by gerald hall
“Mister Cavill, You have done a fine job equipping your militia and even with some of the training of your personnel. But do you have any military experience yourself?”
“No, Major. I have never served in the military before. I have done a considerable amount of time in the study of military history however.” Harold’s study of military history really didn’t start until after he had traveled back to the early twentieth century though.
“Well, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Mister Cavill. Colonel Lawrence had been little more than an academic prior to the Great War and yet managed to achieve spectacular successes in the Arabian Peninsula. I also spent a lot of time as a bit of an academic myself. I like to think that I learned my lessons from the best information that history has had to offer. I am like Colonel Lawrence and General Chennault in that regards, I would like to think.
My suggestions may not have gone over very well with my superiors in Sydney. However, I am confident that I can improve upon the formidable force that you have already created here and make it far more effective than any unit in the Australia military. We can make it so that any Japanese forces that dare come here will quickly regret it.”
Harold heard the confidence in this officer’s voice. Harold’s historical files said very little about Major Burke. Perhaps his arrival here combined with the equipment that Harold’s factories were already producing was one of those unintended, yet synergetic consequences of the changes in the timeline. Harold couldn’t help but believe that Major Burke would do exactly what he claimed. This was even before the young Australian major had seen the heavy coastal defense battery or all of the equipment that was being stored in the underground chambers.
Harold made the decision to trust Major Burke with even more than any other person outside of Harold’s innermost circle. Harold then took Major Burke to a few of the underground facilities that were scattered all around Derby. The Australian Army major was fascinated by what he saw in the few underground chambers that Harold showed him.
Then Harold and Major Burke got back into Harold’s truck to drive over to a hill overlooking King Sound and the shipbuilding facilities there.
“We’ve actually done quite a bit of work to improve the harbor around our ship construction facilities here. “ Harold explained as he pointed out towards the nearby breakwater. The breakwater encompassed the entire shipyard area including all of the dry docks and had numerous places for ships to dock alongside it. Over the top of the breakwater, there was a concrete surface that served as a roadway for trucks and other vehicles.
“That’s very impressive, Mister Cavill. What exactly are the functions that it performs?” Major Burke asked.
“The breakwater, which can also serve as a jetty, slows the amount of water going in and out of this particular section of King Sound. The reduction in the water flow here means that the tides here in this part of the Sound are far less extreme than elsewhere around here. Most of the materials used to construct this came from the tailings of our many excavations in this area. We used narrow gauge rail lines to move the rock and soil out here. Other recovered materials from the excavations were also used out at the point north of town for one of my other projects out there.
We can also extend a steel net across the opening to prevent torpedo boats and submersibles from entering this area whenever necessary.”
“That appears to be a smart move. I’m that there are a lot of things here that you don’t want to have seen.”
“I still find it amazing that you have so much going on in this town, yet so little is visible. You would think that there would be all of these massive buildings around here based on what you have told me that you produce here. Most of what I see here are still houses and fields. Sure, the shipyard is pretty easy to see and so is the aerodrome. But the rest of it just isn’t very apparent.”
“Actually, we don’t really build large numbers of any particular item here. However, we do construct quite a variety of different products in relatively small quantities. Henry Ford would probably take great issue with what I have done here. It’s not exactly the sort of mass production that you would typically see in America or Germany. I even have to have certain components produced elsewhere in Australia and shipped here via rail for final assembly. It just suits the attitude and aptitude of my workers here better as well to not have the grinding monotony of a conventional assembly line also.
But the main reason that you can’t see a lot of the facilities is because they are largely underground. That makes for far lower facilities maintenance requirements in addition to more moderate temperatures in the summer and winter months.”
“I would also imagine that being underground certainly also makes the security of your facilities a much less difficult proposition.”
Harold smiled, “Indeed, it does. If you can’t see it, you can’t determine what it is capable of. It also means that it is much more difficult to bomb or shell it. You simply have to become accustomed to working inside what is essentially a cave.”
“I can see where that can be a problem for some people, especially if they are claustrophobic. How do your aborigine workers handle it?”
“They have no problems at all from what I can tell with the exception of the insides of some of my armored vehicles. They can be pretty cramped at times as well as very noisy inside. So some of the aborigines shy away from them. Caves were often the only kind of shelter that some of my aborigines had while in the Outback. My aborigines still go back and forth from here to the Outback whenever it suits them.”
For over an hour, Harold and Major Burke sat by the hill looking over both the harbor and much of the town. A big Cavalier flying boat caught the Major’s attention as it swooped in, landed on the water and turned towards the shore.
“Mister Cavill, how many of these big flying boats have you built?” Major Burke asked as he looked at the Cavalier taxiing out of the water on its beaching gear after a flight from Hawaii.
“We’ve built about forty-five of them so far. Half of them are still being operating by my commercial air transport service. But the rest were constructed to a modified design for military use, both as a transport and for the maritime patrol role.”
“I have been thinking about that. If we are going to keep the Japanese off of our backdoor steps, we need to keep them worried about something else. I know that there is a relatively small contingent of American military personnel here in Australia, mostly refugees that escaped from the Philippine Islands. Some of them have told me that there is still an active insurgency operating against the Japanese in the Philippines.
I was wondering how much more effective the insurgency would be if they were to get more supplies? Your Cavaliers would be ideal for delivering supplies and even personnel to assist the Philippine insurgency. Your planes could also be used to conduct small raids upon Japanese garrisons on some of these islands.”
“Yes, they could be. However, they would be horribly vulnerable to Japanese fighter attack or antiaircraft fire. I cannot afford to lose these aircraft, Major.”
“I understand, Mister Cavill. My recommendation is that we limit such operations to nighttime only to reduce the risk to your aircraft and personnel.”
“That sounds acceptable to me. Besides, I know a few of those Americans from the Philippines already. One of them, Captain P. I. Gunn, is not only a very talented pilot, but is also quite the exceptional aircraft mechanic. Pappy, as everyone here calls him, has been helping my people modify many of our existing aircraft to have a bigger punch against Japanese shipping.
Pappy’s family has been stranded in the Philippines since the Japanese invasion there. Pappy had been ordered out of the Philippines to evacuate some aircraft and senior personnel. But he was not given permission to get his family until it was too late. He is absolutely desperate to get them out. If we can get some people in to help get out American dependents like Pappy’s wife and children from Japanese captivity, that would be a bloody grea
t morale boost for the Americans and the rest of us. We’ve already started work on a rescue mission, but we needed some professional guidance to make it work.”
“With the use of your flying boats and your other assets, I’m certain that I can save some of our people from out there and make life a living hell for those damned Japanese troops at the same time, Mister Cavill.”
“Alright, Major. You’ve convinced me. When do we get started?” Harold said while shaking Major Burke’s hand. Of course, Harold had already discussed basically the same idea with Pappy Gunn when he first met the old naval aviator. But Harold had a feeling that with Major Burke’s help, chances of success were going to be much greater.
“We can get started tomorrow, Sir. We better get a good night’s sleep tonight though. We may not get another one for quite a while.”
“It didn’t take long for Major Burke to make a major impact on the militia and overall operations. It also turned out that the Major had quite a deft hand with dealing with the aborigines. He made full use of their skills in the bush in addition to training the aborigines in the most effective means of using the modern tools of war. Like Harold, Major Burke took into account the social habits of the aborigines and their need to periodically ‘go on walkabout’ when he designed their training program as well as their unit organization
Of course, the aborigines already loved using their CR-1 assault rifles. The militiamen easily accepted the various grenades and other individual pyrotechnics during their revised training. But learning how to properly utilize mortars, artillery and other support weapons was the key task that made the militiamen even more effective in the long run. Fighting from within the confined spaces of a tank was probably the biggest challenge for the aborigines who were far more accustomed to the wide-open spaces of the Outback. Being inside a cave was a far cry from being inside the cramped interior tank. That eventually meant that most of the tank crews were of European origin.
Chapter Ten:
The White House
Washington, DC
April 29, 1942
“How the hell are we going to be able to help Churchill fend off the Nazis with Congress tying our hands behind our back?” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt growled through a cloud of cigarette smoke after reading through the latest reports from an increasingly hostile Capitol Hill.
“A lot of people in Congress don’t seem to think that we have any business getting involved in the war in Europe. The America First crowd got even more strident after what happened to the Pacific Fleet during our attempt to relieve MacArthur in the Philippine Islands. They see any attempt to intervene in Europe as spending more good American blood, even though Hitler declared war on us.” Secretary of State Cordell Hull noted.
“You would have thought that after Japan hit our forces in the Philippines and Hitler then declaring war on us, that our isolationists would have changed their minds. The isolationists still think that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are sufficient to protect America from the rest of the world, I’m afraid.
Of course, our ‘friends’ in the Republican Party are playing this for all that it is worth, Cordell. They hate me because of all of the progressive ideas that I have brought to America through the New Deal. They also hate that I have added tens of billions of dollars to the national debt and curtailed their beloved free market. So any problems that I might have with my foreign policies are being used by the Republicans to hammer me on the head with.
Knowing how hypocritical those bastards are, they know that they probably would have done exactly what I did by sending in the Fleet to retake the Philippines from the Japanese.”
“Maybe so, but right now, they have the political momentum. They know that midterm elections are coming up soon. The Republicans think that they can take both houses of Congress with a veto-proof majority. I have even heard rumors of possible impeachment hearings in the House being considered.”
“Let them try. I’ll make them pay one hell of a political price. But we still have the bigger problem to deal with. We need to find some way to help Winston Churchill and the British fend off the Nazis. Lend-Lease has helped the British because at least they have something worth leasing to us. The Soviets don’t even have anything that we would want in terms of territory or bases. Congress has demanded that all arms and other war materiel that we sell to the Russians be paid for in hard currency, preferably in gold. It won’t be long before Congress demands the same thing of the British, I’m sure.”
“The British don’t just need supplies though. They need soldiers, sailors and airmen to fight alongside them as well. The Soviets have plenty of those, just not nearly enough equipment for their people to use. I fear that this war is going to bleed both of them dry in more ways than one, Mister President.” Harry Hopkins explained as he sat nearby.
“Yes, the Republicans are not very fond of the Soviet Union. That much is for certain. I suppose the conservatives here want to use this to hasten the fall of the communism and socialism that they hate so much. They also associate it with our own progressive political agenda. So the Republicans look at anything that they can do to hurt the Soviets also as a means of hurting my administration, of course.” President Roosevelt said with a tone of irritation.
“We could offer to use our remaining military assets in the West Pacific, including the survivors of the Asiatic Fleet, to help in the defense of Australia, Singapore, French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. That might gain enough support in Congress for providing resources to support the British out there. We can then leverage that as a means to start the military buildup necessary to regain the Philippines.” Secretary Hull suggested.
“That might work, Cordell. It will certainly free up Commonwealth troops to help in Europe and North Africa. But we also need to mobilize and expand our own military so that eventually we can move from the defense to the offense. All Congress wants to do now is build destroyers and submarines because they were virtually the only ships that sank any Japanese warships during that debacle back in January. They have cancelled all new battleship production and have cut funding even to some of our cruiser and aircraft carrier production. Much of the funding going into new destroyer and submarine production came from those programs. Congress has funded several new aircraft development programs but not their production. The only other military programs that Congress have added much more money were coastal defense and border security.” The President said in frustration.
He knew from his time as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy that what Congress had done was to neuter his ability to conduct offensive naval operations. The additional destroyers would certainly help with convoy escorts, but they would not be able to provide the heavy gun support for shore bombardment or slugging it out with enemy capital ships.
“We have to find some way to take the war to the Axis and help our British allies, at least.” Harry noted.
“The isolationists didn’t want you to help the Chinese against the Japanese, but you managed to get around that with Claire Chennault and the flyers of his American Volunteer Group. Maybe you can do something similar to help Churchill on the ground in Europe or Africa?”
“Perhaps we can. But first, all of the troops in the unit will have to be volunteers. We can’t send draftees into a conflict with the Nazis without causing a tremendous domestic backlash. An Army unit like the AVG would require at least ten or twenty times as many people as you needed to fill the ranks for the Flying Tigers.” Cordell explained.
“Some of those, we could get by recruiting from within the Army and maybe also the Marine Corps. But we would have to fill the ranks with civilian volunteers. The latter will have to go through military basic and specialty training before they could be used. This unit could provide us with thousands of combat-experienced cadre later on once we are able to convince Congress and the America people of the need for our full participation in the effort against the Axis powers.”
“Who will we get to lead this volunteer
land force? He has to be an experienced and competent officer. Obviously, we don’t want someone who would be a disaster on the battlefield.”
“I don’t know, but I am sure that General Marshall could provide us with a name or two. I would imagine that the Department of the Army will not want to give up one of their favored senior commanders. But at this point, I don’t care if he is a problem child to his superiors. I just want someone who can fight. In other words, he needs to be the Army’s equivalent of Claire Chennault.”
“If that is what you are looking for, then George S. Patton is definitely the man that you want for the job. He commanded a tank unit in the last war until he was wounded in action. Patton’s aggressive as hell and definitely knows how to command troops. He also has a way of antagonizing the hell out of his superiors, not to mention his predilection towards using very colorful language. There are more than a few people in the Department of the Army who would be more than happy to get Patton out of their hair.”
“Will he need to be convinced to take the job?” The President asked.
“Not at all, according to George Marshall. All that you would need to do is tell George Patton that there is a war for him to fight in that involved tanks. Then you had better get out of his way as he goes charging by.”
“On another note, Sir. We have received several requests for military assistance from the Australian Prime Minister. It seems that the British have had few resources available to send to help defend Australia, especially after the fall of France.”
“I know. I also know that the Australians have sent tens of thousands of their troops to North Africa to help the British there. It doesn’t seem particularly fair, does it? Unfortunately, we are not in much of a position to help much either.”
“Well, the Australians have made us an interesting offer, Sir. They are willing to provide us with sites and facilities for us to base troops out there. The logic is that we need a staging area if we are going to ever retake the Philippines. Short of being in French Indochina, it is hard for us to find a more convenient location from which to strike at the Japanese, perhaps even at their home islands.
