Cold Warriors: The Essex Class in the Cold War

Apologies for the long delay in updating this. But like it has a tendency to do, life got in the way. I'm going to try to hold to a more regular update schedule going forward.



March 2, 1959
Philippine Sea


On board four carriers similar scenes were repeating themselves. Alarm klaxons were sounding as officers and men rushed to their posts. A large number of the enlisted men, and a not insignificant number of junior officer, could be heard grumbling about the incessant drills that the "old man" had them running. While it was true that Admiral Shoech had drilled his men nearly non-stop, this time he wasn't the cause of the call to General Quarters.


AD-5Ws from both Bon Homme Richard and Ticonderoga had picked up multiple inbound aircraft, type unknown but moving fast and in formation. It was a good bet that the damn Indonesians were using his ships for training again. What caused his level of concern to tick up a notch were the other contacts that were being plotted. These had come from the Trackers flying off of Yorktown.


One of her planes had been enroute to its patrol station and was doing a gear check along the way. They just happened to have the MAD boom out and the readout spiked. After a few sonobuoys had been dropped, they radioed in a confirmed submarine contact just to the east of the formation, and the formation was steaming straight at it while they conducted flight operations.


Deciding to try and scare the bastard off, Admiral Shoech ordered the crew in the Tracker to drop some active buoys so the sub would know that she'd been found. What the buoys revealed instead was the presence of a second submarine just on the edge of detection. Unable to prosecute both contacts at once, a Seabat helicopter was dispatched to keep tabs on the second sub while an additional Tracker was prepared to launch from Yorktown. While he could confidently leave the submarine threat up to Admiral Colestock and Yorktown, he would have to handle the inbound aircraft.


The airborne cap was currently being flown by the Sea Hawks of 806 Squadron from Albion. While they had already reoriented themselves towards the threat and pushed their throttles to the stops, they were not much more capable than the Banshees embarked on Yorktown and Ticonderoga. Yorktown was already putting up two of her Banshees to provide additional top cover over the fleet. Once airborne, they would join with four Banshees being launched off of Ticonderoga. That should give them sufficient close in cover if needed.


He would need to shoot off the ready Tigers from Bonnie Dick for an attempt at a deck launched intercept. They were the fastest planes he had and could get there first. After that would come his Demons. Both Tico and BHR carried a full squadron of the planes. He supposed it was time they earned their keep. According to his morning reports, both ships were keeping a two plane formation on the deck and ready to launch for this eventuality. They would be shot off ASAP.


He would also have to send up two of his Skywarriors. The Red Rockets of VAH-2 were thankfully equipped with the latest A3D-2 version of the plane and could conduct aerial refueling missions for his fighters. He should probably launch another pair of Guppys as well to relieve the two already airborne. Once his planes were in the air, and the handful that needed to recovered, he needed to turn his fleet away from the approaching submarines. He had no intention of going near any submarine, friendly or hostile, if he could avoid it.

March 2, 1959
Under the Philippine Sea


PING! PING! PING! Captain Third Rank Rudolf Golosov cursed his luck. He had cleanly beaten the outer screen of the American battle group and was finalizing his preparations to launch a mock attack on one of the American carriers. But somehow the damn imperialists had managed to find him. His Project 611 submarine may not be the most advanced boat in the Soviet Navy, but she had a damn good crew, and for the life of him he couldn't figure how the Americans had managed to find him. But they did as their damn aircraft circling overhead proved.


His first attempt at slipping away had been foiled when the Americans dropped their active sonobuoys on him. They had him dead to rights. If they wanted to, they could have quickly put him on the wrong end of a torpedo or depth charge. But he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Let the Americans think they had him localized and pinned down and he would use their hubris against them to slip away.


At his command several noise makers were released while he ordered B-72 deep and made a radical turn to confuse the American sensors. They couldn't listen to all their sonobuoys simultaneously. He would use the noise from the decoys to close in and launch his mock attack. His sonar was not the most capable in the world, but he could hear more active buoys being dropped around his noisemakers. He smiled to himself. Good luck finding him now, class oppressors.


The minutes ticked by slowly and the sounds of the hunt faded behind him. When he could no longer hear anything, he slowly brought his boat back up to periscope depth and risked a quick exposure. The scope was above the surface for less than six seconds and already he was getting reports on all the radar activity up there. There were multiple airborne search sets of the type carried by the American S-2 Tracker aircraft. They had even picked up a few surface search sets of the type fitted to the American's Gearing class destroyers. He would have to be quick to evade after he finished his "attack."


His quick survey of the surface also showed him that the formation was turning. They knew he was out here, and their Admiral would not want to put his precious carriers at risk by steaming straight at him. He would also know that his boat had no hope of closing the formation if they turned away from him and opened the throttles. But it did not matter. He was not where their admiral expected him to be. The ship he had originally been targeting was no longer within his engagement envelope, but another was heading straight at him. He was a smaller carrier, British or Australian maybe.


But that was just as good. Those nations were far weaker than the Americans, and showing how easily they could lose one of their precious carriers could possibly reap bigger rewards than "sinking" one of the dozens of American flattops would. All it would require of him was patience. And a little luck. Ordering his boat back deep, he would wait for his target to come to him.


Ten more minutes went by, and still they remained undetected. His own sonar thought they might have a twitch of something on the bearing he had last seen the British carrier on. With a quiet order, he circled slowly back up to periscope depth. He would need the visual bearings to the target to launch. While they came up to periscope depth he gave an order which, if misinterpreted, could begin the next world war.
He said, "Make torpedo tube one ready in all respects, including opening the outer door. Flood tubes two through six, but do not open the outer doors."


The order was quickly repeated back to him and the boat was shortly filled with the sound of rushing water as all six bow torpedo tubes were flooded with water. He quickly popped his ears as the air in tubes was vented back into the boat to prevent bubbles giving away his position on the surface. His boat was as ready as he could make it.


As his boat leveled off at the ordered depth he gave the order to raise the periscope. Rudolf caught the scope as it came up out of its well and began his search before the head had even broken the surface, looking for the shadow of any previously undetected ship hovering above him that could run him down in an instant if he wasn't careful. It looked clear. As the head broke the surface he spun around in a circle twice, first checking the surface and then checking the sky. They were both clear. Except for the sight of the carrier rapidly approaching his port bow.


Centering the ship in the lens, Rudolf called out, "Bearing on the bow!"


The Michman across from him answered, "Three-four-seven degrees!"


His Starpom at the fire control table said, "Range!"


Rudolf worked the stadimeter and said, "Four thousand yards!"


Once again his Starpom called out, "Second bearing?"


The Michman replied, "Three-five-one degrees!"


"Range?"


Working his stadimeter once again, Rudolf called out, "Three thousand-seven hundred yards!"


"Solution ready! Ship ready! Tube ready!"


Stepping back from the periscope, Captain Third Rank Golosov ordered, "Tube one, match bearings and shoot!"


With a rush of compressed air, the flare was expelled from the tube and carried forward and up where it break the surface and announce to the world, and more importantly to the crew of the approaching carrier, that they were now "dead."

No problem, nice to see some updates.

Very true. And this captain was VERY good. In OTL he made Vice Admiral and was a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also in the Pacific Fleet at this time commanding B-72. So him being sent to mess with NATO warships is EXACTLY the kind of thing the Red Navy would do

So he himself believe he has not got the fighter to intercept the Badgers.

So would hev have been faster if he had a Air Force plane.