Then, during the Canary Islands, the Germans had sortied with a similar ship, deep into the South Atlantic, and scuttlebutt there was that they had taken a particularly rich prize. He found himself fascinated with the concept of the hybrid ship, and new intelligence now indicated that after the initial losses sustained in the Pacific War, the Japanese were working on several more of these vessels to quickly augment their carrier fleet. The Americans also rushed to complete two more in the same class, converting their Cleveland Class cruisers to these light, fast battle carriers that could carry a dozen planes.
The two men discussed that for a moment. “They might do well as convoy escorts,” said Tovey. “They would have the guns and speed to get after U-boats on the surface, and the planes to spot and attack them from the air. They wouldn’t stand against a serious minded German raider, but there’s another issue here—the Germans. They’re getting ready to commission another fleet carrier up north, and we still have to consider the two carriers they have in the Med. If they ever manage to get them all together, they’d have themselves a nice little fleet. Those Stukas were quite bothersome when we faced down Admiral Lütjens. Hood knows it, as does our lately departed Renown. Repulse is still in the dockyards as well.”
“That brings me to the main point of this discussion,” said Fraser, “Repulse. That project is coming along nicely. In fact, I’m told the ship can start sea trials soon—a little something to ease the sting after losing Formidable and Illustrious. I didn’t think the Admiralty would listen to me when I put the idea forward. The Director of Naval Gunnery called my idea an abortion.”
“I rather think he meant abomination,” said Tovey.
“And he went so far as to say the entire concept was the result of a psychological maladjustment in naval thinking. Can you imagine that?” Fraser gave Tovey an indignant look. “Good that I had seniority over that man. Repulse was the perfect trial for this concept. You and I both know that trying to put more armor on her to let her stand with ships the Germans were throwing at us wasn’t going to get round the block. The day of the battlecruiser has come and gone, but the day of the aircraft carrier is well upon us now, and we need to stay in the game.”
So Fraser had put forward the idea of converting Repulse to a carrier, but still retaining her forward 15-inch gun turrets. All that damaged superstructure was removed, and instead of taking nine months to rebuild it, an armored flight deck was laid down in its place. The interior spaces were cleared out to allow for 24 aircraft, and Britain would now have her first hybrid battlecarrier, even faster than the Repulse was as a battlecruiser at 32 knots. In her first trial at sea, with all new boilers, the ship ran at 34 knots.
“Think of that ship on convoy escort,” said Fraser.
“I might do so, but the problem I have with hybrid designs is that the ship seems to have an odd sort of identity crisis. Is it a carrier, or a battleship? In either category, it becomes a weaker, less capable ship than one built with a single purpose in mind. You fight these ships quite differently. Battleships are hunters, built to intercept and destroy enemy capital ships in a good gunfight. Carriers hang back, like a woman in skirts. They flirt with their planes and wave from afar, but never want to let the other fellow get close enough to plant a kiss. So then… if I deploy Repulse as part of a battleship task force, perhaps as a scout, what happens if she were out in front and encountered the Tirpitz? She’s certainly out gunned. Just one good hit on that flight deck puts it out of business, and even two turrets up front won’t be enough to let her stand and argue with Tirpitz.”
“Ah, but her planes can let her find the enemy before they get close,” said Fraser. “They won’t be flirting and waving, but dropping thousand pound bombs and torpedoes. If Tirpitz gets cheeky and tries to close the range, then Repulse has the speed to avoid an unwanted encounter, like a proper lady. Now then, suppose this German raider is something else—a young buck? A Hipper class heavy cruiser wouldn’t dare show its face against those 15-inch guns. If such a ship gets too forward, Repulse would slap it easily enough. You see? It’s the old argument that led us to build battlecruisers in the first place—strong enough to beat any cruiser they encounter, and fast enough to outrun anything that can outgun her.”
“Not quite,” said Tovey. “Don’t forget the Kaiser Wilhelm. That ship has six 15-inch guns, and can run two knots faster than your new hybrid Repulse.”
“Academic,” said Fraser. “I’ll match those 24 aircraft on Repulse against that third 15-inch turret on Kaiser Wilhelm, and we’ll see who comes off the better. In any case, that nasty little Kaiser is nicely bottled up in the Med, where I hope we’ll keep it. Without Hindenburg to lead the way, the Germans have kept that one safely out of the game at Toulon.”
“That’s where Bismarck is,” said Tovey, “and the Germans are very close to getting that ship back into service. Along with the Normandie, now Fredric de Gross, they will still pose a grave threat. Another problem with Repulse is that she had short legs—only 4,000 nautical miles.”
“We’ll get her up to 5,000 as a carrier,” Fraser put in.
“Less than half what an Illustrious Class carrier can give us,” Tovey countered, “and she’ll carry only half as many planes. You see, when such a ship is acting as a carrier, she hasn’t got punch, and a carrier has no business trying to slug it out with another ship built for surface action. All that aviation fuel and ordnance for the planes is just too volatile. So if this is something to be avoided, then why put the guns there in the first place? Why not just build a carrier?” Tovey thought he had a good argument with that, until Fraser reminded him of something.
“Do you recall that encounter with HMS Glorious in the Norwegian Sea?”
“Who could forget that. The young man Wells saved that ship damn near single handed, just as Admiral Volsky saved our HMS Invincible.”
“Well now,” Fraser smiled. “I wonder if the Twins would have wanted to mix it up with Repulse if they had found her. She’d be lobbing 15-inch shells their way before the Germans could close the range, and our Fulmars and Albacores would be all over those rascals in short order.”
“I suppose you might have a point with that. Yet now that we’ve put Gneisenau down, the new Twins are Bismarck and Tirpitz. I don’t think your new hybrid design would discourage those two sea demons.”
“Lütjens had them together in the Atlantic and we held our own,” said Fraser. “And may I remind you that it was the Stukas off the German carrier that put that serious damage on Hood.”
“Thank god we haven’t got this Graf Zeppelin to worry about any longer,” said Tovey. “But we do have to worry about his brother, Peter Strasser. Admiral, you do make some good points here. If you ask me if I’d rather have Repulse back as a battlecruiser, or as this hybrid, then I think I’d side with you. You are correct, the planes by far outweigh that third 15-inch turret from a military standpoint. Repulse might help out in the Norwegian Sea, or even in the Atlantic, I’ll grant you that, but we’ll need something a little better for the Pacific. Implacable and Indefatigable are in the works, but a long way from being ready. They’ll carry over 80 planes, just like the new American carriers, and still run at 32 knots. In the meantime, while we wait for them, Somerville is sitting on his thumbs at Madagascar and hoping the Japanese don’t get a notion to take that island as well. He’s no offensive capability at all, and can barely serve to try and safeguard the Winston Special convoys to Australia.”