Whirlwind - Barrett Tillman [104]
The delayed-action bomb detonated on the hangar deck. In that confined space, the blast effect was incredible: it blew out the hangar walls and both sides of the hull, flinging a 150-foot section overboard. A twenty-five-foot hole was torn in the upper hangar deck, and fragments penetrated to the lower hangar. The overpressure ruptured the flight deck over a length of 200 feet and collapsed the forward elevator into its well. Additional bomb and rocket hits on two port-side boiler rooms started flooding, further settling the carrier.
Though she was not in danger of sinking—the harbor was too shallow—the unrelenting violence unnerved Amagi’s senior officer. (The captain may not have been aboard.) In any case, around noon somebody yelled “Abandon ship,” reinforced by a rocket sizzling past the bridge and yet another bomb that started flooding astern. Some dedicated sailors ignored the order until that afternoon. The next day Amagi remained afloat, listing slightly to port, though the flight deck was destroyed.
Escort carrier Kaiyo was moving to safer shelter when the Anglo-Americans arrived overhead. While maneuvering she struck an airdropped mine that damaged her rudder and caused partial flooding in an engine room. Then British Avengers scored two bomb hits, causing increased flooding. Towed to Beppu Bay on Kyushu’s east coast, the small flattop was grounded. Eventually the crew pumped out most of the water and began sealing the hull.
The senior combatant in the area was the heavy cruiser Tone. Her career read like a Pacific War roadmap: the Pearl Harbor force, Indian Ocean, Midway, Guadalcanal, Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf. Stashed in Hiroshima Bay west of Kure, the big, handsome warship was selected by Monterey’s Avengers, which scored three bomb hits. Her hull was blasted open and she began settling, so was pushed ashore to facilitate salvage.
Overall, the July 24 missions cost the fast carriers twenty-nine fighters and twenty-eight bombers. In exchange, they knocked out a battleship and cruiser, sinking three lesser vessels and damaging at least thirteen warships.
The next day Task Force 38 again spread its wings over the Inland Sea, Kure, and elsewhere, sinking three tankers and a merchant ship and damaging a cruiser plus five other vessels.
The two-day total of U.S. aircraft losses came to eighty-seven, nearly identical to the initial home island strikes in mid-February. Relatively little had been accomplished other than keeping the pressure on Japan, but that pressure immediately increased. While the task force replenished, global events were underway in Europe. On July 27 the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender. The Tokyo war cabinet ignored the ultimatum, setting in motion events that no one in Japan—and few in America—could possibly envision.
July 28
The tailhookers were back on the 28th, hoping to finish off the crippled warships and perhaps turn up new targets.
At 0745, McCain’s flagship, Shangri-La, launched thirty-six planes against the battleship Haruna and light cruiser Oyodo, both damaged on the 24th. But the two-day layoff had given Kure’s gunners time to recover. Pilots reported intense flak with an Avenger shot down. Nevertheless, several direct hits left both ships burning, and Oyodo later capsized.
Haruna held the rare honor of being bombed more than any Japanese battleship. She had escaped with light damage in three previous attacks but now became the focus of multiple squadrons. The thirty-year-old heavyweight absorbed so many hits and near misses that Captain Matake Yoshimura could not provide a definite number; possibly eight or more. That afternoon some seventy