Kirov II: Cauldron of Fire

else is in the central and eastern Med.”

“Not very promising, but Talisman will have to do.” Tovey tapped his plotting pen on the map. “Gentlemen, here’s the plan. Force Z is out looking for this Geronimo and with three carriers I expect to hear from them shortly. It’s his job to bring them to heel, and that failing he’s to hang on to their coat leg and buy us some time to get Home Fleet further south. If our aircraft, this single sub, and Force Z can do the job, all the better. But if things take a turn for the worse, then we’re the goalie in this game. I’m not taking the fleet into the straits. Not enough sea room there, and we’ll be bunched up like a row of fat geese. No, gentlemen, We’ll fan out in a widely dispersed arc as I’ve drawn it here.” He gestured to the western approaches to Gibraltar.

“We won’t be forming a battle line either. All those tactics went down the drain the first time we tangled with this ship. So I plan to spread our four battleships out along this arc, each one within supporting fire range of the other three, but spaced far enough to force the enemy to disperse his fire. The cruisers and destroyers will deploy as a forward screen. We’ll keep the carrier well back and to the north along the Spanish coast. Avenger can launch everything she has. I’ll want all those Sea Harriers in her 802 Squadron armed with bombs. The Swordfish can go in low with the Harriers up topside. They, too, will fly in a widely dispersed approach. There will be no formation of squadrons and sub flights once aloft. It will be every man for himself. These rockets were taking out two and three planes at a time in the Atlantic. It won’t happen here.”

They looked at the plan, noting the careful dispersion of forces to cover any route of escape if the enemy exited the straits, and Tovey explained his reasoning further.

“If this ship is Geronimo, and they fling one of those blasted wonder weapons our way as they did with the Americans, they stand to hit no more than one of our capital ships in a single strike. It’s a damn ruthless logic, but after what we saw a year ago, it’s the only way to fight this engagement. If this ship breaks through Force Z, we had better be in position and ready for anything. As soon as they put their nose into the Straits of Gibraltar, I’ll order Home Fleet to go into action. It will be the charge of the heavy cavalry, gentlemen. Every ship is to go in full out, and with all guns blazing. Just counting the two forward turrets on the four battleships, we’ll have twenty four 14 inch guns in play. If any ship gets the range on the target and wishes to effect a turn to bring their rear X turret to bear, all the better, but I want you to close the range smartly, and get hits. You can expect hits as well if they fling those damn naval rockets at us again. As I said before, it will come down to the armor in the end—the armor, good gunfire, and a good measure of nerve. Now we’ve got King George V, Prince of Wales, Duke Of York, and Anson. One of us has to run this bastard through.”

Part X THE GAUNTLET

“The soldiers in black uniforms stood in two rows, facing each other motionless, their guns at rest. Behind them stood the fifes and drums, incessantly repeating the same unpleasant tune.

‘What are they doing?’ I asked the blacksmith, who halted at my side.

‘A Tartar is being beaten through the ranks for his attempt to desert,’ said the blacksmith in an angry tone, as he looked intently at the far end of the line.”

~ Tolstoy, After the Ball

Chapter 28

It began a little after 23:00 hours the 13th of August, 1942. Kirov had raced south, undiscovered, and was now making the turn Fedorov had planned to run due west to Cabo de la Gata. They would take the 60 mile run in two hours. Reaching the cape by 1:00 AM. But as midnight approached they saw three planes coming up from the south flying obvious search patterns.

“These must be off the carriers,” said Fedorov.

“Shall we shoot them down?” Karpov had returned to the bridge, rested and ready for action.

Fedorov thought a moment, and shook his head. “Why bother. If we do kill them, that act alone will give the British our approximate position, and immediately mark us as hostile. I want to see if we can try our ruse as a French ship. It might buy us just a little time.”

So they watched the search planes grow ever closer, the nearest no more than four kilometers out before they all turned, heading south again. It was not long before Nikolin perked up, adjusting his headset and waving for Fedorov’s attention.

“A radio message, sir. In English, and right in the clear.”

Nikolin put it on the speakers and they listened, eyes drawn to the overhead grill, brows raised as Nikolin translated.

“Ship heading two-seven-zero, latitude thirty six degrees, forty two minutes, longitude negative two, please identify yourself.”

Fedorov smiled. “Someone is ringing the door bell. They must have some good men in one of those planes. Those coordinates are very close to the mark.”

“What shall I do, sir?” asked Nikolin. “Should I ignore them?”

“No, Mister Nikolin, now you get to practice your English a bit. But if you can sound more like a Frenchman, that would be even better! Tell them we are battlecruiser Strasbourg, and that we have broken out of Toulon, fought off two Italian battleships that tried to intercept us, and that we are running for Free French ports in Equatorial Africa to join Admiral Darlan.”

“Very well, sir.” Nikolin translated, his big brown eyes moving from his microphone to Fedorov and back again, excited. Time passed, and then they heard the reply Fedorov expected.

“Sir, they want us to reduce speed and come to a heading of 255 degrees. They say they will escort us to Gibraltar and that we may arrange passage south from there.”

“Very well. Tell them we are coming around on that heading at twenty knots and will send up signal flares in thirty minutes.”

“You’re going to do what they say?” Karpov has a bemused look on his face.

“Of course not. Helm, steady on 270 and ahead full battle speed. Now we’ll see how cagy the British are. If they wanted us on 255 then they should alter course to near zero degrees north to effect a rendezvous from their present position. Any course they take west of that will mean they aren’t taking any chances and are maneuvering to make sure they can cut us off. Even if they do think we’re Strasbourg they would know we can run up to thirty knots. Let’s see what they do.”

They had their answer shortly when Rodenko, now back on radar, indicated the contact had altered course to 302 degrees northwest and increased speed to near twenty knots.

“A careful breed, these British.” Karpov seemed restless, arms clasped behind his back. “They made that course change before they even gave us a chance to come round on 255.”

“They’ll probably move something that direction, but I don’t think they are buying our apples today. They didn’t make the claim that Britannia rules the sea lightly,” said Fedorov. “They know Strasbourg would not easily prevail over two Italian battleships. This is the one heading they should have taken if they wanted to intercept us on our old reported course and speed. Very well… we’ll play the game a bit. In a few minutes I want a missile rigged with a star shell and fired right here, where we should be if we had turned on the heading they requested. They’ll most likely loop those planes back to shadow us, but this may prove a distraction.”

“We can just fire one of the UDAV batteries,” said Karpov. “A single rocket timed to explode in the air should