Alternate Generals (20 page)

Cardinal Napoleon Buonaparte, special Envoy of His Holiness in Rome and appointed Chaplain to the Armies of Europe, could see the resolve beginning to fade from the old man's face. He was tired, injured, and had been fighting this was for over a decade. Leaning forward he spoke in a low voice that only Blücher could hear.

The old general shook his head, then smiled. He reached up and the small churchman helped him to rise. The pain this cost the Prussian was apparent.

Pulling himself to his feet, Blücher smiled through the pain.

"
Vorwarts!
" he announced in a loud voice. Forward, attack, it was his favorite command in battle. "
Vorwarts
to . . ." The general hesitated and stumbled to the maps spread on the room's one large table. Stabbing a grimy finger at the map which contained the best estimate of where Wellington would stand he announced once more, "
Vorwarts
to Quatre Bras."

The cheers were deafening as the corp commanders gathered at the maps to plan their movement. Quietly, almost as if he knew he had finally accomplished his goal, Cardinal Buonaparte withdrew from the inn. The time for chaplains was past. Now was the time for soldiers. But he knew that history would record that he had had his finest hour at Waterloo.

I believe, therefore, that should Japan decide upon the reduction or seizure of the Hawaiian Islands the following procedure would be adopted . . . Attack to be made on Ford Island at 7:30 a.m. . . . Group to move in column of flights in V. Each ship will drop projectiles on the targets. . . .

—Brig. Gen. William Mitchell,
Report of Inspection of U.S. Possessions in the Pacific,
Oct. 24, 1924

 

General William "Billy" Mitchell is reported in critical condition following a crash at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on Monday. According to unofficial sources, the General's engine failed upon takeoff from a new flying field which he was inspecting. Details of his injuries have not yet been released.

General Mitchell had been assigned to Fort Sam Houston in March, after his dismissal as Assistant Chief of the Air Service. The removal was generally seen as a response by the present Administration to the General's public criticisms of its policies on national defense, particularly aviation.

The General has gained wide public notice with his controversial writings and statements on air power, including the claim that aeroplanes can sink warships, which he demonstrated in 1921 in tests off the Virginia coast.

—Kansas City
Star
, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1925

Well, the Army finally found a way to fix Billy Mitchell—they let him fly one of their airplanes. The Germans couldn't bring him down but the U.S. brass and Calvin Coolidge did it. These worn-out old kites that the boys have to use, why, it's a scandal. Black Jack Pershing had better ships down on the border in '17, chasing Pancho Villa—and not catching him.

—Will Rogers, syndicated column, Sept. 4, 1925

At first I felt as if my whole world had crashed with him. We had been married only a couple of years, and I had just had our first child. It all seemed too much to bear.

But now, looking back, I know that crash was a blessing. By that time Billy was really out of control, just spoiling for a big fight with his bosses. Pretty soon, they'd have given it to him—and they'd have won.

They would have forced him out of the service, and that would have killed him. Billy wouldn't admit it, but the army was his whole life. He might have lived another dozen years or so, but he'd have been dying of a broken heart all the while.

—Elizabeth Mitchell, letter to Burke Davis, quoted in
Billy Mitchell

Near summer's end I received word that my old friend Billy Mitchell had been seriously hurt in a crash in Texas. Naturally I went to visit him as soon as my duties permitted.

I found him bearing his physical suffering with Spartan fortitude. Much worse, for him, was the frustration of helplessness. He talked wildly of calling reporters to his bedside to denounce what he regarded as the negligence and incompetence of his superiors, and of writing yet more inflammatory books and articles. I saw that he was still bent on the same foolhardy course, which could only end in a court-martial and the ruination of his military career.

I reminded him sharply that his first duty was to our country, which could ill afford to lose an officer of genius at a critical time in her history. I pointed out that publicity-seeking tactics were beneath a general officer's dignity. And I told him that for a military man to directly challenge lawful authority—even that of the President—as he was doing, could never be tolerated in a democracy such as ours.

My words must have taken effect, for from that time forward he began to moderate his tone, and to cultivate self-discipline and diplomacy. Thus was General Mitchell preserved for his unique destiny. Little did I suspect the part I had played in history.

—General Douglas MacArthur,
Reminiscences

MacArthur claimed to have been responsible for Billy Mitchell's "conversion." Well, MacArthur always did give himself full credit, that was his way. My own view is that Billy just thought things over and came to his own conclusions, because that was
his
way.

He had plenty of time to think. Smashed up as he was, there wasn't much else he could do. He told me once that the nights were the worst. The pain kept him awake, and he wouldn't take any drugs no matter how bad it got. You can call that guts or just Billy Mitchell being contrary as usual.

—Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker,
Between Wars

Since my body was out of action, I decided to use the time to improve my mind. I began to study the history, language, and culture of Japan, believing as I did that Americans would one day have to deal with this astute, aggressive race.

In my reading I came across the term
gaishin-shotan
. Literally, this translates "to sleep on firewood and lick gall." To the Japanese, however, it means the acceptance of hardship and ignominy in order to take a future revenge, as in their tale of the forty-seven samurai who deliberately subject themselves to disgrace in a secret plan to vindicate their honor.

For the next decade and a half I slept many nights on firewood, and I cultivated a connoisseur's taste for gall. . . .

—Brig. Gen. William Mitchell, unpublished memoirs

When he returned to duty in the fall of 1927, he seemed a different man. No one was sure how seriously to take the metamorphosis. After all, this was General Billy Mitchell.

Even that was not strictly true. When he was removed as Assistant Chief of the Air Service, he also forfeited the "temporary" star he had worn since 1918. At the time of the crash, technically, he was a colonel. The press, however, always call him "General Mitchell," to the chagrin of certain persons.

But then those persons would always go livid at the mention of Billy Mitchell, in whatever context. He had stepped on too many toes; not everyone was willing to forgive and forget.

So he spent the next fifteen years at a series of obscure posts where nothing had happened since the Indian Wars, at jobs a competent sergeant could have handled, under senile or alcoholic commanders who knew nothing about aviation but did know that powerful figures in Washington would be grateful to the man who found a way to tie the can to Colonel Mitchell.

And through it all, through all the frustrations and petty humiliations that only a peacetime army can inflict on a man, he kept his head down and his mouth shut and soldiered on, till at last even the diehard Mitchell-haters had to admit that he had indeed changed.

They were wrong, of course. Billy Mitchell had never for a minute stopped being Billy Mitchell. He was merely borrowing a technique from the only navy people he had any use for—the submariners. He was running silent and submerged.

—Ladislas Farago,
The Ordeal of Billy Mitchell

When we heard who our new wing commander would be, we all went a little nuts. To an army aviator of my generation, Billy Mitchell was close to God Almighty. We all knew the story, how he'd gone to the wall for aviation back in the Twenties, and the price he'd paid. And now he was going to command the Eighteenth! They'd even given him back his brigadier's star.

Then I thought about it and I said, "Oh, Lord! Whose bright idea was this?"

You see, the Hawaiian Department in the spring of '41 was a very strange, unreal little world, very insulated and pleased with itself. The Germans were very far away and the Japs were known to be too backward to be a serious threat, so there was very little attempt at real soldiering. Having a smart-looking turnout of the guard, or a solid lineup of jockstrappers—everybody was absolutely obsessed with sports—was much more important than trivial details like teaching men to load and fire their rifles.

Sending a man like Billy Mitchell to a place like that was like hiring Jack the Ripper to play the piano in a whore house.

—Col. George Stamps,
The 18th Bombardment Wing: An Oral History

The decision to assign General Mitchell to Hawaii was my own. General Marshall approved it. Contrary to certain published reports, President Roosevelt was not involved.

We were faced with a growing threat of war in the Pacific. The Hawaiian Islands were obviously of vital strategic importance. It seemed to me that a recognized expert on air power would be more usefully employed there than running an artillery observation training school in Georgia, which was what he was doing at the time.

In the military we speak of the principle of calculated risk. In sending General Mitchell to command the 18th Bombardment Wind, I took such a risk. I accept full responsibility for the consequences.

—Gen. Henry H. Arnold, statement to the Joint Congressional Committee on the North Pacific Incident

The Flying Fortress at that time was the glamor ship of the Air Corps and there still weren't that many in service. The guys who flew them thought we were pretty hot stuff.

Mitchell knocked that out of us in a hurry. He worked us like a bunch of cadets. We trained as we had never trained before, doing things they had never taught us at flight school. In fact he had us doing things that would have gotten us busted down to permanent latrine orderlies anywhere else in the Air Corps.

The big thing then was high-level precision bombing. We had been taught that our function was to fly high above the enemy in a ladylike manner and drop our bombs, using the fancy new Norden bombsight which was supposed to let you put a bomb into a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet.

The Old Man said there was a time and a place for that and then there was a time to get down and get dirty. "Come in low," he would say, "get on top of the enemy before he knows you're coming, and stuff the bomb load up his backside."

One fool tried to argue that a low level attack made you a bigger target. The Old Man drilled him with that fifty-caliber stare of his and said, "Any man who goes to war and thinks of himself as a target should have stayed home and knitted socks for the Red Cross. The point is to kill the bastards before they can make you
any
kind of target."

There was a rumor that Roosevelt had sent him to the Islands in the hope that his presence would deter Japan from starting trouble in the Pacific. I don't know whether he scared the Japs any but he sure as hell scared us.

—Lt. Col. Mark Rucker, "Billy's Boys,"
Wings
, Feb. 1971

HONOLULU—Hawaii is one of the world's last proud bastions of peacetime complacency. Europe may be vibrating under Wehrmacht boots, London and Chungking may be smoking from the latest air raids, the panzers may be driving across Russia slowed only by bad roads; but people here regard these things the way residents of an exclusive neighborhood regard the news of a gang shootout down on the docks. Every weekend the battleships tie up in pairs at their moorings in Pearl Harbor, while the sailors go on liberty and the officers attend important social functions. And the grass at Schofield Barracks is said to be the most neatly-trimmed grass in the U.S. Army.

Certainly no one believes war will ever come to the Islands. The only potential enemy in the Pacific is Japan and Japan is not taken seriously. The local view of the Japanese is wholly contemptuous and will astonish anyone who has seen, as I did in China, the professional abilities of the Japanese military.

One exception to the whimsical atmosphere can be found at Hickam Field, where General Billy Mitchell has a bunch of big Flying Fortress bombers. I had a chance to watch them work over the old battleship
Utah
, which is used as a target ship. They came in low and fast and they planted their practice bombs with the precision of top banderilleros. They were as good as anyone the Germans had in Spain and that is saying a good deal.

I was told that General Mitchell personally flew the lead plane. Clearly he is not one of those generals who die in bed.

—Ernest Hemingway, "Fishing Off Diamond Head,"
Esquire
, July 1941

To: Commanding General, Dept. of Hawaii

From: Commander, 18th Bombardment Wing

Subject: Reconnaissance

1. Current international developments suggest the possibility of armed hostilities between the United States and the Empire of Japan at some point in the near future. In the event of such hostilities, the Hawaiian Islands would be a prime target for an enemy attack using carrier-borne aircraft.
   
2. The history of the Japanese Empire indicates that such an attack would not necessarily be preceded by a formal declaration of war.
   
3. Surprise being essential in such an operation, the attacking force would most likely approach from the north or northwest, this part of the Pacific Ocean being virtually empty of naval and merchant shipping.
   
4. In keeping with the principle of surprise, the attack would probably be launched at dawn, perhaps on a Saturday or Sunday.
   
5. The period through mid-December will be the time of maximum risk. After this the seas of the North Pacific are usually too rough for carrier operations.
   
6. It is therefore recommended that a schedule of reconnaissance flights be instituted immediately, using all available aircraft and concentrating on the north and northwest sectors. Cooperation with naval air units will be essential.
   
7. Aircraft should carry full defensive armament. If detected by an approaching carrier force, it is likely they will be
   

   attacked.