Arizona's Revenge
"Admiral Nagumo, we are approaching Wake Island", said Lieutenant Commander Matsuda. Nagumo said nothing, and only stared off into the distance. Wake Island, a small strip of sand in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and only used by the Pan-American aircraft as a stopover point on the way to the Philippines and China. But the Emperor had declared war, and the General Staff decried that Wake must be taken, and the Navy had complied.
The first force to try and take the island was the 7th Fleet, composed of old and small ships. But with 2 light cruisers, 5 destroyers, and 3 transports, certainly they must be triumphant over a garrison with only 6 5 inch naval cannon and 4 fighter-bombers. But they had not been. 2 destroyers had been sunk, nearly every other vessel damaged, and not one man had been landed on the shore of the island.
The General Staff was furious, and decided to make an example of Wake. Now with 6 heavy carriers, 8 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers, and 40 destroyers, as well as 10 transports carrying 20,000 imperial marines, Wake would be crushed. But what was that? It appeared to be water churning and boiling, as if there was a volcano there. Nagumo got his field glasses and looked closer. More of the object, which was revealed to be a warship, appeared through the spray. He identified the bridge, it's three great gun turrets. And then its stern where the name was, and as he did his blood ran cold. "Fuchida, come look at this" he yelled. Fuchida came and looked through the binoculars. His face turned the color of fish and he said "It can't be, we sunk the Arizona at Pearl Harbor."
Nagumo watched in horror as the Arizona opened fire with her 14 inch guns. A salvo immediately struck the Akagi and Kaga. Both ships had explosions and began to burn, and then capsize. Then Zuikaku and Shokaku were struck. The heavy cruiser Mogami tried to shield Soryu, but took a shell in the magazines. The explosion was titanic, breaking glass on the bridge of the Hiryu, and throwing commander Fuchida off his feet. Soryu took 2 salvos and was reduced to flaming wreckage on the sea. Nagumo screamed out to heaven , "how could this have happened?" Then there was a great flash, and then there was nothing at all.
Gunichi Mikawa maneuvered his cruiser Mikuma closer and asked his radio officer what he had heard. "The carrier Hiryu radioed they were under attack, and then the transmission stopped partway." Mikawa thought, under attack by what. The American Pacific Fleet was crippled, the British had no ships in the area, and neither did the Dutch. So who--. "Sacred Buddha." Where the carrier group and its escorts had been, there was now a sea of ships burning, exploding, and men in the water screaming and on fire. The Mikuma managed to pull one man from the water, although he was badly burned. Mikawa asked what had done this and the man screamed one word over and over. "Arizona, Arizona, Arizona." He screamed the words over and over until he threw himself over the side. Mikawa turned to his aide and said "what did he mean."
Major Devereaux watched as the Japanese fleet closed on Wake. He knew that it was only a matter of time before they bombarded and landed men. He had been able to throw back the first invasion fleet but this force was too powerful. His men were nearly out of .50 caliber machine-gun ammunition, and there were few shells for his 5 inch coast defense guns. There were transports carrying enough men to overwhelm his meager force. Then he looked up and to his amazement he saw U. S. Navy planes! They came in low, and dropped torpedoes first on the transports. All of them took hits and began to sink. Then came dive bombers which attacked the heavy cruisers. The attack was devastating and 3 cruisers were burning when they left. After that Wildcat fighters came in to strafe and bomb the destroyers. They then landed on Wake's airfield. Deavareax turned to his aide and asked "Tom, do you believe in miracles?"
Captain Callahan was asked by Admiral Kimmel, how the Arizona survived. "Everyone thought that the Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor." ''Well sir, that is a story. And the beginning is in March, 1941. I was asked by Admiral Stark whether in my opinion the battleship was still the queen of the battlefield and I told him she was not. But I also said that the battleship's strength was close in and long range firepower. The battleship was still as lethal as it had always been. What had changed was the airplane, and the aircraft carrier. The airplane could travel faster than any ship, and could strike the battleship with lethal force, as had been proved at Taranto, where 26 W.W.I torpedo planes neutralized 5 Italian battleships. The aircraft carrier could carry squadrons of planes to engage naval forces far from any land or airfield. But the flaw of the aircraft carrier was that it did not have close range firepower or good side and belt armor. Normally this would not be a problem for an aircraft carrier, since they were kept in the center of the fleet, and protected by other warships, so that the greatest threat to a carrier was air attack, or submarines. But I had though of a way in which battleships could destroy aircraft carriers. It would take three things: money, time, and the battleship Arizona.
