“Sir, if the enemy is still coming, and I think he is, then wouldn’t our remaining planes be better served ashore? Hermes has twelve more at Trinco, but that just leaves us 56 aircraft. We could be facing twice as many enemy planes from what I saw in that attack. If they joined the Hurricane squadrons ashore, our defense there might be thicker.”
“Sound thinking, Wells, but rather emasculating to order our boys landward like that. We’ll run west for Trinco, and then take stock of the situation.”
“They can’t sink the island, sir,” Wells put in one last argument. “We can hold back a few fighters on the decks, but move most of the strike planes ashore. The carriers would become a scouting force to try and locate the enemy on his approach, and they might do better southwest of Colombo. That way, if we have to retire, we’ve a clear route and open sea. As it stands, if we linger off Trinco, we can only go south to get around the island, and that could put us in a fix if the enemy is heading southwest from their last position.”
Somerville nodded, smiling inwardly. The man was already thinking about tomorrow, when he hasn’t even got the seawater out of his ears today. I like that.
“I’ll keep your suggestion in mind, Mister Wells. Now then… I think we’d best present ourselves to Captain Troubridge and inform him the flag is now planted firmly on his ship. I’ll post you to the plotting room, and do sound off if you have anything more to say.”
“The plotting room… Yes, sir.” Wells seemed a little despondent.
Somerville gave him a look. “Don’t worry, Welly,” he said, using the nickname he had heard the other men hang on Wells. “We’ll get you another ship. All in good time.”
Off to the southeast, Admiral Hara was also counting the eggs left in his nest. When darkness settled over the sea, Hiyo had 27 planes, Junyo 22, and Taiho 65, for a total of 114 aircraft now available to carry on the operation. It had been a costly day, but the pilots were still jubilant. They had hurt their enemy much more, and knew they had sunk at least one of the three enemy carriers.
This cruiser Yamamoto sent me was at least of some use, thought Hara. It covered that landing at Port Blair well enough, took down that first enemy squadron, and sent me a lot of useful and accurate information as to the location of the enemy carriers. So I will continue to post it as a picket, only this time I think it will operate with Tone and her seaplanes. Together they will make an excellent scouting force.
Losses were heavy. We lost twelve fighters, twenty-three dive bombers, but only six torpedo bombers. Forty-one aircraft gone… but I still have enough to carry on. I will move southwest now, for if the enemy retires west, that course gives me every chance of cutting them off. Tomorrow should see us in a very good position, and I will post Ozawa’s force about 30 miles north of my position as a screen.
The short night was ahead of them, and the service air crews worked feverishly to repair damage, refuel, and rearm all the planes scheduled for operations the next day. That night, the Japanese also flew in four seaplanes to Port Blair, and they began preparing for scouting operations. One plane went up that night for a long range patrol, scouting west to look for the British at their last reported position. With the night clear it was able to spot the wakes of several ships gleaming in the wan light of an evening crescent moon, low on the horizon as it began to set.
Hara got the report at 22:15, one carrier, one battleship, with numerous destroyers, and additional light units spotted further southeast of that position. It was immediately clear to him that the British were now running on a parallel course, possibly to attempt to cover Trincomalee, or perhaps in an effort to reach Colombo. He immediately gave orders for all fleet units to increase speed, ahead full, and the race was on.
Ozawa’s 7th Cruiser Division was about 65 miles northeast of his position and within 45 sea miles of the closest enemy contact. Confident in night actions, he signaled Ozawa to attempt to engage. At the very least, he might get better information on the size and composition of the enemy force. So at 22:30, the cruisers turned on a heading of 265, along with the 17th Destroyer Division. Even as they turned, contact was suddenly lost with that seaplane out of Port Blair, and this further reinforced Hara’s suspicion that the enemy carriers were there.
Hours passed as the day slipped away beyond midnight. The moon was down and darkness made the sea a sable cloth beneath increasing low clouds. With each passing hour, the positions of the enemy ships grew more uncertain, and no word had come from Takami, which had turned on a heading of 295 to look for the enemy. Finding nothing, Ozawa resumed a heading of 242, again running parallel to the carriers, but now over 100 sea miles to the north.
As dawn came, Hara altered his course 20 points to starboard, coming to 256. He immediately ordered fighters up to look for the enemy fleet. Departing on a heading of 320, they overflew Ozawa’s cruiser Force at a few minutes before 06:00, continuing on to the northwest.
Nothing was seen.
Frustrated, and thinking the enemy may have elected to run for Trincomalee, he nonetheless decided to check due west of his position, sending up another pair of Zeros off the Hiyo at 06:20. Then, at 06:37 the scouting group off Taiho suddenly radioed a sighting report—enemy carrier!
All that night, the British had moved towards the east coast of Ceylon. That first seaplane that had spotted them got entirely too curious, descending to an altitude that prompted the battleship Revenge to open up with its flak guns. A hit damaged both the engine and radio, sending the plane down.
All the destroyers that had come to the aid of Formidable, were then dispatched to Trincomalee with the survivors, save the senior officer party that had come aboard Indomitable. Somerville had cruised on a heading of 225 all night, intending to skirt very near the curving southeast coast of Ceylon. He was taking Wells’ advice to heart now, thinking only of how he might save his remaining carriers. His intention was to get down past the southern tip of the island at Koggala, where a small seaplane base was fueling up two Catalinas for their morning patrol.
All that night, Cruiser Force, with Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Emerald and Enterprise, had been steaming about 80 miles to his southwest, in a very good position to become entangled with Hara’s fleet, but they had seen nothing in the inky darkness after moonset.
Hara had moved to a position about 220 miles east of Koggala on the southern tip of Ceylon, and though he did not yet know it, he had already cut his enemy off, as Wells had feared. That first contact with the enemy came when Scout 1 off Taiho reported a carrier about 100 nautical miles to Hara’s north, and then a second carrier, 45 miles ahead of the first, and 116 miles northwest of Taiho. If those reports were good, both were in strike range, but why had the enemy separated? One must have battle damage or engine problems, he assumed, and ordered his planes to begin spotting to attack immediately. He elected to go with his torpedo bombers, all 17 then available on Taiho, and a fighter escort of two Shotai would launch from Junyo.