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by 
The Elective Kingdom of Ioudaia.
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Battle of the North Passages
Ioudaian battlecruiser Alethusos fires the opening
shots of the battle at Khas-Kirati battlecruiser Khanda.
Date | 19 March 1940 |
Location | Storm Passage and Doman Passage, |
Result | Decisive Doman-Ioudaian victory |
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2 light aircraft carriers 24 carrier fighters 6,000 infantry | 2 light aircraft carriers 11,000 infantry |
1 battleship sunk ?? losses to land forces 23 aircraft destroyed | 1 light carrier sunk 70 aircraft destroyed over 10,000 infantry lost |
Summary
A Khas-Kirati (KK) invasion fleet steaming towards northeastern Ioudaia in March 1940 was detected by an Ioudaian scout cruiser, and a deception effort allowed the fleet to be defeated with heavy losses. A major naval victory for the nascent Free Powers, and a stunning setback for the KK military.
• Background
• Opening Moves
• The Trap
• Order of Battle
• The Battle
• Main Actions in the North
• Khanda Squadron vs the Battlecruiser Squadron
• Black Turtle's Air Attack on Alieina Pteroketos
• Ioudaian Air Attack on Blue Karnali
• Arrival of the Reinforcement Convoy
• Further Action for Blue Karnali
• Amphibious Landing in Domanania
• Blue Karnali's Fate
• The Escape of Black Turtle
• Aftermath
• Significance
• Khas-Kirati Empire
• Ioudaia
The Khas-Kirati invasion of 
Domanania was stalemated by late 1939, and the Khas-Kirati Empire changed tactics, hoping to open a new front by invading Ioudaia just south of the Doman-Ioudaian border on the east coast. The Empire requested permission to land troops in Ioudaia, but this was flatly refused. At that point, the Khas-Kirati high command decided to land troops by force in the same area, and spent the winter of 1939-1940 preparing for the assault.
The Khas-Kirati Western Fleet escorted a force of 10,000 men with landing barges and supporting armor and artillery. They expected an unopposed landing, as their spies and reconnaissance forces informed them that the Ioudaian army was scattered throughout the country, and the Ioudaian Navy was conducting exercises in the Tyshirean Sea. While the Khas-Kirati commanders expected strategic surprise, they knew that organized air and naval counter-attacks could be expected with hours of them landing troops, and prepared accordingly, providing escorts with heavy anti-air and anti-ship capabilities, including an aircraft carrier.
A smaller reinforcement convoy was sent separately, and expected to arrive a day or two after the initial landings. It held 1,000 men, along with small numbers of anti-tank guns, light armor, and trucks, which the commander had been told were replacements for existing forces. An obsolete carrier accompanied the troop ship, ferrying land-based fighter planes.
To maintain secrecy, both the invasion fleet and the reinforcement convoy operated under radio silence. Initially, neither commander knew of the other force. Nor did the Khas-Kirati forces already in Domanania know of either naval operation. However, the commander of the invasion fleet, Admiral Srijunga Ingbadokpa, had been given sealed orders to open a day before reaching Ioudaia, telling him about the reinforcement convoy and its expected course and arrival time.
Despite these efforts at secrecy, the Khas-Kirati invasion fleet was detected on 10 March by a floatplane from the light cruiser Okuphis, nine days away from the Ioudaian coast. It was tracked by cruiser-borne floatplanes, and the likely places of its arrival were identified. Ioudaian land, air, and sea forces were mobilized, and after much negotiation, so were Doman forces from both the Free Workers of Domanania (FWD) and the ruling junta. The Ioudaian-Doman command plotted a trap.
The plan took advantage of both the Doman Civil War and the Khas-Kirati occupation of Domanania. At its heart, the plan was a deception operation, playing on what the KKs believed about their opponents: that they were too interested in fighting each other to co-operate against the KK forces, and they hated each other so much as to ruin their chances in a hypothetical battle, and specifically, that they'd destroy the few capital ships available to them.
The FWD claimed via Radio Free Domanania that one of their agents had sabotaged one of the new Junta battleships by planting bombs in the boiler rooms, wrecking the the boilers and killing many of the engineers. The Junta denied this, but the FWD released leaflets showing a grainy photo of a battleship being towed by a cruiser, with a few destroyers in the background. Some Ioudaian newspapers ran the claim and the photo, with varying opinions about what actually happened.
This much was true: one of the two new Shar-class battleships was taken under tow, and escorted to one of the major shipyards near the capital. It was, however, undamaged. The KKs had limited aerial reconnaissance with their occupation force, but easily verified the ship under tow, moving slowly. A crippled capital ship was a juicy target indeed, if they only had warships in the right place to sink it.
The Junta admitted there was an "accident" aboard, but denied any sabotage. The FWD claimed that the Junta should be careful, lest more accidents occur in the fleet. This appeared to set off a spy panic, setting rumors flying about FWD agents being arrested by the Junta naval military police. More KK reconnaissance found the rest of the Junta battleship squadron at anchor offshore, surrounded by other ships. The Junta was forced to deny that there'd been disorder in the fleet, and especially that vigilantes were "finding spies" and carrying out rough justice.
The FWD next claimed a fire aboard a battleship; this was also true, but the Junta had set a small, harmless grease fire in a kitchen. But all the KK reconnaissance planes saw was a battleship with smoke pouring out of a ventilation outlet.
The KK radio intelligence early in the war was not very good, but they noticed that the battleship squadron was under radio silence, as were the ships near them. The Khas-Kirati command in occupied Domanania concluded that something serious was up, but lacked the specifics. All of the information they'd gathered was broadcast to their high command, and was duly relayed to the approaching invasion fleet.
Meanwhile, modern and modernized ships of the Ioudaian navy began to move into position under radio silence, while older vessels in the exercise broadcast fake radio traffic from them using their callsigns. By 15 March, a large Ioudaian fleet was following the Khas-Kirati invasion force.
A series of Junta attacks starting 16 March pulled KK recon forces landward, but once-daily flights by Khas-Kirati scout planes confirmed the Junta's capital ships were still in place as late as 1143 on 16 March.
The weather began to worsen on 16 March, ending all visual-rules flights, and making aerial scouting impossible. The KKs did send patrol boats to check on the Junta ships, and on 17 March, the FWD claimed there was a mutiny aboard Shar, followed by the usual denials. Regardless, the Junta ships hadn't moved.
The weather continued to worsen, becoming continuous heavy rain by the morning of 17 March. This didn't stop an Ioudaian "navigation exercise" being held by the Air Armada, sending planes out over the Four-coast Sea from Pteleon Air Armada Base, approximately 50 nautical miles south of the invasion beaches.
This concentration of enemy air power concerned Srijunga Ingbadokpa and his staff aboard the Khas-Kirati aircraft carrier Black Turtle. However, the occasional "I'm lost!" message sent in the clear convinced them that not only was it an exercise, but also that their opponents were not very good. They did, however, blinker orders to the rest of the invasion fleet to prepare for possible air action near the invasion site, and for the possibility of conducting a landing under air attack.
Hearing civilian Ioudaian radio reports of the bad weather, the pursuing Ioudaia fleet sent a scout plane via the Dawn Passage to the exercise fleet, requesting the former obsolete destroyer, now training ship, Mentor be sent to them. The pursuing fleet wanted this tiny ship, barely 1,100 tons displacement, to closely shadow the invasion fleet, relying on its small size to hide it in the bad weather, when aerial scouting wasn't possible.
The Ioudaian army also conducted a "camouflage exercise" on the likely areas of landing beaches, deploying a 5,000 man force. They were scattered across several miles, as the exact location of the invasion was unknown. This force wasn't intended to stop the KK landings in the unlikely event they took place, but to inflict as much damage as possible and allow the deployment of more men.
FWD naval units began moving south from their harbors on the west side of Domanania on 16 March, intending to block the Dawn Passage, to prevent a KK invasion fleet retreat in that direction. On the night of 18-19 March, some Junta capital ships dropped their ruse and joined other vessels to oppose escape through the Doman Passage. The most of the remaining Ioudaian ships faking radio traffic in the Tyshirean Sea moved north, leaving only a handful of vessels pretending to be an entire fleet.
The Khas-Kirati invasion fleet consisted of a passenger liner converted into a troop ship, an aircraft carrier, a battlecruiser, 5 heavy cruisers, and 22 smaller escorts. The carrier's airgroup consisted of 60 planes, evenly divided between fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers.
The reinforcement convoy was smaller, with its troop ship escorted by only a pair of heavy cruisers; a small, obsolete carrier; and 7 lighter ships. Altogether, the KK naval forces amounted to eight ships with heavy guns, two aircraft carriers, and 29 destroyers and light cruisers.
Opposing them were three battleships, three battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, a seaplane carrier, eight heavy cruisers, 84 light escorts, and 18 submarines. In addition, the Ioudaian Air Armada had 29 bombers with sufficient range to engage the KKs on the high seas, along with seven flying boats to aid in scouting. On paper, this was an overwhelming force. However, it was divided between three factions and seven squadrons, with limited communications between the three co-belligerents, and no cooperation between the Doman factions.
At the initial point of contact in the Storm Passage, the battle was less lopsided, with the invasion fleet's battlecruiser, carrier, five heavy cruisers, and 22 smaller ships opposing three battlecruisers, a carrier, four heavy cruisers, and 30 smaller ships.
The gap was reduced further by the different philosophies displayed by the sides. The Ioudaian-Doman side had the advantage in heavy gun power, fielding 24 360mm (14") guns, eight 300mm (12") guns, and eight 200mm (8") guns vs. nine 400mm (16") and sixty 200mm (8") guns. The Khas-Kiratis made up for the difference with a larger number of superior torpedoes, longer ranged, faster, and with larger warheads than the Ioudaians or Domans had. This reflected a deliberate decision by Khas-Kiratis, their torpedoes having been designed to counteract opponents' superior numbers and sizes of ships.
See the North Passages Order of Battle for details.
Overview of the battle. Circled dots indicate squadron positions at 0554, when the Khas-Kirati Invasion Fleet discovers the Ioudaian-Doman Battlecruiser Squadron.
At 0415, the Khas-Kirati Invasion Fleet began to launch scout floatplanes, having heard civilian and military weather forecasts expecting the weather to improve from west to east as the day went on. While there was a low overcast above the fleet at 0415, to the west, where enemy forces might be, the sky already had slight clearing.
At 0449, the commander of the Invasion Fleet, admiral Srijunga Ingbadokpa, received lookout reports of a periscope to the fleet's east. He ordered his reserve two scout planes sent to investigate the possibility of a submarine.
While neither side in the battle expected air combat this early, both sides thought it was likely later in the day. The KKs began arming and fueling their planes at 0530, and their opponents began around 0600.
Also around 0530, Ingbadokpa began to get reports from the first wave of scout aircraft. While the "crippled" Doman battleships were still where they were expected, a pair of small Ioudaian carriers were spotted as well, one of them a seaplane carrier, accompanied by a few escorts. While that was concerning, it was possible that the Ioudaian exercise had expanded northward. Further, the Invasion Fleet was strong enough to destroy the carrier squadron if necessary.
At 0543, definitive reports of alert opponents arrived. A second Doman squadron had been discovered steaming south in the Doman Passage, and the pair of planes overflying the landing beach reported men dug in on the beach, along with the possibility of camouflaged guns as well. As Ingbadokpa considered his options, another report came in at 0549 of a large patrol boat or small destroyer behind the fleet (Mentor). The alert enemy was now explained, and at 0554, the last scout plane sent out reported they were being followed by a large fleet, containing three battlecruisers and many escorts.
Ingbadokpa decided his best option was for his fleet to abandon its original objective and divide into three squadrons. The largest would accompany the battlecruiser Khanda: three heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and ten destroyers. They would attempt to defeat or delay their pursuers and then escape to the east. The troop ship Blue Karnali would attempt to slip through the Doman Passage along with a heavy cruiser, light cruiser, and three destroyers, link up with the expected Reinforcement Convoy, and deliver troops, guns, and armor for a different offensive. Finally, the aircraft carrier Black Turtle would take escorting force of a heavy cruiser, three light cruisers, and her plane guard destroyer and attempt to escape south after launching an air strike on the enemy battlecruisers. After a further message indicated a second enemy squadron with a carrier, those orders were changed to attack the carrier (Alieina Pteroketos).
The KK scout floatplane was detected by the Battlecruiser Squadron at 0602, setting Ioudaian plans in motion. The flagship battlecruiser Alethusos broadcast the prepared signal "Black Turtle on the mountain" indicating enemy contact by the Mountain-class battlecruisers. Ioudaian admiral Omid Boaz Madozhad's message triggered an Ioudaian declaration of war on the Khas-Kirati Empire, which was telegraphed immediately.
Madozhad ordered all formations to battle stations, and his squadron accelerated to 31kts to close with the enemy. He also ordered the carrier Alieina Pteroketos to launch a strike against the enemy troop ship as soon as possible, not knowing his opponent had already given Ioudaia a strategic victory by cancelling the invasion. Both Black Turtle and Alieina Pteroketos rushed to launch their attacks.
Battles in the North Passages: Khanda Squadron surface action vs. Battlecruiser Squadron, initial carrier-based air attacks, and pursuit of Blue Karnali.
Khanda Squadron vs the Battlecruiser Squadron
"Two Hammer Blows and A Hunt"
The battle was brutal, with heavy losses on both sides. Ioudaian-Doman big guns vs Khas-Kirati big torpedoes led to a lot of ships sunk. The KK squadron was wiped out, but as far as KK admiral Anshuman Gole was concerned, it was a victory, since not only was the Battlecruiser Squadron greatly weakened, but also the Ioudaian carrier squadron was forced to reverse course to the east to avoid his destroyers, away from the battle and away from the other KK squadrons.
The surface action opened with admiral Madozhad turning south to cross his opponent's T. Critically, KK scout planes missed his turn as they climbed into the clouds to dodge pursuing from Ioudaian and Doman planes.
Light rain restricted visibility to roughly 10 nmi/18km, so Gole discovered his opponent's maneuver only as Khanda closed to gun range. He ordered a hard turn to port (north), but for a few minutes, the entire main batteries of the three Ioudaian battlecruisers fired on Khanda, while Khanda could return fire only with her six forward main guns.
Seeing that his large ships had started turning, Gole ordered a general torpedo attack to disrupt Ioudaian gunnery. Madozhad attempted to counter this by ordering his own torpedo attack. The torpedo attacks degenerated into a melee, with both sides' destroyers and light cruisers attempting to fire torpedoes at opposing battlecruisers and heavy cruisers, while preventing the enemy from doing the same, usually by gunfire. Doman and Ioudaian floatplanes strafed KK vessels when then could.
Both attacks and counterattacks were successful, with Khanda sustaining heavy damage from gun hits and a bold torpedo charge by the destroyer O52, nicknamed "Sweet Thisbe", which achieved the only successful Ioudaian torpedo attack on a large KK ship. Sweet Thisbe was sunk by the KK heavy cruisers Seto Singha and Seto Bagh as she tried to retreat. One of Khanda's masts collapsed due a hit on her superstructure, tearing down her wireless aerials, and forcing Ingbadokpa to try to transfer his flag to a heavy cruiser.
The KK torpedo attack sank or crippled many of the Ioudaian destroyers and light cruisers, and mortally wounded Chrysolophos and Ts 1. A few KK destroyers were sunk or badly damaged as well. Nyssos was also torpedoed, but remained in the battle with little speed loss thanks to her torpedo bulge and bulkheads.
Khanda rolled over and quickly sank after sustaining at least
five heavy hits below the waterline. Only 151 members of her
nearly 1,200-man crew survived.
The battle then became a chase, or "hunt" as Anidor Nozar ben Raam, captain of Euphroros, called it. The remaining KK small ships, having fired all their torpedoes, were inferior to their counterparts. While the KKs had a three-to-one advantage in heavy cruisers, they were outranged by the two Ioudaian battlecruisers on the hunt, Alethusos and Nyssos. Khanda was quickly finished off, as she already moving slowly from previous hits below the waterline, and having only two turrets (A and C) in operation.
Gole briefly reached Seto Biralo, and regained command of his forces. He ordered his remaining ships to break into small groups as they fled eastward, with one destroyer accompanying each of the cruisers. He then sent a message to the commander of the KK forces in Domanania, informing him that two reinforcement convoys were coming, with at least the first carrying combat-ready troops, artillery, and armor.
A few minutes later, Seto Biralo was chased down by Alethusos and Nyssos, and smashed by their heavy guns. When it became apparent that Seto Biralo would be sunk in the uneven fight, Gole ordered abandon ship and returned to his cutter, but it was unable to catch up with his other heavy cruiser. He was later captured by the light cruiser Tiritokos, left behind as her bow had been blown off by a torpedo.
Madozhad ordered the Storm Passage Squadron to detach three of its light cruisers and six destroyers to help chase down the enemy, as well as deploy its remaining scout aircraft to help locate enemy ships. Caught between the two Ioudaian squadrons, the KK forces were all but annihilated. The only ships to escape into the Aichabelos Sea were the heavy cruiser Seto Bagh, the light cruiser Hariyo Macha, and three destroyers, K5, K11, and K17.
What was left of the Battlecruiser Squadron (Alethusos, Nyssos, Ts 2, Okuphis, Euphroros, Mentor, and C144 "Fortune's Minnow") regrouped with part of the carrier squadron (the 2 Garos-class heavy cruisers, and the light cruisers and destroyers that joined the hunt) to continue to the search for Black Turtle and Blue Karnali
Black Turtle's Air Attack on Alieina Pteroketos
Admiral Srijunga Ingbadokpa committed half of his fighters and all of his attack aircraft (10 fighters, 20 torpedo planes, 20 dive bombers), believing that the Black Turtle would be on the receiving end of a similar attack, and it would be best to sink the Ioudaian flattop first.
The planes overflew the end of the surface action, and were spotted by both ships and aircraft. Alieina Pteroketos thus knew they were coming, and put all twelve of her fighters into the air, as well as all five available Brent 79s from Garos.
Alieina Pteroketos' commander, Aramund Gur Graham, concentrated his defenses against the torpedo planes, believing them to be the greater threat. This included the Brent 79s, and their twin 20mm cannons did awful things to the ungainly torpedo planes as they started their attack runs. However, the Brent 79s were no match for the escorting KK fighters, and paid in full for that.
The KK dive bombers largely survived, but hitting a nimble carrier was hard, especially when being chased by a larger number of CAP fighters. The ceiling was relatively low with few holes to clear skies above, so most of the dives were from relatively low altitude. But this was balanced out by the Ioudaian CAP pilots being no match for their counterparts, and most were shot down.
Alieina Pteroketos was hit three times by dive bombers, once on the extreme forward port edge of her flight deck; once on the forward elevator, dumping it into its well and spraying the forward part of the upper hangar with fragments; and once on an aft starboard twin heavy AA gun.
Both sides took heavy losses, a little over half for each side, an aviation disaster by any measure. The KKs lost 26 planes of 50, six fighters, fourteen torpedo planes, and six bombers. Ioudaia lost seven of twelve fighters and all five floatplanes.
However, Admiral Ingbadokpa believed the attack was successful. Alieina Pteroketos was out of the battle for the time being, delaying pursuit of the Blue Karnali. And even after her flight deck would be patched, she'd have trouble conducting flight operations. She also had run to the east for a while, so she was out of position. While the Black Turtle was going to have trouble conducting further offensive operations, but they were at least theoretically possible.
Unknown to him, Graham called for six fighters from the Argyros Pteroketos to replace his losses. While Alieina Pteroketos' deck operations would be slow, she'd be capable of launching nearly full strikes, once the KK ships were located again.
Ioudaian Air Attack on Blue Karnali
Admiral Graham sent most of his attack aircraft (12 fighters, 6 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo planes), keeping a small reserve of six dive bombers and six torpedo planes. (Fortunately, they were in the lower hangar, away from the one good bomb hit the KKs later got.)
The Ioudaian attack leader, Bisaltes ben Orien, led his pilots along the southern edge of the Storm Passage, and then swung into wide arc around the the KK fleet, attacking Blue Karnali from the southwest.
The KK defenders were doubly surprised: the Ioudaian aircraft attacked a different ship from a different direction than they expected, so their CAP and cruisers were in poor positions to the defend Blue Karnali. Further, Bisaltes ben Orien made a fast, direct attack to avoid asking too much of his rookie pilots.
Despite their inexperience, they inflicted moderate damage on Blue Karnali, achieving one torpedo hit forward and one bomb starting a fire in an aft hold. The quick attack also limited casualties on both sides, with the attackers losing six planes, a fighter, 4 torpedo planes, and a dive bomber; and the defenders losing just a pair of fighters.
Initially, the damage to Blue Karnali appeared minor to the KKs and severe to the Ioudaians. While some of Blue Karnali's crew and carried troops were killed and injured by the attack, the damage appeared contained. However, while the ship was compartmentalized, she was built to civilian, not military standards, and watertight bulkheads and hatches were found to be damaged and leaking near the torpedo hit.
The holds were packed so the most immediately-needed supplies were on top. As the #5 hold continued to burn, small arms ammunition began to cook off, making it difficult for damage control parties to fight the fire. Ship's officers became concerned about the possibility that mortar and artillery shells would detonate as well, making the blaze uncontrollable.
The Ioudaian pilots, by contrast, claimed two torpedo hits and three bomb hits. The one good photo of the attack "after the first hit" showed intense fire and a tall plume of smoke from the bomb hit, so the Ioudaian debriefers believed the pilots' reports that they left the troop ship with multiple fires burning topside, barely making headway.
Since the Ioudaian naval and air squadrons needed to reorganize, repair, and reinforce after these initial battles, no additional scout aircraft were sent out until 1045. Admirals Madozhad and Graham believed they just needed to locate a smashed, burning ship, which the regrouped Battlecruiser Squadron would finish off by gunfire.
Arrival of the Reinforcement Convoy
The Reinforcement Convoy made radio contact with the commander of the KK forces in Domanania at 1128, informing them that it was 50 nmi off the coast, and requesting docking instructions. Confused by Admiral Ingbadokpa's message, the commander believed that it was the combat-ready reinforcements Ingbadokpa had mentioned, but being informed that the convoy had only 1,000 men and few heavy weapons, he directed it to the northern edge of KK-held territory to conduct a raid on Doman Junta forces nearby.
The Convoy began landing troops at 1237, protected from air attack by the White Tigress' planes. Doman partisans and spies reported the landings starting at 1250. The Doman Junta reacted swiftly, directing the 19th and 46th Brigades along with the 55th Air Wing to counterattack, and ordering Mantis Squadron and Doman Passage Squadrons and their submarines to engage the enemy.
The Doman Junta high command angrily informed their Ioudaian counterparts that they'd found the troop ship the Ioudaian Navy claimed to have left burning. When this was relayed to Admiral Madozhad, he and his staff realized the enemy must have multiple squadrons in the area, as their was no way the ship their aircraft had attacked could possibly cover the distance in that short a time. The Ioudaian Air Armada directed a flying boat towards the reported landing to determine the composition of the attacking force.
Further Action for Blue Karnali
Ioudaian scout planes arrived where Blue Karnali was last sighted around 1300, and found only empty water. A series of expanding search squares eventually found smoke and wakes to the north, but with visibility sometimes restricted by light rain, the planes' search passes were close together, and they had to return to their (fast approaching) mother ships before investigating further. Admiral Graham requested scout floatplanes from Alkoun and flying boats from the base in Pteleon be dispatched to augment the search, primarily to the north, but also in other directions.
The reports of smoke placed a large group of ships rapidly moving north in the main part of the Doman Passage. These reports were either erroneous, or sighted part of the Doman squadron patrolling the area. As other aircraft searching in other directions also found nothing, the Ioudaian admirals decided that both Black Turtle and Blue Karnali had gone north, possibly to attempt to land troops elsewhere in Domanania, with the current landing being a ruse or feint. This was duly passed up the Ioudaian chain of command, and then to the Doman Junta and FWD high commands.
Blue Karnali's captain, Jivan Hadad, instead had taken his ships into the sheltered waters of Blue Sand Bay, dropping anchor just after noon. There, his crews repaired up the Blue Karnali's bulging and leaking bulkheads, and destroyers came alongside to assist in extinguishing the fire.
Repairing the bulkheads required the 93rd Engineering Battalion's welding kit, and the best way to get that was to unpack not only the ammunition above it in the #2 hold, but also the guns and vehicles of the 112th Anti-tank Battalion. All eight of the 112th's guns and two of its trucks were transferred by landing barge to Seto Chituwa; its men and equipment were sent by high-line as well. One of the 93rd's trucks, carrying an air compressor and air tools was also extracted as in the way; it was moved to Rato Macha along with its crew. Hundreds of the men of the main unit aboard, the 28th Infantry Brigade, were also transferred to Blue Karnali's escorts, to minimize losses in case she was sunk.
Repairs and firefighting took nearly two hours, and Blue Karnali wasn't underway until 1403. The squadron then continued to skirt the coast, heading north and then northeast. Hadad hoped to join the Reinforcement Convoy, but it had already reached Domanania. Regardless, the Blue Karnali Squadron remained undetected for nearly the entire day, hidden by coastal islands, rain, and near-shore mist.
Amphibious Landing in Domanania
By 1352, when Doman infantry, tanks, artillery arrived to meet the KK regiment landed by the Reinforcement Convoy, the regiment was ashore, unpacked, and ready for battle. White Tigress had also sent her ferried aircraft aloft and transferred fuel and ammunition to a nearby airstrip. Despite their superior numbers, the Doman forces were held to a standstill by the Reinforcement Convoy's fire support, as its two dozen 200mm guns were ably directed by forward observers.
The battle was stalemated until the arrival of the Doman surface warfare squadrons starting at 1652. White Tigress and Blue Mesder steamed off to the north at high speed. The convoy's commander, admiral Tamsim Tamchhange, ordered his other vessels to buy time for not only the escape of the carrier and troop ship, but also the ground forces. They were successful until the Doman Passage Squadron arrived at 1718, having outflanked the KK ships by arriving to their northeast.
Only a single KK destroyer escaped the envelopment, racing off to the north. Other KK naval forces surrendered or were destroyed by 1746; the surviving KK ships being scuttled close offshore. However, the sacrifice of the cruisers allowed most of the surviving KK soldiers to escape south and link up with friendly forces.
By then, the Doman Navy had realized that the squadron it had wiped out was too small to be the one the Ioudaians had tracked for a week. They then departed to the northeast to join the search for Blue Karnali and Black Turtle.
The Blue Karnali squadron's luck held until the sun was setting, but at 2029, she was spotted by an Doman scout plane, and then shadowed by an Ioudaian flying boat.
Khas-Kirati destroyer K-3 burns after attack
by the Doman Junta fleet.
The Blue Karnali Squadron's search planes reported that four battleships with many escorts were heading roughly towards them; calculations showed that it was an intercept course. This was the Battlecruiser Squadron, her battlecruisers and Garos-class cruisers being mistaken for battleships. Admiral Hadad ordered his ships to the northeast, hoping to keep a neutral island between them and the Ioudaians to make it easier for his squadron to escape in the dark, his three destroyers holding the heavier ships at bay in the narrow channel.
However, Blue Karnali was subject to repeated air attacks, starting with 2103 strafing run by a Brent 79. With the Ioudaian flying boat dropping parachute flares, it was impossible to for the squadron to slip away, although the destroyers did delay the Battlecruiser Squadron by torpedo attacks and feints.
Finally, though, the Doman squadrons arrived to Blue Karnali's northwest, and again prevented a KK escape. Caught between enemy forces, Hadad first made a run for the neutral coast, and then, attempted to surrender Blue Karnali while his warships scattered northward. However, by the time both opposing squadrons ceased fire, the Blue Karnali was sinking, and even with her landing barges, there were too many men aboard to put them all into boats. Over 9,000 of them drowned, along with Hadad.
Of the Blue Karnali's escorts, only the cruisers escaped, the destroyers being easy targets for aircraft and the heavier Doman guns.
Escape of the Black Turtle Squadron,
southeast Four Passages
After recovering her strike planes, Black Turtle hugged the coast of the southeastern islands of the Four Passages. One of her planes spotted a Doman FWD submarine running on the surface near the Dawn Passage, so the squadron turned away from the coast to avoid it and other subs.
However, another FWD sub nearby, S22, provided an fairly accurate report of the squadron, identifying it as "1 large ship possibly a CV, 1 CA, 1 CL, 2 DD" along with its position, course, and speed. The sub followed the Black Turtle Squadron, her skipper hoping that the Ioudaian Southern Squadron would force it to turn back and bring it back into range.
Receiving the report, air admiral Nahtab Shira Aelo-rudni ordered the Ioudaian Air Armada into action, dispatching most of her available bombers at 1823: twelve of eighteen heavy bombers, and all eleven medium bombers. She kept the remaining squadron of heavy bombers as a reserve to attack Blue Karnali when and if that ship was located.
The Black Turtle Squadron was attacked at 1948 by the heavy bombers bombing from high altitude; they achieved no hits. However, they were followed by the medium bombers attacking from lower altitude starting at 1957. CAP attempted to engage them, only for the fighter pilots to discover that they had 20mm cannon in their turrets; the pilots were unpleasantly reminded of what those do to fighters. But anti-aircraft fire from the Black Turtle's escorts deterred some bomber pilots from pressing too closely.
Between CAP and AA fire, the Khas-Kiratis brought down three medium bombers, but the Black Turtle Squadron was bombed. The Black turtle was hit once, the bomb landing just behind her island, knocking out her aft AA director and killing its crew; three hangared dive bombers were also destroyed. Two light cruisers were also hit. One sank immediately, and the other was badly damaged and eventually torpedoed by S22.
Even before reports from the Ioudaian bombing runs reached him, the admiral of the FWD Dawn Passage Group, two submarine cordons and a surface warfare squadron, ordered his ships into the Aichabelos Sea, believing that the KK ships would pass through it on their way back to their Empire.
The Southern Squadron attempted to shadow Black Turtle and her escorts, but soon fell behind them. This suited the Black Turtle's commander just fine: there was no reason to engage a harmless force when he needed to conserve aircraft for a possible rematch with the Ioudaian carrier.
The Black Turtle Squadron avoided further attack long enough to disappear into nightfall. With the destroyer's fuel tanks nearly empty from the long, fast run to the south-southwest, the squadron spent the night laboriously refueling her from Black Turtle, while steaming slowly to the southeast. The squadron then turned east for several hours before steaming northeast, heading for Stalda, a KK puppet regime in southern 
Nhoor.
The following day, 20 March, the FWD Dawn Passage Squadron was joined by the Ioudaian Battlecruiser Squadron and aircraft carrier squadrons. Despite the FWD small ships and subs being spread out east to west along a line between the Four Passages and the southern tip of Nhoor, and the presence of Ioudaian search planes, the Black Turtle squadron nearly escaped.
FWD submarine S19, the easternmost of the search line, was nearly run over by the approaching Black Turtle Squadron. S19 fired a spread of torpedoes at the Black Turtle, missing her, but sinking her plane guard destroyer. The sub escaped, and the Black Turtle Squadron reached Stalda without further incident.
Chrysolophos and Ts 1 limped into Pteleon around 0430 on 20 March after struggling all night to stay afloat. Chrysolophos had taken on too much water aft to enter the shipping channel, despite the assistance of a pump ship, and was run aground in shallow waters nearby. Ts 1 was in similar shape, and sank at her moorings after her forward pumps failed. Both ships were written off as too badly damaged to repair, and salvaged for parts for other members of their classes.
After reaching Stalda, admiral Ingbadokpa ordered any vessels which had escaped through the Storm Passage to wait until nightfall on the 20th and then join him at high speed to reinforce the Black Turtle's escorts for their eventual return home.
Likewise, the two cruisers which had escaped when the Blue Karnali was sunk, Seto Chituwa and Rato Macha, waited until after dark on the 20th, then made for port in Khas-Kirati-held Domanania. They delivered 800 men, the only troops from the invasion fleet to reach Domanania.
The magnitude of their defeat stunned the Khas-Kirati high command. In addition to the staggering losses of men and material – over 15,000 men killed, captured, or interned, along with the sinking of a battlecruiser, four heavy cruisers, and twenty three light cruisers and destroyers – the recognition that not only were the Domans united against them, but also that they had a new ally in Ioudaia, forced them to reconsider their strategy in the Four Passages. The war in Domanania was declared a holding action, with strategic resources to be sent to other theaters.
KK intelligence analysts struggled to determine both the breadth and depth of the deception operations that had been run against them. No one in the Navy could adequately explain how a fleet was surrounded and destroyed by a set of opponents previously judged to be insignificant.
Naval intelligence did recommend both increasing fleets' scouting abilities, correctly concluding that the Invasion Fleet had been tracked by cruiser-borne planes, though they believed the motherships were the Garos-class heavy cruisers, rather than a single Euskopos-class light cruiser.
Admiral Ingbadokpa came under scrutiny as well. While the sacrifice of Khanda was understandable under the circumstances, his decision to send the Black Turtle and Blue Karnali in opposite directions, thereby denying the troop ship air cover was repeatedly questioned. His defense, that keeping them together simply provided a single large target, which might have been located and defeated in detail, rather than two flotillas which might escape, was endlessly examined. While he avoided court martial, he was relegated to second-line commands for the rest of the war.
Public opinion on faster rearmament and formally joining the Doman/Khas-Kirati war before the Battle of the North Passages had been mixed. While many Ioudaians supported their Doman neighbors, especially the Free Workers of Domanania. However, more feared the consequences of the war spreading across the border.
Ioudaia was experiencing a period of renewed economic growth due to the modernization after the Eastern Seaboard War, but it was equally recognized that many of the country's weapons were obsolete. Rearmament started in earnest with the Khas-Kirati invasion of Domanania in 1937, but the pace was relatively slow, due to the high costs of new weapons, and some public resistance to higher taxes to pay for them. The lack of modern weapons also damped most people's enthusiam for joining the war. A vocal faction of war hawks and socialists however argued that while war was expensive, it was also inevitable, so Ioudaia should rearm and join the war on favorable terms.
During the battle, public evidence of unusual military activity grew, but it wasn't until the two sinking warships reached Pteleon that it was clear there'd been a battle. At 0800 on 20 March, King of Kings Adrastos Shem Uvjozhad formally announced both that Ioudaia was at war with the Khas-Kirati Empire and that the Navy and Air Armada, along with Doman allies, had won a great victory, defeating an attempt to land troops in Ioudaia.
The public was at first unbelieving, but the publication of photos from the battle, along with the arrival of hundreds of prisoners from the sunken Khas-Kirati fleet provided necessary evidence. The publication of individual accounts from the battle turned the mood to jubliation and patriotism.
An emergency budget made rearmament the highest priority. Shipbuilding was one of the most important aspects of that.
While many observers, even within the Navy, believed that the battle demonstrated the continued superiority of the big-gun ship over the aircraft carrier, the official analysis of the battle came to somewhat different conclusions.
First, while big-gun ships were clearly important, speed, and with it, the ability to control the terms of battle and give chase if necessary, was the most important point of the firepower-protection-mobility triangle. As such, the next class of big-gun ships would be battlecruisers, or as they were more recently named, fast battleships, which would trade reduced armament for high speed.
Second, while the role of aircraft in the battle was diminished by bad weather, and on the Ioudaian side, inexperience, airplanes now possessed the ability to destroy large warships. More than enough bombs were dropped on Alieina Pteroketos and Black Turtle to sink them both. The same went for the Blue Karnali, and had she been worse damaged, the battle would have been won at that point.
Taking those two together, the analysis board recommended that Ioudaia's four major shipyards divide their efforts between a pair of fast battleships and a pair of large aircraft carriers. Construction of Euskopos-class light cruisers would continue using available shipbuilding capacity, and new destroyers and submarines would be designed.
