When Taylor had finished saluting the British colors, the bosun's piping died out and the executive officer put out his hand to Taylor.
"Nice to have you aboard again, Lieutenant," he said. "Will you follow me, please?"
He led them between the lines of saluting sailors-who seemed to find nothing strange, McCoy saw, in their render-ing honors to three men in black pajamas-into the super-structure, and through interior passageways to the bridge.
Captain the Honorable Darwin Jones-Fortin waved them permission to come on the bridge.
"Your welcome overwhelms us, Captain," Taylor said.
"Well, the last time I rather sneaked you aboard. You're now here officially, and it seemed appropriate. First things first. I dislike sitting here dead in the water. How many knots can your magnificent vessel make? And do you have enough fuel?"
"Twelve to thirteen knots, sir," Taylor said, "in a sea like this. And there's plenty of fuel aboard."
"Good show," Jones-Fortin said. "Make turns for ten knots," he ordered. "Make a wide circle to port."
The helmsman repeated the order.
"You have the conn, Number One," Jones-Fortin or-dered.
"I have the conn, sir," the executive officer said.
"Why don't we go to my cabin?" Jones-Fortin said, and motioned them ahead of him into an interior passageway.
There was already someone in the captain's cabin, a Royal Marine lieutenant in field clothing and web gear.
"Gentlemen, may I present Lieutenant Richard Diceworth, Royal Marines?" Jones-Fortin said. "Diceworth, this is Captain McCoy of the U.S. Marines, Lieutenant Taylor of the U.S. Navy, and I haven't had the privilege..."
"Major Kim Pak-Su, Korean national police."
The men shook hands.
"Admiral Matthews," Jones-Fortin explained, "appar-ently after consulting with your General Pickering at some length, and having decided that your Flying Fish Channel operation deserved a bit more support than he initially of-fered, sent Diceworth and fifteen Royal Marines from HMS Jamaica, his flagship."
"I don't know what to say," McCoy confessed.
"Let me tell you what we have to offer, and then you tell me if you think it would be helpful," Jones-Fortin said. "In addition to Diceworth and his men, we have the boats that brought them to Charity from the Jamaica. There's two of them, each with a coxswain, and they're a bit larger- about twice the size, I would guess-of the lifeboats. They're also a bit faster and more seaworthy."
McCoy just shook his head.
"And while we were waiting for you to join us, my Number One and my gunnery officer, after studying aerial photographs of the islands, have offered the opinion that they can bring all of them under our guns."
"You'd have to go into the Flying Fish to do that, Cap-tain, wouldn't you?" Taylor asked.
"No, actually not. We can lay the cannon fire from a po-sition seaward of the islands, and use the islands, so to speak, as rocks behind which to hide from possible enemy observation."
"Jesus!" McCoy said.
"Sir William made it quite clear to me, Captain McCoy, that the use of British elements in your operation is by no means an order. Using any, or all, of what we can offer is entirely up to you. What do you think?"
"I think if it wouldn't give Taylor the wrong idea about Marines, I'd kiss Lieutenant Diceworth," McCoy said.
"Well, perhaps there would be time for that later," Jones-Fortin said. "But right now, nose to the grindstone, et cetera, right?"
[TWO]
TOKCHOK-KUNDO ISLAND
0330 25 AUGUST 1950
"What the hell is going on?" Master Gunner Ernest W. Zimmerman asked when Captain Kenneth R. McCoy jumped off the Wind of Good Fortune onto the wharf. "I almost blew you out of the water when I saw you coming in with that light."
Another man jumped onto the wharf, and Zimmerman looked at him in absolute surprise.
"Lieutenant Diceworth, Royal Marines, Master Gunner Zimmerman," McCoy said.
"How do you do, Mr. Zimmerman?" Diceworth said, politely.
Zimmerman saluted, then looked at McCoy for an ex-planation.
"I want everybody who won't fit in Boat Two-includ-ing the militia-on the Wind of Good Fortune in ten min-utes," McCoy said. "I want to be in the Flying Fish Channel in fifteen minutes."
"I asked you what's going on, Killer," Zimmerman pur-sued.
"There's been a slight change in the operation."
"What kind of a change?" Zimmerman asked dubiously.
"I only want to do it once, Ernie," McCoy said. "Get everybody loaded up."
"Good morning, Lieutenant," Zimmerman said to Dice-worth. "With respect, sir, may the gunner inquire where the hell the lieutenant came from?"
Diceworth smiled.
"From HMS Jamaica, actually," Diceworth said.
"He and fifteen more English Marines," McCoy added.
"Actually, Captain," Diceworth said, "that's Royal Marines."
"Sorry," McCoy said. "And two pretty-good-sized boats with people who know how to drive them, and radios with which they can talk to Charity, the destroyer, who's laying just outside the lighthouse."
"No shit?"
"And can bring naval gunfire to bear on all the islands, and has aerial photos, so we can call in what we need when we need it."
"No shit?"
"And now, if your curiosity is settled for the moment, Mr. Zimmerman, would you please get your ass out of low gear, and start getting this circus on the road?"
The essential difference between the pre-Royal Marines and pre-HMS Charity plan, and what they were going to try to do now, was that the element of surprise wasn't nearly as important as it had been.
If the two-lifeboat "invasion fleet" had been detected and brought under fire by any of the North Korean forces, it would almost certainly have meant disaster. The North Koreans had both machine guns and rifles, and would have brought the lifeboats under fire the moment they saw they were filled with armed men.
Machine-gun and rifle fire from firm ground goes where it is directed. Machine-gun and rifle fire from crowded lifeboats bobbing in the rapidly receding tide waters of the Flying Fish Channel would have struck its targets only by wild coincidence.
So the element of surprise in the initial plan was of prime importance. Now it fell into the category of "nice to have if we can get away with it"
The plan now had a role for the Wind of Good Fortune. With the two boats from HMS Jamaica running to her star-board, where they could probably not be seen, and towing the lifeboat, she would move up the Flying Fish Channel past Taebu-do and Taemuui-do under both diesel and sail power. The sails probably would do very little to propel her forward, and their being raised might have the opposite ef-fect, if mere was a strong wind from the north-in which case they would be lowered.
All the Marines-Royal and U.S.-and most of Major Kim's national police would be in the boats. They were now divided into three teams, scattering the Royal Marines among the U.S. Marines.
The two larger teams, one commanded by Captain Mc-Coy and the other by Lieutenant Diceworth, would, if everything went well, land undetected at the narrow point-the center of the hourglass-of Yonghung-do, and then split, and simultaneously move over land, Diceworth's team to take the village of Oe-ri on the south end of the island, and McCoy's to take Nae-ri on the northern end.
The lifeboat would hold a seven-man team, commanded by Zimmerman, as the reserve.