Post by lordroel on Dec 17, 2022 19:04:48 GMT
17 Dec update
THE SHOWBOAT Engages THE IRON CHANCELLOR
I have been asked to post in black and am happy to comply.
THE SHOWBOAT Engages THE IRON CHANCELLOR
I have been asked to post in black and am happy to comply.
3 JUNE 1941 1400 Commandant First CG District sent an urgent message to his friend Admiral USN Ernest King Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet.
CLFT
DE RFG NR 114 U 151403Z JUN
FM First CG District
TO CINCLANTFLT
WD GRNC
BT
TS
1.Per your request for anything concerning unusual nuetral tanker activity.
2. Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387” reported "nuetral" Venezuelan tanker PSS Cabello, transporting No.1 bunker oil had failed to report to her shipping company for 9 days.
3. Company has repeatedly request posit and reason why normal reporting has ceased.
4. Last reported position was Latitude: 18 57 41.5 Longitude: 59 51 37.3 Course 065T at 15 kts.
BT
NNNN
Veteran, civilian cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman of USCG Lcdr Jones’ Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387”, knowing what was going on in the hunt for Bismarck suspected PSS Cabello, was heading for a position to refuel the two raiders.
Admiral USN Ernest King Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet agreed with Elizabeth. Those two raiders were doing too much high speed evasion not to be planning on an UNREP. In his opinion, that was one of the many reasons why the "Limeys" and his own patrol planes of PatWing 5 were having such a tough time finding them. The search areas were too small. Now he had a datum to center his search but it was 9 days old and only his PatWing 5 PBYs could make any immediate use of it.
He called his C o Staff in and issued a series of orders to his patrol wing Commander to begin a new search at the SS Cabello's last posit. He also sent out a message to all his ships at sea to be on the lookout for PSS Cabello (who knows someomne just might get lucky .
King "Ensure Admiral Hewitt is appraised of the status of SS Cabello and my suspicion she was heading for a rendezous with TG Brinkmann. " Ernie King's face showed his sardonic smile as he thought "And now I am grasping at fucking straws. Those Nazi bastards have made ME and the Limeys look like fools." It was a very bad idea for anyone to try to make "Ernie" King a fool.
3 JUNE 1941 1600 in North Dakota's Flag plot. Rear Admiral Hewitt's TG-39 to "Ching Lee" CO BB-55 "Ching we are going South. I think those Nazi bastards are going for the tankers in the Caribbean. I think their first kill was PSS Cabello."
"Ching Lee" " Aye, Aye sir but if your wrong and Brinkmann slaughters another convoy up here Ernie will have both our balls nailed to the foremast."
Hewitt "You have nothing to worry about Ching. Your under my orders so I guess your wife will not suffer, any more than she does now, by you not bulling her by the humbers."
Both men laughed. Both knew all too well just following orders in something this outrageous would not shield Lee completyely. Probably no formal action other than a letter of admonition in his jacket. Those letters had a way of prejudicing the brass when flag selection was being considered. The really aggravating part of it was Lee agreed with Hewitt and was wholeheartedly in favor of him playing his hunch.
A smile crossed Lee's face as he thought "Mabelle actually liked doing it 'by the numbers'. How did Hewitt know that?"
Hewitt to his chief of staff. "What is the fuel status of our destroyers".
Chief O Staff , who made it a practice to know the fuel state of his thirsty cans at all times since it was their endurance that was often the key component of any plan at sea. "All reported 70% this afternoon Sir."
Hewitt to his chief of staff "Give me a course at 24 kts to arrive at Cabello's last estimated position on the day she stopped reporting."
The staff navigaor was working the solution as soon as he heard the rear admiral say what he wanted and was able to tell the Chief Of Staff the answer as soon as he asked it.
Hewitt to his Chief Of Staff "Break out an Execute to follow" of the new course and speed to the TG."
Then get out an "Eyes Only" by back channel signal to inform Admiral King I am leaving the op area and heading South to Cabello's datum. Give him our estimated time on station and that we will need an UNREP prior to reaching that datum. Work out a time and place for the UNREP at least 150 miles north of that datum.
Hewitt to Captain Lee. "I will be ordering daylight and night gunnery practice tomorrow for BB-55. Weather permitting, and it should be OK, I'll designate one of the DDs to tow your target raft. Ching tell your gunners this will be as close to actual combat as I can manage. Use your "High Caps" because I will have other use for your AP soon."
CO BB-55 "Sir my magazines are loaded to safe capacity, more than war allowance by a good margin. I increased the AP to High Cap loadout by 50%. I request permission to use AP; the flight charctoristics of our High Cap are a little different from our AP as you know."
TG-39 "Ok Ching make it AP."
3 JUNE 1941 1900 S-13 now SS-118 (AKA to her crew among themselves as SS FORD for Fix Or Reapir Daily) based at Guantanamo Bay Cuba was cruising on the surface at 10 kts. She had just come up for her nightly battery charge, "AIR renewal", cigarette breaks, trash disposal and to copy the Fox Sched and any other signals meant for her.
King's high priority message to be on the lookout for was noted by the CO, communicated to his officers and the COB and included in his night order book. He imediately told his OOD they were looking for a Venezeulan Tanker named PSS Cabello, that had gone missing a few days ago in their patrol area. The boat would stay on the surface, where he would be able to cover more ocean, at a better speed and a much longer visual horizon. He would also be in radio comms and pick up any aplifying messages about PSS Cabello that would allow him to fine tune the search for the tanker.
It would take her about 8 hours for a full charge. Those old batteries really needed replacing but "S Boats" were the red haired adopted children of SubLant. Most thought about all they were good for was training these days and, unknown to the skipper of the old "FORD", they would be proved wrong before not too much longer.
S-13's CO, Lt. Peter "Cowboy" Holt USNA class of 1938 had a love/hate relationship with his command. He had the pride of a first time CO and the utter loathing for this antique rust bucket that had tried to kill him and his men more than once and more than twice.
Thank God for his COB, Chiefs and PO-1s. They held FORD together with bailing wire and chewing gum.
S-13 was of group II S-3 class, or "Navy Yard" type, built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Commissioned 14 July 1923, Decommissioned 30 September 1936 and recommissioned 28 October 1940.
Her Displacement was 876 tons surfaced; 1,092 tons submerged. She had a length of 231 feet, Beam of 21 feet 9 inches, Draft of 13 feet 4 inches. Propulsion was 2 Busch-Sulzer diesels each of 1,000 SHP , 2 Westinghouse electric motors rach of 600 hp, 120-cell Exide battery and two shafts. S-13s surfaced Speed was15 knots, submerged was 11 knots but not for long.
Her 148 tons of deisel oil gave S-13 a range of 5,000 nautical miles at 10 knots surfaced. Test depth: 200 although aside from about 4 mandatory test dives, it was prudent to not exceed 175 feet.
Armament was still as built back in 1923 of 4 21 in bow torpedo tubes and one aft with a loadout of 14 torpedoes. The loadout this patrol was 12 MK-10s and 2 of the new MK-14s. She mounted One 4 inch 50 cal surface only deck gun and a couple of pintal mounted dual purpose M-2 heavy machine guns. She was crewed by 42 officers and men.
She did not yet have radar but her underwater search gear was state of the art. S-13/SS -118/USS FORD was equipped with the model JT idirectional listening system designed to detect, identify, and locate sources of both sonic and ultrasonic sounds. It is designed to use the JP (Active sionar sonic equipment and has a super-sonic converter so that ultrasonic as well as sonic sounds can be amplified by the JP amplifier. In addition, it has a more directional hydrophone than the JP hydrophone and has a right-left indicator (RLI) for taking bearings on sonic sounds with greater accuracy than is possible with the tuning-eye indicator of the JP equipment. An interphone-amplifier unit permits "talkback" between the forward torpedo room-in which the JT system is mounted-and the conning tower.
3 JUNE 1941 0020 two of, now sinking Fury's torpedoes hit Hipper in the main machinery spaces leaving the heavy cruiser DIW and without electrical power. Guns firing under local control. Many casualties.
3 JUNE 1941 2030 USCG Lcdr Jones’ OIC of Code and Sypher Branch Sypher Branch “Unit 387” sat at his desk drinking his now cold black coffee. He was thinking about what Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman had said about TG Brinkman might be looking for new hunting grounds.
He called Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman at home and asked her to come into the office. Elizabeth did not ask why, this was all too much of her life with “Unit 387” and she would have it no other way. She simply said I'll be there is twenty five minutes. Is this going to be an all nighter sir?
Lcdr Jones, "I'm afraid it most likely is".
She grabbed her "togo" bag packed for such overnight and sometimes many days at the Atlantic Ave CG Base in Boston stints. She just knew they were going after Bismarck and she wanted that Nazi battleship sunk very, very badly.
3 JUNE 1941 2115 Lcdr Jones appraised Cryptologist Feldman of his deduction. She agreed it was certainly possible if ,BIG IF, TG Brinkman could make the transit south undetected.
Feldman making a few quick calculations said to her CO "Sir the raiders last positions were days old, Bismarck on the morning of 31 May and Prinse Eugene on the evening of 28 May, that's almost a week. At 25 knots they could cover 3600 nautical miles and could have been in Oranjestad a few days ago.”
Lcdr Jones said patiently (he needed her thinking not pissed off at him) "I know the math. Brinkman could be anywhere within 11,300 square miles except we can reduce that thoretical area by a lot. Bismarck could go west and run into the heaviest cocentartion of the USN Nuetrality patrol, especially PatWing 5's PBYs. She can't go north becausse TG-39 is running air patrols as they head South to stop TG Brinkmann from slautering tankers coming up from Venezeula and the caribbean. The Nazi's could run East but then the RAF and RN would stand a good chance of finally making contact again.
So I'd say South is a pretty good bet especially if he can refuel. So, my guess hinges on Cabello. If Britain's fuel supply is the strategic target then destroying Aruba's two refineries is a great target. What do you think?" Jones greatly valued Feldman's views of his theories. Just saying them outloud to her helped him refine those theories.
Cryptologist Feldman "We're not at war so he can't go after US mainland refineries, and even if he was crazy enough to try he might get one. Then his entire TG would be dead within hours and Churchill would get what he and FDR need to ensure Hitler looses; early US declaration of war. I still think it's tankers Bismarck is after and why not intercept them at a known choke point like those refineries."
All really good cryptologists were superb mathematicians. They also had the skills, so valued in intelligance analysts, especially to identify and remember odd bits of info that when reviewed alongside other seemingly worthless information began to establish a pattern. Few of the cryptologists were privy to enough information to fit these patterns into tactical or strategic ongoing operations. Feldman was an exception to that rule. That was left to ONI and to the their seniors, like LCDR Jones. Jones had a foot in both organizations and was in the ideal position to evlaute what was going on in the enemy camp.
Not too long ago he had seen copies of low level reports of the Venezeulan national police on the acivities of "Grupo Regional de Venezuela del Partido Nazi" to infiltrate officers and seaman into the crews of C.A. de Navegación Fluvial y Costanera de Venezuela, Puerto Cabello tanker fleet. The assistant junior Naval aide in the Port of La Guaira Consulate, had been coopted by a young, attractive Venezeulan national police agent. He had mentioned something about gathering quite useless information on the current state of Aruba's harbors and two oil refineries from sympathetic crewmen of C.A. de Navegación Fluvial y Costanera de Venezuela, Puerto Cabello tanker fleet. It meant he spent a lot of time drinking in local sailor's dives and forcing down the horrible rot gut wine with drunken masters, mates and engineering officers who had recently delivered crude to those refineries. ONI analysts had concluded this was to support the U-boat war against allied comerce, especiallty tankers.
He still could NOT break the thought it was not the tankers but the refineries themselves that TG Brinkmann was now after.
Jones "Ok tonight you and I are going to compose an intel analysis supporting the theory that TG Brinkmann is about to attack the two refineries on Aruba. I'll need you to assmble whatever intercepts and other intel that supports that hypothesis. I've got a lot of it here now but it desprately needs your evaluation and opinion of it's worth. Natuarally, I think it holds together but the secnd opinion of someone I trust is essential before I take this up the line. I think those Nazi butchers are ready to strike and it might well be too late.
I will work on a draft executive summary and final recommendations. We'll combine your stuff with mine and see if it holds up well enough to present it to Commandant First CG District here in Boston. I know for a fact he thinks one of the weaknesses of Nazi's is their driven to constantly prove their superiority. Destroying those refiners would validate their opinion of themselvess. He also has the ear of Ernie King and if he believes us he can get CinCLant Fleet to do somthing to protect Aruba, if only warn the Brits.
4 JUNE 1941 0550 "1CGDist" was an early riser who was usually in work by 0530 who reviewed the night's activities as he drank his 2nd cup of coffee. There was an entry, dated 0300 in the night's log that Lcdr Jones’ OIC of Code and Sypher Branch“Unit 387” had requested an urgent meeting to review the latest analysis of enemy intensions. He picked up his phone at 0550 and called “Unit 387”, which was housed in the basement where all spies and other such essentail but disreutable skallywags belonged. The duty watch PO answered the phone.
1CGDist identified himself and said "Inform your CO that I expect him and his analysis in my office at 0600.
4 JUNE 1941 0700 USCG Lcdr Jones’ OIC of Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387” and his senior Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman sat on the sofa in Commandant First CG District office on Atlantic Ave Boston. They had spent the last hour going over their analysis of TG Brinkmann's next moves. "1CGDist" had listened intently, asked a few very pointed questions, challenged the analysis because of the lack of solid sighting reports and the fact he did not think the Germans stood much of a chance breaking into, and no chance of getting out, of the caribbean without alraming the Brits. He told them he could buy Brinkman going South after tankers but not attacking Aruba. Jones replied. "That is one way to look at it Sir. However, based on what we don't know about the wheerabouts of Bismarck and the fact CincLant , ONI and you have expressed your opinions Brinkmann is heading south to sink tankers, it seems an attack on the refineries is a resonable possibility to me. It is my opinion we should take action to prevent or at least warn Aruba. The ony real defense those refineries have against Bismarck and Prince Eugene's guns are those old B-10s and the underwhelming Buffalo fighters. A few PBYs would be a lot of help."
1CGDist stared at Jones for a long time as he worked though what to do. Time was of the essence. Ernie had a lot on his plate and the last thing he neded was to complicate his efforts to sink Bismarck with this new possibility. He finally made up his mind.
Jones I will partially endorse your analysis. Have it coded and sent to CincLant Fleet intel and ONI high priority as soon as possible. Get me whatever you can to prove or disprove that analysis. I am going out on limb and if we are really wrong we'll both be part of the Greenland Patrol. Maybe I can get command of one of those converted fishing draggers and you will get a weather station in the center of middle of "Nowhere" Greenland."
It was defintely an exageration and they both had a chuckle. Poor Liz thought he was serious and looked pretty dispisritted.
30 minutes later 1CGDist was on the secure line with his old "friend" Ernie King explaining the Analysis he just sent by message.
King, "Is this Jones the same Lcdr that got us that good convoy intel not long ago?"
1CGDist , " Same one"
King, "You endorsed this right?"
1CGDist, No sir, not completely. I buy Brinkmann going south to sink tankers at their source. I do not buy attack Aruba. That's the Caribbean. We own the surface and air. No way Bismarck is going in there, no matter how good the target is.
King, "I agree with you but had you considered an attack by one of their big Nines? Both those refineries are right on the coast as are their tank farms. If the Nazi bastards surface in shore their 4.1 deck gun could erally do some damage to oil refineries. Damn things might go up like a bonfire. Jones is onto something and I will do something about it. Not sure just what.
1CGDist, "Come to think of it Sir there are other refineries down south that don't require going into the Caribbean."
King, "This really pisses me off. I have absolutely nothing I can get to Aruba in time to do any real good. What I can do is stretch the ABC-1 agreement again and warn the Limey's of this possibility. They can warn Aruba of the possibility which will do some good, but not much. Problem is the Limeys have less than I do anywhere near Aruba. I'll be on the horn with Hewitt as soon as we hang up. Well keep me informed if Jones and that code breaking witch, Liz Feldman, I wish we had a dozen like her, come up with anything. "
Ernie King's even temper was operating normally. “He is the most even-tempered person in the United States Navy,” one of his daughters said of him. “He is always in a rage.”
1CGDist, " You'll be the second person to know, right after me."
Truth was 1CGDist, knew cultivating King was the right thing to do. It was all too true Ernie was tough as nails and carried himself ramrod straight; probably had one stuffed up his ass. He was blunt and stand-offish, almost to the point of rudeness until he decided he was dealing with someone of value....to him. It said something about himself that he and King worked very well together. Ernie refused to suffer fools, always handing off those too powerful to snub to his long suffering staff officers. No matter how well they got on professionally they were far from "liberty buddies". Ernie was tough but FDR was wrong, he did not shave with a blow torch, he preferred to dry shave with his own rigging knife.
King was on the secure "Horn" to Hewitt right after hanging up on the Coastie. He appraised TG-39 of what Jones and Liz Feldman had come up with. He made sure he identified the source of the analysis. They both agreed TG-39 was doing the right thing and just get on station as soon as possible.
His next call was to PatWing 5 "actual". I am ordering you detach three radar equipped PBY's and their support to Aruba for a while. You can fly in whatever you need to the graded runway KLM Field at Savaneta. They are to establish an immediate round the clock patrol out to 150 miles of Aruba until further notice."
PatWibg 5 Actual "Sir my nearest PBYs are at Gitmo and Trinada but none of those have radar. Our radar birds are all supporting ops a lot further North. I can swap out three from NAS South Weymouth today and they could be in Aruba and operational by end of day 6 June. Will that do?"
King " I want them flying patrols tomorrow Captain Sprague."
Captain Clifton Albert Frederick "Ziggy" Sprague knew better than to argue with God damn Ernie king and replied "Aye, Aye sir."
King sat back lit up a cigarette, the start of his second pack today, and thought "Was that all he could do for now? By God No." He had to contact the Caribbean Defense Command which did not come under CincLantFlt. A call to the CNO generated a call to General Marshall informing him of what Admiral King was doing and the need for imediate Army/Navy coordination and cooperation. Marshall sent an urgent priority message to Caribbean Defense Commander (with the organizational features of a theater of operations), to instruct General Talbot, commanding Trinidad Sector of the Caribbean Defense Command that his units were to provide the navy with their full cooperation in all matters directly concerning the hunt for the Bismarck which intel suggests were going to attack the oil refineries at Aruba and/or Trinidad.
General Talbot had a very tough job. His area of responsibility was the Antilles south of Martinique, the Dutch islands off the Venezuelan coast, together with Venezuela itself and British Guiana, Surinam, and French Guiana and Trinada Tobago and that included not only the base structure but the Army Air Corps as well.
Dealing with the Air Corps was always diffficult. His authority over air operations was limited by the Army Air Corps' Caribbean Regional Air Command. The bounds of authority were not always distinct when dealing with the Air Corps. It was therefore a source of misunderstanding and frustration.
Dealing with the hostile, Vichy controlled French Guiana was another headache complicated by the damn State deppartment. For one thing the local Vichy government played host to a very active and efficient Nazi intelligence unit. A 25 man detachment of the Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Division AKA MAD) operated with impunity. They had the latest Telefunken radio intercept gear. MAD provided the very few U-boats operating inside the island chain of the caribbean sea at this time with invaluable information and other "support". They also ran "agents in Aruba, Surinam, and Trinada Tobago who monitored the progress of his base construction and operations. MADALSO learned a lot of very timely convoy intelligence that was of great value to the U-Boats and raiders hunting in the South Western North Atlantic. BdU valued their intel highly and had provided the latest encription devices and long range radio transcievers to ensure timely and secure communications.
The base structure was the problem; quite frankly most of it did not exist yet and that which did was still under construction. Even the ones that were considered "Operational" were far from completed. He also had a major problem with the troops. They were mostly draftees with a small number of the trained prewar regulars doing their damndest to turn those kids into soldiers and still carry out their mission of protecting the tankers and oil refineries that made his command so important.
CLFT
DE RFG NR 114 U 151403Z JUN
FM First CG District
TO CINCLANTFLT
WD GRNC
BT
TS
1.Per your request for anything concerning unusual nuetral tanker activity.
2. Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387” reported "nuetral" Venezuelan tanker PSS Cabello, transporting No.1 bunker oil had failed to report to her shipping company for 9 days.
3. Company has repeatedly request posit and reason why normal reporting has ceased.
4. Last reported position was Latitude: 18 57 41.5 Longitude: 59 51 37.3 Course 065T at 15 kts.
BT
NNNN
Veteran, civilian cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman of USCG Lcdr Jones’ Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387”, knowing what was going on in the hunt for Bismarck suspected PSS Cabello, was heading for a position to refuel the two raiders.
Admiral USN Ernest King Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet agreed with Elizabeth. Those two raiders were doing too much high speed evasion not to be planning on an UNREP. In his opinion, that was one of the many reasons why the "Limeys" and his own patrol planes of PatWing 5 were having such a tough time finding them. The search areas were too small. Now he had a datum to center his search but it was 9 days old and only his PatWing 5 PBYs could make any immediate use of it.
He called his C o Staff in and issued a series of orders to his patrol wing Commander to begin a new search at the SS Cabello's last posit. He also sent out a message to all his ships at sea to be on the lookout for PSS Cabello (who knows someomne just might get lucky .
King "Ensure Admiral Hewitt is appraised of the status of SS Cabello and my suspicion she was heading for a rendezous with TG Brinkmann. " Ernie King's face showed his sardonic smile as he thought "And now I am grasping at fucking straws. Those Nazi bastards have made ME and the Limeys look like fools." It was a very bad idea for anyone to try to make "Ernie" King a fool.
3 JUNE 1941 1600 in North Dakota's Flag plot. Rear Admiral Hewitt's TG-39 to "Ching Lee" CO BB-55 "Ching we are going South. I think those Nazi bastards are going for the tankers in the Caribbean. I think their first kill was PSS Cabello."
"Ching Lee" " Aye, Aye sir but if your wrong and Brinkmann slaughters another convoy up here Ernie will have both our balls nailed to the foremast."
Hewitt "You have nothing to worry about Ching. Your under my orders so I guess your wife will not suffer, any more than she does now, by you not bulling her by the humbers."
Both men laughed. Both knew all too well just following orders in something this outrageous would not shield Lee completyely. Probably no formal action other than a letter of admonition in his jacket. Those letters had a way of prejudicing the brass when flag selection was being considered. The really aggravating part of it was Lee agreed with Hewitt and was wholeheartedly in favor of him playing his hunch.
A smile crossed Lee's face as he thought "Mabelle actually liked doing it 'by the numbers'. How did Hewitt know that?"
Hewitt to his chief of staff. "What is the fuel status of our destroyers".
Chief O Staff , who made it a practice to know the fuel state of his thirsty cans at all times since it was their endurance that was often the key component of any plan at sea. "All reported 70% this afternoon Sir."
Hewitt to his chief of staff "Give me a course at 24 kts to arrive at Cabello's last estimated position on the day she stopped reporting."
The staff navigaor was working the solution as soon as he heard the rear admiral say what he wanted and was able to tell the Chief Of Staff the answer as soon as he asked it.
Hewitt to his Chief Of Staff "Break out an Execute to follow" of the new course and speed to the TG."
Then get out an "Eyes Only" by back channel signal to inform Admiral King I am leaving the op area and heading South to Cabello's datum. Give him our estimated time on station and that we will need an UNREP prior to reaching that datum. Work out a time and place for the UNREP at least 150 miles north of that datum.
Hewitt to Captain Lee. "I will be ordering daylight and night gunnery practice tomorrow for BB-55. Weather permitting, and it should be OK, I'll designate one of the DDs to tow your target raft. Ching tell your gunners this will be as close to actual combat as I can manage. Use your "High Caps" because I will have other use for your AP soon."
CO BB-55 "Sir my magazines are loaded to safe capacity, more than war allowance by a good margin. I increased the AP to High Cap loadout by 50%. I request permission to use AP; the flight charctoristics of our High Cap are a little different from our AP as you know."
TG-39 "Ok Ching make it AP."
3 JUNE 1941 1900 S-13 now SS-118 (AKA to her crew among themselves as SS FORD for Fix Or Reapir Daily) based at Guantanamo Bay Cuba was cruising on the surface at 10 kts. She had just come up for her nightly battery charge, "AIR renewal", cigarette breaks, trash disposal and to copy the Fox Sched and any other signals meant for her.
King's high priority message to be on the lookout for was noted by the CO, communicated to his officers and the COB and included in his night order book. He imediately told his OOD they were looking for a Venezeulan Tanker named PSS Cabello, that had gone missing a few days ago in their patrol area. The boat would stay on the surface, where he would be able to cover more ocean, at a better speed and a much longer visual horizon. He would also be in radio comms and pick up any aplifying messages about PSS Cabello that would allow him to fine tune the search for the tanker.
It would take her about 8 hours for a full charge. Those old batteries really needed replacing but "S Boats" were the red haired adopted children of SubLant. Most thought about all they were good for was training these days and, unknown to the skipper of the old "FORD", they would be proved wrong before not too much longer.
S-13's CO, Lt. Peter "Cowboy" Holt USNA class of 1938 had a love/hate relationship with his command. He had the pride of a first time CO and the utter loathing for this antique rust bucket that had tried to kill him and his men more than once and more than twice.
Thank God for his COB, Chiefs and PO-1s. They held FORD together with bailing wire and chewing gum.
S-13 was of group II S-3 class, or "Navy Yard" type, built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Commissioned 14 July 1923, Decommissioned 30 September 1936 and recommissioned 28 October 1940.
Her Displacement was 876 tons surfaced; 1,092 tons submerged. She had a length of 231 feet, Beam of 21 feet 9 inches, Draft of 13 feet 4 inches. Propulsion was 2 Busch-Sulzer diesels each of 1,000 SHP , 2 Westinghouse electric motors rach of 600 hp, 120-cell Exide battery and two shafts. S-13s surfaced Speed was15 knots, submerged was 11 knots but not for long.
Her 148 tons of deisel oil gave S-13 a range of 5,000 nautical miles at 10 knots surfaced. Test depth: 200 although aside from about 4 mandatory test dives, it was prudent to not exceed 175 feet.
Armament was still as built back in 1923 of 4 21 in bow torpedo tubes and one aft with a loadout of 14 torpedoes. The loadout this patrol was 12 MK-10s and 2 of the new MK-14s. She mounted One 4 inch 50 cal surface only deck gun and a couple of pintal mounted dual purpose M-2 heavy machine guns. She was crewed by 42 officers and men.
She did not yet have radar but her underwater search gear was state of the art. S-13/SS -118/USS FORD was equipped with the model JT idirectional listening system designed to detect, identify, and locate sources of both sonic and ultrasonic sounds. It is designed to use the JP (Active sionar sonic equipment and has a super-sonic converter so that ultrasonic as well as sonic sounds can be amplified by the JP amplifier. In addition, it has a more directional hydrophone than the JP hydrophone and has a right-left indicator (RLI) for taking bearings on sonic sounds with greater accuracy than is possible with the tuning-eye indicator of the JP equipment. An interphone-amplifier unit permits "talkback" between the forward torpedo room-in which the JT system is mounted-and the conning tower.
3 JUNE 1941 0020 two of, now sinking Fury's torpedoes hit Hipper in the main machinery spaces leaving the heavy cruiser DIW and without electrical power. Guns firing under local control. Many casualties.
3 JUNE 1941 2030 USCG Lcdr Jones’ OIC of Code and Sypher Branch Sypher Branch “Unit 387” sat at his desk drinking his now cold black coffee. He was thinking about what Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman had said about TG Brinkman might be looking for new hunting grounds.
He called Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman at home and asked her to come into the office. Elizabeth did not ask why, this was all too much of her life with “Unit 387” and she would have it no other way. She simply said I'll be there is twenty five minutes. Is this going to be an all nighter sir?
Lcdr Jones, "I'm afraid it most likely is".
She grabbed her "togo" bag packed for such overnight and sometimes many days at the Atlantic Ave CG Base in Boston stints. She just knew they were going after Bismarck and she wanted that Nazi battleship sunk very, very badly.
3 JUNE 1941 2115 Lcdr Jones appraised Cryptologist Feldman of his deduction. She agreed it was certainly possible if ,BIG IF, TG Brinkman could make the transit south undetected.
Feldman making a few quick calculations said to her CO "Sir the raiders last positions were days old, Bismarck on the morning of 31 May and Prinse Eugene on the evening of 28 May, that's almost a week. At 25 knots they could cover 3600 nautical miles and could have been in Oranjestad a few days ago.”
Lcdr Jones said patiently (he needed her thinking not pissed off at him) "I know the math. Brinkman could be anywhere within 11,300 square miles except we can reduce that thoretical area by a lot. Bismarck could go west and run into the heaviest cocentartion of the USN Nuetrality patrol, especially PatWing 5's PBYs. She can't go north becausse TG-39 is running air patrols as they head South to stop TG Brinkmann from slautering tankers coming up from Venezeula and the caribbean. The Nazi's could run East but then the RAF and RN would stand a good chance of finally making contact again.
So I'd say South is a pretty good bet especially if he can refuel. So, my guess hinges on Cabello. If Britain's fuel supply is the strategic target then destroying Aruba's two refineries is a great target. What do you think?" Jones greatly valued Feldman's views of his theories. Just saying them outloud to her helped him refine those theories.
Cryptologist Feldman "We're not at war so he can't go after US mainland refineries, and even if he was crazy enough to try he might get one. Then his entire TG would be dead within hours and Churchill would get what he and FDR need to ensure Hitler looses; early US declaration of war. I still think it's tankers Bismarck is after and why not intercept them at a known choke point like those refineries."
All really good cryptologists were superb mathematicians. They also had the skills, so valued in intelligance analysts, especially to identify and remember odd bits of info that when reviewed alongside other seemingly worthless information began to establish a pattern. Few of the cryptologists were privy to enough information to fit these patterns into tactical or strategic ongoing operations. Feldman was an exception to that rule. That was left to ONI and to the their seniors, like LCDR Jones. Jones had a foot in both organizations and was in the ideal position to evlaute what was going on in the enemy camp.
Not too long ago he had seen copies of low level reports of the Venezeulan national police on the acivities of "Grupo Regional de Venezuela del Partido Nazi" to infiltrate officers and seaman into the crews of C.A. de Navegación Fluvial y Costanera de Venezuela, Puerto Cabello tanker fleet. The assistant junior Naval aide in the Port of La Guaira Consulate, had been coopted by a young, attractive Venezeulan national police agent. He had mentioned something about gathering quite useless information on the current state of Aruba's harbors and two oil refineries from sympathetic crewmen of C.A. de Navegación Fluvial y Costanera de Venezuela, Puerto Cabello tanker fleet. It meant he spent a lot of time drinking in local sailor's dives and forcing down the horrible rot gut wine with drunken masters, mates and engineering officers who had recently delivered crude to those refineries. ONI analysts had concluded this was to support the U-boat war against allied comerce, especiallty tankers.
He still could NOT break the thought it was not the tankers but the refineries themselves that TG Brinkmann was now after.
Jones "Ok tonight you and I are going to compose an intel analysis supporting the theory that TG Brinkmann is about to attack the two refineries on Aruba. I'll need you to assmble whatever intercepts and other intel that supports that hypothesis. I've got a lot of it here now but it desprately needs your evaluation and opinion of it's worth. Natuarally, I think it holds together but the secnd opinion of someone I trust is essential before I take this up the line. I think those Nazi butchers are ready to strike and it might well be too late.
I will work on a draft executive summary and final recommendations. We'll combine your stuff with mine and see if it holds up well enough to present it to Commandant First CG District here in Boston. I know for a fact he thinks one of the weaknesses of Nazi's is their driven to constantly prove their superiority. Destroying those refiners would validate their opinion of themselvess. He also has the ear of Ernie King and if he believes us he can get CinCLant Fleet to do somthing to protect Aruba, if only warn the Brits.
4 JUNE 1941 0550 "1CGDist" was an early riser who was usually in work by 0530 who reviewed the night's activities as he drank his 2nd cup of coffee. There was an entry, dated 0300 in the night's log that Lcdr Jones’ OIC of Code and Sypher Branch“Unit 387” had requested an urgent meeting to review the latest analysis of enemy intensions. He picked up his phone at 0550 and called “Unit 387”, which was housed in the basement where all spies and other such essentail but disreutable skallywags belonged. The duty watch PO answered the phone.
1CGDist identified himself and said "Inform your CO that I expect him and his analysis in my office at 0600.
4 JUNE 1941 0700 USCG Lcdr Jones’ OIC of Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387” and his senior Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman sat on the sofa in Commandant First CG District office on Atlantic Ave Boston. They had spent the last hour going over their analysis of TG Brinkmann's next moves. "1CGDist" had listened intently, asked a few very pointed questions, challenged the analysis because of the lack of solid sighting reports and the fact he did not think the Germans stood much of a chance breaking into, and no chance of getting out, of the caribbean without alraming the Brits. He told them he could buy Brinkman going South after tankers but not attacking Aruba. Jones replied. "That is one way to look at it Sir. However, based on what we don't know about the wheerabouts of Bismarck and the fact CincLant , ONI and you have expressed your opinions Brinkmann is heading south to sink tankers, it seems an attack on the refineries is a resonable possibility to me. It is my opinion we should take action to prevent or at least warn Aruba. The ony real defense those refineries have against Bismarck and Prince Eugene's guns are those old B-10s and the underwhelming Buffalo fighters. A few PBYs would be a lot of help."
1CGDist stared at Jones for a long time as he worked though what to do. Time was of the essence. Ernie had a lot on his plate and the last thing he neded was to complicate his efforts to sink Bismarck with this new possibility. He finally made up his mind.
Jones I will partially endorse your analysis. Have it coded and sent to CincLant Fleet intel and ONI high priority as soon as possible. Get me whatever you can to prove or disprove that analysis. I am going out on limb and if we are really wrong we'll both be part of the Greenland Patrol. Maybe I can get command of one of those converted fishing draggers and you will get a weather station in the center of middle of "Nowhere" Greenland."
It was defintely an exageration and they both had a chuckle. Poor Liz thought he was serious and looked pretty dispisritted.
30 minutes later 1CGDist was on the secure line with his old "friend" Ernie King explaining the Analysis he just sent by message.
King, "Is this Jones the same Lcdr that got us that good convoy intel not long ago?"
1CGDist , " Same one"
King, "You endorsed this right?"
1CGDist, No sir, not completely. I buy Brinkmann going south to sink tankers at their source. I do not buy attack Aruba. That's the Caribbean. We own the surface and air. No way Bismarck is going in there, no matter how good the target is.
King, "I agree with you but had you considered an attack by one of their big Nines? Both those refineries are right on the coast as are their tank farms. If the Nazi bastards surface in shore their 4.1 deck gun could erally do some damage to oil refineries. Damn things might go up like a bonfire. Jones is onto something and I will do something about it. Not sure just what.
1CGDist, "Come to think of it Sir there are other refineries down south that don't require going into the Caribbean."
King, "This really pisses me off. I have absolutely nothing I can get to Aruba in time to do any real good. What I can do is stretch the ABC-1 agreement again and warn the Limey's of this possibility. They can warn Aruba of the possibility which will do some good, but not much. Problem is the Limeys have less than I do anywhere near Aruba. I'll be on the horn with Hewitt as soon as we hang up. Well keep me informed if Jones and that code breaking witch, Liz Feldman, I wish we had a dozen like her, come up with anything. "
Ernie King's even temper was operating normally. “He is the most even-tempered person in the United States Navy,” one of his daughters said of him. “He is always in a rage.”
1CGDist, " You'll be the second person to know, right after me."
Truth was 1CGDist, knew cultivating King was the right thing to do. It was all too true Ernie was tough as nails and carried himself ramrod straight; probably had one stuffed up his ass. He was blunt and stand-offish, almost to the point of rudeness until he decided he was dealing with someone of value....to him. It said something about himself that he and King worked very well together. Ernie refused to suffer fools, always handing off those too powerful to snub to his long suffering staff officers. No matter how well they got on professionally they were far from "liberty buddies". Ernie was tough but FDR was wrong, he did not shave with a blow torch, he preferred to dry shave with his own rigging knife.
King was on the secure "Horn" to Hewitt right after hanging up on the Coastie. He appraised TG-39 of what Jones and Liz Feldman had come up with. He made sure he identified the source of the analysis. They both agreed TG-39 was doing the right thing and just get on station as soon as possible.
His next call was to PatWing 5 "actual". I am ordering you detach three radar equipped PBY's and their support to Aruba for a while. You can fly in whatever you need to the graded runway KLM Field at Savaneta. They are to establish an immediate round the clock patrol out to 150 miles of Aruba until further notice."
PatWibg 5 Actual "Sir my nearest PBYs are at Gitmo and Trinada but none of those have radar. Our radar birds are all supporting ops a lot further North. I can swap out three from NAS South Weymouth today and they could be in Aruba and operational by end of day 6 June. Will that do?"
King " I want them flying patrols tomorrow Captain Sprague."
Captain Clifton Albert Frederick "Ziggy" Sprague knew better than to argue with God damn Ernie king and replied "Aye, Aye sir."
King sat back lit up a cigarette, the start of his second pack today, and thought "Was that all he could do for now? By God No." He had to contact the Caribbean Defense Command which did not come under CincLantFlt. A call to the CNO generated a call to General Marshall informing him of what Admiral King was doing and the need for imediate Army/Navy coordination and cooperation. Marshall sent an urgent priority message to Caribbean Defense Commander (with the organizational features of a theater of operations), to instruct General Talbot, commanding Trinidad Sector of the Caribbean Defense Command that his units were to provide the navy with their full cooperation in all matters directly concerning the hunt for the Bismarck which intel suggests were going to attack the oil refineries at Aruba and/or Trinidad.
General Talbot had a very tough job. His area of responsibility was the Antilles south of Martinique, the Dutch islands off the Venezuelan coast, together with Venezuela itself and British Guiana, Surinam, and French Guiana and Trinada Tobago and that included not only the base structure but the Army Air Corps as well.
Dealing with the Air Corps was always diffficult. His authority over air operations was limited by the Army Air Corps' Caribbean Regional Air Command. The bounds of authority were not always distinct when dealing with the Air Corps. It was therefore a source of misunderstanding and frustration.
Dealing with the hostile, Vichy controlled French Guiana was another headache complicated by the damn State deppartment. For one thing the local Vichy government played host to a very active and efficient Nazi intelligence unit. A 25 man detachment of the Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Division AKA MAD) operated with impunity. They had the latest Telefunken radio intercept gear. MAD provided the very few U-boats operating inside the island chain of the caribbean sea at this time with invaluable information and other "support". They also ran "agents in Aruba, Surinam, and Trinada Tobago who monitored the progress of his base construction and operations. MADALSO learned a lot of very timely convoy intelligence that was of great value to the U-Boats and raiders hunting in the South Western North Atlantic. BdU valued their intel highly and had provided the latest encription devices and long range radio transcievers to ensure timely and secure communications.
The base structure was the problem; quite frankly most of it did not exist yet and that which did was still under construction. Even the ones that were considered "Operational" were far from completed. He also had a major problem with the troops. They were mostly draftees with a small number of the trained prewar regulars doing their damndest to turn those kids into soldiers and still carry out their mission of protecting the tankers and oil refineries that made his command so important.
4 JUNE 1941 0730 TG Cilax was long gone. HMS Sheffield struck by 11 inch, 8 inch and 5.9 inch shells from Gneisenau and Hipper, was now underway making 12 kts. Multiple fires are now out and the reflash watches, are keeping a close eye on several that are still smoking. With Shiny's bridge was destroyed killing everyone, XO Sir Edmond Blackadder asumed command and not only directed the DC effort from secondary Conn but had made many tours of the various major casualty areas to encourage his men and see for himself just how bad things were.
The CHENG'S (Chief engineer) estimates of 20 minutes to get the plant back on the line but only good for 10 kts, WAS Wildly over confident. Restoration of Full power was not possible. The closer the CHENG examined the plant, the worse it looked The best his Stokers could do was give the old girl 12 kts. Even that required some really tough and dangerous expedients to be employed; things that get people court martialed in peace time and often in war time as well.
The minor flooding became major flooding and the exhausted crew was driven to their tasks by the CPOs and senior POs. It took almost eight hours to restore the water tight integrety to somehthing the pumps could handle. Once the ship was no longer in danger of instant foundering Sir Edmond Blackadder held a short meeting with CHENG, the First LT and his CPOs. The major outcome was set up a watch schedule that would let 1/2 of the remaining crew, many who actually belonged in sick bay or relegated to "light duty", to get some rest. This was in the line of a "No Brainer" as there were too many cases of young men just breaking down physically and mentally exhausted and Officers, chiefs and senior POs making bad and even dangerous sleep deprived decisions.
Toward the end of the battle all Shiny's Radars were down and therefore Lcdr Baldrick ordered director control firing on TG Cilax ships on fire using optical rangefinders. He actually was "Fighting the ship" while Sir Edmond Blackadder was directing the effort to keep her from sinking right out from under Baldrick's gunners. At one point his main battery plot was actually one deck below a flooded area. Only the water tight doors, armored and water tight cable runs and all too brittle now nerve of his men were keeping Shiny in the fight. He thanked God he did not have to resort to the Webley he carried hidden in a shoulder holster under his jacket.
Somerville could spare Sheffield no escorts so she was making her way North West to a rendevous with a 16 kt, 2,750 ihp early Flower class Corvett Primrose and the 16 kt, 3,000 ihp Norwegion manned Ocean going Tug Hafgufa. Hafgufa could tow Shiny at 10 to 12 kts.
Primrose could tow at 8 kts but given the U-boat and Lufwaffe it was deemed more prudent for her to act in her escort role. She had a veteran Battle of the Atlantic skipper and crew who knew the ASW business well. The least said about her anti aircraft capablities the better because they were limitted to 2 twin Vickers .50 machine guns and 2 twin .303-inch Lewis machine guns. Only fire control was the MK-1 Eyeballs of the gunner.
Coatsal command would provide aerial support when available.
The odds of her making it to Southhampton were not considered good but the closer they got to the port the more help Coatsal command could provide.
4 JUNE 1941 0800 Norfolk and 1300 in fleet HQ bunker London. On his last day as The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound was in his office in the bunker with his "shadow" soon to be successor Vice Admiral Ramsay. They had, as usual, worked through their horid noon meal (today it was Herrings "in" sandwiches), when the Staff watch Intel officer knocked and entered. The rather old Lcdr, a retiree brought back into harness in Oct'39, and said. "Signal from CinC American Atlantic Fleet via ABC-1. Eyes only for you Sir Alfred."
Pound took the envelope and read King's carefully worded warning about Trinidad Trinidad Aruba Tobago Tobago. King as CincLant Fleet informed the US ABC-1 representative that he has ordered, with CNO Stark'e approval , ONI to keep us appraised of anyhthing that they get about TG Brinkmann as soon as they get it.
"No reply." was all Pound said. Being no fool and coming from a long line of RN officers, one was executed by his own marines on his own deck, Staff watch Intel officer John Byng quickly departed.
Pound, "Well Bertie it seems that "the Cousins" have developped a theory our friend Brinkmann is heading for Trinidad Tobago or Aruba , not only to sink tankers but to destroy the rifiners. This is from "Jesus Christ" Ernest King himself so I fear we have to take it seriously.
The more you get to know that man, the more you will get to hate him but he does know his job and he is not stupid. Did you know he absolutely despises we "Limeys" and is cnvinced we are out to sodomize the USA so we can keep the empire? I was told by one of his former shipmates, he hates us because of his Irish heritage. It seems even after emigatring to America, King's family keeps alight a burning hatred for we "English".
No matter. He is sending three Catalina's and their support crews to Aruba today to bolster the air patrols of the area. The Queen Willimeter's Dutch government granted permission as soon as the Americans asked. Those rifineries and bauxite mines in Surinam are very valuable assets to the Neatherlands government in exile because they are the source of a lot of their funding at present. They are also very valuable to us as you know all too well. Destroying them will mean a large portion of Venezuelan crude has to go to America for refining. The Venezeulan refineries can only handle about 20% of their crude.
Now the question is what do we have close enough to Trinidad Tobago to provide meaningful aid in the next few days? I'm afraid the answer is nothing.
One of the facts of life you will have to live with in this thankless job is that we are stretched far too thin as you now know. Everything is balanced on a knife blade edge and you will spend a lot of time telling bright, aggressive senior officers and our Lord and Master Mr. Churchill NO to very good ideas because we just do not have the resources. Even those operations that are neccessary will cause you sleepless nights because you know the means you are providing are the bare minimum for the job. I'm afraid margins for bad luck or anything else just are not available. We desperately need the Americans in this war with us and we need them yesterday Bertie."
Soon to be The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ramsay thought and not for the first or hundred time "How did I so anger the lord that he would senetnce me to this fucking Job? This job broke Pound and he is a better admiral and man than I am. All I really have to look forward to with any joy is the fact, at the rate things are going wrong now, I will not be in it long. Maybe Winston will be kind to me and put me in command of a "Stone frigate" somewhere in the wilds of Scotland where the fishing is good, the whiskey is not rationed and the "lassies" are willing and discrete? Mrs. Ramsay is not a tolerant woman."
The CHENG'S (Chief engineer) estimates of 20 minutes to get the plant back on the line but only good for 10 kts, WAS Wildly over confident. Restoration of Full power was not possible. The closer the CHENG examined the plant, the worse it looked The best his Stokers could do was give the old girl 12 kts. Even that required some really tough and dangerous expedients to be employed; things that get people court martialed in peace time and often in war time as well.
The minor flooding became major flooding and the exhausted crew was driven to their tasks by the CPOs and senior POs. It took almost eight hours to restore the water tight integrety to somehthing the pumps could handle. Once the ship was no longer in danger of instant foundering Sir Edmond Blackadder held a short meeting with CHENG, the First LT and his CPOs. The major outcome was set up a watch schedule that would let 1/2 of the remaining crew, many who actually belonged in sick bay or relegated to "light duty", to get some rest. This was in the line of a "No Brainer" as there were too many cases of young men just breaking down physically and mentally exhausted and Officers, chiefs and senior POs making bad and even dangerous sleep deprived decisions.
Toward the end of the battle all Shiny's Radars were down and therefore Lcdr Baldrick ordered director control firing on TG Cilax ships on fire using optical rangefinders. He actually was "Fighting the ship" while Sir Edmond Blackadder was directing the effort to keep her from sinking right out from under Baldrick's gunners. At one point his main battery plot was actually one deck below a flooded area. Only the water tight doors, armored and water tight cable runs and all too brittle now nerve of his men were keeping Shiny in the fight. He thanked God he did not have to resort to the Webley he carried hidden in a shoulder holster under his jacket.
Somerville could spare Sheffield no escorts so she was making her way North West to a rendevous with a 16 kt, 2,750 ihp early Flower class Corvett Primrose and the 16 kt, 3,000 ihp Norwegion manned Ocean going Tug Hafgufa. Hafgufa could tow Shiny at 10 to 12 kts.
Primrose could tow at 8 kts but given the U-boat and Lufwaffe it was deemed more prudent for her to act in her escort role. She had a veteran Battle of the Atlantic skipper and crew who knew the ASW business well. The least said about her anti aircraft capablities the better because they were limitted to 2 twin Vickers .50 machine guns and 2 twin .303-inch Lewis machine guns. Only fire control was the MK-1 Eyeballs of the gunner.
Coatsal command would provide aerial support when available.
The odds of her making it to Southhampton were not considered good but the closer they got to the port the more help Coatsal command could provide.
4 JUNE 1941 0800 Norfolk and 1300 in fleet HQ bunker London. On his last day as The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound was in his office in the bunker with his "shadow" soon to be successor Vice Admiral Ramsay. They had, as usual, worked through their horid noon meal (today it was Herrings "in" sandwiches), when the Staff watch Intel officer knocked and entered. The rather old Lcdr, a retiree brought back into harness in Oct'39, and said. "Signal from CinC American Atlantic Fleet via ABC-1. Eyes only for you Sir Alfred."
Pound took the envelope and read King's carefully worded warning about Trinidad Trinidad Aruba Tobago Tobago. King as CincLant Fleet informed the US ABC-1 representative that he has ordered, with CNO Stark'e approval , ONI to keep us appraised of anyhthing that they get about TG Brinkmann as soon as they get it.
"No reply." was all Pound said. Being no fool and coming from a long line of RN officers, one was executed by his own marines on his own deck, Staff watch Intel officer John Byng quickly departed.
Pound, "Well Bertie it seems that "the Cousins" have developped a theory our friend Brinkmann is heading for Trinidad Tobago or Aruba , not only to sink tankers but to destroy the rifiners. This is from "Jesus Christ" Ernest King himself so I fear we have to take it seriously.
The more you get to know that man, the more you will get to hate him but he does know his job and he is not stupid. Did you know he absolutely despises we "Limeys" and is cnvinced we are out to sodomize the USA so we can keep the empire? I was told by one of his former shipmates, he hates us because of his Irish heritage. It seems even after emigatring to America, King's family keeps alight a burning hatred for we "English".
No matter. He is sending three Catalina's and their support crews to Aruba today to bolster the air patrols of the area. The Queen Willimeter's Dutch government granted permission as soon as the Americans asked. Those rifineries and bauxite mines in Surinam are very valuable assets to the Neatherlands government in exile because they are the source of a lot of their funding at present. They are also very valuable to us as you know all too well. Destroying them will mean a large portion of Venezuelan crude has to go to America for refining. The Venezeulan refineries can only handle about 20% of their crude.
Now the question is what do we have close enough to Trinidad Tobago to provide meaningful aid in the next few days? I'm afraid the answer is nothing.
One of the facts of life you will have to live with in this thankless job is that we are stretched far too thin as you now know. Everything is balanced on a knife blade edge and you will spend a lot of time telling bright, aggressive senior officers and our Lord and Master Mr. Churchill NO to very good ideas because we just do not have the resources. Even those operations that are neccessary will cause you sleepless nights because you know the means you are providing are the bare minimum for the job. I'm afraid margins for bad luck or anything else just are not available. We desperately need the Americans in this war with us and we need them yesterday Bertie."
Soon to be The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Ramsay thought and not for the first or hundred time "How did I so anger the lord that he would senetnce me to this fucking Job? This job broke Pound and he is a better admiral and man than I am. All I really have to look forward to with any joy is the fact, at the rate things are going wrong now, I will not be in it long. Maybe Winston will be kind to me and put me in command of a "Stone frigate" somewhere in the wilds of Scotland where the fishing is good, the whiskey is not rationed and the "lassies" are willing and discrete? Mrs. Ramsay is not a tolerant woman."
4 JUNE 1941 0830 The signal was hauled down executing today's live fire gunnery practice. USS North Carolina BB-55 responded imediately although both signal men were on the same ship. Aboard BB-55 the XO commander Stryker, the Gun & Ops Bosses along with the 1st LT, BMC with 3rd division, GM2c Borgnino USN (AKA Ernie Borgnine) with his gang had rigged two of the target sleds and passed them, to USS Kearny DD-432, Gleaves-class that would be doing the towing today.
The TC was manned and ready LT. Tolley and CRM O'Shea had made sure the radar and comms were all functioning. The Gun Boss and his GMCFC had peaked the firecontrol, main and secondary battery for today's shoot. The Mud Maroons" in 5"38 mount 52 were anxious to prove they were the best DP mount on the ship.
The TC was manned and ready LT. Tolley and CRM O'Shea had made sure the radar and comms were all functioning. The Gun Boss and his GMCFC had peaked the firecontrol, main and secondary battery for today's shoot. The Mud Maroons" in 5"38 mount 52 were anxious to prove they were the best DP mount on the ship.
4 JUNE 1941 1030 The daylight shoot went well as far as CRM O'Shea could tell; no one had hit the target towing Can. Lee was not as pleased as the CRM. It took his gunners too long to get on target. They were on the sled well within the peace time standards. However, minutes and maybe even seconds would count when they were up against Bismarck. "XO we will have another shoot at 1330. get the gun team in here at 1100. There are a few things I want to talk to them about."
Next he picked up the TBS handset "King" this is Nan Charlie. What is the status of my sled?"
CO Kearny " My carpenter's mate and his crew are rebuilding the target now. The float had some shell splinter holes but we have already patched them. She should be good for another run in about an hour Sir."
Lee " Good. We will commence our next firing run at 1400. You will have to get the sled back in action before 2300 for the night shoot. Make sure you hang radar reflectors on it."
CO Kearny "Interogative radio reflectors sir?"
Lee " I say again RADAR reflectors. Have one of your machinest mates rig up a couple of 18 inch sheet metal plates set at right angles and hang them from the top of the sled's superstructure. That wil give my fire control radar something to line up on besides King."
CO Kearny "Will do sir. Request permission to double the length of target's tow line?"
Lee "Permission granted. Out" CO Kearny was sure he heard the old bastard laughing as he signed off.
Next he picked up the TBS handset "King" this is Nan Charlie. What is the status of my sled?"
CO Kearny " My carpenter's mate and his crew are rebuilding the target now. The float had some shell splinter holes but we have already patched them. She should be good for another run in about an hour Sir."
Lee " Good. We will commence our next firing run at 1400. You will have to get the sled back in action before 2300 for the night shoot. Make sure you hang radar reflectors on it."
CO Kearny "Interogative radio reflectors sir?"
Lee " I say again RADAR reflectors. Have one of your machinest mates rig up a couple of 18 inch sheet metal plates set at right angles and hang them from the top of the sled's superstructure. That wil give my fire control radar something to line up on besides King."
CO Kearny "Will do sir. Request permission to double the length of target's tow line?"
Lee "Permission granted. Out" CO Kearny was sure he heard the old bastard laughing as he signed off.
5 JUNE 1941 0330 Lee picked up the TBS "King this is Nan Charlie convey a well done to your crew from me. Ten firing runs and you were right where I wanted you on every run Commander. That took some real sailorman ship handling."
Co Keraney "Will do sir."
Lee "Keep this up and I will be calling on you for all my target towing, you'll like that right? Out" CO Kearney heard the same evil laugh again.
5 JUNE 1941 1900 Both of TG Cilax's type 1936A destroyers Z23 and Z25 had evaded Force H aerial scouts due to their high speed run and were now making a max fuel conserivng two boiler operations of 20 kts. They were all that was left of 8 Zerstörerflottile (8th Destroyer Flotilla), now Commanded by Z23's 29 year old Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Becker. His crew nicknamed their fine new destroyer "Werwölfe“, after their much respected and sometimes feared but always scrupulously fair CO. His tactical brilliance and superb seamanship had saved them at that basket screw off Narvik against that “Gott verdammt Englander devil ship“ Renown and that counted for a lot. He and and about one third of them had been together since commissioning and had formed a bond of muttual respect. Truth to tell, Becker cared very much for his men and hated the fact his stern duty required risking their lives.
Those Sea Hurricanes and Fulmars had literally decimated his 350 man crew. He had buried 35 good men and he had another 45 wounded. That left "Werwölfe“, short handed but thanks to his rigorrous and thorogh training of his crew with casualties in mind he still had enough watch officers, CPOs and senior PO‘s to run his ship.
It was a miracle his Wasserbombes had not blown the stern of his ship off. The 300 LB high explosive filled Mülleimers (trash barrels) had been riddled with .303 fire. He had them dumped over side imediately after the attack. Now both his repaired launchers were reloaded with undamaged Wasserbombes. His excellent "Werwölfes“ S-Gerät active sonar and GHG passive sets along with their very skilled operators had survived intact. The GHG could ,under good conditions, detect enemy ships at ranges up to 50 miles and would to some extent compensate for their lack of radar.
His main and secondary DP battery along with his gun and fire control crews had sufferd crippling losses. All he had left were one, riddled but still functional mount Anton, of his 4 single 5.9 in guns, 2 of his five single 20 mm AA guns both on the port side, the port side of his two liberally punctured but still functional quad 21 in torpedo tubes without a single Ael to reload and 2 of his 4 × depth charge launchers; both on the port side. Z-23 had taken the brunt of the strafing runs on her starboard side. He was the lone survivor of those on starboard bridge wing during the strafing runs. All he had to show for it was a scalp and face pock marked with slight splinter wounds that bled as if he were seriously wounding when infact he was not incapacitated in any way. The Tommy lead had not done much to improve his looks but it did miss his eyes so he had little to complain about.
There was nothing he could do about the loss of his very valuable FuMB radar detection receiver. It often detected, gave a precise bearing and, depending on the skill of the operator, a rough but usable range estimate long before the enemy radar detected Z-23. It‘s antenna along with it‘s bridge mounted,receiver, his skilled operator Oberster Unteroffizier Karl Schuster, and his apprentice Johnny Voigt had been riddled with machine gun fire. He would have to rely on his sonar and GHG passive hydrophone array.
The black gang had been very very lucky and was still at close to full compliment. Although Z23 and Z25 had their topsides along with the men stationed their thoroughly devastate the engineering plant was undamaged. They had rigged emergency substitutes that were doing the job as well as could be expected. He also had been forced to transfer some of his engineers to absolutely essential topside duties. One of which was to relieve the deck sailors so they could get some sleep. No one including the Deck Apes were happy with this temporary arrangement.
He had decided to make for the Spanish Coast as quickly as p[ossible. That would open the range from Force H and any patrols from southern England. He was absolutely determined to reach the French port Hendaye in southwestern France's Nouvelle-Aquitaine region without further loss to "Werwölfe“. He was quite sure Franco, while preaching to anyone who would listen Spain‘s absolute neutrality ...would cooperate. Somehow the Armada and Ejército del Aire, or EdA (Spanish Air Force) would fail to notice his two ships as they sped along within Spanish territorial waters. Those waters were jealously guarded against allied intrusion by Spanish naval and air units (equipped with modern German aircraft).
Z-25 was in better shape. Her engineering plant was untouched but her topsides, especially just forward of the bridge had taken a heavy shell that blew Mount Anton over the side and severely damaged the hull. Her DC parties had flooded the forward 5.9 inch magazine (now pumped out and ammo after inspection resdistributed to her two after main battery mount‘s magazines) and put out the fires quickly. They had also been able to close up the hull, which had not been damaged below the waterline, with steel backers, a tar covered canvas and woven line pad and wooden patch. The Oberster Unteroffizier metal worker had a working party stripping non vital deck, and topside plate steel he intended to fashion into shell plating to reinforce the patch. Fortunately, her damage did not impair her sea keeping enough to rule out her max 36 kts speed for short periods and a long run at as much as 25 kts.
Z-25‘s bridge watch had been wiped out completely and was now commanded by her senior LT. They had jury rigged all essential topside ship control stations.
Initially it looked like all three after 5.9s had been damaged beyond shipboard repair. However, the Oberster Unteroffizier Gunner‘s mate and two of his senior gunnery petty officers after 32 hours of effort, were able to repair Bruno, and Cäsar. There was nothing to be done with the main fire control director which was nothing but a burnt out mass of metal above what was left of the heavily damaged bridge. The Secondary Director was also now operational, sort of. The exhausted gunners were still trying to restore auto director fire to Bruno and Cäsar. For now, the director could provide accurate elevation and azimouth figures to the mounts but they had to transmitted by voice and manually set by the gun crews.
One of the 37 mm AA mounts was now operational, as well as three of the 20 mm guns. Like Z-23 her tposides had been turned into a colander and all antenna‘s and other topside sensors were useless. Nither had long range communications yet but restoring them was high on the priority list. For now blinker light and hand held signal flags would do. Both her Torpedo mounts were operational but she did not have torpedoes for them. Her depth charge projectors were functional. Her sonars and operators were undamaged.
Z-25 had lost her Captain, XO, navigator and gunnery officer. She had 52 killed and 97 wounded, although 25 of those had been patched up enough to do light duty. Her galley, like Z-23 was functional and putting out hot meals. Both destroyers were issuing the normal beer ration along with schnapps as a bonus to those men doing a really outstanding job, which did a lot for the morale of the sailors. They needed it after the mass burials.
5 JUNE 0315 TG Cilax, now only Gneisenau, was hunting WS-12 again. The Battle Cruiser's crew had done a magnificent job of repairing her Fire control directors. The designers of Gneisenau class battle Cruisers built a lot of redundancy into her key systems. Main and secondary batteries were controlled from the Directors, which were located forward (which was destroyed), astern, and above the foretop platform (which had splinter damage which proved repairable.
Each of these three Directors mounted a rotating dome with a stereoscopic rangefinder manufactured by Zeiss, and a FuMO 23 radar. The Directors were connected by armored communication shafts (which withstood all but the direct 15 inch shell hit forward) to the battery plots (Rechenstellen) under the armor deck forward and aft. The foretop command post, under the command of the Gunnery officer (I.A.O.), was above the foremast, at about 90 feeet above sea level. It was equipped with a 32 ft. base rangefinder (Basisgerät BG) with a maximum 50 times magnification, and had a visual field of 360º. The forward battery plot was incorporated in the base of to the forward conning tower whose armor protected it but it's and had a 21 ft base rangefinder was destroyed. The after Battery Plot had a 32 ft base rangefinder of similar characteristics as the one in the fore top.
Each of the three main battery turrets ("Anton", "Bruno",and "Cäsar" ) was also equipped with a 32 ft. base rangefinders. In case all three Directors were put out of action in battle, the turrets could track and fire locally. However, the chances of scoring a hit with each battery firing on its own were obviously less than under a centralized command. The central turrets of the secondary battery also had their own 19 ft. base rangefinder.
The anti-aircraft fire was directed from four Directors of the type SL-8, each equipped with a 12 ft. Rangefinder. Two of these Directors, covered by spherical cupolas (Wackeltopf), were on either side of the foremast, and the other two uncovered directors amidships aft.
Additionally, there were also two 12 ft night rangefinders on both sides of the Admiral's bridge. In short, Renown's main battery hits did a lot of damage but Gneisenau's superbly trained crew and exceptional redundancy paid great dividends as she closed with WS-12.
Co Keraney "Will do sir."
Lee "Keep this up and I will be calling on you for all my target towing, you'll like that right? Out" CO Kearney heard the same evil laugh again.
5 JUNE 1941 1900 Both of TG Cilax's type 1936A destroyers Z23 and Z25 had evaded Force H aerial scouts due to their high speed run and were now making a max fuel conserivng two boiler operations of 20 kts. They were all that was left of 8 Zerstörerflottile (8th Destroyer Flotilla), now Commanded by Z23's 29 year old Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Becker. His crew nicknamed their fine new destroyer "Werwölfe“, after their much respected and sometimes feared but always scrupulously fair CO. His tactical brilliance and superb seamanship had saved them at that basket screw off Narvik against that “Gott verdammt Englander devil ship“ Renown and that counted for a lot. He and and about one third of them had been together since commissioning and had formed a bond of muttual respect. Truth to tell, Becker cared very much for his men and hated the fact his stern duty required risking their lives.
Those Sea Hurricanes and Fulmars had literally decimated his 350 man crew. He had buried 35 good men and he had another 45 wounded. That left "Werwölfe“, short handed but thanks to his rigorrous and thorogh training of his crew with casualties in mind he still had enough watch officers, CPOs and senior PO‘s to run his ship.
It was a miracle his Wasserbombes had not blown the stern of his ship off. The 300 LB high explosive filled Mülleimers (trash barrels) had been riddled with .303 fire. He had them dumped over side imediately after the attack. Now both his repaired launchers were reloaded with undamaged Wasserbombes. His excellent "Werwölfes“ S-Gerät active sonar and GHG passive sets along with their very skilled operators had survived intact. The GHG could ,under good conditions, detect enemy ships at ranges up to 50 miles and would to some extent compensate for their lack of radar.
His main and secondary DP battery along with his gun and fire control crews had sufferd crippling losses. All he had left were one, riddled but still functional mount Anton, of his 4 single 5.9 in guns, 2 of his five single 20 mm AA guns both on the port side, the port side of his two liberally punctured but still functional quad 21 in torpedo tubes without a single Ael to reload and 2 of his 4 × depth charge launchers; both on the port side. Z-23 had taken the brunt of the strafing runs on her starboard side. He was the lone survivor of those on starboard bridge wing during the strafing runs. All he had to show for it was a scalp and face pock marked with slight splinter wounds that bled as if he were seriously wounding when infact he was not incapacitated in any way. The Tommy lead had not done much to improve his looks but it did miss his eyes so he had little to complain about.
There was nothing he could do about the loss of his very valuable FuMB radar detection receiver. It often detected, gave a precise bearing and, depending on the skill of the operator, a rough but usable range estimate long before the enemy radar detected Z-23. It‘s antenna along with it‘s bridge mounted,receiver, his skilled operator Oberster Unteroffizier Karl Schuster, and his apprentice Johnny Voigt had been riddled with machine gun fire. He would have to rely on his sonar and GHG passive hydrophone array.
The black gang had been very very lucky and was still at close to full compliment. Although Z23 and Z25 had their topsides along with the men stationed their thoroughly devastate the engineering plant was undamaged. They had rigged emergency substitutes that were doing the job as well as could be expected. He also had been forced to transfer some of his engineers to absolutely essential topside duties. One of which was to relieve the deck sailors so they could get some sleep. No one including the Deck Apes were happy with this temporary arrangement.
He had decided to make for the Spanish Coast as quickly as p[ossible. That would open the range from Force H and any patrols from southern England. He was absolutely determined to reach the French port Hendaye in southwestern France's Nouvelle-Aquitaine region without further loss to "Werwölfe“. He was quite sure Franco, while preaching to anyone who would listen Spain‘s absolute neutrality ...would cooperate. Somehow the Armada and Ejército del Aire, or EdA (Spanish Air Force) would fail to notice his two ships as they sped along within Spanish territorial waters. Those waters were jealously guarded against allied intrusion by Spanish naval and air units (equipped with modern German aircraft).
Z-25 was in better shape. Her engineering plant was untouched but her topsides, especially just forward of the bridge had taken a heavy shell that blew Mount Anton over the side and severely damaged the hull. Her DC parties had flooded the forward 5.9 inch magazine (now pumped out and ammo after inspection resdistributed to her two after main battery mount‘s magazines) and put out the fires quickly. They had also been able to close up the hull, which had not been damaged below the waterline, with steel backers, a tar covered canvas and woven line pad and wooden patch. The Oberster Unteroffizier metal worker had a working party stripping non vital deck, and topside plate steel he intended to fashion into shell plating to reinforce the patch. Fortunately, her damage did not impair her sea keeping enough to rule out her max 36 kts speed for short periods and a long run at as much as 25 kts.
Z-25‘s bridge watch had been wiped out completely and was now commanded by her senior LT. They had jury rigged all essential topside ship control stations.
Initially it looked like all three after 5.9s had been damaged beyond shipboard repair. However, the Oberster Unteroffizier Gunner‘s mate and two of his senior gunnery petty officers after 32 hours of effort, were able to repair Bruno, and Cäsar. There was nothing to be done with the main fire control director which was nothing but a burnt out mass of metal above what was left of the heavily damaged bridge. The Secondary Director was also now operational, sort of. The exhausted gunners were still trying to restore auto director fire to Bruno and Cäsar. For now, the director could provide accurate elevation and azimouth figures to the mounts but they had to transmitted by voice and manually set by the gun crews.
One of the 37 mm AA mounts was now operational, as well as three of the 20 mm guns. Like Z-23 her tposides had been turned into a colander and all antenna‘s and other topside sensors were useless. Nither had long range communications yet but restoring them was high on the priority list. For now blinker light and hand held signal flags would do. Both her Torpedo mounts were operational but she did not have torpedoes for them. Her depth charge projectors were functional. Her sonars and operators were undamaged.
Z-25 had lost her Captain, XO, navigator and gunnery officer. She had 52 killed and 97 wounded, although 25 of those had been patched up enough to do light duty. Her galley, like Z-23 was functional and putting out hot meals. Both destroyers were issuing the normal beer ration along with schnapps as a bonus to those men doing a really outstanding job, which did a lot for the morale of the sailors. They needed it after the mass burials.
5 JUNE 0315 TG Cilax, now only Gneisenau, was hunting WS-12 again. The Battle Cruiser's crew had done a magnificent job of repairing her Fire control directors. The designers of Gneisenau class battle Cruisers built a lot of redundancy into her key systems. Main and secondary batteries were controlled from the Directors, which were located forward (which was destroyed), astern, and above the foretop platform (which had splinter damage which proved repairable.
Each of these three Directors mounted a rotating dome with a stereoscopic rangefinder manufactured by Zeiss, and a FuMO 23 radar. The Directors were connected by armored communication shafts (which withstood all but the direct 15 inch shell hit forward) to the battery plots (Rechenstellen) under the armor deck forward and aft. The foretop command post, under the command of the Gunnery officer (I.A.O.), was above the foremast, at about 90 feeet above sea level. It was equipped with a 32 ft. base rangefinder (Basisgerät BG) with a maximum 50 times magnification, and had a visual field of 360º. The forward battery plot was incorporated in the base of to the forward conning tower whose armor protected it but it's and had a 21 ft base rangefinder was destroyed. The after Battery Plot had a 32 ft base rangefinder of similar characteristics as the one in the fore top.
Each of the three main battery turrets ("Anton", "Bruno",and "Cäsar" ) was also equipped with a 32 ft. base rangefinders. In case all three Directors were put out of action in battle, the turrets could track and fire locally. However, the chances of scoring a hit with each battery firing on its own were obviously less than under a centralized command. The central turrets of the secondary battery also had their own 19 ft. base rangefinder.
The anti-aircraft fire was directed from four Directors of the type SL-8, each equipped with a 12 ft. Rangefinder. Two of these Directors, covered by spherical cupolas (Wackeltopf), were on either side of the foremast, and the other two uncovered directors amidships aft.
Additionally, there were also two 12 ft night rangefinders on both sides of the Admiral's bridge. In short, Renown's main battery hits did a lot of damage but Gneisenau's superbly trained crew and exceptional redundancy paid great dividends as she closed with WS-12.
Vizeadmiral Cilax also made excellent use of his Flag ship's hydrophones. This passive underwater listening system allowed Him to track WS-12 at a very long range without the Royal navy escorts knowing he was approaching. The Germans called these installations Gruppenhorchgerät (GHG), and consisted of two panels of 60 microphones, one on each side of the ship's hull. The maximum effective range was over 20 miles depending on conditions such as water conductivity and background noise. The deep cold waters of the North Atlantic under favourable conditions, bearings with an accuracy of 1 degree could be expected at speeds of 30 knots from a distance of 20 miles. He was able to close WS-12 in EMCON B, no radar, radio or active sonar transmissions were allowed during the approach.
This approach was only made possible by the intense rain, high winds and low lying cloud base that made aerial recon both suicidal, (the loss of three aircraft and crews proved that), and ineffective. Somerville was counting on his radars but the same storm conditions and the pounding had taken during the last engagement with TG Cilax, including the blast from his own guns, rendered them far less effective than he would have liked.
Transferring all 660 lb 11 inch shells from wrecked Anton and Bruno magazines to the after battery magazines of Cäsar was a back breaking job. Those 11 inch rounds had to be moved by hand truck and that had caused more than a few hernias, smashed feet and severed fingers.
These 11 inch main battery rounds used a "fore charge" weighing 91.5 lbs in a silk bag and a "main charge" weighing only 170.2 lbs. was in a brass cartridge . The cartridge helped to seal the gun breech. Fore and Main charges were rammed together. Moving the propelleant was much easier on the crew.
Waiting for TG Cilax was HMS Renown and the close escort of WS-12 now under Somerville's tactical command.
HMS Devonshire pennant # 39, County-class CA 3 stacks London sub-class with 4 twin 8-inch Mk VIII, 4 ×single QF 4-inch Mk V AA , and 4 single 40 mm AAGuns. She also mounted 2 quad 21 inch torp tubes and had an Armor Belt: 1 in, Decks: 1.5 in, Barbettes,Turrets, Bulkheads 1 in and Magazines 2–4.4 in. She was Type 281 Air-warning and Type 272 Surface Warning radars and aerial scout.
HMS Argus "Hat Box" CV pennant # I49 Commissioned 16 Sept 1918 partially modernized 1938, Speed 20 kts. Armament 4 4 in AA 2 surface only 4-inch Radar Type 281 Air-warning Type 272 Surface Warning Aircraft 15–18 now 3 Sea Hurricanes and 5 Fulmars.
This approach was only made possible by the intense rain, high winds and low lying cloud base that made aerial recon both suicidal, (the loss of three aircraft and crews proved that), and ineffective. Somerville was counting on his radars but the same storm conditions and the pounding had taken during the last engagement with TG Cilax, including the blast from his own guns, rendered them far less effective than he would have liked.
Transferring all 660 lb 11 inch shells from wrecked Anton and Bruno magazines to the after battery magazines of Cäsar was a back breaking job. Those 11 inch rounds had to be moved by hand truck and that had caused more than a few hernias, smashed feet and severed fingers.
These 11 inch main battery rounds used a "fore charge" weighing 91.5 lbs in a silk bag and a "main charge" weighing only 170.2 lbs. was in a brass cartridge . The cartridge helped to seal the gun breech. Fore and Main charges were rammed together. Moving the propelleant was much easier on the crew.
Waiting for TG Cilax was HMS Renown and the close escort of WS-12 now under Somerville's tactical command.
HMS Devonshire pennant # 39, County-class CA 3 stacks London sub-class with 4 twin 8-inch Mk VIII, 4 ×single QF 4-inch Mk V AA , and 4 single 40 mm AAGuns. She also mounted 2 quad 21 inch torp tubes and had an Armor Belt: 1 in, Decks: 1.5 in, Barbettes,Turrets, Bulkheads 1 in and Magazines 2–4.4 in. She was Type 281 Air-warning and Type 272 Surface Warning radars and aerial scout.
HMS Argus "Hat Box" CV pennant # I49 Commissioned 16 Sept 1918 partially modernized 1938, Speed 20 kts. Armament 4 4 in AA 2 surface only 4-inch Radar Type 281 Air-warning Type 272 Surface Warning Aircraft 15–18 now 3 Sea Hurricanes and 5 Fulmars.
HMS Cairo CLAA pennant # D87 Commissioned 23 1919, Converted to Anti-Aircraft cruiser at Chatham dockyard in 1938. Speed 29 kts, Type 280 Air-warning / AA control and Type 272 Surface Warning radars. Armament 10 single mount 4 inch high angle (HA) guns and two eight-barreled 2-pounder "pom-pom" mounts. Armor 3 in side (amidships), 2+1⁄4–1+1⁄2in side (bows), 2in side (stern), 1in upper decks (amidships) and 1in deck over rudder
HMS CATHAY Pennant # F 05 Armed Merchant Cruiser AMC, formerly passenger ship London15,225 BRT Armament: 8 6inch and 2 3 in AA guns. Speed17 kts Radar Type 272 Surface Warning
HMS Agamemnon Pennant # M10 type Auxiliary Minelayer AML, formerly MV Agamemnon cargo liner requisitioned by the Royal Navy in early 1940. Speed 16 kts Armament 3 QF 4 in MkV, 2 QF 2-pounder, 4 Oerlikon 20 mm 4 × 0.5 in Mgs and 542 mines (she was only carrying 210 now).
HMS CATHAY Pennant # F 05 Armed Merchant Cruiser AMC, formerly passenger ship London15,225 BRT Armament: 8 6inch and 2 3 in AA guns. Speed17 kts Radar Type 272 Surface Warning
HMS Agamemnon Pennant # M10 type Auxiliary Minelayer AML, formerly MV Agamemnon cargo liner requisitioned by the Royal Navy in early 1940. Speed 16 kts Armament 3 QF 4 in MkV, 2 QF 2-pounder, 4 Oerlikon 20 mm 4 × 0.5 in Mgs and 542 mines (she was only carrying 210 now).
HMS SIKH Pennant # F82 and HMS Blackney Tribal-class DD, commissioned 1938. Speed 36 kts Sensors ASDIC Type 124 Retractable head with a range recorder, Type 272 Surface Warning Radar. Armament 4 twin 4.7 in, 1 quad 40 mm AA, 2 quad 0.5 in AA MGS, 1 quad 21 in torpedo tube, only 20 depth charges, 1 rack, 2 throwers
HMS Witch Pennant # D89, HMS Whitehall D94and HMS Radsworth Modified W-class DD Commissioned 1924 Speed 34 kt Armament 4 BL 4.7 in Mk.I, 2 QF Mk.II "pom-pom" 40 mm AA, 6 21-inch Torpedo Tubes, 20 depth charges, 1 rack, 2 throwers. Sensors Type Type 127 ASDIC, Type 286M Air Warning & Type 271 Surface search radars fitted 1940.
HMS Bradford, HMS Stanley, HMS Brighton, HMS Lancaster and HMS Newark Town class former USN DD Commissioned 1919/21 Speed 35kts. Armament 3 4in/ 50, 2 3in AA gun Six 21in torpedoes in two triple mountings,Two depth charge tracks, One Y-Gun depth charge projector. Type 141 ASDIC, No dome, American QCJ/QCL, modified with British range and bearing recorders, Type 272 Surface Warning radar and high frequency direction finding (HF/DF or "Huff Duff").
HMCS Assiniboine River class DD Commissioned1939. Speed 35 knots Armament 4 single 4.7 in, 2 single 40 mm, 1 QF three-inch AA,1 quad 21 in torpedo tubes, 2 DC racks and 6 throwers for a pattern of 10 depth charges, with stowage increased to 70 charges. SENSORS ASDIC Type 124 Retractable HEAD with a range recorder , Type 79 Air Warning and Type 272 Surface Warning Radars amd upgrades high frequency direction finding (HF/DF or "Huff Duff").
HMCS Saguenay A class DD Commissioned 1931 Speed 35 knots Armament 4 single surface only 4.7 in, 2 single 2 40 mm AA, 2 quad 21 in torpedo tubes 1 DC rail 33 charges.
Vizeadmiral Cilax thought "I just have to get by that old relic Renown. One solid 3 gun salvo of 11 inch hits from Casar may not sink her but it should take her out of the fight long enough for his needs. He still thought his odds good to sink or damage close escorts with Casar, his 10 remaining 5.9s and 8 operational 4.1 inch guns .
5 JUNE 0435 Gneisenau,was now doing 24 kts and she still had, according to her Chief engineer a couple more up his sleeve if need. She was hunting for WS-12 and hopping Renown had suffered more than minor damage because Vizeadmiral Cilax was determined to take her on with his one remaining 11 inch turret if she stood in his way.
Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt C.O. of Gneisenau informed the Vizeadmiral his hydrophones had picked up a large, 4 propeller ship bearing 220 true. The Ober-maat (CPO) confirmed the operator had a definite contact and it was a large ship with four shafts at a speed of 12 kts. We hold nothing on the FuMO (Fuunk-Mess-ORadar Seetakt 23). Our senior Communications Stabsfeldwebel (Chief Warrant Officer ) is working on the FuMO 23 now. In can have it operating in 15 minutes if you wish sir"
HMS Witch Pennant # D89, HMS Whitehall D94and HMS Radsworth Modified W-class DD Commissioned 1924 Speed 34 kt Armament 4 BL 4.7 in Mk.I, 2 QF Mk.II "pom-pom" 40 mm AA, 6 21-inch Torpedo Tubes, 20 depth charges, 1 rack, 2 throwers. Sensors Type Type 127 ASDIC, Type 286M Air Warning & Type 271 Surface search radars fitted 1940.
HMS Bradford, HMS Stanley, HMS Brighton, HMS Lancaster and HMS Newark Town class former USN DD Commissioned 1919/21 Speed 35kts. Armament 3 4in/ 50, 2 3in AA gun Six 21in torpedoes in two triple mountings,Two depth charge tracks, One Y-Gun depth charge projector. Type 141 ASDIC, No dome, American QCJ/QCL, modified with British range and bearing recorders, Type 272 Surface Warning radar and high frequency direction finding (HF/DF or "Huff Duff").
HMCS Assiniboine River class DD Commissioned1939. Speed 35 knots Armament 4 single 4.7 in, 2 single 40 mm, 1 QF three-inch AA,1 quad 21 in torpedo tubes, 2 DC racks and 6 throwers for a pattern of 10 depth charges, with stowage increased to 70 charges. SENSORS ASDIC Type 124 Retractable HEAD with a range recorder , Type 79 Air Warning and Type 272 Surface Warning Radars amd upgrades high frequency direction finding (HF/DF or "Huff Duff").
HMCS Saguenay A class DD Commissioned 1931 Speed 35 knots Armament 4 single surface only 4.7 in, 2 single 2 40 mm AA, 2 quad 21 in torpedo tubes 1 DC rail 33 charges.
Vizeadmiral Cilax thought "I just have to get by that old relic Renown. One solid 3 gun salvo of 11 inch hits from Casar may not sink her but it should take her out of the fight long enough for his needs. He still thought his odds good to sink or damage close escorts with Casar, his 10 remaining 5.9s and 8 operational 4.1 inch guns .
5 JUNE 0435 Gneisenau,was now doing 24 kts and she still had, according to her Chief engineer a couple more up his sleeve if need. She was hunting for WS-12 and hopping Renown had suffered more than minor damage because Vizeadmiral Cilax was determined to take her on with his one remaining 11 inch turret if she stood in his way.
Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt C.O. of Gneisenau informed the Vizeadmiral his hydrophones had picked up a large, 4 propeller ship bearing 220 true. The Ober-maat (CPO) confirmed the operator had a definite contact and it was a large ship with four shafts at a speed of 12 kts. We hold nothing on the FuMO (Fuunk-Mess-ORadar Seetakt 23). Our senior Communications Stabsfeldwebel (Chief Warrant Officer ) is working on the FuMO 23 now. In can have it operating in 15 minutes if you wish sir"
Vizeadmiral Cilax that sound contact sounds like Renown to me and it appears she is damaged from that 12 kt speed. If she were hunting us she would be going fatsre than that. Captain sound action stations. It is my intension to close with that contact , maneuver to unmask Casar and take it under rapid fire as soon as we have a firing solution by Radar, sound or night optics. I intend to continue to close the reange until our are 5.9s are scoring hits also. We must hit Renown first and continue until she is no longer a threat to our primary commerce raing mission; the total destruction of WS-12.
5 JUNE 0450 Acting captain of HMS Sheffield Sir Edmund Blackadder was in the main transmitting station (main battery plot ) observing the large contact held on the surface search radar. The large contact was 19 miles away and coming on fast. His guns maximum effective range was 12 miles but if that was Gniesnau Shiny was in range now. The Gun Buster LCDR Baldrick was with him as he watched his fire control team work the firing solution for her main battery turrets. The dmaged X turret was now operational with a replacement gun crew and wood patches over her the largest of her shell holes keeping the weather out. How long that turret would stay in action once her twin six inchers started pounding away was anyone's guess.
Gun Buster Baldrick's twelve BL 6 inch Mk XXIII rifles could hurle 112 pound HE shells at 2,760 feet per second at 8 rounds per minute per barrel or 96 rounds a minute per salvo. That was alot of for any ship to obsorb even a Battle cruiser. His plan was to keep all turrets firing at maximum rate until the Nazi's ran or Shiny was sunk. How long the gun crews could keep that up in battle was anyone's guess with "gallons" of adrenalin pumping he would bet it would be long enough. However, the gunnery regulations stated rapid fire should only be maintained for 10 minutes without a break to cool the barrels liners, preferably with fire hoses. If no break was possible then a sustained fire of 5 rounds per minute was neccessary to keep from damaging the guns and killing the crews with a breach explosion. He would keep them at rapid fire as long as it took. If they survived, success has many friends, if they lost he would not be around anyway.
5 JUNE 0530 Vizeadmiral Cilax and Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt C.O. of Gneisenau still out of sight even by the fire control director optics. If this was not Renown they were well within range of Renown's 15 inch rifles. The radar was still down. The first salvo from Sheffield fell short. 12 water spouts, convinced him this was a cruiser not a Battle Cruiser. The second salvo was over and the third peppered Gneisenau's upper decks wrecking two 5.9s.
In Sheffield's main transmitting station Gun Buster LCDR Baldrick ordered rapid fire and the turrets. Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt ordered a course change that would unmask Casa's 11 inch rifles and laid them on the bearing of the shell splashes. Gneisenau's armor protected the most imporatant parts of his ship from what he now thought were 6 inch fire. He then ordered his engineers to give him every knot they had. Casa was hit by 4 rounds of the 4th salvo and another six shells hit and tore up the ship, causing much damage but nothing vital.
At 9 miles the range finder locked on the cruiser and the main battery turret fired it's first salvo which overshot their target. The fifth cruiser salvo peppered Casa with no effect. The second 11 inch salvo hit close aboard Sheffield, still over. The sixth crusier salvo hit Casa and the belt. Still not penetrating but one destroyed the optics of the director. His well trained gunners switch to the secondary fire control director and fired her 3rd salvo. This one was short, over corrected and was answered by the cruisers seventh salvo which hell close aboard. The entire ship shook and the hastily repaired engineering plant began to loose speed as the main steam feed line was shocked into multiple minor steam leaks. The cruiser's 8th salvo hit Casa with 4 rounds detonating on the face plate just as the 4th battle cruiser salvo left the barrels and disabled the starboard gun barrel. The cruiser fired salvo 9, 10 and eleven. Casa returned fire and the entire gun house spouted fire from every openeing. The entire turret crew was killed insatntly. Now all they had left were her remaining 5.9s and Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt ordered an emergency turn to bring the unengaged starboard 5.9s which were firing rapdly but the drastic turn had thrown off the aim. Sheffield fired salvoes 12, 13, and 14 at 15,000 yds that knocked out a quarter of the starboard side 5.9s.
Vizeadmiral Cilax ordered an immediate turn away at best possible speed now down to 20 knots that was rapidly opening the range. Sheffield's 12 knots could not match the Battle cruisers 20. Salvo 15 and 16 still scored hits but 17, 18 and 19 were ragged and 20 fell short.
Sheffield's B turret suffered a breach explosion at salvo 18 that wiped out most of the gun crew.
Fortuneatley Gun Buster Baldrick's inistance on strict adhereance to gunnery regs ensured the flashproof doors and scuttles did their job and the flash did not penetrate the magazines. Shiny had a lot of splinter damage, numerous small fires and her engineering plant was shaken badly but only minor leaks which still challenged her pumps were suffered. It was now up to Shiny's DC and fire parties to save the ship.
CPO Sharky and his mates had made this survival possible. It was thanks to his ability to reapir Sheffield's radars that saved them this day. Both Sir Edmond and the Gun Buster looked at each other and then both looked at CPO Sharkey and just smiled. That man would be rewarded by a warrant.
5 JUNE 0700 a signal was recieved from BdU with a recall order. The Fuher had gone into a just short of hysterical vile, filth filled, threatening rant when he heard of the decimation of Vizeadmiral Cilax's command. He was raving about the cowardly loss of the Admiral Graf Spee and now the Scharnhorst and the almost certain sinking of Gneisenau. He eventually calmed down enough to say "Call Cilax back now. You fools will waste my entire Battle fleet at this rate." When he was in this state noone in his right mind would argue with him. Better to let him tire, as he soon would, and drop into one of his still rare brooding stupors and with the aid of a sedative sleep for a few hours. Just maybe when he awakened he would be so spent that he would listen to reason, but not now.
5 JUNE 0745 Vizeadmiral Cilax, after reading the signal from BdU over twice ordered thKapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt to come to ring up best speed and make for the Spanish coast. He then said to all in hearing with a strange smile on his face, "Meine tapferen Schiffskameraden ( My brave shipmates) we are ordered home to a heroes welcome from our beloved Fuher."
Now, he sat in his cabin smoking a good cuban cigar and sipping at a snifter of very expensive Cognac. He had the flimsy of the recall order on his side table. It had been worded with a lot more tact than BdU was noted for. However, it could not hide the fact he was going home in disgrace to face a very hostile board of enquiry, if not outright court martial. Those Nazi bastards would see he paid a very high price for the loss of Scharnhorst, Hipper and the failure to sink WS-12. His Schiffskameraden at (shipmates) at BdU would be all too eager to distance themselves from him; no help there. When he finished the cigar, he tossed down a full snifter of the excellent cognac, straitened out his uniform, jacked the slide, placed the muzzle of his Walther P38 9 mm semi-automatic pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The expected shot was heard by his aide in the next compartment
5 JUNE 0450 Acting captain of HMS Sheffield Sir Edmund Blackadder was in the main transmitting station (main battery plot ) observing the large contact held on the surface search radar. The large contact was 19 miles away and coming on fast. His guns maximum effective range was 12 miles but if that was Gniesnau Shiny was in range now. The Gun Buster LCDR Baldrick was with him as he watched his fire control team work the firing solution for her main battery turrets. The dmaged X turret was now operational with a replacement gun crew and wood patches over her the largest of her shell holes keeping the weather out. How long that turret would stay in action once her twin six inchers started pounding away was anyone's guess.
Gun Buster Baldrick's twelve BL 6 inch Mk XXIII rifles could hurle 112 pound HE shells at 2,760 feet per second at 8 rounds per minute per barrel or 96 rounds a minute per salvo. That was alot of for any ship to obsorb even a Battle cruiser. His plan was to keep all turrets firing at maximum rate until the Nazi's ran or Shiny was sunk. How long the gun crews could keep that up in battle was anyone's guess with "gallons" of adrenalin pumping he would bet it would be long enough. However, the gunnery regulations stated rapid fire should only be maintained for 10 minutes without a break to cool the barrels liners, preferably with fire hoses. If no break was possible then a sustained fire of 5 rounds per minute was neccessary to keep from damaging the guns and killing the crews with a breach explosion. He would keep them at rapid fire as long as it took. If they survived, success has many friends, if they lost he would not be around anyway.
5 JUNE 0530 Vizeadmiral Cilax and Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt C.O. of Gneisenau still out of sight even by the fire control director optics. If this was not Renown they were well within range of Renown's 15 inch rifles. The radar was still down. The first salvo from Sheffield fell short. 12 water spouts, convinced him this was a cruiser not a Battle Cruiser. The second salvo was over and the third peppered Gneisenau's upper decks wrecking two 5.9s.
In Sheffield's main transmitting station Gun Buster LCDR Baldrick ordered rapid fire and the turrets. Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt ordered a course change that would unmask Casa's 11 inch rifles and laid them on the bearing of the shell splashes. Gneisenau's armor protected the most imporatant parts of his ship from what he now thought were 6 inch fire. He then ordered his engineers to give him every knot they had. Casa was hit by 4 rounds of the 4th salvo and another six shells hit and tore up the ship, causing much damage but nothing vital.
At 9 miles the range finder locked on the cruiser and the main battery turret fired it's first salvo which overshot their target. The fifth cruiser salvo peppered Casa with no effect. The second 11 inch salvo hit close aboard Sheffield, still over. The sixth crusier salvo hit Casa and the belt. Still not penetrating but one destroyed the optics of the director. His well trained gunners switch to the secondary fire control director and fired her 3rd salvo. This one was short, over corrected and was answered by the cruisers seventh salvo which hell close aboard. The entire ship shook and the hastily repaired engineering plant began to loose speed as the main steam feed line was shocked into multiple minor steam leaks. The cruiser's 8th salvo hit Casa with 4 rounds detonating on the face plate just as the 4th battle cruiser salvo left the barrels and disabled the starboard gun barrel. The cruiser fired salvo 9, 10 and eleven. Casa returned fire and the entire gun house spouted fire from every openeing. The entire turret crew was killed insatntly. Now all they had left were her remaining 5.9s and Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt ordered an emergency turn to bring the unengaged starboard 5.9s which were firing rapdly but the drastic turn had thrown off the aim. Sheffield fired salvoes 12, 13, and 14 at 15,000 yds that knocked out a quarter of the starboard side 5.9s.
Vizeadmiral Cilax ordered an immediate turn away at best possible speed now down to 20 knots that was rapidly opening the range. Sheffield's 12 knots could not match the Battle cruisers 20. Salvo 15 and 16 still scored hits but 17, 18 and 19 were ragged and 20 fell short.
Sheffield's B turret suffered a breach explosion at salvo 18 that wiped out most of the gun crew.
Fortuneatley Gun Buster Baldrick's inistance on strict adhereance to gunnery regs ensured the flashproof doors and scuttles did their job and the flash did not penetrate the magazines. Shiny had a lot of splinter damage, numerous small fires and her engineering plant was shaken badly but only minor leaks which still challenged her pumps were suffered. It was now up to Shiny's DC and fire parties to save the ship.
CPO Sharky and his mates had made this survival possible. It was thanks to his ability to reapir Sheffield's radars that saved them this day. Both Sir Edmond and the Gun Buster looked at each other and then both looked at CPO Sharkey and just smiled. That man would be rewarded by a warrant.
5 JUNE 0700 a signal was recieved from BdU with a recall order. The Fuher had gone into a just short of hysterical vile, filth filled, threatening rant when he heard of the decimation of Vizeadmiral Cilax's command. He was raving about the cowardly loss of the Admiral Graf Spee and now the Scharnhorst and the almost certain sinking of Gneisenau. He eventually calmed down enough to say "Call Cilax back now. You fools will waste my entire Battle fleet at this rate." When he was in this state noone in his right mind would argue with him. Better to let him tire, as he soon would, and drop into one of his still rare brooding stupors and with the aid of a sedative sleep for a few hours. Just maybe when he awakened he would be so spent that he would listen to reason, but not now.
5 JUNE 0745 Vizeadmiral Cilax, after reading the signal from BdU over twice ordered thKapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt to come to ring up best speed and make for the Spanish coast. He then said to all in hearing with a strange smile on his face, "Meine tapferen Schiffskameraden ( My brave shipmates) we are ordered home to a heroes welcome from our beloved Fuher."
Now, he sat in his cabin smoking a good cuban cigar and sipping at a snifter of very expensive Cognac. He had the flimsy of the recall order on his side table. It had been worded with a lot more tact than BdU was noted for. However, it could not hide the fact he was going home in disgrace to face a very hostile board of enquiry, if not outright court martial. Those Nazi bastards would see he paid a very high price for the loss of Scharnhorst, Hipper and the failure to sink WS-12. His Schiffskameraden at (shipmates) at BdU would be all too eager to distance themselves from him; no help there. When he finished the cigar, he tossed down a full snifter of the excellent cognac, straitened out his uniform, jacked the slide, placed the muzzle of his Walther P38 9 mm semi-automatic pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The expected shot was heard by his aide in the next compartment
WS-12 might have been spared a visit by TG Cilax but BdU had long ago stationed another Ruder (wolf Pack) of his beloved U-boats in poistion to savage that convoy. These Grey wolves were lead by one of his most effective and ruthless Officers, one of his Alfa Wolves. They were to clean up the dispersed transport survivors after TG Cilax had taken out most of the escorts and as many of the troopers as possible with the limitted amount time available. TG Cilax had to clear this flaming datum very, very fast this close to the British isles. Now his ever hungry "nephews", his U-boat men called him "Onkel Karl" (Uncle Karl), would do the job themslves. In the end, WS-12 would be a pale wreck of what left the UK. Maybe, just maybe, one of his U-Boats woud sink "Des Teufel" (The Devil) Renown. Would not that be a welcome gift for the Fuher?"
5 JUNE 0800 RN HQ Bunker London.
Vice Admiral Ramsay "I relieve you sir Alfred"
The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound
"I stand relieved"
The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff,Vice Admiral Ramsay " All standing orders will stay in effect until such time as I formerly rescind them.
We will all get to know each other soon but for now we have a great deal of work to do. Dismissed"
Admiral Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound quietly and quickly quit the bunker.
"Last thing Bertie needs is for me to hang around", he thought as he returned the Royal Marine's salute at the street level, trademen's entrance.
6 JUNE 1030 Captain Ching Lee was in a very good mood. The night shoot had come off without a single screw up. North Carolina BB-55's night gunnery was as good as it had been after their last prolonged target practice and that said a lot. His Gun Boss and his cannon cockers were really on the top of their game. All the training and newly developped tracking and firing techniques he had introduced were paying off. Even the Sea Going Bell Hops in mount 52 managed not to disgrace themselves. GM2c had a lot to do with that. Ernie had, where senior Gms had failed corrected a number of intermittant problems that had plagued that 5"38 mount since before commissioning. That was why Mt 52 had been assigned to the Marines. Looks like Brute Krulock and his enforcer, 1st Sgt Carlo Morano, had no valid reason for terrorizing the marine gun crews this time. He was sure those two sadists would soon find some other fault with their men.
Lee would have advanced Ernie to GM1c before but the fight with Fireman 2nd Kevin Madrick, especially what he did to the MAA force put that idea on hold. Truth to tell the way Ernie had conducted himself after his Captain's mast "Award" did him great credit.
Vice Admiral Ramsay "I relieve you sir Alfred"
The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound
"I stand relieved"
The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff,Vice Admiral Ramsay " All standing orders will stay in effect until such time as I formerly rescind them.
We will all get to know each other soon but for now we have a great deal of work to do. Dismissed"
Admiral Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound quietly and quickly quit the bunker.
"Last thing Bertie needs is for me to hang around", he thought as he returned the Royal Marine's salute at the street level, trademen's entrance.
6 JUNE 1030 Captain Ching Lee was in a very good mood. The night shoot had come off without a single screw up. North Carolina BB-55's night gunnery was as good as it had been after their last prolonged target practice and that said a lot. His Gun Boss and his cannon cockers were really on the top of their game. All the training and newly developped tracking and firing techniques he had introduced were paying off. Even the Sea Going Bell Hops in mount 52 managed not to disgrace themselves. GM2c had a lot to do with that. Ernie had, where senior Gms had failed corrected a number of intermittant problems that had plagued that 5"38 mount since before commissioning. That was why Mt 52 had been assigned to the Marines. Looks like Brute Krulock and his enforcer, 1st Sgt Carlo Morano, had no valid reason for terrorizing the marine gun crews this time. He was sure those two sadists would soon find some other fault with their men.
Lee would have advanced Ernie to GM1c before but the fight with Fireman 2nd Kevin Madrick, especially what he did to the MAA force put that idea on hold. Truth to tell the way Ernie had conducted himself after his Captain's mast "Award" did him great credit.
He had performed his duties with even greater dedication and skill than before his Mast. That convinced Lee Ernie was not only a very skilled GM but he had the maturity that Lee demanded of his senior PO's; an absolute neccessity for an enlisted leader. With 7 or 8 more years of Peace time service, or a hell of a lot less in wartime, he'd make a good Chief and maybe even a warrant Gunner. That is the point; he would advance Ermes Effron Borgnino to GM1c today.
While he was at it there were a few more enlisted that deserved advancement; might as well bump them all up today. One of them was a real surprise. Fireman 2nd Kevin Madrick, one of BB-55's older wild men and real pain in his ass, seemed to be in one of his 4.0 Sailor periods. The man had real skill as an electrician and he also had very good leadership skills, when he felt like displaying them. His DIVO and and his division Chief both recommended him for advancement to EM3c. He'd been there before and had once even been a submarine qualifed EM1c. He had shown himself to be a real asset to the ship.
The last time that had lasted all of two months, granted mostly underway. A drunken liberty run to an off limits dive in which a hooker and her pimp tried to roll him ended that. It did not help that Madrick put both, the now naked and worse for ware, Hooker and her pimp in the hospital. The fact Madrick and two of his, badass, stewed to the gills, shipmates had wrecked the bar and tried to assault a couple of veteran police officers ( who put them down the drunks with a few swings of their sawed off axe handle clubs) did not make things any better.
What the hell, if after he put the fear of God in them, Madrick's Divo and Chief still think they can control him he'd give him back his crow. If it were not against naval uniform regs he'd order Madrick to put on the crow with a zipper. Lee had a great respect for his young "Wild men" when things got really bad, they came through. Too bad they got bored so easily.
6 JUNE 1941 0500 the "nuetral" Venezuelan tanker PSS Cabello, transporting No.1 bunker oil, was picked up on both the Bismarck and Prince Eugen's FUMO radars coming from the south west at 22 miles range making directly for the rendezvous point. The rendezvous was selected because it was well away from normal allied air and surface patrols, off the normal merchant routes and no allied convoy or other naval activity was reported in this area.
He had two Arado's up since nautical sunrise, hours ago, making sure they had the sea to themselves this morning. Nothing found within 150 miles so far except the expected tanker which was flying the correct recognition signal for today.
He would have to rely on both ships Gruppenhorchgerät ('group listening device', abbreviated GHG) passive hyrophone arrays to warn of lurking allied U-boats. Those arrays had proved highly efficient,The Prince had picked up Hood with them before they had a solid track with the Fumo at over 35 miles.
The principle of hydrophones was simple enough. It consisted of two pairs of underwater microphones which listened to the sound of ships’ propeller noises. By measuring the amount of time it took for sound to arrive at each of the microphones, the device could triangulate the bearing of the target vessel. The radioman could also tell if it was a merchantman, warship or even submarine but not the range, direction or speed it was moving. Because sound travels much further underwater, hydrophones could pick up distant convoys traveling up to 60 miles, single ship at 40 and that included a surface U-boat. Best range for a submerged U-boat, given good eater conditions and own ship' speed of under 12 kts was about 10 miles, well outside torpedoe range. For maximum effectiveness however, own ship had to come DIW (dead in the water), secure it's engines while the hydrophones listened in for a few minutes. That was not going to happen.
The two seperate units of TG Brinkmann had made a long duration, high speed, deceptive runs to clear the areas of their recent attacks on allied shipping and needed topping off soon.
SS Cabello was a 480 ft o/a, 61ft Beam, 7,625 GRT modern tanker loaded with 8,500 tons of bunker fuel and other marine patroleum proucts at 17 kts. She had left Port of La Guaira 12 days ago on a scheduled run to Cadiz Spain. As a nuetral she was not escorted and did not provide position reports to anyone but her parent company C.A. de Navegación Fluvial y Costanera de Venezuela, Puerto Cabello using a modified simple "book cipher".
PSS Cabello's shipping company had adopted homophonic substitution cipher, a code in which the key is some aspect of a book or other piece of text. The trick is to replace individual letters rather than words known as the Second Beale cipher, which replaces the first letter of a word in the book with that word's position. However, if used often, this technique has the side effect of creating a larger ciphertext (typically 4 to 6 digits being required to encipher each letter or syllable) and increases the time and effort required to decode the message. So it lended itself to Posit and short status messages, not extensive texts.
The "Key book" was changed at random intervals so each of the company's ships and shore establishments had a "Library" of a dozen identical books available. It is essential that both correspondents not only have the same book, but the same edition.
Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman of USCG Lcdr Jones’ Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387” could break this simple code without the Key Book but the effort still required time better used for other assignments.
PSS Cabello had a normal pre war mixed nationality crew of 50, although her officers were all "nominally" Venezualans. Unknown to the Master or his company the Grupo Regional de Venezuela del Partido Nazi had placed a chief engineer, 2nd mate and 12 of her crew sympathetic to the Nazy cause aboard Cabello.
While he was at it there were a few more enlisted that deserved advancement; might as well bump them all up today. One of them was a real surprise. Fireman 2nd Kevin Madrick, one of BB-55's older wild men and real pain in his ass, seemed to be in one of his 4.0 Sailor periods. The man had real skill as an electrician and he also had very good leadership skills, when he felt like displaying them. His DIVO and and his division Chief both recommended him for advancement to EM3c. He'd been there before and had once even been a submarine qualifed EM1c. He had shown himself to be a real asset to the ship.
The last time that had lasted all of two months, granted mostly underway. A drunken liberty run to an off limits dive in which a hooker and her pimp tried to roll him ended that. It did not help that Madrick put both, the now naked and worse for ware, Hooker and her pimp in the hospital. The fact Madrick and two of his, badass, stewed to the gills, shipmates had wrecked the bar and tried to assault a couple of veteran police officers ( who put them down the drunks with a few swings of their sawed off axe handle clubs) did not make things any better.
What the hell, if after he put the fear of God in them, Madrick's Divo and Chief still think they can control him he'd give him back his crow. If it were not against naval uniform regs he'd order Madrick to put on the crow with a zipper. Lee had a great respect for his young "Wild men" when things got really bad, they came through. Too bad they got bored so easily.
6 JUNE 1941 0500 the "nuetral" Venezuelan tanker PSS Cabello, transporting No.1 bunker oil, was picked up on both the Bismarck and Prince Eugen's FUMO radars coming from the south west at 22 miles range making directly for the rendezvous point. The rendezvous was selected because it was well away from normal allied air and surface patrols, off the normal merchant routes and no allied convoy or other naval activity was reported in this area.
He had two Arado's up since nautical sunrise, hours ago, making sure they had the sea to themselves this morning. Nothing found within 150 miles so far except the expected tanker which was flying the correct recognition signal for today.
He would have to rely on both ships Gruppenhorchgerät ('group listening device', abbreviated GHG) passive hyrophone arrays to warn of lurking allied U-boats. Those arrays had proved highly efficient,The Prince had picked up Hood with them before they had a solid track with the Fumo at over 35 miles.
The principle of hydrophones was simple enough. It consisted of two pairs of underwater microphones which listened to the sound of ships’ propeller noises. By measuring the amount of time it took for sound to arrive at each of the microphones, the device could triangulate the bearing of the target vessel. The radioman could also tell if it was a merchantman, warship or even submarine but not the range, direction or speed it was moving. Because sound travels much further underwater, hydrophones could pick up distant convoys traveling up to 60 miles, single ship at 40 and that included a surface U-boat. Best range for a submerged U-boat, given good eater conditions and own ship' speed of under 12 kts was about 10 miles, well outside torpedoe range. For maximum effectiveness however, own ship had to come DIW (dead in the water), secure it's engines while the hydrophones listened in for a few minutes. That was not going to happen.
The two seperate units of TG Brinkmann had made a long duration, high speed, deceptive runs to clear the areas of their recent attacks on allied shipping and needed topping off soon.
SS Cabello was a 480 ft o/a, 61ft Beam, 7,625 GRT modern tanker loaded with 8,500 tons of bunker fuel and other marine patroleum proucts at 17 kts. She had left Port of La Guaira 12 days ago on a scheduled run to Cadiz Spain. As a nuetral she was not escorted and did not provide position reports to anyone but her parent company C.A. de Navegación Fluvial y Costanera de Venezuela, Puerto Cabello using a modified simple "book cipher".
PSS Cabello's shipping company had adopted homophonic substitution cipher, a code in which the key is some aspect of a book or other piece of text. The trick is to replace individual letters rather than words known as the Second Beale cipher, which replaces the first letter of a word in the book with that word's position. However, if used often, this technique has the side effect of creating a larger ciphertext (typically 4 to 6 digits being required to encipher each letter or syllable) and increases the time and effort required to decode the message. So it lended itself to Posit and short status messages, not extensive texts.
The "Key book" was changed at random intervals so each of the company's ships and shore establishments had a "Library" of a dozen identical books available. It is essential that both correspondents not only have the same book, but the same edition.
Cryptologist Elizabeth Smith Feldman of USCG Lcdr Jones’ Code and Sypher Branch “Unit 387” could break this simple code without the Key Book but the effort still required time better used for other assignments.
PSS Cabello had a normal pre war mixed nationality crew of 50, although her officers were all "nominally" Venezualans. Unknown to the Master or his company the Grupo Regional de Venezuela del Partido Nazi had placed a chief engineer, 2nd mate and 12 of her crew sympathetic to the Nazy cause aboard Cabello.
Unknown to the Nazi Sympathizers there were also 6 clandestine members of the Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Division AKA MAD) special operations group aboard. Five days out of Port of La Guaira, after carefully vetting the Nazi sympathizers, the leader of the MAD enlsited both the 2nd mate and Chief engineer and 6 crew help sieze the ship. The capture went very smoothly and no one was injured. The Master, 1st and 3rd mates, one of the junior engineering officers and 5 of the crew were confined. The rest went along with the men with the guns who, at that time, were winning the war.
The leader of the MAD team was Fregattenkapitan Friedrich Max von Muller, winner of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and first captain of the merchant raider Michel. He had two Oberleutnant zur See (Senior Lieutenants), two Engineering Ober-maat (CPOs) and one Communications Stabsfeldwebel (Chief Warrant Officer ). All members of his team were selected by von Muller, had served with him aboard Michel to his satisfaction and were very hard men when the situation called for it. They all had a good working knowledge of Spanish. He had personally rigorously trained his men and then had his men cross train their team mates. They were also thoroughly familiar with the capabilities, layout, machinery and other peculiarities of PSS Cabello. They had been "smuggled" into Venezuella a month before Cabello sailed without incident as Spanish seaman. Once ashore they were lost in the 4,000 Germans living in the country.
The leader of the MAD team was Fregattenkapitan Friedrich Max von Muller, winner of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and first captain of the merchant raider Michel. He had two Oberleutnant zur See (Senior Lieutenants), two Engineering Ober-maat (CPOs) and one Communications Stabsfeldwebel (Chief Warrant Officer ). All members of his team were selected by von Muller, had served with him aboard Michel to his satisfaction and were very hard men when the situation called for it. They all had a good working knowledge of Spanish. He had personally rigorously trained his men and then had his men cross train their team mates. They were also thoroughly familiar with the capabilities, layout, machinery and other peculiarities of PSS Cabello. They had been "smuggled" into Venezuella a month before Cabello sailed without incident as Spanish seaman. Once ashore they were lost in the 4,000 Germans living in the country.
The new "Master" of PSS Cabello, wearing the former Master's work uniform, ordered a course change that would liesurely get them to their rendezvous point as directed. After going over the coding procedures, No Enigma, code names, watch schedule, EMCOM to be employed and ensuring his man was comfortable with the radio gear von Ruckteschell gave his order. His Communicator was to transmit one, short, two letter and three number coded signal informing BdU and TG Brinkmann Cabello had been taken without incident. The ship was on it's way to the rendezvous point. BdU had a radioman specifically assigned to the cabello frequency who immediately handed the coded signal to his watch Ober-maat (Chief). The signal was broken in five minutes and the reply was transmitted 10 minutes later. Cabello acknowledge receipt and then the Stabsfeldwebel (CWO) unplugged the speed key and locked it in the safe with the spare code keys). Until further orders from the Fregattenkapitan it would be a listening radio watch only.
7 JUNE 1941 0730 TG Brinkmann began refueling operations from PSS Cabello. Since the Venezualan commercial tanker was not equipped for alongside UNREP the astern hose system had to be used. This was not particularly efficient because the operation was limited to one ship at a time, and only one refueling point on the warship could be employed. Their fueling gear consisted of a ten-inch towing hawser, two six-inch breast lines along with the three-inch fuel hoses. To keep the fuel hoses clear of the sea, they were supported by a wooden carrier suspended from the oiler's cargo booms.
Sea conditions during the operation were pretty good, with a moderate cross swell that caused Cabello to roll from 6 to ten degrees, with only mild pitching. These fairly calm summer North Atlantic conditions allowed fuel transfer at the rate of Sixty Five tons per hour. More to the point, the towing hawser and fuel lines parted only once during the entire evolution. For a first effort this was very, very accptable; causing the TG commander to send a well done to the Cabello.
The small 6 member Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Division AKA MAD) special operations group had been trained thoroughly on rigging the refueling gear from what they would find aboard PSS Cabello.
Sea conditions during the operation were pretty good, with a moderate cross swell that caused Cabello to roll from 6 to ten degrees, with only mild pitching. These fairly calm summer North Atlantic conditions allowed fuel transfer at the rate of Sixty Five tons per hour. More to the point, the towing hawser and fuel lines parted only once during the entire evolution. For a first effort this was very, very accptable; causing the TG commander to send a well done to the Cabello.
The small 6 member Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Division AKA MAD) special operations group had been trained thoroughly on rigging the refueling gear from what they would find aboard PSS Cabello.
They had, with the help of the deck force, completed the improvised rig days ago. They had also trained those members of Cabello's crew they could trust (as long as they could keep a close watch on them holstred pistol at their side) on the techniques required of the refueling tanker. Most of those procedures were nothing but variations on the deck seamanship any competent merchant sailor had already mastered.
Bismarck was first while the Prince stood at Action Stations and the Arado's maintained their search for uninvited guests. It took 10 hours to top fill Bismarck's massive tanks and then it was the Prince's turn which took another eight hours. Fregattenkapitan Friedrich Max von Muller, and his Oberleutnant zur See (Senior Lieutenants) shared the 18 hour OOD/conning watches. When not on watch, one of the Oberleutnant zur Sees supervised the refueling rig from the fan tail.
The two Engineering Ober-maat (CPOs) relieved each other in the engine room, keeping a close watch on the black gang although the Engineering officer was a Nazi sympathiser.
Communications Stabsfeldwebel (Chief Warrant Officer ) Kept the radio watch for signals from TG Brinkmann and any other close by radio traffic.
The two Engineering Ober-maat (CPOs) relieved each other in the engine room, keeping a close watch on the black gang although the Engineering officer was a Nazi sympathiser.
Communications Stabsfeldwebel (Chief Warrant Officer ) Kept the radio watch for signals from TG Brinkmann and any other close by radio traffic.
The Grupo Regional de Venezuela del Partido Nazi 2nd mate and 4 seaman (each with a pistol but no spare ammunition) watched the other crewmembers. Muller would only trust them so far.
Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, took advantage of the calm seas to transferred his flag and staff back to Bismarck. After Bismarck's refueling he briefed Kapitäns zur See Lindemann of BdU's orders they attack the Oil Refineries on Trinidad Tobago. Both men knew Trinidad Tobago's oil refinery in Pointe a Pierre was the largest in the British Empire and a vital strategic asset of the allies. Much of Venezeulan crude was refined there. The file on Trinidad Tobago was quite extensive and included in the intel provided Lutgens before he sortied.
Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, took advantage of the calm seas to transferred his flag and staff back to Bismarck. After Bismarck's refueling he briefed Kapitäns zur See Lindemann of BdU's orders they attack the Oil Refineries on Trinidad Tobago. Both men knew Trinidad Tobago's oil refinery in Pointe a Pierre was the largest in the British Empire and a vital strategic asset of the allies. Much of Venezeulan crude was refined there. The file on Trinidad Tobago was quite extensive and included in the intel provided Lutgens before he sortied.
Brinkmann " Lindemann now it is up to us to decide exactly how we will carry out those orders. The obvious course is to close the island and bombard the rifineries with our main batteries. I would think it would not take much to set Pointe a Pierre ablaze. I also want the port facilities wrecked, although that will take a lot more ammunition and cost us time. So far we have had "Des Teufels eigenes Glück" (Devils own luck) and I expect to sink some tankers before we disapear again. I'd love to send ashore a couple of landing parties to direct our gunfire, assess damge on the refineries and port facilities and also find some other good targets. I want those refineries completely wrecked and require complete rebuilding before they process another drop of crude. That would take a year at least.
That should push our Englander "friends" much closer to reason and the negotiation table. This could be the straw that knocks them out of the war. Maybe? Without Great Britain to deal we, our Army and Luftwaffe will be able to concentrate most of our strength in Russia alone. The Bolsheviks have taken losses that would cripple any other country. They have to be near breaking.
A few more such routes and Stalin will have to ask for terms. Even then he will probably be assasinated. I doubt there is anyone who will be willing to continue the war. If the assasins fail his party "friends" and he will be in their own civil war. No matter Hitler will get what he wants in the East. I doubt the Americans will prove to be decisive. They probably will act far too late if at all."
The recently advanced Vizeadmiral had no idea FDR had come to a similar conclusion well ahead of him. Rear Admiral Hewitt's TG-39 was out to sink his ship and ensure America came into the war BEFORE it was too late.
Bismarck's CO was a bit uneasy about this latest operation. He could not forget both Kapitäns zur See Karl Friedrich Max von Müller CO of Emdem and Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee commanding the German East Asia Squadron had been very successful as commerce raiders but both came to disater when they decided to expand their war to attacking shore targets.
Before dismissing him, the Vizeadmiral handed the CO of Bismarck a copy of the draft oporder his C of Staff had prepared. "Look this over and let me know what you think." Both men had work to do and until the UNREP was completed their stations were the Flag Plot and Bismarck's bridge. So it was not until that evening with Bismarck and The Prince on a course heading to Trinidad Tobago, did Lindemann get a chance to study the Draft Op order.
The WW II German naval Operations Order was very similar to the army version and consists of an orientation and five paragraphs. The five paragraphs are: Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Command & Signal.
1. SITUATION.
a. Area of Interest. British Crown Colony Island of Trinidad Tobago
b. Area of Operations. North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea 150 nautical miles centered on Trinidad Tobago
(1) Terrain. Map included in the folder with all important locations marked
(2) Weather. To be updated during the approach for now forecast good
c. Enemy Forces. Trinidad Tobago Garrison and any allied units present
(1) Composition, Disposition, and Strength.
4th Defense Battalion USMC
HQ Company located at construction site of Naval Base Trinidad at Carenage Bay
Service battery Carenage Bay
Six platoons, each with a searchlight and aircraft sound locator
colocated with Flak batteries
Coast Defense Group
Three batteries, each with two Mark 15 5"/51 caliber Surface only guns See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles Surface AP 1a: 50 lbs.
Common 50 lbs.
HC Mark 39 50 lbs.
Rate of fire 8-9 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 17,000 yds at 20° elevation
Antiaircraft Group
Four FLAK batteries, each with 4 mobile 3-inch M3 FLAK guns on M2A2 carriages
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles 24 lb Fixed complete round 13lb projectileweight
types: AP, AA , HE, Illumination
Rate of fire 15 – 20 rounds per minute
Bismarck's CO was a bit uneasy about this latest operation. He could not forget both Kapitäns zur See Karl Friedrich Max von Müller CO of Emdem and Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee commanding the German East Asia Squadron had been very successful as commerce raiders but both came to disater when they decided to expand their war to attacking shore targets.
Before dismissing him, the Vizeadmiral handed the CO of Bismarck a copy of the draft oporder his C of Staff had prepared. "Look this over and let me know what you think." Both men had work to do and until the UNREP was completed their stations were the Flag Plot and Bismarck's bridge. So it was not until that evening with Bismarck and The Prince on a course heading to Trinidad Tobago, did Lindemann get a chance to study the Draft Op order.
The WW II German naval Operations Order was very similar to the army version and consists of an orientation and five paragraphs. The five paragraphs are: Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Command & Signal.
1. SITUATION.
a. Area of Interest. British Crown Colony Island of Trinidad Tobago
b. Area of Operations. North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea 150 nautical miles centered on Trinidad Tobago
(1) Terrain. Map included in the folder with all important locations marked
(2) Weather. To be updated during the approach for now forecast good
c. Enemy Forces. Trinidad Tobago Garrison and any allied units present
(1) Composition, Disposition, and Strength.
4th Defense Battalion USMC
HQ Company located at construction site of Naval Base Trinidad at Carenage Bay
Service battery Carenage Bay
Six platoons, each with a searchlight and aircraft sound locator
colocated with Flak batteries
Coast Defense Group
Three batteries, each with two Mark 15 5"/51 caliber Surface only guns See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles Surface AP 1a: 50 lbs.
Common 50 lbs.
HC Mark 39 50 lbs.
Rate of fire 8-9 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 17,000 yds at 20° elevation
Antiaircraft Group
Four FLAK batteries, each with 4 mobile 3-inch M3 FLAK guns on M2A2 carriages
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles 24 lb Fixed complete round 13lb projectileweight
types: AP, AA , HE, Illumination
Rate of fire 15 – 20 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 14,600 yds at 43° elevation 30,400ft AA ceiling
Two AAA machine gun companies, each with 24 Water cooled M2 .50-caliber AA mounts
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Two AAA machine gun companies, each with 24 Water cooled M2 .50-caliber AA mounts
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles standard ball, AP, API, APIT rounds. All designated "armor-piercing" was required to completely perforate 0.875 inches of hardened steel armor plate at a distance of 100 yards and 0.75 inches at 547 yards. The API and APIT rounds leave a flash, report, and smoke on contact, useful in detecting strikes on enemy targets; they were primarily intended to incapacitate thin-skinned and lightly armored vehicles and aircraft, while igniting their fuel tanks.
Rate of fire M2 water-cooled AA guns had a cyclical rate of around 450–600 rpm
Rate of fire M2 water-cooled AA guns had a cyclical rate of around 450–600 rpm
Maximum effective range 2,000yds
Two beach protection machine gun companies, each with 24 Browning M1917A1 water-cooled .30-caliber machine guns
Projectiles .30-06 Springfield
Rate of fire 450 to 600 round/min
Maximum Effective Range 1100 yds
One Seaplane tender of the AVD class converted WW I destroyer
Anchor in Carenage Bay.
Supporting 4 to 6 PBY-3 USN Patrol Seaplanes
Maximum speed: 196 mph Cruise speed: 125 mph
Range 2,520 mi
Service ceiling: 15,800 ft
Guns: Three .30 cal Mgs (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail)
Two .50 cal HMG (one in each waist blister)
Bombs: 4,000 lb of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes
Radar some PBY's are fitted with ASV Mark II Surface Search Radar
Wavelength 170 cm Pulse Width 2.5 microsecond
Pulse Repetition Frequency 400 Hz Peak Power Out 7 kW
Range 20 miles for destroyer 30 miles Capital ships and merchants
60 miles for coastline.
Two beach protection machine gun companies, each with 24 Browning M1917A1 water-cooled .30-caliber machine guns
Projectiles .30-06 Springfield
Rate of fire 450 to 600 round/min
Maximum Effective Range 1100 yds
One Seaplane tender of the AVD class converted WW I destroyer
Anchor in Carenage Bay.
Supporting 4 to 6 PBY-3 USN Patrol Seaplanes
Maximum speed: 196 mph Cruise speed: 125 mph
Range 2,520 mi
Service ceiling: 15,800 ft
Guns: Three .30 cal Mgs (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail)
Two .50 cal HMG (one in each waist blister)
Bombs: 4,000 lb of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes
Radar some PBY's are fitted with ASV Mark II Surface Search Radar
Wavelength 170 cm Pulse Width 2.5 microsecond
Pulse Repetition Frequency 400 Hz Peak Power Out 7 kW
Range 20 miles for destroyer 30 miles Capital ships and merchants
60 miles for coastline.
Minimum range 1 mile
As of last report no land based military Patrol, Bomber or Fighter aircraft are permantly based on Trinidad and Tobego as their bases are in the early phase of construction.
No land bases search radar is operational. However, as this is a key Convoy assembly area various radar equipped warships are often present.
Local Patrol Boats There are about a dozen police and customs launches armed with pistols and rifle. No radar but they do have two way radios which are considered their most dangerous weapon. No more than two of the boats have been observed actively patrolling between Midnight and nautitical sunrise.
d. Friendly Forces. TG Brinkmann and PSS Cabello and various U-boats
(1) Higher HQ Mission and Intent. BdU Destroy oil refining capability on Trinidad Tobago
(2) Mission of Adjacent Units. N/A
e. Attachments and Detachments. N/A
f. Civilian Considerations Avoid civilian casualties unless they jeopardize success of the mission.
As of last report no land based military Patrol, Bomber or Fighter aircraft are permantly based on Trinidad and Tobego as their bases are in the early phase of construction.
No land bases search radar is operational. However, as this is a key Convoy assembly area various radar equipped warships are often present.
Local Patrol Boats There are about a dozen police and customs launches armed with pistols and rifle. No radar but they do have two way radios which are considered their most dangerous weapon. No more than two of the boats have been observed actively patrolling between Midnight and nautitical sunrise.
d. Friendly Forces. TG Brinkmann and PSS Cabello and various U-boats
(1) Higher HQ Mission and Intent. BdU Destroy oil refining capability on Trinidad Tobago
(2) Mission of Adjacent Units. N/A
e. Attachments and Detachments. N/A
f. Civilian Considerations Avoid civilian casualties unless they jeopardize success of the mission.
2. MISSION. In a night action destroy the refineries, port fracilities and any tankers in the vicinity of Trinidad Tobago without sustaining major damage to TG Brinkman that would degrade primary, commerce raiding mission. To withdraw before enemy forces can pose a threat to TG Brinkman. Radar Navigation and gun laying will be employed along with beacon(s) planted by sleeper agents.
Pointe a Pierre refinery is one of the largest and most modern (due to constant upgrades) refineries in the world. Point Fortin a somehwat smaller refinery and being of recent expanded and modernized has better fire fighting facilities. The fuel, refined at Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin is very important to the RAF, Royal Navy, British home Islands Industry and allied merchant fleet. The total destruction of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin will be a major strategic victory for the Fatherland and a serious loss for the enemy.
Pointe a Pierre refinery is one of the largest and most modern (due to constant upgrades) refineries in the world. Point Fortin a somehwat smaller refinery and being of recent expanded and modernized has better fire fighting facilities. The fuel, refined at Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin is very important to the RAF, Royal Navy, British home Islands Industry and allied merchant fleet. The total destruction of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin will be a major strategic victory for the Fatherland and a serious loss for the enemy.
3. EXECUTION. TG Brinkmann will destroy the refineries, port, air field facilities and any tankers or naval vseesls in the vicinity of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin by gunfire on the night of 9 June.
a. Commander's Intent Total destruction of Trinidad Tobago's Refineries. Inflicting as much damage to Trinidad Tobago's port, tankers, communications and naval units as reasonably possible.
b. Concept of operations. To use surprise, radar navigation and fire control and precision gunfire under cover of darkness
(1) Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(2) Fires. As required
(3) Reconnaissance and Surveillance. U-boats, local sleeper agents, Arado scouts and radar will be the chief methods of Recon and Surveillance
(4) Intelligence. As provided by BdU
(5) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(6) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(7) Information Operations.
c. Scheme of Movement and Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
d. Scheme of Fires.
e. Casualty Evacuation.
f. Tasks to Subordinate Units
g. Tasks to Combat Support.
(1) Intelligence. See Appendix
(2) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(3) Fire Support. See Appendix
(4) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(5) Signal. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
4. SUSTAINMENT. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
5. COMMAND AND CONTROL.
a. Command.
(1) Location of Commander. Bismarck
(2) Succession of Command. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
c. Signal. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
(1) SOI index in effect.
(2) Methods of communication by priority.
(3) Pyrotechnics and Signals.
(4) Code Words.
(5) Challenge and Password.
(6) Number Combination.
(7) Running Password.
(8) Recognition Signals.
a. Commander's Intent Total destruction of Trinidad Tobago's Refineries. Inflicting as much damage to Trinidad Tobago's port, tankers, communications and naval units as reasonably possible.
b. Concept of operations. To use surprise, radar navigation and fire control and precision gunfire under cover of darkness
(1) Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(2) Fires. As required
(3) Reconnaissance and Surveillance. U-boats, local sleeper agents, Arado scouts and radar will be the chief methods of Recon and Surveillance
(4) Intelligence. As provided by BdU
(5) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(6) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(7) Information Operations.
c. Scheme of Movement and Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
d. Scheme of Fires.
e. Casualty Evacuation.
f. Tasks to Subordinate Units
g. Tasks to Combat Support.
(1) Intelligence. See Appendix
(2) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(3) Fire Support. See Appendix
(4) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(5) Signal. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
4. SUSTAINMENT. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
5. COMMAND AND CONTROL.
a. Command.
(1) Location of Commander. Bismarck
(2) Succession of Command. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
c. Signal. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
(1) SOI index in effect.
(2) Methods of communication by priority.
(3) Pyrotechnics and Signals.
(4) Code Words.
(5) Challenge and Password.
(6) Number Combination.
(7) Running Password.
(8) Recognition Signals.
First Senior Chief, thanks for a new update, now i just have to read it.
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