Bradley was holding his copy of the Pacific report.
Ike gestured angrily with his copy, “You read this then Brad?”
“Yes Sir I have and if that is all true we are worse off than I thought.”
Eisenhower stubbed out his cigarette and started to address the issues raised.
“I haven’t finished it yet but we can do that together. OK, so firstly we have large units of Japs appearing out of the blue at Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians, the submarine base on Guam, the naval anchorage at Ulithi, the airfields on Saipan and many attacks on our forces in Okinawa, some of which are unusual in their nature and giving MacArthur the jitters”
He looked up, brow knotted.
“I wish they would be more specific on that. What do they mean by unusual in nature?”
Bradley shook his head slowly and offered a slight shrug. Ike continued.
“These attacks seem to originate from Soviet merchant and naval vessels on recognised business or goodwill visits. Even looks like some of our own freighters have been used, ones from the supply run into Vladivostok. So Soviet vessels transported Japanese troops into the heart of our defences and let them run riot. Attu and Kiska seem to be holding but there were many casualties. Eniwetok and Ulithi Atoll have taken big hits. They are not naming names but they seem to have lost at least a carrier, a battleship and two cruisers plus change.”
Eisenhower shook his head, knowing Guam was badly hit and submarines and experienced crews were lost. Big losses in B-29’s as they ran amok all over the airfields on Saipan, as well as losses in air and ground crew. Somehow they attacked Chengdu and did the same to the Chinese based Superforts.”
Eisenhower gestured angrily with the report once more.
“And Okinawa, not so many losses indicated and nothing major but there’s that damn ‘unusual in nature’ again Brad.”
Both men took hold of their coffee and took a moment’s pause before plunging back into the meat of the report.
“Japanese units starting a huge offensive in China, tanks, infantry, the works. Chinese communist divisions moving aside and not resisting them?”
A cigarette appeared and was lit, breaking up Ike’s flow.
“They don’t have those kinds of resources do they? No fuel to speak of, little armour of note.”
Bradley looked straight-faced at his commander.
“You haven’t read Colonel Gould’s submission in the addendum have you Ike?”
Bradley thumbed through the papers and found what he was looking for immediately.
“Permit me to read this. It’s been cleaned up a bit and only has the salient information.”
He cleared his throat and read word for word.
“Report from John F Gould, Lieutenant Colonel. US Army Air Force.
14th US Air Force, China, Attached xxx Fighter Group, xxx Fighter Squadron.
I must qualify my report by stating that I was a P47 Thunderbolt pilot engaged in ground attack and interdiction in the ETO from March 44 through February 45.
Whilst on aggressive operations in support of ground troops in the xxx area, xxx Province, China I was directed to conduct ground strafing runs on infantry and tanks attacking friendly positions at xxx.
Casualties were successfully inflicted upon enemy ground troops but the enemy attack was successful as our flight did not possess weapons capable of stopping the enemy tanks.
The armoured vehicles I engaged were definitely German tanks of the Panzer IV and Sturmgeschutz type, and my flight was taken under fire by at least two self-propelled quadruple 20mm weapons mounted on German halftracks acting in close-support.
On return to our base, we encountered enemy aircraft returning from a raid. Lack of ammunition meant we could not engage but these types were positively identified by Major Deng Ho as Petlyakov-2’s in Soviet colours.
Eisenhower looked physically shaken and did not speak, all the time looking down at the page in the report that he had found as Bradley started his recital and then followed word by worrying word.
Finally, he composed his thoughts.
“So that put’s the fox in the hen house for sure. Damn Brad. Goddamn.”
Eisenhower tossed the report on the table, exchanging it for his pack of cigarettes and lighter.
Breathing in the calming smoke, he summarised his thoughts.
“The Soviets have this sown up don’t they? Obviously, they have a pact with the Nips who are party to all of this. If they have given the Japanese all the German equipment they have captured, which is what I assume they have done, in one stroke they have eased their own logistics and massively increased the striking power of the Nip army. Want to bet they have lots of other hardware like artillery, anti-tank guns, machine guns, the complete works?”
Bradley had the advantage of reading this report as he journeyed over from his own headquarters but he was pleased his boss was on the same wavelength as himself.”
Eisenhower paused, searching for information hidden in the deep recesses of his overworked mind.
“We have a Soviet document indicating a rough outline of their commitment to the Manchurian offensive somewhere don’t we? If I recall there were extensive forces involved, and I bet they are removed from the ORBAT of their forces in Europe that we are working to at this time.”
This suddenly took a direction Bradley had not gone as yet.
“I think we need to revise our estimates on what forces we are facing Brad. Unless I’m way off, I suspect that the reds have a whole lot more hardware opposing us than first thought.”
Eisenhower stood abruptly, clutching his jaw with one hand and flipping up a cigarette with the other as he continued, a disjointed humming sound coming from his throat, almost as if he was thinking out loud. He seemed to be staring at some distant horizon before humming and staring ceased.
He summoned an aide.
“Captain Horton, find the Soviet briefing document on their Manchurian Operation please. Quickly Captain.”
Turning to Brad, he continued without so much as an intake of breath.
“They will place some forces in the Pacific, to show willing and able to support their new friends, as well as protecting their back door. So figure that about….”
He suddenly became aware he was musing aloud and focussed on Bradley standing beside him.
“…about one-third of the force we expect to be committed there.”
It was not a statement as such, and Bradley quickly did the calculations from his memory of the report and nodded his agreement.
“That is a lot of hardware and manpower that we haven’t allowed for.”
Bradley ventured an idea.
“Assuming that they are not in position because of the risk we might discover them then perhaps this is one which might interest Tedder and the bomber boys? The Reds have gotta move them somehow. Road, rail, whatever, the heavies might be able to keep them at arm’s length if they are in transit and their march routes are vulnerable.”
Eisenhower saw the sense in that and summoned an aide, gave him a verbal order to pass on, knowing he was just wrecking a whole lot of quality work done by Tedder and his staff ,who were creating a plan to govern air operations in the coming days.
“So we also cannot guarantee extra resources coming from the States, nor from the Pacific, as the Nips are suddenly frisky and well-armed.”
Bradley audibly sighed.
“You gotta hand it to them, they have worked this one out well Ike.”
There could be absolutely no disagreeing with that.
“Betcha one thing though.”
Bradley nodded to himself as he searched for a memory and found it.