“I heard about that.” said simply Browning, not mentioning the fact that the whole thing had been arranged in a most irregular way and without his prior knowledge. He had however come to understand and approve that gesture, as Ingrid had quickly won his own affection despite being both a German and a prisoner under his charge.
“Sir, I had time to reflect on what I was and what I wished to do after this war.
One thing I know for sure is that I do not want to return to Germany. I also wish to immigrate to the United States as soon as it is legally possible, but for that I need your help, sir. Basically, I am ready to renounce my German citizenship and to promise that I will never engage in a hostile act against Great Britain from now on, in exchange for being allowed to leave for the United States.”
“I see!” said Browning calmly, keeping an impassive appearance. “And what wil you do once in the United States, being a fifteen-year-old orphan?”
“I will be sixteen in two days, sir. Once in the United States, I intend to go to Montana, where Mike Crawford’s brother owns a large ranch. I plan to start a new life there, sir.”
“You seem to have thought over this carefully, Ingrid, except for one thing: what wil you do if Major Crawford’s brother doesn’t want you on his farm?”
Ingrid paused for a moment: she had not considered that possibility.
“Sir, Mike has sent a number of letters about me to his brother and got at least one in return. He didn’t mention any negative response coming from his family concerning me.”
“Wel , I hope that everything wil turn out the way you wish, Ingrid. I will forward my recommendations to my superiors and will advise Brigadier Walker at the American embassy. I wil inform you as soon as I have an answer.”
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Ingrid felt as if a huge weight had just been lifted from her shoulders and smiled at Browning while straightening up.
“Thank you very much, sir! I will owe you on that.”
“You owe me nothing, Ingrid. You are dismissed!”
Ingrid saluted, turned around and left the office, to be taken in charge by Corporal Beatty. The joy she had felt when Browning had accepted to pass on her request quickly dissipated as she walked past the ruins of Gaoler’s House, where soldiers were still searching through the debris. Grief then overtook her again.
10:34 (GMT)
Sunday, September 7, 1941 ‘C’
Infirmary, Tower of London
The British Army doctor, having finished his examination of Ingrid, told her to get dressed and grabbed his clipboard, scribbling down a few notes.
“Wel , there is no point for you to stay anymore in this infirmary, Ingrid. Your ribs are mending nicely but they will be sensitive for another two weeks or so. In the meantime, you are to avoid any hard physical activity which could hurt your ribs again.”
Knocks on the door of the examination room then cut off the doctor, who opened it and found himself facing Brigadier Browning and a tall American officer. Ingrid having already put back on her baggy gray fleece sports outfit, he let the two visitors in, saluting Browning briefly at the same time. The Governor of the Tower nodded and smiled at Ingrid.
“So, how is our sixteen years old prisoner today?”
“I am alright, sir.” replied Ingrid, her brain kicking into high gear at the sight of Major Kenneth Dows, the Marine Corps Attaché at the American embassy. “Do you have news about my request, sir?”
“I certainly do.” said Browning with a grin which made Ingrid’s heart accelerate. “The Army, being leery about keeping captive a pesky minor like you, decided to drop this hot potato in the lap of the American embassy. As of this morning you are now in the care of Major Dows, who will bring you to the embassy, where you will be briefed on what’s next for you.”
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“Then, I will go pack my things quickly. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, sir.”
Before Browning could react, Ingrid kissed him on the cheek, bringing an embarrassed smile on his face.
“That was not necessary, Ingrid, apart from not being proper. I do wish you the best of luck, though. Major, she is all yours.”
Both Browning and the doctor then left, leaving Ingrid alone with Dows, who smiled tenderly at the teenager.
“Wel , let’s pack up and go, young girl.”
“Yes sir!” replied Ingrid, grinning. She then led Dows to her small infirmary room and pulled a duffel bag from under the bed, filling it with the few clothes she had left and putting in as well her Jewish prayer book and a small tin box containing Nancy’s medals and her own personal papers and pictures. She also carefully wrapped her Discman and portable radio/CD/cassette player she had inherited from Nancy with her clothes to protect them during transport. A black photo album was next, while the small case containing Nancy’s musical collection of tapes and CDs was last in the duffel bag.
“Do you have your passport and other papers with you or were they destroyed in the missile attack?” asked Dows, getting a nod from Ingrid.
“I have them! They are in that tin box I put in my bag. I was afraid that the ones who attacked me would rampage through my room while I was stuck in this infirmary, so I had Frida bring to me all my important stuff. I’m ready, Major.”
Ken picked up her duffel bag before she could lift it.
“You should not carry anything heavy for a while, Ingrid, unless you want to hurt your ribs again. I will carry it for you. Come: my car is parked outside the walls. Our first stop will be the embassy, where our immigration consul will brief you on your legal status.”
Leaving the infirmary, they went around the huge mass of the White Tower and were passing by the Tower Green when Ingrid stopped Ken near the crater that marked the location of the now destroyed Gaoler’s House.
“Could I take a minute to pray for my friends and comrades, Major?”
“Take all the time you want, Ingrid.” said softly Ken Dows. He himself had been deeply saddened by that tragedy, having come to like many of the young women who had died here. Once Ingrid was done, he led her out of the fortress and to his embassy
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car, parked near the main gate of Middle Tower. Ingrid sighed in relief as they drove away from the fortress.
“My god, I can’t believe that I am not a prisoner anymore.”
“Wel , you better get accustomed to it, Ingrid: the United States awaits you.” said Ken in a cheerful tone. To his surprise, Ingrid seemed to tense up at those words.
“What? What did I say wrong?”
“Nothing, Major. It is just that your words reminded me of something Nancy once told me about the treatment of Americans of Japanese, German or Italian blood by the United States government once it will join this war. I just hope that I won’t immigrate to the United States simply to find myself thrown in yet another prison.”
Ken couldn’t help glance at her with some reservation.
“First of, Ingrid, call me simply Ken. Secondly, I doubt that you wil be bothered in any way with the kind of papers you will be holding. Our ambassador has bent more than a few rules in your favor in the last few weeks. By the way, how much did Nancy tell you about the future of this war?”
“About everything, Ken. She had absolute confidence in me.”
Cold sweat appeared on Ken’s forehead as he digested that admission from Ingrid.
“And what about the future after the war? Did she talk about that too?”
Ingrid looked at him with those big, beautiful blue eyes which helped make her so attractive.
“She did, Ken. Please don’t think that she was irresponsible, on the contrary. It is just that she knew who she could trust.”
Ken let it at that and kept silent for the rest of the trip. Parking his car in the inner courtyard of the American embassy, he then escorted Ingrid into the building, carrying her duffel bag for her. After going through a security check in the main lobby, Ken led the teenager upstairs to the immigration section, eventually knocking on the door of the vice-consul for immigration. The vice-consul, a tall and thin man in his thirties, greeted Ingrid politely and offered a seat to both her and Ken.
“So, I final y get to meet the gem who conquered Major Crawford’s heart. May I start by offering my most sincere condolences for your personal loss?”
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“Thank you very much, sir. It is appreciated. May I ask what my legal status will be in the United States?”
“Your new passport lists you as a naturalized immigrant, with full American citizenship. Such a status would normally have taken a few years to obtain but derogations were made in your case with the approval of some very high authorities in Washington. Let’s just say that Miss Laplante was a person of enormous importance to us, having provided us much invaluable information and knowledge. Do you have your passport and adoption certificate with you, miss?”
“Yes, I do! One moment please.”
Ingrid then went through her duffel bag, taking out her tin box and extracting the two requested documents from it before passing them to the vice-consul, who examined them briefly before giving them back to Ingrid.
“Everything seems perfect, miss. I will now ask you to swear allegiance to the United States before I give you your citizenship certificate.”
The vice-consul then produced a bible and asked Ingrid to stand, then made her repeat with him the allegiance declaration. He followed this by signing her certificate and applying his official stamp to it.
“Here you are, miss. You are now officially an American citizen.”
Ingrid held the precious document for a few seconds before putting it in the tin box and smiling back at the vice-consul.
“Thank you very much, sir. This is indeed a great day for me. May I ask a question?”
“Go ahead, miss.”
“Wel , I suppose that many people in the United States expect that their country will eventually join this war at the side of the British. If that happens, would I be allowed to join the American armed forces, even with my German background?”
The confused expression of the vice-consul told her that her question had caught him off guard.
“Uh, I frankly don’t know, miss. I do appreciate however the fact that you are wil ing to serve your new country. I see that Major Crawford’s confidence in you was well placed. As for answering your question, I suspect that General Walker will be better prepared than me to answer it.”
“That’s our next stop, Mister Vaughan.” said Ken Dows. “Thanks for your help.”
“It was my pleasure, Major.”
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Leaving the immigration section, Ken led Ingrid to the offices of the Defense Attaché, where Brigadier General Walker was waiting for them.
“Aaah, Miss Crawford! Am I happy to see you. Please, take a seat.”
As soon as Ingrid had sat down, Walker opened a file and took a document out of it, presenting it to the teenager.
“This is Major Crawford’s last will, which has a few clauses concerning you, miss.
Most of his belongings are still here in London, since they were slated to go to the States by ship after his departure. His untimely death resulted in the shipment being kept here pending the legal execution of his will. As you can see, he left you all the items that he inherited from Nancy Laplante, including her car and guns. For reasons that you may understand easily, the American government is most anxious to gain the property of most of these items, since they are advanced technology artifacts from the future. Since you are now legally the owner of these items, I am authorized to offer you a deal concerning these items.”
Ingrid understood where Walker was going and smiled.
“Beware, sir: I am a Jew, so I won’t be cheap.”
Walker faked a grimace at that.
“Ouch! I thought so. First off, are there any items listed in this will that you would not be ready to part with?”
Ingrid read the will again before answering without hesitation.
“You can have everything except for Nancy’s weapons. They have enormous sentimental value for me and I believe that they don’t real y represent advanced technology anyway.”
“Hmm, true enough. You will have to go see our FBI Attaché afterwards to get possession permits for those guns, though. This said, how about a sum of 5,000 dollars for the lot, excluding the guns of course?”
Ingrid didn’t take long to make her mind: she owed a lot to Brigadier General Walker and his officers, who had essentially made possible her release from the Tower of London.
“I will be a lousy Jew for once and wil accept your offer, General. May you be able to use those items to shorten this damn war.”
“Wel said, miss. Major Dows will get the guns for you and arrange to get you possession permits while I prepare your money.”
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“Uh, before you do that, could you answer a question for me?” said Ingrid, who then asked Walker about the possibility of serving in the American forces. Taken a bit aback, the brigadier general thought for a moment.
“Wel , that would be an unusual case indeed. A German Luftwaffe auxiliary, captured by the British, who then becomes an American soldier? I suspect that most recruiters would turn you away because of the perceived security risk you would represent. Also, our forces are not as…uh, liberal as the British are presently concerning the military roles opened to women. We are still quite conservative in that aspect despite the best efforts of Nancy Laplante to make us think otherwise. Besides, we do know your real age, contrary to the Luftwaffe recruiters. Minors are definitely not accepted in the service in the States. I hope that my answer didn’t disappoint you too much, miss.”
“Not real y, sir. I was simply curious. When do you think that I could leave for the United States, sir?”
“How about in two days? We wanted to bring to the States as quickly as possible those items we just bought from you. You could take place in the same plane, along with Major Dows.”
Ingrid looked questioningly at Ken, who was smiling with malice.
“I got the job of escorting Nancy’s items to Washington. I am also due to be posted in the Pacific, so that trip will also be my first leg on the way to my new assignment. What? You are making that face again.”
Ingrid effectively had a worried look on her face now.
“Ken, Nancy told me that most of the American forces in the Pacific wil be overrun by the Japanese in the first weeks following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She also told me that the Americans taken prisoner by the Japanese will be horribly treated, with a third of them dying in captivity.”
Walker looked in turn at both of them as Ken stared silently at Ingrid.
“Nancy Laplante told you about the future of this war, miss?”
“Yes, sir, she did. I just hope that the changes she brought will be enough to prevent most of the horrors she told me about from happening. Ken, where are you being posted?”
“To the Philippines.” he answered without thinking. The way she paled then told him to what degree she cared about him. “Look, as you said, Nancy changed many
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things already in this war. Maybe the Japanese, knowing that they will lose, will not even start a war against us.”
“Maybe, but Germany was not supposed to use V-2 missiles as early as 1941
either. To each action, you can expect a counter-reaction, Ken. For one thing, if I was in charge of the Japanese military, I would drastically change the plans of attack against Pearl Harbor and would probably make it happen earlier than next December.”
By then, Walker was nearly ready to pull his hair out.
“For God’s sake, this is top secret information! How could Nancy Laplante tell you so much?”
“Sir, she discussed those things with me only when we were alone and away from other ears. She also had total confidence in me, as I had total confidence in her.
She and Mike were everything to me in these last months.”
Walker shook his head in disbelief.
“What the hel ! Let’s leave it at that. Major Dows, take Ingrid with you and get her guns and permits.”
“Right away, sir!”
Ken saluted Walker, and then led Ingrid out of the office.
Two hours later, having collected Nancy’s weapons and obtained the corresponding gun permits from the FBI Attaché for Ingrid, Ken took a lunch break with the teenager at the embassy’s cafeteria, following which he led her to the embassy basement and brought her into an indoor shooting range. Ingrid looked questioningly at him as he hung up a paper target to one of the traveling target frames.
“Why are we here? Do you need to practice every day?”
“No, but you do need an introduction on how to handle handguns with the arsenal you now possess. First, I will show you how to dismantle your weapons and maintain them, then we wil practice a bit.”
Ingrid actually found the teaching and the shooting practice entertaining. Ken, on his part, found her to be a good apprentice shooter, showing excellent eye and hand coordination and scoring fairly well considering that this was her first time with a handgun. It was nearly four O’clock in the afternoon by the time the practice was over and Ingrid had cleaned the guns under his supervision. Packing the guns away in their special transport case, Ken added two extra boxes of .38 Special ammunition from the
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embassy’s reserve with the guns: Ingrid would still need lots of practice before becoming truly proficient with a handgun.
“Wel , that was a productive day I would say. I can now drop you at a hotel on my way to my apartment, Ingrid. I will be quite busy tomorrow, packing my own things for my departure with you on Tuesday, so you should use the day tomorrow to shop for some decent clothes.”
Ingrid, looking up at the big American, got close to him and caressed his chest with one hand.
“Why go to a hotel? Your place sounds perfect to me.”
Ken was taken aback for a second: she was so young compared to him that the idea of spending the night with her felt wrong. She seemingly guessed what he was thinking and resolutely glued herself to him.
“Ken, don’t be so prudish. Yes, I am only sixteen but consider me as a woman, not as a girl. I have gone through enough to earn that status. I also need company tonight, desperately.”
“Ingrid, I am not sure that this would be wise.”
“The hell with being wise!” she replied forcefully. “I want you, Ken!”
Not letting him time to react, she then quickly pulled her fleece top off and undid her bra, throwing both pieces on the table against which Ken was leaning. The American, having secretly dreamed of such a moment for months, found himself unable to resist her and let Ingrid undo his trousers and pull down his shorts. She smiled at the sight of his erection and started performing fellatio on him. Ken soon got into the game, fondling her small breasts and taking off the rest of his uniform. They ended up making love standing, with Ken holding a naked Ingrid in his arms while she was impaled on him.
Ken was breathing hard when they finally parted, with Ingrid showing a satisfied smile as she got off him.
“God, that was good! This must not be your first time, Ingrid.”
She giggled at that while putting her clothes back on.
“Oh no! So, do I get to sleep at your place tonight?”
“Hell, how could I say no now? Let me just get my uniform on and we wil go to my apartment.”
Twenty minutes later the couple arrived at Ken’s apartment in the Paddington District. Most of the American’s belongings were already packed away in boxes, ready
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to be shipped back to the United States. The furniture however belonged to the building’s owner, so there was actually not that much to be moved out. Putting down Ingrid’s duffel bag and gun case, Ken swept one arm around him.
“My modest place. I have to say that I wil regret London: I liked this city, apart from it being in the middle of a war, of course.”
“Actual y, from the little I was able to see of it, I wouldn’t have minded living here if I would have been free instead of being a prisoner of war. I know that Nancy liked London, except for the British food.”
Ken grinned at those last words: Nancy Laplante had told him more than once about what she thought about British cuisine. His smile faded quickly as the face of the Canadian time traveler came back in his mind.
“Ingrid, would you like to come with me tomorrow to visit Nancy’s tomb in the crypt of St-Peter’s Cathedral?”
“I would love to, Ken.” said softly the teenager, herself thinking about Nancy. Her adoptive mother would have been happy to see her today, free to start a new life in a new country. That common souvenir drew Ingrid and Ken together again in a tight hug.
The hidden feelings towards each other, which they had been repressing for a number of months, were now free to come out. The hug quickly became a passionate embrace, prompting Ingrid into looking up at Ken with moist eyes.
“Ken, I don’t want to be alone again, ever. Do you think that I would be allowed to follow you to the Philippines?”
“Not unless you were my wife. Ingrid, you do realize in how much danger you would place yourself by following me?”
“I do! I stil want to go, Ken, so that I could be with you.”
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CHAPTER 3 – IN THE PHILIPPINES
14:19 (Manila time)
Monday, September 15, 1941 ‘C’
Nichols Field military airfield, Two miles south of Manila Island of Luzon, Philippines
Ken and Ingrid, both numb from the series of long airplane trips which had brought them to the Philippines, gladly stepped out of the PBY Catalina amphibian aircraft and looked around the airfield, which was surrounded by a dense tropical jungle to its south and by the suburbs of Manila to its north. Ingrid was immediately glad that she was wearing a light cotton dress, as the heat and humidity were nearly oppressive.
As American airmen and Filipino workers took out their few suitcases and duffel bags, along with the mailbags from Hawaii, a staff car stopped smoothly besides the amphibian aircraft. Ken came to attention and saluted the Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who stepped out of the car. The senior officer returned Ken’s salute before shaking hands with him and Ingrid.
“Major Dows, welcome to the Philippines! I am Lieutenant Colonel William Clement, your new boss. And this must be Misses Dows?”
“Call me simply Ingrid, sir.” replied the teenager, smiling back at Clement.
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“Ingrid it wil be then. I hope that you wil like Manila, even if the winds of war are just over the horizon.”
“We already have had our taste of war in London, sir. The German V-2 missiles are quite indiscriminate about where they fall.”
“So I heard. Excuse me for asking but you have a noticeable accent. Are you Scandinavian by chance?”
“I was born in Berlin, sir.” calmly answered Ingrid, expecting a negative reaction from Clement. The latter looked surprised for a second but quickly smiled to her.
“Wel , you should be interested to know that there are quite a few people of German descent here in Manila, including some German Jews.”
“There are German Jews here?” said Ingrid happily. “Is there a synagogue here as well?”
“Uh, I believe so. I gather that you are Jewish, Misses Dows?”
“Correct, sir.”
“You will have to tell your story to me and my wife tonight then. We have a little garden party scheduled to celebrate the arrival of the new Assistant Operations Officer in charge of land defenses for the Asiatic Fleet headquarters. Your trip was a long one, so let me drive you to your assigned quarters, so that you can refresh yourselves.”
With airmen loading quickly their luggage in the big trunk of the staff car, Clement sat in the front passenger seat, letting Ken and Ingrid take the back seat. The staff car was soon rolling north towards Manila along a narrow road bordered by jungle on both sides.
The jungle quickly made place to a collection of shanties inhabited by the poorest crust of the local population, then to more prosperous buildings made of either wood or bricks.
The staff car finally stopped in front of a small bungalow situated with many similar houses along the banks of a small river. From the posh appearance of the houses and the various people living here, it was obvious to both Ken and Ingrid that this district of Manila was reserved for American officers and businessmen and their families. A few hundred yards away to the Northwest, the fortified Spanish walls of the old city, or Intramuros, were visible. Clement smiled at Ken and Ingrid while showing the bungalow.
“Your new house for the duration of your posting. It belongs to the Navy and comes fully furnished, like the other married quarters in Manila. A Filipino cook and a maid have already been assigned to your house and they have the keys to the place.
The Administrative Officer will explain to you the financial arrangements tomorrow,
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Major. My own house is down this street, at number 58. Could I expect both of you at about seven, in informal attire?”
“We wil be there, sir.” replied Ken. “Where wil I be working out of, sir?”
“Fleet Headquarters main building is on the waterfront, near the Manila Hotel on Bonifacio Drive. Present yourself at the Operations Section for eight in the morning tomorrow. Let’s unload your things now.”
With the help of the staff car driver, their few pieces of luggage were brought inside the house, where two Filipino women greeted them. One was in her late thirties and presented herself as the cook, while the maid was much younger, being barely older than Ingrid. Both spoke broken but passable English, the cook being a bit better at it than the maid. With Clement and the driver leaving them, Ken and Ingrid were then left alone with the two servants. The first thing Ken did, followed by Ingrid, was to tour their house. The bungalow was small but comfortable and compared well to other, past military accommodations Ken had seen in the past. He, like Ingrid, was however not accustomed to having servants at his disposal, especially when they seemed as eager to do everything in the house as were the two small Filipino women now waiting expectantly for their new masters’ orders. Of a common accord, Ken took the maid with him to help unpack and place their things while Ingrid left the house on foot with the cook to go buy some groceries at the nearest market. The deference of the maid, which approached servility in the eyes of Ken, was nearly embarrassing to him and he had to stop for a moment to speak to her as gently as possible.
“Look, Juanita, I appreciate very much your help but there is no need for you to act as if you are inferior to me and my wife in any way. We are both very open-minded and we wish to deal with you as equals. How much are you normally paid for this work?”
“Navy gives this much dollars per month.” She said in her broken English while flashing all her fingers twice.
“That’s it?” exclaimed Ken, nearly scandalized. “You get only twenty dol ars a month for this work?”
“That normal pay for maid, master. Julia gets half more.” replied the maid in her tiny voice, surprised by his surprise.
“First, Juanita, I want you to stop calling me ‘master’. You will call me simply
‘Ken’, while you will call my wife ‘Ingrid’. Second, while you will keep getting your basic pay from the Navy, I want you to take this as your first monthly supplement from me.”
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The young woman looked with incredulity at the twenty dollars Ken had just put in her hands, then smiled to him, overjoyed.
“Thank you mas…uh, Ken. You very generous!”
“You and Julia can also expect a few gifts on special occasions. Don’t take this as a request for you to do more than your normal work, though. Now, could you suspend Ingrid’s dresses in the closet while I take care of this suitcase?”
“Yes, Ken!”
Ken then opened one of his suitcases and took out his uniforms, suspending them in the left half of the bedroom’s closet. Next out of the suitcase were two medium-sized framed pictures. One was that of Ingrid while the other was an official military picture of Nancy Laplante, wearing her medals and smiling at the camera. Ken then put a smaller picture showing Ingrid in her Luftwaffe uniform and flanked by both Nancy Laplante and Mike Crawford on the dresser. Juanita’s eyes widened at the sight of Nancy’s picture.
“That Nancy, woman from future?”
“Yes. You know about her?”
“She known well here, Ken. Great woman. You knew her?”
“I met her many times in London. Ingrid was adopted by her a few months before she died.”
Ken then continued unpacking his suitcase. Juanita looked at the picture of Nancy for a few more seconds, her eyes sparkling with interest, before resuming her work. Ken did not open in front of the maid the locked case containing Nancy’s weapons and the copy of the Top Secret Hourglass Files he had brought from London, instead putting it inside the closet, behind a pair of boots.
Once the unpacking was done and everything was in its proper place, Ken moved the larger picture of Nancy and that of Ingrid with her adoptive parents to the lounge, hanging them on one of the walls. He also plugged in Ingrid’s portable radio/CD/tape player unit in the lounge, storing the CD disks and tapes inside the glass cabinet which now supported the player unit. There was already a contemporary radio receiver in the lounge but, apart from being bulky, its sound quality was probably nowhere as good as that of the set which had belonged to Nancy. The modern set was also much easier to tune than the other one, which required constant manual adjustments in order to stay on a given station. Ken used the automatic scanning mode of the player unit to see what kind of radio stations they could receive in Manila. He
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actually got one local station which broadcasted in Tagalog, the local dialect, plus two American local military entertainment stations broadcasting in English. He was tuning in on the Navy station when Ingrid walked in with Julia, the cook. Both were carrying paper bags full of groceries.
“Hi Ken! How’s the unpacking going?”
“It’s done, dear! Do you need a hand with those bags?”
“I won’t say no to that.”
Leaving a few of the groceries out so that Julia could prepare supper, they stored away the rest either in the pantry or inside the bulky, limited capacity refrigerator present in the kitchen. Taking Ingrid aside, Ken then told her about Juanita’s salary and about the supplement he had decided to give. Ingrid nodded her head, visibly pleased by his initiative.
“Good move, Ken. As for doubling Julia’s salary as well, you have my benediction. My visit to the market was fairly short but it was long enough for me to see that our servants’ basic pay is a pittance. I also saw how most of the Americans in town deal with the locals: you wouldn’t believe how snobbish and arrogant some of them are.”
“Hey, not everybody can be expected to be as liberal as Nancy…or you.”
“Stil . Ken, while shopping for food with Julia, I spoke in Tagalog with her and told her that I had learned a couple of oriental languages in school while in Europe. This is so you will know what excuse to give when someone will ask about my language talents.’
Ken nodded once at that, understanding what she was saying. During their long trip from London and their multiple stops on the way, Ingrid had told Ken in private about the way she and Nancy Laplante had progressively remembered their past incarnations5 in a way Ingrid stil couldn’t explain. In Ingrid’s case, she could now remember a total of 71
past incarnations spread over 7,000 years, with her past souvenirs allowing her to speak nearly a hundred languages, most of them now extinct, but with Tagalog and Cebuano, the two main languages spoken in the Philippines, still fresh in her mind. Ingrid glanced at the two servants, who were busy in the kitchen, then lowered her voice.
“Ken, while out at the market, I was struck by how little concerned the people are here about the war. It is as if nobody is worried about the Japanese attacking us.”
5 To read more details about how Nancy Laplante and Ingrid Weiss remembered their past incarnations, please read my novel CODENAME: ATHENA.
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“Ingrid,” said Ken in an even lower voice, “don’t forget that what we learned from Nancy about the future is considered highly classified information. I suspect that even the staff at Asiatic Fleet Headquarters doesn’t know as much as you on that subject, with the possible exception of a few of the most senior officers. I will ask you to stay discreet about this while at Clement’s garden party tonight.”
“What about my links with Nancy?”
“Those links you can’t deny, Ingrid. Just pretend that Nancy didn’t tell you anything about the future. We will talk together tomorrow about our own future plans once I have had a chance to get a feel of the situation at Fleet Headquarters.”
“If you say so, Ken. I just hope that someone apart from us here has its head above the sand.”
“Wel , don’t bet on that yet, Ingrid.”
18:57 (Manila time)
Residence of Lieutenant Colonel William T. Clement Central Manila
Rhonda Clement, even though she had been forewarned by her husband about the young age of Major Dows’ wife, stiffened when she saw through the windows of her lounge the newly arrived couple approach the front door. Young Misses Dows actually appeared to be little more than half the age of her big, muscular husband. She was however quite tall for a girl, being around five feet nine inches, and looked fit, on top of being very beautiful.
“Dear God, Bil , she doesn’t look to be more than eighteen years old.”
“I know, dear. I understand that they married just before leaving London. She is also a German Jew. Quite an interesting girl actually. There was however nothing about her in Major Dows’ file, apart from the telegram advising us about his marriage to her. By the way, her name is Ingrid.”
Rhonda Clement nodded her head, and then went to the front door to welcome the couple, smiling to them after opening the door to let them in.
“Major and Misses Dows, it is a pleasure for me to greet you to Manila. I’m Rhonda Clement.”
“Thank you, Misses Clement.” replied the man, whom Rhonda found most handsome. “May I present you my wife, Ingrid?”
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“Welcome to our house, Ingrid.” said Rhonda while exchanging a hug with the young teenager. She could see already Major Dows having to keep an eye on the young officers under his command, who would be turning around his wife like bees around a pot of honey.
“Please follow me to the back of the house, where the party is taking place, so that I could serve you drinks.”
The couple followed her through the house, emerging in a large fenced yard where a handful of guests were already present, along with a number of Filipino servants. A long folding table on one side of the grass yard supported a collection of bottles and glasses, while another table supported a collection of appetizers. Rhonda insisted on serving the couple herself and smiled to Ingrid.
“What wil you have, my dear?”
“A cold Coca-Cola will be just fine, Misses Clement.”
“I will have a Rum Punch, Misses Clement.” said Ken Dows.
Rhonda was secretly relieved by Ingrid’s choice: serving alcohol to a minor was stil a federal offence, even at private parties. She prepared and handed over the drinks, then led the couple towards her husband, who was talking with a mature, tough-looking man.
“Major and Misses Dows, may I present you to Lieutenant Colonel John Adams, Commander of the Marine Battalion in Cavite Navy Base.”
Adams shook hands with the couple, quickly measuring up Ken Dows and noting his athletic shape and resolute expression.
“I heard that you had the chance to meet many times the famous Nancy Laplante before her untimely death, Major. Did she tell you anything about the future situation in the Pacific by chance?”
Ken nearly froze at those words: as the commander of a combat unit vital to the defense of Manila, Adams should have been briefed about the known Japanese attack plans.
William Clement, who was watching him closely, saw his reaction. He also saw for a second dismay on Ingrid’s young face. Clement was thus listening and watching very carefully as Ken answered John Adams.
“She certainly did, sir. Everything she told us in London was sent to Washington by high priority courier. The headquarters here should have had this info for months now.”
“I never saw a damn thing about it, Major.” said Adams before looking at Clement. “What about you, Bil ?”
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Clement hesitated, glancing at Ingrid. Ken then decided that it was time to put all the cards on the table.
“Sir, my wife had extensive conversations with Nancy Laplante, who became her adopted mother before she died. She knows about as much as me if not more about the future, so you can speak without breaking any real secret.”
“I’l be damned!” said softly Clement while looking at Ingrid. “If that’s the case, then I have to say that I received nothing on that subject, except a vague warning about a possibility of war with Japan in the next few months.”
“That’s it?” exclaimed Ken, shocked. “But we sent hundreds of pages of information to Washington. Everything from Japanese detailed battle plans to Japanese equipment specifications and performances.”
Rhonda Clement was by now growing quite unnerved and forgot for a moment that a good Navy wife should never discuss military affairs in front of guests.
“And us? What can we expect here?”
“Rhonda…” started to say her husband. Young Ingrid Dows then jumped into the fray, speaking calmly but firmly.
“Sir, if I may. I know that starting alarming rumors and circulating scary tales could be disastrous for the morale of the people in the Philippines, but keeping our collective heads in the sand won’t help either. Would you be able to defend this place better if you knew what to expect?”
“Of course I would, Misses Dows.”
“Then I wil repeat two things that Nancy Laplante told me: first, in the history which Nancy knew, the Japanese overran most of the Pacific, including the Philippines; she also told me that history could be changed. She in fact said that she had already changed history by her actions in a very significant way. In short, nothing is set in concrete, sir, and we stil have a fighting chance.”
Ken, who had been holding his breath, blew air out in relief: Ingrid had said just the right words. Clement nodded his head in appreciation as well.
“Misses Dows, you just gave me one big reason to keep working even harder at defending the Philippines. As for that missing info, I will certainly place a few queries about it tomorrow.”
“Sir, I may be of help on that.” said Ken quietly. “While you certainly should ask Washington about that info, I took the liberty before leaving London of making copies of the most important documents provided by Nancy Laplante about the war in the Pacific
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in general and the battle for the Philippines in particular. I have that package locked away in my bungalow, sir.”
“Excellent, Major! Admiral Hart wil certainly want to have a look at that information tomorrow.”
“Then, could I suggest that he also speaks with my wife? She may not know about the in-depth stuff but Nancy Laplante told her many things about this war that may not be in my package.”
“She did?” said Clement while eyeing Ingrid with both interest and surprise. “Like what kind of information, for example?”
Seeing the teenager hesitate while glancing at her, Rhonda Clement decided to step away for a while.
“If you will excuse me, I wil go check on the other guests.”
Once Clement’s wife was out of earshot, Ingrid spoke while keeping her voice low.
“Actual y, Nancy did tell me about the general course of the war as it happened in the history she knew. She also gave me her opinion on what should have been done and told me about the mistakes committed during the war. The primary thing about the war in the Pacific she told me was that, while the Japanese started originally the war against the United States on December 7 of this year, she expected the Japanese to change the date of their initial attack since they must realize by now that she blew the whistle on them. She in fact expected the Japanese to advance the date of their attack by a few weeks in order to throw the United States off balance.”
“Christ!” swore Lieutenant Colonel Adams. “Then we may have less than two months to get ready for them. We haven’t started to receive the reinforcements we asked for yet.”
Adams and Clement didn’t like the pained look which then appeared on the teenager’s face.
“Sir, I know that this wil sound awful to you but, in the original history, the American forces in the Philippines were basically left to themselves by Washington, which had made the political decision to give every priority to the war against Germany.
The forces here had to fight with no support from the rest of your Pacific Fleet and eventually had to surrender to the Japanese. What followed made Nancy particularly mad: according to her, the Japanese treated their American and Filipino prisoners with utter barbarism and cruelty and without regards to any of the usual laws of war. One third of the prisoners, including interned civilians, were starved and beaten to death
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while captive of the Japanese, while the rest were reduced to mere walking skeletons before they could be liberated at the end of the war. I personally have vowed not to let myself be taken alive by the Japanese, sir.”
“Dear God!” said softly Clement, shaken to the core by her words. “Is there anything that we could do to prevent all this?”
“Nancy thought so, sir, but she mentioned only a few things in passing on the subject. She died shortly after telling me those things.”
“What did she tell you that I could use, Misses Dows?”
“Wel , please don’t be mad at me for saying this but she thought that General MacArthur’s defensive strategy sucked. One big factor which played against your forces was the fact that the Japanese were not met decisively at the moment they landed.
Another thing of importance was the insufficiencies in food supplies. Hundreds of tons of foodstuff were either abandoned or left behind and your forces eventually surrendered, mostly due to starvation. There were also a few other stupid mistakes done that cost you dearly, like having anti-aircraft shells equipped with fuses that could not be set to explode high enough to catch the Japanese bombers. I could go on for a while on the subject, sir.”
“That was already plenty for me, Misses Dows. I definitely want you to be with your husband tomorrow when we will go see Admiral Hart.”
Clement then turned to face Adams.
“John, the first thing you will do tomorrow morning is to check this story about short anti-aircraft shell fuses. If this is confirmed, then we will place an emergency supply request for higher altitude fuses, to be sent by air within a week.”
“Got that!” replied the Marine battalion commander in a sober tone. Somehow, he had lost his party mood by now.
13:26 (Manila time)
Tuesday, September 16, 1941 ‘C’
Headquarters of United States Army Forces in the Far East (HQ USAFFE) Manila, Philippines
Ingrid was a little nervous this afternoon as she stood beside Ken in the company of Admiral Thomas Hart and of Lieutenant Colonel Clement, while an army major was knocking politely on a door bearing a brass plate with the acronym ‘CinC USAFFE’
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engraved on it. Someone inside then shouted for them to enter and she followed Ken in, staying a bit behind him.
Sitting behind a huge work desk and with a corn pipe in his mouth was Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, commander of all the American army troops in the Philippines, while two other general officers sat on a sofa to the left of the desk. Ingrid came to attention the way she had learned to as a Luftwaffe auxiliary while Ken and the others saluted MacArthur. The latter then told them to take place in chairs placed in advance for them in front of the desk and examined briefly Ken and Ingrid before looking at Admiral Hart.
“So, Admiral, what is exactly this classified information you spoke about on the telephone this morning?”
“Information from the future, General.” replied Hart while taking out a thick file from his attaché case and handing it to MacArthur. “Major Dows, sitting on my right, arrived yesterday from his previous post, our embassy in London, with his young wife.
Both of them met and spoke extensively with Brigadier Nancy Laplante before her death and Major Dows actually worked as part of the liaison team which transmitted to Washington the info obtained from Laplante. Fortunately for us, Major Dows brought with him copies of the ‘Hourglass’ info relevant to the war in the Pacific. I reviewed this info with him and his wife this morning and, in my opinion, it is enough to warrant a complete review of our operational plans.”
MacArthur’s eyes narrowed as he focused on Ken and Ingrid again. The two other general officers also showed immediate interest at the news brought in by Hart.
“I do not want to be rude to the major’s wife, Admiral, but why did you feel that you had to involve her in this?”
“Because she is the adopted daughter of Nancy Laplante and has some knowledge that is not in the file I just handed you, sir.”
“If I may, sir…” said one of the generals sitting on the left to MacArthur, who nodded his head.
“Go ahead, General Wil oughby.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The senior officer then looked sternly at Ingrid.
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“Misses Dows, I am the intelligence officer at this headquarters and Washington never deemed appropriate to communicate to us the information originating with Nancy Laplante, even though it would have been highly relevant to help prepare our defense of the Pacific. Why would Nancy Laplante have discussed with you, a civilian, such highly classified information?”
Ingrid, who had worked in the past with general officers of the Luftwaffe, didn’t let herself be intimidated by the senior staff officer and returned his stare while answering politely but firmly.
“General, that information was for Nancy no more than widely known historical data, that is for persons from the year 2012. She discussed history with me because she had absolute confidence in me and because she wanted me to learn from the lessons taught by history. She not only discussed that information with me: she also commented on it, pointing at mistakes made and at opportunities lost. I learned a lot from her and am ready to pass on to you what she told me. It is up to you to use it or not, but ignoring those lessons wil cost dearly in lives, in my opinion.”
Wil oughby’s expression then told Ingrid what he thought of her opinion. MacArthur, who had been sifting through the file while listening, then intervened.
“Your comments and recollections will be welcome, Misses Dows. We have the whole of the Philippines to defend and I will use anything that can be useful. In fact, I see here a note about the date when we could expect a Japanese attack, signed by an Ingrid Weiss. Is that you, Misses Dows?”
“Uh, yes sir! I married only very recently and I stil tend to sign with my maiden name. As for the note, I was alluding to a comment made by Nancy Laplante. In her history, the Japanese started their war with the United States on December 7 of this year. Nancy however believed that the Japanese will now attack a few weeks prior to that date, since they must have realized that their original plans were compromised by her. She also believed that, while the date would change, the attack plan itself wouldn’t, or only slightly.”
“Why?”
“Because of the scope and complexity of the Japanese attack plans, sir. Japan will try to essentially conquer all of the Western Pacific, with ships and troops assigned to a multitude of targets all at once in order to achieve strategic surprise. That, in her mind, left little leeway to the Japanese military planners. Her best bet about the new date for the Japanese initial attack was a Sunday, around the end of October.”
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MacArthur nodded his head and wrote a short note on a paper pad, then looked at Ken.
‘’Major Dows, could you resume quickly what this information is telling us about the Philippines?’’
‘’Yes, General!’ replied Ken, who then spoke for a few minutes, covering the Japanese main actions to come. MacArthur listened to him carefully, taking as well a few notes. At the end, the old general’s face had become quite sober.
‘’And, concerning our own actions, did Laplante make any recommendations or suggestions, Major?’’
‘’Not in this dossier, General. However, my wife Ingrid has these details.’
While Willoughby and the major general sitting next to him stiffened with indignation at having to listen to suggestions from a simple army wife, MacArthur nodded his head and stared at Ingrid. The latter carefully chose her words as she took out of a pocket a folded sheet of paper. Nancy had not been very tender about her opinion of Douglas MacArthur, describing him as a grandstanding egomaniac who rarely listened to the opinions from others around him. She however had acknowledged him to be both a brave officer and a top strategist. The trick was going to be very diplomatic with him now.
‘’General, I must remind you that what I wil show you comes from Nancy Laplante and constitutes no less than the collective judgment of eminent military historians and senior officers from the 21st Century who extensively studied and analyzed this war to come. Some of it is not very flattering about many senior American commanders in the Pacific, I must warn you. I wrote this last night, from the memories of my conversations with Nancy and from what I read in this information. The first point has already been discussed with Admiral Hart and concerns the fuses of our anti-aircraft shells. They are of an old model unable to reach the standard operating altitude of Japanese bombers.’
‘’If I may interrupt Misses Dows for a moment, General,’ said Lieutenant Colonel Clement, ‘’I personally checked that particular point and I can tell you that our anti-aircraft shells cannot reach higher than 20,000 feet, well below the operational altitude of 25,000 feet used by the Japanese bombers.’
‘’All of our shel s, Colonel?’’ asked MacArthur, both incredulous and furious.
Clement could only nod his head gravely.
‘’All of our shel s, General. On order from Admiral Hart, I sent this morning an urgent request for newer fuses. Misses Dows further helped on that subject by
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suggesting that we request specifically a new type of anti-aircraft fuse, the design of which was given to us by Nancy Laplante last year. They are called ‘proximity fuses’, or VT fuses in short, and use the same principle as radar to detect nearby aircraft and explode near them.’
MacArthur glanced quickly at Ingrid before looking at the major general sitting to one side of his desk.
‘’General Wainwright, I want you to send today a similar request for such anti-aircraft fuses to replace all of our present fuses. I will be damned if we let such a stupid factor give a free hand to Japanese bombers.’
‘’Uh, yes, General!’ could only reply the major general, scribbling furiously on a notepad. MacArthur then took the list of suggestions and comments from Ingrid and read it quickly. He glanced at Ingrid a couple of times, visibly disturbed or irritated by a few of the points on her list, but read it from end to end before nodding to her.
‘’Your list wil be quite helpful, Misses Dows, and I thank you sincerely for your information. Be assured that I will act on it. Do you have anything further to say before I study with my officers how to modify our defense plans?’’
While Willoughby and Wainwright appeared stunned to hear MacArthur give her a vote of confidence, Ingrid secretly felt relief wash over her. Many points in her list pointed at specific errors and cases of bad judgment on the part of MacArthur himself and she had been afraid that he would have simply ignored or thrown away her list out of anger or vanity. Steeling herself, she then presented her last point, a personal one.
‘’General, I know that the American forces don’t accept women, except as nurses, but I am a qualified military air plot specialist and telephone switchboard operator. I thus request to be able to stay here in the Philippines, even if you order the evacuation of American dependents and civilians. I request as well the privilege of being able to serve with your forces, ideally with the Army Air Corps, as a civilian auxiliary.’
MacArthur, like all the other officers present except for Ken, looked at her with incredulity.
‘’But, how could you possess such qualifications, Misses Dows?’’
Ingrid took a deep breath before letting go her last bomb.
‘’I was a German Luftwaffe female auxiliary before being captured by Nancy Laplante, General. I served with the headquarters of a Luftwaffe fighter division in France during the air battles of 1940.’
After a moment of shocked silence, MacArthur burst out in laughter.
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‘’The famous Nancy Laplante adopted a Luftwaffe girl? That’s rich! And the British let her do that?’’
‘’Uh, not real y, General. Nancy kept that a secret and the British learned about it only after her death. She also educated me in secret during my months of captivity in London.’
MacArthur eyed her for a long moment in silence, finally taking a decision.
‘’In view of your qualifications and of your knowledge about this war, I accept your request to stay in the Philippines in case of a civilian evacuation. I will take a decision later about your request to serve with my forces. You may now wait outside while I discuss with my officers and with Admiral Hart.’
Ingrid got up at attention then, having won more than she had hoped for realistically.
‘’Thank you, General!’
She then pivoted on her heels and walked out in a military step, attracting an amused comment from MacArthur to Ken Dows.
‘’Quite a special girl you married there, Major.’
‘’Effectively, General.’ replied Ken proudly. ‘’If anything, she is following in the footsteps of her famous adoptive mother.’
Once Ingrid was out of his office and the door closed behind her, MacArthur looked at Admiral Hart and his party, speaking in a voice full of bitterness.
“Gentlemen, what I am going to say wil be my principal guideline for our soldiers: there will be no surrender to the Japanese. I want all our people, including the families of our men, to clearly know what to expect in the event of capture by the Japanese. As a consequence of what I just read, I am ordering the immediate repatriation to the United States of all Army dependents. I will also seek authority from Washington to have the American civilians in the Philippines repatriated as well. Admiral Hart, I would strongly advise you to repatriate your Navy dependents as well.”
“I was already leaning in that direction, General. I have read myself those documents about the Japanese treatment of our men and women and was truly shocked by the barbarism of the Japanese. I will publish a repatriation order tomorrow for all the Navy and Marine Corps dependents...except for Misses Dows.”
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09:32 (Manila Time)
Thursday, September 18, 1941 ‘C’
Far East School of Aviation, airfield of Nielson Field South suburbs of Manila, Philippines
Ingrid could barely contain her excitement as the taxi which she had taken dropped her in front of a hangar in Nielson Field, an airfield that served both as the official Manila airport and as the location for the headquarters of the United States Far East Army Air Force. Dressed in a light shirt and cotton trousers, Ingrid entered the hangar’s annex which housed the offices of the Far East School of Aviation and presented herself with a smile to the young Filipina secretary manning the reception desk, speaking to her in Tagalog.
‘’Good morning, miss. I came to get flying lessons classes, if your school is still active, of course.’
‘’Uh, we are stil opened for business, miss,’ answered the secretary, surprised to hear an American speaking fluent Tagalog, ‘’but customers have been effectively rare lately.’
The secretary then got a form and presented it to Ingrid, along with a pencil.
‘’Could you please fil this form while I get one of the flying instructors, miss?’’
‘’With pleasure, miss.’
Ingrid had just completed the form when the secretary came back with a man in his forties who was already half bald. The man, of medium built, smiled to Ingrid and shook hands with her while presenting himself with a distinct American accent.
‘’Good morning, miss. I am Jack Gavin, head instructor of this flying school. So, you want to learn how to fly?’’
‘’I certainly do, Mister Gavin. My name is Ingrid Dows and I arrived a few days ago with my husband, a Marine Corps officer just posted to Manila. As you will be able to see from my questionnaire, I already possess theoretical notions on flying and have a few hours on gliders. I must tell you in advance that I am in quite a hurry to learn to fly and that I plan to go further than a simple license for single engine airplanes. I would also like eventual y to learn notions of aerobatic flying, if that is possible.’’
‘’Uh, that wil all depend on how fast you will learn, Miss Dows. I must also warn you that flying lessons can be quite expensive.’’
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‘’Money is no object, mister: I recently received a substantial inheritance.’’
Gavin nodded his head at that, satisfied: a customer with deep pockets was always welcomed at the school, especially in these rather lean times.
‘’Be assured that you wil get your money’s worth, Misses Dows. Let’s see your questionnaire.’’
Gavin soon raised an eyebrow, impressed by Ingrid’s information.
‘’I must say that your basic knowledge on the theory of flight and on air navigation seems to be quite solid. Your gliding club must have been run by real pros.’
‘’You may say that.’ replied Ingrid, smiling. In truth, the instructors of her flying club, affiliated like all other youth clubs in Germany to the Hitler’s Youths, were military pilots seconded from the Luftwaffe. ‘’I suppose that there is a starting fee for the courses?’
‘’Yes, miss.’ answered jovially Jack Gavin, who was already liking this young woman, apart from finding her extremely beautiful. ‘’You can pay separately for each lesson, or pay for the complete course in advance. The basic course costs 500 dollars, plus two dollars per hour of flying.’
‘’I wil pay in advance for the whole course and for the first ten hours of flying.’
answered Ingrid, who then took out her wallet and counted 520 dollars on the counter, to Gavin’s surprise: that sum presently represented a third of the average annual salary of an American. Jack took the money and made a receipt for Ingrid, then escorted her inside the school’s hangar, leading her to a small monoplane with high, shoulder-mounted wing and enclosed cabin.
‘’Here is the plane you wil use to qualify yourself as a pilot, Misses Dows. It is a Fairchild MODEL 24, with a 150-horsepower radial engine. It can attain a top speed of 120 miles per hour and has a range of 525 miles. It is a good plane, sturdy and reliable.’’
‘’I already love it, Mister Gavin.’’ said Ingrid, her eyes sparkling, as one of her dreams was about to come true. ‘’When could I start flying in it?’’
‘’This afternoon, after I have had the time to give you a detailed tour of the plane.’’ answered Jack, amused and intrigued by her apparent hurry.
16:27 (Manila Time)
Nielson Field, Manila
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Jack Gavin stared with admiration at Ingrid as she cut her engine after rolling her Fairchild under his supervision up to the school’s hangar. They had just spent over three hours in the air, partly because a sudden tropical shower had delayed their landing and partly because of Ingrid’s enthusiasm, who had insisted on continuing to fly.
‘’Well, madam, you must have been born to fly. You are the most talented student I ever had. You are sure that you only flew gliders before?’
‘’Positive, Mister Gavin.’’ said Ingrid truthfully. ‘’When could I fly another lesson?’
‘’Uh, that will depend on your own available time, Misses Dows.’
‘’I stil have plenty of free time, mister.’ answered Ingrid. Despite his promise to consider her for a position as a civilian auxiliary, General MacArthur had not contacted her yet. Ken had however warned her to be patient about that. Well, if that helped her get her flying license faster, then so be it. She was resolved not to waste any of her time here in the Philippines. God knew that time was running out for her and the other Americans in the Philippines.
17:33 (Manila Time)
Friday, September 26, 1941 ‘C’
The Dows’ residence, Manila
‘’HONEY, I’M HOME!’’
‘’I’M IN THE KITCHEN, KEN!’
Ken, in combat uniform and wearing his regulation pistol in a belt holster, crossed the entrance lobby and entered the kitchen, going to Ingrid and taking her in his arms for a long kiss. Julia and Juanita, who were helping Ingrid prepare supper, giggled while watching the young couple kiss. Apart from being generous and most kind towards them, Ken and Ingrid proved every day to be a couple deeply in love. Once he unglued himself from Ingrid, Ken smelled with delight the odor floating in the kitchen.
‘’What’s for supper? I am starving.’’
‘’Pork fried rice. I hope that you wil like it.’
‘’The smell is already maddening me.’’ replied Ken. ‘’So, how was your day, Ingrid?’
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‘’Both satisfying and terrifying. First off, though, I have good news to tell you: I passed with success my high school diploma equivalency test: I got the results today from the Santo Tomas University.’
‘’But that’s fantastic news, Ingrid.’’ said joyfully Ken before kissing her again.
‘’You worked so hard at your studies. And what about your flying and driving lessons?’
‘’My flying lesson this morning went very wel , but my driving lesson didn’t go as smoothly: a truck nearly smashed into my driving school’s car this afternoon after speeding through a stop sign. My heart is stil beating fast from the scare I got then.’’
‘’I must say that the local driving techniques are, uh, interesting.’’ said Ken, attracting a sarcastic look from Ingrid.
‘’Interesting? I would say suicidal. And your day, how was it?’’
‘’I wil tell you later.’ said Ken in a low voice, signifying to Ingrid that he didn’t want to talk about it in front of the two servants. Ingrid understood and smiled to Julia and Juanita, speaking to them in Tagalog.
‘’I kept you away from your families long enough. Fill your containers and go pass a nice weekend with your husbands and children.’
‘’You are too kind, Ingrid.’ Replied Julia happily. Ingrid, with the consent of Ken, had taken the habit of making Julia cook a very large supper on Fridays, so that the two servants could return to their families with the surplus of food in thermos containers.
This, along with the fact that the couple treated nicely the Filipinos around them and the fact that Ingrid spoke both Tagalog and Cebuano, had rendered them very popular with the locals. In contrast, some of their American neighbors were starting to find them too liberal by American standards.
Once Julia and Juanita were gone with their containers full of pork fried rice, Ingrid served a generous portion to Ken before serving herself and sitting down in front of him at the small table of their kitchen.
‘’So, Ken, what is going on?’’
‘’Incompetence and racism, that’s what.’’ said Ken in a bitter voice before taking his first bite of food. ‘’I spent the day briefing officers about the Japanese and their military equipment, using Nancy’s information. I had a hard time convincing most of them that I was serious. Some of these officers still believe that the Japanese are some sort of monkeys equipped with junk weapons. What a bunch of idiots!’
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Ingrid kept silent for a moment: the subject of racism in the United States had been one on which Nancy had warned her to expect.
‘’Does Colonel Clement know about this?’’
‘’I told him about it before leaving the office. He promised me to shake a few of those morons tomorrow and he wil also raise the subject with Admiral Hart.’
‘’Ken, you are doing the best you can.’ said softly Ingrid, caressing his left hand.
‘’Maybe, but I am not proud of some of my compatriots today.’ replied Ken before chasing his anger away and smiling to her. ‘’I am sorry to be such a kil joy today, Ingrid. There is however still so much to do before we are really ready to fight the Japanese.’
‘’Well, if that can help your morale, I can tell you that I did my part concerning that today, after my driving lesson. Continue eating while I go get something.’
Ken followed her with his eyes, intrigued, as Ingrid left the kitchen and went to their bedroom. He nearly choked on his fried rice when she came back with a rifle equipped with a long bayonet in her hands.
‘’A Springfield 1903? Where did you find it?’’
‘’In a sporting goods store here in Manila. It was supposedly used during the Great War in 1917. I also bought a good amount of .30 ammunition, plus a web belt and cleaning accessories and supplies.’’
Inspecting quickly the bolt action rifle, Ken found it functional and well maintained.
‘’Well, even if it is officially an obsolete weapon, the Springfield 1903 is stil a very good rifle with an excellent reputation for accuracy and dependability. You now have a serious weapon, Ingrid.’
‘’And I hope that you will find the time during this weekend to add the practice of rifle shooting to that of pistol shooting to my training, my lovely husband.’
‘’My God, Ingrid! Are you trying to become an infantryman or what?’’
‘’Ken,’ said Ingrid in a dead serious tone while starring into his eyes, ‘’my past lives included seven lives as a hunter, plus four lives as a warrior. I already know how to fight. I only need to learn how to fight with modern weapons.’’
10:56 (Manila Time)
Monday, September 29, 1941 ‘C’
USAFFE HQ, Manila
Philippines
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‘’General, a group of eight enemy bombers was just signaled by the 60th Artillery Regiment. The group was seen over Fort Wint twenty minutes ago, flying southwest at an altitude of 18,000 feet and at a speed of about 200 miles per hour.’
‘’They were spotted twenty minutes ago and we are advised about them only now? Have our fighters in Nichols Field been advised about them?’’
‘’Uh, we don’t know about that, General.’ answered the captain who was trying to coordinate the confused bits of information reaching the USAFFE headquarters.
‘’Well, find out about it, dammit!’ replied in a furious tone Major General Sutherland, General MacArthur’s chief of staff. MacArthur, who was letting his subordinates run this air defense exercise and was watching from a corner of the operations room, was becoming more and more impatient and unhappy as he observed the growing confusion around him. The poor captain trying to keep the large tactical map of the Philippines up to date then got another telephone call.
‘’USAFFE HQ, Captain Tremont!… A group of eight enemy bombers just flew over San Fernando, coming from the Northeast?... You mean that they were seen over one hour ago?... Uh, thanks!’
Tremont then shouted at his sergeant working the tactical map with two corporals.
‘’Eight bombers from the Northeast were seen over San Fernando at nine fifty.
Plot their position and direction!’’
The sergeant looked at the map for a moment and hesitated before looking back at his captain.
‘’Sir, I believe that those bombers are the same as the ones seen over Fort Wint, based on their speed and time observed.’
The captain nearly ran to the map to check, but soon had to agree with his sergeant.
Ten minutes later, another call infuriated Sutherland.
‘’Eight enemy bombers just overflew Nichols Field, sir. Our fighters were caught on the ground.’
‘’SHIT! WHAT WERE THEY WAITING FOR TO TAKE OFF?’’
‘’Nichols Field says that they never got the warning about these bombers, General.’
MacArthur finally had enough and got up from his chair, raising both arms up and shouting to be heard around the room.
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‘’THAT’S IT! I HAVE SEEN ENOUGH! CALL AN END TO THIS EXERCISE
AND HAVE ALL OUR PLANES LAND RIGHT NOW.’
He then signaled his chief of staff to approach him and spoke to him in a low but firm tone.
‘’Dick, I want a meeting of all the unit commanders involved in this exercise here at four this afternoon. I believe that we seriously need to shake this house: if the Japanese would have attacked us this morning, we would now be knocked down flat on the floor.’
‘’I am afraid that you are right, General. Our main problems are the lack of coordination and our poor communication lines. The information from our outposts often takes over an hour to get to our headquarters…when it gets through.’’
MacArthur shook his head in disgust as he watched his staff trying to pass his order to stop the exercise to the units of his command. The worst part was that the Asiatic Fleet, which was supposed to play a vital role in the defense of the Philippines, had not even been involved in this exercise. Nobody in his staff had any experience with combined operations and there was not even a direct telephone line linking both the Army and Navy headquarters. Every call had to go through the civilian telephone switchboards of Manila, which were notoriously easy to clog due to the limited number of lines available.
‘’Dick, this can’t go on. I intend to tell the chief of signals to start laying dedicated telephone lines to link together our various units and headquarters. I want to be able to centralize all the information here so that we could command, instead of simply watching another screw-up like this.’
‘’But I don’t know if we have enough reserves of telephone wires in the Philippines to do that, General.’
‘’Then order some more wires!’’ replied brusquely MacArthur. ‘’And find me someone who can better keep this tactical map up to date.’
MacArthur then left the operations room at a quick pace, leaving his chief of staff with his problems. Sutherland scratched his head, unsure how to go about his orders. He couldn’t real y blame the poor Captain Tremont about today’s fiasco. Tremont had nothing to do with the deficient communications and nobody here had any experience about modern air warfare. The United States had not known war since 1918 and Sutherland, who was an ethnic German, was the first to recognize that, by present European standards, American military doctrines were obsolete, even if Washington refused to acknowledge that fact. An idea then came to his mind.
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19:46 (Manila Time)
The Dows residence, Manila
‘’So, my poor Ken, they made you work overtime today?’’ said Ingrid with a malicious tone before welcoming her husband in the lounge with a kiss. Ken gave her a tired smile after ungluing himself from her.
‘’You can say that again. The Army ran, or rather tried to run, a big air defense exercise this morning. Let’s say that the result was not very pretty, if I can judge from what I heard at Fleet Headquarters this afternoon.’
‘’So that’s why I had to reroute my Fairchild 24 so many times this morning to avoid all those military planes flying around like mad bees. A pair of P-35 fighters even tried to intercept me, maybe thinking that I was one of the fictitious enemy planes.’’
‘’Tried?’’ said Ken, freezing with surprise. ‘’Don’t tell me that you managed to escape them.’
Ingrid made a big grin then.
‘’Let’s say that Jack Gavin was kind enough to let me use that occasion to test my new abilities in aerobatics. I kept my speed as low as I could while twisting around constantly. Those two P-35 finally had to get off my tail in order to avoid stalling and spinning out of control. I didn’t have that much fun in a long time.’
Ken could not help burst out laughing on hearing that.
‘’You managed to shake off two P-35 fighters, while having only 55 hours of flying in your credit? You are truly incredible, Ingrid.’
‘’Correction, Ken: 58 hours after this morning. Besides, the flying skill level of the two pilots who intercepted me didn’t impress me one bit: a very average Luftwaffe pilot would have humbled them. If those two P-35 pilots really represent the best we have in the Philippines, then I am afraid that the Japanese will eat them raw for breakfast.’
Ken eyed Ingrid soberly, now very serious.
‘’Please keep that last remark to yourself, Ingrid: quite a few persons could cause you problems if they heard you.’
‘’Screw them! I fully intend to keep calling things as they are.’
‘’Well, talking about calling things up, Major General Sutherland, the chief of staff of General MacArthur, called me this afternoon. He wants you tomorrow at nine in the morning in his office. He wants to discuss with you about your experience with the
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Luftwaffe. Something tells me that someone finally realized that they need to learn from a pro like you.’
‘’YES! THEY ARE READY TO USE ME!’ shouted Ingrid, overjoyed.
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CHAPTER 4 – THE JAPANESE ARE COMING
16:16 (Manila time)
Sunday, October 19, 1941 ‘C’ (Saturday, October 18 in Hawaii) The Dows’ residence, Manila
Philippines
“Honey, I’m home!”
Julia, who was washing some rice before cooking it, giggled as Ken, busy helping her by cutting up pork ribs, shouted back towards the door to tell Ingrid that he was in the kitchen. Like most Filipinos, Julia believed in traditional values and roles. Having a wife come back from work to be greeted by her husband working in the kitchen was a notion that had made many of Julia’s friends and neighbors laugh. While amused, Julia herself did not however think less of her employer: Ken Dows, like Ingrid, was easily one of the most caring persons she had worked for. Contrary to many American men she had known before, Ken also respected her and young Juanita, not using his position of authority to abuse or harass them. That American couple was definitely a refreshing change from other employers Julia had in the past.
Ingrid, wearing a set of old combat fatigues without any insignias save for a black armband with the words ‘USAAF AUXILIARY’ in white, entered the kitchen and exchanged a kiss with Ken before dropping her backpack in a corner.
“Another quiet day in the Pacific.” she announced in English before switching to Tagalog to speak to Julia. “What do we have for supper, Julia?”
“Pork with rice and steamed vegetables, Ingrid. Are you hungry?”
“Oh yes! I will go have a shower first, though.”
While Ingrid was taking her shower, Ken reflected on their first month in the Philippines as he finished cutting the pork ribs. While life here was agreeable and easygoing, the work they had put in during the last month had in his mind helped change things enough to make a real difference. The arrival by ship a week ago of a sizeable
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supply of modern fuses for the shells used by the anti-aircraft guns in the Philippines had especially done a lot to improve their chances against a Japanese attack. That same transport ship which had brought in the fuses, along with other vital combat supplies, had left Manila harbor three days ago, now loaded with Army and Navy dependents headed for the safety of the continental United States. There stil weren’t enough modern fighter aircraft in the Philippines in Ken’s opinion but that was something he or even General MacArthur could do little about. One idea from Ingrid that MacArthur had gladly adopted was to use his older models of bombers to keep a nearly constant airborne watch off the coasts west, east and north of Manila, while keeping his modern B-17 heavy bombers ready on the ground to take off to bomb Japanese targets. With their long endurance and many pairs of eyes onboard to help scan the skies around them, the Douglas B-18 BOLO bombers were the low technology equivalents of what Nancy Laplante would have called early warning aircraft. The beaches which they expected the Japanese to use for their landings had also by now been discreetly mined and prepared for defense, while every Army unit had been kept busy with either training or with digging of defenses. In contrast to all this, Ken had realized quickly with dismay through the situation reports he saw coming from Hawaii that the main forces of the Pacific Fleet had been much less diligent in their war preparations. Apparently, Admiral Kimmel and General Short, who respectively commanded the Navy and Army forces in Hawaii, still clung to the belief that the Japanese attack would come on the original date of December 7 and thus were taking their sweet time in preparing themselves. From the little that Asiatic Fleet headquarters could pick up from the British side, the situation was about as poor in the various British and Australian bases around the Pacific as in the American bases in Hawaii. Ken had understood why after reviewing the historical notes from Nancy Laplante. The British and Australian commanders presently in place were the same myopic incompetents who, in the original history, had dismissed the Japanese as mere sub-humans to be brushed aside. With the British still giving absolute priority to the European theatre, little of their new advanced equipment had made it through to their Pacific garrisons. Thus, all the conditions were present to literally repeat history in most places around the Pacific, except for the Philippines.
Looking briefly through one of the windows of the kitchen, Ken was reminded that all had not gone as well as expected here. A number of their civilian neighbors, most of them prosperous American or European businessmen and professionals, could be seen
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in their backyard or on their patio, lounging around with their families while their Filipino servants took care of their every needs and wishes. Washington had flatly refused to let General MacArthur order the repatriation of the American civilians living in the Philippines, arguing that such a move would only create unnecessary panic and economic chaos. Those same civilian neighbors had scoffed at Ken and Ingrid when the couple had tried to gently suggest that maybe their children would be safer back in the States or in Australia. They had even laughed at seeing the couple dig up their backyard to build a small but solid underground air raid shelter with the help of paid Filipino laborers. Those laborers were in fact Julia’s and Juanita’s husbands and brothers. If and when the Japanese would start bombing Manila, Julia, Juanita and their immediate families had been promised a place in that shelter by Ken and Ingrid.
Having finished his job of cutting the ribs, Ken washed his hands and grabbed Ingrid’s backpack to bring it in their bedroom. While not a large one, it was surprisingly heavy, as it contained a gun belt with Nancy Laplante’s Glock 17L 9mm pistol, lots of spare 9mm ammunition, a full water bottle with carrier and mess tins and a dozen tins of canned meat. A set of spare clothes and some hygiene items completed the list of things in the pack, which Ingrid meant to be a getaway pack in case they would have to run away from the Japanese. Ken certainly could not accuse Ingrid of not planning for the worse, a trait she had probably picked up from Nancy. He himself kept a few extra items and cans of meat in his regulation backpack and web gear, just in case, and had also stored a couple of crates containing canned food and bottles of waters in the freshly-built bomb shelter of their backyard. Ken was putting down Ingrid’s backpack by her side of their bed when she entered the bedroom, coming from the bathroom. As was her habit, which had scandalized at first Julia, she was naked and had not bothered to wrap a towel around her body. Seeing Ken look at her hungrily she smiled and went to him, gluing herself to him.
“We never know, Ken: this could be our last occasion for a while if the Japanese attack tomorrow.”
She then proceeded to undress him before getting a condom for him. Ken did not resist and soon got on top of her on the bed, using his tongue at first to truly excite her before penetrating her.
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In the kitchen, Julia and Juanita exchanged knowing smiles as moans could be heard from the bedroom. The servants did manage to keep straight faces when Ken and Ingrid showed up in the dining room half an hour later, wearing fresh clothes.
Looking at her watch as Julia was serving the food, Ingrid got up from her chair and went in the kitchen, where she filled two ceramic pots with rice and pork before calling Julia and Juanita in. The two servants came quickly enough, guessing what it was all about.
“Sorry for keeping you this late, girls. Go to your families now and thank you for your help.”
“We thank you, Ingrid.” replied Julia. “You must be the most generous employers we ever had.”
Juanita thanked Ingrid as well, and then left with one of the pots of food, humming happily a tune on her way out. From the start, Ingrid had established the custom that Julia would cook enough food for supper to have sufficient leftovers for her family and that of Juanita. The teenager thought that it was only fair to do so, since the two Filipina women worked all day for her and thus could not take care of their families in the meantime. She and Ken had even invited the two Filipino families for supper on occasion. While that had made the Filipinos happy, some of their American and European neighbors had grumbled at first about them ‘inviting some low-class locals in the neighborhood’. Ken had replied to those neighbors with clear, direct words.
After finishing to eat, the couple put the dirty plates and utensils in the sink, so that they could wash them tomorrow morning. Then moving to the lounge, ken sank in their sofa while Ingrid selected a CD and placed it in her portable unit. Many young officers working at the CinCAF and USAFFE headquarters jumped at every occasion they had to be invited in the couple’s house so that they could listen to music from the future. With the soothing music of Enya playing on, Ingrid sat beside Ken and snuggled up to him with a moan of satisfaction.
“Ken, life with you is so sweet. I wish there wasn’t a war to sour things up.”
Ken, an arm wrapped around his young wife, played gently with her hair.
“Unfortunately, we can’t just wish it away, Ingrid. We will have to take the best out of life as we go.”
“Ken, I have a feeling of foreboding. Somehow, I believe that war is about to start here, maybe tomorrow. I want you to promise me something.”
“Anything you want, Ingrid.”
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“I want you to promise me that you wil not let yourself be taken alive by the Japanese. I just couldn’t live with the thought that you could be subjected to their cruelty.”
Ken looked gravely in the big brown eyes of his wife: she was dead serious about this, as the tears about to roll on her cheeks showed.
“I promise, but you will have to promise me the same thing. Just try your best to escape first, if it comes to that.”
“I promise.”
Both then looked longingly at the official picture of Nancy Laplante, hanging on the wall in front of them.
“I miss her terribly, Ken.”
“I do too. I stil have you, though. Come, you should go to bed early: you have to take your shift at USAFFE HQ early in the morning. I will give you a good massage at the same time.”
03:43 (Manila time)
Monday, October 20, 1941 ‘C’ (Sunday, October 19 in Hawaii) Operations Center, USAFFE HQ
Manila, Philippines
‘’Hi, guys!’
The arrival of Ingrid in the operations center attracted happy smiles on the faces of the few men on duty on the night shift: even though she was known to be married, Ingrid still made most men in the headquarters dream about her angelic face and her slender, feminine body.
‘’Good morning, Ingrid!’ replied First Sergeant Chris Altman, who was in charge of the night shift operators. ‘’You are early, as usual. You are well awake, I hope?’’
‘’I had a cup of strong coffee at home before coming. So, nothing new?’’
‘’Nothing! However, the Sun wil rise only in a bit over two hours. No air activity is possible before that.’
Ingrid took off her backpack and put it down behind the small table reserved for her use, which supported a battery of field telephones and one standard commercial telephone set. She then went to the big tactical map of the Philippines, resting on four tables pushed together, to examine it.
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‘’Who is the duty officer at this time, Sergeant?’’
‘’Captain Foster. He went up on the roof to go smoke a cigarette.’
Ingrid hid a frown on hearing Foster’s name. She then went to check the meteorological information board and frowned again: even though partially cloudy skies were announced for the Philippines and Formosa, the conditions predicted for today were passable, thus making a Japanese air attack possible as soon as the Sun was up.
Ingrid was still examining the meteorological predictions when a corporal from the transmissions department came in, a catastrophed expression on his face and a message in his hands. Looking around the room, he then went to First Sergeant Altman, who was the highest-ranked man present, and gave him his message while speaking in an urgent tone.
‘’We just received a message in clear with ‘CRITIC’ priority, sent by the Army headquarters in Hawaii: the Japanese are presently attacking Pearl Harbor. We had the Hawaii operator authenticate his message and he did so correctly.’
Everybody in the operations center fell silent and looked at Altman, who read aloud the message.
‘’To all Army units in the Pacific and Far East, from Army Command in Hawai .
Japanese planes are presently bombarding Pearl Harbor and a number of our airfields around Hawaii. The first bombs fell at about eight o’clock, Hawaii time. This is not a drill. Signed: Major General Short.’
As the soldiers around her looked at each other, having difficulty to believe what they had just heard, Ingrid walked quickly to the large Pacific map hanging on one wall and, using a red grease pencil, annotated it, writing a number of symbols and a date-time group over Hawaii. This done, she turned around as Altman ordered a soldier to go fetch Captain Foster on the roof. Going to him, she spoke in a low voice to the senior NCO.
‘’We should advise General MacArthur immediately, Sergeant.’
‘’I know, but I must wait for the decision of Captain Foster before acting on this.’
Ingrid sighed with frustration then: the fear to take an initiative, at the risk of displeasing a superior, was in her mind one of the biggest problems existing presently in the United States Army.
‘’Sergeant, I have no rank to lose: I wil call General MacArthur now. This cannot wait.’
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Walking quickly to her table, she grabbed the receiver of her commercial telephone and formed the personal number of General MacArthur. The latter answered her after four rings, his voice sleepy.
‘’MacArthur!’
‘’General, this is Ingrid Dows, at the operations center. We just received a message from the Army headquarters in Hawaii: the Japanese are presently attacking Pearl Harbor.’
MacArthur’s voice suddenly became much firmer.
‘’Do we have more details?’’
‘’Only that the first Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor at about eight o’clock, Hawaii time, General.’
‘’Very well! I’m on my way!’ said MacArthur before hanging up. Ingrid next grabbed one of the field telephones on her table and called the Asiatic Fleet headquarters, situated near the docks of Manila. Getting the duty officer there, she repeated to him the message received from Hawaii. Next, she called the headquarters of the Far East Army Air Force in Nielson Field and warned it, then called her home, waking Ken.
‘’Hello?’
‘’Ken, this is Ingrid. You better get up and go to the Navy headquarters at the double: the Japanese have started attacking Hawaii and are bombing Pearl Harbor.’
‘’Good God! Alright, I am getting up. Thanks for the warning. And Ingrid…be careful today.’
‘’I wil be, my lovely hunk. Be careful too.’
Ingrid had done all that and still had to wait a few minutes more before Captain Foster, who had probably taken the time to finish his cigarette, finally showed up in the operations center, barking an order to Altman.
‘’Sergeant Altman, call immediately General MacArthur to inform him of this message from Hawaii.’’
‘’That has already been done, sir: Ingrid took care of it.’
Foster turned around to face Ingrid, visibly irritated.
‘’Who told you to place that call, madam?’’
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‘’Nobody, Captain.’’ replied Ingrid in a resolute tone. ‘’I simply took that initiative on myself in view of the urgency of the message. I also informed the duty officer at Asiatic Fleet headquarters and the one at FEAAF headquarters in Nielson Field.’’
‘’Why did you call the Navy?’’ shot back Foster, nearly livid. Ingrid eyed him with near contempt.
‘’Why, Captain? Because we are supposed to defend the Philippines together with the Navy. Because nothing tells us if the Navy headquarters in Hawaii is not presently a pile of burning rubble. Because wars are not won with suppositions. My job is to coordinate and disseminate all tactical information from this headquarters and that is what I did. The information about the attack on Hawaii is already marked on our map of the Pacific, by the way.’’
She then ignored the discomfited duty officer and placed a few more calls, alerting the various regional Army commands in the Philippines.
General MacArthur entered the operations center twenty minutes after having been called by Ingrid and went straight to the duty officer.
‘’Captain Foster, show me that message from Hawai .’
Taking the message presented by Foster, MacArthur read it quickly and nodded once, somber.
‘’Captain, have all our units put on maximum alert. Even if war has not yet been declared officially, I now consider this command as being at war with Japan.’’
One of Ingrid’s field telephones then rang, making her pick up the receiver.
‘’USAFFE HQ!... Very wel ! Thank you and keep us informed if they see anything, please.’
Getting up and going to the large tactical map table, Ingrid lined up a series of wooden, plane-shaped blue plaques over the Bay of Manila.
‘’General, the Asiatic Fleet is scrambling right now twelve PBY amphibian patrol planes, which will go take patrol stations to the North, Northeast and Northwest of Luzon, in order to watch for the possible passage of Japanese planes.’’
‘’Excellent! We can’t do less in view of the Navy’s celerity, gentlemen. Have our B-10 and B-18 bombers take off as quickly as possible, without bombs but with maximum fuel, to take their predetermined patrol stations. I don’t want the Japanese to be able to fly to Manila without being detected. Have also our B-17 heavy bombers ready to take off for their preplanned mission against Formosa. All our pilots and
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aircrews are to stand by their planes, ready to take off in case of an attack, until further notice. I don’t want a single one of our planes destroyed on the ground if the Japanese attack here.’
MacArthur’s orders triggered a storm of activity in the operations center, with Ingrid jumping from one telephone line to another.
After a quick breakfast at six, Ingrid returned to her post and waited for new developments. The full headquarters staff was now in place, while Captain Foster was gone, to Ingrid’s relief, having returned to his normal logistics desk. Brigadier General Marshall, the command’s operations officer, was now in charge of the center. Just before seven o’clock, a signals officer handed a message to MacArthur, who read it once in silence before repeating it aloud.
‘’Gentlemen, this is a coded message sent from the Hawaii headquarters of General Short. Quote, to all Army units in the Pacific: Massive Japanese air attacks occurred against Pearl Harbor and the airfields of Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Bellows Field, Ewa and Kaneohe, starting at eight o’clock, Hawaii time. The attack was made in two waves and caused major damage. Seven battleships, two aircraft carriers, three cruisers and six other ships were either sunk or gravely damaged. Over one hundred planes were destroyed on the ground. The losses in personnel are estimated at over 2,000 men killed or missing. The possibility of further enemy attacks against Hawaii remains. All Army units are to go immediately to maximum alert and to consider themselves at war with Japan, end of quote.’
MacArthur then looked around him, a hard expression on his face.
‘’Gentlemen, Japan has attacked an American territory and has kil ed American servicemen. According to the information brought from the future by Nancy Laplante, we can now expect the Japanese to attack the Philippines by air today. Our job, in cooperation with the Asiatic Fleet, will be to repel those attacks and to inflict as many losses as we can on the enemy. I also have the firm intention to go to the offensive, right now! Be watchful and give your maximum from now on.’
As the officers and enlisted men looked at each other, MacArthur walked to Ingrid’s table and grabbed the field telephone connected to the headquarters of his air force in Nielson Field.
‘’This is General MacArthur. Get me Major General Brereton at once... General Brereton, this is MacArthur. Hawaii just confirmed by coded message the Japanese
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attack on Pearl Harbor. The losses there are unfortunately severe. Japanese planes are also probably on their way or about to be on their way to strike the Philippines.
Launch immediately your B-17 bombers on their preplanned attack against Formosa.
Also, have all your fighters ready to take off on five-minute notice. Once your B-17s will be back, rearm them and send them back for a second raid. How is the reassembling of the P-40 fighters which arrived by sea early this month proceeding?... I see! Do your best to speed that up and hit Formosa hard for me.’’
MacArthur then hung up, visibly unhappy. Brigadier General Marshall went to see him, worried.
‘’Something is wrong, General?’’
‘’Yes! Of the 81 new P-40 fighters we received early this month in disassembled state, only eleven have been reassembled to date, thanks to a lack of technicians and of specialized tools. Worse, the majority of the pilots for these P-40s are still stateside.
Brereton thus has only 42 P-40 fighters ready to fly and 37 pilots qualified to fly them.
Damn! We need those P-40s! Our old P-26s and our P-35s are not up to face Japanese ZERO fighters.’
‘’We could transfer some pilots from P-35 and P-26 onto P-40s, General.’
suggested Marshall, making MacArthur think for a moment.
‘’That’s not a bad idea, Dick. However, the P-40 has the reputation of being a tricky plane to fly. Look at the accident rate on P-40s that our pilots here suffered. And that would in turn leave some P-26s and P-35s without pilots. Even though those two types of fighters are obsolescent, they can still be useful against Japanese bombers.
We simply need more fighter pilots. Alright, Dick! Call Brereton and tell him to start transferring P-35 and P-26 pilots on P-40s as more P-40s are reassembled. Tell him to try giving at least a couple hours of flying instruction on P-40 to the transferred pilots but tell him to do it quickly. Also, I want the P-40s still in crates to be immediately dispersed away from our main airfields. I don’t want those planes to be destroyed on the ground while stil disassembled.’
‘’Understood, General.’
Ingrid then grabbed her courage with both hands and got up, to then talk to MacArthur in a low voice.
‘’General, I know that what I will request is completely irregular, but I have both a monoplane and a twin-engine plane flying license, with a total of 95 hours of flying.
While I am not qualified as a fighter pilot, I frequented for months the greatest air aces of
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the Luftwaffe in France, who taught me their tactics. I would thus like to volunteer to pilot any P-26 or P-35 which would become available.’’
As MacArthur eyed her sharply, Brigadier General Marshall answered her in a categorical tone.
‘’That’s out of the question, Misses Dows. First, you are a civilian, apart from being a woman. Second, you already have a job to do here.’
‘’General,’ replied Ingrid politely but firmly, ‘’the pilots of the American Volunteers Group in China, who are flying on P-40 against the Japanese, are also considered as civilians and as mercenaries. The Filipino Army Air Corps, which possesses P-26A fighters, could always hire me as a mercenary, something which would short-circuit all the regulations of the American Army, I believe.’’
As Marshall looked at her with big eyes, MacArthur burst out laughing.
‘’Dick, I believe that her argument would hold. If President Quezon decided to hire her as a mercenary fighter pilot and gave her a P-26, there is nothing that I could do then, except applaud Misses Dows’ sense of duty.’
‘’But a woman fighter pilot? That’s unthinkable, General!’
‘’That is actual y a reality, General.’ replied Ingrid. ‘’The R.A.F. has been using women as combat pilots for over six months now, while the Soviets employ women as bomber or fighter pilots in three regiments.’
MacArthur then eyed Ingrid with a mix of admiration and pride.
‘’Madam Dows, I admire your combative spirit and your willingness to fight for the United States. Your husband can be proud of you. I will keep your proposition in mind but, for the moment, you are more useful to me here.’’
‘’General, this raises a question about my present post. I am officially a civilian employee of the Army and my contract says that I was hired to work from Friday to Tuesday, on the night shift. I can’t in all conscience leave my post here at noon simply because my contract says so.’’
‘’Are you ready to contribute voluntarily supplementary time, Madam Dows?
‘’All the time you want, General.’
‘’Excellent! Stay at your post until four today, then come back at six o’clock tomorrow morning. I will have your pay adjusted to reflect this.’
MacArthur then walked away, leaving Ingrid alone with Marshall. The latter eyed Ingrid with contempt.
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‘’Don’t push your luck too far, Misses Dows. If it would depend only on me, you would stay at home, like all good American housewives.’’
Ingrid did not reply to that, hiding the best she could her anger and disdain for this old misogynistic fossil.
09:05 (Manila Time)
Operations center, USAFFE HQ
Manila
Douglas MacArthur, returning to the operations center after conferring with a group of senior officers in his office, saw that new symbols had been added on the wall map of the Pacific. Walking to the map, he saw that, according to the symbols, the Japanese had apparently attacked this morning Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaya, using both ground troops and air attacks. The island of Wake, in the middle of the Pacific, had also been attacked. MacArthur nodded at these developments, which conformed with the information from the future given by Nancy Laplante: it further convinced him that his changes to his operational plans following the bringing of that information from London had been well justified. Calling Brigadier General Marshall to his side, he pointed to him the new symbols.
‘’When did we receive those reports on Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaya, Dick?
I didn’t see them.’
‘’Uh, we didn’t exactly receive reports on these places, General.’ replied Marshall in apparent embarrassment. ‘’Misses Dows took on her to call via the Transpacific submarine telephone cable the British in Hong Kong and Singapore, this without any prior authorization from me. As for Wake, we received a situation report from the island garrison only a few minutes ago. They were attacked by a Japanese amphibious force but were able to keep it at bay and to inflict serious casualties to it.’
Something in Marshall’s tone made MacArthur glance at him.
‘’And you think that she acted incorrectly by calling the British?’
‘’Yes, General! She completely bypassed the chain of command and contacted foreign officials without proper authorization. I thus sent her back to her home.’’
MacArthur suddenly pivoted on his heels on hearing those last words, anger flaring in him.
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‘’Did our intelligence department or our signals office warn us of those Japanese attacks on Hong Kong and Malaya before she made her calls?’’
‘’I haven’t received official reports yet on this, General, but…’’
MacArthur then interrupted him, furious.
‘’Somebody used her initiative and intelligence to obtain vital strategic information on the situation around the Philippines and your reaction was to send her home? If she was one of my staff officers I would promote her on the spot for that initiative. What the hell were you thinking? That following regulations to the letter is more important than winning this war?’’
MacArthur then turned towards the young lieutenant who was sitting at the table previously occupied by Ingrid, barking an order that all the men in the operations center heard.
‘’LIEUTENANT, CALL IMMEDIATELY MISSES DOWS AT HER HOME AND
TELL HER TO COME BACK HERE AT THE DOUBLE!’
Returning his attention on Marshall, MacArthur pointed an index at him.
‘’General, from now on, I want to see initiative and common sense used in this operations center. Do you understand me?’
‘’Perfectly, General.’ stuttered Marshall, reddening from the barely disguised blame dished to him by MacArthur. The latter then went to the big tactical map table of the Philippines and examined the wooden symbols on it before looking at his intelligence officer, Colonel Charles Willoughby.
‘’No signs yet of the Japanese?’’
‘’Not yet, General. Their planes should however be spotted soon by our bombers or by the Navy’s PBYs, if they are on their way, of course.’’
‘’And our B-17 bombers?’
Willoughby pointed at a blue plaque positioned near the island of Formosa, which housed numerous Japanese bases.
‘’They should arrive over Formosa in about a half hour, General.’
‘’At about the same time the Japanese should arrive here.’’ said MacArthur to himself, thoughtful. Before the arrival of Major Dows and his priceless package of information from Nancy Laplante, he had planned to safeguard his precious heavy bombers by evacuating them to Mindanao, out of reach of the Japanese. However, the detailed reading of Laplante’s info had convinced him that many of his standing operational plans had been deeply flawed. The mention in that info of the distorting
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influence of Philippines’ President Quezon on his strategy, influence which supposedly resulted in some disastrous decisions on his part, had embarrassed him into discreetly revising his command relationship with Quezon, making MacArthur cut the local political factor out of his strategic and tactical planning. As a result, he would not wait anymore for the Japanese to strike first before reacting, something he originally wanted to do at Quezon’s behest, who was stil hoping not to involve the Philippines in the coming war if it could be avoided. Stockpiled reserves of food had as a further result been moved from local Filipino warehouses and then centralized in Bataan and Corregidor, against the wishes of President Quezon. MacArthur had also given in to the recommendations of his aviation commander, Lewis Brereton, and reestablished the plans for a counter-attack on Formosa by his B-17 heavy bombers. At least, his bombers could not be destroyed on the ground now, an added plus to the benefit of striking back at the enemy.
Eight minutes later, the lieutenant sitting at the telephones table took a call, then shouted towards MacArthur.
‘’GENERAL, ONE OF OUR PATROL BOMBERS JUST SPOTTED A FORMATION OF ABOUT 120 PLANES APPROACHING, SIXTY MILES NORTHWEST
OF LINGAYEN. THEY ARE FLYING AT 20,000 FEET AT A SPEED OF ABOUT 170
MILES PER HOUR AND ARE HEADING FOR CLARK FIELD. OUR FIGHTERS HAVE
RECEIVED THE ORDER TO TAKE OFF AND INTERCEPT THEM.’
‘’PUT HIS INFO ON THE MAP AT ONCE!’ Ordered MacArthur. ‘’LIEUTENANT, ALERT BY PHONE THE 60TH ARTILLERY REGIMENT AND THE DEFENSES OF THE
MANILA BAY AND SUBIC BAY, THEN ADVISE THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE
ASIATIC FLEET. GENERAL MARSHALL, ACTIVATE THE AIR RAID SIRENS
ACROSS MANILA!’
Less than five minutes later, the lieutenant got another call.
‘’GENERAL, OUR BOMBER REPORTS A SECOND GROUP OF A HUNDRED
PLANES FOLLOWING THE FIRST ONE. THE PLANES ARE CONFIRMED AS A MIX
OF ‘ANN’, ‘NELL’ AND ‘BETTY’ TYPE BOMBERS, ESCORTED BY ‘NATE’ AND ‘ZERO’
TYPE FIGHTERS.’
MacArthur frowned on hearing that.
‘’Damn! Over 200 enemy planes for our ninety fighters to face. That battle will be a hot one.’
The news became even worse two minutes later.
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‘’GENERAL, A THIRD GROUP OF PLANES WAS SPOTTED BY A NAVY PBY
AMPHIBIAN. ABOUT EIGHTY ‘VAL’ AND ‘KATE’ BOMBERS, ESCORTED BY FORTY
‘ZERO’ FIGHTERS, ARE PRESENTLY 150 MILES NORTHEAST OF MANILA, HEADING FOR US.’
As he observed the personnel of the operations center scramble to update the tactical map, MacArthur whispered to himself.
‘’May God help our pilots. They wil need it.’
09:34 (Manila Time)
Lead Boeing B-17D FLYING FORTRESS
14th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy)
Northeast coast of Formosa (Taiwan)
Major Randolph Masters was crossing the coast of Formosa, leading the seventeen bombers of his squadron, when his radio operator stuck his head between his seat and that of his copilot, Lieutenant Peter Stuart.
‘’Major, Nielson Field just advised us that close to 300 Japanese planes are presently attacking Manila and our airfields around it. Our orders are to continue with our mission and to inflict maximum damage to the enemy before returning to Clark Field to rearm and refuel for a second strike.’’
‘’THREE HUNDRED PLANES?! Damn! We may not have an airfield left to return to. Too bad: let’s concentrate now on our objective and make those Japs pay.’
Flying in combat formation at an altitude of 7,500 meters and a speed of 450
kilometers per hour, the four-engine bombers approached rapidly their primary objective, a Japanese military airfield near Taipei. Masters, seeing no Japanese fighters in the sky nor any reaction from air defense guns, then took a sudden decision and spoke in his radio microphone.
‘’To all Blue Boy call signs, this is Blue Boy One. The enemy doesn’t seem to be reacting to us. We will thus go down now to an altitude of 10,000 feet, in order to add to our bombing precision. Fol ow me and have all your gunners ready for action.’
As he put his heavy bomber in a dive, Masters thanked the fact that most of the Japanese fighters based in Formosa must now be busy over the Philippines, something
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that was now opening the way to the objective for him. His navigator/bombardier soon contacted him as he recovered from his dive at 10,000 feet.
‘’Major, I have the objective in sight. Make a heading correction of five degrees to the left.’
‘’Understood, Jacob.’’
Making sure that his other bombers were following him as he veered slightly to the left, Masters looked nervously around the sky, searching for enemy fighters. To his relief, he saw nothing but his own bombers.
‘’Pilot to bombardier: I am now giving you steering control for the final bombing approach.’’
‘’Understood, Major. I now see clearly the objective in my sight. There are about fifty planes lined up along the taxiway, apparently ready to take off.’
‘’That must be the Japanese second attack wave for the Philippines.’ said Masters, suddenly excited. ‘’Cut across at an angle through those planes. Blast them to bits, Jacob!’’
‘’Understood, Major. Effecting a correction now. Bomb release in two minutes.’’
Those two minutes felt like an eternity for Masters. Japanese air defense guns belatedly opened a rather sparse fire against him as his squadron was about to overfly the airfield.
The triumphal scream of his bombardier, along with the jump made by his plane as it suddenly was unloaded of its payload, then told him that his three tons of bombs were on their way.
‘’BOMBS AWAY!’
Looking anxiously downwards while turning his bomber around, Masters observed the fall of the 204 500-pound bombs released by his squadron. He screamed with joy on seeing the carpet of explosions on the ground which hit the files of Japanese bombers, followed by giant fireballs from a fuel depot hit by his bombs.
‘’YES! TAKE THAT FOR PEARL HARBOR, MISTERS JAPS! Winslow, contact Nielson Field and tell them that we successfully hit our objective and are on our way back.’
10:03 (Manila Time)
Operations center, USAFFE HQ
Manila, Philippines
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Ingrid, who had returned to the operations center barely ten minutes earlier, put down the receiver of the field telephone linking her with Nielson Field and got up, to then walk quickly to the big wall map of the Pacific. Many officers and enlisted men followed her with their eyes, fixing on the pistol held in a modern combat holster on her right upper leg. Now that the war was officially on, Ingrid had decided to openly wear her GLOCK 17L 9mm pistol, which she had inherited from Nancy, taking it out of her backpack and strapping it to her leg. With her pistol mounting both a holographic sight and a laser dot sight on its frame and also sporting an elongated, 20-round magazine, her weapon made for a most futuristic-looking weapon indeed. The detonations of bombs exploding in the distance, along with the heavy firing from American air defense guns around Manila, told clearly to anyone that the battle for the Philippines was now on. Taking a blue grease pencil, she drew a symbol over Formosa before going to see General MacArthur, who was observing the action from beside the tactical map table.
‘’General, our B-17 bombers have just hit successfully their objective in Formosa and are on their way back.’
‘’Excellent!’ said MacArthur, happy. ‘’In maybe four hours, if all goes well, we wil be able to make another raid on Formosa.’’
‘’General, may I make a couple of comments based on our observations to date?’
MacArthur looked at her with curiosity, while his staff officers around him appeared scandalized at seeing a woman give her opinion on a military situation to a general.
‘’Go ahead, madam.’
‘’First, the composition of the third group of enemy planes which was detected suggests that it was launched from two aircraft carriers situated to the Northeast of Luzon. Second, while the Japanese were caught by surprise by our raid on Formosa, they will not make the same mistake twice and will probably keep from now on a heavy fighter cover over Formosa. However, striking another alternate target away from Formosa may allow us to keep the element of surprise.’
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‘’And what alternate target are you suggesting, Misses Dows?’’ asked MacArthur, now truly interested to hear what she would propose. The next four words from Ingrid then struck like a bomb around her.
‘’Nagasaki, in Japan, General.’
All the officers around looked at her as if she was crazy. Even MacArthur was left stunned. She thus went on quickly before someone could shut her up.
‘’Nagasaki is within range of our B-17s, if carrying a reduced bomb load, General.
Furthermore, the position of Nagasaki along the southwestern coast of Kyushu makes it relatively easy to spot in terms of air navigation. The material damage from a bombing raid would probably be minimal, but the psychological impact, both in the United States and Japan, would be immense. A successful bombing raid on Japanese home soil, so early in the war, would shake hard the enemy morale, while reinforcing the morale of our own public. It would also reflect well on your command and may even convince Washington to send you reinforcements. From a strategic point of view, the Japanese would be so shocked by that raid that they could very well decide to delay their planned invasion of Burma and of the Dutch East Indies, in order to redirect more forces against the Philippines.’
‘’You want to attract more Japanese forces against the Philippines?’’ exclaimed in a horrified tone Brigadier General Marshall. ‘’Are you crazy?’’
MacArthur then raised his hand swiftly, cutting off Marshall.
‘’Let her finish! I want to hear what she has to say.’
‘’Thank you, General.’ said Ingrid, secretly relieved to see that she was not going to be simply kicked out of the operations center. She then looked gravely at Marshall.
‘’General Marshall, I am fully conscious that we wil probably lose the Philippines in the months to come, save for a miracle. The Philippines are right now the only base from which we can directly strike Japan with our B-17s. Thus, we must exploit that asset to the maximum before losing it, in order to provide precious breathing time to our allies around the Pacific. Yes, we will suffer from a stronger Japanese pressure, but each week of resistance on our part will give more time to our other forces in the Pacific to prepare their defenses. In view of the strategic importance of our B-17 bombers and of the submarines and ships of the Asiatic Fleet, we should thus concentrate our defenses around our airfields and the Navy base at Cavite. If we are to lose this battle eventually, which is probable, then let’s extract the most benefits possible out of that for the United States and our allies in the Pacific.’
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The reaction of MacArthur was to applaud her briefly before looking at his staff officers.
Ingrid’s deep sense of strategy and her ability to accept the bitter price of war had truly impressed him, while the horrified looks on many of his officers’ faces had disappointed him.
‘’Gentlemen, I believe that you just have been served a lesson in grand strategy, a lesson I fully concur with. We must consider the wider strategic implications of this battle and get out the most we can from a bad situation. Once this air battle is over, I will confer with General Brereton and modify our air strategy to includes strikes on Japan.
Misses Dows, please follow me to my office.’’
‘’Yes, General!’ could only say Ingrid. A major whispered to a colonel as she left the operations center behind MacArthur.
‘’This girl must be in his bed for him to listen to her like this.’
MacArthur led Ingrid to his large office and closed the door behind them before going to sit behind his work desk, fixing the teenager standing in front of him.
‘’Misses Dows, you told me before that Nancy Laplante educated you and that you often discussed air tactics with many Luftwaffe air aces, but what I just heard was far beyond what I could have expected from a teenage girl, however intelligent she may be. Where did you get this sense of military strategy?’’
Ingrid took a deep breath before answering. She now had little choice but to reveal her secret if she didn’t want to lose her credibility with him.
‘’From history, General. In truth, I possess an experience of life spread over 7,000 years. Earlier this year, while still interned in the Tower of London, I started one night to remember my past incarnations, the same night in fact that Nancy Laplante also started remembering her own past incarnations. I know that this sounds totally preposterous, General, but I can prove it easily by speaking in a number of ancient languages I used in previous lives. I still am not sure why me and Nancy got that gift and from whom, but I believe that there must be a higher purpose to all this. As for my sense of strategy, I once yielded the might of an empire, while in another life I and 300
other Spartans made the ultimate sacrifice at the battle of Thermopylae, in order to save the rest of Greece from the Persians. I also own the ability to speak Tagalog and Cebuano to a previous life as a Filipina woman.’
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She then spoke a few phrases in Latin, Greek and Hebrew for good measure, to help convince MacArthur that she was not simply delusional. The latter, who knew notions of Latin and Greek, sat back in his chair, overwhelmed.
‘’My God! This is truly incredible, yet I would tend to believe you right now.’
‘’Thank you, General. Could I ask you to keep this strictly to yourself, though?
Only my husband knows about my special talents.’
‘’I wil be discreet, Misses Dows. I however sense that you want something else.
What is it?’’
‘’Only to serve my country of adoption to the best of my abilities, General. I know that I am presently most useful to you in the operations center, but officers and NCOs could eventually take my place once properly trained. You however are facing a critical shortage in fighter pilots and, once you are out of fighters, the Japanese will then be able to bombard your troops and the Philippines at will. You once said that President Quezon could legally hire me as a mercenary fighter pilot. Well, General, that is what I wish from the bottom of my heart. I know that I may not survive long as a fighter pilot, but at least I will have done my utmost to help defend my husband and the Philippines, once my country of birth. Every Japanese bomber I could shoot down would be one bomber less left to threaten my husband.’
MacArthur was silent for a long moment while starring at her, then spoke up in a sober voice.
‘’Very well, Ingrid. I will see what I can do about your request and wil speak to President Quezon on your behalf. You may now return to your post.’
‘’Thank you very much, General.’ replied Ingrid, coming to attention and saluting him before turning around and leaving the office. MacArthur thought over what he had just heard, then final y grabbed his telephone receiver and called the headquarters’
switchboard operator.
‘’This is General MacArthur. I would like to be connected with President Quezon, at the Malacanang Palace.’’
19:06 (Manila time)
Main briefing room, Asiatic Fleet headquarters Manila, Philippines
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The nearly 200 Navy and Marine Corps officers packing the fleet main briefing room got up from their chairs as one when Admiral Hart entered the large room with his main staff officers.
“Please sit, gentlemen!” said Hart while walking at a quick pace to the first row of chairs, which had been reserved for him and his aides. His fleet intelligence officer, standing behind a lectern set besides a large map of the Pacific pinned to a cork board, started his briefing on a nod from Hart.
“Admiral, gentlemen, the United States is now officially at war with Japan.
President Roosevelt made the announcement on statewide radio today after learning of the Japanese surprise attacks against us and the rest of our Pacific Fleet. I am pained to confirm to you that, for reasons still unknown here, the Japanese managed to take our ships and aircraft in and around Pearl Harbor by complete surprise and were able to inflict catastrophic damage to our fleet. The battleships ARIZONA, WEST VIRGINIA, OKLAHOMA, UTAH, TENNESSEE, PENNSYLVANIA and NEVADA were either sunk or badly damaged, along with the cruisers HELENA, RALEIGH and DETROIT and four destroyers. Worst of all, the Japanese were able to catch and sink the carrier LEXINGTON, while the SARATOGA was seriously damaged. Over 110 planes of all types were also destroyed on the ground and the port infrastructure and Navy installations suffered greatly. For all intents and purposes, our Pacific Fleet is now out of combat for weeks, if not months. On the same day, as we were being attacked here, the Japanese also launched assaults against Thailand, Malaya and Hong Kong. As far as I can judge, apart from the earlier than anticipated date for the start of the Japanese invasion of the Pacific, the special intelligence information provided from the files of the late Brigadier Nancy Laplante has proved to be right on the mark.”
“Then why did our fleet in Pearl Harbor let itself be caught so flat-footed?” raged Rear Admiral Francis Rockwell, the commander of the 16th Naval District. “They had access to the same information as we did and we managed pretty well today.”
“Maybe not, sir.” replied meekly the intelligence officer. “Remember that, if not for the providential initiative shown by Major Dows when he brought with him copies of Laplante’s information from his previous post in London, we would have been in the dark about the details of the planned Japanese attacks. It could be that the Fleet Headquarters in Pearl Harbor either did not receive that info or received only parts of it.”
“Gentlemen,” cut in firmly Admiral Hart, “there is no usefulness in pointing fingers around today. We are here to review what is next and what could be done. Captain
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Wal ace, let’s see what we could expect in the near future according to the Laplante files.”
“Yes Admiral!” said Wallace, who then picked up a pointer and used it on the large Pacific map behind him while he spoke. “If the Japanese stick to their original plans, which I believe they will do for at least a while, they will continue their heavy air attacks for the next few days until our airpower is all gone. In two days, on D+2, they will land battalion-sized forces in the morning in two points in Northern Luzon: Vigan and Aparri. Another secondary landing will follow two days later, on D+4, at Legaspi on the southern tip of Luzon. On D+14, the Japanese will land their 48th Division, reinforced with two regiments of light tanks, on the beaches between Bauang and Agoo in the Lingayen Gulf. On D+16, they should land southeast of Manila, in Lamon Bay, with their 16th Division. According to the Laplante files, the Japanese will be outnumbered by us but will benefit from superior training and equipment. Before any of you jump to his feet to protest that no Jap soldier can outfight our men, I would urge you to think with a cool head on this. Nancy Laplante had the advantage of historical hindsight concerning this whole war and her information has proved countless times to be truly invaluable. Just consider the fact that she warned our navy months before her death about grave defects in our torpedoes. At the time, a number of our admirals treated that information as pure bunk, claiming that nothing was wrong with our torpedoes. Well, tests were then done on our torpedoes, just in case she could be right. Our weapons turned out to be actually nearly useless, with the defects found in them the exact same ones predicted by Nancy Laplante. That episode is by the way the reason why all our torpedoes were exchanged for improved models two months ago. So, I would advise you all to treat that information very seriously while formulating your next plans. My department will be more than happy to provide any additional info you may require in the future.”
Admiral Hart then got up from his seat and faced the spectators with a stern expression.
“Captain Wal ace has my complete support on this subject, gentlemen. I intend to plan our defense based on that information and I expect all of you to consider our opponents as well-trained professionals with fanatical resolve and good quality equipment. We will thus in turn have to prove ourselves as professional and stouthearted as the Japanese if we want to win. Now, we do have a few important cards in our hands, starting with our 29 submarines. If we use our cards well, we will have a decent chance in this fight. The Fleet Operations Officer will now review our battle plans for your benefit…”
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Much later, a tired and depressed Ken Dows returned home, to find Ingrid already in bed. Taking a quick shower, he then quietly slipped under the bed sheets, hoping not to wake her up. The teenager however had her eyes open when he got in bed, looking at him with apprehension.
“Ken, be frank with me: how bad did it go around the Pacific?”
“Bad enough, honey. Our fleet was basically destroyed in Pearl Harbor, either because they didn’t believe Nancy’s info or because they didn’t use it properly. We are now by ourselves in the Philippines.”
Ingrid was silent for long seconds, then kissed Ken.
“Forget your worries for the moment, Ken, and let’s not lose hope. With Nancy’s info we stil have a fighting chance. That’s all we need. Come, hold me: I’m a bit cold tonight.”
Turning around on her side, Ingrid then snuggled up to Ken, spoon-fashion, then took his right hand and put it over her right breast. The warmth of her body soon made Ken relax and forget the day they had just gone through.
05:42 (Manila time)
Wednesday, October 22, 1941 ‘C’
SARGO Class American submarine USS SWORDFISH
32 nautical miles north of the coast, off Aparri, Philippines The captain of the USS SWORDFISH grinned with anticipated pleasure as he lined up the Japanese troopship in the crosshairs of his periscope. Following that ship was a second troopship, about 600 yards behind. The voice of the weapons officer then sounded around the control room of the fleet submarine.
“Al tubes loaded and ready, Captain. Fire solution ready on first target.”
“Then fire all forward tubes in quick succession, Mister Lumley.”
“Aye sir! Firing tubes one through four.”
“Firing tubes one through four, sir!” replied the torpedo chief as the noise of compressed air and a shudder marked the launch of the first of the four forward torpedoes. The three other weapons followed quickly one by one. Not waiting for the results of his first shoot, the captain then turned his periscope towards the second troopship.
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“Turn hard port 180 degrees! Prepare aft torpedo tubes!”
“Turning hard port 180 degrees, sir!”
“Al four aft torpedo tubes ready, sir!”
“Fire solution team…Mark! Heading, 176! Second heading…Mark! Heading, 171!”
“Fire solution ready, sir.”
“Then match bearings and shoot all four stern tubes.”
“Firing tubes 5 through 8 now, sir!”
The submarine shuddered again as the four heavy torpedoes left their launch tubes.
Fifteen seconds later, the noise of four underwater explosions could be heard through the hull, making the American sailors shout in triumph: their four first torpedoes had connected with the first target. The captain was able to see in his periscope four huge geysers erupt along the side of the first troopship. That ship started to list heavily nearly immediately. Turning his periscope towards the second troopship, he waited with growing excitement for his other torpedoes to hit. To his slight disappointment, only two torpedoes hit that troopship. They were however enough to make the Japanese ship start sinking by the stern. About two miles away, the captain of the USS SWORDFISH
could see a Japanese destroyer approaching at full speed towards him.
‘’Japanese destroyer approaching from port, distance 3,000 yards. Engines full ahead! Keep periscope depth!’
Normally, he would have dived as deep as he could while turning, to avoid the depth charges the Japanese destroyer was certainly intending to throw at him. However, the fantastically detailed intelligence which the Asiatic Fleet possessed had allowed to preposition for an ambush no less than six submarines. The Japanese were about to learn about the German ‘wolf pack’ tactic. Doing his best to ignore the incoming destroyer, the captain looked around the horizon with his periscope, trying to find another nearby target. He nearly jumped with joy when three torpedoes from another submarine hit the last troopship, breaking it in half.
‘’The last troopship has been hit. We wil thus go for the heavy cruiser. Mister Lumley, what is the status of our forward tubes?’
‘’Tubes one and two are loaded and ready, Captain. Tubes three and four will be ready in one minute.’’
‘’Very well! Turn to port, heading 085! Fire solution team…top! Heading 042, distance 2,600 yards… Second bearing…top! Heading 045, distance 2,500 yards.
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‘’Fire solution ready, Captain.’’
‘’Fire tubes one and two!’’
There was again the noise of compressed air as two torpedoes left their launch tubes.
‘’Tubes one and two fired, Captain! Torpedoes on the way.’’
The underwater noise of three explosions then made the captain turn his periscope to port, in time to see the destroyer coming at him stagger under the impact of three torpedoes.
‘’YES! The SCULPIN has just plugged the destroyer which was after us. Let’s concentrate on that cruiser, gentlemen. Mister Lumley, are tubes three and four ready?’’
‘’One moment, Captain… Tubes three and four now confirmed ready.’
The captain then renewed his firing solution on the heavy cruiser before shooting his two last forward tubes. Out of four torpedoes, two hit the cruiser which was frantically zigzagging in order to avoid torpedoes coming from multiple directions. Four more torpedoes from another submarine then hit as well, dooming the cruiser. In total, the six American submarines of the pack off Aparri shot 37 torpedoes, sinking the whole Japanese force heading for the coast.
Nearly at the same time, another pack of six American submarines ambushed and sank with similar success the Japanese troop convoy heading towards Vigan, on the Northwest coast of Luzon. One heavy cruiser, one light cruiser, three destroyers and four transport ships went to the bottom, victims of American torpedoes.
One hour later, an even bigger success was achieved near the Palau Islands, 900 kilometers to the East of the Philippines. A pack of eight American submarines ambushed a large Japanese combat flotilla as it barely started its way towards Legaspi, on the southern tip of Luzon. Taken completely by surprise as they were still forming up their ships after leaving their harbor, the Japanese lost in less than thirty minutes the light aircraft carriers ZUIHO and HOSHO, the heavy cruisers MIKUMA and KUMANO, one destroyer, one tanker ship and five transport ships crammed with troops. The heavy cruiser MOGAMI, flagship of Vice-Admiral Kurita, absorbed the impact of four torpedoes but managed to flee under the protection of the five surviving destroyers. The MOGAMI was however severely damaged and was now condemned to long repairs in Japan. The triumphant pack of American submarines, now nearly out of torpedoes, then retired in good order towards the Philippines to rearm and then take watch positions. Air patrols
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of long-range amphibians were already tasked to support them by signaling in advance the approach of any new Japanese force.
The fourth pack, counting six submarines and posted off the port of Naha, on Okinawa Island, to the Northeast of the Philippines, didn’t see action that day as they waited for the Japanese convoy due to leave harbor the next day. The B-17 heavy bombers of Major Masters however did attack that day, arriving just after Sunrise from the East at very low altitude. The Japanese coastal observers, blinded by the rising Sun, were too late in giving the alert as the B-17s jumped over the coastline and rushed towards the port of Naha, imitating tactics introduced to the British by Nancy Laplante.
The American bombers attacked in fact from such a low altitude that their gunners were able to shoot to their content at anything which appeared to be a worthwhile target. That same low altitude also ensured enhanced accuracy for their 1000-pound bombs.
Twenty planes were destroyed on the ground at Naha Airfield by machinegun fire, while the troopships loading up combat supplies and troops in the harbor were all either sunk or heavily damage. The damage caused by the B-17 was then amplified in a spectacular manner by the explosion of an ammunition ship docked in Naha Harbor, after it was put on fire by a bomb. The titanic explosion and fireball that ensued was clearly seen by the waiting American submarines off Okinawa, which then passed that information by radio to the headquarters of the Asiatic Fleet in Manila.
22:38 (Washington Time) / 11:38 (Manila Time)
Tuesday, October 21, 1941 ‘C’ (Washington) / October 22 (Manila) The Oval Office, the White House
Washington, D.C.
U.S.A.
President Roosevelt, having lived through two long and difficult days, was about to leave the Oval Office to go to bed when his military chief of staff, Admiral Leahy, knocked and entered, a happy grin on his face.
‘’Mister President, we have just received some very good news from the Philippines. Our submarines and our B-17 bombers based there have caused very heavy casualties to Japanese ships preparing to invade the Philippines. This combined message from General MacArthur and Admiral Hart arrived less than one hour ago.’’
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Taking the offered message, Roosevelt read it carefully while sitting in his wheelchair, a growing smile coming to his face.
‘’Two light carriers, five cruisers, eight destroyers and twelve troopships sunk, plus one cruiser damaged? This is fantastic!’
He then read the paragraph about the B-17 attack against Naha and pointed it to Leahy.
‘’Admiral, I intend to give presidential unit citations to this squadron of B-17
bombers and to the submarines of the Asiatic Fleet. These men did an incredible job.’
‘’In truth, Mister President, all those fighting now in the Philippines would deserve a citation. Despite being in an impossible situation, our forces in the Philippines are about the only source of good news we had in the last two days.’
Roosevelt nodded his head at that and continued his reading. The paragraph concerning the requests by MacArthur and Hart for reinforcements and extra materiel made him look at Leahy.
