by Herman Wouk
One thing is true, I love you and I’ve never stopped loving you. That’s something to go on, isn’t it? I’m utterly confused. I just can’t write any more until I hear from you.
Except — Natalie’s mother telephoned me not half an hour ago, all frantic. Strange that we’ve never met or spoken before! She hasn’t heard from her daughter in weeks. The last word was that Natalie and the baby were flying back from Rome on the 1.5th. Now what? The schedules must be all disrupted, and suppose we go to war with Germany and Italy? Byron must be wild with worry. I have never held it against him, I mean, marrying a Jewish girl, but the dangers, the complications, are all so magnified! Let’s pray she gets out, one way or another.
Mrs. Jastrow sounds perfectly pleasant, no foreign accent or anything, except that she’s so obviously a New Yorker! If you get news of Natalie, do send the poor woman a telegram, it’ll be a kindness.
Oh, Pug, we’ve plunged into the war, after all! Our whole world is coming apart. You’re a rock. I’m not. Try to forgive me, and maybe we can still pick up the pieces.
All my love
Rho
Not a reassuring letter, he thought, if wholly Rhoda-like. The passage about his daughter-in-law deepened Pug’s sickness of heart. He had been burying awareness of her plight from his mind, laden with his own calamities and, as he thought, helpless to do anything about her. He was in a world crash, and in a private crash. He could only take things day by day as they came.
“Well! Is Alemon treating you right? Welcome aboard!” A tall officer with thick straight blond hair, a froglike pouch under his chin, and a belly strained into two bulges by his belt burst from the inner cabin, buttoning a beautifully ironed khaki shirt. They shook hands. “Ready for some chow?”
Alemon’s breakfast, served on white linen with gleaming cutlery, was better than anything Victor Henry had eaten in months: half a fresh pineapple, hot rolls, steaming coffee, and a rich egg dish with ham, spinach, and melted cheese. Pug said, by way of breaking the ice, that he had short-circuited protocol and come aboard this way because he had heard the Northampton might be leaving soon with a carrier task force to relieve Wake Island. If Hickman wanted the change of command before the ship left, he was at his service.
“Christ, yes. I’m mighty glad you’ve showed up. I hate to go ashore with a war starting, but I’ve been putting off minor surgery and I’m overdue for relief.” Hickman’s big genial face settled into lines of misery. “And to be frank, Henry, I have wife trouble back home. It just happened in October. Some deskbound Army son of a bitch in Washington —” the thick shoulders sagged in misery. “Oh, hell. After twenty-nine years, and her a grandmother three times over! But Ruth is still gorgeous, you know? I swear, Ruth has got the figure of a chorus girl. And left to herself half the time — well, that’s been the problem right along. You know how that is.”
So often, Pug thought, he had heard such plaints before; the commonest of Navy misfortunes, yet not till it had struck him had he remotely imagined the searing pain of it. How could Hickman, or any man, discuss it so freely? He himself could not force words about it from his throat; not to a minister, not to a psychiatrist, not to God in prayer, let alone to a stranger. He was grateful when Hickman turned prominent eyes at him, ruefully grinned, and said, “Well, the hell with that. I understand you’ve had duty in Berlin and in Moscow, eh? Damned unusual.”
“I went to Moscow with the first Lend-Lease mission. That was a short special assignment. I did serve in Berlin as naval attaché.”
“Must have been fascinating, what with all hell breaking loose over there.”
“I’ll take the Northampton.“
At Victor Henry’s harsh tone of disenchantment with his years ashore, Hickman cannily winked. “Well, if I do say so, Henry, she’s a good ship with a smart crew. Except this big fleet expansion’s bleeding us white. We’re running a goddamn training ship here these days.” Hickman pulled the ringing telephone from its bracket on the bulkhead. “Christ, Halsey’s barge is coming alongside.” Gulping coffee, he rose, put on his gold-crusted cap, and snatched a black tie.
Pug was astonished. The Northampton was the flagship of Rear Admiral Spruance, who commanded Halsey’s screening vessels. It was Spruance’s place to call on Halsey, not the other way around. Straightening the tie and cap, Hickman said, “Make yourself at home. Finish your breakfast. We can get started on the relief this morning. My chief yeoman’s got the logs and other records all lined up, and luckily we just did a Title B inventory. The registered pubs are up-to-date and the transfer report is ready. You can sight the books anytime.”
“Does Halsey come aboard often?”
“First time ever.” His eyes popping, Hickman handed Pug a clipboard of messages. “Something’s afoot, all right. You might want to look over these dispatches. There’s a long intercept from Wake.”
Through the porthole Pug could hear Halsey piped aboard. As he glanced through the flimsy sheets, his pain over Rhoda faded. The mere look and feel of fleet communications, the charge of war electricity in the carbon-blurred dispatches, stirred life in him. Hickman soon came back. “It was the Old Man, all right. He looks madder than hell about something. Let’s go to the ship’s office.”
Impeccable inventories, account books, and engineering records were spread for Victor Henry’s inspection by young yeomen in spotless whites, under the glaring eye of a grizzled chief. The two captains were deep in the records when the flag lieutenant telephoned. The presence of Captain Victor Henry, he said, was desired in Admiral Spruance’s quarters. Hickman looked nonplussed, relaying this to his visitor. “Shall I take you there, Henry?”
“I know the way.”
“Any idea what it’s about?”
“Not the foggiest.”
Hickman scratched his head. “Do you know Spruance?”
“Slightly, from the War College.”
“Think you can relieve me before we sortie? We’re on seventy-two hours’ notice.”
“I intend to.”
“Splendid.” Hickman clasped his hand. “We’ve got to talk some about the ship’s stability. There are problems.”
“Hello, Pug,” Halsey said.
It was the old tough wily look from under thick eyebrows; but the brows were gray, the eyes sunken. This was not Billy Halsey, the feisty skipper of the destroyer Chauncey. This was Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, ComAir-BatForPac, with three silver stars on his collar pin. Halsey’s stomach sagged, his once-thick brown hair was a gray straggle, his face was flecked and creased with age. But the square-set jaw, the thin wide crafty smile, the curving way he stuck out his hand, the hard grip, were the same. “How’s that pretty wife of yours?”
“Thank you, Admiral. Rhoda’s fine.”
Halsey turned to Raymond Spruance, who stood beside him, hands on hips, studying a Pacific chart on the desk. Spruance was a little younger, but far less marked by time, possibly because of his austere habits. His color was fresh, his skin clear, his plentiful hair only touched with gray; he seemed not to have changed at all since Pug’s tour under him at the War College. It was a Halsey byword that he wouldn’t trust a man who didn’t drink or smoke. Spruance did neither, but they were old fast friends. In Halsey’s destroyer division, during Pug’s first duty at sea, Spruance had been a junior skipper.
“You know, Ray, this rascal had the sassiest bride of any ensign in the old division.” As Halsey chain-lit a cigarette, his hand slightly trembled. “Ever meet her?”
Spruance shook his head, the large eyes serious and remote. “Captain Henry, you worked on the Wake Island battle problem at the College, didn’t you?”
“I did, sir.”
“Come to think of it, Ray, why were you running a Wake problem in thirty-six?” said Halsey. “Wake was nothing but scrub and booby birds then.”
Spruance looked to Victor Henry, who spoke up, “Admiral, the purpose was to test tactical doctrine in a problem involving Orange dominated waters, very long distances, a
nd enemy land-based air.”
“Sound familiar?” Spruance said to Halsey.
“Oh, hell, what does a game-board exercise away back then prove?”
“Same distances. Same ship and aircraft performance characteristics.”
“Same doctrines, too — like seek out enemy and destroy him.” Halsey’s jaw jutted. Pug knew that look well. “Have you heard the joke that’s going around in Australia? They’re saying that pretty soon the two yellow races may really come to blows in the Pacific — the Japanese and the Americans.”
“Not a bad quip.” Spruance gestured with dividers at the chart. “But it’s over two thousand miles to Wake, Bill. Let’s even say we sortie tomorrow, which isn’t very feasible, but —”
“Let me interrupt you right there. If we have to, we will!”
“Even so, look at what happens.”
The two admirals bent over the chart. The operation to relieve Wake Island, Pug quickly gathered, was on. The aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga with their support ships were already steaming westward, one to knock out the land-based air in the Marshalls south of Wake, the other to deliver reinforcements to the Marines, and attack any Japanese sea forces it encountered. But Halsey’s Enterprise was being ordered to a station less than halfway to Wake, where it could cover the Hawaiian Islands. He wanted to go all the way. He was arguing that the Jap fleet would not dare another sneak attack on Hawaii, with the Army Air Corps on combat alert; that carriers operating together vastly increased their punch; and that if the Japs did try an end run for Hawaii, he could double back and intercept them in time.
The 1936 game-board exercise, Pug realized, had been prophetic. In the game, the Marines had been beleaguered on Wake after a sneak Japanese attack on Manila. The Pacific Fleet had sailed to relieve them and bring the Jap main body to action. The mission had failed. “Orange” air had clobbered “Blue” into turning back. “Blue” carrier attacks had not knocked out the enemy’s island airfields, the umpires had ruled, due to bad weather, pilot inexperience, and unexpected Jap strength in AA and aircraft.
Spruance ticked off distances, times, and hazards until Halsey exploded, “Jesus Christ and General Jackson, Ray, I know all that. I want some arguments to throw at Cincpac so I can shake myself loose!”
Dropping the dividers on the chart, Spruance shrugged. “I suspect the whole operation may be cancelled.”
“Cancelled, hell! Why? Those marines are holding out splendidly!”
His sympathies all with Halsey, Pug Henry put in that while flying from Manila to Hawaii on the Pan Am Clipper, he had been under bombardment at Wake Island.
“Hey? What’s that? You were there?” Halsey turned angrily glinting eyes on him. “What did you see? How are their chances?”
Pug described the Marine defenses, and said he thought they could resist for weeks. He mentioned the letter he had brought from the Marine commander to Cincpac, and quoted the colonel’s parting words in the coral dugout: “We’ll probably end up eating fish and rice behind barbed wire anyway, but at least we can make the bastards work to take the place. ”
“You hear that, Ray?” Halsey struck the desk with a bony gray-haired fist. “And you don’t think we’re honor bound to reinforce and support them? Why, the papers back home are full of nothing but the heroes on Wake. ’Send us more Japs!’ I’ve never heard anything more inspiring.”
“I rather doubt that message ever came from Wake. Newspaper stuff,” said Spruance. “Henry, were you stationed in Manila?”
“I was coming via Manila, Admiral, from the Soviet Union. I was naval adviser on the Lend-Lease mission.”
“What? Rooshia?” Halsey gave Victor Henry a jocular prod with two fingers. “Say, that’s right! I’ve heard about you, Pug. Hobnobbing with the President and I don’t know who all! Why, old Moose Benton told me you went for a joyride over Berlin in a Limey bomber. Hey? Did you really do that?”
“Admiral, I was an observer. Mostly I observed how frightened I could get.”
Halsey rubbed his chin, looking roguish. “You’re aboard to relieve Sam Hickman, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Admiral.’
“Like to come with me and handle operations instead?”
Victor Henry sparred. “I’ve got my orders, Admiral.”
“They can be modified.”
Pug knew this man well enough from the destroyer days. Lieutenant Commander Halsey had given him his first “outstanding” fitness report for duty at sea. Once Bill Halsey went charging into a fleet action — he was bound to do that sooner or later, he had always been hot for fame and a fight — his operations officer might decide the course of a big battle, for Halsey leaned heavily on subordinates. It was a temptation of a sort; much more so than the Cincpac staff assignment Pug had dodged.
But Victor Henry was tired of being a flunky to mighty men, tired of anonymous responsibility for major problems. The Northampton meant a return to the old straight career ladder: sea duty, shore interludes, more sea duty; and at last battle-line command, and the bright hope of flag rank. The Northampton was that all-important last rung of major sea command. He would be firing eight-inch guns in battle. He was a gunnery man to the bone.
Yet rejecting Vice Admiral Halsey to his face was an unhealthy undertaking. Pug was hesitating, wondering how to handle this, when Raymond Spruance, leaning over the chart with the dividers, remarked, “Bill, isn’t that a three-striper slot?”
Halsey turned on him. “It damned well shouldn’t be. Not the way operations are expanding! I can get that changed mighty fast.”
With Spruance’s casual words, Pug Henry was off the hook. He did not even have to speak. Halsey gave Pug a calculating glance and picked up his cap. “Well, I’m going back to Cincpac, Ray, and I mean to win this argument. Stand by to get under way tomorrow. Good seeing you, Pug. You’ve kept very well.” Out swept the gnarled hand. “Still play tennis?”
“Every chance I get, Admiral.”
“And read your Bible every morning, and Shakespeare at night?”
“Well, sort of. At least I still try.”
“You clean-living types depress me.”
“Well, I smoke and drink like anything now.”
“Honor bright?” Halsey grinned. “That’s progress.”
Spruance said, “I’m going ashore, Bill.”
“Well, come along. How about you, Pug? Like a ride to the beach?”
“Yes, thank you, Admiral, if I may.”
At the quarterdeck, he gave the OOD a message for Hickman, then descended the ladder to the sumptuous black barge, and sat apart from the admirals. The boat cruised like a ferry through the malodorous oil and flotsam that since the Jap attack was fouling the harbor. On the fleet landing stood a gray Navy Chevrolet with three-star flags fluttering on the front fenders. A stiff marine in dress uniform opened the door. “Well, gentlemen,” said Halsey, “can I give anybody a lift?”
Spruance shook his head.
“Thank you, Admiral,” Victor Henry said. “I’m going up to my son’s house.”
“Where does your son live?” Admiral Spruance asked as the Chevrolet drove off.
“Up in the hills over Pearl City, sir.”
“Shall we walk it?”
“It’s five miles, Admiral.”
“Are you pressed for time?”
“Well, no, sir.”
Spruance strode off through the clangorous Navy Yard. After a week of heavy drinking to blot out night thoughts of Rhoda, Pug had trouble keeping up with him. They began climbing an asphalt road through green hills. Though Spruance’s khaki shirt blackened with sweat his pace did not slow. He did not speak, but it was not for lack of wind. Pug was embarrassed by his own puffing compared to the even deep breaths of the older man. Rounding a turn of the uphill road, they looked out on a broad panorama of the base: docks, cranes, nests of destroyers and of submarines — and the terrible smashed half-sunk battleships, burned-out aircraft, and blackened skeletal hangars.
Spruance spoke. “Good view.”
“Too good, Admiral.” The admiral’s face turned. The big sober eyes flashed agreement. “I planned to spend the day aboard the Northampton, sir,” Pug panted, now that they were talking, “but when Admiral Halsey thinks of getting under way tomorrow, I figure I better fetch my gear.”
“Well, I doubt the urgency exists.” Spruance patted a folded white handkerchief on his wet brow.
Wake Island’s remote exposed location and the Navy’s present weakness, he said, all but precluded a fight. Admiral Kimmel, no doubt wanting to recover face after December 7th, had ordered the rescue just before the President had fired him. But the Fleet was awaiting a new Cincpac, and its temporary commander, Vice Admiral Pye, was having second thoughts. Abandoning the relief mission would cause great controversy, and there were good arguments on both sides, but Spruance suspected that these marines, like the phantoms in the War College exercise, were fated to spend the war in prison camps.
Talking in a calm War College vein, marching at a pace that made Victor Henry’s heart gallop, Spruance said that December 7th had changed the Pacific balance of forces. The United States had been half-disarmed. Theodds were now ten or eleven carriers to three, ten combat-ready battleships to none, and nobody knew where those heavy enemy forces were. The Japanese had shown prime combat and logistical ability. They had unveiled ships, planes, and fighting men as good as any on earth. The Philippines, Southeast Asia, and the East Indies might be theirs for the taking, stretched thin as the British were. Right now the Navy could do little but hit-and-run raids to gain battle skill and keep the Japanese off balance. But it had to hold a line from Hawaii to Australia at all costs, through the arc of islands outside Japanese aircraft range. New carriers and battleships would in time join the fleet. Jumping off from Hawaii and Australia, they would start battering back Japan from the east and the south. But that was a year or more away. Meantime Australia had to be held, for it was a white man’s continent. Its overrunning by nonwhites might trigger a world revolution that could sweep away civilization. With this arresting remark Raymond Spruance fell silent.
