Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 08 - In Dangers Path

«So far as I know, the OSS doesn't have a Gobi Desert operation.»

«We do now,» the DDO said.

«I really have no idea what you're talking about. I can tell you this, however, Director Donovan has never discussed anything like that with me. What about the Gobi Desert?»

«It's in China. Or, actually, Mongolia,» the Deputy Director for Operations said.

«Really?» the DDA replied sarcastically.

«Yeah. It borders on Russia. It's about a thousand miles long, and from three hundred to six hundred miles wide. I looked it up in the

Encyclopaedia Britannica

before I came in here. Or before I went to Wild Bill's office to report to him and heard he was out of town.»

«I presume that you eventually will get to the point,» the DDA said, and then his curiosity got the best of him. «This Mongolian desert was presumably a subject of discussion at the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Specifically, some sort of an operation there?»

«Oh, yes. We hardly talked about anything else. The discussion was yet another fascinating display of interservice rivalry and noncooperation.»

«And you

are

going to tell me why the Gobi Desert is important to the war effort? And how this affects the OSS?»

«So far as the Army Air Corps is concerned, it is of great importance because of their plans to bomb the Japanese home islands. Once they get the B-29 operational, of course, and once they've found someplace to base them. To conduct long range bombing operations, they need weather information.»

The Boeing B-29 «Superfortress» (first flown in 1942) was a high-altitude bomber powered by four 2,200-hp Wright R-3350 radial engines. It had a takeoff weight of 70 tons; a range of 4,100 miles at 340 mph; was capable of carrying 10 tons of bombs; and was armed with ten .50-caliber machine guns.

«What's that got to do with the Gobi Desert? More important, what's that got to do with us?»

«The weather data has to come from that part of the world. It has something to do with cold air masses moving down from the Arctic Circle across Russia, Mongolia, China, Korea, the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Japanese islands, and into the Pacific.»

«Why?»

«I have no idea, except that was the one thing on which the Air Corps and the Navy could reach agreement today. I would suspect that it is necessary for both short– and long-range planning.»

«Why is the Navy concerned?»

«They need the information for the same reasons the Air Corps does, and they insist they need it now and can't wait for the Air Corps.»

«Wait for the Air Corps to do what?»

«Army Air Corps planning has always counted on cooperation from our Russian allies. Even before we got into the war—which frankly surprised me— the Air Corps was thinking about the need for a weather station in that area, first choice Russia. As soon as we got in the war, they formed a weather station unit and asked for permission to send it to Russia. They are still waiting.»

He saw that he now had the DDA's attention.

«Representations,» the DDO went on, «as they say, have been made at the highest diplomatic levels, but so far problems of an unspecified nature have kept Uncle Joe Stalin from granting the necessary permission.»

«God!»

«The Navy, which is always interested in weather information, was informed that just as soon as the Air Corps weather station was up and running, they would be provided with any information it produced, and they should not trouble themselves worrying about it.»

The DDO pushed himself out of the green leather armchair and walked to a credenza.

«Thank you, Charley, I

will

have a cup of coffee,» he said, and poured himself a cup from a stainless-steel thermos.

«Okay. Where was I?» he asked, rhetorically, as he slumped back into the arm chair. «Right. The Navy, in effect, was told to butt out, the Air Corps had the situation in hand. The Navy, however, apparently did not share the Air Corps' faith in our Russian allies' willingness to fully cooperate with us in every possible way. But what to do?»

«What, indeed?» the DDA asked impatiently.

The DDO saw that he had succeeded in annoying the DDA and was pleased. «Furthermore,» he went on, «the Navy has a card in the hole—if not an ace, then say a jack, or maybe even a queen—which, from their perspective, entitles them to preeminence vis-a-vis weather stations in the Gobi Desert.»

«Which is?»

«It has come to the attention of Naval Intelligence…«

«Naval Intelligence, overt?» the DDA broke in. «Or that Office of Management Analysis covert intelligence outfit Frank Knox operates?»

«Secretary of the Navy Knox was represented at the meeting by his Administrative Officer—he does for Knox what you do for Wild Bill—Captain David W. Haughton. USN.»

As intended, this statement annoyed the DDA, who thought of himself as Chief of Staff to Director Donovan.

«I know who Haughton is,» the DDA said, somewhat snappishly. «Knox wasn't there?»

«No,» the DDO said. «Maybe he was off somewhere with Wild Bill.»

«If that were the case, I would certainly have been advised.»

«Yes, I'm sure you would,» the DDO said sarcastically. «And, before today, I never heard Haughton admit he has even heard of the USMC Office of Management Analysis, much less that Knox has anything to do with it.»

«Today he did?»

«Today he not only did, but announced that for some time the Office of Management Analysis has been planning an operation to set up a weather station in the Gobi Desert.»

«Director Donovan is right,» the DDA said, somewhat righteously, «Management Analysis should have been brought into the OSS at the beginning! They're a loose cannon running around on the deck. They have no authority to do anything like that!»

«What Captain Haughton said,» the DDO went on, «is that Naval Intelligence—not further defined—has learned that a number of members of the Marine Guard at the Peking legation—and some other U.S. military personnel — have not all entered Japanese captivity, as previously believed. Some of them instead headed for the hills, the hills of Mongolia, accompanied by a number of retired Marines and soldiers and sailors.»

«Retired Marines and soldiers and sailors?» the DDA asked, incredulous.

«A total of sixty-seven Americans, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army, plus a not-specified number of wives and children,» the DDO finished, ignoring the interruption.

»

Retired

Marines and sailors?» the Deputy Director repeated. «And wives and children?»

«Remember the halcyon days of gunboat diplomacy? The Yangtze River patrol? The Japanese strafing of the

PanayT

On 12 December 1937, Japanese bombers had attacked and severely damaged the U.S. Yangtze River gunboat

Panay

near Nanking. A number of American sailors had been killed.

«Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.»

«I'd really forgotten about it, at least about the Yangtze River patrol,» the DDO confessed. «But Captain Haughton delivered an illuminating lecture on the subject of the American military in China.»

«Can you please get to the point?»

«Bear with me, Charley,» the DDO said. «I really didn't come in here to waste your valuable time.»

They locked eyes for a moment, and then the DDO went on: «Anyway, Haughton said that many of these guys—the enlisted men of the Fourth Marines, the Army's Fifteenth Infantry, and the Yangtze River patrol—just stayed in China.

Retired there

. Once there, they got time and a half toward their retirement.»

«What?»

«They got six weeks' credit toward retirement for every month they served in China. Which meant they could retire after about twenty years of service as if they had served thirty years. And a good many of them acquired wives after they'd been there for a while.»