It would be days before Wilson and the rest of his Regiment would get billeted north of Noumea. They were going to be used in the role best suited for cavalry, as advanced scouts in recon operations. Word was that another battalion of Japanese troops had been south and east of Noumea, and the 112th was going to be tasked with getting down there to see what they were up to.
Part IX
Eye of the Storm
“They sicken of the calm who know the storm.”
Chapter 25
When Vice Admiral Lee heard what happened to two of his battleships he was quite upset. He had been all ready to ease into this new command, setting his flag on the newest arrival, BB-58, Indiana. He was excited at the prospect of having a square division with all four of the Navy’s newest fast battleships, the best in the fleet until they delivered the Iowa class ships.
“Don’t worry sir,” said the Captain, Aaron Stanton Merrill. “I got the assessment from Port Stanley. South Dakota took a hit, but it didn’t even penetrate her anti-torpedo bulwark. It was only minor damage and there was no effect to her speed or fighting ability. Halsey cut her loose to join us shortly. North Carolina will take another couple weeks, but she’ll be ready again soon, good as new. It’s just hull plating and some damage to interior compartments on her port side. In the meantime, we’ve got Indiana here, and Washington. That’s a pretty good one-two punch.”
Lee walked to the weather deck, taking in the sweet cool air after the rain. “I heard they put some hurt on the Jap battleships in that carrier group. Sent them packing.”
The pilots had claimed several hits, but the shock of seeing rockets taking down the lead elements of the strike was still raging through the fleet like a fire on the foredeck. Lee didn’t know what to make of it, but he wasn’t worried about it either. You don’t hurt a ship like the Indiana with a Ack-Ack rocket, no matter how good it was.
“Aye sir,” said Merrill. “The Japs took hits alright, but in some ways I wish the flyboys hadn’t chased them home. All that does is postpone the day when we get a crack at them. After all, they built the battleships to win this war, didn’t they? Look what the Japs went after when they hit Pearl—the battleships. It’s time we proved our worth out here.”
Merrill was a black shoe Captain to be sure. Some called him Merrill the marauder, but those closer to him simply used the nickname ‘Tip,’ which had been a family nickname for the males ever since his great-grandfather fought at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. It was no coincidence that the battle was fought in Indiana territory at that time. Merrill had put in a direct request for a posting to the ship named for his state when he learned it was to be commissioned, feeling lucky to be selected.
He had started on the Destroyer Aylwin in 1912, then Williamson in 1929, before moving up to the Heavy Cruiser Pensacola. He was thrilled when they gave him the Indiana, though Nimitz was eyeing him for a promotion to Vice Admiral and a full Cruiser Squadron. For now, with so many of the cruisers sustaining damage, particularly off Noumea when Hara raided the landing sites, Merrill would stay on his beloved battleship Indiana.
Lee had been cut loose by Halsey and ordered to steam into the waters between the New Hebrides and Fiji, just to make sure the Japanese weren’t trying to run any reinforcements or supplies to Nandi. They linked up with South Dakota there, then got orders to advance north to Efate to support the 8th Marine Regiment. The Japanese had put in reinforcements, with a full regiment of the 20th Division landing on the north shore of that island. Arriving on fast transports escorted by destroyers at night, they assembled quickly and then made a concerted advance on Port Havana, a small protected bay that had been taken by the Marines before they moved southeast to seize Port Vila. Now the Japanese would take it back to have a place to move in supplies, and that had to be stopped.
It was the last operation Hara’s 3rd Carrier Division covered before it turned for Rabaul, its overall mission accomplished. Now Halsey was well to the south, hovering off Noumea to be certain the Japanese could not do any further harm to MacArthur’s transports still offloading supplies there. So Lee was out in a fast surface action group, exhilarated to be running free, the spray high over the long swept bow of the ship, clearing skies, and the smell of the recent rain still fresh on the air. The three battleships were accompanied by the AA cruisers San Juan, San Diego, and the light cruisers Cleveland and Honolulu. A single destroyer, the Nicholson, was out on point, and on the morning of January 31st, it was approaching the small island of Mataso north of Efate, little more than a scrub covered hilly rise in the sea, less than two miles long. It was completely uninhabited, but Nicholson was going to put ashore a small team of coast watchers with a cache of supplies to watch Mataso Strait. Before they could do that, they had uninvited company.
Commander John Stuart Keating still had the ship, though this was going to be the first real action he had beyond picking up survivors off a torpedoed Norwegian merchant freighter in the Atlantic. His Gleaves/Benson Class destroyer had then been transferred to the Pacific, and the welcome it was about to receive was most unsettling. Executive Officer Lew Markham took the sighting report from the top watch, coming in through the hatch to the weather deck.
“Two tall pagoda style mainmasts at 330. Looks like heavy ships, and from the look of that bow wash they’re coming on fast.”
Nicholson was ten miles ahead of Lee’s main body, so Keating got off a sighting report right away—sighted, two heavy cruisers, bearing 330, my position, course 065, estimate 28 knots. They had the course and speed right, but not the ship class. The lead ship coming at them was the new super cruiser Amagi, racing through the clear morning swells as she maneuvered to take position ahead of the real heavyweight behind her, battleship Hiraga. The US pilots may have been correct when they claimed those hits on the Japanese heavies, but they were tougher ships than they realized.
While both Hiraga and Satsuma had taken hits, neither one had sustained any serious damage. At least four bombs struck each ship, but the Japanese had been pleased to see that the heavy deck armor had absorbed much of the impact. Older ships like the Kongo Class battlecruisers had no more than 60mm deck armor. The Nagato had two armored decks combining for about 140mm protection. Hiraga was a step up from that, with her two armored decks totaling 200mm. Only Yamato was better protected, with 226mm. So here were ships the US thought were damaged and sent home, instead relatively unscathed, undaunted, and looking for a fight. The Japanese had already spotted the US destroyer on their radar, and now Amagi opened up on it with her main guns.
Before Commander Keating could give another order, those rounds were already framing his ship with alarming accuracy for a first salvo. Then an explosion aft rocked the boat, and another round hit the side of the ship to penetrate deep within.