Raging Sea, Searing Sky

by Christopher Nicole

  She had picked up the telephone directory. What memories that brought back. He got up, took it from her hands. ‘Maybe I should go down and fetch your bags.’

  *

  He had, perhaps, not realised how much he had missed her. Life with May was a dream perhaps unrealisable with any other woman. If he knew that he no longer loved her with the utter devotion of his boyhood, that indeed perhaps he no longer loved the woman he had once married at all, yet was this a woman worth loving for the sheer energy and enjoyment she put into her life.

  And she had most certainly reformed. No doubt that was because he continued in the design office for another couple of years, and thus was home every afternoon by six. To May. There was a happy thought.

  They were even happier years than the two preceding. No doubt a great number of eyebrows were raised when Captain and Mrs McGann got back together, in view of the scandal that had surrounded their separation five years earlier. But no one could ignore May, especially a May who was a very wealthy woman and never did less than act the part. People accepted invitations to her first big party, and thus had to invite her back. Soon there was not a hostess in the capital who could count her party a success if the tall, voluptuous blonde goddess was not to be found amongst her guests.

  For Lew it was an even happier time because it brought him again into close contact with his children. He was no longer prepared to worry whether they were his or not. They called him Father, or Daddy, or Pop.

  Clive visited just before going to Dartmouth. ‘I hope you don’t think I am being in any way disloyal, Father,’ he said. ‘It’s just that I think there’s more chance of seeing action with the Royal Navy, the way things are going in Europe, than with the United States Navy.’ Lew couldn’t argue with that; the situation in Europe was daily growing more serious.

  ‘And you did serve with the Royal Navy yourself,’ Clive went on.

  Lew couldn’t argue with that, either.

  ‘I do love America,’ Joan confided. ‘Especially Washington. Are you going to be here always, Daddy?’

  ‘Not always,’ Lew told her. ‘And you would not really like Washington in the winter.’

  But having Joan to stay, at seventeen the spitting image of May as she had been on board the Lusitania, was a great treat. If not quite as rewarding as Wally’s visit.

  ‘Do you think, Pop,’ he confided, ‘that I have any chance of getting to Annapolis. I mean, having been to an English school?’

  He even spoke with an English accent. But with his size — even at fourteen — and his rugged features, there was no room for doubt that he was indeed a McGann.

  Lew had to blow his nose. ‘You’ll go to Annapolis, if you want to, Walt,’ he promised. ‘But...don’t you want to follow Clive into the Royal Navy? According to him, that’s where the action is going to be.’

  ‘Do you really think so, Pop?’ Wally asked seriously. ‘With what’s happening in China?’

  The darkening political scene was in fact the only blot on the horizon, yet for a serving officer it was also a bright light; the kind of navy Lew was assisting in creating was surely not intended just to show the flag on goodwill tours — and to think of commanding one of the new giants...there was definitely Armageddon in the air, as in that very summer of 1937 China finally declared war on Japan, while in Europe Germany and Italy moved closer together and embarked upon a series of apparently calculated revisions, by force where necessary, of the Versailles Treaty.

  This led to an even more frenzied revision of Navy plans for capital ships, for disquieting rumours were coming out of Germany. Way back in 1936 American agents had reported, since the signing the previous year of an amazing treaty between Great Britain and the Hitler regime, which had permitted Germany to build a navy as strong as thirty-five per cent of the Royal Navy — the most powerful seagoing force in the world — that the Germans had laid down the keels of two monster battleships, of over forty thousand tons standard, and possibly fifty thousand deep loaded. These rumours were confirmed early in 1939, when the two great ships, named respectively Bismarck and Tirpitz, were launched. Great Britain had reacted to this by ordering five new battleships of its own, but these were altogether smaller ships, and they were to be armed with the conventional fourteen-inch gun as opposed to the German fifteen-inch. The Navy Board in Washington did not like this trend at all, and on Lew’s desk arrived preliminary plans for a new class of United States capital ship, the first to be called the Iowa, which were to be designed to forty-eight thousand tons standard displacement, fifty-seven thousand deep loaded, and be armed with nine sixteen-inch guns. The ultimate battlewagon had arrived.

  *

  But Lew had scarcely had the time to study the proposals when he was summoned to Admiral Slater’s office.

  ‘Sit down, Lewis,’ invited Admiral Slater. ‘You know Commander Apwood.’

  ‘Commander.’ Lew shook hands, and then took his seat. The commander, he knew, was in Intelligence. One of Brenda’s bosses, in fact. That thought made his pulse race, pleasantly. But also uncertainly. He had neither seen nor heard from Brenda since May’s return.

  As perhaps the admiral knew. ‘So how are you enjoying married life?’ Slater inquired. ‘All over again?’

  ‘Very much, as a matter of fact, sir.’

  ‘Well, that’s just great,’ Slater said. ‘But I guess you’re wondering where you go from here, eh?’

  ‘Some,’ Lew admitted.

  ‘I imagine you’ve seen the newspapers.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ All America had been disturbed by the recent developments in Europe, where after British Prime Minister Chamberlain, in his search for ‘peace in our time’ had the previous year sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Nazi ambition, he had now reversed his course, given unconditional guarantees of support to any country he regarded as threatened by German expansionism, and begun to prepare for war. ‘Are we going to be involved, if it comes to shooting?’

  ‘No chance of that,’ Slater said. ‘Not this time. So you won’t be skippering a battleship to take on the German fleet, just now. In fact, we have a much more important assignment for you.’

  Lew waited. He only wanted to captain a battleship.

  ‘We would like you to take over in Tokyo as our senior naval attaché,’ Slater said.

  Lew frowned. ‘Me? I doubt I’m the most popular American in the world, to the Japanese.’

  ‘On the contrary. The word we are getting is that your assault on Wu-Yang tickled their funny bones. Eh, Commander?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Lew said. He and Hash still corresponded; the sanity of their friendship made a nonsense of the growing hostility between Japan and the United States. Thus to consider playing the spy on them, on Hash himself...’It’s not what I had in mind.’

  ‘It has the advantage that you’ll be able to take May with you,’ Slater pointed out.

  ‘Yes, sir.’ That was a point. But May...in Tokyo?

  ‘It is also a very important posting, Lewis,’ Slater went on. ‘What I am going to say now is absolutely confidential, however much everyone in the Navy has suspected it to be the case for some time. Everyone’s bothered about what’s gonna happen next in Europe, but we have problems of our own in the Pacific, problems which indeed could be exacerbated if the British and the French get caught up in another European war — because that would mean they would no longer be keeping an eye on their possessions in the Far East. But whether that happens or not, there can be no doubt that in the not too distant future we are going to have to go to war with Japan. Their refusal to call off the war on China merely confirms the view that the naval staff have held for years. They are on an expansionist course, and China is only the first step on the road to Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, which, as I said just now, could just find themselves virtually undefended one of these fine days. And once they’re down there, they might-just start looking at the Philippines. They have shown that they are prepared to move slowly, one step at a time, to achieve their objecti
ves. We would have to be both blind and stupid to let them do that and wake up one morning to find all East Asia from New Guinea to Sakhalin flying the rising sun.’

  He pointed, as Lew moved restlessly. ‘Don’t get me wrong. The United States doesn’t engage in preventive war. But we also know that simply to hold up our hand and say stop isn’t going to accomplish much; we’ve tried that already. So what the President is being advised to do is stop them physically, short of war. The Japanese do not have their own sources of petroleum, and they are short of many other of the basic requirements of a country, and especially a country at war. What we are going to try to do is isolate them from those essential supplies. If the Dutch and the British will cooperate, we can do it. Then it’s up to the Japanese. We’ll tell them, pull out of China and start playing ball with us, and we’ll play ball with you. That means restoring their oil supplies. Now, it may be that they’ll get rid of this military clique when they realise how determined we are, and will just withdraw to their own islands. Commander Apwood doesn’t think they will do that, however.’ He glanced at the commander.

  I don’t think they will either, Lew thought, recalling his conversation with Hash only minutes before the Tokyo earthquake.

  ‘I don’t think they can afford to, sir,’ Apwood said. ‘I believe the loss of face would be too great. You will recall, Captain McGann, that four years ago, when a less warlike government took power and began negotiations with the Chinese, there was an attempted coup d’état by young army officers in which several of the moderate statesmen were assassinated. Such a fate hangs over the heads of any Japanese politician who advocates peace with China.’

  ‘So the commander thinks they will fight,’ Slater said. ‘But he has some ideas on that, too.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Apwood said. ‘It is based on a study of Japanese history, with particular reference to the last fifty years. On the occasion of both the war with China in 1894, and with Russia in 1904, the Japanese, although it seemed obvious to most observers that war was inevitable, negotiated and played for time until they had made every preparation complete-then they struck without warning. They attacked and sank a Chinese troopship in 1894, and then they attacked the Russian fleet in Port Arthur in 1904, both without a declaration of war. The second attack just about crippled the Russian Pacific fleet. This enabled them to land their armies in Korea without naval interference, and in fact, won them the war. Now, there can be no doubt that they are thinking along the same lines at the present time. Any war with the United States has got to be a naval war, and therefore we must expect a surprise attack, or a series of surprise attacks, on our naval units, at sea, and possibly even in Manila or Subic Bay, in order to give them at least local superiority to carry out their strategic plan.’

  ‘What about Pearl?’ Lew asked.

  Slater grinned. ‘I don’t think even the Japanese would be so crazy as to commit themselves to an assault on Pearl. Several thousand miles from their base, heavily protected...anyway, we’d see them coming. Agreed, Commander?’

  ‘Oh, certainly, sir. Still, it is essential for us to obtain some inkling of the direction in which their minds are looking. There is, however, another aspect of the situation which is both curious and sinister. The Japanese, as you know, Captain McGann, some years ago opted out of the obligations of both the Washington and London naval treaties, and publicly resumed full right to build as and where they chose. They have been developing their carrier fleet at great speed, and their submarine and smaller forces. But...they have not officially laid down a single battleship or battlecruiser since 1921.’

  ‘Maybe they’re putting all their eggs in carriers,’ Lew suggested.

  ‘That would be extremely unlikely, sir, given the Japanese faith in battleships. And also given their observed interest in the building programmes of other maritime nations. They have been studying our North Carolina and South Dakota designs, and they have also been studying the new British King George V Class, which is just being laid down. But they have shown even more interest in the two new German battleships, Bismarck and Tirpitz, which are now close to completion. Now, Captain, as you probably know, these German ships are going to be the biggest and most powerful ships so far built. They are going to displace something like fifty thousand tons, deep loaded, and be armed with fifteen-inch guns. Now as you also know, designs are being made up for us to match them with our Iowa class. It doesn’t make sense that the Japanese are going to sit back and watch us and the Germans building these super battleships without doing something about it. In fact, my colleagues and I believe that plans for such a ship or ships are already in existence, if the keel has not already been laid. Certainly we know that there are two ships under construction in Japan at this moment, in conditions of the most utter secrecy. We do not know what those ships are, but it is essential that we discover the truth about them as rapidly as possible. I don’t have to spell out for you the consequences to the balance of naval power if a potential enemy can command a squadron of fifty thousand ton ships a couple of years before we do.’

  ‘Don’t we have to face that, anyway?’ Lew demanded. ‘If Hitler is going to possess such a squadron?’

  ‘We have no reason to become involved in European affairs,’ Apwood told him. ‘That is a British problem, and they seem quite sure they can handle it. East Asia is our problem.’

  ‘So there it is, Lewis,’ Slater told him. ‘Your brief is to find out what timetable the Japanese have, if they have one, and to find out what their building programme for capital ships is, if they have one. Understood.’

  ‘Yes, sir. I had never anticipated being employed as a spy.’

  ‘You’re an observer, Lewis. But if you can get your friends chatting about things they shouldn’t, so much the better.’

  ‘Yes,’ Lew said sadly. It would mean using Hashimoto, he thought again. And Hashimoto might be in Naval Intelligence, but he was the most open of men.

  ‘Your immediate superior will of course be Ambassador Grew,’ Apwood said. ‘And the diplomatic pouch will handle any secret information you may obtain. But your contact on the ground will be Mrs Lloyd. I believe you and she have worked together before.’

  Lew gave him a very old fashioned look. Presumably he had helped to set up the Wu-Yung affair. But his heart was suddenly lurching with uncertainty. Brenda was not married after all, but still working for the department. He had hardly supposed he would see her again; since May’s return, he had not been sure he wanted to.

  ‘She is now in Tokyo as private secretary to Joseph Hanson, president of the Japanese office of Hanson and Iliffe, the textile people. She will be expecting to hear from you.’

  Slater was grinning at him. ‘The Japanese remember how you and she had something going for each other, a couple of years ago. They won’t be surprised if you get together again in Tokyo. But you be careful.’ He wagged his finger. ‘You have a wife.’

  *

  Lew went to the club and had a drink before returning home. Of course being an attaché, in such a place as Tokyo, and at such a time — if anything Apwood had told him was true — was a most responsible job. If he hated the idea of spying, it was something that had to be done, and was being done, by attachés all over the world: Father had been naval attaché at the London Embassy during the war. And had gone from there to command of Vermont. Well, if he could follow the same route...that was his great ambition, to command a battleship.

  So it was a job to be carried out. Once again in harness with Brenda. Only three years ago that would have made his heart leap for joy. But it wasn’t three years ago. There was also concern. Once again she was sticking her neck out, a very long way. He was taking no risk at all; the worst that could befall a naval attaché was expulsion from the country, were he found to be spying. Or, perhaps, he thought, were he found to be spying too openly — everyone knew just what naval attachés were. But Brenda was a civilian, who presumably would be disowned by the State Department were she ever found out, and would t
herefore be defenceless...as she had been before Chang Huang Lu. Save that this time the men who would arrest her would be led by Hashimoto Kurita, or someone like him. That was a reassuring thought. And of course, as she was there already, and apparently had been for some time — since last he had seen her in fact — her neck was stuck out whether he was there or not.

  But Brenda...and May!

  *

  ‘Japan? Tokyo? Oh, Lewis!’ May screamed. ‘How exciting. Oh, how marvellous. Oh, Lewis, I am so excited. Here was I thinking you were going to be sent away on a ship. Oh, Lewis!’

  She was everything a man could desire in a wife, providing one never looked over one’s shoulder. And he had been invited to go back to Brenda’s arms. Without guilt. Slater was a boor, but there could be no doubt he represented the general opinion of the Navy. Captain McGann’s wife had stepped out of line too often. If her husband accepted her back, that was his prerogative — but he could exercise complete freedom of action.

  Father was also delighted. ‘Position of responsibility, Lew,’ he said, when they paid a farewell visit to Long Island. It was easy to see that, being old fashioned, he was also delighted that his son and daughter-in-law had got back together. Things were changing on Long Island. With the expansion of the wealthy of New York, and the consequent rise in the cost of land as the Depression began to recede — not least as a consequence of the general rearmament programme — Father and Uncle Billy had abandoned farming — which continued in a depressed state anyway — sold off much of their land, and had instead become investors on the Stock Exchange. He probably soon would not even have a home to return to, Lew thought. But without rancour. May had never liked Long Island.

  The children were delighted too, and Joan immediately made plans to join them in Tokyo for a long stay. This suited May down to the ground, because her pleasure at the thought of going to Tokyo was muted by the increasingly serious news from Europe. She could do nothing about Clive, but she was determined to get both Joan and Wally out of England, even if Lew pointed out that the chances of the island ever being invaded were remote in the extreme. ‘I must go and get things straight,’ she insisted. ‘You go on ahead and find us a house or an apartment. I’ll bring Joan and Wally to the States, settle Wally in a college over here, and join you with Joan. Please, say yes, Lew.’