Three Kings

“No sir, I was always a navy man, a navigator by trade when I signed on, so I can read a map, and I have studied military history all my life.”

“I see. Well, Captain Fedorov, what do you make of our chances in this fight? We’ve had a fairly rough ride since things started last September.”

“Germany is, and will be, a formidable foe, sir.” Fedorov knew he had to speak carefully here, and not sound as if he knew the outcome of these events. In truth, he did not know, for the German Malta operation was now another major point of divergence in the overall course of the war. “Something tells me the British Empire has a good bit of fight left in her. This is far from over.”

Admiral Volsky had been listening in, with some pleasure, seeing the delight Fedorov had in speaking to Wavell, as if he had leapt into the pages of the history he so loved, to interact with these towering historical figures. In fact, he had done just that, and now they were all about to write a new chapter of that history together.

“Well,” he said. “I think we had best get our own Sky Hunters on the move, Mister Fedorov. Your General O’Connor is out there somewhere, so let us not keep him waiting.”

Part VIII

The Devil’s Teardrop

“When the stars threw down their spears, and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see?”

William Blake

Chapter 22

Admiral Cunningham’s fleet was well out to sea, a long column of four battleships, Queen Elizabeth, Malaya, Warspite, and finally Admiral Tovey in HMS Invincible. They were accompanied by the heavy cruisers Kent, Berwick and York, light cruisers Calcutta, Coventry, Orion and Ajax along with twelve destroyers. Kirov was ten kilometers off the starboard bow, her radars sweeping the sea for signs of enemy activity. This left only a few cruisers and destroyers in the cupboard to cover Alexandria and Suez, but it was a risk they thought acceptable given the probable locations of the Italian fleet. There were also two aircraft carriers at sea to provide fleet air defense, though both were aging warriors by 1941.

Hermes had been laid down 22 years earlier, in 1918, a design built on a light cruiser hull. A light escort carrier, she would carry no more than 18 to 20 planes, mostly fighters. But the ship had managed to get in on a few choice assignments, hunting both Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer in the South Atlantic, and then participating in the watch on Dakar before that place was finally taken. She had been slated to go to the Persian Gulf to harass the German effort to reinforce the incipient rebellion in Iraq, but the loss of Gibraltar prompted the Admiralty to re-assign her to Admiral Cunningham’s fleet for the planned raid on Taranto. Now that was frustrated, but her Captain, Richard Onslow, was eager to get in the action again as part of the fleet covering force for this operation.

HMS Eagle was the same age, a larger ship that was first planned as a dreadnaught for Chile, designed as an AlmiranteLatorre class Battleship at about 28,000 tons, with ten 14-inch guns. She was later purchased by the British for conversion to an aircraft carrier. The guns were removed, lightening her displacement to 22,000 tons by 1924. The ship spent the first nine months of the war in the Indian Ocean, hunting German commerce raiders before joining Cunningham’s fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. With mostly Swordfish, she managed to sink three Italian destroyers and a submarine in raids off Tobruk along the North African coast. She also had three old Gladiators that had been found crated up inDekhelia, the only fighters available to the FAA at Alexandria before new squadrons arrived. Now she had the new Fairy Fulmars assigned to 803 Squadron, planes that had been transferred from HMS Furious.

The two carriers, Eagle and Hermes, would be going in ‘light,’ with a preponderance of fighter aircraft. Eagle would embark 12 Fulmar fighters of the 803 Squadron, and six new Martlets. She would also retain her 12 Swordfish in 824 Squadron, 30 planes in all. Hermes would carry 800 Squadron with 12 Skua fighters, and a small flight of 6 Swordfish that were waiting for her at Alexandria.

It was a strong sortie on paper, 4 battleships, 8 cruisers and twelve destroyers covered by 48 planes, and the addition of the battlecruiser Kirov was the icing on the cake. That said, the fleet would now face its greatest challenge of the war.