The Passion and the Glory

by Christopher Nicole

  The second time, after they had lain together, playing with each other’s body, for half an hour, was altogether more gentle. They were united now. They loved. Afterwards Linda cooked them some tinned meat and vegetables, moving around the kitchen in elegantly naked beauty. Then they showered together, standing against each other and letting the water seep between them. ‘How long are you here?’ she asked.

  ‘I leave tomorrow morning. Heck … I still haven’t bought you a ring.’

  ‘There’s time. We’re engaged. We are engaged, Walt?’

  ‘We are married,’ he said. ‘The church is just a formality.’

  She dried herself, went back into the bedroom, straightened the bed, turning the sheets back first as if to inspect them, and then putting on the coverlet almost in haste. Then they dressed, gazing at each other.

  ‘If I’d thought of it,’ he said. ‘Maybe we could’ve got married this afternoon.’

  ‘How could you think of it, when you didn’t know I was here?’ she asked. ‘Anyway, didn’t you enjoy what we did better?’

  ‘Much,’ he agreed. ‘I just want to … own you, I guess. Does that make me some kind of anti-feminist?’

  ‘Some women like to be owned,’ she said. ‘Me. At least by you. And you do own me, now, Walt. For ever and ever.’

  He had the oddest feeling that she was trying to convince herself more than him. But he was just gloriously happy. He had never suspected sex could be such a tremendous experience. He had never imagined in his wildest midnight fantasies that a girl, or at least a girl like Linda, would want to take command of the situation, as she had done, would want to yield herself so utterly … or could possibly have such a tumultuous climax, again and again and again. He did not believe it, of any other woman. But he had shared it with Linda, and would again, for the rest of his life.

  They held hands as they drove back to Pearl. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance of seeing you again before tomorrow morning?’ he asked. ‘I’m not on duty again until then.’

  ‘I am, I’m afraid. I go on duty at seven, soon as I’ve had a bite to eat.’

  ‘Just what do you do?’

  ‘I’m on radar. Next time the Japs come, I’m supposed to spot them.’

  ‘And I bet you will.’ The taxi was stopping, and they were looking at marine sentries.

  ‘I guess we’d better split here,’ Linda said.

  ‘I’m going to make our engagement official,’ Walt told her. ‘So far as I know, I’m just going out on patrol with Tecumsah. We’ll be back. Then it’ll be official.’

  ‘I can wait.’ A last squeeze of the hand, and she got out of the car. Walt followed her, stood to watch her present her pass to the sentry on the gate, and heard a frenzied shout.

  ‘There you are! Wall! Oh, Walt! They told me you were here.’

  He turned, to gaze at Janice Te Hota, accompanied by her sister, running towards him, breasts bouncing and skirts flying.

  ‘Walt!’ she screamed, and threw both arms round his neck.

  ‘Janice … ’ he endeavoured to free himself, cast a hasty glance at the gate. Linda had stopped, and turned, to discover what the commotion was about. Now she gazed at him for a moment, her face expressionless, then she turned and went through the gate.

  ‘For God’s sake let me go,’ Walt snapped at Janice, trying to reach the gate himself.

  ‘But you were coming to see me,’ Janice protested. And frowned. ‘Weren’t you?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Janice, I haven’t the time,’ Walt said. ‘I must report for duty.’ Through the gate he could see the flutter of white as Linda proceeded along the path.

  Janice’s frown deepened, and her voice took on a strident note. ‘You weren’t coming to see me? Who is that woman?’

  ‘My … my fiancée.’

  ‘Your what?’ she screamed.

  Heads were turning, people on the street were stopping to look. ‘For God’s sake,’ Walt said. ‘Tone it down.’

  ‘I am going to scream the place down,’ Janice threatened. ‘Your fiancée? You’re engaged to me.’

  ‘Yes, you are,’ Melanie put in, grasping his other arm.

  Walt hesitated. He was very tempted to push both girls away and go through the gate; he could still catch Linda before she reached her barracks. But he wasn’t sure what good that was going to do, right this minute. And he certainly didn’t want a scene. ‘We’d better go to your home,’ he said, and pushed them into the taxi instead.

  ‘Engaged,’ Janice sobbed. ‘How can you be engaged?’

  ‘How can you?’ Melanie echoed.

  ‘Well, the fact is, I was engaged to Linda before I ever came to Hawaii,’ Walt said.

  ‘You were what?’

  ‘That’s the truth. I’m sorry about … ’ he glanced at Melanie, unsure whether or not she knew what had happened, decided that she did. ‘It was just one of those things.’

  ‘Just one of those things,’ Janice breathed, having stopped sobbing. ‘Just one of those things!’

  ‘You have to marry Janice,’ Melanie told him. ‘She’s pregnant.’

  Walt stared at her in consternation, then at Janice.

  Who smiled. ‘Your baby, Walt.’

  ‘But … ’ he couldn’t believe it. After one quick push me, pull you? And now they were taking him home, to confront their parents … ‘Stop this automobile,’ he snapped.

  The cab pulled into the side of the road, and he got out.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Janice asked.

  ‘I’ve just remembered, I have a telephone call to make. Won’t be a second.’ He pushed his head through the driver’s window, gave him a ten dollar bill. ‘Take these young ladies home,’ he said. ‘No matter what they say. If they turn up at that gate again, I am going to break your neck. You got me?’

  ‘I got you, Lieutenant,’ said the driver.

  Walt stood back, and the car gunned away from the kerb. He looked at Janice and Melanie, looking back at him through the rear window, shouting and waving. Then he hailed another cab and returned to the base.

  *

  He tried to reach Linda, but it was impossible. Signalwoman Brewster was back on duty. He tried to leave a message, but no one would take it, and he was made to understand by the female CPO in charge of the barracks that for an officer to fool around with an enlisted woman was bad for discipline.

  So he wrote her a letter, attempting to explain what had happened. Then he went to bed, half expecting to be awakened by a summons to some superior’s office to confront an irate John Te Hota. But none came, and eventually he slept. He hadn’t expected to, his brain was a complete turmoil. He had had the most glorious afternoon of his life, had known for the first time just how much in love he was, and had had it all turn to ashes — because of that other afternoon he had thought was glorious. And there was nothing he could do about it: he was going to sea tomorrow morning. He tried to alleviate some of his misery by writing to both Dad, in the States, and Clive, in Madagascar, explaining the situation and asking for their advice. But he refused to believe he was the father of Janice’s child, if she really was pregnant; to accept that would mean accepting that he would have to marry her — and he was going to marry Linda, come hell or high water.

  A Medal of Honour winner, he thought ruefully, running away from two young girls, and preparing to act the utter cad. And he remembered that he hadn’t even told Linda about that — they had been too busy making love. Suddenly he knew there was only one thing he wanted to do right that minute: get to sea and fight the Japs. It seemed to be the only thing he was good at.

  *

  Commander Waite was somewhat taken aback to discover that his new executive officer was only nineteen years old, but he became relaxed when he glanced at Walt’s record, was informed of the incipient award, and discovered that his second in command was a son of Captain Lewis McGann of USS Florida. ‘Seems you’ll have to teach me a thing or two about getting Japs,’ he said with a grin. ‘Let’s put to sea.
’

  For the stop in Pearl was for fuelling only. Tecumsah was out of the harbour by ten, and steering west. ‘Orders,’ Waite explained, and tapped the envelope on his desk as he surveyed his officers. ‘And there are some more in there, to be opened after we’re twelve hours from Pearl.’

  So something was happening, Walt thought. And it was going to be something big: they were still within sight of Honolulu, and behind them they could make out the huge bulk of three aircraft carriers, with their destroyer escorts, also leaving the harbour.

  ‘I guess there are Japs out there,’ said Lieutenant (JG) Prosper.

  He was the torpedo officer, and was an embarrassment to Walt, because he was twenty four. Even Ensign Jonssen was twenty. But none of them had seen active service as yet, and in that sense his age didn’t come into it. They needed him, and looked to him for a lead in whatever was coming at them. He hoped it was a lot; then he could get his emotional problems out of his mind.

  ‘It is a lot,’ Waite told them that afternoon, when he opened the sealed envelope. ‘The whole Goddam Japanese fleet is out there, and coming this way.’

  ‘How do we know, sir?’ Prosper asked.

  ‘We’ve busted their code, that’s how,’ Waite said. ‘Now let me tell you, there are four big carriers out there: Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga and Soryu, with cruisers and destroyers. But that ain’t all. The carriers are also escorted by two battlewagons: Haruna and Kirishima. But that ain’t all, either. There’s also a separate battle squadron. Six of the bastards, and they include Yamato.’

  ‘Holy Jesus Christ,’ Prosper commented.

  Walt agreed with him. Yamato was the greatest warship ever built. More than eight hundred feet long and just on seventy thousand tons deep loaded, she was armed principally with nine eighteen-inch guns, the biggest naval weapons ever produced.

  ‘How many battleships do we have?’ Jonssen asked.

  ‘Zero,’ Waite said.

  ‘Shit! How do we stop them?’

  ‘With what we do have. Carriers and submarines. Now, we don’t know where they’re headed. Could be the Aleutians, could be Pearl, or it could be Midway Island. The brass seem to feel Midway is the best bet, because while an attack on Pearl would be a dicey business, and there is no way they could sustain themselves there even if they made a lodgement, Midway ain’t all that strongly defended, and if they could grab it, they’d be able to dominate the eastern Pacific just like they do the western right now. They’d be playing in our back yard. So our orders are to take up a position east of Midway and wait. And take out any Jap warship that we see.’

  ‘We’re to take on a whole battle fleet?’ Prosper asked in awe.

  ‘We ain’t the only sub out here,’ Waite told him. And looked at Walt. ‘What do you think, McGann?’

  ‘That I’d better plot a course to our required position, sir,’ Walt said.

  *

  Of course he was as excited as the others, and as apprehensive, but he was determined not to show it. This promised to be the biggest naval battle fought so far in the war, and a further defeat for the Americans might make an ultimate victory almost impossible to achieve. But it was difficult to see how three aircraft carriers and a handful of submarines were going to stop a fleet quite as powerful as that listed by Commander Waite.

  He had another reason for apprehension. If the Japanese fleet was actually making for Hawaii, even for another hit and run raid, Linda would be in the front line. She would see the enemy approaching on her radar screen, and not be able to do anything about it. Oh, Linda. She would have read his letter by now. Would she forgive him? Would any woman? But a woman who had just so yielded herself …

  He concentrated on his navigation, and they were in position by the morning of 3 June, a Wednesday. They stayed on the surface, the conning tower a mass of men with binoculars, watching every corner of the sky, and the sea. They, and every other American ship at sea, were under orders to maintain radio silence, but there was a good deal of chat to be listened to. Just after lunch they heard that Japanese planes had bombed Dutch Harbour in the Aleutians. ‘Oh, hell,’ Prosper growled. ‘We’re in the wrong place.’

  ‘Could be a decoy,’ Walt told him.

  ‘And we stay here,’ Waite confirmed.

  ‘Aircraft,’ came the call from above, and they hastily scrambled up the ladder, while orders were given to prepare to dive.

  ‘Those are coming the wrong way,’ Jonssen complained.

  Because the planes were rising out of the eastern sky.

  ‘And I’ll tell you why,’ Walt said. ‘They’re from Midway itself.’

  ‘Fortresses, by God!’ Waite said.

  They stared at the huge Flying Fortresses as they loomed over head, some twenty of them, heading west.

  ‘Those guys have got to have a target,’ Waite said. ‘They’re coming, boys.’

  A few hours later the big bombers were returning. The submarine could pick up some of their disconsolate conversations. ‘They couldn’t find them,’ Prosper said, no less disconsolately. ‘They couldn’t find a whole fucking battle fleet.’

  ‘That’s a lot of water out there,’ Waite commented.

  ‘And a lot of weather.’ Walt pointed at the high clouds building on the western horizon. The B-17’s had indeed reported encountering heavy cloud.

  They remained on the surface during the night, waiting and watching. Walt was on watch at dawn when he heard the drone of aircraft. A moment later he saw them, a huge mass of light bombers emerging from the darkness to the west. ‘Enemy aircraft approaching,’ he snapped down the intercom. ‘Awake the captain. Dive, dive, dive.’

  The submarine came to life and water flooded across the decks. Walt closed the hatch and slid down into the control room as Waite hurried in. ‘A strike on Midway,’ he said.

  ‘So the old man could be right after all,’ Waite said. ‘Periscope.’

  The planes had gone, but they would have to come back; Tecumsah remained submerged until they did so. ‘I reckon they did all right,’ the commander growled. ‘Judging by the hi jinks up there. Hell.’

  The planes vanished to the west, and he took his ship up again. Just in time to receive a radio signal, the letter M.

  ‘Go west, young man,’ Waite muttered as he peered at the sealed orders. ‘And make contact. Nimitz wants to know where the bastards are.’

  He elected to remain on the surface for greater speed, and Tecumsah raced into the weather front; presumably her sisters were doing the same. Soon they were struck by rainsqualls and fierce gusts of wind which sent whitecaps creaming the length of the deck to break against the conning tower. Poor old Crossby, Walt thought, would be seasick around now. Then the squall cleared, although the skies remained leaden. But the clouds were now higher, and at least surface visibility had improved.

  ‘Holy Hallelujah!’ a signalman said. ‘Dead ahead, sir.’

  The binoculars were levelled, first of all at the smoke, and then at the ships. ‘Great God Almighty!’ Waite commented.

  He might have been remarking at the number of ships, Walt thought: he could make out three aircraft carriers in line ahead, surrounded by destroyers. The original signal had said four carriers, so there was another one around somewhere. But equally Waite might have been looking at the number of planes swarming above the Japanese fleet. There were aircraft landing — the carriers were steering a northerly course — and aircraft circling preparatory to landing; there were other aircraft, presumably fighters, swooping out of the sky behind chattering guns; because there were also other aircraft, skimming the surface of the sea as they loosed their torpedoes, presenting, as they did so, simple targets to the Zero fighters attacking them.

  The officers were so aghast no thought was given to diving. They watched the Japanese ships twisting and turning, and they watched the American torpedo bombers being destroyed. The sea flailed as planes and torpedoes alike smashed into it, but a few moments later all the attacking planes were gone, and the Japanese fleet wa
s resuming formation, the carriers’ decks now crowded with refuelling aircraft.

  ‘Oh, Christ,’ Waite said. ‘Oh, Christ. Every God damned one.’

  ‘And no hits,’ Prosper said.

  Walt said nothing. He found it just as difficult to accept as they did. Every American plane had been shot down, and not a single Japanese ship appeared to have been hit. When he remembered what Clive had told him of the attack on Repulse and Prince of Wales … he felt almost shattered, for the first time. Could it possibly be that the Japanese were better seamen, and better airmen? Of course not, he told himself; the British warships had simply lacked air cover, while the Japanese had had ample. But that did not alter the fact that the Americans were on their way to suffering another horrifying defeat.

  He squared his shoulders. It was up to them to attempt to save something from the wreckage. ‘Shall we submerge, sir?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Yeah,’ Waite said. ‘I guess we better. We’ll move closer. We may be able to get some of those guys out of the water.’

  We may be able to loose a few torpedoes, Walt thought — the Japanese fleet was turning towards them again — but he didn’t say so. He bent over the intercom, and was checked by a shout from Jonssen. ‘There! Look there!’

  Walt straightened and raised his glasses again. There were

  more aircraft above the Japanese carriers, now, a swarm of them dropping straight out of the clouds and screaming downwards. Dauntless dive bombers.

  The sailors watched in open mouthed amazement at the transformation which was taking place before them. The Japanese had been caught entirely by surprise. The carriers’ decks were crowded with aircraft, fighters and bombers, busily refuelling, and they had no air cover at all. The dive bombers simply zoomed downwards, undisturbed by the flail of antiaircraft fire which rose above them, and loosed their deadly cargoes. Walt watched flame and smoke rise from the deck of one carrier. Then a second was almost split apart by an explosion which seemed to come from inside her — he guessed that a bomb must have penetrated to the hangar and exploded there.