As mentioned earlier, I was going to post another part, so here it is:
********************
Hippodrome
Part VIII: Black Sea War
TCG Yavuz, Flagship, 2nd Interception Squadron, South West of Odessa, Black Sea, Summer 1942, 19:06 hours
Shell splashes were landing uncomfortably close as the swift form of the heavily modernised Turkish battlecruiser raced through the waves, twisting and turning to avoid being hit. The good news was that her 11 inch guns were scoring repeated hits on an enemy heavy cruiser as her advanced radar and electronics allowed her to do so despite her violent manoeuvres. The target was however not giving up easily. And neither were the other ships with her.
Behind her, the French battlecruiser
Dunkerque was not as lucky. She had received a number of hits, and she was on fire. It hadn't helped she'd seen hits from bombs in an air raid earlier in the day, but no torpedoes had hit her as land based planes had broken up the attack not long after it had arrived. They'd managed to jam her foremost turret for a while though. However, with a lot of sweat, muscle, banging tools and copious amounts of bad language, the mounting had been freed by her crew and was now fully operational once more. Her steering had also been damaged by the same air raid, and although most of that had been repaired, it was not at optimal operational effectiveness, meaning her manoeuvring was slower resulting in the enemy being able to hit her more easily. The enemy obviously considered her a prime target as she was one of the newer ships in the squadron with the biggest guns. Lucky for
Yavuz, less enjoyable for
Dunkerque and her crew.
Still,
Dunkerque's fighting ability and speed were fully intact and she was using it for all she was worth as another of her salvoes hit a second heavy cruiser in the task force blasting replies at her from a large smudge of smoke in the distance.
HS Kilkis, Coastal Attack Group Beta, 4 miles off the coast of Odessa, Black Sea, Summer 1942, 19:13 hours
The venerable Greek pre-dreadnought battleship moved slowly through the water, her cannons bombarding the enemy positions to the west of the city. She had been extensively modernised and now sported radar directed fire control for her main armament and it was proving its worth as it rained down pain on the enemy's positions. Word had it the Hakkor had sent another naval task force into the region to soften up the Alliance naval elements there in order to direct another convoy through to bolster their trapped enclave. The plan was to wreck as much of the enclave as possible from land, sea and air in a combined attack so they would cease sending convoys through.
The efforts hadn't been going entirely to plan however despite
Kilkis' accuracy. Her sister
Lemnos had been sunk in shallow water nearby and was now used as a stationary gun battery until she could be raised and repaired after the last sea incursion had not been intercepted in time to stop a small fleet of heavily guarded transports offloading soldiers, supplies and equipment. A Turkish destroyer lay not far off similarly wrecked in that encounter.
That particular raid had also seen the Russian flagship of the 1st Interception Squadron, the battlecruiser
Moskva, blasted into a barely salvageable wreck. She would not be returning to service for quite some time and her replacement had not arrived yet. There had been no cruisers available to escort her at the time, and of the seven destroyers which had managed to sail with her, only three had survived to return to port, and those had all been damaged to varying degrees.
The French had recently sent
Dunkerque to shore up their forces. The other battlecruiser in the region besides her and
Yavuz was in dock at Nikolayev being completed. This one, named
Sevastopol, would be rushed out in a few weeks time with hardly any opportunity to conduct trials. The Soviet navy's sole operational battleship in the region,
Parizhskaya Kommuna, was of little help for interception purposes due to her slow speed, and was relegated to coastal defence and bombardment duties. Unlike her sisters, she had not seen a thorough modernisation as yet, and with things as they were it would be a while before they could afford to drydock her for such. But there was good news, the brand new battleship
Sovetskaya Ukraina would soon be joining the fleet as her fitting out was completed at Nikolayev. She would be fast enough to join the interception squadrons too, and her nine sixteen inch guns were eager to get started in punching lots of holes in enemy ships. The only trouble was the Hakkor might decide to send heavier units in response. So far they had sent nothing larger than a medium battlecruiser, probably figuring that was adequate to deal with the motley collection of Alliance ships in the region. And with their last victory resulting in the pasting of
Moskva and her escort, they seemed to be right.
The local Alliance forces were doing all they could to face off against them, but they simply needed more ships and aircraft. Land forces seemed to be adequate, at least for containment purposes, and were even now trying their luck with an attack against the enclave in a co-ordinated land, sea and air assault. Still, enough vessels had been sunk or damaged and enough aircraft lost that the battle on the sea was in the balance.
MN Dunkerque, 2nd Interception Squadron, South West of Odessa, Black Sea, Summer 1942, 19:14 hours
Captain Georges Amiel was feeling some relief at last. The fires were being successfully fought and given the number of hits his ship had endured, there was surprisingly little actual damage of real note. In addition the main battery was hitting well. If the latest reports were accurate they had severely damaged an enemy cruiser and another one was now burning as a result of his crew's efforts. It would seem even their heavy cruisers didn't like 13 inch shells hitting them. A relief because some reports had said that 12 inch shells could be, to pardon a pun, a bit of hit and miss affair in terms of damage infliction. The secondary armament of 5.1 inch DP guns were firing flat out as well, dealing, he hoped, misery for the Hakkor's destroyers. It was also a relief recent modifications had made them somewhat less of a strain to use for his crew. They weren't perfect, and issues remained, but they were better in operational use than before. Ten of the sixteen she carried were able to currently bear on the enemy in a full broadside. And his hopes were not unfounded. Two Hakkor destroyers had been driven off whilst preparing for a torpedo run and another one was on fire. Not bad for about 11 minutes of battle so far. Of course, in gunnery terms his ship had a fairly decent reputation. not the best, admittedly, but after this performance, it'd put some noses out of joint of other captains he knew. Now that wasn't just relief, that was satisfaction, and he felt more of it as this battle continued.
Suddenly Amiel was thrown sideways as a massive CLANG and then a CRUNCH blasted into his hearing. Barely able to regain his balance he peered out of the conning tower's small windows. Sheets of flame and smoke filled his vision. It looked like his ship had taken a very damaging hit.
TCG Yavuz, Flagship, 2nd Interception Squadron, South West of Odessa, Black Sea, Summer 1942, 19:16 hours
The old battlecruiser pounded away at the targets in the murk to her starboard side. Salvo after salvo rapidly left her 11 inch guns. They had been hitting targets and giving the Hakkor something to think about.
She was on the receiving end of it too. Another hit crumped into the starboard side disabling one of the US installed twin 5 inch secondaries.
Then a huge rumble was heard and Captain Fahri Korutürk instinctively reached for one of the telephones in the conning tower.
"What was that?", he barked.
"
Dunkerque's foc's'le is covered in flames, sir!" yelled back a rating down the line.
That was not good news. And he barely had time to digest it when there was a massive crackling roar and a succession of heavy thumps vibrating through the air. His heart sank.
Dunkerque's magazine must have gone up.
The rating suddenly shouted down the line again so loudly Korutürk thought his eardum would be the next casualty.
"Sir, sir, it's an enemy cruiser. Magazine explosion!
Dunkerque's last salvo seems to have done her in!
Dunkerque's on fire but in one piece!".
Korutürk felt a wave of relief flow across his brow. So, the French ship had dealt a grievous blow to the enemy despite being hit hard. Well, they'd pile it on then.
Yavuz was hitting and it was time to send the other enemy hellships packing.
He picked up another phone to the gunnery officer.
"Guns, we're not being left out. Get those other two cruisers. Now.".
No one needed any encouragement as
Yavuz continued spitting shells in the direction of the enemy force. He was satisfied to see a good number were again on target.
******************
Thanks for waiting. Comments of course always welcome from the good readers of these fora.
