"Yes, Sir."
"I’m Fleming Pickering," the Captain said, offering his hand. "Welcome to Australia."
Steve Koffler came up to them, staggering under the weight of his duffel bag, rifle, and typewriter.
"I’ll get your bags, Sir," he said, and walked back toward the launch.
"He’s with you?"
"Yes, Sir. I thought I was probably going to need a typist."
"Good thinking," Pickering chuckled. "But I didn’t know you would have him with you, so that’s one problem I hadn’t thought of."
"Sir?"
"Putting him up," Pickering said. "You’ll be staying with me. But having a corporal there would be a little awkward."
"I understand, Sir."
"Don’t misunderstand me, Major," Pickering said. "I have nothing whatever against Marine corporals. In fact, I used to be a Marine corporal; and therefore I am well acquainted with what splendid all-around fellows they are. But you and I are in the Menzies Hotel, in an apartment directly over MacArthur and his family. We’ll have to get him into another hotel for the time being."
"Sir, I have a letter for you from Secretary Knox."
"Wait till we get in the car," Pickering said, and gestured toward a 1939 Jaguar drop-head coupe.
"Nice car."
"Yes, it is. I hate like hell having to give it back. It belongs to a friend of mine here. It annoys the hell out of MacArthur’s palace guard."
Major Ed Banning decided he was going to like Captain Fleming Pickering, and his snap judgment was immediately confirmed when Pickering picked up Steve Koffler’s duffel bag and Springfield and started toward the Jaguar.
"It’s been a long time since I had a duffel bag in one hand and a Springfield in the other," Pickering said, smiling. "You go help the Corporal with your bags, while I put these in the car."
"Your tax dollars at work," Captain Pickering said, chuckling, to Major Banning, when Banning came out of the bathroom in a bathrobe. He handed Banning a green slip of paper.
It was a check drawn on the Treasurer of the United States. It was payable to the bearer, and was in the amount of $250,000.
They were in Pickering’s suite in the Menzies Hotel. First they’d installed Corporal Koffler in a businessmen’s hotel (Pickering had handed him some money and told him to get something to eat, and to try to stay out of trouble). Then they’d come to the Menzies, where Pickering had made him a drink, then called the valet to have Banning’s uniforms pressed.
"The Commander-in-Chief dresses in worn thin khakis, no tie, and wears a cap I think he brought home from World War I. Naturally, if you know MacArthur, he consequently expects everyone else around him to look like a page from The Officer’s Guide."
"Sir, what is this?" Banning asked, pointing to the check.
"Your expense money. Or our expense money. It’s from the Secretary’s Confidential Fund. It was in the letter you brought. Knox says that it’s unaccountable, but I think it would be wise for us to keep some sort of a record of where we spend it. Koffler’s hotel bill, for example. In the morning we’ll go around to the Bank of Victoria, deposit it, and arrange for you to be able to write checks against it. And you’d better take some cash, too. Six thousand-odd dollars of that is mine."
"Sir?"
"I bought some maps that neither the Army nor the Navy could come up with on their own. I was happy to do it, but I want my money back. Whiskey all right?"
"I’m overwhelmed by your hospitality, Sir."
"I’m delighted that you’re here. I sometimes feel very much the lonely soul. At least I won’t have to watch what I say to you after I’ve had a couple of drinks."
"I’m carrying a message for you from Mrs. Feller, Sir, too."
"Oh. She was my secretary in Washington when I first came in the Navy. And, of course, you know what she’s doing in Hawaii."
"Yes, Sir. When I saw her there, she said to give you her best regards, and to tell you that she hopes you’ll soon have a chance to resume your interrupted conversation."
"What?"
"She sends her regards and says she hopes you’ll soon have a chance to resume your interrupted conversation."
"Oh. Yes, of course. Private joke."
My God, she’s not only not embarrassed about what happened in the Coronado Beach Hotel, but wants me to know she meant what she said Thank Christ she’s in Hawaii!
A bellman delivered a crisply pressed uniform and a pair of highly polished shoes.
Pickering followed Banning into the bedroom as Banning started to get dressed.
"Tomorrow, I’m going to take you around to meet Admiral Brewer," he said. "Australian. Deputy chief of their naval intelligence. I want you to meet him and see if we can’t get a letter of introduction for you to the man who runs the Coastwatcher operation. They’re working out of a little town called Townesville, on the northeastern coast. The man in charge is a guy named Eric Feldt, Lieutenant Commander, Australian Navy.
Nice guy. Until I met you, I was a little worried. He is not overly fond of the U.S. Navy officers he’s met. But I think he’ll get along with you."
"That’s flattering, Sir, but why?"
"Just a feeling. I think you’re two of a kind."
"Captain, I don’t know how soon, but probably within the next couple of days, the rest of my people will be coming in from Hawaii, probably in dribs and drabs. Should I make arrangements to put them into that hotel with Koffler?"
"How many?"
"One officer, a first lieutenant, and fifteen enlisted men."
"I’m not trying to tell you how to run your operation, but presumably you’ll be moving them, or at least most of them, to Townesville?"
"If that’s where the Coastwatchers are, yes, Sir."
"Open to suggestion?"
"Yes, Sir, of course."
"I think you’d better go up there alone at first. If things work out, you can rent a house for them up there."
" ‘If things work out,’ Sir?"
"Commander Feldt can be difficult," Pickering said. "Both the Army and the Navy have sent people up there. He told both groups to ‘sod off.’ Can you guess what that means?"
"I think so, Sir," Banning said, smiling.
"I’m hoping that he will see you as someone who has come to be of help, not take charge. If he does, then you can rent a house for your people up there. In the meantime, it might get a little crowded, so we’ll put them up in my house, here."
"Your house, Sir?"
"Against what I suppose is the inevitable:-my being told to vacate these quarters-I rented a house." He saw the confusion on Banning’s face. "A number, a large number, of MacArthur’s Palace Guard want me out of here; I am too close to the Divine Throne."
"I understand, Sir," Banning said, turning from the mirror where he was tying his field scarf to smile at Pickering.
"I’ll call. Right now, as a matter of fact, and have the house activated. If I had known you would have that kid with you, I would already have done it."
"Activated, Sir?"
"It comes with a small staff. Housekeeper, maids, a cook. Since I’m not in it, I put them on vacation."
"That sounds fine, but who pays for it? I’m not sure I’m authorized to put my people on per diem."
"Frank Knox’s Confidential Fund will pay for it," Pickering said, "but let me make it clear to you, Banning, that you’re authorized to do about anything you damned well please. You answer only to me."
He went to a telephone and gave the operator a number.
"Mrs. Mannshow, this is Fleming Pickering. I’m glad I caught you in. Do you think you could get those people to come off Ninety Mile Beach and start running the house starting tomorrow?"
He looked at Banning and smiled, and gestured for Banning to make himself another drink.
(Six)
top secret
Eyes Only-The Secretary of the Navy
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTIO
N AND TRANSMITTAL TO SECNAVY
Menzies Hotel
Melbourne, Australia
Wednesday, 20 May 194 2
Dear Frank:
I thought it appropriate to report on the status quo here, especially the thinking of the General, insofar as the Battle of the Coral Sea and other events seem to have affected it.
But before I get to that, let me report the arrival of my own reinforcements. Major Ed Banning arrived yesterday, together with his advance party, one ferocious Marine paratrooper who must be all of seventeen. The balance of his command is still in Hawaii, trying to get on an airplane for the trip here. If it could be arranged to get them a higher priority without causing undue attention, I suggest that it be provided to them. In my judgment, it is more important to get Banning’s people here and integrated with the Australian Coastwatchers than it is to send more Army and Marine colonels and Navy captains here so they can start setting up their empires.
Banning, of course, carried your let ter, for which I thank you (and the check, for which I thank you even more; if Banning has to start chartering fishing boats, etc., his operation can become very expensive, very soon). And he brought me up to date on Albatross operations in Hawaii, in particular their effectiveness vis-a-vis what happened in the Coral Sea.
I am very impressed with Banning, but fear that he is less than pleased with me. He made it clear that he considers himself to be under my orders, which I immediately made use of by forbidding him even to think about going behind Japanese lines himself. Because of his Japanese language skills and understanding of their minds, for one thing, and for another, because I think he knows too much about Albatross, he is too valuable to risk being captured.
Now to the General:
Until he learned that the Japanese had occupied Tulagi, I really didn’t think he paid much attention to the fact that the border between his area and Nimitz‘s had been moved from 160 degrees east longitude, where the Joint Chiefs originally established it, to where it is now. But after the Japs took Tulagi, he became painfully aware that Nimitz now had responsibility for both Tulagi and Guadalcanal, the much larger island to the south.
He is now convinced that the new division of responsibility was established-the line changed-by his cabal of enemies, Marshall and King again, to deny him authority over territory he considers essential to his mission of defending Australia. I am finding it harder and harder to fault his logic and support that of the JCS.
The argument, I know, is that it is the Navy’s responsibility to maintain the sea lanes, and that was the argument for putting the border at 160 EL. MacArthur counters that this would hold water only if the Navy were occupying the land in question and using it for that purpose. And, of course, they are not, and have shown no indication that they intend to.
All of this was exacerbated when he learned that the day after he had surrendered Corregidor, General Wainwright went on the radio in Manila and ordered all forces in the Philippines to lay down their arms. This enraged him for several reasons, not necessarily in proportion to their importance to the war.
He seemed most enraged (and found it another proof that George Marshall stays awake nights thinking up new evil things to do to him) by the fact that Wainwright, apparently encouraged by Washington, no longer considered himself subordinate to MacArthur, and thus surrendered Corregidor on his own-without, in other words, MacA.‘s authority to do so.
Second, he is absolutely convinced that Wainwright, again encouraged by Washington, went even further than that, by assuming authority for all U.S./Filipino Forces in the Philippines, an authority MacA., with reason, believed he still retained, having never been formally relieved of it.
General Sharp, on Mindanao, was specifically ordered to surrender by Wainwright. According to MacA., Sharp had 30,000 U.S./Filipino troops, armed, and in far better shape insofar as ammunition, rations, etcetera, than any others in the islands. It is hard to understand why they were ordered to surrender. As it turns out, MacA. has learned that Sharp paid only lip service to Wainwright’s orders and encouraged his men to go to the hills and organize as guerrillas. He himself and most of his immediate staff felt obliged to follow orders, and they surrendered.
MacArthur feels a sense of shame (wholly unjustified, I think) for the loss of the Philippines. And he has an at least partially justified feeling that he is being treated unfairly by Washington in his present command.
Two days after Corregidor fell, he cabled General Marshall (ignoring the implication that Marshall couldn’t figure this out himself) that the Japanese victory in the Philippines will free two infantry divisions and a large number of aircraft that they will probably use to take New Guinea, and then the Solomons.
They will then cut his supply routes to the United States, which would mean the loss of Australia.
MacA. proposed to go on the counterattack, starting with the recapture of Tulagi, and then establishing our own presence on Guadalcanal. In his mind (and in mine) he tried to be a good soldier and to "coordinate" this with South Pacific Area Headquarters. But he was (a) reminded that Guadalcanal and Tulagi are not "within his sphere of influence" and that (b) under those circumstances it was really rather presumptuous of him to ask for Navy aircraft carriers, etcetera, to conduct an operation in their sphere of influence, but that (c) he was not to worry, because Admiral Nimitz was already making plans to recapture Tulagi with a Marine Raider battalion.
There is no way that one small battalion can take Tulagi; but even if they could, they cannot hold it long-if the Japanese establish bases, which seems a given, on either Guadalcanal or Malaita.
What MacArthur wants to do makes more sense to me than what the Navy proposes to do, unless, as MacA. believes, the Navy’s primary purpose is to render him impotent and humiliated, so that the war here will be a Navy war.
I fight against accepting this latter theory. But what I saw at-and especially after-Pearl Harbor, with the admirals pulling their wagons into a circle to avoid accepting the blame, keeps popping into my head.
Respectfully,
Fleming Pickering, Captain, USNR
top secret
Chapter Twelve
(One)
The Elms
Dandenong, Victoria, Australia
22 May 1942
"Oh, good morning! We didn’t expect you to be up so early," Mrs. Hortense Cavendish said, with a smile, to Corporal Stephen M. Koffler, USMC, when she saw him coming down the stairway. "Why don’t you just go into the breakfast room, and I’ll get you a nice hot cup of tea?"
"Good morning, thank you," Steve said, smiling, but not really comfortable.
Mrs. Cavendish was as old as his mother, and looked something like her, too. She was the housekeeper at The Elms, a three-story, twelve-room, red brick house set in what looked to Steve like its own private park fifteen miles or so outside Melbourne. It was called The Elms, Major Banning had told him, because of the century-old elm trees which lined the driveway from the "motorway" to the house.
He also told him (You‘ve come up smelling like a rose again, Koffler.) that the whole place had been rented by Captain Pick ering, and, for the time being at least, he and the other members of Special Detachment 14 would be living there. He explained that the housekeeper was something like the manager of a hotel, in charge of the whole place, and was to be treated with the appropriate respect.
At the moment, Corporal Koffler was the only member of Special Detachment 14 in residence. The day before, Major Banning had driven him out here in a brand-new Studebaker President, then had him installed in a huge room with a private bathroom. After that, Captain Pickering had come out and taken Major Banning to the railroad station in Melbourne. Banning was going "up north" to some place called Townesville, Queensland, where the Coastwatchers had their headquarters. He told Steve he had no idea when he would be back, but that he would keep in touch.
Steve now understood that Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria were something like the states in Americ
a, but that was really about all he understood about Australia.
From what Major Banning had told him, and from what he’d heard from the other guys, the Japs were probably going to take Australia. He had heard Major Banning talking to Lieutenant Howard back in ‘Diego about it. Steve had long ago decided that if anybody would have the straight poop about anything. Major Banning would. Major Banning had told Lieutenant Howard that he didn’t see how anything could keep the Japs from taking Australia, as long as they took some island named New Guinea first. And he really didn’t see how the Japs could be kept from taking New Guinea.
The Corps 03 - Counterattack Page 45