Kirov Saga: Darkest Hour: Altered States - Volume II (Kirov Series) Read Free

Italian Navy at Taranto,
and Williamson would be admitted as a Companion of the Distinguished Service
Order, but instead they would get their medals early for the events that were now
about to unfold. John Scarlett thought he heard something in his headset,
tapping it again and thinking he had a dodgy wire. Then a voice came through
and his eyes widened. At that same moment, Williamson saw two flares go up, an
expedient measure that was seldom used by a warship in combat, as it would
clearly mark its position. He counted them, one… two… three… blue! “What the
hell? Hold on, Lieutenant. Belay that order! That’s Royal Navy up ahead!”
    Scarlett looked over his
shoulder, saw the flares, passed a fleeting moment thinking the Germans may
have worked out their signal sequences, but he had heard a frantic voice in his
earpiece, right in the clear. “Lookout ahead! HMS Invincible!” The
message came in just as the planes were beginning to swerve off to make their
attack approach. “They want us to fly on zero-four-zero, sir. It’s HMS Invincible up ahead!”
    “Good of them to introduce
themselves,” said Williamson. “Thought we had already passed the Fleet Flagship
long ago! If this is Invincible , what was that ship we left in our wake,
Johnny?”
    “Might have been Sussex or Devonshire , sir. They’re both off to the southwest.”
    “What about those other ships up
ahead at ten-o-clock?” Williamson had spotted two more dark silhouettes on the
horizon.
    “The message says our target is
on 040, sir.”
    This was the first combat mission Illustrious had been handed, and just three days after she had finished
initial trials on air wing operations. There seemed to be ships everywhere, and
the men had not had enough time over the fleet to drill on ship recognition
profiles, or anything else. He would have seen what was in front of him in
time, as Invincible had a profile that was impossible to miss, but they
had been coming in on the ship’s aft quarter, making identification more
difficult. He took a long look at the contact at 10:00, thinking it had to be
German ships, but orders were orders and so he steered 040.
    Several sub-flights had already
fluttered off to their attack headings, as per training, but Lieutenant
Scarlett was quickly signaling them to reform. Sub-Lieutenants Sparke and
Macaulay were quick to respond and maneuvered off either wing. Lieutenants
Kemp, Swayne and Maund were already down at a thousand feet, but he saw them
nose up to rejoin. The last two sub-flights in his squadron were well back and
got the message before they broke to attack. A few minutes later Williamson had
his eggs in the basket again and the Swordfish came up and then veered
right to bypass Invincible , wings wagging in salutation. Thankfully not
a single round came up for them, but it was a near run thing.
    “Did Hale get the message?”
    “Right, sir,” said Scarlett. “819
Squadron is coming up behind us and will follow our heading.”
    High overhead a sub-flight of
three Fulmars surged ahead. They were accompanied by six Skuas of
824 Squadron under Lieutenant Commander Charles Evans, off to sweep out in
front in case the Germans were waiting with more Messerschmitts, though no sign
was seen of enemy planes.
    The whole formation veered right,
roaring away toward the spot on the horizon where Invincible hastened to
join the battle, and within seconds they saw the smoke and fire of battle.
Zero-four-zero it is, thought Williamson. Now that we’ve sorted out our target
heading, let’s hope the lads can remember how to make a decent attack. This
time the Germans won’t be shooting off flares.
     
     
    Chapter 2
     
    Aboard Bismarck ,
Captain Lindemann knew he was not firing flares. The 15-inch guns had opened
the action at a little over18,000 meters, with both his own forward turrets
firing along with Anton turret on Tirpitz behind him, the first spotting
salvos to see if they had the range. True to form, the shots