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"Christ, they couldn't get through the sodding surf or something else went wrong! Bloody hell!"
Commander Feldt said.
"McCoy and Wallace are ashore," Banning said, "And Condition Two!" McCoy's orders were to assess
the condition of the sand on the beach on a scale of One to Five: One meant it was Perfect and Five
meant it was Extremely Hazardous.
Banning took a sheet of paper from the manila envelope. He had prepared a number of messages
beforehand to cover all the contingencies he could think of. The message he was looking for had three
spaces that he'd left blank. He wrote BAKER in one of them and 0530 06OCT42 and TWO in the
others. Then he handed the sheet to Cahn.
"The sooner the better, Cahn," he said.
"Aye, aye, Sir." Cahn set the switch on the tape machine to CLEAR, then typed the message.
FOR CINCPAC RADIO
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
FROM OFFICER COMMANDING RAN COASTWATCHER ESTABLISHMENT
FOR RELAY TO COMMGENERAL 1ST MAR DIVISION
FOLLOWING FOR MAJOR HOMER DILLON USMC X PLAN BAKER SUCCESSFULLY
EXECUTED AS OF 0530 06OCT42 X CONDITION TWO REPEAT TWO X EXECUTE PLAN
VICTOR X ADVISE ONLY DELAYS AND REASONS THEREFORE X FELDT
He then moved switches on the encryption device to ENCRYPT, fed the tape to it, and waited for the
message to appear.
Two minutes later, CINCPAC Radio acknowledged receipt of Coastwatcher Radio's encrypted
Operational Immediate message. Four minutes after that, CINCPAC sent another message.
FRD1, KCY. FYI 1STMARDIV AKN UR OI.
Coastwatcher Radio, this is CINCPAC Radio. For Your Information, First Marine Division Radio has
acknowledged receipt of your Operational Immediate.
KCY, FRD1. THANKS. FRD1 CLR.
"They've got it, Sir," Cahn reported.
"When do we net with Ferdinand Six?" Banning asked.
"Six-fifty, Sir," Cahn said after consulting his Signal Operating Instructions for 0001-2400 6 October
1942. "About ten minutes, Sir."
"Try them now," Commander Feldt ordered.
Cahn did so. There was no reply from Ferdinand Six. Neither was there a reply at the appointed hour.
"Keep trying," Feldt ordered.
At 120-second intervals, Cahn tapped out FRD6, FRD1.
FRD6, FRDI.
At 0710, twenty minutes late, FRD6 came on the air:
FRD1, FRD6. FRD1, FRD6.
"He's calling us, Commander," Cahn said. "Not responding to us. Maybe his reception is bad."
"Try him again."
FRD6, FRD1. FRD6, FRD1.
FRD1, FRD6. UR 2 x 5.
FRD6, FRD1, SB CODE.
FRD1, FRD6. GA.
FRD6, FRD1.
USE AS SIMPLE SUBSTITUTION
FIRST NAME BELLE OF WAGGA WAGGA
SECOND NAME DITTO
MODEL RPT MODEL BANNINGS CAR
05xO8xl5xl6xO2
O5x2lxl2xO2xO4
15x04x21x11x10
13x14x24x25x13
11x23x06x17x02
15x21x23x24x02
ACKNOWLEDGE UNDERSTANDING
FRD1,SB
Signalman Cahn listened carefully, making minute adjustments to his receiver for half a minute.
"I lost his carrier, Sir. He probably shut down to decode that. "
"We hope," Banning said. He turned to Sergeant Esposito.
"Esposito, get on the Teletype and send what we have to Brisbane. Eyes only, Lieutenant Hon."
"Aye, Aye, Sir."
"Tell him I suggest-use that word, suggest-that he relay to General Pickering on the special channel."
"Aye, aye, Sir."
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Feldt asked. "Falsely raised hopes are worse than no news at all."
"O ye of little faith," Banning said. "Send it, Esposito."
Sergeant Esposito picked up the various messages and sat down at the Teletype machine and started
typing.
[Three]
FERDINAND SIX
BUKA, SOLOMON ISLANDS
0715 HOURS 6 OCTOBER 1942
"I hope you know what the hell Wagga Wagga is," Lieutenant Joe Howard, USMCR, said to
Sub-Lieutenant Jakob Reeves, RANVR. "Because I don't."
"It's a backwater town in New South Wales," Reeves said.
"A town?"
Reeves nodded. "Using the term generously. And as far as I know I don't know a living soul there, much
less the belle thereof."
"My girl's from Wagga Wagga," Sergeant Steve Koffler said.
"That must be it," Howard said.
"I thought your girl was down at the creek, washing your linen Reeves said.
"I told you, goddamn it, you sonofabitch, to knock that shit off"
"That's enough, Koffler."
"Fuck him, I told him to stop!"
"That's enough, Sergeant Koffler," Howard said firmly.
`Shit!"
"He has been diddling-"
"That's enough out of you, too, Reeves," Howard said.
"You don't give me orders, Lieutenant!" With a great effort, Howard controlled his temper, although he
did not flinch under Reeves' angry glare.
Eventually Reeves shrugged.
"Sergeant, I apologize," he said. "I was making a joke. Or thought I was."
"Forget it," Koffler said, sounding not at all sincere.
"For reasons I can't imagine, I think all of our tempers are on a short fuse," Howard said. "None of us
can afford to let things get out of hand."
"Just for the fucking record," Koffler said, the picture of righteous indignation, "that happened just once,
and I was drunk." Howard had a terrible urge to laugh.
"On that beer shit that Reeves makes," Koffler said.
"Well, fuck you, Sergeant," Reeves said. "If you feel that way, you can't have any more of my beer shit."
Howard laughed out loud. Reeves looked pleased with himself.
"You just dug your own grave, Koffler," he said. "No more of Lieutenant Reeves' splendid, tasty beer for
you."
"That shit sneaks up on you," Koffler said.
The flare-up seemed to have passed, Howard decided with relief.
"What do you think they mean by `model of Banning's car'?" Reeves asked.
"Studebaker," Howard said. "Right? Or are they talking about that English car, the Jaguar, that Captain
Pickering was driving?"
"It says `model repeat model,' " Koffler said. "I think they mean `President,' a Studebaker President. If
they meant the Jaguar they would have said `Pickering."'
"I'm sure Steve's right " Reeves said.
"Let's try it," Howard I said. It did not go unnoticed by him that Reeves had used Koffler's first name.
"Well, it's English," Howard said five minutes later, "but what the hell does it mean?" Reeves and Koffler
looked down at the sheet of paper. On it Howard had written the message in code blocks, then his
interpretation of that:
N A T H A
N S W A N
T H I S N
0 R N T 0
S E E P A
T I E N S
Nathan Swan This Norn to See Patiens
"'Norn' is maybe `North'?" Koffler guessed.
"There's no `M' in `Daphne Farnsworth Patiens,"' Reeves said. "Make it `swam' and `morn."' "Nathan
swam this morn to see Patience," Howard said.
"That makes more sense, but what does it mean?"
"Nathan is obviously the Nathaniel of the first message, Reeves said. "What it could mean is that he came
ashore, swam ashore, from a submarine or something."
"This morn? This morning?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]