So they decrypted the Commander's message as far as his name and address, and stopped there. It was their intention to let the rest of it wait until they'd taken care of the regular traffic. But that idea didn't work out. Air Commodore Sir Howard Teeghe, Commanding RAAF Moresby (his rank was equivalent to Brigadier, Commonwealth Ground Forces and Brigadier General, U.S. Army and Marine Corps), made the first visit anyone could remember to RAAF Moresby Cryptographic Section and informed the Lieutenant that Commander Feldt was expecting some rather important. Whenever that came, Air Commodore Teeghe said, he'd be grateful if they got right on it.
While the Air Commodore waited, the Lieutenant himself decrypted the rest of the message and handed it to him:
MOST URGENT
MELBOURNE 1250 7TH OCTOBER NUMBER 212
FROM ADMIRALTY MELBOURNE
VIA RAAF MELBOURNE
FOR OFFICER COMMANDING RAAF MORESBY
MOST SECRET
START
PART ONE
INFORMATION TO LT COMMANDER E. FELDT RANVR
PART TWO
START FOLLOWING FROM BANNING:
SUB A
SWIMMER WITH PATIENCE AS OF 1010 7OCT
SUB B
GREYHOUND DEPARTED STATION ABLE 1110M ETA STATION BAKER 1700M RPT 1700M
SUB C
STATION C COORDINATES 06 13 21 XXXX 14 16 07
RPT 06 13 21 XXXX 14 16 07
SUB D
RENDEZVOUS STATION C 0550M 9 OCT RPT 05SOM 9 OCT
END FROM BANNING
PART THREE
ADVISE ADMIRALTY MOST URGENT SIGNAL
SUB A ON ARRIVAL GREYHOUND
SUB B READINESS TO EFFECT SCHEDULED RENDEZVOUS
SUB C CAUSE OF AND EXPECTED TIME OF REMEDY ANY DELAY
SUB D ON DEPARTURE GREYHOUND FOR STATION C
SUB E RETURN OF GREYHOUND TO STATION B
BY AUTHORITY: SOAMES-HALEY, VICE ADM RAN
END
When the R4D With MARINES lettered along the side of its fuselage made a low approach from the sea and touched down smoothly, Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt, RANVR, was standing outside RAAF Moresby Base Operations. It was 1655 hours (Melbourne Time).
A BSA motorcycle with a sidecar onto which a FOLLOW ME sign had been bolted led the R4D to a sandbag revetment. The driver signaled the aircraft where to shut down, then a ground crew appeared and manhandled the airplane into the revetment.
The rear door opened and a ladder was lowered. Once that was done, Major Jake Dillon climbed down.
"Hello, Jake," Feldt said. "How are you, old man?" It was not the profane and/or obscene greeting Dillon expected.
"Can't complain, Eric. Yourself,?"
Captain Charley Galloway appeared and climbed down the ladder.
"Captain Galloway, Commander Feldt," Dillon said.
Galloway saluted.
"You're the Coastwatcher commander, Commander?" Galloway asked.
Feldt nodded.
"A lot of people where I come from have a lot of respect for your people, Commander," Charley said.
Feldt looked uncomfortable.
"I hope you had a good flight," he said after a moment. Then he put out his hand to Second Lieutenant Malcolm S. Pickering as he turned from climbing down the ladder. "My name is Feldt, Lieutenant. Welcome to Port Moresby."
"Thank you, Sir."
"is the aircraft all right, Captain?"
"It ran like a Swiss watch, Sir. I'd like to go over it before we leave, of course."
"There's plenty of time for that. You're not due at Buka until six the day after tomorrow. Major Banning sent some steaks and whiskey. The rest of the lads are guarding it from the RAAF boys. I've got a car whenever you're ready."
MOST URGENT
RAAF MORESBY 1705 7Th OCTOBER NUMBER 107
FROM OFFICER COMMANDING RAAF MORESBY
FOR ADMIRALTY MELBOURNE FOR VICE ADMIRAL SOAMES-HALEY
VIA RAAF MELBOURNE
MOST SECRET
START
PART ONE
REFERENCE YOUR 212 7 OCT PART THREE SUB A: 1655M RPT 1655M
PART TWO
REFERENCE YOUR 212 7 OCT PART THREE SUB B: NO RPT NO PROBLEM ANTICIPATED
END FELDT LT COMM RANVR
[Four]
FLIGHT OPERATIONS BRIEFING ROOM
ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE STATION
PORT MORESBY, NEW GUINEA
1800 HOURS 8 OCTOBER 1942
The four Marines and the RANVR Signalman First who were to land on Buka, along with Major Jake Dillon, Captain Charles M. Galloway, and Lieutenant M. S. Pickering, were sprawled in chairs in the small, airless, steaming hot room.
Most of them clutched beer bottles.
"I rather doubt if any of you people are sober enough to understand any of this, but permit me to go through the motions," Lieutenant Commander Feldt said.
Their laughter sounded just a bit forced.
"The last word we had from Ferdinand Six was at 9:55 this morning. Chief Wallace reports that the party that will carry the supplies up to Ferdinand Six from the beach, and the people who are being extracted, all departed at noon yesterday, that is, 7 October. Using as a guide the time it took Wallace to get from the beach to Ferdinand Six, it should take them about thirty hours to reach the beach. That means, barring any trouble, they should be getting there right about now.
"Of course they may not have been able to move as quickly as Wallace did alone. We don't know what shape Reeves, Howard, and Koffler are in. That may delay them, On the other hand, since they know where they were going, and Wallace had to look for Ferdinand Six, they may have got to the beach hours ago. Either way, we have just about twelve hours in the schedule to take care of the unexpected; the pickup is scheduled for ten minutes to six tomorrow morning.
"There are several potential problems. One is that they will run into our Nipponese friends; that could delay them beyond the twelve-hour cushion-"
"Or forever," one of the Marines said.
There was more forced laughter.
"Thank you ever so much, Sergeant, for that encouraging observation," Feldt said.
The sergeant held up his beer bottle.
"My pleasure, Commander."
"If I may continue?"
"Certainly, Sir."
"Or, as you have so cleverly deduced, Sergeant, it could well keep them from reaching the beach at all," Feldt said. "Second, since we were unable to land a Hallicrafters through the surf, the only radio now on the beach is the hand-held, battery-powered voice radio. That has a limited range and a limited battery life.
"In other words, Captain Galloway can't use that radio as a radio direction-finder; it's not powerful enough. Thus he'll have to find the beach on his own. If-and when-he finds it, he'll attempt to contact the beach, code name Greyhound Base, by radio.
"Now, if the radio is working, the officer in charge there, Lieutenant McCoy, will radio-"
"Sir, what if he's not on the beach?" another Marine sergeant asked; he sounded both very concerned and completely sober. "I thought he was supposed to go to Ferdinand Six. And you just said that they may not make it back to the beach."