Kirov Saga: Altered States (Kirov Series) (21 page)

“Things are about to get interesting, Mister Wells. I would like nothing more than to see about this Russian ship we’ve been shadowing, but it seems
Bismarck
and
Tirpitz
have left Bergen and they are our first order of business. Please inform Captain Bennett that I would like the fleet to come about to zero-nine-two. Then get to the W/T room and have them signal
Ark Royal
that the air search west will have to be cancelled. I’ll want them ready to search the Iceland-Faeroes Gap in four hours.”

“Very good, sir.” Wells was elated.
Bismarck
and
Tirpitz!
They were really hunting big game now, and with any luck he was likely to see a major sea action soon with the finest ships on earth. Even as he thought that, a warning note sounded in his mind. Be careful what you wish for…

“Oh… There was one more note, sir. This one a verbal directive from Mister Villers. He says Admiralty is of the opinion that this Russian cruiser sighting may be bogus—at least insofar as its identity. They got it straight from Bletchley Park. They have confirmed that the cruiser
Kirov
is presently in the Baltic. They believe it may be a German oiler planning to rendezvous with anything they might be pushing through the Denmark Strait.”

“I see…” That took just a bit of the sting off his disappointment. “Bletchley Park, you say? That will be Mister Turing’s watch. Have the gentlemen at Whitehall seen the report given by Captain Partridge? Have they seen our subsequent sighting reports?”

“I’m not certain, sir, but I can see that they are forwarded.”

“Please do so. Opinions are like noses, Mister Wells. Everybody seems to have one, but this is certainly no oiler. Make sure Mister Villers clarifies this for the Admiralty, and Bletchley Park as well.”

“Of course, sir.” Wells started to salute again but Tovey simply smiled.

“Mister Wells, things will be getting quite busy in the hours ahead and you will be bouncing about like a badly hit cricket ball in due course. I think we can leave off the formalities of a salute every time you see me.”

“As you wish, sir.” Wells was on his way, more excited than ever now. A mystery on top of a battle! What good luck. If the real cruiser
Kirov
was still in the Baltic, then who was out there wearing its hat and overcoat? First things first. He had to get that course heading change to Captain Bennett.

When Wells had gone Tovey folded his arms, looking at the plotting board again. Still in the Baltic…That information was more likely fact than opinion. What was going on here? There was an odd feeling about this whole scenario, as if he had lived through this situation before, a kind of
Déjà vu
that he attributed to his memories of that brief, violent encounter aboard
King Alfred
. Now, more than ever, he wanted to stay the course and find out first hand with his own eyes just what this ship was. But if wishes were horses….
Bismarck
and
Tirpitz
were a known quantity, and would demand the whole of his attention for the moment.

Rodney
and
Nelson
might give them a good fight, he thought, but they’ll never be able to finish it. The Germans can break off at their whim. So I’ll keep the two old girls close to the Shetlands, and cover the Iceland passage with
Invincible
and company. Let the Germans try to slip out of the theater on my watch. Not bloody likely.

Chapter 18

Carrier Graf Zeppelin ~ Norwegian Sea ~ June 16, 1940

The
sighting made by Fleet Air Arm out of Hatston airfield was only half of the story, frightening as it was. Sailing some twenty nautical miles behind the two big German battleships, only now emerging from the edge of the thick cloud deck that hung low over the sea, was the sole operational German aircraft carrier at this point in the war,
Graf Zeppelin
. Commanded by the former first officer of the
Admiral Scheer
, Kapitan zur See Kurt Böhmer, the carrier would bring up to 42 aircraft to sea, that would make it the equal of any of Britain’s fleet carriers of the day with the added edge that the aircraft carried were far more capable than those fielded by the British.

Graf Zeppelin
would carry modified versions of 12 BF-109Es and up to 26
Stuka
dive bombers as the primary armament, with a detachment of four
Arado
seaplanes to make 42 planes in all. The Messerschmitt fighters were faster and much more agile than the
Skuas
aboard
Ark Royal
, and even better than the new Fairey
Fulmars
just starting to come off the production lines.

This formidable new addition to the German fleet was accompanied by the Schwere Kreuzer
Prinz Eugen
and three unique new ocean going destroyers, actually called Spähkreuzers under Raeder’s Plan Z. Originally conceived in the 1930s under the name Zerstörer 1938A/Ac, these ‘Atlantik’ type destroyers were further modified to produce the equivalent of light anti-aircraft cruisers. At 6,500 tons they were bigger than typical destroyers of the day, with a combination of diesel and turbine engines to extend their blue water performance. Armed with twelve 4.7-inch dual purpose guns and a suite of lighter 20mm guns, they were ideal for both AA and ASW defense. In true Nordic tradition the three new hounds bore the names
Beowulf, Siegfeied
and
Heimdal
. Kapitän zur See Helmuth Brinkmann was in command of this detachment, with his flag aboard the cruiser
Prinz Eugen.

Kapitan Böhmer was eager to get back into battle. The time he had spent aboard the
Admiral Scheer
had convinced him that the new Kriegsmarine was now a force to be reckoned with, and this operation was more ambitious than any mounted since Jutland. His first fighting air patrol was already spotted on deck as the task force sailed for the breakout point, three BF-109 fighters and two
Stukas.
He would get them out in front of the two battleships in short order, and give the next British recon plane a nasty surprise. Hauptmann Marco Ritter would lead the flight, an experienced airman recruited from the Luftwaffe to join the elite carrier unit.

“Send to Ritter that he is cleared for takeoff,” said Böhmer. “He is to overfly
Bismarck
and
Tirpitz
, but let them know we are coming. The only thing they have ever seen in the skies above them are British planes, and all that is about to change.”

The young midshipman hurried to pass on the order while Böhmer watched from the island bridge. Ritter was out on deck. He knew him by the crimson scarf he would always tuck into this flight jacket. As if sensing the Kapitan was watching, he turned and held up a fist, pumping three times as he prepared to mount his Messerschmitt fighter. Then he climbed confidently into the open cockpit, settling into his harness and sliding the canopy closed.

These planes will make all the difference, thought Böhmer. With
Graf Zeppelin
in attendance we can hold the snooping British
Skuas
at bay, and chop them to pieces if they get too pushy. And as for the
Swordfish
, let them try their luck against my Messerschmitts. Then comes the real fun—sending a couple dozen
Stukas
into battle over their battleships. Yes, this changes everything.

The order he had given was received on the flight deck, and now Ritter was the first to turn over his engine, and would be the first to take off from the deck of a German aircraft carrier on a combat mission, an historic moment. The long nose of the Messerschmitt growled as the prop spun up to a blur. Then the chalks were removed and the Flugdeck flagman began his ritual, finally saluting and then pointing the way with his flag. The plane roared to life, began to gain speed, and then howled into the sky, wings wagging in salutation.

“There you go Marco,” said Böhmer under his breath with a smile. “Good hunting.”

He watched as the remaining two fighters followed Ritter into the sky, then the two
Stukas
like great black crows, fat wings bent and squared off at their thinning tips. They were ready to follow just in case anything was found that might need their attention. The mission was to scour the skies in the immediate van of the route planned by the battleships.

Minutes later Hauptmann Ritter saw the white wake of the trailing ship
Tirpitz
ahead, took in its broad beam and trim fighting lines. Just ahead he could see the flagship
Bismarck
proudly knifing through the grey seas. He led his three fighters down in formation, and, as they flew over the battleships, he could see men on the grey steel platforms and weather decks waving as he tipped his wings again in greeting.

The three fighters flashed overhead, followed closely by the two
Stukas
, and then all five planes climbed, the fighters fanning out to begin their search sweep to the south. From that moment on they left friendly waters and entered the realm that had formerly been the sole domain of the Royal Navy. It was always their convoys and battlegroups that would ply these waters, their aircraft carriers that would overshadow the fleets with watchful eyes.

Ritter flew on ahead, glad to have clearing skies for his search sweep. He would see no British aircraft up that day, a bit of a disappointment as he had hoped to log a kill on his first sortie. What he did see an hour later and nearly 400 kilometers west southwest of his carrier was the telltale formation of a small task force north of the Faeroes Islands. As he approached he realized he was looking at the two ‘bookends,’ as the Germans called them
Nelson
and
Rodney
. The unmistakable configuration of their three big gun turrets all forward of the bridge was easy to spot. There they were, moving ponderously forward in the sea, with what looked to be a cruiser out in front, and three destroyers in attendance.

Not wanting to be seen just yet, he noted the position and quickly climbed for an overhead bank of clouds. He would signal this first sighting at sea, the opening action of the campaign that was now unfolding. Then, his fuel tanks nearing the point of no return, he banked and turned for home, making sure his initial heading was well away from the real position of the German fleet, just in case he had been spotted.

Böhmer received the news with some elation, and quickly passed in on to Brinkmann and then Lindemann ahead of him in
Bismarck.
At last, he thought.
We have the one thing the Kriegsmarine never had before when facing the British—situational awareness. No more waiting on the U-boats to search and scout for us. Now we have eyes in the sky…As long as I can keep this ship afloat. Well, before anything can get within arm’s reach of
Graf Zeppelin
, they will first have to run the gauntlet of my 26
Stukas
, and then face down
Bismarck
and
Tirpitz
.

He was feeling very confident that morning, but there was one factor left out of his war equation that no man alive that day could have possibly considered or planned for, a fate that was wholly unaccountable, and yet one that would be decisive in the balance of the scales of time. The mirror of history had indeed cracked, and something had come through that fissure that would soon change everything.

* * *

“Those
British ships have turned,” said Rodenko. “In fact they are now moving east on a heading to the Iceland-Faeroes Gap.”

“Perhaps they got wind of the same message Mister Fedorov intercepted.”

“Not likely, Admiral,” said Fedorov, “though the British had other means of intelligence at their disposal. They could have simply sighted the Germans battleships by air search.”

“We do not yet know what this breakout point is, do we Fedorov?”

“No sir, but it does not surprise me the British are turning east. Their first order of business will be to make sure nothing gets through the Iceland-Faeroes Gap. That accomplished, the Germans would have only one route to the Atlantic, and that would be the body of water directly ahead of us, the Denmark Strait.”

“So it looks as though we will not have our close encounter of the third kind with the Royal Navy just yet.”

“There are still two ships to the south maintaining their original heading, sir,” Rodenko warned.

“They may be dividing their force and sending a reinforcement east,” said Fedorov, realizing that he had to guess and conjecture now, and could no longer read the answer in his books. “That will mean they will most likely move the aircraft carrier out of this sector for the time being.”

“Then we will simply continue on this heading, move north, and keep to our plans for a visit to Severomorsk. It is somewhat strange, sailing home like this, is it not? The last time we passed through this strait I was having an extended stay in the sick bay and Karpov was in command. Now the Captain is dead and we are finally heading home, the only hitch is that we're eighty years early!”

Fedorov seemed restless and bothered as Volsky watched him. The Admiral realized what must be running through his young ex-Navigator’s mind. “I know what you are feeling now, Fedorov. None of this is written in your history books. We have hit a crack in your mirror. In fact, perhaps our very presence here has cracked it even further. The British will soon find out that we are not the cruiser we claimed to be, and they will be very curious. For the moment, however, something to the east is of much greater concern to them, and your clever Enigma code application has told you what it was. So do not look so forlorn. You see, in that way you can still read the history, and in other ways we may find that simply sitting back and reading it may no longer be a luxury we have here. We may have to
make
our own history here soon—at least this is what my instincts begin to tell me.”