Straits of Power

Bunga Azul, as an antisonar and antitorpedo shield. The wires to Jeffrey’s second salvo, and to his off-board probe, were his front-line eyes and ears. Because of the islands, reefs, shoals, wrecks, and gas-drilling platforms all around, he was in a cluttered environment — and inbound torpedoes ought to have trouble finding him. The wounded Snow Tiger, in contrast, by choosing to go deep to outdive the air-dropped Mark 54s, and by moving fast to reach the Shadwan Channel and use the German’s own sonars to locate his prey, had discarded any chance of terrain or acoustic concealment. Jeffrey was trying to overwhelm him with a barrage of fourteen Mark 88 torpedoes coming all at once, each with a warhead twenty times the size of a Mark 54’s.

“Sir,” Bell said, “I must caution that Snow Tiger captain might adopt more aggressive tactics now that he knows he failed to sink us inside the carrier ship and he is not able to maintain quiet flank speed.”

“What do you mean, more aggressive? This guy’s arrogant, impetuous, impatient as it is. He thought he could outsmart everybody. He didn’t allow for our side having smart people too, XO, so our platforms knew what to listen for as he rushed north through the whole Red Sea.” The Snow Tiger’s flank-speed flow noise that lacked tonals would be distinctive once understood. That had to be how the carrier-based antisubmarine planes knew early enough to head toward this location. It explained why they were ready to help the local helos when the German started pinging southbound merchant ships.

“That’s my point, sir. Things haven’t gone his way, and he’s impetuous. He may feel egged on to score a last-ditch victory if he knows by ELF that the North African offensive collapsed…. He might go nuclear here.”

“That’s why he discarded acoustic stealth? He wants to lull me into a false sense of confidence and then one of his Sixty-fives has a nuke? But we’re too close to Saudi Arabia.”

“It’s my duty to state that he may see things differently, Captain. We do not know his current rules of engagement, or his willingness to violate them if given sufficient cause.”

Over the speakers, Jeffrey and his crew heard the echoes and reverb from distant blasts. The Snow Tiger was using its antitorpedo rockets to smash his inbound fish. There were louder blasts when the rocket warheads set off the Mark 88s.

“Assess all units from first salvo intercepted!” Bell said.

This won’t be nearly as easy as I thought. And now he’s really egged on, because only my ship carries Mark Eighty-eights. He knows that he’s up against Challenger.

“Second salvo has acquired the Snow Tiger!”

“Torpedoes in the water! Eight torpedoes, Series Sixty-fives, inbound.” The German launched another salvo too.

“Captain,” Bell said, “we can’t tell if a Sixty-five is nuclear until it detonates. Our only defense is a nuclear countershot to smash his torpedoes at a safe stand-off distance. If we use nukes for defense, we should for offense also.”

“It is against our own ROEs!”

“Sir, with Mohr and his gear aboard, and his honest intent and his equipment’s effectiveness proved now, we dare not let ourselves be destroyed! We’re low on high-explosive ammo. We might run out before the Snow Tiger does. We can’t be sure with her double titanium hull that our conventional Mark Eighty-eights will have the hitting power to stop her even if any get through!”

“XO, I can’t go nuclear here!”

“Captain, if we don’t we could lose Challenger and Klaus Mohr and the Allies could lose the war!”

Bell’s concerns are valid. The Snow Tiger defeated my first salvo, and I don’t have a lot more I can shoot. I need something to give me an edge.

“Sir,” Bell pressed, “remember Ohio! She succumbed with all hands against a superior force, using every weapon she had and every tactic Captain Parcelli could think of! To us, with the bottom at three thousand feet, the Snow Tiger could represent a superior force without going nuclear!”

Jeffrey’s next salvo was drawing close to the Snow Tiger.

“He’ll just swat them with more antitorpedo rockets, sir! We can’t afford to wait any longer.”

Was Bell right? Did Jeffrey need to go nuclear, before the German captain had a chance to?

“I have my ROEs! Nukes are forbidden!”

“You disobeyed orders before when you thought it was best!”

“How will Saudi Arabia take it when she sees American mushroom clouds so near her shores? We can’t go nuclear!”

Jeffrey’s high-explosive weapons were very close to the Snow Tiger now.

Jeffrey had an idea, something he’d never thought of before. Maybe it came to me from being on the Bunga Azul in the canal.

“All right, XO! I want to try one more tactic. If it fails we switch to nuclear Mark Eighty-eights.”

“Sir?”

“Put our fish into formation as close as you can to line ahead without loosing the wires.” “Line ahead” meant that the units would follow each other, evenly spaced in single file. “Have formation jink in unison each time lead weapon is intercepted.”

Bell, surprised, acknowledged. Torelli issued orders and his technicians worked their joysticks. Explosions began, more antitorpedo rocket warheads and Mark 88 warheads.

“Unit from tube one destroyed!”

Jeffrey waited and watched his chronometer. The next fish would be ten seconds behind the first. Ten seconds passed, then fifteen, then twenty. Another blast.

“Unit from tube two destroyed!”

Jeffrey’s eyes flitted to his chronometer again.

Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty. A blast.

“Unit from tube three destroyed!”

Jeffrey’s plan was working, so far. Each exploding rocket and torpedo warhead made a giant, persistent disturbance in the water; the Snow Tiger’s sonars getting target data for her rockets were blinded by a wall of bubbles and turbulence. They had to wait for the next jinking fish to charge somewhere through that wall, then acquire it, then launch another rocket — which had to cover some distance to reach the latest inbound weapon.

“Unit from tube four destroyed!”

Each time, Jeffrey put a torpedo closer to the German sub. But would the salvo of seven be large enough to get at least one all the way to the Snow Tiger’s hull?

“Unit from tube five destroyed!”

Not good. “Weps, obtain the nuclear-weapons arming tool, smartly.” Torelli ran to Jeffrey’s stateroom; as part of his job he knew the safe’s combinations.

Jeffrey’s sixth torpedo connected with the Snow Tiger, a direct hit. His seventh hit the German in the same place.

Jeffrey no longer needed wire-guided control on those expended weapons. “Reload tubes one through seven, nuclear Mark Eighty-eights. Preset warhead yields on one and two to maximum.” One kiloton, for offense. “Preset yields on three through seven to minimum.” One one-hundredth kiloton, for defense.

Bell acknowledged, relieved but still troubled. The phone talker said Torelli had the arming tool, and was in the torpedo room.

“Sonar, assess damage of conventional Mark Eighty-eight hits on Snow Tiger.” Sent off to one side and then slowed for a better acoustic-surveillance vantage point, the off-board probe detected a new signature, above the echoes and reverb of all the explosions and the engine noise of the enemy’s 65s still inbound.

“Flooding sounds, Captain!” Milgrom called out. “Mechanical transients! Assess as bilge pumps and an emergency blow!.. Propulsion plant noises have ceased!”

The speakers filled Challenger’s control room with the high-pitched hissing of a submarine trying to blow its main ballast tanks, combined with the lower-pitched roar as seawater shoved its greedy way into ruptures in the pressure hull.

“It could be fake, sir!” Bell shouted. “That noise could be from their sonar emitters!”

Jeffrey reluctantly acknowledged that Bell was right. It might all be a deception tactic, the German only