He waited for the reply, FRD I, KCY. CLR, and then took the strip of paper which had been fed out of his tape machine and fed it into the cryptographic machine. In a moment, the keys began to clatter:
FRD1, KCY.
KCY 6OCT34
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
FOLLOWING RECEIVED 0545 FROM BIRD FOR RELAY
START
PART ONE
PLAN BAKER RPT BAKER EXECUTED AS OF 0530 RPT 0530
PART TWO
EGGS AND CHICKS IN NEST RPT IN NEST
PART THREE
CONDITION TWO RPT TWO THIS IS NO RPT NO MISTAKE
END
By the time Cahn removed the decrypted message from the machine, Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt, RAN, and Major Edward Banning, USMC, had come into the radio room. Banning had a large manila envelope in his hand.
Signalman Cahn handed the message to Commander Feldt.
He read it and handed it to Major Banning, who read it and handed it to Sergeant Esposito, who had been desperately trying to read it over Banning's shoulder.
"Christ, they couldn't get through the sodding surf or something else went wrong! Bloody hell!" Commander Feldt said.
"McCoy and Wallace are ashore," Banning said, "And Condition Two!" McCoy's orders were to assess the condition of the sand on the beach on a scale of One to Five: One meant it was Perfect and Five meant it was Extremely Hazardous.
Banning took a sheet of paper from the manila envelope. He had prepared a number of messages beforehand to cover all the contingencies he could think of. The message he was looking for had three spaces that he'd left blank. He wrote BAKER in one of them and 0530 06OCT42 and TWO in the others. Then he handed the sheet to Cahn.
"The sooner the better, Cahn," he said.
"Aye, aye, Sir." Cahn set the switch on the tape machine to CLEAR, then typed the message.
FOR CINCPAC RADIO
OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE
FROM OFFICER COMMANDING RAN COASTWATCHER ESTABLISHMENT
FOR RELAY TO COMMGENERAL 1ST MAR DIVISION
FOLLOWING FOR MAJOR HOMER DILLON USMC X PLAN BAKER SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTED AS OF 0530 06OCT42 X CONDITION TWO REPEAT TWO X EXECUTE PLAN VICTOR X ADVISE ONLY DELAYS AND REASONS THEREFORE X FELDT
He then moved switches on the encryption device to ENCRYPT, fed the tape to it, and waited for the message to appear.
Two minutes later, CINCPAC Radio acknowledged receipt of Coastwatcher Radio's encrypted Operational Immediate message. Four minutes after that, CINCPAC sent another message.
FRD1, KCY. FYI 1STMARDIV AKN UR OI.
Coastwatcher Radio, this is CINCPAC Radio. For Your Information, First Marine Division Radio has acknowledged receipt of your Operational Immediate.
KCY, FRD1. THANKS. FRD1 CLR.
"They've got it, Sir," Cahn reported.
"When do we net with Ferdinand Six?" Banning asked.
"Six-fifty, Sir," Cahn said after consulting his Signal Operating Instructions for 0001-2400 6 October 1942. "About ten minutes, Sir."
"Try them now," Commander Feldt ordered.
Cahn did so. There was no reply from Ferdinand Six. Neither was there a reply at the appointed hour.
"Keep trying," Feldt ordered.
At 120-second intervals, Cahn tapped out FRD6, FRD1.
FRD6, FRDI.
At 0710, twenty minutes late, FRD6 came on the air:
FRD1, FRD6. FRD1, FRD6.
"He's calling us, Commander," Cahn said. "Not responding to us. Maybe his reception is bad."
"Try him again."
FRD6, FRD1. FRD6, FRD1.
FRD1, FRD6. UR 2 x 5.
FRD6, FRD1, SB CODE.
FRD1, FRD6. GA.
FRD6, FRD1.
USE AS SIMPLE SUBSTITUTION
FIRST NAME BELLE OF WAGGA WAGGA
SECOND NAME DITTO
MODEL RPT MODEL BANNINGS CAR
05xO8xl5xl6xO2
O5x2lxl2xO2xO4
15x04x21x11x10
13x14x24x25x13
11x23x06x17x02
15x21x23x24x02
ACKNOWLEDGE UNDERSTANDING
FRD1,SB
Signalman Cahn listened carefully, making minute adjustments to his receiver for half a minute.
"I lost his carrier, Sir. He probably shut down to decode that. "
"We hope," Banning said. He turned to Sergeant Esposito.
"Esposito, get on the Teletype and send what we have to Brisbane. Eyes only, Lieutenant Hon."
"Aye, Aye, Sir."
"Tell him I suggest-use that word, suggest-that he relay to General Pickering on the special channel."
"Aye, aye, Sir."
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Feldt asked. "Falsely raised hopes are worse than no news at all."
"O ye of little faith," Banning said. "Send it, Esposito."
Sergeant Esposito picked up the various messages and sat down at the Teletype machine and started typing.
[Three]
FERDINAND SIX
BUKA, SOLOMON ISLANDS
0715 HOURS 6 OCTOBER 1942
"I hope you know what the hell Wagga Wagga is," Lieutenant Joe Howard, USMCR, said to Sub-Lieutenant Jakob Reeves, RANVR. "Because I don't."
"It's a backwater town in New South Wales," Reeves said.
"A town?"
Reeves nodded. "Using the term generously. And as far as I know I don't know a living soul there, much less the belle thereof."
"My girl's from Wagga Wagga," Sergeant Steve Koffler said.
"That must be it," Howard said.
"I thought your girl was down at the creek, washing your linen Reeves said.
"I told you, goddamn it, you sonofabitch, to knock that shit off"
"That's enough, Koffler."
"Fuck him, I told him to stop!"
"That's enough, Sergeant Koffler," Howard said firmly.
`Shit!"
"He has been diddling-"
"That's enough out of you, too, Reeves," Howard said.
"You don't give me orders, Lieutenant!" With a great effort, Howard controlled his temper, although he did not flinch under Reeves' angry glare.
Eventually Reeves shrugged.
"Sergeant, I apologize," he said. "I was making a joke. Or thought I was."
"Forget it," Koffler said, sounding not at all sincere.
"For reasons I can't imagine, I think all of our tempers are on a short fuse," Howard said. "None of us can afford to let things get out of hand."
"Just for the fucking record," Koffler said, the picture of righteous indignation, "that happened just once, and I was drunk." Howard had a terrible urge to laugh.
"On that beer shit that Reeves makes," Koffler said.
"Well, fuck you, Sergeant," Reeves said. "If you feel that way, you can't have any more of my beer shit."
Howard laughed out loud. Reeves looked pleased with himself.
"You just dug your own grave, Koffler," he said. "No more of Lieutenant Reeves' splendid, tasty beer for you."
"That shit sneaks up on you," Koffler said.
The flare-up seemed to have passed, Howard decided with relief.