AAR: Indian Expansion [Spoiler Alert] - India
AAR: Indian Expansion [Spoiler Alert] - India
By Paul Bridge
Following the re-taking of Goa from Portugal 3 years earlier , India decided to stake her claims on the Maldive Islands.Following protests at the UN against the United Kingdom who have an established RAF station at Gan India have warned the UK to get out of RAF Gan or suffer... with this threat the UK have reinforced RAF Gan with Hunters and Shackletons from Singapore and a detachment of Lightning from Aden which had to conduct AAR from a Victor tanker to reach there.
Troops also from Singapore have also been flown in along with a Tigercat SAM battery.
HMS Eagle and her battle group have steamed from Malaysia after a port visit and are onroute . India has deployed the Carrier Vikrant and most of her fleet to this operation along with numerous air assets from the North of the country.
Hostilities have not yet broken out and peace talks are still taking place in the darkest corners of the British Government with Indian diplomats but time is running out!
Defence Minister Singh had no experience in military matters. He had been appointed for his connections and his political shrewdness. He saw his opportunity to rise further in the Indian government with his latest scheme. He sold the cabinet on his vision for India to rise above her former masters and prove to the world that the Indian Ocean was for the Indians. His plan called for their former imperialists to be lulled into a false sense of security at the negotiating table while the real voice of negotiation would be spoken by the air force and the navy. He proposed a surprise attack on the British forces as they were in transit and before they were able to arrive at Gan. The plan was approved. The die was cast.
All naval units reported heavy jamming right away. Even though they were not yet in a state of armed aggression with the British Empire, evidently, the English were taking no chances and jamming all possible frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. The navy's task groups were ordered to flank speed and to close on Gan as soon as possible in order to bring her under the iron flail of their guns. With her squadrons of re-deployed bombers, she was judged to be the biggest threat.
Some very interesting ESM contacts began to appear. Buccaneer radar was reported south of Ceylon. Evidently, the HMS Eagle had arrived in the area. Both Canberra PR [photo reconnaissance] aircraft were immediately launched to try and pin down the location of the carrier. It was hoped that the air force could get in a quick strike with Canberra before enemy forces were fully alert.
As the recon planes closed on the area, a bearing contact was made on the suspected carrier. The commander decided to gamble and try to sneak in a quick attack by launching all available aircraft based on this flimsy evidence. The Ouragan bombers were escorted by MiGs and another pair accompanied the recon element.
Although the carrier's location was not localized, CAP [Combat Air Patrols] were encountered. There had to be a carrier nearby. Rani flight moved to intercept. Their mission was to keep the fighters off of the spyboys. Unfortunately, this time, they engaged just as a missile struck one of the Canberra. The flight managed to loose their four Atolls to no effect. Out of ammo, they attempted to disengage, but one MiG was lost to another AAM before the survivor pulled out of range. This was an inauspicious beginning to the titanic conflict to come.
The bright side of the engagement was that the delay allowed the surviving Canberra to localize a few ships. Although she was unable to classify the carrier, she classified sufficient ships that the carrier could be reasonably expected to be nearby. These reports were immediately forwarded to Trivandrum HQ. Intercept vectors were issued to the strike elements already outbound.
The Indians didn't know it, but they were conducting a reasonable facsimile of a USN Alpha strike. Four MiGs were escorting the strike. The accompanying Canberra recon plane reported pursuit by Sea Venom fighters and urgently radioed for help. The Fishbeds were ordered to scratch this flea off her back. They were rudely surprised when the flight was wiped out! This was looking like a very bleak day for the Indian military, indeed.
Again, their sacrifice was not in vain. They managed to distract the CAP sufficiently so that the Canberra strike element could make their ingress unopposed. Meanwhile, the other recon Canberra had ventured a little too close to the enemy ships and she caught the attention of a Sea Slug SAM. Luckily, she survived by the skin of her teeth. Evidently, the SAM didn't have her name on it. Showing prudence, she moved SE of TF in order to shadow it.
The Canberra attack run ran right through the outer screen and directly over HMS Berwick. The valiant crews took no notice as the sky filled with angry puffs of AAA fire. They concentrated on their target, HMS Eagle. Soon enough, each of the bombardiers lofted their stick of eight 1000lb bombs and 32 of these weapons were on their way as the bombers pulled off target as fast as possible. Several hits were registered, but HMS Eagle was still steaming along at 19kts as the bombers made their egress out the other side of the formation. The Ouragans never got close enough to even see their targets as they were wiped out by the CAP.
The Mystere were next to attack. They made their ingress from the other direction after the Canberra reported that the defending fighters appeared to be lighter in that quadrant. Two were killed by the AAA, but they managed to drop their bombs and rake her with SNEB rockets. She was still making about 12 kts when they broke off their attack.
The backdoor seemed to be wide open so another flight of Canberra decided to try the same attack route. Thirty-two more bombs were released. Several more hits were seen, but she was still seen steaming at about 12 kts as the planes left the group.
A beautiful two-pronged attack was then delivered by a combined Mystere / Canberra force. The Mystere delivered their bombs and rockets from medium altitude and kept the gunners focused on them while the velvet fist of the Canberra delivered forty 500lb bombs from high altitude. Although two Mystere were lost, the Canberra were able to drop most of their ordnance onto the Eagle. Unfortunately, the Mystere were at the edge of their endurance and had to bingo right through the CAP screens. One more lost as she was too short of fuel to even attempt evasive manoeuvres.
The navy was facing its own tribulation. The 11th Destroyer Squadron was attacked by two Buccaneer. One was killed before releasing her Bullpups, but the other managed to launch four and they killed INS Rana before the attacker was killed in turn. It was small consolation to the men floating in the water. The 12th Frigate Squadron was attacked by four Hunter. Some minor damage was received in exchange for killing two of the Hunters.
A continuous series of air attacks were directed at the Eagle. Although the orders indicated that damaging her to 50% of operational levels would be sufficient to prevent flight operations, there was no way to know of her current status. So long as she was able to conduct flight operations, she would remain a threat to the landing forces. The only way to be certain would be to sink her and the Indian air force meant to do just that. Flights of venerable B-24 Liberators managed to slam a few more one ton bombs into her, but she seem to almost ignore them.
Closer to Gan, the two Hunters returned to the 12th Frigate Squadron and killed Kaveri, but both were killed in turn by Kaveri gunnery. Both killer and victim joined each other in eternal embrace beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean. By now, the Frigates Ganga, Godavari, Gomati had reached Gan and were conducting a bombardment of the facilities. Suddenly, they were surrounded by shell splashes! Somehow, the British had managed to hide a shore battery on the island. All three ships were killed in short order before they were able to retreat out of range. The bombardment group decided to wait for aerial reconnaissance to locate the battery before they closed to kill it. With the appearance of a Canberra recon plane, the 29th Commando Royal Artillery was quickly localized and reported to CL Delhi who promptly silenced them in a quick counter-battery shootout. The rest of the group then proceeded to flatten all the structures on the island.
On her way back to base, the Canberra detected two additional ships, HMS Lion and HMS Barrosa. The bombardment group quickly made steam to cut off this threat. The bombardment commander elected to attack HMS Barrosa first and easily killed her before the group came into range of Barrosa's gunnery. However, the CL Delhi now had to face the British cruiser, Lion. She was already short of ammo from her bombardment of the island and the destruction of HMS Barrosa. The Lion certainly had a better chance in a stand-up fight, but, just like in Africa, lions can be killed by a pack of hyenas. The Indian force easily outnumbered the lone British cruiser.
CL Delhi engaged first and used up her remaining 152mm ammo and then it became a brawl. HMS Lion did indeed fight like her namesake and acquitted herself well. Frigates Kistna, Raiput, and Beas would answer no more squadron rolls. Their destruction distracted the Lion's gunners sufficiently so that CL Delhi could finally close the distance and kill the Lion with her secondary batteries. It came at a high cost. CL Delhi was down by the stern with 30% of her flotation destroyed.
A strike of eight Canberra was finally able to kill the Eagle. Once the group's air cover was forced to ditch from lack of fuel, the rest of the formation was easily hunted down and exterminated by the heavy bombers. The Delhi bombardment force was able to track down and kill one additional SAG [Surface Action Group]. The Viraat landing force was able sail directly into the harbour and disgorge her amphibious elements under the protection of the cruiser's guns. Within an hour, the commander of Her Majesty's forces on Gan surrendered. The sun had truly set on the British Empire.
Thanks for another entertaining scenario.
File posted at
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