This was undoubtedly Mizuchi, he thought. I do not think the Americans are using these rocket weapons yet. Thankfully the damage was not heavy. The airfield is back in operation and they are now searching for this Siberian raider, but Zuiho was the only carrier there, and that ship is once again stricken from the active duty roll. It is amazing that they were able to hit targets with such precision, yet the officers from Takami warned me of this. Even Musashi was struck, but by only one missile. Clearly this was meant to send a message more than any real attempt to sink that ship.
Yet now what to do with the Shadō Butai? Their last reported position was still a thousand miles southeast of Truk. I am told the rockets came from the northeast. Should I allow those new carriers to continue north? No… If I permit this, the likelihood that they will be discovered by Mizuchi is very high. A pity that Takami is well on her way to Manila now, and from there, ordered to Yokohama as a prize Nagano wishes to gloat over in exchange for releasing all these new ships early. I could use that ship’s radars and missile defense shield now. If it were here, I would consider sending it to join the Shadō Butai to challenge Mizuchi, but now I think prudence demands that I order that carrier division west into the Solomon Sea.
Yes… The islands have a lot of sea planes that we can get up to provide us with a means of detecting this enemy. In the Solomons, the Shadō Butai will be alerted to any danger well before those rockets can find them. And they will also be close enough for us to support them with Hara’s group. He performed miracles on that last sortie, delivering a stunning performance. He put several enemy carriers out of action, and even sunk one of their fleet carriers. Admiral Halsey charged in like a mad bull after that, and drove off the Shadō Butai, but he did not seriously harm us. Hara was like a ghost. The enemy never discovered him, and he successfully covered the movement of all three regiments of the reserve 20th Division to the New Hebrides and Santa Cruz Islands.
Our battleships took the brunt of the American attack, and yet I am told Satsuma and Hiraga shrugged off the enemy bombs, which was very heartening news. A pity we lost one of the new super heavy cruisers in the surface action that followed, but I must also congratulate Kurita, for he faced three battleships and drove them off. They were undoubtedly coming to bombard our positions on Efate, but the latest reports had them moving east towards Pago Pago.
Yet now the question of how to face Mizuchi looms darkly in my mind. What if that ship is bold enough to come here, to Rabaul? This bay has really been the heart of our operations, being much closer to Noumea and the Fijis. All our remaining fleet carriers are here now. Had that ship attacked this harbor, it may have been a disaster for us worse than that inflicted on the Americans at Pearl Harbor.
So how do I fight this demon? Do I sortie with all these ships, and give battle? Do I attempt to overwhelm it with the full might of our navy, or do I disperse the fleet into smaller divisions, perhaps moving into the Coral Sea to interdict enemy communications with their bold operation against Noumea? Soryu will be available again in a matter of days; Kaga just a week later. Yet that is more than enough time for Mizuchi to navigate to these waters. It could strike both those vital ships while they are pierside for repairs here. I cannot permit that to happen, so I must find some way of luring my enemy into battle far from Rabaul.
We still have Akagi, Tosa, Taiho and the two light carriers Junyo and Hiyo. Admiral Nagumo reports he still has capability with his two dragons, Kinryu and Ryujin. Would that be enough force to face and defeat Mizuchi? How many ships might be sacrificed if I order this? We have an oiler very close to Nagumo’s position. What if I order him to replenish at sea, and then stand off the Solomons? I could then move Hara into position behind Bougainville Island, or even Choiseul. In effect, the Shadō Butai would be my bait, and if Mizuchi attacks Nagumo, then Hara can counterattack with everything he has, like an archer hidden behind the wall of those islands.
We have planes at Buka and Buin on Bougainville, seaplanes in the Shortlands, and at Tulagi. Surely we can ascertain where this ship is if it approaches Nagumo. And he has the new long range Saiun recon plane aboard his carriers, the Nakajima C6N. So yes, we will find Mizuchi if he comes, and then I will order Nagumo to engage. Even as his planes start on their way, Hara must begin launching from behind Bougainville, and we can also throw up all the land based bombers we have here at Rabaul.
Yet they are very clever. They may have means of finding Hara that I do not know of, and I must not allow them to attack our prized fleet carriers. So I will order Kong to use a much different deployment. He will break up the Kido Butai, and position our carriers all along the 150-mile length of Bougainville. They will stand like archers behind that wall, and this way, even if the enemy suspects their location when they see his planes coming, they will still not be able to hurt Hara’s carriers as they might if we operated in one heavy carrier division.
Yamamoto smiled. I will use all our strength, and yet it will be dispersed like the wind. When our planes launch they will be like a vast storm front, and yet there will be no central point the enemy can find to strike back at us, no eye in the storm. Yes… This is how we must fight, and we must do so immediately, before the Americans replenish and repair their losses, and Admiral Halsey sorties again.
He decided.
General Imamura leaned close to his confederate, General Hyakutake, as if confiding some great secret, and that was not very far from the truth. The information he was now disclosing was known only to a very few within Imperial General Headquarters.
“The Army will be instructed, in fact it will be ordered, to abandon all territory presently occupied in China south of the Yellow River. Only Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong will be excepted.” Imamura lowered his voice to a whisper as he said this, though he knew the two men were quite alone, and there was no chance anything of their discussion could be overheard.
“Understand what this means,” he said. “The Army will soon have many more divisions available for deployment elsewhere. They are to withdraw all of the 11th, 12th, and 13th Armies from territory south of the Yellow River, 15 divisions. Many of these will be redeployed to the Siberian Front, but at least a third are to be made available to the South Pacific Army Group immediately. Look here… I received this coded message only yesterday.” Imamura handed General Hyakutake a message transcript, yet it contained only one cryptic phrase: The warrior is lucky, for the moon shines bright, and the hour of the festival has come.
The meaning of the phrase was immediately apparent to Hyakutake, a master of cryptanalysis, for there within that single phrase were the code names assigned to five Japanese Divisions.
“Do you see what I see in this?” asked Hyakutake.
“Of course!” said Imamura. “Five divisions. The Lucky Division is the 3rd, and that alone is worth its weight in gold. It is one of the most capable and experienced divisions in the Army, and I am told it will remain a square division. The Warrior Division is the 9th from Manchukuo, a very good unit that has been underutilized thus far. The Bright Moon brings us the 6th and 17th Divisions, and the festival Division is the 15th. Every one of these has seen combat in China. The Army is finally getting serious about the war here in the south. At last we will have the troops we need to fight the Americans and all their allies. In fact, there may even be forces to allow us to reconsider a limited invasion of Australia.”