Chapter 23
When Otani reported the strike wave coming in, Captain Harada shook his head in dismay. There were 130 enemy planes coming at them, and there he was out on forward picket duty calling out the warning to Nagumo, and with 42 missiles, which included the 12 SM-3s he was holding in reserve. He also had 10 RUM-139 ASROC missiles, but they were no good against planes. Now he had a decision to make. He could fire everything he had, and probably take a good bite out of this strike wave, but that would reduce him from the level of a fighting AA defense destroyer to the lowly realm of an ASW defense and early warning radar picket. Something in him wanted to hold on to his power just a little longer, but he had to do something, or be thought of as a paper tiger.
“Signal Nagumo and tell him we will make a limited air defense strike to attempt to shock the Americans. Then vector in his CAP. Mister Honjo, give me a dozen SM-2s.” That would leave him with 30 missiles, 18 SM-2s and 12 SM-3s. Every time he took a bite out of the enemy, he lost teeth, and unlike the shark that he seemed, there were no serried rows of replacement teeth in reserve.
They would knock down seven Wildcats and five dive bombers, damaging two others. Then the Japanese Zeroes arrived, their white wings painted with those red fireball suns. They swooped in and would damage or drive off another 26 strike planes, but too many would get through. Halsey’s strike wave flew right over Takami, ignoring the ship as the forward light cruiser picket it seemed to be. His men wanted to get at those flattops and big battleships, and they did.
Two bombs straddled the light carrier Kitsune, causing minor damage and buckling a hull plate aft to start a little flooding. Two more struck her sister ship Okami, blasting through the flight deck and causing heavy damage in the hangar area. Gozo Kiryu would take three hits; Gozo Kaya would be skewered by a single torpedo. Both the battleships also got a lot of attention. Satsuma would take four hits, Hiraga five, but now the strength and toughness of the new Japanese ships would save the day.
Many of those hits had been on the deck armor, and did not even penetrate to do any serious damage below decks. One struck the number two turret on Hiraga, but it was like throwing an egg at a metal box. The concussion rattled ears and heads, shaking men off their feet, but the heavy turret armor was not penetrated, or even seriously compromised. Two more were side armor hits that did little more than blacken the hull of the ships. In effect, the battleships were simply shrugging off the hits, with some cost in human casualties, but little damage of any significance to the ships.
Neither of the two fast super cruisers were hit, though Amagi had to pour on the power and maneuver smartly to avoid the wakes of two torpedoes. Some miles behind the forward body, the last two carriers were covered by low clouds, and so neither Ryujin nor Kinryu would get a scratch, the Dragon’s brood living to fight on another day.
Yet seeing hits for all four of the smaller scout and escort carriers triggered that reflexive impulse in Nagumo to preserve his ships. He had been selected by Yamamoto to return to Japan and lead these ships out into battle for the first time. They were gleaming new, with the fresh camo paint barely dry when he left Japan. Now he saw the inevitable scars of battle blackening the flanks and decks of his prized Shadō Butai, and he turned about, immediately ordering the group to withdraw north. Soon he learned that he had been wise to do so. Both of the escort carriers, Okami and Kitsune, reported their damage was sufficient to require all flight deck operations to be suspended. There would now be 48 planes that could not return to those two decks.
Our own strike must inevitably take losses, he thought grimly. So surviving planes should be able to land on my two bigger battle carriers, and any others can divert to Luganville.
He had thrown 150 planes at his enemy, but they were heading into increasing rain as they proceeded south. Only 46 strike planes with 44 fighters in escort, would find the Americans to deliver the first attack to be made by these new warriors of the Shadō Butai. Most of those were the torpedo planes, flying lower and avoiding many of the towering thunderheads that so confounded the dive bombers at 15,000 feet. Only eight D3A Vals and 17 D4Y Judy dive bombers would find the enemy, and the American fighters got all but eight of them. Not a single one would score a hit.
The attack now rested with the torpedo bombers, and it looked like they were going to be cut to pieces. Eight were taken by the enemy fighters, and six more would fall to flak. So there it was, after nearly a year in the shipyards, the synthesis of steel and sweat and sinew, and after all the planning, training and effort to bring those ships to battle, it was coming down to seven pilots in seven torpedo bombers that would survive the American defense to deliver their ordnance.
Halsey would come to call them the “Magnificent Seven,” counting them as they came in, one by one, flying bravely through the heavy flak.
“My god,” he said to Duncan. “Look at them, steady as a rock. Magnificent, but I wish I could personally shoot every last one.”
He kept his fingers crossed when he saw the torpedoes go into the water, but after observing a hundred practice drills at sea in his time, he knew the Japanese pilots had put their fish in the water with perfect precision. Amazingly, six of those seven torpedoes would find ships, two on North Carolina, another on South Dakota, two rocking Essex and one more on the Lexington.
Halsey swore when he saw the tall white splashes rise up with those hits. “Get me damage reports as soon as possible,” he ordered. The news he got back wasn’t good. South Dakota had taken only minor damage and flooding, and the ship’s Captain said he could seal it off and remain underway. Being hit twice, he felt lucky when he learned his own flagship had only minor damage, but there was more significant flooding that was going to need a port soon. Her engines were not compromised, but he knew his game was over at that moment, particularly when he got the news on Lexington. The single torpedo had ignited an ammo storage area and the flooding was much more severe. She would need to get to the nearest port that could be found, and quickly.
“That does it then,” said Halsey. “We’ll have to split the deck. Make to Enterprise and tell Spruance he’s about to have company. I want him to move over here to Essex and take the damaged ships safely to Australian ports.”
“You’re transferring your flag?” said Duncan. No Captain ever wanted to see an Admiral blown off his ship like that, even if he didn’t really want to stand in his shadow.
“Hell,” said Halsey. “I’ve still got MacArthur’s transports to cover at Noumea. I’ll take Enterprise, Yorktown, North Carolina and a couple cruisers back west to cover those landings. As for you and Spruance, take Essex, Lexington and the other battleship to Brisbane. If they can control the flooding on Lexington, you’d do better at Sydney, but save those ships at any cost. I’ll leave the bulk of the destroyers with you.”
“Aye sir,” said Duncan, a bit crestfallen.
It had come down to those seven pilots on the other side, and Nagumo would later learn that they were all among the handpicked veterans he had selected from the ranks of the men he had first led to Pearl Harbor. The younger pilots had fought bravely, but not with the skill of those Seven Samurai. If those last few planes had been foiled, Halsey would have won a resounding victory. Instead, the bravery and experience of those pilots meant that both sides had been hurt that day, and both forced to withdraw.