FEMALE FIGHTER PILOT - INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

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carriers had also been hit hard by her pilots, but apparently not as hard as the unlucky KAGA.

‘’To all Black Widow Five callsigns, report!’

‘’Black Widow Two, okay!’

‘’Black Widow Three, okay!’

‘’Black Widow Four, okay!’

There was a short delay before the next acknowledgement from Lieutenant Iris Cummings, who sounded shaken.

‘’Black Widow Six, okay! I believe that Black Widow Five got caught in the fireballs from her own napalm canisters, Black Widow leader. I didn’t see her fly away from the HIRYU.’

Sadness hit Martha Lawson hard at that announcement: Barbara Russel and Mary Trotman had been good friends of her.

‘’Alright, Black Widow callsigns, let’s return to our temporary base: the job is done here.’

03:19 (PNG Time)

Aboard ‘Oracle One’ (EC-142E flying command post aircraft) Flying on station at high altitude over the Torres Strait

‘’Captain, the KONGO just ordered one of its escorting destroyers to scuttle the KAGA with torpedoes.’

That announcement from Corporal Mary Takahashi, who was monitoring the Japanese radio transmissions aboard their EC-142E WAVEMASTER, brought a satisfied smile on Jenny Kawena’s lips.

‘’One fleet carrier about to be scuttled and sunk and two other carriers on fire and out of action: our attack helicopter girls did a bang-up job there.’

‘’Yes, but they paid a price for it...and they are scheduled to attack again in the next hour, along with our fighters and bombers, while the Sun is stil down.’’ replied the Japanese-American from California. ‘’We are liable to suffer more losses during the next attacks, Captain.’’

Jenny, acting as the onboard intelligence officer of the EC-142E, pondered that sad but realistic truth for a moment.

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‘’Casualties are a part of war that we can’t deny, Mary, but those Japanese ships must be stopped and forced to turn away from Port Moresby, whatever the cost. If not, then hundreds or even thousands of our people wil die under the guns of that fleet.’

Going to the surface watch radar station, she looked at the collection of dots on the large screen which represented the Japanese fleet.

‘’Hum! While the carrier group is now basically dead in the water, the battle group shows no signs of turning around, despite having slowed down because of battle damage.’’

The radar operator then pointed at two of the dots from the carrier group.

‘’Captain, the two battlecruisers which were escorting the carriers are now detaching themselves and heading east, probably to join up with the Japanese battle group.’’

‘’Damn! This means that the Japanese have not abandoned their plan to bombard Port Moresby, even without air cover. Our girls will have no choice but to attack that group again.’’

Jenny then shouted towards the woman manning the coded radio station.

‘’Georgina, send the following to our group headquarters: two battlecruisers who had been escorting the Japanese carriers are now going to join up with the enemy battleships. Carrier KAGA ordered scuttled by one of its destroyers. Carriers HIRYU

and SORYU dead in the water and burning. Japanese battle group has slowed down to eighteen knots but is continuing eastward. Suggest next attack be concentrated on the enemy battle group. Send as ‘Critic’.’’

‘’On it, Captain.’’

Next, Jenny looked at one of the two women acting as air controllers.

‘’Christine, what is the status of our attack helicopters on Thursday Island?’

‘’They are about finished refueling and rearming, Captain. Also, our six AH-4s from Henderson Field have joined them half an hour ago. Captain Lawson intends to return to the attack with our eleven remaining AH-4s in about twenty minutes.’’

‘’Then tell her to split her group in two: her Black Flight will concentrate on finishing off the HIRYU and the SORYU, while Green Flight will go hammer the destroyers screening the battle group. We want our bomber girls to face less anti-aircraft guns for their next attack on the Japanese battleships. Advise our group headquarters of this as well, so that our aircraft and helicopters can coordinate their attacks.’’

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‘’Understood, Captain.’’

As the air controller started sending an encrypted message to Wards Airfield, Jenny pondered about what Ingrid’s aircraft were going to face during their next attack. With the element of surprise now gone, the Japanese will undoubtedly be expecting a second night attack. Despite having suffering significant losses amongst its anti-aircraft gun crews, those battleships and heavy cruisers still packed a heavy anti-aircraft punch.

More losses to the Fifinellas were thus to be expected in the coming hours. One radio operator then spoke up.

‘’CAPTAIN, JAPANESE PLANES FROM LAE AND WEWAK HAVE BEEN

DETECTED, HEADING TOWARDS PORT MORESBY. THE P-38s OF THE WITCHES

ARE NOW TAKING OFF TO INTERCEPT THEM, WITH ORACLE TWO DIRECTING

THEM.’

‘’So, the Japanese fleet intended to coordinate its attack with the bombers and fighters based around Papua New Guinea? That makes sense. However, their timings sucked. Still, that means that our B-25s will have to attack the battle group without fighter escort this time around.’’

05:11 (PNG Time)

Lead AH-4 of Green Flight, 777th Helicopter Squadron Approaching the rear of the Japanese battle group Torres Strait, 300 miles west of Port Moresby

‘’Nervous, Katharine?’’

‘’I would be stupid not to be, Faith. Should I fire all of my five-inch rockets at the destroyer we will target?’’

‘’No! We wil go for simply neutralizing that destroyer with half of our rockets and with our cannon, then will go pay a visit to one of the heavy cruisers accompanying the battleships. Those big suckers have a lot more anti-aircraft guns than their destroyers and, at last news, are still intact, since our Hell Raiser girls concentrated on the battleships during their first attack. You will thus have to aim carefully and be parsimonious with your rockets. I would say that you should fire at most two rockets at a time.’’

‘’That makes sense: wil do!’

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Faith then concentrated back on her navigation and flying, with the EC-142E of Aline Rhonie sending her course corrections at intervals. Her AH-4 was presently leading two other attack helicopters from her flight against the port flank of the Japanese battle group, while the three other helicopters of her flight were going to attack the starboard flank of the Japanese. Then, a few minutes later, the B-25NGs of the Hell Raisers were going to attack with torpedoes, with the goal of finally sinking the tough YAMATO and MUSASHI, the two most dangerous ships for Port Moresby thanks to their monster 456

mm caliber guns.

A few minutes later, Faith and Katharine saw in their night vision devices the ghostly shapes of big ships on the horizon ahead. Taking stock of the positions of the Japanese destroyers on the port side of the bigger units, Faith got on the radio and called the two helicopters following her.

‘’Green Two and Green Three, from Green One: the port side destroyers are now some five miles ahead. Follow me in a twenty degree turn to port in order to get on their outer flank, then line up on your respective targets and open fire at my command, over.’

‘’Green Two, acknowledged!

‘’Green Three, acknowledged!

Faith then turned to port, still flying about 200 meters above the waters of the Torres Strait, and eyed the lead Japanese destroyer. It was a KAGERO-Class destroyer, a modern, fast ship armed with three twin 127 mm guns in turrets and two twin 25 mm cannons in open mounts, plus two quadruple 610 mm heavy torpedo tubes mounts. It was thus not the most dangerous Japanese ship in that group for allied aircraft but it still could interfere by its mere presence with the planned torpedo attack runs of Helen Richey’s bombers. One thing that was obvious about the Japanese battle group was that the heavy units had all their searchlights on, scanning the sky constantly in search of possible American aircraft, while the destroyers kept their own searchlights off.

‘’Hum, that’s what you get when your ships don’t have radars. Lighting their searchlights like this is quite dumb, as it will reveal their positions from afar, but at least they left their destroyers dark, maybe to attract our aircraft into a trap. Let’s thus spring that trap off. Katharine, be ready to fire two rockets from short range.’’

‘’I am ready, Faith.’

Doing a wide turn to the right in order to line up her helicopter on the lead destroyer, Faith then spoke again on the radio.

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‘’To all Green callsigns, from Green Leader: attack when ready, out!’

From her present altitude of 200 meters, Faith then went into a very shallow dive, aiming at the middle of the Japanese destroyer.

‘’Fire when ready, Katharine.’

‘’Let’s just get a bit closer before I fire, Faith: I want to be as precise as I can.’’

Seeing that the Japanese destroyer was still apparently unaware of her presence, Faith reduced her speed in order to facilitate Katharine’s aim. The latter then fired two five-inch rockets from a distance of a mere 500 meters. Both rockets performed direct hits on the destroyer, one hitting its port side hull and penetrating it before exploding inside its engine room, the other hitting the top deck amidship, where the torpedo launch tubes and their reload tubes were. Faith and Katharine were then stunned by what happened next: a powerful explosion swept the whole destroyer, with other explosions following within milliseconds, breaking the unfortunate destroyer in two. Katharine Hepburn understood at once that her rocket must have initiated the warhead of one of the big 610

mm LONG LANCE torpedoes, with other torpedo warheads then touched off by that explosion.

‘’A HOLE IN ONE! YIPPEE!’ shouted out the avid golf player.

‘’Nice shooting, Katharine. This one is now finished. Let’s go next for one of the heavy cruisers.’

That heavy cruiser turned up to be the TAKAO, one of the most powerful and heavily armored Japanese heavy cruisers still afloat, with ten 203 mm main guns and 32 anti-aircraft guns of various calibers, on top of having sixteen 610 mm torpedo launch tubes.

‘’Shit! We drew the biggest bul y in the lot.’ exclaimed Faith. ‘’Do your best, Katharine.’

‘’Don’t worry, Faith: we wil teach that bul y a lesson.’’ replied Katharine Hepburn with false bravado as she felt her stomach knot up with fear at the sight of the intimidating silhouette of the 14,600-ton heavy cruiser. The searchlights of the TAKAO

were now searching the sky close to the surface of the sea, obviously expecting a torpedo attack by bombers coming in low and fast over the water. That decided Faith in making her helicopter jump up and take additional altitude before diving steeply on the heavy cruiser, now 700 meters away.

‘’IT IS ALL YOURS, KAT!’’

This time, Katharine Hepburn decided to fire a salvo of six five-inch rockets while aiming at the forward section of the cruiser, where three twin 203 mm gun turrets were situated

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in an odd two-tier arrangement ahead of its massive forward superstructure block. What Katharine and the other women of the Fifinel as didn’t know was that, contrary to U.S.

Navy cruisers, which had heavily armored main gun turrets, the Japanese followed the British practice of only providing a scant one inch of steel armor to their heavy cruisers’

main gun turrets. With such light armor and with three closely positioned twin 203 mm gun turrets on its forward deck, two of the five-inch rockets fired by Katharine hit and easily pierced two separate main gun turrets of the TAKAO, to then explode inside the turrets and barbettes, which had dozens of ready shells and propellant powder bags out of their protected magazines and exposed to the detonating rocket warheads. To the utter surprise and astonishment of both Katharine and Faith, the TAKAO then exploded in a titanic explosion which cut it in half at the level of her bridge structure. The powerful blast wave then hit the still distant AH-4, severely shaking it up and making Faith Buchner use every ounce of her flying skills in order to avoid crashing into the sea.

Thankfully, she was able to keep her helicopter in the air and soon recovered full control of her AH-4.

‘’WHAT THE HELL DID YOU FIRE AT THE TAKAO, KATHARINE? LIGHTNING

BOLTS?’’

‘’THAT WAS ANOTHER HOLE IN ONE! HOWARD HUGHES WILL BE

JEALOUS ABOUT THIS.’ exclaimed the ecstatic actress.

‘’Me too! Let’s circle around to check if we need to continue firing at the TAKAO.’

They quickly saw that it would be unnecessary, as the two parts of the heavy cruiser were already starting to sink, with its bridge block ripped open and mangled by the internal ammunition explosion.

‘’How many rockets do you have left, Katharine?’’

‘’I stil have four of them, Faith.’’

‘’Then, let’s pay a visit to the CHOKAI.’

Unfortunately for them, the CHOKAI had its searchlights scanning the skies in all directions, while its enraged anti-aircraft gunners were shooting frenetically at everything they saw (or thought they saw). One searchlight beam then blinded Faith and stuck to her helicopter, obliging her to maneuver violently in order to escape it. Just as she had managed to evade the searchlight, she saw one of the tracer shells from the CHOKAI hit

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one of her helicopters which had just completed an attack pass on a destroyer screening the heavy cruiser. Hit in its rotor hub and ripping it off, it made the AH-4 fall down like a stone and splash into the sea, where it disappeared for good. Transported with fury, Katharine Hepburn pivoted her turret and unleashed both her 20 mm cannon and two

.30 caliber machine guns against the open decks and superstructures of the CHOKAI.

‘’YOU BASTARDS! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!’

Faith then assisted Katharine’s shooting by lining up her helicopter in order to face the bow of the heavy cruiser.

‘’GO WITH YOUR ROCKETS NOW, KAT!’

Having just learned one of the weak points of that class of warship, Katharine Hepburn aimed at the frontal main gun turrets of the CHOKAI and let her four remaining rockets rip. Three of them hit the frontal face of the bridge block behind the turrets, killing dozens of officers and sailors there, while her fourth rocket hit and penetrated the CHOKAI’s ‘B’ turret, where it exploded inside. This time, however, that rocket did not find exposed propellant powder bags but its explosion killed all the sailors serving that turret and sent the turret flying off its base ring, leaving its barbette a smoking hole. As they were about to jump over the heavy cruiser, Katharine fired her last cannon rounds directly into the command bridge, killing or wounding its occupants and leaving the CHOKAI with no one at its helm.

‘’I’M OUT OF AMMO!’ shouted Katharine, close to hyperventilating from the stress and frantic action. Before she could reply to that, Faith saw through her night vision goggle a B-25 zoom past the CHOKAI, flying very low and aiming at the YAMATO.

‘’RICHEY’S GIRLS ARE HERE! WE DID OUR JOB! TO ALL GREEN

CALLSIGNS, FROM GREEN LEADER: WITHDRAW NOW AND RETURN TO OUR

FORWARD BASE.’

As Faith took a heading towards the West-southwest and Thursday Island, Katharine looked with sadness at the spot where one AH-4 had crashed into the sea. She would learn on landing that their missing crew was that of Lieutenant Margaret Bruns and Lieutenant Patricia Dickerson.

‘’Goodbye, girls, and rest in peace.’

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07:14 (PNG Time)

Open port side bridge wing of the IJN YAMATO

Sailing westward at seven knots back through the Torres Strait Admiral Yamamoto slowly lowered his binoculars after examining the state of what remained of his fleet. The catastrophic extent of his losses and damages from those night air attacks had left him no choice but to turn around and head back towards the Celebes and Sumatra. Sunk were his three carriers, the heavy cruiser TAKAO and three of his destroyers, while all his remaining ships had suffered varying degrees of damage. His own YAMATO, like the MUSASHI, had sustained nine torpedo hits and was partially flooded, forcing it to slow down to a top speed of seven knots. Yamamoto had lost over 4,600 of his sailors, the majority being anti-aircraft gunners, either dead or severely wounded. More crucially, Yamamoto had also lost 430 of his aviators who had been aboard the carriers KAGA, HIRYU and SORYU, aviators who were truly irreplaceable at this stage of the war. A shout of alarm from a watchman then made him look up at the eastern sky.

‘’AMERICAN BOMBERS ON APPROACH AT FIVE O’CLOCK HIGH.’

Raising his binoculars again, Yamamoto took only seconds to identify the some twelve incoming enemy aircraft: they were Douglas A-20 BOSTON light bombers. That reassured Yamamoto a bit, as the A-20 could only carry a fairly light load of bombs.

Then, more bad news came to him, with a second sighting being announced.

‘’ENEMY TORPEDO BOMBERS APPROACHING AT VERY LOW ALTITUDE

FROM OUR NINE O’CLOCK!’

Using his binoculars again, Yamamoto felt dread on recognizing the nine speedy incoming aircraft: they were Bristol BEAUFIGHTER twin-engine strike fighters, probably Australian ones, able to carry a torpedo. With his YAMATO and the MUSASHI only able to make seven knots and being barely maneuverable, they were going to be easy targets for the BEAUFIGHTERs, which were quite feared as strike bombers and torpedo bombers. The anti-aircraft guns of his fleet, at least the ones which were still operational, were now starting to fire at the two incoming groups of aircraft. As the commander of the fleet, Yamamoto could only act now as a spectator, leaving the fighting to his ships’ captains and crews. He thus watched on as the nine BEAUFIGHTERs carried out a textbook torpedo attack against the port side of the YAMATO and of the MUSASHI. Despite the best efforts of the Japanese gunners, nine

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torpedoes were soon in the water and running towards the two super-battleships. With the severely damaged battleships unable to maneuver fast enough to avoid them, eight of the nine torpedoes struck their targets, five against the YAMATO and three against the MUSASHI, with the ninth torpedo barely missing the stern of the MUSASHI. The impact of those torpedoes was bone-jarring, forcing Yamamoto to take a hold on the upper ledge of the bulwark of the open bridge wing he was on. As the BEAUFIGHTERs flew away, pursued by ineffective anti-aircraft fire, the YAMATO was straddled by the bombs dropped by the A-20 bombers. Out of the twelve one-ton bombs, only one actually achieved a direct hit on the 70,500-ton YAMATO, hitting its stern deck, where it caused only some minor damage. The damage from the five torpedoes to hit the flagship was however a lot more serious, with the inclination of the YAMATO increasing noticeably, alarming Yamamoto, who went to see the captain of the ship.

‘’What do the damage reports say, Captain Takayanagi?’’

Yamamoto didn’t like the resigned expression on the face of Takayanagi as he answered him.

‘’I am afraid that our ship is doomed, Admiral. My crew is unable to stop the flooding from those new hits and we are in imminent danger of capsizing. We should abandon ship now, while we still can, sir.’’

Yamamoto took a second to digest that piece of bad news and to take a decision. The sad fact was that Takayanagi was right: the YAMATO was now a mostly helpless target for all the enemy bombers based within range of the Torres Strait and keeping its crew aboard would only result in unnecessary deaths. On the other hand, surrendering to the enemy was simply out of the question.

‘’Have our destroyers come alongside to pick up the crew, Captain.’

‘’Hay!’ said Takayanagi before going to an intercom box in order to pass on orders. As he did so, Yamamoto reflected on his personal outcome following this ignominious defeat, which had crippled his cherished Combined Fleet with no tangible result to show for it.

When Takayanagi returned to his side to say that a destroyer was alongside and ready to pick him up and his staff, Yamamoto shook his head firmly.

‘’No! I wil go down with this ship, Captain. I will not survive this defeat, which wil probably cost us the war.’

‘’But, Admiral, the nation needs you in order to lead us at sea.’

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‘’Nobody is irreplaceable, Captain, including me. Take care of your crew instead.

How is the MUSASHI doing?’’

Takayanagi lowered his head before answering him in a low voice.

‘’It has started to sink by the stern, Admiral. Our destroyers are attempting to save its crew but it may sink completely even before we capsize.’’

That embittered Yamamoto to no small degree: the YAMATO and the MUSASHI had been the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy and had been the image of the power of Japan. Now, they were going to sink in a piece of ocean few people could find by name on a map.

Some 35 minutes later, as the evacuation of the YAMATO’s crew was stil going on, the MUSASHI disappeared beneath the waves, saluted by the Japanese sailors who were witnessing its death. Another twenty minutes later, with the last of the crewmembers of the flagship now aboard destroyers, Yamamoto went out on the open bridge wing to watch as the destroyers took a safe distance from the dying battleship, whose inclination had by now exceeded forty degrees. Taking a solid grip on the bulwark of the open bridge wing, Yamamoto had a last look at the Sun before his flagship finally capsized in seconds, taking him to the bottom.

10:33 (PNG Time)

Friday, October 9, 1942 ‘C’

Headquarters of the Fifth Air Force

Wards Airfield, near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea General Douglas MacArthur was silent for a moment while standing next to the big map table of the operations room, having just been briefed by Major General Kenney and his staff on the actions of the last two days around the Torres Strait. Also present for this briefing were General Sir Thomas Blamey of the Australian Army and the principal staff officers of both MacArthur and Kenney. Looking again at some of the pictures from gun cameras of the aircraft which had attacked the Japanese fleet, MacArthur finally spoke in a measured but happy tone.

‘’This is truly a very important victory, gentlemen. The Japanese fleet has basically been emasculated and has lost all but one of its aircraft carriers it had in the

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whole Pacific. Just the sinking of the YAMATO and MUSASHI is by itself a tremendous feat of arms by our aviators.’

‘’And the sinking of the remains of that Japanese fleet is continuing, General.’

added Kenney. ‘’Late last night, the attack helicopters of the 777th Helicopter Squadron, which are still at their forward base on Thursday Island, off Cape York, caught the heavy cruisers NACHI, ASHIGARA and CHOKAI, all already severely damaged during the night battle of early Thursday, and caused them further damage, allowing the B-25s of the 99th C.A.G. to catch them nearly dead in the water and to sink them. The BEAUFIGHTERS of Number 30 Squadron, on their part, sank the battleship MUTSU just hours ago, as it was trying to find refuge in the Celebes.’’

‘’What about the Japanese aviation? What is left of them in this region?’’

‘’Not much, General. As the Japanese battle fleet was crossing the Torres Strait, on their way to Port Moresby, the Japanese launched nearly all the bombers they still had in Rabaul, Lae, Wewak, Kavieng and Bougainville Island. Since they did so at night, early on Thursday, they had no fighter cover, as Japanese fighters are not equipped to fly in the dark. They were counting on the darkness to safely reach Port Moresby and bomb our airfields but they still didn’t know that we have flying radar command and control aircraft and were detected well before approaching Port Moresby. Thankfully, the P-38Ns of the 99th C.A.G. are equipped with night vision devices and, with the guidance they got from their EC-142E flying over, they met the Japanese bombers while they were still north of Buna and then basically butchered them. The eighteen P-38Ns of the 170th Fighter Squadron ended up shooting down a total of 54 Japanese bombers and made the few survivors flee in utter panic. The 99th C.A.G. completed the job the next day by severely bombing the Japanese airfields in Lae and Wewak and strafing the aircraft which were on the ground there. Counting the aircraft destroyed with the sinkings of the carriers KAGA, HIRYU and SORYU, about 300 Japanese aircraft were destroyed during the last 48 hours, General. And let’s not forget that the carrier JUNYO

was sunk northwest of Guadalcanal on the thirtieth by a combined effort by P-38Ns of the 99th C.A.G. and of the SBDs based in Guadalcanal. All in all, I would say that the Japanese are now mostly impotent, both in the air and at sea, around the South and Southwest Pacific, General.’

‘’And I like it like that. Gentlemen, there are a number of important lessons to be learned from what is going to be called ‘The Battle of Torres Strait’. First, having aircraft and helicopters equipped with night vision devices and guided by flying radar command

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post aircraft, like the ones equipping the 99th C.A.G., completely changes the equation when fighting the Japanese at night, when they can’t send their fighters up. Second, those AH-4 attack helicopters are a lot more useful than simply to be used for close air support: they have just proven how potent they are against warships when attacking under the cover of darkness. Third, we need more radar command post planes like the EC-142E. The two we got with the 99th C.A.G. have proven to be truly invaluable since their arrival a mere week ago.’’

‘’But, General,’ objected Brigadier General Julian Barnes, the deputy commander of the Fifth Air Force, ‘’Washington is stil giving top priority to the European Theater, which is sucking up about all the new units and aircraft we are producing. It could be a long time before Washington finally decides to send us some EC-142Es and armed helicopters like the AH-4.’’

While MacArthur nodded in agreement at that, he still tapped hard the map table with an index to make his point.

‘’Well, they did send EC-142Es and helicopters to us, no?’’

‘’Yes, General, but they send them along with an all-female air unit which nobody in Europe wanted. Hell, even the Navy here didn’t want them and we got them literally as ‘hand-me-downs’.’’

‘’And we were lucky enough to get them thanks to the stupidity of the Navy, General Barnes. Well then, let’s have the 99th C.A.G. enlarged to a full wing size, as long as it will still be getting those new models of planes and helicopters. I understand that Generals Arnold and Marshall would be amenable to that, as it proved to be one way acceptable to the President to allow the sending of more air units to the Pacific.

After the incredible job those women have been doing here since their arrival, I doubt that the President would veto such a move.’’

‘’That could work, General.’ recognized Kenney. ‘’In fact, with the losses they have incurred since their arrival, the women of the 99th could sure use some reinforcements right now.’

‘’And what have been their losses since their arrival?’’ asked MacArthur, sounding worried. In response, Kenney sifted through the printed reports next to him on the map table and read from one of them.

‘’As of early this morning, the 99th C.A.G. has lost in ten days in this theater a total of eighteen women killed, plus another fourteen women wounded. In terms of aircraft and equipment, they also lost three P-38Ns, two B-25NGs and two AH-4 attack

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helicopters, plus had another eight aircraft seriously damaged. This would constitute a personnel loss rate of about five percent and an aircraft loss rate of between ten and sixteen percent by type, all in ten days in theater. At this rate, the 99th C.A.G. will melt away within three months, General, and this is certainly not because of poor leadership or mediocre efficiency, as their performances to date demonstrated a truly superb combat record.’’

Those numbers left MacArthur quiet and sad for a few seconds before he spoke again.

‘’Then, send as quickly as possible to General Arnold in Washington a request for an enlargement of the 99th C.A.G. to a full wing and for more of those new planes. In particular, I want that new female wing to have a full helicopter group: those machines have simply proved indispensable here, plus at least another two EC-142Es. How has the 99th C.A.G. detachment in Guadalcanal performed to date in terms of support of our marines?’

‘’From what Brigadier General Geiger, of the First Marine Air Wing, told me, he loves them, and not in sexual terms. The few helicopters we had there managed to repel a Japanese mass infiltration through the jungle and has also greatly simplified and sped up the resupply of our frontline marines and the medical evacuation of his wounded. Also, the 99th C.A.G. has been lifting up to a hundred tons a day of fresh supplies and equipment between Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal, using two of its C-142As on resupply runs.’

‘’And the Navy allowed them to use Espiritu Santo?’’ asked MacArthur, surprised by that piece of news.

‘’Not exactly, sir. Basical y, Major General Vandegrift sent a week ago his chief of supplies to Espiritu Santo, armed with a requisition order signed by him, and accompanied by the transport squadron leader from the 99th. He then told the marine depot there to let the C-142s come in and load up all the supplies requested by the First Marine Division. That colonel found out at the same time that the Navy had been taking over half of the supplies destined for the marines in Guadalcanal, and this for over a month, pretexting that they were being wasted while being stored away in Espiritu Santo.

Major Huyler, of the 117th Transport Squadron, told me afterwards that Colonel Pate actually turned away at pistol point a navy officer who had shown up to grab some of the marine supplies for the Navy officers’ mess in Espiritu Santo.’’

‘’THEY WHAT?’’ exclaimed MacArthur, furious. ‘’I WOULD HAVE HAD ANY

BASTARD DOING THIS IN MY COMMAND SHOT!’’

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‘’I would have done that too in your place, General. To have rear echelon men steal supplies destined to our frontline fighting soldiers is truly despicable. By the way, I passed on this little story to General Arnold as part of a general report on the Fifth Air Force. I am sure that General Arnold will in turn pass that info to General Marshall, which should put some heat under Vice Admiral Ghormley’s ass.’

‘’Ghormley... He is indeed quite worthless as a theatre commander. When time came to plan the landing of our marines in Guadalcanal, he didn’t even bother to attend himself the local planning conference, pretending that he was too busy to do so, and sent instead one of his admirals to represent him. Admiral King should wake up and fire Ghormley...and soon. He could as well recall Admiral Fletcher as far as I am concerned: Fletcher has proved to be way too timid up to now, worrying only about safeguarding his carriers and forgetting about our marines. Well, enough said about that. Send that request to reinforce and enlarge the 99th C.A.G. to General Arnold as quickly as possible, General Kenney. By the way, would you have a list of proposals ready for medals and rewards as a consequence of the Battle of the Torres Strait?’’

‘’I certainly do, General. Here is that list.’

Taking the list offered by Kenney, MacArthur quickly read it, making a double take on reading one of the recommendations.

‘’That attack helicopter crew sank by itself one destroyer and the heavy cruiser TAKAO during one attack? Were these claims confirmed?’’

‘’They were, General, using the gun camera pictures from that AH-4 and the reports from the B-25 pilots who were attacking the Japanese fleet at the same time.’

‘’My God! That Lieutenant Hepburn is a true Calamity Jane.’ said MacArthur, bringing a malicious smile on Kenney’s lips.

‘’She certainly is, General. By the way, this Lieutenant K. Hepburn happens to be known in Hollywood as Katharine Hepburn.’

MacArthur’s jaw nearly dropped on the floor on hearing that and he shot a disbelieving look at his air force commander.

‘’Noo! Seriously?’’

‘’Seriously, General. Miss Hepburn walked away from her Hollywood contract in order to enroll last May. It appears that the famous Howard Hughes, who is a good friend of her and whose company produces the Hughes AH-4, had been giving her some private flying lessons, including a few hours on AH-4. She thus asked to be enrolled as a copilot-gunner on AH-4 and got her wish granted. By the way, another Hollywood

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celebrity enrolled in the 99th C.A.G. at the same time as Katharine Hepburn. Care to guess who it was, General?’’

‘’I don’t have a clue, George. Who is it?’’

‘’Hedy Lamarr, now Captain Hedy Lamarr. She serves as an electronic warfare officer and was actually aboard the EC-142E which was directing our planes and helicopters towards the Japanese battle fleet.’

‘’And that actress was qualified for such a job, General Kenney?’’ asked Sir Thomas Blamey, obviously having trouble believing all this. Kenney nodded his head soberly in response.

‘’She does, General. It seems that she is actual y a near-genius and is also an inventor with an official patent for a secure communications system based on random frequency hopping.’

Still quite flabbergasted by all these revelations, MacArthur finished reading the list and then smiled back to Kenney.

‘’I accept all your recommendations, George, and wil even add a few things to it.

Our aviatrixes and aviators truly deserve all the praise they could get for their valorous efforts and sacrifices of the last two days.’

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CHAPTER 16 – MORE GIRLS FOR THE FIFINELLAS

11:03 (Washington Time)

Monday, October 12, 1942 ‘C’

The Oval Office, The White House

Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

obviously in a good mood, greeted with a

wide smile General Marshall and Lieutenant General Arnold as they were being introduced in the Oval Office by his secretary.

‘’Welcome, gentlemen! Are you here to tell me more about that astounding victory our aviators won in the Southwest Pacific and which is on the front page of all our newspapers?’’

‘’We are effectively here to talk indirectly about the Battle of Torres Strait, or rather about its follow ups, Mister President.’ answered Marshall. ‘’But I wil let General Arnold explain, as it is specifically an Army Air Force matter we came to discuss about with you.’

‘’Then, go ahead, General Arnold.’’

‘’Mister President, when our newspapers started celebrating our victory over the Japanese Combined Fleet, they didn’t mention the casualties we suffered during that battle, for obvious reasons of censorship. I received from Major General Kenney, the head of the Fifth Air Force, a list of those casualties on Saturday. While those casualties could be described as ‘minimal’ in view of the huge losses we inflicted on the Japanese, unfortunately a majority of those casualties were suffered by the women of the 99th C.A.G., who both directed and conducted the large majority of our attacks against the Japanese and who also repelled the air attacks against Port Moresby which the Japanese had launched in coordination with the advance eastward of their ships through the Torres Strait. In his report, General Kenney warned that, at the present rate of casualties and aircraft losses suffered by the 99th C.A.G., it was going to melt away within three months. General Kenney thus asked for reinforcements for Colonel Dows’

air group and also for extra planes and female personnel, in order to enlarge her unit to

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a full air wing. He also insists that those extra aviatrixes should go to the Pacific with the same advanced models of planes and helicopters with which the girls of the Fifinellas have proved so effective in combat. I know that our commanders in Europe are screaming to get some of those advanced planes but I would surmise that they do not urgently need them right now. In sad truth, our air forces in England have been nearly exclusively engaged in heavy bomber operations over Germany and have no plans to soon use helicopters in combat there. Sending more B-25NGs, P-38Ns, C-142

transports and helicopters to the Pacific thus should not impede our actual operations over Europe. I also suspect that my European Theater air commanders would still refuse to use female air units or, if they would accept them, that they would then misuse them.’

‘’Can’t you knock them on the head and tell them to put up or shut up, General Arnold?’ asked in a caustic tone Roosevelt, making Arnold grimace in frustration.

‘’I could officially force them to accept and employ properly those women aviators, Mister President. However, it would then be nearly impossible for me to check that those women wouldn’t be misused or abused. To do that, I would have to go to England and micromanage the situation from there, or would have to dismiss and replace most of my air commanders, something I am not ready to do, Mister President. I thus believe that it will be a lot easier and also a lot more productive to send more female aviators to the Pacific, along with advanced models of aircraft and helicopters.

Lieutenant Colonel Dows has more than proven to date that she could effectively command such a large combat air unit. She in fact has already drawn a suggested organigram of this proposed 99th Air Wing, an organigram General Kenney joined to his report.’

‘’And do we actually have enough trained female pilots and ground crews here in the States to fil that new organigram, General Arnold?’

‘’Easily, Mister President. The successes of the 99th C.A.G. in the South Pacific has actually inflamed the passion of many of our flying women and we also presently have a surplus of trained female pilots and ground servicing crews for our aircraft ferrying squadrons within the United States.’

Roosevelt thought for a few seconds before nodding his head.

‘’Very well, General Arnold. Send as quickly as possible the women, aircraft and equipment requested by General Kenney and officially form this new 99th Air Wing.’

The President then smiled to both generals.

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‘’By the way, in view of this Battle of Torres Strait, should I expect another recommendation for the Medal of Honor for one of those aviatrixes?’’

It was then the turn of Arnold to smile.

‘’You may get a couple of them soon, Mister President.’

10:46 (PNG Time) / 19:46 (Washington Time)

Henderson Field, Guadalcanal

Solomon Islands, South Pacific

Brigadier General Roy Geiger couldn’t wait to be able to speak with the crews of the AH-4 attack helicopters and one UH-1 light helicopter now landing back at their detachment’s terrain. There had been a lot of news about a huge Japanese naval defeat in the Torres Strait three days ago but little of it had been detailed, having been filtered through official censorship. A bit late, Geiger noticed that only five AH-4s were returning, out of the six which had left Guadalcanal five days ago. His heart pinched then, as he could too easily guess why: he himself had lost too many planes and aircrews in combat before not to understand that one AH-4 must have been shot down during the fight around the Torres Strait. He could see from the reaction of the female ground crews waiting next to the tarmac that they too had understood that sad fact.

Major Phylis Burchfield, who had come out of her command post van, also understood that and went at once to Faith Buchner’s AH-4 once it had landed, approaching it as its twin coaxial rotors were still turning. Looking quickly at the tail numbers of the five AH-4s, she lowered her head and made a silent prayer for Margaret Bruns and Patricia Dickerson as Faith Buchner and Katharine Hepburn finished shutting down their aircraft, then climbed down from their tandem cockpits. Geiger stayed a bit behind at that moment, wanting to leave some privacy for the three women to be able to speak privately. When Burchfield spoke first to Faith Buchner, it was in a low, soft voice.

‘’What happened to Margaret and Patricia, Faith?’’

‘’Their helicopter got shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the heavy cruiser CHOKAI just after they had strafed one of the Japanese destroyers screening the battleships YAMATO and MUSASHI. Their AH-4 sank like a stone and never surfaced again. However, their covering fire and our own fire allowed our B-25s to slip past the screen and to hit the YAMATO and MUSASHI with torpedoes. On her part, Martha

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Lawson’s flight also lost one AH-4, that of Barbara Russel and Mary Trotman, while attacking the carrier KAGA and putting it on fire.’’

All three women then stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking about their lost comrades, before Burchfield spoke again.

‘’Alright, you all must be tired from your flight from the Torres Strait via Port Moresby. Go rest and have a bite with the other crews, then we will discuss your actions after lunch.’’

Letting both go and turning around, Phylis saw Geiger, waiting a dozen paces away, and went to him.

‘’Did you want to speak with my pilots, sir?’’

‘’Yes but, in view of their downcast mood, I believe that I will wait for that. I mostly wanted to get from them some details about that ‘Battle of Torres Strait’, so that I could brief my pilots about the lessons taken from that battle.’’

‘’I tell you what, sir: I am expecting a detailed official account of that battle, written by the Fifth Air Force staff, either today or tomorrow. As soon as I will get it, I will make a copy of it for you. Did you receive anything about it from the Navy’s South Pacific headquarters?’’

‘’Nothing to date, Major. Your copy of the Fifth Air Force account will thus be greatly appreciated.’

‘’I wil keep you in mind, sir.’

Phylis Burchfield then walked back to her command van, leaving Geiger to look at the cloudy sky. The last six days had been very quiet in terms of Japanese air and sea activities around Guadalcanal, with no attempt by the enemy to bomb Henderson Field or even to run some night resupply convoys for the Japanese Army units presently on Guadalcanal and threatening the marines’ perimeter. Even on the ground the enemy had been unusually quiet. One could think that they were cooking up something...or that they were simply out of ammunition and supplies. That last possibility would certainly be to the taste of Geiger and of all the other marines on this hellish island.

09:05 (New York Time)

Thursday, October 15, 1942 ‘C’

Fairchild Aircraft Manufacturing Company plant Farmingdale, Long Island, New York State

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The six veteran aviatrixes, all long-time members of the famous Ninety-Nines female pilot association and now commissioned officers in the U.S. Army Air Corps, stopped in unison after entering a hangar annex of the Fairchild Aircraft Manufacturing Company plant in Farmingdale, subjugated by the giant aircraft parked inside it. It was not that they had not seen such a big plane before: in fact they all were already qualified on the Fairchild C-142A GLOBEMASTER, of which the aircraft in the hangar was obviously a variant. It was rather because of the multiple gun turrets jutting out of the aircraft’s fuselage.

‘’Look at all those guns, girls!’ said in an admiring tone Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lemon, a 35-year-old aviatrix. ‘’And we are not talking about simple .50 caliber heavy machine guns. Those are medium caliber guns.’’

The Fairchild engineer and test pilot guiding them smiled with pride at that remark.

‘’What you see are three quadruple 40 mm gun turrets under the belly of our new AC-142G GRIM REAPER heavy gunship. If you look closely, you will see as well a casemate-mounted five-inch 38 caliber dual purpose naval gun located in the chin, behind the cockpit.’

Florence Lowe ‘Pancho’ Barnes rubbed her hands together while eyeing with glee the muzzle of the big gun in question.

‘’Yes! I love playing with big guns.’

The Fairchild engineer smiled in amusement at that, like her five female companions.

‘’I hope that you are referring to aircraft guns, Captain Barnes?’

‘’Of course, mister!’ answered Florence in a falsely indignant tone, prompting a shot from Major Jacqueline Cochran, the leader of their group.

‘’Aren’t you already on your fourth husband, Pancho?’’

‘’Don is my third one, not my fourth one, Jackie.’

‘’Whatever! So, Mister Brannigan, tell us about our new baby.’

‘’With pleasure, Major. The AC-142G GRIM REAPER was designed following the suggestions and advices from Nancy Laplante, the late Canadian time traveler who visited us in the States in December of 1940, as was the case for our C-142A GLOBEMASTER and its other variant, the EC-142E WAVEMASTER. We designed it with its main use being heavy close air support for friendly troops on the ground and for anti-shipping missions. We thus optimized it for maximum firepower, long loiter time on station and ability to absorb damage. In terms of firepower, its armament includes three quadruple 40 mm gun turrets and one casemate-mounted frontal five-inch L38 gun, four

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defensive turrets, each armed with two 20 mm cannons, plus a large internal bomb bay able to accommodate the biggest and largest aircraft bombs in existence.’’

‘’And how heavy a bombload can it carry, Mister Brannigan?’’ asked Captain Louise Thaden, who was in her late thirties.

‘’Our GRIM REAPER can carry over twenty tons of ordnance, including guided gliding bombs, which are another concept introduced to us by Miss Laplante.’’

‘’Guided gliding bombs?’’ said Lieutenant Evelyn ‘Bobbi’ Trout. ‘’What’s that?’’

‘’Something that could ruin the day of any warship captain. Basically, you take a really big bomb, like our original two-ton general-purpose bomb, then add to it a set of stubby wings and rudders, plus a radio or wire guidance system, and you then have a weapon able to perform a hit from a safe distance against a cruiser, battleship or aircraft carrier, and sink it in one shot. During your training, you will get to practice the aiming of such weapons on a simulator. Those heavy guided bombs will also be perfect to blow up big, tough targets, like a bridge or a command bunker. But there is more.’’

‘’More?’’ asked Florence Barnes. ‘’But that sounded quite enough by itself.’

‘’Yes, but I am referring now to a completely difference class of weapons: fuel air explosive weapons, or FAE weapons. Again, it was Nancy Laplante who introduced that concept, but to the British rather than to us. FAE bombs are extremely powerful and also terrifying weapons meant to blow down normal brick and wood buildings and to incinerate the inside of bunkers and tunnels. They are basically thin-walled bombs or warheads filled with a volatile hydrocarbon, in this case ethylene oxide, which burst open on impact and disperse their content to form a large cloud of volatile gas that is then ignited by a delay fuze. The explosion that will ensue, while less powerful in terms of shockwave speed, will spread its power evenly over a large volume, with the volatile vapors able to enter bunkers and tunnels before detonating. The British already used such FAE bombs against the Germans, with devastating effect. However, because the British Bomber Command used those FAE bombs against German cities, thus killing mostly German civilians, the Germans, enraged by that, have since then adopted a policy of executing on the spot as ‘terrorists’ any British bomber crewmen who parachute out.’

‘’And...how many German civilians were kil ed by those FAE bombs, mister?’’

asked hesitantly Louise Thaden.

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‘’In one night bombing raid against Hamburg one year ago, over 30,000 civilians, men, women and children, were kil ed.’ said Brannigan in a sober tone which told the women what he thought about that.

‘’And we are going to use such awful things?’’

‘’Yes, but against Japanese soldiers hiding in jungles or in bunkers, not against Japanese cities, Louise.’ answered Jacqueline Cochran for the engineer. ‘’I read the reports about that bombing and it was said that Nancy Laplante was infuriated by it, as she had given the secret of FAE weapons to the British against the promise that they would never be used against civilians. It was the commander of Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshall Arthur Harris, who decided on his own to break that promise. Someone told me that Laplante was ready to go shoot that Harris bastard.’

‘’She should have.’’ replied Pancho Barnes. ‘’Because the enemy committed atrocities is no excuse for us to commit some as wel .’

‘’Well, let’s forget this business of FAE bombs for the moment, ladies.’’ said the Fairchild engineer and test pilot. ‘’Now that you are here, along with two dozen other women due to qualify as gunners on our AC-142G, we will be able to start training you on how to fly and maintain your new beast.’

14:19 (PNG Time)

Sunday, October 18, 1942 ‘C’

U.S. Navy tender ARGONNE

Floating headquarters of the South Pacific Theater Port of Noumea, New Caledonia, South Pacific

Vice Admiral Wil iam F. ‘Bull’ Halsey stopped for a moment on the quay, next to the U.S.S. ARGONNE, to critically eye the big navy tender ship. Telling the driver of his jeep, which also carried his personal luggage, to wait for him on the quay, he stepped out of the jeep before starting to climb the access gangway. Vice Admiral Ghormley, the commander of the South Pacific Theater, had obstinately kept his office and headquarters aboard the ARGONNE for months already, even refusing to step off the ship on the pretext that he was too busy to go on land. Well, that was going to change...fast! Two armed marines and a navy junior officer saluted him at the top of the gangway, with the junior lieutenant speaking to Halsey while saluting him.

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‘’Welcome aboard the U.S.S. ARGONNE, sir. Are you coming to pay a visit to Admiral Ghormley, sir?’’

‘’I certainly am, Son. Could you lead me to his office?’

‘’Certainly, sir! Please fol ow me.’’

The young officer then pivoted around and walked on the open deck towards the aft superstructure block, where he entered through a steel door that was also guarded by armed marines. Following a steel-walled passageway, then going down one level via a ladder, Halsey was soon in front of a wooden cabin door, on which the young officer knocked on, getting a reply after a second.

‘’Come it!’

The young officer then opened the door for Halsey but didn’t enter himself, instead stepping out of his way and saluting him again. Halsey saluted back and stepped inside a compartment of modest size in which throned a large work desk nearly covered by piles of documents. The air in the room was stuffy, humid and hot despite the two open portholes, while the lighting could be characterized as ‘insufficient’, with a desktop lamp providing most of the light to allow work to be done at the desk. Vice Admiral Roberth Ghormley, who knew Halsey well, was clearly surprised to see him as he rose from his swivel chair.

‘’Bil ? I wasn’t told that you were coming to Noumea. And what is the purpose of your visit?’’

‘’Until I opened after arriving at the Noumea airfield the sealed envelope containing my instructions from Admiral Nimitz, I didn’t know why he directed me to go to Noumea without advanced warning, Robert. Basically, I am here to relieve you and to take command of the South Pacific Theatre, effective immediately.’

‘’Relieve me? Why?’’ asked the shocked Ghormley. Halsey frowned in reply.

‘’Why? Because your command has been failing at its job and because you basically let the Japanese take the initiative through your inaction and lack of leadership, that’s why! First, you let Fletcher leave our marines high and dry on Guadalcanal.

Then, instead of doing everything you could to reinforce them and resupply them, you wasted your time and assets in concentrating on preparing a pointless invasion of Ndeni.

You also refused to leave this damn stuffy office of yours for all those months, not visiting even once our marines in Henderson Field. Worse, you let your staff basically steal from the supplies stored in Espiritu Santo and destined for our marines fighting in Guadalcanal. Then, you compounded that by refusing to allow the newly formed 99th

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Composite Air Group to be lodged on your airfields, even though General Arnold had sent it to the South Pacific expressly to support our marines in Guadalcanal.’

‘’But these women were completely inexperienced and unproven in combat, on top of potentially causing major disciplinary problems on my bases.’’

‘’So, you basically declared them ‘persona non grata’ on your bases, forcing them to go place themselves under the command of General MacArthur. It took less than a week for these women to prove their mettle by attacking Rabaul in a decisive manner and by helping to push back the Japanese advancing along the Kokoda Trail.

Then, only ten days into their new environment, those same women inflicted a major defeat on the Japanese fleet, sinking more major Japanese warships than your command could in months of fighting. To top that cake, they sent a helicopter detachment to Henderson Field, where they quickly decimated a whole Japanese regiment with their attack helicopters, before starting a resupply air bridge which has revitalized the First Marine Division and allowed our marines to start pushing the Japanese off Guadalcanal. Those are the women you refused to host on your bases, Robert. Well, Admiral Nimitz and, more importantly the President, have completely lost confidence in your leadership abilities. That’s why you are being relieved by me today.

Pack your things and book the next flight out for Hawaii, where Admiral Nimitz will tell you where you will go next. A number of your staff officers, starting with your Captain Reston, who allowed the pilfering of the marine supplies in Espiritu Sant, will also leave for Hawaii with you. I don’t want incompetents to work for me. I will now go find some adequate place to lodge my new command here in Noumea and it certainly won’t be on this ship.’’

‘’But the local Free French authorities refused to allow me to use one of their facilities for my headquarters and...’

‘’You allowed a bunch of low-level French paper-pushers to refuse to give you some working space?’ shot back Halsey, becoming furious. ‘’And you wonder why nobody has confidence in your leadership? Leave quietly and quickly, but leave, Robert!

In the meantime, I am going to rattle and shake those French assholes and show them who is in real charge here.’’

Halsey then turned around and walked out of the office, leaving behind a most flustered Ghormley.

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CHAPTER 17 – TAKING BACK PAPUA NEW GUINEA

09:33 (PNG Time)

Monday, November 02, 1942 ‘C’

General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Theater’s headquarters Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

General Douglas MacArthur was in a good mood this morning as he greeted his arriving main commanders who had been fighting in and around Papua New Guinea...and with good reasons. He then gathered the dozen senior officers around the big map table set in the middle of his operations center an eyed them quickly. A small smile appeared on his lips at the contrast formed by the men present, men who were mostly in their fifties or even sixties, with the lone woman in the room, a teenager of great beauty with big blue eyes and reddish-brown medium-length hair. However, that

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teenage girl had proved to date to be the most effective commander of the lot and also by far the most cunning.

‘’Good morning, lady and gentlemen. We are now approaching a crucial point in our campaign to throw the Japanese out of Papua New Guinea, with the obvious next step being to retake Buna and then advance on Lae. First, though, I would like to congratulate you and your Australian troops for the taking of Kokoda and its airstrip yesterday, Sir Blamey.’

The commander of the Australian Army forces in Papua New Guinea acknowledged the compliment from MacArthur with a nod.

‘’Thank you, General MacArthur. However, I must say that the operation to retake the settlement of Kokoda and its landing strip would not have been possible without heavy losses, if not for the helicopters of Colonel Dows and the way she handled what she called a ‘vertical air assault’, which took the Kokoda airstrip. The success of that new tactic would be wel worth repeating in future operations.’

‘’Thank you, Sir Blamey.’ replied Ingrid Dows while smiling at the old Australian general, who was actually a bit shorter than her. ‘’I promise you that I stil have many more things in my bag of tricks. I would like to start this meeting by announcing a good news I received during the night from Army Air Corps headquarters in Washington, via Fifth Air Force headquarters. Basically, I will soon start receiving replacements and reinforcements in both planes and personnel direct from the United States. I will thus have again a full-strength air group in the next few days, then will see it grow up to air wing size during the rest of the month. I will thus have more planes and helicopters to help support our ground troops. Those reinforcements will also include some new and very significant capabilities which could help us badly hurt the Japanese.’

‘’Can you give us some specifics about those new capabilities, Colonel?’’ asked Blamey, clearly interested.

‘’Yes sir! Apart from getting a lot more helicopters, medium bombers, fighter-bombers and transport aircraft, I will also get six AC-142G heavy gunships, a new concept imported from the future in 1940 by my late adoptive mother, Nancy Laplante.

Those heavy gunships should prove devastating to the Japanese and will be perfect for all-weather strikes against enemy troops hiding among the jungle, like in the present case. The AC-142G is basically a specialized variant of my C-142A heavy transport and is designed for long loiter close air support missions over enemy-held territory. It is armed with three quad 40 mm turrets, a nose mounted five-inch gun and can carry up to

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twenty tons of ordnance, including the biggest and heaviest air ordnance in Allied inventory.’’

Sir Thomas Blamey opened his eyes wide on hearing this, while MacArthur and Major General Kenney smiled in anticipation.

‘’Good gosh! This sounds like a miracle aircraft to me, Colonel Dows. My soldiers should love watching it at work.’

‘’And I intend to use them in ways that wil both baffle and terrorize the Japanese, Sir Blamey. Those heavy gunships should arrive here by the end of the week. I will gladly give you a tour of them once they wil have arrived, sir.’

‘’And I will love examining your new aircraft, Colonel.’ said Blamey before looking at Douglas MacArthur. ‘’So, what should our strategy be to retake Buna, General?’’

‘’For one, I certainly don’t want to advance along the Kokoda Trail all the way to Buna while slugging it out with the Japanese through the jungles and hills of New Guinea, Sir Blamey. You all were able to read through the copies I gave all of you of the description of the Kokoda Trail Campaign, as fought in the history known to Nancy Laplante. Thanks to that information from the future, we know that the Japanese have built an extensive network of mutually-supporting and well-camouflaged bunkers around Buna and along its approaches, bunkers which would cost us horrible casualties if we took them straight on. I have thus decided to use the novel capabilities offered by Colonel Dows air group in order to take Buna in a much faster and, more importantly, less costly way. I will now let Colonel Dows describe to you the assault plan she proposed to me yesterday. Colonel?’’

‘’Thank you, General. Gentlemen, what I propose to do is to take Buna in the back of the Japanese, where their bunkers don’t face. Before our troops will arrive by helicopters, my attack helicopters will use their thermal sensors to detect the Japanese bunkers, then will destroy them from out of range of Japanese fire with five-inch rockets.

Now that I can expect to soon have heavy gunships, I will also pound the Japanese with their guns and bombs, further softening their defenses. While we will prepare for that air assault on Buna, my bombers and fighter-bombers will concentrate on eliminating the Japanese aircraft and ships still operating around Papua New Guinea, so that our troops won’t have to fear Japanese air or sea attacks. My planes will also work to cut off Buna and Lae from any resupplies the Japanese may try sending to them. With the Japanese inventory in aircraft and ships now drastically reduced, we should be able to starve the

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Japanese troops fighting in Papua New Guinea, something that can only help our own soldiers.’

‘’Those Japanese are already starting to starve, Colonel Dows.’ cut in Sir Blamey. ‘’My soldiers have reported that the Japanese they found are already down to skin and bone and appeared to be physically weak.’’

‘’Well, Japan decided to launch a war that it couldn’t sustain in the long run and will now pay for it with its eventual defeat at our hands, gentlemen.’ said MacArthur.

‘’Our main task, apart from winning of course, wil be to do it with the least number of losses to our own troops. The days of all-out frontal assaults are over for us, gentlemen.

Instead, we will go around the enemy, take him in the rear and cut him off from its supplies and reinforcements.’

Somehow, Ingrid sighed at those words and spoke to no one in particular in a wishful tone.

‘’Things would be even easier if the Navy would coordinate its actions with us, instead of going their own way all the time.’’

08:11 (PNG Time)

Friday, November 06, 1942 ‘C’

Main aircraft tarmac, Jackson Airfield

Ingrid was positively beaming with joy as she watched with Generals MacArthur, Blamey and Kenney a long file of giant aircraft in the process of landing at Jackson Airfield.

‘’Now, that is what I call ‘airpower’, sirs.’

‘’And I am suitably impressed as well, Ingrid.’ replied Douglas MacArthur, who was also smiling. ‘’Your C-142A heavy transports are the image of power.’

‘’Wait til you wil tour my new AC-142G GRIM REAPER heavy gunships, sir.’

‘’GRIM REAPER...what an appropriate name for what is meant to be a pure kil ing machine.’

‘’And the Japanese will get to positively hate and fear them, sir.’

The group then fell mostly silent as they watched the first eight aircraft land, all of them C-142A heavy transport. Then, six slightly different aircraft landed in turn, prompting a remark from Ingrid.

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‘’Those are AC-142Gs, General. Look at the quad gun turrets under their bel ies.’’

‘’I see them, Ingrid. Quite intimidating machines I must say.’

Once all fourteen aircraft had landed, Ingrid invited the three generals to follow her in their jeeps to the leading C-142A, which was now pivoting on its designated parking spot on the main tarmac. The heavy transport was shutting down its four powerful engines when the jeeps stopped a few meters from it, in the safe zone behind the plane. Ingrid and the three generals then dismounted from their jeeps and approached the rear cargo ramp, which had now started to come down open. All four were however surprised to see a lieutenant general of the U.S. Army Air Force come down first from the cargo cabin of the C-142A.

‘’General Arnold? Here?’ could only say Ingrid before coming to attention and saluting Henry Arnold, the head of the U.S. Army Air Force, as the latter walked off the cargo ramp, followed by a sergeant carrying two suitcases. Arnold returned her salute before saluting MacArthur and Sir Thomas Blamey, who were superior in rank to him.

Saluting back and stepping forward, MacArthur shook hands with Arnold, who wore a Summer tan uniform.

‘’Your visit here is a total surprise to me, General Arnold. Washington didn’t advise me about it. So, what made you come to Port Moresby?’’

‘’I kept my visit secret in order not to alert the Japanese about it, General. I came mostly to discuss with Lieutenant Colonel Dows about the new tactics she had been developing in combat, especially the ones concerning our new helicopters. In view of the successes of her air group here, I am resolved to push the Army Air Force into adopting them across the board. But could we go discuss all this in a more private setting?’’

‘’Of course, General Arnold. I believe that General Kenney’s headquarters will be appropriate for talking in peace.’

‘’General,’ said Ingrid, ‘’I would like first to greet the new members of my air group. I wil then join you at General Kenney’s headquarters.’

‘’Go right ahead, Ingrid. That will give me a chance to discuss a few points with General Arnold.’’

With the four generals and one sergeant departing in two of the jeeps in which they had come in, Ingrid found herself alone at the foot of the cargo ramp of the first C-

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142A. The crew of that plane came down the said ramp a moment later, with the pilot, a female captain presenting herself to Ingrid while saluting her.

‘’Captain Suzanne Humphreys, commanding officer of the 1171st Transport Squadron, reporting for duty with your unit, Colonel.’

‘’At ease, Captain Humphreys.’ replied Ingrid after returning her salute. ‘’And what did you bring with your planes, Captain?’

‘’My planes brought from the United States five replacement planes and their crews, ma’am: two B-25NGs, two AH-4s and one P-38N. We also brought the ground support equipment for my squadron and for that of the 1712th Gunship Squadron of Major Jacqueline Cochran. I was told that more reinforcements will follow in the weeks to come but most will have to travel by sea, so may take a week or two just in travel time before arriving.’

‘’That’s okay with me, Captain Humphreys: that wil give me time to absorb your unit and that of Major Cochran and for you to acclimatize yourselves to the local climate...and to the Japanese.’’

That last sentence made Humphreys smile.

‘’It is the Japanese who wil have to get acclimatized to us, Colonel, especially to the girls of the Dragons, the 1712th Gunship Squadron.’

‘’The Dragons... What a fine name for a combat flying unit.’ replied Ingrid, approval in her voice.

When Ingrid showed up at the Fifth Air Force headquarters building 25 minutes later, it was to be greeted with an unexpected request from General Arnold.

‘’You want to visit Guadalcanal, sir? I must warn you that it is still quite a dangerous place, General.’

‘’If my aviators...and aviatrixes, can go there, so can I, Colonel Dows.’

‘’May I ask why you want to go to Henderson Field, General?’’

‘’You may, Colonel Dows: I want to go there to properly honor in the name of the President two of your helicopter pilots.’’

‘’Honor in the name of...’ started to say Ingrid before she understood what was going on and gave a stunned look to Arnold. ‘’You want to give the Medal of Honor to two of my girls, sir?’’

‘’Exactly, Colonel. I am talking about Lieutenant Faith Buchner and Lieutenant Katharine Hepburn, who performed an incredible feat of arms by sinking by themselves

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the heavy cruiser TAKAO and one KAGERO-Class destroyer, on top of seriously damaging the heavy cruiser CHOKAI, all that during the same night attack mission.’

‘’Sir, I thank you for coming in person to honor my women like this.’

‘’Well, the President couldn’t come, even though he wished that he could have, so I came in his place.’

‘’And I wil be there to make sure that the World knows about the bravery of those two women. I will also take that opportunity to distribute some medals of my own to your helicopter detachment in Guadalcanal.’ added Douglas MacArthur. Ingrid understood at once what MacArthur meant by ‘making sure that the World knew’: he most probably intended to go to Guadalcanal in the company of his usual press and public relations traveling circus. While she knew that MacArthur genuinely cared for his men, she found that narcissistic trait of his a bit annoying.

‘’Well, that could be a good occasion to dispel the slanders and misconceptions which have been circulated about them by various politicians and journalists in the United States, General. It will also certainly boost the morale of my women.’

‘’That was definitely one of the goals of my visit here, Colonel.’ said Henry Arnold. ‘’Your women have performed admirably in combat, while you led them in a most masterful way. Talking of leading them masterfully, I would like to proceed with the help of General MacArthur and of Major General Kenney with a little formality. First off, in view of its enlargement to a wing-size unit, the 99th Composite Air Group will be known as of today as the ‘99th Air Wing’. Some wanted it to be called the ‘99th Composite Air Wing’ but I vetoed that idea.’

Ingrid did a facepalm as MacArthur, Kenney and Blamey burst out in laughter.

‘’The 99th C.A.W... I can see how that would have turned out, sir. Thank you for nixing that, sir.’

‘’You’re welcome, Ingrid.’ replied a smiling Arnold. ‘’However, this new unit title did bring one consequence with it. General Kenney, if you could help me here for a minute.’’

‘’With pleasure, General.’ said Kenney, smiling, who had been told in advance by Arnold about what was to follow. Both men then proceeded into removing the rank insignias of lieutenant colonel pinned on Ingrid’s combat shirt collar, to then pin the eagle insignias of a full colonel on her collar.

‘’Colonel Ingrid Dows, by my authority as Commander of the United States Army Air Corps, I am now promoting you to the rank of ‘colonel’, effective to November 01 of

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this year, and name you the official commander of the newly recognized 99th Air Wing.

Congratulations, Colonel Dows.’

Blood rushed to Ingrid’s brain as Arnold finished pinning her new rank insignias on her shirt: full colonel at the official age of nineteen! And she was in reality only seventeen.

The American press was going to go bonkers on this.

‘’Thank you, sir. I already can see many politicians in Washington swallowing their false teeth when they will learn about it, sir.’

‘’Let them strangle on their false teeth, Colonel Dows: nobody could in good conscience still deny your incredible accomplishments in combat. Don’t move yet: I have something else to pin on you.’

Arnold then took a medal from a small box presented to him by Kenney and pinned it on her chest.

‘’Colonel Dows, I am most proud to award you with the Distinguished Service Medal, for exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility, for your planning and execution of your air attacks against the Japanese Combined Fleet at the Battle of Torres Strait, on the seventh and eight of October of this year. Know that President Roosevelt has authorized a second Presidential Unit Citation to the 99th C.A.G. for its valor demonstrated in that battle.’’

‘’Sir, I don’t know how to thank you for all this.’

‘’You can thank me best by continuing to bash the Japanese into pulp, Ingrid.’ said a beaming Lieutenant General Arnold.

20:08 (Los Angeles Time)

Thursday, November 12, 1942 ‘C’

Private cinema room, Howard Hughes’ mansion

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Howard Hughes was both proud and happy as he finished viewing the latest War Department newsreel in his private viewing room. Proud for his friend Katharine Hepburn, who had been filmed in Guadalcanal while receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor from the hands of Lieutenant General Henry Arnold. Happy for her friend’s success in combat and for having Congress just sign on behalf of the Army Air Force a contract for the production of 800 AH-4 attack helicopters, an order adding to the 42 preseries AH-4 already produced and in use by the Fifinellas of Colonel Ingrid Dows.

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Hughes then started thinking about what could follow this Congress stamp of approval for him and his aircraft plant. With the proven combat successes of his AH-4 in the Pacific and with this new contract, the bureaucrats at the Materiel Command of the Army Air Corps should now prove a lot more sympathetic to his proposed aircraft projects.

They had already rejected his proposed D2 heavy fighter-bomber, giving what Hughes thought as invalid reasons for their refusal. However, his XF-11 project should now have much better chances to be accepted by the Army Air Corps. However, the lessons learned by the girls of the 99th C.A.G. in the Pacific would be worth examining first, in order to further improve on the design of his XF-11. Discretely asking for Ingrid Dows’

opinion about this via Katharine Hepburn would definitely be a smart move on his part.

22:50 (PNG Time)

Friday, November 13, 1942 ‘C’

Quarters of Major General Toru Okabe

Okabe Detachment headquarters, Lae

Northeast coastal area of New Guinea

Major General Toru Okabe, commander of the Japanese Army unit occupying Lae and its surrounding region, slowly sat down at the small desk in his room, totally discouraged. He then slowly reread for the third time the message which had arrived in the evening from the 18th Army headquarters in Rabaul. Basically, that message had told him not to expect any reinforcement or extra supplies, and this for an undetermined length of time. The main excuses given in that message were the chronic lack of transport ships and of escort warships, plus the severely depleted inventory of combat aircraft in theater due to the devastating enemy airstrikes of the last few weeks. It also warned Okabe not to expect any improvements in this situation, as the Navy had basically lost control of the seas around the South Pacific. Throwing down in frustration the message on top of his desk, Okabe thought for a moment about what he could do on his part to improve this situation. The sad answer was: very little. He already had directed his men, at least those not down with diseases, to plant crops in order to become somewhat food self-sufficient. While that had helped a bit, his men were still suffering from hunger and malnutrition. His own meager supper this evening had consisted of one boiled manioc root washed down with tea, the same ration his

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headquarters personnel had received. Okabe would thus go to bed hungry tonight, like his soldiers.

The sudden, loud detonations from multiple anti-aircraft guns opening fire made him jerk. Getting up from his chair, Okabe went to the window of his room and looked up at the night sky. As he had expected, he wasn’t able to see any enemy aircraft overhead, as the night was quite dark. Either his gunners were panicking for nothing or the enemy flew too high to be seen. Listening carefully, Okabe was then able to hear the engine noise from a solitary aircraft high above him. That solitary aircraft didn’t seem to be disturbed in the least by the wild, inaccurate fire from Okabe’s gunners and was flying on as if on a simple milk run. Then, a faint but growing whistling sound made Okabe stiffen with alarm: a bomb was on its way down! Running out of his room, he saw that his staff was also reacting and heading towards the shallow trenches dug around their building as bomb shelters. Following them at a run, Okabe was about to jump into one of those trenches when the most bizarre thing happened: something burst in the air above his headquarters building, producing only a weak sound, as if someone had just popped out a balloon. Then, what Okabe felt like a light drizzle went down all around and over him. He didn’t have time to wonder what that was before the expanding cloud of ethylene oxide droplets was ignited by a delay fuse trailing behind the falling five-ton FAE bomb. The whole cloud of volatile gas then ignited, creating both high temperatures and lethal pressures within it and sending out a shockwave around it.

While that shockwave travelled out at a much slower rate than that created by the detonation of high explosives, the FAE shockwave stayed lethal in a much larger radius, with the gas which had entered buildings and tunnels also igniting with the rest of the cloud. With an overall lethal power equivalent to about four times that of the same weight of TNT explosives, the FAE bomb blew away brick and wood buildings and killed people over a radius of about 500 meters. Those outside that lethal zone still suffered burns, lung damage and pierced eardrums from the blast wave. Since the aiming point of the bomb had been the local airfield, near which the headquarters building of General Toru Okabe had been situated, the Japanese aircraft parked on the ground there were blown away and ripped apart like simple paper planes. The terrorized Japanese soldiers who had been far enough to survive intact the bomb blast then watched on with horror as a huge fireball rose skyward, accompanied by a deafening rumble. What they couldn’t see was the AC-142G gunship which had just delivered that massive FAE

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bomb, as it flew towards its next objective of the night: the Japanese airfield at Wewak, some 318 miles to the Northwest.

Lae and Wewak were not the only locations to be hit that night by this new American weapon of mass destruction: the other five AC-142Gs of the newly arrived Dragons Squadron were also delivering death from above around the South Pacific, dropping some of the five-ton FAE bombs they had brought with them from the United States. Two of the AC-142Gs went to bomb the airfields in Rabaul. Another attacked the small airstrips established by the Japanese on the Bougainville Island and another went to say hello to the Japanese airfield of Kavieng, on the island of New Ireland, near Rabaul. Guadalcanal itself was not forgotten that night. The Japanese Divisional-level field command post on the island, situated near the small settlement of Kokumbona, was obliterated by a FAE bomb, along with the only heavy howitzer battery left to the Japanese on Guadalcanal. The next morning, the Americans and Australians around Port Moresby and Guadalcanal woke up to a sky essentially free of Japanese airplanes.

All those Americans and Australians rejoiced at that news...all but one.

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CHAPTER 18 – REACTIONS?

07:03 (PNG Time)

Saturday, November 14, 1942 ‘C’

Kitchen and dining tent complex, Wards Airfield Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Since the arrival of the 99th C.A.G. in Port Moresby seven weeks ago, George Kenney, recently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, had made a habit of going to eat at the dining tent of the female unit rather than eating inside his own headquarters building. There were many good reasons for his choice of venue, not the least being the quality of the food served by the cooks of the 99th C.A.G. Another reason was that it gave him the opportunity to discuss tactical and operational matters with Ingrid Dows, who had quickly turned into a pivotal member of his air force. Another small but not inconsequential reason to eat with the women of the Fifinellas was the fact that their dining tent and kitchen enjoyed some fresh air from an air conditioning unit the women had brought with them as part of their field equipment. There was as well the undeclared factor that the place was full of young women, something that had quickly convinced Kenney’s staff officers and pilots to also go eat there with him. The frustrated male cooks of Kenney’s headquarters had then been left with no other realistic choice but to move to the Fifinel as’ kitchen and transfer the dining room of the Fifth Air Force headquarters to that tent complex.

Having collected some eggs, bacon and toasts, along with a cup of coffee, Kenney went to the table where Ingrid Dows was eating, intent on discussing with her the next phase of their operations against the Japanese. However, as he put his tray of food down on that table, he was surprised to see that Ingrid actually seemed sad, even depressed.

‘’Uh, something is wrong, Ingrid?’

Apparently conflicted about her internal emotions, Ingrid took a second before answering him in a tired tone.

‘’I couldn’t find sleep last night, sir, as I felt remorse about our FAE strikes.’

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‘’Remorse?’ said Kenney, shocked and surprise, as he sat down on his bench.

‘’Why? For killing Japanese?’’

‘’No, not for that, sir. What I feel sad about is the death of the local Melanesians who were caught in the blasts of our bombs. Many of them must have died in Lae and Wewak, even though we were not targeting them directly, and their deaths weigh on my conscience.’’

Many American or Australian officers would have replied with a ‘who cares?’ to that but not Kenney. While his family was from the Boston area, he had been born in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia during a Summer trip to Canada, then later worked many years in Northern Quebec before enrolling in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a flying cadet. He was thus no racist.

‘’Have you met some of the locals around Port Moresby since your arrival, Ingrid?’

Ingrid nodded once, then spoke a long sentence in a language which resembled what Kenney had heard spoken between local Papuans in Port Moresby. Next, Ingrid switched back to English while looking Kenney in the eyes.

‘’What I just spoke was in Wagiman, an Australian aboriginal dialect spoken in the region south of Darwin. One of my past incarnations was as a man named

‘Djangawula’, who was from a tribe which originally descended from the Melanesians who populated early Papua New Guinea. While I am a loyal naturalized citizen of the United States, I also happen to have been born in Berlin, Germany, where I was still living as a teenager when my whole family was killed in a British air bombing attack on Berlin in 1940. I consider myself as a child of Humanity as much as an American officer and the killing of non-combatants, any non-combatants, wil always repel me, sir.’

Kenney’s response to that was made in a soft, low-volume voice.

‘’I can understand your scruples about that, Ingrid, but completely avoiding civilian casualties in such a war is impossible, unless we put our own people at increasing risk in order to avoid those casualties.’

‘’I fully realize that, sir, and it only makes me feel worst, as I love my women and wish them to be all able to return home safely and in one piece at the end of this awful war.’

‘’So, are you stil able to follow up with Phase Two of our attack plan, Ingrid?’’

‘’I am, sir, with one exception: instead of bracketing the Japanese positions around Buna with multiple FAE bombs, I would like us to limit their drops to only one,

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centered on the actual Japanese Army encampment on the western outskirt of the local settlement. Our helicopters can then land our troops directly on ground zero, which should be devoid of living Japanese by then and this immediately after our bomb blast.’

‘’Hum, landing a reinforced infantry battalion with nearly no immediate opposition right in the center of the enemy positions... That could work, Ingrid, especially since you received more helicopters yesterday. We will have to brief General Blamey and Major General Hering this morning on this change of plans.’’

‘’I wil be there, sir.’ promised Ingrid.

01:17 (PNG Time)

Monday, November 16, 1942 ‘C’

Sikorsky UH-2 STORK medium helicopter

Flying low off the coast, near Buna, Eastern coast of Papua New Guinea One of the 36 Australian Army soldiers from the 17th Infantry Brigade travelling in the UH-2 medium transport helicopter of Captain Sylvia Dahmes looked briefly outside through a nearby window, then at his comrade sitting to his left.

‘’How did that sheila cal the bomb they are going to drop on Buna? A ‘fuel doover thing’11?’’

‘’She called it ‘Fuel Air Explosive bomb’, mate. I studied chemistry and worked before the war for an oil prospecting company and I can understand roughly the principle of such a bomb.’

‘’And it could be powerful enough to clear of Japanese soldiers the ground we wil land on?’’

‘’Mate, have you ever seen a petrol12 depot go up in flames? It can be fierce and scary, I assure you.’ replied in a vehement tone the other soldier, making the first one shut up and rehash in his mind what they were supposed to do on landing. About two minutes later, their helicopter abruptly turned left towards the coast and took more altitude, only seconds before a bright flash of light appeared over Buna became visible through the windows of the Sikorsky UH-2 STORK medium helicopter. That flash was 11 Doover thing: WW2 Australian slang for something you didn’t remember by name.

12 Petrol: Term used by the British and Australians to describe gasoline.

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turning to a rising fireball of huge proportions when the helicopter was hit by a powerful shockwave and shook violently for a few seconds before settling back in the air.

‘’BLOODY HELL! WHAT WAS THAT?’’ shouted the soldier who had asked about the type of bomb to be used. His comrade gave him a sarcastic look.

‘’That was a FAE bomb going off, Kilmeade. Any more questions?’’

Private Ronald Kilmeade was still swallowing his pride when the voice of the woman piloting their helicopter sounded off a loudspeaker in the cabin at the same time as the lights in the cabin, which were switched to a dim red, shut off entirely, leaving the thirty Australian soldiers in darkness.

‘’TOUCHING DOWN IN THIRTY SECONDS! PREPARE TO RUN OUT AND

DEPLOY AS SOON AS THE REAR RAMP WILL BE DOWN.’

Kilmeade, like his companions, sat back in his seat and tightened further his safety belt as he braced for the announced landing. The woman acting as loadmaster, who was sitting next to the control box of the aft cargo ramp, pressed the opening button for the ramp, making it going partially down and allowing the soldiers to see that they were about to land. The moment that a shudder announced to them that they had touched the ground, the loadmaster lowered the ramp to the maximum while shouting at the Australians in her American accent.

‘’EVERYBODY OUT! WE’RE ON GROUND ZERO!’

Ronald Kilmeade was tempted to ask his friend, Corporal Bernard Shaw, what was

‘ground zero’ but decided to keep his mouth shut and, quickly unbuckling his safety belt, got up and ran out of the helicopter with the 35 other Australian soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry Brigade, his Lee-Enfield .303 bolt-action rifle at the ready. Doing as he had been shown during a short familiarization training the previous morning, Kilmeade followed his half of their rifle platoon at a run, turning towards the nose of the helicopter while deploying in an assault line. He was immediately struck by the fact that everything around him had apparently been flattened and incinerated by the equivalent of a giant blowtorch of unimaginable power. Ahead of his platoon were a number of American attack helicopters preceding them in extended line and firing their cannons, machine guns and rockets at anything that shot at them. Encouraged by that efficient close fire support and by the shouted orders from his platoon officer, Second Lieutenant Robert Bixby, Kilmeade charged ahead at a quick trot, ready to shoot down any Japanese who would show up. He encountered his first Japanese after jogging for about sixty meters but he didn’t shoot him, for the good reason that this Japanese was

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obviously dead, his body ripped to pieces and completely burned black. One look at the dead Japanese was enough to make Kilmeade nauseous and he quickly concentrated back on what was ahead while continuing to run along with the rest of his platoon. To his delighted surprise, nobody shot at them for a good 600 meters, by which time they had run by the whole of what had been the Japanese main camp in Buna, which had been completely blown flat and burned. A solitary Japanese soldier who had stuck his head out of a partially buried bunker then started shooting his rifle at the incoming Australians but, being still dark, could not fire accurately, with his bullets zipping past the Australians. The nose gunner from one of the attack helicopters covering the advancing Australian infantrymen then blew that Japanese to pieces with her 20 mm automatic cannon. When they arrived at that bunker, Shaw shouted to Kilmeade as he took a grenade hooked to his web gear.

‘’COVER ME!’

Ronald immediately stopped and raised his rifle, ready to shoot at anyone he would see move through the small bunker access trap. His comrade then pulled the safety pin of his grenade and, letting the safety handle fly off, waited two seconds before throwing his grenade inside the bunker, where it exploded two seconds later. Nobody came out of the bunker after that, so Shaw and Kilmeade resumed their advance, joining back with the rest of their platoon. They finally arrived at their planned initial stop line and took cover, ready to repel any counter-assault by the Japanese. Such an assault never came, with only isolated rifle shots ringing out in the night. Stunned by such an easy success, Kilmeade looked with bemusement at his friend, Bernard Shaw.

‘’Hell, those Nippo13 sure went bloody balls up14 with that big petrol bomb.’

At that moment, he saw that the medium helicopters which had brought them to Buna were now taking off and flying away, leaving their places to four huge helicopters which quickly landed in the middle of the devastated Japanese camp. The rumble of engines and clicking of steel tracks then announced the appearance of four M5 STUART light tanks as they rolled out of the Sikorsky UH-3A SKYCRANE heavy helicopters. The sight of the light tanks as they started rolling towards them made the Australians shout in triumph.

‘’YEAH! TALK ABOUT SOME BONZA15 AIR SUPPORT!’ shouted Second Lieutenant Bixby.

13 Nippo: Australian World War 2 slang for ‘Japanese’.

14 Bloody Bal s Up: Australian World War 2 slang for ‘turned into a total mess’.

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08:48 (PNG Time)

Field headquarters of the 99th Air Wing

Wards Airfield, near Port Moresby

One female operations clerk, seeing two general officers enter the air wing’s operations center, shouted at once to warn the other personnel present.

‘’ROOM!’

Everybody came to attention at once as General Sir Thomas Blamey and General Douglas MacArthur, closely followed by Lieutenant General George Kenney walked towards the big map table set in the middle of the room, where Ingrid saluted them.

‘’Good morning, sirs! What can we do for you, sirs?’’

‘’Nothing but accept my warmest congratulations for a very well-done job by your helicopter crews in Buna, Colonel Dows.’ replied Blamey, all smiles. ‘’Only a month ago, I expected that the taking of Buna would take weeks of fighting and cost us thousands of our men. Instead, my soldiers took it in hours and with only a few dozen casualties. Your air assault tactic is a real miracle weapon and a stroke of genius, Colonel.’

While happy at that compliment, Ingrid kept a modest appearance.

‘’I learned about that tactic, which was from the future, from my adoptive mother, Nancy Laplante, sir. I only used it as it should be used.’’

‘’And I know too many fellow general officers who would have refused to use it, quoting the need to follow approved tactics only, Colonel. With Buna taken and Lae, Wewak and Rabaul mostly neutralized as Japanese airbases, we are now free to advance up the coast of New Guinea with little opposition from the air. Add to that the fact that the Japanese Navy had never been weaker and things are really looking good on our side.’

‘’True, sir. However, our marines on Guadalcanal could use some extra support, while our navy is also quite weak, with only one damaged aircraft carrier left in the South Pacific, sir. There is still plenty to do, starting with neutralizing the big Japanese base in Truk Atoll and with preparing the liberation of the Philippines.’

15 Bonza: Australian World War 2 slang for ‘very good, alright’.

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While Blamey’s enthusiasm somewhat cooled down on hearing that, MacArthur became most sober at the mention of the Philippines.

‘’The Philippines... I promised when I left on order from the President to return one day. Taking Buna is certainly a good first step to that but there are still hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers on the way, supported by a few hundred land-based aircraft. Rushing North too quickly would cost us horribly.’

‘’Then, let’s destroy in detail those remaining Japanese aircraft and thus remove the air cover those Japanese soldiers enjoy, General.’

‘’And how do you propose to do that, Colonel? Both Rabaul and the Philippines are out of range of all our bombers, with return trips of at least 4,000 miles. Only carrier aircraft can reach them right now and, as you pointed out, our aircraft carrier inventory is quite meager at present.’

‘’I believe that I know a way to get there, General.’ said Ingrid, a malicious smile on her lips. ‘’Talking of the Philippines, you do remember the guerrilla group led by Captain Vil amor that we left behind in the Philippines, sir?’’

‘’I certainly do, Ingrid. What about it?’’

‘’Do you know if it is stil operating, sir?’’ asked Ingrid, hiding her fear of getting a negative answer from MacArthur. To her immense relief, MacArthur nodded his head in response.

‘’It is stil operating and in periodic contact with us, thank God. They are getting periodic supplies by submarines and are providing us with some precious intelligence about the Japanese forces on Luzon but they have to be very cautious about what they do, as the Japanese have been looking for them since they invaded the Philippines. Did you have in mind to provide them some help and, if yes, how?’’

‘’I would need to know more about their exact situation and location before being able to formulate a plan, sir, but yes, I would like to help them. Thes men were under my direct command before I was ordered out of the Philippines and their fate preoccupies me constantly, General.’

MacArthur’s eyes softened as he looked at Ingrid.

‘’Your loyalty to your men and women can only be commended, Ingrid: it is one of the marks of a true leader. I will make sure that you get the latest information about Captain Vil amor’s group quickly. In the meantime, do you have another miracle plan to propose to me and Sir Blamey?’’

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‘’I do have a few ideas to propose to you, sirs.’ was Ingrid’s firm reply. ‘’But I wil need first to arrange a few things with the help of Major Paul Gunn.’

‘’Major Gunn, my advisor on aircraft repair? Why him?’’

‘’Because I would like to have a few local modifications made to my helicopters first, sir.’

That made both MacArthur and Kenney scratch their heads.

‘’Modify helicopters in order to attack the Japanese situated over 2,000 miles away? That doesn’t make much sense to me, Ingrid.’

‘’It won’t make much sense either to the Japanese, sir.’ pointed out a smiling Ingrid. ‘’I would also need the cooperation of the Navy for some of those plans, General.

With Admiral Halsey now in charge of the South Pacific Theater of Operations, I can now at least hope to get his cooperation for my projects.’

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CHAPTER 19 – SURPRISE!

10:13 (PNG Time)

Thursday, November 19, 1942 ‘C’

Headquarters of South Pacific Theater of Operations Noumea, New Caledonia

Vice-Admiral Wil iam F. ‘Bull’ Halsey was waiting on the porch of the building housing his headquarters in Noumea when the staff car he had sent to Noumea Airport stopped in front of the building. He had sent that staff car to pick up two announced visitors from Port Moresby who had flown in on a Lockheed C60 LODESTAR light transport and liaison aircraft. His decision to wait outside was partly due to his wish to properly receive his visitors, one of whom was also a Theater of Operations commander.

He also wanted to finally meet the young woman, a teenager in reality, who had built an incredible reputation in combat which now amounted to a legend. Many in the Navy still scoffed at the notion of a nineteen-year-old female colonel but the combat feats of Colonel Ingrid Dows simply could not be denied or dismissed. Halsey, who had at first a hard time to believe what had been said about Dows, was by now ready to give her her full dues. The fact that she was said to be very beautiful could not hurt, of course.

Halsey came to attention and saluted as General Douglas MacArthur, who was one rank senior to him, stepped out of the staff car, along with a very young woman wearing a U.S. Army Summer uniform. That young woman also saluted back with MacArthur before taking position behind and to the left of the old general. Halsey then presented his right hand to MacArthur, who shook it.

‘’Welcome to Noumea, General. Welcome to you as well, Colonel Dows.’

The strength of Dows grip when he shook hands with her surprised Halsey to no little margin: her hand grip was as strong as that of any man. He however didn’t remark on it and pointed the entrance of his headquarters to MacArthur.

‘’If you will follow me, we can go to my office, where we will be able to speak in private, General.’

‘’Thank you, Admiral.’

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Passing by the two soldiers guarding the entrance, who were presenting arms with their rifles, the trio walked into a large reception area before climbing a large staircase. They then walked down a large hallway on the second floor, to finally arrive at a suite composed of an anteroom, where a military secretary stood from behind his desk and saluted, and of a large office well-ventilated by wide windows and a ceiling fan. Halsey showed to his two visitors a set of two sofas and one easy chair surrounding a low coffee table placed in one corner of the office, next to one of the windows.

‘’Let’s sit and talk, General. Would you like some coffee or tea? The French do some real y good espresso coffee in Noumea.’

‘’A cup of good coffee will be nice, Admiral. The coffee we get in the rations from Australia is little more than brown water.’

‘’I wil also have a cup of coffee, Admiral.’ said Ingrid Dows in a melodious voice that went well with her youthful beauty. Halsey then gave orders to his secretary to bring in a coffee service before sitting around the low table with MacArthur and Dows. He first spoke to Dows while smiling to her.

‘’You wil excuse me if I find you a bit fascinating, Colonel Dows: your story is so unique. To show such prowess in combat and in a senior leadership position at your age is truly unheard of.’

‘’There is an explanation for that, Admiral, a rather extraordinary one known to only a very few.’ replied Ingrid. ‘’My body may be only nineteen but my mind is over 7,000 years-old. Basically, I somehow started remembering in 1940 my past incarnations, all 71 of them, which were spread over 7,000 years. The same thing happened at the same time to my late adoptive mother, Nancy Laplante. I still don’t know why or how that happened but I can’t deny the existence of those memories.

General Arnold had me tested in Washington about this, by having a group of illustrious historians and archaeologists question me and test my knowledge of ancient languages, and I passed that test with flying colors. However, I first confided my secret to General MacArthur while in the Philippines, at the start of the war. That in turn convinced him to get President Quezon to hire me as a fighter pilot.’

Douglas MacArthur nodded his head once she stopped speaking.

‘’That is how it all happened, Admiral. After Ingrid showed some incredible maturity and depth of strategic thinking while we were facing Japanese air attacks in Manila, I then asked her privately where she had gained such military wisdom. That was

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when she told me her story about her past incarnations. I believed her then and I never regretted giving her my full confidence since.’

Halsey starred in silence for a moment at Ingrid as he digested that revelation, to finally nod his head once.

‘’And I believe you as well, Colonel Dows. To be frank, your incredible victories against the Japanese make some of my fellow admirals look like rank amateurs in comparison. Your defeat of the Japanese Combined Fleet at the Battle of Torres Strait was positively brilliant, while the valor and effectiveness of your female aircrews were worthy of praise.’’

‘’Thank you, Admiral. General MacArthur came here with me today in order to gain your cooperation for an operation we are planning. I will however let General MacArthur talk about it.’

‘’Thank you, Ingrid. Admiral, I am now contemplating an operation against a Japanese target which is part of your own theater of operation but which threatens both of our theaters: Truk Atoll. It would thus be in our mutual interest in cooperating to neutralize that threat.’

‘’Truk is effectively a thorn in my side, has been since the start of the war, as it is where the Japanese assemble their aircraft and ships before striking at us, including against Guadalcanal. The problem for me is that I am presently cruelly deficient in aircraft carriers, while Truk is out of range of my aircraft and, I presuppose, of your aircraft as well, General.’

‘’It was, until recently, Admiral. With the arrival of six Fairchild AC-142G GRIM

REAPER heavy gunships two weeks ago, the 99th Air Wing now has a long-range, heavy bomber capability that I was able to exploit at once to strike the Japanese hard around New Guinea and against Rabaul. I was able to take Buna in mere hours, three days ago, thanks mostly to a devastating strike by an AC-142G which dropped a five-ton Fuel Air Explosive bomb on the Japanese main camp in Buna. The FAE bombs carried by those heavy gunships have an incredibly powerful blast wave that flattens and incinerate anything within 500 yards. We, or rather Ingrid’s aviatrixes, used such bombs to flatten the Japanese airfield in Lae, Wewak, Rabaul, Kavieng and on Bougainville, thus mostly eliminating the Japanese air threat around us. However, I am now worried that more Japanese planes could come and replace those losses, with Truk as a staging point. It is thus in my interest to strike hard at Truk and eliminate it as a staging point for

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more Japanese aircraft and ships. However, Truk lies within your theater of operations and I am loathe to strike at it without at least your accord and, better, your cooperation.’’

‘’And I thank you for your regards in gaining first my consent for such an operation, General. But do your...heavy gunships really have the range to hit Truk from Port Moresby, and this with a significant bombload? We are after all talking about a return trip of more than 2,400 miles, not counting combat time fuel reserves.’’

‘’I wil let Ingrid answer that, Admiral. Ingrid?’

‘’Thank you, General. The answer to your question is ‘yes’, Admiral. My AC-142Gs, which are heavily armed with one nose five-inch gun and twelve 40 mm guns, plus defensive turrets armed with 20 mm cannons, will be able to get to Truk with a twenty-ton bombload and then return safely to Port Moresby. Furthermore, they can strike at night with precision, thanks to their advanced radars and night vision devices.

By attacking Truk at night, they will thus render most of the Japanese defenses, be they guns or fighter aircraft, ineffective. An EC-142E WAVEMASTER command and control aircraft will also accompany them and will jam the Japanese radars situated around Truk Atoll. Once over Truk, my gunships will strike in priority the Japanese airfields, to destroy the aircraft parked there, and the fuel depots. Without fuel reserves for passing aircraft and ships, Truk will then become useless to the Japanese as a staging base in the South Pacific.’

Halsey stared for a moment at Ingrid, truly impressed.

‘’If your aircraft can accomplish such a strike, then it would also relieve a lot of the pressure on my own ships and aircraft, Colonel. You thus definitely have my permission to conduct such a strike.’

‘’Thank you, Admiral.’ said MacArthur, most satisfied by this. ‘’However, we could make that strike even more effective if we could secure some support from your command. I believe that you recently received a newly-built light carrier, correct?’’

‘’The U.S.S. SANGAMON is actually classified as an escort carrier, rather than as a light carrier, General.’ corrected Halsey. ‘’It is slower than a light carrier, with a top speed of eighteen knots, but is quite capacious in terms of aircraft, being able to carry thirty aircraft. The SANGAMON arrived here with replacement aircraft meant to replenish my squadrons. What did you have in mind for it, General?’’

‘’Actual y, it was Ingrid who thought about it, Admiral. If you could lend us the services of the SANGAMON, along with a few destroyers and cruisers to escort it, we

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could use it to carry the attack helicopters of Ingrid’s helicopter group, which would then conduct coordinated strikes with our gunships against Truk.’

‘’Helicopters? Against ships and airfields?’ said Halsey, incredulous. Ingrid took on her to assuage his doubts.

‘’May I remind you that my attack helicopters played a crucial role in our victory at the Battle of Torres Strait, Admiral? They heavily damaged or sank outright many of the Japanese ships there with their five-inch rockets and napalm canisters. Also, my AH-4s are presently being modified in order to be able to carry and launch 21-inch torpedoes, which would make them fully effective against any class of warship. If you compare my AH-4s to your own Grumman TBF AVENGER torpedo-bombers, Admiral, you will see that my attack helicopters have performances quite close to your TBFs in terms of top speed and range, but can carry a much heavier ordnance payload and has a faster cruising speed, on top of being heavily armored. Believe me, Admiral: my AH-4s can be deadly against both ships and ground targets and could add a lot to the punch of our planned strike on Truk. If your escort carrier could get to within 300 miles of Truk, then my AH-4s wil be able to carry their maximum ordnance load.’’

Halsey’s brain came on fire as he imagined what could be accomplished with that idea and he took only seconds to take a decision.

‘’Your plan sounds fantastic, Colonel. You can count on my escort carrier and an escort force of at least four destroyers for your operation against Truk.’

‘’Thank you so much, Admiral. Could I further abuse your goodwil by asking to use your SANGAMON after the strike against Truk, in order to conduct another mission, this time around the Philippines?’’

‘’The Philippines?’’ said Halsey, completely taken by surprise by that request.

‘’And what would you strike there, Colonel?’’

‘’Our old airfields, which are now used by the Japanese. My attack helicopters would concentrate on destroying on the ground the Japanese aircraft parked at Clark Field, Nielson Field and Nichols Field. This would further erode to near impotence the Japanese airpower in the South and Central Pacific, something that your ships could only benefit from, Admiral. At the same time, a couple of our transport helicopters would drop off supplies to a Filipino guerrilla group that is still operating to the northeast of Manila and would also evacuate their wounded.’

‘’Uh, that is a lot of risks to be taken to simply resupply a small guerrilla group, Colonel.’ remarked Halsey, attracting a resolute expression on Ingrid’s face.

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‘’Admiral, those Filipino guerrillas once were under my direct command and I fought with them in the jungles of Bataan before I was forced to leave the Philippines due to a direct presidential order. I am ready to risk anything in order to help them.’

Her firm resolve left Halsey out of arguments and he thus nodded his head again.

‘’Very well, Colonel. My ships will stay to support both of your operations. We would however need to plan both of these operations in detail before we could launch it.’

‘’That is what we came for, Admiral.’ replied with a smile MacArthur.

14:05 (PNG Time)

Saturday, November 28, 1942 ‘C’

Flight deck of the escort carrier U.S.S. SANGAMON (CVE-26) Cruising south of Port Moresby, Coral Sea

Seaman Jake Finch, one of the sailors manning the flight deck of the U.S.S.

SANGAMON, licked his lips in anticipation as he watched with other deck hands the approach of the over two dozen helicopters approaching their escort carrier at low altitude.

‘’Over eighty women about to come aboard. Hopefully, they wil look at least half-decent.’

‘’You mean that you are hoping that they wil actually be indecent, right, Jake?’

replied his friend David Dunbar.

‘’Hey! How often do we get women on a warship? We should have the right to enjoy it when that happens.’’

‘’Well, from what I heard, this trip wil be no picnic, Jake, so we should concentrate on our jobs and let those women do their jobs.’’

‘’And what’s wrong about simply watching, Dave?’’

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The said Dave gave up then and, shaking his head, went to get more aircraft anchoring straps for those incoming helicopters.

The first helicopters to land on the flight deck were two medium transport UH-2s in camouflage paint scheme and one small UH1 wearing large red on white Red Cross markings on its flanks and belly. Their pilots quickly braked their twin coaxial rotors to a stop, then activated their blade-folding mechanisms. As soon as their rotor blades were folded, they were pushed to one of the two aircraft elevators and then brought down to the aircraft hangar of the escort carrier, situated under the flight deck. It was then the turn of 24 mean-looking AH-4 attack helicopters to land on the SANGAMON. However, they were then stowed on the flight deck after folding their rotors and their pair of small wings. David Dunbar was one of the deck hands who got busy to tie them down to the flight deck and cover them with protective tarps, to avoid excessive corrosion from salt water sprays. He was thus in good position to have a close view of the young women who climbed down from the cockpits of the attack helicopters and couldn’t help think that his friend Jake was going to go crazy at their sight. All of them were young, in their twenties, and most of them could be said to be at least pretty, while a few could qualify as downright beautiful. Jake was not the only sailor aboard the SANGAMON who was going to salivate at the sight of those female aviators. David himself nearly twisted his neck when he thought that he recognized one of the women, a tall brunette in her thirties.

‘’Nooo! That can’t be the great Katharine Hepburn.’’

Putting that on account of his imagination proving to be too fertile, he then concentrated back on his work.

On the open bridge wing of the tiny bridge block of the escort carrier, the skipper of the SANGAMON, Navy Captain Joseph Burnside, watched on as the helicopters landed on his flight deck and were then stowed in tight ranks on the aft part of the carrier. Using his binoculars, he was able to detail some of the female aircrews coming out of the helicopters and shook his head in discouragement.

‘’Damn! With so many young and pretty women aboard, this combat trip could well turn into a floating bordello. Our men will go bonkers at their sight.’

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The young ensign on bridge duty at this time didn’t make a remark then, instead examining some of the best-looking women with his binoculars. He however swore loudly to himself after spotting a particular woman.

‘’Shit! Sir, I believe that I just spotted Katharine Hepburn, the famous actress.

She is now part of a group of six women walking towards the starboard side middle stairwell.’

Captain Burnside quickly aimed his binoculars at that group of women and also swore to himself.

‘’Holly Moses! It is Katharine Hepburn! What is she doing here?’

‘’Uh, sir, didn’t you read the November edition of the ‘Navy Proceeding Magazine’, in which Miss Hepburn got the Medal of Honor in Guadalcanal, for her actions during the Battle of Torres Strait?’’

That made Captain Burnside look at his young ensign with big eyes.

‘’WHAT? I never got a chance to look at a copy of it: all four copies we got disappeared nearly at once. Are you sure about this Medal of Honor story?’’

‘’Completely, sir. According to the magazine article, she sank by herself the heavy cruiser TAKAO and one destroyer, by firing five-inch rockets which detonated their forward magazines. From what I can see now, those helicopters do carry five-inch rockets under their stubby wings, plus...wait a minute! Sir, they have torpedoes hooked under their bel ies.’’

Stunned, Burnside also looked at the belly of the attack helicopters and could only confirm what his ensign had spotted.

‘’Goddam! You are right, Ensign Parker. Jesus! This promises to be one memorable combat cruise.’’

00:44 (Central Pacific Time)

Monday, November 30, 1942 ‘C’

Aboard ‘Oracle One’, EC-142E WAVEMASTER electronic aircraft Flying 120 miles to the east of Truk Atoll, Caroline Islands Pushed by intense curiosity about how the women of the 99th Air Wing operated, William Halsey had requested to fly aboard the EC-142E command and control aircraft which was going to support the six heavy gunships and the helicopters now approaching Truk from the West of the atoll. He had been surprised to see his request accepted

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without a fuss and even more so when he saw that both Ingrid Dows and Lieutenant General George Kenney were also aboard the big aircraft for this mission. However, his biggest shock was when he had seen that three of the women working aboard the control center of the plane were clearly Asian women and possibly Japanese ones.

Ingrid had then to reassure him about Captain Jenny Kawena, the intelligence officer, and about Corporals Mary Takahashi and Jane Fumitomo, who were manning the radio monitoring stations tuned to Japanese frequencies. His last shock was to find the famous and most beautiful Hedy Lamarr in charge of the electronic warfare station of the plane.

As Halsey sat with Kenney at one of the command stations, one woman made an announcement on the command intercom circuit.

‘’Black Widow Callsigns are in the air and are now thirty miles west of the Japanese radar station on Tol Island, flying at an altitude of 200 feet over the ocean.

Dragon Callsigns are at an altitude of 5,000 feet and are seventy miles west of the Tol Island radar station.’

‘’Start jamming the Japanese radars, Hedy.’ replied Ingrid Dows, who was standing behind the radar operators of the plane. ‘’Make sure that they can’t see anything else but snow on their screens.’’

‘’On it, Ingrid.’

Normally, Halsey would have frowned on this rather familiar use of first names but this was Ingrid Dows’ operation, so he didn’t comment about it, especially since Kenney, the direct superior of Ingrid Dows, didn’t seem to mind one bit. After another eleven minutes, another announcement came on the command intercom.

‘’The Tol Island radar station is now destroyed. Our aircraft are continuing eastward towards the enemy airfields and naval installations.’’

‘’What is your target priority order, Colonel Dows?’’ asked Halsey.

‘’First, our heavy gunships wil use five-ton FAE bombs to destroy the four Japanese airfields and two seaplane bases on Dublon, Moen and Pamm. Then, they will blow away the fuel tank farms on Felon and the port facilities and the headquarters of the Fourth Fleet and of the 31st Army on Dublon. Finally, they will pay a visit to the two remaining radar stations on Moen and Uman, while our helicopters will attack with torpedoes the ships anchored in Truk Lagoon, followed by the torpedo boat bases on Muon, Uman and Tol.’

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‘’Do we know which Japanese ships are presently at anchor in Truk Lagoon, Colonel?’’

‘’Unfortunately, our reconnaissance flight of yesterday encountered a layer of low clouds and wasn’t able to ascertain what was in Truk Lagoon at the time. However, our helicopters will happily sink whatever they will find at anchor. Since those ships will be immobile, that will greatly simplify the aiming of our torpedoes, Admiral. Think of it as a repeat of the British air attack against the Italian fleet at Taranto, but in a larger scale.’’

Halsey nodded his head in understanding at that. The 1940 British attack on the port of Taranto, made by old, slow SWORDFISH torpedo-bomber biplanes, had sunk the modern battleship LITTORIO, plus two older battleships, and had severely damaged two cruisers, all at the cost of two British SWORDFISH biplanes. If Dows’ aircraft could repeat the equivalent result, that would make Halsey plenty happy.

00:58 (Central Pacific Time)

Red Dragon One (AC-142G heavy gunship)

Approaching the Japanese airfield on the southern point of Moen Island

‘’Those Japanese are sure slow to react: I don’t see yet any lit searchlights or firing anti-aircraft guns.’

Jacqueline Cochran’s remark made her copilot, Marjorie Kumler, smile.

‘’Hey, Truk is supposed to be this impregnable Gibraltar of the Pacific, too far away from the frontlines to be within our reach. This is going to be a nice wakeup call for them.’

‘’And we wil make it a brutal one. Ruth, do you have Airfield Number Two in your bombing sight?’’

‘’We are approaching it, Jackie. Give me local control, so that I can line it properly in my bomb site.’

‘’The plane is yours, Ruth. What do you see on that airfield?’

‘’I can count a minimum of sixty aircraft, mostly bombers, lined up in double ranks on the tarmac as if waiting to be inspected. Our FAE bomb will blow them all away like straw.’

‘’Good! Drop when ready.’

Cochran, making sure that her plane was kept stable and steady, only had to wait a few seconds before Ruth shouted out on the intercom.

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‘’BOMB AWAY!’

Cochran then waited anxiously for the result of their bombing. At her present altitude, her AC-142G should not be seriously disturbed by the massive shockwave from the explosion of their five-ton FAE bomb. She was proven right when her airplane suddenly jumped up in the air but stayed otherwise undisturbed. Ruth then reported on the intercom again after a few more seconds.

‘’Direct hit on Airfield Number Two: our bomb struck the group of hangars next to the main tarmac. Those hangars, along with the planes parked on the tarmac, are toast.

We can move to our second objective. I already see the seaplane base approaching in my sight.’

‘’Then go ahead and have more fun, Ruth.’

Some thirty seconds later, Ruth announced the dropping of their second and last big FAE bomb. Seaplanes being inherently more fragile to combat damage than land aircraft, that bomb positively ravaged the fleet of floatplanes and flying boats, including two big four-engine Kawanishi H8K ‘EMILY’ flying boats moored next to a quay. Once she was informed of the success of that drop, Cochran got on the radio and called her wingman, Ruth Francidine.

‘’Red Dragon Two, from Red Dragon One. My two primary objectives are now destroyed. How are you doing on your part, over?’

‘’From Red Dragon Two: I have dropped my two eggs and also have destroyed my primary objective. Still no anti-aircraft fire encountered, over.’

‘’Those Japs are real y slow on the switch tonight.’ said Cochran to Marjorie Kumler before talking again on the radio. ‘’Red Dragon Two, you may now go engage your secondary targets with your guns. Red Dragon One, out.’

She had just finished speaking on the radio when an intense flash of light lit the whole sky to their four o’clock. That flash then turned into a gigantic fireball slowly going up from what looked like an inferno, while they could hear the terrifying rumble of that fireball even from inside their plane. Marjorie Kumler, who had a better view of it from her seat, quickly understood what that was.

‘’Geraldine’s FAE bomb sure did a great job on the big fuel depot on Felon Island. I didn’t expect such a huge firebal , though.’

‘’Well, add a five-ton FAE bomb to a fuel tank park containing over 3,000 tons of aviation gasoline and some 21,000 tons of navy fuel and you get one hell of a fireball.

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With such a brasier ignited, our helicopters won’t have trouble finding targets anchored in the lagoon.’

‘’Yeah, but it wil also make our helicopters easier to spot by Japanese gunners.’

replied Marjorie, sounding worried.

Much lower, near the surface of the Truk Lagoon, the AH-4 piloted by Faith Buchner was flying towards the large mass of an unidentified ship visible in their thermal cameras when the Felon Island fuel depot went up in flames, illuminating the whole lagoon. Faith swore to herself and spoke on the intercom to her copilot-gunner, Katharine Hepburn.

‘’Shit! Now every Japanese gunner around the lagoon will be able to spot us.’’

‘’Continue straight on, Faith!’’ replied Katharine, her voice rising with excitement.

‘’I can now identify that ship ahead: it’s an aircraft carrier!’

‘’WHAT? Are you sure, Kat?’’

‘’Positive, Faith, and it is a big one, not a simple light carrier.’

Faith looked ahead, concentrating for a few seconds on the big ship now silhouetted by the flames from Felon Island.

‘’Jesus! You’re right, Kat: this is the fucking UNYO! Arm our torpedo while I call in some help to sink that big sucker.’

Faith then keyed her radio microphone and spoke in it excitedly.

‘’To all Red Widow callsigns, this is Red Widow One: I have the aircraft carrier UNYO ahead of me, anchored in the middle of the lagoon. Make it your top priority target and torpedo it, out.’

Faith then pointed her helicopter straight at the Japanese aircraft carrier and lowered her AH-4 closer to the surface of the water, in order to prepare to launch their torpedo.

Thankfully, the UNYO was at anchor and immobile, making it an easy target for her.

‘’You have the controls, Kat. Make that sucker eat our torpedo.’

‘’Target aligned in my sight and torpedo armed... TORPEDO LAUNCHED!

SWITCHING TO ROCKETS!’

Just as Katharine had spoken, the guns of the aircraft carrier opened fire, aiming at the incoming AH-4. The firing from the 27,000-ton carrier proved at first to be quite inaccurate but it quickly enough became dangerous enough to make Katharine stiffen in her armored cockpit. Then, the salvo of eight five-inch rockets she had just fired hit the starboard flank of the UNYO and exploded, taking out part of the Japanese gunners.

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‘’JUMP OVER THE SHIP AND COME BACK TOWARDS ITS STERN, FAITH!’

Faith reacted at once to the shout from Katharine and pulled on her flight stick, making her AH-4 jump up in the air, just in time to avoid a stream of 25 mm shells. She was turning her helicopter around in a tight half-turn when her torpedo hit the starboard side hull of the UNYO, creating a huge geyser of water. As she was heading towards the stern of the Japanese carrier, Katharine fired successive bursts from her 20 mm cannon, peppering the port side sponsons housing the anti-aircraft guns on that side of the UNYO. Those anti-aircraft guns, not having night vision devices, contrary to the AH-4, lost that gunnery duel and soon fell mostly silent.

‘’FLY OVER THE FLIGHT DECK ALONG ITS CENTERLINE, FAITH! I’M

GOING TO FIRE MY CANNON DOWN ON IT.’’

‘’CONSIDER IT DONE!’

Completing her turn, Faith pushed her AH-4 to maximum power and started overflying the aircraft carrier from barely twenty meters above its flight deck, while Katharine fired her automatic cannon nearly continuously. A number of aircraft parked on the flight deck were hit and caught fire. Spotting the forward-most elevator of the UNYO in the lowered position, probably to bring a fighter aircraft up to the flight deck, Katharine fired at it, with a number of her 20 mm shells penetrating inside the carrier’s aircraft hangar and exploding inside it. The AH-4 then found itself back over water, having zoomed down the whole length of the Japanese carrier. Faith was turning around for a second strafing pass when two big geysers rose in quick succession against the starboard side of the UNYO, making her scream in joy.

‘’TWO MORE TORPEDOES IN THE UNYO! WELL DONE, GIRLS!’

This time, Katharine chose to concentrate her fire on the bridge superstructure of the carrier, liberally peppering it with 20 mm explosive shells. As they again overflew the carrier, a fourth torpedo hit the UNYO. Seconds later, the carrier erupted into a giant fireball, to the elation of the two women.

‘’THAT TORPEDO MUST HAVE RUPTURED ITS AVIATION GASOLINE LINES: THE UNYO IS NOW TOAST! TO ALL RED WIDOWS: CEASE FIRING ON THE UNYO

AND CONCENTRATE ON OTHER TARGETS IN THE LAGOON.’

Looking around her, Faith did her best to assess the situation at this stage of the battle.

With the night partly illuminated by the flames from the burning fuel depot on Felon Island and with tracer shells fired wildly in all directions, that proved to be no easy task.

Taking a decision, she keyed her radio microphone again.

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‘’To Red Widow callsigns: report ammo status, over.’

To her relief, all five of her other helicopters reported back, proving that none had been shot down. However, all of them reported that they had expended all of their rockets and torpedoes and that they were low on cannon ammunition. That decided Faith to call the EC-142E overlooking the raid on Truk.

‘’Oracle One, from Red Widow One: my callsigns are low on ammunition.

Request permission to withdraw, over.’

A few seconds later, she got a response from Ingrid Dows, who used a pre-arranged codeword to signal a compass heading for the return trip to the SANGAMON.

‘’Red Widow One, from Lady Hawk: permission granted. Take heading Green 040, over.’

‘’Acknowledged, Lady Hawk, out! To all Red Widow callsigns: break contact and withdraw on heading Green 040.’’

On Oracle One, Vice-Admiral Halsey had been following the battle with growing excitement while watching distant Truk Atoll through the powerful optical telescope situated in the nose of the EC-142E. Turning around in his seat, he smiled up at George Kenney, who had periodically looked into the telescope himself.

‘’Goddam! This is going to hurt the Japs really bad: they just lost their last carrier in the whole Pacific. Your women did a fantastic job here.’’

Also happy, Kenney nodded his head once and replied in a measured tone of voice.

‘’And that is why I give as much freedom of action as possible to Colonel Dows and her air wing. Dows is a magician when it comes to the application of airpower. I just wish that the other generals in the Army Air Corps would take her more seriously and would listen to her advice, Admiral.’’

Halsey’s smile faded then and he looked soberly at Kenney.

‘’And what is their beef against Dows, General?’’

‘’Mostly, that she should follow accepted official bombing tactics instead of pushing what they call non-regulation tactics.’

‘’Even after the tremendous victories she had achieved here in the Pacific?’’

‘’Admiral, their main argument, which I find both stupid and racist, is that she has achieved her successes against an inferior enemy compared to the Germans.’

That made a flash of anger appear in Halsey’s eyes.

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‘’An inferior enemy? We lost tens of thousands of brave sailors and airmen while battling the Japanese in the Pacific. Their argument against Dows is nothing less than an insult to my navy men, who sacrificed so much up to now in this war.’’

‘’I agree with you on that, Admiral. However, prejudice and racism are hard to kill. I am afraid that our generals in England will have to learn their lessons the hard way, with our airmen there paying the price for their leaders’ stupidity and obtuseness.’

02:19 (Manila Time)

Thursday, December 03, 1942 ‘C’

Isolated beach to the Northeast of Manila

Luzon Island, Philippines

Jesus Villamor, accompanied by what was left of the Filipino mechanics and ground crews of the 17th and 6th Pursuit Squadrons, who had been fighting as guerrillas against the Japanese for nine months now, was anxiously watching the sky to the East while listening for aircraft engines. When Ingrid had been forced by direct presidential order to leave for the United States in March, Jesus had then led his 214 Filipino men into a guerrilla fought among the jungles and hills of the Pacific coast. Now, he had only 132 men left in fighting shape, with dozens of men killed and many more wounded in battle or sick from malaria and dengue fever. The encoded message he had received three days ago, telling him that helicopters would bring in supplies and evacuate his wounded and sick today, had made him think seriously about the worth of further staying in the Philippines with the handful of men left to him. He was not obtuse to the suffering of his men and was honest enough to realize that what his group had accomplished to date while fighting the Japanese since they had taken over the Philippines was little more than pinpricks. He had thus answered back to the message from General MacArthur headquarters by requesting a complete evacuation of his small guerrilla unit.

He had then received an acknowledge agreeing to his request and confirming the place and time of the pickup. Now, he could only hope that this promised pickup was going to materialize.

As Jesus was waiting and watching, he started to hear a faint noise of aircraft engine coming from the sea. That noise progressively grew, with those aircraft

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apparently heading for his location. He thus shouted orders to his men, who were hiding among the trees growing along the beach.

‘’Get ready, men: I believe that our pickup is coming.’

His 132 men still able to fight then came out of the jungle and onto the beach, carrying on improvised stretchers or on poncho tarps held by their corners the 37 wounded or sick members of their unit. The noise of engines and propellers, rather peculiar for aircraft, soon grew quite loud. To Jesus dismay, he then saw two dozen dark, elongated shapes overfly him at high speed, showing no signs of slowing down as they flew towards the Southwest, prompting one of his men to shout at the sky.

‘’HEY, WE’RE HERE!’

Jesus, confused, also thought for a moment that they had somehow been forgotten, until he heard another group of aircraft approach, but near the surface of the sea this time.

‘’DON’T WORRY, MEN: MORE AIRCRAFT ARE COMING NOW. GET READY

TO BRING OUR SICK AND WOUNDED FIRST ABOARD THOSE AIRCRAFT.’

With his men calming down somewhat, Jesus then tried to see the approaching aircraft.

He finally started to distinguish a small group of black dots low over the water as they were about half a mile away. Those dots quickly grew to the strangest aircraft shapes he had ever seen. Never having seen or heard about a helicopter before, he scratched his head as six UH-2 medium helicopters landed one behind the other on the sand of the beach. One silhouette then jumped out from the rear ramp of the lead helicopter and started running towards him, with Jesus also starting to run to meet that person halfway.

He soon slowed down and stopped, utterly surprised when he recognized that person.

‘’Ingrid, is that you?’’

‘’Yes, it’s me, Jesus!’ replied Ingrid before opening her arms and hugging him while planting frantic kisses on his cheeks. ‘’I am so happy to see you and our men again. But they must get aboard my helicopters quickly: the Japanese may react to their arrival. We will have time to speak further once on our escort carrier.’

‘’Right!’ said Jesus before switching to Tagalog. ‘’GET ABOARD THOSE

HELICOPTERS, MEN, AND MAKE IT QUICK!’

With a number of nurses and medics coming out of the helicopters to help load the sick and the wounded in the waiting UH-2s, everybody was inside in mere minutes, allowing the six helicopters to take off from the beach. Ingrid then took the time to hug in turn the Filipino men now in her helicopter, hugs they warmly returned. Once that was

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done, Ingrid went to sit next to Jesus Villamor and took one of his hands while looking with tenderness in his eyes.

‘’You and the men will soon be in Port Moresby, where you will get a complete medical examination before going on a month-long rehabilitation leave in Australia.

General MacArthur is taking care of arranging that leave period for you.’

‘’And after that? What are we going to do, with our president in exile in the United States?’’

‘’I came to an arrangement with Lieutenant General Kenney, the commander of the Fifth Air Force in Port Moresby, before flying to the SANGAMON with extra helicopters in order to be able to meet you on Luzon. Your men will be integrated to my air wing as extra ground crews, while you will become my only male pilot.’’

‘’Your only male pilot? Does that mean...’

‘’That my air group is composed exclusively of female aircrews? Yes! The 99th Air Wing, nicknamed ‘The Fifinel as’, is an all-female air combat unit composed of a mix of fighter, bomber, transport and helicopter squadrons. The attack helicopters you saw pass overhead on their way to attack Clark Field, Nielson Field and Nichols Field, were all piloted by women. Once they will have concluded their attacks, they will return to our escort carrier, which will then bring us back to Port Moresby. You may be happy to learn that my unit has severely clobbered the Japanese in the past few weeks and that the Japanese Navy is now a mere ghost of its past self. So, will you and your men accept to be integrated into my air wing, Jesus?’’

‘’We would be stupid not to, Ingrid. You were and still are the best commander we had in this war.’

‘’Thank you for the compliment, Jesus. If you wil now excuse me, I wil go check on how my attack helicopter pilots are doing over the Philippines.’

As soon as Ingrid had returned to the cockpit of her UH-2, a doctor and a nurse started going from men to men, in order to make quick medical evaluations of the Filipino guerrillas, while the female loadmaster distributed bottled fruit juice and sandwiches around. Some ten minutes later, Ingrid returned to the cargo cabin of the UH-2. Jesus didn’t miss the sober expression now clouding her face.

‘’Something is wrong, Ingrid?’

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‘’There always are things which go wrong in war, Jesus. My attack helicopters are now returning to the SANGAMON but they lost one of theirs, downed by an anti-aircraft gun over Clark Field.’’

‘’I am sorry to hear that, Ingrid. Did you know those pilots well?’’

‘’I know all of my aircrews well, Jesus, as I personally enrolled all of them. At least, they didn’t fall alive in the hands of the Japanese.’’

Ingrid then fell silent, absorbed in her thoughts, with Jesus respecting her silence by refraining from asking further questions.

09:52 (Manila Time)

Field next to Clark Field’s main tarmac

75 miles north-northwest from Manila

Island of Luzon, Philippines

Lieutenant General Yamashita, the commander of all Japanese Army units in the Philippines, looked on in silence at the incinerated remains of the lone American aircraft shot down hours before over Clark Field. It was definitely unlike any other aircraft he had seen before, either American or Japanese ones. Just the presence of the large coaxial rotors, which had originally pointed directly at the vertical, made that mystery aircraft a puzzle for him. For that reason, he had asked for the assistance of a qualified aeronautical engineer who was part of his staff as his aviation advisor. That expert was now examining from up close the remains of that downed American aircraft while Yamashita looked on from a few meters away. After a good twenty minutes passed sifting through the burned-out debris, the engineer came back to his general to present his report.

‘’Sir, while I have never seen this specific model of aircraft before, I can tell you that it was a helicopter, a machine designed to take off and land at the vertical. The Germans experimented with a couple of models of helicopters just before this war started. However, this machine here is a lot more advanced and sophisticated than anything the Germans had designed and it looks quite formidable to me.’

‘’I can gather that last point by the amount of damage those ‘helicopters’ caused to three of our airfields, Major Nakajima.’’ replied Yamashita in a caustic tone. ‘’At last count, 106 of our aircraft were destroyed on the ground in that night attack. What can you tell me specifically about this particular machine?’’

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‘’Well, I can say with certainty that it was powered by a pair of standard American piston radial engines, connected to a large gearbox which transmitted their power to two coaxial rotors turning in opposite directions, probably in order to cancel out the torque from each rotor. That principle is very advanced and also very efficient, eliminating the need for an anti-torque tail rotor. It was a tandem two-seater, with the cockpit areas and the engines heavily protected by steel armor. One of our 75 mm guns got lucky and managed a direct hit on it, which downed it. A small turret under its belly supported an automatic cannon and two machine guns and it was also seen carrying bombs, or something like bombs. As for the electronic equipment inside, it was completely destroyed by the crash and ensuing fire, so I can’t say much about it. One of the anti-aircraft gunners who approached the wreck immediately after the crash told me that he had found the body of one of the two pilots, which had been ejected out on impact: it was that of a woman.’

‘’A WOMAN? ARE YOU SURE, MAJOR?’’

‘’Sir, that gunner told me that they had preserved her body inside the nearest hangar. Shal we go examine it, sir?’’

‘’Yes! This definitely intrigues me.’

With a staff officer from Clark Field leading them to the said hangar, Yamashita and Major Nakajima were soon standing next to a body covered with a tarp. Yamashita then went to himself uncover the said body before examining it with cold eyes accustomed to look at death. While badly mangled and mutilated, that body was definitely that of a young woman with brown hair and wearing a pilot’s leather helmet and inflatable vest. Seeing a blood-covered patch sewn to the ripped combat shirt of the dead woman, Yamashita looked at it for a moment before looking at his senior intelligence officer.

‘’The 99th Air Wing, the Fifinellas? What do we know about that American air unit, Colonel?’’

Yamashita didn’t miss the way the face of his intelligence officer hardened on getting that question.

‘’General, the 99th Air Wing is the only known female air combat unit in the American forces and it is led by a young woman who is presently by far the top American air ace of all times, with over 75 claimed air victories. She is nicknamed ‘Lady Hawk’ and became famous...or infamous, while fighting us in the skies of the Philippines

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last year. She is even said to have fought on the ground, in the jungles of Bataan, after her unit lost its last operational fighter aircraft. There is also a critical piece of information about her: she is said to be the adoptive daughter of the famous Canadian time traveler, Nancy Laplante, who died in early 1941.’

Yamashita raised an eyebrow at that, his interest pricked.

‘’And do we know where this young woman and her unit are right now?’’

‘’The 99th Air Wing is presently stationed in Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, General.’

‘’IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA? THAT’S 4,000 KILOMETERS FROM HERE! HOW

THE HELL COULD ONE OF ITS AIRCRAFT BE HERE, IN THE PHILIPPINES?’’

‘’Uh, we presume that they were carried to close to the Philippines by an American aircraft carrier, sir.’

‘’You presume?’’ asked Yamashita, truly irritated and disturbed by now. ‘’How about we search for that carrier and sink it, Colonel?’’

‘’Er, we have no aircraft left to do that, sir, while the Navy is sorely short of ships at this time.’’

‘’What about our submarines? What about Navy planes? Is someone going to do something about this or are we supposed to sit on our thumbs here? Get some kind of search initiated, Colonel, AT ONCE!’

‘’Yes sir!’ replied the colonel, stiffening and saluting Yamashita before running away. His general then turned his attention back on the mutilated body of the female American pilot and, after a few seconds, came to attention and saluted the dead woman.

She may have been an enemy of Japan but Yamashita could admire military valor wherever he saw it.

15:19 (PNG Time)

Saturday, December 05, 1942 ‘C’

Fifth Air Force headquarters, Wards Airfield

Near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

After what had been some decidedly momentous days and weeks, Vice Admiral Halsey and General MacArthur had mutually decided that some strategic and operational level readjustments in plans were now needed. Having already seen how the 99th Air Wing was working with its advanced planes and weapons and realizing that

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both of their theaters of operations were now closely influenced by the recent events, Halsey and MacArthur had called for a sort of combined regional strategic conference, to be held at the headquarters of Lieutenant General Kenney, in Wards Airfield. Now assembled around the big map table placed in the middle of the Fifth Air Force operations center were General Douglas MacArthur, General Sir Thomas Blamey, Lieutenant General George Kenney and Vice Admiral William Halsey, plus their senior operations and intelligence staff officers, with those Navy officers from Noumea having been summoned to Port Moresby by Halsey. The one participant which some navy officers were surprised to see at such a high-level meeting was Ingrid. However, since Vice Admiral Halsey had agreed with the intention of MacArthur to have Ingrid present, those navy officers didn’t dare raise a stink about her participation to the conference.

The mood around the map table was decidedly positive as the participants looked at the numerous symbols in red and blue grease pencils written on the transparent plastic film covering the map. Most of the red symbols were now marked over with blue ‘X’ symbols and dates, signifying that those Japanese units or ships had been destroyed and on which date and time.

‘’How ten weeks can change things’’ said MacArthur, a slight smile on his lips,

‘’and for the better, which is all to my liking. The Japanese Navy now has all but disappeared from the South Pacific and we haven’t had to repel a single Japanese bomber raid for over three weeks. I am sure that your marines on Guadalcanal are not complaining about that state of affair, Admiral Halsey.’

‘’They sure aren’t, General.’ replied a grinning William Halsey. ‘’Now that they don’t have to worry anymore about Japanese air raids and naval bombardments, they have been able to push back the Japanese Army troops present on the island. Those Japanese soldiers, who have not received any extra supplies or reinforcements for over two months now, are reported to be slowly starving to death. The Japanese soldiers who were recently found and killed by our marines on patrol were said to be skin and bones and were very weak. Another month of blockade against Japanese resupply convoy and the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal will basically die by themselves from starvation and diseases. I have thus ordered my ships to return to the Solomon waters and to prevent any Japanese ships from approaching Guadalcanal. I also am going to soon replace the First Marine Division with the Army’s Americal Division, so that our marines could final y take some richly deserved rest in Australia.’’

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Halsey then smiled to Ingrid before continuing.

‘’By the way, I have a big Bravo Zulu for your helicopter detachment you sent to support our marines in Henderson Field, Colonel. Their air support proved very effective and was most appreciated by our marines.’

‘’It was our pleasure, Admiral. I believe that, by blockading the Japanese troops left in New Guinea, Rabaul and the Bougainville Islands, we will be able to starve them to death within months. We thus won’t need to needlessly risk the lives of our soldiers and marines by launching direct assaults on Japanese bastions. We will also be able to rebuild our forces in the South Pacific area while the Japanese are being starved. As for my air wing, I will concentrate on systematically hitting and destroying all the Japanese aircraft and ships to be found around our two theaters of operations and around the Dutch East Indies. We should in particular hunt down and sink all the Japanese tanker ships and cargo ships we will find. Without access to the oil and resources from its conquests, Japan will slowly wither and become impotent: no oil and no minerals will mean no possible major military actions by Japan. Yes, that will mean one or two more years of war before Japan will be forced to capitulate, but that will also potentially save the lives of hundreds of thousands of our men. The one place where we will not be able to avoid some serious fighting is the Philippines: starving the Japanese there would also mean starving the Filipino people and I am not ready to let that happen, Admiral. Let’s be patient and build up our forces in view of our retaking of the Philippines.’

‘’I fully agree with Colonel Dows on this, Admiral.’ said MacArthur in a firm voice.

‘’We want to liberate the Philippines while protecting the Filipino people from harm. I thus plan to conduct a campaign meant to isolate and blockade the Japanese occupying the Southwest Pacific, so that we could then concentrate on a future large-scale assault which will throw the Japanese out of the Philippines. However, to do that, we will need the support of the Navy.’

While in general agreement with MacArthur, Halsey had to caution him about what he had heard from his Navy superiors.

‘’Your overall strategic plan is both sound and realistic, General, however what I have heard from Admiral Nimitz in Hawaii and from Admiral King in Washington is that they want to advance across the Central Pacific and take the islands held by the Japanese, in order to eventually be able to take Formosa and blockade Japan directly.’

Ingrid immediately flared up in anger and irritation.

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‘’Have your superiors even bothered to read the information from the future concerning this war, information my adoptive mother brought with her from the year 2012 and which I and my late husband brought a copy of to General MacArthur when we arrived in the Philippines in early 1941, Admiral? Didn’t they take notice of the series of bloodbaths our marines and soldiers will endure by assaulting head-on those Japanese island garrisons in the Central Pacific? We now have the opportunity to win this war against Japan by going around those Japanese strongpoints and letting them starve at little cost to our men. And they would be ready to sacrifice tens of thousands of our men simply in order to take a few worthless islands?’

‘’Careful about your words, Colonel.’ replied in a hostile voice one of Halsey’s staff officers, a navy captain who was his Plans Officer. ‘’You are no naval expert and Admiral Nimitz has a very competent staff serving him.’

Ingrid stared hard at that officer while raising her voice by one notch.

‘’It doesn’t take an expert to see that losing thousands of marines just in order to take an island with no real potential as an air or sea base, when you could simply bypass it, would be a stupid waste of our men’s lives, Captain.’’

That navy captain was about to reply to her in a harsh tone when Halsey signaled to him to keep his mouth shut. The vice admiral then looked soberly at Ingrid and spoke in a measure tone.

‘’You may be right about this, Colonel Dows, but those kinds of decisions are taken in Washington, not in this airfield or in Noumea. As for your information from the future on this war, I would have to read through it first to make up my opinion about it.’

Both Ingrid and MacArthur shot surprised looks at Halsey, with MacArthur then speaking first.

‘’You haven’t seen those ‘Hourglass Files’ yet, Admiral Halsey? Have Admiral Nimitz and Admiral King seen them?’’

‘’No, I haven’t seen them, General: I never got a copy of them. As for Admirals Nimitz and King, I couldn’t say if they read those files.’’

Ingrid, incensed by this, looked at MacArthur.

‘’General, do you stil have the copy of the Hourglass Files you got from me and Ken? If yes, maybe Admiral Halsey would gain by reading them.’

‘’I certainly stil have them, Colonel Dows, as I constantly study them in order to help me formulate my battle plans. Admiral, I would urge you to sit down tonight and read through the chapters of those files pertaining to the war in the Pacific. You will thus

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see by yourself how futile and costly a series of amphibious assaults across the Central Pacific would be. As for your Navy superiors in Washington having read or not their copies of the Athena Files, I suspect they either didn’t or were dismissive of them, if I can judge by the way our forces in Hawaii were caught flat-footed by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor.’

‘’I stil wil have to follow the strategic directives given to me by my superiors in Hawai and Washington, General.’ said Halsey. ‘’However, I will accept your offer of letting me read those Hourglass Files tonight. I would appreciate very much if you could then direct me to the more pertinent parts of those files.’’

‘’I wil let Colonel Dows help you with that, Admiral: she is much more knowledgeable than me about that information from the future. She also knows things that are not in those files, as she was able to discuss them directly with her adoptive mother, Nancy Laplante.’’

Halsey threw a sharp look at Ingrid, while many of his staff officers appeared shocked.

‘’You know more about this than even Washington, Colonel?’’

‘’I do, Admiral! I have been basing my tactics on that information ever since I started fighting the Japanese over a year ago. I also have some personal past experience which helps me guide my actions and decisions.’

‘’Some personal past experience...as a teenage girl? Yeah, sure!’ muttered Halsey’s Chief of Plans. Ingrid threw him a furious look on hearing that. The officers around the map table then saw that navy captain grimace with pain while vacillating and holding his head with both hands.

‘’Aaah! My head...it wants to explode.’’

The navy captain’s pain then apparently went away about as fast as it came and he looked with what was close to fear at Ingrid, who was still glaring at him.

‘’What did you do to me? Are you a kind of witch?’

‘’No, I am not a witch, Captain: I am simply someone who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Here is some extra info for you, which I already gave to General MacArthur and to General Kenney: while with Nancy Laplante in London, both of us simultaneously started remembering the souvenirs from our past incarnations. While Nancy remembered some 9,000 years from her past lives, I remembered 7,000 years of my own past incarnations. You want to hear me speak in Ancient Sumerian, or in Attic Greek? I also have been a different person since I lived through that experience. Now, I would appreciate if you could start taking me seriously, Captain Moorehead.’’

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With most of the men present, except for MacArthur and Kenney, staring at her with disbelief, Ingrid then looked at MacArthur.

‘’General, do you wish for me to stay or to leave?’’

‘’Stay, Ingrid: your advice is too precious for me, especially right now.’

MacArthur then faced Halsey and his navy staff officers, his expression sober.

‘’Admiral, gentlemen, I have always found the advice and counsels from Colonel Dows to be both judicious and most helpful. I would thus urge you to listen to her and to take her seriously, especially at this time, when we have to decide how to pursue the war in our respective theaters of operations.’

‘’I am ready to do that, General.’ replied Halsey while cautiously glancing at Ingrid.

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