Excerpt

Fred went on, “We will come in line abreast, 1,000 yards apart and will commence fire at a range of 15,000 yards from the target. We will fire about 3 and a half minutes inbound, cease fire, and then after our 180 degree port turn will open up with Mount 52 for another 3 and a half minutes.”

“Attack speed 17 knots. We will make the turn 13,000 yards from the target. Charted low water depth 40 feet. Chart depth accuracy is not great. This area has a diurnal tide and a range of 10 feet. We will be in some thin water.”

“We will come in from the south east to present a small profile to the guns at Sam Son. But we also want to stay 10 miles north of Hon Me island which is said to have 122mm guns. So we will be going south west in column, and then make a turn to 315 to end up line abreast.”

“We do not anticipate taking heavy fire. Sam Son is on the strike approach to Hanoi and has been bombed often. Although the 100mm guns are portable, they are visually sighted and essentially field guns. But we do not want to be unaware of the potential for a lucky shot.”

“Questions?”

“When will we be doing this?” from Joe Rederman.

“The OTC has indicated anytime during high to mid tide in the next two days. He wants some significant sun and we will go in near sun rise, probably day after tomorrow, mid tide and rising. The enemy will be looking right into the rising sun at us and it will make us a lot more difficult target. Plus the junks should be there since their action usually happens later in the morning. We want to catch them just waking up or sitting on the pot.”

Laughter. Wow Fred, humor? Didn’t know you had it in you.

“Forty feet isn’t much. Is that why we’re staying offshore as much? We could improve accuracy if we were in closer.” from Len.

“Old charts and we do not want to drag the sonar dome over a sand bar. So we decided to keep off shore a bit and time the run for mid to high tide. We really need to watch the fathometer and if it starts shoaling we will abort and haul out to the right. GLOVER will go left. On the bridge we will have the messenger call out fathometer readings every minute.”

A few more questions and the meeting was over.

Our first Sea Dragon assignment. Thin water will make it even more exciting. Maybe a little cross current. Do not like the part about shooting back! Unfair! We should get to shoot at them only. Oh, the power of wishful thinking.

Two days later, set General Quarters at 0430. At first light, about 0530, GLOVER and LARTER were in column, course 225, speed 10. By 0600 the OTC had increased speed to 17.

“Quicksilver, Tin Man, immediate execute, turn niner, I say again, turn niner, Standby, execute, over,” came out of PriTac.

Fred answered, “Quicksilver, roger, out,” and nodded to Dillan.

“Right standard rudder, come to new course 315.”

“My rudder is right standard, coming to new course 315,” from the helmsman.

LARTER healed over. As the two ships swept around the 90 degree turn they ended up in line abreast, 1000 yards apart, headed at shore at 17 knots. Combat was plotting, weapons free.

“Bridge, Combat, range to target, 16,500 yards, commencing fire in 2 and one half minutes.”

“Fifty two feet,” from the messenger.

The fathometer, a narrow beamed small sonar mounted about 1/3 of the way aft, just behind the sonar dome, sent out a pulse to the sea floor. It bounced back and the time it took round trip was measured and converted to distance. Since it read from the keel, about 15 feet below the water line, it was different than the charted water depth.

Then one had to allow for the dome which stuck down another 10 feet or so. If the fathometer ever read 10 feet, crunch. It took awhile to process the data so the fathometer was really telling you what the water depth was 10 yards ago.

The skipper walked over and pushed the button on the 21MC. “Hold your fire Weapons until I give you the go ahead.”

The second hand swept around. Boom went the forward mount on GLOVER. “Fire,” from the skipper on the 21MC.

“Boom, boom …boom, boom from Mount 51. The skipper had held fire to keep from opening up before GLOVER had. GLOVER’s CO was about 100 lineal numbers senior to LARTER’s CO. The skipper was deferring to a senior.

Bright orange flashes, like long tongues of flame spitting out of both barrels of mount 51. Grey smoke wisping back to the bridge windows. The windows rattled from the shock waves. Noisy as hell. He could feel the ship vibrate at each shot through the soles of his shoes. Boom boom boom. The bridge ventilation system picked up some of the cordite smell. Its distinctive acid sting tickled the nostrils and added to the adrenalin level in the men. From NGFS and SAR Dillan knew that this was occurring in Combat also.

Starting to sweat in the long sleeve shirt and flack jacket. And the heavy steel helmet on my head doesn’t help much. Makes the back of my neck hurt after awhile. The flack jacket is heavy, restrictive, and a pain to wear. And a belt pouch inflatable live vest. If I ever go over the side I’ll have to ditch the flack jacket as soon as possible. Its weight’ll pull me down like a ton of bricks.

“Forty three feet.”

Water getting thin already.