Konpeki no Kantai::Volume1 Chapter5

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Konpeki no Kantai Volume 1 Chapter 5

Chapter Five: The 8000 Kilometer Undersea Strike of the Fugaku

1

The Deep Blue Fleet greeted the new year 17, seven days after having sortied from the Hawaiian Islands.

Rear Admiral Maebara Issei, for the first time in a while, saw the faint outline of an island upon the sea, though not with his naked eye. When the periscope of the Fugaku lifted out of the sea on the morning of New Year’s Day, it was in the field of view.

The morning sun was just rising, precisely behind the volcanic island. The glittering, golden dawn shone brightly, as if it were shooting him in the eyes...

The view from the scope vanished in the great waves of the ocean, only to reappear.

"You take a look," said Maebara Issei, urging the captain of the Fugaku, Irie Kuichi.

When Captain Kuichi peered through the scope,

"That must be Clipperton Island," he said.

The French island of Clipperton is a volcanic island floating in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is located at ten degrees north latitude, one hundred and ten degrees west longitude. From Hawaii, it is 5000 kilometers to the south-east. Without consulting a map of the seas, we knew that America was not far away. The coast of Mexico to the northeast is less than 1000 kilometers away.

"Our voyage is on schedule," said Maebara.

The Deep Blue Fleet ran at marvelous speed through the East Pacific, reaching fifteen knots on and under the water, covering 360 nautical miles (670 kilometers) per day.

"Yes. We are still sixteen hundred nautical miles from our target, but the real battle is about to begin," said Irie.

Sixteen hundred nautical miles is about three thousand kilometers.

"We are in enemy territory," nodded Maebara. "From now on, we will have to go underwater day and night."

"Yes sir."

Captain Irie put his mouth to the speaking tube and gave the order: "Lower the periscope."

"Lowering periscope."

"Maintain depth at 50, speed at seven knots. From here on out, the use of underwater recharging equipment is prohibited during daylight hours."

Captain Irie made this announcement as previously arranged.

The underwater recharging equipment charged the battery while the submarine was underwater by taking in air to run a generator. In other words, it was a snorkel developed by our own country ahead of the German Navy.

"Understood. Maintain depth at 50 meters, speed at seven."

"The course will remain the same until further notice."

"Command center affirmative. Maintaining course for Panama."

The voice of Lieutenant Colonel Shinagawa Yajirou, the senior officer, echoed from the command center directly below the control tower.

The ship showed an immediate and sharp response to the tilt of its dive planes. The Fugaku I-601 entered a diving stance, its bow heading underwater. Despite being an revolutionary and giant submarine, the Fugaku’s had outstanding performance moving underwater. This was due to the unprecedented cocoon-shaped structure of the hull.

No, in fact there was a precedent. It was not of this world, but in a prior life. In other words, at the end of the last world war, Japan built the I-400, a ship that could easily circumnavigate the globe......

Displacing 3445 tons empty, but when fully loaded said to actually displace up to 5523 tons, these I-400s were equipped with a unique tube enclosure that could house two to three Seiran attack seaplanes.

Unfortunately, these huge submarines were greeted by the end of the war on August 15, Year 20, without having accomplished anything in the war. However, judging by the admiration given to them by the Americans after the war, our country’s submarine construction technology outstripped theirs.

* In olden days, "Seiran" was the common name for a sudden storm from a clear sky.

As if to make up for the overly late entry of the I-400 class submarines into the war, the members of the Deep Blue Society built yet more powerful new submarines, the I-500, I-600 and the I-700 classes, and introduced them in time for the start of the war...

...This was precisely what the Deep Blue Fleet was all about!

The fearsome power of their attack had already been seen in the Battle of Hawaii on December 7th. The terrible sight of battleships being sunk in the blink of an eye by a simultaneous torpedo attack crushed the enemy Admiral Kimmel’s spirit. And it was what made Admiral Kimmel surrender at once...

But for this mysterious fleet, such things were a piece of cake.

2

It was top secret. The very existence of the fleet was limited to Prime Minister Ootaka and a few others under him. For that reason, the results of their battles were not reported at all. They were quite literally a shadow fleet......

But if I could not go into details, this story would not be able to move along. For the moment, keeping things to the absolute minimum, the Deep Blue Fleet's composition was:

I-601 Fugaku (Flagship)

I-501 Suigami

I-502 Kairyuu

I-503 Soukai

I-701 Otohime (Tender)

The above consists of five ships.

Well......

There were no special events celebrating the New Year, as they in midst of a military operation. The commander, the captain, the navigator and other key personnel of each ship simply stood in front of a Shinto altar placed in an appropriate spot within the ship and clapped their hands in prayer.

Instead, the crews of each ship, numbering from around 110 to 200 each, were allowed to eat whatever they wanted for the day.

In preparation for several months of sailing without stopping at any port, the ship's interiors were packed full of boxes of food everywhere. Canned fruit, yokan... if it could be preserved, they had it all. Everyone celebrated New Year's with smiles on their faces.

Admiral Maebara descended the chimney-like tube from the conning tower, which was filled with four to five people. Once he descended, he was in the command center, which was the battle control center for the Fugaku, where Commander Shinagawa was working hard.

"Salute!"

"Wow, everyone looks like they are having fun," Maebara called out in a friendly manner. "But don't eat too much, or you'll wind up under the care of Dr. Akasaka."

Maebara looked around the control center, which was crammed with instruments. The planesman, Petty Officer Kusaka, was staring at the depth gauge.

"How's it going? She may be a huge ship, but she seems pretty easy to handle."

"Ah, yes sir!"

Planesman Kusaka, perhaps because the commander had spoken to him directly, straightened his small body as if he had been snapped at.

"Yes sir. I think it performs amazingly well. The helm functions smoothly, with hardly any trouble at all."

"It's because of the new lubrication systems in the ship," Maebara informed him.

Continuing, he said "But, the problem is rapid submergence. We have trained well, but when the time comes for the real thing to happen, the fate of the ship and the crew will rest on your skills in controlling the ship."

"Yes sir."

"Yes sir."

Not only these men, but all of the carefully selected crew of the Deep Blue Fleet were outstanding.

According to the design specifications, the ship was capable of fully submerging inside of sixty seconds. But, as the result of intense training, they had been able to reduce the time to fifty seconds. Which was a miracle, considering the giant submarine displaced over five thousand tons...

Next to the planesman sat the helmsman.

"Lieutenant Terashima, let me switch with you for a bit."

Maebara sat down, gripping the stick.

The turning performance wasn't bad. The compass swung around at once. Returning to their heading, he handed the position back.

The hands in charge of air and pumps were next over.

Next to the conning tower was the radio room. Next to that was a cramped underwater listening post. Then there was a radar and backward scanning room. This corner was the mouth and ears of the Fugaku.

Maebara passed through a watertight door, making his way into the bow of the ship. The officer's, the non-com's and the enlisted men's rooms were all in a line.

Calling out to each of them as he went down the corridor, he descended.

At the bow of the ship was a torpedo room. It was next to the magazine. The torpedo tubes and the torpedoes themselves were decorated by shimenawa.

"Salute"

"Congratulations, gentlemen."

"Congratulations."

A cheerful reply came from everyone at once. The extremely high morale probably came from their having sunk the aircraft carrier Lexington and two battleships.

"All of you, at ease," laughed Maebara. "We're off the hot seat for now."

"We're utterly bored and having nothing to do but polish torpedoes," said Lieutenant Terajima Chuusaburou, the torpedo chief.

"Haha, there aren't many fleets in this Pacific Ocean at the moment," said Maebara. "But if the attack on Panama succeeds, we'll let you shoot at the merchant ships to your heart's content."

"Merchant ships?" questioned one of the fresh-faced NCOs.

"Idiot," scolded Maebara, but his eyes were smiling.

Continuing, he said, "Come on now, listen up. The main purpose of submarine warfare, as has been said many times before, is the disruption of trade. As they would say in boxing, it's a body blow. It is strategically important that we weaken the enemy in this way."

As Maebara said this, he looked around the neatly organized and scrupulously clean torpedo room. As one would expect of Lieutenant Terajima, who was getting up there in years. The torpedo-room staff was top notch. It looked like even the subordinates could be relied upon.

"Lieutenant, might I have a word with you?" Maebara invited him into the torpedo chief's office.

"Yes, sir."

It was about the size of a restroom, but at least it afforded some privacy. For a submarine, that was a luxury.

"It's a little messy, but come on in."

They sat facing each other, their knees almost touching.

"You've been studying, haven't you?" said Maebara, looking at the mountains of manuals and specialty literature piled up all around the place.

"After all, this ship is carrying a new type of torpedo, so what we learned in school about torpedoes will not be enough," answered Terajima.

"Yes, of all the Imperial Navy, our Deep Blue Fleet is the only part equipped with the 62cm oxygen torpedo. You've seen with your own eyes just how powerful it is," said Maebara, his eyes smiling.

"Yes, sir."

"It was what our Deep Blue Society was thinking, but with one blow it turned into proof positive..."

All of the Fugaku's torpedo tubes were clustered in the bow. There were, in fact, twelve of them in all. By using sleeves, they could also be used to fire 53cm torpedoes as well.

"Except that we didn't do that in Hawaii......" continued Maebara. "We had heard that the American fleet's ring formation was exceedingly effective, especially against a submarine attack. The 62cm torpedo, with its fifty-kilometer range, was conceived as a way to rip through that wall of iron."

"Yes, sir. I would really like to see what the power of a simultaneous torpedo attack from four ships in a row, this ship and as well as the three I-500s, would be like."

"Haha, perhaps we shall see that," Maebara said, his eyes smiling. "However, as we think up new weapons and new methods of warfare, the enemy will come up with new ways to defend themselves and fight. In other words, warfare is destined to be a competition between spear and shield."

"Yes. It is a complete contradiction in terms."

* Long, long ago, a Chinese arms dealer said, "This spear can penetrate any shield," then pulled out a shield and proclaimed that it could defend against any spear. Hearing that a customer asked, "Well then, what would happen if I were to poke that shield with that spear?" At the customer's words, the dealer gave up and from this historical event we have the expression, "spear-shield" or "contradiction." What we have here is a play on words; a twist on an old saying. It was a cynical commentary on the old game of cat and mouse between offensive and defensive weapons.

"For that reason, ongoing research has come to be important. It is also important to have the industrial strength to put it to good use immediately, both in actual fighting and on the home front. In the previous world, we were defeated because of that. We must learn from these lessons and proceed with caution this time around......"

Maebara's voice went serious, but then it brightened and he continued, "Be that as it may, hitting and sinking the aircraft carrier Lexington and the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma by the direct hits of four torpedoes fired at once... that took a lot of skill."

"No, that wasn't because of our skills, but rather the incredible performance of the torpedoes."

"Haha, you need not be modest."

Maebara smiled with amusement. "Somebody with normal skills would not be able to deal with them. They are 62cm torpedoes."

"It may have been a fluke."

"Don't be so cautious. But that's fine. We must not be prideful..." said Maebara.

"Sir. It is true that adjusting the 62 is requires care. That's because the currents, the density of the seawater, the temperature and so on must be accurately calculated."

"In any case, the secret of the 62 must never be revealed to the enemy. You must be very diligent with the maintenance so that if a torpedo misses the mark, it will always self-destruct," Maebara warned.

"Yes sir. I will speak firmly with my subordinates, and as always will check for myself too," answered Lt. Terajima.

"That is what I came to warn you about," said Maebara.

The 62cm torpedoes were also equipped with a magnetic detonators. What's more, you could call them the world's first self-guided torpedoes.

The 62 was equipped with a simple acoustic detector in the warhead. With that, it detects the engine noise of its target and uses that to adjust its steering as it rushes towards the enemy. Therefore, however much the enemy ship zigs and zags to try and dodge the torpedo attack, the 62 torpedo bites.

"But, if things go wrong, it can snap back at our side. It would be a real problem if such a thing were to happen, so special attention must be paid to the maintenance of the rudder controls and the setting of the timer for activating the detector," said Lieutenant Terajima.

If we take the example of the attack on the Lexington, the Fugaku had fired twelve 62cm torpedoes at the target at a range of thirty kilometers. The twelve torpedo tracks, each thirty seconds of arc apart, formed a fan towards the estimated position. Because the enemy carrier changed course frequently and repeatedly as a countermeasure against submarine attacks, the five on the left side and the three on the right side were off. But the remaining four detected the sounds of their target's engines at a thousand meters and rushed towards their target furiously.

Since the oxygen torpedoes created no wake, the enemy ship was probably not aware until they were hit. What's more, some of the torpedoes exploded as they passed beneath the ship because of their magnetic fuses. It sank at once.

"I shudder to think of what the enemy would do if they had something this sophisticated," said Terajima.

"No, when you consider America's industrial might and scientific capability, they will very likely catch up to us in the not-so-distant future. But at first they will leverage their vast resources against us," said Maebara.

"Yes. I think so too," said the gifted student of the Advanced Submariner Course.

"I think of America as a giant. If the battle drags on too long, they will inevitably defeat us."

That was also the conclusion of the members of the Deep Blue Society. It was not a good idea to let the giant get serious.

"And that is why they are so hard to fight," said Maebara. "As his Excellency Takano said, if we attack the American mainland, the giant will surely wake up. In other words, don't let them get an upper cut."

"Do you think there is any chance of an early ceasefire?"

"I don't know. But I think there is a chance. And yet, if our country becomes the target of hatred, a ceasefire will be a long time coming. It will be very difficult, but we will have to fight as if it were a sport, His Excellency Takano said."

"But that is what we the Japanese people are worst at."

"True. Because there is no leeway in our way of thinking," said Maebara.

3

Maebara turned on his heel and proceeded down the corridor to the stern of the ship. It was a passageway, but for a narrow submarine such a thing was revolutionary. And from the start, there were boxes and bags filled with provisions piled up even here.

In the stern was the engine room. The Chief Engineer, Lt. Hijikata Saemon, was eating zouni together with his oil-covered subordinates. When Admiral Maebara suddenly appeared,

"Salute!"

When the order was given, some of them with mochi in their mouth, and their eyes glazed over.

"Congratulations, gentlemen."

Maebara was friendly here too.

"Congratulations to you too, sir."

"It's unfortunate that you guys never get a break."

Smiling as he said so, his eyes looked around the engine room.

It was a dreary sight, but even here there were shimenawa ropes strung, giving the place a New Year's air to it.

"I believe you will have heard announcements from your senior officers about it, but we are finally entering the enemy's territorial waters. For that reason, the underwater charging system is limited to after sunset. Oh well."

"Yes, sir."

Lt. Hijikata nodded.

"How are things going?" he asked, referring to the hatch at his feet.

"It looks to me like things are going wonderfully."

Beneath a triple-hatched inspection hole there was a submersible pump room. In this room, giant pumps lined up in series impelled seawater to the rear of the submarine.

This, most particularly, was the greatest secret of the I-500 and I-600 class submarines.

Surprisingly, each ship of the Deep Blue Fleet propels itself using this method of pumping water to form a jet. In other words, they advance not using screws, but through the reaction force from expelling a jet of water behind them, just as would an octopus or a squid.

After all, even propulsion using screws uses the reaction force from pushing seawater backwards, so the principle is exactly the same.

However, propulsion by means of pump-jets is highly efficient, since there is no mechanical energy loss from making the propeller rotate.

It's a simple thing, but the reality surpassed the concept. Of course, it was designed and developed by the members of the Deep Blue Society's Engineering Division.

"May I?" said Maebara, pointing to the Chief Engineer's office as he had back in the torpedo room.

"The place is a bit of a mess, but do come in."

The rooms were a little wider here, but in exchange the ceilings were lower.

"Commander, please watch out for your head," said Lt. Hijikata.

The two of them sat cross-legged, facing each other.

"Well, it looks like you've been studying hard too."

"Yes, sir. As you know, this is the first time we're dealing with this new propulsion method," answered Hijikata.

Picking up an engineering book, Maebara said "You're even studying books on hydraulics? That's excellent."

He continued, "Those are hard formulas lined up there, can you understand them?"

"Yes, sir. Somehow," replied Hijikata.

He was a top student, head of his class in the School of Engineering.

"This ship may have a safe depth of 130 meters, but I am working on calculating whether or not the pumps would work if we were submerged to a depth of 200 meters."

"And your conclusion?"

"It looks like we should be fine. Of course, we can't travel fast while submerged."

"That so? That's good to know," said Maebara.

In an ordinary submarine, when you pass 130 meters depth, it becomes impossible to flush the toilets to outside the ship. As can be seen from this, the pump capacity is closely related to depth.

"Even so, I think it's a magnificent invention," said Hijikata. "In comparison with screw propulsion, the battery consumption is much less."

And in the case of the Fugaku, like with ordinary submarines, there were batteries all over the place. What's more, they were not the second-class batteries found on ordinary warships.

In this respect, too, the Deep Blue Fleet was loaded up with a new type of battery, one that was exceedingly efficient.

"You can't say that the efficiency of underwater propulsion isn't due only to the adoption of water jet propulsion," said Maebara. "I couldn't believe it until I tested it for myself. I didn't think the soft rubber coating wrapped around the entire ship would be so effective."

"It was an idea inspired by dolphins and whales…"

<~~34% Completed~~>

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