W E B Griffin - Corp 07 - Behind the Lines

by Behind The Lines(Lit)

  "If Fertig happens to be listening," McCoy said.

  "The possibility of course exists, Ken, that they will not be listening," Pluto said. "But I think they will be."

  "And if not?" Pickering asked, handing Stecker Message Two. "If you don't get acknowledgment?"

  "We'll keep trying-the stations at Pearl Harbor and here, not the Sunfish-on an hourly basis, until midnight," Pluto said. "I really think we'll get through."

  "And if you do?" Pickering asked.

  "Two hours after we get acknowledgment, we send Message Two. That gives them two hours to figure out what the Marine Hymn substitution is."

  "Speaking of which," Stecker said. "Will somebody please translate this for me?"

  "This is where it really gets far out, Colonel," McCoy said.

  "Who is 'Lille'? What is this?" Stecker asked.

  "The Marine Hymn substitution code doesn't have a 'K' or an 'O,' Colo-nel," Moore said. "We are using an 'L' when a 'K' is needed-it's the next letter, and a consonant. Where an 'O' is required, we are using a 'U' We think the substitution will be self-evident."

  "Right," McCoy said sarcastically. "The substitution will be self-evident. These guys are hiding out in the boondocks, and we want to play word games with them."

  "If you can't handle the whiskey, McCoy, leave it alone," Pickering snapped. "What we're trying to do here is keep you alive."

  He was immediately sorry, not because of his own words (they needed to be said), but because of the look of approval on Captain Macklin's face.

  "Message Two, Colonel," Moore said, "reads 'Killer And Erny Will Eat Beans Thirty Miles South This Morning.' "

  " 'Eat Beans'? What does that mean? South of what?" Stecker asked. "This doesn't make any sense to me."

  "You weren't here, Jack, when Lewis and I went over the charts," Picker-ing said. "Where's that chart, Pluto?"

  "Right here, Sir," Pluto said, and pushed the chart across the table.

  "Show him, Lewis," Pickering said.

  "Aye, aye, Sir," Lewis said. "Colonel, I suggested to General Pickering that the best place to try to land McCoy and party would be on the east coast of Mindanao."

  "I've sailed those interior waters, Jack," Pickering said. "They are not among the best-charted waters in the world. We don't want the Sunfish run-ning-submerged-into an uncharted reef or shoal. The waters to the east of Mindanao are safest."

  "You'll notice, Colonel," Lewis said, pointing, "the subsurface terrain here. The Philippine Trench, with depths to about 9,000 fathoms, is only about seventy-five miles offshore. The 6,000-fathom curve is sixty miles offshore; the 4,000 curve thirty-five miles offshore; the 2,000 twenty miles offshore; and the 200-fathom curve runs almost along the shoreline."

  "I don't know what that means," Stecker said.

  "According to Lewis, Jack, a submarine skipper is perfectly happy when he has a hundred fathoms under his keel," Pickering said. "That's six hundred feet. In my experience, and from what Lewis tells me, in the Navy's, when you have fathom curve lines like these, there is little chance of encountering an underwater obstacle."

  "Even in a submerged submarine?" Stecker asked.

  "We have a two-hundred-fathom depth all along here," Pickering replied. "Twelve hundred feet. If a sub runs at three hundred feet, he's got nine hun-dred feet under his keel."

  "OK," Stecker said.

  "Sir, if you will look here," Lewis said, pointing at the chart again, "you will see the two-hundred-fathom curve just about touches the shore at this point, which is thirty miles south of a village fortunately called 'Boston.' "

  "Boston? Beans, right?" Stecker asked.

  "That's the idea, Sir," Lewis said. "The Sunfish can sail, submerged, to within a couple of hundred yards of the coastline and still have at least a hun-dred fathoms under her keel."

  "A couple of hundred yards?" Stecker asked doubtfully. "How are you going to keep from running into the shoreline?"

  "SONAR, Sir," Lewis said. "It stands for Sound Navigation and Rang-ing. The Sunfish has it aboard, Sir. She'll know when she's getting in close."

  "And you think Fertig will understand this Boston-beans connection?" Stecker asked dubiously.

  "We tested that, too, Sir," Pluto replied.

  "How?" Pickering asked.

  "McCoy and I went to the SWPOA Officers' Club," Sessions said. "We asked ten officers at the bar the first thing that came to mind when they heard the word 'beans.' We got six 'Boston' or 'Boston baked'; and one each 'lima,' 'snap,' and 'navy.' "

  "You really did your research, didn't you?" Pickering said, chuckling.

  "That's nine," Stecker said. "You said you asked ten officers."

  "Now that you mention it, Colonel," McCoy said, "we also got one 'fart.' "

  "Six out often responses with a Boston connection, Sir," Pluto said, very quickly, "seems more than reasonable. I mean, I think we can presume Fertig will immediately discount `lima,' `snap,' and 'navy.' "

  "One fart, huh?" Pickering said, and laughed.

  "What if you can't get an acknowledgment from Fertig?" Stecker asked.

  "There's some argument about that, Sir," Pluto said. "One being that the Sunfish should repeat the operation the next day, and the day after that, if nec-essary. The other argument is to put McCoy and party ashore just before day-light anyway, and attempt to contact Fertig by other means."

  "Argument Two came from McCoy, right?" Pickering said.

  "Yes, Sir," McCoy said.

  "All right, McCoy," Pickering said. "Tell us why you're not happy with this."

  "The more complicated something is, the more things can go wrong," McCoy said. "There's too much 'if, `if,' and 'if' in this for me. I'd much prefer to do this simply. The four of us go ashore without doing anything to make the Japanese nervous. We find Fertig..."

  "How are you going to do that?"

  "Zimmerman says that the Filipinos will know where he is, and I agree with him. And they will know we've come ashore."

  Pickering nodded. "Where is he, by the way?"

  "He kept falling asleep, so I sent him home," McCoy replied, and went on. "We'll have good radios and a real code with us. So, as soon as we find Fertig, we get in direct touch with the submarine. It's likely we can do it in five days. I think the sub can hang around that long, surfacing only for a few min-utes to listen to the radio. Then we tell the sub where and when to meet us."

  Pickering shrugged.

  "This is not a democracy, and this is not going to be decided by a vote, but I'd like to hear what everybody thinks about this," he said, and pointed at Koffler. "Starting with you, Steve. We'll work our way up the ranks."

  "General, I'm with McCoy," Koffler said. "I don't want a bunch of ex-cited Japs running around looking for us, particularly since we won't know where to hide. And these messages are-no offense, Major, or you either, Mr. Moore-a little screwy."

  He is just a boy, not old enough to vote. But on the other hand, he knows more about keeping alive on a Japanese-occupied island than anybody in the room.

  "I guess you're next, John, aren't you?" Pickering said.

  "I disagree with Steve, about the messages being screwy," Moore said. "Fertig, and the people with him, are desperate. Their minds will be at a high pitch. They're intelligent. I think they will almost immediately comprehend the messages. The great unknown, which worries me, is how quickly the Japanese will be able to decipher both messages. And what that will mean. Steve's 'a bunch of excited Japanese running around' worries me, even if they can't make the Boston bean connection."

  That worries me, too.

  "Which of you is senior?" Pickering asked, pointing to Lewis and Macklin.

  "I believe I am, Sir," Lewis said.

  "That makes you next, Captain Macklin," Pickering said.

  "Sir, when I'm out of my depth, I try not to offer an opinion," Macklin said in a flat voice.

  "Let me put it this way, then. How do you feel about going ashore without our having made contact with Fertig?
"

  "I'm a Marine officer, General. I'll go where I'm told to go."

  He has no interest in any of this. Why is he disinterested? There are two answers to that. Either he has closed his mind to the possibility that he's going to find himself paddling up to an enemy-held shore in a rubber boat, or, and I think this is what it is, he doesn't think he's going.

  I can't believe he 'd try to miss the boat on this. But stranger things have happened.

  "Lewis?"

  "General, since I'm not going ashore, I'd rather not offer an opinion," Chambers D. Lewis said.

  "Who's right? Pluto or McCoy?" Pickering asked impatiently.

  "I would have to align myself with Major Hon, Sir," Lewis said.

  "OK. You're next, Ed."

  "I think I'd go with Koffler and McCoy, Sir," Sessions said.

  "Jack?" Pickering said. "We already know what Pluto thinks."

  "McCoy," Stecker said.

  Pickering nodded.

  This places me in a very awkward position. The people I admire most in this room disagree with me, including the only people who know what it is to be on an enemy-held island, and to have-what did Koffler say?-"a bunch of excited Japs running around looking for them." But they're wrong.

  If you put a box around Mindanao, it would be 450 miles on a side. We don't know where Fertig is inside that box, and we certainly can't risk asking him where he is until we deliver to him a code the Japanese can't break in an hour. And if McCoy and his people go ashore and are never heard from again, hell will freeze over before we can mount another mission. MacArthur will consider himself vindicated, and Donovan will gleefully announce that if he had been in charge, the operation would have worked.

  "This is what we're going to do," Pickering announced. "We will pro-ceed with what Pluto and Moore have come up with. The Sunfish will surface thirty miles south of Boston one half hour after nightfall 23 December. Mes-sage One will be sent at that time. Sunfish will wait ten minutes for acknowl-edgment. If no acknowledgment is received, she will submerge. She will resurface at hourly intervals, ten minutes past the hour, the last surfacing to be at 0010 24 December.

  "That's Christmas Eve!" Captain Macklin said, shocked.

  "Merry Christmas, Sergeant Koffler," McCoy said.

  "... which is, of course, Christmas Eve," Pickering said. "Whether or not there is acknowledgment, the Sunfish will surface again thirty minutes before sunrise-which will occur at five twenty-nine-and off-load McCoy, Zimmer-man, Koffler, and Captain Macklin. They will carry with them only personal small arms, communications radios, the codes, and a token amount of gold and medicine. The Sunfish will remain on the surface until there is word that the landing party has made it safely to the beach..."

  "Or until a Jap airplane starts dropping bombs on it," McCoy said, "whichever comes first."

  "That's quite enough, thank you, from you, Mr. McCoy," Pickering said, but he was unable to restrain a smile. "As I was saying before Charley McCarthy here ran off at the mouth, the Sunfish will remain on the surface until the landing party is ashore." (A highly popular radio program of the era fea-tured ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, father of actress Candice Bergen, and his dummy, Charley McCarthy.) "She will then submerge, to resurface for five minutes at two-hour intervals, ten minutes past the hour, during the daylight hours, and from thirty minutes after sunset until thirty minutes before sunrise for a seven-day period. If contact has not been established during that period, she will return to Pearl Harbor. If there is contact between the landing party and the Sunfish, or between Fertig, somehow, and the Sunfish, we'll play that by ear."

  He looked around the table.

  "Any comments, Mr. McCoy?"

  McCoy raised both hands palm upward.

  "Permission to speak, Sir?" Captain Robert B. Macklin said.

  "Certainly."

  "May I ask, Sir, how you came to the 23, 24 December dates?"

  "Show him, Jack," Pickering ordered.

  Colonel Stecker passed to Captain Macklin a sheet of typewriter paper.

  T O P S E C R E T

  SPECIAL CHANNEL

  FROM: CINCPAC HAWAII

  1210 9DEC42

  TO: SUPREME HEADQUARTERS SWPOA BRISBANE

  EYES ONLY-BRIG GEN FLEMING PICKERING USMC

  DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

  ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND TRANSMITTAL

  FOLLOWING PERSONAL FROM CINCPAC TO BRIG GEN PICKERING USMC

  DEAR FLEMING:

  HAVE BEEN INFORMED SUNFISH WILL COMPLETE FUELING AND PROVISIONING ESPIRITU SANTO BY 1200 HOURS 10 DEC 1942.

  OFFICER COMMANDING NAVAL AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND BRISBANE HAS BEEN DIRECTED TO MAKE C0R0NAD0 PB2Y AIRCRAFT AVAILABLE TO YOU FOR TRAVEL ESPIPJTU SANTO ON ARRIVAL BRISBANE ETA 0500 10 DEC 1942

  (3) PLEASE PASS TO ALL HANDS ON BEHALF MYSELF AND REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL J. WAQAM GODSPEED GOOD SAILING AND GOOD LUCK.

  BEST PERSONAL REGARDS CHESTER

  END PERSONAL FROM ADM NIMITZ BRIG TO GEN PICKERING

  BY DIRECTION:

  WAGAM REARADM USN

  T O P S E C R E T

  "It's about 1,300 nautical miles from here to Espiritu Santo," Pickering said. "Say, seven hours in a Coronado. If it arrives here when it's expected, at 0500 tomorrow, I think we can reasonably expect to get in the air by noon. That would put us into Espiritu no later than 1800. We should be able to load every-thing aboard the Sunfish in an hour or so, and we should be able to sail at first light the day after tomorrow."

  " 'We?' " Colonel Stecker asked warily. "I thought we discussed that."

  "Slip of the tongue, Jack. The Sunfish will sail, with me standing on the pier, at first light the day after tomorrow, which will be the eleventh. It's 3,200 nautical miles from Espiritu Santo to Boston. Using Lewis's ballpark figures that the Sunfish can cruise on the surface at fifteen knots, she should be able to make Mindanao in ten days. That would be the twenty-first. To give us a little slack, I've scheduled her to be off Mindanao on the twenty-third."

  He looked around the table.

  "Any questions?"

  "Sir," Captain Robert B. Macklin said.

  "Yes?"

  "Nothing, Sir. Excuse me."

  "If you've got something to say, Captain," McCoy said, not very pleas-antly, "let's hear it."

  "Very well, Mr. McCoy," Macklin said. "Since you have the responsibil-ity for this mission, I was wondering, if you have considered my physical con-dition, how that might adversely affect the mission."

  "I watched you paddle the rubber boat, Captain. It looked to me like you could handle that without much trouble. What exactly is your physical condi-tion?"

  "Macklin," Colonel Stecker said, even less pleasantly, "if you'd like, we can run you past a doctor and get an official report on your condition."

  "I was only thinking of the mission, Colonel," Macklin said. "But I do have one question, Sir."

  "Let's have it."

  "Has the OSS been kept up on how the mission is proceeding?"

  "No," Pickering said. "They haven't."

  "Do I have your permission to do so, Sir?"

  "I don't see why not...."

  "Why don't we just tell them when we come back?" McCoy said.

  For some reason, McCoy doesn't like the idea of Macklin getting in touch with the OSS. I can't see what harm it would do, but I think I should indulge McCoy.

  "Don't worry about the OSS, Captain Macklin," Pickering said. "As soon as the Sunfish puts out to sea, I'll see that Secretary Knox is notified. I'm sure he'll pass the word to Mr. Donovan."

  "Thank you, Sir," Captain Robert B. Macklin said.

  [TWO]

  Water Lily Cottage

  Brisbane, Australia

  2305 Hours 11 December 1942

  First Lieutenant Kenneth R. McCoy, USMCR, pulled the sheet of paper from the typewriter, laid it on the dining-room table, stood up, took a Waterman's fountain pen from his shirt pocket, and scrawled his name at the bottom. Then he picked it up and read what had ta
ken him the better part of an hour to write.

  Brisbane, Australia

  9 December 1942