'The Most Dangerous Moment of the War' by John Clancy

Author:John Clancy [Clancy, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Asian, Japan, Military, Naval, World War II
ISBN: 9781612003351
Publisher: Casemate Publishers (Ignition)
Published: 2015-11-19T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

The Loss of the Cornwall, the Dorsetshire and Other Ships

Admiral Somerville’s Force A left Addu Atoll at midday on 5th April, heading for a position some 250 miles south of Ceylon and expecting to be there by daybreak on the 6th. He ordered his two heavy cruisers, the Cornwall and the Dorsetshire to join him from Colombo at 1600 hrs on the 5th. However, at 0648 that morning the Dorsetshire heard that the Japanese were some 150 miles to her east. Both cruisers went to flank speed (ie 27½ knots for the Cornwall) but as visibility was clear, a seaplane from the Japanese cruiser Tone spotted both cruisers shortly after noon.

This seaplane was probably the reconnaissance aircraft of which Masatake Okumiya spoke of in the book Zero. The Story of the Japanese Navy Air Force, 1937–45 which he co-wrote with Jiro Horikoshi and Martin Caidin in 1957. Okumiya had been a wartime Field Staff Officer at the Japanese Air Force HQ and was in a unique position to follow the course of the air war in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. His book, Zero …, is primarily the story of the Zero fighter aircraft and in it Okumiya traces its meteoric success from the early days, following Pearl Harbour, up to the time of an increasing challenge by our own carrier-based aircraft. It is obvious that Okumiya had access to the actual reports received from the Japanese carriers and the official log books of those pilots participating in the attack on the Cornwall and the Dorsetshire.

In his book Okumiya recalls how even as the raid on Colombo was still taking place, one of Nagumo’s reconnaissance planes radioed a message saying the pilot had spotted two enemy destroyers heading south-south-west at a speed of 25 knots. This placed them approximately 300 nautical miles south-south-west of Colombo. Nagumo thought the destruction of these destroyers would complement his attack on Colombo, so Lieut-Commander Takashige Egusa, Air Group Commander of the Soryu led 80 Val dive-bombers in a hunt for them. But then Nagumo received a corrected message saying that the two destroyers were in fact cruisers. As soon as Egusa’s attack force spotted the ships he radioed two short and concise messages back to Nagumo, each a few minutes apart. Photos taken at the time by the pilots identified the ships as the Cornwall and the Dorsetshire.

Egusa’s pilots had been hand-picked as an elite force, trained to destroy America’s aircraft-carriers, but had been thwarted when they arrived at Pearl Harbour to find none there. As soon as they spotted the two British cruisers they divided into two groups, scoring hit after hit right from the start of their attack. The line of attack had been carefully worked out in advance and the aircraft attacked in formations of three. Those manning the anti-aircraft guns were frustrated to find the bombers approaching from immediately ahead and retiring astern. Most of the guns were blind on this particular bearing to safeguard the ship’s rigging and superstructure.

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