that plane.”
“Whatever the case, these new German rockets are dreadful. I’ve read Wake-Walker’s report. They just cut his planes to pieces. Simply dreadful. We’ve got to bring this ship to heel, Brind. The Prime Minister is already at sea.”
Tovey wanted to put on all possible speed, and was now running full out at 28 knots. Considering that this was either a modified cruiser or indeed the Graf Zeppelin, he thought about turning his battlecruiser loose to run the enemy ship down.
“See here, Brind” he said. “Suppose we send Repulse out in front. She can run at over 31 knots, and deal with a cruiser handily. If we turn her loose, she may close the distance and get this enemy ship by the scruff of its neck until we come up and finish the job.”
Brind thought, looking at their plotting charts closely. “If we split the force we may get better coverage,” he said. “And we’d only be thirty miles or so behind Repulse over the course of a day, sir. That’s close enough if she can sniff this villain out for us. Vian has had to detach his two destroyers to refuel, but his cruisers can put on 32 knots and effect a rendezvous with us tomorrow as well.”
“Good,” said Tovey. “The better all around. Our experience with Bismarck taught us to pile it on if we want good results.”
“Right, sir, but detaching Repulse could also have its risks. Remember what happened to Hood, and Repulse has no better armor.”
“ Hood was up against Bismarck, with 15 inch guns,” said Tovey. “These secondary batteries on this new ship were estimated at no more than four or five inches, at least from the damage Wake-Walker’s destroyer sustained. In my view Repulse can handle herself well enough with her six 15 inch guns.”
“Yes sir, but she hasn’t the flak defense of a ship like King George V. Suppose the Germans hit her with an air strike?”
“Every indication is that the Germans have very few planes available. Perhaps it is just a cruiser, launching sea planes for spotting purposes. Let’s get a signal off to Sir William and turn Repulse loose, shall we?”
He was referring to Sir William George Tennant commanding Repulse as she followed quietly behind Tovey’s flagship.
“I’ll give the order, sir. Let’s see if we can run this fox down.”
Captain Tennant was more than happy to take the lead and scout out ahead. This was, in fact, what his battlecruiser had been built for, a fast yet powerful scouting ship that would lead in the heavier battleships. Laid down in 1916, she had been given slightly better armor protection in refits prior to the war, and thus far had served well. She had assisted the evacuation of Norway and teamed up with the light carrier Furious to go after German raiders before. Now Furious was part of a group up north that had already sniffed out this new German raider, and Tennant was eager to bring the first big British ship into the chase. He put on all possible speed, and slowly moved out in front of King George V, slipping ahead to form the new vanguard of the Home Fleet, such as it was. Most of Tovey’s available cruisers had been up north in Force P and Vian’s smaller Force K. Now they were all bending their course to intercept the enemy ship before she could break out into the Atlantic.
Like most men who had risen to captain one of Britain’s capital ships, Tennant had joined the navy as a young lad of 15 years in 1905. Beginning as a navigator, he had a ship shot from under him and sunk at Jutland in 1916, then joined HMS Renown, the sister ship of Repulse, when King Edward had toured the world on her in the 1920s. He made Captain quickly, and in this war he had skillfully masterminded the British evacuation at Dunkirk, earning the nickname “Dunkirk Joe.” Yet he had seen quite enough of sinking ships and stubborn retreats. Once he was seated aboard Repulse, he had put her to good use, chasing down and engaging the “Twins,” battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Norwegian campaigns, and driving them off. The loss of Hood galled him, and he was eager for a chance to even the score.
“It’s a man’s game now,” he said to his Executive Officer. “Convoys are all routed south with the Prime Minister at sea. That means it’s all run and gun up here for the warships. I’ve been wanting to get into a scrap ever since Hood went down, god bless her. They wouldn’t let me try and sink my teeth into Bismarck after that, but this new contact is rumored to be a cruiser, or perhaps a fast carrier.”
“ Graf Zeppelin, sir?”
“Daddy Brind seems to think as much.”
“Our 15 inch guns will deal with that easily enough, sir.”
“That they will. The question is finding the damn thing out here. The weather is gray, though this front looks to be passing and we might get better seas in time. Let’s see if we can make 32 knots. We’ve only just come within a nip of that before. Let’s push her all out and find this enemy ship.”
“Right, sir, but I wish we had better eyes. They’re still working up that radar equipment.”
The ship had only just completed another minor refit, getting fifteen more 20mm Oerlikon AA guns and a type 284 surface gunnery radar set that the technicians had still been working on when Home Fleet sailed. They were kept aboard, stringing up the wiring and testing the antennas, but could get nothing more than a wash of noisy static when they tried out the new equipment. Repulse was also carrying six sets of the Type 286 Surface to Air radar, earmarked for ships in the Indian Ocean. She was slated for transfer that way with Prince of Wales after this official business had concluded, and eventual deployment to the Pacific as a deterrent against possible Japanese attack there.
Some 100 miles to the west, there was nothing wrong with the radar sets aboard Kirov, and other eyes were watching the approach of both Repulse and King George V very closely. Admiral Volsky was on the bridge near the end of his watch, a sullen mood on him with the return of that bothersome headache that had been plaguing him for days now. He was tired, feeling the stress of the last few days and still making the interior adjustment to the bewildering fate of his ship and crew. He thought he might go and see the doctor, leaving Orlov on the bridge for the last hour of his watch before Karpov returned at 08:00 hours.
The brief night had slipped by uneventfully, and the ship was now a little over 200 miles due west of Reykjavik. Though the British force that had been shadowing them continued to follow, they remained at a respectful distance and Rodenko saw no further signs of hostile activity. Apparently Karpov had given them quite a beating in that second air raid, and they were now licking their wounds, yet stubbornly holding on, even though the ship was now jamming most of the known frequencies British World War II radar would tend to operate on. They were most likely groping in the dark now, following on the last known heading they had on his ship. For the moment, geography was their friend in the matter. The Denmark Strait was a fairly narrow channel, and the only obvious route Kirov might have taken.
Kirov was sailing south, well west of Iceland towards the tip of Greenland as she now hurried on at 30 knots. Two hours ago, Rodenko had spotted yet another contact, bearing in on them from the southeast on an intercept course. In a conversation with his history consultant, Fedorov, the Admiral deduced that this must be his counterpart, Sir John Tovey, commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet. Rodenko spotted only two ships, however another signal was tracking in on them as well, northeast of their position, yet some distance away. It was just as Mister Fedorov had warned them, the British were reacting, almost antibody like, against the incursion of any foreign element that might threaten their vital convoy routes.
Volsky watched the approach of what he assumed could only be heavier British units, and Fedorov had deduced that the most likely candidates would be King George V and possibly the battlecruiser Repulse or another heavy cruiser.
“These were the only two capital ships in Scapa Flow at this time, sir,” he said. “Aside from Prince of Wales, and I do not think the British would be sending that ship against us. It was supposed to ferry the Prime Minister to Newfoundland.”
“And what about the Germans, Fedorov,” asked the Admiral. “There were several entries in your book covering this time period, and it looked like a large concentration of U-boats was gathering south of Iceland.”
“I did some research on that, sir,” said Fedorov. “I’ve got the whole database from uboat. net here on my pad, and that wolfpack, designated Gronland, does not form up until mid August. The only boat that gets anywhere near us on this heading would be U-563 under Oberleutnant zur See Klaus Bargsten. That boat is prowling due south of Iceland right now, according to my data, sir. But we’re well to the west. I don’t think we have anything to worry about from the Germans, but Admiral Tovey might want to keep a sharp eye. He’ll be bringing his task force right through the Gronland wolfpack assembly area.”
