Author: Gerald Hall
Date: 2017-12-14T18:00:00+00:00
Description: The Second World War has begun. Harold Cavill travelled back in time to try to change history to prevent the war in 2040 that caused man's extinction. At first, it was hard to tell if Harold's efforts have even made a real difference at all. But as the war raged in Europe and the Pacific, some dramatic differences in the course of history began to appear. But will the changes that Harold has inspired made humanity's future safer or even less uncertain?
Publisher: Independently published

Untimely Designs

Book #2 of the Yesterday’s War series

By Gerald L. Hall

Dedicated to my wife who is known to all as ‘Rev Bev’. She’s the good Shepherd that this old ‘sheepdog’ has been working together in love with for over twenty-three years. She has been and continues to be my ‘walking, talking miracle’.

Copyright Pending 2017, Gerald Hall

Image credits: Cover Art by Nijhia Serrano

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission by the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Prologue:

Just as Harold Cavill had predicted, Hitler invaded Poland from the west on the first of September, 1939. On the 17th of September, Stalin invaded Poland from the east. By the sixth of October, Poland had been defeated and carved up between the two rival powers.

The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations due to their invasion of Finland on the 30th of October. The Baltic States had been coerced into signing mutual assistance pacts with the Soviet Union shortly after the Soviet invasion of Poland. This led to a de-facto annexation of those countries by the Soviet Union.

The stage was now set for the Second World War as it had happened before in the previous timeline. Nothing that Harold had done had changed this part of history. But he hoped that the work that he had laid the groundwork for would change the course of the war and the desolate future that he fled back in time from.

Chapter One:

Harold Cavill’s home

Derby, Western Australia

1 December, 1939

“Sweetheart, what do you think of this Phony War that the newspapers keep writing about? It’s been a couple of months now since Britain and France declared war on Germany. Surely, the war in your history was far more violent than this.” Dorothy asked.

“No, Dear. I’m afraid that this is pretty much how the Second World War started before. There have been some air raids from both sides and even a few skirmishes along the border of Germany and France, but most of the real fighting has been on the high seas so far. The German U-Boats are already creating havoc along with the Nazi surface raiders.” Harold said while looking at the news reports that he received from the newspapers that he owned.

“Will any of the actions that you have taken with Mister Churchill make a difference against the Germans at this point, Harold?”

“I hope so. Certainly, the increased number of aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers in the Royal Navy will fill England’s critical defense needs far better than a couple of slow old battleships. If history remains roughly as it was in the previous timeline, we will see the demise of one of Germany’s best surface raiders very soon. That particular battle may even be more one-sided against the Germans if my sources from the Royal Australian Navy are correct. They have said told me that the raider-hunting group in the South Atlantic has one of the Hawkins-class aircraft carriers attached to it. Not even a pocket battleship can avoid or defeat that combination of cruisers and aircraft.”

“What about our military here in Australia, Sweetheart? I read that we are sending ships, troops and aircraft to support England already. Won’t that leave us vulnerable here?”

“It could. But we do have a few assets here that the world in general is not aware of, don’t we?” Harold said with a knowing smile.

“Yes, I do believe so. The aborigines here have certainly flocked to becoming part of your militia. I think that the militia makes them feel as though they are going back to their warrior roots. The aborigines are clearly dedicated to defending you and this land.

Plus, our factories are all very busy producing modern equipment for the Australian Army and Navy. Much of this equipment has been first produced for our ‘little’ militia here, of course.” Dorothy proudly said.

“We are also prepared to produce modern aircraft for our air force once their jackass of a commander finally comes to his senses. I’m sure that our future Fleet Air Arm will want to use the aircraft sitting quietly in our cavern warehouses, especially once they have a carrier to fly them from.”

“Yes, Sweetheart. I just don’t how the admirals here will react when they that odd-looking ship that you have at the far edge of the shipyard. But I trust that you know what you are doing. After all, you know how so many things worked even decades from now.”

“The admirals in Canberra will figure it out once they see my innovations in action. The Japanese will not give them much of a choice when the war finally reaches us in the South Pacific.”

“There is still one thing that concerns me, Harold. How do you know that you are doing the right thing here, limiting the technology that you are introducing? You told me once that you had never served in the military. Wouldn’t it make it easier for our people to defeat the Axis if you gave them technology that was much more advanced than what we have now? That way, we can win the war without using these nuclear weapons that you say will destroy humanity.” Dorothy noted.

“You’re right. I have never served in the military. But I know history and how it evolved during and after the Second World War. I know people, both through their historical records and also how I have dealt with people in the course of being a manager and a leader of them. I am also one hell of a researcher who just happens to have one hundred years of the future at my fingertips.

“I am concerned about the outcome of the war too. But my main concern is not merely about nuclear weapons and the tyranny of Marxism that lead humanity over the precipice. It is also with what we might do with the wrong technology at the wrong time. So I have to be very careful in limiting it. Eventually, you and I will have to teach our children about what we have here. They will also have a responsibility to do as I have been doing so that we can save mankind’s future.”

“I just hope that we are not too cautious, Sweetheart. We could end up doing too little, too late.” Dorothy replied while giving Harold a gentle hug.

“I pray every night, asking for God’s wisdom to avoid doing too much or too little. This situation terrifies me, but not nearly as much as the world that I saw coming to an end a hundred years from now. Perhaps, this time I can do something about it.” Harold solemnly said, not knowing for certain if he would be successful or if history would turn out even worse than before.

Royal Navy Shipyards

Portsmouth, UK

8 December, 1939

With the beginning of the conflict in Europe, Winston Churchill was quickly named First Lord of the Admiralty once again. But in many ways, the situation had changed very little in spite of all of the work that he had successfully championed behind the scenes during the past ten years. Churchill quickly accelerated the mobilization of British naval shipbuilding as soon as he stepped into his office however.

Now, Churchill stood out the cold late autumn wind along with several dozen Royal Navy officers looking over many of the warships that were under construction or had recently been completed. He saw in the faces of many of the officers, a sense of awe in what they now witnessed.

“Mister Churchill, Sir. I don’t know how you managed it. But we are all damned pleased that you found the funding to have these two cruisers built.”

“These new Southhamptons are very good ships, I must say. But even if certain politicians have decided not to build any more eight-inch gun cruisers, having two more of these powerful cruisers built than had been originally budgeted with their fine six-inch guns will strengthen the Navy. You should also know that the same process of disposing of older, obsolescent warships from our rolls for resale or scrapping is also supplying the funding for another pair of Dido’s that are being launched shortly from another yard in addition to more than a score of new destroyers.”

“I know a lot of Royal Navy sailors who will be very pleased to hear about that. They have been sailing in cruisers that date back to the Great War for far too long.” A grey-haired Commander commented.

“Something tells me that we are going to need these cruisers’ antiaircraft guns as well as their main batteries very soon, gentlemen. The Nazis are not going to sit still for much longer, I’m afraid. When they finally move, we are going to very much be in a real war. The Royal Navy’s role in it will only get larger then as we seek to keep our shipping lanes open from both U-Boats and Axis surface ships.”  Churchill told the group of Royal Navy officers.

But not all of the Royal Navy’s senior leadership were happy about what Winston Churchill had done during the past few years. Two of those senior officers silently stood in the background listening to Churchill before turning and walking away. The older man was Rear Admiral Tarleton Grey while the younger man was his aide de camp, Captain Joseph Hawkins.

“Churchill has left us dangerously weak in numbers of capital ships. He sold Ramilles to Chile and demilitarized both Royal Oak and Resolution to become training ships and target ships. He also sent both Iron Duke and Centurion to the breakers so that they are no longer available either. That meant that we have now lost three fifteen-inch armed battleships from the fleet.

What did we get back for them? We saved one old, weakly armored battle cruiser with Tiger and we upgraded many of our older capital ships with heavier anti-aircraft batteries. What use are those when we next clash with the Axis on the high seas?” Admiral Grey bitterly said.

“I regret the loss of the three R-class battleships and their firepower as well. But Churchill did get our new battleship program back on track with a heavier main armament, you have to admit, Sir. He also spearheaded increases in our cruiser and escort construction programs with the funding that he managed to acquire.”

“Listen to me. The Royal Navy’s battle line is the most important measure of our naval power, indeed of our national power. Look at what the French, Italians and even the Germans are doing. They are not focusing on this fad of putting fragile aircraft onboard ships. They are building new battleships that are larger and more powerful than ever before.

Instead, Churchill has turned away from that, even with his support of the new battleship line. Remember what happened to our battle cruiser force at Jutland. We cannot focus on such fragile ships as battle cruisers and aircraft carriers.”

“It seems to me that Mister Churchill has already managed to get his way in these matters, Sir.” Captain Hawkins said with a shrug.

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. Mark my words, Hawkins. We are going to pay dearly for these poor decisions of his. A lot of British sailors will end up dying because of what Churchill has done. I know that I am not alone in my views in this matter either. It is simply that people are afraid to speak out against Churchill right now.”

“He is very charismatic, isn’t he? Plus, it seems that his warnings against Hitler during the past few years have been proven to be correct. That gives First Lord Churchill a lot of credibility at this time. Who knows? He may even take over for Prime Minister Chamberlain if things get any worse.”

“I don’t know if there could be anything worse than to have that meddling Churchill become Prime Minister though.” The admiral growled.

“I can’t say, Sir. The current Prime Minister certainly seems to have bolloxed the whole business with Hitler. Instead of buying Hitler off, appeasement appears to have only encouraged the Nazis even more. I know that there are some people who claim that Chamberlain went to Munich and signed that document for Hitler to buy us additional time to rebuild our military.”

“If that was the case, then let us hope that it was not too little, too late. At least for the moment, it seems that Hitler has been mostly content with slicing up Poland with the Russians.”

Harold Cavill’s Main Office

Derby, Western Australia

17 December, 1939

Harold was sitting in the main office lobby, drinking coffee and reading through the five newspapers that he received daily from Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney each day to see what was happening with the war. Most of what he read confirmed what had been the case during the previous couple of months of the war.

Just as what happened in the original timeline that Harold came from, the first few months of the war saw very little activity occurring on the Western Front. But there was plenty of conflict to the north however with the German invasion of Norway. England and her allies still were being forced to react to Hitler’s moves. Politics kept the Allies from being able to act decisively against the Axis at this point. But there were already a few changes in history as a result of Harold’s activities before the war.

“Mister Cavill, did you just read the latest news about that battle with the German pocket battleship?” asked one of the office clerks who had just come in to work.

Harold initially nodded his head in response. He had been paying close attention to the Battle of the River Plate because it had been the most noteworthy example of an altered outcome so far. The Panzerschiff Admiral Graf Spee encountered a Royal Navy force just off of the South American coast. But this time, the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles not only had the heavy cruisers Exeter and Cumberland, but also the light carrier Effingham and four destroyers in support.  The Cumberland was with Effingham and her destroyers when Ajax, Achilles and Exeter encountered the panzerschiff. The cruisers engaged the Graf Spee while at the same time calling for aerial support. One flight each of Skua dive-bombers and Swordfish torpedo bombers attacked Graf Spee.  They scored two bomb hits and a torpedo hit that crippled the Graf Spee.  Between the damage inflicted by the carrier aircraft and shell hits by the cruisers, the Graf Spee’s captain had no choice but to abandon ship and scuttle his command. Tragically, it was learned that one of the bombs dropped by a Skua had landed on Graf Spee’s stern and penetrated into a compartment where dozens of captive sailors were being held.  Most of the men in that compartment were killed as a result of that bomb.

“It’s a bloody shame about those sailors who were killed aboard Graf Spee. I’m not surprised that Churchill is being so cavalier about it though. He doesn’t have any problem spilling the blood of other people from what I have heard.” The clerk bitterly noted.

This loss of innocent lives also led to considerable debate within Parliament concerning the policies concerning combat with German commerce raiders. First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill simply ignored the debate and stated that the responsibility for the safety of captured mariners lay exclusively with their captors, not with the Royal Navy. He would not allow the unfortunate captives to become human shields for the Germans.

“Perhaps so. But the Jerries should have released those sailors a lot sooner or at least sent them off on a boat before going into battle.”

Harold hoped that this unfortunate incident would not reduce Churchill’s influence within the Commonwealth as well as the United Kingdom. History had shown that Churchill was the one man in England who could lead them past the horrors of the London Blitz and the tragedy of Dunkirk. Harold needed to ensure Churchill’s success in order to achieve the desired outcome for the war.

But for the most part, Churchill himself would be the greatest agent of his own success or failure. This was regardless of anything else Harold did or tried to do. But history had shown once before that Winston Churchill’s successes far outweighed his failures. Harold was confident that this would prove to be the case once again.

Chapter Two:

First Lord of the Admiralty’s Office

London, England

April 11, 1940

“It is a damned shame that we were not able to lay those minefields off of the coast of Norway in time to block those German troops from being landed.” Winston Churchill growled impatiently as he looked through the latest dispatches from the War Ministry.

“Sir, we simply were caught off guard when the first landings occurred on the Ninth. The Danes fell to the Nazis in less than a day at the same time.” Colonel Thomas Stewart, the officer chosen by the Ministry to bear the bad news to the First Lord of the Admiralty.

“We have to send the Norwegians all of the help that we can to see if we can throw the Jerries back into the sea.”

“The War Ministry has already been debating this. They are rather skeptical that we would be able to get a large enough force there in time to make a real difference. The Norwegians themselves managed to sink a German heavy cruiser and damage several transports on their own. But it doesn’t appear to have made much of a difference. The Norwegians have already been knocked back on their heels by the Germans.”

“I saw that from the reports. However, I hate to allow the Germans to have access to the raw materials that Norway has available.”

“What do you propose that we do then, Sir?”

“We try to help the Norwegians hang onto their country. But if we fail in that, we provide as much as possible to help the Norwegian people resist the German occupation. That will make it much harder for the Germans to exploit Norway’s resources to fuel the German war machine. We will keep this up until Germans are forced to all go back home.”

“It’s a shame that the Finns didn’t have anyone to help them against the Soviets. The Finns gave Stalin and his Red Army one hell of a fight, Sir.”

“Unfortunately, the Finns were finally overwhelmed by the sheer size of the Red Army. I have a bad feeling that eventually that the Soviet attack on Finland will drive the Finns into an alliance with the Nazis, regardless of the treaty that Stalin made with Hitler. Things will get very ugly as a result.”

“Do you think that Hitler will honor this treaty that he made with Stalin, Sir?”

“I just don’t know. Politics makes for some very strange bedfellows. Up to the day that Ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov signed that treaty, I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that Hitler and Stalin would not be satisfied until they literally had their hands wrapped each other’s throat. We will just have to wait and see what happens next.”

Harold Cavill’s Home

Derby, Western Australia

April 28, 1940

In the weeks after the British intervention into Norway, Harold read with great interest from his office about how the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious had made it back safely to port after participating in the Norwegian campaign. In the previous timeline, the aircraft carrier and her two destroyer escorts had been caught by the German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and sunk with great loss of life. This time, her escort had been reinforced by a cruiser and two more destroyers.  Even though the two German capital ships vastly outgunned Glorious’ escort, they bought enough time for the carrier to launch her Skua dive-bombers and Swordfish torpedo bombers. The aircraft inflicted enough damage to force the German force to retreat and saved not only the Glorious but also most of her escorts.

Harold saw the continued survival of Glorious as a vindication of his efforts with Churchill to increase the number of the Royal Navy’s escorts and cruisers. Because of this, there were enough ships available to escort Glorious to Scapa Flow. It turned out rather less favorably for Glorious’ captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes because he had actually requested that his ship return early to Scapa Flow in order to press charges against this air wing commander. Instead, Captain D'Oyly-Hughes found himself under investigation because of his failure to have a combat air patrol airborne in time to spot Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. A CAP would have prevented his group from taking the damage that it received and possibly could have resulted in the sinking of the German force

Captain D'Oyly-Hughes’ failure cost the Royal Navy a valuable destroyer and significant damage to a cruiser. These losses could have easily been preventable too.

Finally, peacetime leadership practices were beginning to end in the Royal Navy under the pressure of the war. Officers like Captain D'Oyly-Hughes would begin to lose their commands to younger officers who understood the needs of the nation rather than simply thinking of their own career and were simply much more competent.

Harold Cavill’s Home Office

Derby, Western Australia

May 8, 1940

Harold was sitting down after a long day at work and reading from a large package of papers that had arrived a few days earlier via airmail. He had requested updates from the international news reports that his newspapers received as soon as they arrived. While he was reading, Dorothy and the kids came in after a long trip of running errands in town. The children immediately scrambled towards the hobby room near their bedrooms. Dorothy walked over to Harold after putting away her purchases.

“Anything interesting with the latest news, Sweetheart?” Dorothy asked while looking over Harold’s shoulder and giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

“I’m afraid so. The news reports from the front lines in France are mirroring what happened in the other version of history.”

“You did say that the French were placing far too much confidence in their Maginot Line fortifications to defend them against Germany, Harold.”

“Yes, Dear. Unfortunately, the French chose to fight this war based on the tactics of the last war. I guess that they simply aren’t prepared for the sort of conflict that the Germans are about to unleash upon them. The British are a little more prepared, but they simply don’t have the number of troops and tanks at this time to stop the German Army.”

“My father told me before he died that in the Great War, the front lines barely moved at all after the first few months.  They just sat in muddy trenches that no one wanted to get out of because of the machine guns and snipers on the other side.”

“Maybe what we have already accomplished to strengthen the Commonwealth military and deter the Germans from employing the blitzkrieg against Western Europe and England. That would certainly prevent much of what happened in the timeline that I came from, Sweetheart.”

“I don’t know, Harold. If what you said before is correct, it is only a matter of time before Hitler truly attacks to the West. I know that you have already done much to improve England’s military. You have also helped significantly improve things in the Pacific. But maybe it won’t be enough. You may have to pull some more ‘tricks’ out of that little computer of yours to help our side in this war.”

“Lord, I hope not. Who knows what else might happen as a result of me introducing too much technology from the future into this timeline. We still have to be very careful about this.”

“But Harold, we have to do whatever we can to prevent these evil men now from winning now, don’t we?”

“Yes, of course. But we still have to think of the future survival of all mankind. In the future that I came from, the Allies won the war against the Axis but created the circumstances for the extinction of mankind less than a century later. We have to stop that from happening too.”

“Harold, you have a lot of things in your special room that could help change the world for the better, I’m sure.”

“Maybe they would or maybe they would make things worse as people gain technologies that they abuse to make the world even more dangerous.”

“How can you be so sure, Sweetheart?” Dorothy innocently asked.

“Because I have known one hundred and twenty more years of history that unfortunately has had numerous examples where one technological development or another has been abused to the detriment of many people. We must be very careful about what we do. I cannot claim to have even remotely enough wisdom to be able to predict the long term impact of introducing the technology that we have access to. So, I have to err on the side of caution.”

“I understand.” Dorothy replied, though not really believing her words. Dorothy only saw that Harold had the tools available from the future to help England and the Commonwealth quickly defeat the Axis. In her mind, to hell with the long term consequences.

Harold Cavill’s Home

Derby, Western Australia

11 May, 1940

Harold drove up hastily shortly after noon from his factory office. Dorothy had spent the day at home with the children, especially since Sarah was sick with an infection. He had a grim look on his face when he walked in the front door.

“What’s wrong, Harold? Did something happen in town again?”

“No, Dorothy. The Germans have attacked France and the Low Countries on the ground and in the air. It appears that the main blitzkrieg against the Allies has started as of yesterday.”

“Can we do anything about it, Harold?”

“Not at the moment. Let’s see how Churchill does with the improvements with the Royal Navy that we helped him implement now that he is the new Prime Minister for England.”

“When did that happen?”

“Yesterday. I learned about it from a telegraph that Winston sent me last night. He is certainly going to have his hands full out there. However, if they can keep the supply lines open in the Atlantic with fewer losses of shipping, the British should be able to keep the Germans at bay much more easily. If the RAF adopts the Dragonfly fighter to supplement their Spitfires and Hurricanes, then the toll that the RAF will inflict in the skies over London and other British cities will decimate the Luftwaffe’s bombers. That alone will save many innocent lives in England. ”

“How long will it be before we can tell?”

“A few months perhaps. It will take a little time to ramp up production of the Dragonfly. Fortunately, it is already in production for the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm as well as here since Miles Brothers worked out all of the problems with the original prototype. I am preparing my factories here and in England to assist when the decision is made. At least, we are still not introducing any really new technology into the war at this point.”

“If things are that dire, perhaps you should consider giving our side just a wee bit more of an advantage from your future so that we can save the lives of our boys and protect our friends.”

“I hope that I won’t need to resort to that. Even the Dragonfly fighter-bomber that Miles Brothers is building is basically the same design that was proposed at the beginning of the war. I simply suggested a few refinements that were still well within the state of the art for this time. Then I provided the necessary financing to bring the design to market.

We are also not bringing HMAS Melbourne out of the shadows until I am absolutely certain that it is needed. It certainly has a number of design features that are ahead of their time. I don’t want anyone trying to replicate those features for quite a while still. But if we do need her, I want her to have a decisive edge in her effectiveness.

As for everything else that I am currently designing or building, they are all well within the technology levels of this era still. That is vitally important if we don’t want to introduce other unanticipated problems in the future.”

“Such as the name for the fighter that Miles Brothers designed for us?” Dorothy wryly noted.

“That was not all that difficult for us to solve. When I learned that de Havilland had another aircraft in service that was also named Dragonfly, I simply bought the rights to the name.

Of course, this will also serve nicely to confuse the Germans whenever they hear something about a Dragonfly. They will not know if the aircraft is a de Havilland design or one of mine, at least not immediately.”

“That is true. Hopefully, these ships and aircraft will help us win this terrible war before too many innocent lives are lost.”

“I hope so too, both now and in the future.”

Harold Cavill’s Home

Derby, Western Australia

21 May, 1940

“Things are not going well in Europe, Dorothy. Those fools in Paris are still not moving troops quickly enough towards the Ardennes to cut off the German spearhead. Don’t they realize how overextended the German front line commanders like Rommel and Manstein are right now? The RAF is providing better air support than before. But unless the French do something decisive soon, the Germans are going to sweep around and cut them to ribbons.” Harold angrily said after reading the latest news reports from England and France.

“At least the leaders at home in England are realizing the gravity of the situation now. Britain is calling for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of troops from all over the Commonwealth now. It sounds like a full mobilization of the territorial reserves as well.” Dorothy noted as she read the newspaper from Sydney. She worried as heard the sounds of the children playing out in the front yard and wondered if the war would eventually threaten them as well.

“Australia will certainly be sending thousands of troops to help in the fight against the Nazis. While many of our boys going out there will be volunteers, the rest will be conscripts. I doubt very seriously that they will be sending many aborigine troops with them though. A lot of the whites still can’t stand the thought of serving alongside someone with dark skin. As a result, our militia will likely be staying right here to defend Derby and the areas around it.”

“That is good. But will our aborigines be enough to stop the Japanese from invading here? You told me that the Japanese captured much of China and Southeast Asia before the Americans started to exert enough force. Then it took years to slowly drive the Japanese back. Even so, the battles were very costly in terms of lives lost. That was before the Americans decided to use the atomic bomb according to  your files.

But will the Americans even be able to help us if the Japanese invade us here, Harold?”

“I don’t know the answer to your last question, Dorothy. The Americans may not even become nearly as involved in the war as before. In any event, the actions of the Americans in this conflict set the stage for the final war, even if the Americans thought that they were trying to preserve the peace with their large military and thousands of nuclear weapons. So some things will have to change, including the role of America in the war.”

“Won’t that risk the Axis winning the war?”

“Not if I can help it without making things worse by introducing the wrong technologies at the wrong time.”

“What sort of world will we leave our children and grandchildren then?”

“Hopefully, a much safer and saner one. Speaking of our children, how are they doing? Perhaps, more importantly, what have they been doing?” Harold asked with a little smile after pulling down a reference book from one of his bookshelves.

“They have been busy in the hobby room with their schoolwork for the last couple of hours. They are always asking about you though. You don’t get to see very much of them with everything that is going on, you know.”

“Dear, that seems to be a common theme in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I’m afraid.”

Just then a little red-haired girl walked to Harold while he sat reading at his chair.

“Hi, Daddy. What are you doing?” Eight year old Judith asked, her head slightly cocked to one side.

“I am reading one of my big books, Sweetheart.”

“I love reading too. We have lots of books here to read, but most of them are too high on the shelves for me to get to yet.” Judith said with a slight frown of disappointment.

A few moments later, two seven year old twin strawberry-blonde girls, followed closely by their four year old baby brother, came racing into the room.

“Daddy!!!” yelled Sarah, Beatrice and James, all at the same time.

“I have a question for you, especially the girls. How do you like your new bicycles?”

“We all love them!” Sarah quickly said.

“I’m very pleased. I have a factory constructed five years ago that made all of your bicycles. I want to make the very best bicycles in the world too.”

Dorothy chuckled for a moment.

“I still find it fascinating that you had a bicycle factory built with all of the other industries that you are involved in, Sweetheart. I’m sure that you didn’t have it constructed just to make children’s bicycles.”

“Of course, not. The factory also makes the finest bicycles and tricycles in the world for adults as well. They even use pneumatic tires that seal their own leaks so that they won’t go flat. They also use the Simplex derailleur that allows the rider to shift gears while riding.”

“Harold, something tells me that this is going to lead to something much more than mere transportation for people who can’t afford to buy an automobile.” Dorothy noted before bending over and giving Harold a quick kiss on the cheek.

“We will just have to wait and see how things develop, Dorothy.” Harold replied with a smile.

After all, how could a simple bicycle cause any problems at all in the future? Besides, Harold made a nice profit off of each bicycle sold. His workers could make hundreds of bicycles a month too.

Of course, some of the bicycles were sold to Japan. They impressed more than a few people there, some of whom wore uniforms.

Chapter Three:

XIX Panzer Corps Field Headquarters

Arras, France

May 22. 1940

“You performed very well during the battle at the River Meuse in addition to the subsequent battles at Avesnes and Cateau.” General Heinz Guderian told his subordinate General Erwin Rommel.

“I must give all credit to my men. They all performed outstandingly in battle.”

“Indeed, you should give them credit, those that came with you. You were extremely lucky, Erwin. You had perhaps only a third of your division that came up with you during that daring thrust into Cateau. Had the enemy been ready for battle, they could have cut you off and annihilated you.” Guderian sternly noted.

“Jawohr, Herr General.”

“Of course, fortune does favor the bold, doesn’t it? That is why you received the Knight’s Cross.” Guderian smiled.

“Jawohr, Herr General. It certainly does.” A relieved Rommel answered back with a small smile.

“We have had a minor setback at Arras in spite of the poor leadership exhibited by most of our opponents. Occasionally, we do find a ram amongst the sheep. However, we can still drive through the French and Englanders all the way to the Channel.” General Guderian noted.

“Yes, but our eighty-eight millimeter Flak guns were able to eventually deal with the enemy tanks quite adequately at Arras, even if our own Panzers did not have adequate guns for the job. But our standard anti-tank guns also had problems dealing with the Englanders’ Matilda infantry tanks because of their heavy armor. That is a serious shortcoming that we will have to deal with soon if we are going to have continued success against such tanks. ”

“I’m sure that we will find a solution for these Matilda’s soon enough. But the Englanders do not have nearly the number of tanks in their Expeditionary Force as the French. Yet, the French do not seem to understand the need to mass their armored forces into effective offensive units. They simply parcel their tanks out as individuals to support their infantry.”

“When we see a French tank, we simply focus the fire of an entire platoon of our Panzers on it. The enemy tank does not last very long afterwards.”

“On paper, the French have a powerful tank force with many well-armed and armored vehicles. Based on my observations however, none of this is true. We field a far more effective force that reacts faster to the situation with our radio communications being a key element. Of course, if our commanders get in the way of our Panzers with incessant orders to stop our attacks, our radio communications to headquarters can sometimes become…….unreliable. ” Guderian said with a sly smile.

“Jawohr, Herr General. I understand completely.” Rommel replied with a knowing smile of his own.

“How is your Seventh Panzer, Herr General?” Guderian asked Rommel.

“We have taken a few losses, but the morale of my soldiers is excellent. They are eager to push their way through to the coast. The only people being more frightened by my Panzers than the French are our own General Staff.” Rommel said with a laugh that Guderian quickly joined.

“Yes, many of our generals do seem to be terribly timid. Boldness is called for in order to win battles. Fortunately, we have many young and bold Panzer commanders here on the front lines.” Guderian noted.

“It has helped considerably to have the Luftwaffe actually working closely with us. The Stukas have been invaluable in hitting enemy strongpoints with precise bomb strikes. The scream of their sirens alone can send some enemy soldiers into panic. Our fighter aircraft have also been rather effective in keeping French and Englander bombers from attacking my troops. This alone has saved the lives of many young German soldiers.”

“That may be so. I have seen a few things that I am very concerned about. The first obviously involves our own leadership at the higher levels. There is no unity of purpose or strategy in how they want us to deploy our Panzers. This can cost us dearly.

The next area of concern is how we can possibly execute a successful invasion of England which the Fuhrer certainly wants. From what I have seen, these Englanders are a terribly stubborn bunch. If they fight this hard while in France, I fear what they might do if we were to be fighting them on English soil.

Then there is finally the issue of the Englander’s air and naval forces. The Luftwaffe has been able to maintain superiority in the skies over France. But the Englanders have control on the high seas and in the skies over their own country. They seem to be placing a new fighter or bomber into production every week, each one much better than its predecessor. I continue to hear about new fighters being designed and built as far away as Australia for use by Englander pilots.

As long as this situation continues, the Englanders will be a thorn in our side.” Guderian concluded.

“Then Field Marshall Goering will have to find a solution to this problem soon. Otherwise, we will remain firmly on this side of the English Channel. But for now, we will continue to fight and defeat our enemies here in France.”

French Naval Base

Port of Toulon, France

3 June 1940

“I can’t believe that the French Army has already been defeated by the Boche. Much of what is left of our army is being evacuated along with the British Expeditionary Force at the beaches of Dunkirk or is fighting a last ditch defense of the Atlantic ports. I have received several reports from our headquarters that we are a mere few days from capitulation. The government in Paris means to sue for an armistice. In fact, there is talk that our government is going to declare Paris an open city within a week.” Amiral de la flotte Francois Darlan bitterly noted as he looked out the window of his office towards the harbor where dozens of French warships sat at anchor.

“Thank God that you sent our battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg to Indochina, Admiral. At least there, they are safe from the Boche.” Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul replied from across the office as he stood there smoking a cigarette.

“I know. Mister Churchill must have had a mystic working for him when he advised me to station those ships in Haiphong. But we need to get more of our fleet out of our ports and away from any chance of the Nazis capturing them. My sources in the French Army say that they will not be able to hold off the Germans for much longer. Who could have believed that our army could have collapsed so quickly?” Admiral Darlan responded with a grimace before continuing.

“In any event, we should be able to get Richelieu and most of the cruisers out to sea in less than a day. Jean Bart is a completely different matter. She barely has any weapons installed at all and her engines have not even been tested yet.

The rest of the battle fleet is so slow that, without a very heavy escort, they will be easy prey for German and Italian submarines during a long trip to England.”

“What will we do about it if the Germans are able to capture our battleships in port?”

“Then we will scuttle them all right under the noses of the dirty Boche who have come to steal them from us. The Germans will be very hard pressed to get any Frenchmen to come help raise those ships afterwards.”

“I still hate to see any of our ships sitting at the bottom of Toulon and Oran Harbors, Admiral. If they must go to the bottom, they should have an honorable death at least. It would be much better than having to deal with the Boche and their petty animosities.”

“Do you have an alternative, Monsieur?”

“We could sail the rest of our battle fleet to Alexandria to join the British and give the damned Fascists in Rome a bloody nose along the way, Admiral.”

“Engage the main Italian fleet? That would be suicide. Our battleships will be outnumbered by nearly two to one. We won’t even be able to move Paris and Courbet over from Brest to help us. They are too busy providing naval bombardment support to what is left of the French Army”

“Maybe. But if we die, at least we will die with our honor intact. Who knows? Maybe we will manage to get at least some of our ships through and cripple the Italian fleet at the same time. At the very least, it will help the British in the Mediterranean and prevent them from being forced to sink our ships themselves to keep them out of German hands.

You and I both know what kind of a nightmare that the latter would be for all of us who have been fighting the Fascists. From what I know of Winston Churchill though, he would not hesitate to order the Royal Navy to fire on our ships if it came to that. He is not at all like our leaders in Paris. Winston Churchill will do whatever it takes to win.”

“What if the capital in Paris falls after we leave port? We could conceivably receive orders to return to port before we reach Alexandria, Marcel?”

“What orders? All of our wireless rooms would suffer malfunctions before we could possibly receive such an order, I’m certain.” Admiral Gensoul said with a smile before continuing. “We, warriors of the seas, must and will make our nation proud, even as hordes of rapacious enemies sweep into our land. Eventually, even they will be forced to return home. Vive la France!”

Royal Navy Base

Port of Alexandria, Egypt

27 June 1940

Admiral Gensoul looked back from the bridge of the light cruiser Marseillaise at the cruiser’s blackened and mangled aft superstructure where a heavy shell from an Italian battleship had struck and detonated. Hundreds of rescued French sailors crowded Marseillaise’s decks as the battered cruiser led the survivors of the French fleet that attacked the Italian fleet south of Taranto.

Behind Marseillaise sailed nearly a dozen other ships into Alexandria. The other survivors included the light cruisers Primauguet, Gloire, La Galissonnière, seven destroyers of various classes and a single submarine, Pallas. All of them had some degree of damage or another. Like Marseillaise, their decks were also crowded with hundreds of survivors from the French warships that did not survive the battle. The largest number of survivors came from the three battleships that had borne the brunt of the fight against the Italian fleet however. Those battleships, Provence, Bretagne and Lorraine, all were sunk by a combination of naval gunfire, torpedoes and finally Axis air attacks. But before they had been sunk, these three French battleships closed with the Italian battle line and dealt tremendous damage at near-suicidal close range.

Admiral Gensoul knew that he had another four warships that had survived the battle, but could not keep up with the main formation. But he was not sure if they would be able to survive the journey to Alexandria in spite of having a large torpedo boat, La Pomone, escorting them. The captain of La Pomone had volunteered to escort the crippled survivors in spite of his own ship having also taken damage. However, Admiral Gensoul still hoped that they would make it because the last group also included his only surviving heavy cruiser, Dupleix. The French heavy cruiser had taken a torpedo from an Italian destroyer in her forward engine room and several heavy caliber shell hits late in the battle and had been forced to withdraw before the other survivors broke off the battle with the Italians. Dupleix would be a welcome addition to the three other French heavy cruisers that were already in Alexandria with Force X, if she survived long enough to reach Alexandria.

But Admiral Gensoul’s force sank three smaller Italian battleships, crippled the battleship Andrea Doria in addition to inflicting significant damage to both the Littorio and Vittorio Veneto. The French also took a heavy toll among the lighter Italian warships, until the latter chose to use their high speed to flee the carnage.

As Marseillaise began to enter the harbor at Alexandria, a small launch approached her from one of the Royal Navy battleships anchored nearby. Admiral Gensouf ordered the cruiser to come to a halt as he saw that the launch was flying the flag of a rear admiral.

The launch came alongside the French cruiser a few minutes later. A senior Royal Navy officer got out of the launch and came aboard Marseillaise.

Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet, was quickly escorted to the cruiser’s bridge with full honors.

“I am very pleased that you were able to make it here, Admiral Gensouf. We have already heard about your fight with the Italians, Admiral. Your men performed gallantly out there.”

“Thank you, Monsieur Admiral. They certainly did. I just wish that so many of them had not been lost back there and unable to make it here to freedom with me.”

“I share your loss, Admiral. Is there anything that I can do to help?”

“We have a few more ships that are unaccounted for. They could certainly use some assistance if they are still afloat, perhaps an escort and towing support?”

“I will send out planes and ships to help the rest of your ships make it here safely. Is there anything that you would require, Sir?”

“Simply pray for our families and for France in general. We did not want to risk retaliation against our families by either the Boche or the Vichy government because of our actions against the Italians.  So we secretly slipped as many of our family members aboard whatever ships that we could secure and sent them to North Africa in the hopes that they could rejoin us here.”

“If you can give us any information on the ships that your families were on, we will try to find whatever means possible to help them arrive safely, I promise.”

“It certainly breaks my heart that I will have to tell some of these wives and children that their fathers have died at sea. But they have made France proud with their courage and sacrifice. That too, I will tell their families.”

“I’m sure that they will be proud of their sons. What else will you need? We can arrange for billeting your personnel. Based on what I have seen, your ships will need some dockyard time in order to put them back to rights before returning to battle as well.”

“Je vous remercie, Monsieur Admiral. I and my men are anxious to get back into the fight against the Boche and the Italians. Perhaps our presence will allow you to send some of your ships elsewhere to reinforce your forces in other parts of the world, Non?  Every little bit helps in the fight against the Fascists, I’m sure.”

About three hours later, Dupleix and La Pomone arrived. The battered French heavy cruiser was low in the water because of flooding from the torpedo hit, but still making headway with the aid of a pair of Royal Navy tugs. The other two French warships that were with them did not make it to safety, unfortunately. That meant that the decks of these two crippled ships were also filled with survivors from the last two ships that sank as a result of their damage.

While the loss of the three French battleships was painful for both the French and the British, the addition of Admiral Gensouf’s cruisers and destroyers to the existing French component of the Mediterranean Fleet helped considerably.  The Royal Navy badly needed the smaller combatants to help escort troop and supply convoys throughout the theatre. The Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet had been chronically short of those vessels because of the even greater need for them to protect convoys in the North Atlantic.  Combined with the Italian losses, this new alliance between Admiral Cunningham and Admiral Gensouf firmly cemented the Allied domination of the Mediterranean.

One key question for Admiral Cunningham remained unanswered until he and Admiral Gensouf were able to talk privately. The French had a very large submarine fleet at the beginning of the war. The possibility of the Axis powers taking control of those submarines was a constant worry for Churchill. The British Prime Minister had specifically asked Admiral Cunningham to inquire with Admiral Gensouf about the disposition of the French submarines based in Toulon and French North Africa.

Ten of those submarines were on their way to French Indochina to augment the French squadron at Haiphong. Another five would be arriving at Alexandria within the next two days to support the French there, Admiral Gensouf informed the British. There were another twenty or more submarines between the naval base at Toulon and the Atlantic ports, but the French admiral assured Admiral Cunningham that these vessels would not fall into Nazi hands, even if they were serviceable. Most of them were unable to sail due to a variety of mechanical issues in any event.

The one surface warship left behind by the French at Toulon that worried Admiral Cunningham the most was the incomplete battleship Jean Bart. If she were to be completed, Jean Bart could be nearly as great a threat to the Royal Navy as the German battleship Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz because of new French battleship’s combination of speed, firepower and protection.

Harold Cavill’s Home

Derby, Australia

29 June 1940

The news of the audacious French run across the Mediterranean garnered headlines all over the world. For many on the Allied side, it was a heroic tale of bravery and sacrifice. But it had special significance to Harold and Dorothy as they knew what might have happened if the French had stayed in port.

“It looks like your suggestions to Churchill before the war concerning the French have come to fruition. The French fleet did not sit in port as the Vichy had ordered. Instead, they decided to fight their way through to a safe harbor as Churchill has hinted to the French admirals. Now, those French warships have joined forces with the Royal Navy in the Med. This is wonderful news in the fight against the Nazis.” Dorothy noted after reading the latest newspaper accounts. She had become keenly interested in the progress of the war from the first shots fired.

Dorothy not only wanted to see how much history had changed, but also how much it had remained the same in spite of the things that Harold had done over the past twenty years. She had been a reader of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel, The Time Machine even before first meeting Harold. The possibility of changing history for the better through the use of what Dorothy referred to as ‘20/20 foresight’, had truly fascinated her. But sometimes that fascination also blinded her to the possibility that changes to the timeline could make the future even more dangerous than before, if not thought out very, very carefully. Dorothy also considered herself still a patriotic Englishwoman, even after spending so many years in Australia with Harold.

“At least we may have made enough of a difference so that Mister Churchill will not have to order the attacks on the French Navy ships at Mers-el-Kébir and Dakar. That action caused a great deal of enmity between the French and British throughout the rest of the war.

We also have additional help here in the Pacific as well. Dunkerque and Strasbourg are both at Haiphong Harbor, as is Algerie. Thankfully, they are far away from any chance of the Germans taking control over them. Almost all of the remaining operational French warships are in Alexandria or Haiphong now.” Harold quietly said after reading the report from his contact in the Admiralty.

“Yes, Dear. But the losses among the French ships were also very heavy. How many of those men would have perhaps survived the war if history had not changed?” Harold finally responded in an attempt to curb Dorothy’s growing enthusiasm for even more aggressive interference in the timeline.

“Did France obtain these nuclear weapons in your history, Harold?”

“Yes, they did. They still had them at the time of the Final War. I did not see any information about whether or not the French used their nukes however. France had been facing a tremendous internal conflict of their own for decades as a result of uncontrolled immigration from North Africa. There were large parts of France that had been taken over by Muslims who refused to comply with many aspects of French law nor would they attempt to assimilate into French culture. ”

“Maybe, if the French thought that they could still fight effectively with ordinary weapons, such as what happened in their battle against the Italians, maybe they would not feel the need to develop them after this war is over? They certainly could not use these terrible nuclear weapons in what sounds like a civil war decades later.”

“Honestly, I don’t know how General De Gaulle will act after the end of the war this time. He was the man who spurred the French desire for their own nuclear weapons. But I do know that saving these French warships and keeping them on the side of the Allies will help England and the Commonwealth in their fight against the Axis. If we are going to keep America from building the Bomb, then we have to make it easier for England to be able to fend off Hitler without the Americans getting involved to any substantial extent.”

“So far, the Americans have been very hesitant to help. They have a lot of people who don’t want to be in another war, don’t they?”

“Yes, most of them belong to the ‘America First’ movement. However, there are some groups in America like the ‘American Bund’ that are explicitly pro-Nazi. Many of the members of these groups are of German ancestry, if I remember correctly.”

“You haven’t been providing financial support to their ‘America First’ people, have you sweetheart?”

“Oh, no. I wouldn’t dare do that. If interference in American internal politics by a foreigner had been discovered, there would be a terrible backlash. There would also be people beginning to ask some very awkward questions about me that I could not answer. America would have to sort out their own internal politics.”

“Isn’t what you did with your visit to Albert Einstein something that affected American politics though?” Dorothy cautiously asked.

“No. What I did was convince Professor Einstein that the world would be a far better place without anyone having nuclear weapons.  That had nothing to do with national politics, just a consideration for the world and humanity as a whole. Now, we just have to make sure that the Nazis and the Japanese don’t get those damned weapons either.” Harold replied, not entirely sure how he was going to accomplish all of this just yet.

Chapter Four:

Cavill Industries Main Office.

Derby, Western Australia

August 1, 1940

Harold was in his office when he heard a knock on the door. A few moments later, his assistant Edward walked in with an older English gentleman in expensive clothing.

“Mister Cavill. This man has come from the British Embassy in Sydney with official documents for you.”

“Thank you, Edward. With whom do I have the honor of talking to, Sir?” Harold asked the distinguished visitor.

“I am Assistant Ambassador William Blevins. I have a confidential cable from Prime Mister Churchill for you. He wishes for you to read it and give him a response at the first opportunity.” Ambassador Blevins said as he handed a large envelope to Harold.

Harold quickly broke the official wax seal, opened the envelope, pulled out the contents and began to read. The cable’s contents read:

“My friend, Mister Cavill.

I am sure that you are aware of the debacle at Dunkirk that has occurred in the past few weeks. What few people realize is that the majority of our heavy equipment that had been deployed in France and Belgium with the British Expeditionary Force has had to be abandoned in place. We could not save the equipment while at the same time evacuating over a hundred thousand British and Allied personnel from the beaches. We badly need replacements for this hardware. I am hoping that you will be able to help us reequip our forces. I am aware that you have been developing a new family of armoured vehicles that could replace the venerable Matildas and Valentines that we lost in France. I understand that your vehicles may even prove to be far superior to the Panzers that the Nazis used against us. If you could produce some of these new vehicles for use by the British Army, it would be tremendously helpful.

Your Dragonfly fighters have already been very helpful. They have operated from light carriers to help protect convoys coming to Britain from America and elsewhere from German U-Boats and surface raiders. A small number of your wonderful little fighters also successfully assisted in protecting our ships and troops during the evacuation of Dunkirk. We have already made arrangements with Miles Brothers to have production increased for the Dragonfly for the Royal Navy and the RAF.

If these new tanks of yours are as successful as the Dragonfly fighter has been in the air, they may give us a badly needed edge on the battlefield against the Nazis. Could you please arrange for the production and shipment of fifty of these new tanks to us for evaluation and combat testing? Payment will be provided by the Exchequer. Perhaps you will come along for the ride and see how they perform? It has been far too long since we last chatted in person.

Sincerely,

Winston S. Churchill

Prime Minister”

Harold looked up at the Ambassador and smiled.

“Would you please tell the Prime Minister that I will expedite his order of our new tanks and other armored vehicle designs? I will also send a team of mechanics and other specialists to train British soldiers on the maintenance and operation of the vehicles. If the vehicles prove to meet British Army needs, I will have my representatives in England discuss production licensing rights with your government. I must regret however that I will not be able to travel to Britain at this time.” Harold finished his reply with a nod.

He already had enough armored vehicles and trucks stored in this underground warehouses to more than satisfy Churchill’s request. All that he needed to do was to load the equipment onto a couple of his freighters and send them on to Egypt. Harold was certain that he could get the equipment there in plenty of time before the next series of clashes occurred along the Egyptian border.

“Thank you, Mister Cavill. I will ensure that your answer will be sent as soon as possible. Thank you for your assistance in this most urgent matter.

Then Harold turned and picked up the phone on his desk. He dialed the operator and asked to be connected to the shipyard at Derby.

“Hello, Edward. I think that it’s time for us to put the ‘old girl’ into the water now. We are going to get her ready for war once again.”

A few days later, Captain Nigel Wilkes from the Australian Admiralty walked off of one of Harold’s private air transports after receiving a telegram requesting his presence in Derby for an event at the shipyard. Captain Wilkes immediately called via telephone and was told by Harold’s assistant that the event would be of some importance to the Australian Navy. Captain Wilkes was informed that an aircraft would be waiting on him to bring him to Derby.

Harold was already waiting at the aerodrome when Captain Wilkes stepped off of the aircraft.

“Good afternoon, Captain Wilkes. I am very pleased that you were able to come. I know that my request came at short notice. But with the war going on, I needed to get you here to see what I had since you are a senior official with the Navy’s procurement office.” Harold said as he shook the officer’s hand vigorously.

“Is this in regards to the destroyers that we have already ordered from your shipyards? We do need them as quickly as you had promised obviously to fulfill our obligations to the Commonwealth.”

“Actually, it isn’t. Of course, the construction of the destroyers is proceeding as promised in the contract.”

“Well then, Sir. What is it that you want to show me?”

“Come with me to my truck. I have to drive you to a special part of my shipyard for that.” Harold explained.

Harold and Captain Wilkes got into the truck. Then Harold drove several miles towards a remote part of the shipyard.

“Isn’t this where you scrap ships, Mister Cavill?”

“Well, we actually do a wee bit more than that here, Captain.”

As the truck got closer, the Royal Australian Navy officer could see things that he did not expect. It was now plain that an extensive effort had been made to conceal what was here.

Harold stopped the truck near what appeared to be a very large tree-covered berm next to the coast of the King Sound. Then he got out of the truck and motioned for Captain Wilkes to come with him. Harold and the naval officer walked up a set of steps until they reached the top of the berm. Captain Wilkes was shocked by what he then saw.

Large camouflage nets and tall trees now concealed a lot more than just the hulk of an old battle cruiser. Over the course of over a decade and a half, the earthen caisson had been secretly transformed into a large clandestine, concrete-surfaced dry dock complete with a water pumping system and opening gate locks, capable of holding a large ocean liner or prewar battleship. It was the duplicate of the dry dock used for the construction of the two flight deck liners that Harold had built for an American shipping company, in fact. The latter facility had been constructed less than a mile away from where the old battle cruiser had been secretly been reconstructed. Currently, the large overt dry dock was being used to construct a large oil tanker to bring oil from Sumatra’s oil fields to Australia.

On the way to this area, Captain Wilkes had seen that four more dry docks were under construction as well a variety of covered construction slips. These dry docks were somewhat smaller than this facility and could only accommodate ships displacing perhaps twelve to sixteen thousand tons. But Captain Wilkes could see that the construction of these new dry docks was going at a furious pace still.

Inside this clandestine construction dock, a tremendous of work had been accomplished. The bow and stern of the old battle cruiser hull had been lengthened by more than thirty meters. She had also been given new engines and armament. Most importantly, the warship now had a long, flat flight deck that ran the entire length of the hull. This was no longer a first generation battle cruiser. The ship hidden there was now a fast, modern fleet aircraft carrier that required only a few weeks of additional work before it would be fully operational.

The ship was also unlike any aircraft carrier that had been built to date. It had a thinly armored flight deck that extended beyond the hull on both sides and ran along the full length of the hull to a fully enclosed bow. A torpedo bulge could be seen extending along much of the length of the hull.

The warship’s island superstructure was offset to starboard even more than usual for aircraft carriers of that era. The flight deck had a pair of large deck edge elevators on the starboard side; one each, fore and aft of the island. The flight deck itself was completely asymmetrical with painted lines indicating that aft flight deck where the carrier’s aircraft would land was actually angled about seven degrees off of the centerline to port. The angled portion of the flight deck extended beyond the port hull onto a large sponson, just as the island was on a sponson over the port edge of the hull. This arrangement actually served to balance the ship.

There were three twin gun turrets for heavy dual-purpose naval rifles on either side of the flight deck. On the carrier’s island superstructure and all along the edges of the flight deck, there were dozens of forty and twenty-millimeter automatic cannons set up for short range antiaircraft fire.

The island structure did not have any masts or antenna attached to it. However, mounting points were evident upon closer examination.

“I’ll be damned if that isn’t the strangest looking ship that I have ever seen, Mister Cavill. Things just don’t look quite even on her.” Captain Wilkes noted as he looked at the newly relaunched aircraft carrier Melbourne for the first time.

“It is the shape of the future, I assure you, Captain. Our new Melbourne here can launch and recover aircraft at the same time because of the angled flight deck that her aircraft would land on. She can also carry more aircraft for her size than an equivalent Royal Navy carrier because aircraft can be parked on the forward flight deck at virtually all times. Melbourne has two hangar decks, though the lower deck is somewhat smaller than the upper deck. The deck edge elevators also free up additional hangar deck space as well.”

“This is all very impressive. How survivable is this warship of yours? You told me before that she had been built upon old Australia’s hull but we saw in the photos that all of her main armor belt had been stripped off.”

“That is true. Her armor isn’t nearly as thick as before. But an aircraft carrier isn’t supposed to be in the middle of a gun fight anyway. Melbourne’s got a thin side armor belt, a lightly armored flight deck as well as an armored hangar deck. These applications of armor protect her against aerial bombs and light naval gunfire, but little more than that. Her escorts have the job of taking care of any surface threats.

As you may have already noticed, we’ve lengthened Melbourne’s hull by about thirty meters from when she was a battle cruiser. You can see here that we have added bulges to her sides to improve her stability and help protect against enemy torpedoes.

We have also replaced her old engines with a modern high-pressure steam turbo-electric power plant. This allowed us to incorporate more internal compartmentalization, greater redundancy and fuel efficiency. Melbourne will still be able to sail at over thirty-one knots and have a maximum range of greater than ten thousand nautical miles.

Melbourne’s armament has been completely modernized. We now have twelve heavy dual-purpose guns in six BD Mark II high angle mounts to protect her against enemy aircraft and light surface combatants. She also sixteen modern forty millimeter Bofors automatic cannons in twin mounts as well as thirty of the fast-firing twenty millimeter Oerlikon light automatic cannons in single mounts. It is my opinion that compared to most carriers out there, this ship is very survivable indeed. But if events prove that we should need additional defensive armaments, Melbourne has sufficient margin in weight and space available to accommodate them.

I will also be installing the latest generation in wireless communications and detection systems onboard Melbourne as well. This will greatly enhance the effectiveness of the ship and the aircraft aboard her.”

“How did you afford all of this, Mister Cavill? For that matter, how were you able to obtain the weapons that are mounted on your ship?”

“It has taken a considerable amount of my fortune to reconstruct and outfit this vessel. Of course, I have been very blessed in terms of the profitability of my various business projects. I have certainly utilized the profits from the construction of those flight deck liners and the construction of the destroyers for the British and Australian Royal Navies as well as my mining interests to help finance this project. My shipyards are also very efficient with my aborigine and American expatriate workers being particularly productive. I procured the licenses to produce all of the weapons used by Melbourne. While I was forced to purchase the BD Mark II guns and mounts from England due to manufacturing limitations here at my own facilities, all of the other armaments were produced by my own people. This included a new four-inch dual purpose naval rifle that is now being installed in several other warships.

But I didn’t just build this project for my own edification. If it is to go into service under Australian colors, I expect to be fully compensated for my efforts by the government. I do not expect to make a profit from this, but I cannot afford to merely give this ship away. If Australia will not purchase it, I am sure that the British would.”

Captain Wilkes knew that this was not an idle threat, especially not with Harold Cavill’s known connection with Prime Mister Churchill.

“Is she ready to fight right now?”

“Not quite yet. We have deferred installing the mast and any associated antennas to the ship to avoid those elements being detected outside of our camouflage. It will take my people about a month to install all of that, including the new surface and aerial search radar arrays.”

“Radars?”

“Yes. Radio detection and ranging systems. I was able to ‘obtain’ several units from American sources that are quite advanced. This equipment has been modified to incorporate some British components as well so that we can take advantage of the best of both worlds. This technology will help substantially increase the effectiveness of this aircraft carrier and the aircraft that will be operating from it.”

“How many aircraft can she carry, Mister Cavill?”

“Depending on the size of the aircraft, HMAS Melbourne here can easily carry between sixty-five and eighty aircraft.”

“I see, Sir. That is very impressive. You keep calling her ‘Melbourne’. Don’t you think that the Admiralty should have a bit of say as to what she should be christened?”

“I agree. However, we don’t have any warships named after that particular city. Besides, Australia has already been taken by one of the County-class heavy cruisers. I’m sure that the Admiralty will agree with my ‘suggestion’ in any event.”

“We will have to see about what funding is available from the government before we can agree to purchase this fine vessel, Mister Cavill.”

“Oh, I’m sure that you have the funds, Captain Wilkes. You have been taxing the hell out of me and my businesses for long enough. You just have to get the Finance Minister to find the necessary funds for you to use to pay for Melbourne.” Harold caustically noted.

The two men continued to watch as workmen stood on the metal scaffolding surrounding the carrier’s island structure.

“Obviously, I have to get back to the Admiralty to inform them of this development. They will need to find personnel to man this ship as well as pilots and aircraft to fly from it.”

I will be able to help some with the pilots and aircraft. We have already been training pilots with the aid of some instructor pilots from England. I happen to have a very highly placed official who has helped quietly arrange for this. As far as aircraft are concerned, I already have two squadrons of new fighters here with more to be delivered soon. Perhaps, the Australian Admiralty can arrange for the British to send more aircraft to help fill Melbourne’s complement with other types of carrier aircraft as well.

Obviously, like the aircraft carrier, my aircraft would need to be purchased at a fair price.” Harold said, sounding somewhat mercenary about the situation. Unfortunately, even with all of the wealth that he had amassed, Harold could not afford to simply give away this equipment. He needed the funds to continue to expand his production base and to prepare to introduce additional technology as needed to achieve his ultimate objective.

“The Ministry is very curious about these new automatic rifles that you have been manufacturing for your militia here. Would it be possible for me to take back some examples for evaluation in Canberra?

If the evaluation proves to be successful, then the Ministry would probably send you a contract to construct more of these weapons for our Expeditionary Force.” Explained Captain Wilkes.

“I’m sure that I can arrange to have a few examples taken out of our inventory for use in your evaluation. I am more than happy to help our soldiers become more effective on the battlefield, of course.” Harold quickly replied.

“Well, I need to return to Canberra to make my report to the Ministry. You are doing a lot of good work out here, Mister Cavill. I am certain that we will need everything that you can produce if we are going to survive this war. I will do my best to convince my superiors to support you in any way that we can.”

“Thank you very much, Captain.” Harold said before the Australian officer began to walk back towards Harold’s truck for the trip back to the airfield.

British Ministry of War

London, England

October 30, 1940

“That was a hell of a thing that the French did in the Med. Their army may have fallen apart, but those French sailors managed to gut much of the Italian fleet before those three French battleships were destroyed.” Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound said after coming in to visit his friend, Field Marshall Sir John Greer Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

“It is a shame that the French Army didn’t show nearly as much courage and skill as their navy did. Admiral Gensoul succeeded to get at least half of his cruisers and destroyers into Alexandria in spite of the heavy damage many of the surviving ships had suffered.” Sir John bitterly noted.

“I agree. We would have driven the Germans back across the Rhine with such men. It is still unfortunate that the three Littorio’s are still operational or will be soon. Those modern Italian fast battleships remain a force to be reckoned with. But at least they cannot be everywhere at once.

There was also the destruction of several Italian cruisers and destroyers as well during that battle. That will make it harder for the Italian battleships to deploy against our supply convoys, now that the Italian screening forces have been greatly diminished. Those French heroes have certainly made our task in North Africa far less difficult now.”

“We need all of the help that we can get in that arena. The Germans and Italians still have our forces significantly outnumbered in North Africa. We are also extremely short of tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons as well. Our factories are producing equipment as quickly as possible. We are being forced to purchase or barter for additional hardware from the Americans, but it comes at a steep price, you know.”

“We are short of critical materiel everywhere, I’m afraid, Sir John. I have a document here that must reach Commander in Chief Far East, Air Marshall Sir Robert Brooke Popham. He has to be informed of the Chief of Staff’s current assessment of the situation in the Far East.”

“He is not going to like it.” The Field Marshal grimly admitted. “The report paints a very gloomy picture on the situation. We can’t even be sure that the French garrison out there will choose to continue to fight against the Japanese in the event that France falls to the Nazis in the next few days, in spite of the heroic actions of Admiral Gensoul’s force in the Med.

In any event, how were you planning on sending this document to Air Marshall Brooke, Admiral?”

“Our normal procedure would be to send it via commercial ship. That way, the document doesn’t draw unnecessary attention. In the event the ship is attacked, the captain is instructed to dump the document overboard in the weighted bag that the document is in.”

“What about sending it by air this time? Obviously, time is important here as well as security. That Australian industrialist Harold Cavill has set up a flying boat service that travels between London and Australia. I know that Mister Cavill has also informed your people in the Admiralty that he was more than willing to provide free space for the Navy to send couriers to the Far East if necessary. Since his aircraft normally make a stop at Singapore en route to Australia, it would be easy for him to take this report to Sir Robert with far less risk of capture.”

“That sounds like a splendid idea. This Mister Cavill is a close friend of Prime Minister Churchill. I’m sure that if asked, the Prime Minister could quietly make the arrangements.”

“Excellent. I will go ahead and contact the Minister. Maybe he will finally stop thinking of me as some sort of unimaginative dinosaur now.”

Of course, neither officer knew that Harold Cavill had set up this flying boat service expressly for this purpose. While Harold primarily saw the flying boats as a means of profitably moving people and materiel back and forth from England to his headquarters in Derby, he also had another purpose for it as well.

Harold had located a key piece of historical information on his computer years earlier about what happened to this particular document in his own past. When the merchant ship Automedon, carrying this report to Singapore, was captured by the German disguised raider Atlantis, the Germans were able to capture the document before it could be tossed overboard.

Atlantis’ captain Bernhard Rogge immediately arranged for this precious document to be sent to Japan. The document led the Japanese to make the decision to attack Pearl Harbor. The Japanese also exploited the weaknesses detailed in the report regarding Singapore’s defenses. This led to the disastrous fall of Singapore and capture of over eighty-five thousand British, Australian and other Commonwealth troops. Counting personnel captured or killed in Malaya, the total losses were over one hundred and forty thousand.

By ensuring that this document made it to its destination safely on board one of his flying boats, Harold knew that many of these soldiers, mostly Australian, would be saved from a terrible fate in Japanese captivity. It would also ensure that they would be available later on in the war to take the place of American troops in the fight against the Japanese.

But things were not quite as gloomy as the Ministry of War had portrayed the situation in the Southwest Pacific. Some of Harold’s efforts had already borne fruit with the warships and weapons that were already beginning to come out of his factories. This alone would significantly improve the situation, even without any American involvement.

There was also the issue of the French military force in Indochina. Harold already had it on good authority that the French commander in Indochina had no intention of surrendering his territory to the Japanese, unlike what had happened in the history of the original timeline. Harold’s efforts in supplying armored vehicles and other weapons to the French there had also developed several reliable sources of information about the French military leadership there. Things in Indochina would be far different now than what had been the case with the Vichy in charge.

French Military Headquarters

Haiphong, French Indochina

November 21, 1940

Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, commander of the garrison at Singapore had flown aboard a RAF transport aircraft to Haiphong to meet with the commander of forces in French Indochina, Vice Admiral Emile Henry Muselier.

A French military honor guard stood at the ready at the airfield when General Percival’s aircraft arrived. A French major was standing at the door of the aircraft when the British general stepped down to the ground. The major smartly saluted before speaking in accented English.

“Monsieur General. I am here to take you to see the Admiral. I will be serving as a translator as well since the Admiral’s English is not very good.” Major Francois Mercador said.

“Thank you, Major. I am eager to speak to Admiral Muselier on a matter of great importance to both our forces.”

General Percival, his aide and Major Mercador then all got into a sedan and rode to the French military headquarters building. The three men were quickly ushered into Admiral Muselier’s office.

“Good afternoon, Sir. Air Marshall Popham sent me to speak to you about what has happened in France. We are very concerned about what your forces will do now that France has signed an armistice with Germany? You currently occupy a very critical area between British forces and the Japanese in China. ” General Percival said with Major Mercado quickly translating.

“Yes, General. We are aware of this. The Japanese have already been probing our defenses. While our troops are eager to prove themselves, we do have considerable shortages in modern equipment.”

“I am aware of this already. If you were to allow the Japanese to come in, it would cause my forces and those of our allies considerable difficulty. Therefore, I have a very important question. Admiral, are you Vichy or are you French?”

“I am French, of course. That is why I denied the request by the Vichy government for me to send back to France my two battle cruisers, Dunkerque and Strasbourg. They cannot be of any use sitting tied to the pier at Toulon.” Admiral Muselier replied, standing proudly upright as he spoke.

“Then continue the fight and resist the Japanese alongside us. Fight for your freedom, Admiral. By doing so, you help us in the fight against the Germans who have occupied your homeland and eventually for their freedom as well.”

“What will you do to help us, Monsieur General? For many of our men, their families remain in France and are vulnerable to retribution by the Boche and their Vichy puppets. There is also the issue of providing supplies like fuel, food and spare parts for our equipment.”

“I can promise you that we will do everything that we can to protect your families in France, including evacuating them to England if necessary. As far as your materiel needs are concerned, we will provide you with oil and food, even weapons if necessary, as long as you are committed to continuing the fight on our side against Hitler and his allies.”

“Please understand, Monsieur General. This is a very difficult decision for us to defy our own government back home in Paris. The Vichy government in Paris had sent us instructions to cooperate with the Japanese who were just north of our border with China.

On the other hand, we also received a second set of secret instructions from French Navy headquarters in Toulon a few days ago. We will continue the fight as your allies per those particular instructions. I pray that our families will not pay the price for my decision here. But at least Dunkerque and Strasbourg are both here, safe from being taken over and used by the dirty Boche.”

“Thank you, Monsieur General. I am sure that your families will be very proud of you and all of your men here, Admiral. We are also trying to get more of your nation’s fleet to safe havens, away from German hands. I believe that we will be able to save Richelieu and possibly also even the carrier Bearn. But your force is very important for us out here.”

“Vive la France! For we will fight and if necessary, die for her. I hope that together, we can make a difference against the Fascists.” Admiral Muselier finally said.

“Thank you, Admiral. We will have our staffs coordinate with yours about how we can best integrate our forces. Now, we not only have our Commonwealth forces as well as the Dutch units in the area, but we now have yours to work with. We will have to work quickly because the Japanese will surely be on the move against all of our forces.”

“I have work as well to do. I am sure that we will have some French here whose loyalties are with the Vichy. They will have to be contained and dealt with as necessary. It will not be pretty, I fear.”

“Conflicts among countrymen never are.” General Percival sadly noted.

“I know. But I feel a lot more comfortable fighting the Japanese, even if we are not able to fight the Boche at the moment.”

“If you will give my aide a list of materiel that you feel that you need to help fend off the Japanese, I will immediately forward it to Air Marshall Popham. We will do our utmost to support you and your brave forces.”

“Now, what can we do for you, Monsieur General?”

“At this time, our total strength in capital ships consists of Force Z with the battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse. If you would combine your naval forces with ours, we would immediately double our available strength in modern capital ships. That will be a powerful deterrent to the Japanese attempting to strike against us.”

“This is a good idea, although we would like to conduct independent operations as well. Our ships are accustomed to operating with each other, Monsieur General. There is also the language barrier with so few of our people able to speak English. I am not certain that you have enough people who speak French adequately as well.

There is also the issue of how we are to defend the skies over Indochina. We have very few military aircraft here. From what we have already seen, they will not be able to defend us against the more modern Japanese fighters and bombers.”

“We will have to find a way to work together and effectively communicate in whatever language is necessary, Admiral. The situation with aircraft is already being addressed. We have one aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes, already en route to Singapore. A second aircraft carrier, HMS Indomitable, will be joining Hermes as soon as some repairs are made. It is also my understanding that the Australians have recently surprised us with a new fleet aircraft carrier of their own that will also be entering service soon.

These ships will be able to provide mobile air cover for all of our naval forces against the Japanese. In addition, the RAF will have well over one hundred land-based fighters and bombers available to defend Malaya and Singapore. I have also been promised that Australia will be producing a significant number of additional aircraft for their aircraft carrier as well as for land-based operations.”

“This sounds all very good. Hopefully, it will all be enough to stop the Japanese from advancing any further south into Southeast Asia.”

Royal Navy Base

Port of Alexandria, Egypt

December 1, 1940

Lieutenant-General Archibald Wavell stood outside the British military headquarters building, looking down upon the port of Alexandria and the mass of Royal Navy and commercial ships that filled the port facilities there. Shortly before the beginning of the war, General Wavell had taken command of the new Middle Eastern Command.

For the past three months, General Wavell has had to contend with the Italians’ attempt to invade Egypt. While the Italians stopped after only advancing into Egypt, both sides were accumulating supplies for a continuation of the fight.

A British Army major wearing standard issue khaki uniform and shorts walked up and smartly saluted the general.

“Good Morning, Sir. I’m Major Snipes from Logistics.”

“What do you have for me, Snipes?” General Wavell calmly replied, his gaze hardly wavering from the scene of the busy port.

“A new supply convoy just arrived into port after transiting through the Suez Canal.”

“What did they bring for us? We need all of the help that we can get.”

“We just received nearly ten thousand more personnel reinforcements from the Australians, Sir. They also arrived with some new tanks, artillery and trucks.”

General Wavell sighed in resignation.

“I hope that the bloody Aussies didn’t drag a bunch of obsolete junk with them like before. We are not fighting the last war, you know. As desperate as we are for any sort of armored vehicles and weaponry after Dunkirk, we need equipment that will be able to stand up to what the Germans already have in North Africa. We are only getting a trickle of weapons from the Americans and from our own factories. That just isn’t enough if we are going to hold Egypt. At least the trucks might be of some use to us.”

“Sir, from what I have seen, these new Australian tanks that just came in are not old designs at all. They all look like they had just been manufactured, in fact. The tanks are very unusual looking though, I have been told.”

“What do you mean exactly?”

“The Aussies have a three or four companies’ worth of this new light tank that is a bit bigger than our Vickers Light Mark Six and has an automatic cannon in the turret instead of a heavy machine gun. They also have about two companies’ worth of another tank that is similar in many ways to their light tank but is larger and much more heavily armed. In fact, these larger vehicles that the Aussies call ‘Echidna’s’ are even more powerfully armed than our latest Crusaders.”

“If what is are saying is true, then they are most certainly welcome then. But you did say that they were unusual looking, didn’t you?”

“Yes, Sir. I was told that they look like someone built them ‘backwards’. I guess that you will have to go see them sometime before the Australian force leaves Alexandria to go to the front lines.”
“Who delivered those vehicles anyway? I never saw anything in our regular message traffic about these vehicles coming in.”

“Most of the vehicles came in a pair of bloody big Australian freighters. They belonged to Cavill Lines, I believe.

“Cavill is that wealthy Australian fellow, isn’t he? I read something about him in the newspaper. He’s turned a little town in Australia into a large business center with a bunch of factories. He also owns a lot of mines in Australia.”

“Yes, I’ve heard about that too. I also heard from some well-connected friends of mine who tell me that he owns factories in England too in addition to others in various locations in Australia and maybe in America too.”

“Mister Cavill sounds almost like that American, Howard Hughes, to me.”

“Maybe, but he doesn’t make motion pictures or date starlets. In fact, you hardly ever see him in public at all, Sir.”

“I know. But I understand that he has some very influential friends, including our new Prime Minister. His factories also have a reputation for producing some very high quality ships and vehicles. So Mister Cavill must be doing something right.”

“I suppose so, Sir. Rumor out there among the Aussies is that Churchill himself asked for these new tanks. I also noticed that Mister Cavill sent a lot of ammunition and spare parts along with the vehicles and artillery. All of these Australian infantrymen that just arrived are armed with this new rifle of theirs too. It uses Japanese ammunition and can fire automatically like a machine gun.”

“Sounds like a bloody waste of ammunition compared to our troops’ bolt-action Lee-Enfield rifles. If the Australians want to use their fancy new toys, they are welcome to do so. In any event, the Australian reinforcements and their new armour are here just in time to participate in Operation Compass. We are going to take the fight to the Italians and not only drive them out of Egypt but also push them all the way out of North Africa.

The Italians may outnumber us, but we have better equipment and far better soldiers, even including the Australians.” The general said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Clearly, General Wavell did not think very highly of the Australian Army or its leaders. But he needed every man that he could get in order to defeat the Nazis and their Italian Fascist allies.

Imperial Military Headquarters

Tokyo, Japan

December 5, 1940

Prime Minister Hideki Tojo sat at the head of the table as the nominal ‘first among equals’ while the other Prime Ministers sat along the sides of the conference table. Numerous other senior officials sat on benches along the walls.

“The situation with the American embargo of oil in combination with its other harsh economic sanctions has become completely intolerable. We must prepare to act to seize control of the assets necessary to ensure the survival of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Tojo declared.

“But you are talking of declaring war upon a nation whose size and population alone completely dwarf that of our own nation. This does not even take into consideration the incredible industrial potential that America has available.” Teiichi Suzuki, president of the powerful Planning Board.

“We must take aggressive measures or find ourselves strangled. We had hoped that with the French capitulation in Europe to our German allies that we would be able to easily move into and take control of the French colonies in Indochina.

But the British somehow managed to convince the French to first deploy a pair of their most modern capital ships and two squadrons of supporting warships to Haiphong Harbor. Then those same French forces decided to ‘mutiny’ against the Vichy government and ally themselves with the British. So now, we have a formidable force preventing us from directly accessing the oil fields of Java.”

“There is still America to deal with. Their president continues to meddle in our affairs. His efforts are also preventing us from achieving our goals in Asia.”

“The Americans still are divided about whether or not to go to war. They are a people who pretend to be very warlike and celebrate their war heroes. Yet pacifists dominate its politics. I know that Taishō Yamamoto has devised a plan to strike their forward deployed naval forces at Pearl Harbor. But that action brings with it terrible risks. If our carrier strike force is detected before reaching its target, the element of surprise will be lost. The bulk of our naval forces could be cut off and destroyed far from home waters.

The Yamamoto plan also has another risk. Right now, few of the American people are interested in going to war. Their political leaders will be hard-pressed to find support for the expenditures to bring their mighty industrial machine to bear. Even now, most of their focus is on Germany and the danger to England. If we strike so far close to the American mainland, we risk becoming the focus of the Americans’ anger.

However, if we limit our conflict with America to areas in the Western Pacific like Guam and the Philippine Islands, the risks are much lower for us. Then we drive south and conquer Southeast Asia. We will still have secured access to the Sumatran oil fields with our subsequent strikes southwest against British, Dutch, French and Australian forces by the time that we decide to strike against the Americans.

Of course, we must ensure that we show the American people that their leaders in Washington have left Japan no choice. Then the eyes of the American people will be elsewhere, especially when Germany declares war upon America as part of our agreement with them and Italy. The Americans will be far more interested in what happens in Europe than in events in East Asia.

If the American Pacific Fleet chooses to try to intervene in the Philippines, we will employ our existing plans to attrite the American force with submarines, aircraft and nighttime torpedo attacks from our lighter warships. Then we will send out our powerful battleship fleet to utterly destroy the tattered remains of the American Pacific Fleet. They will not want to risk sending another fleet after shedding the blood of so many of their young men in vain.” Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai, Prime Minister of Japan confidently explained.

“What about the French battle cruisers at Haiphong and the British capital ships at Singapore? They will surely be a threat to our southern flank.” Tojo asked.

“We will detach our Kongo class fast battleships from Battleship Division 3 along with the aircraft carriers; Ryujo, Zuiho, Hosho and Shoho; the heavy cruisers from Cruiser Divisions 6 and 5 as well as whatever supporting ships are available to deal with the enemy naval forces.  Our ships will be supported by land-based aircraft flying out of southern China whenever possible. The French, British, Dutch and Australians together cannot hope to match that force. The rest of the Combined Fleet will prepare to meet the American Pacific Fleet when they come to rescue their countrymen in the Philippines. Very few of the American sailors will survive to remember the experience, to be sure.” Admiral Yonai told the rest of the War Cabinet.

“It is a gamble detaching all of the Kongo’s to fight the English and French. This will strip protection of Combined Fleet’s main aircraft carrier force of all of our fastest capital ships. In any event, it will take us at least six months to prepare for the invasion of the Philippines and the American occupied islands in the Western Pacific, Sir.” Admiral Kantarō Suzuki noted. He was also the Marine Minister as well as Military Councilor.

“We will then keep our carriers further in the rear to ensure that they will not be threatened. I would suggest that you begin immediately with your preparations for war against both enemy forces. We cannot wait any longer. Roosevelt’s trade sanctions against us are already beginning to adversely impact our economy and our war efforts in China. We need the resources of Southeast Asia and the surrounding area for the benefit of the Japanese people.” Prime Minister Tojo ordered before making one more comment.

“In any event, our German and Italian allies will tie up so much of the British naval strength that once the currently deployed ships are destroyed, no reinforcements will be available. Are there any objections remaining?”

No one spoke up in response to Tojo’s question.

“It is settled. We will destroy the Americans and British in the Pacific and force them to accept Japan’s rightful place in the world, especially in our sphere of influence throughout eastern Asia. We will also have access to all of the oil and other raw materials that we need to keep our economy running. In spite of Taishō Yamamoto’s fears, we will also able to defeat anything that the Americans build later to fight us.”

“How long will it require for the preparations for combat operations against the Americans and the British?”

“We have committed a considerable amount of our resources in the Chinese theatre of operations.  It will take time to assemble enough fuel and munitions for operations against the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. There is also the issue of the completion of fleet aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku as well as the battleship Yamato. It would be strongly preferred that we wait until they is ready for combat operations to ensure that we overwhelm the American Pacific Fleet’s battle line and carrier force coming to relieve their troops in the Philippines.

We will need to work up all of our carriers sufficiently before engaging the Americans. This will require us waiting until late next year, unfortunately.”

“So ka. Some things cannot be avoided obviously. The matter is settled then. The operation is approved for the end of next year.” Tojo finally said.

Suzuki quickly stood up and bowed before replying.

“Yes, Sir. We will immediately issue the necessary orders to begin preparations. Long live the Emperor!”

“Hai!” Everyone in the room enthusiastically replied in unison.

Harold Cavill’s Office

Derby, Western Australia

February 19, 1941

“Harold, we just received a telegram from the commander of Free French forces in French Indochina. He wants to know if we could produce some artillery pieces for his men.” Dorothy told him. She was working in the office today, even with their four young children running around under foot.

“It pleases me to see that there is still a little bit of Napoleon there among the French officers. Bonaparte certainly loved his artillery. We will have to let him know that we would be happy to sign a contract to produce some cannon for him. I hope that 105mm field guns would be satisfactory. The French will have to give us specifications, of course.”

“I wonder if you have anything already in that ‘little box’ of yours, Sweetheart?” Dorothy asked after ensuring that no one was within listening distance.

Harold thought for a few moments before responding.

“I know that our Ordnance Works can build artillery up to 105mm caliber. We even have a new 105mm gun-howitzer design with a significantly longer barrel for longer range and the ability to engage armored vehicles with direct fire. We can also use this weapon as a coastal defense weapon. The question is what we can do to make each artillery piece do the work of several weapons. That way, the French can be more effective against the Japanese. It would also provide us with something else that we can offer to the Australian Army to improve its effectiveness as well.”

“Can you combine them with something else that you make in one of your factories to make the guns even more effective?”

Harold thought for a few moments and took a mental inventory of all of the different products that his companies manufactured. Then he started to pull out some documents from one of the file cabinets in his office.

After a few minutes of research, Harold quickly pulled out some paper and began to draw up some rough sketches. When he was finished, he got up and showed them to Dorothy.

“You are putting your new gun on a truck?”

“Roughly said, that’s true. But there is a lot more to it than just that. We can stretch the chassis of our largest truck design and add a third drive axle in the rear as well as running a drive axle to the front axle. That will give the vehicle considerably better cross-country mobility. That way, the vehicle can easily operate off of established roads. We can probably even design removable rubber tracks that can be placed over the rear drive wheels to further lower ground-pressure. That would help even more in driving on soft ground. We can also add armor and a gun turret from the Echidna medium tank onto the same basic chassis to make the vehicle into a very effective armored car. Such an armored car could be used by armored cavalry units and would have an effective anti-tank capability.”

Looking around to see if any adults were within hearing distance before continuing, Harold then explained.

“A lot of the newest vehicle-mounted artillery pieces in my time were built on wheeled chassis. They were a lot faster and less expensive than the artillery pieces that had been mounted on a tracked chassis. We can’t build anything as sophisticated as those vehicles. But we can still do a lot of the same things with the current technology however.

We should be able to also add some light armor protection to the vehicle cab, especially if we place the cab over the engine compartment to reduce the vehicle’s overall length. That way, we can protect the gun crew from artillery fragments and small arms fire.

The vehicle won’t be able to carry a lot of ammunition itself. But we can have ammunition trucks travelling with each gun, perhaps even using a modified version of the same chassis. The gun-truck could also tow an ammunition trailer if necessary. The guns could then stay in action for extended battles. But by putting the gun on the truck itself instead of towing the gun, we can get the weapon in and out of action much faster. That makes it a lot safer for the gun crews since it will be a lot harder for the enemy gunners to fire rounds back at them.

In other words, a gun crew can travel very quickly, get into position to fire their howitzer and quickly leave a lot faster than with a towed artillery piece. This also would allow each gun to do the work of three or four guns. We can probably do the same arrangement with our heavy twelve-centimeter mortar on the back of a lighter truck as well.

I will have to check with Eric Poole on this to be certain, but I don’t think that we will be able to able to accurately fire the gun while the vehicle is just on its wheels. We would have to add some sort of stabilizing system with hydraulically-extended steel jacks that would support the vehicle during firing. They can still be lowered and raised pretty quickly.”

“Harold, it amazes me sometimes about the ideas that you come up with.” Dorothy said.

“Well, I was trained to be an engineer. So designing equipment comes to me naturally. Plus, I have the knowledge of more than a hundred years of advances to draw upon as well. I just have to be careful about what advances that I use.”

“So when are you going to start building these ‘gun-trucks’?”

“I will have to meet with Eric and my people at our Tractor factory to iron out some details. I’m sure that they can build the vehicles though.

Once we get the first few vehicles constructed and any design problems solved, then we can demonstrate them to the Army. But the first battery of vehicles will get their field-testing here with the Derby militia. Even if the Australian Army doesn’t buy our new self-propelled howitzers, I will leave them in service with our militia. I want our militia to be the best-equipped military force in the entire continent, just in case something bad happens.”

“I wonder how many of our militia will actually show up if the Japanese do decide to attack here, Sweetheart? We always have so much personnel turnover at our factories, especially among the aborigines.”

“I planned for that a long time ago, Dorothy. We have always hired and trained about forty percent more employees than what we actually needed, especially with the aborigines. They are not nearly as willing, as a people, to grind away at a job for days and years at a time.  So, I knew that the aborigine workers would get bored, from time to time, with their jobs and would simply leave to go on ‘walkabout’.  Most of them would eventually come back, of course.”

“So you would always keep a reserve of trained workers available to fill those gaps.”

“Yes, I did. It always cost me extra money constantly feeding new workers through the training programs and the unavoidable delays in production as we trained new workers to fill in. But I knew this was the nature of the workforce that I employed.

In the long run, I ended up producing more with such a large force of workers to draw upon when necessary though.”

“Do you think that it will be the same way with the militia though, Sweetheart?”

“I believe that the aborigines will all return back as quickly as possible in the event of an attack. They would not only see it as a threat to their land, but also an opportunity for the men to have a chance to be fearsome warriors once again.”

“Only this time, they will have a lot better weapons to fight with.”

“The only bad part about this situation are the people in our own country who do not trust our aborigine friends with those weapons, or for that matter, with anything else.”

“I trust that you are right. After all, the aborigines believe that you are the man from the gods who can foretell the future. They trust you in ways that they trust no other white man, I know.”

“It is with that trust and their help that I hope to save the future for all humanity, Dorothy.”

Chapter Five:

20th Armored Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, Australian Expeditionary Force

Western Desert, Libya

February 25, 1942

Artillery from both sides thundered as the Australian tankers prepared to go on the attack just west of Tobruk. The tank battalion was a mix of old captured Italian M13/40’s and new armored vehicles that had been shipped to the front lines from Australia via Alexandria, Egypt.

The crew of one of the new Cavil Tractor Work’s Echidna medium tanks was making final preparations for battle. The tank’s name, ‘Jubilee’, was emblazoned on the side of her turret next to the stenciled image of a kangaroo. The four-man crew continued to load ammunition and supplies in spite of the occasional nearby explosion of artillery.

“So now they are calling us the Twentieth Armored Brigade, eh?” Corporal Andrew Harper asked while loading the last armor-piercing round for his tank’s six-pounder main gun through the tank’s back hatch. Andrew was from Perth and was the tank’s gunner.

“At least privately the officers are. I think that for everyone else, we are still being called an infantry brigade. It is something about not wanting the Jerry’s and the Italians to know that we have these tanks now.” Private Steven Coale answered back from within the tank. Steven was from Brisbane and served as the tank’s loader as well as its radio operator.

“They will know soon enough once we get going. Do you think that the Jerry’s will have any 88’s out there?” Private Aiden Dalton, Jubilee’s driver, asked while bringing up a case of machine gun ammunition for the weapon mounted on the tank’s left fender before climbing onto the tank and into his driver’s hatchway. Aiden was a volunteer from Sydney and had been driving a lorry before the start of the war.

“I certainly hope not. If they do, this run will be all too short and exciting. I do not want to have to bail out of another brewed up tank again in this lifetime, I’ll have you know.” Sergeant Matthew Ryan, Jubilee’s commander, said as he walked back from a supply lorry with a case of rations and water. Jubilee was Matthew’s third tank. The Adelaide native already had two cruiser’s shot out from under him by German guns.

“This is still the best tank that I have ever been in, even better than the Panzers that the Jerry’s use.” Matthew continued as he stowed away the last of the supplies. Some went inside the rear of the tank while the rest was tossed into containers that had been welded onto the sides of Jubilee’s turret and hull at the factory.

“It’s still strange looking with the engine in the front and the turret towards the back like with the light tanks. However, I love the gun on this tank. With that long barrel, I’m told that she can punch through a Panzer at over eight hundred meters distance.” Andrew commented from his position in Jubilee’s turret.”

“Just as long as the Panzers don’t punch through us at the same time.” Private Cole interjected after he secured the last round inside. Jubilee carried over sixty rounds of ammunition for her six-pounder or fifty-seven millimeter high-velocity main gun. About half the rounds were high explosive, while the rest were a mix of armor-piercing and smoke rounds.

“I certainly hope that the sappers have done a good job clearing us a path through the German minefields. I would hate to run into one of those bastards while we are under enemy fire. It is a hell of a job trying to fix a track while people are shooting at you.” Aiden commented while looking back from his driver’s seat.

The shrill sound of a whistle could be heard over the artillery. It was coming from the company commander’s tank. This meant only one thing.

“Time to mount up, mates. We’re about to go give Jerry and his Italian friends a bloody nose. Let’s be at it now.” Sergeant Ryan called out. He was already standing up inside of Jubilee’s turret, his hand braced against a Browning M2 fifty-caliber heavy machine gun in a pintle mount. The tanks coming out of Harold’s factory were unique in that they all had machine gun mounts for the tank commander like what the Americans usually had. Normally, British, French and even German tank designs did not have a weapon for the tank commander.

Quickly, the rest of Jubilee’s crew piled in through the back door and slammed it shut behind them. The tank’s turbocharged diesel engine roared to life with a cloud of smoke from the exhaust. Aiden shoved the tank into gear and then pivoted to begin following the rest of the company westward towards the front lines.

Enemy artillery continued to fall around the Australian tank company as it moved up as part of a general advance by the brigade. Matthew lowered his seat in the turret so that little more than the upper half of his head showed above the edge of his cupola. He had seen far too many tankers decapitated because they stuck their heads out too far.

Matthew scanned the desert around him. On his right side, there was a company of Australians using a variety of captured Italian tanks like the M11/39 and M13/40 medium tanks along with a few Fiat L6/40 light tanks. With supplies of replacement vehicles being so scarce, it was very common for either side to use captured equipment. These tanks had either broken down and were left behind by their original owners or patched up by Australian mechanics after being knocked out by British guns in an earlier battle.

On the other side, raced up a company of Commonwealth-produced light tanks. Some were British Mark VII light tanks armed with little more than a heavy machine gun in the turret. But the rest were newer vehicles that had also been freshly produced by the Cavill Tractor Works. They were slightly larger than the Mark VII’s and had somewhat of a resemblance to them. But these vehicles were faster, better armed and armored. They also ran on a Christie type chassis, just like that used by Jubilee and most British cruiser tanks. The Cavill-design light tanks had a twenty-five millimeter Hotchkiss automatic cannon in the turret and a co-axial Vickers machine gun. The cannon gave the light tank the ability to kill other light tanks and even knock out some larger tanks from the flanks and rear.

Andrew heard the supersonic crack of a high-velocity shell as it raced just past Jubilee’s turret. He quickly saw the cloud of dust from the camouflaged gun position where the 5cm German anti-tank gun had just fired.

“Load HE, anti-tank gun at two-o’clock.” Matthew yelled at the top of his voice as Jubilee’s turret traversed to the left and the tank came to a quick stop.

“Target acquired.” Andrew yelled back while at the same time, Steven confirmed that a high-explosive round was loaded and ready.

“Fire!!!”

Jubilee instantly jolted with the recoil of its gun. Its round impacted less than two meters away from the anti-tank gun. The tank next to Jubilee had also fired at the German gun. The effect of the two high explosive rounds was catastrophic as the German gun, its crew and the ready use ammunition next to it were all blown apart.

The sound of automatic cannon fire was also quickly heard as the light tanks began to fire at anything that resembled a possible anti-tank gun position. Light tanks were far too lightly armored to stand up to any anti-tank fire. So they wanted to shoot up anything that might want to shoot at them.

Aiden quickly got Jubilee back into motion as the Australian armored attack continued. Following as closely as possible, Australian infantry from 2/15 Battalion secured the rear of the armored spearhead and watched for enemy infantry.

Matthew heard a message over his headphones from the company command radio frequency. He instantly yelled out.

“Be prepared to load armor-piercing rounds, mates. I just heard that we have Panzers on the way.”

A few moments later, one of the ex-Italian M13/40’s suddenly blew up. The tank commander had been blown completely out of the tank, his legs blazing. He screamed from the pain as he tried to put out the fire that was consuming the lower half of his body. A couple of infantrymen ran to try to render aid to the gravely injured tanker. There was no sign of the other three men that were inside the shattered tank however.

That tank’s executioner quickly came into view as Aiden drove around the edge of a wadi. A Panzer Mark IV with its short-barrel 75mm gun was sitting hull down in a shallow excavation. The Panzer’s turret was already traversing around to bring its gun to bear upon Jubilee.  A loud clang and a shower of sparks announced the impact of a 75mm round. Fortunately, the steep angle of Jubilee’s front glacis plate caused the German round to deflect off.

“It looks to me that the Panzers were already here, mates.” Aiden quipped as he brought his tank to a quick halt so that Andrew could get an accurate shot fired at the Mark IV. Just a couple of seconds later, Jubilee rocked with the firing of its six-pounder. Only this time, the German tank brewed up instead after the 57mm shell punched through the enemy tank’s forward hull at a range of less than two hundred meters.

The battle soon turned into a swirling melee. Visibility dropped at times to less than one hundred meters because of the smoke and blowing sand.   Jubilee and her crew engaged a Mark III at point blank range and knocked it out before destroying two German half-tracks and several trucks. The German and Italian force either was overrun or withdrew from the fight behind a second defensive line West of Cyrenaica.

Matthew finally got a radio call from the company commander instructing the unit to halt the advance and consolidate its position. Sergeant Ryan was quite relieved to get the order because Jubilee’s ammunition was already beginning to run low as were her fuel supplies. The difficulty in keeping armored forces supplied was most often the reason why offensives stalled. The lorries that carried the vital lifeblood for the armored units simply could not keep up.

Jubilee’s crew was able to get a short break from the action as the supply lorries moved up to meet them. Along with the lorries, a battalion of British Army tanks came up to continue the attack against the German and Italian forces.

The English tankers were quite surprised when they learned that the Australian armored battalion had managed to break through the enemy defensive line and repel a counter attack with only two medium tanks and one light tank damaged, one light tank destroyed in addition to the ex-Italian M13/40 that was destroyed.

A British brigadier was visiting the front line, talking to some of the tank crews that had been fighting the Axis in North Africa for more than a year now.

“Sergeant, is there anything that we can get you to help out here?” The Brigadier asked one of the older tank commanders who had just stepped out of his Matilda.

“Well, Sir. The Aussies are driving tanks that drive far faster than our Matildas, can take hits far better than our Crusaders and knock out one of Jerry’s Panzers a hell of a lot further out than what we can do with our two-pounders. I’d say that we should get a few thousand of those bloody tanks from the Aussies and kick Jerry and the Italians all the way out of Africa.”

Word reached far beyond the British forces defending Egypt about the new Australian tanks. It only took a few days before other British Army units began clamoring to have some of these armored vehicles for their own troops.

British Military Wharf

Port of Singapore

April 18, 1941

It was early morning at the Port of Singapore when a small group of British Army officers walked to the pier and saw a twelve thousand ton freighter docking with the aid of a pair of local tugs. The freighter was named Miraculous based on the name emblazoned on its stern and flew the flag of the Cavill Shipping Line. The senior officer quickly turned and walked into his office nearby.

“What is this ship doing here? I don’t recall any notification about a cargo ship named Miraculous being scheduled to arrive here.” Major Clive Hamilton scowled as he arrived at his office. He was the port’s quartermaster or logistics supervisor.

“Sir, their papers are all in order. The manifest says that the ship is carrying military vehicles and other materiel for the garrison here at Singapore.” Leftenant Allen Peters, his adjutant quickly explained. The young officer had been working overnight when Major Hamilton arrived.

“Alright then, let’s see what they’ve actually got, Leftenant. The way things are going with the Japanese running rampant in the area and as fouled up as our supply situation has been, this will be a ship full of ladies’ lingerie.”

“Well, Sir. The manifest says that the contents of the forward hold are from the Cavill Tractor Factory. The aft hold is listed as having crates from Cavill Ordnance. The crates on the deck are also marked as being from Cavill Ordnance. The ship itself belongs to Harold Cavill’s shipping company as you have probably already noticed.”

“I don’t know what we would need tractors for except perhaps to tow artillery pieces. Still, we can use all of the help that we can get. Even with the French forces in Indochina finally deciding to ally themselves with the Free French and the rest of us against the Axis, the Japanese are still on the attack throughout this area.  It is only a matter of time before the Japanese decide to attack us directly.”

“Sir, they must be some very heavy tractors because the manifest says that twelve of these crates weigh twenty-five tons a piece while another twenty-four of them weigh around twelve tons each.” One of the civilian longshoremen called out before opening up the cargo ship’s forward hold.

“The aft hold has about forty smaller crates in it. Most of them are marked as from Cavill Ordnance Works.” Another longshoreman announced.

“Now, those sound like something that we could use. Hurry up down there and get that forward hold open. Then we can finally see what’s inside.” Major Hamilton commented cheerfully.

Soon the Miraculous’ cranes were lifting the vehicles out and placing them on the dock.

“Hey, that’s not a tractor. That looks like a damned tank to me, Sir.” Leftenant Peters said as he looked up at the first of the vehicles being lifted out of the hold.

“Well, Leftenant. Don’t just stand there. Find someone who can figure out how to drive one of those. The rest of you, get cracking. We need the rest of those vehicles out so that we can see what else the Aussies have sent us.”

All the while, Miraculous’ captain, Fred Winters was watching down at the dock with a humorous expression on his face. He already knew exactly what was in all of the crates. He just wanted to see their reaction before giving the Port Quartermaster the rest of the shipping documents and sending a little bit of help.

The first of the vehicles was one of Cavill’s new Echidna medium tanks. A bulldozer driver was summoned, climbed in the driver’s hatch and took a quick look at the controls. By then, a small group of men had stepped off the ship and walked over to the unpacked tank. One of the men, an aborigine man in his late twenties named Willie, climbed up onto the tank and looked down at the bulldozer driver.

“Hello, mate. Would you like a hand on how to drive this beast?” He asked with a huge smile. Willie was dressed in a neat khaki fatigue uniform, like most of the twenty some odd personnel that had disembarked from the Cavill Lines freighter.

“Are you sure that you know how to drive this thing?” The bulldozer driver, named Al Moorcock, hesitantly asked.

“Of course, mate. I’ve been driving these tanks since the first one came off of the assembly line. I was taught to drive and fix all of these tanks here after I was finished with school. Of course, we brought manuals for everything with us as well.” Willie confidently answered before beginning to give a quick set of lessons on how to operate the tank to everyone now gathered around the vehicle. With Willie’s aid, Al was quickly able to start the tank up and drive it off of the end of the dock and towards one of the nearby warehouses. Everyone in the area quickly gathered around to get a closer look.

“Is this one of those new tanks that were sent to North Africa?” One of the other dock workers asked.

“Yes, it is. She really is a beauty, isn’t she?” Willie replied.

“Are you sure that this thing isn’t backwards? It looks like the turret and the engine are in the wrong place, especially with that bloody door back there.” A soldier detailed to the port commented after looking around the back of the tank.

“No, mate. This is the way that the tank was designed. The thickest armor is in the front along with the engine. The turret and all of the crew except for the driver are in the back of the tank. The engine helps stop any shells that get past the armor from hitting the crew. That makes it a lot safer for the crew in battle.

The door in the back just makes it easier for the crew to get in and out of the tank. It also makes loading ammunition a lot easier as well. That’s a lot better than having to lift shells on top of the tank and put them down through the hatch, don’t you think?

Also, in case the tank gets hit and the crew has to bail out. The back door allows those men to get out quickly to someplace safe. I really like that part very much since I would hate to be trapped inside of a burning tank.”

“What is that tank armed with? Clearly, that is not a two-pounder like what is on our Crusaders and Matildas.” A nearby soldier asked.

“No, Sir. It isn’t. This tank has a high-velocity six-pounder gun for its main armament. It also has a co-axial Browning machine gun in the turret as well as a pintle mount for a second machine gun at the commander’s cupola. There’s not a tank in the entire Japanese army that can withstand a hit from this six-pounder. Plus, we can fire high explosive rounds to deal with infantry and bunkers when necessary.” Willie explained.

A growing number of people continued to gather around the tank at the same time that multiple heavy crates were also being offloaded from Miraculous’s deck and aft hold.

“Those crates stay sealed until the Army comes to take them to their final destination.” Captain Winters warned, still standing on the ship’s bridge.

“Why is that, Captain?” One of the longshoremen asked.

“Because we want it all to be a surprise.” Came the captain’s reply, which caused a roar of laughter to erupt.

One of the smaller vehicles from Cavill Tractor Factory was next to be lifted up out of the hold. This was another armored fighting vehicle that was very similar to the first tank, only smaller and having one less road wheel on each side. This tank was equipped with an open-topped turret that was armed with a short-barreled light howitzer. The dock workers that had been looking at the first tank, now streamed en mass back to the pier beside the Miraculous. They were all fascinated with what this ship had brought.

“This is our newest tank.” Willie explained to the gathering of men after walking back from the warehouse. “After what our troops learned from North Africa, Mister Cavill had these built. This is our advanced Mark II light tank chassis, but instead of a two-pounder cannon or a twenty-five millimeter machine cannon, we put a ninety-four millimeter short-barreled howitzer in the turret to shoot high explosive shells at enemy infantry and bunkers. He thought that you could use something like this here.”

Another aborigine man carrying a handful of papers walked down the gangplank from Miraculous.

“Here is the manifest for this ship. I also have here the listing of the cargo for the next ship coming in as well.” He said as he handed the paperwork to Major Hamilton.

“The next ship?” The major asked, not expecting Miraculous in the first place, much less a second ship full of cargo.

“Yes, Sir. Mister Cavill has arranged to have a second transport ship to deliver military supplies to Singapore. Astounding will be bringing additional light scout tanks, truck-mounted artillery pieces, additional small arms and a substantial amount of ammunition.

“Your employer certainly picks some uncommon names for his ships. Anyway, these papers say that the equipment here is all going to the Australian 8th Division.” The port quartermaster noted.

“Yes, Major Hamilton. They are going to be equipping a new armored battalion with them. This will give the Division a very effective mobile force in the event that the Japanese break through into Southeast Asia. They can also be used in offensive operations if necessary.”

“Well, the Free French in Indochina are still preparing to fight against the Japanese, aren’t they?”

“Yes, but as far as I know, they don’t have any tanks at all. Obviously, they will not be getting any from back home anytime soon either.”

“What if the Japanese troops attack the French using tank support?” The port quartermaster asked.

“Then I hope that the French will ask to purchase some of Mister Cavill’s new tanks soon before that could happen. The French could, of course, buy American tanks. But would the Americans offer their best vehicles to the Free French? I don’t know, but Mister Cavill would, I’m sure.

Who paid for all of this equipment that your Mister Cavill is sending us? Surely it must cost him a considerable fortune.”

“I suppose that the Australian government has paid for it. I wasn’t told, one way or another, Sir.” The aborigine courier replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

The British quartermaster was left wondering what to do with an entire battalion’s worth of tanks. But he didn’t have to wait very long as nearly a dozen lorries full of Australian troops roared up and stopped on the dock.

“Sir, we understand that some cargo has arrived for us. The lads and I are here to fetch it.” Yelled out a soldier sitting in the passenger seat of one of the lorries.

“Yes, Sergeant. It certainly appears to be the case. You might want to go talk to that dark-looking fellow over there. He seems to know what is going on.” Pointing towards Willie.

“Fair Dinkin, Sir. We heard that Harold Cavill had something to do with this. So I’m not surprised if he put a bunch of Abos in charge. We’re just glad to have some new equipment in case that the Japs decide to come pay us a visit. Or perhaps, in case we decide to pay them a visit instead.” The Australian soldier said with a hearty laugh.

Over the course of the next few hours, the Australian soldiers broke open the crates and began to drive out the tanks with the aid of the aborigines from Miraculous. Among the other pieces of cargo were a quartet of heavy trucks with semi-trailers designed for the transport of tracked armored vehicles.

Soon, the trucks were driving off of the dock carrying the tanks. The semi-trailer could carry one of larger medium tanks or a pair of light tanks in a single trip. The use of the trucks saved considerable wear and tear upon the brand new tanks. Harold’s people had already advised the Australian soldiers that it would be a lot faster than driving the tanks back and would do a lot less damage to the roads in route.

By the time the sun was setting, all of the tanks had been removed from the dock along with the many crates of ammunition and spare parts. The Australians had even taken the wooden crates along with them that the tanks had been shipped inside.

Major Hamilton just stood there looking at the now empty pier. Gone were not only the tanks but also any opportunity to pilfer any equipment from the shipment for the benefit of the quartermaster’s wallet.

“Bugger.” The port quartermaster said to himself as he shrugged his shoulders in disappointment and walked back towards his office. Something told him that when the next Cavill transport ship came in that things wouldn’t be much different either.

Chapter Six:

Battleship KMS Bismarck

Grimstadfjord near Bergen, Norway

May 21, 1941

Admiral Gunther Lutjens stood on the bridge of the German battleship Bismarck while it sat at anchor. Within a few hours, he would be leading Bismarck and the three other heavy warships also anchored in the Norwegian fiord, the battleship Scharnhorst along with the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen, on a sortie to raid merchant shipping in the North Atlantic.  A small flotilla of destroyers would also accompany Bismarck as well.

“It is unfortunate that Gneisenau was also unable to join us. The damage from the Englander torpedo strike and subsequent bomb hits was simply going to take too long to repair. We would be quite a formidable force with her. We have already delayed the operation more than a month to gain Scharnhorst and Admiral Hipper as it is.”

“At least the Kriegsmarine has decided to go ahead with the reconstruction of Gneisenau with new 38cm main guns and the upgraded secondary armament because of the amount of time that she will be in the shipyard anyway. The planned changes will make her extremely formidable once they are completed.

In any event, we will still be a very powerful force against the Englander’s fleet with the vessels that we already have, Admiral. Scharnhorst was able to complete her refit to include the installation of torpedo launchers. They will help us to quickly sink enemy merchant ships that we have encountered. We will use all of these weapons to sweep away all of the merchant ships between America and England to finally starve the Englanders into submission.” Kapitän Ernsk Lindemann, the Bismarck’s commander replied.

“Operation Rheinübung promises to turn the war in the Atlantic around, even with the presence of the new King George V battleships in the Englander navy. They are all inferior to Bismarck in my view. With the Americans keeping their few modern battleships at home, we will not have to worry about encountering any of them either.”

“The Americans do not have the stomach to fight another war in Europe. The French have fallen except for a few stubborn fools in Indochina and some others scattered around the world. All we have to deal with are the Englanders now.  The Englanders will not be able to mass their ships quickly enough to stop us from sinking any convoy that we choose.  The German Navy will be the instrument of our final victory against them, not that fat fool Herman Goering and his vaunted Luftwaffe.”

“I’m sure that Herr Goering will have something to say about that. But we will show him otherwise.” Admiral Lutjens laughed.

“It is unfortunate, that our aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin will not be complete in time to join this mission. It would have been good for us to be able to have our own aircraft support like what the Amerikaners, Englanders and Japanese fleets do.”

“Perhaps so. But it will be our guns that will be the decisive element here.” Admiral Lutjens defiantly declared.

“Now if we could simply get the damned Italians to show a little backbone in their ‘Mare Nostrum’. The Englanders have the Italians cowed into inaction by the use of a few old battleships and aircraft carriers operating biplane relics. Now, the Italians mostly sit in port, afraid to come out and fight in decisive combat for fear that the paint on the sides of their ships might get scratched.”

“Careful, Kapitän. Those are our valued allies that you are talking about.” The admiral sarcastically said with a laugh.

“It would be nice if they actually demonstrated some value on the battlefield occasionally. I can’t wait to get back to sea now. It is time for us to go into battle and to show the Englanders that we now control the high seas. We will erase the shame that our sailors brought upon us a generation before when they mutinied rather than go out and face the Englanders in glorious battle once more. Our ships instead met their end scuttled at the bottom of Scarpa Flow.”

“Soon enough, my friend…..soon enough.”

A yeoman walked up to Kapitän Lindemann and handed him a piece of paper that he quickly read.

“Kapitän Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann has invited us to come visit him aboard Scharnhorst. I guess that he has something that he wants to show us.”

“Of course. I’m sure that Kapitän Hoffmann is very proud of his command and wants to show her off a bit before we leave. I see no reason why we should decline his invitation. Do you?”

Royal Navy Admiralty Headquarters

Portsmouth, UK

May 25, 1941

“Sir, we have just received confirmation from Intelligence that a major German fleet operation has begun. There are at least four large warships and several escorts involved.” A senior Naval Intelligence officer reported to the Admiral of the Fleet.

“Who do we have closest to them?” Admiral Pound asked.

Captain Edwin Wellington pointed to a spot on the map southeast of Greenland. “We have Hood, Prince of Wales, the light carrier Frobisher and four destroyers here. They are commanded by Vice Admiral Holland. We also have the heavy cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk on patrol near the northern part of the Denmark Straits. Rodney is providing escort for MV Brittanic about two hundred miles southwest of Holland’s force.

The battleship King George V, and the carrier Victorious are at Scapa Flow, but are prepared to sail at short notice. We also have the battle cruisers Repulse and Tiger available there. The battle cruisers are faster than King George V, but we dare not have them engage the Germans without significant capital ship support because of their inferior armor protection. Finally, we have Force H with Renown, the carrier Ark Royal and the cruiser Sheffield, Sir. Of course, Renown operates under the same handicap as her sister ship Repulse.”

“Let’s bring them all. If Bismarck is indeed accompanied by additional capital ships, then we cannot afford to underestimate them. We will also want as many destroyers as can be made available to provide our capital ships with an adequate screen against U-Boats. We might as well take advantage of Prime Minister Churchill’s prewar push for the production of more escort vessels. It would be a hell of a thing if any of our battleships were to be sunk by a U-Boat while hunting Bismarck.”

Battleship KMS Bismarck

Greenland Sea

May 26, 1941

Bismarck was awaiting its turn to refuel from the prepositioned German tanker Weissenburg after her consorts had refueled. The four large destroyers had been first to refuel, having nearly expended half of their fuel already. After the destroyers, came the two fleet torpedo boats, then the cruisers Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen. Finally the Scharnhorst was refueled before Bismarck. All of these ships had very limited ranges compared to the Bismarck.

“We will very nearly drain Weissenburg dry once we get our fill of bunker fuel from her.”

“I know, but once we are fueled, we will be have a considerable latitude in terms of movement to hunt down enemy merchant convoys. If we had not stopped to refuel, our Zerstörers would have had to return to base in only a few more hours. We will need their eyes and torpedoes to help us with enemy escorts.”

The destroyers Z20 Karl Galster, Z23, Z24 and Z25 and the fleet torpedo boats T-25 and T-26 together formed a protective screen around the heavy cruisers and battleships after the former had finished refueling. With their fifteen-centimeter caliber main guns, Z23, Z24 and Z25 were almost as well armed as the older Royal Navy light cruisers, but were far faster and more maneuverable.

The German destroyer captains had spent enough time practicing against their own U-Boats. They were at this point more worried about British submarines than about Royal Navy battleships. The latter will be enough of a threat when the German capital ships finally go into combat against their British counterparts.

All of the German destroyer commanders wanted to have a chance to sink a British capital ship themselves. That would be fitting revenge in their minds for the destruction that HMS Warspite inflicted upon so many German destroyers during the Norwegian campaign.

Battle cruiser HMS Hood

Denmark Straits

May 29, 1941

HMS Hood surged through the ocean waters at nearly twenty knots, followed by the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales. The latter had just finished her working up period after being commissioned.

The great battle cruiser was still the largest warship in the Royal Navy. Hood herself had not been long out of the shipyards after spending eighteen months there undergoing a massive refitting. The work had started at the beginning of 1939 before war with Germany was considered likely.  When Great Britain declared war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, the decision was made to continue with Hood’s refit, mostly because it was too far along to be stopped.

HMS Tiger and HMS Repulse were also just finishing up similar reconstructions within the next couple of months after the beginning of the war. They, along with HMS Renown, would comprise the 1st Battle cruiser Squadron while Hood’s refit was being completed. Renown had been the first of the battle cruisers to go through the refit program.

All four battle cruisers, when completed, would have the same twenty medium-caliber dual-purpose guns in BD Mark II mounts as secondary armament as did the rebuilt Queen Elizabeth-class and the new King George V-class battleships. The reconstructed battle cruisers all also had substantially increased numbers of light anti-aircraft guns as well.

Hood’s boilers and turbines were all modernized during the refit. Few people knew the role that Harold Cavill’s English subsidiary played in the design of Hood’s new power plant. The newer technology incorporated into Hood’s engines saved a couple of thousand tons of weight over the older units and reduced overall fuel consumption. This savings was plowed back into the modernized secondary armament, a reconstructed superstructure and upgraded horizontal armor protection.

Hood and Prince of Wales had finished their shakedown cruises at virtually the same time. They were immediately assigned together to patrol the North Atlantic. Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland commanded the powerful force from Hood’s bridge.

“Admiral, HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk have picked up several ships on their radar. They say that four of their contacts appear cruiser-size or larger. I’m surprised that our carrier hadn’t spotted them first though.” Captain Ralph Kerr, Hood’s captain reported to Admiral Holland.

“These new contacts must have been trying to take advantage of that fog bank rolling in off of the Greenland coast. Frobisher has been keeping her aircraft relatively close at hand to help protect us against U-Boats rather than actively hunting for surface ships. It appears that has allowed our opponents on the surface to slip in a lot closer to our convoy routes before being detected.”

“What are your orders, Sir?”

“Please ask our carrier to launch some more aircraft to see if they can get a better view of our ‘friends’ out there.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Obviously, we don’t want to try to take on the Germans with equal numbers. While we naturally want to be sporting gentlemen, this now is war. The last thing that we want to give ‘Jerry’ is a fair fight. We are going to call for reinforcements. In the meanwhile, let’s have HMS Frobisher keep our German friends under surveillance with her aircraft. We also want her to keep a close eye for any U-Boats as well. We aren’t the only ones who can call for reinforcements, you know.”

A few minutes later, a young signalman ran up to the Hood’s captain, dispatch in hand. Captain Kerr took the dispatch, glanced over it before handing it to Admiral Holland.

“We’ve had a visual report from one of our scout aircraft, Sir.” Captain Kerr said. “There are two battleships, two heavy cruisers and several escort vessels. One of the battleships has three triple turrets. That means she is either Scharnhorst or Gneisenau. But the other battleship is definitely larger and has four twin turrets in her main battery. That has to be Bismarck.”

“This is the fight that we have been waiting on since the beginning of the war. Well, let’s be at it, gentlemen.” Admiral Holland told the others.

Now, the grand old lady of the Royal Navy was preparing to go into battle against an enemy battleship for the first time.

Battleship KMS Bismarck

Denmark Straits

May 29, 1941

“We are facing a King George V-class battleship and the battle cruiser Hood. There also appears to be a pair of County-class heavy kruizers and at least several zerstörers accompanying them.” Kapitän Lindemann reported as he quickly glanced over the latest report from Bismarck’s spotters.

Admiral Lutjens bared his teeth with a smile that made Kapitän Lindemann think of a wolf contemplating his prey.

“Well, now we get to see how capable the newest and the grandest of the Englanders’ capital ships are in combat. It will be a glorious victory for us, I am certain.”

The British were less celebratory and more businesslike concerning this situation. Hood’s bridge was busy but calm as they prepared for battle.

“Sir, I think that other battleship is Scharnhorst. Look where her main mast is located. It’s aft of the aircraft hangar and catapult. Our intelligence photos show that Gneisenau has her main mast attached to her funnel.” Captain Kerr said after looking out at the two German battleships through a pair of powerful naval binoculars.

“That makes sense with the reports from Bomber Command about having hit one of those ships in port and inflicting heavy damage upon it. Intelligence said that she was Gneisenau. I guess that they were both right.

A call from Hood’s main battery director came in to the bridge. Bismarck was now in range of Hood’s fifteen-inch main guns.

“You may fire when ready, Captain.” Admiral Holland calmly said.

The four fifteen-inch guns from Hood’s two forward turrets fired at once with a deafening roar. A few moments after Hood fired, Prince of Wales fired a salvo from her six forward fifteen-inch guns as well. It sounded like half a dozen train locomotives roaring overhead as the British battleship’s heavy shells passed over Hood on the way towards Bismarck.

A sailor on Hood’s bridge could be heard through the silence after Hood’s initial salvo quietly saying as everyone awaited Bismarck’s first salvo.

“Lord, may we be truly thankful for what we are about to receive.”

This bit of dark humor dated back to the days of sail as brave men stood and helplessly waited for an enemy ship to finally make its turn and fire a broadside of shot and shell that would surely unleash untold death and devastation upon them and their ship.

Finally, a series of brilliant flashes on the horizon announced that Bismarck and her companions had fired their main guns at the British force. It could be as long as twenty seconds before the heavy German shells would arrive.

Half a dozen massive fountains of water surrounded Hood at the same time a pair of loud explosions rocked the massive battle cruiser. Smoke could be seen issuing from just aft of the starboard secondary battery. More shell splashes could be seen around Prince of Wales and the two British heavy cruisers as well.

“The Germans are still devilishly good shots, I’m afraid. How badly are we hit?” Admiral Holland quickly asked.

The roar of Hood’s own guns as she returned fire against Bismarck was a reassuring answer to the British commander. Obviously, the British battle cruiser was still fully combat-capable as she and Prince of Wales continued to advance on the German force.

“We’re alright, Sir. We have a small fire from a ready use ammunition locker for some of our ‘ack-ack’, but otherwise are alright.”

“Keep focusing our fire on Bismarck. Her companions are not nearly as much of a threat to our shipping as she is.”

In Bismarck’s main fire control center, the jolt of her main guns firing badly shook the delicate electronic equipment of her three FuMO 23 radars during each salvo. The sounds of dozens of shell fragments from British near-misses could also be heard ricocheting off of the foretop director as well.

So when the first fifteen-inch shell from Hood struck near Bismarck’s catapult amidships, the FuMO 23 attached to her foretop fire control director abruptly failed because of the additional physical shock of the shell’s impact and explosion. This particular unit was extremely important because it was Bismarck’s only radar with 360 degree coverage. Bismarck’s other search and fire control radars had significant blind spots where they could not spot other ships because the battleship’s superstructure blocking the view.

“The foretop FuMO 23 unit is inoperative, Sir.” One of the junior fire control officers immediately reported.

“Try to repair it as quickly as possible. We will rely on our optical rangefinder which will be more than adequate at this point.” Bismarck’s First Artillery Officer replied.

“We will not be able to search for other ships very well with this unit no longer functioning, Sir.”

“I understand, Hauptmann. Some things cannot be helped. We must now focus on the task at hand.

The gun duel between the British and German forces continued over the course of four hours, with the British alternating between closing the range in an attempt to score hits and then withdrawing to avoid German return fire. The British had not expected to meet as strong of a German force as they did. So the British had to try to buy time for more of their capital ships to arrive. Churchill and the Royal Navy did not want to leave anything to chance in the battle against Bismarck.

Soon after another short skirmish with the Germans, another ship appeared on the horizon, approaching from the south. At first glance, it appeared to resemble a tanker with its funnel located near the stern of the ship. But this vessel was much larger.

“We have just received a radio message from Captain Dalrymple-Hamilton. HMS Rodney managed to make her way here to join the battle.”

“That run had to be hard on her. She’s long overdue for repairs to her engines. I would be surprised if she can make more than twenty-one knots.”

“Well, she’s here. I am very glad that she was able to make it here. The question now is whether or not the Germans know that she is here.”

“I’m sure that they will know in about twenty seconds. Rodney just fired her main guns at Bismarck.”

All of the personnel on the Bismarck’s command bridge quickly turned away from looking at Hood when six huge pillars of water appeared unexpectedly about two hundred meters off of Bismarck’s port bow.

“What the hell was that?” Admiral Lutjens abruptly asked.

“It appears that another Englander battleship has joined battle from the south. We could not detect her earlier because of a malfunction to our radio detection equipment. According to our lookouts, the battleship is one of the Nelson-class battleships. It is much slower than we are, but is very heavily armed. Currently, she is sailing directly towards us.” One of the other bridge officers reported after a few moments.

“Then we must knock Hood out of the fight quickly if we are going to be able to escape. We can outrun the other British capital ships here. Have all ships concentrate their fire on Hood now.” The admiral quickly ordered.

The number of shells being fired at Hood suddenly increased dramatically as the Germans shifted their fire from Prince of Wales, Suffolk and Norfolk towards Hood. It did not take long for the German focus on Hood to take dramatic effect. The water around Hood churned violently with all of the German shells falling around her. With all of the heavy shells falling around Hood, there was no way that she could maneuver to chase salvoes. She just had to try to alter course enough to throw off the aim of the German gunners. For the most part, the battle cruiser’s maneuvering was successful. There were some hits, but most did little damage to her. But not all were so harmless.

Hood shuddered amidst a large explosion aft of her mainmast. Admiral Holland looked back to see smoke billowing from an apparent large caliber hit. He looked over towards Captain Kerr, who already on the phone to the battle cruiser’s damage control department.

“Sir, we’ve lost X Turret. She took a direct hit from that last salvo from Bismarck. Fortunately, our anti-flash measures worked. No reports of any flame getting down to the magazine through the barbette trunk and handling room.” Captain Kerr turned and said after putting down the phone.

“What about casualties? Is there any chance of our repair teams being able to get that turret back into action?

“Bad news, I’m afraid, Sir. It appears that we lost the entire turret crew. I don’t think that we will be able to get it back into action outside of returning to a shipyard either. The turret’s got a bloody big hole in its roof now.”

“Can we still fight?”

“Yes, Sir. But I do wish that the Jerry’s would quit focusing all of their fire on us.” Hood’s captain replied just the battle cruiser was straddled by half-dozen more heavy enemy shells.

“How is Prince of Wales doing?” Admiral Holland asked amidst the towering plumes of water that showered over Hood from the near misses.

“Pretty well. We know that she’s hit Bismarck at least twice with her main guns.”

“We need to get more hits if we are going to sink that big bastard. Tell Prince of Wales that we are going to turn to close the range on Bismarck.  We will be able to punch right through the guts of Jerry’s pride and joy. Closing the range will also eliminate the problem with plunging fire through our decks. Prince of Wales shouldn’t have to worry about Scharnhorst’s guns terribly much since they cannot penetrate either our belt or turret armor, much less theirs.”

“Sir, we still have to worry about their cruisers and destroyers though. Both have heavy torpedo batteries, as I recall.”

“Then our destroyers will just have to keep their counterparts on the other side occupied. As far as those two German cruisers are concerned, we will deal with them if they get close enough to be a real threat

“Scharnhorst is turning to present her broadside. Our ships should have an excellent fire solution on her from both radar and main fire control directors.”

“Have Prince of Wales engage her immediately then!”

Nine heavy fifteen-inch armor piercing shells, each weighing nearly a ton, roared out as Prince of Wales fired a full broadside at the smaller German battleship.  A third of the shells hit Scharnhorst. One shell tore a great hole in the thinly armored bows. Another shell glanced off of Turret Caesar. The third shell hit nearly amidships, tearing through Scharnhorst’s deck armor and plunging deep within her before exploding inside her forward engine room. The explosion wrecked turbines, shattered high-pressure steam lines and killed or wounded dozens of crewmen.

Black smoke and live steam poured from the gaping wound in Scharnhorst’s deck as she continued to madly twist around to avoid more hits. The ocean behind Scharnhorst glistened as she streamed fuel oil from tanks that had been ruptured in her bow from the hit there. But it soon became obvious to the British forces that Scharnhorst had been badly hit as her speed dropped significantly.

On the Bismarck’s bridge, the news from Scharnhorst came as a heavy blow. A yeoman from the radio room delivered the message to Captain Lindemann. Bismarck’s captain then informed Admiral Lutjens just as the German battleship shuddered from another hit by Hood’s guns.

“Sir. Kapitän Hoffmann reports that a heavy caliber shell from Prince of Wales has seriously damaged one of his main engine rooms. Scharnhorst cannot go faster than twenty-four knots now because of the damage that she has suffered. Kapitän Hoffmann believes that Scharnhorst cannot escape the Englander force. So he is going to turn towards the enemy and close the range so that Bismarck and our kruizers can have an opportunity to escape. If he is lucky, he will sink or cripple as many Englander ships as possible as long as he has operational guns and power to his screws.”

Admiral Lutjens grimaced for a moment before responding.

“Signal to Scharnhorst, Good luck and good hunting. Our prayers are with you and your men. We will send our surviving Zerstorers to support you with your glorious attack.”

“What are the rest of our ships going to do, Sir?”

“Make sure that Scharnhorst’s sacrifice isn’t in vain. Order Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen to turn towards the French ports and make smoke. We must break contact from the main Englander fleet. We will then lure then into a trap with as many U-Boats as we can assemble.”

Captain Lindemann simply nodded his head in acknowledgement before turning to issue the necessary orders.

Aboard Hood, the reports from her radar room and lookouts were in Admiral Holland’s hands less than a minute later.

“Bismarck is turning away along with her cruisers. Rodney’s and Prince of Wales’ guns must have hit her much harder than we expected.”

“Yes. But Scharnhorst is turning towards Rodney and it appears that the German destroyers are making another run at us as well.” Captain Kerr after having received additional reports only a few moments later.

“That’s a suicide run for those poor bastards on Scharnhorst and the destroyers.”

“Perhaps, but after our last series of maneuvers, Scharnhorst is now closer to Rodney than she is to the rest of us. That and Rodney’s slow speed would explain why Scharnhorst is heading towards her. Apparently, the Germans feel that they will be able to take advantage of that.”

“We are still going to have to shift fires from our main batteries to help Rodney then. But we will have Prince of Wales continue to keep Bismarck under fire in any event.

It was an incredible sight as Rodney and Scharnhorst drew closer to each other. Rodney tried to turn away and extend the distance. But in doing so, she could not effectively fire all three of her sixteen-inch gun turrets. The blast from the firing of her aft-most turret was wrecking Rodney’s own upperworks.  So Rodney was forced to turn again to present her full broadside against Scharnhorst. As the two battleships hurled scores of shells at each other across an ever smaller distance, a huge fountain of water erupted amidships next to Scharnhorst. The German battleship’s speed dropped even more as she turned her bow towards Rodney.

“I can’t believe it. We actually hit that German battleship with one of those bloody big torpedoes of ours.” One of Rodney’s two-pounder ‘pom-pom’ gunners noted.

A few moments later, the antiaircraft gunner saw something else through his sights as he looked down at the ocean between the two great battleships.

“Oh, shit. We have three incoming torpedoes. Those damned Germans must have had torpedoes of their own.”

Rodney attempted to turn to avoid Scharnhorst’s torpedo salvo. But less than ten seconds after the torpedoes were spotted, a tall fountain of water erupted next to Rodney as one of Scharnhorst’s torpedoes detonated against her side abreast her bridge. The entire ship shuddered from the explosion. Sirens blared throughout Rodney as her crew fought to deal with the flooding from the torpedo hit in addition to the damage from Scharnhorst’s shells.

The German battleship’s guns were unable to penetrate Rodney’s main armor, but they still riddled the British battleship’s upperworks. The unarmored parts of Rodney’s hull not contained within her armored citadel were also taking a heavy beating. Most of Rodney’s secondary battery had been silenced from battle damage now. But her sixteen-inch guns kept firing and hitting.

Scharnhorst was battered and burning, yet she kept turning towards Rodney after the exchange of torpedoes.

“I think that she is going to try to ram Rodney.”

“Then we have no choice but to sink Scharnhorst first before she can reach Rodney.” Admiral Holland decided.

Within seconds, Hood’s great fifteen-inch guns turned towards Scharnhorst and opened fire. The German battleship continued on her run towards the battered Rodney. For the most part, the Scharnhorst’s thick armor belt stopped most of the British fire from entering her vital internal spaces. Scharnhorst’s guns were another matter though. One by one, the battered German battleship’s turrets were knocked out by direct hits by Rodney’s and Hood’s heavy guns. Still, she drove in closer towards Rodney, who was also badly damaged as well at this time.

Finally, a salvo of shells from Hood found their mark. Another fifteen-inch armor-piercing shell plunged deep through Scharnhorst’s armored deck, this time into her forward magazine. Even though Scharnhorst’s ammunition stores had been heavily depleted in the extended battle, there was still more than enough ammunition and propellant charges to cause a cataclysmic magazine explosion. This blast tore apart much of Scharnhorst’s forward hull and even lifted turret Bruno up off of her rollers by several meters before it slammed back down crookedly on the shattered barbette.

Scharnhorst quickly began to capsize as the battleship’s battered hull began to buckle. Hundreds of survivors started to scramble over the sides in a frantic attempt to escape the sinking battleship. Even as Scharnhorst began to capsize, four German destroyers continued to close the range on Rodney and now also on Hood.

“Turn away from those damned destroyers before they can torpedo us. Engage with all available weapons.” Admiral Holland ordered Prince of Wales, Hood and Rodney.

Rodney’s secondary weapons had been decimated by Scharnhorst’s fire, but the BD Mark II mounts on both Hood and Prince of Wales opened up with a furious barrage of shells. Dozens of spouts of waters erupted around the approaching destroyers as the British gunners began to find the range. The range rapidly shrank to the point that even the two-pounder ‘pom-poms’ began firing at the German destroyers. Soon, two of the four German destroyers were on fire and dead in the water from multiple hits. The other two destroyers turned and withdrew after taking heavy damage themselves.

But Captain Kerr still had bad news even after repelling the German attack.

“We have to withdraw from the fight, Sir. We’ve simply taken too many hits. I’ve already lost one turret and a quarter of my secondary armament, not to mention the hit to my starboard fuel tanks that has left us with barely enough fuel to get back to a British port.” Hood’s captain told Admiral Holland.

“At least your crew struck the decisive blow against Scharnhorst. That’s one less German battleship that we have to worry about.” Admiral Holland said with a grimace.

“But they paid one hell of a price doing it. I have reports of over two hundred casualties already here on Hood.”

“Alright, Captain. Prepare to change course towards Portsmouth. What is Rodney’s condition?”

“Admiral, Rodney simply isn’t able to keep up with Bismarck. She can barely make eighteen knots and has already taken several severe hits from German guns in addition to that torpedo from Scharnhorst. If we are going to be able to have a chance at keeping in gun range of the Germans, we are going to have to leave Rodney and her big guns behind.”

“We can’t allow Bismarck and those cruisers to escape either. We’ve already sunk the other battleship, but the real prize is up ahead. Prince of Wales must continue to pursue and engage Bismarck. She especially cannot be allowed to reach the western French ports. We will just have to get reinforcements to our people as quickly as possible. Make signal to Prince of Wales and our cruisers to maintain contact with Bismarck. Sink or cripple her before she can get within range of Luftwaffe bomber support.”

Hood and a small contingent of British destroyers, themselves also very low on fuel, turned towards Portsmouth. Prince of Wales continued to pursue Bismarck, firing salvoes whenever possible at the German battleship while Rodney continued to pursue the German battleship as best as she could. The two German cruisers slowly pulled away from Bismarck as they also ran towards the French coast.

Suddenly, Captain John Leach received a message from Prince of Wales’ radar room.

“Captain, we have several more radar contacts coming in from the north. Four of them are cruiser-sized or larger.” The young lieutenant from the radar room reported.

“Any identification on who they are? We still have no idea if the Germans have other ships out here as well. For all that we know, the reports of the rest of the Vichy French fleet having been scuttled could be false and they are now being manned by Germans.”

“I just don’t know, Sir. There is a heavy fog bank blocking our view in that direction.”

“Well, Gentlemen. Let’s find out quickly before we find ourselves outnumbered.” Captain Leach ordered.

Five minutes later, the starboard lookout cried out, “Sir! That’s Tiger, Repulse and King George V!” as he pointed out towards the large grey shapes coming out of a nearby fog bank. Along with Prince of Wales’ sister ship and the two Royal Navy battle cruisers sailed the Dido-class antiaircraft cruiser HMS Phoebe. The Dido bristled with dozens of light and heavy antiaircraft guns to defend the larger ships from enemy air attack.

A few moments later, a signal light near Tiger’s bridge started quickly flashing a message in Morse code.

“Sorry, chaps, for not letting you know that we were coming to help. We were operating under radio silence so that the Jerry’s wouldn’t know that we were coming either. Admiral Tovey is flying her flag aboard King George V. We also have half a dozen more destroyers along with the carriers Effingham and Formidable just a few kilometers behind us to provide some additional air and anti-U-Boat cover. We have also learned that Force H with Renown and Ark Royal are en route at best speed from Gibraltar as well.”

“Well, gentlemen. You are certainly a welcome sight right now.” Admiral Holland replied as he looked up at half a dozen of the oddly shaped Dragonfly tandem-wing fighter-bombers from Effingham flying overhead. The Dragonflies were low enough for the admiral to see that each aircraft was carrying a five-hundred pound bomb under its belly as they raced towards the German force.

Following behind the Dragonflies were two squadrons of Swordfish torpedo bombers from Formidable. It was evident to everyone on Hood that the Swordfish were heading towards Bismarck. The Dragonflies were heading in the same general direction. However, the bombs that they carried would not be effective against a heavily-armored battleship like Bismarck. The pilots of these aircraft obviously had other targets in mind for their bombs.

The order was given to all of the ships to cease fire while the Swordfish and Dragonflies made their attacks on the German ships. No one wanted to accidentally shoot down one of their own aircraft with a shell intended for Bismarck or one of her consorts.

The approaching aircraft could see Bismarck, Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, the two surviving destroyers and the two fleet torpedo boats. The cruisers were in the lead while the lighter ships formed a defensive circle around Bismarck.

The Dragonflies focused their bombing attacks upon one of the big German destroyers while the Swordfish turned and dove down to near wave-top level to make their attacks upon Bismarck. Crewmen aboard King George V and the other British warships watched as the Dragonflies dived down, dropped their bombs and then strafed the German destroyer with their heavy machine guns.  Most of the bombs were near-misses, but one of the bombs struck just forward of the destroyer’s bridge, destroying the dual fifteen centimeter turret there and starting an intense fire. The British sailors cheered loudly when they saw the fire and smoke sudden erupt from the targeted enemy destroyer.

A heavy barrage of antiaircraft fire erupted from Bismarck as its gunners frantically fired at the incoming British torpedo bombers. Several of the Swordfish were hit and tumbled into the ocean. However, the rest continued to press their attacks upon the German battleship. Two of the Swordfish got within point blank range before dropping their torpedoes in spite of all of the tracers being directed towards them.  Both of the torpedoes hit Bismarck amidships, heaving huge columns of water into the air and drenching Bismarck’s decks. Neither weapon was able to defeat Bismarck’s torpedo defense system. But additional leaks erupted inside of the battleship’s citadel from shock damage, slowing Bismarck even more and compromising her combat effectiveness.

“All ships, open fire on Bismarck now.” Admiral John Croyn Tovey ordered just as soon at the last of the Swordfish cleared out of the line of fire for his capital ships’ main guns.

Even though both Hood and Rodney were now out of the fight due to battle damage, Admiral Tovey now had two fast battleships and two fully modernized battle cruisers with him. Tovey had no illusions about what Bismarck could do if she singled out one of his battle cruisers with their relatively thin armor. However, he fully intended that Bismarck would never have that chance.

Tovey also knew that Bismarck would never be able to outrun his force either, especially with the aircraft from four aircraft carriers to strike at the German battleship in support. He just had to bear in on his prey and tear it apart like a pack of dogs harrying a wounded bear.

But the light was beginning to fade as sun began to set in the west. This was making targeting harder for both sides as darkness fell.

“Sir, Bismarck is turning towards us again according to Norfolk’s radar. The lookouts on a couple of our destroyers are also reporting that Bismarck’s destroyers are laying smoke this time also.” King George V’s communications officer reported about an hour after sunset.

“Begin evasive maneuvers and prepare to engage. We don’t want her to get a lucky shot in on us. Watch those destroyers as well.” Admiral Tovey ordered.

As the British naval force prepared for another engagement that night, Prinz Eugen and Admiral Hipper both immediately turned north, back towards the North Sea and even further away from Admiral Tovey’s force. The destroyers’ smoke screen successfully hid the heavy cruisers’ movement away as everyone’s focus was on Bismarck.

On and off, throughout the night, gunfire roared as the great ships fired at each other. The two surviving German destroyers made one final attempt at a torpedo attack against the British capital ships. Unfortunately for the Germans, radar-directed fire from Phoebe and the battle cruisers quickly reduced the attacking large destroyers to burning wrecks. During the nighttime artillery exchange, the battle cruiser HMS Renown also joined the massive force that had been marshalled against Bismarck.

When morning broke, Bismarck was almost in range of Luftwaffe bombers. But the Fleet Air Arm reached her first.

Sirens began to sound throughout the ship as the first Swordfish torpedo bombers slowly came into sight.  Twenty-two Swordfish from carriers Effingham and Formidable broke up into half a dozen separate groups as the biplane bombers dove down from an altitude of five thousand feet to just above the tops of the waves. The Germans began to fire every weapon at their disposal at the lumbering biplanes

The Swordfish could barely fly over one hundred and twenty knots while carrying a torpedo. Yet their courageous crews continued to fly towards the huge German battleship through a sky filled with tracers and red hot steel fragments.

Seven of the Swordfish were shot down before they could even get within range to drop their torpedoes. But the other fifteen aircraft, some barely flyable because of battle damage, got close enough to drop their torpedoes.

Three more of the Swordfish were shot down right after they conducted their drops, but the rest were able to turn away and head back to their carriers.

Captain Lindemann ordered Bismarck to make a series of radical maneuvers to try to avoid the fifteen torpedoes that had been launched against her. He was almost completely successful. Two of the torpedoes did hit Bismarck. But they hit the German battleship in the most heavily armored portion of her hull, doing little real damage except to soak everyone on deck with cold seawater from the warhead explosions.

Admiral Lutjens watched the bravery of the British airmen as the latter closed to near point-blank range before dropping their torpedoes. He was relieved to hear that the torpedoes had inflicted only minor damage. However, the real purpose of the attack soon became evident a few seconds later when at least twelve heavy caliber shells straddled Bismarck.

The aircraft had distracted the Germans long enough for the British battleships and battle cruisers to get back into effective gun range. The next British salvoes began to hit Bismarck very hard.

Bismarck shuddered once again from a hit from a heavy British shell. The flag bridge began to fill with smoke almost immediately.

“Sir, the bridge was hit badly. There were no survivors.”  A battered young lieutenant wearing a torn and smoke-stained uniform grimly reported after staggering onto the flag bridge.”

Admiral Lutjens looked at the despairing eyes of the wounded young officer. Captain Lindemann’s death meant that the German battleship would be even less able to fight off her pursuers with the loss of his leadership. Half of Bismarck’s main armament had already been smashed into uselessness by the hammering of the Englanders’ guns. Her secondary armament was in even worse shape. Still, the battleship’s gunners continued to gamely fire back with the weapons that they still had available. Bismarck had scored a couple of hits on King George V with her main guns. But the damage was too little to drive even that one ship off, especially not with three Englander battle cruisers and one of King George V’s sister ships also attacking from all points around Bismarck. The German battleship could only focus its remaining heavy guns at one ship at a time now.

A few moments later, the deadly Englander shelling stopped. Many of Bismarck’s surviving crew breathed a sigh of relief from the brief respite. But Admiral Lutjens knew what the pause meant.

“Achtung! Prepare for aerial attack.” The admiral immediately ordered, not that it would have done much good. Many of Bismarck’s antiaircraft guns had been destroyed by the British bombardment.

A flight of fourteen flimsy-looking biplanes from HMS Ark Royal came into view, slowing approaching just above the waves. Each of the archaic Swordfish carried an eighteen-inch diameter torpedo however.  This was the same combination of aircraft and weapons that crippled the surviving Italian battle line only a couple of months earlier.

Admiral Lutjens had a justified confidence in the strength of Bismarck’s torpedo protection. It had been hit twice already by Swordfish-borne torpedoes with little real impact on the battleship’s effectiveness. However, there would be little defensive fire available to disrupt the aim of the Englander pilots this time. There was always a chance that a torpedo could find a weak point in Bismarck’s defenses and strike a critical blow, especially with the increased ability for the Swordfish to close before making their drops.

Tracers from Bismarck’s surviving antiaircraft guns began to reach out towards the incoming Swordfish.  But the volume of fire was so diminished that the enemy pilots barely took any evasive action at all. They just bore in until they were at point blank range before releasing their torpedoes at Bismarck’s starboard side.

One after another, six tall plumes of water erupted against the side of Bismarck. The battleship shuddered and whipped around with each detonation.  The armored belt continued to stand up well to the torpedo hits, with relatively little flooding inside the inner compartments. Unfortunately for the Germans, one of the torpedoes hit the starboard propeller shaft, causing it to bend. The warped shaft then destroyed the seals that kept water out of the interior shaft compartment. This caused the compartment to flood.

One of the petty officers within the engine room shut down the shaft, but not before it had done significant damage to the reduction gears as well as the shaft seals. The loss of power to the starboard shaft and other hull damage cut Bismarck’s speed down to less than twenty knots. The German battleship was also far less responsive to the helm. But worst of all, the flooding was reaching Bismarck’s engine rooms now.

Admiral Lutjens felt Bismarck slow down. He immediately realized that the battleship would never make it to port.  The wolves were closing in on her for the final kill.

“Tell the crew to prepare to abandon ship. We will need to set demolition charges and open the sea cocks so that the Englanders can never get their hands aboard this ship.” He told one of the surviving crewmen on the flag bridge.

Mere moments after the word was sent to abandon ship, the volume of fire from the assembled British armada redoubled as the British closed in for the kill. Admiral Lutjens felt another salvo of heavy shells strike Bismarck amidships and saw a blinding flash of light for an instant as a fifteen-inch shell from HMS Repulse struck the bridge tower.

Then Admiral Lutjens and all of the remaining personnel on Bismarck’s flag bridge felt nothing at all.

“Keep pouring it on, men.  We’ve got to sink this bastard.” Admiral Tovey told the warships of his command even as he saw the flash from the hit on Bismarck’s flag bridge through his binoculars.

The last of Bismarck’s main and secondary guns finally fell silent due to direct hits by British guns. The great battleship was burning in multiple locations while already listing to starboard.  Shell splashes continued to erupt all around Bismarck while flashes of white light from direct hits continued to appear at the same time. She was practically motionless now. Her main engines were no longer running as the flooded engine rooms had already been evacuated by their personnel.

“Sir, the Germans are abandoning ship.” One of the bridge lookouts cried out as he looked through his binoculars at the battered hulk that used to be the pride of Hitler’s navy. He saw streams of German sailors climbing Bismarck’s sides and jumping into the water.

“Cease fire.” An exhausted Tovey ordered. “Send in the destroyers and cruisers to pick up survivors. Have your lookouts continue to watch for U-Boats however. The safety of our ships must come first.”

The heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire began to come alongside the battered hulk when Bismarck shuddered several times as the scuttling charges went off. Within thirty seconds, the battered hulk capsized and slid under the waves, leaving hundreds of German sailors bobbing in the ice-cold waters.

Dorsetshire and three British destroyers quickly moved in and began to pick up survivors. By the time that they were done, the British had saved three hundred and fifty seven German survivors from the water.

The British capital ships had already turned towards Scapa Flow, cruising at only ten knots to save fuel. The lone exception was HMS Renown. Her fuel status was still very good after a relatively short journey. She turned and headed back towards Gibraltar at nearly twenty knots instead. HMS Rodney had also immediately turned to return to base upon receiving the news of Bismarck’s sinking.  She was limping along at ten knots as this point due to the heavy battle damage that she had received.

Unfortunately for her, Rodney’s path took her directly in front of U-124. U-124 was the leader of a four U-Boat wolfpack that had been trying to reach Bismarck to help.

Now, all that they could do is reap some small measure of revenge.

Rodney and her destroyer escorts slowly plodded their way toward safety. But Rodney’s slow speed made it easy for U-124 and her consorts to move into position. Two hours later, they launched their attack.

A lookout aboard Rodney was watching the waters around her when he spotted the telltale streaks of bubbles racing towards the British battleship.

“Torpedoes coming in from the front port quarter!” was the warning he cried out to his shipmates.

Just as Rodney began to turn to try to avoid the incoming torpedoes, another lookout spotted a second set of torpedoes coming in. Only this time, they were coming in from starboard. It would be impossible to avoid both torpedo salvoes.

At least four torpedoes slammed into HMS Rodney, tearing huge holes in her sides. The stricken British battleship quickly began to list as her escorts furiously attempted to hunt down Rodney’s attackers.

Within five minutes of being hit, Rodney’s captain knew that the battleship was doomed.  The order to abandon ship was reluctantly given by the captain. Rodney’s escorts raced back to pick up her survivors while the U-Boat wolfpack looked for other prey to hunt.

Less than fifteen minutes after the order to abandon ship was given, HMS Rodney rolled over and sank, taking over five hundred of her crew with her to the ocean depths. Captain Frederick Dalrymple-Hamilton was among the crew lost with HMS Rodney that day.

With half of the German capital ship fleet gone and the Japanese threat growing in Southeast Asia, Prime Minister Churchill ordered the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battle cruiser HMS Repulse to Singapore just as soon as the battleship’s repairs were complete.

Chapter Seven:

Light Cruiser HMAS Sydney

On Patrol Southwest of Australia

November 15, 1941

“This should be a pretty uneventful cruise, Sir.” Sydney’s first officer noted as he watched the horizon with a powerful set of binoculars.

“I should hope so. We had more than enough excitement while we were deployed to the Med. The most that I expect to see will perhaps be a German blockade runner.  I could do without being shot at again for quite a while. We had quite enough of that while we were deployed to the Mediterranean.” Captain Joseph Burnett calmly replied.

Just then, a messenger came up from the wireless room and handed the captain a message. Sydney’s captain read it for a moment before handing it back.

“It appears that we are going to have a little aerial support soon. It seems that someone believes that one of those damned German raiders might be operating in our area. So they have detached one of those big Cavalier flying boats to provide us with some additional eyes.”

“Well, if we can avoid having to use our own scout plane for aerial reconnaissance, I am more than willing to accept the help.”

“Aren’t those Cavaliers supposed to be passenger aircraft, Sir?”

“Some of them are. But the man who builds those aircraft has also started building an armed version of his flying boat as well.”

A lookout began to point towards the eastern horizon. A tiny dot in the sky began to grow into a massive six-engine aircraft that flew a thousand feet over the light cruiser. The growl of the six big radial engines filled the air as the flying boat flew over the Australian light cruiser.

The flying boat was still low enough for the personnel on the bridge to see the machine gun turrets mounted in the aircraft’s nose, tail and various other points. They could also see a combination of bombs and depth charges hanging from six hardpoints under her wings.

The flying boats began to fly a series of search patterns in front of and around Sydney. It all seemed quite ordinary after a couple of hours.

“Captain, that flying boat must have found something. See how she is flying in tight circles out there about fifteen miles away from here?”

A few moments later, an urgent message was brought over from the wireless room.

“I guess that you were right, Commander. The Cavalier says that they have found a suspicious vessel out there.

“Shall I call the ship to Action Stations, Sir?”

“Yes, go ahead and make it so. We don’t the crew to get complacent, especially since someone else will be watching us, do we?”

On board the disguised merchant raider Kormoran, the mood was that of sheer terror. Captain Theodor Detmers knew that he could not outrun the Australian light cruiser ever since his lookouts spotted the light cruiser. So the German captain had only two real choices, try to convince the warship that Kormoran was simply an innocent freighter in the hopes that the Australians would simply sail on by or get in close and ambush the light cruiser at point blank range.

With the Cavalier circling overhead, it looked as though neither option would be possible. The flying boat would instantly see any uncovering of Kormoran’s guns and radio the light cruiser a warning. If Kormoran fired at the Cavalier, then the light cruiser would instantly know that Kormoran was an enemy ship.

“Do we fight or do we surrender, Herr Kapitan?” One of the bridge officers, Lieutenant Hermann Wetmer asked.

“That is a hell of a choice. I hate the idea of surrendering, especially this early in our voyage. But we cannot possibly win a fight against that cruiser, especially now with that damned flying boat circling over us.”

“So what are we going to do, Herr Kapitan?”

“I am going to save the lives of my crew. Pass the order to prepare to abandon ship. We will scuttle Kormoran and send all of her secrets to the bottom of the ocean.” Captain Detmers replied sadly.

To sow confusion with the light cruiser that was closing in rapidly, Kormoran transmitted the standard RRRR code for being attacked by a raider. Then Captain Detmers had his crew board the lifeboats while scuttling charges were set in the engine room.

“At least, the Englanders will never get ahold of our ship.” Captain Detmers confidently said while boarding the last of Kormoran’s lifeboats.

But Captain Detmers never counted on what happened next. As soon as Kormoran’s lifeboats were completely clear of their ship and had no chance of returning, the Cavalier dropped a series of smoke buoys in between the Kormoran and its lifeboats to obscure what the flying boat was going to do. Then the flying boat swooped in and made a daring landing right next to the abandoned raider. The Cavalier’s large nose door opened up to allow four inflatable boats full of commandoes to quickly paddle to the raider and board it.

One of Kormoran’s officers started to pull out a pistol to fire upon the boats approaching the abandoned raider but Captain Detmers stopped him.

“If you fire at them, we are all dead. Don’t you see what is aimed at us?” Detmers said as he pointed at the huge flying boat. Several machine guns, including a pair of fifty-caliber heavy machine guns in a dorsal turret, were all aimed at the German lifeboats.

Somehow, the crew of the flying boat knew from the very beginning what Kormoran was and where she would be, Captain Detmers realized to his horror.

The tables had been turned on the Germans as the commandoes from the Cavalier, all volunteers from the Derby militia and experienced in ship construction, rushed in a race against time to find and disarm the scuttling charges as well as close the sea cocks.

Captain Detmers’ heart sank after fifteen minutes when he realized that the enemy had successfully prevented Kormoran from sinking and now had control of the German raider. At the same time, HMAS Sydney was close enough to launch boats of her own to take control of the helpless German sailors.

This particular mission for the Cavalier was planned and ordered by Harold Cavill himself. As a young boy, Harold had visited the memorial for the men of HMAS Sydney. In the previous timeline, the encounter between Kormoran and HMAS Sydney resulted in a desperate battle at point blank range, sinking both ships. The entire complement of HMAS Sydney was lost as a result of that battle.

Harold not only wanted to save HMAS Sydney because of the desperate need for her later on in the war, but also because he had been so saddened as a boy at the loss of all of those sailors.  He did not want to have to visit a memorial for HMAS Sydney ever again. This time, not a single life was lost on either side.

In addition to the capture of a fully intact German disguised raider, Harold’s commandoes were able to capture Kormoran’s secret codes including an intact Enigma encryption machine. A prize crew from Sydney was brought aboard Kormoran to sail her up to Derby. At the same time, the Kormoran’s crew were all taken prisoner and taken aboard Sydney for the journey back to an Australian port and internment for the remainder of the war.

Harold had his own plans for Kormoran, which he had immediately claimed under international salvage law. In agreement with the crew of the Cavalier, Captain Joseph Burnett, Sydney’s captain, agreed not to transmit anything about the capture of the vessel because of the importance of the Enigma machine that was taken from her. The capture of the raider was kept secret from all but a select number of Australian officials. Sydney’s entire crew was also given a cover story that the ship was a German blockade runner.

White House Oval Office

Washington, DC

December 7, 1941

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sitting in his wheelchair that morning just before eight in the morning, reading the newspaper when a Secret Service agent ushered in Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson inside. Both men had grim expressions on their faces.

“Mister President, It is my unfortunate duty to have to inform you that as of seven o’clock this morning, we are at war with the Japanese Empire.” Secretary Hull explained.

“What happened exactly, Cordell?” President Roosevelt asked as he put a fresh cigarette into his cigarette holder and lit it, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air.

“We received a formal letter from the Japanese ambassador stating that his nation could not accept any of the conditions that we set forth during our recent negotiations. The letter also stated that because of the extreme hardships that our most recent set of economic sanctions have inflicted upon the Japanese people, their leaders have decided that they had no more peaceful options. They have demanded that we drop all sanctions and withdraw all US military forces and personnel from Guam Island, the Philippines and all other outposts west of the Hawaiian Islands. The letter finally states that as of seven o’clock in the morning, Eastern Time, Japanese military forces have been instructed to fire upon any American forces within the areas mentioned including all waters between Hawaii and the Gulf of Aden.”

“Have the Japanese acted upon these threats, Henry?”

“Yes, Mister President. I’m afraid that they have. One hour after this letter was delivered and only thirty minutes ago, Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked our naval installation at Subic Bay and the Army Air Corps field at Clark Field. We have also received reports of Japanese transports and warships approaching both the Philippines and Guam.”

“Have there been any indications of Japanese threats towards Hawaii or the US West Coast?”

“None, Sir. We sent out an alert to all American forces on the West Coast and in the Pacific immediately after we received this letter. All of our forces are on full alert. General McArthur sent us a message back from his headquarters in the Philippines stating that he was confident that he would be able to hold out against any Japanese invasion until a relief force could be dispatched.”

“Of course, McArthur would say that. He has always been a cocky son-of-a-bitch. You better tell Admiral Kimmel to start immediately preparing to send an expedition to the Philippines before that idiot McArthur manages to get himself killed out there. Kimmel better send the entire Pacific Fleet battle line so that there will be no question as to who is the real power in the Pacific.” Roosevelt commented.

“What about Kimmel’s carriers? Will they be going as well, Sir?”

“Of course, they will support his sortie to the Philippines. But we should keep them to the east to ensure that they do not get caught by enemy surface combatants.”

“We will have to mobilize a sufficiently large ground force to reinforce McArthur and send them along as reinforcements.”

“Of course, go ahead and do what you need to accomplish that. The troop transports can be covered by our carriers in the support echelon until the Japanese main surface force is defeated.”

“Yes, Sir.” Secretary Stimson replied.

“Have we heard anything from the Germans or Italians, Cordell?”

“Not yet, Sir.

“I hope that Hitler is foolish enough to go ahead and support his ally Hirohito by declaring war on us also. That will finally give us the excuse to throw our full resources against him.”

“But what about the Japanese?” Secretary Stimson asked.

“I think that a crushing defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy by our Pacific Fleet will keep the Japanese at bay just fine.” Roosevelt confidently noted.

December 28, 1941

White House Oval Office

Washington, DC

“I can’t believe this, Harry. Even though the Japanese attacked our forces on the Philippines and Guam and Hitler has officially declared war on us, the America First movement has managed to convince most of the American public that we should not be sending our troops overseas to fight.” President Roosevelt growled after reading the latest edition of the New York Times.

At least they supported you sending the Pacific Fleet to the Philippines and extending our convoy defenses out to the mid-Atlantic.” Roosevelt’s closest confidant and administrator of the new Lend-Lease program

“Well, the Pacific Fleet should be getting within striking distance of the Philippines within the next couple of days anyway.

“Yes, Mister President. We are hoping that the British and French naval forces will divert at least some of the Japanese fleet from the Philippines. That way, we will still have an advantage in forces over anything that the Japanese will throw at us.” Harry confidently replied.

“Yes, that would help us considerably if the Japanese were to split their forces. Then we can defeat them in detail. That outcome would work well with our existing Plan Orange. Once we neutralize the Japanese, then we can find a way to convince Congress to let us act decisively against Hitler and the rest of the Axis.”

Unfortunately for the President Roosevelt and the US Pacific Fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy chose to focus its naval forces against the incoming US Navy battleships. Like the US Navy, the Japanese also had their own equivalent plan to the American Plan Orange.

The Japanese plan was to be a battle of attrition against the Americans. The core of the American Pacific Fleet was its force of eight World War One era battleships, USS Oklahoma, USS Nevada, USS Arizona, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee, USS California, USS Maryland and USS West Virginia.  Only the USS Colorado was not present for this mission due to her being under overhaul at Bremerton, Washington. These battleships all had approximately the same maximum speed of twenty-one knots. This was established by intent so the American Standard Battleship classes could operate together well as a unit. This main battle line was screened by a force of six heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers, twenty destroyers and twelve submarines.

To the rear of the main battle line were the aircraft carriers, USS Lexington, USS Saratoga and USS Enterprise. They were being screened by the four heavy cruisers of Cruiser Division 6 and another twenty-two destroyers. The same screening force was also responsible for the protection of a convoy of eighteen transport ships carrying reinforcements for the Philippine Island garrison.

Japanese submarines started attacking the main body of the American relief task force once it got within five hundred miles of the Philippine Islands. The escorting American destroyers were able to fend off the marauding Japanese submarines, but not without some damage having been inflicted. The battleship USS Arizona took a hit from one torpedo but was able to get back underway in just under an hour. Two cruisers, both from Cruiser Division Five, were also hit by torpedoes fired by Japanese submarines. The heavy cruiser USS Chester was forced to retire back to Pearl Harbor after a hit to her bow nearly amputated it. Her sister ship, USS Northhampton was hit by three torpedoes and sank within minutes with most of her crew. Those two ships also accounted for nearly half of the radar-equipped surface combatants of the entire Pacific Fleet. Their presence would be sorely missed.

Over the next two days, aircraft from the three American aircraft carriers dueled with Japanese carrier aircraft of the Kido Butai. Fortunately for the Americans, they suffered little damage to their ships from the Japanese. The Americans defended their ships with extraordinary energy. But at the same time, the efforts to defend their own fleet meant that the American naval aviators were not able to execute many successful attacks upon the Japanese fleet. Both air fleets suffered heavy losses in the course of the conflict in the air at this point.

The night before the main battle, the Japanese executed a powerful night attack upon the American force. This sort of attack had been long planned and practiced by the Imperial Japanese Navy in anticipation of just such an encounter with the US Pacific Fleet.

The light cruisers Oi and Kitakami are key elements to this attack with their massed batteries of powerful long-range Type 93 torpedoes. They had been specially modified to carry and launch massive salvoes of these powerful weapons. At just after one o’clock in the morning, the two light cruisers each launched a barrage of twenty of these massive twenty-four inch diameter torpedoes at a range of just over twenty thousand meters.

Then the two cruisers turned around and less than a minute later fired a second massive salvo at the American force. Their torpedoes joined another fifty-eight similar weapons that had been launched as well by Japanese destroyers.

The Americans had no idea what was heading their way either. They knew that the Japanese were out there. But the Americans had no idea of the capabilities of the Japanese torpedoes.

“Sir, we have about fourteen surface contacts at about twenty-two thousand yards off of our port quarter according to our radar.” The radar operator aboard the battleship USS California told the officer on duty.

“What can you tell me about them, Mister Sykes?”

“This CXAM radar set is still pretty new. But the best that I can tell, they are all pretty small ships. Most of them appear to be destroyer-size vessels except for maybe these two here. They are a little bigger, so they might be light cruisers.

But all of these ships were maneuvering pretty strangely, especially the cruisers. Those two just paralleled our course for a few minutes, made a one-hundred and eighty degree turn, sailed in a straight line for a couple more minutes, then they turned away to the west.  Who knows what they were doing? Those ships are barely in gun range. Since no one fired at us, I am guessing that their guns are shorter ranged than we thought.”

“Keep a close eye on your scope, Mister Sykes. We don’t want any of those ships to get in close to hit us with a torpedo.”

While this discussion occurred, nearly one hundred and fifty Type 93 torpedoes sped towards the American naval formation. The first indications of their approach was when an alert lookout on the destroyer USS Mahan spotted the iridescent glow of the passage of one of the torpedoes near his ship as the torpedo’s screws churned their way through the microscopic plankton. Just as the lookout’s alert went out, the destroyers USS Shaw and USS Cushing were both hit by torpedoes and literally cut in half. Another destroyer USS Blue had its bow blown off, but remained afloat due to heroic damage efforts by its crew.

Two torpedoes hit the Omaha-class light cruiser USS Richmond, causing a massive magazine explosion and shattering the warship.  She sank in less than three minutes, leaving less than a dozen survivors.

After the explosive demise of USS Richmond, the American formation began to increase speed and zig-zag even more aggressively, thinking that the torpedo attacks must be coming from Japanese submarines. Even with the change in course and speed, the heavy cruiser USS Portland was hit in the aft engine room and badly damaged by another torpedo.  The battleship USS Maryland took a hit in the bows, but her torpedo defense system was able to keep damage down with only a few compartments flooded. The damaged battleship was able to stay in formation with only a small amount of counterflooding to correct her initial list.

The last ship hit was the destroyer leader USS Porter on the far side of the formation. She had the misfortune of turning right into the path of a Type 93 that only had a few seconds left on her run. She was hit in the forward fireroom and left dead in the water. The Americans were indeed fortunate that only seven ships were hit that night.

Less than seven percent of the Japanese torpedoes hit a target. Still, the damage inflicted upon the American force was very heavy. Over one thousand lives and five ships were lost that night as a result of that attack. Only Maryland remained with the force heading towards the Philippines. The heavy cruiser USS Portland was able to get back underway but was forced to limp back to Pearl Harbor for repairs. All of the other ships hit by the Japanese torpedoes were either sunk outright or had to be abandoned because the damage was simply to extensive for the ships to survive the journey back to Pearl Harbor.

The next morning, found the Americans still pushing on towards the Japanese. There had been numerous clashes between American and Japanese carrier aircraft that morning. But once again, the engagements in the skies were indecisive.

“Our battle line is limping but still intact, Sir. The battleships can only do about eighteen knots with the damage to Maryland and Arizona.” Rear Admiral Walter S. Anderson; Commander Battleships, Battle Force, Pacific Fleet, reported to Admiral Kimmel’s flagship, the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.

Admiral Kimmel chuckled over the radio for a moment. “Well, at least now Oklahoma can keep up.” USS Oklahoma was the slowest and oldest battleship in the Pacific Fleet. She was also the only battleship in the Pacific Fleet that still had the old style reciprocating steam engines, unlike the others with more modern geared steam turbines or steam turbo-electric drives. So Oklahoma had struggled to keep up with the rest of the American battle line.

“In any event, we need to keep our battle line together so that we can mass our firepower against anything that the Japanese can throw at us.” Rear Admiral Anderson replied back from his flagship, the battleship USS West Virginia.

On the Japanese side, they are even more eager to begin the battle. Aboard the battleship IJN Yamato, Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto stood on the bridge, pondering the battle to come as the massive vessel closed on the American force.

“The Americans have no idea of what they are about to experience, it seems.” Captain Gendu Isokoro noted.

“I know. The question is how the American people will take this. I don’t know if they will be bloodied and choose to withdraw back to their own shores or if they will be so angered that they come back looking for vengeance. I know that General Tojo believes that it is the former. I fear the latter however.”

“Either way, we will be fighting in a glorious battle against a powerful enemy. We will be triumphant, I am certain.”

“I wonder what price victory will exact upon us in the end?” Yamamoto quietly mused as the roar of carrier aircraft flying overhead constantly filled the air.

After watching the battles in the skies for two hours, Admiral Kimmel got the message that he had been waiting for.

“Our scout planes have just reported sighting the main Japanese force. Initial reports indicate that it is composed of seven battleships, ten cruisers and over twenty destroyers. We have not yet located the Japanese carriers however.”

“That puts us just about even then regarding our surface force, since we have eight battleships. Three of them have been damaged by submarine and aerial attack, but I have been assured by their captains that they are still ready to fight. We have also lost four of our cruisers as well. So our screening forces are a little sparse right now.

We will have to keep looking for their carriers with our scouts. I’d still like to give our ‘brown shoes’ a chance at eliminating their Japanese counterparts.

But for now, it is time to close with the enemy and destroy them, once and for all.”

Slowly, the fighting tops of the Japanese battle line started to come into view. Even before then, West Virginia’s CXAM radar operator was telling his duty officer that the radar was showing one hell of a large blip out there in the Japanese formation.

“What the hell is that?” Rear Admiral Walter Anderson asked after seeing through his binoculars the massive superstructure of IJN Yamato for the first time. The commander of the Pacific Fleet’s battle line had been eager to fight in what was imagined to be the largest capital ship battle since Jutland.

“I don’t know. But it is the biggest damned thing that I have ever seen.” Captain Mervyn S. Bennion replied.

“How far away is she?”

“About forty-two thousand yards, according to my fire control people.” Captain Bennion said after talking on the bridge telephone for a few moments.

Just as both officers looked through their binoculars again, the massive Japanese battleship erupted in smoke and flame as it fired its first salvo in anger at the American battle line. Fifteen seconds later, a massive rippling noise that sounded like over half a dozen enormous freight trains passed over the flagship. An instant later, nine massive towers of water erupted just past West Virginia’s bow. It was clear that the huge Japanese battleship was armed with weapons far heavier than anything in the American battle line. Water from the near misses soaked everyone on West Virginia’s deck. The battleship’s flag bridge was silent for a few moments after the Yamato’s first salvo landed so close aboard.

“Sir, I think that we are royally screwed here.” Captain Bennion quietly said in what would best be described as a classic understatement.

Less than a minute later, the massive Japanese battleship closing at the head of the enemy formation erupted in fire and smoke once again. This time, Yamato’s salvo straddled the American flagship. Not only did the shells once again soak the West Virginia’s decks with water, hundreds of metal fragments from the Japanese shells splattered all over the battleship’s hull and superstructure, causing dozens of casualties among exposed gunners and other crewmen. Blood was already running down the decks.

“Alright, gentlemen. We may not be able to get that big bastard. But there are six other battleships out there that we do have a chance of sinking. I need a fire plan drawn up in the next couple of minutes to allocate our firepower.  Let’s make it happen now.” Admiral Anderson quickly told his staff.

Less than three minutes later, Anderson’s Chief of Staff, Captain Milton Campbell came back with a large rolled up sheet of paper that he quickly spread over the plotting table. It had ship positions, identification markings, speeds and courses.

“Sir, this tactical plan is based on what we have gotten from our radar, scout planes and existing intelligence. While we don’t know anything about the new Japanese battleship, we have assessed that the other six are Nagato, Mutsu, Ise, Hyuga, Fuso and Yamashiro. All of these ships are faster than the fastest of our battleships. So we cannot try to extend the range to take full advantage of our radar.

In terms of numbers of guns and caliber, the Japanese ships are at least as good as or even better than our own. However, we believe that they had to have traded off some armor protection to get that extra speed. What we are recommending is that we deliberately close with the enemy battle line and engage them in a slugging match. They may destroy us all. But we sure as hell will take some of them with us.”

“What about the enemy lighter combatants? I’m afraid we already have learned how deadly Japanese torpedoes are.”

“That is also one of the reasons why we are recommending closing with the enemy. If the Japanese destroyers and cruisers fire torpedoes at all in the middle of such a melee, they will be just as likely to hit their own ships as they would be to hit ours. This could be a real problem for the Japs if their lighter surface combatants have also traded off protection for speed and firepower. We are more likely to be able to survive a torpedo hit than a Japanese warship is.”

We will also be using some of our cruisers and destroyers to screen us against the lighter Japanese ships.  Our cruisers from Divisions Four, Five and Nine are to provide long range screening fire against enemy destroyers and cruisers. The rest of our destroyers will engage in a preemptive torpedo attack on the largest of the Japanese battleships. They will be supported by the remaining cruisers from Division Three. That should force that behemoth to divert more of her focus towards dodging our torpedoes rather than shooting at our battleships.” Anderson’s chief of staff said before looking out the bridge windows once more as another half-dozen massive plumes of water erupted around West Virginia.

The grim-faced commander of the US Pacific Fleet battle line paused for a moment then told his staff.

“Send out signals to the main body of the fleet. Move at best speed towards the enemy and attack. Give them hell for as long as you can, then get back home the best that you can. Send orders to the carrier force to give us as much support as they can, but get back home to Pearl. They must protect those troopships and shepherd them back home also. Those troops don’t have a chance in hell if the Japanese catch up to them.

Lastly, please keep us all in your prayers. We are certainly going to need God’s help here this day.”

A remote voice could be heard on the battleship’s bridge announcing that they were now thirty-five thousand yards away and that their guns were now in range of the Japanese force. The bridge of the West Virginia shook as the American flagship fired her big sixteen-inch guns for the first time in anger. They were soon joined by scores of other big guns as the rest of the American battle line opened fire.

The White House

Washington, DC

3 January, 1942

President Franklin Roosevelt was sitting in the Oval Office that morning when the Secretary of War arrived.

“We have news about the Pacific Fleet, Mister President.” Harry Stimson said, but the grim expression on his face already informed the President that the news was bad.

“How bad were the losses?”

“Admiral Anderson’s force was able to get the carriers Saratoga, Lexington and Enterprise out in good order along with the troop ships. The carriers had taken some damage from Japanese air strikes but were still operational. The carrier air wings took heavy losses during the operation though.”

“What about the battle line? Have we heard from Admiral Anderson?”

“Sir, I’m afraid that all of the battleships were lost, along with over half of the cruisers and destroyers that were with them. Admiral Anderson was lost with his flagship when it sank. The survivors of his force were able to rejoin the carriers and cover the troop ships’ withdrawal to Pearl Harbor.”

The extent of the disaster hit President Roosevelt like a physical blow. He sharply sat back in his chair and, as an afterthought, put down his cigarette into the nearby ashtray. He was silent for at least a minute after learning the news, not knowing what to say as he looked down at his trembling hands.

Finally, the President looked back up and quietly asked a question.

“Do we know what the enemy losses were, Harry?”

“The accounts from the battle indicate that the Japanese did lose three of their battleships and took significant damage to two others. Enemy losses also included six cruisers and at least fourteen destroyers.  We also believe that losses among their carrier-borne aircraft were also very heavy though there are no reports of losses among the Japanese carrier force itself.”

“I better start writing a speech then. We are not going to be able to keep this debacle away from the American public for very long.”

“I know. Admiral Kimmel is already trying to reorganize the Pacific Fleet back at Pearl Harbor. We are rushing the refit of USS Colorado to get her back into service. He has requested that the fast battleships USS North Carolina and USS Washington be transferred to the Pacific Fleet as soon as possible along with the aircraft carriers Yorktown and Hornet.”

“Get Kimmel whatever he needs to ensure the security of Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast. Were there any success stories at all coming out of this mess?”

“Yes, sir. The destroyers out there fought valiantly and saved more than a few of our cruisers. The carriers themselves did alright, but many of the aircraft that they carried were badly outclassed by Japanese carrier aircraft.

I suppose that the real stars were the submarines from Manila and the fleet boats that went with Kimmel. One of those battleships sunk was accounted for by an old S-boat submarine.  The fleet boats sank two heavy cruisers and a destroyer. They also hit and heavily damaged a big Japanese carrier though it did survive the attack.”

Sadly, the President replied. “Well, maybe Congress will at least give us some more money for destroyers and submarines.”

Within two weeks, Congress did increase spending for the construction of more destroyers and submarines. This was at the expense of suspending construction for all of the new Iowa and Montana-class battleships and the Alaska-class large cruisers. Only the remaining South Dakota-class battleships were allowed to be completed since they were all nearly finished anyway.

Aircraft carrier and cruiser construction continued, but at a lower rate than before. The focus was also on smaller designs rather than the larger classes that the Navy had planned on building. Congress also decided to fund more aircraft development to support the existing aircraft carrier fleet, spurred on by support from Charles Lindberg in spite of his isolationist leanings.

Chapter Eight:

Royal Australian Air Force Base, Brisbane

Brisbane, Australia

January 31, 1942

Harold Cavill had flown in to the Australian air base the evening before. After having had a good night’s sleep, he got up the next morning and walked over to the side of the base currently in use by American aircraft and personnel that had recently evacuated from the Philippines after the Japanese invasion there.

Harold began asking around for one particular American aviator. After about half an hour, Harold was directed towards one of the small metal shacks next to an aircraft maintenance hangar. Harold walked inside, took a seat and simply waited for that specific American to come in.

“Good afternoon, Captain Gunn. Won’t you please take a seat?” Harold asked as soon as a lanky, cigar-chewing American in maintenance coveralls walked inside the shack.

“I really don’t have a lot of time, Mister Cavill. I need to get back to my plane so that I can fly back to the Philippines and try to get my family out of Manila before the Japs do something terrible to them.” Pappy said as he reluctantly sat down in the spartan office that Harold had spontaneously procured on the airbase.

“I understand, Captain. I heard about your family’s plight and sympathize completely. With the current situation here and in the Philippines, a rescue attempt would be a very difficult proposition for you, now that the Japanese have occupied virtually everything there. What if I were to offer you the means to get your family and as many other Americans as possible evacuated from the Philippines? I understand that things are getting pretty desperate out there now with the defeat of the American Pacific Fleet during their attempted relief of the Philippines.”

“What do you have in mind, Sir?” Pappy asked as he leaned closer towards Harold, suddenly very interested in what the wealthy industrialist had to say.

“As you already know, I have a small fleet of large flying boats that I have been operating for the past few years for commercial passenger flights. I am willing to use them to fly into the Philippines to help you get your family out along with any other Americans that can fit inside. I also have armed personnel at my disposal here to provide security during the rescue operation in addition to dedicated fighter escorts. All that I ask in return is for your services with my own aircraft manufacturing and maintenance service here.”

Pappy Gunn thought for a few moments before answering.

“That sounds very appealing. But, you know that I have been called back into service with the Army Air Corps, Sir. They are going to want my services too.”

“As you may have already determined, I do have some very influential friends here. I’m sure that we can make an arrangement where your services here would benefit both America and my interests here at the same time. Plus, you would be reunited with your family in a safe location here in Derby. I assure you, you would be very hard-pressed to find any place in Australia that is better defended than we are right here.” Harold said with a knowing look.

“How long would it take before you are ready to mount this rescue operation, Mister Cavill?”

“If you work with us to coordinate the best places to land my aircraft and personnel, we can get started in less than seventy-two hours. I understand that very few people know the Philippines from the air as well as you do. My flying boats can carry a hell of a lot of people and cargo too. So we can come in with supplies for the resistance forces still fighting the Japanese and leave with dozens of refugees on each aircraft.”

It didn’t take more than a few moments for Pappy Gunn to make his decision.

“Then, I’m in. But I have to be among the people going in for the rescue. You need me there to help guide you in. Plus, I know the people out there a lot better than you do. They trust me. Besides, the Japs have big flying boats too, you know. We wouldn’t want your aircraft to get shot up by our friends out there, would we?”

This was definitely the Pappy Gunn that Harold had read about in the historical archives, Harold thought to himself.

“Captain Gunn, I guarantee you that the Japanese have nothing as large as my flying boats. You may have heard about them over the past few years. But it is nothing like seeing them in person, I assure you.”

10 Downing Street

Prime Minister’s Residence

London, England

February 4, 1942

“What are we going to do about this U-Boat threat, Mister Prime Minister? The Americans will only provide escorts for no more than three hundred miles from their coastlines, Sir.” Admiral John Tovey asked.

“We could consolidate our anti-submarine assets to protect only the convoys going to England rather than trying to protect those going into Russian ports. That would certainly ease the burden on our people. Besides, the Russians have their own navy that they can use to protect against U-Boats and German surface raiders.” Churchill opined.

“Stalin will look at this as a betrayal. Even with ours and the Americans logistical support, he is being very hard pressed by the Wehrmacht, east of Moscow, deep within the Ukraine and south in the Caucasus.” Tovey replied. It wasn’t the first time that Tovey and Churchill had disagreed. Churchill had often considered Admiral Tovey to be an obstructionist. But the Admiral of the Fleet was very capable at his job. His performance during the battle against the German battleships Bismarck and Scharnhorst made him a hero with the British people as well.

Churchill already knew from Harold and his mysterious ‘sources’, that Josef Stalin had planned himself to break the non-aggression pact with Germany and attack with an offensive of his own. Hitler had simply beaten Stalin to the punch with Operation Barbarossa. So Churchill had no illusions that a victory by the Soviets would make the world any safer. Stalin was just as devious and genocidal as Hitler. However, if Hitler and the key Nazi leadership could be eliminated by his own people, perhaps then a real peace could be created with their successors. Churchill would have to find some means of making that happen. But something would also have to be done about Stalin as well.

“Admiral, I think that this move will likely be poetic justice for all of the trouble that Stalin and his fellow Bolsheviks have stirred up all over the world since their Revolution.

Oh, we will send Mister Stalin our apologies and explain that we are critically short of resources to escort shipping to Murmansk. Lord knows, we truly don’t have a wealth of destroyers and other warships available to protect all of the ships coming here from America or the rest of the Empire. But I will shed few tears when the Soviets go the way of the Dodo bird at the hands of the Nazis. They can bleed each other to death. Then we will find a way to deal with the Nazis and their Axis allies, once and for all.” Churchill scowled.

“What about the heavy surface forces that we have been using to protect the convoys to Murmansk from German surface raiders?”

“Reassign them to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. We can certainly use those forces to finally cut off all support to German and Italian troops in North Africa. That will help end the Nazi threat to Egypt and the Arab oil fields as well. We lost more than enough capital ships already to U-Boats in the North Atlantic as well as all of the ships that spent time in the yards after that dreadful business with Bismarck and Scharnhorst. We need to focus on protecting our own people right now. ”

Free French Naval Base

Haiphong Harbor, French Indochina

February 14, 1942

“Admiral Phillips instructed me to discuss with you the sortie that you are planning with Dunkerque, Sir.” Royal Navy Captain Allan Tremaine explained to the Free French Navy commander in Indochina.

“There is nothing to discuss, Capitaine. We are going to send our ships out to aggressively seek out the enemy and sink them. There is no reason why we cannot deal with the Japanese the same way that our fellow countrymen did with the Italian fleet.”

The Royal Navy liaison did not even want to discuss the areas where French Navy ships were severely deficient such as sonar, radar and antiaircraft defenses, not at this time. He was just in such shock at the arrogance of the French naval commander.

“Please reconsider this, Monsieur Amiral. The Japanese are by no means like the Italians. They are bloody-minded and competent as hell.”

“We cannot let our warships sit idly in harbor while the Japanese roam the waters just outside of our territory, preparing to strike at any time, Monsieur.” Admiral Muselier insisted.

“We will react to the moves by the Japanese with the appropriate response, Monsieur Amiral. We are very concerned that they may be attempting to bait our major units out into an ambush. This could be catastrophic for our efforts here. You already know what happened to the Americans when they sent out their Pacific Fleet. Could you at least wait until we can provide your most important vessels with upgraded equipment?  We have already learned much about the increased threats from modern aircraft, submarines and warships of the Japanese Empire.

We have read the intelligence reports that you have provided us. However, we are still skeptical that the Japanese capabilities even remotely approach our own.”

“I understand that, Monsieur Amiral. But I must warn you to wait until we have an adequate number of ships fitted with the latest radio ranging and detection equipment. It would be a terrible blow to lose one of your capital ships unnecessarily because of a premature action on the part of one of your commanders. We have it on very good authority that the Japanese have an exceptionally capable type of torpedo fitted to many of its destroyers and cruisers. It is very fast, has an extraordinarily powerful warhead and can outrange any torpedo in either of our fleets, Sir.” Captain Tremaine warned. He had been given a brief description of the Japanese Type 93 torpedo by one of Harold’s technical advisors a few days earlier. That advisor had been briefed by Harold himself the day before about Japanese naval and aviation hardware. It had taken a while, but Harold and his people had finally managed to impress upon the British military leaders in Singapore the extent of Japanese military capabilities.

“You have also said that the Japanese do not have any of this ‘radar’ equipment on their ships though. That should mean that we are on an equal footing, shouldn’t it? I assure you that my sailors will spot the Japanese long before they can get in range of these dreaded torpedoes of theirs. We have trained as long and as well as any navy in the world.” Admiral Muselier proudly boasted.

“I certainly hope that you are right. However, the Japanese have shown themselves to be all too competent at warfare. We cannot afford to take them lightly.” Captain Tremaine strongly advised.

“Trust me, Captain. We will not.”

Free French Navy Battle Cruiser Dunkerque

South China Sea, south of Hainan Island

February 21, 1942

The French battle cruiser Dunkerque’s commander Capitaine de vaisseau Jean-Paul Amiel stood on the bridge of his vessel looking out into the darkness with his binoculars, looking for any sign of Japanese vessels. Dunkerque, the light cruiser Emile Bertin and a pair of destroyers had been dispatched out of Haiphong harbor to patrol the seas just south of Hainan Island.

“It looks to be a nice quiet night, Capitaine.”

“I am hopeful that we are able to find those Japanese transports that were reported in the area. If we can sink several of those, it would take some pressure off of our men along the northern border with China. The Japanese have been continuing to make probing attacks along that border.”

“Oui. But first we must find the Japanese out here in the darkness. Then we will destroy them just as Admiral Gensouf did the Italians on the way to Alexandria. Of course, we wish to bring all of our ships through the gauntlet and back home this time.”

Unfortunately for Captain Amiel, a Japanese force of destroyers found Dunkerque first. The IJN destroyer Kagero and her two division mates did not hesitate when their lookouts spotted Dunkerque. Immediately, they turned and fired two dozen of their long ranged Long Lance torpedoes at the French battle cruiser.

A French lookout aboard one of the destroyers spotted a Long Lance pass close by in the darkness and sounded the alarm. Only a few seconds later, the sounds of violent explosions could heard less than a kilometer away.

The aim of the Japanese torpedomen had been deadly accurate as four of the Long Lances struck Dunkerque. The powerful explosions tore open two of her engine rooms, but the most devastating hit struck just below the battle cruiser’s Number Two main battery turret.

Secondary explosions began to rock the stricken warship as ammunition and propellant charges began to go off inside of the turret’s magazine. Dunkerque had only managed to send off a short distress call over the wireless before all power went out. Only the water flooding into the magazine kept a catastrophic explosion from immediately blowing the ship in half.

Her escorts initially turned to attempt to avoid any other Japanese torpedoes and attack in the direction that the torpedoes came from. But after realizing the desperate situation on board a rapidly listing Dunkerque, they turned back to render aid. By then, it was already far too late. Captain Amiel had already given the order to abandon ship once it was clear to him that his command was beyond saving.

Hundreds of French sailors took to the water or crowded onto whatever lifeboats could be launched from the quickly capsizing warship. But nearly a third of Dunkerque’s complement went down with her. Heavy explosions from the detonation of Dunkerque’s Number One magazine punctuated the battle cruiser’s final plunge below the ocean’s surface after she finally rolled over and capsized.

While the other French ships continued to pick up survivors from the sunken battle cruiser, Kagero and her division mates sailed away unmolested. If they had returned and launched another torpedo attack, it was entirely possible that they could have destroyed the entire French force. However, the Japanese commander decided not to risk engaging an alerted enemy force.

The repercussions of the loss of Dunkerque were quickly felt in Haiphong and Hanoi even before Captain Amiel and the rest of the survivors from the sunken battle cruiser returned to port. The French had suddenly changed their attitude about going into combat.

“We cannot risk our ships out there without adequate support.” Admiral Muselier angrily asserted as he sat at his Headquarters office desk in Haiphong after the commander of the Royal Navy’s Force Z came to visit several days after Dunkerque’s loss.

“On this, I completely agree. But you sent your ships out on your own that night in spite of our admonitions against it. Unfortunately, we have lost a valuable asset and hundreds of brave sailors as a result. We have to work together if we are going to be effective against our common foes.”  Admiral Thomas Phillips calmly explained.

“A French force must still be commanded by a French officer.”

“I understand your point. But unfortunately, you do not have adequate supporting forces here to deal with the threat that the Japanese Navy poses. Together, as a joint force, we do have adequate support however. But we need you just as much as you need us. Strasbourg and the other Free French Navy ships here are powerful units that can certainly make a difference against the Japanese.”

“You have to understand. Our sovereignty is very important to us, Monsieur.”

“If we are to defeat the Axis powers, we must speak with a single voice and act with a common goal. If we do not, we will be divided and defeated. If we lose, our individual sovereignty will be irrelevant.”

Admiral Muselier felt angry and humiliated. Part of him knew that Admiral Phillips was right. Yet, the French admiral felt that he needed to represent France, not merely be a part of a coalition. To give in to the British would be a tremendous blow to Admiral Muselier’s pride.

Somehow, he had to find a way to overcome that. Fortunately, Admiral Phillips realized that as well and sought to find his own solution to the problem.

“Your Free French forces are on the front line with ours. Our common goal is to defeat the Japanese and protect our interests here in Southeast Asia, correct?”

“Oui.”

“Then we must emphasize your importance to us and our importance to you in this effort, Admiral. We can work together to achieve something all of us can be proud of. In due time, our individual efforts will receive all the recognition that they deserve. I don’t know what else I can say. I just know that the Americans had a saying when they first broke away from the home country. ‘We must hang together or else we will surely hang separately.’

Cavill Industries Main Office

Derby, Western Australia

February 26, 1942

We just had a request come in from Singapore to adjust our shipyard schedule for upgrading Allied warships.” Harold commented after opening up an envelope that had just come in from Singapore on the daily Cavalier flight.

What do they want this time?” Alexander Portman asked. The long time mechanical engineer and naval architect had just driven up from the Cavill Shipyard to the main office on another matter.

“Admiral Phillips wants to push Strasbourg and a couple of the French destroyers to the front of the queue for radar and antiaircraft gun upgrades.”

“I wonder what this is all about. It seems like every other day, there is another change in priorities.”

“My inside sources tell me that the Brits had to find some way to get the French to see reason until the combined Allied fleet down here in the southwest Pacific was ready to begin real offensive operations. The French had tried to take on the Japanese on their own and lost half of their capital ship contingent as a result. So the British promised Admiral Muselier that they would arrange to get his ships refitted ahead of the rest of the force if he would agree to work in coorperation with the rest of the Coalition naval force.”

“Of course, the French are still going to pay for all of this, aren’t they?” Alex asked.

“Yes, they certainly are. Admiral Phillips is asking that the French get the best equipment available from us for their money. Strasbourg needs going to receive a full radar set that will be integrated with their existing fire control system. She should also going to have all of her light antiaircraft guns replaced with a combination of our new twenty-five millimeter gatling guns and our new six-pounder automatic cannon. The French destroyers will also need to receive new radars and upgrades to their sonar as well as upgrades for their antiaircraft guns.”

I suppose that we will find out just how good those new guns really are then. We only have a few prototypes on the ships that we have built in our own yards so far.

In any event, this requirement will push us right to the limit on our production capacity, Sir. We just can’t produce any more without a substantial expansion of our facilities and of our full-time workforce.”

“Fair Dinkin. We will just have to do the best that we can. Perhaps I can have some work for our more conventional ordnance distributed out to some factories elsewhere in Australia and Indochina. That would free up our resources for more specialized products.”

Cavill Industries Main Office

Derby, Western Australia

March 28, 1942

“That was the Australian Admiralty. They just told me that they believe that the Japanese may be planning to attack our facilities at Derby sometime in the not so distant future. They do not have any additional resources to help defend King Sound though.  But the Admiralty still needs to have their previous shipbuilding orders filled.” Harold said to one of his chief engineers after receiving an unexpected telephone call.

“So what are we going to do, Mister Cavill?” Adam Findler asked. Adam was a sort of ‘jack of all trades’ engineer for Harold. By training, Adam was a mechanical engineer that Harold had recruited straight of the North Carolina State University School of Engineering. But Adam also had a knack for aircraft design, systems engineering and even naval architecture that had proven to be invaluable to Harold and his various projects.

“We are going to continue to build more destroyers, submarines, torpedo boats and some of our little aircraft carriers with our current facilities, Adam. We don’t have any choice. We will just have to find our own resources to help defend the area while we build the tools for the Commonwealth to use to fight the Axis. But both Australia and England are going to need those vessels and everything else that we produce in our factories if we are going to successfully prosecute this war. The Americans have not even come close to tapping their true industrial might even after that nasty MacArthur business. I really doubt that they will either with how the political tides have changed there.

Now you know why I bought that boiler and turbine factory. We will badly need its products. We are fortunate that we still have the construction dock available that was used earlier to produce the flight deck liners. We will use that and Dry Dock One, where Melbourne was rebuilt, to build more of the light fleet carriers. There will be enough buyers for them, I’m sure.

We will also have to construct a force of large torpedo boats to ward off any unwelcome guests from the sea. They should be fairly easy to construct in a short period of time however.”

“Is that why you have had Mister Portman looking at that big motor launch of yours a few years ago?”

“Yes. The Germans are using the same basic design for their S-Boats. So we are going to do much the same thing ourselves. Only the vessels that we are going to build are going to be a little larger than the German boats. That will give them more seaworthiness, range and capacity for heavier armament. I have already started production of many of the components for these new torpedo boats so we can have vessels in the water and ready for operation very quickly. That includes the six hulls that we manufactured but did not sell two years ago.

All of these new ships will require some additional production from our ordnance factory as well. However, we don’t just need weapons for the warships and armored vehicles that we are producing. We will need additional artillery both for coastal fortifications and mobile mounts. Our small arms production will also need to be ramped up further as well. Our personnel here will have to be able to defend this area in the event that the Japanese attempt an amphibious landings.”

Harold didn’t mention about the four large metal buildings near the tip of the peninsula north of town. They had been there for nearly two decades, but few people really knew what was inside of them. They were just as mysterious as the two large concrete and steel towers that rose above the salt flats near the warehouses.

“But right now, I need to send an urgent telegraph to the Miles brothers.” Harold continued.

“What do you want in the telegraph, Mister Cavill?”

“Tell them that we will need for them to begin to design that more powerful version of the Dragonfly that I mentioned previously. I will get them the specifications for the engine that it will use within the next few days, but they should expect it to be a variant of the Curtiss-Wright Cyclone radial engine.”

“I will send the message right away, Sir.”

“Thank you, Adam. I will have to send the requirements for the aircraft via confidential mail. The Miles brothers will probably anticipate a need for higher speed as well as longer range and at least twice the payload. The fighter will need an internal armament of either six fifty caliber machine guns or four twenty millimeter cannons, I am certain.

We are also going to have to accelerate the production of aircraft from our own facilities. The new bomber and transport designs will be needed sooner rather than later, it appears.”

“How are you going to pay for all of this, Sir?”

“Don’t worry. We will have more than enough orders from the Australian and British militaries before long, possibly even from the Free French as well. The Australian military has to know by now that even license-built Beauforts and Beaufighters will not be enough to be able to drive the Japanese back. Our flying boat patrol aircraft have a considerable amount of firepower with their heavy bomb loads and their torpedoes. But the aircraft cannot survive against large numbers of Japanese fighters and heavy antiaircraft fire either.”

“I suppose that you will be offering to build more of your Dragonfly and Whirlwind-R fighter-bombers for the Allies then, Mister Cavill. They can deal with Japanese Zeros rather handly as they have already demonstrated in the past”

“The Air Force won’t have much of a choice then. The Australian Admiralty and even the Royal Navy have been using my aircraft. The admirals in both navies have had absolutely no complaints about the quality of the aircraft that they have received either.”

“You know the real reason why the Air Force has refused to buy any of your aircraft, Sir. It’s because that bastard in charge of it is a racist who doesn’t want anything built by an aborigine on any of his airfields.”

“I know. But General Clarke’s beloved CAC hasn’t produced a single fighter that can compete with the Japanese fighters, much less any of the designs that our people produce. We can build superior aircraft now without having to rely upon American designs or even aircraft being produced for the RAF.”

“Yes, Sir. We do. You hired some damned good engineers, I have to admit. But we wouldn’t have done half as well without your suggestions along the way.”

“Thank you, but your people have done the real work in any event. How are the designs going for the proposed bulk transport and long range bomber aircraft?”

Adam pulled out a set of mechanical drawings from a nearby set of drawers and laid them out onto a drafting table. He then started pointing out elements on the drawings to Harold while explaining them.

“We are still at least three months away from finishing the designs for either proposal. We have saved a lot of time and effort by using a modified version of the wing employed by our flying boats. The outer wing panels have been altered by the removal of the retractable floats obviously. We have also strengthened the wings to be more damage tolerant as well. The wing still uses a high aspect ratio wing that combines high lift and low high-speed drag for efficient high speed cruise while having enough internal space for fuel tanks and Fowler flaps.

We have had to design completely new fuselages for both proposed aircraft as well. As you can see, the bomber’s fuselage is more slender to allow for higher speeds. The bomber has been designed to carry up to eight thousand pounds of ordnance internally plus the four wing hardpoints that can carry up to three thousand pounds of ordnance each. The bomber will also have defensive gun turrets in the nose, dorsal and ventral positions in addition to the tail.

The transport version is designed to carry outsized cargos like trucks, artillery pieces and light armored vehicles. The maximum payload is the same fifteen metric tons of the flying boat. The landing gear is designed for operations on unprepared airstrips and is located in sponsons on the lower fuselage sides. Cargo is loaded and unloaded through a large ramp in the rear fuselage. This ramp can be opened in flight so that large objects on pallets can be dropped via parachute while in flight.

I tried to use as many of your suggestions as possible, especially with the transport, Sir.”

“I see that, Adam. I like what I see here very much.” Harold replied. Of course, he had drawn many of those design ‘suggestions’ from aircraft built in the late twentieth century such as the C-130 Hercules, but still using technology from the late thirties and early forties. Besides, the Germans had designed and built the Messerschmitt 323 Gigant cargo transport during the war. So the transport design should not appear out of place at all.

“Thank you, Sir. But will we be able to get anyone to buy these aircraft once we start building them?”

“Don’t worry about that, Adam. That’s my problem. You just keep your design team busy making these aircraft the best aircraft possible. I will handle the rest of it.

I am a bit worried about our focus on such large aircraft beyond the Dragonflies and Whirlwinds. Those big bombers and transports are going to require a large landing field to operate from simply because they take up so much space. What about potential customers who need a transport that can carry bulky items like small vehicles or pallets of supplies but either can’t afford a large plane or need something that can take off and land on small airstrips?”

“That’s a good thought, Adam. I had focused on the larger aircraft to leverage the common components from the Cavaliers. But if you have something else in mind for us to consider, please show me more.”

Adam then went into one of his blueprint drawers and pulled out several large blueprints that depicted a twin-engine, twin-tail boom transport aircraft with a boxy center fuselage that was very reminiscent of the Fairchild C-82 Packet or the Gotha 244 transport. Based on the figures on the blueprints, this aircraft would be somewhere in the middle in size between the Fairchild and Gotha designs.

“This is a transport concept that I have been looking at for the past year or so. The rear fuselage has a ramp built in so that small vehicles or cargo pallets can be quickly loaded or unloaded. The high-aspect ratio wing makes it very efficient to fly. It can also operate from short airstrips very easily. This transport uses the same Twin-Wasp radial engines as the Cavalier and most of our other designs. I know that your engine factory has some surplus capacity after the latest expansion, so this aircraft would be able to utilize those engines.

Harold smiled at Adam’s initiative in this matter. This design would be something that his recent acquaintance Pappy Gunn would find very useful after the war for his private air service. But first, it would be a valuable military transport once put into production.

“This is remarkable, Adam. You are right about how this could certainly fill a niche in our potential customers’ requirements. How much do you believe that this aircraft could carry?”

“I would say between thirty-five and forty troops and maybe eight or nine thousand pounds of cargo at full fuel, Sir. With only a relatively small modification to the center fuselage, we could also create a flying-boat variant as well.”

Harold needed a smaller aircraft to do some of the missions of the Cavalier and the land based transport based on it. This would take much of the burden off of the precious Cavalier fleet. He did not need to take long to decide what to do next.”

“OK, Adam. Go ahead and have your people draw up a full set of blueprints for this and then construct two prototypes. If they perform as anticipated, I am willing to go to full production of this aircraft. You’ve done an excellent job here.”

“Thank you very much, Sir. We will get right on it.” Adam was literally beaming as he quickly rolled up the drawings.

Harold was smiling too. It was good to see things being built that did not rely on information brought from a hundred years in the future. Harold was already nearly sixty years old now. Not only did he know that he would not live forever. Harold also knew that it was only a matter of time before the electronic database that he brought back with him from the future would no longer be accessible. He needed others to be able to take up the mantle.

While Harold hoped that his children would be able to continue his mission, he also needed for others to continue the logical innovation of technology. At the same time, Harold hoped that he had taught his people how to use that technology responsibly. Instead of mankind dooming itself in 2040, he hoped that it would be reaching towards other worlds for mankind to live on.

Chapter Nine:

Afrika Korps Headquarters

Tripoli, Libya

March 29, 1942

General Erwin Rommel had just returned from the front lines after another furious series of battles against the British Army and its allies. He had used his carefully hoarded armored reserve to fend off another heavy British attack. The British had only advanced a few kilometers in spite of outnumbering Rommel’s by over three to one. However, the battle cost Rommel’s Afrika Korps another twenty irreplaceable Panzers and more than a hundred of his soldiers. Rommel knew that he could not sustain operations in North Africa for much longer at this rate.

A courier was waiting on Rommel when he arrived at Afrika Korps headquarters.

“Herr General, you have a dispatch from Berlin.” The courier told Erwin Rommel before handing the envelope to Rommel.

Rommel tore open the envelope and then grimaced while reading the orders that he had just received.

“What is wrong, Herr General?” A German major wearing the Iron Cross and the Afrika Korps emblem on his dusty uniform asked.

“It seems that the Fuhrer has decided to evacuate me and as many of our troops from North Africa as possible to send us to the Eastern Front. Hitler has congratulated me on my work here fighting against overwhelming Englander forces. Now, he wants me to apply my talents to help defeat the Red Army.” Rommel grimly replied.

“The Bolsheviks are certainly the greater threat to the Fatherland. You will have a great opportunity to achieve victory against them now.” Major Herbert Koln declared. Major Koln had been a lieutenant in Rommel’s Panzer Division during the invasion of France only a few short years ago.

“Yes, Herr Major.” Rommel snorted. “But I will just be going from one wasteland to another. Only this time, I will be fighting against barbarians. The Englanders have their codes of conduct that they fight by. The Russians have no such codes of civility. They only believe in a vengeful victory or a glorious death.”

“Indeed, such barbarians cannot be allowed to step foot on German soil. I cannot bear to think what they would do to our people.”

“I also fear what the Russians would do if we cannot defeat them on the battlefield. After the actions of our Einsatzgruppen against Russian civilians, the Russians will be even more inclined to extract a very brutal manner of retribution against the German people, including upon our wives and daughters.”

“I am told that the Einsatzgruppen mostly targeted Jews rather than merely killing helpless civilians. Even so, we must defeat the Bolsheviks whose ranks are also full of Jews. We really have no choice, do we? We must win for the sake of our nation and for the defense of all of our families there against the barbarians from the East.” Major Koln harshly said while fingering the Nazi emblem on his ring.

“Indeed, we must.” Rommel solemnly replied. Unlike Major Kohn, who was an ardent Nazi, Rommel saw himself simply as a German national and patriot who wanted to win this war and then go home in peace to his wife and children. Rommel had no particular love for Hitler and his policies. But Rommel always wisely kept his opinions to himself.

Rommel also knew the reality was that the war for North Africa was already lost. The RAF and the Royal Navy had choked off desperately needed reinforcements and supplies to the Afrika Korps for months. His Italian allies contributed little to the effort against the English and their Commonwealth allies any more. The Italian tanks were useless against the new tanks that the Australians had brought in. The Italian leadership was unfortunately even worse. Rommel had already read intelligence reports that indicated that the British would soon be producing the new Australian tank designs as well. There was little chance that Rommel would receive the new Tiger and Panther tanks to counter the improved British armor, especially with the reinforcements that the Royal Navy had received in the Mediterranean.

The letter from Berlin also said that there would be an airplane waiting on Rommel at the Luftwaffe base near Tripoli to take him back to Germany. From there, he would be flown east to take command of an Army group in Russia. Hitler was wasting no time in transferring Rommel to the Russian Front. Rommel hoped that he still had some of that ‘magic’ left to help carry the day against the Red Army.

The next evening, General Erwin Rommel found himself onboard a Heinkel HE-111 bomber flying north across the Mediterranean, never to see North Africa again as a German soldier. After arriving in Berlin, General Rommel learned that Hitler’s orders were far from a ringing endorsement of Rommel’s combat record in North Africa. In fact, Hitler had been furious that the Afrika Korps had not been able to defeat the British Army and reach the Suez Canal.

So Rommel’s orders to the Russian Front were more of a punitive move on Hitler’s part. But General Rommel had no intention of holding back one gram of effort, regardless of the reason for him being there. There was a war to fight and win for the Fatherland. That was all that truly mattered.

10 Downing Street

London, England

April 1, 1942.

“If that idiot French commander out there hadn’t sent Dunkerque out to get sunk, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Now, we only have three capital ships out there in the Far East, including Strasbourg. The Japanese have twice as many battleships out there still. If the intelligence reports from the Americans are accurate, the Japanese have a pair of massive battleships that can outmatch any other battleship in the world.” Prime Minister Churchill growled after reading the latest reports from the battlefield.

“So what shall we do about it, Sir?” Captain Earl Williamson, Churchill’s military liaison from the Admiralty.

“As long as Tirpitz and Gneisenau are still active, we can’t afford to send any more capital ships to reinforce Singapore. If it wasn’t for the fact that there are some decent drydock and repair facilities in the area, we would have to eventually withdraw Prince of Wales and Repulse to home for refitting and repairs ourselves. It is true that the Italians have mostly been neutralized by early losses and the continued presence of our Queen Elizabeth–class battleships in the Med. However, the Italians still have three modern fast battleships available. They continue to be a threat, especially with the loss of HMS Rodney and the last two of our Revenge-class battleships to U-Boats.”

“At least we still have Hood, Renown, Tiger, Nelson and the three King George the Fifth-class battleships here with the Home Fleet. The Italians haven’t ventured much out of port after HMS Barham and Malaya sank their battleship Andrea Doria two months ago.“

“This is true. We also have the French battleship Richelieu, but General De Gaulle is not about to send his only remaining battleship out to the Far East.  I know because I have asked him already. If we send anything to help Admiral Phillips in the Far East, it will have to be Tiger. Nelson is far too slow so she will either operate in the Med or provide heavy convoy escort in the Atlantic. The other ships are the only ones with the fifteen-inch guns needed to defeat Tirpitz’s armor.

We will just have to wait and see if our other more special operations can neutralize Tirpitz so that we can free up some of our heavy naval assets to help in the Pacific.”

Churchill was aware of several different advanced British projects that could be used to target the massive German battleship.  The closest to completion was a new class of midget submarine that was intended to slip undetected into enemy waters to attack its targets.

Like in Harold’s original timeline, these midget submarines would make a critical strike against Tirpitz that would prevent the Germans from being able to deploy the battleship against North Atlantic convoys. Then, other measures would be employed to end Tirpitz’s threat to England.

Cavill Industries Main Office

Derby, Western Australia

April 4, 1942

“The news from the front lines doesn’t seem to be getting any better. First, the Americans managed to get a goodly portion of their Pacific Fleet blown out of the water by the Japanese. Next, the Japanese crushed the American Army in the last stronghold of the Philippine Islands and invaded the northern half of Borneo.

Then the French bungle their way into losing one of their battle cruisers after being warned by us about the threat posed by those damned big Japanese torpedoes. I am hoping that we can get things turned around soon before it is too late.”  Harold commented.

“Maybe the Americans can get their industry mobilized soon. I hear that they are still squabbling within their own political ranks about what to do. I would have thought that seeing that photo of MacArthur having his head chopped off by a Japanese sword would have angered the bloody hell out of them.” Alex Boyd, Harold’s industrial supply and sales manager replied.

“Maybe some of those American politicians thought that arrogant bastard had it coming? After all, MacArthur completely mismanaged the reaction to the Japanese attack on the Philippines. That may well have been the reason for the loss of the islands to Japan. Then he ignored President Roosevelt’s order for him to evacuate himself from the Philippines before he could be captured.”

“At least someone in America’s military is trying to do something now. Did you hear about what the Americans have done with the two ocean liners that we built with the flight decks on top?”

“Yes, I got the news a couple of days ago. The US Navy bought both of them less than a month after all of those battleships of theirs were sunk by the Japanese. I guess that the Americans are going to convert those liners into real aircraft carriers.”

“I suppose that is what you had that in mind all along when you built them in the first place, Mister Cavill. I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up building more of those ships ourselves. Only this time, we won’t be making them into ocean liners at all.  We’ll be building those ships as real warships from the keel up along with our other designs.

I suppose that the only question now will be who we will be building the ships for, the British, the Australians or perhaps even the French?”

“I guess whoever has the money and the need will make that decision. We are here to fulfill those needs for our customers and to help defend our nation.” Harold said. What he left unsaid was that he would be very particular as to what he built and sold to any particular customer.

“Who knows? I just received orders from the Royal Navy for six more of our large transport ship hulls. Only these ships are to be finished as escort aircraft carriers. It appears that the Royal Navy wants to quash the U-Boat threat to their convoys with lots more carrier-borne aircraft in addition to the new destroyers and light escort ships. The Americans are building enough conventional cargo ships to satisfy the need for commercial shipping already. Our ships are far better suited for this conversion fortunately with their relatively high speeds, stronger scantlings and extensive compartmentalization. These features make them far more survivable than the mercantile conversions that have been used in the past to produce escort carriers.”

“We are still faced with the problem of having enough trained workers to fill all of these orders, much less sufficient facilities. We are very close to full capacity at our shipyards, automotive plants, aircraft assembly halls and even our ordnance production factories.”

“I don’t want to over-expand our production capacity at this point. Someday this war will be over. It would truly be a waste to have far more capacity than we could possibly use at that point. That is why I have started a cooperative venture with the French in Indochina.”

“This is the first that I have heard of this. What exactly are you going to be doing there, Mister Cavill?”

“I and several of my key investors are providing some seed money for the development of several heavy industrial facilities in French Indochina. Chief among these are an expanded shipyard in Haiphong Harbor and several large steel mills. We have obviously kept this information out of the newspapers.”

“How much of an investment did you make?”

“We really didn’t put in most of the money. The French have actually provided the vast majority of the financing. The most important things that we provided where the manufacturing expertise and the technology of the designs that will be produced there. The French and their subjects in Indochina would primarily provide the labor necessary. My partners and I will still profit nicely from our investments in any event, even after the war is over.”

“Isn’t there a problem in the future that the French and the Indochinese could end up being a competitor to you after the war?”

Harold smiled for a moment before answering.

“No, I don’t think that they would be able to compete with my businesses here unless I really wanted for them to. I’m sure that I could find some way to build a better product than anything that the French could come up with in any event.”

“I don’t think that you are giving the people in Indochina enough credit. Those French factories that you are going to help build there could very well end up being a problem for you, if not your children, sometime in the future, I think.”

“I rather doubt it.” Harold confidently said before continuing. “As it is, I have enough to worry about with them concerning the more mundane elements of their growing up. They are now of the age that they are getting into everything. Mind you, they are all exceptionally bright. But I still want to protect them from the ugliness that is out there in the world.” Harold sadly noted.

He couldn’t mention just how much mischief that Judith and her siblings were already getting into. More than once, the children very nearly caught Harold or Dorothy coming out of the secret door in his study. Harold nor Dorothy were simply not ready to reveal the time traveler’s secrets from the future to his children just yet.

Harold Cavill’s Home

Derby, Western Australia

April 5, 1942

Dorothy had just closed the hidden door in Harold’s study where the portable computer was kept when she heard someone knock lightly on the outer door. When Dorothy opened the door, she saw her oldest daughter Judith and the twins, Sarah and Beatrice. Bringing up the rear was six year old James.

“How are all of you doing? Have you finished with all of your homework?”

“Yes, Mother.” The three little girls replied immediately. James didn’t say anything, but he did nod slowly and very thoughtfully. They were all four very bright for their age. They all spent a considerable amount of time reading many of Harold’s extensive collection of books. In fact, it became necessary for Harold and Dorothy to add more bookshelves in the children’s bedrooms so that they could keep some of the books there instead of risking that their children would see the hidden door being opened.

“Is there something that you need for me to help you with?” Dorothy asked.

“I was reading the newspaper after Daddy had finished with it. There were several articles written in it about Daddy’s companies. Why do Daddy’s factories make so many weapons, Mother?” ten-year old Judith asked.

“There is a terrible war going on right now, Sweetheart. The men on our side need what our factories are producing so that they can protect our country and our people.”

“I know. It just all seems so wasteful.” It was becoming clear to Dorothy that Judith had become the self-appointed spokesman for her siblings at this point.

“I understand how you feel, Judith. Did you know that your father’s companies make a lot more than just military things? We also make cars and trucks for people all across Australia. We also grow enough food at our farms to feed virtually everyone in this part of Australia. Our power plants provide electricity for more than a hundred thousand people around here and elsewhere. Other companies make lots of things that people all over Australia use every day too.”

“What will Daddy’s factories do when the war is over?”

“Your father has all kinds of plans for what he wants to do after the war. There are so many wonderful possibilities, I promise. He will have the people in his factories building some incredible things, I’m sure. But first, we have to defeat some very evil people out there. If we don’t, none of the things that we want to make for the benefit of all mankind will be possible.”

“Is there anything that we can do to help?” Judith asked, speaking for herself as well as her siblings.

“I certainly hope so someday. But for now, I want you to learn everything that you can. I also want all of you to remember to put others ahead of yourself, just like they teach in church about what Jesus said and did. It is selfishness that has caused so many problems in this world. We want to always do the right thing, even though sometimes it is very hard. Do you understand?”

“I think so. But so many people out there seem to be very selfish.” A clearly thoughtful Judith noted. The expressions of her siblings seemed to echo her sentiments however.

“Yes, I’m afraid that you are right. But we have a lot of friends here who are not selfish. They are even willing to lay down their lives to protect us if necessary.”

“Is that why they have guns, Mother?”

“They have guns for a lot of reasons. But mainly, our friends here have guns so that they can protect themselves, protect others who need protection and also to hunt for food.  Shooting guns can also be a lot of fun if done safely and responsibly.”

“Are you and Daddy going to let us shoot guns someday?”

“I’m sure that we will. We want you to be able to protect yourselves. But your father and I want to be sure that you are responsible enough and strong enough physically before we take you out to learn to shoot. So all of you, please be patient.”

“Ok, Mother. I guess that we will just have to wait for a little bit longer.”

Dorothy saw the children back off to their room before coming back to Harold’s study to continue her research. This was what she often did on those days where she didn’t go to the airfield to train pilots or to Harold’s office to assist him on a project. Dorothy continued looking through his books until Harold came home from his office.

“Hello, Sweetheart. How was work?” Dorothy asked as usual.

“Full of headaches, deadlines, production roadblocks and more demands by government officials in Canberra. Basically, that means that it was a typical day.”

“If only these people realized that you were trying to save all of humanity. Anyway, I’m terribly worried that our children are going to be forced to grow up all too quickly. Even the girls were asked when they would be given the chance to learn how to use firearms. That is hardly the sort of thing that a young girl who hasn’t even reached the age of eleven would be asking about.”

“I know. This war is forcing us to do a lot of things that we had never imagined that we would be doing.” Harold replied.

When he was James Stevenson and the year was 2040, he had no idea that he would be doing this. No one but his wife Dorothy truly knew what Harold Cavill came from or when. The rest of the world didn’t even realize how old Harold was. They thought that he was perhaps in his early fifties because that is what the birth records of the original Harold Cavill indicated.

The reality was that the former James Stevenson was already sixty-two years old. He had taken care of himself, watching his diet, exercising, refraining from smoking and keeping his alcohol consumption to a reasonable level. That helped keep the appearance of being a man ten years younger than what Harold actually was. But in any event, Harold had no idea how many years that he had remaining to change the world and prevent the nuclear holocaust that had doomed humanity in his future. He certainly did not have access to the advanced medicine of the mid-twenty first century to help in case his health took a turn for the worse.

Dorothy was over twenty years younger, but she lived her life in a much more vicarious and death-defying manner than Harold would dare do anymore. Harold had no idea from one day to the next if she would come back intact from one of her flights training a new pilot. The thought of losing his second wife terrified Harold. He already knew what it was like to lose a beloved spouse before. However, he could not bear to take away that joy in her life either. She might be able to carry on with Harold’s mission, but sometimes he worried that Dorothy was just too willing to introduce something that was too advanced for the timeline and for humanity’s ability to absorb the changes.

Eventually, Harold’s and Dorothy’s children would have to be told, at least one of them would have to be. It all depended on the character and ability of each child as to whether or not they would be introduced to the greatest secret even known to mankind. Harold still hoped that all of his children could be trusted to carry on with the mission of saving humanity however.

Derby Airfield

Derby, Western Australia

April 15, 1942

Harold had driven out to the airfield just as soon as he learned that the Australian Ministry of War had sent an officer to serve as a liaison with the Derby militia.

Major Harlan Burke stood out in the crowd after he got off of the Douglas DC-3 airliner at Derby’s airfield. He was certainly young for his grade at perhaps his early thirties. Major Burke was tall, very slender with a mop of red hair that peeked out from under his jungle hat.

After he picked up the large duffle bag that had been unloaded from the back of the DC-3, Major Burke looked around until he saw Harold standing there. Immediately, the young major strode out towards Harold, immediately reaching out his hand as soon as he got close.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mister Cavill. I’ve heard a great deal about you. Don’t worry. I don’t take any stock in the crap that your critics have to say.” Major Burke said with a smile as he vigorously shook Harold’s hand.

“I’m glad to meet you also. We don’t have a lot of professional soldiers who reside out here in the wilderness so far away from Darwin or Sydney. I was quite surprised to hear that the Australian Ministry of War was sending an officer here to coordinate with us on the defense of this area.”

“That’s alright, Sir. Personally, I am glad to get away from those places myself. There are just too many wankers out there who are completely clueless about how to fight a modern war. So when I heard about the opportunity to come work here, I just made sure that I was in the front of the queue. I hear that you have some very interesting ‘toys’ to play with here, Mister Cavill.

“Indeed I do.” Harold silently thought, wondering how many people in Melbourne actually knew just how many ‘toys’ that he had here.

Harold was also very curious about Major Burke himself. Here was someone who was obviously intelligent and quite capable as an officer. Why would the Australian High Command send one of their top men to what was in essence ‘exile’ in the Western Territories? Had he done something wrong to be shunted off away from the front lines?

Obviously, Harold wanted to know. But he also needed to learn if Major Burke could be trusted. If Harold was going to be able to reveal the true extent of his preparations here to this young officer, he had to know for certain that this information would not be reported back to the authorities back in Sydney. In any event, Harold was never going to reveal to Major Burke anything about his true origins or the secrets that he closely held within Harold’s home.

“Billy Hughes told me about the real work that you do out here. He also recommended that I come see you if I had the chance. I’ve known him since before I joined the service.  My family used to work for him. So I trust Billy when he makes a suggestion to me about my career decisions or, more appropriately, when he suggests that I say ‘the hell with my career’ and go do the right thing for our country.” Major Burke explained as he and Harold walked towards Harold’s truck.

Harold couldn’t help but smile when he heard Major Burke speak. This was the sort of officer that created victories in spite of the sheer incompetence of his superiors. Harold knew that if the Allies in the southwest Pacific were going to have any chance of holding back the Japanese without resorting to technology that was well ahead of its time, Major Burke would need all of the help that he could get. Of course, Harold wasn’t nearly as shy about using technology that was right at the ‘bleeding edge’ of this time though. Also, as unconventional as Billy Hughes had proven to be throughout his political career, an endorsement of any officer by him carried a lot of weight with Harold. Bearing all of this in mind, Harold decided to give Major Burke an unprecedented look at what would be available to him.

“Come with me then, Major.  I think that I have a great many things to show you now. Once you know what tools you have to work with, I think that we can accomplish much to protect our land from the Japanese.” Harold told the young officer before asking the Major to take a ride in Harold’s truck with him.

Harold took Major Burke on a tour of virtually all of Harold’s factories in and around the town of Derby, even facilities as seemingly benign as the bicycle factory. After that, Harold and Dorothy took Major Burke to visit the area agricultural and livestock farms. Harlan took an unusual interest in the large horse farms that adjoined the area farms.

“Did you know that most of the world’s militaries still use substantial numbers of horses to provide logistical support? They tow artillery and supply trailers in many armies for example. The Soviets also have quite a few of their Cossacks doing traditional cavalry operations as do the Japanese.”

“No, Major. I actually wasn’t aware of that. I just happened to like horses. Plus the animals are very useful here at the farms. In spite of all of the rapid industrialization here, we still do have a shortage of trucks for commercial purposes.”

“That is actually no different than with the rest of the world, so don’t feel left out there. I would recommend that we set up several mounted infantry and cavalry units for your militia. They can carry more weapons and supplies while substantially improving the unit’s mobility. We can also use your bicycles to help increase the mobility of your militiamen. They also can carry more and go a lot faster on a bicycle than on foot, just like the horse cavalry. They just won’t be as expensive nor need as much grain.” Major Burke chuckled before continuing.

“Your bicycle designs are also very interesting to say the least, I have to admit. They are very fast and can carry more cargo than any other bicycle design that I have seen.

I also saw that your wife has actually been training many of your pilots here. That is very impressive. You, Ma’am, have done a very good job training your fliers according to everyone that I have talked to.”

“Thank you, Major. The pilot training program here has been my greatest pride and joy since its inception, well, except for my children and my dear husband here. ” Dorothy proudly replied as she smiled and lovingly grasped Harold’s hand.

“Now, your pilots are good fliers but they are still going to need some additional training if they are going to be ready for combat though. We might be able to get some help from the RAAF, but I think that perhaps we need something a bit more unconventional.” Major Burke paused for a moment, then asked.

“Have you ever heard of Claire Chennault, Mister Cavill?”

“He’s the commander of the American Volunteer Group operating against the Japanese out of China, I believe. His pilots are operating American-built P-40 Tomahawk fighters in support of the Chinese government.”

“Yes, that’s correct. I think that it would be more accurate to say that he is barely operating against the Japanese. The American government is not providing General Chennault with much in terms of logistical support due to the political situation in America. But the General is making the most of what he does have.

He has developed aerial tactics that have proven to be very effective against the Japanese. I’m sure that he and his people would be willing to help train your fliers in those same tactics.”

“I suppose that there is a price tag for this training, Major. There always is.”

“The American pilots in China do need additional aircraft to replace their losses. I think that your Whirlwind and Dragonfly fighters would perform well in their hands.”

“Who would pay for them? While I still am one of the wealthiest men in Australia, even my resources are being stretched thin here by the war.” Harold answered. He had already spent more money on his militia than some small nations had spent on their entire military, though few people outside of Dorothy and Harold’s most trusted accountants realized this.

“The Chinese government would pick up the tab, of course. With enough new fighters and perhaps some new bombers, the Chinese can stop the current Japanese offensive. General Chennault could be convinced then to free up a few of his pilots to train your people in the fine art of aerial combat.”

“That certainly sounds viable to me, Major. Someone will have to make the arrangements, of course. I can see if our production schedule can handle the additional orders.”

“I can use my connections with the AVG to arrange for the Chinese government to approach you with a contract. A good businessman like you can certainly take things from there. But I do have one question for you, Sir.”

“What do you need to know?” Harold asked while wondering if this very curious Major might have gotten suspicious about the source of Harold’s information.

“Mister Cavill, You have done a fine job equipping your militia and even with some of the training of your personnel. But do you have any military experience yourself?”

“No, Major. I have never served in the military before. I have done a considerable amount of time in the study of military history however.” Harold’s study of military history really didn’t start until after he had traveled back to the early twentieth century though.

“Well, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, Mister Cavill. Colonel Lawrence had been little more than an academic prior to the Great War and yet managed to achieve spectacular successes in the Arabian Peninsula. I also spent a lot of time as a bit of an academic myself. I like to think that I learned my lessons from the best information that history has had to offer. I am like Colonel Lawrence and General Chennault in that regards, I would like to think.

My suggestions may not have gone over very well with my superiors in Sydney. However, I am confident that I can improve upon the formidable force that you have already created here and make it far more effective than any unit in the Australia military. We can make it so that any Japanese forces that dare come here will quickly regret it.”

Harold heard the confidence in this officer’s voice. Harold’s historical files said very little about Major Burke. Perhaps his arrival here combined with the equipment that Harold’s factories were already producing was one of those unintended, yet synergetic consequences of the changes in the timeline. Harold couldn’t help but believe that Major Burke would do exactly what he claimed. This was even before the young Australian major had seen the heavy coastal defense battery or all of the equipment that was being stored in the underground chambers.

Harold made the decision to trust Major Burke with even more than any other person outside of Harold’s innermost circle. Harold then took Major Burke to a few of the underground facilities that were scattered all around Derby. The Australian Army major was fascinated by what he saw in the few underground chambers that Harold showed him.

Then Harold and Major Burke got back into Harold’s truck to drive over to a hill overlooking King Sound and the shipbuilding facilities there.

“We’ve actually done quite a bit of work to improve the harbor around our ship construction facilities here. “ Harold explained as he pointed out towards the nearby breakwater. The breakwater encompassed the entire shipyard area including all of the dry docks and had numerous places for ships to dock alongside it. Over the top of the breakwater, there was a concrete surface that served as a roadway for trucks and other vehicles.

“That’s very impressive, Mister Cavill. What exactly are the functions that it performs?” Major Burke asked.

“The breakwater, which can also serve as a jetty, slows the amount of water going in and out of this particular section of King Sound. The reduction in the water flow here means that the tides here in this part of the Sound are far less extreme than elsewhere around here. Most of the materials used to construct this came from the tailings of our many excavations in this area.  We used narrow gauge rail lines to move the rock and soil out here.  Other recovered materials from the excavations were also used out at the point north of town for one of my other projects out there.

We can also extend a steel net across the opening to prevent torpedo boats and submersibles from entering this area whenever necessary.”

“That appears to be a smart move. I’m that there are a lot of things here that you don’t want to have seen.”

“I still find it amazing that you have so much going on in this town, yet so little is visible.  You would think that there would be all of these massive buildings around here based on what you have told me that you produce here.  Most of what I see here are still houses and fields. Sure, the shipyard is pretty easy to see and so is the aerodrome.  But the rest of it just isn’t very apparent.”

“Actually, we don’t really build large numbers of any particular item here. However, we do construct quite a variety of different products in relatively small quantities. Henry Ford would probably take great issue with what I have done here.  It’s not exactly the sort of mass production that you would typically see in America or Germany. I even have to have certain components produced elsewhere in Australia and shipped here via rail for final assembly.  It just suits the attitude and aptitude of my workers here better as well to not have the grinding monotony of a conventional assembly line also.

But the main reason that you can’t see a lot of the facilities is because they are largely underground. That makes for far lower facilities maintenance requirements in addition to more moderate temperatures in the summer and winter months.”

“I would also imagine that being underground certainly also makes the security of your facilities a much less difficult proposition.”

Harold smiled, “Indeed, it does. If you can’t see it, you can’t determine what it is capable of. It also means that it is much more difficult to bomb or shell it. You simply have to become accustomed to working inside what is essentially a cave.”

“I can see where that can be a problem for some people, especially if they are claustrophobic. How do your aborigine workers handle it?”

“They have no problems at all from what I can tell with the exception of the insides of some of my armored vehicles. They can be pretty cramped at times as well as very noisy inside. So some of the aborigines shy away from them. Caves were often the only kind of shelter that some of my aborigines had while in the Outback. My aborigines still go back and forth from here to the Outback whenever it suits them.”

For over an hour, Harold and Major Burke sat by the hill looking over both the harbor and much of the town. A big Cavalier flying boat caught the Major’s attention as it swooped in, landed on the water and turned towards the shore.

“Mister Cavill, how many of these big flying boats have you built?” Major Burke asked as he looked at the Cavalier taxiing out of the water on its beaching gear after a flight from Hawaii.

“We’ve built about forty-five of them so far. Half of them are still being operating by my commercial air transport service. But the rest were constructed to a modified design for military use, both as a transport and for the maritime patrol role.”

“I have been thinking about that. If we are going to keep the Japanese off of our backdoor steps, we need to keep them worried about something else. I know that there is a relatively small contingent of American military personnel here in Australia, mostly refugees that escaped from the Philippine Islands. Some of them have told me that there is still an active insurgency operating against the Japanese in the Philippines.

I was wondering how much more effective the insurgency would be if they were to get more supplies? Your Cavaliers would be ideal for delivering supplies and even personnel to assist the Philippine insurgency.  Your planes could also be used to conduct small raids upon Japanese garrisons on some of these islands.”

“Yes, they could be. However, they would be horribly vulnerable to Japanese fighter attack or antiaircraft fire. I cannot afford to lose these aircraft, Major.”

“I understand, Mister Cavill. My recommendation is that we limit such operations to nighttime only to reduce the risk to your aircraft and personnel.”

“That sounds acceptable to me. Besides, I know a few of those Americans from the Philippines already. One of them, Captain P. I. Gunn, is not only a very talented pilot, but is also quite the exceptional aircraft mechanic. Pappy, as everyone here calls him, has been helping my people modify many of our existing aircraft to have a bigger punch against Japanese shipping.

Pappy’s family has been stranded in the Philippines since the Japanese invasion there. Pappy had been ordered out of the Philippines to evacuate some aircraft and senior personnel. But he was not given permission to get his family until it was too late. He is absolutely desperate to get them out. If we can get some people in to help get out American dependents like Pappy’s wife and children from Japanese captivity, that would be a bloody great morale boost for the Americans and the rest of us. We’ve already started work on a rescue mission, but we needed some professional guidance to make it work.”

“With the use of your flying boats and your other assets, I’m certain that I can save some of our people from out there and make life a living hell for those damned Japanese troops at the same time, Mister Cavill.”

“Alright, Major. You’ve convinced me. When do we get started?” Harold said while shaking Major Burke’s hand. Of course, Harold had already discussed basically the same idea with Pappy Gunn when he first met the old naval aviator. But Harold had a feeling that with Major Burke’s help, chances of success were going to be much greater.

“We can get started tomorrow, Sir. We better get a good night’s sleep tonight though. We may not get another one for quite a while.”

“It didn’t take long for Major Burke to make a major impact on the militia and overall operations. It also turned out that the Major had quite a deft hand with dealing with the aborigines. He made full use of their skills in the bush in addition to training the aborigines in the most effective means of using the modern tools of war. Like Harold, Major Burke took into account the social habits of the aborigines and their need to periodically ‘go on walkabout’ when he designed their training program as well as their unit organization

Of course, the aborigines already loved using their CR-1 assault rifles. The militiamen easily accepted the various grenades and other individual pyrotechnics during their revised training. But learning how to properly utilize mortars, artillery and other support weapons was the key task that made the militiamen even more effective in the long run. Fighting from within the confined spaces of a tank was probably the biggest challenge for the aborigines who were far more accustomed to the wide-open spaces of the Outback. Being inside a cave was a far cry from being inside the cramped interior tank. That eventually meant that most of the tank crews were of European origin.

Chapter Ten:

The White House

Washington, DC

April 29, 1942

“How the hell are we going to be able to help Churchill fend off the Nazis with Congress tying our hands behind our back?” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt growled through a cloud of cigarette smoke after reading through the latest reports from an increasingly hostile Capitol Hill.

“A lot of people in Congress don’t seem to think that we have any business getting involved in the war in Europe. The America First crowd got even more strident after what happened to the Pacific Fleet during our attempt to relieve MacArthur in the Philippine Islands. They see any attempt to intervene in Europe as spending more good American blood, even though Hitler declared war on us.” Secretary of State Cordell Hull noted.

“You would have thought that after Japan hit our forces in the Philippines and Hitler then declaring war on us, that our isolationists would have changed their minds. The isolationists still think that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are sufficient to protect America from the rest of the world, I’m afraid.

Of course, our ‘friends’ in the Republican Party are playing this for all that it is worth, Cordell. They hate me because of all of the progressive ideas that I have brought to America through the New Deal. They also hate that I have added tens of billions of dollars to the national debt and curtailed their beloved free market. So any problems that I might have with my foreign policies are being used by the Republicans to hammer me on the head with.

Knowing how hypocritical those bastards are, they know that they probably would have done exactly what I did by sending in the Fleet to retake the Philippines from the Japanese.”

“Maybe so, but right now, they have the political momentum. They know that midterm elections are coming up soon. The Republicans think that they can take both houses of Congress with a veto-proof majority. I have even heard rumors of possible impeachment hearings in the House being considered.”

“Let them try. I’ll make them pay one hell of a political price. But we still have the bigger problem to deal with. We need to find some way to help Winston Churchill and the British fend off the Nazis. Lend-Lease has helped the British because at least they have something worth leasing to us. The Soviets don’t even have anything that we would want in terms of territory or bases. Congress has demanded that all arms and other war materiel that we sell to the Russians be paid for in hard currency, preferably in gold. It won’t be long before Congress demands the same thing of the British, I’m sure.”

“The British don’t just need supplies though. They need soldiers, sailors and airmen to fight alongside them as well. The Soviets have plenty of those, just not nearly enough equipment for their people to use. I fear that this war is going to bleed both of them dry in more ways than one, Mister President.” Harry Hopkins explained as he sat nearby.

“Yes, the Republicans are not very fond of the Soviet Union. That much is for certain. I suppose the conservatives here want to use this to hasten the fall of the communism and socialism that they hate so much. They also associate it with our own progressive political agenda. So the Republicans look at anything that they can do to hurt the Soviets also as a means of hurting my administration, of course.” President Roosevelt said with a tone of irritation.

“We could offer to use our remaining military assets in the West Pacific, including the survivors of the Asiatic Fleet, to help in the defense of Australia, Singapore, French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. That might gain enough support in Congress for providing resources to support the British out there. We can then leverage that as a means to start the military buildup necessary to regain the Philippines.” Secretary Hull suggested.

“That might work, Cordell. It will certainly free up Commonwealth troops to help in Europe and North Africa. But we also need to mobilize and expand our own military so that eventually we can move from the defense to the offense. All Congress wants to do now is build destroyers and submarines because they were virtually the only ships that sank any Japanese warships during that debacle back in January. They have cancelled all new battleship production and have cut funding even to some of our cruiser and aircraft carrier production. Much of the funding going into new destroyer and submarine production came from those programs. Congress has funded several new aircraft development programs but not their production. The only other military programs that Congress have added much more money were coastal defense and border security.” The President said in frustration.

He knew from his time as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy that what Congress had done was to neuter his ability to conduct offensive naval operations. The additional destroyers would certainly help with convoy escorts, but they would not be able to provide the heavy gun support for shore bombardment or slugging it out with enemy capital ships.

“We have to find some way to take the war to the Axis and help our British allies, at least.” Harry noted.

“The isolationists didn’t want you to help the Chinese against the Japanese, but you managed to get around that with Claire Chennault and the flyers of his American Volunteer Group. Maybe you can do something similar to help Churchill on the ground in Europe or Africa?”

“Perhaps we can. But first, all of the troops in the unit will have to be volunteers. We can’t send draftees into a conflict with the Nazis without causing a tremendous domestic backlash. An Army unit like the AVG would require at least ten or twenty times as many people as you needed to fill the ranks for the Flying Tigers.” Cordell explained.

“Some of those, we could get by recruiting from within the Army and maybe also the Marine Corps. But we would have to fill the ranks with civilian volunteers. The latter will have to go through military basic and specialty training before they could be used. This unit could provide us with thousands of combat-experienced cadre later on once we are able to convince Congress and the America people of the need for our full participation in the effort against the Axis powers.”

“Who will we get to lead this volunteer land force? He has to be an experienced and competent officer. Obviously, we don’t want someone who would be a disaster on the battlefield.”

“I don’t know, but I am sure that General Marshall could provide us with a name or two. I would imagine that the Department of the Army will not want to give up one of their favored senior commanders. But at this point, I don’t care if he is a problem child to his superiors. I just want someone who can fight. In other words, he needs to be the Army’s equivalent of Claire Chennault.”

“If that is what you are looking for, then George S. Patton is definitely the man that you want for the job. He commanded a tank unit in the last war until he was wounded in action. Patton’s aggressive as hell and definitely knows how to command troops. He also has a way of antagonizing the hell out of his superiors, not to mention his predilection towards using very colorful language. There are more than a few people in the Department of the Army who would be more than happy to get Patton out of their hair.”

“Will he need to be convinced to take the job?” The President asked.

“Not at all, according to George Marshall. All that you would need to do is tell George Patton that there is a war for him to fight in that involved tanks. Then you had better get out of his way as he goes charging by.”

“On another note, Sir. We have received several requests for military assistance from the Australian Prime Minister. It seems that the British have had few resources available to send to help defend Australia, especially after the fall of France.”

“I know. I also know that the Australians have sent tens of thousands of their troops to North Africa to help the British there. It doesn’t seem particularly fair, does it? Unfortunately, we are not in much of a position to help much either.”

“Well, the Australians have made us an interesting offer, Sir. They are willing to provide us with sites and facilities for us to base troops out there. The logic is that we need a staging area if we are going to ever retake the Philippines. Short of being in French Indochina, it is hard for us to find a more convenient location from which to strike at the Japanese, perhaps even at their home islands.

The Australians have already started helping in one area. They are using those big flying boats of theirs to send in supplies to our people still fighting in the Philippine and to evacuate wounded and non-combatants from there at the same time.”

President Roosevelt took a deep breath. With the exception of that brief expression of anger, the President looked tired, even haggard as he responded. “I suppose that we have to provide them with some help, Cordell. The fact that they are already helping us should pacify our isolationists a little. However, we can’t do all that much. We could see about providing some modern aircraft to the Australians under Lend Lease but we certainly can’t afford politically to do any large-scale basing of our troops. Hell, we are going to have to still keep most of even this cooperation under the table as it is.”

“What about the Asiatic Squadron ships that are still undergoing repairs in Darwin, Sir? We could send reinforcements to them. That alone could help the Australians defend themselves since most of the ships are already in an Australian port.”

“I’m afraid that when those repairs are complete enough for our ships to safely make the journey, we will probably have to withdraw the Asiatic Squadron back to Pearl Harbor, not reinforce it. Whatever we do in the Pacific in terms of cooperative operations, will have to be very, very limited.”

“I think that this is a mistake, Mister President. You need to be much bolder and show the isolationists that they are wrong.” Harry insisted.

“I tried being bold against the Japanese once already. It didn’t end well, as you recall. Besides, Hitler’s Germany is the real threat. If we are going to help the British at all, it has to be in Europe and North Africa. That is where I have to invest what little political capital that I have left.”

Harry and Secretary Hull couldn’t believe the changes in President Roosevelt since the debacle with the Pacific Fleet. Certainly, there was some anger in the American public at Japan about the loss of so many American lives after the battle. Nevertheless, most of the public’s anger was directed towards FDR and the Democrat Party, not the Japanese. The perception of the American people was that the Roosevelt administration had created the circumstances of the war in the Pacific and had then mismanaged the response to the Japanese. This criticism all hit Franklin Roosevelt in a hard, visceral manner.

Gone was the confident, driven man whose speeches inspired millions of Americans to follow his vision for America. Instead, President Roosevelt looked and acted more like a broken, sick man. The wheelchair that he had been largely confined to since an earlier bout with polio, now became his refuge. During most days, he sat there silently, chain-smoking cigarettes and apparently waiting on the next disaster to happen.

The fate of his party was no less precarious with the loss of President Roosevelt from the bully pulpit, selling his and his party’s agenda to the American public. His wife Eleanor tried to take up the mantle, but she was a poor substitute for the Franklin Roosevelt of old. The mid-term elections were coming up soon. Everything indicated that the Republicans would gain both the House and the Senate immediately afterwards. The Republicans were already promising to repeal most of the New Deal legislation and replace it with a much more business friendly package that would reduce federal spending, eliminate the annual deficit and expand the economy. The Republicans also promised to protect the homeland against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Even though America had always been loath to replace the top leadership in times of war, it now appeared that President Roosevelt could potentially lose the election in 1944. That idea would have been unheard of in early 1942. There was really no one waiting in the wings also to pick up the reins and continue the Roosevelt agenda of a greatly expanded, activist federal government.  The Democrat leaders who might have done so were politically so far to the left that they were unelectable in a national election.

Now, Harry Hopkins had the sad duty of watching the steady decline, both physically and politically, of a man who many had hailed the most influential President in history less than two years earlier. This impacted everyone around the President, most of all Harry Hopkins, who continued to suffer through the brutal aftermath of stomach cancer. Harry had been on the rebound after being given only a few months to live. But now, after the many setbacks in the current administration, Harry could feel his life slipping away once again.

“Are you sure about this, Mister President? We really can’t afford to abandon our allies in the Pacific.”

“I’m sorry. But we have to limit what we can do for them, even with the intelligence that we gather. Those ties have to be cut completely also. I just don’t feel that we can afford to risk the British, French or Australians doing something rash based on our intelligence and therefore compromising our sources and methods.”

“What of the Flying Tigers? Will they be abandoned too?” Secretary Hull asked, almost pleading for the President to do something.

“We will keep the AVG nominally operational. However, we will also offer the military fliers an opportunity to rejoin their original services with no loss of rank or time in service. That is the least that we can do for those brave men. However, if they choose to continue to fight on behalf of the Chinese, then the Chinese will have to provide the material support by whatever means that they can. Madam Kai’shek will just have to forgive me for not doing more, I’m afraid. I will also need for you to take care of that ‘other matter’ as well.”

“I see, Sir. Well, I must be going now. I have to meet with the service chiefs to plan what we are going to do next concerning all of these issues.” The Secretary of War finally said as he began to turn towards the door.

“Thank you, Cordell.” Roosevelt said in a quiet voice. His physical and emotional fatigue became even more apparent with each word that he spoke.

As much as Secretary Hull wanted to defy the President and provide the help that the Allies needed in the Far East, he knew that he needed to follow the President’s directive. So, Cordell simply gritted his teeth and did so, regardless of the cost. At least, as far as the President knew, Cordell was going to follow the President’s directive.

But first, he was going to send a highly classified message to the commander of the Asiatic Squadron.

Headquarters Asiatic Fleet (temporary)

Darwin, Australia

April 31, 1942

A courier from Communications brought in a message and hand-delivered it to Admiral Thomas C. Hart, the Commander of the United States Navy’s Asiatic Fleet. The energetic sixty-four year old naval officer tore open the envelope and read the message inside. The Admiral’s office was dead quiet while he read the message. His operations officer, Captain Michael Teach stood nearby and watched as the Admiral pursed his lips for a few moments.

“Well, Michael. It looks like I have been fired by the President.”

“Why the hell would he do that? You have done the best that you could possibly do under the circumstances.”

“I know. I suppose that MacArthur’s poison pen had something to do with it.” Admiral Hart refused to say anything about FDR’s long-standing grievance concerning how the Admiral had fought the union bosses at the torpedo production plant over twenty years earlier. FDR had strongly objected as assistant Secretary of the Navy, though Hart had managed to perform miracles in producing a better weapon for less cost, and had worked quite well with the plant workers. It was just that the union didn’t like how Hart had managed to accomplish the productivity gains. Of course, the union complained to FDR. MacArthur’s comments, before the general’s capture and execution by the Japanese, about Admiral Hart poisoned the relationships that the Admiral had with many Allied commanders in the region, including Britain’s General Wavell also. This was also a factor in Admiral Hart being relieved from his post.

“So what will you be doing now, Sir?”

“Actually, Secretary Hull has already given me another job. He wants me to assume operational command of all US forces in the Southern Pacific. It’s going to be pretty low key still. We aren’t going to have a lot of resources of our own. In fact, he told me that the President wanted us to send our ships back to Pearl after repairs were complete. Of course, ships in frontline combat are never completely repaired, are they?” Hart said with a sly grin before continuing.

“But the work will be vital if we are going to defeat the Japanese. With MacArthur’s murder, Secretary Hull clearly stated to me that we are going to focus on the naval war here in the Pacific.” Fortunately, Secretary Hull saw what FDR did not. He saw that Admiral Hart had fought as effective a campaign as possible, considering the meager resources that he had available.

“You have a hell of a task in front of you, Sir.”

“I know, Michael. However, I’m actually going to be continuing much of what we have already started. Even if the Brits aren’t all that fond of me, they are still going to have to deal with me. Even if I am not directly in command of the Asiatic Fleet, all of those ships will still work for me. That includes the cruisers Houston, Boise and Marblehead. The first thing that I am going to do is get Houston into port and have that damned radar installed on her. That way, we will then have two cruisers equipped with radar finally.

The Brits and French are definitely going to want to have us around after that. Secretary Hull has told me that we will still have to operate with a lot of restrictions. Apparently, there are some powerful people in DC who don’t trust the Brits at all, especially Churchill. So we will have to be creative on how we coordinate with them. But don’t expect a lot of help coming out of Pearl Harbor or points east of there. We will have to develop our own assets as much as possible.

“How do you plan on doing that, Sir?”

“I am going to ask for money and ammunition mostly. Then I will see what I can buy or build around here. Since we don’t have a lot of surface assets, I am going to rely mostly upon all of those submarines that we managed to get out of the Philippines before the Japs conquered it. First, I am going to grab every Mark Fourteen torpedo that I can get my hands onto. Then I am going to see if I can find someone around here who can help me fix them so that we can start sinking Jap ships with them.” Admiral Hart said with a growing smile.

“That’s going to be a hell of a task now that the Philippines are lost and the Japs have already invaded the northern half of Borneo.”

“I never said that it was going to be easy, Michael. It’s just necessary. Now, I have to find someone to work with around here to help me accomplish this.”

“I might actually know of someone. He isn’t here in Darwin though. This man operates out of a place called Derby on the northwest coast.”

“You are talking about that Harold Cavill, aren’t you? I’ve heard of him before. He’s a bit of a maverick, I believe. Maybe that is exactly the kind of help that we need.”

Belgorod, Soviet Union

First Panzer Army Headquarters (Forward)

May 21, 1942

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel stood on a hill next to his armored halftrack command vehicle overlooking the many smoldering vehicles on the battlefield below him. His troops had been fighting for the past week against masses of Soviet armor. Rommel’s forces had taken heavy losses over the course of the conflict. But the incredible toll that Rommel’s forces were inflicting upon the hundreds of T-34’s and KV-1’s, not to mention tens of thousands of Red Army troops, was utterly breathtaking.

Even though Rommel had been pulled from North Africa along with the rest of his battle-hardened forces by an angry Hitler, Rommel had more than redeemed himself on the Eastern Front with his mastery of mobile armored warfare. Hitler’s rare move in moving Rommel to the Eastern Front was a result of the Fuhrer’s realization that the Afrika Korps and its Italian allies would soon be destroyed anyway since they could no longer be resupplied or reinforced. The British had reinforced the Mediterranean with many of the warships that had been protecting the northern convoy routes to Russia. Between that and the losses that the Regia Marina had suffered during that French suicide run, the Axis foothold in North Africa was no longer tenable as a result. Rommel arrived like a whirlwind, leading the First Panzer Army back on the attack. Hitler quickly rewarded the German panzer general with a promotion to Field Marshal and sent him back to continue his success against the Red Army.

Now on the killing fields of Eastern Europe, every time that the Soviets attempted a breakthrough, Rommel managed to rush his Panzers along the vulnerable flanks of the Soviet formations and savagely hit them. This forced the Soviet troops to react to Rommel instead of continuing their intended attacks.

Rommel had even received word from spies within the Soviet ranks of Marshall Zhukov’s words of the Russian commander’s grudging respect for Rommel’s abilities. Even so, Rommel’s hands were frequently tied by Hitler’s inflexible directives.  The Fuhrer’s demands repeatedly cost the lives of tens of thousands of German and allied troops as a result.

What was worse for the Germans was what was happening in Stalingrad where an entire German Army Group was being ground down in savage urban fighting. Rommel knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Soviets would mass enough forces to mount a counterattack that would trap more than a hundred thousand German troops within that battered wreck of a city.

But for now, Rommel had his hands full dealing with the Kursk salient and Soviet Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov. It seemed very much like a battle between a rapier and a battleaxe. But the Soviets were now finding themselves having a much more difficult time moving adequate supplies to the front line to support their massive forces.

The Studebaker trucks and other war materiel that had been keeping the Red Army supplied and mobile were no longer coming into the port of Murmansk from America. American demands for payment in hard currency and the British refusal to escort convoys to Russia were now preventing Zhukov from launching the massive counterattack that he had planned against the Germans. Even so, Zhukov threw every man and machine that he could muster into the battle to preserve the salient that had been driven within the German lines.

At Kursk, both sides eventually fought to exhaustion. Neither the Germans nor the Soviets were in a position to continue offensive operations for some time. Operation Citadel had ground to a halt while the salient at Kursk remained essentially unchanged. But the Red Army was finding it much harder to recover from the ensuing carnage without the supplies from America that had been the Soviets’ lifeline. The rapier was beginning to win over the battleaxe, as long as the former wasn’t being forced by the Nazi leader to directly fend off the heavier blade.

Unnamed Cove

Luzon, Philippine Islands

June 1, 1942

The dark grey-painted Cavalier flew low over the water at just before midnight, its belly full of Australian Army raiders and supplies for the Philippine and American resistance fighters. Just a short distance from the shoreline, the huge flying boat landed on the water and taxied a short distance before cutting its engines to silently coast the rest of the way in.

As soon as the flying boat began to coast up to the small cove, a small coded flash of light let them know that it was safe to come in. But the gunners in the flying boat’s turrets all remained alert for any sign of an ambush. The Cavalier quietly slid to the shoreline and came to a stop.  A squad of elite Australian soldiers leapt out onto the shore as the flying boat’s huge nose bow began to open up. They set up a defensive perimeter as other Australians began to pour out, most carrying large parcels of supplies with them.

After a few minutes, one of the Australians on the perimeter suddenly signaled for everyone to go silent and find cover. Then a minute later, a single woman walked out of the jungle onto the beach near the Cavalier. Even in the dim moonlight, it was clear that the woman was not Philippine.

The leader of the Australian soldiers then walked out into the open towards the newcomer.

“Mrs. Gunn, I presume.” One of the Australian commandoes quietly asked the attractive but clearly malnourished woman.

“That’s me. I brought the rest of my family along with me too.” A weary but relieved Polly Gunn said before motioning behind her. A few seconds later, two teenage girls and a pair of boys also came out of the jungle foliage and stood beside her. They all looked like they had been on a starvation diet for the past few months. Polly and her family were soon followed by at least twenty Filipinos, most of whom were armed with a variety of American and Japanese weapons. There were also three American men among them who wore the tattered remnants of US Army uniforms.

“We have someone waiting at the plane who is very anxious to see all of you. We had a hell of a time convincing Pappy to stay back at the plane since he wanted to be right here to meet you. But we told him that we couldn’t afford to lose our best pilot, especially while we were so deep in enemy territory.” Lieutenant Arthur Wallace explained with a smile.

“Well, we are pretty anxious to see him too. I brought a few friends along with me from the detainment camp who also need a ride out of here. But we had better hurry. There will be hell to pay if the Japs catch us out here.” Polly replied as another seven half-starved Americans also walked out into view.

“No worries, Ma’am. We’ll get you all back home. We are also going to do what we can to make the damned Japs regret ever coming down here.” Lieutenant Wallace said as his men continued to unload cases full of weapons, ammunition, food and medical supplies for the ragged band of Philippine and American guerillas that brought Polly Gunn and her family to the rendezvous point.

Polly and her children were led by one of the Australians towards the waiting Cavalier. It didn’t take long for her to see a very familiar man standing there under the open nose door of the huge flying boat. Pappy was smiling from ear to ear when he saw his wife and children for the first time in months.

“I’m damned glad to see you and the kids, Sweetheart.” Pappy said as he reached out, pulled Polly onto the Cavalier’s cargo deck, put his arms around her and kissed her.

“Well, it certainly took you long enough, Pappy.” Polly said with a momentary frown.

“You know how it is. I tried as hard as I could, but as usual, the brass kept getting in the way. Then there were the Japanese working very hard to make things even more difficult.” Pappy humorously replied.

“I know. We have a lot of catching up to do. But first, I want to get out of here and get into some new clothes. These don’t seem to fit me very well at the moment.” She laughed. But at the same time, tears were beginning to flow from both Pappy and Polly as the children also ran up to hug their father. They all seemed completely oblivious to the other escapees that walked past them into the flying boat for the trip to safety and freedom.

About ten minutes later, the rest of the Australian soldiers quietly came back to the Cavalier. A couple of them were carrying a stretcher with a wounded American soldier on it. As soon as the stretcher was brought inside, the nose cargo door started to be lowered back into flight position.

Even before everyone was strapped down in their seats, the Cavalier was already backing out into the cove using a pair of engines with their propellers angled for reverse thrust. In less than a minute, the flying boat was lifting off of the water and on the way back to Australia.

Pappy Gunn was at the controls of the Cavalier as it flew low over the water. Sitting behind him in the Cavalier’s cockpit, were his wife Polly and his four children. Polly and the children ate some military field rations as though they were delicacies because of the lack of food at the detainment camp that they had escaped from. Pappy’s family never felt closer than during those few hours flying away from Japanese occupied Luzon and towards the safety of northern Australia.

Just as the sun began to peek over the horizon, the Cavalier started its landing run into King Sound. A small crowd of people had already gathered at the Cavalier beaching dock. They knew about Pappy and the plight of his family. As the flying boat finally came to a stop by the dock, the nose door opened up. At the sight of Pappy and his family, the crowd erupted with cheers and applause. Tears were once again began flowing down Pappy’s and Polly’s faces.

Eventually, Pappy Gunn and his family made their way over to Harold Cavill’s office. Harold had promised Pappy a few months earlier that he would do all that he could to help get Pappy’s family safely out of the Philippines.  Pappy wanted them to meet the man who did the most to help get Pappy’s family out of harm’s way.

Harold was already standing at the door when Pappy and his family walked up.

“Hello, Pappy. I am glad to finally get to meet your family. I trust that everything worked out alright during the flight.” Harold said.

“Hello, Mister Cavill. I just wanted to come by and thank you for everything that you have done to help me save my family. If there is anything that you need help with, just let me know.”

“Pappy, I am just glad that I was able to help. I know that you still left behind a lot of friends, American and Philippine alike, back there under Japanese occupation. So we all have a lot of work to do. I will continue to do all that I can until this damned war and all of the others have ended.”

“Amen to that, Mister Cavill.” Polly interjected as she continued to wrap her arm around Pappy.

Chapter Eleven:

Cavill Shipyards

Derby, Western Australia

June 11, 1942

Commander Edwin Sampson stood at the edge of the pier when the first submarine of the class slid out of the covered construction building down the ways into the waters of King Sound. In most aspects, this launching of a naval vessel was quite ordinary except for the extreme secrecy that Harold Cavill had imposed upon the entire construction of this boat. Harold stood there next to the Australian Navy officer and watched as the submarine slid into the water and was quickly corralled by a trio of small tugboats.

“I must say, Mister Cavill. This is a most unusual submarine. It is a large boat certainly as well. How much more remains to be done to complete its construction?”

“Nothing, Commander. It is ready for sea trials presently. It is larger than any submarine in the Commonwealth except for the Royal Navy’s Thames-class boats. This submarine displaces approximately two thousand metric tons while surfaced and over twenty-five hundred tons submerged. But it is as agile as any fleet submarine in existence.”

“Where are the submarine’s deck guns? I don’t see any gun armament at all except for what appear to be light automatic cannons in small turrets at the ends of the conning tower.” An incredulous Commander Sampson asked.

“This submarine doesn’t have any deck guns. The light cannon are there for antiaircraft fire only in case that the boat is surprised on the surface by an enemy aircraft. Otherwise, the submarine is designed to do most of its patrolling and all of its fighting while underwater. It has six torpedo tubes in the bow and a large number of reloads for that purpose.”

“Why eliminate the deck gun altogether? There are some targets that aren’t worth the cost of a torpedo.”

“This vessel has been designed to maximize its underwater speed and range. That required eliminating everything on the outer hull that would increase resistance while underwater, including deck guns and many external fittings. If the target is too small to justify the use of a torpedo, the twenty-five millimeter automatic cannons in the conning tower will be adequate, I’m sure. This boat has much larger prey to be hunting out there in the ocean in any event.” Harold proudly said.

“Where did you get the idea for this design, Mister Cavill?”

“I based much of it on the Royal Navy’s R-class submarines that were built during the Great War. They were designed to hunt and kill enemy submarines. These boats could also be very effective in attacking surface vessels if necessary. I purchased one of the R-class boats as they were being retired. Then I started to examine the vessel’s technical features. I had my naval architect increase the size of the basic R-class submarine in order to give the vessel significantly greater armament and endurance. My engineers added higher capacity batteries and better underwater sound detection equipment. Finally, I added something that the Dutch had incorporated into their latest submarines. They call the device a ‘schnorkel’. It allows the submarine to remain submerged at periscope depth while continuing to run its diesel engines for movement and the recharging of its batteries. But this submarine is more of a fleet vessel that is designed for long range operations against surface ships.”

What Harold didn’t tell Commander Sampson was that the new submarine had also been partially based on the German Type XXI that had been developed late in the Second World War. There had been some more modern refinements added, but Harold had been very careful not to overtly include technologies that didn’t actually exist during that point of history. But his submarine’s hull actually was more teardrop-shaped than that of the Type XXI, giving Harold’s design even higher underwater speed and agility. The boat still used two propellers, but the shape of the blades was more advanced than existing designs so that they would be quieter and more efficient than their competitors.

The diesel engines inside the submarine were actually turbocharged V-16 versions of the engines used by the tanks also produced by one of Harold’s factories. They operated while the submarine was underwater through the snorkel device that was incorporated in the streamlined conning tower. The engines and a variety of other equipment were all mounted on rubber shock mounts to reduce the submarine’s acoustic signature.

The submarine also had multiple passive hydrophones on its sides as well as the bow sonar to aid in target detection and localization. Of course, the submarine didn’t have the sophisticated computers that twenty-first century attack submarines possessed to process sonar and hydrophone inputs. But Harold had to be very careful not to exceed the state of the art for that time period by any significant amount.

I am also working on another submarine that is even more closely patterned on the R-class.” Harold said while pointing at another of the covered slipways.

“What is special about this vessel, Mister Cavill?” Commander Sampson asked.

“Well, like the R-class, this submarine is designed to hunt and kill enemy submarines. But, unlike the earlier design, this vessel has three times the displacement of the R-class and incorporates all of the latest technology. This allows the submarine to remain on patrol for far longer and is even faster underwater than the submarine that I showed you earlier. The greatest threat to a submarine will very soon be another submarine. This vessel will be that threat to anything that the Japanese or even the Germans have to offer.”

“What else makes this new submarine different than the one that you showed me earlier?”

“It uses a single screw to propel it, like the R-class. It is also even more streamlined than my other design, even to the point of having absolutely no other armament except for the six torpedo tubes in the bow. The diesel engines that power the vessel are far superior to those of the R-class as well as the batteries. It also has a snorkel to allow the submarine to recharge batteries while remaining submerged.

This submarine can sprint underwater to speeds of nearly twenty-five knots. It is virtually silent while cruising at five knots and listening on its array of hydrophones for an enemy submarine. It can travel for more than three hundred miles underwater while silently hunting an enemy submarine as well.”

“These two submarines would be quite revolutionary if you are right, Mister Cavill. I will have to inform the Admiralty about them. However, we haven’t had any operational submarines in our navy for over ten years. I don’t know if we even have anyone in the navy who could operate a submarine.” Commander Sampson noted.

“I’m sure that you still have some old sailors around with some experience in submarines. If not, I’m sure that either the British or the Americans would be able to lend you some experienced personnel to help train a new generation of Australian submariners to man a new generation of submarines.”

“I would imagine so. The Admiralty will want to get these two boats into service against the Japanese as quickly as possible with how things are going at the moment.”

“As I mentioned before, the first submarine is ready for sea trials. We can begin those immediately with a crew of Australian sailors working with technicians from my shipyard who are familiar with the systems onboard this boat.

I will have the other submarine ready for sea trials in another three months. We can do the same process with her as well when the time comes. “Harold proudly explained.

“This is all incredible, especially for someone who has no experience with submarines. I also have to say that I am very impressed with the motor torpedo boats that you have patrolling the area around here. Those vessels are considerably more familiar to me. I am curious about how many have you built?”

“I have four currently operating here, plus I have another four under construction.”

“That is also quite extraordinary, Mister Cavill. What else can you tell me about them?”

Harold smiled for a moment. He knew already that Commander Sampson was part of the Australian Admiralty’s Bureau of Shipbuilding. Harold also suspected that the officer was also there to see if Harold had any other new designs that the Australian Navy would be interested in procuring.

It was time to do a bit of salesmanship. It won’t take too much effort. The Australian Admiralty was already very pleased with their new destroyers that Harold had produced for them. The Australian government had contracted for both of the new submarines shortly after it had seen little more than Harold’s conceptual drawings. Harold had little doubt that Australian officials in Melbourne would feel the same about the new torpedo boats.

“Why don’t we take a little trip onboard one of them? I think that you will find that seeing the vessel in action will be more enlightening.”

The two men then walked over to a nearby pier where one of the torpedo boats was tied up. They got onboard. Harold then walked over to the boat’s commander and quietly gave him instructions. Then Harold and Commander Simmons walked up to the boat’s bridge. A roar of powerful diesel motors soon followed after the ropes were released that held the boat to the pier.

Harold and his guest stood on the boat’s bridge as it got underway from the pier. The vessel was already doing over ten knots when Harold started to describe the vessel’s various features.

“As you can see Commander, the boat is armed with four twenty-one inch diameter torpedoes as its main ship-killing armament. The torpedoes can be fired in pairs from each side though the forward tubes are enclosed within the sides of the foc’sle to protect them as well as to provide additional reserve buoyancy and storage space for the boat. The aft pair of torpedoes can be replaced by several depth charges for use against enemy submarines. Torpedoes can also be replaced by mines so that the boat can be used for minelaying. Finally, the boat can be used as a coastal submarine chaser by replacing the torpedoes with depth charges.

We are currently armed with a forty-millimeter Bofors automatic cannon mounted on the craft’s stern. It gives us a long range punch against both aerial and surface targets. The mount can carry a heavier gun, if necessary. On the bow, we have a single twenty-millimeter Oerlikon automatic cannon. Like the aft mount, there is space and weight reserved for a heavier weapon. On either side of the bridge, we have twin Browning fifty-caliber heavy machine guns. This gives us a formidable punch against both surface and aerial targets, not to mention the ability to hit targets along the shoreline as needed.

Now, Commander. Please let me show you the heart of this boat.”

They walked down a narrow set of steps inside of the torpedo boat’s hull. Harold continued to point out features of the boat.

“Accommodations are tight with the crew’s bunks being located in the forward part of the hull, but normally patrols are of fairly short duration. The boat is normally operated by a crew of between twenty-five and thirty personnel.”

Harold then led the commander through a narrow passageway aft to the engine room.

“These are the beating hearts of this boat. We have four turbo-supercharged ten-cylinder inline diesel engines, each powering its own propeller. Each engine develops over one-thousand horsepower. Together, they give this boat a maximum speed of well over forty knots.

There is a small gearbox behind each engine that does two things. First, it reduces the propeller speed so that we can use larger and more efficient propeller. Secondly, it has a reverse gear that allows this boat to either come to a complete stop within only a few seconds or to significantly reduce the turning radius by reversing the propellers on one side of the boat as needed.

Because these are diesel engines, unlike the petrol engines used by the Americans, they give this boat a much longer endurance and are far less likely to catch fire in the event of enemy damage.”

“This is a surprisingly potent weapon, Mister Cavill. In fact, your torpedo boat here reminds me a great deal of the designs that the Germans have been building according to some intelligence reports. I am curious about how large your boat here is?”

“This boat displaces approximately one-hundred and ten tons and is just over thirty-two meters in length.”

One thing that Harold didn’t tell the Australian Navy officer was that the boat itself was based on a German Lurssen design. Harold had paid a substantial bribe to officials at the Lurssen yard before the beginning of the war to obtain the latest design changes to ensure that his design would be superior to anything else on the water. Harold had earlier purchased a Lurssen motor boat to test many of the concepts before the construction of the first of the torpedo boats. Another element that Harold did not mention was that he had an even more advanced design on the drawing board incorporating hydrofoils that would lift the forward part of the hull out of the water and increase the boat’s maximum speed to over fifty knots. But that design would not be built for years to come.

The two men walked back on deck and up to the torpedo boat’s bridge. There, they watched as the torpedo boat went through a series of high-speed runs and rapid course changes before returning to the pier.

Commander Sampson finally stepped onto the pier followed by Harold.

“You’ve built quite an extraordinary vessel here. Where do you keep her and her sisters when the sound is at low tide. I understand that the tides here at King Sound are extraordinarily severe.

“We have special wheeled cradles that we sail the boats onto at high tide, then roll the cradles up higher onto the shore for storage before low tide begins. The cradles also allow us to do maintenance to the boats’ hulls much more easily as well. Then we refloat the boats during the next high tide.”

“Mister Cavill, I will recommend that we purchase some of these motor torpedo boats of yours in addition to the submarines and other vessels that you have already built for us here.”

“Thank you, Commander. I’m sure that your people will put them to good use. However, I would ask that you keep the details about my submarines under the strictest confidence. That information would be invaluable to any enemies, if they were to somehow acquire it.”

“I fully understand, Mister Cavill. I will relay that back to the Admiralty as well.”

The two men were walking back from the pier back towards Harold’s office when the commander noticed a squad of aborigine men in uniform marching past them, each carrying a very unusual looking rifle. Over their uniforms, each man wore what appeared to be a sort of heavy vest that had multiple hand grenades and ammunition pouches attached to it.

“Do those aborigines work for you?”

“Yes, Commander. They do. They are also part of our local militia that helps defend our facilities here in Derby.”

“They are not armed with our standard Enfield rifles, I see. What is it that they are carrying?”

“These are our new automatic rifles. We call them the CR-1. I met a gun collector a few years ago who had an example of a Russian Fedorov Avtomat automatic rifle. I was fascinated with the concept. So I asked to borrow the weapon for a while. Then I had one of my American engineers take a look at the rifle to see if he could improve upon it.

He designed a selective fire weapon that used the same Japanese Arisaka six-point-five millimeter ammunition. The rifle uses a short-stroke gas piston to operate the action and has a twenty-inch long barrel. We wanted to use the Arisaka ammunition cartridge for two reasons. The first reason is because it gives us decent range while still being very controllable during automatic fire. It’s like having several additional machine guns in an infantry squad.

The second reason is because we can use captured Japanese ammunition if necessary. We do prefer our own version of the ammunition since we use a modern spritzer bullet design that is more accurate and has a longer effective range however. The rifle uses a twenty-five round detachable box magazine. My militia troops each carry six ammunition magazines in pouches and one in the weapon itself as part of their basic load.”

“That is a lot of ammunition for each man to carry. Will we be able to keep up supplying such a large amount of ammunition? We are usually very concerned about that sort of thing.”

“Yes, I’m sure that we can. After all, we think nothing of firing hundreds of tons of artillery ammunition on a daily basis, isn’t that so? So what is a few tons of additional rifle ammunition fired each day, if it makes our soldiers much more effective?”

Commander Sampson wasn’t an infantryman, but he quickly understood the logic behind Harold’s explanation.

One other thing that Harold did not mention to Commander Sampson was that the vest that each militiaman wore was made of ballistic nylon and had pockets in the front and back for steel armor inserts. While not greatly exceeding the technological state of the art for that time, Harold was still providing his people with much better protection and capabilities than the soldiers of practically every other army in the world.

“Do you really trust these aborigines with this much firepower?” A concerned Commander Sampson asked.

“Of course, I do. The people who work for me here are extremely hardworking and trustworthy. I have even been contacted by French Engineer General Louis Kahn concerning my employees. The French want to borrow some of my workers to help his people repairing some of his warships based out of Haiphong. ” Harold answered.

It was still frustrating that after all of this time there were still people in Australia who looked down upon Harold’s aborigine workers even after all that the aborigines have accomplished. But the results could not be denied by any but the most vehement racists.

Cavill Ordnance Works

Derby, Western Australia

June 11, 1942

Harold went out to the firing range behind some of the Ordnance Works facilities. It was set up to fire heavy weapons at a variety of targets into an open area of the Outback. Harold quickly saw one of his chief weapons designers, Eric Poole standing near several new vehicles.

One of the weapons that he saw was obviously of a new design mounted on the back of a heavy six-wheel armored truck. He was struck by how well thought out the design was. The Gatling gun had five barrels that were each nearly two meters in length. The barrels were integrated with a reinforcing shroud around the muzzles. The gun was located in the center of the mount. On the right side, there was a gunner’s seat and optical sighting system. On the left side, was a large ammunition box with a feed chute running from it to the weapon’s breach mechanism.

“So this is the first one, Eric?”

“No. This is actually the third prototype. The first two are being prepared for mounting on one of your new destroyers in place of a pair of Bofors mounts. Most of the destroyer’s Oerlikons will also be removed as part of the conversion.”

“That’s pretty ambitious, Eric. I take it that you have a good reason for so much confidence. I have been so busy with my other projects that I haven’t had a chance to look in on you in a while.”

“I’ve got the gun set up for a live fire demonstration. All we have to drive it outside of town to the gunnery range. But first, I want to show you something else as well.” Eric said before motioning towards two aborigine workers to go to another warehouse in the Ordnance Works factory complex. A couple of minutes later, they drove out in a truck towing a larger antiaircraft gun on a trailer.

“I have your six-pounder antiaircraft gun ready as well. I have it temporarily mounted on a towed chassis for ground testing. The next step will be installing it on the stern gun mount for one of our torpedo boats.”

“You definitely have been busy, Eric.”

“It helped a lot when you basically doubled my workforce within twelve months of asking me to come up with these designs. After that, how could I possibly let you down, Sir?”

“Well, let’s go out to the range and see how well these new guns fire, shall we?” Harold asked.

“I thought that you would never ask.” A smiling Eric answered before hopping into the passenger seat of the armored truck. Harold rode in his personal truck as he followed behind the other two large trucks.

The company firing range had firing positions already set up. It only took a few minutes after the group arrived to get the guns ready for firing.

“I want to fire the Gatling gun first. I called ahead to the airfield. They are going to be flying an aircraft over the target range with a target banner being towed behind it.”

“Great. Just make sure that your gunner doesn’t shoot the towing aircraft first.” Harold joked.

“I certainly hope not. I’m going to be the gunner.” Eric replied with a laugh before climbing into the gunner’s seat.

A couple of minutes later, Harold could hear the drone of an aircraft engine in the distance. He was soon able to see the plane approaching with a large white banner being towed in the air behind it.

“The firing range is hot!” Eric yelled out, indicating that the gun was about to be fired at the aerial target banner.

The Gatling gun traversed, tracking the banner for a couple of seconds before a loud sound like a monster chainsaw filled the air. A stream of white tracers raced into the air, quickly shredding the target banner in an instant.

Eric declared the range safe then got out of the Gatling’s gunner’s seat. He then walked over to the second firing point. The aborigine workers had just finished setting up the six-pounder on its firing stands in preparation for its demonstration.

“I’m going to fire a few rounds at one of our ground target hulks. I don’t have a suitable aerial target for this gun available at the moment.” Eric explained before waving to the crew at the six-pounder.

A couple of minutes later, the gun’s long barrel traversed down and to the right before unleashing a barrage of over twenty rounds at a target hulk in the distance. The total burst took less than ten seconds to fire.

Harold looked at the target in the distance through a set of binoculars that he normally kept in his truck. He was very pleased to see that the target hulk had been turned to scrap metal by the impact of the high velocity shells.

“You’ve done an excellent job with these two projects from what I can tell. I am curious about one thing. What round does the Gatling gun use, Eric? The rate of fire from it was certainly very impressive, I must say.” Harold asked after the firing demonstration was over.

“It uses the Hotchkiss twenty-five by one-sixty-three millimeter automatic cannon round. At the gun’s maximum rate of fire, I can shoot over fifty rounds a second also.”

“Why did you choose a twenty-five millimeter round?”

“We already use the Hotchkiss round for the main guns on our light scout tanks. Also, both the Japanese and the French use the Hotchkiss round for their anti-aircraft guns. So we can share ammunition supply with the French when necessary. In an emergency, we can also use captured stocks of Japanese ammunition, just as we already do with ammunition for the automatic rifles that we currently field.

The twenty-five millimeter round is also more powerful than the twenty millimeter rounds that were generally available. That means better knockdown power against enemy aircraft and light surface targets as well.”

“That is a very sensible choice, Eric. I know how much that the logisticians hate having to add another caliber to their inventories. But if we can share ammunition with our allies and steal it from our enemies, then it will definitely be worthwhile. Plus, I have a new friend of mine who just might find another interesting application for your new Gatling gun as well.”

“Does that new friend happen to be called ‘Pappy’?’ Eric asked with a sly smile. He knew about the American pilot’s obsession with adding more and more firepower into the noses of light and medium bomber aircraft to increase their ability to hit the Japanese with a devastating blow.

Harold smiled back. “I think that you already know the answer to that question, Eric. I want you to know that you have done an excellent job with both of these weapons. I am looking forward to getting both of them into service as quickly as possible. I’m sure that the commanders of the Australian military will quickly approve of them once they see the same demonstration that you showed me.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Tell me something, Eric. Can the six-pounder antiaircraft gun still fire our standard tank rounds?”

“Of course. It uses the same chamber and barrel as the tank gun still. Why do you ask?”

“Because I want it to be able to engage all kinds of ground targets when necessary. So you will need to make sure that ballistic tables are prepared for the troops with that ammunition as well as ensuring that the ground mounts have the appropriate direct-fire sights.”

“That should be easy enough to do, Sir. I think that you will also be pleased to learn that production on the new seventeen-pounder tank guns has now begun. The tractor factory has already started mounting them on our stretched Mark II Medium tank chassis.”

“That is great news. I have been getting numerous requests from the British Army, the Australian Army and especially General Patton from the new American Army Volunteer Group. They all want tanks with more firepower and protection for their armored units. They have all seen the reports of advanced new German and Japanese tanks and want to be ready for them. The Germans obviously had to upgrade their own armor after dealing with the Soviets’ massive armor formations. However, the new Japanese tanks are probably far less of the threat even to our previous tank design.” Harold explained.

“We will give them what we can. Our production capabilities are still pretty limited here.”

“I know. We are going to need some help if we are going to supply all of the equipment that we are being asked for. Fortunately, it looks like we might be able to get some of that help soon.”

Cavill Aviation Experimental Hangar

Derby, Western Australia

June 28, 1942

Harold drove up to one of the four underground hangars that had been excavated near the Derby Airfield during the past five years. These bomb-resistant hangars mostly housed Dragonfly and Whirlwind-R fighters for the defense of the Derby area.  This particular hangar was exclusively used by Cavill Aviation for the storage, maintenance and assembly of its latest aircraft designs. The underground location meant that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to get a detailed look at the latest designs being built by Harold’s aircraft division.

Harold entered the hangar through the personnel door and initially stopped to look around. This hanger used one of the larger excavations in order to provide enough space for even twin-engine transports and bombers to be stored inside the chamber. Indeed, a pair of prototype twin-engine transports were located near the entrance of the hangar. It was remarkable to Harold just how closely these particular aircraft resembled transport designs built by both the Americans and the Germans of the era with their twin tail booms and their boxy fuselages.

As Harold continued into the underground hangar, the workers there warmly greeted him. The people who worked for Harold in his various industries were very diverse in their origins. There were white Australians, aborigines, American and German expatriates, all working side by side.

Harold only had to walk a little further before he saw a new twin-engine bomber undergoing modification. As soon as Pappy Gunn saw who was coming, he immediately stopped what he was working on and came over to Harold.

“Good morning, Mister Cavill. I’m glad to see you again.” A smiling Pappy said as he shook Harold’s hand.

“Thank you. I’m glad to see you hard at work. You have been a tremendous help to us here, Pappy. Tell me, how are Polly and your kids doing now?”

“They’re all doing fine. I think that they have finally gained back about all of the weight that they lost while in that damned Japanese concentration camp. I wish that we could have gotten all of our people out of there.”

“I wish that we could have too. Doubtlessly, things are getting worse in the camps for the people who are still there.” Harold sadly replied.

“Just like you, I’m doing all that I can to help us free everyone in the Philippines from those Jap bastards. After she got home, Polly told me a lot of terrible stories about what happened after the Japanese invasion.”

As Pappy spoke, Harold could see the growing anger in Pappy’s eyes. Harold already had a very good idea of the horrors inflicted upon Americans and Filipinos alike at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation based on his computer’s historical records.

Harold quickly changed the subject.

“So what are you working on right now, Pappy?”

All it took was the mention of aircraft and Pappy’s heart was back in its natural environment. Aircraft and flying were always Pappy’s first loves. Talking about aircraft always brought a special joy to Pappy as a result.

“Well, Sir. This is that new prototype bomber that your aircraft factory just finished. It’s not quite as big as one of those North American Mitchell’s, but it is a sweet airplane for sure. It will be a good low-level bomber and torpedo bomber as it is. However, if we are going to really hurt the Japs, we need something that can strafe the hell out of shipping and airfields.”

The bomber did look a lot like an early model B-25 Mitchell, all the way down to the twin tails and the twin fifty-caliber machine guns in the dorsal turret. One major difference was that the pilot and co-pilot sat closer to the nose in a heavily glazed and streamlined forward fuselage. The B-25 had an airline style cockpit that sat back further from the nose.

“I was planning on seeing how many Browning fifty-caliber machine guns that we could pack in the lower part of the nose here. But then someone told me about this big Gatling gun of yours.” Pappy said with a hint of delight in his voice.

“Yes, my ordnance works designed it for shipboard antiaircraft use, but we now also mount it on the back of a large truck as well. The cannon uses the twenty-five millimeter Hotchkiss round. That’s a pretty decent round with the right application.”

“I agree completely, Sir. I’ve already started looking at what it would take to mount your cannon into this airplane. It will take a bit of redesigning of the nose, including moving the nose landing gear over to one side a little bit so that the recoil will still be on the aircraft centerline. But I think that I can stick one of those Gatling guns right up under where the pilots sit. It would also be easy to put a big ammunition drum right into the bomb bay.  You should still have enough payload left to hang a torpedo under the belly, maybe even a few bombs or rockets under the wings too.

With that combination, you could tear the hell out of any Jap transport or destroyer. Those Japanese cruisers probably would not enjoy getting strafed by one of these birds either.”

“That sounds pretty impressive. I will see if we can get one of those guns over to you so that you can look at it. Obviously, it will take a bit more work to convert this bomber here to what you are thinking of.”

“That’s true, Sir. Maybe you can get one or two of the folks who designed this bird to come here and see what they can do to help?”

“I’ll do that, Pappy.”

“Thank you. Polly and I are also wondering if you and your family might like to meet for dinner sometime. It would be nice to have a normal meal after all that has happened. We also want to show your appreciation for helping get my family out of that damned camp.” Pappy replied with a sort of sad smile.

“Pappy, you don’t know just how much I appreciate the work that you are doing out here already.” Harold said with a sad smile of his own while thinking about the billions that died nearly a hundred years in the future.

With all of the work that Harold had done over the past twenty-four years, he still couldn’t be sure if he had made any real difference at all. But Harold still knew that he had to keep trying.

Kriegsmarine Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

June 31, 1942

The commander of the Kriegsmarine was meeting with Hitler’s Minister for War Production at one of the headquarters conference rooms. The meeting concerning the Kriegsmarine’s current needs was not going as either would have preferred though.

“We simply cannot afford to send any more heavy warships out without providing them with air cover.” Admiral Raeder admitted.

“What about the Luftwaffe? Surely they can provide us with long-range aviation assets. Goering continues to trumpet the Luftwaffe as being the masters of the air.” Albert Speer asked.

“That fat fool couldn’t even manage to control the air over England even though the Luftwaffe vastly outnumbered the Englanders’ Royal Air Force. Then there was the debacle over Dunkirk where another one of Goering’s boasts went up in smoke. Goering convinced the Fuhrer to let the Luftwaffe destroy the troops on the beach rather than waste Wehrmacht troops fighting on the ground. The Englanders still managed to retrieve more than a hundred thousand of their troops in addition to thousands of French and other enemy personnel right under the noses of the Luftwaffe.

The Luftwaffe couldn’t prevent the Englanders from heavily damaging Tirpitz with their bombers after she had been immobilized by those damned midget submarines either.”

“So what do you propose, Admiral?”

“We must complete construction on Flugzeugträger Graf Zeppelin as soon as possible. The aircraft carrier will need certain modifications to reflect the bitter lessons that we have learned at the hands of the Englanders’ carriers. We must also begin the conversion of the incomplete Hipper-class Kruzer Seydlitz into a second aircraft carrier. Our program to replace the large number of sunken Zerstorers badly needs to be accelerated so that our heavy ships will have an adequate escort force.”

“Admiral, this will not be enough. We will still need certain other ‘foreign’ assets to supplement our forces.”

“Is this why you were making inquiries about the French ships that remained in Vichy hands?” Admiral Raeder asked.

“Yes. I have talked with several of our naval architects at our shipyards in Kiel. They believe that the French battleship Jean Bart can be modified to operate an adequate number of aircraft while retaining her forward main gun turret. The conversion will take a relatively short period, especially with the assistance of several of our design engineers.

The French also have another aircraft carrier, the Joffre that was under construction at the time of the armistice. Construction could be resumed by the French and completed in less than a year. The French planned to build a sister ship to Joffre, but we believe that it would take far too long for our purposes to have them build it. There are a few other French warships whose construction that we would permit to be completed as well such as their large Zerstorers.”

“Why would the French be willing to build warships for us?  We had only just defeated them on the battlefield two years ago.”

“They would if they thought that the ships would be for their own service. These warships would be using French guns and French ammunition obviously. We would even allow the French to design their own aircraft for use on these ships. Our propagandists could certainly come up with a campaign to convince the French that we are allowing this work to proceed in order to bind the wounds to their pride that their defeat at our hands inflicted. The Vichy leaders would be convinced to go along, of course. It would also devote resources away from other endeavors that could be a problem for us later on.”

“But what happens when the French warships are completed?

“That is a simple thing. We will take control and staff them with our own sailors as soon as these warships are combatworthy. Because of the involvement of our engineers, we will already know how the ships operate. We will even have incorporated features to allow us to replace certain systems with superior German technology as needed.  This will include their light antiaircraft guns. However, French money, steel and manpower will be used instead of draining our own resources. Obviously, we will fly superior German aircraft designs from their decks instead of French aircraft.”

“The French will not be happy about this. They may try to sabotage these vessels before we can use them.”

“Increased security should prevent that. However, when we decide to take control of these ships, we will have to move very quickly to avoid most of the potential ‘unpleasantnesses’. If Goebbel’s people do their job properly, we may very well convince the French fools that we are taking the ships for their own good.” Speer said with a chuckle.

“What of your other technological wonders that you have promised us, Herr Speer? With so many resources being devoted to the Eastern campaign and Hitler’s own insistence that the Kriegsmarine do more with fewer resources, we need all of the help that we can get. The Englanders’ decision to devote all of their escort assets to protecting the shipping lanes to their own ports has made hunting merchantmen much more difficult in most of the Atlantic. On the other hand, our ships and U-Boats have virtually shut down all merchant shipping attempting to reach Soviet ports through the Baltic. It has certainly been a happy time for our men up there. ”

“I hope to make times even happier for the men of the Kriegsmarine in the future. We are designing an entirely new class of submarines that will incorporate many of the lessons that we have learned in the first two years of the war. These U-Boats will be faster and far superior endurance underwater than anything that we have ever built before. They will also be able to fire torpedoes that guide themselves towards the sounds of an enemy ship’s propellers. Unfortunately, it takes time to perfect these innovations.

For the new aircraft carriers, we have now determined that the original plan of using modified versions of the JU-87 Stuka bomber and Messerschmitt ME-109 fighter is inadequate. The Englanders are placing much superior aircraft on their carriers now. We cannot have inferior aircraft on our warships if we are going to win this war. I have ordered that design work begin to modify the Focke Wulf FW-190 fighter for carrier use. The Focke Wulf design has many characteristics that will make it superior to the Messerschmitt for carrier operations.

Messerschmitt, Junkers and Focke Wulf are also all submitting designs for a new carrier-based aircraft that will serve as both a dive bomber and a torpedo bomber. Certainly if the Englanders can do this with their new Buccaneer carrier bomber, we can build something better.

There is also a possibility that the new Arado jet bomber can be adapted for use on our aircraft carriers. It will be considerably more difficult to modify the Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighter for carrier operations because of its high takeoff and landing speed. I know that Messerschmitt is already trying to make those very modifications. Junkers is also trying to adapt one of their new jet fighter designs for carrier use as well. I know very little about their aircraft except that it will only have one engine.”

“This is very interesting. With these new jets, we should be able to sweep the skies clear of enemy aircraft and hit our adversaries’ ships before they are able to react effectively.”

“Yes, our scientists and engineers are performing miracles in a variety of fields in spite of the shortages of so many badly needed materials. I am hopeful that we will finally gain access to those materials with the defeat of the Bolsheviks.

Currently, Rheinmetall and other ordinance manufacturers are designing new Flak guns for the Wehrmacht that can easily be adapted for naval use. One is a 5.5cm Gerät 58 automatic cannon that promises to even outperform the Bofors 4cm cannon that pops up like flowers on the decks of so many enemy ships now. The other is an adaptation of the Mk 103 3cm automatic cannon. A four-barrel mount for this weapon would be utterly devastating against enemy bombers at close range. Both of these new weapons will be installed on our new Zerstorers, Graf Zeppelin and even the battleship Gneisenau when she finally comes out of her reconstruction. We can also refit the new French warships with these new Flak weapons after we confiscate those vessels. ” Speer insisted with a smile.

“These are all very hopeful signs. But how much will you truly be able to deliver with the current allocation of resources? Operation Barbarossa is taking up the lion’s share of all war production as the Wehrmacht attempts to overcome the Bolsheviks in the East.” Admiral Raeder asked.

“If you can continue to prevent shipping from reaching the port of Murmansk, the General Staff has told me that it is optimistic that the Wehrmacht can finally crush the Red Army and capture Moscow. Cutting the snake’s head off usually can kill it. The nightly bombing raids by the Englanders are becoming a problem though. Even if they don’t hit our factories, their bombs are devastating vast portions of our cities. Our rocket program promises to take the war back to our enemies’ cities. It also could assist in the defense of our own land with guided rockets that can reach up and strike down enemy bombers from the skies.”

“We will do our part to overcome our enemies, Herr Speer. Our U-Boats have paid a heavy price for their successes, as have our sailors on the surface. With these new ships and weapons, perhaps the Fuhrer will finally allow me to unleash the full strength of the Kriegsmarine upon our enemies. The ghosts of the men from Bismarck, Scharnhorst and too many of our other great warships demand it.”

Chapter Twelve:

Harold Cavill’s Home

Derby, Western Australia

July 21, 1942

“Your computer database has a lot of information on what history says about the attempts upon Hitler’s life, correct?” Dorothy asked.

“I do have large amounts of information on that subject in the database. They are just a small part of the history files that I brought with me from the future.”

“Let’s help the people trying to depose or kill Hitler succeed then. It can’t help but save lives in the long run.” She said in a matter of fact way.

“How do you propose that we do that, Dorothy?”

“Well, we could use Franz….” Dorothy said with a sly smile. Harold knew that she was referring to Franz Keppler, a German engineer that Harold had hired a decade earlier during one of his trips to the Lurssen shipyards. A couple of years later, Harold had discovered that Franz was also working as an operative for the German Abwehr military intelligence service. Franz was reporting to the Abwehr on what Harold had been doing in his shipyard, though even Franz had no idea about Harold’s special project with the hull of the old Australian battle cruiser.

Harold kept quiet about his discovery for several years while learning about Franz’s own discomfort over the direction of the new Nazi regime. Harold cultivated a close professional working relationship with Franz during that time. But Harold still could not fully trust Franz enough to try to turn him. So instead, Harold had been using Franz as a conduit for disinformation instead.

“The question then is how we can use information that we give to Franz to alter Adolf Hitler’s actions so that instead of avoiding his foes within the Reich, instead Hitler runs right into their hands?”

“I’m sure that you will find something appropriate, Sweetheart. You have always been a very clever man.” Dorothy laughed while giving Harold a quick hug.

“I hope clever enough. Perhaps we can save some innocent lives this way, both now and in the decades to come. I pray that we succeed in this.”

“I remember that your history files showed all of the people in Germany who plotted against Hitler during this war. We could employ that information so that we get our information to the right people.”

“You’ve been searching through the computer again obviously. Dorothy, we have to be very careful with my computer. I just don’t know how long it will last before something fails that I cannot replace. Those devices do not last forever, even in my time. So we have to keep the time that we use the computer to an absolute minimum. There is also the danger that by using the information, we end up making things worse than before.” Harold said with a frown.

“I realize that, Sweetheart. But eventually your computer is going to stop functioning, whether we use it or not. We need to keep searching for information so that we can achieve the goals that you set when you came back here from the future to save humanity. You know what you need to have happen. We just have to find the right combination of events to achieve that goal.”

“That is part of the problem, Dorothy. We may think that we have determined the right path for history to take. But what if we make things worse, not better? The safest changes to make are small ones. If something goes wrong, they are going to be a lot easier to correct. If we make a major change that ends up going in the wrong direction, it may be impossible for us to fix the damage.”

“But we have to do something, Harold. It seems that our enemies are winning virtually everywhere now.” A clearly worried Dorothy insisted.

“Patience, my dear. Things will turn around soon enough, I promise.” Harold replied as he reached out and pulled Dorothy into his arms to comfort her.

HMAS Submarine A1

Formosa Straits

September 4, 1942

Lieutenant Commander Julian Oxford carefully looked around using his periscope to see if any Japanese warships were in the area. This was the Commander Oxford’s first command. The diminutive blond-haired British submariner had been seconded to the Royal Australian Navy after having served as the executive officer onboard the British U-class submarine HMS Ursula. Now, he was in charge of a brand new submarine and sixty sailors, most of whom had never served in combat aboard a submarine before. This boat was also the first submarine to be completed in Harold Cavill’s shipyard.

The Barramundi and its crew had only been on patrol a couple of weeks when it finally got into enemy-controlled waters. They had no idea what would happen next.

“Anything up there interesting, Sir? It’s been a while since most of us have seen the light of day.” Lieutenant William Scott asked from his station in the submarine’s small conning tower.

“Nothing much, so far, Bill. We were strongly advised by the folks who built this boat that if we wanted to stay alive this close to Jap waters, that we needed to rely on that snorkel and stay underwater.”

“Well, I suppose that it’s only appropriate for the Barramundi to be a creature under the water rather than on top of it.” The first officer replied, using the crew’s nickname for the submarine. They had named it after a species of sea bass that was common in northern Australian waters.  Commander Oxford already knew the crew’s nickname for the A1 was the Barramundi. He actually hoped that Australian Admiralty would consider officially naming the submarine that. It seemed so much more personal than a mere letter and number.

While the Barramundi’s crew had a few experienced submariners, it was still a comparatively young crew. The most unusual part of the sixty man crew were the four aborigines there. It took a very rare individual among the aborigines to be willing to be confined inside of a small steel tube for days, if not weeks, on end. But these aborigines were also special for another reason. They had been working for Harold on the new submarines from the very beginning. They also knew the most about the submarine’s new sonar and hydrophone arrays, even more than the former Australian submariners that had been recruited to man Barramundi. These aborigines would be the submarine’s ‘eyes and ears’ while she sailed under the surface of the Formosa Straits.

“Captain, Sir. I hear something on our hydrophones.” Michael Curry, the Barramundi’s chief sonarman quietly said.

For most people, the indicators on the small screen of the hydrophone’s scope looked like little more than a bunch of moving squiggly lines. But for Michael, they were a kind of magic that helped his sensitive ears find where there was another ship out there and even what kind of ship that it was.

Michael began making adjustments on his hydrophone controls, switching from one hydrophone to another to try to get a bearing on the sound. Each of the hydrophones was pointed in a different direction so that the operator can determine in which direction the strongest audio signal was coming from. Everyone in the conning tower was as quiet as if they were in church even though Michael wore the finest audio headphones that Harold could make.

“Sir, the strongest signal is coming about thirty degrees off of our starboard bow. I am also now hearing sounds from multiple ships. I believe that they are warships also. They sound just like the sound recordings of various warship noises that Mister Cavill got from the Royal Navy.”

Like the American navy, the Royal Navy had made audio recordings of foreign warships and cargo ships whenever they had an opportunity. These recordings were then copied onto vinyl albums for training sonar operators. After listening to these recordings, the sonar operators could identity ships by the sounds of their engines and propellers alone.  Michael was very good at making those ship identifications.

“Alright, gentlemen. Let’s go hunting.  Secure the boat from diesel propulsion and stow the snorkel.  Turn thirty degrees starboard to bearing zero three five. Make turns for eight knots and a depth of fifty meters. Tell everyone that we need to avoid making any noises ourselves.”  Commander Oxford ordered as he quickly lowered his periscope.

There were already six torpedoes loaded in the forward torpedo tubes. Like the German Type XXI, this submarine did not have any stern torpedo tubes. Barramundi was built to be a predator of the oceans depths, always hunting and on the attack.

For nearly two hours, Barramundi silently cruised under the ocean’s surface towards the unknown group of warships. Michael continued to listen and provide insight about what Barramundi and her crew were pursuing.

“There are at least eight ships out there. Two of them are certainly very large warships, probably with four screws driving each one. Several of the other ships are probably twin-screw escorts like destroyers. These ships are almost certainly Japanese ships based on how they sound.” Michael quietly explained.

“Very good, mate. Tell us where we need to go to get a good shot on the biggest one, Michael.” The captain requested.

Michael listened carefully into his headset, adjusting his hydrophones and periodically giving instructions for the submarine’s navigator to make small course corrections. Barramundi was getting so close to its intended target that gradually the entire crew started hearing the sounds of twin-screws through the hull as the submarine slipped through the convoy’s defensive screen.

“Are we close enough, Michael?” The captain asked.

Michael simply nodded as he continued his listening to everything around the submarine, including the target that they were stalking.

“Slowly bring us up to periscope depth. Torpedo room, prepare to fire all six torpedoes immediately on my mark.” Captain Oxford quietly ordered.

As soon as Barramundi reached periscope depth, the captain quickly raised his periscope and looked around. He started giving a rapid series of orders after only a couple of seconds.

“Bloody hell. We’ve found ourselves a pair of Jap aircraft carriers. Bearing zero six one. Fire torpedoes….now! Dive to one five zero meters immediately after our last torpedo leaves the tubes.  Change course to one five zero degrees and increase speed to twelve knots. Reload tubes as soon as possible and prepare for depth charges.”

Nearly thirty seconds passed before Michael noticed a rapid increase in speed and radical changes in course for several of the Japanese warships. A few seconds after that, everyone aboard Barramundi heard a series of four loud explosions. By then, the Australian submarine had already passed outside of the defensive perimeter of the convoy.

Everyone aboard the submarine wanted to cheer, but the captain had to quickly ask for silence once again.

“Come on, mates. We are not out of this yet. Let’s keep it quiet for a little while longer so that we can slip away from those Japanese destroyers. You can bet that they are angry as hell at the moment.” Captain Oxford quietly passed along to his crew.

About twenty minutes after the first torpedo was fired, Michael suddenly spoke up.

“We’ve got some queer noises coming from the direction of that ship we torpedoed. I had heard some additional explosions a little while after our torpedoes hit. Now, it sounds almost like someone slowly crushing a beer can.”

Captain Oxford put on a second set of headphones to listen to what Michael had described. Then he remembered what he had heard once before while on HMS Ursula after they had torpedoed an Italian destroyer. He had listened to the sound of that destroyer’s hull breaking up and being crushed underwater as it sank to the bottom.

Then Captain Oxford took off the headphones.

“Let’s keep the celebrations quiet for a while yet. But I wanted you all to know that you just sank your first enemy warship.” The broadly smiling captain announced to his crew.

“Are we going back to get another one, Sir?” One of the crew in the conning tower asked.

“Let’s focus on making sure that we survive this attack first before we start thinking about going for more, Fair Dinkum?”

The crewman nodded with a smile as the submarine continued to quietly slip away from the Japanese that were trying to hunt it down. The sounds of depth charges detonating began to fade in the distance until they stopped altogether.

After they broke off contact with the Japanese convoy, Barramundi remained on patrol for another two months before returning to Darwin. During that time, they made three more attacks on enemy shipping, sinking four transports and a Japanese destroyer. Barramundi’s crew expended eighteen out of the twenty-four torpedoes that they carried aboard her before they returned home.

When Barramundi returned to the Australian Navy base at Darwin, her crew learned to their delight that the aircraft carrier that they had sunk was the fleet carrier Soryu. They had actually hit her with only three torpedoes. The fourth explosion was another one of Barramundi’s torpedoes that had stuck the nearby heavy cruiser Mikuma and badly damaged her.

Captain Oxford and the sixty men of his crew were eager to get back to sea and continue the fight against the Japanese.  But they would not be alone in preparing to strike the Japanese from beneath the ocean’s surface. The Royal Navy’s 4th Submarine Flotilla was also hunting Japanese shipping from their base in Singapore as were fifteen Dutch submarines based out of Surabaya. Unfortunately, most of the Dutch submarine force was obsolete.

But soon, another modern Australian submarine would join the fray. Her impact will be particularly important for the war effort in the long run.

HMAS Submarine B1

South China Sea

December 18, 1942

After the successful maiden patrol of Barramundi came the first patrol for the other new Australian submarine. Like the Barramundi, the B1’s crew had given her their own nickname as well. They called her the Bandfish, after another fish that was found along the Australian coast. As groundbreaking as Barramundi was, Bandfish was even more so because of the unique combination of design features that she incorporated in her spindle-shaped hull.

The RAN submarine Bandfish is ten days into her first patrol. Her current location is in the Sulu Sea between Mindanao and Borneo. Bandfish and her crew of forty-five men are commanded by Lieutenant Commander Winston Alexander, another Royal Navy officer that had been seconded to the RAN.

“It is still a little odd to be traveling underwater with our diesels running.” Bandfish’s First Officer, Lieutenant Mark Stevens noted. This had only been his third patrol aboard a submarine. Unlike Commander Alexander, Lieutenant Stevens had been commissioned in the Royal Australian Navy. But prior to becoming a submariner, the young officer had served on cruisers and other surface ships.

“In these waters, it is far safer than the alternative.”

Just then, Able Seaman Alan Carns, the boat’s sonarman on duty spoke as he was adjusting the controls on his hydrophones.

“I have a contact, bearing one-zero-two, twin shafts, Sir. I estimate that she is maybe going five knots and is about twelve thousand meters from us.”

“Do we have any other contacts?” Captain Alexander asked.

“No, Sir. Just the one.”

“That’s terribly slow for a twin-shaft vessel. Let’s turn to course one-zero-two and see if we can get a closer look at what we have here. Good job.”

“Aye, Sir.”

Bandfish turned and proceeded on their new course at about six knots so that her periscope and snorkel wouldn’t show much of a wake above her.

Commander Alexander continued to search the seas above Bandfish with his periscope as they closed upon the sonar contact.

“Are you sure about that range and bearing on that contact? I don’t see a thing out here.” Bandfish’s captain said, before freezing his scanning of the horizon and focusing on something that he missed before.

“Well, what do we have here?” A curious Commander Alexander quietly said.

He now had his periscope centered on an unknown submarine’s periscope is it slowly cruised less than a kilometer away.

“Battle stations! Immediately secure diesels. Retract the snorkel and go onto battery power. Prepare to load all torpedo tubes.” Commander Alexander quickly ordered in rapid succession.

The unknown submarine was cruising at about four knots. So far, it didn’t seem to be aware of Bandfish’s presence.

“Gentlemen. We have a submerged submarine dead ahead of us. Number One, do we know of any other Allied submarines operating in this area?”

“No, Sir. We are the only one who is supposed to be here right now.”

“Sonar. You were trained on what friendly ships and submarines sound like in addition to enemy ships. Does our target sound familiar to you?”

“No, Sir. She doesn’t sound like any of ours. I believe she’s a Jap boat based on her engine sounds though.” Carns confidently replied.

“I wonder what she is doing out here. Obviously, she is not here to benefit us. Torpedo room, prepare to fire a full salvo of torpedoes with a variety of depths. They should be set between five and ten meters. Our target may be submerged, but she is moving fat and dumb. We are going to try to close the range on her first a little more before we fire though. I don’t want her getting away.”

Commander Alexander carefully watched through the periscope as Bandfish closed on its quarry. He called bearings to his first officer, who plugged them into a lead computing device.

“We have a firing solution, Sir.” Lieutenant Stevens reported.

“Fire all six torpedoes.”

“Fire One…..Fire Two……Fire Three…..Fire Four…..Fire Five….Fire Six.” Lieutenant Stevens called out.

“Sir, all torpedoes appear to be running straight and true. No change with the target.” Sonarman Carns reported.

“Very good. She’s still running slow, dumb and happy, just the way that I prefer my targets.”

“Sir, the target is picking up speed and appears to be turning.” The sonarman reported just before quickly snatching his headphones off to protect his hearing from the imminent detonation.

A deep booming sound could be heard through the entire submarine’s hull as one of the torpedoes struck the unknown submarine and detonated. Almost immediately after the first explosion, there was a rapid series of additional detonations that could be heard and felt through the hull as well.

Sonarman Carns had to wait until the series of explosions subsided before putting his headphones back on again.

“Crikey! I don’t know what those were, but they sure as hell weren’t torpedoes. Anyway, I’m not getting any sounds of a vessel breaking up either on our hydrophones, just something that sounds like bits of metal hitting the ocean floor or something like that.”

“I don’t know about you. But those sure as hell sounded like mines to me going off after our torpedo hit.” Chief Petty Officer Ronald Aspen, the Bandfish’s senior enlisted man, commented.

“I know that we aren’t in the middle of a minefield, are we?” Commander Alexander asserted.

“No, Sir. I don’t think so. If you listened carefully, all of those secondary explosions came from one direction, not spread out like a minefield. Plus mines are supposed to be set up far enough apart when they are laid so that they don’t all explode if one goes off anyway.“ Sonarman Carns explained.

“Well, whatever caused those explosions is bound to draw a lot of unwanted enemy attention towards here. We better get moving and resume hunting at another location. Still, good job, gentlemen.” Bandfish’s captain told everyone before the boat quickly relocated to another part of the Sulu Sea.

Bandfish continued her patrol and sank three Japanese transports and a destroyer before returning home to Darwin.  There, her crew found out that the submarine that they sank was probably the Japanese minelaying submarine I-124. This assessment was based on intercepted Japanese radio transmissions in addition to the Bandfish’s description of the multiple secondary explosions.

During the after action report, Captain Alexander talked to Harold and the Bandfish’s designer. Captain Alexander had a lot to say about his new boat.

“Sir, this is an incredible boat that you have built for us. She unbelievably fast and agile. The Bandfish is so quiet that I could sneak up on anything in the Japanese Navy without them hearing us. But we need better torpedoes, if we are going to be able to take full advantage of her.“ The Bandfish’s commander explained during his after-patrol debriefing.

“How so, Commander? Your report says that you had no malfunctions with the torpedoes that you used during your patrol.” Harold asked.

“That’s true. However, if we are going to be hunting Jap submarines, we have to have some means of ‘telling’ the torpedo where to go. I had to fire a full spread of six torpedoes to sink just one Jap submarine. That was a third of my entire torpedo load. Since this boat doesn’t have any guns to speak of, we have to be able to make every single torpedo count. Otherwise, we could end up going home with empty tubes and perhaps very little to show for it.”

Harold thought for a few moments. All of the submarines in his time used homing torpedoes of one form or another. Many torpedoes were also wire-guided until they were close enough to use their own sonar homing equipment for terminal guidance.  One of his companies actually built the guidance electronics used by Australian Navy torpedoes at the time of the final war.

When Harold started building Barramundi and Bandfish, he had actually also started considering what kinds of appropriate technology that could be incorporated into them to improve their effectiveness.  Dorothy had found references in the computer database to the German use during the Second World War of torpedoes that homed in on the sound that other ships made. It should be an easy enough task to build something similar to the German ‘Fox’ acoustic homing torpedo.

The bigger question now was how many homing torpedoes that Harold’s companies could actually produce.  The industrial facilities that he owned or at least controlled were already working at nearly full capacity. There was also the issue of security concerning any element of technology that Harold wanted to introduce, even with it being within the overall technology level of the period.

But, now that he opened the door to the idea of submarines actively hunting other submarines, Harold needed to make sure that his people would have the best tools that he could offer, even if in only limited quantities. This was especially the case since there were only two more submarines even under construction in his shipyards. There was just no more room there to build more because of all of the other ships under construction at the shipyard.

“I think that we might be able design and build a torpedo that homed in on the sound that another ship made.  It would take a few months for us to come up with something for you and your men to use against the Japanese.” Harold offered.

“Would it also work against other submarines, Sir?”

I suppose so. You would still have to be able to accurate determine the depth of whatever you were shooting at. I don’t currently have the means to change the torpedo depth after it has been fired.”

“I will have to think about that. I’m sure that we can come up with a tactic that would work and reduce the number of torpedoes needed. In any event, we appreciate whatever you can give to us to help though, Sir.”

A week later, the Commander of Royal Navy forces in Southeast Asia was at his office with one of his senior staff officers, discussing recent events.

“Sir, you read Bandfish’s report about the Japanese submarine that they sank during their last patrol, didn’t you?” Captain George Robinson asked.

“Yes, I did. They did very well for a first patrol in a brand new submarine, I must say.” Admiral Phillips noted as he drank a cup of tea at his desk.

“I thought that the most interesting part was about the submarine that they sank. Apparently, the Japanese sent out a mine-laying submarine in our direction. What do you think was its objective, Sir?”

“I have been thinking about that myself, Captain. Normally, you don’t send a submarine to lay defensive mines. So that would mean that the Japanese were intending to lay mines off of one or more of our ports. We will need to redouble our minesweeping efforts in the event another one of their minelayers reaches one of our ports.”

“I agree, Sir. We will have to requisition some more trawlers and fit them with mine sweeping gear as soon as possible. But there is another issue involved as well. Perhaps we should begin an offensive minelaying operation of our own against the Japanese? It could keep a great many of their ships in port instead of attacking us. Laying minefields outside of the main Japanese harbors could also damage or sink enough of their ships to greatly affect the war. Mines are also a very inexpensive way of fighting back against the Japanese while buying us time to build up our forces.”

“Yes, you are correct in all of your points, Captain. The biggest problem that we have however is that we have a lack of suitable platforms. Obviously, we can’t send surface ships in to lay those minefields. They would not survive the first attempt. We also don’t have many minelayers at all around here in any event.”

“We will have to find some way to deliver the mines, Sir.”

“Well, Captain. That is now going to be your job. You let me know what you need. I will see if I can provide you the resources.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Captain Robinson responded, not knowing for sure if this new tasking would be a blessing or a curse.

Royal Navy Catalina Flying Boat

Haiphong, French Indochina

January 25, 1943

As Captain George Robinson looked down upon the French Indochinese port of Haiphong from the Catalina flying boat’s side gunner blister, he saw the principal object of his upcoming discussion, the French submarine cruiser Surcouf. For a submarine, she was a huge craft. It could easily see the potential for what Admiral Phillips and the people from the Australian shipyard at Derby had proposed.

The hard part would be to convince the French naval commander, Admiral Muselier, to allow the Australians to make the modifications to Surcouf and then to allow the Coalition to direct the submarine’s activities afterwards.

“One step at a time.” Captain Robinson said to himself as he sat down in preparation for the Catalina’s landing in Haiphong harbor.

An hour later, Captain Robinson arrived at Admiral Muselier’s office where an aide quickly ushered the British naval officer inside.

“Good morning, Monsieur Amiral. How are you doing today?” Captain Robinson asked after rendering a sharp salute to the Admiral.

“I am doing well. Thank you, Capitaine. What brings you out here from Singapore to our lovely port of Haiphong? I was informed only a few hours ago by Admiral Phillips of your visit.”

“I wanted to discuss with you the issue of initiating a naval mine campaign against the Japanese. We would like to begin mining as many of the principal Japanese ports as possible within the next few months.  This operation would use a combination of aerial and naval mine-laying platforms. Unfortunately, we have few aircraft that have the range and payload necessary to reach the Japanese home islands, much less survive to return from the mission.”

“The idea of mining enemy ports is a very good concept. What about using aircraft launched from your aircraft carriers to deliver the mines?”

“We considered that already. We could perhaps use carrier aircraft to deliver some of the mines. However, the most effective minefields would need to be laid covertly so that the enemy would not have the opportunity to attempt to clear the mines until after some of their ships have already hit mines. The best way to do this is through the use of submarines to deliver the mines.”

“You want us to deliver the mines for you, Capitaine?”

“We need your help to deliver only some of them, Sir. We have started some mine-laying using mines launched through submarine torpedo tubes. Many of our submarine captains are not overly pleased about replacing some of their torpedoes with mines, of course. We also have people already designing special mine-delivery modules to fit onto existing submarines so that our commanders will not have to give up their torpedoes.  However, one of your submarines would be especially helpful because of its size.”

“You are talking about Surcouf, aren’t you?” Admiral Muselier warily asked.

“Yes, Monsieur Amiral. We know that you have already been using her to attack Japanese shipping and even some of their island garrisons with her guns.  But Surcouf has had some near-disastrous encounters with Japanese aircraft and escort ships that she was very fortunate to escape from. What we propose is to convert her to be able to deploy large numbers of naval mines. We would take her into an Australian shipyard and upgrade her in a variety of ways. We know that Surcouf is badly in need of a refit anyway.”

Admiral Muselier grimaced for a moment. Surcouf had indeed had problems during the last two raids due to the amount of time that it took her to dive. However, she was too important of a unit to completely sideline. Yet at the same time, the French admiral needed to find a use for Surcouf that would not risk her loss. He was very curious about what the British had in mind. He also wanted to know just how much the British knew about the submarine’s operations and how they learned about them.

“We would have to remove her scout plane, her motor boat and her external torpedo tubes in order to add the mine-laying equipment. Once that work has been completed, she would have the potential then of being able to sink far more enemy ships with considerably less risk. This will be especially true after we upgrade her to use a snorkel device and give her new batteries. Surcouf will be able to operate underwater for far longer this way.” Captain Robinson continued.

“This is an intriguing proposal that you have here. I must say that such operations would take away the thrill of directly attacking and sinking enemy shipping for her crew. However, if we are able to slip in under the nose of the enemy and shut down his ports, that would have its own sense of accomplishment as well.”

“Surcouf will still have the ability to engage the enemy with her main torpedoes and her guns after these modifications have been completed.

However, she would be better able to do so and escape to fight again after she has delivered her load of mines. Then she can enjoy the triumph of her efforts for months to come. Don’t you agree, Monsieur Amiral?”

“I will have to bring this proposal to the attention of Surcouf’s Capitaine.  I believe that his opinion on this matters as well. But what you want to do has considerable merit, I must admit.”

“I understand. Incidentally, we have learned that the Japanese have already started using their own dedicated mine-laying submarines to begin to lay offensive minefields against us. One of the Australian submarines sank just such a submarine a short while ago. We truly believe that we must shut down the enemy’s ports before they have the opportunity to shut down our own ports, including the one here at Haiphong.” Captain Robinson said just before he turned to leave Admiral Muselier’s office.

Just after Captain Robinson’s departure, Admiral Muselier picks up the phone on his desk and asks for Surcouf’s captain to come to the Admiral’s office.

“I hate it when the damned British are the ones who come up with a good idea when a Frenchman should have thought of it in the first place.” The Admiral grumbled out loud while standing by the window and looking out over the harbor.

French Naval Shipyard

Toulon, France

January 28, 1943

Captaine de frigate Francois Combs drove his car that morning to the naval shipyards at Toulon on what he felt was a special occasion. It was going to be the beginning of sea trials for the first two new major French warships since the signing of the peace treaty with Germany.

It had taken months of negotiations with the Germans to obtain permission to resume construction on Jean Bart and Joffre. Virtually the entire French navy, except for a few cruisers and destroyers, had either been destroyed in battle or had defected to join the renegades of the so-called ‘Free French Navy’.

Now, the French Navy would have two of the most modern and innovative warships in the world, Francois felt. Both of the newly commissioned ships would be capable of operating dozens of aircraft from their flight decks.

The aircraft carrier Joffre would be the first French aircraft carrier built from the keel up for that purpose. The Jean Bart had been built originally as a sister ship to the battleship Richelieu. But she could not be completed prior to the German military victory over the French.  Only half of her main armament had been installed and practically none of her secondary weapons were aboard as well.

The Germans would not allow the French Navy to complete Jean Bart as a battleship. The Vichy government did not have the financial means to produce more of Jean Bart’s thirty-eight centimeter main guns after the sabotage of the production plant by the Resistance in any event. However, at the suggestion of the German representative to the Vichy government, the French Navy began a project to convert the Jean Bart to a hybrid configuration.

Jean Bart still had her four main guns in a quadruple turret forward. But above the main deck, the ship had been gutted and reconstructed with a large hangar and flight deck aft of the turret. A large island on the starboard side of the flight deck contained the bridge, the funnel and a main battery fire control director for Jean Bart’s big guns. In sponsons along the sides of the flight deck, the large warship had four pairs of twin ten-centimeter antiaircraft guns. In addition to those weapons, the island and flight deck edges had several dozen thirty-seven and twenty-five millimeter antiaircraft guns to deal with close-in defense. Finally, a pair of fourteen-centimeter guns in casemates on each side of the warship’s stern protected the rear of the ship from surface threats. These weapons had been salvaged from other French warships that had been sunk in port by the Germans or by their own crews.

Joffre had been completed in her planned configuration with a flight deck that was offset to port to compensate for the mass of her large island structure. The carrier was armed with four twin turrets, each armed with thirteen-centimeter dual-purpose naval rifles. The turrets were superimposed, fore and aft, of the main island structure like in the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. Like Jean Bart, Joffre was also armed with dozens of lighter weapons for close defense against enemy aircraft.

Both warships were festooned with flags and bright banners in preparation for their first sea trials. The only things that seemed to be missing were aircraft on their flight decks.

Francois saw that his friend, Captaine Pierre Dassault was standing on the pier looking at the two French warships.

“Isn’t this a wonderful morning for the French Navy, Pierre?” Francois proudly said as he walked up to exchange salutes.

Pierre returned the salute but then immediately looked back at the towering battleship-carrier docked next to him. Francois’ friend did not appear to be nearly as enamored with what he was looking at.

“Captaine, aren’t you the least bit concerned about how willing the Boche were to allow us to construct these warships? It is hardly the act of a conquering power to allow its conquests to rebuild their arms.” Pierre calmly asked.

“I don’t care about motives. I only care that we finally have ships under the French flag that are larger than a mere light cruiser. Soon, we will have an entire flotilla of new large destroyers to operate with them as well. Then French sailors will, once again, be able to have pride in our navy.”

“Honestly, Francois. I was far prouder when our ‘renegades’ bravely fought the Fascist fleet on the way to Alexandria.”

“But what are they doing now? They are being lapdogs to the English both in the Mediterranean and in the Far East.”

“You don’t honestly believe that garbage that is coming out of the mouths of the Vichy government. You know that everything that they say comes out with a German accent.  The Germans are the ones actually running things in Paris, regardless of what the treaty says.”

“You need to be very careful about what you are saying, Pierre. There are many here who would consider your words to be treasonous.”

“Treasonous to whom? France or Germany? I am simply saying that we must be very concerned about what we are actually accomplishing here and who would truly benefit from it. We are building aircraft carriers, yet our aircraft factories have yet to produce a single aircraft capable of operating from them. Yes, I know the reports of how much work is being done on building the best carrier-borne aircraft in the world for our ships to use.

So, I can’t help but wonder who would benefit from these ships being constructed. Are the Boche simply having France waste its resources and attention on building a pair of white elephants? Or do the Boche have plans of their own for our shiny new ships?”

“We would never allow the Boche to take control of our warships, Pierre.” Francois emphatically insisted.

“Tell me, my friend. What could we do to stop them if the Boche decided otherwise?” The other French officer said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Francois said nothing in reply. He knew that Pierre was correct. Still, Francois did not want to abandon all hope for the French Navy. He could see just across the shipyard at the four new heavy destroyers that were under construction. These warships were based on the large Mogador-class destroyers. Two of the new ships, Kléber and Desaix, already had their four twin-gun turrets mounted. Their thirteen-centimeter dual-purpose guns combined with the latest French automatic antiaircraft cannons and twelve fifty-five centimeter torpedo tubes would give these ships an extremely powerful armament.

Even Francois did not want the Germans to get their hands on those new warships, much less Jean Bart and Joffre. Unfortunately for Francois and his hopes, the Germans were indeed planning on seizing all of the French Navy’s newest and finest ships when the time was ripe. However, the Germans were quite willing to wait patiently until the French had expended their own resources constructing the ships first.

Chapter Thirteen:

German High Command Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

February 7, 1943

It was late in the night just outside of the large gray structure. A pair of men had met outside, just out of earshot of any guards. One of the men was in uniform while the other wore a long, dark civilian overcoat and fedora hat that differed little from the common outfits worn by Gestapo agents.

“This war is going to end up being an unmitigated disaster for Germany. That madman has forced us into a two-front war that is bleeding us dry. The only thing keeping us from collapsing right now is that the Americans have been too hesitant to get involved in Europe. You can be sure that Churchill has been pushing every day for the Americans to commit their vast industrial resources and equally vast military potential against us.

We have neutralized the French and virtually the rest of Europe. We honestly don’t need to conquer the Englanders to achieve our national goals. We just need to defeat the Bolsheviks. If we can find some way for a détente with England, then we can focus our efforts to the East and crush Stalin. We already know that Stalin is equally determined to destroy us, even before Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa.” The shadowy uniformed figure said with a Prussian accent.

“Right now, Hitler is the problem. He has already cost us hundreds of thousands of unnecessary casualties with his childish ‘no retreat’ orders. We can defeat the Red Army if we have the tactical flexibility at our fingertips to adapt to the tactical situation.

Then there is Hitler’s prioritization of resources. I know that he despises the Juden and wants to eliminate them as an influence on Europe. But to give priority for critical transport to moving Juden to camps over sending supplies to our troops. That is utter madness.”

“I agree, comrade. We must do something about this soon. So now, let’s see if we can nudge Hitler to stick to his travel plans for once. This time, he has an appointment that he must not miss.” The trench coat-clad agent working indirectly for Harold noted. While the agent was not sure of the man’s exact identity, he did recognize that the older German was wearing a general officer’s uniform.

Adolf Hitler’s Personal Condor Transport

Somewhere over Western Ukraine

February 15, 1943

“Herr Führer, we have just received a report that Soviet fighters are massing less than fifty kilometers away from General Guderian’s field headquarters. The risk to you is far too great to fly there, I believe. Therefore, I strongly recommend that we continue on to our original destination of Walki near Poltava to visit Heeresgruppe B Headquarters there.” Hauptmann Fredrick Klausman formally told the Nazi leader after walking back from the transport’s cockpit.

Hitler thought for a few moments before responding. He always had this uncanny sense of knowing when danger lurked around the corner. This sense had always served him well over the years in avoiding multiple assassination attempts. He would unexpectedly change travel plans on what appeared to be a whim as a result of this sense of danger. He felt it once again here. Was the threat at his planned visit to Poltava or was it the new report of enemy aircraft massing near his intended new destination? Unfortunately, even the specially outfitted Focke-Wulf 200 Condor transport aircraft that Hitler was aboard would be no match for swarms of Soviet Yak fighters, even with the transport’s normal escort force of Messerschmitt fighters.

A conflicted Hitler finally scowled, “Very well. Resume your course toward Poltava, Hauptmann. But send no radio transmissions to anyone. I do not want to take any further risks on this journey.”

The Nazi leader fidgeted nervously for the next forty-five minutes until the Condor began to make its final approach to the airstrip at Walki. There were three Condors flying together so that no one could be able to determine which one Hitler was in.

To the casual observer, everything seemed to be in order. German soldiers stood at the ready all along the airfield. There were numerous vehicles lined up at one end of the runway with a group of German officers clearly standing next to them. The officers were all wearing their standard issue gray uniform great coats.

On the surface, all seemed to be in order. But there was still something in the air that unnerved Hitler as his transport touched down on the snow-covered grass runway. The other two Condors had already landed and each had a cordon of German troops surrounding them. But they had been kept some distance away from Hitler’s Condor.

First to exit the Führer’s Focke-Wulf were two squads of Hitler’s personal bodyguards. They joined a company of elite SS bodyguards that had been flown to Poltava a few hours earlier. Other groups of SS troops had been transported at the same time to half a dozen other possible landing sites to help deceive any potential assassins as to Hitler’s final destination.

Finally, Hitler exited the transport, accompanied closely by two of his personal aides. He walked out towards the group of senior officers waiting about fifty meters away. The German leader recognized Army Group B’s Chief of Staff General Hubert Lanz as well as Colonel Count von Strachwitz, the commander of the Grossdeutschland Tank Regiment. They were standing together with several other senior German officers. Hitler was about halfway there when he noticed that none of his bodyguards that had arrived earlier were armed. Each of them did have an armed Wehrmacht soldier standing behind him however.

One of the bodyguards attempted to blurt out a warning, but was immediately struck over the head by a rifle butt wielded by the soldier behind him.

Hitler’s bodyguards that had traveled with him attempted to bring their weapons to bear on the soldiers now surrounding the Führer. But the SS were either quickly disarmed by German soldiers that had slipped in behind them and had been waiting for just such a move. Other troops loyal to General Lanz quickly stormed the Condor and overwhelmed the crew so that they could not bring the transport’s weapons to bear on Hitler’s captors.

Hitler and his aides were immediately disarmed and stood there as the group of senior German officers that were waiting nearby walked up.

“Adolf Hitler, you are under arrest for usurping the lawful government of the German state. You are also charged with multiple additional capital crimes against the German people and state.” General Lanz declared.

Hitler refused to consider himself a prisoner. In fact, he stood up even straighter and spoke as though he still was in charge there.

“How dare you assume that you have any authority over me, traitor. I speak and act for the German people. You are nothing but a coward and a Communist.”

“No, Herr Hitler. You are the one who is the real traitor. You have betrayed the German people and caused them untold death and destruction. Hundreds of thousands of brave German soldiers have died unnecessarily because of your orders here on the Eastern Front as well. We are here to bring an end to your National Socialist regime, once and for all.” Colonel von Strachwitz interjected.

Another officer with General Lanz drew his Luger and waved it in a threatening manner while walking towards Hitler. But all of the strength and bluster that Hitler showed the world began to crumble now as he saw the muzzle of the Luger pointed at him.

Hitler carried with him a cyanide capsule in the event that his aircraft would ever be forced down behind enemy lines. He was terrified of the idea of facing captivity at the hands of the Soviets. The Nazi leader never dreamed that he would be facing imprisonment by his own countrymen however. Hitler refused to submit to the humiliation of a trial that knew would be stacked against him.

Hitler’s eyes quickly searched around for any sign of a way out of his captivity. He was completely surrounded. The conspirators had ensured that no one else could really see what was happening. Unfortunately for Hitler, all of his loyal aides and bodyguards had already been either killed or had been captured and disarmed. The situation was clearly hopeless for the Nazi leader.

In desperation, Hitler pretended to cough violently so that he could reach his cyanide capsule in a secret pocket within of his tunic. Once he reached the capsule, Hitler quickly popped it into his mouth and crushed it with his teeth.

Within a few moments, Hitler collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth. Several German soldiers rushed to Hitler’s side, including several of the senior officers responsible for Hitler’s arrest. They arrived just in time to hear the Nazi leader say his final words.

“I live and die for the Aryan people.” Hitler gasped before one last final shudder. Then he was still.

A group of senior German officers quickly walked up to Hitler’s prone body and surrounded it, hiding it from the sight of the SS troops still at the other transports.

Major General Dr. Hans Speidel looked over the Führer’s dead body for a few moments before finally saying.

“We are finally rid of the Bohemian bastard. It is a damned shame that we could not have done it in time to save von Paulus and the thousands of brave German soldiers that died or were captured with him at Stalingrad. But for now, what will we do next?”

“We must purge the Fatherland of all of the National Socialist Party leaders if we are to find a way to preserve our nation from our enemies.”

“How will we do that without incurring the ire of all of Hitler’s supporters? We could spawn a civil war within the Fatherland that would allow our enemies to defeat us even more quickly.”

General Speidel pondered over the question for a couple of minutes before responding with a dour look on his face.

“As much as I hated Adolf Hitler, I am afraid that we must use him as a martyr and temporarily conceal his crimes from the German people. We can use his death as a means of purging the other high-ranking members of his inner circle and while uniting the people of the Fatherland to achieve our own political and military goals.”

“Do you have a plan to achieve this end, General?”

“Yes, I believe so. First, we must ensure that everyone here is either with us or is tied up and aboard the Führer’s Condor. That includes keeping everyone from the other two Condors away from here. Then we need to find a loyal pilot and someone else who can accurately forge Hitler’s signature.”

Two hours later at dusk, Hitler’s Condor took off from the airfield as though nothing suspicious had ever happened. The other two Condors quickly followed it, with the entire formation being surrounded by a protective sphere of Luftwaffe fighters. The formation had turned northwest in the darkness, but no one could see a single crewman bailing out of Hitler’s Condor shortly after it reached its cruising altitude and the autopilot had been set. The pilot did not open his parachute immediately. He wanted to ensure that no one from the other aircraft saw him.

The pilot waited until it was almost too late before opening his parachute. Ironically, he was the only person on the plane who was not either dead or securely bound. Just before his chute opened, the pilot saw the Führer’s Condor explode in a huge ball of fire.

“Now get me someone who can be trusted and who can forge the Fuhrer’s handwriting, now!” General Lanz ordered after receiving word of the Condor’s explosion and crash.

Within days, a series of private papers purported to have been written by Hitler himself was ‘found’ and quickly declared as authentic. These papers claimed that a group of high-ranking figures in the German government had been conspiring to overthrow the Nazi regime. It just happened that the ‘conspirators’ were all among Hitler’s closest allies and that the papers were completely fraudulent.

Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, Commander of Army Group Center quickly lent his support to General Lanz as did General Erwin Rommel upon learning the news of Hitler’s death. They had both received private messages via courier about the true circumstances of Hitler’s demise. Within a matter of a few days, the vast majority of the German High Command had expressed their support of General Lanz. A few commanders expressed their reservations, mostly among the Waffen SS, but the solidarity supporting General Lanz was quickly overwhelming.

The forged documents with Hitler’s signature claimed that high ranking members of the Nazi party were responsible for the explosion on Hitler’s aircraft and the Führer’s death. This led to the arrest of virtually all of Hitler’s confidants as well as the entire Nazi party leadership. The documents also claimed that these Nazi leaders were working in concert with Stalin to engineer the defeat of Germany and the establishment of a Bolshevik government in Berlin. The immediate response by the German people was a near-unanimous call for a redoubling of the war effort on the Eastern front. All SS units were placed on the leading edge of the front lines, especially those units most loyal to Hitler.

The forged letters would soon be joined by other forged documents purportedly signed by Hitler that called for the closure of the death camps and the relocation of all of Europe’s Jewish population to Palestine.

Needless to say, one of Hitler’s most strident allies, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was very upset when he heard of this.

“How in Allah’s name is this possible? Hitler told me that he not only wanted to get rid of all of the Jews in Europe, he was going to eliminate them in Palestine as well.” Mohammed Amin al-Husseini complained from his comfortable quarters in Berlin.

“Herr Fuhrer is not here any longer to explain his decisions, I’m afraid.” Martin Reichmann told al-Husseini.

“I need to leave to travel to Palestine as quickly as possible. I must organize resistance to this Zionist horde.” The Muslim cleric demanded.

“I am afraid that you must remain here, Herr al-Husseini. I have my orders restricting you to this compound.”

“Will I be allowed to communicate to my fellow Muslims elsewhere?”

“Nein. My orders are that you are to remain incommunicado until further notice. Otherwise, you are to be treated well here.”  Martin curtly replied.

After a few moments of contemplation, al-Husseini turned away and looked out the window into the courtyard, seething with anger and helplessness. Silently, he promised himself that he would find a way to make a way to rid the world of all of the Jews. He would also find a way to make the Germans pay for all of the promises that they had broken to him.

German High Command Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

March 1, 1943

“Now that Hitler is dead and the rest of the Nazi party leaders are either dead or have been arrested, I say that we immediately sue for peace. We have lost enough good men for no good reason.” Colonel Ernst Strudel declared.

“No. We must not stop until the job is done. Otherwise, the Bolsheviks will return in a year or two in force to finish us instead. We must end this conflict from a position of strength if we are going to achieve true peace and security for the German people.” Field Marshall Erwin Rommel bluntly remarked as he walked into the room followed by Wehrmacht Field Marshalls, Gerd von Rundstedt, Erich von Manstein, Walter Model and Generals Heinz Guderian, Hubert Lanz, Hans Speidel as well as Luftwaffe Field Marshall Albert Kesselring and General Adolf Galland. Trailing behind the others was Admiral Karl Donitz and Wilhelm Canaris; the head of the Abwehr, Germany’s military intelligence service.

“What do you propose that we do then, Herr Field Marshall?”

“We finish the job of destroying the Bolshevik state and help set up friendly states to provide us with a defensive buffer to the East. Then we approach the Allies with an offer for peace with the condition that we return Germany back to her original borders. This must include all of the lands that were taken from us as a result of that damned Versailles treaty.”

“They will never accept such an offer. There has been too much blood shed by our adversaries in the West.”

“You are right in one way. There has been too much blood shed already. But, this is exactly why the Englanders will eventually accept our offer.  The American people are not very enthusiastic about sending hundreds of thousands of their young men to die in a European war. In fact, they are still attempting to deal with the war that they are being forced to fight thousands of miles from their Western coastline. Without heavy American support, even Prime Mister Churchill will have to consider a negotiated peace with us under terms that are much more acceptable to the German people.

Hitler and his Nazi party started this war. Fortunately, they are no longer in power here. So we can tell the world that we are working to eradicate the evil perpetrated by the Nazi’s. But at the same time, we are also working to help liberate millions of people who have been enslaved by the Bolsheviks. When Germany is no longer under threat by the Soviets, then we will seek a just peace for our people. At the same time, we can claim the moral high ground of liberating the people who had been by the Bolsheviks for the past two and half decades.”

“What about our other fronts, Herr Field Marshal?”

“We will consolidate our defensive lines while at the same time quietly informing certain of our adversaries of our intent. I think that the Englanders will be receptive to our overtures. They have managed to secure their supply lines from North America anyway. It was a very smart, if not cynical, move on the Englanders part to divert all of their escort resources to the mid-Atlantic rather than the Northern Atlantic routes to the Soviet ports. If we suspend offensive operations against the Englanders, we will be able to focus more of our resources towards the Bolsheviks as well.”

“We have suffered most of our U-Boat losses in the mid-Atlantic also. But our operations to stop shipping going to Murmansk have been very successful.” Admiral Donitz added.

“We will also need to do something about the Juden issue. The Nazi Party placed such a high priority upon the extermination camps that even supplies to our troops on the front lines were delayed as a result.” Field Marshall von Rundstedt noted.

“How the hell did those people in Berlin expect us to win a war with such foolishness?” General Guderian angrily asked.

“First, we are completely stopping the deportations to the concentration camps. The camps contribute nothing to our war effort and sap away thousands of troops that are badly needed on the front lines. Then we are going to finally focus our energies on what must be our primary objective, the destruction of the Bolshevik state. Admiral Donitz will continue to focus his energies on completely stopping any shipping from reaching Soviet ports.” Rommel said with Admiral Donitz and the other Field Marshals nodding their heads in agreement.

“We should resume transporting the Juden to Palestine through the expansion of the Haavara
Agreement. We have already sent about sixty-thousand of them to Palestine. We can easily send many tens of thousands more in the same manner if we commandeer all suitable shipping in Greece and load the former prisoners onboard them for the journey to Palestine. We will simply tell the world that we are sending the former residents of the detainment camps to a place of safety. The West will not be able to say anything without embarrassing themselves about how little they had done to help protect the Juden from the Nazis.” Von Rundstedt replied.

“We have already started moving the Juden south in preparation for this very thing.” General Lanz interjected.

“The British will not be happy about this. The Arabs living now in Palestine will rise up rather than allow more of the Juden to live there. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem has long insisted that Hitler exterminate the Jews already in Palestine in addition to the ones in Europe.” Colonel Strudel warned.

“Let the Englanders worry about it then. It will tie up thousands of their troops in the south just to keep order in the Mandate. That will keep them from bothering us while we focus on destroying the Bolsheviks.” Field Marshal von Rundstedt said with a knowing smile.

“How will the movement of the Juden to Palestine affect our current situation with rail transport? We need to have more supplies moving east to support our troops fighting the Bolsheviks. We have already lost enough tonnage moving those people to the camps.”

“We should let the logisticians worry about that. They will probably load the empty rail cars coming back west through Poland and the Ukraine with the Juden. Then further transport will be arranged to move them to southern ports for the final leg of their journey to Palestine. Let us see if the Englanders try to stop those ships. The world outrage will be most embarrassing for them.” Rommel noted.

“Let’s get back to conducting the war itself. The Luftwaffe will be focusing its efforts on defending the Fatherland from aerial bombardment, providing close support to our troops and destroying the Bolshevik’s ability to produce weapons to fight us with. We are beginning to produce an increasing number of the new jet fighters and bombers in order to accomplish this task. However, we must have adequate fuel supplies to be able to sustain operations.” General Kesselring declared.

That will mean that we must not only defend our Rumanian allies’ oil fields, but that we must obtain other petroleum supplies as well, either from the Caucasus or from the Arab nations that produce it.” General Lanz noted.

“I have been assured by Minister of Production Speer that we will also have additional fuel production from our coal conversion plants as well to support our military needs. But they must be protected from American and British bombers.” Rommel replied.

“Allow us to have sufficient resources for our new jet fighters and we will keep the Allied bombers at bay.” General Galland responded with a smile, having already flown the prototype ME-262 jet fighter himself. He personally knew the potential of the new jets.

“I will talk to Minister Speer about this. The Fatherland must be protected from British and American bombers. But, we also need something else from the Luftwaffe as well. The Bolsheviks moved much of their military-related industry east of the Ural Mountains to avoid it being captured by our advancing troops. If your people can hit these newly relocated factories with your bombers, the enemy forces will not be able to resupply their troops with new weapons.”

“Our jet bombers do not yet have the range to reach beyond the Urals. That will require a more conventional piston engine design. Obviously, we cannot afford to field thousands of heavy four-engine bombers like the Americans and British. We also do not want to send hundreds of skilled German airmen to their graves each day, as the Americans and British have done with their bomber crews already.” Kesselring grimly smiled before continuing.

“However, we may be able to significantly reduce the number of bomber aircraft needed to effectively hit a given target using the new radio-controlled bombs that have been developed by our scientists. These advanced weapons will reduce the number of aircraft needed by a factor of at least ten or twenty. There are three or four new four-engine and six-engine designs from the Amerika Bomber program being tested currently. Each of them will be able to carry two to four of these guided bombs in a single sortie. Kurt Tank’s six-engine TA-400 and Ernst Heinkel’s four-engine He-277 are now the leading contenders for this mission at this point. The others have a variety of design issues that have yet to be dealt with. But both designs will be able to operate at altitudes that will make it very difficult for the Bolsheviks to intercept our bombers.”

“Will the Bolsheviks be able to develop counter-measures against the radio controls that you use for these guided bombs?”

“Perhaps they will eventually, but I am sure that we will develop the means to restore the weapons’ effectiveness as well in that event.”

“I understand that we are not the only ones using radio-guided bombs.” General Lanz commented.

“That is correct. Apparently, small numbers of these weapons are being used by the Western Allies, principally in the Pacific theatre of operations. Our operatives indicate that the bombs were developed and produced by a factory in northwest Australia. The industrialist who owns this factory has produced remarkably advanced materiel for the Australian and British militaries, though in relatively small numbers in almost all cases.

We have been attempting to acquire and study examples of the equipment produced at this industrialist’s factories to see if we can take advantage of the technology. We have had little success so far. The industrialist himself is quite intriguing with very little available information on his origins other than he is from Australia. This man’s name is Harold Cavill. He is a mystery to many in spite of the fact that he had substantial contacts with German corporations prior to the war. Herr Cavill also appears to have very high level access to the British leadership including Churchill himself. We have received several reliable reports that he may have been behind the British decision to significantly reduce their support to the Bolsheviks. He may even have influenced decisions between the wars that have strengthened British and Australian military capabilities.

Herr Cavill certainly shares our hatred of the Bolsheviks based on other pieces of intelligence that we have been able to obtain about him.”

“Admiral Canaris, is there anything that you can do to perhaps enlist his aid in our objectives? Perhaps this man can be convinced to use his influence with Churchill.”

“I don’t know yet. I can try to send someone to make contact with this Harold Cavill and see if he might be open to assisting us in this matter. He has been involved in some business matters with the Lurssen shipyards in the past, I understand. Perhaps we can use that particular avenue to make our introduction.”

“I doubt that would work with our shipyards not having any current contacts with their counterparts in the Commonwealth. However, I understand that Herr Cavill has attempted to make contact in the past with one of Werner Von Braun’s brothers just prior to the beginning of the war.

Sigismund Von Braun happens to work in the Foreign Service. Our Australian friend wanted to talk to Werner when he made contact during a trip to Paris.” Canaris informed the others.

“Then Sigismund should be instructed to make contact with Herr Cavill at the first opportunity. I’m sure that there are neutral locations where this can be accomplished. In any event, Herr Cavill would be the perfect vehicle for the negotiations. A producer of weapons for the Commonwealth as an advocate for peace talks. It would be a delicious irony for everyone involved.”

“But let’s not simply use one avenue to make our intentions known. We have had neutral businessmen attempt to arrange peace talks earlier. I suggest that we do this also. I would hate to make it appear that Herr Cavill was a collaborator for the Nazi Party and therefore destroy his usefulness to us. Going through him alone could very well do that unfortunately.”

Chapter Fourteen:

Imperial Government Headquarters

Tokyo, Japan

March 4, 1943

The leader of the Japanese government was bemused as he read the document that had just been handed him by his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Masayuki Tani.

“You say that this information came from the Soviet Ambassador?” General Tojo asked.

“Yes, Sir. He was very specific about it, in fact.”

“Why would he want us to target someone who is allied with his country against Germany? It would seem be to be against his best interest unless he has another agenda in mind. In spite of our current non-aggression pact, Russia and Japan have fought against each other several times in the past century. “

“I cannot speak to his motivations, Sir. But in the document, he strongly inferred that if we eliminated the facilities located here in Northwestern Australia and particularly this Harold Cavill, that our war efforts were benefit greatly from it.”

“The Soviets must be particularly confident then of their ability to defeat the Germans. Did they give a particular reason why they thought the removal of this particular gaijin and his factories would benefit us?”

“The Russians seemed to believe that he was building some sort of secret weapon there for the British. This does have some basis because of the aircraft carrier that Cavill’s shipyard built in secret for the Australian Navy. Our own intelligence has reported that Cavill has somehow been involved in the technical improvement of numerous key warships and aircraft used by the British and the Australian militaries. The new automatic rifles being employed by the Chinese and Australians are also being produced in Harold Cavill’s factories as well.” Minister Tani explained.

“Then we must not merely attack those factories. We must land troops there. If we can establish a foothold there, we will use those factories ourselves to build those new weapons for the Empire. If we cannot hold the area, then we will take home with us all that we can acquire for our scientists to study and emulate. As we leave, we will also destroy everything and everyone associated with the gaijin’s factories so that no one will be able to pick up where he left off.

Can we be sure that the Americans will not interfere with this operation?”

“Our decision to not attack the American Pacific Fleet at their base in the Hawaiian Islands appears to have been very wise. The Americans lack the political will to engage us decisively in the Pacific now, especially after the devastation of their fleet near the Philippine Islands. Their President was politically weakened by our victory. He still is attacking us, but not with any decisive force. He uses his submarines to attack our warships and our transports. His surviving aircraft carriers conduct some raids against our island outposts. The Americans are also launching bombing attacks using heavy bombers launched from Alaska. However, none of these are particularly effective except for the submarines. Submarine attacks have inflicted substantial losses to our merchant shipping in addition to inflicting a major percentage of the current losses to our naval forces.

What I want to know is who has been sending soldiers to attack our island outposts and bring supplies to the bandits in the Philippine Islands?”

“Our spies in Southeast Asia have told us that this gaijin Harold Cavill is also the man responsible for the attacks upon our island outposts. The flying boats that he built for transporting passengers and cargo are being used to bring bandits at night to murder our soldiers as they sleep. Then they fly out before we can find them and take our vengeance.

We have tried to catch the enemy flying boats to shoot them down. But the gaijin pilots and soldiers are very skillful in avoiding us, in spite of the large size of their aircraft.”

“So the Russians have given us an opportunity to catch these bandits in their lair and destroy them, once and for all?” Tojo asked.

“Hai. This is the place where those damned flying boats have been operating from. They have made our operations in the Philippines much more difficult with the supplies that they have brought in for the bandits and the raids that they have made upon many of our important outposts. We need to lay waste to everything at this place or seize it to be of service to the Emperor instead.”

“What do we know about the defenses around this area?” Kaigun-taishō Shigetarō Shimada, Minister of the Navy asked.

“Even with the industrialization of the past twenty years, this is located in a relatively remote part of Australia. The King Sound is most noted for its extreme tidal waters. We could face some opposition from the Australian military base in Darwin. But there are few forces actually available there. Otherwise, our biggest threat will still be the Allied naval and air forces based in Singapore and Haiphong.

We will have to conduct deception operations against those other threats to ensure that our attack will not be interfered with. They can draw away the enemy’s major naval units from Australia. Then we can move in the real invasion force. By the time that the enemy realizes our true intent, we will have tens of thousands of troops in place. This part of Australia is so sparsely populated that they will not be able to mount a successful counterattack before we can set up an effective defense. Once there, the enemy will never be able to dislodge us.

We can use it as a staging area to attack the enemy supply lines and launch air attacks upon the rest of Australia and French Indochina.” Admiral Yamamoto explained.

“Do we have sufficient forces for both the deception effort and to support the invasion?” asked Kaigun-chūshō Nagumo Chūichi.

“Hai. We can use the battleships Haruna and Hiei to screen the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku of Carrier Division Five in an operation located in the South China Sea to draw out the enemy capital ships. All of these enemy ships have been recently refitted and repaired. Their sailors will be eager to go on the attack.

When the enemy battle line has been drawn out, then we will send the battleship Yamashiro along with four smaller carriers and sufficient escorts to provide support for twenty or more transports sailing for the real objective. The enemy knows that our Kongo-class fast battleships always screen our most important carrier forces. So that will lend credence to the importance of that particular force, especially with the losses that we have suffered within the Kido Butai over the past few months.

We will use the smaller aircraft carriers because their presence will not be as readily noticed as being a significant strike force as our larger carriers would be. This will make our deception force all the more effective in drawing away enemy heavy units from our real target.

Once the beachhead has been established, the deception force can also move in to provide additional support for the expansion of the beachhead. “

“We will have to act quickly. If we do not deal with this threat, the enemy will continue to slowly bleed us to death. We will then not have the opportunity to truly go back on the offensive and take the resources that we need for the Japanese people to reach their manifest destiny.”

“Yes, I concur. We must act quickly. If we do not establish a position that is beyond anyone’s ability to overcome, either the Americans will finally decide to put full resources into the fight against us or the British will be able to end their European campaign and shift their forces to the Pacific. Then we will surely be destroyed as a people by a powerful and vengeful enemy.” Yamamoto grimly predicted.

US Navy Pacific Fleet Headquarters

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

April 5, 1943

“We’ve just decoded another Japanese message, Sir. Things look like they are going to get a bit rough for the Aussies in the near future.” Lieutenant Jack Sommers reported to his supervisor at the Naval Intelligence office in Pearl Harbor.

“Why do you say that, Lieutenant?” Captain Allen Morrison asked.

“The Japs are moving a lot of ships and troops towards Australia, Sir. Based on the composition of the force and the focus of their scout planes, I am certain that they are going to mount a major amphibious assault on the northern Australian coast. I would place odds that they are going to hit somewhere around King Sound.”

“Sounds about right, Lieutenant.” Captain Morrison answered back, his teeth firmly clamped around the stem of his pipe.

“Are we going to let the Australians know what is coming their way, Sir? Obviously, they need to have a chance to prepare for the Jap attack.”

“No, Lieutenant. We have our instructions from Washington to keep all of our information that we uncover available only to US forces. They barely allow us to even provide that information to Admiral Hart’s headquarters. I’m not sure that they completely trust him for some reason.”

“Aren’t the Australians and British our allies out there, Sir?” Lieutenant Sommers asked in frustration.

“Yes, but we don’t want to accidentally let the Japanese know that we have broken their latest code. Besides, there are more than a few people back home on the mainland who want to keep our involvement with the Brits and Aussies to a bare minimum. They feel that any interaction with them will just lead to us getting back involved with another war in Europe. So, they want us to mind our own business as much as possible.”

“You are talking about the ‘America First’ folks, aren’t you, Sir?”

“Among others, yes. But our business isn’t about politics. We just follow our orders and do our jobs the best that we can. Understood, Lieutenant?”

“Aye, aye, Sir.”

It still sickened the young Naval Intelligence officer to be forbidden to send some kind of warning to the Australians. Maybe they were already aware of the threat. But what if they weren’t? They were fighting the same enemy that had utterly destroyed the Pacific Fleet battle line little more than a year earlier. There were also American ships still operating with them, survivors of the Asiatic Fleet and the force that attempted to relieve the American garrison in the Philippines. But they weren’t going to get the information either, it was clear.

Only two days earlier, the Naval Intelligence Center had also intercepted radio messages from the Allied Headquarters in Singapore ordering the heart of the Allied fleet in the southwest Pacific to sortie against a possible Japanese invasion force heading for the northern tip of Borneo and then towards Singapore. The powerful Allied force would consist of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the battle cruisers HMS Repulse and FFS Strasbourg, the aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable, HMS Hermes and HMAS Melbourne, six cruisers and over a dozen destroyers.

The Japanese were indeed moving a heavy force in the South China Sea under the command of Kaigun-chūshō Takeo Takagi. This force consisted of two Kongo-class fast battleships; the fleet aircraft carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku and a small force of cruisers and destroyers. But the Americans already knew that this force was not going anywhere near Singapore. It was strictly intended as a diversionary force for another more important operation.

Lieutenant Sommers knew that this would leave Australia wide open to attack with only a few cruisers and destroyers left to defend its coastline. But there was nothing that he could personally do to help.

Chapter Fifteen:

IJN Nagato

Manila Bay, Philippine Island

April 12, 1943

The enemy will doubtlessly have ships and aircraft patrolling the seas between the Philippines and Australia. What will we do to prevent our invasion force from being detected prematurely?” Captain Kamani asked.

“Our decoy force will draw away much of the enemy’s patrol forces from their normal areas. This will make is possible for our ships to pass around the western part of New Guinea, then swing south at night so that they will be in position along the northwest coast of Australia by sunrise. At that time, we will attack.” Admiral Nagumo confidently responded.

“Then we should be victorious over our enemies. Long live the Emperor. We shall forever bring him glory through our sacrifice. Banzai!”

But not all of the scouts were drawn away from the western coast of New Guinea by the Japanese deception efforts. Four days later, the Japanese invaders were detected by a patrolling Australian light cruiser.

“The scout plane from HMAS Sydney spotted a big Japanese fleet heading around the southwest corner of New Guinea and heading directly our way.  Before the scout plane was shot down by a Zero fighter, it reported dozens of transport ships with a heavy escort force. Sydney is moving southwest at flank speed to avoid a direct confrontation with the Japanese escorts since she has no available support.” A courier from the Derby militia main command post reported.

Major Burke and Harold had been visiting the shipyard when the courier caught up with them.

“We have to assume that we are their target since there is nothing else of value anywhere around here. The first thing that we have to do is get our civilians to safety. We also have to immediately mobilize all elements of the militia and get all of our unarmed Cavalier’s flown out to safe areas. The armed Cavaliers need to be loaded with bombs and torpedoes to assist with the defense.” Major Burke calmly said.

“I wonder who Admiral Phillips and his force are chasing then?” Harold asked.

“I don’t know for sure, Sir. It could be a force designed to divert our capital ships away from the real target of the Japanese.  The Japs have frequently been known to use decoy forces to distract their enemies from the real objectives. If this is the case here, then our people in Singapore and Hanoi have fallen for it.”

“Should we tell Singapore about our suspicions?”

“No. At least not right now. It is entirely possible that the decoy force is the one that we believe is heading to attack us.  But we have to be prepared for either possibility. Until then, we wait for confirmation and continue with our mobilization.” Major Burke replied.

“I need to be back to my office to check on the status of any new production that could potentially be pressed into service.”

“I need to get back to the command post now.” Major Burke finally said before heading out to his truck. Harold quickly followed behind him.

Derby Militia Headquarters

Derby, Western Australia

April 17, 1943

The Derby militia kept an office during normal circumstances in the same building that Harold’s own office was maintained near the center of Derby. Major Burke and a small staff worked out of that office whenever he was not out in the field or directly involved in training. Ever since the beginning of the war, Harold had someone manning the radios and phones at the militia office, twenty-four hours a day.

This afternoon, the duty non-commissioned officer, Staff Sergeant Richard Oswald, was on duty when he got a radio message from one of the local coast watchers, George Baines, stationed on the southwestern corner of New Guinea. After confirming the message, SSgt Oswald immediately picked up the phone and called Major Burke since it would be a couple of hours before the latter would be at the office.

“Sir, we just got a call from Mister Baines.”

“He sighted some Japanese ships, hasn’t he?”

“Yes, Sir. A whole bloody lot of them; cruisers, destroyers and transports. He says that he has even seen a battleship, probably a Fuso-class along with four small aircraft carriers. I’ve got the numbers here from his report.”

“Well, we have our confirmation on HMAS Sydney’s report now. We will have to let Admiral Phillips know what we have discovered. Unfortunately, I think that his ships are going to be too far out of position to be able to give us any help for several days.

Besides, I think that he is still too eager to hunt down and kill those fleet carriers. So we are going to be on our own for a while, I’m afraid.”

“You are going to let Mister Cavill know what is happening, Sir?”

“Yes, I will. But for now, I have a few other things to take care of like getting the word out to everyone in the militia. The war is coming to Derby.”

Cavill Industries Main Office

Derby, Western Australia

April 18, 1943

Derby’s air raid sirens started to go off for the first time since the beginning of the war. But the threat was far more than merely an air attack. The word quickly spread that the Japanese were going to invade near the town. The flurry of activity was a portent of things to come.

“Make sure that everyone knows that our underground facilities have their doors open for use as air raid shelters, regardless of whether or not you are an employee of mine.” Harold told someone over the telephone from his office as he watched the activity below.

As he looked out the window, Harold saw a pickup truck painted in Derby militia camouflage colors race up and stop in front of his office. A lanky man in uniform with red hair showing from under his bush hat and five militiamen quickly jumped out and ran into the building.

“Mister Cavill, we wanted to be sure that you got to a safe place before the Japanese hit this place.” Major Burke quickly said.

“But I have to make sure that everyone is taken care of here.” Harold insisted, the concern evident in his voice.

“They will be. The militia has already started mobilizing. The call has also gone out to reach everyone on ‘walkabout’ as well. We are well on our way to giving the Japs a very unpleasant surprise, I assure you.” The major replied.

“What about Dorothy and my children? I have to make sure that they are safe too.”

“We will be sure to take care of you and your family, Mister Cavill. You have our promise on this. This is your land and ours. We are going to defend it against these blighters.” One of the aborigine militiamen said with a ferocious smile that contrasted starkly against his dark brown skin.

The latter statement also struck Harold as somewhat ironic. It was only a century or two earlier that the white Europeans were the invaders into these lands. Now, the aborigines will be fighting alongside the descendents of those white settlers to repel another set of invaders onto their land. Only this time, the aborigines see themselves as sharing the land and the responsibility to defend it.

Perhaps part of this was because of the relationship that Harold had developed with the aborigines over the past two decades. Once again, Harold had to place his trust in the people that he had befriended.

The growl of high-powered engines began to fill the air from above. Harold looked up to see a myriad of white contrails crisscrossing the sky overhead as Japanese, Australian and even a few American aircraft dueled to the death. A near constant roaring sound came from the nearby airfield as scores of aircraft that had been produced by Harold’s factories taxied out of the underground hangars where they had been stored. Then the fighters and bombers took off from the nearby runway and raced into the sky to help defend the area from the Japanese invaders.

“Mister Cavill, please come with me. I’ve got a spot with an excellent view already set up. Don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe.” Major Burke told Harold before leading him to the waiting truck. They quickly drove north.

As Harold and Major Burke drove up the road, they could see Japanese aircraft from the carriers Ryuho, Ryujo, Zuiho and Shoho soaring over King Sound, searching for targets below. Fortunately, no Japanese aircraft attempted to strafe the militia truck along the way.

Derby Militia Forward Command Post

Derby Western Australia

April 21, 1943

Major Burke, Harold and a small contingent of support troops ended up on a hilltop overlooking the entrance to King Sound after leaving the command post in town. Major Burke had set up the hilltop location as a forward command post, complete with trenches and camouflaged earthen bunkers almost immediately after he had arrived in Derby over a year earlier. Now, the military commander of the Derby militia was watching the nearby beaches and swampland when he received a call over the field telephone.

“We have confirmed sightings of Japanese transports and escort ships approximately eighteen kilometers away from our coastal battery. They have made their way between Sunday Island and Long Island” Said the battery fire control director officer.

Major Burke then said a quick ‘Thank you.’ over the phone before turning back towards Harold.

“I’d say that those transports have gotten quite close enough already, Sir. Shall we unveil our little surprise out there on the point?” Major Burke asked with a hungry smile on his face.

“Certainly, Major. We wouldn’t want to keep our ‘unwelcome guests’ waiting any longer, would we?” Harold grimly replied.

Major Burke picked up a phone and relayed the order to the gun crews that had waited for months to finally fire their guns in anger for the first time.

Out on the point near the opening of King Sound and just southeast of Buccaneer Archipelago, hundreds of square yards of camouflage netting was pulled away from in front of four massive gun turrets. Nearly two decades before, the main gun turrets from HMAS Australia had been laboriously moved out to that location in secret.  There, they were emplaced on top of reinforced concrete structures that were initially built partially underground.  Once there, the turrets were carefully camouflaged while the spoil from the tunneling around Derby was piled around the structures to further conceal and protect them.

Dozens of trees had been planted around the perimeter of the island to help with their concealment. But before the trees had been planted, sheet metal buildings had been temporarily built around the turrets. This gave the impression to the outside world that this was just another warehouse complex for the Cavill business empire. But the buildings were later removed as unnecessary with the rest of the camouflage finally in place.

All of this effort created what appeared to be an artificial island in the middle of swamplands. With the exception of a narrow roadway, there was no easy way to approach the site. The swamplands were a very formidable protective barrier with the various crocodiles, venomous snakes and other deadly creatures that lived there.

The gun turrets themselves with their twin twelve-inch naval rifles had been reinforced with a combination of additional armor plates and concrete. The sculpturing of the concrete over the turrets to change their external shape helped further conceal their true nature from observation, both from the air and the surface. The final touches were green and brown camouflage paint and groves of trees that had been planted all around to obstruct the view into the gun batteries.

The guns were organized into two gun batteries, each armed with a pair of heavy turrets. Back inland, there were two tall towers. Most people thought that the towers were meant for radio communications, though they were rather heavily constructed. Indeed, Harold did install radio antennas into the towers for a pair of local radio stations. But the towers also had another function as well. Inside of each tower was a stereoscopic optical range finder.  They would determine the range of any targets that the guns would be directed to fire at.

One of the towers just had installed a radio ranging and detection set as well. This radar was an experimental unit for detecting aircraft, but could also be used additionally to assist with detection and ranging of surface targets like warships.

Battery A, on the west side of the installation, fired its four twelve-inch guns first. The gunners at Battery B waited until Battery A’s shots landed.

“Adjust fire, two hundred meters down, one hundred meters to the right.” The spotters in the towers called to both batteries.

A few moments later, Battery B fired. Its shots traveled more than twenty seconds before reaching their target. A large bloom of fire and smoke marked a direct hit upon a Japanese troop transport with a three hundred kilogram high explosive round. The Japanese ship immediately caught fire and began to slow down.

Within fifteen minutes, there were already four Japanese transports either on fire or sinking from the pounding delivered by the shore battery’s heavy guns. The shore battery guns continued to fire at their targets, crews sweating deep underground as they shoved shells and cordite charges into lifts to be sent up to the turrets. Suddenly, the men working in and under the turrets felt the earth shake under their feet followed immediately by the sounds of several loud explosions. The lights inside the installation dimmed for a few moments before brightening back up.

Five kilometers inland, the observers in the towers saw four tall fountains of water and earth erupt in the swamps near the gun batteries. Off in the distance, the observers sighted clouds of smoke from the firing of heavy caliber naval guns.

The observers took a few moments to identify the source of the smoke before picking up their telephone and calling the gun positions.

“We saw shells land near your position, Mates How are things going down there?

“One of those damned shells must have cut our power line from the Derby power plant. We were able to start up our diesel generators here to provide enough power though. Do you have any idea about the blokes who have started firing back at us?” The commander of Battery A, Captain Jeffrey Pike, quickly asked.

“We’ve got at least four large Japanese warships coming into range.  One is a Fuso-class battleship just beyond Sunday Island. We also have three heavy cruisers in view. One appears to be a Myoko-class. The other two cruisers appear to be of the Furutaka-class. There are also some destroyers with them.”

“We probably should shift focus towards the big boys then. They are probably the only ones who could knock us out with their guns.”

“Will do, Mates. The boss man is sending up some truck-mounted guns to help out with the transports. We can see the trucks on the road coming in this direction already.”

A second phone in Battery A’s command center began to ring. Captain Pike picked it up at the same time that he was beginning to receive range and azimuth information from the director towers.

“Wait a few seconds, please. I have to get information out to the guns.”

“I understand, Captain.” Major Burke responded, before patiently waiting for the battery commander to get back to him.

“Sorry, Sir. We needed to start firing shells at one of the heavy cruisers screening the transports.”

“No worries, Captain. Your gun crews are doing a great job. Continue focusing on the cruisers. I am going to have some other folks go after that Japanese battleship. We also have gun trucks moving into position to provide close support along with antiaircraft guns. We are certain that the Japs will attempt to bomb your position. Hopefully, the antiaircraft guns coming here will help defend you against that.”

Another four shells landed near Battery A. But they did not do any real damage to the installation. Everything below the turrets was encased in three to six feet of reinforced concrete then covered over by nearly fifty feet of soil.

One of the observers in the tower seeing the towering plumes of smoke, soil and swamp water rising up couldn’t help but comment. “The Japs are really beating up on our crocs in the swamp right now.”

One of his companions quickly replied with a laugh. “The crocs will get their turn for sure if the Japs land anywhere near here though. The crocs will eat very well then.”

The guns on all four turrets were elevated to their maximum elevation and began to fire. Australia’s big guns were modified years before during the installation on shore so that the guns could fire to a range of just over twenty-four thousand yards. This was facilitated by the simple expedient of deepening the turret wells so that when the guns recoiled, there was more space under them to do so at higher angles of elevation.

Twenty three seconds later, the heavy cruiser IJN Kako found itself the recipient of the Derby shore battery’s fire. A pair of four-hundred kilogram armor piercing projectiles plunged through her deck and deep within her vitals before detonating. One of the shells hit the rear turret’s barbette and jammed the turret’s guns in train. The other hit went through three decks before detonating in between Kako’s aft engine room and forward boiler room. The engine room was destroyed while high-velocity fragments pierced the bulkhead and crippled almost all of the aft boilers. Live steam escaping from the damaged boilers scalded to death most of the crewmen on duty in the aft boiler room.

The stricken heavy cruiser drifted to a halt while her surviving engine room personnel frantically worked to cross-connect steam lines from the forward boilers to the aft engine room to get the warship moving again. The Mutsuki-class destroyer Yayoi attempted to screen the Kako by laying a smoke screen around it. Unfortunately for Kako, another salvo of heavy shells from the Derby shore battery hit her before emergency repairs could be completed.

One of the big shells hit Kako in her forward magazine, causing a massive explosion and breaking the hapless heavy cruiser in half. The two halves sank less than five minutes later.

Cheering erupted both at the fire control towers and within the shore batteries. But they had to quickly get back to business as many more shells began to fall all around the gun positions. The defenders were still heavily outnumbered and outgunned at this point. Obviously, the Fuso had now started firing on the shore battery as well. The size of the shell bursts were now much larger than before. But the gun battery had still been very well camouflaged and protected.

After about ten minutes of the gun duel between the Fuso and Derby’s coastal defense battery, a fourteen-inch shell slammed into the ground right in between Battery A and Battery B. The entire installation shook like an earthquake had just happened. Both batteries ceased fire as a huge cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the entire installation.

“Is everyone alright?” An observer from the primary fire control tower asked over the telephone.

At first, all that the artillery observer heard over the phone were the sounds of several people coughing. Then a lone hoarse voice was heard.

“Yea, mate. No worries here. The Japs just stirred up so damned much dust inside here that we couldn’t see anything, not to mention that we were coughing our bloody heads off. We might also have a partial collapse of one of the tunnels between Batteries A and B. But otherwise, we’re just fine.”

“Great. You might want to throw a few shells at that battleship if she is in range. Otherwise, keep firing at the transports and the cruisers as long as they stay in range. I am not sure that you would be able to hit that battleship hard enough to sink her anyway, even if she gets in close enough for you to hit her with your big guns.”

“Roger that, Sir. We’ll shoot at anything that we can hit. Right now, we’ve got a big Jap heavy cruiser that just might fit the bill, especially since that battleship is still out of range of our guns.”

“I will then leave you to your job. Good luck and good hunting.”

After watching the exchange of heavy shells between the Derby coastal defense guns and the Japanese attackers for over an hour, Major Burke decided that he needed to leave to coordinate the movement of the militia to locate and hit the new Japanese landing site.

“Mister Cavill, just as soon as we get to the next location, I will stay behind and let these militiamen take you to where your family is currently. You will be safe there.” Major Burke said with a confident smile.

“Thank you, Harlan. If you need anything from me, please let me know.”

Major Burke just smiled and did a quick salute as the truck that they were in raced to another command post. From there, an aborigine driver and two of the other militiamen took Harold to one of the underground facilities not far from Harold’s home.

Dorothy and the children were already there waiting on Harold. They all greeted him with open arms after he arrived.

“We brought some supplies with us.” Dorothy told Harold after she gave him a quick kiss and pointed off to the side.

There were a pair of large rucksacks made of camouflage pattern cloth sitting on the floor. These were the same style of rucksacks that had also been manufactured for the militia. There were also four smaller backpacks, one for each of Harold and Dorothy’s children sitting nearby. Alongside the large rucksacks were a pair of CR-1 automatic rifles, two bandoliers of ammunition magazines, a pair of militia-issue ballistic nylon protective vests and Harold’s favorite pistols.

“I had the children all bring some changes of clothing along with snacks. I didn’t know how long we would end up in here. There was already plenty of food and water stored here inside this shelter, I knew.”

Harold was very thankful that he had practiced this sort of evacuation to safety with his family beforehand. He knew that the chances of the Japanese eventually attacking the Derby area were always going to be fairly high.

“Thank you, Dorothy. I know that all of you will be safe in here. I guess the Major wants me to stay in here for now. We’ve got everything that we need here including communications. Now, we just sit and wait. Besides, I am way too old to be trying to play soldier right now.” Harold said with a tired laugh.

He knew that he was just as scared of what was going on out there as Dorothy and the rest of his family, perhaps more so. He actually knew the results of war and the devastation that it wrought anywhere that it touched because of what happened to humanity because of the Final War.

Even before the first of the attacking Japanese aircraft reached Derby, RAAF and Derby militia aircraft were lifting off from several airstrips to engage the invading Japanese force. While the unusual-looking tandem wing Dragonfly fighters and Twin-Wasp powered Whirlwind-R fighter-bombers focused on engaging incoming fighters and bombers from the Japanese carriers, RAAF Beaufort bombers and Beaufighter fighter-bombers desperately went after the Japanese invasion fleet itself.

Ironically, the defense of Darwin was being left to several squadrons of American P-40B Tomahawk fighters belonging to the Southern Pacific Command. Admiral Hart had managed to get USS Langley redirected a few months earlier to Darwin to deliver the fighters to aid in the defense of northern Australia. The Tomahawks had been onboard the old carrier, most still in shipping crates, when the Langley arrived in Darwin. The fighters had been then quickly unloaded, reassembled and readied for use against the Japanese.

Flying Officer Ted Reilly was piloting his torpedo-armed Mark 21 Beaufighter towards a Japanese Furutaka-class heavy cruiser at a little more than one hundred meters altitude when he got the shock of his life. He literally saw a large shell fly past his cockpit towards the Japanese cruiser. When a second shell also flew by, Ted’s radio operator got on his radio with the following transmission.

“We would appreciate it very much if you gents would kindly refrain from firing your guns through the same part of the sky that our airplanes are flying in.”

Ted then nosed his Beaufighter down even lower to make his attack run. A Japanese Fubuki-class fleet destroyer suddenly turned right into the Beaufighter’s path. Ted quickly opened fire with the Beaufighter’s four twenty-millimeter cannons and four fifty-caliber Browning heavy machine guns. He only had a few seconds available to fire at the Fubuki. But in those few seconds, the heavy barrage of cannon and machine gun fire riddled the large Japanese destroyer’s upperworks from stem to stern, leaving it burning and out of action for the moment.

By the time that Ted let off the trigger, he was already too close to launch his torpedo. So he overflew the disabled Fubuki and began looking for another target. He soon spotted a large transport moving at top speed towards the coast. Dozens of blazing tracer rounds fired from the transport’s antiaircraft guns flew past his Beaufighter as Ted bore down upon the enemy ship. He was less than one thousand meters away when he dropped his Mark 21 torpedo.

Upon hitting the water, the torpedo shed its specially-fitted wooden tail assembly, stabilizing the weapon right on course with the targeted transport ship and preventing the weapon from diving too deeply into the water. Ted fired his forward guns into the superstructure of the Japanese transport for a second before sharply pulling back on his control column and barely clearing the ship’s mast.

Ted heard his radio operator yell out triumphantly as a huge column of water erupted into the air next to the transport. Ted’s torpedo had struck amidships, tearing a massive hole in the side of the transport. The ship was clearly doomed though Ted did see that the enemy transport was still trying to make it to the shoreline. The ship’s captain was apparently trying to beach his ship on one of the islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago before it could sink. If the Japanese captain was successful, this would enable him to still offload the troops and their cargo from onboard his doomed ship.

For now, Ted turned back toward his base. He needed to be refueled and rearmed as quickly as possible so that he could get his Beaufighter back into the fight. He just had to worry about running into any Japanese Zero fighters along the way back home.

Flying Officer Toby Matthews took off in his Dragonfly fighter-bomber from the Derby aerodrome and turned directly north towards the Japanese invasion armada. His wingman, Oliver Windale was there next to him, virtually glued to Toby’s wing as they both flew up into the sky.

This would not be the first time into combat for either Australian airman. Both had spent time with Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group, popularly known as the Flying Tigers, receiving advanced combat training and actually flying combat missions against the Japanese. They also helped the Americans learn about the Dragonfly fighter-bomber as the Chinese had purchased two squadrons of the tandem-wing aircraft for use by the Flying Tigers.

Both Dragonflies were each carrying a two hundred and fifty kilogram semi-armor-piercing bomb under their fuselage in addition to a full load of ammunition for their M2 fifty-caliber heavy machine guns.  Each Dragonfly had four of the powerful weapons mounted in the aircraft nose.  This gave the Dragonfly a concentrated heavy punch of long-range firepower, both for strafing surface targets and for engaging enemy aircraft.

Toby and Oliver were part of Derby’s defending squadron of Dragonflies. The fourteen tandem-wing fighter-bombers joined a like number of Twin-Wasp powered Whirlwind fighter-bombers as the first line defenders of the air over Derby. Nominally, they belonged to the Royal Australian Air Force. But in reality, they were the aerial component of the Derby militia that Harold had produced and paid for to defend the area that he had worked so hard to develop.

The Derby air militia joined more than two score of other RAAF aircraft responding to the Japanese invasion force. This included Bristol Beaufort bombers, Beaufighter twin-engine fighter-bombers and the classic Supermarine Spitfire fighters flying from as far away as Darwin.

Toby and Oliver were flying at about ten thousand feet when they saw the wakes of dozens of ships below them through the light overcast. The direction that the ships were heading left no doubt who they belonged to.

“Tally-Ho. We have multiple targets to the northwest.” Toby called out over the radio to his wingman.

“I’m ready to fight, mate. Let’s go get the damned buggers.” An eager Oliver replied over the radio.

“Ollie, remember what General Chennault told us about fighting the Japanese fighters. Altitude and airspeed are life. Get above the enemy.  Dive down on them at full speed. Chop them up from above. Then climb back up as fast as you can and do it all again as necessary. Don’t try to turn with their fighters. We can outrun them just fine, especially in a dive. Then we get to pick when we want to fight.”

“Roger that, boss.”

“Looks like a Nagara-class light cruiser down there leading those destroyers. Let’s drop our bombs on her, Ollie.”

Toby banked sharply and began to dive towards the Japanese light cruiser. Oliver followed closely behind. Their Dragonflies weren’t exactly designed to be dive-bombers. But flight tests proved that the fighter-bombers could still accurately deliver bombs using a relatively steep diving profile and their integral dive brakes. First, Toby and Oliver strafed the cruiser after beginning their dives.

Toby dropped his bomb in the face of heavy fire from the light cruiser’s recently installed 13mm heavy machine guns and 25mm automatic cannons. A tower of flame and smoke erupted from amidships where one of Toby’s bombs hit. The bomb penetrated into the cruiser’s forward engine room, putting it out of action. His second bomb missed close aboard.

Oliver’s bombs detonated in the water next to the cruiser. But both of the detonations were so close that they started substantial leaking from shock damage and bomb fragments penetrating the light hull plating. The cruiser was not destroyed, but slowed substantially. This would make it vulnerable to follow-on attacks by other Allied ships and aircraft.

After dropping their bombs, Toby and Oliver pulled back on their sticks as quickly as possible to regain altitude. Immediately after they had climbed back up above the fray, Toby saw a formation of Japanese Zero’s escorting a squadron of Betty bombers.

“Come on, mate. Let’s kill some Jap bombers.” Toby radioed to his wingman before winging over and diving upon the Japanese aircraft, followed immediately by Oliver’s Dragonfly.

The escorting Zeros had no idea that their bombers were under attack until the tracer rounds from Toby’s heavy machine guns began to intersect with one of the Betty’s. The Japanese twin-engine bomber was quickly set ablaze and chopped to pieces. The two Dragonflies flashed down through the formation at a speed of over four hundred knots after shooting down the first pair of the Japanese bombers.

After three diving passes each by Toby and his wingman, the Japanese bomber formation broke apart in a wild attempt to avoid being targeted again. The bombers had already lost half their number to the two Dragonflies. Toby and Oliver easily outran the escorting Zeros, especially when diving. Four RAAF Spitfires then joined the fray while Toby and Oliver started to search for other targets.

Toby saw a pair of Zeros attempting to intercept a damaged Beaufort on its way back home. He signaled Oliver before beginning to dive down on the enemy fighters. Toby picked one of the Zeros and began to fire on it from over five hundred meters away.  Even at that range, the concentrated firepower of the four fifty-caliber machine guns tore the lightly built Zero to shreds in only a few seconds.  Oliver took a little longer with his target, but the result was still the same in the end.

“Thanks, mates. We thought that we were goners for a few seconds there.” The pilot of the Beaufort radioed.

“Glad to be of assistance.” Toby replied while he and Oliver climbed back up to prepare for another attack on the Japanese invaders.

Toby shot down another Zero and damaged a second one, while Oliver shot down a Val dive-bomber before both of them were forced to return to base for refueling and rearming.

The two Dragonflies touched down on the runway at Derby and quickly taxied up to the entrance of one of the underground bunkers. After the fighter-bombers shut down their engines, a large group of men burst out of the bunker and began to service the aircraft while the pilots remained seated in the cockpits.

“How’s the fight, gents?” Asked one of the aborigines working on Toby’s aircraft.

“It’s pretty hairy up there, Billy. But we are giving the bloody Japs a rough time of it though.” Toby told the ground crew. In addition to refueling, reloading the machine guns and attaching another bomb to Toby’s Dragonfly, the ground crew was also busy patching more than a dozen holes in the aircraft from enemy fire.

“We heard that the Beauforts out of Darwin lost at least half of their planes. But they sank a couple Jap transports still. The mates flying those bombers were brave as hell going against those damned Zeros.”  Allen Mackin, one of the other Dragonfly pilots yelled from his cockpit.

“It looks like we lost some of our aircraft as well.” Toby grimly answered while looking at a couple of empty parking spots where Dragonfly fighter-bombers had been sitting before flying into this battle.

“Yea, I know. We haven’t heard anything about whether or not our pilots were able to bail out to safety.  A couple of the Beaufort blokes were shot while in their parachutes by the bastard Japs though. When I get my aeroplane back up in the air, I’m going to make the Japs pay for murdering our mates.”

“You bloody well right about that, mate. There’s going to be a lot of payback going on today, I think.” Toby said while looking at several plumes of smoke rising from Derby itself. The town had obviously been bombed or shelled by the Japanese.

The Japanese were not simply standing still either. But, they also saw that things were not going as planned for them either.

“I thought that the defenses here were practically nonexistent? We are taking far too many losses at our planned landing area.” Kaigun-daisa Ichiro Ono, Captain of the battleship IJN Yamashiro complained as he stood on the admiral’s bridge of his warship.

Yamashiro had recently returned from the shipyards at Nagasaki after having been repaired from battle damage suffered during the battle with the US Navy Pacific Fleet. She had been hit nearly a dozen times by heavy shells from the American battle line and badly damaged, but had assisted in the sinking of the USS Tennessee and USS California. During the repair period, Yamashiro also received an extensive modernization to improve her antiaircraft armament. This included deletion of several of her casemate secondary guns to add two more dual purpose twin five-inch turrets and dozens more lighter antiaircraft guns.

“I know. We need to order our ships to move to this new area here.” Pointing out a location on the map near Cape Brewster. “That should get us away from those damned guns, at least. Once we land our troops, we will move inland, destroy any defenders there, then take this area and eliminate those guns.” Kaigun-chūshō, Hiroaki Abe, commander of the Japanese invasion fleet, ordered.

“Hai, Chūshō. What will we do with the ships that cannot make it to the new destination? There are several ships that have been badly damaged near the original objective.”

“They will continue to push towards the gaijin industrial center. By doing this, they will divert the defenders away from where we now intend to land. All will serve and die gloriously for the Emperor, no matter where we chose to fight or the role that we play.”

A few minutes later, new orders are issued to the Japanese invasion fleet. They begin to turn towards their new objective. Several of the escorting destroyers also lay a smoke screen to try to cover the change in direction for the formation. The radar unit in one of the observation towers is able to track the ships even through the smoke however.

Yamashiro’s big guns continue to fire at any targets in range as she sailed along with the rest of invasion fleet’s main body. At the same time, the change of course for the Japanese fleet is reported to Derby’s defenders.

“The Japs are moving their transports out of range of our guns, Sir. The bulk of the transports are now sailing north of Irvine Island. We got five of them though.” The Derby shore battery commander reported.

“That still leaves another eleven known transports full of troops that we have to deal with. Obviously, they are not giving up on making a landing somewhere near here. I will have to see how our pilots are doing out there.” Major Burke responded.

“Unfortunately, we can’t do much good against those transports at this point. We’ll stay at our posts in case something does come within our range though.”

“Good man. Let’s pray that our mates will be successful in their missions too.” Major Burke replied as he furiously looked over the spot reports on enemy movement from aerial and ground observers. Then he and a couple of assistants plotted these positions on a large map that had been posted on a nearby wall. As he did this, a half dozen militia commanders came into the command post that the Derby militia commander now worked in. Major Burke plotted a few more points on the map before turning around and giving the newcomers a wry smile.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. As you can tell, things are a bit hectic at the moment.” Major Burke said to a collective laugh by the militiamen.

“Sir, that is an extraordinary understatement, I would have to say.” A young captain covered in dust from travelling to the bunker replied with a wry smile of his own.

“Obviously, we need to get more troops and equipment over here as quickly as possible because the Japs haven’t been quite as cooperative as we would have liked.” Major Burke explained as he pointed to a potential landing site on the map to several of his militia commanders. This was already the third command bunker that Major Burke had traveled to this first day of the Japanese attack. He wanted to be as close as possible to where he thought that the Japanese would land their troops.

“We have horse soldiers already moving there. But they are still have no heavy weapons.” First Lieutenant Thomas, one of the local aborigine militia officers explained.

“I am going to send the gun trucks to reinforce you as quickly as possible. You still have the anti-tank rifles, machine guns and the light mortars that your horsemen can carry though. They will have to suffice for now.

“Lieutenant Williams, can your bicycle troops make it there to assist?”

A lanky young blonde haired man smiled at Major Burke’s question before responding.

“Aye, Sir. We bloody well can do that. It will take us a couple of hours, but we will get mounted up to go help our mates as soon as I leave here.”

“Very good. Be sure to take plenty of ammunition with you. I don’t want anyone running out. If your troops use their automatic rifles like they have been trained though, they will be able to overwhelm the Japs without burning through all of their ammunition.

I will also try to see if Mister Cavill has any of those new rocket launchers ready just in case the Japs bring any tanks with them. The few of you who have had a chance to fire them know that they are quite potent little buggers to use. Of course, the Japs won’t like them at all.”

Even with the dozens of aircraft that had been brought out of their underground hangars, the Australian pilots defending Derby found themselves significantly outnumbered by more than one hundred and twenty Japanese aircraft of all types. Most of the local militia’s pilots had never even seen actual combat before beyond those who had trained with the Flying Tigers. But the defenders, white and aborigine like, were all determined to do whatever was necessary to stop the Japanese invaders.

Dragonflies and Whirlwind-R’s accompanied by a handful RAAF Spitfires were currently dogfighting with Japanese Zeros. The Zeros had been escorting more than fifty strike aircraft from the Japanese carriers. At the same time, a squadron of RAAF Bristol Beaufort bombers and Beaufighter fighter-bombers, piloted by brave young men like Ted Reilly and Toby Matthews, flew at less than thirty meters over the ground to attack the Japanese invasion armada. Dozens of black clouds rapidly appeared around the aircraft as shells from Japanese antiaircraft guns detonated around the defenders fighting to protect their homes.

Harold watched several fiery comets hurling down from the skies as he watched from the front of the underground bunker. Each one of those flaming trails meant the death of one or more human beings. It hurt Harold even more to think that some of those dying aircraft and their crews were people that he and Dorothy personally knew.

“Mister Cavill, we have reports of Japanese landings already on the coast northeast of here.” A young Aborigine militiaman reported to Harold in the bunker where he and his family had taken refuge. The bunker also served as one of the local command posts for the militia. So Harold and his family were surrounded by a variety of militiamen coordinating operations for the various militia elements fighting the Japanese invaders.

“You better make sure that Major Burke is aware of the situation.”

“No worries, Sir. He was the one who instructed me to let you know what was happening.”

“Thanks, mate. Then I’m sure that the major already has things well in hand. I suppose that the best thing that this old man can do right now is stay out of everybody’s way.” Harold said with a wry smile.

“Send the mobile guns as quickly as possible to where the new Jap landing appears to be located. One way or another, we are going keep them under fire.” Major Burke ordered over the militia’s radio command network.

“Roger, Sir.” The artillery company commander replied over the radio. He then immediately turned to his first sergeant.

“First Sergeant, let’s get our people on the road. We can’t do anything more from here.” Before pointing out the new locations of the gun on a map that had been stretched out over the hood of a truck.

Five minutes later, all eight of the truck-mounted twenty-five pounder gun-howitzers were racing towards the northeast. Following close behind were four truck-mounted one hundred and twenty millimeter heavy mortars and four truck-mounted one hundred and five millimeter caliber gun-howitzers in addition to two dozen ammunition trucks and their towed trailers loaded with even more shells. All of these vehicles used a common wheeled truck chassis that had been produced in Harold’s automobile factory. By designing and building these armored artillery vehicles, Harold had actually borrowed from the trend of the early twenty-first century militaries who began putting their artillery on large armored truck chassis for greater mobility.

The artillerymen would soon be joined by two companies of horse-mounted infantry and two companies of bicycle troops. All of these infantrymen carried their own heavy fire support in the form of heavy machine guns, light mortars and anti-tank rifles. Once in place, they immediately began digging fighting positions in anticipation of the Japanese amphibious landing there.

Sitting in overwatch behind the militia defensive positions were several mobile antiaircraft guns, including a couple of the latest designs to come out of Harold’s assembly plants. This would be their first real test in combat.

The first Japanese landing barges finally found a relatively undefended piece of beach near Molina Island just after dusk on the first day of the invasion. Hundreds of soldiers poured out of the landing barges and quickly began to move inshore to try to find cover. They were followed by troops from several damaged transports that had beached themselves nearby rather than sink. A handful of these landing barges each carried a Japanese light tank.

A militia observer, hidden on a nearby hilltop, saw this and quickly reported it via wireless to Major Burke.

The militia commander then picked up the phone to call Harold. One of the things that Harold had done at the behest of Major Burke was to connect every single underground facility via telephone line. Major Burke insisted too that all of the telephone lines be buried so that they would be much less likely to be damaged by vehicles or by enemy fire.

“We’ve just had a report of Japanese tanks having landed near here. You wouldn’t happen to have a few off of the production line ready for use, would you, Mister Cavill?”

“I’m afraid that we have very few of our own tanks here at the moment. We shipped out virtually everything that we had produced to our customers in French Indochina and to North Africa for Commonwealth use against the Nazis. So we are going to have a hell of a hard time getting enough troops or firepower over to where the Japanese have landed, I suppose.”

“Well, not exactly Sir. You forgot about our cavalry and bicycle-mobile units. They will be ready to get into the fight in less than an hour from. You gave me the task to get your militia prepared for anything. Now, you get to see just how good they are with the tools that you have given us. Still, it would have been nice to have had a few of those fine tanks of yours to help us.” Major Burke said with a shrug.

“Whatever we have, you will receive as quickly as possible.”

When the first reports came in of the impending Japanese attack, Major Burke had all eight of the operational militia torpedo boats move out into their camouflaged dispersal areas near Lachlan Island at the northeast corner of the sound. There, they waited for the order to attack.

Once the sun set, then the torpedo boats came out from their hiding places to go hunting enemy shipping. The eight large torpedo boats broke up into pairs after getting into open water north of Sunday Island. Each pair would be working together to attack a single target.

The torpedo boats built in Harold’s shipyard had recently been rearmed with near-copies of the American Mark 13 air-launched torpedo. The reduced weight of the Mark 13 compared to the torpedo originally designed for use on the torpedo boats allowed for additional guns to be added. The forecastle torpedo tube doors had also been sealed as part of the modification of the boats. The torpedoes were simply launched over the side of the boat.

Now the boats were even more lethal in spite of the need to get somewhat closer to their targets due to the shorter range of the Mark 13. The boats were now all armed with the new automatic six-pounder dual-purpose cannon in place of the original Bofors forty millimeter cannon mounted on each boat’s stern. A belt-fed twenty-five millimeter automatic cannon was mounted in front of the bridge while twin fifty-caliber heavy machine guns were mounted aside each boat’s armored bridge.

The first task that the torpedo boats had to accomplish was to penetrate the Japanese defensive screen formed by their destroyers. The torpedo boat commanders first used the elements of stealth and surprise to try to slip in as close as possible without being detected.

The lookouts aboard those Japanese warships were also highly trained and very capable at their jobs though. They knew how to find enemy ships in the blackness of the night using their high-quality binoculars to search for any telltales that would reveal the presence of a ship. Eventually, the Japanese did spot one of the torpedo boats. Searchlights instantly came on, followed by the rattle of automatic weapons and the roar of heavy cannons.

Lieutenant Carl Winton and his crew of eighteen instantly went into action. Lieutenant Winton ordered his boat to full throttle and turned directly towards the closest Japanese destroyer, presenting the enemy gunners with the smallest target possible. The fifty-caliber machine guns and the forward automatic cannon fired at the destroyer’s searchlights and upper decks to try to destroy the lights and suppress enemy fire.

Winton’s torpedo boat continued to close with the enemy destroyer, now identified as a Fubuki-class vessel.  Winton could already see that this enemy ship had been damaged earlier by heavy machine gun fire from an aircraft strafing run. The torpedo boat took advantage of the damage to the destroyer to get even closer without taking any effective return fire. Then, at the last second, the torpedo boat fired a Mark 13 and turned to bring its heaviest guns to bear.

A fusillade of shells from the torpedo boat’s six-pounder slammed into the side of the Japanese destroyer, reaping havoc within her engineering spaces even as a Mark 13 sped towards her. The water around Winton’s torpedo boat churned as the Japanese frantically fired every gun that they had at her. Fortunately, few of the Japanese shells hit Winton’s boat. Those that did hit inflicted only minor damage.

But the Fubuki-class destroyer Sagiri was hit amidships by the torpedo, finishing the destruction of her engine rooms.  This caused the loss of all power, eliminating the crew’s ability to control the flooding. The captain was forced to order the crew to abandon ship as a result of the damage inflicted by Winton’s torpedo boat.  Sagiri sank in less than fifteen minutes after the torpedo hit.

Four of the other torpedo boats attempted to make a coordinated attack upon the battleship Yamashiro. By the time that the boats got into torpedo range, the Japanese gunners had been alerted and were firing rapidly at the approaching torpedo boats. A couple of the boats had been seriously enough hit to be forced to withdraw under cover of a hasty smoke screen. But the other two boats continued to press their attack. Within a few moments, eight Mark 13’s were on their way towards the huge battleship. Three of the torpedoes scored direct hits on Yamashiro, two on her port side and one starboard.

The Japanese battleship immediately began to slow down and take a list to port. This prompted the torpedo boat commanders to make another attack at the wounded giant. This time, the torpedo boats hit with two more torpedoes.  But two of the boats took direct hits from several five and six inch shells fired by the battleship’s secondary batteries. The crews of the burning boats were forced to abandon ship just as their target was trying to stay afloat herself.

A pair of the surviving torpedo boats spotted the light cruiser Nagara and approached it at high speed. The light cruiser has already been damaged in an earlier air attack but remained in the fight.

The torpedo boats raced in from opposite sides of the damaged Japanese cruiser, forcing her to choose which boat to maneuver against. The torpedo boats only had one torpedo left each, so they had to make them count.

Both torpedo boats braved intense Japanese fire to get within point blank range before firing their Mark 13’s. The boats then immediately turned and ran away, firing their stern-mounted six-pounders as fast as possible in the few seconds before the torpedoes both hit Nagara, one of each side. The Japanese light cruiser immediately lost power and began to sink.

Torpedoes expended, the surviving torpedo boats retreated back to base to replenish their weapons, refuel and make necessary repairs. Dawn was coming soon. The militia’s other weapons would then take center stage once again in the daylight.

In the morning, contrails once again filled the skies above. There were noticeably fewer of them than on the first day of the invasion however. But Harold knew from the numbers that he had received that most of the aircraft flying overhead today were friendly. The confirmed losses of Japanese aircraft guaranteed that.

Two companies of militia met the Japanese invaders at the new beachhead. The fighting was fierce as the Australians used every weapon at their disposal to repel the hundreds of charging Japanese soldiers that they encountered. The militiamen stopped all of the Japanese that they saw on the beaches. But they didn’t see all of the invaders that had made it onshore.

At the main militia command bunker, Major Burke resumed directing the fight against the Japanese invaders after having a couple of hours of badly needed sleep.

“Major, Sir. We’ve just received a report of hundreds of Japanese troops near the town of Kimbolton.” An aborigine dispatch runner quickly explained after arriving at the main militia command post.

“How the hell did they get there? We thought that we had stopped all of their vehicles from getting inland. There is no way that they could have gotten that far on foot.”

“There were no motor vehicles with them, Sir. They do have machine guns and light mortars though.”

Major Burke stopped and thought for a few moments. If this force succeeded in turning the militia’s flank, they could catch them in a deadly crossfire and cut Derby’s primary defenders off from their source of supplies. Even with Harold’s careful preparations, ammunition supplies were running low for the forward troops.

But Harlan Burke had one more weapon left to throw into the fray. He turned to one of his radiomen.

“Call the truck factory and have them send those two light tanks that they have been working on out to Kimbolton. They will need some support too. Get as many gun trucks as we can spare to send with them. The same goes for any militiamen who are not currently fighting. Send them out too. They can ride on the trucks if necessary.

Do whatever you have to do. But stop those troops from going any further.”

Quickly the orders were sent out. Less than two hours later, the two light tanks arrived right in the middle of a firefight between the Japanese and a couple of platoons of lightly armed militiamen. These militiamen were aborigines who had literally just walked in from walkabout, grabbed their automatic rifles, a couple of ammunition pouches and ran out to fight the Japanese.

As soon as the tanks arrived where the Japanese had been reported, the vehicles became the focus of every Japanese machine gun. Thousands of rifle-caliber rounds were soon bouncing off of the tanks’ armor, leaving streaks of lead all over the exterior of the armored vehicles. But the tanks’ turrets spun around, spitting fire from their twenty-five millimeter automatic cannons and co-axial machine guns and inflicting a terrible toll upon the Japanese force.

A Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go light tank that had somehow managed to survive the beachhead trundled up into the fight and attempted to engage the two militia light tanks with its 37mm gun. But the militia tanks rapidly reduced the Ha-Go to scrap metal with armor-piercing rounds from their automatic cannons.

Shortly afterwards, the gun trucks with their twenty-five pounders arrived and began raining high explosive shells upon the Japanese. The combination of the tanks and the mobile artillery absolutely decimated the force that had threatened Kimbolton.

“We’ve got several damaged Japanese transports still trying to beach themselves so that they can offload their troops and cargo before sinking.” The fire control tower observers reported over in a telephone call to the militia’s command post where Major Burke and Harold had recently relocated to that afternoon.

Harold thought for a few moments before responding, much to Major Burke’s surprise.

“Go ahead and let them. I have no question now that we are going to defeat this landing attempt also. Once we do that, we can salvage the cargo on those transports and use it ourselves. What ships we can’t refloat and refit, we will just dismantle in place. I can always use the scrap metal for my steel works.”

“Mister Cavill, we’ve still got the problem with where all those Japanese aircraft are coming from. They obviously aren’t flying them all the way from the Philippines. That means that there are several aircraft carriers not too far away from here. While we have shot down a lot of Japanese aircraft, the ones that remain are still making it difficult for us to maintain air cover over the landing zones.

We don’t have anything left to find and attack those carriers except for a few Beaufighters. They won’t be able to get through to those carriers, I know.”

“Maybe we do have something that can get through to the Japanese carriers. We just finished doing the first flight and weapons drop tests of that new long range bomber.”

“Yes, I remember. You based that bomber loosely upon the Cavalier flying boat. But it is only one bomber. How can it strike at least two Japanese aircraft carriers at the same time? The Americans have tried to attack ships with entire formations of their Flying Fortress heavy bombers but had little success.”

“Don’t you remember my mentioning something about six months ago about radio controlled bombs? This aircraft is designed to not only carry a significant payload of conventional bombs, but is also fitted to be able to drop guided bombs as well.”

“How accurate are these radio controlled bombs? I’m afraid that I wasn’t able to keep up with their development due to all of the other tasks that I was involved in, Mister Cavill.”

“With a trained operator, we can place a twelve hundred kilogram bomb within a twenty-five meter circle from an altitude of fifteen-thousand meters. Our heavy bomber can carry four of these weapons in a single mission. One limitation is that the operator can only control one bomb at a time.”

“Can it hit a moving target like a warship?”

“With a trained operator, certainly. However, we have only produced a few of these guided bombs.”

“How many do we have available?”

“We have nine bombs in the warehouse right now. We won’t have any more for at least a couple of weeks.”

Major Burke grimaced when he heard how few of these weapons were available. He was accustomed to the idea of hundreds of bombs being dropped on just one target like what Lancaster bombers had been doing over German cities each week. Still, if Harold Cavill thought that this was some sort of wonder weapon, Major Burke was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Harold had managed to build a rather impressive militia largely out of his own purse with weapons that frequently gave it the edge.

“I hope that you have a very good person aiming those bombs, Sir.”

“I guess that we will find out soon. He has been the man who has dropped all three of the prototype bombs so far.” Harold explained, eliciting another grimace from Major Burke who was now silently praying for a miracle.

Derby Airfield

Derby, Western Australia

April 23, 1943

The large bomber had flown south to another airfield out of the range of Japanese fighters when the first word of the impending attack came in. Now the bomber was sitting at the Derby airfield again as mechanics and armorers worked feverishly to refuel and arm the aircraft in the middle of the night. This would be the first combat mission for the six-engine bomber named the Cavill Cassowary for the large flightless bird found in New Guinea and northern Australia. But this Cassowary was far from flightless and, like the large bird, could easily inflict fatal injuries upon interlopers.

The Cassowary used the engines, tail and modified wing from the maritime patrol version of the Cavalier flying boat.  But the bomber used an entirely new fuselage that was longer and more slender than that used by the Cavalier. The highly streamlined fuselage was supported on the ground by two pairs of bicycle landing gears fore and aft of the bomb bay. Lightweight outrigger wheels extended out from the outermost engine nacelles to steady the aircraft while taking off and landing.

For a Commonwealth bomber, the Cassowary was very heavily armed. It had three turrets and a tail gun position, each armed with a pair of Browning fifty-caliber heavy machine guns.  Two guns were located in a streamlined chin turret while the rest of the bomber’s armament was located in a dorsal turret behind the cockpit and in a retractable belly turret similar to that used by American heavy bombers.  The Cassowary could carry up to six thousand kilograms of bombs and other ordnance inside of its bomb bay and on its two wing hardpoints. The wing hardpoints could also be used to carry external fuel tanks if necessary

Because the Cassowary was designed to operate at very high altitudes, the crew compartments were pressurized with a main compartment forward for the cockpit, bombardier, navigator and gunner positions and an aft compartment for the tail and belly gunner. A slender pressurized tube connected these two crew compartments.

With a top speed of over three hundred knots and a maximum operational altitude of over nine thousand meters, the Cassowary would be very difficult to intercept by any Japanese fighters. Harold and Major Burke were both counting on this since they would not be able to spare any fighters to escort the large bomber on its mission to find and attack the Japanese aircraft carriers.

The Cassowary lifted off from the Derby airfield just before dawn. The bomber carried four guided bombs. Two of the bombs were inside the bomber’s cavernous bomb bay. Two other bombs were also carried, one on each wing’s hardpoint located between inboard engine and the fuselage. A handful of Whirlwinds flew escort for the bomber for the beginning of the flight. Once the bomber reached five thousand meters altitude, the fighters turned away and raced back to Derby to engage the latest Japanese air raid.  After that, the Cassowary was on its own.

Captain Edgar Cowens was at the controls of the Cassowary as the bomber continued to climb higher into the skies north of Derby. With him were four gunners, a bombardier, a navigator and the Cassowary’s co-pilot, Lieutenant Phillip Mills.  The Cassowary would not carry a dedicated radio operator or flight engineer on this mission. The gunner for the dorsal turret would have to act as the radio operator when not occupied with shooting at enemy fighters. Lieutenant Mills would also be pulling double duty as flight engineer as well.

Edgar and Phillip had been with the Cassowary program from the beginning, as had the bombardier, Sergeant Terrance Christopher. The navigator and gunners had been pulled off of whatever military Cavaliers were back home undergoing maintenance. This was largely a scratch crew, but they all knew the importance of the mission.

There was scattered cloud cover over the ocean north of Australia where the coastwatchers had indicated that the Japanese carriers might be. Captain Cowens flew for over an hour as everyone aboard the bomber looked for the telltale wakes of Japanese warships.

“It will make things a lot easier when Mister Cavill gets us that search radar. We wouldn’t have nearly as difficult of a time finding ships if that had already been installed on this bird.” Sergeant Christopher noted.

“I know. Unfortunately, the Japanese interrupted our plans as enemy forces so often have a habit of doing. So we just have to make do with what we have right now.” Edgar answered back.

“I have a sighting of multiple ships, six o’clock low.” Sergeant Adam Sikes called out. Adam was the bomber’s belly turret gunner and made the report just as the bomber flew over a break in the clouds.

“I got them too.” Terrance quickly echoed.

“Have you found any of those carriers yet? Those have to be our priority targets.” Captain Cowens asked.

“I think that I have one in view right now, Sir.” Terrance reported as he looked carefully through the telescopic sights of the guided bomb controller.

“Let me know when you have confirmation. I will turn towards it to give you a better shot.”

“Sir, can you please turn another five degrees to Port?”

After Captain Cowens made the turn, the bombardier called back to him on the intercom.

“Sir, I’m going to drop one of the external bombs first so that we can cut down on our drag a bit.” Terrance said over the intercom.

“That is much appreciated, Sergeant.”

“OK, Sir. We are in the basket now.” Terrance announced, meaning that the Cassowary was now in a position where he could drop the bomb and guide it to the designated target.

A few seconds later, Captain Cowens felt the bomber lurch upwards and bank slightly to the right as over twelve-hundred kilograms of mass released from the portside hardpoint.  Looking out of one of the cockpit windows, the Cassowary’s pilot could see the bomb falling down towards its target for a few moments, a pair of bright flares burning at the rear of the bomb.

The flares provided a visual beacon for the bombardier as he selected radio guidance channel Number One on his control panel and began to manipulate the joystick on the control unit. Now, Terrance had to watch both the bomb and the target so that he could steer the bomb manually onto the latter. Harold had wanted to use infrared or radar guidance for the bomb. However, he then realized that doing so right away would have influenced the technology level too much. Harold had to be patient for another year or two before carefully making such innovations in a truly ‘timely’ manner. For now, he had to rely on a manual command line of sight guidance for these bombs.

Even so, Harold was terribly worried. He had wanted to wait to deploy these weapons until he had enough bombers and guided bombs to strike a decisive blow before the Japanese could develop any countermeasures. The Japanese invasion forced Harold’s hand though. Now Harold hoped that the Japanese did not detect and identify the control signals used by the guided bombs this time.

The targeted Japanese carrier briefly disappeared underneath a line of low-lying clouds. Edgar lost sight of the flares on the back of the bomb as it and the carrier disappeared under the clouds. Unfortunately, the Cassowary’s bombardier also lost sight of both bomb and target for a few moments. By the time Terrance regained line of sight on them, the carrier had made a slight change in course. He quickly twisted the joystick controller in an effort to get the bomb back on target.

A few tense moments later, a large fountain of water erupted next to the starboard side of the Japanese carrier. A few seconds later, the warship made a radical turn to port in an effort to avoid this unexpected threat.

“Damn, missed the first one.” Terrance angrily growled over the intercom as he watched his first bomb fail to hit its target.

“Let’s make the next three count then.” Edgar said as he gritted his teeth. So far, no Japanese fighters had come near the Cassowary. There were beginning to have a few black puffs of smoke appear below them, but none of the bursts were close enough yet to damage the bomber.

Terrance’s first target had once again disappeared under some cloud cover. However, two more Japanese carriers then came into view.

“Can you drop bombs on both of those carriers?” Edgar quickly asked.

“No, Sir. I can only control one bomb at a time. But if you can turn eight degrees starboard, I can launch my next bomb.”

The Cassowary’s pilot made the requested course adjustment within a couple of seconds. Immediately, Terrance released the other externally carried bomb. The bomber once again leaped upward and increased speed, relieved of another part of its burden.

This time, the clouds did not interfere with Terrance’s aim. The bomb plunged through the carrier’s flight deck and several additional decks. The bomb’s armor–piercing seven hundred kilogram warhead exploded just as the bomb was exiting the bottom of the target’s hull. Smoke and water spray erupted from the warship’s hull as the vessel immediately began to slow down. It was obvious to the bomber’s crew that the targeted carrier had been badly damaged by the hit.

The crew of the Cassowary did not have time to celebrate though. A third and fourth carrier had appeared from under the cloud cover. Terrance quickly hit the switch to open the bomb bay doors.

The Japanese were frantically trying to deal with this single bomber. Every long range antiaircraft gun on the carriers and their escorts fired as rapidly as possible at the bomber.  Because of the height that the bomber was operating, all of the shells were falling short.

“How many fighters do we have available to intercept that bomber?”  The aircraft carrier IJN Zuiho’s captain quickly asked his air wing commander.

“Only four, Chu-sai. The rest are escorting our attacking bombers.”

“We need to get those fighters into the air immediately. That bomber must be shot down!”

The captains of the other three carriers were issuing similar orders. However, Shosho’s flight deck and engines had been too badly damaged by the hit for her to be able to launch her remaining fighters.  Ryuho had taken fragmentation damage that caused some flooding from the near miss. But she was still capable of operating aircraft. The carrier Ryujo remained completely undamaged though.

Only Zuiho and Ryujo had any fighters available to launch in any event. Eight Zeros were launched as quickly as possible in an effort to reach and intercept the high-flying Cassowary.

“Mates, whatever you are going to do, I suggest that you please hurry. We are about to have some unpleasant company coming up here to visit.” The Cassowary’s belly turret gunner advised after looking down and seeing several Japanese fighters climbing up toward the Australian bomber.

The bombardier already had another bomb on the way down and under radio guidance when he explained over the intercom.

“I’m doing the best that I can. However, I’m going to need a few more minutes if we are going to be able to deal with these carriers. Mates, can you buy me some time with your guns?”

“We sure as hell are going to try.” The belly turret gunner defiantly answered back after he crawled back into his turret and rotated towards the slowly approaching Japanese fighters.

The Cassowary had gained altitude with each bomb release as it lightened up. It had started the attack at the height of about nine thousand meters. Now, it was over ninety-five hundred meters over sea level. This was already making it harder for the Zeros to begin to engage the big bomber as they approached their own service ceiling.

A couple of the Zeros had already tried a couple of long-range bursts of fire from their twenty-millimeter cannons but the low velocity rounds fell well short of the Cassowary. The thin air was already making it difficult for the Japanese fighters to maneuver. Their pilots had to be very careful because of the danger of stalling and falling out of control at this altitude.

A column of flame and smoke blossomed from another Japanese carrier as the third guided bomb found its target near the warship’s forward aircraft elevator. As with the second bomb, the fuze didn’t initiate until the bomb had passed through half a dozen decks and was just punching its way through the ship’s bottom. But the ten meter diameter hole that was blown out of the carrier’s hull still caused extensive flooding and heavily damaged her engineering spaces.

“We’ve got just one more bomb left, Sir.” Terrance reported

“Then let’s hit that last carrier, Sergeant. The others either have fled to hide under that cloudbank or have been obscured due to the smoke from our bomb hits. We have a couple of Japanese destroyers who are making things even worse by laying smoke screens all around. Just tell me where I need to point our aircraft so that we can drop that final bomb and get the hell out of here.”

“We will need to swing back around about eighty degrees to port, Sir.”

The sharp left turn that the Cassowary made not only put the last undamaged Japanese carrier into ‘the basket’ but also ruined the approach angle for the Zeros climbing up to try to intercept the lone Australian bomber.

Just as soon as Edgar got the wings level, Terrance released the last bomb. But the Cassowary could not leave yet.  Terrance still had to keep both the target and bomb in sight. So Edgar began a gentle right hand turn to accommodate this. Unfortunately, this also meant that the pursuing Japanese fighters could close this distance.

Edgar cringed as he heard Japanese machine gun rounds begin to hit the Cassowary. At almost the same time, he heard heavy machine gun fire from both the bomber’s belly and chin turrets. The tracers from those guns streamed towards the enemy Zeros as the latter struggled to climb up to reach the Australian bomber.  One of the Zeros was hit and set ablaze, falling from the sky like a comet. The other enemy fighters began evasive maneuvers to try to avoid the deadly Brownings. The maneuvers themselves proved to be dangerous as two Zeros lost control and fell into flat spins. The other Zeros continued to attempt to make attacks while dodging tracers from the Cassowary’s guns.

Edgar patiently waited while the bombardier carefully aimed his weapon at the carrier below.  Terrance watched the carrier below attempting evasive maneuvers to avoid the bomb. The bombardier doubted that the Japanese could even see the incoming bomb. Finally, the bomb struck the carrier’s flight deck just forward of the arresting wires. Then a huge fireball erupted from the after half of the carrier. The bomb had plunged through the flight deck and several decks below it as the other bombs had done. Only this time, the warhead detonated right in the middle of the warship’s magazine. Nearly a hundred tons of bombs and torpedo warheads began to detonate, tearing apart the carrier’s stern and much of the flight deck.

Edgar saw the flash and detonation immediately before hearing Terrance’s shout of triumph. Within seconds, Edgar had his bomber turning away from the Japanese fighters and back towards friendly territory.  A nearby cloudbank finally allowed the Australian heavy bomber to break contact with the pursuing Japanese fighters.

As the Cassowary flew home, the Japanese were struggling to keep their ships afloat and recover their surviving aircraft. Out of the four carriers, Ryujo, the last carrier hit, was ablaze and settling rapidly by the stern. Zuiho and Ryuho were badly damaged and burning but still underway, while Shoho had suffered the least amount of damage. So Shoho was the only carrier of the four capable of operating aircraft now.  A Mutsuki-class destroyer was next to Ryujo attempting to pick up survivors as explosions continued to rock the doomed carrier.

Acrid smoke, a combination of smoke from the burning ships and the smoke screens laid by defending destroyers, filled the air around the Japanese carriers. There was little that they could now do to influence the battle now.

“We need to leave here before we are all destroyed. I will assume the responsibility for any dishonor to the Emperor.” Shoho’s captain Kaigun-daisa Izawa Ishinosuke told the crew on the bridge. Carrier Division Four’s commander Kaigun-shōshō Kakuji Kakuta had chosen to go down with Ryujo. The Japanese carrier then slowly turned to the north and sailed away from Australia. Shoho was slowly followed by Zuiho, Ryuho and their escorting cruisers and destroyers.

An hour later, the Cassowary landed back at the Derby airfield. The bomber’s crew was surrounded by soldiers and ground personnel after word had gotten out about the success of the mission.  As soon as Edgar, Terrance and the others were able, they boarded a truck that took them to the main command post.

There, both Harold and Major Burke were waiting in a small conference room that was frequently used to debrief militia personnel. Harold patiently sat and listened while Major Burke was debriefing the crew about the mission. The crew was then congratulated for a successful mission before being sent back home to rest.

“Mister Cavill, you are probably going to need to build some more of those bombers and the bombs that it was carrying.” Major Burke said after the last crewman left.

“Yes, but it will take a while to build more Cassowaries. They take just as long to build as our Cavaliers and each require just as much in terms of resources. The bombs are something that we can make much more quickly. But, sooner or later, the Japanese are going to figure out that these weapons are radio guided. Then they are going to try to jam our guidance signals. We will have to come up with other forms of guidance for our weapons that will be harder to defeat.”

“Well, Mister Cavill. I will leave that in the capable hands of yourself and your engineers. I am just glad to have these fine tools to work with.” Major Burke replied with a smile before finally leaving the debriefing room.

Harold sat and thought for a few moments. He knew that had to be very careful about just how many technological advancements that he incorporated into any new weapons. Radio-controlled bombs had indeed been used during this period of the war in the previous timeline. The Germans employed the Fritz-X and HS-293 guided bombs to great success against Allied warships until the Allies began to use radio jammers to confuse their guidance commands. The Allies used radio-guided bombs of their own like the Azon towards the end of the Second World War.

The United States had also used a radar-guided bomb called the BAT during the latter part of the Pacific War to heavily damage a Japanese escort ship. Perhaps, Harold could quietly develop a similar weapon and still not disrupt the overall technology level of the period. Still, Harold worried about the implications of everything that he did or that he changed.

At least now, Harold knew that his newest designs worked. While Major Burke and the rest of the Commonwealth military might want large numbers of Cassowaries and guided bombs, there were a lot of other pieces of military hardware that also needed to be produced as well for the Commonwealth. Harold did not have the means to build all of them. But at the same time, he did not want to lose control of the technology either. There was always the risk that someone could take one of Harold’s ‘innovations’ and expand upon it in a way that accelerates technological change beyond what Harold intended.

When the air cover disappeared for the Japanese invasion force, all of the remaining loaded transports decided to turn around and head back north towards Luzon. They left behind more than a thousand troops that had already landed on Australian soil. But despite many calls for the trapped Japanese troops to surrender, the invaders continued to fight to the death.

“Well, we got the last of the buggers out finally. Not a single one of those Japanese soldiers surrendered either.  They just came charging at us with those damned swords of theirs or they blew themselves up with grenades. We tried to reason with them. But the Japs apparently weren’t having any part of that.” Major Burke explained shortly after the end of the battle. He and Harold had just returned to the auxiliary command post bunker where Dorothy and the children had been taking shelter.

“How many did they lose?” Harold asked.

“I don’t know yet. We are still picking up bodies with more washing up on the shore every day. But we figure that the Japs lost somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand men.   They lost that battleship, four cruisers and eleven destroyers in addition to all of the transports that were sunk by our forces. Only a couple of their transports got away along with a cruiser and a few destroyers. Our aircraft hit a couple of their aircraft carriers, but we don’t know how badly damaged they are. Who knows how many aircraft the Japanese lost in the battle? Our fighter pilots have claimed over fifty kills, but those scores are usually exaggerated a bit.”

“That’s a hell of a lot of people and equipment. How about our own losses?” Harold asked.

“We didn’t lost too much in terms of materiel. We lost a pair of torpedo boats, four Dragonflies and a pair of Whirlwinds.  Our coastal defense batteries are a little beat up, but still fully operational. The rest of it can all be repaired and brought back into service pretty easily, I believe.”

“You still haven’t said anything about our personnel losses, Harlan.” Harold pressed.

“I know. It’s just that I know how important your people are to you. This is going to be very painful, but we believe that our casualties are approximately thirty nine hundred people. This includes several hundred civilians who were caught in the Japanese bombing of Derby.

Unfortunately, that included dozens of women and children. The hospital is full of casualties.” Major Burke sadly replied.

“Sweetheart, I want to go see them. It’s important for us to show in person that we care about what happened to them.” Dorothy quickly said.

“Yes, that is very important. They are our people.” Harold said as he prepared to climb into his truck for the drive back into town. Dorothy and their children were quickly climbing inside at the same time after tossing all of the weapons and knapsacks into the back of the truck.

A few moments later, they were on the way back to Derby. Harold and Dorothy could still see several smoke plumes rising from the town where fires still burned.

Chapter Sixteen:

North of Derby, Western Australia

April 28, 1943

Harold and his head naval architect Alexander Portman stood on top of a hill overlooking where the main Japanese force landed their troops. They could see the wrecks of over a dozen Japanese warships and transports that had been sunken in the shallow waters from their vantage point.

“What a bloody mess.” Harold remarked as he looked down at the wreckage.

“I don’t know. I look at this as a great opportunity for us instead. We can refloat and salvage five of those Jap transports for sure. They sank in shallow water so it will be an easy matter to put in temporary patches on their hulls and pump the water out. The question will be then what you want to do with them?” Alexander noted.

“True enough. I think that the big ocean liner might even be suitable for conversion into an escort aircraft carrier. Either Australia, the British or even the Free French could certainly use another flight deck to operate warplanes from.

Tatsuta Maru has four shafts and a decent set of diesel engines to propel her.  We will just need to cut down her superstructure, then add a hangar and an aircraft elevator to her.”

“Some of her diesel engines are pretty shot up, Mister Cavill. One of the Beaufighters skipped a bomb right into her engine room and wrecked it much of it. Those damaged engines will almost certainly need to be replaced as a result.”

“I’m sure that we can use some of our standard design marine diesel engines to replace the damaged units and perhaps her other engines as well. We will also have to decide on how to arm her. I suppose that will depend on who wants to buy her from us after her conversion is done.

I think that the other four transports would best serve us by carrying cargo and personnel once again. They are too small or slow to be converted to any real front-line military role. We could certainly use having additional transport ships anyway. The rest of the transports that we can reach will be used for scrap metal and spare parts. We can build a dozen new destroyers and submarines with the steel that we take from those hulks. We will also salvage all of the cargo that they are carrying as well.”

“Sir, what would they be carrying that we could possibly use?”

“We definitely need more ammunition for the militia’s automatic rifles. There is a good chance that some of the ships will have some rifle ammunition that will fit in our weapons. It would take us weeks to replenish what we used to defend ourselves here. The other weapons can either be absorbed by our militia or redistributed to allied militaries.”

“We certainly have our work cut out for us here, Mister Cavill.”

“Yes, we do. We won the battle, but we still paid a heavy price. Hopefully, this victory will deter the Japanese from ever attempting to invade here again. I will have to look into finding other small arms ammunition manufacturers here in Australia who would be willing to produce more ammunition for us. They will likely see that it would also open up an even larger market for their products after more of our allies learn of the capabilities of our CR-1 automatic rifles.”

“I should hope so. But it is frightening to know just how close the Japanese came to defeating us. We need to improve our coastal defenses and the mobility of our militia troops.”

“How do you plan on doing that, Mister Cavill?”

“I thought that we might start by salvaging the guns off of one of those cruisers that our people sank in shallow water north of here. We can probably set up one or two more coastal batteries that way.”

“That is a good idea if we can recover the guns and turrets. There are also guns that we can remove from some of the Japanese transports that ran aground. Another thing that we can do is to build more of those gun trucks of yours. They were very helpful in providing additional artillery support after the Japanese altered their landing site. The gun trucks would also be useful to our allies in providing highly mobile artillery support for their troops too. More trucks or other armored vehicles to carry troops quickly around the battlefield would also significantly improve their mobility. We are probably going to have more customers for the gun trucks anyway after their performance here.”

“I am also going to replace our losses in torpedo boats plus add two more boats to our local militia flotilla. With their success, I would imagine that we will probably get some sales for more of them too. But, someone still has to pay for all of this work though.”

“The sale of those ships that you plan on salvaging could cover a lot of it, Sir.”

“Yes, I suppose it could. But we will need customers for them.”

“Everyone around here is short of transport ships, especially with the U-Boats sinking so damned many of them in the North Atlantic and the Baltic. I’m sure that you will find some customers out there, Mister Cavill.”

About an hour later, Major Burke pulled up in his truck.

“Mister Cavill, our troops have finally cleared all of the Japanese troops out from around Kimbolton. I found something there that you might find of interest.”

“Of course.” Harold said as he got into Major Burke’s truck for the hour-long drive to the small town that the Japanese very nearly captured.

“Have you seen this, Mister Cavill?” Major Burke asked as he looked down at a piece of equipment left behind by the defeated Japanese invaders.

Harold walked up and quickly saw that it was a nearly perfect copy of one of the cross-country bicycles that his own militia troops used. It even had similar racks over the back wheel so that extra equipment could be carried by the bicycle.

“No wonder that these buggers were able to move so fast. They bloody well almost got past our flanks as a result. It’s a good thing that group of your aborigine militiamen spotted this Jap force and ambushed them. Otherwise, we would have lost a lot of good men and maybe even lost this entire battle.” Major Burke noted as he continued to look down at the bicycle.

It hit Harold that a relatively insignificant piece of technology like a bicycle could have made a major difference in a battle, perhaps even an entire war. Harold’s desire for his daughters to have bicycles that were literally ahead of their time could have been far more costly than he dared imagine. He now wondered what other bits of advanced technology that he had introduced could also have an unintended effect far different than what Harold had intended.

But he couldn’t stop innovating now. He simply had to be far more careful about what he introduced and how widely the technology was disseminated. The war still needed to be won without the need for the Bomb to be built.

Derby Militia Headquarters

Derby, Western Australia

April 30, 1943

The small office that the Derby Militia had used for its headquarters quickly expanded to an entirely new structure. Harold had immediately started construction of the new militia headquarters facility almost before the last shots were fired.

He had construction equipment begin to excavate into the side of a nearby hill. Then a reinforced concrete structure was quickly poured and then buried with only a couple of entrances visible. Underground communication cables were run from the headquarters and connected to both the main telephone network and a new set of radio communication towers on top of the hill.

Immediately after the new headquarters was declared operational, Major Burke, Harold and several representatives from the Australian military, the Derby militia’s aviation and naval components as well as the lead design engineers from Harold’s factories came in for a meeting. Furniture was still being brought in as Harold and Major Burke arrived.

“I just got word from Admiral Phillips an hour ago. The Japanese did try to ambush the Coalition force coming out of Haiphong and Singapore to intercept their decoy force.” Major Burke noted.

“What happened then?” Harold asked.

“The Japs sent out several squadrons of twin-engine torpedo bombers, the ones that the Americans call ‘Betty’s’ along with a heavy fighter escort of Zeros to attack Strasbourg, Prince of Wales and Repulse. The twin-engine bombers flew out of the Philippines as did some of the fighters. But the rest of the Japanese air strike came from their carriers. Those were all single engine torpedo and dive bombers along with more Zeros. Our aircraft were heavily outnumbered by the Japanese force. But the Japanese just didn’t count on how effective our fighter cover from Indomitable, Hermes and Melbourne would be. The additional Dragonfly fighter-bombers that had recently been delivered to the fleet were put to very good use.

There were also the upgraded antiaircraft guns that your people installed aboard Strasbourg and several other ships of the Coalition force. Those guns were able to chop up the few bombers that got through our carriers’ fighters. The Japanese did score a few hits on our ships but we were able to get them all back safely to port.

Where we did not do so well was in our own carriers’ counter attack against the Japanese.”

“I think I already know what happened. The Zeros got to the Swordfish, didn’t they?” Harold asked.

“Yes. I’m afraid that they did. Our torpedo bombers didn’t have a chance either. Every single one that had been launched against the Japanese carriers was shot down. Our Blackburn Skuas didn’t fare much better, I’m afraid. Only two of them managed to make it back to Indomitable. Our carrier attacks did little damage to the Japanese fleet as a result.” Captain Nigel Jackman answered. He was a Royal Australian Navy operations officer who flew in shortly after the battle to do an assessment on Japanese tactics during the attack.

“We should have known better than to send out slow biplane torpedo bombers against Japanese fighter defenses. The Zero is simply too dangerous of an adversary. It sounds like we will need to design and build new torpedo and dive bombers for the fleet to use out here.” Harold suggested.

“Perhaps not. Fairey Aviation is bringing a new aircraft called the Buccaneer into service even as we speak. The Buccaneer can do dive bombing, level bombing and torpedo attacks. This is a modern monoplane design that has folding wings for aircraft carrier use.” Captain Jackman explained.

“But will it be survivable against those Japanese fighters?”

“The Buccaneer certainly has to be much more survivable than the Swordfish and Skua. But I think that the key will still have to be in having an adequate fighter escort for our strike planes however.” Harold replied.

“Then we must get some of these Buccaneers transported out here as soon as possible. I will try to see about increasing the production order for the Dragonfly so that all of our carriers will have enough to fully outfit their fighter squadrons.

I am curious if the battleships got to face off against each other?” Major Burke said.

“No. Our capital ships stayed back and supplemented the antiaircraft fire of our aircraft carriers instead of moving up to engage the Japanese Kongo’s. I can’t exactly blame them for hesitating to attack the enemy surface forces, especially after what happened to Dunkerque and the American Pacific Fleet. A little healthy fear can be a very good thing. It keeps us from doing particularly stupid things at the wrong time. But I’m sure that they will have their chance to use their big guns in due time.” Captain Jackman explained.

“At least they kept the Japanese from being able to come in and reinforce the invasion fleet that hit us here.”

“Yes. We also gutted the Japanese bomber force as well as their squadrons aboard those carriers, based on the number of claimed kills. Even with a conservative estimate, it will take months to replace all of those aircraft. The Japanese had to have lost a lot of aircrew also. Those losses might take much longer to replace than the aircraft themselves.”

“I would have to agree. My wife and her team of training pilots are already training a new group of pilots to replace the ones lost during the invasion and to expand our current force. Once she is done with the training of the new pilots, our more experienced combat pilots will finish the training of the new pilots and get them ready for combat.” Harold said.

Cavill Industries Main Office

Derby, Western Australia

May 1, 1943

Colonel Ronald Bailey arrived in front of Harold’s office just a couple of hours after Harold had even learned of the Colonel’s visit to the Derby area. Harold knew that Colonel Bailey was Parliament House’s liaison to the Ministry of Defense’s defense production office. However, Harold had never personally met him before.

Harold’s assistant knocked on the office door to let Harold know that Colonel Bailey had arrived. Harold had a wry expression on his face before asking for the Colonel to be sent in. Typically, short notice visits like this smelled of bureaucratic interference or other unreasonable demands by the government, regardless whether the visitor wore a uniform or a business suit. Colonel Bailey’s visit was even more unexpected after the meeting with other Australian military officials only a couple of days earlier.

“Good afternoon, Mister Cavill. I must say that your people have done a remarkable job of repairing so much of the damage from the Japanese attack just a couple of weeks ago. We in Canberra were all very impressed with how well your militia performed in holding back the Japanese until regular air force and navy units were able to throw back the invaders.”

Harold had to grit his teeth at the deliberate downplaying of the Derby militia’s role of stopping the Japanese invasion attempt.

“We were very lucky, Colonel. But we also had many patriotic citizens, white and aborigine both, who fought with skill and bravery to stop the Japanese.”

Colonel Bailey smiled, but Harold could detect a sense of unease when Harold had mentioned the role of the aborigines in the defense of Derby. But it really didn’t matter in the long run because the people of Derby and the surrounding area knew what happened. They had drawn together as brothers in the crucible of combat. That was the truly important outcome of the battle for Derby.

“I imagine that you are wondering why I came here to see you, Mister Cavill.” Colonel Bailey calmly said.

“I had hoped that you were here to ask what Canberra could do to help us here in Derby, Sir.”

“I’ve afraid that isn’t quite why I am here. My superiors at the Ministry of Defense all the way up to the Prime Minister himself were very pleased with the success of your newest weapons. They know that a single heavy bomber armed with these radio-controlled bombs essentially eliminated the Japanese carrier force that threatened you here at Derby. We have also heard that you are beginning to make a new torpedo that guides itself towards the sound of a ship’s propellers.

We would like for you to provide us with the blueprints for the production of these new guided weapons so that we can produce more of them for the rest of the Australian military. Obviously, with the economy of an entire country, we can produce more of these weapons than you can do on your own, Mister Cavill.”

“Sir, I don’t care how many conventional bombs and torpedoes that you make. However, my factories will continue to be the exclusive producers of the guided bombs and acoustic-homing torpedoes here in this theatre. I simply cannot afford for my trade secrets to be given away to competitors, much less falling into the hands of our enemies.” Harold angrily said before continuing.

“It is difficult enough for me to have to rely upon factories in Sydney and elsewhere to build Twin-Wasp and Cyclone radial engines for use in the production of my aircraft. Unfortunately, my factories here in Australia can only manage to produce fifty engines of each type per month. The French are only just beginning to produce these badly-needed engines under license from Pratt and Whitney for the Twin-Wasp and Wright for the Cyclone. It took me months of negotiations with the French to get permission to even construct these engine factories in French Indochina. I need every single engine that I can get in order to produce more Cavaliers, Cassowary’s, Dragonflies and Whirlwinds, much less the new transport and medium bomber aircraft that I currently developing.

I have also set up small arms production in southern and western China in those areas that have been liberated from the Japanese. But the technology here is all very conventional still. Yet, the government has refused to provide me with any assistance at all.”

“But we need more of these advanced weapons if we are going to be able to defeat the Japanese.” Colonel Bailey demanded.

“I cannot provide you with miracles. But I also will not give anyone permission to steal from me either.  We, as a nation, can provide sufficient arms for our soldiers, sailors and airmen. But you need to get others to do their share of the production that they are capable of doing. Let me do what I and my people are best suited for.”

“I understand that. It is possible even viable. But perhaps you would be willing to entertain another proposition instead that we are now party to? The British government has tendered an offer to license production of the Mosquito fighter-bomber in exchange for the right to produce some of your new armored vehicle designs. This would help fulfill requirements for both us and Britain.” Colonel Bailey replied.

Harold knew that he didn’t have the resources to build the Mosquitos with his own relatively limited manufacturing facilities. The wood used in the Mosquitos’ construction would have to come from French Indochina due to the lack of sufficient supplies in Australia. But that wasn’t the only problem.

“I don’t think that I would have much of a problem licensing production of my tanks to British or even American manufacturers. We all have to do our part for the war effort. But, while we badly need more combat aircraft like the Mosquito, my companies just don’t have to facilities to produce them. If the de Havilland Company were to perhaps help me set up factories in French Indochina, we could produce aircraft for both the RAAF and the Free French Air Force. This would also include new engine factories here to produce the Merlin engine for the Mosquito and perhaps other designs.  I would require some investment from de Havilland or one of the Commonwealth governments to help defray the cost, perhaps as partial compensation for the licensing of my armored vehicle designs.

Perhaps you can covey this counter-proposal to Government House? I am willing to work with our military as well as those of our allies. But my financial and manufacturing resources do have limits unfortunately.”

“Of course, Mister Cavill. After all, we are all seeking the same goals.” Colonel Bailey replied with a sort of slimy smile before shaking Harold’s hand and leaving.

Harold just wanted to wash his hands after dealing with the officer from Government House. As far as Harold was concerned, Colonel Bailey was just another bureaucrat wearing a uniform. Harold hated bureaucrats with a passion, both in the 20th and the 21st century. The agendas of bureaucrats were frequently not necessarily in the best interest of the people that they served.

One thing that Harold had not told Colonel Bailey was that he had already sold the license to build several of Harold’s armored vehicle designs to the Americans, including the latest medium tank design. Of course, the Americans would insist on incorporating their own guns into the tanks and even the self-propelled artillery pieces, while the vehicles built for the Commonwealth would be armed with the new seventeen-pounder tank gun. But at least General Patton and his American Tiger volunteers would very soon be equipped with vehicles that we a match to anything that the Germans could field short of the Tiger Mark VI.

Chapter Seventeen:

Japanese Imperial Navy Headquarters

Tokyo, Japan

May 4, 1943.

Kapitän zur See Werner Kruptmann had spent the better part of two months aboard the Type IXD2 U-Boat, U-178. Fortunately, his Japanese hosts had provided the German naval officer with sufficient facilities to get cleaned up before meeting with the Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.

“Admiral Yamamoto will see you now, Kapitan Kruptmann.” An English-speaking Japanese officer wearing captain’s insignia told Captain Kruptmann.

Both Yamamoto and Captain Kruptmann were fluent in English. The admiral had served as a naval attaché in Washington, D.C. while the captain had spent time studying in England between the wars. Since English was the language that both officers had in common, this is what they spoke during their meeting.

“We are honored by your visit, Kapitan Kruptman. Can you help us increase our ability to strike at our enemies? After all, we share a common set of foes, don’t we?” Admiral Yamamoto asked.

“I believe that we can, Herr Admiral. We have our own projects to project power beyond our waters in an unconventional manner, of course.” Captain Kruptmann said. What he was referring to was the project to have a U-Boat tow an encapsulated V-2 rocket underwater to within range of an strategic target like a city or naval base. The canister would then be ballasted to a vertical position and the rocket fired to its target.

“However, your large aircraft-carrying submarines that we recently learned about offer another possibility for the application of one of pieces of new technology.” Captain Kruptmann noted.

“We are eager to learn all that we can from our German allies.” Admiral Yamamoto replied as he looked intently upon the German naval officer. He had complete confidence still in the fighting ability of the Japanese sailor to defeat his adversary under the proper circumstances.

“We have drawings, photos and other technical information on our new jet engines available for you. We have also brought with us the latest information from the Abwehr on the Allies’ newest weapons.”

“What about these new ‘vengeance’ weapons of yours? Do you have technical information on them with you?” Admiral Yamamoto asked through his interpreter.

“We do have technical information on the engine used by our V-1 missile that we are prepared to share with you. It could be useful to you in a number of wars, I’m sure. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, your large submarines could be very potent launch platforms for weapons derived from our V-1’s, I believe.”

“So you think that we could transport and launch your V-1 missiles from our submarines in place of the aircraft that they normally carry?”

“Yes, Admiral. Based on the information that we already know about your aircraft-carrying submarines, I believe that you can. The combination will give you options to attack enemy ground targets that will not expose your precious aircraft carriers or battleships to destruction.”

Eventually, the conversation moved to more operational matters.

“What are you planning on doing next, Admiral Yamamoto? We understand that while the Americans have been stalled in their operations against you, the Englanders and their allies in the Far East have proven to be far more difficult to deal with.”

“We are in the process of launching a new operation against the French and British forces. We underestimated them during our attempt to invade Australia. But we will not do so again. We have already successfully landed forces into the northern half of Borneo. When we eliminate the British and French capital ships, we will finally be able to attack their bases more directly.

I’m sure that you will be very pleased when we succeed in the operation. That will force the British to devote more of their naval forces to the Pacific. This will open up many possibilities in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean for Germany and Italy, will it not?”

“Yes, it will. It will also allow Japan to cut off the supply of weapons to the Chinese resistance, I’m sure. However, we need for Japan to do something else as well as compensation for the technology that we are providing you.”

“What do you need?”

“We need for you to attack the western Soviet Union as soon as possible.”

“That will mean violating our Nonaggression Pact with Moscow.”

“Yes. But you signed that pact because the Soviet Union defeated you on the battlefield earlier at Khalkhyn Gol. Now, many of those Red Army troops are now facing the Wehrmacht. You will be able to redeem your honor with a victory against your Russian enemies once again.”

“This will also take some pressure off of your troops as well, will it not?”

“Of course. But the ultimate goal is for both of us to defeat the Bolshevik’s. The Americans are paralyzed right now and offer no real threat to you. The vast mineral resources of Siberia and Mongolia are desperately needed by Japan. Now is the time for you to attack.”

Of course, the Germans didn’t really care if the Japanese succeeded. All they needed to do was make Stalin hesitate in some of his troop movements from the Siberian Military District to face the Wehrmacht near Moscow. If the peace overtures with the English were successful, then the Japanese would be left to face the Americans and their allies alone. Germany’s Axis alliance with Japan was a marriage of convenience, not of common philosophy. The German High Command had already decided that the Japanese would be expendable when necessary. By abandoning the Japanese to fight alone, Germany could secure their victory and rebuild in peace because making peace with the Americans would be relatively easy.

“We will certainly consider your request. Now, may we continue our discussion about technology transfers and intelligence on enemy weapons? Admiral Yamamoto politely asked with a smile that hid his anxiety over the German request.

That day’s meeting lasted another several hours with the Germans briefing the Japanese on the new German weapons. The Japanese, in turn, briefed the Germans on what they had learned from Japanese radio intercepts of Allied transmissions. The Japanese also inquired about Russian weapons, especially since the Germans had considerable experience now facing them.

After Captain Kruptmann left at the end of that day’s meetings, Admiral Yamamoto spoke more plainly to his fellow Japanese about what he thought Japan should do.

“I would argue against taking any action against the Soviet Union regardless of what our allies want. However, I fear that General Tojo may not be nearly as prudent as I am about these things. My guess however is that even he will not give the Germans exactly what they want either. It may be much easier for us to conduct a small ground operation and focus on a much larger aerial strike against the Russians instead. That is certainly what I would advise for him to do. We simply cannot move enough troops towards Mongolia without weakening our campaigns elsewhere or being noticed by one of the foreign intelligence services.

I still believe that our aircraft are certainly superior over the Russian aircraft that we know are deployed near Mongolia. But we will have to step up surveillance flights in the area to ensure that we have accurate intelligence on Russian military dispositions before we begin offensive operations against them.”

“You are worried about these Sturmovik attack planes that the Russians have been plaguing the Germans with, aren’t you?”

“I am. But if the Russians try to use them against us, we will have to find a counter to them, one way or another.”

Over the course of the next week of meetings with Captain Kruptmann, Admiral Yamamoto and his technical experts poured over the photos, blueprints and documents that the Kriegsmarine officer had brought with him. By the time that Captain Kruptmann was ready to return back to Germany, the Japanese had already started to formulate their own ideas for adapting V-1 technology for use with large fleet of aircraft-carrying submarines.

Japanese Imperial Navy Headquarters

Tokyo, Japan

July 1, 1943

Captain Kruptmann had left over a month earlier onboard the U-Boat that he came to Japan in, but the technical information that he provided during his visit was quickly assimilated by Japanese scientists and engineers. Admiral Yamamoto came to meet with some of the Imperial Navy’s scientists to learn what was being developed. Several different scientists who were also officers in the Imperial Japanese Navy presented a variety of new and improved weapons. Most of the items that were presented to Admiral Yamamoto were improved or kamikaze versions of existing weapons. But Captain Omo Kinugara had something far different to show the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

“Taishō, we had originally considered using an aircraft based on the German Fiesler Fi-103R as a new strike weapon to be launched from our submarines. That was the manned version of their V-1. However, the controllability of the craft was questionable, especially for an inexperienced pilot.

The overall concept was still valid, particularly with the use of the pulse jet to propel the weapon. We decided to design and construct a completely new weapon. This weapon was called the Baika which means ‘Plum Blossom’.”

Captain Kinugara then showed Yamamoto a series of design drawings of the Baika before continuing.

“Originally, this was designed to be launched from land bases against enemy ships. So the Baika was first fitted with conventional landing gear. But with the idea in mind of using the Baika as a submarine-launched or even a ship-launched weapon, we created a modified design that did away with the landing gear. This allowed us to increase the internal fuel capacity for longer range and marginally increase the size of the warhead. A single Baika can sink a transport or do very heavy damage to a warship.”

“Very good. How many of these weapons can be carried aboard an aircraft-carrying submarine?” Yamamoto quickly asked.

“For most of our submarines, one Baika replaces one scout plane. However, for the new I-400 class, the three Aichi M6A1 Seiran strike aircraft are replaced by four Baika weapons.”

“So Ka. That would give the I-400 a significant strike capability, wouldn’t it?”

“Hai. The extended range of the Baika should also improve the survivability of the launching submarine which must surface in order to fire the missile. That will allow the submarine to fire from a distance, far from enemy defenses.”

“Can the Baika also be fired from a surface ship?”

“Hai. All that is needed is a catapult or rocket-assisted ramp carriage that can accelerate the weapon to sufficient speed.”

Admiral Yamamoto paused for a few moments before replying.

“Very good. Continue with your work on the Baika. We will need a final design very soon. Obviously, we need a weapon like this in production as quickly as possible. We cannot assume that we will be able to defeat our enemies with conventional ships and aircraft any longer.”

The admiral then left the room to continue his series of meetings that day. The war was still not going nearly as well as Minister Tojo and his allies had confidently predicted two years earlier. But Admiral Yamamoto was determined to do his duty to fight for his people, regardless of the price. His honor demanded no less of him.

The next meeting was of extraordinary importance to not only Admiral Yamamoto, but to the entire Imperial military leadership. The final plans for what was to be the decisive battle against the Allies in the southwest Pacific were to be finalized today.

Unlike the earlier attack upon the Derby area, this battle was meant to draw out the Allied fleet and air forces to destroy them once and for all. To accomplish this, the Imperial Combined Fleet was to employ all of its available big gun ships in addition to four fleet aircraft carriers, three smaller aircraft carriers plus dozens of lighter warships.

The battleships Yamato, Musashi and Haruna could not join the battle because they were still undergoing repairs from earlier US and Coalition submarine attacks.  This left the battleships Nagato, Mutsu, Kirishima and Kongo to form the battle line. On paper, they were still far more powerful than the Allied capital ship force. Like the earlier attack, the Japanese capital ships were split into two separate groups. One would be the bait. The other force with Nagato and Mutsu would be the executioner. Or at least, this is what the Japanese thought.

Port of Haiphong

French Indochina

August 1, 1943

Harold had traveled to Haiphong at the invitation of the Free French government there to inaugurate the opening of a new factory there for the production of some of Harold’s vehicle designs. The atmosphere at Haiphong was already very jubilant with the news of a French ocean liner arriving with over fourteen-hundred spouses and children from Vichy France. The families of many of the French sailors had been given permission to travel to French Indochina to be with the men, in spite of the fact that the sailors were still fighting against the Axis.

In fact, Harold’s Cavalier had flown over the huge French ocean liner Île de France on its way into Haiphong harbor before landing at the nearby seaplane port. Hundreds of French women were on the decks waving at Harold’s seaplane as it flew over. The Cavalier was so close that Harold could see the smiles on the women’s faces.

After the Cavalier landed and taxied up to the dock, Harold got out along with forty other passengers. He was met by a pair of French military officers as he walked from the seaplane. One of the officers was a French Navy lieutenant while the older man wore the uniform of a French Army Colonel.

“Monsieur, we have been told that someone from Île de France wants to see you on a matter of some importance. He is traveling under diplomatic privilege.” Colonel Francois Mureau explained.

“Who is he?”

“We are not at liberty to say. All that we know is that he is responsible for arranging for these families to be reunited with their husbands. I must also mention that he is also German.”

Harold raised his eyebrows at the mention of a German diplomat having made such an effort to meet with him. The Vichy government would have never allowed the families of sailors that they considered renegades to be reunited unless the Germans encouraged or at least permitted it. What did the Germans want? Harold also wondered what any of this unusual activity had to do with him?

The three men walked over to a small hotel not far from where the French liner was now docked. Harold and the two French officers went inside. The French had apparently rented one of the rooms ahead of time because when Harold and the others went inside, it already had some fresh food and wine waiting on a table.

“Would you please remain here with Lieutenant Gaspar, Monsieur? I will return here shortly with our other distinguished guest. Please feel free to have something to eat and drink. I’m that you are quite hungry and thirsty after your flight here.”

“Merci, Colonel.” Harold said with a smile.

After about thirty minutes, Harold looked out the front door of the hotel room to see Colonel Mureau walking up with a tall man in his mid-thirties. The tall distinguished looking man in a dark formal business suit walking next to Colonel Mureau towards Harold seemed strangely familiar. The German diplomat smiled and waved when he saw Harold. Obviously, he knew who Harold was. Finally, recognized who the German diplomat was. It was the man that Harold had spoken with in Paris just before the war, Werner von Braun’s older brother Sigismund.

“Good afternoon, Herr Cavill. It has been several years since we met previously. I trust that you and your family have been doing well? You have a wife named Dorothy, three daughters and a son now, correct?” Sigismund politely asked in accented but very understandable English. The German diplomat had been briefed about Harold and his family by Abwehr operatives prior to boarding the French ocean liner.

“You are very well informed, Ambassador von Braun.”

“Oh, while I do still serve the Deutschland in its diplomatic service, I do not hold the post of Ambassador. I am merely a secretary to the ambassador in Addis Ababa.”

“That is quite a change from working in Paris, I’m sure.”

“Jawohr. It most certainly is. Unfortunately, it is the price to be paid when you have a disagreement with a senior official from the National Socialist Party.” Sigismund wryly noted.

“Yes, but things are obviously improving for you. I heard that you are responsible for these French civilians to be reunited with their husbands in the French Navy.”

“I suppose that is true. But certainly you understand that I could not possibly turn down the opportunity to get out of the wasteland where I was sent into exile.” The German diplomat said, a smile slowly returning to his face.

“These people are not being sent into exile, are they? I certainly hope not.” Harold firmly asked.

“Nein, Herr Cavill. This is most definitely not a form of exile for anyone here. These people are more than welcome to travel back and forth from French Indochina and back to France. Even the sailors are welcome to return to France, though I must admit, I don’t think that the Vichy government would allow the sailors to return here while the current hostilities continue.”

“I am very pleased to hear that. But why is your government allowing this, Sir?” Harold asked.

“Someday, this conflict will be over. At that time, Germany will have to be able to have good relations with all of its neighbors, including the French. You would call this action here a gesture of good faith. It is not the only reason that I am here though, Herr Cavill. My leaders also wanted for me to discuss another matter with you privately while I am here.”

Harold’s curiosity was instantly piqued. Perhaps that trip to Paris before the war to see Sigismund was not a waste after all.

“What do the new leaders of Germany want from me?”

“As you already know, our Fuhrer is dead. Our High Command decided that, for the best interest of the German people, certain punitive policies against religious and ethnic minorities needed to be ended. They also felt that the war against the Bolsheviks needed to be vigorously prosecuted until that threat to the West was completely eliminated.

On the other hand, our leaders want to peacefully end the conflict between Germany and Western Europe very much. You have worked with German companies and have hired Germans to work for your companies prior to the war. We know of your character and integrity as a result. You also have significant influence with the current Prime Minister of England. We need you to convince Herr Churchill that the men who are in authority in Germany are not the same people who started this war. They are the ones who want to end it and all of the threats to both of our nations.” Sigismund explained.

“I see. I also want this war to end as well. But obviously the Commonwealth and the other nations of Europe will have conditions for peace that they will not compromise on.”

“I know this too, Herr Cavill.”

“Then please make sure that your leaders do as well. It is important for everyone that we end with a just peace. Otherwise, we are simply laying the groundwork for the next major war.

We have so much more that we should be doing besides waging war upon our neighbors. I know that your brother Werner is very interested in building rockets to take humans to the Moon and beyond. I’m sure that he sees his current work for the German military as nothing more than a means to continue his research into rocket design. Like your brother, I want humanity to spread out beyond this world also. When this war is over, I would like very much for Werner to come work for me in designing and building our dreams. But first, we need to find a way to end this war before we destroy ourselves or create the circumstances of our eventual destruction.

Will you help me do this, Sigismund?”

The German diplomat scratched his chin for a few moments as he thought about what Harold had just said. It was obvious that the Australian industrialist knew far more about Werner than anyone else that Sigismund had ever met outside of Werner’s rocketry circles.

“Jawohr, Herr Cavill. I will try. I see a bit of Werner in you, I must admit. Both of you are dreamers. The dreams that both of you want are worth pursuing, I believe.” Sigismund said with a smile and an outstretched hand.

Harold readily accepted the offered handshake as he prayed that he was now one more step closer to saving humanity.

Now, he had to go out and continue today’s tasks before returning to Derby on the next Cavalier flight.

Chapter Eighteen:

Battleship HMS Prince of Wales

South China Sea

August 10, 1943

Admiral Phillips was once again on the flag bridge of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales leading the Coalition fleet to battle. Over the course of the last year and a half, elements of the Coalition fleet had been involved in nearly a dozen minor naval engagements. While most of the battles were at least marginally victories, the earlier loss of Dunkerque weighed heavily upon the deployment and use of the Coalition fleet. The French were certainly terrified of losing a second major unit after the sinking of the French battle cruiser.

But this time, Admiral Phillips and his fleet were ready to fight as a whole against an identified major Japanese fleet.

“Our carriers have just launched a strike against the Japanese fleet carriers located about one hundred and fifty miles northeast of us. A Dutch submarine patrolling in that area had spotted the carrier group less than thirty minutes ago.

The Japanese outnumber our carriers, four versus three. However, with Melbourne and Indomitable supplemented by Hermes and the availability of some shore-based air support, we should outnumber the Japanese in terms of available aircraft. We also believe that the quality of our carrier-borne aircraft, especially with the integration of new types, will give us the advantage as well.”

“What will the rest of our fleet be doing during our airstrike?”

“Gentlemen, our scout planes have spotted a pair of Kongo-class fast battleships about fifty miles ahead of us and closing. At least four of those big Japanese heavy cruisers and a dozen destroyers are also supporting the Kongos.  They appear to be trying to intercept us to protect their carriers. So, we are finally going to get the chance to engage and destroy the enemy with our main guns.” Admiral Phillips told his ship commanders via wireless and signal lights.

Very soon, the fast battleship HMS Prince of Wales, followed by the battle cruisers HMS Repulse and FN Strasbourg began to form a line of battle as they increased speed towards the enemy surface force. On their flanks, a polyglot of cruisers formed up a pair of parallel lines on either side of the Allied capital ships. The French cruiser force on one flank was led by the heavy cruiser Algerie, light cruiser Emile Bertin plus the Dutch light cruisers Tromp, Java and de Ruyler, USN heavy cruiser USS Houston, light cruisers USS Boise and Marblehead and supported by the large French contre-torpilleurs Mogador and Volta. The County-class heavy cruisers HMS Cornwall, HMS Devonshire, HMAS Australia and HMAS Canberra anchored the Commonwealth cruiser force on the other side. The heavy cruiser HMS Exeter supporting Commonwealth light cruisers HMAS Sydney, HMAS Perth and HMAS Hobart followed the Counties. An outer screen of more than twenty destroyers from France, England, Australia, Netherlands and the USN surrounded and led the overall force.

None of them knew of the second Japanese force that was circling around to reinforce the battleships Hiei and Kirishima. This force was intended to catch the Allies in a pincer movement and prevent them from escaping. This force consisted of the battleships Nagato and Mutsu supported by four more heavy cruisers in addition to fifteen lighter warships.

The Coalition also did not expect the size of the Japanese carrier force assembled against them. The fleet carriers IJN Shokaku, Zuikaku, Hiryu and Soryu were to be the main striking force while the surviving carriers from the attack on Derby, Shoho, Zuiho and Ryuho provided additional support after returning to service. The three light carriers had been heavily damaged during the attempted assault upon Derby. The Japanese carrier-borne force was more than twice as large as the Commonwealth’s. However, the Coalition did have a larger land-based aerial force available now than before.

The Japanese expected this to be just like the battle that annihilated the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet. The Japanese were forced to modify their plans because they could not make their usual nighttime torpedo attack as a result of the growing effectiveness of Coalition radar systems. The attack would have to occur in the daylight in conjunction with the main battle.

But this time, the Coalition force was ready for battle in spite of having commanders who spoke at least three different languages.

The Coalition force also had a pair of brand-new Cassowary heavy bombers in support as well. Each bomber had a mixed load of guided bombs, two long-range glide bombs that were newly designed for lightly armored targets like carriers and transports were carried on the wing hardpoints. Two bombs of the original armor-piercing design were carried inside of the bomb bay. The Cassowary bombers had also been modified from the original prototype in that they now had four hardpoints on their wings. The outer hardpoints on each bomber were carrying external drop tanks for increased endurance though also capable of carrying bombs when needed. The new Cassowary’s also had the new airborne search radar finally installed on them. This radar allowed the bomber to search the ocean and even over land for targets in all weather conditions.

The prototype Cassowary was unavailable due to modification work being done on it. That particular Cassowary was Harold’s testbed aircraft for virtually all new equipment intended for use on other aircraft.

The six powerful R-1820-86 Wright Cyclone radial engines of each Cassowary roared loudly as the two massive, heavily laden bombers climbed into the air and turned towards the north. The bombers had several fighters escorting them initially. But eventually, the friendly fighters had to return to refuel. The pair of heavy bombers continued to climb higher for nearly an hour until they made first contact with the Japanese force.

“We are picking up several contacts on our surface search radar.” The first Cassowary’s bombardier/navigator Sergeant Theodore Wellington reported.

“Very good. Give me a bearing on the targets, please.” Captain Nigel Asheboro, the Cassowary’s pilot calmly requested.

After getting the information from his navigator, Captain Asheboro turned towards the Japanese naval formation, followed by Captain Howard Shaw in the second heavy bomber.

Less than five minutes later, the two heavy bombers spotted the first pair of Japanese battleships and their supporting escorts through a break in the clouds.

“Have you seen any carriers yet, Ted?” Captain Asheboro asked his bombardier/navigator.

“I’m afraid not, Sir. But I do see a pair of bloody big battleships down there. No one said anything about these monsters being here.”

“Well, mates. Let’s go drop some bombs on the bastards.”

Both heavy bombers selected a target and each dropped one of their heavy guided bombs toward it.

The bomb dropped by Captain Asheboro’s bomber guided in and hit Mutsu in the bow, blowing a huge hole in the battleship foc’sle and causing heavy flooding forward. That caused the Japanese battleship to immediately slow down to less than twenty knots.

Shortly after this, the heavy armor-piercing bomb being guided by the second Cassowary also found Mutsu and hit her adjacent to her third main battery turret. The bomb penetrated through the battleship’s main deck armor and three other decks before detonating next to that turret’s magazine. The resulting massive explosion tore the Mutsu in half in seconds.

The Cassowary’s crew cheered as they saw the flash from the surface followed the huge rising column of smoke emanating from where the large Japanese battleship had been.

The two Cassowary’s then turned to attack Nagato. But the Japanese had picked up the radio emissions from the bomber’s guidance systems now.

“Target acquired. Keep her steady, Sir…..Bomb released.” Sergeant Wellington said as the Cassowary suddenly rose after another one thousand plus kilogram guided bomb was dropped from a wing hardpoint.

Sergeant Wellington began to guide his bomb towards Nagato when suddenly the bomb started to ignore his radio commands. Immediately, Ted began to listen to the guidance signals through an adjacent radio receiver tuned to the same frequency. Instead of the normal clicking tones of the radio guidance commands, Ted heard a loud squeal on the same frequency that drowned out his commands to the bomb.

“Damn it! We were afraid that this was going to happen, Sir. The Japs are using a radio transmitter to jam our command frequencies. I hope that the bomb’s frequency timer is working and that I can regain command of it in time. I am changing channels to the secondary frequency now.” Ted announced over the intercom while switching a dial on his control console.

As a precaution a few months after the first use of the guided bomb against the Japanese, engineers working for Cavill Ordnance modified the bombs and their control systems to account for the possibility of the Japanese attempting to jam the bomb guidance signals.

The controls on each bomb had a built-in timer that counted down after each command input from the launching bomber. If there was more than a ten or fifteen second period between correct command signals, the bomb would then automatically switch to a secondary channel and wait for a new set of good command signals. Some of the bombs actually had as many as three different radio receivers, each with its own distinct receiver channel. Since a jamming signal would not match a normal guidance command pattern, the enemy could not take control of a bomb. Enemy jamming could only prevent commands from being ‘heard’ by the bomb. If no more commands were received by the bomb, its controls would lock in a neutral position. The bomb would then proceed in a purely ballistic trajectory during the rest of its flight downward.

Ted was unfortunately unable to regain control of his bomb in time. It landed in the water and detonated over a hundred meters away from Nagato. The bombardier of the other Cassowary was more fortunate because his bomb was dropped a few moments later. He was able to switch to the secondary channel and regain control of his weapon in time to hit Nagato. The bomb struck the Japanese battleship in the stern, damaging one of her four shafts and reducing her speed to only twenty knots.

Unfortunately, both bombers then lost sight of Nagato after it turned into a large smoke screen that had been laid by several of her escorting destroyers.

“Let’s just loiter around here to see if anything appears that is worth attacking.” Captain Shaw radioed.

“We can only stay for a short while. You can be certain that the Japanese have already dispatched fighters to intercept us. We don’t have any escorts any longer so we will be like a pair of rabbits surrounded by a pack of dingos shortly, I’m afraid.” Nigel replied back.

“That might mean that we will have to fly back with bombs still on board.”

“Fair Dinkum. But if we don’t have targets, we can’t afford to simply waste these weapons. We have damned few of them as it is.”

“Just do us all a big favor and try to land your plane gently if you still have bombs aboard, please. We would prefer not having to dodge a bloody big hole in the runway when we are trying to land behind you.” Ted requested, only half-jokingly.

“We’ve got enemy fighters coming our way.” Ted’s tail gunner called out over the intercom.

“Time for us to go, mates. Let’s see if we can lure these fine gentlemen into the gunsights of the Tomahawks and Hurricanes based now near Darwin.” Ted sarcastically noted as he quickly turned the Cassowary towards the southeast. Captain Shaw’s aircraft quickly followed as the two huge bombers sought to gain speed and altitude along the way towards Darwin. Nearly forty Japanese Zeros pursued the heavy bombers, stripping the Japanese force of a large portion of its fighter support.

Far to the west, Admiral Phillips and his task force steamed towards the Japanese armada. The news from the Cassowary’s about the sinking of one Japanese battleship and the damage to a second battleship certainly lifted the morale of the force. Another note of good news was a radio report from the carrier attack force. They were about to reach the location where the Japanese carriers had been sighted.

“Well, gentlemen. We still have three battleships that we know of to deal with. Plus, if our chaps in the air aren’t able to keep those Japanese bombers off of our backs, we will end up just like that battleship whose sinking we just cheered.” Admiral Phillips told the others on Prince of Wales’ flag bridge.

At the same time, the two Cassowary’s were racing back towards Derby ahead of the Japanese fighter pursuit, the strike force from the three Commonwealth aircraft carriers dove down below the clouds to seek the Japanese carrier fleet.

Fifty Fairey Barracuda bombers dove down upon the Japanese carriers. Half of the bombers were set up for dive bombing while the other half were armed with torpedoes. Overhead were two squadrons of Dragonfly fighter-bombers, a squadron each of Sea Hurricane and American-built Grumman Martlet fighters.

The torpedo-armed Barracudas dove to near wave-top height before leveling out and seeking out their targets. The other Barracudas, along with the Dragonflies, began to dive also. But their dives were much steeper as they were seeking specific ships to drop their bombs on.

Two of the Dragonfly pilots had previously flown for the Derby militia’s air arm. Now, Flying Officer’s Toby Matthews and his wingman, Oliver Windale were flying into combat as part of HMAS Melbourne’s strike force. Each of their fighter-bombers carried a pair of drop tanks and a single five-hundred pound semi-armor piercing bomb. Both pilots had released their drop tanks as soon as they spotted the Japanese fleet.

Now, they were among the dozens of Commonwealth warplanes diving down upon the enemy fleet.

“I thought that the scouts said that there were four aircraft carriers out there. I’m seeing another three just to the west.” Oliver radioed.

“I see them too. I guess that means we have a lot more targets to hit today, doesn’t it?” Toby quickly answered back while turning to the west.

“Yes, but it also probably means that we are going to have to deal with a lot more Zeros while we are at it, unfortunately.”

“Ollie, I’ve got one of those Jap carriers in my sights. It looks like one of the ships that tried to hit Derby a few months ago.” Toby radioed as he began his dive.

“I see her too. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was one of those ships. We should have sunk it before when we had the chance. I’m going in now to try to finish the job.”  Oliver answered as he banked into a diving attack behind Toby.

As Toby and Oliver rapidly dove upon their target, over thirty Zero fighters appeared below. But the Japanese fighters were racing down towards the Barracudas that were attempting to make torpedo runs against the Japanese carriers instead of focusing on the dive bombers.

The Commonwealth torpedo bombers were all targeting the big Japanese fleet carriers instead of the lighter carriers. The Commonwealth pilots all wanted a chance to sink a fleet carrier. The Barracudas pushed onward despite the wall of fire coming from the fleet carriers IJN Shokaku, Zuikaku, Hiryu and Soryu. The carriers’ defenses were quickly supplemented by agile Zeros who made strafing runs on the attacking torpedo bombers in spite of the bursting shells of their own ships’ antiaircraft guns.

Toby and Oliver continued to focus on their attack upon the light carrier Shoho in spite of hearing calls for assistance from the torpedo bombers. The Dragonflies couldn’t break off their bombing attack to help with the Zeros yet.

Finally, Toby was able to release his bomb, with Oliver quickly following suit. They both quickly pulled up and climbed back up at maximum speed. They didn’t even look back to see if their bombs had hit. They were too busy trying to get back into a position to engage the enemy Zeros instead.

One by one, the lumbering torpedo bombers fell burning into the sea. But a handful of Barracudas did get close enough to drop their Mark XIX torpedoes. One Coalition torpedo hit and damaged Shokaku while a second torpedo hit struck Hiryu’s aft engine room. Only five of the torpedo bombers survived to return to their carriers after launching their attacks. However, the Zero defenders had to quickly peel away to face another threat to their home ships.

The bomb-armed Barracudas began their dive-bombing attacks slightly later than they had anticipated. So they came screaming down upon the Japanese fleet carriers several critical minutes after the torpedo bombers began their runs rather than making a coordinated strike. This meant that the dive bombers would make their attacks largely unopposed by the Zeros however.

The Barracudas each carried a pair of five-hundred pound semi-armor piercing bombs or a single sixteen-hundred pound armor-piercing bomb. The latter weapons were intended for use against Japanese battleships. However, none of the bombers held back their attacks, regardless of the weapons that they carried. They all attacked the fleet carriers.

While not every bomb hit its target, more than enough hit to devastate all four of the Japanese fleet carriers.  Shokaku and Hiryu were particularly hard hit after being badly damaged by the earlier torpedo hits. The Barracudas that still had bombs then joined the Dragonflies in attacking the three Japanese light carriers as well. Shoho, Zuiho and Ryuho were soon hit and burning as well.

The skies above the Japanese carriers were full of swirling dogfights. Toby and Ollie were up there in the middle of the fight as the attack aircraft from the Commonwealth carriers continued to make their attacks on the Japanese armada. The Dragonflies and other Allied fighters were struggling mightily to fend off an increasing number of Japanese fighters.

“Where the hell did all of these Zeros show up from, Toby?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they were the ones chasing the Cassowary’s earlier?”

“Whoever they are, they are certainly playing for keeps.” Toby quickly replied as he struggled to evade the fire from a pair of Zeros.

“Well, their bloody carriers are on fire and sinking right now. I suppose that they would be a wee bit put off by that. But there are still fewer Zeros here than I would have thought for seven carriers.

Anyway, there’s one of the bastards off of your back, mate.” Oliver radioed just after his heavy machine guns tore apart one of Toby’s pursuers.

“Thanks, mate. I’m quite happy not to have quite so many of the buggers around to shoot at me, I have to admit.” Toby replied with a sigh of relief as the second Zero turned away to evade Oliver’s guns.

“We’re going to have to get back to Melbourne and reload. I’m almost out of ammunition.”

“Same here. Incidentally, did you see any bombers on their flight decks when you attacked?” Toby asked.

“Only a few. I was a little busy dodging ‘ack-ack’ though to notice much else.” Oliver wryly replied.

“I didn’t see many there either. Where are they, I wonder?”

Most of them were actually on the way towards Admiral Phillips’ task force. But first, the Japanese bombers had to get through the Coalition cruiser and destroyer screen. Alarms and klaxons of all types started going off on the various Coalition ships as the first Japanese carrier planes appeared.

The cruisers and destroyers began to put up a hail of antiaircraft fire in between themselves and the Japanese bombers. Flaming planes continually fell from the sky as Admiral Phillips’ ships furiously fired all of their antiaircraft guns at their attackers. While the vast majority of the Japanese planes were shot down before they could do any significant damage, some of the Japanese pilots managed to score some telling hits.

Admiral Phillips grimaced as he saw columns of smoke rising from the positions of several Coalition ships.

“I need a battle damage report from our ships as quickly as possible.” Phillips ordered.

What the Coalition fleet commander learned was certainly not what he wanted to hear. The cruisers USS Marblehead, HMS Cornwall, HNLMS de Ruyler and HMAS Perth had all been hit by aerial torpedoes. None had been sunk yet, but all had been badly damaged. Six other cruisers and destroyers had also been hit by dive bombers. Two destroyers, HNLMS Kortaener and USS Stewart, had both been sunk by Japanese Aichi Type 99 dive bombers.

But the vast majority of the Japanese bomber force had been destroyed or driven off before they could reach Admiral Phillips’ capital ships.

The Japanese surface force was continuing to rapidly close with the Coalition fleet even as Japanese bombers made their attack. At its head were nearly twenty cruisers and destroyers.

One ship in the Japanese force that had gone unnoticed by the Coalition was the light cruiser Oi. It had slipped in among the destroyers moving towards the Coalition fleet. Oi and her sister ship Kitakami had been heavily modified prior to the war to carry very heavy batteries of Type 93 torpedoes. Kitakami had been sunk by Coalition submarine attack several months earlier. But Oi was there to try to bolster the torpedo salvoes of the rest of the Japanese fleet.

As soon as the Japanese lead elements got into torpedo range, they began to turn starboard to present their torpedo broadsides. Halfway through the turn, the first of the Coalition land-based aircraft were detected by the Japanese. This added even more urgency to getting the first torpedo strike launched. Among the Coalition aircraft, were Pappy Gunn and dozens of heavily modified bomber aircraft to conduct devastating strafing attacks upon land and naval targets.

Before Pappy’s strafers could get to Oi and her consorts, the torpedo cruiser managed to launch her portside torpedo tubes. This meant that twenty of the massive Type 93 torpedoes that the Allies had nicknamed the ‘Long Lance’ were on the way towards the Coalition battle line. Oi’s torpedoes joined many dozens more that the Japanese destroyers and other cruisers had also fired.

Then the entire formation of destroyers and cruisers began to make a hard turn to port. The cruisers were preparing to fire the torpedo tubes on the disengaged side while the destroyers were moving away to safety and reload their own torpedo tubes. But before the Japanese van could complete its turn, three squadrons of modified light and medium bombers finally got into their own firing range.

Two squadrons of Pappy Gunn’s modified bombers had been armed with eight or more fifty-caliber heavy machine guns facing forward. But the most recent aircraft to be modified each received one of the new five-barrel gatling automatic cannons. These aircraft all roared in at low altitude and attacked. The bombers were also escorted by a squadron of modified Whirlwind twin-engine fighter-bombers.

As one of the larger warships in the van of the Japanese naval formation, Oi immediately received some of the heaviest fire from the strafers. A stream of tracers suddenly erupted from Pappy’s own modified medium bomber. Even though it was only one tracer round per every five round fired, it appeared that a continuous line of light joined the nose of the bomber with the frantically turning Japanese light cruiser.

A series of explosions erupted on Oi’s deck from stem to stern as the cannon shells began to strike her. Oi’s remaining Type 93’s then began to detonate under the hammering of the incoming bomber’s twenty-five millimeter gatling gun. The exploding torpedo warheads set numerous fires, riddled the cruiser’s upperworks and left her decks awash in blood from all of the wounded and dead crewmen.

Not only were Pappy’s specially modified aircraft capable of inflicting devastating damage with their guns, but they still retained the ability to carry bombs and torpedoes on external hardpoints. The bombers continued to press their attacks, dropping torpedoes and skipping bombs into the sides of the Japanese destroyers and cruisers before roaring over the tops of their targets at masthead height.

By the time that Pappy’s men had finished their attacks, they left behind five cruisers and nine destroyers either sinking or badly damaged. Pappy lost four bombers, but the price that they paid paled in comparison to the damage that they inflicted upon the Japanese vanguard.

The Japanese battleships Hiei and Kirishima were not far behind their fleet’s vanguard. Even while the massive salvo of torpedoes raced towards the Coalition force, the two fast battleships opened fire with their fourteen-inch caliber main guns. Their intent was not only to inflict damage upon the Coalition force, but also to distract them from the underwater threat approaching.

“It appears that the Japanese battleships are both targeting Repulse, Sir.” Captain Leach reported after over a dozen splashes from heavy caliber shells suddenly erupted all around the British battle cruiser.

“Then we should return the favor, shouldn’t we? Send orders for our battle line to concentrate fire on the lead Kongo.” Admiral Phillips calmly ordered.

Less than twenty seconds later, Prince of Wales’ nine fifteen-inch main guns fired their first salvoes, followed shortly by the firing of Repulse and Strasbourg’s main batteries. The fire control radars on the Coalition capital ships allowed them to quickly find the range to Hiei and begin to score multiple hits on her. All three Coalition capital ships rapidly began to score devastating hits upon Hiei. Explosions and fires erupted all over the Japanese fast battleship. The other Coalition ships drew into range and also began to focus their fire upon the now burning Japanese battleship.

Tall fountains of water continuously erupted around Repulse from falling enemy shells as she fired her guns and maneuvered to confuse Japanese gunners. But the sheer number of shells being fired at the British battle cruiser by all of the Japanese ships in range meant that some would eventually strike her.

Two fourteen-inch armor-piercing shells soon hit Repulse in rapid succession. She had already been earlier several times by lighter rounds that had done little damage. But the latest hits did significant damage to the battle cruiser.

“Sir, Repulse has reported heavy damage from two major caliber hits. The first struck near her starboard secondary battery and started a heavy fire. The second round punched through Repulse’s stern armor just below the waterline causing several compartments to flood. This hit also has damaged Repulse’s rudder. She has lost effective helm control as a result.” Prince of Wales’ communications officer reported to Admiral Phillips.

But before the British admiral could issue a new order, four ships of the Coalition force’s lead element were suddenly hit by Japanese torpedoes. At the same time, Repulse’s rudder damage caused her to swing out of formation, forcing Strasbourg to make a sharp turn to avoid a collision. Both battle cruisers ended up turning right into the path of the massive Japanese torpedo salvo.

A pair of massive fountains of water erupted against the port side of Repulse as the massive warheads of two Type 93’s detonated there. One hit abreast X Turret while the other torpedo punched a large hole through the battle cruiser’s side into her forward engine room. A few moments later, another Type 93 struck and detonated against the starboard side of Strasbourg forward of her main battery.

Scores of crewmen onboard the warships closest to Repulse looked in horror as they saw the massive British battle cruiser now listing heavily to the port side. She was still ablaze from earlier Japanese hits while even more Japanese shells rained upon her.

Repulse’s commander, Captain William Tennant soon realized that his command was doomed and gave the order to abandon ship.

Even while Repulse’s crew struggled to leave their sinking ship, the rest of the Coalition force was taking their revenge upon the battle cruiser’s tormentors.

Hiei, like all of the ships of the Kongo class, had been designed as a battle cruiser. She had sacrificed armor protection in order to have both heavy guns and high speed. One of Prince of Wales’ fifteen-inch shells pierced Hiei’s eight-inch thick belt armor and exploded in the midst of the battered Japanese battleship’s forward magazine. A towering jet of flame shot skyward from just forward of Hiei’s pagoda bridge structure. The next thing that everyone saw was Hiei breaking in half as a result of the tremendous magazine explosion. The two halves of the stricken warship pointed up above the surface of the water for perhaps a minute before sinking.

The rest of the Coalition fleet paused for a moment before shifting fire to the remaining Japanese battleship and her consorts. Even Strasbourg continued to fight in spite of the damage that she suffered from the torpedo hit. The Free French battle cruiser was down by the bows and had a slight list to starboard but was still underway.

Now it was Kirishima’s turn to be the focus of the Coalition force’s gunfire. She immediately focused her fire on the damaged Strasbourg to try to finish the battle cruiser off. Unfortunately, both Prince of Wales and Strasbourg quickly found Kirishima’s range and began hitting her with multiple heavy shells. The Japanese fast battleship’s armor was no match for the radar-guided fire of the Coalition big ships. Within five minutes, Kirishima had been hit more than a dozen times by fifteen and thirteen-inch armor piercing shells and was ablaze from stem to stern before she could land a single hit on Strasbourg.

Upon the loss of both Japanese battleships, the surviving ships of the Japanese force quickly made a hard turn towards the north and away from the Coalition formation. The Japanese had taken a very heavy beating and wanted nothing more than to escape to fight another day, it appeared.

“How much speed can you make, Strasbourg?” Prince of Wales asked via signal lamp.

“We can make twenty knots if necessary, though eighteen knots is much better for us. The torpedo hit us in a location that was relatively well protected with ‘Ebonite Mousse’ to reduce flooding. But we have received considerable damage forward.” Came the reply from the damaged Free French battle cruiser.

“Then, I don’t think that we will attempt to pursue what is left of the Japanese force at this time. They appear to be heading back to their base in Subic Bay now.” Admiral Phillips asked to have signaled to Strasbourg.

“Sir, we have a report of a third battleship approaching, this time from the northwest. It must be the ship that survived the Cassowary bombing attack.” A lieutenant from the wireless room quickly said after running onto Prince of Wales’ flag bridge.

“I am surprised that she is still coming here, especially after what happened to the two Kongos. Are there any ships with her?” Admiral Phillips asked.

“Maybe the Japanese have had a problem with their communications. The incoming battleship has two cruisers and eight destroyers with her, Sir. Our scouts also report that the battleship is a Nagato-class and that she appeared to have been significantly damaged.” Captain Leach noted after reading a second report that had just arrived.

“Gentlemen, we cannot afford to let this battleship get away, especially since she is coming to us. Even with the damage that we have taken, we can defeat this force. Have the fleet prepare to turn and engage the incoming enemy force.”

The Japanese screening force moved ahead of the damaged Nagato and took position to fire their torpedo tubes. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the Coalition force was fully aware of this and timed their maneuvers to avoid the incoming Type 93’s. Long range shell fire from the various Coalition cruisers began to rain down upon the two Japanese heavy cruisers that accompanied Nagato.

Coalition destroyers then took advantage of the covering fire to make torpedo runs of their own against the two heavy cruisers and the Japanese destroyers that remained with them. Within fifteen minutes, both cruisers were dead in the water and sinking while two Japanese destroyers joined them.

Then the surviving destroyers on both sides, their torpedo tubes empty, withdrew while the capital ships closed within range of their main batteries.

A few moments later, Prince of Wales turned to bring all nine of her fifteen-inch guns to bear upon the incoming Japanese battleship. Strasbourg was able to keep her bow pointed more directly towards the Nagato while still keeping all eight of her main guns on target. Then both Coalition capital ships fired almost at once at the Nagato.

Even as the shells from Strasbourg and Prince of Wales were on the way to their target, Nagato turned and fired a salvo of her own. One heavy shell hit Nagato from the initial Coalition salvo, causing moderate damage but not greatly imparing Nagato’s fighting power. Eight huge fountains of water erupted a few seconds later on either side of Strasbourg as Nagato’s first salvo straddled her. High velocity splinters from the exploding shells flew across the battle cruiser’s decks, killing and wounding dozens of her crewmen.

The two Coalition capital ships maneuvered to try to avoid Japanese fire, firing now at maximum rate. The Nagato was now being hit at least once per salvo while she continued to single out Strasbourg. Once again, Strasbourg was straddled by the Nagato. This time, the shots were even closer, spraying the battle cruiser’s decks and washing away some of the blood that had been spilled on them earlier.

“We’ve got to sink that battleship before she is able to destroy Strasbourg. Close the range and continue firing.” Admiral Phillips quickly ordered.

Nagato’s third salvo scored a hit on Strasbourg. The sixteen-inch shell plunged through the center aft quadruple gun turret before wrecking the battle cruiser’s seaplane facilities. A large fire erupted on the Strasbourg’s aft deck, fueled by aviation gasoline and threatening her secondary magazines.

Prince of Wales scored telling blows of her own upon Nagato with her fourth salvo. A fifteen-inch shell punched through Nagato’s B Turret and knocked it out. Strasbourg kept on fighting in spite of her own damage and scored a pair of hits of her own, destroying much of Nagato’s port secondary battery and starting a heavy fire.

The range between the two forces continued to close, with the Coalition cruiser force beginning to add their own fire against Nagato. Soon, much of the Japanese battleship’s superstructure was ablaze and her fire control equipment disabled. Nagato continued to fire with her three remaining turrets, but their effectiveness dropped dramatically.

“Keep getting closer. We have to score more hits.” Admiral Phillips fiercely ordered as the big guns continued to roar.

For what seemed to be an eternity, but was actually only a few minutes, dozens of shells riddled Nagato’s hull and superstructure. One of Prince of Wales’ heavy shells pierced Nagato’s aft engine room and destroyed it, reducing the Japanese warship’s speed to less than ten knots.

Finally, one of the Commonwealth heavy cruisers, HMS Cornwall sailed up to less than five thousand yards from Nagato and fired a trio of torpedoes from her portside tubes. Two of the torpedoes hit, followed shortly by a massive explosion aft. One of the torpedoes had struck the aft magazine and caused an explosion inside. A huge fireball erupted from the stricken dreadnought as her shattered hull folded and began to rapidly sink. Admiral Nagumo died aboard Nagato along with nearly thirteen-hundred members of her crew.

Hundreds of stunned Coalition crewman watched the fiery end of Nagato. Their silence was finally interrupted by a call over Prince of Wales’ intercom.

“Prepare to pick up survivors.”

Out of over eight thousand Japanese sailors aboard the sunken warships, the Coalition ships were only able to rescue less than three hundred of them from the ocean where their ships had gone under.

The battle was finally over. Now, the butcher’s bill needed to be examined for the Coalition side.

“What are our losses, besides Repulse?” Admiral Phillips quietly asked.

“We lost two heavy cruisers, HMS Exeter and HMS Devonshire to those damned torpedoes. The French lost the light cruiser Emile Bertin while the Dutch lost the light cruiser Java and the Americans lost USS Marblehead. We also lost five destroyers, one British, two French, one Dutch, one Australian and one American. Most of our remaining cruisers and destroyers have varying levels of damage from shell and torpedo hits also. Only about half of our original fleet remains combat-worthy at this time.”

“So basically, our fleet has been crippled for large scale operations for the near-future. What a bloody mess. I just hope that we have accomplished the same thing to the Japanese as well.”

“I hope so too, Sir. I just wonder why were the Japanese focusing on our battle cruisers? We’ve hardly had any shells fired at us by any of the Japanese capital ships during this entire battle.” Captain Leach asked.

“I am guessing that they are trying to get the easier kills. But that Nagato targeted specifically Strasbourg for another reason as well, I believe. Strasbourg is the last Free French capital ship in the Pacific. The Japanese may have been trying to break the power of the Free French here to try to convince them to change sides and join the Vichy. The loss of Strasbourg would be very demoralizing to the Free French cause here for certain.”

“What is Strasbourg’s condition? I would hate to have to pick up even more survivors, Sir.”

“She will be able to make it back to Haiphong alright as long as we don’t run into any Japanese bombers or submarines. But the initial reports from her captain don’t sound good. All those near misses have made her flooding even worse because of sprung hull plates. A quarter of her secondary armament is gone. The French have also reported that Strasbourg’s main guns are all badly eroded and need to be relined after all of the shells that she fired.”

“So she’s going to be out of action for a while? My ship is going to feel pretty lonely out there being our only operational capital ship.”

“I know. But the Prime Minister has promised that HMS Tiger will be joining us after she finishes having some yard work done to her. But for now, I think that it is time for us to go back home.” Admiral Phillips said before turning and leaving the battleship’s flag bridge to go to his cabin.

Those ships of the fleet that needed fuel met with a tanker. Then the fleet split up with each nation’s ships returning back to their port for rest and badly needed repairs until time to be called upon again to go into battle.

Chapter Nineteen:

Prime Minister’s Residence

Ellesborough, England

October 4, 1943

Harold had been quickly escorted to the Prime Minister’s residence by several armed British soldiers. He had immediately traveled aboard a Cavalier flying boat less than a day after receiving a message from Prime Minister Churchill. Harold had received Churchill’s personal message from the British Ambassador to England less than a week earlier.  It only said this.

“Harold, it is imperative that you come to England and meet with me as soon as possible. The course of the war is at stake here.

Sincerely,

Winston”

There was no other explanation given. Derby was still recovering from the Japanese invasion attempt but there was actually very little that Harold needed to do himself.  Lieutenant Colonel Burke was handling the improvements to the militia quite well. The recently-promoted Australian officer was also spending his spare time developing ideas for taking the war to the Japanese.

The large Japanese ocean liner Tatsuta Maru that had been used as a troop ship for the invasion had already been quickly patched up, refloated and then towed to the Cavill shipyards for conversion into an escort aircraft carrier. If Harold’s engineers could upgrade her diesel engines sufficiently, the salvaged Japanese liner might even prove to be fast enough to have an even larger combat role than being a mere escort carrier. She would soon join the former German raider Kormoron in Harold’s own little private navy.

The number of other ships that Cavill’s people had decided were worth salvaging had actually grown to five others. They were in the process of being refloated for towing to the shipyard as well.

A steady stream of barges were being towed back and forth from the northern islands to Cavill’s steel mills. The barges were loaded down with steel that had been cut away from other sunken and grounded Japanese ships. Some of the steel would soon be melted down for use in the construction of several other warships on order for the Australian and Free French navies. The rest of the salvaged steel would be used to produce more tanks, guns and artillery for Harold’s customers.

Everyone in and around Derby was pitching in after the realization that the Japanese were willing to invade Australia. Harold could leave everything in good hands. His individual plant managers were proving to be every bit as competent as anyone that Harold had worked with during the time when he was known as James Stevenson and the year was 2040. Harold’s people now would be able to do what was necessary in his absence.

The only difficult part was telling Dorothy and the children that he needed to go to England by himself.  Harold had guessed when Churchill had not said anything about inviting Harold’s family. Churchill needed Harold for something that Dorothy could not be a part of. Then Harold got aboard a civilian model Cavalier along with several dozen British and French officers and began a three day long journey to England.

Shortly after arriving in London, Harold was driven to the Prime Minister’s residence. Harold now stood by the front door while a British soldier knocked on it and announced that Harold had arrived.

The door opened up. Harold was then quickly ushered inside to meet a waiting Churchill.

“Good afternoon, my friend. It is indeed a pleasure to see you again. I trust that you had a pleasant journey here.” Churchill said as he vigorously shook Harold’s hand.

“It is getting a little harder to travel as I get older, Mister Prime Minister, I’m afraid. I have too many aches and pains anymore. When you add to that the necessity to travel hundreds of extra miles to avoid being shot at, it takes much of the joy out of traveling.”

“Come now, Harold. None of this ‘Mister Prime Minister’ garbage has a place here. We have been friends for far too long.”

Harold finally cracked a smile. “Indeed, we have, Winston. But I am curious about why you wanted me to come halfway around the world to meet here with you?”

“I wanted to let you know how very important that your efforts before the war turned out to be for us.  The changes that you suggested for the King George V class battleships, our battle cruiser force, the Hawkins class cruisers and our antiaircraft cruisers have all made an astounding difference in their performance. I absolutely believe that those changes made a decisive difference in the battle against Bismarck and Scharnhorst. Our modified ships performed magnificently as a result of your suggestions.”

Harold was actually embarrassed about the praise that Churchill gave him. Harold did not want that much attention pointed in his direction. Who knew what it might dig up, perhaps even an old prospector’s body near one of the mines that Harold had first exploited to earn his first million?

“That’s not the only reason or even the main reason, is it Winston?”

“No, it isn’t. Even before Hitler’s demise, there had been a variety of efforts on the part of influential Germans to try to bring an end to this conflict. You remember when Rudolf Hess parachuted here to bring his own personal peace offer. Of course, Hess is still sitting behind bars here inside one of our military prisons.

But lately, the Germans have not only been cleaning out the Nazis from leadership positions, they have been enlisting the use of neutral nations in trying to start peace negotiations. They have even sent businessmen from Sweden to approach our diplomats there to arrange for the beginning of negotiations. I want you to go to Geneva and represent me in negotiations to end the conflict in Europe.”

“But why me? You have the Foreign Office for those sorts of things.” Harold asked.

“It’s very simple, my friend. I have implicit trust in you that you would negotiate the best possible settlement for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. You certainly did so years ago when you convinced me to work for you to help improve the Royal Navy between the wars. You showed a rather uncanny sense of what we needed even before we knew that we needed it.

I also chose you because you know the Germans. You did business with them before the war, even before the Nazi’s took control. You understand their mentality. If they are being less than honest in their dealings with us, I believe that you will detect it before any of my diplomatic types have a clue. I have lately learned not to be overly trusting with diplomats. They seldom tell you the whole truth, I’m afraid. But I do trust you, Harold.”

“Thank you for your confidence in my abilities, Winston.” Harold hesitantly said.

Initially Harold was shocked at the Prime Minister’s seeming acceptance of the idea of a potential negotiated peace with Germany. Historically, Churchill wanted nothing less than to utterly crush the Nazis. He would have accepted nothing less than unconditional surrender from the Germans.

There had to be a reason why Churchill had changed his mind. Harold already knew that the British economy had been pushed to the breaking point. At the same time, Harold strongly believed that the same was true for Germany and Japan. Of course, Churchill had no idea that Harold had been approached by the Germans already in regards to potential peace talks only a short time earlier.

Harold now saw his opportunity to ensure that another nation did not develop nuclear weapons that would eventually doom humanity.

“Sir, we have to ensure that Germany is not able to develop weapons that allow it threaten other nations. But at the same time, it is important that if we write a peace treaty this time, that is does not sow the seeds for the next war.  You know that the Versailles Treaty was too harsh and made it possible for Adolf Hitler and his people to come to power.

The Germans are a very proud people. There is German blood even within England’s royal family.  It would be better to have them as an ally in case of conflict, instead of an enemy. By building that relationship, we can also use it to leverage the Germans to moderate their more war-like behavior. Don’t you agree, Winston?”

Churchill sat there smoking his cigar, his brow furrowed in deep thought for what seemed like an eternity. He finally breathed a heavy sigh before speaking.

“You’re right, as usual. It will be a tough sell to Parliament and to the British people after all of the blood that has been shed. The Germans are on the verge of defeating the Soviets. But all of my intelligence reports tell me that the effort is bleeding the Germans dry. This is the time to make the peace, I am certain.

Harold, I must say that I am curious about what sort of German weapons that you are referring to? Please tell me more. “

“We have all been terrified of the continued use of lethal war gases. So far, we have been fortunate in that these terrible weapons have not been used in the war in Europe. But knowing how the Germans have been so innovative in the development of new weapons, we must make this a part of the negotiations. While we must acknowledge Germany’s legitimate needs to be able to effectively defend themselves, we have to eliminate all weapons that leave nothing but mass indiscriminant destruction in their wake.

This would include all sorts of lethal war gases, biological weapons and any new technological devices that can create large areas of destruction overnight. This includes weapons that have been suggested by physicists as being possible using the elemental energy of the atom. They may seem to be little more than something out an H. G. Wells novel. However, we cannot ignore the danger that they pose.

If we make this part of our peace negotiations, these requirements would be seen by the rest of the world as being reasonable in view of the vast destruction that this conflict has already caused. We simply want to avoid something worse in the future.” Harold cautiously explained, not wanting to give up too much information about what he knew of the German nerve agent and nuclear weapons programs.

“What about the German and their U-Boats? They have been a plague upon us for the past two wars. We must do something about them. There is also the issue of their armored forces and the Luftwaffe.”

“That, my friend, is a genie that we cannot put back into the bottle. The Germans can choose to build more submarines whenever they wanted. We could not stop them before it was too late anyway should the Germans choose to become aggressive against their neighbors once again. We could however demand that they limit the numbers of U-Boats that they have in their inventory. Call it a gesture of good faith on their part. Their tanks and fighters are good, but we know that building Tigers and Focke Wulfs is a very expensive business as well.

Still, we can the Germans spend their money on their U-Boats, aircraft and tanks. We will simply work to develop the technology to defeat them at a fraction of the cost necessary for the Germans to build and maintain such forces. I am sure that I can come up with effective counters for anything that the Germans develop if necessary.” Harold confidently said.

“Something tells me that you actually could, Harold. Besides, we can’t afford to engage in expensive arms races any longer, much less continuing this war. That is why it is so important why we must find a way to end the war in Europe. In any event, the Germans will have to return to their borders. Then, once the peace has been established, we can devote the necessary resources to end the conflict in the Far East. Defeating the Japanese will finally end the threat to Australia and Singapore.”

“The Japanese will not be so easy to negotiate with, Winston.”

“One problem at a time, Harold. Germany is far closer to England than Japan is. I know that you want to take care of Australia’s needs. But I have to look at the larger picture also. By dealing with Germany, England can then throw far more resources into defeating Japan later on.

In the meanwhile, I have another proposal that I would like to ask of you. This has to do with something that your factories have already started producing.” Churchill began to explain the rest of the details after pouring Harold a glass of fine sherry. Harold listened intently before agreeing to what Churchill asked for.

German High Command Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

October 11, 1943

Most of Germany’s military leaders had been quietly called back to Berlin for a secret high-level meeting. This did not happen very often, even after Hitler’s death. But recent developments demanded that the meeting occur among the handful of German leaders who knew what really happened to the Fuhrer and who wanted to end the war before Germany was destroyed.

“We have received a message back from Herr Cavill. He is willing to meet with us privately in a neutral site to discuss a possible peace treaty. He says that while he is not an official representative of any government, but that he does have the full support of Prime Mister Churchill in this matter.” General Hans Speidel explained to the room of senior officers, many of whom had just come back from the Eastern Front.

“This is the same Harold Cavill that Admiral Canaris told us about earlier and that Herr von Braun met in French Indochina?” Field Marshall Walter Model asked.

“Jawohr. He has been involved with Prime Minister Churchill for close to twenty years now. It is ironic that Herr Cavill is from Australia, a nation that does not think very highly of Winston Churchill as a result of decisions that were made during the previous war by Herr Churchill that cost numerous Australian casualties.” Speidel answered.

“So Herr Cavill is not terribly sentimental. This is very good. We can deal with a practical man such as this.” Field Marshall von Rundstedt interjected.

“Perhaps, but he is also obviously a very shrewd man as well. Otherwise, he would not have accomplished what he has done in such a short period of time. We must be very careful with this man.” Admiral Canaris warned.

“But if we are going to finally end the threat of the Bolsheviks, we need to be able to move more of our resources from the Western Front. While the Englanders had significantly reduced their support to the Bolsheviks, they still mount raids in Norway and all along the French coast. This is taking badly needed troops and equipment away from the battle for Moscow.” Field Marshall von Manstein explained.

“Perhaps we should give the Englanders someone else to focus upon? The Italians have not been particularly helpful to us in recent years. The Alps can give us a very useful defensive line still even without the Italians being involved.” General Hubert Lanz suggested.

“You wish to throw the Italians to the wolves to keep the Englanders busy in addition to our new plans for the relocation of the Juden?” Model asked.

“That and other things. It’s not like the Italians did very much to help us in the North African campaign.” Lanz replied.

“Yes, after General Rommel and the Afrika Korps were pulled out of North Africa, the Englanders and the American mercenaries under Patton very quickly overwhelmed the Italians.” Model noted.

“So let us withdraw our troops from Italy to add to the Eastern Front. Our new policies in the Ukraine concerning the civilians there have garnered us much more support there. I think that the Americans refer to this as offering more of the carrot than the stick. Our Ukrainian auxiliary troops now outnumber those from Italy on the Eastern front. They are also much more motivated to fight against the Bolsheviks after the years of abuse imposed upon them by Moscow.” General Guderian said.

“Won’t the Englander spies surely notice the movement of our troops?” Speidel asked.

“Of course, they will. But they will hesitate because they will first think that it is a trick. By the time that we have completed our redeployment of our troops, the Englanders and their Commonwealth allies will have wasted precious months. We will have also established our new defensive line as well.” Guderian explained with a predatory smile on his face.

“Then we will have the orders written and sent immediately to begin the movement of troops from Italy. It is time for us to deliver the final blow to Bolshevism, once and for all. Then we can go home and rebuild our nation after we have made a peace agreement with Churchill from a position of strength this time.” von Manstein firmly stated.

Everyone in the room nodded their heads in silent agreement before adjourning for the moment. There was much to do for the High Command. Manstein, Rommel, Guderian and many of the others in the room would be traveling back to the Eastern Front before the week was out. Until then, they took the time to have brief but joyful reunions with loved ones before returning to the battlefield.

Swiss Foreign Ministry

Geneva, Switzerland

October 13, 1943.

Harold had flown to Geneva aboard a Swiss airliner. Ironically, the Swiss used a German-built tri-motor Junkers Ju-52 transport for their airlines. Churchill had sent a military attaché, Major Scott Canterbury, with Harold along with a minor functionary from the Foreign Office. At least that is what Churchill said that Colin Adams was. Harold suspected that Colin was actually a spy from Military Intelligence however.

Once the three men got off the plane, they were quickly driven to the Swiss Foreign Ministry with a minimum of attention. The Swiss were taking great care to ensure that no one would be aware of the meeting or who was attending it.

“It was certainly kind of the Swiss to provide us with a confidential and secure location for our meetings here.” Harold noted as he waited in the small conference room that the Swiss guards had led him and his companions to.

“I’m sure that the Swiss would like for this conflict to come to a peaceful end as well. But either way, they make money. But the uncertainty as to German intentions about Switzerland has to be worrisome to the Swiss government.

Harold and his companions then took seats and patiently waited on the Germans to arrive for the conference.

The German delegation arrived in the room precisely on the hour. Harold ascribed this to typical German adherence to discipline. There were four men, ranging in age from their late thirties to mid-fifties. Half were in German military uniforms while the rest were in normal business attire.

Immediately, Harold noticed something very interesting about the attire of the German delegation, even the ones in military uniform. Not a single German there had even a hint of a swastika on their clothing or anything that they carried. The German military representative had the traditional Iron Cross on his uniform, but that dated back before the Nazi Party.

‘The Nazis must indeed be on the way out of power.’ Harold silently said to himself. Harold’s own private sources had informed him that German military equipment was systematically being stripped of swastikas and instead were being marked with the traditional Maltese Cross.

Of course, those units like the SS that continued to use the swastika on their tanks and other vehicles were being singled out by the Soviets for the focus of their fire. That meant that the most hardcore Nazis on the front lines were being eliminated at an even higher rate than before. Harold’s clandestine intervention that led to Hitler meeting his end also meant that Harold knew that the German High Command was involved in the Fuhrer’s overthrow and death.

That knowledge will prove to be very helpful to Harold during the negotiations. One of the things that he feared most was that he would have to deal with the Nazis who had started the war in the first place. Now, it appeared that Harold would be negotiating with German leaders who perhaps would be far more reasonable.

“Good morning, gentlemen. My name is Harold Cavill. I came here at the behest of Prime Minister Winston Churchill because we wish to bring this conflict to a fair and peaceful resolution. Prime Minister Churchill had also been informed by other individuals with contacts in the German government of their desire to end this conflict as well.”

“Herr Cavill, We appreciate your involvement in this discussion. I am Heinrich Strassberg, the leader of this delegation. We do also wish to find a peaceful end to this unfortunate conflict. However, the rights of the German people must be respected this time, unlike what happened in 1918.”

Harold could see that Major Canterbury was clenching his fists while listening to the Germans. It was obvious that he was not completely accepting the German claim of wanting peace. Harold had to keep the dialogue going though.

“That is what I have been led to understand. What sort of concrete actions are you willing to take to show that you truly desire to have peace with the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth of States?” Harold asked.

“We are willing to suspend offensive naval operations against your naval vessels and commercial shipping coming to and from the United Kingdom in the North Atlantic. We will however continue military operations against any shipping going through the Baltic or conducting offensive operations against us or our allies.”

Harold could barely conceal his surprise at this German offer. But he knew that this proposal would not come without a hefty price tag. The Germans desperately needed to be able to focus their resources towards the East, Harold reasoned. But they could not offer this without some assurances from Churchill concerning the German western flank.

“What would Germany want in exchange for this cessation of offensive operations against the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth? I must also note that there are other theatres of operation where our ships operate outside of the North Atlantic and have been attacked by German U-Boats, surface raiders and aircraft.”

“The shipping routes to the Soviet Union, the French coast and the northern Mediterranean are all of great interest to Germany and its allies. These areas will therefore be vigorously fought for. The same goes for the airspace over those same areas. If you sail ships through or fly aircraft over those areas, they will be attacked. Outside of those areas, we have little concern.”

The idea of a de facto cease fire was tantalizing. However, Harold knew that Churchill could not afford politically to agree to a total cease fire with Germany without also having a binding agreement for Germany to withdraw to its original borders. He would be ousted from power within days by his own party for certain if he did so.

There would also be repercussions internationally from all of the countries currently occupied by German forces. They would all see this as a betrayal by England, especially France. England had to keep on the attack whenever it could.

Of course, Churchill would decide what England’s military forces could realistically attack and what they could not. Ultimately, it would be his decision. But Churchill needed to know exactly what was being considered first before he could endorse anything Harold would offer the Germans. Harold had already arranged to have messages couriered back to London in diplomatic pouches. Within those messages, Harold would be sure to pass along his recommendations in addition to all details on the German proposals.

“What exactly do you mean?” Harold asked, wanting to confirm what the Germans’ initial proposal was.

“Let me say this in another way then. What I wish to propose is a ’Gentleman’s Agreement’, I think that the Englanders like to say. We will not attack your forces except in self-defense. We ask that you do likewise. We know that you will not be able to do that completely because of political considerations. But if England shows restraint in its operations against German forces, we will show a similar degree of restraint in return. We simply will not announce it to anyone.”

“What will the leaders of your National Socialist Party have to say about that?” Harold asked.

“At this point, they have very little to say about what the German High Command does or does not do, especially after the death of the Fuhrer.”

“What about conditions for the people in the occupied countries in Western Europe? They have to be improved over what has been the case.” Major Canterbury forcefully asked. Harold knew that the major had been one of the thousands of British soldiers who had fought in France and had been evacuated from Dunkirk just prior to the fall of France.

Harold understood the major’s concerns. Now Harold had to do something to get the Germans to show some degree of restraint towards those people in the occupied territories. Many of those people had suffered greatly as a result of Nazi atrocities.

“The same will apply to them as well. If they do not attack us, we will leave them in peace. After all, we all want to be able to live with each other after this conflict is finally over, don’t we?”

“I agree completely. This is also why it is so very important that Germany returns back to its original borders as one of the conditions for the cessation of hostilities. If Germany holds onto any territory that is within its prewar borders, then the neighboring nations will never agree to the conditions of the peace accords.”

“Herr Cavill, our leaders already understand this. However, there are other considerations that must also be considered. The Treaty of Versailles that was enacted after the end of the previous war unfairly took traditional German territory from us. That territory would have to be permanently restored to Germany, if we are to consider withdrawing from the areas that German troops are currently administering.”

“’Administering’. That is an extraordinarily sanitized term of having conquered and occupying another country’s territory.” Harold almost said out loud before speaking considerably more diplomatically to the German delegation. Major Canterbury’s discomfort with the Germans was apparently rubbing off onto Harold.

“I understand this. But the ownership at least some of this territory had been under dispute for many decades prior to the early conflict. These disputes will have to be resolved first before Germany can reclaim any territory that it once possessed.”

It was at this point that negotiations stalled for the next three days. The Germans continued to insist that what they considered to be all German lands be restored to them. At the same time, Harold persisted in maintaining that the return to Germany’s pre-war borders be a precondition for peace. After all, this was a point that Churchill insisted upon. Harold also proposed restrictions on Germany’s military, an idea that Churchill had included as a last minute addition. The restrictions were much less restrictive than those imposed on Germany by the Versailles Treaty however. The German representatives rejected those suggestions also.

But with the exception of Major Canterbury’s obvious tension, the discussions were congenial. The Germans continued to put forth their ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ all the way to the last day of the negotiation sessions. Harold ended this series of discussions with handshakes and a promise to meet again in the near future.

Harold and his companions then flew back to London. Harold was quickly driven out to the Prime Minister’s residence outside of London to meet with Churchill. Harold quickly started to brief the Prime Minister with the details of the peace discussions.

“It appears that the Nazis are no longer in charge in Germany. Certainly, there are many Germans who are still loyal to the late Fuhrer. But there wasn’t a single sign of a Nazi loyalist in the German delegation. One other thing, the Germans are obviously stalling for time. They want us to believe that they want peace but I feel that they still want more time to achieve some other objective, Winston.”

“This ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ that the Germans have suggested is very tempting indeed.  It is certainly quite an offer and tends to support your supposition about the Nazis. But I can’t afford to completely take all of the pressure off of the Germans in the West. That would be entirely too obvious. They want to be able to move troops and other assets from the West to move east to reinforce their attack upon Stalin, I’m sure.”

“But will Germany turn around and redouble their efforts against England once the Soviets are defeated? We have to consider that possibility.”

“That is a possibility certainly. But that is why I ordered those submarines from your shipyard. The German naval attacks are largely one-dimensional since their battleship Tirpitz was sunk in the North Sea a few months ago by elements of the Home Fleet. If your submarines are as good in killing U-Boats as they have been in sinking Japanese submarines, then we can eliminate or at least mitigate the German’s greatest threat to England.

The RAF is also getting stronger each day even though our latest strategic bombing campaign had to be severely curtailed due to heavy losses from German air defenses. We have started receiving small quantities of long-range escort fighters from the Americans to help defend our bombers, but not enough to totally resume our bomber raids yet. We will be able to stop the Germans in the air as well as on the water if the Germans decide to renew their offensive against us in any event.”

“There is always the threat of the Americans finally getting involved in the war in Europe to be considered. We have to keep that hanging over the Germans’ heads as well.”

“I completely agree, Harold. I just wish that we could end this war as quickly as possible. Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease program has helped us tremendously in spite of the fact that the destroyers that we received were largely obsolete and overage. However, England is going to end up being bankrupt if this conflict lasts much longer. We will be paying the debts for this war for decades to come as it is.”

“You are afraid of that?”

“Of course, I am. You can rest assured that the liberal politicians from Labor will be demanding a dramatic shift in spending from defense to social programs once the war is over. They would rather spend the money buying votes than to pay down our national debts or to maintain our military strength in the face of an uncertain future.”

“I think that all democracies face that particular dilemma unfortunately, Winston.”

“I’m afraid so. So much about governing revolves around the perception of what the facts are rather than what the whole truth is.

So we keep fighting, or at least as far as the public is concerned, we keep appearing to take the war to the Hun. If the Germans will honor this ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’, so shall we to the extent that we can. Then we pray that the Germans do not turn upon us after they have finished consuming the Bolsheviks.”

“Where will you send British forces to fight?” Harold asked.

“It appears that we have had the most success against the Axis while fighting in the Mediterranean, especially against the Italians. So I think that perhaps after we reclaim the rest of North Africa from the Vichy government and the Axis, we will begin to plan major operations against Italy. Of course, I will continue launching commando operations against the Germans to probe for weaknesses elsewhere, just in case.”

“I need to get back to Australia to look after my businesses and spend some time with my family. These long trips are getting harder and harder for me as I get older. Plus my children are growing up. I need to spend as much time as I can with them so that I can make sure that they are the best people that they can be. That’s a job best done by two parents, not just one.”

“Harold, I wish you the best of luck with all of the work that you are doing back home. I will contact you if I need your skills with the Germans again, of course.”

Chapter Twenty:

Underground Government Facilities

London, England

October 17, 1943

Prime Minister Churchill was looking at the latest reports from British and allied intelligence agents throughout Europe when he came across an obscure report about train movement from Poland to Italy and Greece. He pondered the report for a few moments before asking his assistant to bring in reports about the Nazi concentration camps from just after Hitler’s death. Churchill had been looking closely at German intentions after receiving the first tentative feelers from German officials about a possible peace deal. Harold had sent some information about the German starting positions, but the first series of meetings had not yet been completed. The news from Harold about the German’s proposed ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ was exciting. But at the same time, it was tempered by the German insistence on regaining territory given up by treaty after the end of the First World War.

There were also some very curious reports coming out of the Middle East as well. Churchill intently looked over the various reports for more than an hour before immediately calling for the senior intelligence analyst for the area in the Middle East that included the Levant, Major Jonathan Wilkins. Churchill also asked for a senior analyst from the Balkans as well. Major Wilkins arrived at the Prime Minister’s office less than an hour later. Major Simon Taggart from the Balkans desk arrived a few minutes later.

“Good afternoon, Gentlemen. Please take seats.”

“Thank you, Sir. What may we help you with?” Major Wilkins asked.

“I was looking at some of these latest reports coming out of the Balkans where the German rail traffic has made some rather dramatic changes. There are hundreds of boxcars coming down from Poland, eastern Germany and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Their originating points all seem to be starting from places where we have heard that the Germans were sending Jews and other peoples that they considered ‘undesirable’.

Do either of you gentlemen have any idea what the Germans are doing with these trains? Obviously, they are not moving troops down to the Mediterranean with them.” Churchill asked.

“Sir, I believe that the Germans are moving troops, just not to the south. My sources are telling me that German troops are being moved north from Italy, Greece and the Balkans to the northeast instead. There is also an increased movement of weapons and ammunition to the Russian front.” Major Taggart explained.

“So the Germans are sending more troops to the Russian front?”

“Yes, Sir. However, those boxcars are not going south empty. There are new camps popping up all along the Aegean. But they are little more than tent cities surrounded by barbed wire fences. These new camps are beginning to fill up with many tens of thousands of Poles, Russians, Slavs and even some Western Europeans. The element that appear seems to be common to virtually all of them are they are Jews. The common element was that all of this apparently started shortly after Hitler’s death and the consolidation of political and military power within the German High Command.”

“This is very curious, especially with the continued rumors of camps like Treblinka and Dachau being used for forced labor and the mass execution of their prisoners. Why would the Germans want to abandon a labor source in the middle of a war? For that matter, why would they risk the escape of witnesses to war crimes?” Churchill noted while thinking silently that there was some piece to this puzzle that he simply had not seen yet.

“This might actually explain something that has been going on in the Levant, Sir. You know that the Arabs attempted an uprising or Intifada against our authorities a few years ago. Things are getting heated up again all over the areas near Haifa, Hebron and Jerusalem. There are thousands of pamphlets being found telling the Arabs that the Jews are coming to steal their land. The sources of the pamphlets supposed is Amin al-Hussaini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

These pamphlets are causing all kinds of disruptions within the entire region. Who knows what will happen if the rumors turned out to be real.  The local Jewish leaders are trying to play down all of this. However, something about how the Zionist factions have been acting lately is more than a trifle suspicious.” Major Wilkins explained.

Churchill thought about all of this for a few moments before responding.

“Tell me, Major Taggart. Have you seen any indications of increased shipping activity along the Aegean near these new camps?”

“Yes, Sir. We have. The curious part that instead of smaller boats that are better suited for smuggling, these have been larger freighters that have been showing up at ports near these camps. We haven’t been targeting them for bombing simply because they weren’t being used for transporting military equipment. Most of them are older ships that are probably one trip away from the breakers anyway.”

It finally hit Churchill what was happening and the implications for the British.

“Why you brilliant bastards. The Germans are going to ship all of their Jewish prisoners to Palestine and dump them all right in our lap. You know what all of those Jews are going to try to do, especially with so many Zionists among them.”

“Yes, I’m afraid that I do know. That is a hell of a thing for the Jerries to do. They have to know that a mass migration of more than a million and a half Jews to Palestine will utterly enrage the Arab population in the entire Levant, not to mention the Saudis, Iraqis and probably even the Persians. None of the Mohammedans want the Jews to reestablish a Zionist state right on top of land that they have claimed for Islam.” Major Wilkins said with a scowl. He wasn’t even aware of the attempts by the Germans to create another armistice with Britain.

“Yes, it would. And we would have to devote more of our limited military resources to try to curtail the bloodshed. The Germans have to know that we can’t afford to turn the ships back either. The world press would have a field day. Any chance of getting help from the Americans would disappear as well if photos would show up with British troops fending off a bunch of ragged Jewish refugees at bayonet’s point. Something this big doesn’t happen overnight. This is why we weren’t seeing this movement of refugees until recently.”

“If we do nothing, the Arabs will also be angry with us. We are extremely dependent upon them for the oil that fuels our ships.”

“We clearly are stuck with a Hobson’s Choice here. Whatever we do, we are going to pay a heavy price for it. I need to be kept appraised on this situation on the off chance that we can find a satisfactory solution. But it seems that the Germans are going to make us comply with the Balfour Declaration, whether we like it or not.”

“It is certainly going to take some of our troops away from the front lines and allow the Germans to free up more personnel of their own to fight the Soviets, Sir. That is one hell of an elegant solution for Germany. You have to admire the Germans for this move. But we have to remember that they have done this sort of thing before in the Great War too when they sent Lenin back to Russia. That stirred up the Bolshevik Revolution and took Russia out of the war.” Major Taggart noted.

“Yes, I remember. That cost us a hell of a lot of lives during that last year of the war too.” Churchill lamented.

“Perhaps this time, the Russians will be the ones paying the butcher’s bill instead of us. That would be only fair after what the Germans did to us before.” Major Taggart wryly commented.

“But what will the Jews do once they do get down to Palestine? We are talking about possibly millions of them arriving there from Europe and the Soviet Union. If conditions for them under the Nazis are anything nearly as horrific as we have heard, the Jews will not be in any mood to make accommodations with anyone. They are going to want their Jewish state right away and will fight to make the borders as defensible as possible. Then, who knows what will happen next.” Major Wilkins noted.

“Right now, you two gentlemen will have the unenviable job of determining what is happening down there and predicting what will happen next. We simply do not have the resources available to deal with another major insurrection in the Mandate.

You have your marching orders now. I will expect regular situation reports from you both.” Churchill finally said.

German High Command Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

October 21, 1943

The atmosphere in the conference room at the German High Command Headquarters was quiet and formal as more than a dozen high ranking admirals, generals and field marshals gathered from the entire German. This meeting had been quietly arranged to conduct operational and strategic planning for the war.  All of the participants there were also privy to the details of Adolf Hitler’s death, though some people that would be joining the meeting later had not been included in that piece of very sensitive information.

“The SS troops are getting restless. Some of them are even openly claiming that members of the Wehrmacht were responsible for the death of Hitler. We need to do something about this before this rumor becomes widespread throughout the ranks.” An Abwehr colonel reported.

“I know. Many in the Schutzstaffel gave their personal oath to Hitler himself. They are having a very difficult time serving anyone else, especially with the arrests and executions of so many top officials within the National Socialist Party. Death seems to be the only thing that will break their oath to the late Fuhrer.” General Heinz Guderian explained.

“Then it is death that we must give them. But how? We cannot simply arrest them all and sentence them to death. We would have a revolt even within the Wehrmacht, much less the SS units.” Field Marshall Kesselring replied.

“This is how we must give them the glorious death that they seek. Put all of the SS units on the leading edge of the front line for the attacks on the strongest Soviet positions.  We will not abandon them completely. However, we also will not risk the lives of other German soldiers unnecessarily to save them either. The SS will be the bleeding edge of our sword as we strike our final blows to destroy the Bolsheviks. If in the course of battle, the SS is bled completely out, so be it. We want to especially eliminate those Bosnian SS units that were recruited by that Islamic rabble-rouser from Palestine. Any of those fanatics who survive fighting the Bolsheviks will certainly plague us all for years to come.” Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein forcefully said.

A major quickly walked into the conference room and announced that Minister of War Production Albert Speer had arrived.

“Minister Speer, we are very pleased that you were able to come. We have much to talk about concerning the production of vital war materiel. Obviously, our troops continue to deal with severe shortages of equipment, fuel and ammunition.” Manstein noted.

”We are doing the best that we can. Strategic metals and other minerals are still critically short. Recent events have also created another problem. We have lost a considerable amount of affordable manpower as a result of the camps being shut down and the Juden being sent to Palestine. This has created additional production bottlenecks. Herr Field Marshal.”

“I understand that, Herr Speer. However, we had other pressing issues that required us to close down the camps. This eliminates the ‘Juden problem’, that the late Fuhrer focused so much public attention to during his rise to power while freeing up significant transportation assets for the movement of troops and materiel to the Eastern Front.  While the Juden and other forced labor assets swelled the numbers of available workers for your factories, the quality of their products dropped precipitously. Many of our tanks and aircraft have broken down in the middle of battle because of the deliberate sabotage inflicted by these unwilling participants in our war industries. We need to employ more loyal Germans in war production rather unreliable foreign labor.”

“That will mean that our labor costs will climb dramatically. We would also need to employ more German women into the industrial workforce. This will take many of them away from their traditional childbearing and childrearing responsibilities.”

“ It is better that our tools of war are made with willing German hands than churned out poorly by a slave who has nothing to look forward to but death and the opportunity to cause the deaths of patriotic German soldiers.”

“Herr Field Marshall, to restore some semblance of needed production levels would require recruiting many thousands of workers to replace what we have recently lost as a result of the High Command’s decision.”

“I would rather that we accept slightly lower numbers of armored vehicles with a much higher reliability. My soldiers need to be able to trust that their Panzers will work when they drive onto the battlefield. I reiterate that I would much rather rely upon superior German quality for the tools of war that my soldiers use. If our women do not wish to participate in their patriotic duty, then remind them that the Russian barbarians will not be so kind to our women if the Russians are able to invade the Fatherland.”

“I will do my best, Herr Field Marshall.”

“We would like to hear your report on the progress of advanced weapons under development, Herr Speer.”

“I’m sure that General Galland will be very pleased to hear that production on the new jet fighters is proceeding, though numbers are not as great as we would like.”

“When will we be able to get these new fighters into squadron service? We are still facing weekly heavy bomber attacks by the Englanders. It has been more difficult to intercept the bomber raids since the Englanders began to receive those long-range escort fighters from the Americans.”

“The Englanders and their damned bombers will be dealt with, I assure you. The tools that you require are coming.”

“Danke. You are dismissed, Herr Speer.” Field Marshall Manstein said.

After Minister Speer departed from the conference room, the subject changed to the ongoing peace negotiations.

“Our meetings in Switzerland with the representatives of the Englanders have been somewhat inconclusive. We have offered to cease all offensive operations against England and its Commonwealth. However, the Englanders are insisting that Germany withdraw to its original borders as part of an overall peace accord.”

Guderian laughed for a moment before speaking.

“We all know that our negotiators are sent out with positions that are meant to be a starting point, not the end result. Winston Churchill is well-known to be extraordinarily tough in public. He needs to have the opportunity to maintain that appearance, even if these meetings are being kept out of the world’s view.

Churchill has already made the first step accommodation with us anyway.”

“What do you mean, Herr General?” Manstein asked.

“I am surprised that you did not recognize it already. Churchill did so when he ended protection by the Royal Navy for convoys going to the northern Soviet ports. It is obvious that he wants the Soviet Union destroyed just as badly as we do. We know from his statements prior to the war that Churchill has no love for the Bolsheviks.

However, he must maintain the appearance of still actively conducting offensive operations against us for political reasons. I am certain that this is why the Royal Air Force still sends their heavy bombers weekly to set fire to our cities in spite of the losses that the Englander bomber crews have taken.”

“You don’t think that we should just allow the Englanders to continue to target our women and children with their bombers, do you?” Guderian sarcastically asked.

“Of course, not. But I’m sure that General Galland here would appreciate if we devoted more resources towards the production of new fighters to defend the Fatherland with. We have wasted enough on useless projects like tanks that are too heavy to drive over a bridge and battleships that each use enough steel to equip an entire Panzer Army.” Guderian noted to the chagrin of a few of the Kriegsmarine officers in attendance who still dreamed of having more battleships constructed.

“Yes, if my pilots were given enough fuel and aircraft, we could fend off the Englanders’ bombers from our cities and ports. We could also keep the Bolsheviks’ damned Strumovik’s off of the Field Marshall’s Panzers as well.’ General Adolf Galland said with a ferocious smile.

“General Galland, I already know what aircraft that you want most of all. The new Messerschmitt jet fighters are not quite ready for production though from what I understand.” Manstein countered.

“But with a reallocation of resources by the War Production office, these new jets can be readied and put into production very quickly. I have already flown one of the prototypes of the Messerschmitt.  It can outrun anything that the Englanders or even the Americans have in the air. Then let’s see if the Englanders will be flying bombing missions over the Fatherland very often afterwards.” Galland quickly retorted.

“Gentlemen, we must all work together if we are going to successfully bring this war to an end and preserve our Fatherland.” Guderian interjected.

“I agree. Hopefully, we will have accomplished some good out of all of German blood that has been shed. We will then be the masters of our own destiny once again. The time of foreigners controlling our people, from within and without, is coming to an end.” Manstein finally said to end the discussion.

Field Marshal Manstein, like most of the German senior military leaders, was first and foremost a German nationalist. This background distinctly colored his views on the war and on the future of Germany. Right now, his focus is on defeating the greatest threat to the Fatherland. That threat is the Soviet Union.

Port of Haifa

Haifa, Palestinian Mandate

November 3, 1943.

Itzak Metzembaum had just stepped off of the gangplank from the crowded freighter to what had been the Promised Land for Jews for nearly two thousand years. The old Greek freighter was one of five ships full of refugees from Nazi concentration camps that had docked at the Port of Haifa in the past three days.

When Itzak began to leave the ship, it seems eerily familiar with all of the armed British troops lined up along the dock. But these troops stood impassively by as the men, women and children that had managed to survive the death camps slowly shuffled their way onshore.

Itzak was an educated man, a young university professor, when the Nazis barged into Poland and began to round up all of the Jews for the camps. Itzak had prayed every day to God for deliverance after he had arrived at Dachau. Many of Itzak’s friends and relatives had died from starvation, disease or from being simply murdered by the Nazi camp guards. Just as he was about to give up after nearly two years of starvation and hard labor, the camp commander suddenly called together all of the prisoners and told them that the Jews were about to be taken to be resettled in Palestine.

Many of the surviving Jewish prisoners thought that this was a ruse. They believed that everyone was going to be removed from the camp and then murdered. The Jewish prisoners from the camp were shocked to find when they got off the railway cars. They were at a port near the Aegean Sea. They went into a newly constructed camp where the food was plentiful compared to what had been fed to them at Dachau. The prisoners also encountered people from other camps such as Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Bergen-Belsen and nearly a dozen others. They all told the same story.

Now, Itzak found himself in the Promised Land, where Abraham and Jacob had walked. But were these survivors welcome in this land?

Itzak and his fellow refugees, men, women and even children, walked slowly along between a pair of lines of British troops. The British seemed to be just as curious about what was going on as the refugees were. The march continued for more than a kilometer until they reached a series of tents. Each of the tents had a sign in front of it welcoming the refugees. Each sign was in a different language; French, German, Polish, Russian and half a dozen other languages.  Itzak walked towards the tent with the sign in Polish in front of it. There he saw people waiting behind tables. Each of the tables had hundreds of forms stacked on them.

Itzak was was greeted in Polish by a man who appeared to be in his fifties.”

“Good afternoon, Brother. Welcome to your new home.” Stefan Klaczko said with a warm smile.

“It is very good to be here.” Itzak replied.

“We have some paperwork for you to fill out. Then we will arrange for you to meet with a sponsor here so that you can have a place to live. We are trying to match you with a sponsor who also speaks Polish. That will make the transition much easier. We are also looking for jobs for all of you as quickly as possible.”

Itzak filled out the form and handed it back to Stefan, who quickly reviewed it. He then talked quickly to a young man standing nearby who apparently served as a messenger. A few minutes later, the young man returned with a third man who appeared to be close to Itzak’s age.

“Hello, Itzak. I’m Adam. Come with me please.” The newcomer said with a smile.

“I am very pleased to meet you. We are going to my home where you will be staying for a few days.” Adam continued.

“Thank you. This has all been like an unbelievable dream. At first, the camps were a nightmare from hell. But now, I pray that the nightmare has finally ended. But what will the future for our people finally be? All we all coming here now? Are we all finally making Aliyah?” Itzak asked.

“There were half a million of us here in Judea and Samaria at the beginning of the war. Of course, between the British and the Arabs, we had no power at all. But now, our numbers are growing daily by the thousands as the ships come in bringing more refugees from the death camps.” Adam Shamir noted as he looked down upon the port of Haifa and the newly arrived ships there.

“What I don’t understand is that one day, the Nazis were murdering us. The next day, they were moving us south towards Palestine. What caused this?”

“According to the Germans, Hitler was murdered by his fellow Nazis. After the Nazi conspirators were arrested, convicted and executed by German courts, the leaders in Berlin decided that they should close the camps and expel us as undesirables rather than keeping us. In Russia and the other republics that formed the Soviet Union, many Jews there have decided to also come here as well. Many of their fellow countrymen enthusiastically assisted the Nazis in murdering so many Jews that our people simply did not want to stay there any longer.

The Germans seem to be eagerly helping every Jew who wants to come here. This is all very strange after all of the suffering that the Nazis have inflicted upon our people, but I am a Zionist at heart. So anything that helps us back to the Promised Land is a blessing from God.”

“Yes, this is all doubtlessly from God. We are returning to our ancestral home. The scholars are even beginning to teach everyone Hebrew so that we will have our own language back as a single people. This is all so hard to believe, yet it is happening before our very eyes.”

“We have heard while at sea that the leader of the Irgun had called for a revolt against the British here. They and other Jewish groups had been receiving modern guns from someone who is friendly to us, we have heard.” Itzak mentioned.

“I have heard this too. But with the Germans shipping so many of us in, I do not think that we will have to worry about fighting the British. Do you see all of those cameras out there? Those of news reporters. We will soon overwhelm the British presence here, my friend. We will need the guns eventually, I’m sure. But they will not be used against the British. We have the Arabs here who want to slaughter us, just like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem tried to do through his ties with Hitler.”

“I know. But what about the British? They are the ones in charge here now, aren’t they?”

“They won’t be for much longer. I have learned that the British are heavily in debt because of expenses from the war. They cannot maintain their empire for much longer. They will have to give up the Palestinian Mandate soon.

However, if we are going to reclaim our Promised Land, then we must be ready to fight the Arabs for it. It is a waste of time and effort to attack the British, regardless of what those hotheads in the Irgun say.

We should focus on only one enemy, the one that was aligned with the Nazis and wanted to also exterminate us.” Adam explained.

Chapter Twenty-One:

Cavill Aviation Experimental Hangar

Derby, Western Australia

November 21, 1943

Harold had been home for about a week after the first series of meetings with the German negotiators. The negotiations had been long, detailed and very challenging. Harold had to walk a very fine line sometimes in order to avoid revealing just how much he knew about German weapons programs from the computer data base. Finally, they agreed to a mutual suspension of the negotiations. But Harold felt that things were very promising, especially upon learning just how much of the Nazi hierarchy had been purged by the German military.

Harold then flew back to London to brief Churchill on the negotiations. He and the British Prime Minister spent hours going over every detail. After nearly a week, Harold took another long flight back home. He needed to get caught back up on what was happening at home and with his businesses.

Harold went to visit the underground hangar where most of the new aircraft prototypes were being assembled. Harold had been kept so busy traveling, business meetings and dealing with the bureaucrats that he had not had a chance to check out the new work there for more than two months now. When Harold arrived in his usual Ford truck, the aeronautics program manager and chief engineer Theodore Rosewood met him at the hangar’s concealed personnel entrance.

“Good Afternoon, Ted. I thought that I would come by to see how far have you gotten with our latest special projects?” Harold asked.

“We have several of them almost ready for flight tests now. The jet-powered version of the Dragonfly is the one closest to its first test flight. Her engines have proven themselves in ground tests very well already. The aircraft itself is a wonder. I never would have guessed that the basic Dragonfly airframe would be so easily modified for this. The work that we did for an enhanced version of the original Dragonfly proved to almost perfectly suited for this new aircraft.

The jet engines that we are using are quite remarkable. They each weigh less than four hundred kilograms. But we have measured them at producing close to a thousand kilograms of thrust. I know that the engineers that designed the high pressure steam turbines for our ships played a major role in designing these engines as well.”

Like with any other technological idea that Harold wanted advanced, he had simply talked to his engineers about the basic design and made a few ‘suggestions’ to enhance its performance or to nudge the designers into a particular direction. After that, Harold would then just ‘let nature take its course’. This was why the engine was particularly powerful for its weight. The performance was not totally out of line with other developments of the era. In fact, it almost perfectly matched the Westinghouse J30 jet engine that also first ran in the year 1943.

In essence, Harold was now putting the technological timeline back into where it should have been. Without the pressure of the war, the engineers at Westinghouse might not have built the original J30 engine at all. Now, something technologically very similar is being built in the West, just not by the Americans this time. This was also the case with other American wartime technological developments. Harold worked to find a way to still introduce them at the appropriate time. In his quest to stop the Final War, Harold did not want to eliminate all technology advances, only certain select ones like the fission bomb.

“I’m not an aeronautical engineer, but you did have to do some changes to the airframe besides the engines, Ted.”

“We added strake extensions to the wings like you suggested. That gave us more fuel capacity. However, wind tunnel tests showed that we had to modify them slightly to ensure sufficient airflow to the engines at high angles of attack. We also stretched the upgraded Dragonfly fuselage by half a meter more and modified the canard foreplane.  The modifications to the rear fuselage to replace the Wright Cyclone radial engine with a pair of the new turbojet engines were actually pretty straight-forward. The twin engines together were not much heavier than the single radial. But we expect, based on what we saw in the wind tunnel, for this new aircraft to be at least one hundred and fifty knots faster than the original Dragonfly.”

“What about her armament, Ted? I understand that my Ordnance people have cooked up some interesting items for this aircraft.”

“Yes, they have. It has the normal two hardpoints under the wings for bombs, drop tanks or special weapons. This jet also has another pair of upgraded hardpoints under the wing strakes. The inner hardpoints can carry up to five hundred kilograms of payload each. The outer hardpoints can only carry three hundred kilograms like with the original Dragonfly. Under the belly, we have a three-barrel version of our 25mm Gatling gun. It doesn’t fire quite as fast as the six-barrel version but is much lighter.”

“Will she be able to operate from an aircraft carrier still?”

“Of course, she will. This new aircraft is a little heavier than the original Dragonfly, but with the added wing root strakes, her wing-loading is about the same. The rear wings were already sweptback for stability purposes. They will be just fine for higher speed flight. I think that the biggest change was that we changed the canards so that the entire canard moved instead of just the trailing edge. This has made the canard even more effective, though it requires more power to its controls for the pilot to handle the added loads. We have also strengthened the Dragonfly’s entire structure to handle the heavier takeoff and landing stresses of carrier operations.”

Harold found it curious just how closely the aircraft resembled a jet-powered version of the Long-Eze homebuilt sport plane that a friend of his kept in his garage as an antique just before the Final War. Of course, this was nearly one hundred years in the future and the Long-Eze didn’t have jet engines or a slightly wasp-waisted fuselage to deal with compressibility either. Harold wanted to plan ahead because he knew that the Germans would not be standing still technologically either.

“Very good. I am also very interested in seeing our new rotary wing project as well. I thought that the tandem rotor concept was very promising when I purchased the license for it from Drago Jovanovich. We have enough spare production capacity for Twin-Wasp engines to be able to build a very capable aircraft based in his technology.”

“I remember you mentioning that when you brought me the blueprint drawings and described what you wanted. We’ve had a team working on this for the past nine months now. Here’s what they have come up with.” Ted said as he walked down with Harold another fifty meters further into the underground hangar.

Harold then saw the familiar ‘banana’ shape of a tandem rotor helicopter appearing in front of him as he walked forward. The nose was heavily glazed to provide excellent visibility for the pilot. A tall stalky nose gear held the forward fuselage higher than the short main gear.. The rest of the fuselage was of a traditional cantilever aluminum construction. The unusual looking aircraft was already painted in a light grey camouflage pattern.

“How soon before she can fly?” Harold asked with a smile of delight on his face.

“We’ve already done engine tests and run up her rotors to ensure that they are fully synchronized. She will be ready for tethered flight tests in a few days. Of course, Mrs. Cavill automatically wanted to fly it as soon as she saw it.”

“Dorothy’s already seen it?” A suddenly dismayed Harold asked.

“Yes, Sir. She’s been visiting us and looking over our prototypes about every couple of weeks for the past year or so. She’s even flown the prototype Cassowary with its new photo reconnaissance package. It is very impressive combined with the search radar and the external drop tanks. We can probably fly it all the way to Japan and back without refueling.”

“Well, please tell my wife to let the professional test pilots do the flight testing of our new aircraft. She will get her turn to fly them soon enough.” Harold said with a chuckle that hid his discomfort over Dorothy’s risky behavior.

“Did you know that Pappy actually tested one of the new three-barrel Gatling guns on one of the new Australian-built Mosquitos? He substituted the Gatling for the Mosquito’s normal four twenty-millimeter automatic cannons. I don’t think that I ever saw anyone so delighted as Pappy after he took that Mosquito and did a couple of strafing runs on some wrecked Jap ships. Now, he wants to put that cannon into all of the Mosquitos.” Ted then explained with a smile.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all. Somehow, I don’t think that we could make enough of those Gatlings to satisfy what Pappy wants to do with them. “

“No, Sir. I don’t think so either. Pappy’s already taking half of all of the six barrel Gatling production to convert Coalition and American medium bombers into strafers. I’m afraid that you are going to have to look into building another ammunition factory just to keep Pappy’s planes stocked with shells.”

“I will have to look at the possibility of having our satellite plants in Indochina and China begin production of the Gatlings. They have been producing small arms like the CR-1, some support weapons and significant amounts of ammunition for the Chinese Nationalists for over a year now.  That has worked out well with the large quantities that the Chinese need for their troops. In fact, we had to divert some of their ammunition production to replenish our own stocks at Derby after the Japanese invasion attempt. I suppose that we can have the Chinese factories making cannon shells for the Gatlings too.”

“Didn’t we just license the Chinese to produce our light tank designs recently, Sir?”

“Yes, they are producing the light tank chassis. However, I have been hesitant to license any more of our armor designs because of the internal turmoil occurring within Chinese politics. Even with the external threat of the occupying Japanese army, things are not looking good for a cohesive China. The various warlords are still vying for power. Chiang Kai Shek has the largest single armed force in China, but he has not been able to bring the warlords to heel while at the same time fighting to drive the Japanese out.

Unfortunately, what I see happening is China breaking apart into half a dozen or more competing states that will be fighting for power even before the Japanese leave. That will cause tremendous instability in the region.” Harold explained.

In a way, Harold actually welcomed the Balkanization of China. This would not only prevent Mao Tse Tung from taking control of all of China, but would prevent one single power from assembling enough resources to be able to afford to build nuclear weapons, or at least not very many of them.

In 2040, Chinese and Russian nuclear weapons caused much of the devastation during the Final War. Harold hoped that the same Balkanization would occur with dismantling of the Soviet Union as well. This would significantly reduce the number of nuclear powers in the twenty-first century even if someone decides to develop nuclear weapons after the end of the Second World War.

But the elimination of so many of the regional superpowers would still mean dozens of small brush wars potentially occurring in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. The latter continent would probably be abandoned by Europe’s great powers after the war. The conflict will have bankrupted all of the European powers that had colonies in Africa by then. Not even America would be able or willing to intercede in Africa afterwards.

It still bothered Harold very much that he was so willing to see tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people dying each year in these small brush wars worldwide. But preventing the Final War that would doom humanity continued to be Harold’s primary goal, regardless of the potential short term price in lives lost each year.

“So what are we going to do, Sir?” Ted asked.

“First, we try to win this damned war. After that, we will try to pick up the pieces and do what we can to help people build something worthwhile from the ashes.”

“You heard about Moscow, haven’t you Sir?”

“No. I’ve been too busy with all of the various projects that I have been working on, not to mention the long business trip to Europe that I had to make on very short notice. Even my Cavaliers don’t provide a newly printed newspaper on their flights, I’m afraid.

“The news just reported that the Germans captured Moscow yesterday. They are saying that Josef Stalin and most of the Soviet leadership died during the German assault upon the Kremlin. I haven’t seen any photos yet, but the reporters on the radio broadcasts are describing the whole city being in ruins now, including the grand towers of the Kremlin.”

Harold thought back to the time in his youth when his father took him along on a business trip to Moscow. The majesty of the tall towers of the Kremlin with their golden, onion-shaped tops was breathtaking. But of course, this was back in the previous timeline when Harold was known as James Stevenson and Russia had not yet fallen back into a neo-Bolshevist, authoritarian government that was all too willing to wage full-scale nuclear war.

The tragedy of all of that beauty now in ruins filled Harold’s mind for a moment. He wondered if there might have been another way. But then, Harold remembered the images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then he visualized all of multiplied ten thousand times over during the Final War. Those same beautiful gilded domes were no less ruined after a dozen nuclear weapons hit Moscow during that short but devastating war.

Then, Harold told himself once again that he had no choice here.

German High Command Headquarters

Berlin, Germany

December 4, 1943

The Combined German General Staff met once again to consider the course of the war now that the capital of the Bolshevik state had fallen. The meeting included the senior members of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine as well as the Abwehr military intelligence service. Nearly twenty senior officers sat around a massive rectangular table in the large conference room.

The discussion began with reports from the Eastern Front concerning the situation there. The fighting against the hardcore holdouts in Russian continued. But now hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers were surrendering in mass to the Wehrmacht. This time, the Germans promised good treatment, especially after so many of the previous Russian POWs that had survived the labor camps found themselves being returned to facilities much closer to home. Their treatment had also improved substantially as well.

But the fact was that for Germany, the war was still not over yet. This was also where the discussion turned.

“Now, what do we do about the Englanders?” General Lenz asked.

“We hold what we have until the Englanders decide that going on the attack would be suicide for them.”

“It is a damned shame that Field Marshall Model was killed in action during the final assault on Moscow. He was our defensive miracle worker.” General Hans Speidel, Model’s former chief of staff at Army Group B, noted.

“He was also an ardent member of the National Socialist Party. I don’t think that he was ever comfortable about the official story on the Fuhrer’s death. He would have been a problem eventually.”

The leaders here of the new German government now spoke more openly about what happened to the late Fuhrer, even if the discussions never left the walls of this room. Everyone here knew what really happened, either before the fact, or shortly afterwards.

“Given time, we might have been able to bring Field Marshall Model into the fold with the rest of us. But he served the Fatherland well, one way or another.” General Lenz commented.

“Admiral Raeder, now that our chief threat is to the West, what is the situation in the Atlantic presently?” Field Marshall Erwin Rommel then asked.

“We certainly cannot sustain U-Boat operations against the Englander supply lines from America and elsewhere at this point. It seems like every Englander convoy now has a small aircraft carrier and a cruiser in attendance. The carriers all have those ugly little fighters that the Australians call ‘Dragonflies’ that drive off our Condors and strafe the hell out of Admiral Donitz’s U-Boats. These ships are also carrying rotary-wing aircraft to hunt our U-Boats with as well.”  The Kriegsmarine commander explained.

“Are you saying that we have now lost the battle for the Atlantic?” General Lenz asked.

“I wouldn’t say that we have lost it. I just don’t know how we are going to win it without paying an even higher price than we already have. There is only so much that our U-Boat crews can endure. Even with the new design U-Boats, I am not sure what the outcome would be if we renewed our campaign against Englander shipping. We have also started losing submarines in the Atlantic without any explanation at all. Normally, if they were attacked by aircraft or escort ships, we would hear something about it. But these losses are a mystery to us. That is particularly disconcerting to me and my crews.

Our surface fleet has also been badly degraded over the past four years, while the Royal Navy still has most of its capital ships and a growing fleet of aircraft carriers and other lighter warships. Our construction resources are completely inadequate to replace even a small fraction of our surface ship losses to counter the Englanders.” Raeder answered.

“We do still have the new weapons that we can use to attack England and even America.” A Luftwaffe general familiar with the V-2 program at Peenemunde noted.

“Yes, but should we? With the Bolsheviks defeated, we have eliminated the threat from the East and have secured the resources that we need. We have already started the process of establishing allied states to our East that we can trust to work with us. Our actual German territorial ambitions towards the West are nonexistent as long as we are allowed to return to our pre-1918 borders. The French will not be a threat to us for a very long time at this point. We would be far better served to make peace now, before someone manages to convince the Americans to throw their full industrial and military potential into the European theatre. A second intrusion by the Americans into Europe could be enough to overwhelm us even with our new weapons going into production.” Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr calmly explained.

“What about the Englanders? Will they be willing to make peace with us without having defeated us on the battlefield?”

“Our initial contacts with their representative indicate that they might. But they do want concessions from us. As far as defeating us on the battlefield, don’t forget what happened in North Africa. Our combined German and Italian force was defeated by the Englanders, their Commonwealth allies and Patton’s damned ‘American Tiger’ mercenaries. Also Prime Minister Churchill is still continuing to try to convince the Americans to actively join the war against us with their full armed forces. Time is not necessarily our ally here, I fear.” Admiral Canaris replied.

“The Americans have no stomach to send hundreds of thousands of their young men to Europe to fight. They are barely mustering up any force at all against our Japanese allies. They will not help the Englanders either.” General Lenz asserted.

“But we must remember, the Englanders may not have defeated us as a nation on the battlefield. However, we were not able to defeat their nation either. The Americans have a very curious habit of backing the weaker nation when it suits them.” Rommel replied.

“What sort of concessions do the Englanders want?” Field Marshall Kesselring asked.

“The first indications are that they want restrictions on the size of our military. These restrictions are not nearly as severe as those from the Versailles Treaty however. He was even willing to acknowledge our legitimate need for self-defense. The representative for the Englanders was also very interested in restricting certain technologies like war gases and atomic fission.” Admiral Canaris noted.

“Do you think that we should try to hold on to those technologies?” Kesseling asked.

“I am not certain at this time. If we are going to have peace, we are going to have to make some concessions. That much is clear. After all, our nation started the war in Europe, even if the people responsible for it are all either dead or in prison.”

“We have to ensure that our borders are secure and that we have reliable sources of raw materials for our industries if we are going to have the security that we need. This is the reason why we are building alliances with so many of our eastern neighbors, especially those that we have recently ‘liberated’ from Bolshevik domination. We can then withdraw our troops and let our new friends deal with those damned Red Army partisans.

On another subject, do you think that the Englanders will allow us to continue our union with Austria? They are a fellow Germanic people who would continue to fit in well with us as a nation.” Field Marshal Manstein asked.

“He did not specifically address that. Herr Cavill only said that Germany had to return to its original borders.” The German spymaster answered.

“We could perhaps offer a political separation, but maintain a mutual defense treaty instead. That might satisfy the Englander’s demands.”

“We would have to leave that decision to Berlin and the new civilian leadership that is being formed though. The civilians will still have to rely upon the General Staff for guidance for some time to come. Our purpose is to establish a base framework and determine what issues will be a problem for either us or the Englanders. France and the Low Countries will follow along if England accepts our offer. The countries that were defeated early in the war don’t have much of a choice, now do they? The Englanders have earned the right to have some say in the matter at least.” Manstein declared.

“What about our Japanese allies? If we sign a separate peace with England and avoid a full-scale conflict with America, then the Japanese will have to face them both by themselves. We will have abandoned the Japanese to oblivion.” General Lenz asked.

“It is much better to have the world focus their rage and retribution on Japan for the atrocities that they have inflicted over the people that they have conquered. Otherwise, they would be focusing on us over what the Nazis did during their reign. The Japanese will have to soon fight this war on their own. That will further bleed resources away from the Englanders and their allies, while we peacefully rebuild our nation.

Trust me, the Japanese are not going to surrender until their very last breath. So the Amerikaners and Englanders will certainly pay a dear price in treasure and blood while fighting the Japanese for years to come. It is my understanding that even now, our soon to be former allies are preparing to strike back using technology that we have provided to them.” Canaris informed the group with a sly smile.

IJN Submarine I-400

100 nautical miles due west of San Diego

February 18, 1944

The huge submarine surfaced after her captain first carefully checked the area for any Allied ships and aircraft with his periscope. More than a dozen sailors immediately popped out of deck hatches and began to man the various guns on the massive submarine’s deck in preparation for any American interlopers.

“Prepare to launch the first missile.” Captain Hiro Yamaguchi ordered after his gunners were all at their stations.

A massive hatch began to open at the front of the submarine’s superstructure below the sail, revealing the four folded up Baika suicide bombs, powered by copies of the German Argus pulsejet, inside the long, tubular compartment. But these weapons were far different than the V-1 buzz bombs, powered by pulse jets, the Nazis briefly used to bombard London. In the fuselage just forward of the Baika’s pulse jet intake, there was now a small cockpit for a single pilot.

The four Baika pilots took the time for the preparation of their craft to engage in their preflight ritual. First, they donned the hachimaki headband adorned with the rising sun and a belt of a thousand stitches. This was called the senninbari and had been prepared by a thousand women sewing one stitch each. Then the pilots would each compose a final poem and drink a last cup of sake before climbing into each Baika’s tiny cockpit.

The first Baika was pushed up to the launch ramp on the I-400’s bow. Then a steel barrier was hydraulically raised to deflect the jet blast of the missile’s pulse jet away from the other missiles waiting to be launched. The pulse jet motor was started just a few moments before the missile’s launch.

Booster rockets under the wings quickly hurled each kamikaze missile up the I-400’s bow ramp and into the air, where the pulse jet took over for the weapon’s flight to its target. The barrier was quickly lowered for the next missile to take its place on the launch rail, then raised again. Just less than twenty minutes after the first missile took to the air, the submarine was already preparing to submerge after the launch of the last missile.

Twenty minutes later, the first of the kamikaze Baika missiles approached the US Navy’s base near San Diego. The pilot had been carefully trained beforehand on what to look for. It only took a few moments before he found it, a row of ten submarines anchored closely next to each other near a pier.

He then took careful aim at the center of the row and dove at full speed. Black puffs of smoke from nearby detonations of American antiaircraft shells began to surround the speeding projectile. But the pilot held steady in spite of the now constant buffeting from the shells exploding around him.

The Baika glanced off of the deck of one of the Balao-class fleet submarines and hit a second boat directly before the manned missile’s three hundred-kilogram high explosive warhead detonated. Both submarines were completely shattered by the powerful explosion. Immediately afterwards, the wreckage of the two American submarines slammed into their neighbors, badly damaging another four submarines and killing more than two hundred submariners immediately.

Less than three minutes later, a second Baika sped towards the brand new Essex-class fleet aircraft carrier USS Franklin that was tied up by a pier. Ignoring an increasing amount of antiaircraft fire, the kamikaze pilot steadfastly aimed his manned missile until it struck the carrier’s flight deck near the Essex’s island. The missile’s high velocity allowed it to punch right through the thick teak planking and explode right in the heart of dozens of parked aircraft within the Franklin’s hangar deck.

A towering fireball erupted in the air above the carrier as the great ship burst into flame. Multiple secondary explosions rocked the carrier as hundreds of sailors attempted to control the fires and save the ship.

US Army Air Corps fighters attempted to intercept the last two kamikaze Baika missiles. But the manned missiles were nearly a fifty miles per hour faster than any of the pursuing fighters. Before the Americans could mass enough firepower to shoot down the Japanese attackers, the Baika missiles struck another grouping of submarines and heavily damaged a second aircraft carrier, the venerable USS Yorktown.

By the time the last of the fires had been put out, the death toll was over two thousand sailors and other service members. Five submarines had been sunk or permanently put out of action with another eight damaged. The USS Franklin would be out of the war for at least a year and a half while a second carrier would be under repair for at least six months.

This was an attack by only one submarine. At very nearly the same time, I-401 launched its Baikas against Pearl Harbor while I-402 fired its weapons at the US Naval base in Bremerton, Washington. Each attack was very nearly as devastating as the one at San Diego.

Nine other Japanese aircraft-carrying submarines attempted similar attacks upon Haiphong Harbor, Singapore and several targets in Australia. Eight of the Japanese submarines were successful in launching their attacks and safely escaping. But one submarine, I-14 of the AM class, was found on the surface near Derby by one of Harold’s patrolling heavy flying boats. The flying boat had spotted the submarine after the Japanese boat had fired the first of its two Baikas. The flying boat quickly dove down and dropped six depth charges that shattered the hull of the Japanese submarine before the submarine could escape by submerging.

The damage inflicted by these attacks varied widely. But because these targets in the southwestern Pacific had been attacked repeatedly by the Japanese over the course of the war, they were far better prepared. The Coalition defenses were able to shoot down over half of the Baikas before the kamikaze pilots could even begin their attack dives. While several ships were damaged in the attacks, none were sunk or permanently disabled.

The Baikas fired at Harold’s facilities in Derby fortunately were all either shot down or completely missed their targets. The additional batteries of new six-pounder automatic cannons, gatling guns and 10.5 cm anti-aircraft artillery, all controlled by radar and supported by fighter aircraft proved to be extremely effective. While Colonel Burke was very pleased at this result, he was still concerned that a later attack may be much heavier and successfully overwhelm even Derby’s improved defenses.

Australian Military Headquarters

Canberra, Australia

18 March, 1944

“We need to start thinking about expanding our naval mine campaign against the Japanese homeland. Using mines, we can bottle up the Japanese navy in port including those big missile-launching submarines. The Americans have already started this, but they are not able to cover nearly as many ports as are necessary because they are almost entirely dependent on their submarines to lay mines.” Newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Harlan Burke explained to the Australian War Ministry and representatives from the other Allied nations in the Far East. Harlan’s success in repelling the Japanese invasion of Australia has given him considerable credibility among the various military leaders there.

“We would have to substantially increase mine production then at the expense of other weapons.” Admiral Patrick Edwards noted.

“If we do this effectively, we will not need nearly as many of these other weapons because the Japanese will not be able to send their ships out to attack us. None of us want to have happen to us what just happened to the Americans two months ago. We have learned that those attacks were all launched by large Japanese submarines. They will be far more difficult to engage before they launch their attacks than surface ships or aircraft. The best way of defeating these submarines is to prevent them from being able to leave their ports at all.” Colonel Harlan told the others.

“How do you want to lay all of these new mines? We can’t just sail up to their shorelines and lay mines without being attacked by hundreds of aircraft as well as what is left of the Japanese Navy.” Admiral Edwards asked.

“We would use a combination of submarines and aircraft to lay the mines. Even the Cavalier seaplanes would be very suitable for this purpose. But our new bombers and transport aircraft could easily be adapted to drop mines as well. Obviously, aerial mine deployment would not be viable without adequate fighter support.”

“I understand that the British managed to convince the French in Indochina to convert the submarine cruiser Surcouf into a minelayer also. She would be a great help in bottling up the Japanese and giving our ships free reign in the Pacific, I would imagine, given her size and armament.” An Australian Navy captain noted.

“Yes, Sir. She would be. But we need a lot more assets than just the Surcouf in order to accomplish our goals. This is especially true after the latest series of kamikaze attacks that have obviously been launched against Coalition targets from Japanese submarines.”

“Is this request related to that secret project of yours in Construction Bay Number One at the shipyard, Colonel?” Brigadier Charles Wilkes asked.

“No, Sir. I’m afraid that is a program that was requested at the highest levels of the Commonwealth to be kept completely confidential. Only a very small number of people know all of the details of the program.”

“You cannot even tell us about it, Colonel?”

“No, Sir. I am not allowed to elaborate upon the project in any way. I will tell you that it has nothing to do with the discussion about the current subject under discussion.” Colonel Harlan firmly stated.

Several of the senior admirals were shocked that a mere Lieutenant Colonel would be so assertive. But for the moment, Colonel Harlan had the backing of some very senior people in Government House. Most of this was due to a combination of the defeat of the Japanese amphibious landing as well as the influence of his patron, Harold Cavill.

“The safest and most effective way of deploying these mines is via submarine. What I am proposing is that we outfit as many of our submarines as possible to be able to deploy mines. Many of them already can do so using their torpedo tubes, but that reduces the number of torpedoes that they can carry on a mission.

I have been informed that it would be a very simple task to construct mine-deployment apparatus that can be placed over the rear hull of a submarine much akin to a pair of saddlebags placed on the back of a horse. After the mines are released, the apparatus can be rapidly detached if necessary. Of course, the manufacturer would prefer that the submarine come back with the apparatus so that more mines can be loaded for another mission.” Colonel Burke explained with several of the officers there chuckling in response.

“But Colonel, there are probably ten different classes of submarines in use by the various nations of the Coalition here. Wouldn’t that mean that a different mine launcher would have to be designed to fit each different class of submarine?” Admiral Edwards asked.

The engineers at Cavill Industries believe that their design can be readily adapted to different submarine designs very easily while still using basically a common design. It is also modular so that more than one mine-carrier can be fitted to a larger submarine to carry a larger number of mines. A smaller design like some of the Dutch boats would carry only one such device. But if we equip enough submarines to lay mines, we can choke off most of the supplies going to Japan plus stop the threat of the Japanese Navy.”

The room was silent for a few moments as everyone considered Colonel Burke’s recommendation. By now, everyone knew of the reputation of Cavill Industries and the products that so much of the Coalition used in the fight against the Japanese.

“How soon can Mister Cavill have a prototype ready for evaluation, Colonel?” Admiral Edwards asked.

“It’s already ready, Sir. All that has to be done is for someone to supply a submarine so that the mine-laying module can be adapted to the specific class. But the sooner that we get started on this campaign, the sooner that we can end this damned war.”

“We will take this under advisement, Colonel. Obviously, not everyone would be completely happy with their submarines being taken away from their existing missions.”

Harlan quietly nodded his head at Admiral Edwards’ pronouncement. Every delay in getting the new minelaying campaign started, would mean more opportunities for the Japanese to reinforce their defenses and to launch new strikes against America and the other allied militaries.

Harold had told Colonel Burke that this was very important. What Harold could not tell the young Australian colonel was the real reason why an airtight blockade of Japan was so very important. The dangers of weapons of mass destruction being employed grew with every additional day that the Japanese continued to conduct offensive operations such as the Baika attacks.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

The White House

Washington, DC

November 7, 1944

For weeks, the polls had shown the Presidential race to be extraordinarily tight. President Roosevelt found himself unexpectedly to be the underdog. He even spurned his Vice President Henry Wallace for an unknown senator from Missouri named Harry Truman in order to court the moderate vote. A last minute train whistle stop tour around the country further strained the President’s health but gained few additional votes. The last votes were being tallied in California while it was already late evening in the nation’s capital. All that FDR could do now is sit in the Oval Office and wait.

Eleanor Roosevelt quietly nodded to the Secret Service agent at the door before she walked into the Oval Office. A cloud of cigarette smoke filled the room. An ashtray filled with cigarette butts showed that the President had been chain-smoking throughout the day. FDR’s face was callow as a result of years of stress and fatigue that were now compounded by his developing congestive heart failure and his years of smoking. The death of his confidant Harry Hopkins a few months earlier from complications of stomach cancer had also hit FDR very hard as well.

“Oh, Franklin. Why don’t you go to bed? I’m sure that someone will let you know the moment that we find out the vote results.” She told him.

“I just can’t sleep right now, Eleanor. I am just terrified that all that we worked for over the past twelve years is about to be thrown away.”

“You can’t obsess about that right now. Just think of all of the people that we helped and all of the progress that we made.”

“I know. But right now, all that people are focused on are my failures in the war. The loss of the Pacific Fleet battle line could not have been predicted. No one knew of those massive new battleships that the Japanese had put into service. There’s not a battleship in the world that could have stood up to those monsters. But we could have eventually built their match with our industrial might.”

“The Japanese were waiting in ambush for our ships. It was like they had it planned all along. But our sailors still fought very well. ”

“We still should have beaten the Japanese, Eleanor. We knew that even that battle was not the end of the war, even if that popinjay McArthur did manage to get himself captured and executed in the Philippines by the Japanese. But Congress wouldn’t let us do anything of substance. The ‘America First’ crowd were the worst of the lot. Even after Hitler declared war on America, they did not want us to lift a finger.”

“If you asked me, I would say that whole gang of them are all hypocrites of the highest order. They want a war against the Axis as much as we do. But Republicans want it so that they can take credit for the economic boom. Of course, there are few fools who actually think that they would be able to peaceably co-exist in a world with Hitler and Hirohito or racists who also believe in the Axis’ goals.”

“We have been in a war for nearly three years, whether we liked it or not though after the Japanese attack on our territories in the Philippines and Hitler’s declaration of war. We simply didn’t have the political support to fully commit the American people to the conflict. So we have been doing what we could with the resources available.

The Republicans in Congress have absolutely refused to allow us to sell any war materiel to the Soviets without payment in some sort of hard currency. Once the Germans managed to get their war effort back on track after Hitler’s death, the German Army reconstituted itself very effectively. Then only a few months later, it was back at the gates of Moscow once again. Only this time, Moscow and Stalin along with the rest of the Soviet government collapsed. I just don’t know what Churchill will do if the Germans turn their eyes back towards the West again. The Pacific has received most of our military attention, even with our drastically reduced Pacific fleet, just because of our domestic political situation.

We had been hitting the Japanese hard with our recently expanded submarine fleet, even taking a page out of the German’s rulebook with the use of wolfpacks. At least Congress increased funding for the production of more submarines and destroyers. We were finally getting our aircraft carrier production back on track in spite of Congressional interference as well. Getting those two flight-deck ocean liners converted into fleet carriers helped tremendously. Then the Japanese hit us with those suicide planes in all of the worst places possible.”

“But instead of uniting the American people against the Japanese, the Republicans and the media have used this attack to blame our administration for a lack of defensive preparedness.” Eleanor interjected angrily.

For many years, the Roosevelts had been the darlings of the American media. The media had strongly supported Roosevelt’s progressive agenda. But now, the administration’s allies in the media had spurned FDR and his policies. Both Franklin and Eleanor were at a loss in understanding why this had happened though.

An aide came into the room with a sad look on his face.

“The election results have come in?”

“Yes, Mister President. I’m afraid that they have, Sir.”

“I guess that I have to give my concession speech now. Well, it was a hell of a good run while it lasted, I suppose.” President Roosevelt said after a few moments.

Eleanor sat down next to him and put her arm around the defeated President, tears in her eyes, as they pondered what they would do next. But deep down, she knew that he did not have long to live.

President-elect Dewey’s Residence ‘Dapplemere’

Quaker Hill, New York

November 23, 1944

Now that the election was over, President-elect Thomas E. Dewey was taking a long-overdue break from all of the political turmoil that came with an upcoming change in national administration. Even though he always maintained offices in New York City and in the state capital of Albany, Dewey’s refuge had always been the farm in Quaker Hill that he had named ‘Dapplemere’.

This evening, the President-elect had sat down in the office that he maintained in his home and started to read the evening newspaper.

Nearly an hour later, one of President-elect Dewey’s aides came frantically running into the office. The aide clearly had a shocked look on his face as he entered Dewey’s office.

“Sir, have you heard the radio in the past ten minutes? The newscasters are reporting that President Roosevelt died late this afternoon.”

President-elect Dewey quickly sat up in his seat and put down the newspaper.

“Did the radio commentator say what President Roosevelt died from?” He quickly asked in a calm voice.

“They said that Roosevelt’s doctor thinks that the President died from a massive stroke. Whatever it was, he died very quickly from it.”

“I want you to tell our people to please keep Mrs. Roosevelt and the entire Roosevelt family in their prayers. We will have to send out a public statement to the press expressing our condolences.”

“I suppose that we should also say something to the new President. He will have to be sworn in very soon if he has not already done so.”

“True. Henry Wallace will probably have one of the shortest Presidencies on record though. I hope that this means that damned Socialist will not have much of an opportunity to make things even worse before my inauguration on the twentieth of January.”

“At least he is not a caustic old former haberdasher like Harry Truman who FDR was going to have as his next vice-president. That senator used to be part of the Pendergast political machine, you know. Who knows what sort of corrupt dealings that Senator Truman has been involved in previously?” Dewey’s aide commented.

“I know about Senator Truman’s background. But there has been nothing concrete to indicate that the senator has personally engaged in any criminal behavior. Also, I know that Senator Truman shares my views of responsible government spending. So perhaps we will be able to work with him in the Senate after the election. While I do still want to take care of the people who need help, we still need to get and keep our fiscal house in order. It is an essential part of our public duty and trust.”

“There are already many Republicans in Congress who are saying that your most recent views of government are little more than a warmed over version of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Obviously, Robert Taft and his allies are chief among those with that view.”

“I don’t care what anyone says, including Bob Taft. My first priority upon assuming office will be the war. But we also have to clean up this mess that Roosevelt has left us. The Federal government has grown far too large, inefficient, expensive and unwieldy. We will be adding enough to the National Debt with war expenses. I am damned well not going to add one extra penny to it by spending money on worthless boondoggle programs and inefficient federal employees.

I have a reputation for honesty and integrity that I fully intend to fulfill. We are going to do everything possible to give the American people the most honest, effective and efficient government that we can provide. I don’t care whose egos get bruised and whose oxen get gored along the way either. This is a job that needs to be done right. ” A fiery Dewey declared in front of the small group that had gathered in Dewey’s office after learning of President Roosevelt’s death.

“But what about the social programs that you have supported recently? Your calls for a more aggressive internationalist foreign policy are not going to go over well with ‘America First’ supporters either.”

“We are going to do what we can to take care of people. But unlike the Democrats, we are going to do this in a fiscally responsible manner that maintains our freedoms and ensures the dignity of the truly needy. As far as changing our foreign policy, these latest attacks by the Japanese on our West Coast should be proof enough that we cannot rely upon a Fortress America defense any longer. We used to believe that our oceans would provide us with all of the protection that America would ever need. Technology has taken away that protection now.”

“What do you propose that we do now? You’ve won the Presidency and the Democrats are doubtlessly in disarray with President Roosevelt’s death.”

“One of the first things that I need to do is meet personally with Prime Minister Churchill. From what I have already learned, he is our one remaining viable partner now. While no one has yet found his body, it is a safe bet that Stalin is gone now. The French still have a foothold in Indochina, but have been completely neutralized back home.”

“There is one of those big Cavalier flying boats in New York harbor this week. I believe that it will be flying to England in a couple of days. Perhaps you can quietly book passage aboard her. She would be the fastest and safest means for you to use to visit Prime Minister Churchill, I believe.”

“Alright. Go ahead and arrange for at least four first class tickets to be purchased, six if they are available. Do not say who they are for however. We do have to be careful now that I am the President-elect.”

Prime Minister’s Residence

Ellesborough, England

November 27, 1944

A large black sedan pulled up to the Prime Minister’s residence of Chequers during a typical cool, wet fall morning. The sedan was followed by two other vehicles that carried more than half a dozen armed security personnel for the dignitary that was about to visit Winston Churchill on very short notice.

The American President-elect got out of the sedan wearing a conservative black overcoat and a dark fedora. He walked up to the residence front door, knocked on the door and was let in by one of the Prime Minister’s aide. Dewey was led to a study where Churchill was sitting at a desk looking over some reports.

Churchill stood up and extended his hand after putting down the reports.

“Governor Dewey, I am very pleased to meet you. I personally want to offer my condolences to you and your country regarding the death of President Roosevelt. He was a most remarkable man and a friend of the British people.”

“I thank you on behalf of the American people. Franklin Roosevelt served the American people for a remarkably long time in spite of the physical obstacles that he faced.

But now, we have an upcoming change in administration. I wish to take the best of what President Roosevelt accomplished and improve upon it for the security of both of our nations.”

“Very good. One of the good things that President Roosevelt was able to accomplish was through the use of the American Tigers to gather combat experience for a significant cadre of soldiers. We now have a considerable number of personnel who have been passing their knowledge to countless other young recruits. We will soon have enough trained soldiers to be able to go on the offense against both the Japanese and the Germans.”

“So you are willing to provide the Allies with significant ground support in offensive operations against the Germans, Governor Dewey?”

“I believe that I can. It still may take a little time and some political maneuvering for me back home to accomplish this. But I have an advantage that the late President did not have. I have the support of at least a significant part of the American Congress. There will still be some opposition from the isolationists within my country. But I believe that we will be able to finally get past that.”

“I can’t tell you how much that means to me and the British people. We have been virtually fighting the Axis singlehandedly for five years now. If it were not for some fortuitous decisions that were made in the years just prior to the war, plus some key support by the nations of the Commonwealth, we could very well have fallen.”

“We have already provided some help on the ground already as well as the US Navy escorts that have protected the shipping during much of their journey to England, of course.”

“Indeed, all of that assistance has been greatly appreciated as has all of the supplies you’re your nation has provided us through the Lend-Lease program. Your General Patton has also done quite well as the commander of the American Eagles volunteer division even with the limited support that he was given. Of course, an aggressive personality like his is bound to come into conflict with some of my own senior officers. That has led to a certain degree of friction.” Churchill chuckled.

“I’m sure. But I am very unlikely to get rid of him. One of my predecessors during the American Civil War had a general who also was not overly popular with certain persons of influence. But President Lincoln refused to fire this General Ulysses S. Grant because in Lincoln’s words “I can’t spare this man. He fights.” I’d rather keep a man like George Patton right where he is continuing to do the most good for us and the most harm to our enemies because he fights.”

“How do you want to deal with the Germans though? Ever since Hitler’s death, the Germans have really focused their efforts against the Soviet Union and have virtually ceased all offensive operations against Britain. They have even started clandestine efforts towards us concerning terms of a negotiated peace in Western Europe.”

“I was never told anything about this, Mister Prime Minister.”

“There are few people who are aware of the German peace overtures. There’s more, of course. You have heard about the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees that have been making their way to Palestine over the past year. Well, most of these refugees are survivors to Nazi extermination camps that had been set up by Hitler. The German High Command not only ousted all of the senior Nazi Party leaders, they immediately shut down the mass murder factories that had been occurring at the camps.

Now, I’m not trying to make them out as angels. The mass exodus of Jewish refugees into the Palestinian Mandate has caused England tremendous problems with the Arab population. The Arabs’ damned ‘intifada’ has tied up valuable Commonwealth troops needed elsewhere already.

But this change in German operations could be an opening to finally end the conflict in Europe. If the Germans can end the Bolshevik regime along the way, all the better. Josef Stalin is certainly a mass murderer in his own right. I won’t shed any tears upon learning of his demise and the destruction of the Bolshevik state. That is one of the reasons why we ceased protecting convoys going to Murmansk. I have no illusions of Stalin having making peace with the West even had the Germans been defeated by us.

Italy’s military has been decimated. We will be able to eliminate Mussolini very quickly with an amphibious attack from the Mediterranean using Commonwealth forces operating in conjunction with your General Patton’s American Eagles force.

But unfortunately, our resources have been virtually exhausted; financial, materiel and personnel alike. We fought virtually alone against Germany for far too long. The British people need for this war to end soon before even we are broken.  With your help, I believe that we can accomplish that. We may even be able to convince the Germans to accept a reasonable peace offer with the mere threat of a massive military intervention by America.”

Dewey stood in shocked silence for a moment before replying. Here was Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a man who everyone believed would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from Germany, talking about a negotiated settlement to end the war. Britain must indeed be exhausted.”

“I do understand your desire to end this war. Surely the Germans have exhausted their own resources as well fighting against the millions of troops that Stalin has mobilized and thrown at them.”

“Yes, they have basically driven themselves to the point of exhaustion. Perhaps that is why they want peace as well. The critical question is peace on what terms? I don’t think that the Germans are quite done fighting. The old Soviet regime will surely reconstitute itself and go after Germany unless the Germans succeed in utterly destroying the Bolshevik holdouts first. But that will be expensive in the short run.”

“You are quite correct. That is probably why the Germans put essentially all of their best units into the fight on the Eastern Front. They want to negotiate from a position of strength. It is also why we so badly need your forces. Doubtlessly, the Germans still remember what happened when hundreds of thousands of American troops entered the fighting during the Great War. The Germans were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They don’t want that to happen again because of what they lost at Versailles after the armistice.”

“Surely you are not proposing that they benefit from a war that they started, Minister Churchill?” Dewey asked.

“Oh, we are going to get our pound of flesh from the people who started this conflict. The Nazis themselves, or at least the ones that survive this war, will be called upon to answer for their crimes. But at the same time, I don’t to create the circumstances again for another Hitler to come out of the ashes nor another Stalin.”

“What about all of these superweapons that I have heard about being developed by the Nazis even before Hitler’s demise? Won’t they have the potential to prevent us employing American forces against the Germans without our incurring substantial casualties?”

“It is true that we have intelligence about advanced German weapons and technology. But we also have our own advanced technology developments as well. One of my most important sources of advanced military technology has promised me that he will personally ensure that we will not be left behind by the Germans. I have known this man for nearly two decades now. He has fulfilled every promise that he has ever given to me. So I have no reason to doubt him now either.

You actually flew here on one of his aircraft, I believe.”

President-elect Dewey thought for a moment before realizing that Churchill was referring to Harold Cavill. This was a man who was every bit as wealthy and innovative as Howard Hughes, but nowhere nearly as flamboyant. It was almost as though Mister Cavill sought to hide from the spotlight as much as possible. Instead, He let his company’s products do the talking for him.

“Would your friend be willing to work with American arms manufacturers to help bring our weapons technology up to a viable level?”

“Perhaps, but you would have to ask him yourself. From what I understand, Mister Cavill already has his hands full because of Japanese attacks near his home and base of operations in northwestern Australia. He already has a few American military personnel working with him who had evacuated from the Philippines after the Japanese invaded there.”

“When I get into office, I will do everything that I can to send your friend some help in the form of American military support. Perhaps then, he will be able to work with us in developing the tools that we need to bring a proper end to the war in Europe, defeat the Japanese and put an end to these damned fascists trying to take over the entire world. We all need to get back to business rather than killing each other.”

Churchill chuckled for a moment and puffed on his cigar again before replying.

“Well, we can hope to deal with this batch of fascists. I’m afraid that there will always be another mob of them lurking around the corner for their opportunity unfortunately. But maybe we can gain a little breathing room to turn the tide towards democracy and freedom this time.”

“I would hope so.” The President-elect replied.

The discussion between Churchill and President-elect Dewey continue for a couple more hours before Dewey had to leave to return to America. He couldn’t afford to stay out of the public eye for too long. There were many more people that he needed to meet with prior to the inauguration in January in order to prepare for running the United States. Dewey also wanted to keep quiet about his meeting with Churchill so that the press would not have the opportunity to ask any awkward questions about the content of their meeting.

Brooklyn Naval Yard

New York City, New York

December 16, 1944

President-elect Dewey had scheduled a policy speech concerning his plans for the American military for shortly after his return from England. The Brooklyn Naval Yard seemed to be the ideal place for the President-elect to make this speech since it was one of the largest producer of warships in the nation in addition to being from Dewey’s home state.

Dewey was surrounded by aides, local politicians as well as an armed Secret Service security detail after he emerged from a large black Cadillac sedan. As the group conversed prior to the scheduled speech, a senior US Army officer walked up to the President-elect. Most of the people surrounding Dewey then walked away to a discrete distance, apparently at the request of Dewey and the officer.

“The Germans have completely overwhelmed all of the Soviet military west of Siberia, Sir. All that is left resisting are partisans who used to be part of the Red Army.” Dewey’s military liaison from the War Department, Colonel William Howard quietly told the President-elect.

“Have we heard anything about Stalin’s whereabouts?”

“No, Sir. He could have died months ago during the siege of Moscow. The Germans certainly have not appeared with a body. But I wouldn’t be surprised if his lieutenants simply have kept the rumor of Stalin’s possible escape going to be a rallying cry for the partisans and other Soviet forces still resisting the Germans. It didn’t help the Russians any when the Japanese reneged upon their non-aggression pact with Moscow and attacked into Manchuria. That had to have diverted away a lot of troops that would have otherwise gone into battle against the Germans.” Colonel Howard explained.

“For the sake of the world at large, I hope that Stalin dies along with the rest of Lenin and Marx’s ill begotten communist movement. But will the damned Germans’ thirst for war will be sated by the Soviet Union’s destruction? I suppose that is the most important question because we still have to deal with the Japanese even if we can bring the Germans to the negotiation table.” Churchill had not told President-elect Dewey about the full extent of the negotiations that had already started.

“We really haven’t put a tremendous effort into either theatre of operations, Sir. Much of that is because of the political pressure of the America First movement as well as a general resistance to any of FDR’s initiatives by our fellow Republicans in Congress though. There was a lot of ill feelings after Roosevelt rammed through all of those New Deal programs over our objections.” Dewey’s chief of staff, Arthur Connelly interjected.

“I know, but now we own this relationship with the rest of the world. Let’s start getting this nation ready for what we need for it to do. Only this time, we are going to do it our way.”

President-elect Dewey then stepped up to the podium to give his speech. In front of him were about two thousand sailors, soldiers, shipyard workers and reporters in the audience. At the beginning of the speech, Dewey thanked the people who voted for him and praised the men and women serving in the American military. Then the President-elect began to talk about his vision for the future of America’s military.

“We must not make the same mistakes that we have made in the past by going to war with obsolete equipment. Our fighting men must always have the finest ships, aircraft, tanks and other weapons possible. We have already seen the results of going into combat with the weapons of the previous war when our Pacific Fleet of old battleships was destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Navy shortly after the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands.

We will continue building more submarines to take the war to strangle the Japanese. Our destroyer construction program will also continue so that we can protect our shipping against German U-Boats and have the numbers to overwhelm Japanese naval forces. Instead of devoting vast funds towards ponderous, expensive battleships, we will build a much larger number of modern cruisers to swiftly work with our carriers to destroy the enemy wherever they sail.”

The crowd cheered loudly as the President-elect paused for a few moments before continuing.

“We will finally resume construction on the six new Freedom-class fleet aircraft carriers. They will be the largest and finest vessels of their type in the entire world. These great ships will also employ this necessary delay to embody all of the lessons learned in battle from aircraft carrier designs employed around the world. They will lead the way in taking the war to the Japanese so that we can finally end the bloody conflict. The aircraft from these carriers will strike our adversaries from well beyond the range of the enemy’s guns, both on land and the sea.

We will also get back into the business of producing the best combat aircraft and armored vehicles in the world. Our engineers will build the weapons that will ensure our safety and security of our troops and airmen wherever they serve in the defense of this great nation. ”

The President-elect continued in his speech for several more minutes, mostly speaking about the courage of the American men in uniform and the need to make the world safe from tyranny. Once the speech was over, President-elect Dewey walked away from the podium and all of the microphones there.

“It’s going to take a while to get the first of these carriers into service, Sir. They are over ten thousand tons larger than the four new Essex class fleet carriers that are currently going into service. It just takes a lot longer to build the Freedom’s, especially with the shortages of funding and materiel for them in the past.” Colonel Howard informed President Dewey.

“I understand that. But I understand from my sources in the War Department, that an Essex was hit in the last attack on our West Coast. A Japanese suicide bomb, or whatever it was, punched right through the ship’s wooden flight deck and gutted so much of the ship that it will have to be practically rebuilt in its entirety. We needs ships like the Freedom that can survive such an attack.”

“These new ships have an armored flight deck, Sir. I have been assured by senior officials from the Department of the Navy that what happened to that Essex is virtually impossible with a Freedom-class carrier. It is much better protected and engineered than even the Essex-class. The Freedom-class has high-pressure steam turbines connected to turbo-generators like the Saratoga, but with even more power for higher speeds and better compartmentalization. The Freedoms have the latest electronics and weapons. These ships even have that angled flight deck like the Australian aircraft carrier has so that it can operate landings and takeoffs at the same time.”

“Maybe we can use these ships to finally destroy the bases that those damned Jap submarines are operating out of? If we don’t find a way to stop these attacks soon, we will be the ones getting thrown out of office next.” Dewey sharply remarked as he continued to walk towards his motorcade.

“That may be hard to do, Sir. We have received reports from our long range reconnaissance aircraft indicate that the Japanese may be doing extensive excavation along their coastline and many of their mountainsides. Intelligence believes that the Japanese are moving everything that they can underground to protect their military forces and industries from Allied bombers.” Colonel Howard explained.

“Have we been hitting them that hard with our bombers? I didn’t think that we had that many that could reach the Japanese home islands?”

“We have been launching some heavy bomber raids on the Japanese home islands from Alaska using B-24 Liberators. But they have actually been pretty limited in scope.  The British and Australians have actually been doing more with Lancaster heavy bombers launched from Australia and from French Indochina.”

“What have they been doing differently than our Army Air Corps?”

“The Brits and Aussies have been firebombing the Japanese cities every chance that they can. The commander of the RAF’s Bomber Command, General Harris, had done this to German cities earlier in the war. However, Harris’ losses became so heavy due to improved German defenses that he was forced to cease his mass raids even with the use of the escort fighters that we provided England. Mass firebombing is also the same tactic that General LeMay had been advocating, but President Roosevelt had been resisting because domestic political concerns.”

“I think that we may very well decide to use General LeMay’s ideas after I have been sworn into office. But if the Japanese are burrowing everything underground, will firebombing even work?”

“No, Sir. But I think that the Australians have come up with something that might. It is some sort of remotely controlled steerable bomb. We don’t have a lot of details about it though.”

“We will need to look into developing something like that of our own. I’m sure that a steerable bomb could be very useful for our own bombers as well.”

President-elect Dewey’s motorcade drove from the shipyard back to the office that he had maintained in his suite at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. Dewey then spent the next several days in meetings with Republican Party leaders from around the country. He even entertained a visit by his most vocal party rival, Senator Robert Taft.

Just before the beginning of another morning marathon session of meetings, Arthur Connelly knocked on the President-elect’s office door before coming in.

“Sir. We have received a priority telegraph from Prime Minister Churchill. He has received another message from the Germans requesting a meeting to discuss an armistice. Churchill wants to send a representative who won’t necessarily be noticed but who can speak for the Allies.”

“Does he have someone particular in mind? A diplomat? A prominent political figure? Who?” Dewey quickly asked.

“It seems that the Germans prefer going through intermediaries from the business community. They have approached us through German and Swedish businessmen in the past. We want to send someone of our own from the business community. He would be someone who is very skilled in the art of negotiation as well as being intimately aware of the current political and military situation.”

“Who might that be?” Dewey asked again, his curiosity growing.

“Minister Churchill intends on sending a close friend of his, Mister Harold Cavill, to be his personal peace envoy and negotiator. Apparently, Minister Churchill has a great deal of confidence in this Australian business leader.”

“Make sure that Prime Minister Churchill knows that we will be supporting him in his efforts against the Axis to the fullest extent possible. Maybe we can win this particular war without ever officially firing a shot.”

Chapter Twenty-Three:

Swiss Foreign Ministry Office

Geneva, Switzerland

December 26, 1944

Harold sat there in an empty conference room, waiting for the German delegation to arrive. With him, was one of Churchill’s most trusted aides, Sir Allen Torville. Sir Allen was one of those nondescript people who never was noticed by anyone in the media. But when something important needed to be discussed or a vital message needed to be conveyed, he was there. Harold had quietly met with German representatives seven times in the past fourteen months to discuss the possibility of ending the hostilities between Germany and the Commonwealth. No peace treaty or armistice could be settled upon each time, though no meeting ended without some small measure of success. There were always small compromises or agreements made by the two sides, but these were all kept out of the public eye because of the potential political repercussions. This time, things appeared to be different.

A German representative briefly walked into the room and spoke in haltingly formal English before immediately leaving.

“Minister Ribbentrop will be here shortly to speak with you, Sir.”

“Why did the Germans send Ribbentrop as their representative? He is right up there with the worst of the Nazis from the former regime.” Harold turned and asked Sir Allen.

“I think that the people in charge now in Berlin must believe that somehow Ribbentrop was actually supportive of their coup against Hitler because so many Foreign Office diplomats were involved. This also included someone that I believe that you are familiar with, the assistant to the German ambassador in Paris.” Torville quietly answered. He assumed that Harold already knew that British Intelligence had learned the real reason behind Hitler’s ouster as well as many of the people involved in it.

Harold immediately remembered his meeting in Paris with Sigismund Von Braun. It had not produced much initially. But now, Harold was much more hopeful that he would be able to forge a working relationship with Sigismund’s younger brother Werner since the later meeting in Haiphong with Sigismund. But first, Harold would have to deal with Sigismund’s ultimate boss.

“Well, let’s hope that Minister Ribbentrop will be open to a reasonable resolution to this conflict.” Harold replied.

Just then, the door to the meeting room opened up.  A pair of men dressed in formal business suits immediately entered. One was tall and in his mid-fifties, while the other was half a head shorter and perhaps twenty years younger. Obviously, the younger man was an aide due to the deference that he gave to the elder man. The younger man pointed towards Harold, quietly said something in German to the taller man and then took a step back.

The towering man with thinning silver hair and a thin smile immediately walked forward with his right hand out.

“Good afternoon, Herr Cavill. We have heard a great many things about you. We, Germans, had a very good business relationship with you before the war. It was unfortunate that this conflict put an end to that.”  Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop said in greeting as he shook Harold’s hand firmly. Ribbentrop’s English was halting, but passible.

“I have always tried to deal fairly with all of my customers and business partners. War does tend to interrupt many mutually beneficial relationships. My business interests also created many jobs in both of our nations during a time where much of the world was struggling economically. But now, we need to negotiate a peace between Germany and the Allies for benefit of all involved. There has been far too much bloodshed and far too much treasure wasted these past few years. It is time to put an end to this conflict.”

“I cannot agree more, Herr Cavill. That is exactly why I am here. I have come with a proposal from my government for an armistice that will bring an end to the fighting and return relations among the various countries in Europe to a much more peaceful situation.”

“We wish this too. But it must be fair for all the people of Europe. Land and property must be returned to their original owners. The rights of all peoples to determine their own fate must be respected by all parties. You must also understand that the people who brought this war upon us must be called upon to answer for their crimes.”

Ribbentrop visibly shuddered for a moment. An expression of anger briefly appeared before he relaxed to make his response.

“Be sure, we are already dealing with the criminals within our country. However, if it is necessary and any of them are still alive by the time all of this conflict is over, we will be happy to turn them over for tribunals. We trust that all will be given a fair hearing in a fair court.”

“We would insist on nothing more or less than that. The world needs to know that justice for the millions who have lost their lives will be done. Those who are accused will be allowed to defend themselves in open court. The world will be the witness to a fair and just process, I promise.”

“That is fair enough, Herr Cavill. Now, shall we proceed to the core of the German armistice proposal?”

“Yes, Minister. Please Do. That is the reason why we are all here.” Harold quickly replied.

Minister Ribbentrop began to lay out a detailed outline where a ceasefire in Western Europe would immediately begin. This would be followed by a phased withdrawal of German forces and their allies from first, the Low Countries, then Norway and Denmark and finally France. Germany would be returning to its original borders established prior to the beginning of the First World War along with a substantial buffer of land in what had been Poland and Czechoslovakia.

After Ribbentrop concluded, he handed Harold and Sir Allen, documents detailing the German plan. Harold studied them for a few minutes before looking up and responding.

“Minister Ribbentrop, I can tell you right now that as your proposal stands, the Commonwealth and her allies will not accept it.

“What are the primary aspects of our proposal that you find unacceptable, Herr Cavill?

“There are several areas that must be included before we can take your proposal to our leaders. First, Germany cannot be allowed to claim any lands that had not legitimately belonged to it. While we would be willing to accept the pre-1914 borders, we cannot allow Germany to maintain possession of any land beyond that. Moreover, the peoples of any of the lands beyond Germany’s borders must be allowed to have full self-determination without any interference by any external parties from the east or west.”

Ribbentrop grimaced for a few moments at Harold’s words.

“What makes you think that you have the means to contest the territorial requirements of the German state?”

“The fact that the United States is finally in the process of a full military mobilization and will soon be sending substantial numbers of troops to assist us in forcing you to give up all illegally acquired territory. Of course, this will mean that many more Germans will die and you will be in a far less favorable negotiating position when the Americans arrive.” Harold quickly replied.

“I see.” Ribbentrop said before pausing. The German Foreign Minister betrayed no emotion in his expression this time. He then turned and quietly discussed in German with his assistant before facing Harold and Sir Allen once again.

“We are willing to return to our pre-1914 borders but will not relinquish one additional centimeter of German land. This is something that I cannot compromise on.

You said that there are several areas at issue here. What are the other ones that you wish to discuss, Herr Cavill?”

“Germany must return all property, military and civilian, that it has seized. The military property must be returned to the original state from which it had been acquired. This includes all warships such as the battleship Jean Bart and the aircraft Joffre. There needs to be a general reduction in all German military forces to a level consistent with legitimate self-defense needs. The terms will not be as extreme as those imposed upon Germany in 1918. But they are nonetheless necessary if Germany’s neighbors are to feel secure within their own borders.

All industrial equipment taken must also be returned as well. In the case of personal belongings and wealth that have been seized, it must all be accounted for and returned, either to its original owners or to their heirs.”

Ribbentrop was likely surprised at the details of Harold’s response. Harold was also alluding in his latter statement specifically to the property of the Jews that had been sent to the death camps.

Once again, Ribbentrop turned and quietly discussed in German with his assistant before facing Harold and Sir Allen once again. Obviously, the other German was someone with much more authority than a mere assistant to the Foreign Minister.

“What would the final price be for your support of our peace offer, Herr Cavill?” Minister Ribbentrop asked.

“You must turn over your entire nuclear and chemical weapons program over to international control. You will also have to turn over all Nazi officials for trial and Germany must return to its prewar borders.”

“I know nothing about such weapons programs, Herr Cavill. As far as the people who used to lead our country, we are already bringing them to justice for their crimes. This we can do within the context of our original proposal as well.”

“Fortunately for me, I already know that these programs exist. The people who sent you also know about these weapons programs as well. There are many here who do not trust that you will bring all of these criminals to justice. We would prefer to do this ourselves.

You know what we want out of this now. Go back and tell this your leaders.”

Ribbentrop and his ‘assistant’ left the building and were walking towards a waiting car. Once inside, they began to discuss the meeting.

“It was damned arrogant of the Englanders to threaten us. Do they think that we will all fall into line once we hear someone cry out ‘The Amerikaners are coming!’?’ Colonel Maximillian Arndt growled in disgust. He had been appointed to be the German General Staff’s direct representative to the peace negotiations, although his instructions had been to never address the Allied delegation directly.

“Maybe. But we have been virtually exhausted by the campaign against the Bolsheviks on the Eastern Front. Even if we succeed in eliminating the Soviet Union as a threat, it would take us years to build up the troops and materiel to be able to effectively hold off a combined Anglo-American military force. Yes, our scientists have promised all sorts of new weapons. But if the Americans can build ten tanks and ten aircraft for every one that we build, they will still overwhelm us. Then, they will possess all of the fruits of our excellent scientists and can write all of the rules concerning the fate of our people.

We have to end this while we still have enough bargaining chips left to utilize, Colonel. Now, we must go back to Berlin and explain this to the General Staff and our civilian leaders.”

One week later, Harold and Sir Allen were summoned once again by Churchill to go back to Geneva to meet with Ribbentrop again. The Germans had sent word that they wished to meet again. Harold imagined that the German High Command had finally achieved all that it wanted, especially with the news reports of new governments being formed in the former Soviet Republics. The names of the leaders of these governments all belonged to men who had fought against the Soviets at some point according to the news reports. That made it very likely that they also owed much of their position from their association with the Germans and would be allied with the latter in some manner.

Churchill wanted Harold to give a formal response to the original German proposal, though he largely agreed with what Harold articulated during the previous meeting. But the Germans had beaten Churchill to the punch with a revised proposal of their own. This time, Ribbentrop and his ‘assistant’ were waiting on Harold and Sir Allen when the latter arrived.

Minister Ribbentrop stood up to shake hands with Harold and Sir Allen. Immediately upon taking seats, Ribbentrop began to present his country’s position.

“My leaders have examined your response to our peace proposal. They wish for me to present a counter-proposal for you to take back to Minister Churchill. It essentially mirrors what I explained in our previous meeting but with provisions that you suggested in our first meeting. We are willing to return back to Germany’s pre-1914 borders and to hand over any surviving war criminals to you for your tribunals. However, if you do not have conclusive evidence that a person has personally committed a war crime, we reserve the right to maintain custody of certain people that we deem to be vitally important to our nation’s future. This is particularly true of our leading scientists and engineers. The German people will desperately need them in order to peacefully rebuild our nation.

Do not worry, Herr Cavill. There will be more than enough people with innocent blood on their hands handed over to your leaders to satisfy even the most aggrieved person’s sense of vengeance.

Our territorial demands are not excessive, Herr Cavill. Austria, the Sudetenland and all those parts of Poland that were not part of Germany prior to 1914 will be graciously allowed to determine their own destiny. I’m sure that the Poles will be more than happy to now reclaim lands that the Bolsheviks and the Czars before them had stolen from Poland decades before. We are also not demanding the return of our African colonies that were also taken from us as part of the Versailles Treaty.”  Ambassador Ribbentrop insisted while quietly biting his tongue because of his pre-war refusal to even consider Poland to be a legitimate state.

“Perhaps so, but we will have to see concrete assurances that the Poles will have the full right of self-determination. We do not want them to have a puppet government forced upon them by Berlin.

There is also the matter of France. They must also regain full national sovereignty as well as a full restoration of any and all of their property.”

“All military, industrial, cultural and financial properties have to be returned to their original owners. This also includes anything taken from the other nations that you conquered like Norway, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.” Harold declared before continuing. This was something that he had brought up during the first meeting and also wanted to reiterate this time as well.

“This will also include the French navy ships that were built and completed in French shipyards during the Occupation, such as the Jean Bart and Joffre. We know that you had intended to incorporate them into the Kriegsmarine, but were unable to move them safely to a port in Germany yet.”

Ribbentrop grimaced at the mention of the two French aircraft carriers. With the heavy losses of German heavy ships during the early part of the war, the Kriegsmarine wanted very badly to hang onto those two particular warships. Even though French steel, weapons and manpower were used in the completion of these warships, German Reichmarks paid for most of the construction expenses. It was also upsetting to know just how much the Allies knew about Germany’s plans for those ships and other elements of their political, scientific and military plans.

This set of meetings continued on a daily basis for an entire week. In the end, Harold, Sir Allen and the Germans finally hammered out an armistice agreement that Harold felt would be fair for all sides. He then flew back to London to present the agreement to Churchill.

“The Germans have agreed to a general reduction in their armed forces, although they have completely refused to go down to the levels that had been specified in the Versailles Treaty. They have also stood their ground concerning the possession of tanks, aircraft and submarines. They want to keep the weapons, but are willing to significantly reduce their overall numbers as part of the final agreement.” Harold explained to the Prime Minister.

“Harold, do you think that we can maintain the peace with an armed Germany?” Winston asked.

“Yes, I do. It’s not like we have a lot of choice here though. The French are not going to be very happy about it, obviously. But they have done little to help us against the Axis powers in the past four years beyond the efforts of their underground Resistance and the Free French forces operating here and in Indochina. So I believe that the French have little say in the matter.

The Low Countries would simply be happy to have the Germans leave. I believe that everyone in Europe is tired of war, not to mention being financially bankrupt. War is a very expensive business, both in blood and in treasure. None of us can truly afford it any longer.

We simply have to find a way to keep everyone here from feeling that they have some sort of lingering grievance. It may be impossible to completely achieve. But the Germans’ sense of having been unfairly made the scapegoat for the First World War as a result of the Versailles Treaty is what ultimately led to this conflict.”

Harold also informed Churchill of the German agreement to turn over their nuclear material and research for international safekeeping.

“Do you think that they have given us everything? This was an area that we in the West could not get a consensus on its feasibility as a weapon, especially after Professor Einstein’s refusal to endorse his fellow scientists.” Churchill asked.

Harold’s expression was neutral as he did not wish to even remotely reveal his role in changing Einstein’s decision to not sign Leó Szilárd’s letter.

“I hope so. Obviously, we will have to keep a close eye on the Germans to ensure that they are holding up their end of the bargain.”

“So you recommend that we accept this agreement, Harold?”

“Yes, Sir. I do.”

“The phased withdrawal timelines will give the Germans a lot of time to do mischief if they want to.”

“I know, Winston. But they know that we will be watching. Germans also are fully aware of the imminent threat of the Americans coming into the European conflict in full force. That is something that the Germans desperately do not want to face at all.”

“The Germans know that the Americans are mobilizing by now, I’m sure. They know what that will mean for them if the Americans focus on Germany. Let’s push that knowledge and get the Germans to sign the damned Armistice before everything falls apart here. The British economy is in such poor condition that if elections are called, my government may not remain in power to work with you.”

Harold quickly made sure that his unofficial connections within the German government shared the information. The Americans were definitely coming this time. So the Germans could not afford to wait any longer to come to terms. The message was definitely heard in the halls of power within Berlin.

The new German negotiator had been sitting in a Geneva hotel room reading over some notes with his aide when the tall, well-dressed man was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“We just received the responses from Berlin to the Englanders’ latest peace proposals, Herr von Braun.” Replied the German Foreign Ministry courier that walked in with a large envelope.

Sigismund von Braun had been recently selected to head the peace delegation for the Germans since von Ribbentrop was now very busy negotiating mutual defense treaties with the various former client states of the Soviet Union. Those treaties would secure Germany’s eastern flank as well as establish formal trade relationships with those nations. Weeks earlier, the Germans had allowed the Polish government in exile to be flown into Warsaw to reestablish the government after a draft peace accord had been signed between Poland and Germany.  The German Foreign Ministry also recognized that von Braun’s professional relationship with Harold Cavill was proving to be an advantage during the peace negotiations.

Sigismund opened the envelope and quickly read the contents, silently nodding as he read each individual section. He then placed the documents back inside of the envelope and looked over at his assistant.

“Michel, please go and inform Herr Cavill that we are ready to resume the talks. I believe that we have come to terms that will be mutually satisfactory for both parties.” Sigismund told his aide who quickly nodded and left the room.

Sigismund genuinely hoped that this would finally end the bloodshed and begin a new era of peace in Europe. Like almost everyone in Germany, the German diplomat had known far too many friends and relatives that had died or been injured because of the war.

For the next week, a marathon session of meetings and negotiations hammered out the details of the new armistice. Not everyone was happy with the results, but the vast majority of the people involved came to agree that this was the best possible agreement given the situation. Enough blood and treasure had already been expended throughout Europe.

Poland had received land from the former Soviet Union that had been under dispute since the days of the Czar. In return, Germany received territory in East Prussia that had been ceded to Poland by the Versailles Treaty over a quarter century earlier. The German government had agreed to give up all claims on the Sudetenland and to relinquish control to the Czech government as soon as all German troops could be withdrawn to Germany. Germany also formally ended its annexation of Austria, separating the two Germanic speaking countries once again.

Representatives of the Free French government in exile along with those of the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway had also been invited to the final round of peace talks. However, it was made very clear to them that the details of the peace agreement were being written by the English and Germans with a minimum of direct input by the other nations. The Germans were determined that the nations who shed the least blood during the war would not be driving the language of the armistice this time. Harold’s negotiation team did not object to this as long as a relatively fair agreement could finally be crafted and signed.

But this attitude still left a lot of bitterness among the other nations, especially the French. They had asked for reparations and the disarmament of the Rhineland once again, but were rebuffed by both the German and Commonwealth negotiators. However, most were quite content to simply have German troops leave their soil in peace.

The armistice agreement did allow for the prosecution of personnel accused of war crimes. German insistence that the tribunals cover the crimes of all combatants tempered the zeal for most people since it would not only apply to the Nazi and Japanese leaders, but also to individuals on the Allied side who had committed violations of international law.

Still, the vast majority of people being brought before war crime tribunals were Nazis that the Germans themselves had arrested and imprisoned. They would be the blood sacrifices for the sins of the Nazi state that had so wholeheartedly supported Hitler during the early days of the war. Harold insisted on this in addition to the restrictions placed on certain dangerous technologies. These technologies included the nuclear research that Harold had strongly focused on during earlier negotiations.

The Germans also agreed to a general reduction in their overall military forces. The restrictions were still far less draconian than those imposed upon Germany by the Versailles Treaty. Germany had to feel that they could still fulfill their legitimate need for self-defense with the tools at hand. Humiliating Germany had only planted the seeds for someone like Hitler to come to power. Harold went to great pains to explain to Churchill and the other negotiators that this needed to be avoided at all costs.

On the Fifth of January, the Armistice between Germany, England, America and the rest of Europe was signed. Italy had sued for peace a few months earlier after being invaded by Commonwealth forces supported by General Patton’s American Tigers, but provisions had been made so that the former Axis power would be covered by the peace agreement as well.

Now the focus of the war shifted to the far side of the planet and also to a part of the world that the war had seemingly forgotten.

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Imperial Japanese Navy Headquarters

Yokohama, Japan

January 5, 1945

Even as the Allies were celebrating the news that an armistice was signed in Geneva that day, the Japanese were making some very fateful decisions of their own. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto stood at the head of a conference table with fourteen other senior Japanese naval officers. They were meeting inside a secret base that had been constructed deep underneath Keio University for the Imperial Japanese Navy to serve as its headquarters. The tunnels for the base were first constructed shortly after the beginning of Allied aerial raids that dropped tens of thousands of fire bombs onto Japanese cities.

But there was strong disagreement among Japanese leaders about what should do in the face of ever increasing military pressure by the Allies. The military situation was rapidly degrading with Japanese troops occupying China, Korea and Manchuria slowly starving due to a lack of supplies being brought in by ship from the Japanese Home Islands. As a result, the occupation forces became even more brutal as they sought to scavenge anything that they could find to stay fed. The civilians who the Japanese preyed upon soon found themselves in an even worse position.

But many Japanese military leaders still harbored the idea that they could possibly still win this war. Unfortunately, they had already started entertaining drastic measures to turn the tide of the war that they had started in 1941 back into their favor.

“Gentlemen, we must find a means to return the odds into our favor. The past two years have seen tremendous setbacks in our operations against our Western enemies, even though our aerial and ground attacks against the Soviet Union have been expectantly fruitful.” Admiral Yamamoto told the other senior naval officers sitting around the conference table.

“Taishō, how can you expect us to do anything more when we are not receiving enough supplies? We have lost another five merchant ships in the past week to enemy submarines. Can we do nothing to stop them? Those supplies were badly needed to keep the 14th Army from running out of food, fuel and ammunition in their fight against Philippine bandits and American criminals who refused to surrender in Luzon.” A senior captain noted bitterly.

“I see the same problems, Taishō. The enemy has been using new submarines that are far faster and quieter than anything in our fleet. We did some experimentation on such vessels before the war. But the Allies have far exceeded anything that we had done obviously. They are slipping right in the middle of our convoys and sinking our ships before we are even aware of it.” Another officer, this one wearing Vice-admiral insignia, also explained.

“Chūshō, we must buy time for our scientists to come up with solutions for the enemy’s new craft. We received much from the Germans in terms of technology before they signed the armistice. It will simply take some time to integrate into our forces. We have already started with the first flights of the new jet aircraft. Our recent success with the Baika craft is another example of what we can do.” Admiral Yamamoto replied.

“I still say that we are doing very little real damage with the high explosive warheads on our Baika craft. We must arm our missiles with much more effective warheads if we are to have a chance against the Americans and their allies. Our scientists from Unit 731 have made great progress with the weapons that they have created. We could kill tens of thousands of our enemy with a single bomb now and create tremendous loss of morale among their civilians and military.”

“I disagree. We have destroyed and crippled more warships in a single day’s operation using conventionally armed Baika than we have since our destruction of the American Pacific Fleet battle line at the beginning of the war. Granted, we had the advantage of surprise on our side for this operation. But we have proven that we can still do considerable damage and disrupt enemy operations using our Baika-armed submarines.” Yamamoto explained.

“If we combine the Baika with our special weapons, we can do far more damage to our adversaries, especially to their morale. They will not be able to stop us from making even more devastating attacks this way.”

“If we pursue this escalation with your special weapons, we will awake a giant with a terrible anger. We can continue to force them to focus on defending their homeland with these new submarines and the weapons that they will launch, but these gas and especially the germ weapons will raise the level of conflict far beyond what we dare imagine.

I urge you, most emphatically, not to arm these weapons with weapons that will bring down the entire wrath of the American people. It is much better to bleed them with conventional weapons until they tire of this war. Then we can find a way to end this war without the utter destruction of our nation and the entire Japanese people. As it is, our people are starving as we speak.”

“Can you be so sure that the Americans will accept a negotiated peace with us?”

“If Winston Churchill can be convinced to sit at the peace table with the Germans and come to a negotiated peace, we should be able to do the same with the Americans.”

“The Americans may not be quite as forgiving, especially after they learn what happened to American soldiers and civilians after we captured the Philippine Islands. Some of our soldiers focused on the dishonor that our prisoners had brought upon themselves and treated them according to Bushido. Unfortunately, by their actions, the tables may be turned upon us.

We have already learned that many people of Japanese ancestry living in America have been rounded up into camps and incarcerated. Up to now, they have treated their internees with relative kindness. I do not know what will happen to those of Japanese blood if we were to pursue the course of action that you propose.” Yamamoto strongly advised.

“What about the British, French and Australians, Taishō? They are much closer to us and pose a greater threat in many ways.”

“You are correct about the threat that the British and their allies pose in the South Pacific. However, do you remember what happened when we attempted to send an invasion force to the northwestern corner of Australia to cripple their weapons manufacturing center there and establish a foothold in Australia? We suffered very heavy losses of troops, ships and aircraft in that operation. The worst part was the losses of the battleship Hiei and the aircraft carriers Ryuho and Ryujo. The aircraft carriers lost were relatively small but useful vessels. The Hiei’s loss will be most felt because she was one of the few battleships that we had that could keep up with the Kido Butai, the Mobile Striking Force, to provide escort.” Yamamoto explained.

“Admiral, don’t you mean, what is left of our Kido Butai? We have lost four of our largest and most powerful fleet carriers already, mostly to enemy submarine attack. The others have also been taking turns undergoing repair in dry dock as a result of enemy attacks. We do not even know whose submarines have been responsible because they are so quiet that the first sign that we have of their presence is the explosion of one of our ships. Even our largest battleships have not been immune. We only have one Kongo class fast battleship remaining in service. Nagato and Mutsu were sunk in operations south of the Philippine Islands. Yamato still survives but has been repeatedly hit and forced to return for repairs. The others have all been sunk, mostly due to submarine and aerial attack.” Vice-Admiral Atsushi Kodai forcefully insisted.

“Yes, this is true. This makes our losses during the operation even more painful. We also lost nearly ten thousand troops and over one hundred and twenty aircraft during that attempted landing. Can we afford to make another such attempt, even if we have received significant intelligence about the importance of the site and personnel there?”

“We were unaware of the heavy coastal defense batteries that had been installed near the primary target. If we attack Australia again, we will find a way to deal with the enemy defensive fortifications.” The vocal Vice-admiral insisted.

“I’m sure that our adversaries will have also improved their defenses since then as well, now that they are aware of our intentions. There is also the issue of the local troops that protect that area. They were particularly effective for what we had considered primitives.  Yamamoto noted.

“Are you saying that we should do nothing but wait until the Americans are at our very shores, Taishō?”

“It is my recommendation that we continue to strike at these enemy facilities with our Baika craft. The Baika give us the capability to hit enemy targets in Australia, Singapore and French Indochina with minimal risk to our heavy ships. But like with the Americans, I strongly resist the call to use special weapons against our enemies here as well. They have proven to be remarkably capable in both developing countermeasures, but also in exacting heavy retribution as well. This is especially the case if you threaten their homes and families.

We have actually lost more ships, aircraft and troops to the British and their allies in the South Pacific since the beginning of the war than to the Americans. Our ports are full of warships that have been hit by torpedoes from their submarines or bombed by their attack aircraft. More than three-quarters of our merchant fleet has also been lost due to these pirates. Our shipyards were unable to keep up with such losses even in the best of times. Now, we are facing shortages of steel, fuel and other critical materials for our war effort. Our failure to capture the oil fields of Malay has made this even worse.

We have to find an effective counter to their submarines and aircraft if we are going to be able to mount a successful counteroffensive against them. We must make full use of the advanced technology that the Germans provided to us before they agreed to an armistice with the British. But time is growing short for all of us if the new American president is to be believed in his message to his people. He intends to truly go back on the offensive against us with far more than submarines and naval raids in this case.

With the full weight of American industrial might, Japan will lose this war unless we can make the Americans bleed so badly on the front lines that the sounds of their women weeping over the graves of their sons and fathers will drown out the cries for the war to continue. If not, our children will then surely pay the price for our failure. ” Yamamoto concluded.

“Then we must consider very carefully what we do next. We will most certainly bear your words of warning in mind, Admiral. But there is still the issue of our operations in China. We must have the means to neutralize the masses of bandits that plague our troops there. The Emperor has authorized the use of chemical weapons in China in the past. The gaijin did not do anything about it at that time. I strongly push for the resumption of the use of chemical weapons and even our other ‘special’ weapons against the Chinese hordes. That will give us an opportunity to stabilize the situation in China at least.”

Yamamoto watched as all of the other senior Japanese officers nodded their heads in agreement, including a pair of Japanese Army generals who were also in attendance. The decision had now been made that a wave of chemical and biological weapons attacks would soon be launched against the Chinese. It would not matter at all if women, children or any other civilian non-combatants were killed in the attacks either. As far as the Japanese were concerned, they were all dirty foreigners or gaijin and thus unworthy of any mercy in this matter.

Beit Tikvah Synagogue

Tel Aviv, Palestinian Mandate

March 21, 1945

While armed men and women from the Ergun guarded the outside of the synagogue, more than one hundred leaders of the various Jewish political and resistance organizations met for the first time as a whole. Security was especially tight because of the fear of an Arab attack on the assembly. There was a chorus of murmuring within the synagogue as everyone awaited one man to walk up to the microphone set up near the altar.

“The British are leaving Palestine now. The Arabs will be turning their hatred completely towards us once again. However, their foolhardy intifada was part of the reason why the British have abandoned Palestine. The Arab uprising cost the British too much blood and treasure that they cannot afford any longer. But we will take advantage of this. We must assume full responsibility for our own self-defense now.

Now is the time that we declare the State of Israel to be in existence as an independent Jewish state, now and for all time. We must take control of our own destiny before others can subjugate and slaughter us once again.” David Ben-Gurion proclaimed over the loudspeakers inside of the synagogue.

Standing near the Jewish leader as he passionately spoke were several other notable figures from the Zionist movement like Golda Meir, Chaim Weizmann and Yitzak Rabin.

“Today is the day for the Jewish people to have their own nation and declare independence from all of the nations that we had called home before we made Aliyah. Now is the time for us to build a place where our people can live without the threat of violence instigated by others who do not share our blood or our beliefs. This is the place because it is also the Promised Land where our ancestors like Abraham, Joshua and David lived.

Today, we declare that the State of Israel to be in this place. The State of Israel will spread throughout all of Judea and Samaria because that land is a sacred place for all Jews that we will fight to protect and defend. We have now come home to stay.” Ben-Gurion said to the loud cheers of all inside of the synagogue.

After the meeting at the synagogue, several men got into a nondescript Peugeot sedan. The men drove to an old, large warehouse on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Like the synagogue, the warehouse was guarded by heavily armed members of Irgun, Haganah and Lehi. Once they arrived, the men got out and quickly entered the warehouse through a side entrance.

Inside the warehouse were more than fifty armored vehicles of various types and nations. Most of the tanks had obviously been salvaged from battlefields and refitted for service. Those included British Matildas and Crusaders as well as German Panzers and pre-war Italian tankettes. But there were also more than a company’s worth of relatively new tanks of Australian manufacture.

One of these tanks sitting in the warehouse already had the scars of a dozen desert battles. This particular medium tank still had the name emblazoned on the turret that the tank’s former crew had painted there a couple of years earlier. ‘Jubilee’ was faded from long exposure to the desert sun in North Africa but still legible. A Star of David had been painted over where the emblem of a kangaroo used to be on the turret.

“We have a patron who has promised us that he will provide us with the tools to help defend our new nation.” Simon Silverman explained. He met the group of men from the Jewish Brigade Group at the warehouse.

“With a warehouse full of old tanks?” A bespectacled, chain-smoking Menachen Begin caustically inquired. His Irgun militia had fought both the Arabs and the British when he felt that the British were too eager to take the side of the Arabs.

“This is only the beginning. He has committed to providing us with much more. We also just received over two thousand brand new automatic rifles just like the ones that the Australian Army uses. It is said that these rifles are the best infantry weapons in the world. Our new patron delivered them via one of those big six-engine flying boats that the Australians fly. We will also be receiving new tanks, artillery, even aircraft in the next few months.

With all of this, we will reclaim all of Judea and Samaria for Israel. Then our people will finally be safe in their own land from those who would try to exterminate us as though we were insects. Soon, even the Temple will rise again in Jerusalem and our Promised Land will no longer be defiled by the Arabs or anyone else. ” Simon proudly said. What Simon did not tell the others was that the weapons had all been donated by Harold Cavill. Simon also knew that Harold would be the source of the new weapons through a variety of shell companies designed to conceal the true origin of the materiel.

“Did this wealthy patron of ours send ammunition to go with these wonderful automatic rifles of his?” a teenage Ariel Sharon asked after picking up a CR-1 assault rifle out of a nearby crate.

“Yes, my young friend. We have hundreds of thousands of rounds here in this warehouse and elsewhere. He has also supplied equipment so that we can make our own ammunition too.”

“What about artillery? We must have artillery if we are to defeat the Arabs.” Began demanded.

“We have artillery already in other locations. However, we will be receiving more soon. Then we will be able to fully equip all of the Brigade’s battalions in addition to the Palmach strike companies.”

“It sounds like we are ready then to drive onward to Jerusalem.” A one-eyed Moshe Dayan commented with a fierce grin.

Japanese Military Headquarters,

Tokyo, Japan

March 28, 1945

“With the defeat of the Soviet Union, we have an opportunity here to crush the Russian forces in Manchuria and claim the riches there. The Americans and the Commonwealth will have a much harder time reaching us there. The Russians are now disorganized and no longer have the military resources to effectively resist us. Our Zeros have also decimated their air force in the east. We will be able to attack the Russians from the air at will.” Prime Minister Tojo told the other Japanese ministers in the conference room.

“The Russians may not be able to effectively resist us. However, they are still resisting in spite of their defeat in the East at the hands of our former German allies. Will we be able to sustain our forces out there with our shipping taking so many losses from enemy submarines and aircraft?” Minister Masayuki Tani asked.

“Perhaps. We will need to salvage as much equipment from the Russians as possible to make up for the lack of supplies coming from Japan. Food and fuel will also be a major problem as well. Our troops will have to live off of the land as much as possible.” Munitions Minister Shigeru Yoshida production noted.

“Find whatever industrial equipment that you can in the areas that we still occupy in China, Korea and Manchuria. I will arrange for scientists and engineers to be flown from Japan to assist in setting up manufacturing there. If we cannot send supplies to you because of the naval blockade that the gaijin have imposed upon us, then we will see about making what you need there. You certainly will have enough labor available with the new subjects of the Japanese Empire there.” Tojo demanded.

“I agree. These lands also have tremendous mineral wealth. All we need to do is locate the richest mineral deposits and then draft enough men from the local populations to work the mines. They will either work or find themselves on the end of a bayonet.” General Sadao Araki declared.

Chapter Twenty-Five:

Cavill Industries Headquarters

Derby, Western Australia

1 April, 1945

Harold was busy in his new office that had been built within the new underground complex when his chief naval architect Alexander Portman came in for a visit. With him was Captain Nigel Wilkes. Harold remembered Captain Wilkes from the latter’s earlier visit to Derby.

“Good Morning, Alex. You too, Captain Wilkes. What brings you back out here to Derby, Captain?” Harold pleasantly asked.

“I was asked by the Admiralty to inquire about your naval construction in progress here. The admirals there seldom come this far west because of the distance, of course.”

“Of course. I’m sure that they have quite a bit on their plate to deal with already.

“We are making good progress on the six new destroyers that the Australian Admiralty ordered. Our motor torpedo boat construction is nearly complete for all of the boats that have been ordered by our Coalition customers in addition to the boats that I have had built for our local coastal defense force.”

“My superiors wanted to learn more about your advanced submarine program. They were very pleased with the two submarines that you delivered to our navy earlier. The admirals had heard rumors about advanced German submarines and were very interested in learning how they compared with our two new boats?” Captain Wilkes asked.

“The Kriegsmarine isn’t the only navy with advanced submarines. Obviously the Japanese have some very advanced designs as well as our own boats. I have learned about this from a variety of sources, including my friends within the Royal Navy. But they are not as capable as the two submarines that I built for our navy.” Harold replied, not mentioning that his other sources came from a twenty-first century computer database hidden inside his home.

“My shipyard had built two new designs as an experiment for our navy, as you already know. One was a general purpose patrol or fleet submarine that was roughly similar to the German Type XXI U-Boat. The Type XXI is probably the German submarine that you were referring to. The other submarine design that I built was specifically optimized for hunting enemy submarines. The two original submarines built proved themselves to be extremely effective, each in their particular mission.

I informed Prime Minister Churchill of the two submarines and their successful operations in the Pacific. This was an informal information sharing agreement that I had with Prime Minister Churchill. In spite of his own personal dislike for submarines, Churchill instructed the Royal Navy to order four more of my new designs, two of each class. The Royal Navy sent submarine crews to train with our initial submarines while construction proceeded with the new boats. Within two months of delivery of the submarines and their new acoustically guided torpedoes that my people also designed, the Royal Navy had destroyed seven U-Boats and damaged an eighth boat using the new submarines. The operations of the new submarines had been kept secret from the world so that the Germans would not know about our new weapon operating in the North Atlantic and Baltic. The unexpected losses were a mystery to the Germans who were forced to further curtail U-Boat operations, especially of their older vessels.” Harold continued.

“Are these boats the reason why so many of the Coalition’s submarines were converted to lay mines, Mister Cavill?”

“In part, yes. Several dozen submarines from the various Coalition navies were brought into my shipyards to repair and upgrade them. This included fitting new batteries, a snorkel, improved hydrophones and even removing deck guns to improve streamlining underwater. The submarines that were not particularly well suited for offensive operations received most of the minelayer modifications. Of course, they were still quite capable of conducting torpedo attacks against Japanese shipping even while undertaking mine-laying missions.

However, it was still better to focus our more capable boats for the anti-shipping missions. Even our dedicated submarine hunting design proved to be quite capable against surface vessels as well as against enemy submarines. The Japanese Navy has already discovered this the hard way when it encountered Bandfish.“

“I would imagine that if the Japanese knew just effective your boats were, they would be attacking Derby again with those kamikaze missiles much like what they did to Pearl Harbor and San Diego.”

“Our anti-aircraft defenses here at Derby are much better that what the Americans had. That has largely deterred any additional attacks here, I believe. I’m sure that the Americans have also significantly improved their defenses since those Japanese attacks, however.”

“Are you going to build any more submarines for the Australian Navy?”

“No. Not unless you know something that the men in charge of things in Canberra haven’t told me so far. The biggest problem is a lack of available manpower for additional submarine crews, I would imagine. Our country has devoted most of its available manpower to the Army. The Navy’s new personnel are mostly going to crew several new destroyers and HMAS Melbourne. It takes an especially brave and dedicated sailor to want to serve aboard a submarine anyway. Those kinds of men are hard to find in the first place and badly needed by the other ships in any event.”

“Yes, Mister Cavill. You’re probably right. I know that I wouldn’t want to spend weeks on end cooped up inside of a narrow steel tube while underwater. It was challenging enough being aboard HMAS Perth in the middle of a squall when I was a lieutenant.”

“Do you have any other questions, Captain?” Harold asked.

“Not at the moment, Sir. Mister Portman was about to take me aboard one of the new destroyers that is on the slipway. They do look very impressive with the large number of guns in their main battery. Their torpedo battery and their antiaircraft guns are superior to anything else that I have seen on a destroyer, even from a distance.”

Harold spent the rest of the day going over reports from his numerous businesses and enterprises as well as the latest reports from the war. Then he drove home to find a brand new luxury sedan sitting in front of their home. The Cavill’s almost always drove a truck or some other business-related vehicle, even when they were travelling with their children. Harold was obviously very curious about the large black sedan that now sat in front of their home.

Harold walked in the front door to find Dorothy waiting on him with a proud smile on her face.

“Whose car is that sitting in front of the house, Dorothy?” Harold quickly asked.

“It’s our new car. I just had a new Cadillac shipped in from America. The Americans are among the few countries that are still producing new automobiles. Isn’t it wonderful?”

“But we don’t need a new car, especially something like this. We have gotten along very well with the trucks that we make here or the ones built at the Ford assembly plant. Besides, that automobile had to cost a small fortune.”

“We have more than enough money now though. I made a deal that will earn us even more money than before.” Dorothy’s smile seemed to be bursting at the seams with excitement as she spoke.

However, the more that she said, the more worried that Harold became.

“What have you done, Dorothy?”

“I was flying one of our Cavaliers down to Sydney on one of our regular commercial runs a few months ago. I was carrying a few bits and pieces that had been left over when you took apart that motorized cart that you called a robot years ago. I found a few pieces from it and looked them up on the computer data base.

The computer said that these things were something called transistors. But the computer also said that it is only five years earlier than your original history reported that transistors started being produced, Sweetheart. That shouldn’t be that big of a change for our history. Plus, the contract says that we have significant control over the use on the transistors that this company makes as well as a large royalty. The company has already given us a substantial advance payment. That’s how I could afford to buy us a car worthy of someone as important as you.”

Harold knew that five years might not seem like too much of a technological advance to a novice. But it is a critical five years in the development of this technology, especially since the transistors that Dorothy provided were decades ahead of the first primitive transistors that were manufactured in the early fifties.

Moreover, it wasn’t just the people that would be building these copies of electronic components that were many years in advance of the state of the art that Harold worried about. It was the fact that these devices would eventually fall into the wrong hands and reverse-engineered into weapons that could easily upset the balance of power. The advances in electronics could even create computers decades ahead of their time. Those could be used to design the very nuclear weapons that Harold had tried for the past quarter-century to prevent. It would be like the bicycles that Harold built for his children, being turned around and used by enemy soldiers, only much worse.

Harold could only sit down on a nearby sofa and put his head in his hands, still asking the same question as before.

“What have you done?”

Cast of Characters:

The Australians:

Harold Cavill :  Originally James Stevenson from the year 2040

Dorothy Cavill: Harold Cavill’s English-born wife

Captain Nigel Wilkes: Australian Navy officer

Corporal Andrew Harper: Gunner for the Australian Army tank Jubilee

Private Steven Coale: Loader and Radio Operator for the Australian Army tank Jubilee

Private Aiden Dalton: Driver for the Australian Army tank Jubilee

Sergeant Matthew Ryan: Commander for the Australian Army tank Jubilee

Captain Fred Winters: Captain of the Cavill Shipping Lines cargo ship Miraculous

Captain Joseph Burnett: Captain of the light cruiser HMAS Sydney

Alexander Portman: Mechanical Engineer and Chief Naval Architect for Cavill Shipyards

Adam Findler: American-born mechanical engineer for Cavill Industries

Alex Boyd: Cavill Industries Industrial Supply and Sales Manager

Major Harlan Burke: Australian Army Officer and Commander of Derby Militia

Lieutenant Arthur Wallace: Australian Army Commando

Commander Edwin Sampson: Australian Navy Officer

Eric Poole: Cavill Industries Chief Weapons Designer

Lieutenant William Scott: First Officer aboard the Australian Navy submarine A1 aka ‘HMAS Barramundi’

Sonarman Michael Curry: Chief Sonarman for HMAS Barramundi

Lieutenant Mark Stevens: First Officer aboard the Australian Navy submarine A1 aka ‘HMAS Bandfish

Able Seaman Alan Carns: Sonarman for HMAS Bandfish

Staff Sergeant Richard Oswald: Duty NCO for Derby Militia

George Baines: Australian Coast Watcher

Captain Jeffrey Pike: Commander of Derby Coastal Artillery Battery A

Flying Officer Ted Reilly: Royal Australian Air Force Beaufighter Pilot

Flying Officer Toby Matthews: Dragonfly Fighter-Bomber Pilot

Flying Officer Oliver Windale: Dragonfly Fighter-Bomber Pilot

Lieutenant Carl Winton: Derby Naval Militia Torpedo Boat Commander

Captain Edgar Cowens: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Pilot

Lieutenant Phillip Mills: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Co-Pilot

Sergeant Terrance Christopher: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Bombardier

Sergeant Adam Sikes: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Gunner

Colonel Ronald Bailey: Parliament House’s Liaison to the Ministry of Defense’s Defense Production Office

Captain Nigel Asheboro: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Pilot

Captain Howard Shaw: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Pilot

Sergeant Theodore Wellington: Cassowary Heavy Bomber Bombardier/Navigator

Theodore Rosewood: Cavill Aviation Aeronautics Program Manager and Chief Engineer

Admiral Patrick Edwards: Australian Navy Senior Officer and Member of the Australian War Ministry

Brigadier Charles Wilkes: Australian Army Senior Officer and Member of the Australian War Ministry

The British:

Winston Churchill: Wartime Prime Minister

Rear Admiral Tarleton Grey: Royal Navy Senior Officer

Captain Joseph Hawkins: aide-de-camp for Rear Admiral Tarleton Grey

Colonel Thomas Stewart:  Liaison from British War Ministry

Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet

Assistant Ambassador William Blevins: Assistant Ambassador from England to Australia

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound: Senior Royal Navy Officer

Field Marshall Sir John Greer Dill: Chief of the Imperial General Staff

Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival: Commander of the Singapore Garrison

Lieutenant-General Archibald Wavell: Commander of the Middle Eastern Command

Major Clive Hamilton: Singapore Port Quartermaster

Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland: Commander of Royal Navy Battle Group hunting Bismarck

Captain Ralph Kerr: Captain of the battle cruiser HMS Hood

Captain John Leach: Captain of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales

Admiral John Croyn Tovey: Commander of the Royal Navy Home Fleet

Admiral Thomas Phillips: Commander of Royal Navy Force Z

Captain Allan Tremaine: Royal Navy Officer

Captain Earl Williamson: Churchill’s military liaison from the Admiralty

Lieutenant Commander Julian Oxford: Captain of the Australian Navy submarine A1 aka ‘HMAS Bandfish

Lieutenant Commander Winston Alexander: Captain of the Australian Navy submarine A1 aka ‘HMAS Barramundi’

Captain George Robinson: Senior Australian Navy Staff Officer

Captain William Tennant: Commander of the battle cruiser HMS Repulse

Major Scott Canterbury: Military Liaison to Peace Negotiations

Colin Adams: Foreign Office Negotiator

Major Jonathan Wilkins: British Army Intelligence Analyst on the Middle East

Major Simon Taggart: British Army Intelligence Analyst on the Balkans

Sir Allen Torville: Aide to Winston Churchill

The Germans:

General Erwin Rommel: Commander of the Afrika Korps

General Heinz Guderian: Senior Wehrmacht Officer.

Admiral Gunther Lutjens: Commander of the Kriegsmarine Raiding Force

Kapitän (Captain) Ernsk Lindemann: Captain of the battleship Bismarck

Captain Theodor Detmers: Captain of the Disguised Raider Kormoron

Lieutenant Hermann Wetmer: Officer aboard the Disguised Raider Kormoron

Major Herbert Koln: Afrika Korps Officer

Admiral Eric Raeder: Commander of the Kriegsmarine

Albert Speer: Minister of War Production

Adolf Hitler: Nazi Leader and Fuhrer

Hauptmann Fredrick Klausman: Pilot of Hitler’s Personal Condor Transport

General Hubert Lanz: Army Group B’s Chief of Staff

Colonel Count von Strachwitz: Commander of the Grossdeutschland Tank Regiment

Major General Dr. Hans Speidel: Senior Wehrmacht Officer and Conspirator against Hitler

Martin Reichmann: Overseer to Mohammed Amin al-Husseini

Colonel Ernst Strudel: Conspirator against Hitler

Admiral Karl Donitz: Commander of Kriegsmarine U-Boat Force

Field Marshall von Rundstedt: Senior Wehrmacht Officer

Field Marshall Albert Kesselring: Senior Luftwaffe Officer

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris: Commander of Abwehr, German Intelligence Service

Kapitän zur See Werner Kruptmann: Kriegsmarine Technical Liaison to Japan

Sigismund von Braun: German Diplomat and older brother of Werner von Braun

Field Marshall Walter Model: Senior Wehrmacht Officer

Heinrich Strassberg: Military Leader of German Peace Delegation

General Adolf Galland: Commander of Luftwaffe Fighters

Field Marshall Erich von Manstein: Senior Panzer Force Commander

Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop

Colonel Maximillian Arndt: German General Staff’s direct representative to the peace negotiations

The French:

Amiral de la flotte Francois Darlan: Senior Commander of French Navy

Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul: Commander of French Mediterranean Fleet

Admiral Emile Henry Muselier: Commander of French Naval Forces in Indochina

Major Francois Mercador: French Army Officer in Indochina

Capitaine de vaisseau Jean-Paul Amiel: Captain of the French battle cruiser Dunkerque

Captaine de frigate Francois Combs: French Navy Officer at the Port of Toulon

Captaine Pierre Dassault: French Navy Officer at the Port of Toulon

Colonel Francois Mureau: French Army Colonel travelling aboard the French ocean liner Île de France

The Japanese:

Taishō (Admiral) Isokoru Yamamoto: Commander of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet

Prime Minister Hideki Tojo: Leader of the Imperial Japanese Government

Captain Gendu Isokoro: Captain of the Japanese battleship Yamato

Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai: Prime Minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs Masayuki Tani

Minister of the Navy Kaigun-taishō Shigetarō Shimada

Kaigun-chūshō Nagumo Chūichi: Senior Japanese Admiral

Kaigun-daisa Ichiro Ono: Captain of the Japanese battleship Yamashiro

Kaigun-chūshō, Hiroaki Abe: Commander of the Japanese Invasion of Australia

Kaigun-daisa Izawa Ishinosuke: Commander of the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho

Kaigun-shōshō Kakuji Kakuta: Commander of Carrier Division Four

Captain Omo Kinugara: Japanese Imperial Navy Engineer

Captain Hiro Yamaguchi: Captain of the Japanese submarine I-400

Vice-Admiral Atsushi Kodai: Senior Japanese Admiral

Munitions Minister Shigeru Yoshida

General Sadao Araki: Senior Imperial Japanese Army Officer

The Americans:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Secretary of State Cordell Hull

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson

Harry Hopkins: Administrator of the Lend Lease program

Rear Admiral Walter S. Anderson: Commander Battleships, Battle Force, Pacific Fleet

Admiral Husband E. Kimmel: Commander in Chief, US Navy and US Pacific Fleet

Captain Mervyn S. Bennion: Captain of the battleship USS West Virginia

Captain Milton Campbell: Admiral Anderson’s Chief of Staff

Captain Paul ‘Pappy’ I. Gunn: Former Naval Aviator and Aircraft Maintenance Chief

Admiral Thomas C. Hart: Commander of the United States Navy’s Asiatic Fleet

Captain Michael Teach: Admiral Hart’s Operations Officer

Polly Gunn: Pappy Gunn’s wife

Lieutenant Jack Sommers: USN Naval Intelligence Analyst

Captain Allen Morrison: Lieutenant Sommer’s supervisor

Eleanor Roosevelt: FDR’s wife

President Thomas E. Dewey: President elected in 1944

Colonel William Howard: President Dewey’s Military Liaison from the War Department

Arthur Connelly: President Dewey’s Chief of Staff

The Israelis:

Itzak Metzembaum: Polish Refugee from Dachau relocated to Palestine

Stefan Klaczko: Clerk assisting Jewish Refugees coming to Palestine from German Concentration Camps

Simon Silverman: Member of Jewish paramilitary unit in Palestine

Menachen Begin: Senior member of Irgun Jewish militia.

David Ben-Gurion: First President of Israel and leader of the Zionist Movement

Ariel Sharon: Member of Jewish paramilitary unit

Moshe Dayan: Member of Jewish paramilitary unit

The Arabs:

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini