note 90
The Oval Office
The White House
Washington, D.C.
1645 24 April 1943
When Colonel William J. Donovan was shown in, the President was sitting in his wheelchair looking out the window into the garden. «Good afternoon, Mr. President,» Donovan said.
Roosevelt spun the wheelchair around. «You don't look as if you've just learned the world is about to come to an end,» he said. «So what's so important that you asked to see me right away?»
Donovan set his briefcase on a coffee table, unlocked it, took from it an unsealed white business-size envelope, and handed it to him. «Neither Admiral Leahy nor General Marshall was available to bring these to you, Mr. President, and I thought you would like to see them right away.»
T O P S E C R E T – M A G I C
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
1005 GREENWICH 23 APRIL 1943
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM COMMANDER IN CHIEF PACIFIC
PEARL HARBOR
TO CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
WASHINGTON
EYES ONLY ADMIRAL WILLIAM D. LEjAilY
INFO SUPREME COMMANDER SOUTH WEST PACIFIC OCEAN AREAS BRISBANE
1. DURING THE PAST FIVE (5) DAYS, A TOTAL OF THIRTY-ONE (31) MESSAGES, SEVENTEEN (17) FROM THE JAPANESE HEADQUARTERS AT BOUGAINVILLE TO THE JAPANESE IMPERIAL GENERAL STAFF IN TOKYO, AND FOURTEEN (14) FROM JIGS TO BOUGAINVILLE USING THREE DIFFERENT HIGH LEVEL CODES, HAVE BEEN INTERCEPTED AND DECRYPTED, AND ANALYZED. ALL MESSAGES MADE REFERENCE TO THE SHOOTING DOWN OF ADMIRAL YAMAMOTO AS HIS TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT APPROACHED BOUGAINVILLE, AND TO THE RECOVERY OF HIS REMAINS AND PLANS TO HAVE THE REMAINS SENT TO JAPAN.
2. IN THE OPINION OF THE ANALYSTS, THE MESSAGES REFLECT BOTH THE CHAOS WHICH WOULD BE EXPECTED TO RESULT IF ADMIRAL YAMAMOTO HAD INDEED BEEN KILLED, AND ALSO POSSESS A CERTAIN TONE OF RESPECT FOR THE DECEASED ENTIRELY CONSISTENT WITH WHAT THE ANALYSTS WOULD EXPECT TO FIND IN SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ANALYSTS DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT BELIEVE THE MESSAGES ARE CONSISTENT WITH AN ATTEMPT TO DISSEMINATE FALSE INFORMATION.
3. FURTHERMORE, THE JAPANESE CONTINUE TO USE THE CODES THEY HAVE BEEN USING, AND HAVE NOT INTRODUCED ANY NEW CODES AS THEY WOULD HAVE HAD THE YAMAMOTO FLIGHT BEEN A RUSE. THIS LEADS THE UNDERSIGNED TO BELIEVE THAT THE MAGIC CAPABILITY IS NOT AT THIS TIME IMPAIRED IN ANY WAY.
CHESTER W. NTMTTZ
ADMIRAL, US NAVY
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, PACIFIC
T O P S E C R E T – M A G I C
T O P S E C R E T
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
VIA SPECIAL CHANNEL
1005 GREENWICH 23 APRIL 1943
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
FROM SUPREME COMMANDER SOUTH WEST PACIFIC OCEAN AREAS BRISBANE
TO CHIEF OF STAFF US ARMY
WASHINGTON
EYES ONLY GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL
FOLLOWING PERSONAL FROM SUPREME COMMANDER SWPOA TO CHIEF OF STAFF US ARMY
MY DEAR GEORGE:
I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED TO KNOW THAT I JUST DECORATED A FINE YOUNG ARMY ATRCORPS OFFICER NAMED LANDER FROM MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, WITH THE DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS. WHILE LEADING A ROUTINE PATROL OF FOUR OF MY P-38 AIRCRAFT NEAR BOUGAINVILLE HE SHOT DOWN A JAPANESE TRANSPORT OF THE TYPE NORMALLY RESERVED FOR THE USE OF SENIOR JAPANESE OFFICERS. HIS FELLOW PILOTS SHOT DOWN THREE OF THE TRANSPORT'S ESCORTS AS WELL.
THE TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT CRASHED IN FLAMES INTO THE JUNGLE, AND IN THE OPINION OF THE PILOT WHO SHOT IT DOWN, THERE IS NO CHANCE OF ANY SURVIVORS. ALL FOUR AIRCRAFT RETURNED SAFELY TO THEIR AIRFIELD IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.
I VERY MUCH APPRECIATE THE PRESIDENT'S AND YOUR CONFIDENCE IN ME,
WTTH BEST REGARDS,
DOUGLAS
END PERSONAL TO CHIEF OF STAFF, US ARMY FROM SUPREME COMMANDER SOUTH' WEST PACIFIC OCEAN AREAS
T O P S E C R E T
«Well, that is good news,» Roosevelt said, «if it can ever be called good news to learn that my orders to have someone assassinated have been carried out successfully.»
«You probably saved thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of American lives, more than that, by ordering the elimination of Admiral Yamamoto, Mr. President,» Donovan said.
«It's a bit different, isn't it, Bill, when you know the name of the man you're having 'eliminated»? When you know what he looks like? That 'kill or be killed' seems a little remote from this office, doesn't it?»
«You saved lives, Mr. President,» Donovan repeated.
«Do you think Fleming Pickering knows about this?»
«I don't think so,» Donovan said. «I don't think either Admiral Leahy or General Marshall saw any need to bring Stillwell in on any of the Yamamoto business.»
«You don't think Stillwell is going to be told?»
«I think that he'll be informed by a hand-delivered message, sir.»
«Pickering's with Stillwell, right?»
«Yes, sir.»
«How's his weather station operation coming?»
«It could be going a little better, Mr. President,» Donovan said.
«In other words, something went wrong,» Roosevelt said. «What went wrong, Bill?»
«I don't mean to suggest, sir, that the mission will fail,» Donovan said. «But, unfortunately, it's looking more and more like something happened to the two men Pickering sent into the Gobi from Chungking.»
«Explain that, please?»
«Captain McCoy and Sergeant Zimmerman left a town called Yümen with a Nationalist Army supply truck convoy headed into the desert to rendezvous with a patrol—a camel patrol—the Chinese operate in the desert.»
«A
camel
patrol? Sounds like Lawrence of Arabia,» Roosevelt said.
«Yes, sir. Pickering's idea was for McCoy and the other to travel with the supply convoy as far as it was going, then head out by themselves, looking for the Americans Pickering apparently believes are out there somewhere, until, in Pickering's words, they either found them or ran out of gas, whichever comes first. At that point they would attempt to establish contact with Pearl Harbor. Once contact was established, the seaplanes would attempt a rendezvous with a submarine at sea, where they would take on fuel, as well as the meteorologists and their equipment, and then fly into the Gobi. They would then try to put themselves within a hundred miles or so of McCoy and the other Americans, and from there they hoped to find them by homing in on a radio signal.»
«Did you disapprove of this plan before Pickering put it into execution, or is this from the position of hindsight?» Roosevelt asked, not very pleasantly.
He knows and likes McCoy
, Donovan thought.
McCoy and Jimmy Roosevelt are pals. They made the Makin Island raid together. I can't forget that
.
«I thought, sir, that the plan prepared by the OSS station chief in Chungking had a greater chance of success,» Donovan said. «Unfortunately, it looks as if I was right.»
«What did Pickering find wrong with the other plan?»
«He thought it would call too much attention to the weather station, sir.»