“I don’t see any turrets,” Tremain said.
“They had not been installed at the time of this photo, sir. The next slide is a much better depiction of what Kurita should look like today.”
The intelligence officer changed slides on the tray and another image appeared of the same ship, this time from a different angle. The ship now looked very much like a battleship. From the photo angle, Tremain could make out two large triple-barreled gun turrets forward of the superstructure with many lesser guns along both beams. Still in dry-dock, the ship appeared to be enormous, near to, if not larger than, the Yamato Class.
“She is the largest Japanese warship ever built,” the intel officer said, almost proudly, “displacing seventy-five thousand tons. Her armament includes nine eighteen-inch guns, sixteen five- and six-inch guns and numerous small caliber anti-aircraft batteries. She is powered by eight super-high-pressure steam boilers delivering roughly a hundred and thirty thousand shaft horsepower to four screws, which is expected to give her speeds of up to thirty knots. As you can see, she is armored heavily. Her armor plating is twelve inches thick near the vital spaces. Her normal crew complement is roughly eighteen hundred men.”
“Impressive,” Tremain said, aware of the admiral’s eyes beaming through him. “When was this photo taken?” “March second, sir,” the intel officer said. “A little over a month ago.”
“Looks like she’s close to coming out of drydock.”
“She was launched last week, sir.”
Tremain nodded. He almost hesitated to ask his next question.
“What’s the mission?” he finally asked.
The intelligence officer paused. He glanced at the admiral and, after receiving a small nod, answered Tremain.
“The Kurita is finishing up her dockside trials and will be conducting inner harbor shakedowns next week,” he said confidently. “We have obtained reliable information that she will put to sea from Kobe for trials on the twenty-fifth of this month, exactly three weeks from today. Tug schedules for Kobe harbor on that same day confirm this. She will then conduct her initial testing while she transits to Yokosuka.” “Those are some informants you’ve got over there to provide you with information that precise,” Tremain said, astonished. “It sounds like they’re on the imperial staff.” Tremain had always been skeptical of information received from the intelligence community. He wondered just how reliable this information was. Obviously it’s considered reliable enough to risk his boat on some insane mission, he thought.
“They have distinguished themselves as very credible sources, sir,” the intelligence officer said defensively. “It may interest you to know, sir, that we have also learned the route Kurita will take to get to Yokosuka. We are confident that this will not change. Our operatives have informed us that Combined Fleet headquarters has approved the route and that Kurita has already received the official orders through regular message traffic.”
The officer changed slides to a large-scale chart of
Southern Japan, focusing on the waterways that run between the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. A thin red line on the chart weaved through Kii Suido and around the mainland to connect Kobe and Yokosuka.
“This is a projection of what we believe will be Kurita’s intended track,” the officer said, pointing to the red line. “However, the only thing we are absolutely certain of is that she must pass through Kii Suido at approximately 1800 hours on the twenty-sixth.”
Tremain silently gasped. He knew what was coming next.
“Your mission, sir, is to lay in wait for Kurita there and sink her when she comes through the strait. She will probably be traveling at her top speed so you will most likely get only one chance.”
Tremain could not believe that the young intelligence officer was serious. He half-expected the whole room to break out in laughter any minute now, and tell him this was all just a big practical joke.
How could they expect him to take Mackerel within sight of Japan itself and attempt to sink this behemoth, he wondered. Surely, they understood that there were too many variables involved, that things could and would go wrong with every plan. Surely they understood that this mission was essentially impossible?
Tremain waited, but they all sat silent with blank expressions. They all gazed at him as if they had just asked him to run down to the store and buy a loaf of bread.
Had they done this kind of thing so many times that they were completely indifferent? he asked himself. Or was it that they could not conceptually grasp what they had just ordered him to do?
“I have a few questions,” he finally said.
“Certainly, sir,” the intelligence officer replied.
“Why wait for her there, at the strait? Why not hit her as she comes out of Kobe harbor?”
“Three reasons, sir. One, we don’t want the Imperial Navy to be able to refloat her again, as we have done with many of our battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor back in ’41. Two, the Japanese have extensive minefields in and around Kii Suido. It would be futile for your boat to attempt to navigate through them, which you would undoubtedly have to do to get to Kobe harbor. And, three, we want you to attack Kurita at dusk. This will afford better possibilities for your submarine to escape and will assist us in the primary mission.”
“Primary mission?” Tremain asked. He thought he must have missed something.
“Yes, sir,” the intel officer answered without emotion. “If the Kurita sinks at night, any rescue attempts carried out by the Japanese will be that much more difficult.”
Tremain raised his eyebrows.
“Excuse me,” he said, “but I don’t follow you on that last one. My orders are to sink the Kurita, right? What does it matter if her crew is rescued or not?”
The intelligence officer glanced toward the admiral.
“The Kurita is not the primary target of this operation, Commander Tremain,” Admiral Giles spoke up.
“Then may I ask what is, sir?”
“Put the slide of the Kurita back up there, lieutenant,” Giles said, and the intelligence officer quickly changed the slide on the tray. “Look at that, Commander. Tell me what you see.”
Tremain did not understand what Giles was talking about. The slide was obviously the same photo they had seen before, of the Kurita near completion.
“I see a Japanese battleship, sir,” Tremain answered skeptically.
“Of course you do,” Giles said abruptly. “You’re a sub captain and that’s all you should see. Tell you where to shoot and you’ll do it, right? But when I look at this photo, Commander, I don’t see a battleship. I see resources. I see industry. I see technical knowledge and capabilities. And, above all, I see organization. The masterful organization and management it takes to construct not just a ship, but a masterpiece. Kurita is a masterpiece, and she scares me. Not because she has eighteen-inch guns, but because she represents Japan’s production capability.
“Someone once said that in war amateurs talk strategy and professionals talk logistics. Well, I don’t think I have to tell you that this is a war of logistics, an all-out attrition war and nothing more. And like all wars, it will not be won on the battlefield, but rather in the factories and the shipyards. Whichever nation can out-produce the other will be the sure victor.