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

mechanisms on the German guns, which had been calibrated to oppose
more modern aircraft flying much faster. He saw six, then twelve planes coming
right in at the center of his battle line, and on their right another ragged
line of planes appeared, slightly behind, all flying low on the deck as they
began their attack run.
    Bismarck was heavily
provisioned with anti-aircraft defenses. The ship had sixteen 4.1-inch guns
arrayed in eight twin turrets, another sixteen 3.7-inch guns, and twelve more
20mm flak guns, which were perhaps the most effective guns against the Swordfish .
The 3.7s were only semi-automatic, with a fairly slow rate of fire. If they hit
a plane it would probably knock it down, but those hits were few and far
between. By contrast, the 20mm guns could rattle out a good stream of lead, the
tracers clearly marking the firing path to allow the gunners to get a better
aim. With Tirpitz in her wake, all this fire was doubled, and Prince
Eugen had also opened up with everything she had. Many of Bismarck’s bigger 5.9-inch secondary batteries joined the fray, and the sound of all these
weapons firing at once was deafening, a crescendo of doom punctuated by the
enormous roar of the main turrets as they fired their third salvo.
    The German gunners had some
success, particularly against Lieutenant Commander Hale’s 819 Squadron where Lt.
Lee and Sub-Lt. Jones went down after luck favored the Germans and they took a
direct hit from a 3.7-inch round. Diving into their attack, Lieutenants Wellham
and Humphreys were found by the 20mm guns off Bismarck , which set them
afire and caused severe aileron damage. Wellham struggled with the yoke, the
aircraft out of control for a time, but he managed to kick his tail around and
straighten out.
    “Let’s get that fish in the sea!”
he yelled to his mate, and they dropped the torpedo at about 900 yards aimed right
at the Bismarck, but it was clearly too late and bound to miss, running
into the ship’s wake. Wellham kicked himself for aiming directly at the ship
and not leading it properly, but in the heat of the moment, struggling for
control on the yoke and stick, it was the best they could do. As he banked
away, his plane received further wing damage from AA fire and it was only good
fortune that allowed him to get his heavily damaged Swordfish back to Illustrious in one piece.
    The Squadron Leader, Hale, could
see several of his pilots had fired much too soon, doing exactly what Wellham
had done and taking aim at the broad side of the big leading German ship. They
would have to be in at 500 yards to have any chance of a hit, he thought, the
bloody idiots. So he pressed on through the flak, determined to get his torpedo
in the water at the last possible moment and get that second ship in the line.
Lieutenants Hamilton, Skelton and Clifford followed him in, but Morford and
Sub-Lt. Green in plane L5Qdeveloped engine trouble and had to abort,
dropping their torpedo to gain altitude and limp off to the south.
    It was Hale’s group of four
planes and an equal number of intrepid pilots from 815 Squadron on their left
that got the right idea and bored in to take aim at the gap between the two big
German battleships. The flak gunners got two of eight planes in this sector,
but the remaining six all got their torpedoes away and they were well aimed,
right ahead of Tirpitz , which was running on at high speed.
    Lindemann looked to see Tirpitz make a hard emergency turn to port, her bow frothing up the sea, the blood red
water awash and gleaming on her forecastle. The ship turned smartly, but her
forward momentum was too great to allow it to get inside the line of enemy
fire.
    Topp’s only chance now was to see
if he could run with the torpedoes, thought Lindemann. Tirpitz was
surging along their same bearing to present a slimmer target. In doing so he
was dangerously exposing his turbines and rudder to the line of fire, but in
this case he was lucky enough to avoid damage there. It