Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
So, this will be the last chapter of the Battle of Midway, and feature the surface action between the Japanese Occupation Force and Task Force 36.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 39- The Great Blow
From the bridge of the Musashi, Admiral Kondo watches the sun slowly set. His fleet is now just about 40 miles from Midway and closing in fast. He's hoping that if he moves fast enough, he should be able to get his troops on Midway before the sun sets. He feels no worries about what he believes is a few small ships, cruisers at the most, protecting Midway.
Things haven't been entirely smooth sailing for him. A second airstrike from Task Force 39 had sunk three more troopships, 3 destroyers, and a light cruiser. However, Kondo is still determined to seize Midway, even if he's no longer sure he has the forces to go on to assault Oahu as planned.
However, at the same time, Kondo is a bit worried. He has not heard from Yamamoto for hours. He's starting to get concerned that something may have happened to the First Fleet. However, he's determined to press on, knowing that if he can get his troops on Midway, it will be a nightmare for the Americans to try and retake it.
However, unknown to him, just over the horizon, almost exactly 20 miles away, Vice Admiral Lee has arranged his battleships and cruisers in a battle line, ready to cross the T on Kondo's force. His destroyers are arranged in position to start torpedo runs once the battleships and cruisers have beat up on the Japanese.
Lee is currently in radio contact with a PBY flying out of Midway that is monitoring the progress of the Japanese fleet. From his position on the bridge of the North Carolina, Lee is watching the horizon with binoculars, waiting for the Japanese fleet to come within visual range.
"Sir, Carney reports Japanese fleet is at 19.5 miles and closing," a communications officer calls out.
"Good," Lee responds simply.
Only a few minutes later, as Lee is scanning the horizon once again, he spots several bumps on the horizon. "Ships sighted. Distance 19 miles," Lee calls out.
The ships of the task force hold their fire. Lee knows that the Musashi and Yamashiro are both about two miles behind the front line of the fleet, and he wants them well within range before opening fire, to avoid them fleeing before he can get too many salvos in.
Lee's warships wait as the Japanese ships keep advancing. At the same time, aboard the Musashi, Admiral Kondo has spotted Lee's battle line. However, he doesn't yet realize just how much danger he's in. So far, he believes most of the ships he's seeing are cruisers. He's been able to identify the HMS Queen Elizabeth as a battleship, but so far believes it's the only one he's facing. Kondo orders his heavier ships forward to prepare to engage Lee's ships.
Aboard the North Carolina, Lee watches as the ships of the fleet continue to come closer. At the same time, aboard the Missouri, her weapons officers arm and lock the ship's 16 Harpoon missiles, as well as 4 Tomahawk missiles that are anti-ship missiles equipped with homing radar.
Finally, the leading Japanese ships close to within 16 miles of Lee's battle line. Lee turns to his communications officer and says, "Order the Missouri to fire all her missiles, and all battleships and heavy cruisers to open fire."
The order is relayed across the task force. Seconds later, the Missouri begins launching all of its missiles, averaging one missile launched every 2.5 seconds. It takes 50 seconds to finish launching all 20 missiles. As the last missile launches, the North Carolina opens fire with all three main gun turrets.
As the North Carolina's shells streak through the air towards their targets, the five remaining battleships in Lee's line open fire with their main guns, along with the heavy cruisers New Orleans and HMAS Australia.
The shells fired by Lee's ships come crashing down around the Japanese fleet. Missouri's shells, guided by its advanced 1980s radar, land close to the destroyer it fired on.
As the ships hurry to reload their guns, Kondo is worried. Most of the splashes from the impacting shells are larger than he would've expected from heavy cruisers, and he's wondering if more of the ships ahead of him aren't battleships after all. However, regardless, he orders his ships to fire back.
As Missouri's missiles are still streaking towards their targets, Musashi and Yamashiro both open fire with their main guns. The shells crash down short of Lee's battle line.
As both sides continue to try to reload their guns, the Missouri's missiles begin finding their targets. Each missile has been targeted on a different destroyer. The missiles quickly find their targets, tearing through the thin hulls of the destroyer. The more powerful Tomahawks rip apart their target destroyers, while a number of destroyers survive their single hit from Harpoon.
However, in a matter of seconds, 11 destroyers are sinking and 9 more are badly damaged. Kondo is shocked at the sudden loss of so many of his destroyers. However, he is determined to keep fighting, and orders his ships to charge forward at full speed, and orders his two remaining escort carriers to launch all of their aircraft to the attack.
However, as the two sides fire their second salvo, the other side of the American forces begin their attack. The aircraft based out of Midway been held in reserve after their first attack on the Japanese 1st Fleet specifically to be used in this scenario. Now, some of the bombers flying from the atoll start their attack.
The 17 SBDs that survived the attack on the Japanese 1st Fleet start diving on the damaged destroyers, while the 10 TBM Avengers that survived the same raid also fly in to attack the destroyers. Despite anti-aircraft fire, the bombers press on undaunted and release their weapons. 4 damaged destroyers are hit and sunk by the ordnance they're hit with. At the same time, a flight of Corsairs streaks in and strafes another damaged destroyer, punching a ton of holes in the hull and exploding the engines, dooming the destroyer.
Now, 16 of the fleet's 26 remaining destroyers have been sunk. However, this is of little concern to Kondo as he continues his charge towards the Allied battle line.
Then, at a distance of 14.7 miles, the Allies draw first blood as a 16 inch shell from the Missouri hits the Yamashiro's bow. Only seconds later, the South Dakota lands two more hits on the Yamashiro, causing moderate damage on the side of the superstructure.
Kondo's battleships and his heavy cruisers continue firing back at the Allied warships. However, their shells continue to miss as the Allied shells grow ever closer. Only three salvos after the first hits on the Yamashiro, the Maryland lands two hits on the old battleship, both shells exploding below decks and causing moderate damage. Seconds later, the Missouri scores three direct hits on the Yamashiro, all shells exploding below deck. The Yamashiro has now been hit 8 times, and smoke is starting to rise from aboard.
Seconds later, the Australia lands two 8 inch shells on the Yamashiro. However, only seconds later, the Japanese draw their first blood of the battle when two shells from the Musashi strike the Maryland. The two massive shells penetrate the old battleship's sides and explode inside, causing moderate damage and starting fires inside the old battleship. However, Maryland's well trained damage control crews are quickly able to start containing the fires.
Right then, more of Midway's aircraft make their attack. Five B-25 Mitchells armed with torpedoes make an attack run on the Yamashiro as 5 B-17s drop their bombloads on the damaged battleship. The Mitchells score 2 direct hits on the ship, and half a dozen 1,000 pound bombs from the B-17s score direct hits on Yamashiro.
The Yamashiro has now been hit ten times by shells, six times by bombs, and two times by torpedoes. She is now burning bad and listing to port.
Seeing this, Lee makes a decision. "Order the cruisers and Maryland to maintain fire on that Fuso class ship. All other battleships are to concentrate on the Musashi."
The ships of the battle line move to carry out Lee's order. Only seconds later, on its next salvo, the Maryland scores four more hits on the Yamashiro, followed by three more hits by 8 inch shells from the New Orleans.
Lee's ships and Kondo's ships continue firing. For several salvos, no hits are scored. Then, Australia and New Orleans land half a dozen 8 inch shells on the Yamashiro, followed by two more 16 inch shells from the Maryland and three 6 inch shells from the Cleveland. The Yamashiro is now burning badly from multiple hits.
On their own initiative, the Maryland and cruisers shift their fire to the heavy cruisers coming ahead of the Japanese battleships. Only seconds later, the Japanese heavy cruiser Suzuya lands two hits on the Cleveland, causing light damage on the cruiser's bow. This is followed seconds later by an shell from the Musashi striking the South Dakota, causing moderate damage to the battleship.
Seconds later, the Allies score their first hits on the Musashi as three 16 inch shells strike the battleship, exploding on the top deck. Seconds later, four shells from the North Carolina strike the Musashi, exploding at the base of the superstructure and causing damage.
As this is happening, three more B-25 Mitchells descend to start their torpedo runs on the Musashi. The battleship fires wildly at them, but no flak hits home. The three bombers drop their torpedoes and pull away to head back to Midway. One torpedo misses, but the other two strike along the Musashi's port side. One explodes amidships, causing minimal damage. But the other strikes Musashi on her stern, disabling two of her boilers, cutting her speed to 23 knots.
Only seconds after the torpedo hits on the Musashi, the Maryland scores four hits on the Suzuya, followed by six hits from the Cleveland. Only two salvos later, the HMS Valiant hits the Suzuya with four 15 inch shells, wrecking the superstructure. At almost the same time as the Valiant hits the Suzuya, the destroyers of Task Force 36 start their dashes towards the Japanese fleet to start their torpedo runs.
Seeing the Suzuya is now badly damaged, multiple ships concentrate their fire on it. Two salvos miss before the Maryland lands four more hits on the cruiser. This is followed seconds later by three hits from the New Orleans, and then an incredible six hits from the Valiant. The Suzuya has now been hit 27 times and is burning heavily.
Only seconds later, the South Dakota lands four hits on the Mogami, causing heavy damage to the superstructure. On her next salvo, the South Dakota lands six shells on the Mogami. This time, two of the shells penetrate into her forward magazine, detonating the magazine and blowing the bow clean away from the cruiser. At almost the same time, the Maryland lands four more hits on the Suzuya, opening several holes below the waterline. At almost the same time, the Australia hits the light cruiser Agano, and by a lucky stroke, sets off her torpedoes, nearly blowing the cruiser in two and sinking her.
Only a minute later, three more B-17s make their attack, dropping their bombs on the already damaged light cruiser Kiso, scoring three direct hits and opening large holes in the hull, dooming the cruiser.
Aboard the bridge of the Musashi, Admiral Kondo is feeling desperate. He knows the Yamashiro is doomed, and many of his cruisers are sinking. However, the Musashi has only been hit a few times. Kondo is determined to smash his way through the Allied battle line to reach Midway.
Musashi continues firing at the Allied battle line. After a few more salvos, she scores two more hits on the South Dakota, causing some moderate damage to the stern.
Then, Kondo makes a fateful decision and orders the Musashi to turn hard to port to allow it rear turret to join the action. Now at a distance of just 10 miles, the Musashi starts turning.
Then, as it is turning, four shells from the North Carolina hit the Musashi's stern and open a small hole in the top deck. Then, three more shells from the Missouri strike the Musashi's stern. The shells, plunging down at the Musashi, penetrate through the holes in the deck. Two explode down three decks, but one plunges deep into the ship before exploding. The explosion itself and the shock wave from the explosion destroys or shuts down 8 of the ship's 10 remaining boilers, leaving the Musashi only able to make about 5 knots.
After only a minute or so, Lee notices that the Musashi is slowing down. "Concentrate all fire on the Musashi!" he orders.
By now, the Musashi is almost alone. Torpedoes from an American destroyer have capsized the light cruiser Katori, and the cruiser Kumano, which has sustained further damage in addition to damage from an earlier air strike, has turned around and started retreating. The Musashi is now only accompanied by two light cruisers.
The six battleships continue firing, with the cruisers also focusing their fire on the Musashi. It doesn't take too long before shells start hitting the Musashi rapidly. The massive battleship takes about 20 hits from heavy shells in the space of just 60 seconds, causing heavy damage to the upper works.
Then, the Musashi takes a big hit. Two 15 inch shells from the Valiant and half a dozen 16 inch shells from the Missouri strike the Musashi on her stern. The combined impact of the 8 heavy shells tear through some of the machinery of the number 3 turret and the shock of the explosions destroy more, disabling the number 3 turret. However, only a second later, the Australia takes two hits from the Musashi's number 1 turret, causing heavy damage to the cruiser. Her captain decides to pull the damaged cruiser back towards Midway.
Then, another critical hit is scored when a shell from the North Carolina tears into the bridge. It explodes against the armor of the superstructure, but the shrapnel from the explosion tears through the flag bridge, killing a number of men on the flag bridge, including Admiral Kondo.
Aboard the North Carolina, Admiral Lee is watching the damage the Musashi is taking. She's now taken about 50 hits from heavy shells and about 20 hits from smaller 5 inch shells. She's lost her number 3 turret, is down to just 5 knots, and has several fires burning.
After a moment of thinking, Lee makes a decision. "Separate the task force. I want the Missouri and Queen Elizabeth to join this ship in continuing to shell the Musashi. All other ships are to attack the rest of the Japanese fleet," he orders.
The order is relayed across the fleet, and Lee's battle line breaks up. The South Dakota, New Orleans, and Cleveland charge at full speed around the Musashi and begin chasing down the rest of the Japanese fleet, firing relentlessly. The Maryland and Valiant, accompanied by a few destroyers, follow the South Dakota, moving a bit slower but still closing on the Japanese. The rest of the destroyers continue their pursuit to continue torpedo attacks.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina, Missouri, and Queen Elizabeth move to establish their prime attack positions. The North Carolina and Missouri move out to establish a circling pattern around the Musashi at a distance of 11 miles from the Japanese battleship, far enough away that their shells can arc and plunge down into the ship.
At the same time, the Queen Elizabeth closes in to a distance of 3,000 yards from the Musashi, near point blank range for her 15 inch guns, allowing her to fire her guns into the superstructure at close range. Shells begin to tear into the superstructure, causing heavy damage at such close range.
As the Queen Elizabeth turns broadside to the Musashi to allow all her main guns to fire, one sailor aboard watches the fires now rising from the Musashi. In May 1941, he was a relatively new sailor serving aboard the HMS Rodney, and was present for the destruction of the battleship Bismarck. As he watches the Queen Elizabeth's turrets fire one after the other, scoring three hits on the Musashi's superstructure, he remembers what it what was like aboard the Rodney that day. "I hope Musashi doesn't take as long to sink as the Bismarck did," he mutters to himself.
Meanwhile, back on the North Carolina, Admiral Lee watches the Musashi beginning to burn. As several of North Carolina's 5 inch guns fire, Lee looks over at Missouri, which is only about a mile away from the North Carolina. As he watches, Missouri fires the three guns in her number 1 turret one after the other, then her number 2 turret all at once, and finally her number three turret all at once. Looking over to the Musashi, he can see the explosions on her deck as four shells impact the battleship.
"Admiral, South Dakota reports she is taking Japanese transports under fire! One transport already sunk!" a communications officer calls out.
"Good," is Lee's simple response.
Lee's three battleships continue firing away at the Musashi. With their radar, Missouri and North Carolina's fire is supremely accurate. And at such close range, the Queen Elizabeth is scoring hit after hit. It doesn't take long before the British battleship's shells have completely destroyed the flag bridge and the gun plot, leaving the Musashi completely unable to fight back.
For over half an hour, the three battleships circle the Musashi, firing relentlessly. Another B-17 flying from Midway flies in about 20 minutes after Musashi's guns fall silent and drops half a dozen 1,000 pound bombs on the Musashi. With the battleship now dead in the water, she is a much easier target, and four of the bombs hit, three of them exploding below decks.
As the three battleships are pummeling the Musashi, the remaining battleships and the cruisers continue chasing the rest of the Occupation Force. South Dakota succeeds in sinking one of the remaining escort carriers, the Mizuho, while the Maryland succeeds in sinking the final carrier, the Nisshin. With almost all of the other warships either sinking or already out of gun range, the three battleships and the two cruisers focus on the more vulnerable transports.
The result is a slaughter. With the South Dakota, New Orleans, and Cleveland easily able to keep up with any of the transports, and the Maryland and Valiant picking off the trailers, the warships fire relentlessly into the midst of the transports. None of the transports are able to take more than two or three heavy shells.
As the South Dakota and the other ships continue pursuing the rest of the Occupation Force further and further south, the North Carolina, Missouri, and Queen Elizabeth continue firing at the Musashi. By now, it's been 50 minutes since the battle with the Musashi started. Although an exact count is impossible, lookouts have estimated that by this point, the massive battleship has taken at least 200 hits from 16 and 15 inch shells, with at least 200 more hits from 5 inch shells. She is now dead in the water, listing to port, and burning fiercely.
Lee, for a brief instant, entertains the thought of trying to send boarding parties aboard to capture the battleship so it can be towed and repaired. He briefly thinks that it would be devastating for the Japanese morale to have one of their prized super battleships turned against them. However, he quickly pushes the thought aside. Musashi is by now too badly damaged to seriously consider saving. And after everything Japan has done, he wants to see Musashi slip beneath the waves. And so, he says out loud, "Destroy her."
The three battleships continue firing at the damaged Musashi. About 20 more hits are scored on her.
Then, the Queen Elizabeth lands four shells from her forward guns on the stern. The combined explosion of the shells is enough to blow the turret, already weakened from previous hits, clean off its barbette and off the ship.
Everyone watches as the turret blows off. Then, the Missouri fires a full broadside. Six shells strike the stern and penetrate the deck. Two of the shells penetrate all the way down into the stern magazines before exploding.
For a split second, it just looks like a normal hit. Then, the stern of the battleship is nearly blown off by a massive explosion. The mushroom cloud from the explosion rises into the atmosphere as the Musashi rolls further to port, the stern finally breaking away from the ship after her boilers explode. In about 10 minutes, the mighty Musashi capsizes. And it's not much longer before, with great satisfaction, Admiral Lee and the rest of the crews of the three battleships watch the Musashi disappear beneath the waves.
Men begin to cheer was the watch the Musashi disappearing. The sinking of the Musashi is a sign. A sign that the tide has forever turned against the Empire of Japan.
Aboard the Missouri, Captain Carney smiles. After decades of speculation of what would happen in such a case, an Iowa class battleship had met a Yamato class battleship in combat. And Missouri had delivered the killing blow.
Carney takes a moment to sigh with relief. At last, the Battle of Midway is all but over. And it has been a disastrous defeat for the Japanese.
And, I'll end there.
I hope you liked this chapter. I hope it didn't seem too rushed, and I did the battle well.
I especially hope that you liked the duel with the North Carolina, Missouri, and Queen Elizabeth against the Musashi. I did do that similarly to the final battle of the Bismarck, for those wondering. And, as many of you I'm sure wanted, I did have Missouri deliver the final blow.
So, by now, the Battle of Midway is mostly over. The next chapter will go over the aftermath. After that, I may take a brief break from this to focus on other stories, but I promise that this story will go on.
Next chapter should be up within the week. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!