Cold Warriors: The Essex Class in the Cold War

February 19, 1959
Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan


Alarm bells were ringing in offices all across the base and on every ship in the harbor. The Soviets were sending a major fleet to sea from Vladivostok. A report had been radioed in by a Martin P5M Marlin conducting a routine patrol over the Sea of Japan. While the Soviets putting to sea would not normally be cause for extreme alarm, this situation was somewhat different.


The Soviets were sending almost their entire Pacific Fleet to sea. Nearly every major surface combatant that they had was sortieing. The Marlin crew reported that they had visually identified four light cruisers and ten destroyers as part of the fleet. That was a serious amount of firepower. The flying boat was immediately ordered to shadow the fleet and continue reporting back on their course and speed. Meanwhile, a second Marlin was prepared to relieve the first with a Neptune and its crew alerted to a change in their mission orders for their evening flight.


In the harbor, ships began preparing for a possible emergency deployment to counter the Soviets. This would largely entail topping off fuel tanks, taking aboard additional stores and munitions and putting their crews on warning orders to be prepared to have their leaves cancelled with little or no notice. In his headquarters ashore Vice Admiral Fredrick Kivette, the Commander of 7th Fleet, reviewed his options to deal with the Soviets should they decide to stick their noses into the brewing crises in Indonesia.


The heady days of the Fast Carrier Task Force of World War Two were long gone. No longer could he call on nearly a dozen fleet carriers at once and deliver overwhelming firepower onto his enemies. At present, he had Midway, Bon Homme Richard and Yorktown in the area. And only Midway and Bonnie Dick had attack wings onboard. Ticonderoga and Ranger were both heading towards him, but until they were in the area he couldn't rely on them. Worse still, his carriers were spread out over hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean.


Yorktown was down in the Banda Sea with plans to steam around New Guinea before steaming into the Philippine Sea to meet up with Bon Homme Richard, which was just leaving Subic Bay, and HMS Albion, en route from Singapore, for a hastily thrown together exercise. Ticonderoga would join them there when she arrived in theater a few days after the rest of the carriers joined together, but until then the task force would be woefully underarmed with only Bon Homme Richard shipping a full attack group. Admiral Kivette had gotten a look at what Albion had on board and nearly had a stroke at what the Royal Navy considered to be a front line air group. The planes the Brits were supplying were filler to his own air groups, nothing more. Added to that, he couldn't keep Tico on station for long. In the last year and a half, she had spent eleven months deployed and was in dire need of a refit. He could only keep her for maybe a month, two if she was lightly used. Ranger was only two days behind Ticonderoga, but she was being sent towards Japan to relieve Midway who was scheduled to begin her voyage back to Alameda in less than five days. That wouldn't be happening now.


After spending hours evaluating his options, Admiral Kivette made his decision. He would order Midway into the East China Sea to be in a position to intercept the Soviet fleet if needed. After the joint exercise with the Brits concluded, and assuming the Indonesian's showed signs of deescalating the crises, he would send Ticonderoga to Subic Bay for some much needed shore leave before detaching her to resume her journey back to CONUS with a stop in Hawaii along the way. Yorktown would stay with Bon Homme Richard and the two of them would join up with Midway if the Soviets were still playing games. He would keep Ranger in his back pocked just in case.

The best Soviet destroyers in the Pacific Fleet at this time were Kotlins and one Kildin, Neuderzhimy. Their range of 3000nm gives them a radius that barely reaches the top of Taiwan. The Sverdlovs, of course, have a longer range, but are limited to an obsolescent gun defence against any jet strike aircraft. The destroyers really didn’t have the experience or the design to deal with a long range deployment.

Therefore, it isn’t really a threat that would tie any US admiral’s knickers in a knot. They’ve got to pass through multiple choke points and at every stage will be within range of shore based aircraft and the Pacific Fleet does have SSNs. The assorted carriers gathering down south can handle anything Indonesia can put together, leaving Midway and Ranger to completely overmatch the miserable and one dimensional Soviet surface squadron. Even if they were only limited to conventional weapons, a single attack carrier group would be able to sink the lot. However, they aren’t limited to conventional weapons, being the heyday of massive retaliation under Ike. The sense of panic comes off as a bit contrived in this respect.

What also seems a bit contrived is his lack of knowledge of what the British carrier deploys and his seeming shock that a CVL has a CVL air group. It simply doesn’t come off as the reaction of a professional flag officer, particularly such a short time after Korea when the differentiation between USN and CW CVWs was well known and understood.

Overall, he seems more worried and clueless than he should be and a bit conventionally minded for the period.

What about 6 years from now in OTL as seen in this picture:

The U.S. Navy Task Force 77 operating in the South China Sea, March 1965. It had recently launched strikes against North Vietnam. Carriers present are (clockwise from bottom): Ranger (CVA-61), Yorktown (CVS-10), Coral Sea (CVA-43) and Hancock (CVA-19). The guided missile cruiser Canberra (CAG-2) is in the center of the formation. The destroyer screen includes: England (DLG-22), Gurke (DD-783), Rogers (DD-876), Walker (DD-517), O'Bannon (DD-450), Somers (DD-947), Jenkins (DD-447), John A. Bole (DD-755), Higbee (DD-806), Buck (DD-761), Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) and Ernest G. Small (DD-838). This photograph was specially posed, and does not represent a normal operating formation

February 21, 1959
East China Sea

The droning of the Pratt & Whitney R3350 was nearly enough to lull you to sleep. Or at least it was in the opinion of Ltjg John Tunnel. Flying reconnaissance and surveillance missions like this was one of the most boring missions he could ever imagine flying. His radar operator however, couldn't disagree more. He was completely and totally focused on the screen in front of him. Lieutenant Tunnel could barely make heads or tales of what the screen showed, not with it being so full of spots, blotches and lines. But Ltjg Albertson seemed to perk up the more he watched the screen.

"John, stay on this heading for another five minutes," John Albertson said. "I know we're supposed to turn in two, but I think I've got something here."

"Rog," he replied.

The modified Skyraider they were flying continued on into the dark night sky, shuddering and bumping slightly as they flew through a patch of turbulence. Beside him, John was muttering back and forth with their radar technician, Chief Petty Officer Scott Moscoe, as they worked to pull every last scrap of information they could out of their radar system. Finally, he heard John say, "Gotcha."

With a soft click, the radio came alive and Ltjg Albertson called out, "School Boy, this is Controller 4. Radar contact one-five-zero miles north-north-east of my position. Multiple large surface contacts operating in formation. Course one-six-zero, speed twelve knots."

As the radio clicked off, he heard the Chief in the back seat chuckle and proclaim, "You can run, but you can't hide Ivan."

Well, at least tracking a Soviet fleet would keep his crew busy, Tunnel thought. He'd be just as bored driving the bus in a slow, lazy circle around them as he would be flying a patrol track.

February 24, 1959
Philippine Sea

On the Flag Bridge of Bon Homme Richard, Rear Admiral Schoech read over the latest radio messages from Seventh Fleet. The Soviets had put to sea nearly a week ago from Vladivostok. Damn near their entire Pacific Fleet had sortied. The fleet had been tracked by Marlins and Neptunes out of Japan before a Guppy from Midway had made contact with the formation a few nights ago. They were still steaming towards the Southwest Pacific area of operations. No one was entirely sure what they were up to either. Moscow had been entirely too tightlipped for his tastes about what seemed to be an unplanned deployment.


Glancing at the plotting board, he noted the positions of the other three aircraft carriers in the formation. Yorktown was positioned to the southwest, where her anti-submarine group could shield the formation from Indonesian submarines. He would have to order her to the north shortly though. It was unlikely that the Soviets would send out their entire surface fleet and overlook sending a few submarines their way as well. Ticonderoga and Albion were also out here with him, with Ticonderoga sailing two miles off his port beam and Albion positioned to the northeast in what Admiral Schoech judged to be the least likely attack axis. Her small air group could never hope to seriously disrupt a determined attack on the fleet. But they could drive off any snoopers that came around.

For a thrown together exercise, things had actually gone fairly well. There had been some grumbling from the crew of Ticonderoga of course. Captain Coleman had advised him of it when he came aboard after Ticonderoga joined up with the rest of the formation. He could sympathize with her crew. Being turned around and sent back to the Western Pacific when you're only a few days from home must have been a punch to the gut of every man onboard. With a little luck, he'd be able to detach her from the formation in another few days for a little R&R at Cubi Point. Until then though, she still had a job to do and, as he informed her skipper, he expected her to perform up to his exacting standards regardless of how long she'd been deployed. To his credit, Captain Coleman had assured him that his ship and his crew would exceed those expectations. And then they had proceeded to do just that.

Unfortunately, their presence in the area didn't seem to be discouraging the Indonesians in the slightest. They had launched a devastating raid on Biak just the day before. Early reports of the damage seemed to suggest that the airfield had been knocked almost completely out of commission. He was aware that the Dutch were sending a task force of their own centered on a light carrier to the area in order to enforce their claims to the island. But he really didn't know what they could do. They were supposed to fly in a squadron of more modern fighters to defend the base, but given the level of destruction being caused there, he didn't think that would be entirely possible. But that wasn't his call to make. He had told Admiral Kivette of his concerns regarding the Dutch carrier though. If the Indonesians had acquired Kennel missiles, and the bombers to launch them, the Dutch could be in for a rude surprise. Admiral Kivette shared his concerns and had sent them up the line, but it remained to be seen what, if anything, the Dutch would do with them.

Doubt it is the route of getting promoted he wanted but now he has.

That is what i worried about, there are going to be a lot of carriers out there and i wonder if the Indonesians pilots have trained enough to recognize which carrier, namely the Doorman they need to hit when the time comes.