John Schettler - Kirov

“They’ve pulled a fast one on us, Brind,” he said. “This new rocket AA defense could change the war. It’s put Wake-Walker and his carriers right on their back foot. My God, thirty-one planes down in under ten minutes time! They got off one bloody torpedo, but no hits were observed. Walker says his boys were in it up to their hatbands and barely got out alive. If the Germans manage to mount these new rockets on their fighter planes do you realize what they could do to our bombers?”

Brind nodded, his face etched with concern. “Wake-Walker’s carriers are not much good to us now, sir. He’s consolidated what was left of his Squadrons on Victorious, and is detaching Furious to sail for Scapa Flow. We’ll get her another air wing, but I can’t see that it will do us much good under these circumstances. They can serve as scouts, provide fleet air defense, lay mines, but as offensive weapons they are pretty much a liability now.”

“Odd thing about this…” Tovey was obviously perplexed. “I’m sure it must have been bandied about at the Admiralty as well. If Jerry has this new weapon system, and can mount it on a warship like this, then why haven’t they used it anywhere else? It could be set up for airfield defense, port defense. My God, they’ve got over a thousand AA guns protecting Brest, and we send Coastal Command and RAF squadrons in there week after week against high value targets like Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with nary a whisper of these new rockets.”

“Perhaps it’s still in the offing, sir,” Brind suggested. “This may be the first application of the technology. Graf Zeppelin may be the test run for naval systems, and we could very well see it deployed, as you point out, for land based defense as well.”

“God help us if that turns out to be the case,” said Tovey. “It would completely neutralize Bomber Command. In the meantime, rockets or not, I’ve got ten 14 inch guns on this ship. Our task now is to bring this rogue to heel, just as we did Bismarck. Any developments?”

“Wake-Walker is still trailing the contact, sir. Apparently the Germans loitered in the vicinity of Jan Mayen for a few days before they put on speed and ran south for the Denmark Strait. Its all of a thousand miles from their first reported position near Jan Mayen before they get down and out into the Atlantic. That delay allowed Wake-Walker to get back in the game, sir. Though given what has happened to his squadrons, I’m sure he’s had his regrets about that. At the moment, he’s got his destroyers out in front creeping up on Jerry, but if they can’t catch up soon they’ll have to make for Reykjavik to refuel. The rest of Force P is with the carriers, cruisers Suffolk, Devonshire, and one destroyer. Those ships might be able to deal with Graf Zeppelin, but they can’t catch her if she keeps on at 30 knots. So we’ll have to be ready to intercept her after she transits the Denmark Strait. We’ve moved Vian’s group into the Faeroes Gap with two cruisers and two destroyers, designated Force K. They’ll be northeast of our position by now and keep watch there if the enemy turns in that direction. If the Germans keep on their present heading, however, then we may have something to do for your big guns in another…sixteen hours or so.”

“Let them try that damnable Ack-Ack fireworks on my main armor belt,” said Tovey. “We’ll shrug them off and then deal with this carrier the old fashioned way.”

“Yet we’ll have to plan for the possibility that they may have modified Stukas aboard,” said Brind.

“Yes, strange that there was no counter strike mounted by the Germans against Wake-Walker’s carriers. He says they’ve picked up obvious airborne contacts near the surface vessel on radar, but haven’t really laid eyes on a German plane. Perhaps they only have a very few aircraft aboard for search and target spotting, insufficient to challenge our own carriers air defense fighter group. I do note that none of our strike planes spotted any enemy fighters. They seem to be relying entirely on these new rockets.”

“Right, sir.”

“Well, we may not have that wizard’s bag of tricks, but there’s nothing wrong with our flack guns either.” Tovey was justifiably angry. “And this business with the Prime Minister,” he said. “Can’t he be persuaded to postpone this meeting?” The Admiral had only recently learned that the “official visit” involving Prince of Wales was a transport mission leaving Scapa Flow very shortly to ferry Churchill to Newfoundland for a secret meeting with the American President Roosevelt. “Nice of them to finally give us notice!” he said, frustrated.

“I’ve asked the War Cabinet to reconsider. But Winston won’t hear of it. He’s dead set on this meeting. Wants to make his best pitch for American entry into the war. God knows we could use the help.”

“Well, if he can pull that off then I suppose we can get him there and back again in one piece. I can’t imagine we’ve anything to be too concerned about. Graf Zeppelin may be good at taking pot shots at our antiquated torpedo bombers, but let them try that with Prince of Wales.”

Brind was quiet for a moment. Then he said, ”They surprised us when Hood went down, sir. Now this…”

Tovey took his point well enough. He sighed, weary with the day already. “Yes… well given the present situation, we’ll have to tie our shoes on this one smartly, Brind. No sense mixing the Prime Minister into the brew here. Let’s make damn sure we stop this German raider straight away, and keep Prince of Wales out of this business.”

“That we will, sir,” said Brind.

Aboard Kirov Admiral Volsky had convened another meeting to sort out what had happened. He was angry on several counts. He had been sleeping fitfully in his cabin, his mind running over the scant information he had gleaned from Fedorov’s books concerning this Atlantic Charter. What to do about it? He could sail Kirov down and board the KA-226 to fly in and join the meeting if he wished, but what would he say there?

He had been ruminating on the matter in his bunk, taking a few brief moments of rest, though his mind was heavy with thought. The implications of this course weighed heavily on him now. If he did attempt to join the meeting, it would soon be clear that the mysterious ship confounding the Allies was a Russian Navy vessel, yet possessing weapons and capabilities unlike any other ship in the world. How would Churchill and Roosevelt react? Would they embrace him as a potential ally, forgive the fog of war that had set them as enemies? If so, they would most certainly want to know more about his ship and its formidable new weapons, yes? They would then come to see Kirov as a possible foil against the Germans; a means of bringing the war to a sure and swift end. How could he explain his presence there? Surely they would press him for information on the new weapon systems they had observed in action.

If he passed himself off as a contemporary, he might try and convince them that Russia possessed this awesome new technology at this very moment. They would have to believe the evidence of their own eyes, yes? But in this instance he would present himself as just another man of their era, not a superman from another world.

What if he should he tell them the truth-that he had come from a far distant future, bemused, bewildered and lost. If he did so he could then wield the awesome power of his foreknowledge as yet another weapon. Would they believe him? Could they accept the same impossible scenario he had been forced to acknowledge? And if they did believe him, they would surely realize that his knowledge of the outcome of the war, and the history that lay ahead, was the most terrible and potent weapon of all. It would take them years to try and reverse engineer his missiles or comprehend the intricate nature of the ship’s computer systems. But the old platitude that ‘knowledge was power’ would surely prevail. How could they let him blithely lecture them and then calmly board his helicopter to fly away again with such knowledge in his head?