The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (22 page)

The first ship to be subject to air attack that morning was the cruiser HMS Suffolk. The weather was clearer today, although the German ships were not quite visible over the horizon, and the ship was at action stations at dawn. Radar emissions from the German ships made it possible they had been spotted, and the intelligence reports indicated that there may be a carrier with the group. If so, it was going to get interesting when the sun rose.

At 0600 the cruiser saw the black dots of a flight of Stukas heading for them. The ship worked up to full speed and puffs of AA fire started to pockmark the sky around the dive bombers as they moved into their attack formation. As soon as the planes turned over into their dives, the close range AA joined in as well. Despite the lack of fighter cover, the Stukas did not escape without loss; two of them were shot down by the cruiser. This did not stop them getting three hits on the ship with 500kg bombs. The first hit just aft of the bridge, splinters killing and wounding many of the men on the bridge, and penetrating deeper to put the forward boiler room out of action. The second hit further aft, destroying the aircraft hangar and killing many of the crews serving the AA weapons, although fortunately none of the splinters from the bomb caused serious damage to the machinery space below. The third struck her on X turret, destroying the turret and causing additional damage to the engine room forward of the turret. Prompt action to flood the aft magazine prevented an explosion, but the ship was on fire and temporarily out of control and not under power.

While the attack on the Suffolk was taking place, the German ships radar reported the echo of the first strike from Glorious, her torpedo planes. These were escorted by six fighters, who moved to intercept the four Me109's that were the German CAP. As the fighters wove into a dogfight, the torpedo planes moved into attack formation. It was only when they dropped their torpedoes that things went badly wrong. In order to achieve the maximum damage, the torpedoes were using the magnetic duplex fuse. When the torpedoes hit the rough water of the Denmark Strait, instead of heading for the carrier they exploded on contact with the water. Only two torpedoes launched successfully, and the carrier managed to avoid both of them. The shooting down of two Me109's and damaging one more for the loss of one Goshawk hardly compensated for this, especially as two of the torpedo planes were lost to AA fire.

By now, it was obvious to Lutjens that a British carrier was in the area. Since his force was now located, the direction the British planes had come from was passed to his scouting force. It did not take long for one of the Ju87's to spot the Glorious and her two escorting destroyers. While that plane dodged in and out of clouds to avoid the attention of defending fighters, and a second plane was sent to join her as a back-up, the remaining scout planes were recalled. They would hopefully be recovered after the second British strike, already visible on the radar screens, had been fought off.

All the available fighters had been launched, seventeen Me109's. Facing them were the 18 dive bombers and their escort of six Goshawks. While the Goshawks did their best to keep the fighters off the dive bombers, it was almost impossible, and as a result the attack was severely disrupted, five of the Cormorants and four of the Goshawks being shot down for the loss of two Me109's. Only eight planes managed to attack the carrier, and the need to keep dodging the fighters and the AA fire from all four of the German heavy ships meant that only one hit was achieved on the Graf Zeppelin. The 1,000lb bomb penetrated her flight deck well forward, wrecking her forward elevator and causing serious damage to the forward part of the hanger. Luckily for the ship, all her planes were in the air, and as a result there were no large amounts of inflammable material or fuel to spread the blaze. However the thick plume of smoke towering in the sky over the ship did little to reassure the worried pilots, who were wondering if they would have anywhere to land shortly. Even as the last of the British aircraft headed back to their carrier, the damage-control parties were racing to bring the fire under control.

It seemed that the Graf Zeppelin was a lucky ship. While it took some time to get the (thankfully minor) fire under control, the position of the hole in the deck was far enough forward that planes could still land, although moving them around to allow more to land on was a complex undertaking, especially as it was necessary to strike the dive bombers below to rearm them - a strike on the now-located British carrier was urgently needed, and being pushed by the Admiral.

While this was happening, Lutjens was deciding on the course of action for his force. He obviously needed to sink, or at least incapacitate, whatever carrier was out there, or his heavy ships would be attacked before they could break clear into the Atlantic. The question was, should he scatter the ships now, and leave the carrier on her own, or should they remain together until the carrier was dispatched. In the end he decided to remain together for the time being. As it turned out, a mistake. His decision was, however, fortunate for the Suffolk. Taking advantage of the delay and confusion in the German force, she had cross-connected her remaining boiler and engine rooms and was limping Northwest at her best speed, hoping to close the icepack where she was likely to find fog to hide in. If the German ships had split up at that point, it is likely one of them would have been close enough to finish her off, however as a result of the flying operations the force was in fact heading south.

On Glorious, there was consternation as to the problems with the torpedoes, and the resulting survival of the German carrier. While a bomb hit had been reported, it was not clear if this would be enough to cripple her or even stop her making an attack on them. So while she recovered her planes, the carrier and her escorts turned south to close on the approaching fleet carriers and battleships, hoping to draw the German fleet after them.

It was still only 0900, and even though the British force was indeed drawing the Germans towards the heavy Home Fleet units, it would be a few hours before the fleet carriers could launch. The information as to the torpedo problems had already been passed on, and preparations were underway on Glorious for a second strike, using the contact fuse on the torpedoes. The Germans were still being tailed by a radar-equipped Stirling out of Iceland, and the carrier air commander was sure he could get off a strike before the German carrier, even if the damage done wasn't enough to stop her flying off aircraft.

This estimate was in fact quite accurate; it had taken the Graf Zeppelin well over an hour to get the fire under control and land her planes, and by the time the fire was out two hours had passed. Under normal circumstances this would have given the Glorious ample time to rearm, refuel, and get a second strike on the way before the German carrier could respond. However something was to happen which made this impossible.

At 0955, a lookout on the Glorious
yelled a warning as he saw three torpedo tracks heading for the port side of the carrier.

Almost immediately the carrier swung hard to port to try and comb the tracks, an emergency action which was hardly appreciated by the crews trying to attach torpedoes onto planes. The carrier nearly managed to evade; two of the torpedoes missed by a matter of feet, watched by the men on the AA guns with a sort of horrified fascination as the white wake passed close down the port side, but the third hit the old carrier about 1/3 of the way down her hull. The shock caused chaos in the hangar, a number of crewmen being injured as they and the equipment were thrown around - the attack had been so unexpected there hadn't been time for any of them to prepare for the impact. The carrier slowed drastically to prevent more damage due to the flow of water into the gaping hole, rapidly taking on a list which increased to 15 degrees.

Meanwhile the carrier's two escort destroyers were attacking the underwater contact which they hoped was the submarine, who had given herself away by the torpedo attack. No-one was sure how a U-boat had slipped in so close with the carrier moving at speed, but it was later assumed this was some expert German planning to aid the breakout (in fact, as came out after the war, it was pure chance - the U-boat was on anti-convoy work, and had stumbled upon the carrier and found itself in a position to attack - just good luck, at least from the German point of view). While the damage control parties on the carrier worked to shore up bulkheads and bring the flooding under control, the ocean heaved in white columns as the two destroyers enthusiastically depth-charged their contact. Some 30 minutes later, they were rewarded by a thick film of oil on the water, and debris floating on the surface

After an hour, the Glorious was able to resume her now-limping course south at some twelve knots. Despite the best efforts of her engineers, the carrier still had a list of some six degrees, which was going to make flying off of aircraft 'rather tricky' (in the words of her deck officer). The carriers air staff were hopeful that the damage to the Graf Zeppelin had been enough to put her out of action (although the thick cloud cover had allowed the shadowing planes to stay safe, the carriers radar made it clear that they were under observation). As soon as the submarine attack on the Glorious had been reported, and it was realised she might be unable to send up aircraft, the British force altered course slightly to intercept her and allow the carrier to be brought under the fleet carriers CAP.

The fleet carriers were making their own preparations for a strike. Unless there was a drastic change in course by the enemy, they expected to launch around 1200 and hit the Germans about an hour later. Indeed, such a change, and a dispersal of the German fleet into individual raiding units was being suggested and discussed on the Bismark at that very moment. However Lutjens had decided he wanted the British carrier sunk or put out of action before he did so. At 1130 the Glorious spotted a large radar return closing from the North. It looked like whatever damage had been done to the Graf Zeppelin, it had not been enough to prevent her launching an air strike. It had made taking off difficult; the shortening of the takeoff area meant that the Ju87's were only carrying 250kg bombs, but this was considered adequate to sink or cripple a carrier. The take off had been difficult - two Ju87's and an Me109 had floundered on takeoff, but the rest of the carrier planes were heading for the Glorious, the Graf Zeppelin's captain having decided to use all his available planes on the strike. Twenty Ju87's and fourteen Me109's were closing the British force.

The Glorious currently had twelve Goshawks available (three planes had been damaged by the shock of the torpedo hit), and no-one had ever taken off from a carrier with a six degree list. Nevertheless, the pilots were prepared to take the chance. In what was to become one of the legendary feats of launching, the deck officer timed the movement of the carrier perfectly. All twelve of the fighters got off into the air (although with more than one takeoff that came close to disaster). While this was happening, a flight of eight more Goshawks was on its way from the fleet carriers, who had vectored in their CAP. However they wouldn't arrive until the strike had reached the Glorious.

Her fighters in the air, the carrier and her escorts prepared for the attack; the two escort destroyers to either side of her, and the cruiser Norfolk (who had closed the carrier during the morning once the torpedo attack had been reported) astern of her. With the torpedo damage having opened her hull the carrier could do little to evade the dive bombers once they were into their attack runs.

First contact was made between the two groups of fighters. The British had split into two groups, one of eight which went for the escorting Me109's, the other four heading for the dive bombers. The German pilots were expert, but as often happened the lure of a dogfight meant that all fourteen attacked the Goshawks. The resulting fight lasted until the divebombers had closed and attacked the carrier, six of the Goshawks being shot down for the loss of two Me109's. However this had allowed four fighters to intercept the dive bombers, and five of the Ju87's were despatched before they could fall into their dive.

The fifteen Ju87's left had been somewhat disrupted by the fighter attacks, but nevertheless turned and fell into the attack in groups of three, into a ferocious AA barrage from the British ships. A barrage heavy enough to shoot down two of them, and damage another so badly it had no hope of attacking. The dive bombers were following their orders, which were to sink the carrier and ignore any other ships until this was done. This they did with commendable dedication and accuracy.

Four of the twelve bombs hit the old carrier. One of them did not explode due to a faulty fuse, but the other three did her serious damage. Two exploded in her hangar, destroying many of the aircraft there and starting a number of fires (although the RN doctrine of not having fuel or explosives in the hangar limited the intensity). The third went through the flight and hangar decks, exploding in her machinery spaces, and causing damage to the temporary work holding back the water from the torpedo damage. As a result, water started to flood into the carrier, causing her list to increase again. Despite all this, the ship was still under control; her aft machinery was still in operation, but the necessity of reducing the pressure of the water into the torpedo hole meant she had to slow to five knots, barely under way. It was fortunate that the damage to the German carrier had forced the Ju87's to reduce their bomb load to 250kg, as if they had been using heavier bombs it was likely the damage would have sunk the old carrier. As it was, she was almost stationary and on fire, but not yet in any danger of sinking.

Meanwhile, and sadly just too late to stop the attack, the CAP from the fleet carrier had arrived. This was obviously completely unexpected by the Germans, and as a result they shot down four Me109's and three Ju87's before the German planes could disengage to the north. They stayed circling the burning carrier in case another attack emerged; the British overestimate of the planes on the Graf Zeppelin made them think she would have enough planes available for a second strike.