Cold Warriors: The Essex Class in the Cold War

[La Rouge Beret]

Looks like I was Ninja'd to it about the ROCN submarines, which they have kept in service for ages. A couple of years ago I met a former ROCN Captain (OF 5), who served in their submarine service back in the late '60s or early 70s when there was still very much a hot war between both the PRC and the ROC.

From my understanding I would expect the Dutch submarine to have a reasonable standard of electronics, simply by virtue of being Dutch with access to NATO & a technologically advanced & literate society. They also sent their Captains on the RN run SMCC better known as Perisher, so the Captain & likely the XO as well will be well trained & very capable. Expect them to sail back into port with the Jolly Roger flying proudly.

[lordroel]

Feb 7, 2022 14:50:34 GMT ssgtc said:

February 28, 1959
Jakarta, Indonesia

President Sukarno and General Nasution had the latest reports from General Suharto in front of them. The progress of Operation Trikora was good. The loses to their aviation units had been heavy, but the destruction that had wrought was worth the price. An Americanism crept into Sukarno's mind, "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Well, they had broken their eggs and were making their omelet. The Dutch fighter squadron based on Biak had been decimated and had not even tried to contest their latest bombing mission. The question now was whether the Dutch defenses were sufficiently weakened to allow them to begin landing soldiers on the islands.

General Suharto believed that a few bombing missions should be flown against possible beach defense sites and what he believed to be a Dutch supply depot that had been identified in a reconnaissance photograph. But Suharto did not have all the information that he did. For in addition to the reports from his own military, he had several intelligence reports from their "friends" in the USSR. The Dutch were sending a carrier group to press their claims to the island. The KGB believed that the Dutch would not arrive before the end of March. The reports that had been provided to them suggested that the Dutch would need to stop to refuel in Tenerife, South Africa and Australia. The Soviets promised to do what they could to stir up the dockworker's unions in those countries to delay the ships as much as they could.

Across from him, General Nasution was not overly concerned with the Dutch carrier. "An old ship with outdated planes," was what he called her. Their own fighters and bombers were much more modern. Had they not just demonstrated the ability to target a carrier at sea when they had sent their bombers against the American interloper in the Banda Sea? Should the Dutch prove foolish enough to send their carrier within range of their bombers, they would receive a warm welcome.

Sukarno made his decision. The bombing missions General Suharto wanted would be approved. Due to the small number of aircraft they had, and the small stock of bombs available however, the missions would have to be carried out over the next two weeks. They also couldn't afford to ignore Mokmer Airfield either during that time. Their bomber fleet would be quite busy it seemed.

After a few more hours discussing their options for the planned attack and the logistics involved in it, final approval was sent to General Suharto to begin final preparations for the invasion of West Irian. Baring bad weather, the invasion would begin on March 14th.

So does the signals intelligence agency known as Marid 6 Netherlands New Guinea (NNG) work as well as they did in OTL.

[ssgtc]

Apologies for the long delay in updating this. But like it has a tendency to do, life got in the way. I'm going to try to hold to a more regular update schedule going forward.



March 2, 1959
Philippine Sea


On board four carriers similar scenes were repeating themselves. Alarm klaxons were sounding as officers and men rushed to their posts. A large number of the enlisted men, and a not insignificant number of junior officer, could be heard grumbling about the incessant drills that the "old man" had them running. While it was true that Admiral Shoech had drilled his men nearly non-stop, this time he wasn't the cause of the call to General Quarters.


AD-5Ws from both Bon Homme Richard and Ticonderoga had picked up multiple inbound aircraft, type unknown but moving fast and in formation. It was a good bet that the damn Indonesians were using his ships for training again. What caused his level of concern to tick up a notch were the other contacts that were being plotted. These had come from the Trackers flying off of Yorktown.


One of her planes had been enroute to its patrol station and was doing a gear check along the way. They just happened to have the MAD boom out and the readout spiked. After a few sonobuoys had been dropped, they radioed in a confirmed submarine contact just to the east of the formation, and the formation was steaming straight at it while they conducted flight operations.


Deciding to try and scare the bastard off, Admiral Shoech ordered the crew in the Tracker to drop some active buoys so the sub would know that she'd been found. What the buoys revealed instead was the presence of a second submarine just on the edge of detection. Unable to prosecute both contacts at once, a Seabat helicopter was dispatched to keep tabs on the second sub while an additional Tracker was prepared to launch from Yorktown. While he could confidently leave the submarine threat up to Admiral Colestock and Yorktown, he would have to handle the inbound aircraft.


The airborne cap was currently being flown by the Sea Hawks of 806 Squadron from Albion. While they had already reoriented themselves towards the threat and pushed their throttles to the stops, they were not much more capable than the Banshees embarked on Yorktown and Ticonderoga. Yorktown was already putting up two of her Banshees to provide additional top cover over the fleet. Once airborne, they would join with four Banshees being launched off of Ticonderoga. That should give them sufficient close in cover if needed.


He would need to shoot off the ready Tigers from Bonnie Dick for an attempt at a deck launched intercept. They were the fastest planes he had and could get there first. After that would come his Demons. Both Tico and BHR carried a full squadron of the planes. He supposed it was time they earned their keep. According to his morning reports, both ships were keeping a two plane formation on the deck and ready to launch for this eventuality. They would be shot off ASAP.


He would also have to send up two of his Skywarriors. The Red Rockets of VAH-2 were thankfully equipped with the latest A3D-2 version of the plane and could conduct aerial refueling missions for his fighters. He should probably launch another pair of Guppys as well to relieve the two already airborne. Once his planes were in the air, and the handful that needed to recovered, he needed to turn his fleet away from the approaching submarines. He had no intention of going near any submarine, friendly or hostile, if he could avoid it.

[ssgtc]

March 2, 1959
Over the Philippine Sea


Lieutenant Commander Burtschell felt like he was reliving a nightmare. He was once again flying top cover for the fleet in his Banshee, and once again radar reported Badger bombers inbound. He already knew that his crate was not up to the task of intercepting the speedy Soviet built bombers. That lesson had been hammered home last month. But orders were still orders and so he was in the air again to try and defend the carriers.


At least this time the planes of his fighter detachment weren't the only planes in the air. Bonnie Dick and Tico had launched Tigers and Demons to intercept the inbound strike. The fucking Indonesians were in for a surprise if they thought they could get away with their antics a second time. He had caught a glimpse of the Tigers as they rocketed towards the contact. Their afterburners were blazing and they were hauling more ass than he could even dream of in his obsolete bucket of bolts. Those bombers were in for a surprise.


Soon the guard channel was filled with the sound of growls as the Tiger pilots broadcast over the air the growling of their Sidewinders warning the bombers that they had a missile pointed right up their six. A few minutes later, a new sound came over the open airwaves. The Demons were making their presence known as well. The tones from their Sparrow missiles warning of a lock on were distinctive. Commander Burtschell started to grin under his oxygen mask. Not so easy going after a fully formed battle group, is it Ivan? He would have to wait for the full debrief once he was back on deck, but if this had been the real thing, Ivan would be nursing a seriously bloody nose.

[ssgtc]

March 2, 1959
Under the Philippine Sea


PING! PING! PING! Captain Third Rank Rudolf Golosov cursed his luck. He had cleanly beaten the outer screen of the American battle group and was finalizing his preparations to launch a mock attack on one of the American carriers. But somehow the damn imperialists had managed to find him. His Project 611 submarine may not be the most advanced boat in the Soviet Navy, but she had a damn good crew, and for the life of him he couldn't figure how the Americans had managed to find him. But they did as their damn aircraft circling overhead proved.


His first attempt at slipping away had been foiled when the Americans dropped their active sonobuoys on him. They had him dead to rights. If they wanted to, they could have quickly put him on the wrong end of a torpedo or depth charge. But he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Let the Americans think they had him localized and pinned down and he would use their hubris against them to slip away.


At his command several noise makers were released while he ordered B-72 deep and made a radical turn to confuse the American sensors. They couldn't listen to all their sonobuoys simultaneously. He would use the noise from the decoys to close in and launch his mock attack. His sonar was not the most capable in the world, but he could hear more active buoys being dropped around his noisemakers. He smiled to himself. Good luck finding him now, class oppressors.


The minutes ticked by slowly and the sounds of the hunt faded behind him. When he could no longer hear anything, he slowly brought his boat back up to periscope depth and risked a quick exposure. The scope was above the surface for less than six seconds and already he was getting reports on all the radar activity up there. There were multiple airborne search sets of the type carried by the American S-2 Tracker aircraft. They had even picked up a few surface search sets of the type fitted to the American's Gearing class destroyers. He would have to be quick to evade after he finished his "attack."


His quick survey of the surface also showed him that the formation was turning. They knew he was out here, and their Admiral would not want to put his precious carriers at risk by steaming straight at him. He would also know that his boat had no hope of closing the formation if they turned away from him and opened the throttles. But it did not matter. He was not where their admiral expected him to be. The ship he had originally been targeting was no longer within his engagement envelope, but another was heading straight at him. He was a smaller carrier, British or Australian maybe.


But that was just as good. Those nations were far weaker than the Americans, and showing how easily they could lose one of their precious carriers could possibly reap bigger rewards than "sinking" one of the dozens of American flattops would. All it would require of him was patience. And a little luck. Ordering his boat back deep, he would wait for his target to come to him.


Ten more minutes went by, and still they remained undetected. His own sonar thought they might have a twitch of something on the bearing he had last seen the British carrier on. With a quiet order, he circled slowly back up to periscope depth. He would need the visual bearings to the target to launch. While they came up to periscope depth he gave an order which, if misinterpreted, could begin the next world war.
He said, "Make torpedo tube one ready in all respects, including opening the outer door. Flood tubes two through six, but do not open the outer doors."


The order was quickly repeated back to him and the boat was shortly filled with the sound of rushing water as all six bow torpedo tubes were flooded with water. He quickly popped his ears as the air in tubes was vented back into the boat to prevent bubbles giving away his position on the surface. His boat was as ready as he could make it.


As his boat leveled off at the ordered depth he gave the order to raise the periscope. Rudolf caught the scope as it came up out of its well and began his search before the head had even broken the surface, looking for the shadow of any previously undetected ship hovering above him that could run him down in an instant if he wasn't careful. It looked clear. As the head broke the surface he spun around in a circle twice, first checking the surface and then checking the sky. They were both clear. Except for the sight of the carrier rapidly approaching his port bow.


Centering the ship in the lens, Rudolf called out, "Bearing on the bow!"


The Michman across from him answered, "Three-four-seven degrees!"


His Starpom at the fire control table said, "Range!"


Rudolf worked the stadimeter and said, "Four thousand yards!"


Once again his Starpom called out, "Second bearing?"


The Michman replied, "Three-five-one degrees!"


"Range?"


Working his stadimeter once again, Rudolf called out, "Three thousand-seven hundred yards!"


"Solution ready! Ship ready! Tube ready!"


Stepping back from the periscope, Captain Third Rank Golosov ordered, "Tube one, match bearings and shoot!"


With a rush of compressed air, the flare was expelled from the tube and carried forward and up where it break the surface and announce to the world, and more importantly to the crew of the approaching carrier, that they were now "dead."

[ssgtc]

March 3, 1959
Philippine Sea


The data tapes from CIC had been analyzed along with the gun camera footage from the Tigers and Demons. While the pilots had almost all celebrated a successful intercept, the hard data told a different story. The ready five Tigers had intercepted the Badgers fifteen seconds after the bombers had reached what Naval Intelligence thought was the maximum firing range of the Kennel. The Demons had only achieved lock on one minute after the Badgers had reached firing range.


If this had been the real thing, at least six and possibly as many as ten missiles would have been fired at the task group before any of the six attacking bombers could have been shot down. Admiral Shoech was convinced that the Navy had the tactics right: maintain a light CAP of interceptors above the fleet and use a deck launched intercept of supersonic fighters to nail any unexpected attackers or leakers that the CAP fighters missed or couldn't reach. Doing anything else, like maintaining a full BARCAP without being certain of an attack, one that would use more of his fighters and decrease their readiness rates, was just not sustainable outside of an actual war. That kind of constant flying wore down machines and crews too quickly to do in peacetime.


He had looked at the crews that flew the mission against the inbound Badgers. They had done everything they could possibly be expected to do to conduct a successful intercept. There was no fault to be found there. They flew exactly how they had been trained and had pushed the envelope as hard as they could. But it hadn't been enough.


He was left with only one answer. If the tactics were sound, and the crews were sound, then it had to be the equipment. The planes themselves just weren't good enough. Both the Tigers and the Demons had almost intercepted the aircraft in time. But almost wasn't good enough. It hadn't been real this time, and for that he was thankful. But, God forbid, if it ever was real, he and his men would be fighting for their lives and trying to save their ships from sinking after taking multiple missile hits. His report to his superiors was not going to be pleasant reading. He doubted that COMNAVAIRPAC was going to be very happy when he saw it.


His one and only consolation in regards to his air groups fighters was that new aircraft were coming. But would they get here fast enough to matter?


The next pile of documents he had to sift through to fill out his after action report had to do with the submarine that had penetrated the formation and "attacked" Albion. The Trackers from Yorktown had initially gotten lucky and found not one, but two, Soviet submarines. One of the boats had been successfully prosecuted and forced to admit by defeat by surfacing. They weren't sure what happened to the other boat.


Data tapes holding radar and sonar information would have to be dissected to determine if one of the two original boats had managed to slip away, or if there had been a third boat out there that they had completely missed. Either way, the results had been the same. The commie bastard had managed to reach firing position on Albion and launch. The fact that the offending boat had been "sunk" after was small consolation to the Royal Navy for the loss of a carrier and her crew. All in all, it had not been a good day for the American and British Navies.

[lordroel]

Jun 27, 2022 1:02:57 GMT ssgtc said:

Apologies for the long delay in updating this. But like it has a tendency to do, life got in the way. I'm going to try to hold to a more regular update schedule going forward.

No problem, nice to see some updates.

[lordroel]

Jun 27, 2022 1:15:11 GMT ssgtc said:

March 2, 1959
Under the Philippine Sea


PING! PING! PING! Captain Third Rank Rudolf Golosov cursed his luck. He had cleanly beaten the outer screen of the American battle group and was finalizing his preparations to launch a mock attack on one of the American carriers. But somehow the damn imperialists had managed to find him. His Project 611 submarine may not be the most advanced boat in the Soviet Navy, but she had a damn good crew, and for the life of him he couldn't figure how the Americans had managed to find him. But they did as their damn aircraft circling overhead proved.

In the hands of a good captain, any submarine can be deadly.

[ssgtc]

Jun 28, 2022 17:47:46 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 27, 2022 1:15:11 GMT ssgtc said:

March 2, 1959
Under the Philippine Sea


PING! PING! PING! Captain Third Rank Rudolf Golosov cursed his luck. He had cleanly beaten the outer screen of the American battle group and was finalizing his preparations to launch a mock attack on one of the American carriers. But somehow the damn imperialists had managed to find him. His Project 611 submarine may not be the most advanced boat in the Soviet Navy, but she had a damn good crew, and for the life of him he couldn't figure how the Americans had managed to find him. But they did as their damn aircraft circling overhead proved.

In the hands of a good captain, any submarine can be deadly.

Very true. And this captain was VERY good. In OTL he made Vice Admiral and was a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also in the Pacific Fleet at this time commanding B-72. So him being sent to mess with NATO warships is EXACTLY the kind of thing the Red Navy would do

[La Rouge Beret]

Sailing in & around archipelagos sea lanes is always a stressful environment, both for AAW & ASW. There's a huge amount of ambient noise & a good diesel submarine is damn quiet in that environment.

The only solution lays with an aggressive screen combined with MPAs & helicopters overloading the Submarine crew. Otherwise, a missile strike on the submarine in Port is a good solution too.

[lordroel]

Jun 27, 2022 1:06:44 GMT ssgtc said:

March 2, 1959
Over the Philippine Sea


Lieutenant Commander Burtschell felt like he was reliving a nightmare. He was once again flying top cover for the fleet in his Banshee, and once again radar reported Badger bombers inbound. He already knew that his crate was not up to the task of intercepting the speedy Soviet built bombers. That lesson had been hammered home last month. But orders were still orders and so he was in the air again to try and defend the carriers.

So he himself believe he has not got the fighter to intercept the Badgers.

[ssgtc]

Jun 29, 2022 2:48:32 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 27, 2022 1:06:44 GMT ssgtc said:

March 2, 1959
Over the Philippine Sea


Lieutenant Commander Burtschell felt like he was reliving a nightmare. He was once again flying top cover for the fleet in his Banshee, and once again radar reported Badger bombers inbound. He already knew that his crate was not up to the task of intercepting the speedy Soviet built bombers. That lesson had been hammered home last month. But orders were still orders and so he was in the air again to try and defend the carriers.

So he himself believe he has not got the fighter to intercept the Badgers.

Nope. But he has a reason for it. He watched Badgers blow right past him not that long ago when Yorktown was conducting a Freedom of Navigation exercise. He KNOWS the Badger is more than 100MPH faster than his plane.

[lordroel]

Jun 29, 2022 2:53:31 GMT ssgtc said:

Jun 29, 2022 2:48:32 GMT lordroel said:

So he himself believe he has not got the fighter to intercept the Badgers.

Nope. But he has a reason for it. He watched Badgers blow right past him not that long ago when Yorktown was conducting a Freedom of Navigation exercise. He KNOWS the Badger is more than 100MPH faster than his plane.

So would hev have been faster if he had a Air Force plane.

[ssgtc]

Jun 29, 2022 2:47:18 GMT La Rouge Beret said:

Sailing in & around archipelagos sea lanes is always a stressful environment, both for AAW & ASW. There's a huge amount of ambient noise & a good diesel submarine is damn quiet in that environment.

The only solution lays with an aggressive screen combined with MPAs & helicopters overloading the Submarine crew. Otherwise, a missile strike on the submarine in Port is a good solution too.

Very true! And that's a big lesson that needs to be learned. Combine this with what Nautilus just did in the Atlantic, and the Navy brass is going to freaking out over how vulnerable their ships are

[ssgtc]

Jun 29, 2022 2:54:55 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 29, 2022 2:53:31 GMT ssgtc said:

Nope. But he has a reason for it. He watched Badgers blow right past him not that long ago when Yorktown was conducting a Freedom of Navigation exercise. He KNOWS the Badger is more than 100MPH faster than his plane.

So would hev have been faster if he had a Air Force plane.

He's flying a Banshee, it's a first generation jet with straight wings. The late 50s into the early 60s was a transitional time for the Navy's Air Groups. They were flying everything from Banshees to Skyraiders to Tigers to Furys to Skyhawks to Crusaders to Phantoms. Though planes like the Banshee were on their last cruises at this point. It was a pre-Korean War era design. Hell, put him in a Skyhawk and he could have at least matched the speed of the Badger.