CHAPTER FIFTEEN
_Missing in Action_
With the measured steps of a man deep in thought, and very much worried,Colonel Welsh, Chief of Combined U. S. Intelligence, paced up and downthe full length of the Carrier Carson's flight deck. He walked as a manwho cared not where he was headed, because he knew that he would findnothing when he arrived there. Pilots and plane crews lounging in thecrash nets that stretched the full length of the flight deck on bothsides stopped talking as he passed, looked at him, gave a little shakeof their heads, and murmured inaudible words of sympathy.
Suddenly the alarm system announced the approach of aircraft, theCarson's aircraft. Colonel Welsh stiffened in a halt, lifted his headand peered at the growing dots coming out of the sky to the north. Thenhe wheeled quickly, ran across the flight deck and hurried up aloft tothe flight bridge. And there he came to a halt, gripping the bridge railhard with both hands, and straining his eyes at the oncoming planes.
"Too bad again, Colonel," Admiral Jackson spoke quietly in his ear."Those are the eight who went out on the last patrol. Here, look at themthrough my glasses, if you wish."
"Thank you, sir," the Colonel replied in a low voice, and fixed theglasses on the approaching planes.
A few moments later he lowered them from his eyes, and handed them backto the Admiral without any word. He focussed his naked eyes on theplanes, and watched as they came up in line astern formation and circledthe Carson until the leader got the flag to come aboard. Then one by onethey slid down aboard to practically roll into the waiting hands of theplane crews. But as each pilot passed the flight bridge he looked up atColonel Welsh, shook his head, and made a thumbs down gesture. And whenthe last pilot to come aboard had done that, and rolled on down thedeck, Colonel Welsh gripped the flight bridge railing so hard hisknuckles showed white through the stretched skin. And he had to swallowhard several times to stifle the groan of anguish that struggled forexpression.
"Let's have some coffee in my quarters, Colonel," the task forcecommander said gently. "The executive can bring us the patrol reportthere."
"Thank you, thank you very much, sir," Colonel Welsh mumbled, andfollowed the other off the flight bridge.
When they were settled in the Admiral's quarters, and had been servedcoffee, the Chief of Combined U. S. Intelligence glanced over at theNavy officer with a faint apologetic smile.
"I'm afraid I'm not acting the good soldier very well, sir," he said. "Ihope you'll accept my apologies. But this is getting me where it hurtsthe most."
"I quite understand, Colonel," the other said quietly. "It gets me, too,to have pilots reported missing in action, whether I know thempersonally or not. You just can't help feeling it deep."
"And those two I knew so well!" Colonel Welsh breathed sadly. "Icouldn't know them any better if they were my own sons. And in a way I'mdirectly responsible for whatever has happened to them. I was the onewho assigned them to this carrier. As I told you, they had justcompleted a very dangerous mission in China. They had postponed leave tocarry out the mission for me. And if any two in this war rate leave,they certainly do. But--well, it struck me I needed them badly on thisjob. They both have all what it takes, and--well, they performed morethan one absolutely impossible miracle in the past. So I decided toorder them to take a hand in this job. And--"
As the colonel paused he couldn't stop the groan this time.
"And they are the only two that we have lost," he finally completed thesentence. "If only I had an idea of what happened, I don't think itwould be so bad. Death comes swiftly and suddenly in this war, so weconstantly have to steel ourselves on that subject. If they were killedin action, then that's something different. But just plain missing--andwhen no other pilot has reported a blessed thing. Well, that is the partso hard to take. But forgive me for rambling like this, sir."
"Think nothing of it, Colonel," the Admiral said, and added a drop moreof cream to his coffee. "Frankly, I've been giving the puzzle more thana little thought. For two days, now, we've combed every square mile ofthis area, and no pilot has seen a trace or sign of anything. Not somuch as a thread of smoke on the horizon. It has me worried, Colonel."
The Chief of Combined U. S. Intelligence stuck out his lower lip andgave a little half twist of his head.
"I'm very much worried, too, sir," he said. "If that reported Jap forceis in these waters, it must be at the bottom of them. It certainly isn'tin the area we've scouted. And that fact is what gives me cause forthought. A lot of thought. Technically, this area we're patrolling isJapanese-controlled. And yet, not a single Jap surface ship, submarine,or plane has shown its face. And I'm afraid, sir, the answer is thatconfounded Kawanishi flying boat that we shot down the other evening. Itstands to reason that they must have sent out a radio report to theirbase before Dawson and Farmer nailed them."
"I'm afraid you're right about that, Colonel," the Admiral agreed with anod. Then, as his brows furrowed in a frown, "But we were just off NewCaledonia then, and headed east. We changed the course to north afterdarkness had fallen. And I'm positive we weren't detected during thenight, nor have we been spotted since."
"But, unfortunately, the Japs are no fools," Colonel Welsh said grimly."They are mighty clever, and have a way of accurately figuring thingsout for themselves. And they probably started adding things up whentheir patrol planes spotted no sign of us the next morning. It'spossible that they outguessed us and sent word to the commander of thisJap force we're trying to hunt down. And he took measures to make surethat we wouldn't find him. He may have changed his course and moved farover to the west."
"If he did," the Admiral grunted, and rubbed one clenched fist on thearm of his chair, "then we won't find him before the attack onGuadalcanal gets started at dawn tomorrow. Even at top speed we couldn'tget over to where he may be that soon. And, of course, it's only a guessthat the force is over there. Also, it would be too risky. He mightswing back along the northern New Guinea coast, and slip down past Lae.Or he may force his ships and cut around the western end of New Guinea,and strike at Australia from the north. However, if the Jap commanderfigures that we _are_ up here looking for him, he'll undoubtedly takethe double back route. That will get him to Lae by dawn. And when hegets there he is bound to get wind of our doings against Guadalcanal.Any way you look at it, we're in a bad spot. And that is not saying athing about our forces taking part in the Guadalcanal business."
Colonel Welsh nodded soberly, but for a long moment he didn't sayanything. He sat with his head slightly bent and his eyes fixedunwinkingly on the half filled cup of coffee he held in his hands.Presently he sighed, gave a little shake of his head, and looked up atthe task force commander.
"Yes, you're dead right, sir, in everything you say," he spoke in aweary voice. "So I'll step to one side, sir, and let you have charge ofthings from here on. I thought sure we would catch that Jap force as aresult of this search, but--well, Intelligence has been wrong before. Nouse weeping over it. We just didn't click this time. So go ahead, sir,and issue the order to abandon the search."
"Thank you, Colonel," the task force commander said with just thefaintest note of relief in his voice. "I'm afraid we are wasting timeway up here. And I'm mighty sorry, sir, about Dawson and Farmer. Isincerely hope that they will pop up again, just as you have told methey have done so many times in the past. At least it's somesatisfaction to know that those two will take some beating beforethey'll give up. And a pair like them will never give up."
"Never!" Colonel Welsh echoed grimly. "And we can both hope, and pray.But may I ask you something, sir?"
"Why, certainly, Colonel," the other replied instantly. "I don't thinkyou and I have any secrets aboard this ship. Go right ahead and ask."
"Your plans," the Intelligence Chief asked bluntly. "Just what do youplan to do now, sir?"
The Admiral didn't answer at once. Yet it was not because he wasreluctant to speak. It was simply a case of wanting to choose his wordsfirst.
"The Solomons," he said, and glance
d at the huge naval chart of theSouthwest Pacific that covered all of one wall in his quarters. "Bypushing things we can get within striking distance by early dawn. Ithink that's the thing to do. The only thing we can do. Get right downin there and do what we can to help the land forces."
"Yes, I guess that's best," Colonel Welsh said, and glanced sadly outone of the ports at the red ball of fire that was the dying sun balancedon the western lip of the wall. "But what if we get down in among thoseislands and that Jap force comes up on us by surprise? You'll be inmighty tight waters. And they're bound to send dive bombers over fromtheir Lae base, too."
"Do?" the task force commander echoed in a harsh voice, as his chin cameout in a fighting pose. "I'll slug it out with them until I haven't aplane left or a deck under my feet, sir! And I can tell you, sir, thatmy ships and planes will not be the _only_ ones lost, if the Japs catchus with our bows to those islands. Our forces have _got_ to takeGuadalcanal! And that's all there is to that. We can't let them trim usthis time. By God, no, sir!"
Colonel Welsh smiled, nodded, and lifted his coffee cup and held itpoised in midair.
"To whatever happens, sir," he toasted. "And may we have all the best ofit!"
The task force commander lifted his own coffee cup, and nodded, too.
"And we will, by God, sir!" he said through clenched teeth. "Just aslong as we've got a ship floating or a plane flying! Amen!"
And the two high ranking officers drank silently.