W.E.B. Griffin - The Corps VII - Behind the Lines

"We need a submarine," Pickering said. "What do you suggest?"

Wagam did not reply directly.

"As I understand it," he said, "we do not have secure communication with Fertig, and will not have until we put ashore the first personnel and their communications equipment. Until we do that, until Fertig and his people can communicate directly, and securely, both with a submarine and with radio sta-tions here and elsewhere, we have no reason to assume that the sub can safely surface, much less discharge cargo, off Mindanao. It's entirely possible that the moment the conning tower breaks water, it will come under shore-based artil-lery fire."

"We plan to go in at night, Admiral," McCoy said.

"There are both artillery illuminating rounds, and aircraft parachute flares available to the Japanese, Mr. McCoy," Admiral Wagam said reasonably.

"Let's hear what you would like us to do, Admiral," Pickering said, a touch of impatience in his voice.

"OK. A new boat, the Sunfish, can be made available for Operation Windmill-"

"Excuse me?" Captain Sessions asked.

"Operation Windmill is what somebody in Washington is calling this operation," Pickering replied. "I'm sure that sooner or later someone would have remembered to tell us."

"As in tilting at windmills, like Don Quixote?" Sessions asked.

"I think that's a good guess, Ed," Pickering said. "Go on, please, Admi-ral."

"The Sunfish can be made available to you at Espfritu Santo as of 10 De-cember. If that decision is made today, or no later than tomorrow. She is a standard submarine. This means she is not capable of carrying all the cargo you intend to take with you, even with half of her torpedoes removed."

"Looking the gift horse in the mouth, Admiral, why are you willing to give us a new submarine?" Pickering asked.

"Because this cruise for her would also serve as a shakedown voyage," Wagam said. "Our experience has been that losses of submarines, from enemy action or other causes, are disproportionately larger when a boat is making its first combat patrol."

Stecker snorted.

"In one sense, Colonel," Wagam said, now a little coldly, "you're right. CINCPAC would rather risk the Sunfish than the Narwhal. For one thing, the loss of the Sunfish would not be as damaging as the loss of the Narwhal. There are other Gato-class submarines in production. There are no Narwhal-class submarines on the way."

"What are the 'disproportionate' losses of submarines on their first com-bat patrol?" Pickering asked.

"Eighteen percent," Wagam replied.

"One in five doesn't make it back? God, I had no idea it was that bad!" Pickering replied, visibly shocked.

"CINCPACs thinking,"' Wagam said, "is that the Sunfish could make its first combat patrol with a lesser risk of loss than a full combat patrol would entail-despite the hazards incident to surfacing a thousand yards off an enemy-held shore for the hour or so it would take to off-load your men. That would both put your men ashore and get Sunfish back to Pearl with the experience of a first combat patrol under her belt. On the return voyage, after the off-loading, she could continue her patrol with the available fuel and half her normal complement of torpedoes."

"Jack?" Pickering asked.

"I see their reasoning," Stecker said thoughtfully. "But I don't like cut-ting the material we want to take to Fertig. Correct me if I'm wrong, Sir, but you want to give us the space normally taken up by half of the torpedoes nor-mally carried?"

"Correct."

"And if the Sunfish carried no torpedoes at all?" Pickering asked.

He directed the question to Admiral Wagam, but Stecker answered:

"We would still be able to carry only about half of what we could take on the Narwhal, right?"

"That is correct," Wagam said.

"Which means we could carry only one-quarter of what we planned to carry on the Narwhal," Pickering said.

"Correct," Wagam said.

"That's not very much," McCoy said, thinking out loud.

"I ask you to consider this," Wagam said. "There would be room for the communications and cryptographic equipment, a certain amount of small arms and ammunition, medical supplies, and most important, I would suggest, the gold. All of which, I suggest, should convince Colonel Fertig-"

"We think of him as 'General' Fertig," Pickering interrupted.

"-should convince General Fertig," Wagam corrected himself, "that help is on the way."

"When?" Pickering asked.

"CINCPAC has directed me to tell you that you have his personal word that, once secure communications have been established, a supply mission, using the Sunfish, will have the highest priority."

"The highest priority? Or a high priority?" Pickering asked.

"The. Absolutely, The."

"But I have that already, don't I?" Pickering said.

"Yes, General," Wagam said. "You do."

"Ken, you're the one going in," Pickering said. "What do you think?"

"Sir, I'm a little over my head talking about something like this."

"I'll decide that," Pickering said. "What do you think? What's wrong with what they're proposing?"

McCoy cocked his head to the side, as if gathering his thoughts, then won-dering if he dared offer them.

"Nothing against the Navy, Admiral," he said finally. "They did a hell of a job putting us onto Makin and then getting us off."

"You were on the Makin raid?" Wagam asked.

"Yes, Sir."

"Drop the other shoe, Lieutenant," Wagam said. "We 'did a good job at Makin, but'?"

"This is going to be the Sunfish's first patrol," McCoy said. "Whoever's running the submarine, by definition, and understandably, is going to be a little nervous. We're in the middle of going ashore. There is a sign that the Japs are onto us..."

"And you don't want to be left floating around in a rubber boat between the shore and a submarine in the process of submerging, right?" Pickering fin-ished for him. "OK, Admiral. We haven't addressed that. How do we know the crew of this new sub will be up to doing what they'll have to do?"

"I'm going to give Lieutenant McCoy the benefit of the doubt that he's not questioning the courage of the Sunfish's crew-"

"Permission to speak, Sir?" Lieutenant Lewis interrupted.

Admiral Wagam visibly did not like being interrupted. But after flashing his aide a withering look, he said, "Certainly, Lewis."

"McCoy, would it allay your reservations if an officer were aboard the Sunfish who was experienced in making runs like the one we're talking about and was also fully aware of CINCPAC's personal interest in this mission?"

"We're back to that, are we, Chambers?" Admiral Wagam asked.

"Back to what?" Stecker asked.

"Lieutenant Lewis feels he could make a far greater contribution to the war by going on this mission than by opening doors for me," Wagam said. "Is that about it, Chambers?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Mr. Lewis is a submariner, Mr. McCoy," Admiral Wagam said. "Before he came to work for me, he was on three missions to Corregidor."

"What I'm thinking, Ken," Pickering said, "-and I don't want to ques-tion the courage of the sub crew either, Admiral-is that knowing-"

"That my aide is aboard," Wagam interrupted, "with orders to report to CINCPAC personally when, and under what circumstances, the Sunfish left Lieutenant McCoy and party, might keep them on position until they abso-lutely had no choice but to leave or be sunk?"

"No offense, but that's what I was thinking," Pickering said.

"I also know a little something about how to launch rubber boats from submarines, Mr. McCoy," Lewis said.

"How are you at paddling one of them?" McCoy asked.

"Probably a little better at it than you are," Lewis said. "I can also walk and chew gum at the same time."

McCoy laughed.

"You can't be too smart," McCoy said. "It sounds to me like you're volunteering."