Эдвин Грей - Diving Stations

Ottershaw’s mouth went dry as he watched the hawser strain taut. This was the critical moment of the entire exercise. Either the towline would part under the terrible stress to which it was being subjected◦– or Hamilton’s delicate equalization of speed would ease the strain sufficiently to balance the two opposing forces. Once the line was taut and both ships were moving at identical speeds the worst of the danger would have passed.

‘I think we’re going to make it, Nick.’

Hamilton said nothing. Leaning his arms on the after bridge screen he watched the towing hawser tighten with the concentration of a gambler playing his last chip.

‘Well done, Rapier.’

Aritsu’s voice sounded strangely hollow through the megaphone and it was only just audible above the shriek of the winds. But Hamilton heard it all right and he waved his arm in acknowledgement. The darkness and the driving rain hid the grin on his face.

The violent rolling action of the submarine suddenly eased, as Rapier’s bows came into wind. He bent over the voice pipe again. ‘Midship’s helm, Number One.’ He pressed the switch of the loudhailer. ‘Ahoy, Sumal Helm amidships!’

A faint glimmer of light on the south-eastern horizon drew Ottershaw’s attention and he pointed it out to Rapier’s skipper. Hamilton glanced at it and nodded disinterestedly.

‘We only just had time for the big rescue act,’ he commented enigmatically.

‘Odd sort of typhoon,’ Ottershaw said doubtfully. ‘If anyone asked me, I’d say the epicenter passed over a good ten minutes ago.’

‘What typhoon?’ Hamilton enquired innocently.

‘The one you warned Aritsu about.’

Hamilton turned away from the bridge screen, stared towards the growing patch of blue sky over the bows, and smiled.

‘I must have made a mistake, Harry,’ he admitted cheerfully. ‘Just a rather nasty tropical squall I’d reckon.’

‘But you told Aritsu there’d been a weather warning of a typhoon,’ Ottershaw persisted. ‘He would never have agreed to a tow if he’d known it was only a squall.’

‘Don’t blame me,’ Hamilton said with a shrug. ‘It was your damned sub, Peters, who told me it was a typhoon.’ He contrived to look innocent. ‘I’ve only just arrived in Hong Kong◦– how on earth was I supposed to know?’

Ottershaw was not so easily fooled. Although the sea was subsiding, the waves were still breaking angrily, and he could feel Suma pitching unpleasantly astern of the submarine.

‘You bloody well knew!’ he said accusingly.

‘I didn’t when young Peters first told me. But I was aware that the typhoon season was over. So when I went back to Rapier I put a radio call through to the FMO in Hong Kong to double check.’ Hamilton paused and smiled at the memory. ‘Hawkins confirmed the approach of a rather deep low, but he was a trifle sarcastic about typhoons in November. Nevertheless, it struck me as a good idea. All I had to do was to sell it to Aritsu. After that it was easy.’

‘So it was all a bloody great bluff,’ Ottershaw said bluntly.

‘I suppose you could say it was,’ Hamilton agreed equably. ‘But I had to persuade Aritsu to let me take Suma in tow. It was the only thing I could do to make him lose face◦– and the fact that he accepted the assistance of a British warship when his own vessel was in no real danger merely makes it all the worse. I don’t think Tokyo is going to be very pleased with him after this little affair.’ Ottershaw digested the explanation in silence for a few moments. Then he grinned.

‘Next time we meet in the club, Nick, just promise me one thing. Promise me you’ll never invite me to join you in a poker game.’

The two capital ships swinging gently at their moorings in the center of the anchorage dominated the dockyard, and dwarfed the slim destroyers grouped astern. They were the largest warships Singapore had seen for more than a decade and their massive presence fulfilled the solemn promise of successive British Governments, that the Royal Navy would throw its protective shield around the Malayan Peninsula if war ever threatened to engulf the Far East.

When the news first reached the city on 2 December, excited crowds had thronged the shore to witness their arrival. Even now, five days later, these great grey symbols of Britain’s sea power continued to attract attention.

Captain Gerald Edwards, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff to Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton, C-in-C China, stared down at the two ships from the window of his office overlooking the harbor and considered the future. The arrival of Admiral Phillip’s Force Z was going to put him out of a job. The admiral had already been appointed to succeed Layton as C-in-C Eastern Fleet and, naturally, he would put his own men into the key staff positions. And in a few day’s time Edwards would be returning home. He wondered whether he would have time to see his younger brother, who was serving as a junior gunnery lieutenant on Repulse, but decided it was an unlikely possibility. As soon as Phillips returned from his conference with the US Fleet commander in Manilla, it seemed probable that the battle cruiser and her consort, Prince of Wales, would sail immediately. Edwards had already seen a copy of Churchill’s telegram ordering Phillips to sea to ‘disconcert the Japanese and at the same time increase the security of the force’ and he knew that the new C-in-C would be anxious to carry out the Prime Minister’s command.

It was hardly surprising that Churchill was concerned for the security of Force Z. No doubt Admiral Phillips entertained similar fears. And if he did, who could blame him? Without an aircraft carrier, Force Z was as helpless as a rabbit in a tank of piranha fish◦– and the end was likely to be equally bloody. Only a politician could be guilty of such gross stupidity. Admittedly the armored carrier Indomitable had originally been assigned to Phillips’ command. But she had run aground in the West Indies and the admiral’s two capital ships had been told to sail east without her. If the politicians had not been running the show there was little doubt in Edwards’ mind that the task force would have been recalled until adequate air cover could be provided. But Churchill refused. Prince of Wales and Repulse were to be the great deterrent to Japan’s grandiose plan to seize Malaya and to conquer the whole of SouthEast Asia. There would be no need to fight◦– their mere presence in the Far East would be sufficient….

A sharp knock on the door broke the captain’s train of thought. Turning away from the window he walked to his desk as the flag lieutenant entered.

‘Message from the AOC, sir. Most immediate.’

Edwards took the slip, put on his horn-rimmed glasses and read the brief text of Pulford’s signal. He nodded. ‘This confirms the intelligence reports we received earlier,’ he told Jameson. ‘I’d been wondering why Palliser recalled Repulse from her Australian trip. Looks as though the balloon’s about to go up.’

The flag lieutenant glanced down at the signal to refresh his memory. ‘It doesn’t follow that the Japs are heading for Malaya, sir,’ he pointed out. ‘The air reconnaissance reports only confirm two convoys steaming west◦– they could be making for Siam.’

‘They could be◦– but I very much doubt it,’ Edwards paused and looked out of the window at the two great warships in the harbor. He wondered what use such antediluvian monsters would be against Rear Admiral Matsunaga’s 22nd Air Flotilla. And he suddenly remembered his brother telling him that Prince of Wales had never fired her AA armament in anger since she had been commissioned. He shrugged. They were likely to get plenty of practice shortly.