“We are a very small wolf pack, only three of us. What we will do, how we will attack, are decisions I will make when we have targets. If possible I intend to attack on the surface at night.” He looked at Captain Marble.
“I recall your rather strenuous objections to that tactic when I mentioned it in Fremantle, sir. I trust you have changed your mind?”
“In all truth, sir, I have not,” Marble said. His heavy face was flushed, his mouth set in stubborn lines.
“We’ve lost too many submarines in this war, far too many. It is my judgment we lose submarines because we take unnecessary chances, reckless chances. Mako, as Captain Brannon here knows very well, the Mako was lost because it attacked a convoy on the surface at night. If I remember Captain Brannon’s patrol report, Mako was raked by heavy gunfire, went down, and was lost. And I point out, sir, with all due respect, that Captain Brannon’s brilliant attack on the two Japanese destroyers that killed Mako was conducted while Eelfish was submerged. At night.”
Captain Shelton saw the gathering storm in Captain Mealey’s face and cleared his throat.
“We will, of course, sir, follow your orders as you give them. To the very best of our ability. Where you lead, sir, we will follow. Never doubt that.”
Captain Mealey looked at the officers around the Wardroom table.
“Let me say this, gentlemen. When Captain John Paul Jones was put in charge of a small battle fleet in our Revolutionary War, he said, if I can recall, quote: I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.
“I cannot ask for ships that sail fast because we must conserve our fuel, but, by God, we will go in harm’s way!”
Sitting in the Wardroom after the other Captains and their Executive Officers had left, Captain Mealey turned to Mike Brannon
“We have our work cut out for us, sir. I am going to break one of my own rules. I am going to take you into my confidence. If I had been able to overcome the politics we would have other ships, other Captains with us for this first wolf-pack operation. But I could not.”
“Politics?” Brannon said.
“Politics,” Mealey answered. He drew a small circle on the green-baize table covering with the stem of his pipe.
“Both the Commanding Officers of the other submarines are very close to being promoted to four stripes. Neither has a good war-patrol record. Both have very powerful friends in Washington. That’s the background.
“When word got out some weeks ago that we were going to mount a wolf pack, both of them were told about it by their friends. The pressures from Washington to put one of those two in charge of the wolf pack were very strong. I cannot tell you how strong.” He turned his bleak face to Brannon.
“That’s why I am here, why my flag is in Eelfish. This wolf-pack operation must be successful. My boss in Pearl Harbor, Captain Rudd, and I share the opinion that if either Marble or Shelton led the wolf-pack operation it would not be successful.
“I may be pretty dumb,” Brannon said slowly. “But I don’t make the connection at all.”
“I’ll try to explain,” Mealey said. “If either one of them led the wolf pack and if they ran true to form, which is to say that the wolf pack operation would fail, the black eye for that failure would be painted on Captain Bob Rudd. This is his idea. He’s fought for it for months and months. He’s made a lot of very powerful people in Washington very unhappy.
“Captain Rudd became controversial when he began backing submarine captains in their complaints about the Mark Six exploder. He did a lot of research on that exploder.
“One of the things he found out was that the Mark Six exploder was developed by the United States in the mid-nineteen twenties. The British and the Germans developed an almost identical version shortly afterward. The British and the Germans began using their magnetic exploders as soon as their sea war started. They found them to be extremely unreliable, just as our submarine Captains found. They stopped using them and went back to contact exploders.
“We knew this. Bob Rudd also found out that our Mark Six exploder had never once been fired from a submarine at a target. Never once tested! Not from a submarine.”
“I didn’t know that,” Brannon said.
“Few people do,” Mealey said. “What’s more, you won’t find a single piece of literature on that exploder which tells you how to maintain it, test it, or use it. That literature was drawn up, but the Gun Club Admirals who developed the exploder decided that the literature was too secret to be disseminated, so they locked the original copy up in a safe.
“It took Captain Rudd a solid year of work and, I have to say this, of politics to break that logjam and modify the exploder so that it will work on contact. That was one major political battle that was won. Now Captain Rudd is in the middle of another political battle, the wolf-pack.
“He’s won the first round. We will try a wolf-pack operation. Just one. If it’s successful Captain Rudd will be riding high. If it fails he’ll probably lose his job, will probably be relieved and sent to a desk somewhere where he’ll rot away. That would be one hell of a loss, in my own opinion. He’s made a lot of very powerful Admirals angry with his work in exposing that Mark Six exploder. He rammed it right down some very sensitive throats, and if this wolf-pack fails they’ll nail his hide to the door.”
“You’ll just have to forgive me, sir,” Brannon said. “I don’t get the connection between Captain Rudd’s unpopularity with some Admirals and the assignment of Captains Marble and Shelton to this wolf pack.”
Mealey bared his teeth in what was more of a grimace than a smile.
“Captain Rudd checkmated the effort to put Marble or Shelton in charge, knowing they would fail. He managed to get me assigned to run the first wolf-pack operation. The opposition countered, sir, countered very well. They’ve given me two weak sisters, Mister! All I’ve got, all Captain Rudd and I can depend on, is the Eelfish and the two of us. Let’s pray to God that the Eelfish, you and I, will be enough. Because I mean to be successful! Each night before I go to sleep I pray, Captain Brannon, I pray that if I do not measure up to what is expected of me that the Lord will take me before I get back to port and have to face people I respect, have to face myself for the rest of my life!”
Brannon sat quietly, his hands slowly turning a pencil around and around on the table top. He was stunned by the intensity of the older man. I’d better start praying myself, he thought, praying that you do everything you expect you should do, because if you don’t and your prayer is answered that you die, then Eelfish dies with you.
The three submarines, following the courses advised by the Ultra code breakers, eased through the Sibutu Passage and timed their arrival at Balabac Strait so that that dangerous area could be run through during the night. They twisted and turned their way through the maze of small islands and turned north to begin the run up the west side of Palawan Island, through the justly feared Palawan Passage.
The water along the 300-mile length on the west side of Palawan Island is called “foul ground” by sailors. It is shallow and treacherous. Barely twenty miles to the west of Palawan’s foul ground there is a vast area that is marked on the charts with the name “Dangerous Ground.” Ships going north and south to the west of Palawan used a narrow alley of deep water between the foul ground and the Dangerous Ground. But even that narrow alley of water is not safe. Dangerous reefs bearing the names of sailing ships that foundered on them many years ago thrust skeletal fingers out into the deep-water alley.
Mike Brannon, who had permitted himself no more than cat naps during the time the Eelfish was making its twisting run through Balabac Strait and up the Palawan Passage, relaxed when John Olsen brought cups of hot coffee to the cigaret deck where Mealey and Brannon kept the night watch and announced that the Eelfish had cleared the Passage.
“So far, so good, sir,” Brannon said to Mealey. “From here on it’s a clear run to our patrol area.” He turned as he heard the rasp of
the bridge speaker.
“Bridge,” the voice over the speaker said. “Notify the Captain that we have an Ultra message coming in.”
“Bridge, aye,” Lieutenant Lee said. He turned as Mike Brannon slid between the periscope shears and the cigaret deck railing and came into the tiny bridge space.
“I have it,” Brannon said. He turned and spoke to Captain Mealey. “Would you like to decode with me, sir? We’re going to dive in an hour or so. The baker should have some fresh pastry about now.” Mealey came forward into the bridge, and the two men went below.
Brannon read the decoded message and shoved it across to Captain Mealey, his eyes glistening. Mealey read the message and smiled, his right forefinger creeping up to touch his white mustache.
“Alert Hatchet Fish and Sea Chub to form up on us after surfacing this evening,” he said. Brannon nodded and went to the radio shack. He came back and sat down at the table and reread the message.
“My God!” Brannon said. “Troop transports, two oil tankers, freighters, a heavy cruiser, destroyers, and a small aircraft carrier! That’s a regular task force, Captain! What in the hell is the Jap doing sending that kind of a force out of Manila to Mindanao?”
“How much of a briefing did they give you about the Navy-Army move northward from New Guinea?” Mealey asked.
“Not very much at all. They told me the Army was going to move north, but that’s about all. They seldom tell us much.”
“General MacArthur is going to make good his promise to return to the Philippines and free them,” Captain Mealey said. “With the Navy’s help, of course. He’ll make good his promise to return before the end of this year, probably late in October. The first major step toward an invasion of the Philippines was taken last week. If I can recall my briefings in Pearl Harbor, the plan was to invade a small group of islands to the north and east of New Guinea called the Admiralty Islands.
“That group of islands will make an ideal cornerstone for air control all the way to Saigon and Truk and to the Philippines. From what I know of the Japanese defense in the Admiralty Islands, we’ll have a tough job with the invasion, but they’re committing the men to do the job.
“Once that invasion operation is over we’ll have an excellent airfield and several good deep-water harbors. What’s more important is that this move and the ones to follow will leave about one hundred thousand Japanese troops massed in Rabaul rotting on the vine. They’ll be bypassed. After we secure the Admiralty Islands, the next move, if you look at a chart, is a series of steps north and west to Morotai, Peleliu, Yap, Ulithi — and then the Philippines.”
“Where will MacArthur hit the Philippines, sir?”
“I don’t know,” Mealey said. “I would think he might land at Mindanao Island. Apparently the Japanese think it will be Mindanao. The Ultra message says that Mindanao is the destination of this task force.” The frosty smile came and went under the white mustache.
“When they get out of Manila Harbor they’ll find that we stand between them and their destination, and by God, we’ll draw blood!”
CHAPTER 14
Captain Mealey bent over the chart on the Wardroom table. Mike Brannon and John Olsen sat across the table from him. Mealey’s long forefinger traced a line out of Manila Harbor.
“If I were commanding that task force I’d take them out of Manila Harbor, come inside of Lubang Island, and then go through this passage between Luzon and Mindoro, across the Sibuyan Sea to Ragay Gulf, down to San Bernardino Strait and out to the Pacific. From there down the east coast of Mindanao Island to Davao Gulf and to Davao. The Japs have a big base at Davao. That’s the most practical route.” He looked at Brannon and Olsen.
“Anything else means more sea miles, more time. Do you gentlemen agree?”
“There is an alternative,” Olsen said quietly. “They could go outside of Lubang Island, to the west, and then go down the west coast of Mindoro Island and east to San Bernardino Strait.”
“Too far,” Mealey said flatly. “Too far. No. I’ll gamble they’re going to take the shortest route. The Ultra people said the Japanese message they intercepted which formed this task force carried a ‘most urgent’ on it. They’re in a hurry. They’ll take the shortest route.” He rubbed his nose with the bowl of his pipe.
“Our problem is where do we choose to meet them, where do we attack? I want deep water if I can get it. I want sea room if I can get it. But if I can’t have both or one we’ll attack anyway.”
Mike Brannon touched a small space on the chart between the northern tip of Mindoro Island and the southern tip of Luzon. “That’s a pretty narrow strait there, isn’t it, sir?” Mealey measured with the dividers.
“Two miles, little less. Would you attack there?”
“No, sir,” Brannon replied. “But I was thinking. You’ve got a mix of ship captains in this task force, some Merchant Marine and some Japanese Navy captains. I think that when they come to go through that strait, it’s so narrow, they’ll string their task force out like a bunch of elephants in a circus parade, one ship following another. That would give them maximum sea room for navigational or maneuvering errors. I wouldn’t attack there. We wouldn’t have much room for maneuvering ourselves. I’d hit them a little east of the narrow gut, just after they go through it.”
“I agree,” Mealey said. “We can wait until they re-form their convoy so we’ll know what we’ve got to shoot at, where they position the carrier.” He touched the chart with the sharp points of the dividers.
“If we station Sea Chub here and Hatchet Fish here, to the east of our position, one of them a little north of the convoy course the other a little south, they’ll be in position to pick up anyone who tries to run away from our attack. I can’t see any of those Japanese ship captains risking a reversal of course and a return through that narrow gut.” He looked at the Ultra message, picked up a pencil, and did some rapid figuring.
“If the Ultra people are accurate about the time they are to get under way, if we allow a couple of hours for them to form up in a convoy leaving Manila Bay, if they follow the course I think they will follow, they should he clear of that narrow gut about forty-one hours from now.” He looked at the clock on the bulkhead.
“It’s zero seven hundred, Tuesday,” he said. “I figure they should be in a position where we can best attack about midnight tomorrow night. We’ll have a quarter moon at about that time. It will help us see but it won’t help them see us. A submariner’s moon.”
“How about target priorities, sir?” Brannon asked.
“Difficult,” Mealey said. He stuffed his pipe with tobacco and then laid it in an ashtray.
“An invasion force, any invasion force, must control the sea and the air. If it does not, its landing craft, its support vessels are all sitting ducks. So I’d say the aircraft carrier is the number one priority. But the two troop transports are also high on the list. The more Japanese troops there are to oppose the landings the more costly the invasion becomes.
“The tankers are important. They’ll be carrying fuel for aircraft and for the tanks and other vehicles already there. I presume the freighters will be loaded with ammunition and stores, and they’re important.” He picked up his pipe and lit it, his eyes looking at Mike Brannon through a cloud of pungent smoke.
“Our problem is that we have too many high-priority targets and only three submarines. I confess that if that heavy cruiser comes across our bow I would set up and shoot at it just because it’s a cruiser!” He picked up a pencil and pulled the chart in front of him.
“One thing we can be sure of: Admiral Christie will be sending every submarine he’s got within steaming range of Davao Gulf in that direction. The concept of a wolf pack is going to be tested, damned hard, too! We’re the first fist to hit at this convoy, and we’ve got to smash them, sink every damned ship we can. I don’t want to give the submarines that Christie sends to Davao Gulf anything more than one or two crumbs.” He made three small marks on the chart.
> “John, these two marks to the east are where I want Sea Chub and Hatchet Fish to take station. Sea Chub will take the northernmost station of the two. This other mark, to the west, is Eelfish.
“I want you to determine exact latitude and longitude for those positions and have that information encoded before we surface tonight. Captain Brannon, I want you to draw up our plan of attack as we have talked about it here and have it encoded. We’ll send that message tonight when we surface
“If Mr. Olsen is right and the task force goes down the west side of Mindoro, we’ll be close enough to take up the chase. Include that possibility in your message. If that is what happens we will then dispatch Sea Chub and Hatchet Fish south to ambush the task force when it turns east to run for San Bernardino Strait.
“I don’t expect that to happen, but I want it included in the message as a contingency. Emphasize that the carrier is the number one priority. Then the troop transports, the oil tankers, the freighters, in that order.
“The code word we will broadcast to let Sea Chub and Hatchet Fish know that we have started the attack will be …” He paused and thought a long moment.
“How does ‘Mealey is mauling’ sound to you?”
“Succinct, sir,” Olsen said with a wide grin. “I can just hear some Jap radio officer telling his skipper that ‘Meary is mauring.’ It isn’t going to be easy for them.”
Mealey’s smile came and went. He pushed the chart toward Olsen and turned to Brannon.
“I’d suggest, Captain, that we take a tour through the ship, let the crew know what we’re planning. I have learned that when a ship’s company is taken into the Wardroom’s confidence, morale is increased and we are likely to get a better standard of performance.”
Silent Sea (The Silent War Book 2) Page 19