Winter of the World (80 page)

The Japanese did not use regular names for locations in the Pacific Ocean. Every important place had a designation consisting of two letters – in fact, two characters or kanas of the
Japanese alphabet, although the codebreakers usually used equivalents from the Roman A to Z. The men in the basement struggled to figure out the meaning of each of these two-kana designators. They
made slow progress: MO was Port Moresby, AH was Oahu, but many were unknown.

In May, evidence was fast building up of a major Japanese assault at a location they called AF.

The best guess of the unit was that AF meant Midway, the atoll at the western end of the fifteen-hundred-mile-long chain of islands that started at Hawaii. Midway was halfway between Los Angeles
and Tokyo.

A guess was not enough, of course. Given the numerical superiority of the Japanese navy, Admiral Nimitz had to
know
.

Day by day, the men Chuck was working with built up an ominous picture of the Japanese order of battle. New planes were delivered to aircraft carriers. An ‘occupation force’ was
embarked: the Japanese were planning to hold on to whatever territory they won.

It looked as if this was the big one. But where would the attack come?

The men in the basement were particularly proud of decoding a signal from the Japanese fleet urging Tokyo: ‘Expedite delivery of fuelling hose.’ They were pleased partly because of
the specialized language but mainly because the signal proved that a long-range mid-ocean manoeuvre was imminent.

But the American high command thought the attack might come at Hawaii, and the army feared an invasion of the west coast of the United States. Even the team at Pearl Harbor had a nagging
suspicion it could be Johnston Island, an airstrip a thousand miles south of Midway.

They had to be one hundred per cent certain.

Chuck had a notion how it might be done, but he hesitated to say anything. The cryptanalysts were so clever, and he was not. He had never done well in school. In third grade a classmate had
called him Chucky the Chump. He had cried, and that had guaranteed that the nickname would stick. He still thought of himself as Chucky the Chump.

At lunchtime he and Eddie got sandwiches and coffee from the commissary and sat on the dockside, looking across the harbour. It was returning to normal. Most of the oil had gone, and some of the
wrecks had been raised.

While they were eating, a wounded aircraft carrier appeared around Hospital Point and steamed slowly into harbour, trailing an oil slick that stretched all the way out to sea. Chuck identified
the vessel as the
Yorktown
. Her hull was blackened with soot and she had a huge hole in the flight deck, presumably caused by a Japanese bomb in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Sirens and
hooters sounded a congratulatory fanfare as she approached the Navy Yard, and tugs assembled to nudge her through the open gates of No. 1 Dry Dock.

‘She needs three months’ work, I hear,’ Eddie said. He was based in the same building as Chuck, but in the naval intelligence office upstairs, so he got to hear more gossip.
‘But she’s putting to sea again in three days.’

‘How are they going to manage that?’

‘They’ve started already. The master shipfitter flew to meet her – he’s on board already, with a team. And look at the dry dock.’

Chuck saw that the vacant dock was already swarming with men and equipment: he could not count the number of welding machines waiting at the quayside.

‘All the same,’ Eddie said, ‘they’ll just be patching her up. They’ll repair the deck and make her seaworthy, and everything else will have to wait.’

Something about the name of the ship bugged Chuck. He could not shake the nagging feeling. What did Yorktown mean? The siege of Yorktown was the last big battle of the War of Independence. Did
that have some significance?

Captain Vandermeier walked by. ‘Get back to work, you two girlieboys,’ he said.

Eddie said under his breath: ‘One of these days I’m going to punch him out.’

‘After the war, Eddie,’ said Chuck.

When he returned to the basement and saw Bob Strong at his desk, Chuck realized he had solved Strong’s problem.

Looking over the cryptanalyst’s shoulder again, he saw the same sheet of paper with the same six Japanese syllables:

He tactfully tried to make it sound as if Strong himself had solved it. ‘But you have got it, Lieutenant!’ he said.

Strong was disconcerted. ‘Do I?’

‘It’s an English name, so the Japanese have spelt it out phonetically.’

‘Yolokutawana is an English name?’

‘Yes, sir. That’s how the Japanese pronounce Yorktown.’

‘What?’ Strong looked baffled.

For a dreadful moment, Chucky the Chump wondered if he was completely wrong.

Then Strong said: ‘Oh, my God, you’re right! Yolokutawana – Yorktown, with a Japanese accent!’ He laughed delightedly. ‘Thank you!’ he enthused. ‘Well
done!’

Chuck hesitated. He had another idea. Should he say what was on his mind? It was not his job to solve codes. But America was an inch away from defeat. Maybe he should take a chance. ‘Can I
make another suggestion?’ he said.

‘Fire away.’

‘It’s about the designator AF. We need definite confirmation that it’s Midway, right?’

‘Yup.’

‘Couldn’t we write a message about Midway that the Japanese would want to rebroadcast in code? Then when we intercepted the broadcast we could find out how they encode the
name.’

Strong looked thoughtful. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘We might have to send our message in clear, to be sure they understood it.’

‘We could do that. It would have to be something not very confidential – like, say: ‘There is an outbreak of venereal disease on Midway, please send medicine,’ or
something like that.’

‘But why would the Japs rebroadcast that?’

‘Okay, so it has to be something of military significance, but not top secret; something like the weather.’

‘Even weather forecasts are secret nowadays.’

The cryptanalyst at the next desk put in: ‘How about a water shortage? If they’re planning to occupy the place, that would be important information.’

‘Hell, this could work.’ Strong was getting excited. ‘Suppose Midway sends a message in clear to Hawaii, saying their desalination plant has broken down.’

Chuck said: ‘And Hawaii replies, saying we’re sending a water barge.’

‘The Japanese would be sure to rebroadcast that, if they’re planning to attack Midway. They would need to make plans to ship fresh water there.’

‘And they would broadcast in code to avoid alerting us to their interest in Midway.’

Strong stood up. ‘Come with me,’ he said to Chuck. ‘Let’s put this to the boss, see what he thinks of the idea.’

The signals were exchanged that day.

Next day, a Japanese radio signal reported a water shortage at AF.

The target was Midway.

Admiral Nimitz commenced to set a trap.

(iii)

That evening, while more than a thousand workmen swarmed over the crippled aircraft carrier
Yorktown
, repairing the damage under arc lights, Chuck and Eddie went to
The Band Round The Hat, a bar down a dark alley in Honolulu. It was packed, as always, with sailors and locals. Almost all the customers were men, though there were a few nurses in pairs. Chuck and
Eddie liked the place because the other men were their kind. The lesbians liked it because the men did not hit on them.

There was nothing overt, of course. You could be thrown out of the navy and put in jail for homosexual acts. All the same the place was congenial. The bandleader wore make-up. The Hawaiian
singer was in drag, although he was so convincing that some people did not realize he was a man. The owner was as queer as a three-dollar bill. Men could dance together. And no one would call you a
wimp for ordering vermouth.

Since the death of Joanne, Chuck felt he loved Eddie even more. Of course he had always known that Eddie could be killed, in theory; but the danger had never seemed real. Now, after the attack
on Pearl Harbor, Chuck never passed a day without visualizing that beautiful girl lying on the ground covered in blood, and his brother sobbing his heart out beside her. It could so easily have
been Chuck kneeling next to Eddie, and feeling the same unbearable grief. Chuck and Eddie had cheated death on 7 December, but they were at war now, and life was cheap. Every day together was
precious because it might be the last.

Chuck was leaning on the bar with a beer in his hand, and Eddie was sitting on a high stool. They were laughing at a navy pilot called Trevor Paxman – known as Trixie – who was
talking about the time he tried to have sex with a girl. ‘I was horrified!’ Trixie said. ‘I thought it would be all tidy down there, and kind of sweet, like girls in paintings,
but she had more hair than me!’ They roared with laughter. ‘She was like a gorilla!’ At that point Chuck saw, out of the corner of his eye, the stocky figure of Captain
Vandermeier entering the bar.

Few officers went into enlisted men’s bars. It was not forbidden, merely thoughtless and inconsiderate, like wearing muddy boots in the restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton. Eddie turned his
back, hoping Vandermeier would not see him.

No such luck. Vandermeier came right up to them and said: ‘Well, well, all girls together, are we?’

Trixie turned away and melted into the crowd. Vandermeier said: ‘Where did he go?’ He was already drunk enough to slur his words.

Chuck saw Eddie’s face darken. Chuck said stiffly: ‘Good evening, Captain, may I buy you a beer?’

‘Scotch onna rocks.’

Chuck got him a drink. Vandermeier took a swallow and said: ‘So, I hear the action in this place is out the back – is that right?’ He looked at Eddie.

‘No idea,’ Eddie said coldly.

‘Aw, come on,’ said Vandermeier. ‘Off the record.’ He patted Eddie’s knee.

Eddie stood up abruptly and pushed his stool back. ‘Don’t you touch me,’ he said.

Chuck said: ‘Take it easy, Eddie.’

‘There’s no rule in the navy says I have to be pawed by this old queen!’

Vandermeier said drunkenly: ‘What did you call me?’

Eddie said: ‘If he touches me again, I swear I’ll knock his ugly head off.’

Chuck said: ‘Captain Vandermeier, sir, I know a much better place than this. Would you like to go there?’

Vandermeier looked confused. ‘What?’

Chuck improvised: ‘A smaller, quieter place – like this, but more intimate. Do you know what I mean?’

‘Sounds good!’ The captain drained his glass.

Chuck took Vandermeier’s right arm and gestured to Eddie to take the left. They led the drunk captain outside.

Luckily, a taxi was waiting in the gloom of the alley. Chuck opened the car door.

At that point, Vandermeier kissed Eddie.

The captain threw his arms around him, pressed his lips to Eddie’s, then said: ‘I love you.’

Chuck’s heart filled with fear. There was no good ending to this now.

Eddie punched Vandermeier in the stomach, hard. The captain grunted and gasped. Eddie hit him again, in the face this time. Chuck stepped between them. Before Vandermeier could fall down, Chuck
bundled him into the back seat of the taxi.

He leaned through the window and gave the driver a ten-dollar bill. ‘Take him home, and keep the change,’ he said.

The taxi pulled away.

Chuck looked at Eddie. ‘Oh, boy,’ he said. ‘Now we’re in trouble.’

(iv)

But Eddie Parry was never charged with the crime of assaulting an officer.

Captain Vandermeier showed up at the Old Administration Building next morning with a black eye, but he made no accusation. Chuck figured it would ruin the man’s career if he admitted he
had got into a fight at The Band Round The Hat. All the same everyone was talking about his bruise. Bob Strong said: ‘Vandermeier claims he slipped on a patch of oil in his garage, and hit
his face on the lawn mower, but I think his wife socked him. Have you seen her? She looks like Jack Dempsey.’

That day, the cryptanalysts in the basement told Admiral Nimitz that the Japanese would attack Midway on 4 June. More specifically, the Japanese force would be 175 miles north of the atoll at 7
a.m.

They were almost as confident as they sounded.

Eddie was gloomy. ‘What can we do?’ he said when he and Chuck met for lunch. He worked in naval intelligence too, and he knew the Japanese strength as revealed by the codebreakers.
‘The Japs have two hundred ships at sea – practically their entire navy – and how many do we have? Thirty-five!’

Chuck was not so glum. ‘But their strike force is only a quarter of their strength. The rest are the occupation force, the diversion force and the reserves.’

‘So? A quarter of their strength is still more than our entire Pacific Fleet!’

‘The actual Japanese strike force has only four aircraft carriers.’

‘But we have just three.’ Eddie pointed with his ham sandwich at the smoke-blackened carrier in the dry dock, with workmen swarming all over her. ‘And that includes the
broken-down
Yorktown
.’

‘Well, we know they’re coming, and they don’t know we’re lying in wait.’

‘I sure hope that makes as much difference as Nimitz thinks.’

‘Yeah, so do I.’

When Chuck returned to the basement, he was told that he no longer worked there. He had been reassigned – to the
Yorktown
.

‘It’s Vandermeier’s way of punishing me,’ Eddie said tearfully that evening. ‘He thinks you’ll die.’

‘Don’t be pessimistic,’ Chuck said. ‘We might win the war.’

A few days before the attack, the Japanese changed to new code books. The men in the basement sighed and started again from scratch, but they produced little new intelligence before the battle.
Nimitz had to make do with what he already had, and hope the Japanese did not revise the whole plan at the last minute.

The Japanese expected to take Midway by surprise and overwhelm it easily. They hoped the Americans would then attack in full force in a bid to win the atoll back. At that point, the Japanese
reserve fleet would pounce and wipe out the entire American fleet. Japan would rule the Pacific.