Kirov II: Cauldron Of Fire (Kirov Series) (25 page)

“Yes,” Tovey
agreed. “I’ve thought this as well.”

“I have come
to the conclusion that the Germans simply do not have the capability, or the
technology this ship has demonstrated. It saw your ships well before you ever
knew it was there—so it must have very advanced radar, far beyond anything we
have today. It targeted your vessels with amazing precision, and with weapons
so lethal that I frankly believe they are beyond the means of any nation on
this earth to produce…” he paused, a glint in his eye. “At least at this point
in time.” He knew he was running on now, and towards a very dangerous
precipice, but here was a man willing to stand and listen to him. Perhaps he
could lead him to the same conclusions he had drawn himself.

“I may have
said too much here, admiral, so you can forgive me if I seem a young and
foolish man, but I assure you, I am not.”

Tovey looked
at him, his eyes creased with a warm smile. “No, professor, the last thing I
would take you for is a fool, nor I do consider this line of thought to be in
any way preposterous, as Admiral Pound might put it. You forget that I have
seen these weapons first hand—seen them thunder in against my very own ship.
You say such technology is beyond our means at this time, but how long before we
might have weapons like this ourselves if we put our minds to it? Have you
considered that?”

Turing’s
mood seemed to darken with that, and there was a hint of hesitation, even fear
in his eyes when he answered. “If you want my very best estimation, Admiral, it
would take years of rigorous testing and development to reach this level of
sophistication. You see it’s not that the technology is beyond our thinking. We
know the road, and where it might lead us, it’s just that it will take us
time
to get there, perhaps decades. Where there’s a will there’s a way, right? It’s
all a matter of time, sir.”

“I see,”
said Tovey, thinking deeply, his eyes betraying both uncertainty and concern,
though he said nothing more on the matter, extending his hand. “Good work,
Turing. Carry on, will you?”

“Thank you,
sir. I shall.”

Tovey walked
off to find a fast plane to Holyhead and Turing ambled slowly down the long
corridor, still thinking about what he had said, and wondering if the
government would end up putting the thumbscrews to him for his rash ideas. I
wonder if he got what I was really aiming at, he thought to himself. No, you
can’t come out with it plainly. That much is obvious given the reaction of men
like Pound. No doubt there will be others very much like Pound and they would
make your life a living hell if you push on this door too hard. But you’ve
squeaked it open with Admiral Tovey, haven’t you? He listened to what you had
to say, and perhaps he’ll come round to it on his own.

He looked at
his wrist watch, realizing he had a plane to catch if he wanted to get back to
Bletchley Park.
Time,
he said inwardly. Yes, that’s the heart of the
matter now. It is only a matter of time…

Chapter 17

By the
time
they passed
Punta Caprara, the northernmost cape of the island of Asinara, it was well
after 10:00 in the morning. They had fought their way past shore batteries,
through minefields, torpedo boats, a submarine, an air strike, and a brief,
violent surface engagement with two battleships. Fedorov counted his good
fortune that the ship had come through it all with little more than splinter
damage on the hull, but that was a testament to the amazing technological edge
Kirov
had over its adversaries. Yet one thing bothered him as they finished the
damage control assessment. Tasarov was restless at his station, claiming that
his systems were erratic, and he was losing signal processing integrity of the
forward Horse Jaw sonar dome. With the towed array already damaged and still
under repair, this was a matter of some concern.

Fedorov was troubled,
but was hoping that the history would hold true for a time, as it indicated
that most all available axis submarines were far to the south opposing
Operation Pedestal. They watched the Italian 7th cruiser Squadron race towards
the eastern approaches of the Bonifacio Strait, then slow to assume a defensive
patrol there, guarding the waterway in the event this bold British raider might
think to return.

“As I
expected, they have no interest in trying to follow us, particularly after they
must've learned what happened to their battleships.”

For the
moment he deemed their main threat to be further air strikes launched at them
from bases in Sardinia, but again, he knew that the Axis air power would now be
focused against Operation Pedestal, some 300 miles to the south. The situation
presented them with an opportunity to get safely away from Sardinia and
Corsica, and well out to sea. He set a course due west at twenty knots, wanting
to put at least 150 miles between the ship and any potential land based enemy
aircraft. Later he would slow to ten knots or less and put divers over the side
to inspect the hull for splinter damage. He suspected something may have
happened to the forward sonar dome as well, or the sensors along the outer rim
of the hull. They would take whatever time was needed to effect repairs, perhaps
near Menorca in the Balearic islands.

Rodenko
reported that he could still see the Italian battleships on radar heading
north, then northeast as they withdrew towards La Spezia. It had been an
ill-fated sortie for them, perhaps the last gallant charge by the Italian Navy
in the war.

The next item
on his list was an assessment of their current weapons inventories. He took
Karpov aside and the two of them hovered over Samsonov’s CIC boards to see what
was left in the cupboard. Two critical systems were beginning to run thin on
ammunition. Their long range S–300 SAM system was now at sixty-four percent,
with only forty-one missiles remaining. In like manner, the Klinok Gauntlet
medium range SAM system was down to only seventy-nine missiles left in
inventory. More serious than this, their primary anti-ship missile, the deadly
Moskit-II Sunburns that had proved so effective against enemy shipping, was now
at forty percent with only fourteen missiles left in the silos. They were lucky
to have even these. A normal load-out would be twenty missiles, but they had
taken on a complete set of twenty additional missiles before the live fire
exercises that had first sent them on this strange saga, but all these were
expended in the North Atlantic.

Beyond this
they still had nine of the swift MOS–III Starfire missiles, which were
extremely fast at mach 6 acceleration, but carried only a 300 kilogram warhead
compared to the heavier 450 kg warhead on the sunburns. They still had a little
more punch left with ten P-900 Sizzler cruise missiles, each with a 400kg
warhead. All in all, the three systems left them with thirty-three anti ship
missiles out of the sixty they began the voyage with.

As for their
deck guns, the 152 millimeter batteries were presently at eighty-nine percent
on the magazine, and they still had almost a full load for their smaller 100
millimeter forward deck gun. They had expended six percent of their close in
defense rounds on the thirty millimeter Gatling guns, and two of the deadly
Shkval
anti-submarine torpedo rockets, with eight more remaining. Beside that they
still had most of their UGST torpedoes, fifteen in stock, and there were
additional load-outs available for their last remaining KA-40 helicopter. All
in all, the ship still had a formidable array of firepower at its disposal, but
the numerous engagements they had fought in the last day were beginning to
slowly drain their weapons inventories.

“Now, more
than ever, we are going to have to be judicious in the way we deploy our
weapons,” said Fedorov.

“What can we
expect ahead on this course?” asked Karpov.

“For the
time being we should have a little peace and quiet, enough to effect repairs
and give the men some much needed rest. I intend to sail west to Menorca and
into the Balearic Sea. That channel is between 160 to 200 kilometers wide for a
good long while, and when we exit to the South will have at least a eighty kilometers
of sea room between Spain and Santa Eulana Island. Then we enter the final
bottleneck, the Alboran Sea. It's nearly 250 kilometers wide at the outset, but
narrows to about150 kilometers as we approach Gibraltar. That's the last gate,
about fifteen kilometers wide at its narrowest point. If we can get through
that safely then we've got the whole Atlantic out there, and our speed can be a
great advantage in that situation.”

“And
Gibraltar?” said Karpov. “What will the British have waiting for us there?”

“That
remains to be seen,” said Fedorov. “We will be all day getting out to sea, and
I'll put divers over the side near dusk near Menorca. So we should be well into
the Balearic sea by dawn tomorrow. I'm hoping our damage control situation can
be easily resolved, but I would like to discuss this matter with Admiral Volsky,
and come to some agreement on how we might handle the Strait of Gibraltar. Would
you feel comfortable joining that conference Captain?”

“Of course,”
said Karpov. “We will need to know what we are facing, and let us hope the
history settles down for a bit. Those two Italian battleships were a bit of a
surprise, I know, but our Moskit-IIs seemed more than a match for them.”

“We used six
missiles,” Fedorov cautioned. “Yes, we drove them off, but my guess is that
they will live to fight another day. Counting all three of our SSM systems, we
now have only thirty-three anti-ship missiles remaining in inventory.”

“No
problem,” said Karpov. “Six more to send this
Rodney
and
Nelson
packing,
and plenty left over for any cruisers and destroyers they would care to throw
at us.”

“I wouldn't
be so self-assured, Captain. The Royal Navy is a tough professional force.
They'll learn from any mistakes they make, and they've had a lot of lessons in
recent years. As for the
Nelson
Class battleships, yes they are old and
slow, but with 16 inch guns and good protection. That aside, it's 1942 now, and
once we get out into the Atlantic we’ll find the British have added two more
fast battleships to their home fleet with
Duke of York
and
Anson
.
A third in this same class is scheduled to be commissioned in just a few weeks,
HMS
Howe
. In short, their home fleet is twice as strong as it was when
we first faced it, at least insofar as the big battleships are concerned.”

“I think
Volsky will want to head south, well away from the Royal Navy.”

“True. Yet we’ll
first have to transit the Strait of Gibraltar much like we just fought our way
through this last one. Very likely we will find ourselves in range of those
heavy guns on
Nelson
and
Rodney
if they get there first. And
Captain,” he paused for emphasis. “We won't be deploying any nuclear weapons
against the British this time out, at least not while I command the ship.”

Karpov's
eyes narrowed at that last statement, but he said nothing for a moment, then
shifted to another topic. “If the landforms inhibit Rodenko’s radar we can
still deploy helicopters to enhance our over the horizon awareness. That may
take the surprise factor out of the situation.”

“That is a
good plan, Captain.” Fedorov concluded. “Very well, I’ll go below and see how
the Admiral is doing. You have the bridge for the moment. We’ll send for you if
Admiral Volsky is well enough to conference.”

Fedorov
started for the sick bay, a thousand
things running through his mind. He had had very little sleep since this new saga
unfolded. The ship had been pressed by unexpected adversaries, and sustained
real damage for the first time. The constricted waters of the Mediterranean
served to neutralize one of
Kirov
’s greatest technological edges—the
ability to see the enemy at long range before they were even aware of the
Russian battlecruiser. And what you could see, you could also target and kill.
The landlocked sea here meant that they were surrounded by airfields on every
side, and recon planes were almost certain to find them and report their
position, speed and heading. To prevent that they would have to detect and
shoot down virtually every airborne contact they encountered, and that was not
going to be practical given their slowly dwindling SAM magazines.

This was
going to give their adversaries much more situational awareness than they ever
had before. They will know approximately where we are, he thought, and that was
compounded by the fact that the ship had only three options if it wanted to
exit these waters. Suez was not really a viable choice, and the Bosporus route,
though appealing in one sense, would only leave them masters of the Black Sea,
with the same long, grueling task of sailing to Gibraltar through an active war
zone if they ever wanted to leave that place. This reason, and the
circumstances that found them running straight for the chaos of Operation
Pedestal, had prompted Fedorov to take this northern route. Now that the
Bonifacio Strait was behind them they might at least have some time to think,
rest and plan what they should or could do next.

Other
thoughts plagued him, more ominous in his mind, and filled him with a nagging
doubt. The ship’s presence was like an irritating grain of salt in a clam shell
here. What pearl would it produce in the history? Already both the British and
Italians had used resources, men, ships and planes, that they might have
otherwise deployed against each other. This was introducing more and more
subtle changes in the history, and his great extra advantage of knowing the
course of future events was no longer something he could rely on. He did not
think his engagement with Da Zara’s 3rd Cruiser Division, or the pursuit of the
7th Cruiser Division mattered much, as these forces had both been ordered to
stand down. The 3rd Division sustained damage from
Kirov
that should not
have occurred, but the 7th Division had been ordered to return to Messina
historically, where it ran afoul of the British Submarine
Unbroken
and
saw both heavy cruiser
Bolzano
and light cruiser
Muzio Attendolo
torpedoed. Now these ships were safely at the eastern approaches to the
Bonifacio Strait. He thought the balance here was a wash.