might’ve had a different ending.”
“That’s right,” Tarrant said. “The Russians for damn sure know just how
strong we are and exactly where we are. I don’t think we’re going to be able
to surprise them.”
“Do you think they’re heading for the beaches?” Tombstone asked. “Or for
us?”
“The beaches,” Tarrant said. “Almost certainly. Virginia’s hot-footing
it back to Vagsfjord at flank, but she won’t arrive until sometime this
afternoon. Ike and Kennedy won’t be in the area until this evening sometime.
The enemy knows that. They’ll want to get in their licks against the grunts
while they can. Hell, if they can sink the Marine transports, they won’t care
if they lose their whole fleet. They’ll have us by the balls. They can ask
for an armistice and we’ll have to give it to them. We’ll have lost Norway.”
“We’re betting that the Kreml will launch an air strike against us as
they pass,” Brandt said. “We could expect that, oh, sometime between
zero-nine hundred and eleven hundred hours this morning. Their idea will
probably be, if they can kill us, fine … but don’t stop for anything until
they reach the beaches.”
Tombstone looked down at the top map on the pile covering the table. It
showed Vestfjord and the Lofotens, with Jefferson in the lee of the islands,
her frigates and destroyers spread across the southern reaches of the fjord as
an ASW screen.
Outside of a scattering of Norwegian corvettes and frigates, they were
all that stood between the Russian Baltic fleet and the Marines.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked. He looked up and grinned. “I assume you
gentlemen are preparing an attack.”
“The best defense …” Brandt began, and they laughed.
“I’m ordering the battle group out of the fjord,” Tarrant said. His
finger traced a route southwest, past Vaeroy Island into the Norwegian Sea.
“The Lofotens are pretty rugged. Lots of mountains, and the weather’s still
pretty dirty. We might be able to hit them with a surface attack before they
realize we’re not in our anchorage anymore.”
“What we need from you, CAG,” Brandt said, “is a plan to minimize damage
to the Jefferson during enemy surface-to-surface and air-to-surface attacks.
We plan to keep the Jeff well clear of the major fighting, but you can bet
that Kreml’s air group is going to be all over us. Jefferson is going to be
vulnerable.”
Tombstone thought again of the Harpoons and other munitions he’d seen
piled on the carrier’s decks the evening before. The next Soviet attack
against the carrier would not be hampered by the mountains of a fjord. If
Jefferson’s decks were cluttered with planes rearming and refueling …
An earlier thought returned to Tombstone with redoubled force. Maybe the
ultimate test of leadership is being able to send shipmates, friends, out to
die.
“Actually,” he said, “there’s something else we could try. It means
Jefferson might take some damage, but it could give the bad guys some grief.”
“Let’s hear it,” Tarrant said.
Tombstone hesitated. “There’s just one thing. I’m going to want to be
in on this one myself. In the air.”
“Leading the air strike, you mean?” Brandt asked.
“Yes, sir. I figure I’ve got some flight time coming. With my people.”
Tarrant nodded. “I think you’ve earned that right, CAG.”
“Thank you, sir.” Tombstone began explaining his idea.
CHAPTER 25
Thursday, 26 June
0845 hours Zulu (0945 hours Zone)
Hornet 300
Narvik Airfield
The airstrip was positioned almost at the water’s edge, with a view
northwest across Ofotfjord toward the rugged hills near Bogen. The overcast
was gone, replaced by dazzling sun and temperatures in the eighties. Smoke
continued to stain the crystalline sky above Narvik from the burning fuel
storage tanks, however. Fortunately, large quantities of fuel remained at the
Narvik airfield, and more had been flown in by KA-6D tankers an hour before.
A team of Marine aircrewmen surrounded Tombstone’s F/A-18 Hornet, topping off
the tanks and checking the racks of ordnance slung beneath his wings. One of
them held the arming wires aloft, showing Tombstone that his warload of six
Sidewinders and two Sparrows were ready for launch.
Tombstone tossed a salute in acknowledgment, then turned his attention