“That’s what we believed, but HYPO has been picking up a hell of a lot of maritime traffic orders, with convoys all heading for the Bismarck Sea.”
“For Rabaul,” said MacArthur.
“Not exactly. The Japanese seem to be going all out to build up a base on the Admiralty Islands—Manus Island to be exact about it. There’s a fine bay at the eastern end near Lombrum, and HYPO picked out an association to the code word Momote. The island fish hooks back west to frame a good bay that can serve as an excellent anchorage. They’re already building a big airfield there.”
“Well I can’t do anything about it at the moment. That’s a little far, even for the few B-17s I still have left. Besides, with Rabaul they really don’t need another base in the Admiralty Islands.”
“We think they have a mind to use that as backup—just in case some crazy old General plans to run them out of Rabaul. From Momote they can hit all of New Britain, and a good segment of the coast of Papua New Guinea, from Wewak in the north and all the way to Finschafen. They already have a good field ay Kavieng on New Ireland, and we’ve also picked up some convoy traffic headed for Gasmata on New Britain.”
“Yes, yes, but that campaign is months away.”
“The point I’m trying to make is this—they’ve building a steel wall around the Bismarck Sea. New Britain is the real inner keep of their defense. Port Moresby is just an outlying outpost. They wanted that to get bombers in there and close the Torres Strait—part of their plan to isolate northern Australia.”
“They won’t move on Darwin,” said MacArthur. I can hold northern Australia against anything they might dare to send over. No, they’ve put most of everything they have into Viti Levu in the Fijis. That’s what makes it imperative that we cut that all off, and Noumea is the real support base, not Efate.”
“And after that?”
“Like I said earlier—Port Morseby, and a strong reinforcement for Milne Bay. Then we can knock out their airfields at Lae and other sites on New Guinea, and plan the jump to New Britain.”
“Now you know why they’re building up in the Admiralty Islands. General, do you still propose to fight your way all along the coast of New Guinea?”
“It’s the most direct route back to the Philippines, and from there to Formosa. That campaign cuts off all their occupied territory in the Dutch East Indies, and even isolates Singapore, Malaya, and French Indochina.”
“Yes, but with the bulk of all the Japanese Southern Army in your way. That’s a long, hard slog, any way you look at it. They’ll fight hard for New Guinea, and harder for the Philippines.”
“Admiral, do you still propose to bypass those objectives and go island hopping?”
“From the Gilberts to the Marshalls to the Marianas. They only have a few significant bases we’d need to take, Tarawa, Eniwetok, Peleliu, Saipan and Guam. Once we get that last one back, we’ve also cut everything off, including the Philippines. The idea is to get airfields on those islands so we can start bombing the hell out of them in Tokyo. Jimmy Doolittle was just ringing the doorbell. Soon we’ll have a bomber with much better range and hitting power than your B-17s. That’s what will win this war. Besides, suppose you do spend the next year or two fighting your way to Formosa. That puts you 1300 to 1500 miles from the heartland of Japan. General, we already have an opportunity to set up shop that close to Japan.”
“Where? Guam? Saipan? It could take you a year or more to get there too.”
“No, we already have the place—at least our Ally to the north says so—Sakhalin Island. This Karpov fellow has the whole northern half of the island, and as close to Tokyo as you would be two years from now on Formosa.”
MacArthur took a long drag on his pipe. “Sakhalin Island.” He made a dismissible move of his head. “It’s socked in by low clouds and bad weather 70 percent of the time, and frozen solid right now.”
“But it will thaw. This new bomber will be an all-weather capable aircraft, or so I’m told.”
“Admiral, here we’ve gone and laid out alternate plans for the whole damn war. We can’t look that far ahead, and need to focus on what is right under our noses—Noumea. That’s the place to start. I intend to go directly to the Joint Chief’s with this, even to the President if I have to.”
“I expect that’s where things will end up,” said Nimitz. “Look, I have no objection to running your plan through those channels. I’ll raise it with King when I get back to Pearl, and he can take it right to Marshall.”
“And while the two of them sit around jaw boning about it like we are, the Japanese will be busy reinforcing all these positions in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. We caught them by surprise on Efate. They didn’t expect we would go on the offensive this soon. right now they only have a single regiment on New Caledonia, and we have a chance to take the place by storm. To answer your earlier question, I’ve had the 41st Division training to make an assault like this for the last six months. They’re ready. Now’s the time—at Noumea.”
As would happen more than once in the war, MacArthur would get his way, and the Navy would suffer the consequences. Now, instead of moving north to cover Efate and pound Luganville, Halsey would have to move south to look after those transports out of Brisbane. He let Nimitz know what he thought in no uncertain terms.
“Here I am, right in the middle of a fight with the bully on the block, and someone taps my shoulder and says I have to run off and rescue my sister! This is just plain stupid. We don’t even have Fiji cleared yet. We ought to finish one thing before we do another, particularly after losing all those flight decks a few days ago like we did.”
“It’s MacArthur,” said Nimitz. “King agreed with you, but Mac went right over his head to the President, and flat out demanded that his operation be given the go ahead. You know what he actually said? ‘If you want me to lead, then someone had better damn well follow.’ Can you believe that?”
“Alright,” said Halsey. “I was going to stay north of Noumea, but now I’ll have to take TF-11 south. If I do go, I’ll want the big boys with me. Those fast battleships are good in tight with my carriers. Who’s riding the stallions this time?”
“With Fletcher moved to Pearl, I was thinking of turning them over to Lee. Indiana is arriving at Tongatapu to square off that battleship division.”
“Misery loves company,” said Halsey. “Bring Lee in, but I’ll still want him on a leash as I move south. Something tells me things will get worse before they get better in all of this. I just wish MacArthur wasn’t calling the tune, because I’m the one who’s got to be out there on the dance floor.”
“Pick a rose for your partner,” said Nimitz, “then hold on tight, thorns and all.”
“Yeah? Well, ROSE was the code name for Efate, and it may end up becoming a black rose if we don’t look after it. This business has us working at cross purposes. What’s the code name for Noumea?”
“WHITE POPPY,” said Nimitz.
The irony of that was not lost on either of them, for they already had that rose in hand, and MacArthur wanted something else.
Part VIII
In Flanders Fields
Chapter 22
They had come a long way from that last night in San Francisco. Sergeant Wilson still remembered getting into a brawl at a bar and throwing a beer bottle at a sailor who was riding him about good old home country, Texas, the Lone Star State. The Navy man was a New Yorker, and kept insisting the only things to ever come out of Texas were steers and queers. Wilson showed him that a good right hand and some muscle behind it came out of Texas that night too, and put that whitecap down for the count.