Kirov Saga: Armageddon (Kirov Series) (18 page)

As fate would have it, the two subs were slowly approaching
Ulleung-do island, a prominent rocky outcrop isolated in the sea, with the
shape of an irregular pentagon. It was actually the top of a large
stratovolcano rising 985 meters above sea level, with sheer crags and odd
shaped rock columns about its jagged coastline. The volcano had last vented its
wrath over 9000 years ago in a major eruption that deposited tephra as far as
central Honshu, which was over 800 kilometers to the east. Now it stood in
sullen silence, its rocky toes anchored to the seafloor where the water depth
fell off beyond 1900 meters and was even deeper to the southeast where the two
subs were patrolling above the Ulleung Basin.

A possession of South Korea, the island was a popular tourist
destination, famous for squid fisheries, and sometimes called “Squid Island”
due to the fact that the locals would hang out squid to dry on clothes lines,
and lay them out on their rooftops all over the island. In 2021 it also housed
a small radar installation and a single coast guard corvette operating from the
main harbor at Dodong, and so the island’s only strategic utility was as a
watchful outpost, a character it had gained over a century ago during the
Russo-Japanese war.

The small island had also been the source of friction and conflict
in centuries past, along with the Liancourt Rocks, a series of small rocky
islets at the top of a subsea table mount feature about 85 kilometers southeast
of Ulleung-do. The Japanese called the rocks the Dokdo Islets, and they coveted
the hides of sea lions who often came to roost there, sunbathing on the rocky
outcrops.

(Map at http://www.writingshop.ws/html/k-viii-maps.html)

An enterprising entrepreneur named Nakai Yozaburo wanted exclusive
rights to the lucrative hides, and so he sequestered the islands for his sole
use during the years Japan fought its wars with China and Russia. He hailed
from the Oki Island group and in 1904 he was able to involve the Japanese Naval
Ministry, and particularly Admiral Kinistuki Kenko in the acquisition of the
islets from Korea. Seeking a way to monitor the movement of ships out of
Vladivostok, the Japanese brushed aside all other claims to the islands and
erected a series of watch towers on Oki Island, and both Dokdo and Ulleung-do.
They connected them with undersea telegraph cables that eventually linked their
naval base at Sasebo to outposts in Korea, and they became a kind of early
warning line.

As it happened, Nakai Yozaburo was high in the hills of Oki island
in 1908, thinking to take his nap. Instead he heard the call of a sea lion, and
thinking to spy this lucrative prey, he saw instead what looked to be a very
curious ship approaching, and used that same telegraph system along with smoke
signals to warn Vice Admiral Kamimura of
Kirov’s
approach. It was that
warning that led to the battle off Oki Islands, where history now recorded that
a large Russian dreadnought led by a renegade sea Captain fought and defeated
the Japanese Second Squadron of cruisers and two old battleships out of
Maizuru.

Now, 113 years in the future, another Russian vessel cautiously
approached the trip wire draped across these isolated island outposts.
A
deep channel ran along the edge of an undersea escarpment to the north, known
as the Usan Trough, and the Russian Submarine
Kazan
had been cruising
beneath a thermocline there, moving south at 25 knots and barely making a
whisper in the sea, even at that speed. It was slowly approaching the islands,
and the horns of the bull that were moving north to look for it in a loose
search pattern. The deadly dance at sea was about to begin.

The senior
torero
aboard
Kazan
was Captain Gromyko,
still bothered by the odd accident aft that had caused the fire. He was worried
that the brief involvement of the turbine bearing housing was going to come
back to haunt him, but glad the boat had been able to easily slip away from the
Korean coast undetected. As Ulleung-do was South Korean territory, he was
taking no chances as they approached, and brought the crew to battle stations
again. It so happened that Admiral Volsky and Fedorov were on the bridge in the
operations control center when sonar man Chernov reported the first contact.

“Con. Sonar. Undersea contact, possible submarine, confidence high.”
He gave the bearing and suspected range, though that would only be refined over
time on passive systems. Admiral Volsky looked quietly at Gromyko, noting his
relative calm on receiving the news.

“Load all tubes and then the boat will rig for silent running,”
Gromyko said quietly.

“Aye, sir. Load all tubes and run silent,” Belanov echoed the order.

“Well,” said Volsky to Fedorov. “This is refreshing—a sea Captain
who does not lose his composure with the report of an undersea contact.”

Gromyko was studying his digital map now, noting the rising
terrain ahead that would eventually breach the ocean’s surface to become the
Ulleung-do island volcano. “I certainly hope this one isn’t planning to erupt
any time soon,” he said with a grin to the Admiral.

He had been musing over all he had learned when the Admiral and
Fedorov disclosed what had really happened to
Kirov
, and why they were
on this mission. Now they had the first whiff of what was most likely a
Japanese or American sub, and the Captain decided to simply run silent for a
time to allow Chernov to monitor and record the contact for further analysis.

“That bearing would put that sub on a converging course,” said
Volsky.

“Yes, that is correct, Admiral.”

“Well, shouldn’t we turn to avoid them?”

“We could do so, but if they have also managed to detect us that
would only tell them we know where they are. No, I think we will hold this
course for a while and see what they do.”

At this point Belanov leaned in and whispered something to Volsky.
“We call him the
matador
,” he said. “You have been in the Northern
Fleet, Admiral, but out here, Gromyko is a bit of a legend. He has a certain
way of fighting the boat in undersea contacts, and the highest scores of any
man in the Pacific Fleet.”

“Yes,” said Volsky in a low voice. “I have read the Captain’s
file. I suppose that is why he is aboard
Kazan
.”

“Yes sir. I have seen him this way many times. We have just
entered the bull ring.”

Now the
matador
was walking boldly towards his foe. As with
any bull fight, undersea warfare was as much a contest to see what the
matador
himself could endure as much as it pitted man against beast, machine against
machine. The famous Juan Belmonte took the blood sport to a new level when he
began to introduce his luring capework in close proximity to the horns, deftly
twisting this way and that to avoid being gored. He stood with disdain, showing
the crowd his grace and skill, and seeming to defy the chance of serious injury
or death that had claimed hundreds of men before him. Yet many who attempted to
imitate his style in later years were mauled by the horns. There was only one
Belmonte, and here in the Pacific world beneath the sea, his name was Gromyko.

“Watch and learn, Fedorov,” Volsky whispered.

They cruised for the next twenty minutes, the boat silent and
tense, and then Gromyko raised his hand, quietly tapping Chernov on the
shoulder at his sonar station. “Listen carefully now,” he said. Then turning to
Belanov he gave orders for a course change.

“Come right fifteen degrees, five degree down bubble.”

“Right fifteen, five degrees down.”

The order echoed quietly back from the
Starpom
to the
helmsman. They waited, while Fedorov studied the digital map of the undersea
terrain with some interest. There were two ways around the volcano, the east
gap was between Ulleung-do and a submerged seamount called Anyongbok. From what
he could see the sonar data was indicating the course of the undersea contact
as moving too close this gap. The turn Gromyko ordered now selected the west
gap approaching another deep seamount called Igyuwon. Five minutes passed, then
ten, and the time seemed agonizingly slow.

“Any course change on the contact?” Gromyko was at Chernov’s side
now.

“No sir, I have it steady on 280.”

“Very well. Keep listening.”

They continued on for some minutes until Chernov gave the Captain
an odd look. “Sir…I’m hearing noise….I think it’s
us
, Captain. It sounds
like that bearing is acting up again.”

Gromyko was on the comm panel at once. “Engineering,” he hissed.
“What’s going on in the turbine room?”

The report that came back was most unwelcome. The fire near the
number six bearing housing had apparently caused more trouble than a quick
cleaning an re-lubrication could address. It was squeaking as it turned, and
making audible noise. The Engineer promised to suppress it as best he could
with additional lubricant, but to Chernov the sound was as if someone was
dragging their fingernails across a blackboard.

“Fire control officer. Receive all data from sonar and plot your
best solution to the contact. Ready tubes one and three. Type 65 torpedoes.”

“Con. Solution plotted and ready on tubes one and three with Type
65.”

Gromyko had a choice that day of using the big carrier killer, the
650mm Type 65 torpedo, or the smaller Type 53 which was mainly used for ASW
applications. For reasons he did not take time to explain, he chose the bigger
weapon, and no one on the bridge thought a second to ask why.

Chernov was very tense. “Sir, I’m hearing more. I think they heard
us as well.”

“I’m sure they have,” Gromyko said calmly. “They are most likely
putting fish in the water at this moment, or they soon will. But we will get
there first. Fire tubes one and three. Helm, left standard rudder—port five by
five.”

“Firing now!”

The torpedoes were away, ejecting cold as the submarine executed
another turning dive, and then their engines started up and they went streaking
away towards the unseen enemy contact.

*
* *

Aboard
the
White Dragon
things were about to get very
interesting, and very dangerous. The bull was advancing in a predetermined
search pattern. The two submarines were the horns, well out ahead of Sato’s
surface ships. Sato’s group was the head, and the tail was the SGN
Mississippi
,
moving quietly to the scene from the northeast. Captain Nakamura was cruising
to his assigned position in the east undersea transit gap, where he thought he
might lie in wait for any adversary attempting to skirt the island volcano of
Ulleung-do. His sonar man was listening very intently, but he had heard nothing
until he suddenly announced a possible submarine contact.

“Undersea noise, Captain. Very audible, and bearing 262 degrees.”

That Captain glanced quickly at his chart, noting the bearing and
approximate position of the contact and quickly discerning that someone was
making for the west gap undersea channel. “Contact Naval Operations and pass
this contact data. Battle stations! Load tubes two and four!” Nakamura wasted
not a second, but he was already late.

“Sir! I have one, now
two
torpedoes in the water and
running true down 260!”

“Firing Control Officer, do you have a solution?”

“Sir, we do not have a lock yet!”

 “Then fire down that bearing, minus ten degrees. Now!”

The
White Dragon
fired in return, a bearing only attack
that did not have high odds of success, and Nakamura was not going to wait
around to see which boat had the better firing solution. Assuming the enemy was
heading south, he had subtracted ten degrees from his  firing bearing, hoping
to get his torpedoes to a place the enemy might be when they arrived to begin
their active sonar search for the target.

“Countermeasures! Starboard side noisemakers. Do it now!”

The Firing Officer ejected their decoys which spun out in a wildly
cavitating pattern designed to attract any incoming torpedo. Now it was time to
be somewhere else, and as inconspicuously as possible. But the noisemakers
would linger, moving at a pre-programmed speed to lure in the enemy fish.

“Ten degrees down bubble. Make your depth 200. Speed fifteen.”

“Sir, diving planes are ten degrees down and we are passing
through 180 meters. Speed fifteen knots.”

Both subs had fired, one with a much better solution than the
other, as the
White Dragon
had been roused from its undersea slumber by
the sudden noise, while
Kazan
had been listening to and tracking the
enemy for some time. That difference could be decisive, but now it was up to
the four torpedoes in the water, rapidly accelerating and beginning to search
for the targets they had been unleashed to find and destroy.

Chapter 15

The
Japanese Type 89 torpedo produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
was a wire guided, active/passive homing torpedo with a 267 kilogram warhead.
It could dive to 900 meters, well below the crush depth of most submarines, and
had a range of 50 kilometers at 40 knots, or 74 KPH. It was going to have to go
all of twenty kilometers if it was to find the Russian sub, and so it was going
to be another fifteen minutes before it reached the hot zone where it might get
a definite lock on the target to make its final run.