“Who’s commanding on their side?”
“General Guderian, and he’s no slouch.”
Brooke raised an eyebrow. “Will you stop him?” he asked.
“Now that 46th Infantry is here, and thanks to the Prime Minister’s foresight with that tank brigade, I believe we can hold Palestine and Lebanon secure. The problem now is going to be out east. Miles has the 56th at Palmyra, but Jerry has already roughed up one of his brigades pretty badly. I’ve organized a counterattack to try and get to him with the 31st Armored, but we’ll need much more armor. Once these new arrivals get up from Haifa, then I can attack in force—perhaps five days.”
“And if the Germans do have designs on Iraq?”
“We’ve only the four Indian divisions there, but I moved two of them into Syria. That action remains… unsettled.”
“Alright,” said Churchill. “We’ve come to the conclusion that this is far more serious than we first believed. The Germans have opened an entire new war front right under our noses, so we’ll have to really be on our game, or this could take a disastrous turn. Unfortunately, this will mean we’ll have to shake the tree out here, and I hope you’ll understand what I now propose—no, I’ll be plain with you sir, I’m going to make a change of command. I would like you to transfer to India forthwith, and take over planning for operations aimed at Burma and Ceylon. Now… You may take that on the chin as a slight, or evidence that we perceive you to have failed here, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Your service has been exemplary. You’ve saved Egypt, kicked the French out of Syria, and now you’ve set up O’Connor to do the same to the Italians in Libya. We owe you a great debt, but the situation in India is a bit loose these days. What we need is a good administrator, like yourself, to pull it together. Gandhi has been leading a movement against British rule, and there’s a good deal of sentiment that way. I want you to assume the role of something more than a simple commanding officer for that theater. I’ll be looking at you as the Viceroy of the entire colony.”
There… Churchill had spread as much frosting on the cake as he could, though Wavell was wise enough to know the real reasons for his transfer. In spite of a feeling of letdown, with this coming right in the middle of a crisis, he also felt that he needed a change. He was weary, more than he had ever been here in the desert, and perhaps the move would be good for him.
“Very well,” he said at last. “You’ve a way of holding my coat that is quite charming, Mister Prime Minister, but as I have in my mind nothing more than service to the Empire, I will gladly go wherever I am needed. May I ask who you have in mind for Middle East Command?”
“Alexander will return from Baghdad tomorrow, and Archie, it isn’t so much that we think a change is needed here. Alexander’s a good man for this sort of thing, and he can take up the reins here easily enough. But I was thinking of sending him to India, and he’s not quite right for that post, even if he has had experience there. The Japanese ran him out of Rangoon, and nearly captured him in the process. Now they’ve pushed us all the way back into India. Slim’s a good man over there, and we thought you were the best man to step in now and sort things out. Understand?”
“Of course,” said Wavell.
And that was that, another of those unforgiving minutes that would reset Wavell’s life from this day forward.
Part VIII
Friends and Enemies
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
—Vito Corleone: The Godfather
Chapter 22
“You mean to say you joined these people—took up sides? You’ve actually engaged in combat here?”
“It was inevitable,” said Harada, trying to sort through the fallen dominoes in his mind. “We went through the same shock you just experienced. We discussed our situation, realized where we were and what we might do. Then decided to try and approach the IJN to see if we could dissuade them from proceeding with this war.”
“We had no choice,” said Fukada. “This ship only has so much fuel. We had no way of knowing how we might ever get home—to our own time. So when that fuel ran out we’d just be sitting there, a warship dead in the water like a duck in a pond. Who was going to give us that fuel, the United States Navy? Were we to throw in with them? How would any of us ever have gone home to Japan again after that?”
Admiral Kita thought about that, suddenly understanding what these men had been through. Here he was, caught in the very same web that had ensnared them, and faced with the very same choices. They had checked all their charts, and there was no mistaking that island out there, Elugelab, the place that Ivy Mike vaporized long ago. They had overflown Eniwetok as Harada had advised. It was not the modern base they knew, and there, at Parry Field, was the small seaplane base that Japan had set up soon after their initial occupation. They had boarded the tanker Kazahaya, seen the curious crewman, interviewed the ship’s Captain. It was just as Harada said it would be. Everything they heard and saw would confirm the impossible conclusion that they were no longer in their own time.
How this could have happened was the next question, the mind reaching for understanding that it would never really find. It could not be answered. The clues were there in those aerial contacts that came from seeming nowhere, F-84 Jet aircraft lost in the dizzy upwelling of doom, the seething column of Ivy Mike as it rose into the sky. They were there, then gone, as if they had only slipped briefly into this world of 1943 before returning to their own era. Why time would grant them such license could not be known. Why she would have instead pulled all these ships into the vortex that opened when Ivy Mike exploded, could not be known. It had simply happened. It could not be reasoned with, explained, or ever understood, but now it was reality, and one the Admiral would have to face, along with every crew member in his task force.
“We went to Yamamoto,” said Harada. “We thought that if we could get to someone like him, and convince him of the futility of this war, then we might build a better future for Japan in our time.”
“You actually spoke with him? Isoroku Yamamoto?”
“We did, and his Chief of Staff, Admiral Ugaki. That one is hard as steel. Yamamoto listened to us. I even showed him the end of this war in our ship’s library. Yet one thing led to another…”
“There’s something else you need to know,” said Fukada, casting a dark glance at Harada. “We aren’t alone here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we are not the only ship from our own time to appear here. Crazy as it may sound, the Russians are here as well.”
“What?”
“Remember that ship that went missing in the Norwegian Sea just before we deployed for those exercises with the Australians?”
“You mean the Russian battlecruiser? Yes it went missing, then it showed up again in the Pacific, until that Demon Volcano in the Kuriles blew it to jigoku.”
“Yes sir—Kirov. Well, it wasn’t sent to hell, nor even destroyed in that eruption. We think it blew the ship right through time, just as Krakatoa did for us.”
“But Krakatoa never erupted in 1943,” said Kita, “and it didn’t erupt in 2021 either.”
“It did here, sir. Damn thing nearly wiped out the 2nd Sendai Division, just as it was landing on Java. There was ashfall for six months. Who knows, maybe these massive explosive events disturb time—open holes in spacetime—and they extend in both directions, to both the future and past. I’ve tried to imagine how it could happen, as if I was on the top floor of a high rise, and a bomb went off three floors below. It knocks out the floors in both directions and… things fall through. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. As for Kirov, the ship is here, and it’s been here for a good long time. We know, because we fought the damn thing.”
“Here? In the Pacific?”
“Correct,” said Harada. “In fact, there’s a good deal more you need to know, and it’s going to be every bit as crazy as the rest. We’ve discovered that the history here ha
s already been radically altered. It looks like the Strike North faction in our government prevailed long ago, because the Japan of this day has not only occupied Manchuria and the coast of China, but it’s also taken Vladivostok, most of Sakhalin Island and other parts of Siberia all the way up to Chita, beyond the Amur River.”
They told Kita everything they had learned, and then explained what the Russians had been doing with their ship, threatening Japan to recover their lost territories, and actually engaging the IJN in open combat.
“The Russian ship sunk the Hiryu?”
“Yamamoto told us so. The missile tech understandably came as quite a shock to them. So when he saw what we could do with our own missiles, he asked us to go up against Kirov. We did what we could, but that’s a formidable ship. We tried to ambush them before they knew we were here, and got off all eight of our Type 12s, but they stopped them. Then they threw a good deal back at us. I can now vouch for the American SM-2s, though it cost us 33 missiles, and we had to use the laser system too. They threw a hypersonic missile at us as a final warning—probably a Zircon.”
Admiral Kita shook his head in utter dismay. “Zettai ni! Dôshiyô, dôshiyô, dôshiyô!” It was a Japanese expression of exasperation, akin to a panic of the mind as it tried desperately to grasp at a solution to something.
“I’m sorry sir,” said Harada. “We know exactly how you must feel. We all went through it. In fact, we polled the crew before we decided to approach these people here, and they were all in agreement. Some had reservations, perhaps all of us still question what we’re doing here, but when the Russians showed up, it was either us… or them. They’re enemies in our own time, and now it seems they’re enemies here as well. ”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” said Fukada. “But we can settle the score with them now, sir. We were out there alone when we faced Kirov the first time, and with just those eight Type 12 missiles. Oh, the Japanese threw in with us with a small task force and some aircraft, but they were more a nuisance than a help. Now we’ve a real task force here—real fighting power. We can settle this.”
“Settle it? You mean Kirov?”
“Of course, sir. You aren’t going to just let the Russians have their way here, are you? This is our house, and they are just Inaorigoto, a thief in the night. But this one turns violent when he is uncovered. We must be very cautious. This Russian Captain means business. He’s gunning for Japanese ships. In fact, he just made a surprise attack on Truk—put a missile on the Musashi, and blasted the light carrier Zuiho and an oiler for good measure. They must be stopped.”
It was coming at Admiral Kita too fast. He needed time to think this through, but these men had already faced this impossible dilemma, and jumped right in to this insanity as if they were born to it. This Executive Officer was more than eager to get on with their private little war, impossible as all this was.
“Have you also engaged the American Navy here?”
“Only in a defensive situation,” said Harada. “We’ve taken out a few of their planes—all we could do after that scrap with the Russians. Yamamoto was using us as a forward picket, and we got mixed up in a carrier duel in the New Hebrides.”
“You intervened? Which battle?”
“This action was not recorded in our history. As we tried to tell you earlier, events have already changed. Some things have held true. Japan did attack the Americans at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. Then the Empire struck south in much the same way as the history we know. We’ve taken Malaya, Singapore, Java, the Dutch East Indies and Burma. Rabaul is active as the forward base for the Solomons, but there was no battle of Midway last May. Yamamoto opted for Operation FS, the attack through the French New Hebrides towards Fiji and Samoa in an attempt to isolate Australia. There have been a lot of carrier duels over that, and the campaign is still bitterly contested.”
“I see… What were you doing here at Eniwetok?”
“We were ordered home to Yokohama. Admiral Yamamoto did not give us many details, other than to tell us we were to meet with Admiral Nagano.”
“Osami Nagano? Fleet Admiral for the entire Imperial Navy? I cannot believe I’m hearing all of this.”
“That will pass,” said Fukada. “And the sooner you realize what has happened, and accept it, the better all of us will be. Admiral, we are here. That’s as certain as that island out there. The only question now is what to do about it? I know your first thought will be that we must all find our way home, but we have not found any means of doing that. We’ve been marooned here since the 1st of March, 1942. That’s been over nine long months, and we’re in this pretty deep now. We’re committed, and we’ve pledged our loyalty and service to Japan, and to Admiral Yamamoto. I hope you will see that is the only course open to you. What would the alternative be? Could you join the Americans here now, knowing what they are going to do to our homeland? Could you do nothing, and watch them destroy Japan, allow the fire-bombing of Tokyo, the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Will you stand by and let that damn Russian ship out there continue to hound and hunt the Imperial Japanese Navy—kill our ships and sailors?”
“That will be all, Lieutenant Commander,” said Harada. He could see and hear the hard sell in Fukada again.
Admiral Kita looked from one to the other. “Tell me I will awaken in my cabin aboard Kaga and all this will go away.” He looked harried and weary, a little greyer than they last saw him.
“I’ve wished that many times myself in the last nine months,” said Harada. “The Lieutenant Commander here comes on pretty strong, but in the end, those are the questions you will have to decide. We’ve made our choice, though your presence here certainly reopens all those questions for us as well. Yes, we’ve thrown in with Yamamoto, but you are now our real senior officer, and we belong here, with this task force. Fukada was correct in saying that we now have real power here—decisive power. Now you must decide what to do with that.”
“You are suggesting I begin active operations here against the Americans? This is madness!”
“Yes sir, it’s completely insane, but that is what you will have to decide. We must weigh in here, on one side or another, or else we find an island somewhere and try to sit this war out. In that case, I ask you to consider what the Russians will be doing here.”
“The Russians….”
“They had no difficulty in knowing what they should do,” said Fukada. “The attack that sank Hiryu, and that raid on Truk are just the beginning. If we bow out of this, sir, that ship can do irreparable harm to our navy here. It’s January of 1943. The Americans are finally back on their feet and beginning to go on the offensive. The first of the Essex class carriers have joined their fleet. The war is out there, sir, and the Russians mean to influence its course in any way they can. They are clearly an enemy of Japan.”
“Have you both considered the consequences of all this? Every breath we take here is a theft from history. We don’t belong here!”
“No sir,” said Fukada, “we do not, but neither do the Russians. Yet we are here, and they are here. Now what are we going to do about that? You’ve got two of our most modern carriers out there, and those F-35’s you just received from the Americans make this task force invincible.”
“How ironic,” said Kita. “If I were to fight now on the side of Japan, the Americans will have handed us the rope in 2021 that we use to hang them here in 1943. But power is a two edged sword, Lieutenant Commander. Have you considered that we might also have the power to force Japan to end this war—to negotiate?”
“We considered that,” said Harada. “But face it, Admiral, do you really think Tojo will listen to such a suggestion? And what will we do when he refuses our suggestion—attack our own navy to force the issue? I suppose Mister Fukada is correct in one thing, we would be seen as traitors if we ever chose that. Considering the Russian intervention here is already underway, I came to the decision that, at the very least, I had to defend the Imperial Fleet from Kirov.
We tried our best, our missiles are wearing thin, but that was what we chose, and I don’t see that I would have done any different if I had it to do over.”
“Yes…” said Kita, a distant look in his eye. “Tojo, the Army, all that intrigue around Hirohito. And by 1943, it’s a little late to be having second thoughts about the war. I’m sure Yamamoto has them, and Nagano as well. After all, Nagano opposed the Pearl Harbor Operation. He reluctantly agreed to the Strike South Plan, but urged it be done without attacking the United States, until that was shown to be impossible. Yamamoto threatened to resign if he could not attack the American fleet at Hawaii. It was all ours the first six months, then we reaped the whirlwind.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way now sir,” said Fukada. “The whole war hangs in the balance. Carrier losses to both sides have been very high, but we know how quickly the Americans will gain the upper hand with their production. With this task force, we could literally knock them right out of the war here.”
“Are you so sure?” said Kita. “If we sunk what they have afloat now, then what about all the ships they are still building?”
“That would be months, even a year or more trying to get back where they are now. We’d command the seas, and they could not supply their troops in the South Pacific. They would simply have to withdraw. But to do that, we have to settle accounts with the Russians first. Face it, Admiral. If this were 2021, and you knew Kirov was out there to go after Japanese shipping, what would you do? They’re at war with us no matter what we decide, and they brought that war here, and with a far grander agenda than we may realize. This Karpov in command of Kirov wants to reshape the entire post-war world here.”
“Karpov? Yes, he was in command when they sortied with the Red Banner Fleet. What happened to the rest of it? There were other ships in his task force?”
Lions at Dawn (Kirov Series Book 28) Page 19