Kirov Saga: Hinge Of Fate: Altered States Volume III (Kirov Series) (24 page)

The two
British cruisers were now the ones outgunned, though they stayed in the fight,
and
Devonshire
scored a hit on
Richelieu’s
forward deck with an 8-inch
round. The superb deck armor on the French battleship, 6.7 inches thick where
the shell hit near the B turret, was enough to shrug off the hit, and the blast
effect from the shell barely bothered the 16.9 inch face armor on the quadruple
turret. A second 15-inch shell put
Cumberland’s
aft Y turret out of
action two minutes later, and it was only the imminent arrival of the bigger
British battleships that prompted Captain Marzin to hand off his fire on the
British cruisers to his secondary batteries while the bigger guns retrained to
face HMS
Resolution
.

Now the
main event was in full swing, with Vice Admiral Cunningham immediately coming
thirty points to port so he could bring his two aft turrets in to the
engagement. Opening salvoes from
Resolution
were well aimed, but long,
and
Barham’s
first warning rounds were off the mark as well. For a short
time the British enjoyed a brief advantage, double teaming against
Richelieu
and outgunning her two to one. In that duel it was
Resolution
who found
the range before any other ship, and put a 15-inch round right on
Richelieu’s
belt armor, just below the water line, at about 15,000 meters. The round did
damage, but did not fully penetrate. It was stopped by a special inner lining
between the armor and inner hull, with a rubber substance the French called
“Bourrage.” Should fragments penetrate the armor, this water exclusion material
was designed to reduce the likelihood of flooding, a system unique to modern
French battleship design.

Richelieu’s
fire control systems also proved to be very good that day,
and
Resolution
suffered a good hit aft, and another on her side armor,
which was just a little tapered off and thinning at that point to only 152mm.
The ship was penetrated, with the shells close enough to the aft magazine that
the resulting fire there forced Cunningham to order it flooded, limiting Y
turret to only ready ammo on hand.

Then
came the thundering roar of all twelve 15-inch guns of the
Normandie.
The ship had been trailing about 2000 meters behind
Richelieu
, and had
now completed its turn to bring all three of its quadruple turrets to bear on
Barham
.
The barrage was only short 200 meters, a frothing comb of tall white geysers
surging up from the sea in tight patterns of four.
Barham
answered with
her eight 15-inch guns and the duel was on.

For the
next ten minutes the battleships ran on a mostly westerly course, parallel to
one another and firing for all they were worth. On her fourth salvo the aft
turret of
Normandie
was lucky enough to put two of her four 15-inch
rounds into
Barham
. One fell amidships, just behind the ship’s single
funnel, where it smashed the cranes and catapult for seaplane launches. The
second fell right on the armored roof of the X turret, and blasted clean
through the thinner 5 inch armor there, with a tremendous secondary explosion
when rounds and powder bags being lifted from the magazine below went off.

The
turret was nearly ripped from its housing , badly askew, the barbette exposed
and blackened by the raging fire. Both barrels were canted down onto the deck,
and every man within thirty yards of the hit was dead in an instant.

Vice
Admiral Cunningham heard the bellowing explosion, and turned his field glasses
aft, seeing the tall column of think black smoke rising above
Barham
.

“That
doesn’t look good,” he said quietly to Captain Oliver Bevir, who had been with
the ship since late 1939.

“Hell
of a good knock from the look of it,” said Bevir, but the roar of
Resolution’s
guns pulled his attention back to the fate of his own ship. He could see that
the
Richelieu
had put on speed, and though he had ordered all ahead full
battle speed,
Resolution
was laboring to make 22 knots full out, and the
French bettered that by eight knots. The range had closed to under 10,000
meters but the French ships were pulling ahead, and they might soon get into a very
good position to turn fifteen or twenty points to port and cross the British T.

It was
then that the inexperience and undue ardor of the French fast destroyers on
that flank caused a bit of a faux pas that spared the British heavy ships
further damage for the moment. The three destroyers led by
Le Fantasque
came cutting across the bow of
Richelieu
again, running at their amazing
top speed that was approaching 45 knots.
Le Terrible
and
Le Malin
followed,
and
behind them
L’Audacieux
had joined this group, which was now
attempting to make a high speed torpedo attack.

Devonshire
and
Cumberland
had both wisely come to port,
crossing ahead of the British battleships and then turning south away from the
torpedoes in a big hook. The bigger battleships labored on for some minutes as
Cunningham gaped at the speed of the French ships, their long sleek hulls
gleaming behind frothing bows. Amazingly, the destroyers had begun to make
smoke as they made their approach, which obscured the whole region between the
bigger ships and imposed a halt on that main gun action.

“Damn
impudent!” said Cunningham, then he quickly ordered a fifteen turn to port,
getting
Resolution
on a heading to avoid the first spread of enemy
torpedoes.
Barham
, however, was unable to follow suit. The fire aft from
the severe hit she had taken was threatening several boiler rooms, and her
speed had fallen off to 17 knots. The French destroyers had broken up the fight
just when their battleships were getting the better of it, but now they paid
for that ill timed maneuver by getting a hit. A 21.7 inch torpedo struck home,
shaking the old battleship
Barham
yet again.

Cunningham
saw the hit amidships, a worried expression on his face now, replacing the cool
confidence he had displayed for the first time. “I think we’d better hear from
Captain Cooke about that,” he said in a low voice, and Captain Bevir gave a
discrete order to have a signal sent requesting
Barham’s
status.

When
next sighted, the French battleships had unaccountably turned ten points to
starboard, and to Cunningham’s eye they appeared to be breaking off. He led his
squadron into yet another fifteen point turn to port, running about 210 for a
time, and then thought the better of his situation and came around to 150 on
course away from the French battleships.
Devonshire
and
Cumberland
saw the maneuver and matched it smartly, and it appeared the action was
concluding, though they continued to fire at a pair of French heavy cruisers,
Foch
and
Algiere
, that had been behind the line of the bigger battleships.

Admiral
Plancon saw the British turn, half angered, and half impressed by the brave
charge of the four destroyers, and so he ordered
Richelieu
to come
thirty points to port, intending to continue the battle at longer range. Now
one other advantage of the new 15-inch guns on the French battleships came into
play—their tremendous range. They could elevate to fling their big rounds out
an astounding 45,000 yards in testing, though no one thought they would ever
hit anything at such a range. After Cunningham’s final turn the range had
opened to about 18,000 meters again, but when the French gunners re-sighted the
British battleships they began to pour it on again from all twenty 15-inch guns.

And
they were getting hits.

Part VIII

One
Fine Morning

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the
orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but
that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . .
. And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the
past.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chapter 22

It
was time for the cavalry.

The
fast French destroyers had raced southwest, outrunning the fire put on them as
the British gunners struggled to adjust their range, never having faced a ship
with such speed before. During the main gun duel, the British destroyer
squadron had turned southwest behind the battleships, crossing their wakes. Now
the squadron leader aboard HMS
Fury
, Lieutenant Commander Terence
Robinson ordered all ahead full in an attempt to get after the French
destroyers, which had just made another high speed turn to make their final
torpedo run against the lumbering British battleships. Yet they would not get
there in time.

The
French destroyers surged forward to get inside 5000 meter range and brazenly
fired their torpedoes. They were well aimed and would be difficult for the slow
British battleships to avoid. Minutes later Cunningham felt HMS
Resolution
shudder under the impact of a good hit forward that he saw coming but could
simply not evade.
Barham
was also hit yet again, her speed now falling
off to only 12 knots.

Seeing
the plight of the British battleships, Admiral Plancon urged his Captains to
turn south and finish them, and this they did, with the sharp bow of
Richelieu
leading the way. It looked to be a very bad day for the Royal Navy, now
outgunned twenty to fourteen, and with both battleships wounded and
Barham
down on one knee.

Cunningham
swore under his breath when he saw the French battleships turn, knowing they
had the speed to close to any range they desired. The French destroyers had
finally turned about, and were fleeing from a fistful of angry British
destroyers, with both sides exchanging gunfire during the chase. At 36 knots
the British were running full out, but the big French destroyers had nearly a
ten knot advantage on them, and LtC. Robinson knew he would never catch up. He
had chased them off, giving Cunningham’s damage crews a little time in the
corner, but now the bell was sounding again and the French heavyweights were
coming to the center of the ring, smelling the blood on their foes and looking
for a knockout.

They
hadn’t counted on one last arrow in the Royal Navy’s quiver, however, or on one
determined young Captain that was taking aim even now aboard the carrier HMS
Glorious
.

Far to
the south Captain Christopher Wells had been receiving reports from his scout
planes as the action unfolded, and he immediately knew he would have to get his
Swordfish
up and ready for battle. He had the last of 825 squadron up
and circling over the carrier, joining two flights from 823 squadron to make
twenty planes in all. When he heard that
Barham
appeared to have taken a
big hit aft, he knew he had to fling his squadrons north at once.

The
last of the Old Stringbags dipped their wings in farewell and the light horse
hastened north, and they came upon the scene just as the French destroyers were
scurrying away after their final torpedo run. Lieutenant Commander Jim Buckley
was the nominal strike commander, and he ignored the destroyers, roaring
overhead to get at the real threat posed by
Richelieu
and
Normandie
.
He would receive the DNC that day for his gallant attack, steady on in his attack
run as he led the Swordfish in. LtC. Leslie “Bill” Baily and Telegraphist
Donald Bunce would also get awards, posthumously. Their plane was the victim of
the heavy Ack Ack fire thrown at them by the
Richelieu
, though they
still got their torpedo in the water, and it was aimed well enough to score a
hit.

Four
Swordfish
were shot down by the six twin 37mm AA guns on each battleship, a high cost in
the action, but one that was heated enough to give the French second thoughts
about continuing. When
Richelieu
was hit by the first wave of ten planes
and Admiral Plancon saw yet another wave swooping low to attack, he gave the
order to turn about. The big ships swept around in a wide arc, reversing their
course and steering to avoid the deadly torpedoes.

Jim
Buckley scored his hit on the
Normandie
, but her superb underwater
protection, among the best on any ship in the world, prevented serious damage.
Seeing that his pilots had turned back the French advance, Buckley ordered his
mates to form up again after they had already launched their torpedoes, as if
yet a third wave of planes was ready to follow in the last of 825 Squadron.

The
French had seen all they wanted of these pesky
Swordfish
, with both
ships hit and many near misses that were only narrowly avoided during tense
moments on the bridge of
Normandie
. The cruisers
Foch
and
Algiere
matched the turn made by the battleships and the whole French formation headed
north, leaving the British to lick their wounds. The
Force De Raid
had
lost the light cruiser
George Leygues
, with
Montcalm
damaged and
out of the action.
Richelieu
had taken two 15-inch hits and a 21 inch
torpedo, but was still seaworthy and able to make 28 knots.
Normandie
had been unscratched by the British guns, and shrugged off a torpedo from Jim
Buckley, but the jab was stiff enough to back her off.