to get the job done.”

“We’ll also have the
Albacore
to help out.”

“Another torpedo bomber by
trade,” Tovey said quickly. “Yes, they’ve been fitting bombs to the wings, but
it will simply not match what the Germans have in that
Stuka
.”

“Agreed,” said Pound. “We will do
what we can on this matter, but tell me, Admiral, what about these naval
rockets the Russians have? I understand that they can serve in a dual role, and
strike both aircraft and ships. Is that so?”

“I witnessed as much,” said Tovey
with a quiet thrum of anxiety. If he could tell Admiral Pound the full measure
of what he had witnessed and now knew about the Russian ship… but no, that
would be tantamount to talking of gremlins and leprechauns with the man. He was
lucky Pound had found the backbone to admit his own meddling when fleet
deployments had ended in disaster. Yet he knew there was no way he could
disclose what he knew about the Russian ship, and the men who had come here
from that impossibly distant future. He could still scarcely believe it
himself.

“Well? What about these rockets
then?” said Pound. “Might we have a look at similar development?”

“I’m afraid we have no real
projects active in that regard,” said Fraser.

“The Russians clearly have them,
and you seem rather cozy with them, Admiral Tovey. What about it? Might they
share this technology with us?”

“Perhaps, sir, though from all I
could learn of this ship, it is a prototype—one of a kind. It’s the only ship
the Russians have using these weapons and, as far as I know, there are no
similar land based variants.”

“That seems odd,” said Pound.

“I thought as much,” said Tovey,
thinking he had to lead this discussion along another path soon. He knew the
Russians had a limited inventory of their wonder weapons, and that
back-engineering them would take considerable time and effort, if it could be
done at all. They had told him the rockets had computing machines in the nose,
and radar as well, to guide them unerringly to their targets. He knew that was
beyond the capability of Great Britain for the moment, and perhaps any other
nation on earth, so he wisely said nothing of this. “It could be these weapons
take enormous resources to design and build,” he said. “The Russians may only
have this handful allotted to that ship, and nothing more.”

“Well, you might ask about that,”
said Pound. “If they are forthcoming, perhaps we could speed things along with
their development.”

Tovey smiled inwardly at that,
knowing it would be long decades, the better part of a century, before Britain
would ever have such weapons, or so he had been told by the young Russian
officer, Fedorov. “In the mean time, we should not count on this technology to
come on line any time soon. We’ll have to do with good old fashioned guns and
steel, and some better aircraft, as we’ve been discussing here.”

“Indeed,” said Pound. “Well, now
gentlemen, what to do about this war. We’ve lost Gibraltar. Churchill wants our
recommendation as to how soon we can get on with plans for the occupation of
the Cape Verde and Canary Islands. I can report that the planned occupation of
the Azores went off without a hitch. Operation Alloy has concluded, but we must
move quickly. The Germans will have eyes for the remaining islands as well.”

“Indeed they will,” said Fraser.
“As to Operation Puma against the Canaries, Lieutenant General Alexander
proposes to deploy the troops that were earmarked for the failed Dakar
operation. Puma will commit 101 and 102 Royal Marine Brigades, and units of the
new Special Boat Squadron in the initial assault. As to the Cape Verde Islands,
Operation Sackbut, now renamed Shrapnel, can go as well. Brigadier Campbell has
2nd and 3rd Battalions, Royal Marines, ready at a moment’s notice.”

“Can we mount both operations
concurrently?” Pound looked to Tovey now.

“The Azores Carrier Force will be
assigned to Operation Puma,” said Tovey. “Somerville has moved Force H there to
refuel, and he’ll provide the heavy covering force for Puma. The Cape Verde
operation will launch from Freetown, but it will need either surprise or
considerable naval support. The French
Force De Raid
is still operating
out of Casablanca, and the Dakar battlegroup has moved there, at least the
heavy ships. This will make Casablanca a very tough nut to crack in the
foreseeable future. The French will now have
Jean Bart
,
Richelieu
and
Normandie
there, a formidable task force. Both groups are well
attended with cruisers and destroyers, and we must also consider that Toulon
could send further reinforcements if the French get wind of these operations.”

“Formidable indeed,” said Fraser.
“But the movement of these ships leaves Dakar open to attack if we move
quickly. We have spoken with General de Gaulle again on the matter,
particularly after these reports that he was unwilling to commit his troops
against fellow Frenchmen.”

“What?” Tovey seemed surprised.
“Well who did he think would be there, the Bulgarian Army?”

“Exactly,” said Fraser. “Well our
Mister de Gaulle seems to have found his backbone after learning that Darlan
has put a price on his head. He was considering a move into Equatorial Africa
from Cameroon, but we’ve convinced him Dakar is the real prize now.”

 “Cunningham wants to roll
up his sleeves and have another go,” said Pound. “I think we should recommend it,
only this time no mistakes. I’ll want the whole of Force H in attendance. If
this
Force De Raid
wants to do anything about it this time, they’ll have
to get past
Rodney
and
Nelson
.”

“Agreed,” said Tovey.
“Eliminating Dakar is a vital necessity. It’s a dagger right on the throat of
all southbound convoy traffic.”

“Correct,” said Pound. “With
Gibraltar lost, and Force H operating from the Azores, we remain in dire
straits, particularly now that the Germans have heavy ships at Brest and Saint
Nazaire. We’ve lost
Barham
, and
Resolution
was brought home for
repairs after the engagement off Dakar. That, if anything, has shown us that we
can not underestimate the French Fleet in any subsequent engagement.”

“True sir,” said Tovey. “Those
are fast, capable ships, and the French have their blood up after Dakar. Now,
we pulled
Ramilles
and
Revenge
off
convoy escort for the Azores operation. I propose to keep those two ships
assigned as the close covering force for Puma and Shrapnel. Then we can let
Somerville take a more aggressive stance against the
Force de Raid.
But
make no mistake, gentlemen, He’ll be playing defense. Somerville has
Valiant
,
Rodney
and
Nelson
at hand, but none of those ships could really
serve to get after the French unless they chose to engage us further.
Somerville’s battleships are simply too slow. He’ll have to operate as distant
cover, and our first line of defense for these operations. As to carrier
assignments, we will stay with
Glorious
and
Furious
for the moment,
and the escort carrier
Argus
remains at the Azores. That leaves us
Ark
Royal
and
Illustrious
to watch the northern passages. That said, the
German heavy metal is now sitting in French ports, and so Home fleet must
deploy accordingly.”

“What do you suggest?” After
HX-69, Pound had decided to let Tovey have the bit between his teeth and let
him run.

“That is the problem,” said
Tovey. “We very nearly caught up with the Germans, but they slipped away. It’s
coming down to speed, gentlemen, that’s what we need in a good capital ship
now. Thank God we have
Renown
and
Repulse
back on their feet, and
in a pinch I could get
Hood
out of bed if necessary, though that ship,
and Admiral Holland as well, might need a little more time convalescing.”

“Holland tells me he’s fit and
ready,” said Pound.

“He will certainly be welcome if
that is so,” said Tovey. “I propose that Holland take up the watch here on the
Northern Passages. We’ll put two heavy cruisers and one of the two battlecruisers
in each passage, the Denmark Strait, and the Iceland-Faeroes Gap.
Hood
will have to play on the back row, and reinforce either group as necessary. The
German threat there is still significant. They’ll have
Tirpitz
, and the
Twins,
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
. On top of that there’s
Graf
Zeppelin
to worry about.”

“And what if they make a run at
the inside passage again?” Pound did not want a repetition of the maneuver the
Germans had just used so successfully.

“With
Spitfires
at R.A.F.
Vagar
now, that should prevent any recurrence of what we
just suffered with HX-69. Once burned, twice prepared. As soon as these
operations conclude I shall return
Ramilles
and
Revenge
to Scapa Flow to watch that inside passage.”