Armageddon

Chapter 14

White Dragon was out on point that day, cruising about 50 kilometers north of the Japanese surface flotilla under Captain Nakamura. Loosely translated, his name might mean “middle of the field,” and he was soon to find himself right in the middle of the war that had begun just weeks ago when Japan and China had quarreled over the Senkaku Islands to the south.

SS-503 Hakuryu, the White Dragon, was the lead boat on forward watch. SS-596 Kuroshio was cruising some fifteen kilometers to the southwest. Together they were the horns of the bull that was now moving forward with the three destroyers under Captain Sato as its head.

Hakuryu was a Soryu class Diesel-Electric boat, laid down in February of 2007 and commissioned into the fleet in March of 2011. The boat was 36 meters shorter and only a third the displacement of the big Russian sub she was hunting that day, her 4200 tons barely a ripple in the sea when submerged, though it was the largest class sub in the Japanese navy at that time. Kuroshio was just a little older, a smaller Oyashio class boat commissioned in 2004. Both subs were slow movers on the surface at 12 knots, but could make 20 knots submerged where they spent most of their time at sea.

For teeth, the Hakuryu had six HU-606 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes waiting for her inventory of thirty Type 89 torpedoes or sub-launched UGM-84 Harpoon SSMs. Kuroshio had the same, though it was a little lighter with only twenty weapons in inventory.

With air-independent propulsion that did not need to rely on a snorkel, the subs could stay submerged longer, and were very quiet. They could not match the deep ocean performance of their Russian quarry, as their diving crush test depth was only 900 feet or 275 meters compared to a published test depth of 600 meters on the Kazan.

As fate would have it, the two subs were slowly approaching Ulleung-do island, a prominent rocky outcrop isolated in the sea, with the shape of an irregular pentagon. It was actually the top of a large stratovolcano rising 985 meters above sea level, with sheer crags and odd shaped rock columns about its jagged coastline. The volcano had last vented its wrath over 9000 years ago in a major eruption that deposited tephra as far as central Honshu, which was over 800 kilometers to the east. Now it stood in sullen silence, its rocky toes anchored to the seafloor where the water depth fell off beyond 1900 meters and was even deeper to the southeast where the two subs were patrolling above the Ulleung Basin.

A possession of South Korea, the island was a popular tourist destination, famous for squid fisheries, and sometimes called “Squid Island” due to the fact that the locals would hang out squid to dry on clothes lines, and lay them out on their rooftops all over the island. In 2021 it also housed a small radar installation and a single coast guard corvette operating from the main harbor at Dodong, and so the island’s only strategic utility was as a watchful outpost, a character it had gained over a century ago during the Russo-Japanese war.

The small island had also been the source of friction and conflict in centuries past, along with the Liancourt Rocks, a series of small rocky islets at the top of a subsea table mount feature about 85 kilometers southeast of Ulleung-do. The Japanese called the rocks the Dokdo Islets, and they coveted the hides of sea lions who often came to roost there, sunbathing on the rocky outcrops.

(Map at http://www.writingshop.ws/html/k-viii-maps.html)

An enterprising entrepreneur named Nakai Yozaburo wanted exclusive rights to the lucrative hides, and so he sequestered the islands for his sole use during the years Japan fought its wars with China and Russia. He hailed from the Oki Island group and in 1904 he was able to involve the Japanese Naval Ministry, and particularly Admiral Kinistuki Kenko in the acquisition of the islets from Korea. Seeking a way to monitor the movement of ships out of Vladivostok, the Japanese brushed aside all other claims to the islands and erected a series of watch towers on Oki Island, and both Dokdo and Ulleung-do. They connected them with undersea telegraph cables that eventually linked their naval base at Sasebo to outposts in Korea, and they became a kind of early warning line.

As it happened, Nakai Yozaburo was high in the hills of Oki island in 1908, thinking to take his nap. Instead he heard the call of a sea lion, and thinking to spy this lucrative prey, he saw instead what looked to be a very curious ship approaching, and used that same telegraph system along with smoke signals to warn Vice Admiral Kamimura of Kirov’s approach. It was that warning that led to the battle off Oki Islands, where history now recorded that a large Russian dreadnought led by a renegade sea Captain fought and defeated the Japanese Second Squadron of cruisers and two old battleships out of Maizuru.

Now, 113 years in the future, another Russian vessel cautiously approached the trip wire draped across these isolated island outposts. A deep channel ran along the edge of an undersea escarpment to the north, known as the Usan Trough, and the Russian Submarine Kazan had been cruising beneath a thermocline there, moving south at 25 knots and barely making a whisper in the sea, even at that speed. It was slowly approaching the islands, and the horns of the bull that were moving north to look for it in a loose search pattern. The deadly dance at sea was about to begin.

The senior torero aboard Kazan was Captain Gromyko, still bothered by the odd accident aft that had caused the fire. He was worried that the brief involvement of the turbine bearing housing was going to come back to haunt him, but glad the boat had been able to easily slip away from the Korean coast undetected. As Ulleung-do was South Korean territory, he was taking no chances as they approached, and brought the crew to battle stations again. It so happened that Admiral Volsky and Fedorov were on the bridge in the operations control center when sonar man Chernov reported the first contact.

“Con. Sonar. Undersea contact, possible submarine, confidence high.” He gave the bearing and suspected range, though that would only be refined over time on passive systems. Admiral Volsky looked quietly at Gromyko, noting his relative calm on receiving the news.

“Load all tubes and then the boat will rig for silent running,” Gromyko said quietly.

“Aye, sir. Load all tubes and run silent,” Belanov echoed the order.

“Well,” said Volsky to Fedorov. “This is refreshing-a sea Captain who does not lose his composure with the report of an undersea contact.”

Gromyko was studying his digital map now, noting the rising terrain ahead that would eventually breach the ocean’s surface to become the Ulleung-do island volcano. “I certainly hope this one isn’t planning to erupt any time soon,” he said with a grin to the Admiral.

He had been musing over all he had learned when the Admiral and Fedorov disclosed what had really happened to Kirov, and why they were on this mission. Now they had the first whiff of what was most likely a Japanese or American sub, and the Captain decided to simply run silent for a time to allow Chernov to monitor and record the contact for further analysis.

“That bearing would put that sub on a converging course,” said Volsky.

“Yes, that is correct, Admiral.”

“Well, shouldn’t we turn to avoid them?”

“We could do so, but if they have also managed to detect us that would only tell them we know where they are. No, I think we will hold this course for a while and see what they do.”

At this point Belanov leaned in and whispered something to Volsky. “We call him the matador,” he said. “You have been in the Northern Fleet, Admiral, but out here, Gromyko is a bit of a legend. He has a certain way of fighting the boat in undersea contacts, and the highest scores of any man in the Pacific Fleet.”

“Yes,” said Volsky in a low voice. “I have read the Captain’s file. I suppose that is why he is aboard Kazan.”

“Yes sir. I have seen him this way many times. We have just entered the bull ring.”

Now the matador was walking boldly towards his foe. As with any bull fight, undersea warfare was as much a contest to see what the matador himself could endure as much as it pitted man against beast, machine against machine. The famous Juan Belmonte took the blood sport to a new level when he began to introduce his luring capework in close proximity to the horns, deftly twisting this way and that to avoid being gored. He stood with disdain, showing the crowd his grace and skill, and seeming to defy the chance of serious injury or death that had claimed hundreds of men before him. Yet many who attempted to imitate his style in later years were mauled by the horns. There was only one Belmonte, and here in the Pacific world beneath the sea, his name was Gromyko.

“Watch and learn, Fedorov,” Volsky whispered.

They cruised for the next twenty minutes, the boat silent and tense, and then Gromyko raised his hand, quietly tapping Chernov on the shoulder at his sonar station. “Listen carefully now,” he said. Then turning to Belanov he gave orders for a course change.

“Come right fifteen degrees, five degree down bubble.”

“Right fifteen, five degrees down.”

The order echoed quietly back from the Starpom to the helmsman. They waited, while Fedorov studied the digital map of the undersea terrain with some interest. There were two ways around the volcano, the east gap was between Ulleung-do and a submerged seamount called Anyongbok. From what he could see the sonar data was indicating the course of the undersea contact as moving too close this gap. The turn Gromyko ordered now selected the west gap approaching another deep seamount called Igyuwon. Five minutes passed, then ten, and the time seemed agonizingly slow.

“Any course change on the contact?” Gromyko was at Chernov’s side now.

“No sir, I have it steady on 280.”

“Very well. Keep listening.”

They continued on for some minutes until Chernov gave the Captain an odd look. “Sir…I’m hearing noise… I think it’s us, Captain. It sounds like that bearing is acting up again.”

Gromyko was on the comm panel at once. “Engineering,” he hissed. “What’s going on in the turbine room?”

The report that came back was most unwelcome. The fire near the number six bearing housing had apparently caused more trouble than a quick cleaning an re-lubrication could address. It was squeaking as it turned, and making audible noise. The Engineer promised to suppress it as best he could with additional lubricant, but to Chernov the sound was as if someone was dragging their fingernails across a blackboard.

“Fire control officer. Receive all data from sonar and plot your best solution to the contact. Ready tubes one and three. Type 65 torpedoes.”

“Con. Solution plotted and ready on tubes one and three with Type 65.”

Gromyko had a choice that day of using the big carrier killer, the 650mm Type 65 torpedo, or the smaller Type 53 which was mainly used for ASW applications. For reasons he did not take time to explain, he chose the bigger weapon, and no one on the bridge thought a second to ask why.

Chernov was very tense. “Sir, I’m hearing more. I think they heard us as well.”

“I’m sure they have,” Gromyko said calmly. “They are most likely putting fish in the water at this moment, or they soon will. But we will get there first. Fire tubes one and three. Helm, left standard rudder-port five by five.”

“Firing now!”

The torpedoes were away, ejecting cold as the submarine executed another turning dive, and then their engines started up and they went streaking away towards the unseen enemy contact.

Aboard the White Dragon things were about to get very interesting, and very dangerous. The bull was advancing in a predetermined search pattern. The two submarines were the horns, well out ahead of Sato’s surface ships. Sato’s group was the head, and the tail was the SGN Mississippi, moving quietly to the scene from the northeast. Captain Nakamura was cruising to his assigned position in the east undersea transit gap, where he thought he might lie in wait for any adversary attempting to skirt the island volcano of Ulleung-do. His sonar man was listening very intently, but he had heard nothing until he suddenly announced a possible submarine contact.

“Undersea noise, Captain. Very audible, and bearing 262 degrees.”

That Captain glanced quickly at his chart, noting the bearing and approximate position of the contact and quickly discerning that someone was making for the west gap undersea channel. “Contact Naval Operations and pass this contact data. Battle stations! Load tubes two and four!” Nakamura wasted not a second, but he was already late.

“Sir! I have one, now two torpedoes in the water and running true down 260!”

“Firing Control Officer, do you have a solution?”

“Sir, we do not have a lock yet!”

“Then fire down that bearing, minus ten degrees. Now!”

The White Dragon fired in return, a bearing only attack that did not have high odds of success, and Nakamura was not going to wait around to see which boat had the better firing solution. Assuming the enemy was heading south, he had subtracted ten degrees from his firing bearing, hoping to get his torpedoes to a place the enemy might be when they arrived to begin their active sonar search for the target.

“Countermeasures! Starboard side noisemakers. Do it now!”

The Firing Officer ejected their decoys which spun out in a wildly cavitating pattern designed to attract any incoming torpedo. Now it was time to be somewhere else, and as inconspicuously as possible. But the noisemakers would linger, moving at a pre-programmed speed to lure in the enemy fish.

“Ten degrees down bubble. Make your depth 200. Speed fifteen.”

“Sir, diving planes are ten degrees down and we are passing through 180 meters. Speed fifteen knots.”

Both subs had fired, one with a much better solution than the other, as the White Dragon had been roused from its undersea slumber by the sudden noise, while Kazan had been listening to and tracking the enemy for some time. That difference could be decisive, but now it was up to the four torpedoes in the water, rapidly accelerating and beginning to search for the targets they had been unleashed to find and destroy.