Kirov II: Cauldron Of Fire (Kirov Series) (43 page)

“Yes, sir. Probably all four
King George V
class
battleships. We fought the first two earlier in the Atlantic and, though we
damaged them, it took three hits to force
Prince of Wales
to drop out of
their battle line, and all from our best missile, the Moskit-IIs.”

“Yes, I have been listening to them launch all night. I
lost count. How many are left?”

“Nine, sir.”

“And another nine Mos-IIIs, with eight more P-900 cruise
missiles,” said Karpov. “It is enough, sir. I can get us through.”

“Who is commanding this British fleet?” The Admiral looked
to Fedorov now.

“We cannot know for certain, sir, but my best estimate
would be the fleet commander himself, Admiral John Tovey.”

“What kind of man is he?”

“Experienced, highly disciplined, an excellent military
planner, well respected by his peers and all who serve under him. He can be a
single minded and determined foe, sir. His pursuit of the
Bismarck
was
typical of his style at sea.”

“This is the same man we encountered earlier?”

“Yes, sir. After the Captain struck him at range, he fell
off, linked up with additional forces, called for the support of Force H, and
then continued his pursuit.”

“You fought this man, Mister Karpov. What is your military
opinion?”

“He was determined, that much is clear. But outmatched,
sir.
Kirov
can do the job, I assure you.”

“Oh? Then why did you have to resort to tactical nuclear
weapons?”

Karpov was silent. “I have answered this, Admiral. In my
mind I saw no reason why the ship should not use the full measure of our real
power.”

“Yet I have spoken with the other officers on the bridge
that day, and they tell me the tactical situation was not favorable. We were
confronted by four separate task forces, and to engage them all would have most
likely depleted our entire missile inventory.”

“Which is why I elected to let one missile do the work of
many.”

“Yes, we noticed,” said Zolkin.

“I am well aware of your opinion in the matter, Doctor,”
Karpov said sharply.

“There is no need to go over all that again,” said Volsky.
“What was done, was done. Karpov knows what he did, and why. He has asked to
serve and redeem himself, and he has done that.”

Karpov raised his chin, sniffing. “Thank you, Admiral.
While I believe I can win the battle with our conventional weapons, it is also
my duty to state that we still have our nuclear option should it become
necessary.”

“I am well aware of that, Mister Karpov, but this
consideration is a cold logic. It asks me to trade the ammunition we save for
the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands of men. Believe me, I do not relish
that thought. What I wish to know now is how this Admiral Tovey will fight us
if it comes to that?”

“He will be a tenacious and dangerous opponent in battle
sir. If you want my opinion he will not like his tactical situation at dusk
this evening , and may wish to wait and fight his battle tomorrow. We will be
arriving near sunset, and his ships will all be starkly silhouetted by the
sun.”

“That makes no difference,” said Volsky. “We can see them
as easily at midnight.”

“Yes, sir, but he does not know that. Remember that he will
think tactically like a man of his era. If our striking power was as limited in
range as his own, I do not think he would hesitate to close and engage. As it
is, however, I believe he will have learned from his experience in the North
Atlantic. He will think we fight more like an aircraft carrier than a
battleship. He knows we are capable of scouting his forces out and striking at very
long ranges, and this is, in fact, our great advantage. The key to battling a
strong enemy carrier has always been air power, but our tremendous SAM defense
has neutralized this option. Every time they throw an air strike at us it gets
cut to pieces. If he uses his planes again, it will simply be to harass us, or
distract us.”

“You agree, Karpov?”

“I do, sir. Their air power is not a concern for the
moment. At least not in this engagement. We have enough missiles to keep it at
bay and neutralize it.”

“Then how do you attack a strong carrier, Captain. One that
can neutralize your air power?”

“Sir? You saturate it with missiles, a minimum eight, and
preferably sixteen or more if you have them.”

“How could the British replicate such a tactic against us?”

“They would have to come at us with more targets than we
can neutralize.” Karpov did not like the direction this was heading.

“Do they have enough planes to do this, Fedorov?”

“Probably forty to fifty at Gibraltar, perhaps twenty four
on the carrier they have with them. We hurt the air squadrons in Force Z badly,
but they could throw in another twenty or thirty aircraft as well, mostly
fighters, but they can still carry bombs.”

“Mostly fighters….We have seen what just one of those did
when it got in close. I have not forgotten why I have spent the last three days
with Doctor Zolkin. That is enough planes to seriously deplete our remaining
SAM inventory. I am not liking what I am hearing, gentlemen. Now, what about
his surface ships? How will he fight?”

Fedorov spoke again. “After what happened to the Americans Admiral
Tovey will also be wary of concentrating his force in any one central task
force. For this reason I believe he will not enter the Straits of Gibraltar
tonight, even if he does get there first. No, sir. He will wait for us in the
western approaches, and he will disperse whatever force he has in a web there,
which we will have to penetrate. Then, once we commit ourselves to a breakout
heading, he will make one mad dash and engage us with everything he has—all his
ships and every plane they can put into the air. His dilemma is how to close
the range on us as quickly as possible so the fourteen inch guns on his
battleships can have a chance at getting some hits. And it would only take one
hit from a shell of that caliber to decisively shift the battle in his favor. Yet,
there have been engagements where as many as a hundred rounds are fired with no
hits obtained. Last night the darkness, their inability to use radar, and our
tremendous speed helped us a great deal. That said, they put rounds so close to
us that it damaged our aft hull. We have been lucky thus far against the Italians
and Force Z.”

“Will we also have to also watch our back?”

“Force Z will certainly move up behind us and block the
straits, particularly if we are engaged with the British Home Fleet.”

“Volsky took that in, his eyes distant, and focused on his
inner muse. “Karpov?” he said at last.

“I agree with Fedorov’s assessment.”

“Then how will we proceed?”

“If they disperse their forces as Fedorov suggests, then we
must pick one point in the line for our breakthrough, preferably at one of the
extreme flanks. We will attack this point in his defense and neutralize it
quickly. We do not have enough missiles left to engage all the battleships decisively
at one time in this option. But we can hit one very hard, and then simply run
through the gap at high speed. I suggest we focus on a route to the southwest,
and hit them on their left flank.”

“How many missiles will it take us to do this?”

“We will target the most dangerous ship along our route of
advance and use perhaps three missiles—five if necessary. If cruisers are
deployed there, then a single missile should be sufficient to stop a ship in
that class. For their destroyers, I will simply use the cannon.”

“Those tactics did not stop those other battleships in
Force Z.”

“It slowed them down sufficiently to allow us to use our
speed and break through, sir. It jarred them and limited their gunnery effort
as well. We can fight this battle exactly as we did at Bonifacio or against
this Force Z”

Volsky nodded. “Unless our luck finally runs out and we
take a serious hit. What if this Admiral Tovey places his battleships close
enough to one another for supporting fire? These big guns have a long range,
correct Fedorov?”

“They do sir. With good light for sighting we can expect
fire from as far away as 28,000 meters, even 32,000.”

“So even if we do saturate and neutralize one of these big
ships the others may very well still have the range on us. This is not a very
satisfactory situation, Karpov. And I must tell you that this business aft with
Byko is most disturbing now. If our speed is affected…” He did not have to say
anything more.

“I have another strategic option,” said Karpov. “And no, Doctor,
it will not involve nuclear weapons.” He gave Zolkin a sidelong glance.

“Very well, let me hear it,” Volsky folded his arms,
waiting.

“Fedorov’s remark about the night action is very true, sir.
The darkness prevented their optical sighting and allowed us to use our speed
to evade their gunnery efforts. If possible, it would be better to run the
strait at night as well. We should not wait until dawn. Let Byko have all the
time he needs to assure we’ll have no trouble with speed. Then move for
Gibraltar so as to arrive there after sunset.”

“That will give us better odds, I suppose,” said Volsky.
“But I am still not entirely convinced we can face four battleships and run
through their defense without taking even one hit.”

“I was not finished, sir, begging your pardon, Admiral.”

“Continue, Mister Karpov.”

“We arrive after sunset, and if Fedorov is correct they
will be deploying in the western approaches. We use the KA-40 to scout their
position on the other side of the straits and feed us targeting information,
and then we hit them with the cruise missiles before we even enter the straits.
Fedorov suggested I begin the last engagement with a P-900 simply because it
was slow, and he wanted them to see it coming. That was clever, because I
believe this had a strong psychological impact on them. We must break their
will as much as the steel in their ships. So consider this… Darkness falls. We
linger near the eastern entrance to the strait and target two P-900s on each of
the four battleships. The missiles make quite a shocking display at night. They
will see them arc over the headlands, from a completely unseen enemy, and when
they hit home it will shake their morale considerably. This Admiral Tovey will
look at his well laid trap and see all four of his precious King class
battleships on fire, and yet he will not have any inkling of where we are, and
will be powerless to strike back at us.”

“They will see us firing the missiles from Gibraltar, and
radio our position” said Fedorov.

“All the better. The fact remains that they will not be
able to do anything about it. Not without entering the straits and coming for
us. We will be well out of the range of his guns in that position.”

“Very dramatic,” said Volsky. He looked at Zolkin now and
said: “I told you this man was one of the best tactical officers in the fleet,
Doctor.”

“Yes,” said Zolkin. “He has the bravery of being out of
range. It’s very comfortable—but just a little a bit devious at the same time.”

Karpov rolled his eyes, but was not willing to get into a
missile war with Zolkin at the moment. “Consider it…Now the British have all
four of their best ships hit and burning, and then we make our demand that they
stand down or we will rain hell upon them. They will not know we are low on missiles.
Tell them if they do not give way we will sink their ships before they ever lay
eyes on us. We need never come within range of their guns, because they will be
at the bottom of the sea before we transit the Strait of Gibraltar. If they do
not yield, then we send over the Moskit-IIs, only this time there will be
sufficient range to program them for a plunging attack angle. One on each
battleship could have very good results.”

Volsky scratched his head, looking from one to the other,
and then came to a conclusion. “Well here we are at the eleventh hour,
gentlemen. I have heard your analysis, and yet there is one other weapon we
have not discussed that we might try using here.”

“Sir? I thought you did not wish to consider our nuclear
option.”

“Oh, I considered it, Mister Karpov, and I have discarded
it. The weapon I am thinking of now is intelligence. We have looked at two
options here. The first has considerable risk. We make a run at this man, give
him a shove as we go and hope to slip by him in the dark. It might work if our
luck holds out. Now you suggest that we punch this man in the face first, and
then threaten him with further harm if he does not stand aside. Yes, it is a
strong tactic. Something our old friend Orlov might do. But I will propose
another solution. Suppose we talk to this man
before
we punch him in the
nose, eh? I think he might be more inclined to hear us.”

“Negotiate first? Before we’ve shown him what we can do to
him if he persists?”

“Exactly. Mister Karpov, I believe he has already seen what
we are capable of—weeks ago in the North Atlantic. He already knows we can hurt
him before he even catches a glimpse of us. This is why he will position his
ships to be within range from the moment we first exit the strait. Yes, he
knows how dangerous we are. He knows we can hurt him severely, and yet here he
comes. That is a different sort of bravery, is it not.” He glanced at Zolkin.

The Admiral’s eyes gleamed with a sudden inner fire. “I
want to talk to this man—face to face. I want to look him in the eye and see if
we can reach an understanding
before
any more men or ships die—on either
side.”

 He smiled, looking at the Doctor. “Dmitri, it has been a
wonderful stay, but now I feel sufficiently recovered to re-assume my duties.
Mister Fedorov, Mister Karpov, you have served well. I commend you both, but as
of this moment I am formally re-assuming command of the ship. Fedorov will
continue as
Starpom
, and you will remain on the bridge as Executive
Tactical Officer, Karpov. Now, gentlemen. Let us get the ship in order and I
will tell you what we are going to do.”