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."
"Sorry, I should have got into that. When they landed from the sub, they decided that Wallace could make better time to Ferdinand Six traveling alone. So Lieutenant McCoy stayed with Sergeant Hart."
"Did you say McCoy?" Pick Pickering asked.
"Yes, I did."
"Is he one of your people?" Pick asked.
"As a matter of fact, Lieutenant, no, he is not. He's sort of a rubber-boat expert they sent from Washington."
"Is that Killer McCoy?"
"Yes, but when you meet him, Lieutenant, I strongly suggest that you do not so address him."
"Aye, aye, Sir," Pick said.
"You know this guy?" Charley Galloway asked; they were sitting together.
"We went through OCS Quantico," Pick said.
Galloway shrugged.
"If I may continue?" Felt asked sarcastically. "As I was saying, if the battery-powered radio is working, the beach will communicate with the aircraft. if it is not working, McCoy has two signal panels, one red, meaning Do Not Attempt Landing, and one blue, meaning the beach is Safe to Land. If they display the red panel, the Hallicrafters aboard will be kicked out of the airplane into the water. If we're lucky, their packaging will float them and they will be washed ashore. The aircraft will then return here."
"I'm willing to jump in, Commander," the sober-sounding sergeant said.
"We all are," the other sergeant said, the one who obviously had had one or two more bottles of beer than his metabolism could handle.
"We considered that and decided against it," Feldt said.
"You will return here so we can try this again. Clear? I don't want any heroics out there." There was no reply.
"What I am waiting for, gentlemen, is an acknowledgment of that order."
"Aye, aye, Sir," the two sergeants said. Feldt looked at the other three members of the team and waited for them to say, "Aye, aye, Sir."
"If the green panel is displayed, the aircraft will land," Feldt said. "The radios and other supplies will be off-loaded, Reeves, Howard, and Koffler will be taken aboard, and the aircraft will depart."
"What happens to the two guys on the beach?" one of the Marines asked, "if the airplane can't land?"