Kirov Saga: Devil's Garden (Kirov Series) (27 page)

Later, when he met the Russian reserve fleets in the Strait of Tsushima,
his command to the fleet was weighted with the importance of that imminent
battle: “The rise or fall of the Empire depends upon the result of this
engagement. Do your utmost, every one of you.”

When the fighting began, he remained on the open air bridge,
refusing to shelter in the conning tower much to the distress of junior
officers at first. Yet, through shot and shell when the enemy concentrated fire
on his flagship
Mikasa
, he was never scratched or wounded in any way,
which endowed him with an aura of invincibility. Such notions were far from his
own mind, humble man that he was, but to his subordinates the light of a
demigod soon seemed to surround him, and they came to revere him as the great
hero he became.

It was not simply the fate of Japan that was at stake in that war,
but of Imperial Russia itself as well. Beyond that, the battle opened the door
to Japanese expansion in the Pacific that would not end until men like Chester
Nimitz, Bull Halsey, Ziggy Sprague, and a host of other brave and determined officers
and sailors, defeated Japan completely in WWII. But those event were far off
and unseen by anyone alive that day in the Straits of Tsushima. It was a grand
battle, and an even grander victory for Japan and the quiet Admiral that led
the fleet to glory that day.

Historians have selected three great Admirals of the world naming
Horatio Nelson of Great Britain, Togo as the ‘Nelson of the East,’ and Chester
Nimitz, who revered Togo himself, and assiduously studied his planning and
tactics.

This was the “little man” Karpov was sailing south to find and
confront, as different from his own character as day is to night. When Togo
stood in the aura of invincibility on the bridge of the
Mikasa
at
Tsushima he did so with bravery, inner resolve, and with a feeling he was fated
to succeeded there, that he was, indeed, a fortunate man and favored by the Gods.

Yet now another man who also thought himself invincible was
bearing down on the coast of Japan like a threatening storm—Vladimir Karpov.
Togo’s virtue of quiet humility, and sense of honor seemed entirely lacking in
Karpov. In their place was hubris, arrogance and a willful aggressive nature
that had little regard for the lives or fate of any who might dare oppose him.

He commanded a single ship, yet one that had challenged entire
fleets composed of fast, well armored warships supported by aircraft carriers
and thousands of planes. He had confronted every enemy who opposed him with
unrelenting power, and in many ways he was successful in defeating his
opponents at every turn.

He had held off the Royal Navy in the Atlantic and roundly smashed
the hapless American fleet that had sailed into his path, unaware of the danger
he posed. In the Mediterranean Sea he had frustrated the Italians, beating a pair
of their finest battleships, and then took on
Rodney
and
Nelson
to prevail in battle yet again. In the Pacific he had bested Admiral Hara’s
carrier division, left Sanji Iwabuchi stranded on a coral reef in the
battleship
Kirishima
, and dueled with the mightiest ship Japan would
ever build, and one of her most famous Admirals, Isokoru Yamamoto. Then after
returning to his own era, he used his cunning and aggressive tactics to
surprise and nearly sink Captain Tanner’s CVN
Washington
, fending off
the American 5th Fleet in the process.

His own crew had also come to see their Captain as invincible,
even in the face of overwhelming odds when the ship returned to 1945 and was
faced by sixty ships and a thousand American aircraft. They saw Karpov as a
fighting Captain who would do whatever was necessary to protect the ship and
prevail against the enemy. Whether
Kirov
would have survived subsequent
engagements with the American fleet, either in 2021 or 1945 was not something
they considered. What they did know is that the ship
did
survive, no
matter what the odds, and each time it was Vladimir Karpov in command of the
battle. Now both men would face one another, Togo and Karpov, and the winner
would decide the course of history from that day forward.

It was not long before word of the incident in the north reached
Admiral Togo. It was coming to him now, even as the rider climbed higher, his
horn still calling out alarm.

Togo had been supervising Japan’s newest port on the coast north
of Osaka at Maizuru. It had been built to provide them a base to keep a wary
eye on Vladivostok and quickly get ships into the Sea of Japan without first
having to sail around the big southern islands or through the narrow Straits of
Shimonoseki. Before the war Maizuru had been an isolated coastal town, with
only slow road connections to the big cities to the south. Now, however, the
rail line was completed, and supplies flowed easily to the port.

He had been hunting that day, dressed in his old clothes and
wandering about the hills with a rifle and a pair of faithful hunting dogs.
Returning in the evening he heard the call of a distant horn, growing louder as
he descended the hills to the port below. It was not long before he saw a
horseman with a uniformed messenger, his dogs barking fitfully as the rider
came up.

Togo called his hounds to his side, his calm hand on their necks
as he waited. Soon the dogs were sitting quietly and the rider dismounted,
saluting, and then bowing politely. “Your pardon, Admiral, but we have received
an urgent message from Tokyo.”

Togo raised an eyebrow, saying nothing as he waited. The man
reached into a leather pouch at his side and produced a scroll, which he handed
to the Admiral, bowing again. As Togo unrolled it slowly, he had the distinct
feeling that something ominous and portentous was being unfurled with the
opening of that scroll. He read the characters there with a stern eye:
“A
Russian warship has sunk the streamer Tatsu Maru in the Tsugaru Straits and is
now moving south. Please make any arrangement necessary to settle this matter.”

The message was vague as to any details of the incident, and
completely open as to the wishes of the Navy Department concerning its
resolution. It was immediately clear to him that Tokyo was leaving the matter
to him, and he immediately wondered what this ship could be? The war left
Russia virtually helpless in the Pacific, with no fleet to speak of. There were
still a few armored cruisers in Vladivostok, but the notion that they would
dare sortie and engage commercial shipping in Japanese home waters was
preposterous. If this turned out to be the case, he would deliver a swift
reprisal.

Now we see the virtue of Maizuru, he thought. Ships at Kure and
Sasebo were 400 sea miles away to the south, but he had wisely decided to
position Admiral Kamimura’s flying squadron of armored cruisers here, along
with two battleships that had been taken as prizes of war from the Russians.
The ex-Russian
Poltava
, was now renamed
Tango
, and the ex-Russian
Admiral Senyavin
was now the
Mishima
. Supported by Kamimura’s six
cruisers, the force was more than adequate to confront and defeat anything the
Russians could have sent from Vladivostok.

Could they have slipped in reserve units from their Black Sea
Fleet, he wondered? If that were so his intelligence experts should have heard
something of it. A fleet cannot pass through the Suez Canal without some notoriety.
Right now the Americans were stealing most of the headlines with their Great
White Fleet circumnavigating the globe. The navy has been itching for a fight
again, and it was even suggested that they should plan to ambush and destroy
the American fleet as it approached Japan for a scheduled visit to Yokohama.
Togo believed that would be most unwise, and squelched the plan with his
considerable influence and prestige. Yet what were the Russians up to now? He
would send Kamimura to have a look and report.

“Sir,” the messenger said politely. “Please take my horse to
hasten your return to the harbor.”

“That will not be necessary, Lieutenant,” said Togo. “But you may
ride on ahead if you please, and tell Admiral Kamimura that he is to prepare
his flying squadron for immediate operations. The two battleships will be made
ready for sea operations as well. I will be there directly to meet with the Admiral.
Please have a car ready for me. Something tells me I will be leaving for Kure
before nightfall.”

“At once, sir!” The rider was quick to mount his horse and was
soon riding swiftly down the slope. Togo watched him go, bothered again by the
strange thought that the man was carrying the first order of another great war,
one that would decide everything. Why he felt that he could not see. The
Russians could bring the whole of their remaining Black Sea Fleet and it would
do them little good here. He would defeat it as handily as he had beaten their
Pacific and Baltic fleets. Yet he had learned to heed and respect the inner
warnings that emerged like shadows in his mind. This shadow was particularly
dark and foreboding.

He whistled to his dogs, and started walking briskly down the slope
as they ran to follow. Whatever it was in the darkness of his mind, it was
beginning now, and each step he took carried him ever closer to it. The life he
had led, celebrated by his peers and basking in the light of the great victory
his navy had won three years ago, was now fading. A new test was before him
now. He could feel and sense another enemy coming from the sea.

Well, he thought, when an enemy comes from the sea, we must find
it at sea and defeat it there. And that is exactly what we will do. I have
every trust that Kamimura will handle the matter with little difficulty. Then
will come the outcries of protest, the negotiations, the lament and call for
reparations. It was said by many that Japan should have taken much more than it
received in the treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war with Russia. Many
thought that the whole of Sakhalin Island should have been seized, not the half
that they were ceded. Japan also took Port Arthur, Manchukuo, and the Russian
built rail lines leading north, but others said that all of Korea should have
come under Japanese control, just as they said that all of Formosa should have
been taken when China was beaten years earlier.

Now they will want me to occupy Vladivostok, he thought darkly. We
shall see what comes of this. It may be nothing at all. After the war there was
an uprising in that port city. The unrest in Russia and particularly Siberia
may have renewed. This may be no more than an upstart cruiser captain thinking
to gain redress for the humiliation we inflicted upon Russia in that war. So be
it. One Captain or many, we are ready.

Then what is this shadow hovering over my mind and darkening my
soul? The day is fine and I have a brace of pheasants to take home for the
evening meal. Why this feeling of dread?

Chapter 24

“Saito
sent this message?”

Togo was meeting with Vice Admiral Kamimura now in the
headquarters office at Maizuru. “How was it the report reached him so quickly?”

“There was quite a stir in the Tsugaru Strait, Admiral. Crewmen
off the
Kanto Maru
were telling wild stories when they returned to port
with the survivors. Kawase’s 9th Torpedo Boat Division was training there, and
they went to investigate. Now Kawase is telling wild stories.”

“What stories? What do you mean?”

“Only that the ship responsible for this attack was very large,
certainly a battleship. It looked like a great dragon at sea, or so the fishermen
now say.”

“Fishermen see many things at sea that are never there,” said
Togo. “But what did Commander Kawase see? His word I can believe.”

“The same report, sir—a very large ship. Kawase was wise not to
engage, and requested instructions. Apparently a telegraph was sent directly to
Saito in Tokyo, and it was he who sent this message in return.”

“The scroll was unsigned. That is most unusual.”

“Yet the signal referenced his name and office, sir. It was
Saito.”

“Please make any arrangement necessary to settle this matter,
” Togo read the scroll
aloud again. “What he really means is settle the matter quietly. He merely
hands it all to me. Very well, we will settle the matter. I can read enough
between the lines on that scroll to know that Saito wants this handled with as
little fuss as possible, and without provoking a major international incident. He
has recently been questioned by the European reporters concerning dispositions
of the fleet with the American Navy approaching.”

“Yes, they seem somewhat anxious. The London Times has been
circulating all those rumors about the plan to attack the Great White Fleet.
Saito has had his hands full of late. Did you read his statement to the
reporters? Here it is, in today’s paper:
Vice-Admiral Baron Saito, the
Japanese Minister of Marine affairs, declares that he is willing to make an
announcement as to the disposition of the fleet and the intentions of the
Government with regard to it, if there is any real need to allay the excitement
said to exist in America, but that the suggestion of aggressive designs on the
part of Japan is so utterly baseless as hardly to be worth attention.”