Harry Kellogg III - The Red Sky - The Second Battle of Britain

The forces in the Celtic Sea reacted aggressively and started to send 4 squadrons of aircraft into the area along with two destroyers and 10 other smaller vessels, including five Frigates and the famous 2nd Support Group. Four of the Black Swan Class Sloops of the original 2nd Support Group that had sunk 22 U-boats in the last war were still looking for victims. The original sloops Starling, Wren, Cyngnet and Wild Goose were joined by the Flamingo, Magpie and Amethyst. These sloops were the most experienced sub hunters in the Royal navy. Although their commanders and crews had changed, their tenacity and training had not diminished. Already they sank three Soviet Seehunds, the most of any unit. Their commander of the group was puzzled at the audacity of the Soviet beacons but was determined to follow orders. The task force was ordered to silence the beacon, and to sink the submarines responsible. 2nd Support Group was the farthest from the beacons in the Irish Sea. It would take another 30 minutes for them to rendezvous with the other destroyers and frigates which were within 60 minutes of the beacon.

Two squadrons of Royal Navy Seafires were scrambled as well as two squadrons of Hawker Sea Furies and a squadron of submarine hunters. The distances involved for the British planes were 150 miles from their bases. The VVS southern raid, which normally turned away from British air space, kept going flying north in one massive cloud. Some of the Navies 4.5” guns got off some long-range volleys and did score a few hits but by and large, there were now 45 squadrons of fighters between the five Royal navy squadrons and home. The Hawker Sea Furies could have theoretically used their long-range and speed to out-maneuver the Soviets planes, but the Seafires were in trouble. They were slower and could not out climb the La7s that were vectoring in on them. The Hawker Sea Furies to a man decided to stay with their comrades and try to see them home.

The destroyer flotilla included the HMS Charity and Consort, both Class C British destroyers. Being closer to the beacons when they became active, they too were cut off from safety by the distances involved. The 2nd Support Group and all its famous sloops were ordered to return to port when it became apparent that the beacon was a possible ruse. Their commander, knowing the potential fate of the destroyers and other ships of the flotilla, claimed radio troubles and decided to add his AA guns to the fight. For its part, the RAF was concerned with the three other huge raids still circling over the channel and winging their way over the North Sea towards the Northern-most beacon. The Royal navy fleet command out of Scapa Flow already decided to let the beacons transmit as it saw what was transpiring down south in the Celtic Sea. The two beacons off Scotland and Ireland were silenced fairly quickly by physical attacks by aircraft. That left the two sending out steady signals and capable of guiding the Red Air Force to any target in Britain and safely home.

The RAF did not have enough units in the position to join in the Battle of the South Beacon. The large VVS raids in the air circling over France seemed to be waiting to see the reaction of the RAF to the beacons. Fighter Command decided to play it safe and let the RN take care of its own. No aircraft carriers were within range. The task force of small sub chasers and the two destroyers were in for the fight of their lives along with four Royal Navy fighter squadrons.

The first Soviet VVS Pe 2 Buck dive bombers over the small convoy desperately trying to make its way back to port, took quite a beating. Out of the 23 planes that made the initial attacks, 5 were shot down and no hits were scored. The attack, however, caused the HMS DD Charity and HMS DD Consort to become separated as they twisted and turned obeying their commander’s orders, the orders that caused the destroyers to lurch to port and starboard in ever more erratic patterns trying to confuse the dive bombing Pe2s. It worked for a good 10 minutes and by then 2nd Support group and its five frigates were within 15 minutes of the destroyers and their smaller Corvettes of the Castle Class, the HMS Hadleigh Castle, HMS Lancaster Castle and HMS Bamborough Castle. The Corvettes were subsequently in trouble with swarms of Yak 9 UTs, who were firing their 37mm cannons from just out of the range of the 20 mm on the little ships. Each in turn was silenced quickly and for the most part, out of the fight fairly soon. At various times the DD Charity and DD Consort desperately tried to form up and give each other mutual support but the demands of dodging dive bombers and strafing ground attack aircraft drew them farther and farther apart and soon they were alone in their battles for survival.

The DD Consort was hit by a torpedo from a Soviet XXI submarine and was dead in the water and one by one her guns fell silent. She took four Pe2s with her in the end but was effectively out of the fight after 24 minutes of first contact. A floating and burning hulk, that for the most part, was ignored as the furious attacks continued on her sister ship the DD Charity.

The Charity seemed to live a charmed life. She did not shoot down that many more planes during the fight. Quite possibly because her captain made such violent maneuvers that her guns could not be brought to bear for long. In addition, the Pe2s that were diving on her were not your typical kamikaze planes who bore straight in. They twisted and turned throwing off the aim of the gunners and the shells propelled in their paths as they screamed down in their attacks from practically straight overhead. The 4.5” guns seem almost totally ineffective, and were almost useless once the dive bombers were overhead. They could only elevate to less than a 50 degree angle and the 40mm were little better at 55 degrees. That left the 20 mm guns alone to deal with the dive bombers and few were hit in their attack runs as they pulled up from their dives out of optimal range of 3,000 feet. If the destroyers were closer to each other, they could have covered each other from these kinds of attacks but alone the Charity was living on borrowed time and time that was running out. The Pe2s seemed to be almost taking bombing practice and making leisurely attacks from practically a straight down angle of up to 70 degrees. Fortunately for the Charity, they needed the practice.

Ten minutes before the frigates of the 2nd Support Group could reach effective support range the Charity’s fate took a turn for the worst. One of the Soviet’s flight leaders properly timed the Charity’s captain’s last evasive maneuver and his BETAB-170DS rocket assisted bomb hit the destroyer amid ships. His wingman hit her near the stern and she stopped dead in the water in less than a minute. The Captain of the Charity, in one of his last signals warned off 2nd Support Group and ordered them to take evasive action and turn for home. The attacking planes seemed to not be aware of the frigates and left them alone. Their sights were now set on the five squadrons of Royal Navy aircraft trying to fight their way home.

Upon hearing of their predicament the two squadrons of Sea Furies took top cover over their slower two squadrons of Seafires. They decided to head due East and try to fight their way through using the shortest route to safety. By heading straight East and going through the teeth of the enemy’s strength the Seafires had about 30 minutes of additional time to dogfight before they reached bingo fuel and had to head for home. There had been a short debate as to whether they should use that extra range to try to outrun the cloud of Soviet aircraft, but it was unanimously decided to fight straight through or die trying.

The Sea Furies would attempt to boom and zoom the Soviet fighters sure to be on the tails of the Sea Fires. This meant that the more powerful and faster Sea Furies would stay at a high level until they spotted one of their fellow airmen in trouble and would boom down from above and attempt to break up the attack. After a diving attack they would zoom back up to a higher altitude and attempt to do it again. Planes with more powerful engines and better power to weight ratios have been doing this to slower more maneuverable antagonists ever since aerial warfare was invented. One of the best planes at this tactic was the P-38 twin boom lightning, which had cleared the skies over the Pacific despite having two engines and was almost twice the size of the Zero fighter it faced. It accomplished this feat by booming from a high altitude and then zooming away. Most NATO aircraft at this stage of the war used this tactic against their opponents. Only the Spitfire and Seafire of the British would still attempted to turn and burn with certain of their enemies.