Wednesday, 16 June 1943 – Near 52N by 23W
With daylight, the heavy cruiser
Duquesne advanced forty kilometers ahead of the main French task force, her teledetection equipment scanning sea and sky for the opposition force. Overhead orbited an escadrille of four dark blue Milans of Flotille 60F, part of the fighter group carried aboard the carrier
Suffren. They orbited the heavy cruiser as a sort of miniature PCA [1], the little brother of the larger fighter screen protecting the carriers and capital ships far to the south.
The Milans scored their first kill of the day at 0955 when
Duquesne's air intercept officer, working with the ship's TD officers, spotted an air contact moving on a southwest course at a demure hundred and thirty knots and a thousand meters altitude. Two Milans were ordered to intercept the air contact, and found a German Arado Ar-196 floatplane tooling along running a search pattern. The crew's eyes were pointed at the sea, and it was a nasty shock to them when the two Milans flashed by in high-speed dives. The chagrined Germans, realizing they'd been 'tagged', exchanged friendly waves with the French fighter pilots and turned back towards their parent battleship.
Meanwhile,
Duquesne's air officer vectored his two remaining Milans onto another unidentified target heading straight towards the carrier group. The two fighters peeled away and found their target was an Épaulard from
St. Cyr's morning search pattern. The pilot signaled distress: his engine was running very rough, and he was progressively losing power. Abandoning his search leg, he'd started back to the carrier. The two fighters, obligingly, escorted him back towards
St. Cyr for an emergency landing.
This left the
Duquesne's air intercept officer without fighters to intercept the second Arado floatplane which meandered onto the cruiser's TD screens at 1025 hours, at low altitude. When the German floatplane pilot emerged from behind a sparse whiff of cloud, he promptly spotted
Duquesne sitting squarely in his path. He quickly made his report before two Milans, returning from 'tagging' the first Arado, hurtled past him at three hundred knots. The big fighters quickly circled around and sat off the floatplane's tail to make sure the point had been made - but aboard
Duquesne, the electronics officer reported the outgoing morse message reporting the cruiser's position.
* * * * *
Vice-Admiral Godfroy glanced around at his staff. "All right, gentlemen. We have new developments. About ten minutes ago,
Duquesne reported that she's vectored fighters onto two floatplanes - but one of them got close enough to spot her and get a sighting report off."
Capitaine de vaisseau Chatelaine, the Admiral's air operations officer, frowned, but offered up a hopeful opinion. "It could be worse. The
Duquesne is forty kilometers ahead of us, and without naval strike aircraft, the opposition force must close her to hurt her. Our own location will still be secure."
Godfroy nodded. "I agree. But we just got a solid sighting report from our Épaulard scouts, as well. The number four search aircraft spotted them... right about here. That's a hundred and seventy nautical miles north of us."
It was the turn of Chambon, the captain of
Paris, to frown in dismay. "I find that difficult to believe. That's
well inside the radius of our dawn search - and that reported no surface contacts."
The staff meteorologist, Capitaine Grosjean, frowned. "The conditions for the dawn search were not entirely ideal, with clouds at five hundred meters. Now that the sun is burning away the cover, we have better observation weather."
Chatelaine nodded. "This is why we run more than one search pattern. Even with our best search efforts, even something as large as a task force might be momentarily overlooked. Two search planes had to cut short their circuits already this morning due to maintenance issues."
"From
Suffren?" Chambon asked.
"One from both carriers," Chatelaine said.
"Ah. I figured it was the new blood," Chambon muttered. Chatelaine ignored the jibe. Since
Suffren served as the Marine Nationale's training carrier, her airgroup for the exercise was composed of pilots who were normally land-based, getting their quarterly carrier landing practice during the course of the exercises. Unfortunately,
Suffren's airgroup, with the exception of her embarked night-fighters, was just not as practiced as
St. Cyr's veterans.
Godfroy called their attention back to the task at hand. "So our bird reported at least two battleships and escorting destroyers within our reach. Talk to me, gentlemen."
Chambon gestured to the plot. "I still believe, as I argued last night, that Lutjens would do well to split his force into two, then advance southward on a broad front. So long as he does not expose too much of his strength to defeat-in-detail, our carrier striking forces will simply incur too many losses attacking into the massed AA fire of his battleships. He must prevent us from slipping around to his northern flank - that is almost certainly where he retains his fleet train. He must prevent us from striking at that above all else, otherwise this exercise will effectively end for him. A broad advance southward will prevent us from getting in range, as it places our task force in too much danger."
Chatelaine spoke next. "I see some sense in Capitaine Chambon's hypothesis of a divided opposition force. However I'm still not convinced that Lutjens would definitely feel a violation of concentration of force is in his best interest. We've seen no evidence yet that Lutjens has split his force, either. If he has, our search aircraft will be able to track two forces just as easily as one."
Godfroy looked to the meteorologist. "Capitaine Grosjean, what's our weather forecast for the next few days?"
"Unless something changes dramatically, the next seventy-two hours should be much the same as today's weather," Grosjean reported. "Temperatures from ten to twenty-five degrees [2], wind out of the southwest at no more than twenty-five knots, and relatively sparse cloud cover. If you want good weather for air operations, you're going to get it. There may be a change on the distant horizon, but I don't think it will be sooner than the nineteenth."
"Then we should be in the clear for the rest of the day, then," Chatelaine said. He leaned over the large chart again. "Admiral, I would like to suggest that we remain on this approximate station into at least the early afternoon. We want to remain here to recover our air scouts, and our proximity to the Opposition Force will act as a draw to bring Lutjens further south. He must find us and force us out of the equation before the German carrier forces arrive in a few days - otherwise he'll be caught between two fires, and the
Graf Zeppelin and
Strasser will be bagging his tankers."
Chambon slowly nodded. "I agree, so long as we maintain a safe margin between ourselves and the opposition battleships. I cannot stress highly enough that
Paris and
Justice cannot protect
St. Cyr in a surface action against this level of opposition."
"That's part of the reason I believe Lutjens won't divide his force," Godfroy said. "But I absolutely understand your concerns, Capitaine Chambon. Rest assured, I have no intention of placing us that close to the German battleships."
Chatelaine leaned forward. "One other thought, Admiral. Lutjens has already shown himself willing to use his own air assets - the Arado floatplanes of his battleships and cruisers - much more aggressively than we ourselves are using our Lioré et Oliviers. It's entailing significant sacrifice on his part, considering the strength of our overhead DCA."
"Yet his sacrifice paid off - he's found our picket cruiser," Chambon pointed out. "And he knows that where one heavy cruiser is, the rest of the fleet cannot be far off."
"The range is still extreme for him to use that information effectively, though," Chatelaine replied. "Lutjens must continue using his floatplanes to determine our position, and ensure we do not slip past him, either to the east or the west. If nothing else, he knows that when floatplanes don't report back - figuratively in this exercise situation - that we have probably 'downed' it in the course of protecting our assets. Even silence from his air scouts can lead to an approximation of our range and bearing."
"Go on," Godfroy said.
"I'd like to suggest an aggressive ACPA -
attaque contre le potentiel aérien [3]. I want to put some of our fighters up over Lutjens' battleships, remaining out of the reach of his anti-aircraft artillery, for the rest of the day, so long as we can maintain it, with express orders to attack any and all floatplanes in the launch or recovery process. By doing so, we attrite his own inferior air scouting assets and progressively blind him to potential discovery of our task force. Since we know he has no air defense assets of his own, Lutjens will either be forced to retain his floatplanes aboard and thus lose any advantage he might gain from the risk - or he will lose his floatplanes at unsustainable loss rates."
Godfroy nodded slowly. "I like it. Since Lutjens is too strong to attack directly, this plan gives us the best option of degrading the performance of his forces to achieve a more favorable state."
"What about after dusk?" Chambon asked. "Once he's got the cover of night, I expect him to attempt some manner of speed run southwards in the hope of catching us."
"I intend to withdraw southward and possibly somewhat to the west at dusk," Godfroy said. "The course and speed to be determined by the situation present at nightfall."
"If Lutjens tries a nighttime speed run south, that will break the contact we have at present," Chambon noted. He glanced at Chatelaine. "And he might try to launch floatplanes in the pre-dawn, before we can reestablish contact and pin our fighters on him again."
"I've been thinking about that," Chatelaine said. "And with your permission, Admiral, I think we can possibly manage it, though it will be tricky. A number of the Breguet Br.891s aboard both
St. Cyr and
Suffren have the new underwing SDA-5B6 teledetector pod. We've tested their ability to detect and track surface ships at night, but only in the Mediterranean. I believe we could use Br.891s to continue tracking the opposition battleships in night conditions. And as long as the weather remains clear, we have a full moon in two days, so low-light conditions may not be completely inhibiting. Before dawn,
Suffren can launch her Milan Noir night fighters and have them over the opposition fleet in time to ACPA any pre-dawn floatplane launches."
"What is the risk?" Godfroy asked.
"We'll have to conduct at least one recovery and launch cycle with night landings," Chatelaine said. "We
have trained for that, but it's a sub-optimal choice, particularly if we're operating under blacked-out conditions. As long as the wind stays out of the southwest, though, our launch and recovery cycles will be taking us away from the opposition force, which I feel is a factor in our favor, at least for the current range."
"If our search planes can maintain contact through the night, it would prevent us from being surprised and potentially overtaken by a high-speed dash," Chambon added in. "Our force is a good four knots faster at least than their heavies, but unless we're running flat out, I project that we could be overtaken if we are incautious. And I still worry of a split battleship force."
"Worries noted," Godfroy said. "Very well. Chatelaine, I approve your ACPA strike. What force and load recommendations can you make?"
"I suggest sixteen Milans from
St. Cyr, Admiral," Chatelaine replied. "Load to be one centerline auxiliary fuel pod. I believe we could position and launch the ACPA before 1200 hours, and have it over the opposition force by 1300. With the auxiliary tank and clean wings, the Milans should be on station until... ah, 1530 hours, when we can replace them with sixteen fighters from
Suffren. The evening shift can be handled by a smaller force - four to eight fighters. That can bring us to at least 2030 hours and darkness. We'll still have enough fighters to retain our own PCA and our picket PCA at strength through these operations, though I may elect to insert Épaulards at points to keep the numbers up." [4]
"Good. Make it so," Godfroy said. "I also tentatively approve your night recon proposal. Work out the critical details this afternoon and I'll give you final permission before, say, 1600?"
"Yes sir."
"Then get to work, gentlemen," Godfroy ordered.
Notes:
- Note [1]: PCA:
Patrouille de combat aérien, the French term for "Combat Air Patrol". I.E., the fighters overhead the fleet to respond to enemy attacks and scouts
- Note [2]: Celsius, of course.
- Note [3]: ACPA:
Attaque contre le potentiel aérien, the French term for "offensive counter-air". Any actions intended to actively inhibit enemy air operations. Bombing an airfield is a type of ACPA, but so is parking a tank on it.
- Note [4]: Although in most cases the Épaulard would make for poor overhead protection, a torpedo bomber can still outfly an Arado floatplane.
OOC:
Vice-Admiral Godfroy's trying to play a cagey game. French carrier exercises to date ostensibly indicate that one fleet carrier airgroup can sink a battleship, but as the ratio of carriers to enemy battleships rises, the carrier air group will take increasing aircraft losses for decreasing results. In this particular case,
Suffren is a marginal asset: she has no strike aircraft embarked, only fighters and eight dive bombers equipped as search planes. Godfroy would want to have at least four fleet carriers in play before doctrine would countenance a massed air attack on Lutjens' battleships. Godfroy does not yet know that Lutjens has split his force, although it will probably become apparent throughout the afternoon as he places the westernmost force (Burchardi with the four
Sachsens) under increased aerial surveillance. This division will make relatively little difference in Godfroy's calculations, as one-versus-four is only marginally more encouraging than one-versus-eight.
In essence, Godfroy knows his force cannot achieve sufficient "win" conditions under the present circumstances. He thus wants to avoid close action at all costs, which he stands a reasonable chance of achieving due to the far greater strategic and tactical speed of his force. However, Godfroy is not just looking to play out the clock. He wants to hinder Lutjens as much as possible. A strike against the fleet train would force an immediate cessation of Lutjens' operations, and fuel considerations on the OpFor's part would result in victory-by-default for Godfroy. So far, that juicy prize is unattainable. The next weakest thing Godfroy can attack is Lutjens' eyes - the Arado floatplanes Lutjens needs to find the French carriers. Without these planes, Lutjens must either scout with an old-fashioned line across the sea (dispersing his fleet and making them easier targets for
St. Cyr's bombers), or risk Godfroy, possessed of better reconnaissance, from slipping around behind him and running north to hit the fleet train. By putting a CAP of fighters over an enemy fleet, Godfroy will severely hinder Lutjens' reconnaissance operations. (It will not be as hindering as he hopes, however, since he's only CAPping one of the two forces.)
Even if these goals are not achieved, Godfrey merely needs to avoid encountering the German battleships, playing for time until the German Carrier Force arrives. Although collaboration will be difficult - Godfroy has not met with or conferred with von Fischel, and has only a vague idea of German carrier doctrine - von Fischel's arrival on the northward end of the exercise area will force Lutjens to divide his attention, just as Lutjens is trying to do with his split BB task groups. By continuously moving south and slightly west, Godfroy offers space for time.
This is the classic doctrine of the French Atlantic Fleet. The Atlanteans have most of their force in the central part of this ocean, while the Russian main base is up at the northern end. Britain, which France regards as as a hemi-demi-semi-ally, has very strong forces as well, and new ally Germany has their entire fleet to cover the same expanse. With this level of allied force present, and strategic agreements in place, the Marine Nationale generally keeps only a small portion of their strength based in Brest - sufficient to show the flag and defeat enemy raiders up to battleship size. Larger forces would be harassed until sufficient allied forces could be brought to bear. Thus, French Atlantic Fleet's doctrine is perfectly suited for this sort of scenario.
Also, have a track chart. All courses and positions a bit rough, but it may help illustrate things.