Free The Whale Has Wings Vol 3 - Holding the Barrier by David Row Page A

if they discovered enemy ships. No one on the ships was expecting a night attack by aircraft - such a thing was unheard of at sea, and Kondo himself was asleep, getting some rest before what he expected would be an early start and a long day's action in the morning.
     
    The first alarm was given by a lookout on the Kongo, who heard the sound of an aircraft engine in the night. The bridge staff assumed that this was either a plane that had merely strayed over the fleet, or perhaps a reconnaissance aircraft, although it would have had to be a very lucky pilot to find them in the darkness. Maybe someone in the fleet had inadvertently broken the blackout. Since the fleet was currently operating under radio silence in order to remain concealed, the other ships were signalled by lamp, a slow procedure but one that was reasonably secure. Before all the ships could be alerted flares were seen, floating down on their parachutes along one side of the ships and casting long shadows on the sea. At this point the Admiral was woken, while the bridge crew commentated on the fact that the pilot obviously didn't know what he was doing, the flares weren't close enough to properly illuminate their ships. Even as they were agreeing that no Japanese naval pilot would make such a mistake (although an army pilot probably would), the first wave of SeaLance torpedo planes hurtled out of the darkness, aiming straight for the two carriers outlined by the slowly-falling parachute flares from the Cormorants circling high above. The flares not only outlined the carriers, they helped destroy the night vision of the crew, who couldn't help but look at them as they tried to work out what they were for. Indeed, the lookouts were assiduously searching the sea in case this was in fact the warning that they had been discovered by the British fleet, but as a result weren't looking high enough to see the approaching planes, even if they were at the moment well concealed in the dark.
     
    As it was expected (or at least hoped) that the initial attack would have the advantage of surprise, the aircrew had adopted a somewhat different first approach. Instead of the classic torpedo 'hammer and anvil' attack, which would have required full illumination of the ships rather that outlining them against the flares, they had gone for a single heavy strike from one direction, counting on surprise to allow them to overwhelm the carriers. Indeed the first aircraft had almost reached their dropping point before they were finally spotted by a lookout, who had difficulty getting the bridge to realize what was happening. Everyone knew a night strike by planes wasn't possible...
     
    Indeed, it was not only possible but something the FAA had been practicing assiduously for a number of years - the addition of ASV radar being the final piece which made it so effective a tactic. The usual tactic in a daytime strike was for the torpedo planes to attack in groups of three, which made some allowance for the ship attempting to dodge the initial torpedoes. In this case, they had committed eighteen planes to each of the carriers, flying in two groups of three flights each, to get the maximum spread of torpedoes while they still had the element of surprise. The first carrier to be hit was the Zuhio. Even surprised, she had managed to start to turn to comb the torpedo tracks, but with nine torpedoes in the water already, and another nine launched only a minute later, the effort was futile. Three of the first nine fish drove into the side of the carrier, dooming the small ship even before another two from the following planes sent plumes of water over the already heavily listing ship. Zuhio never recovered from that initial roll, most of one side shattered underwater. The carrier simply rolled over, only a handful of men escaping from her into the pitch black waters.
     
    The fleet was by now firing off every AA weapon it had, some of which were even going in the direction of the attacking