Kirov III: Pacific Storm

morning mist, breathing deeply. He watched while the flight crews pushed the last of his D3A1s from the elevator, their wings glistening with a light sheen of moisture. The steam rising from the hydraulics beneath the main deck formed subtle wisps and then folded into the mist, a shadow dancer on the thick morning airs.

Too few, he thought. So many planes gone…. So many men. He now had more pilots aboard than aircraft. They had been able to patch up the seven D3A1s that had survived that disastrous first strike mission, and two shotai had been flown in from the reserve at Kendari, six more planes to give him a total of just thirteen dive bombers ready for operations that morning. All the D3A1s had been grouped here on Zuikaku. There were also nine B5N2s being readied, their long sleek torpedoes being checked even now as the first two came off the elevators. An equal number would be making ready for operations aboard Shokaku, cruising sedately off their starboard bow. That would give him eighteen torpedo planes to add to his strike, barely a third of the wave he might normally hope to lead against a naval target.

And this was no ordinary ship. He still shivered with the memory of those deadly rockets arcing into the sky, their fiery tails spitting flame as they came at his planes like piranhas, cutting his squadrons to pieces.

The words he had spoken to his men earlier in the briefing room returned to haunt him. “These rockets flung against Kirishima could not have found the target on their own. Every single one hit home, or so I am told. It is clear that they must be piloted, and so we must not underestimate the bravery of our enemies. I do not have to remind you that it was only the courage of Lieutenant Hayashi that enabled us to find and hit this demon. He did so twice, his life counting for nothing in the face of duty. Let that be a lesson to us all. It may be that we, too, must ride our planes to a flaming end this morning.”

He remembered the look on Lieutenant Ema’s face, another survivor of the first wave, and spoke one last time. “It is for those of us who have already seen this monster to lead the way for the others.” It was clear what he meant, and Sakamoto had every intention to follow in the wake of Hayashi that morning, to another life if need be, and to end the sorrows of this war insofar as his small part was concerned.

The last of EII-3 Torpedo Squadron was up from below and being spotted behind his dive bombers for takeoff. He could feel the carrier turning, noting the wide sweep of her foaming wake cutting through the green seas, and he took a long, deep breath. It was time.

Sakamoto drew out a boson’s whistle from his flight jacket and blew a high, shrill note. The rise and fall of the flight deck leader’s voice called in return and the men were now moving quickly to their planes. He was up and into the cockpit of his D3A1 like a shadow fleeing from the rising sun, and soon he heard the grinding whirr of the engine, firing sharply as the forward prop slowly rotated, then sputtered to life. He fed it power, reassured by the heavy thrum of the engine and the whirl of the glistening propeller. A flagman was already out in front of his plane, slowly walking backward, the white flag in his hand catching a slight morning breeze as the carrier faced the wind.

Seconds later he saw men dash in under his wings and felt the chocks dragged away, he was ready to fly. The flagman waved him forward and his engine revved to high rotation as he readied himself, the adrenaline in his chest sending his heart beating faster. Raijin, God of Thunder, he prayed silently. Give me your lightning this day.

Then the flagman waved him on with a sharp movement rotating and kneeling, one arm extended towards the long forward flight deck, pointing out the way. Sakamoto pushed the throttle to full and felt his plane lurch forward in response. It rumbled down the runway with a roar, until he felt that airy lightness as the wheels ran out of deck and his plane growled to gain altitude. He dipped slightly, his eyes playing over the opalescent green froth at the bow of the ship, and then he was up, climbing into the sky through a bank of low lying clouds, the air sweet in his lungs and a smile on his face.

It was a beautiful dawn, the last morning of his life, and knowing that simple fact brought an elation he could not hold within him. It glistened as a tear, wetting his cheek as he climbed. And then he banked left to look over his shoulder to see Ema’s plane rising in his wake, and a third D3A1 running swiftly along Zuikaku’s deck for takeoff. Beyond that he could see the swan white wings of the A6M2s off Shokaku rising in force to escort the strike planes in.

He would not die alone.

~ ~ ~

As the planes drew ever closer, the men aboard Kirov now had a good look at what they were facing. Admiral Yamamoto’s estimate had been a little off the mark. Hara’s strike was now composed of thirteen D3A1s, eighteen B5N2s and twenty-four A6M2 fighters in escort, fifty-five planes in all. It was reasoned that each fighter along for the mission would present the enemy with yet one more target. Increasing the chances that one of the strike planes would get through.

Rodenko was able to estimate the size of the force at fifty plus planes, already more targets than their remaining SAMs on a one for one basis. To make matters worse, the second airborne group coming up from the south returned another thirty-six discrete contacts. They were now facing over ninety planes against the thirty-five SAMs they had left in the silos.

“God help us this time,” Fedorov whispered under his breath. He looked at Karpov, ready to hand control of the engagement to the able Captain, and for a moment their eyes met, a question in Fedorov’s, a hint of uncertainty in Karpov’s, firming to resolve. It was the first time they had faced an attack without the calm assurance that they could bat it aside. Had their magazines been full, all systems nominal, that would again be the case, but now each one knew they were under real threat, particularly if the Japanese pilots pressed home their attack with the same intensity as before.

Karpov took a deep breath, realizing that the eyes of the bridge crew were on him now, waiting. He stood straighter, clasped his arms behind his back as he often did in combat, and then gave his orders.

“Mister Samsonov,” he said calmly. “We will engage with the S-300 system as before. Range one hundred kilometers; a salvo of six missiles to target each group. I want your firing interval longer, ten seconds.”

“Aye, sir, weapons locked on targets and system ready.”

Rodenko looked over his shoulder, nodding at Karpov to indicate the targets had crossed the range line, his eyes big and white as he did so.

“Commence firing.”

The warning claxon, the snap of the forward deck hatches, the first long sleek missile up from below, the wisp of its aiming jet as it declined the sharp pointed nose before the roar of the engine sent it lancing away from the ship in a wash of pure white vapor… The Second Battle of the Coral Sea had begun.

~ ~ ~

One by one the deadly S-300’s charged forth to meet the enemy, each one accelerating so fast that they soon left the roar of their own engines far behind, and became silent steel javelins in the bright morning sky, reaching impossible speeds in a matter of seconds. A man firing an automatic assault rifle would see his bullets fly off at twice the speed of sound. The missiles were four times faster. To the enemy planes that chanced to see them coming they would seem a blur of lightning coming up at them from some angry sea god unseen on the ocean below. When they exploded, a tight bundle of long steel rods would fragment into a rain of metal, out to a ten meter radius around the point of detonation. Any plane close inside that radius would be torn to shreds, only the heavy engine compartment surviving intact. Targets farther out could be riddled with shrapnel, their wings damaged, fuel tanks ruptured, canopies shattered, pilots run through with lethal wounds.

One missile came, then another and Sakamoto, flying at the top of his strike wave with the squadrons of Rei-sen fighters, could see two planes down from the first rocket, then another, then three more, one killed outright in a violent explosion, and the remaining two B5N2s streaming smoke, but still doggedly holding formation. He shouted an order to his fighter escorts, and the zeros tipped their wings and roared down, right into the thin smoke trails scratched into the sky by the first three rockets. They would surge ahead like a pack of sleek greyhounds, willing now to take the worst of anything more that reached for their brothers behind. Five more died when the next three rockets came, and then a surreal calm settled over the scene as Sakamoto watched the last of the five ride its own smoking tail into the sea. He craned his neck to see what remained of his formation, the brave pilots steady on as they came.

He had lost seven A6M2s in all, three B5N2 torpedo bombers and one dive bomber, eleven planes hit or lost to six enemy rockets. They were birds on a wire. He gave the order to disperse by shotai and then for each group of three planes to fly a wide pattern, well off the wingtips of their brethren.