A CODE FOR TOMORROW: A Ingram Novel (The Todd Ingram Series Book 2) Read online

  Also by John J. Gobbell:

  A Call To Colors

  A Novel of the Battle of Leyte Gulf:

  * * * * *

  The Todd Ingram series:

  The Last Lieutenant

  A Code For Tomorrow

  When Duty Whispers Low

  The Neptune Strategy

  Edge of Valor

  * * * * *

  The Brutus lie

  A CODE FOR TOMORROW

  A TODD INGRAM NOVEL BY

  JOHN J. GOBBELL

  A CODE FOR TOMORROW

  Copyright 2010 by John J. Gobbell, All Rights Reserved.

  OVER THE RAINBOW BY Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg

  Copyright 1938 (Renewed) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

  Copyright 1939 (renewed) EMI Feist Catalog Inc.

  All Rights Reserved, Used by Permission.

  WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS U.S., INC., Miami, Florida, 33014

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address [email protected].

  Printed in the United States of America.

  St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / July 1999, ISBN: 0-312-20511-2

  St. Martin’s Press Paperbacks edition / February 2002, ISBN 0-312-97142-7

  To the Allied forces who courageously defeated the enemy in the Solomon Islands Campaign of World War II.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  AMERICANS

  U.S. Navy Forces Afloat

  U.S.S. Howell (DD 482)

  Alton C. Ingram, Lieutenant, “Todd,” Executive Officer

  Jeremiah T. Landa, Commander, “Boom Boom,” Commanding Officer

  Leonard P. Seltzer, “Leo,” Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class

  Luther P. Dutton, Lieutenant, Gunnery Officer

  Henry E. Kelly, Lieutenant, “Hank,” Chief Engineer

  Jack W. Wilson, Lieutenant (j.g.), Fire Control Officer

  Howard (n) Skala, Chief Firecontrolman

  Ronald T. Lavery, Shipfitter 1st Class

  Eric Monaghan, “Bucky,” Pharmacist’s Mate 1st Class

  L. A. Briley, Quartermaster 2nd Class

  Willard F. Justice, Yeoman 3rd Class

  Thomas N. Hopkins, Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class

  Howard T. Thomas, Seaman 1st Class

  John T. Wilcox, Seaman 1st Class

  Other U.S. Navy – Forces Afloat

  Oliver P. Toliver III, Lieutenant (j.g.), “Ollie,” Gunnery Officer, U.S.S. Riley (DD 452)

  Theodore R. Myszynski, Captain, “Rocko,” Commodore Destroyer Squadron Twelve, Flag in U.S.S. Porter (DD 356)

  Willard M. Gobbell, MD, Lieutenant, doctor on attack transport U.S.S. Zeilin (APA 3)

  Joseph R. Prentice, Pharmacist’s Mate 3rd Class, on U.S.S. Zeilin (APA 3)

  Antonio De Silva, Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class, aboard PBY

  U.S. Navy, Ashore

  Raymond A. Spruance, Rear Admiral, Chief of staff to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet (CinCPac)

  Maynard T. Falkenberg, Captain, Spruance’s staff intelligence officer

  William F. Halsey, Jr., Vice Admiral, Commander Talk Force 16

  Miles Browning, Captain, Halsey’s Chief of Staff

  Julian Brown, Major, USMC, Halsey’s staff intelligence officer

  Robert L. Ghormley, Vice Admiral, Commander, South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force

  Robert A. Jessup, Captain, Ghormley’s Chief of Staff

  Earl Babcock, Seaman 1st Class, elevator operator, Federal Building, San Francisco

  U.S. Army

  Helen Z. Durand, First Lieutenant, on Mindanao, Philippines

  Otis DeWitt, Major, Aide to Major General Richard K. Sutherland who is Chief of Staff for General Douglas MacArthur

  Other Americans – Civilians

  Wong Lee, On Mindanao, Philippines

  Suzy Lee, Wong Lee’s daughter, San Francisco

  Frank and Kate Durand, Helen’s parents, Ramona, California

  George K. Atwell, Vice President Research, Winslow River Corporation

  Cassidy, FBE Agent, San Francisco

  FILIPPINOS

  Don Pablo Amador, Former Deputy Finance Minister under President Quezon; leader resistance, Northeaster Mindanao

  Emilio Legaspi, Resistance Guerrillero, Mindanao

  Felipe Estaque, Resistance Guerrillero, Mindanao

  Manual Carrillo, Resistance Guerrillero, Mindanao

  Carlos Ramirez, Resistance Guerrillero, Mindanao

  Carmen Lai Lai, Collaborator to Japanese

  IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY

  Service Barge 212, Nasipit, Philippines

  Katsumi Fujimoto, Lieutenant Commander, Commanding Officer

  Hisa Kunisawa, Warrant Officer, Salvage Officer, IJN Namikaze (ex U.S.S. Stockwell)

  Koki Jimbo, Lieutenant, Intelligence Officer

  Kenji Ogata, Lieutenant, Repair Officer

  Yawata, Seaman 1st Class, Fujimoto’s orderly

  FLAG STAFF

  Hayashi Fujimoto, Rear Admiral (Shōsō ), Imperial Japanese Navy, Katsumi Fujimoto’s father

  Yoshi Tomo, Lieutenant, the Shōsō ’s aide

  UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC (U.S.S.R.)

  San Francisco, U.S.S.R. Consulate

  Eduard Ianovich Dezhnev, Senior Lieutenant, Soviet Navy, Naval attaché’

  Sergei Zenit, Captain Third Rank, NKVD, Soviet Navy, Political officer (Zampolit) aboard prison ship Dzurma, TAD to consulate

  Georgiy Vornin, NKVD enforcer

  Igor Moskvitin, Telegraphist 2nd Class

  Michael Fedotov, Captain Second Rank, Soviet Navy, Commanding Officer Prison ship Dzurma

  Moscow, U.S.S.R., Lubyanka Prison

  Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria, Commissar of the NKVD, Nardonyi Kommissariat Vnutrennikh Del – State Security Police. Second most powerful man in the U.S.S.R. under Premier Josef Stalin

  Vasiliy Laptev, Colonel, NKVD, Beria assistant

  Dmitriy, Beria’s bodyguard

  GERMANS

  Tokyo, Japan, Reich Embassy

  Dr. Dieter V. Birkenfeld, Soviet spy posing as a newspaper correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung

  Karl Schmidt, SS thug.

  FOREWORD

  February 9, 1943

  Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

  Major General Alexander M. Patch, U. S. Army commander of the Americal Division on Guadalcanal, sent the following radio message to Admiral William F. Halsey headquartered aboard the command ship U.S.S. Argonne (AG 31) in Noumea, New Caledonia:

  TOTAL AND COMPLETE DEFEAT OF JAPANESE FORCES ON GUADALCANAL EFFECTED TODAY...TOKYO EXPRESS NO LONGER HAS TERMINUS ON GUADALCANAL.

  Right away, Halsey sent a copy to Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) in Pearl Harbor. At the time, Nimitz was in the hospital with a serious case of malaria, a malady he’d contracted from an earlier visit to the Solomons. Halsey was wise to copy the message to his boss; Nimitz brightened considerably upon receipt of the message and was back at his desk within a few days.

  Thus ended a series of bloody land, air, and sea battles contesting an island critical to the Japanese southward advance toward Australia where they planned to at least sever American supply lines if not invade the continent.

  With Guadalcanal stabilized, Halsey turned his attention to securing the rest of the Solomon archipelago while General Douglas MacArthur began his thrust into New Guinea and on
toward his promise of “I Shall Return” to the Philippines. Simultaneously, Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, hero of the Battle of Midway, and later Chief of Staff to Nimitz, commenced his campaign across the Central Pacific, starting with Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands.

  The battle for Guadalcanal served not only the Allies strategic interests, but their tactical interests as well. Both sides lost about the same number of ships and airplanes. But the Japanese suffered large losses in troops: an estimated 24,000 (with thousands more dying enroute) out of 36,000 committed---compared to the United States Marine and Army casualties of 1,600 killed and 4,250 wounded out of 60,000 directly involved.

  At sea, the Japanese had fine ships with crews highly-skilled in night tactics. They were supported by their vastly superior Type 93 torpedo later dubbed the ‘Long Lance,’ by Samuel Eliot Morrison in his fifteen volume work: History Of The United States Naval Operations in World War II. With the Churchill/Roosevelt ‘Europe First’ policy, new U.S. Navy ships entered the area at a trickle, with the United States’ naval forces at best on parity with the Japanese and many times far less in numbers and tonnage. This was especially so after the loss of the heavy carrier U.S.S. Hornet in the Battle of the St. Cruz Islands, October 27, 1942, leaving the U.S. Navy with only one operational carrier in the entire Pacific.

  The Naval battles for Guadalcanal began with the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August, 1942 and ended with the Battle of Rennell Island on 29-30 January, 1943 with seven major sea battles fought during the period. Both sides slugged it out like punch-drunk boxers, one having extraordinary eye-sight (radar) but not utilizing it well, while the other side had a solid round-house punch (the Type 93 torpedo) but not capitalizing when major victories were in their grasp.

  From the times of Phoenician swords to Lord Nelson’s twelve-pound cannons to today’s Harpoon missile, war at sea is a bloody business. Relating details doesn’t come easy for those who fought in those sea battles for the carnage is unimaginable. For example, visualize what a two thousand pound projectile does as it rips through a compartment full of Sailors at a velocity of 2,600 feet per second. Sailors just don’t fight for flag and cargo. They defend their ship which is their home; their only source of food and shelter; their only tangible connection to the safety and comfort of their hearths and homes. The sea battles described herein are real. Almost all of the flag officers and senior officials are real. Except for the Fletcher class destroyers Howell and Riley, the four-stacker Stockwell, and the submarines Needlefish and Turbot, the other ships are real. Also real is my father, Willard M. Gobbell, MD, who served as a doctor aboard the USS Zeilin (APA 3). It seemed natural to pay tribute to him in chapter twenty-five since the Zeilin was actually in Tulagi during the time of this novel.

  The U.S.S.R. maintained a consulate in San Francisco during World War II, however it was closed in 1946 since they wouldn’t allow the United States to set-up a consulate in Vladivostok. However, the U.S.S.R. re-opened a San Francisco consulate in a different location in the mid-1970s.

  During World War II, the Soviets had other consulates in New York City and Mexico City, which, along with the Washington D.C. embassy, were bases for major espionage activities against the United States, much of it targeted toward the MANHATTAN (Atomic bomb) project.

  For a more detailed historical perspective, please visit my web site at www.JohnJGobbell.com. Click on this book and view photos of actual people and places portrayed in this story.

  Any mistakes are mine alone.

  * * * * * *

  As before, I have been truly blessed with the help of many fine people. In part, they are: in matters of aviation; Richard Bertea, Robert Schlaefli, and the late Gordon Curtis. Dr. Frederick J. Milford, an expert in naval torpedoes, contributed priceless advice in naval ordnance and operations. Those helping with Russian culture and language are: Susan Kechekian at USC’s Department of Slavic Studies and Professors Vladimir and Victorina Lefebvre, Department of Russian Programs, at the University of California at Irvine. A view of historic San Francisco was provided by Howard Mutz of the St. Francis Hotel and my old friend Richard L. Heilman. Capable help on pharmacology came from Dr. Fred Meister and Hartley J. E. Turpin, M.D. On medical side, Russell J. Striff, M.D. provided wonderful assistance on traumatic medicine in World War II matters. Several good friends and patriots have passed since this novel was written. Helping greatly were wonderful friends who have since passed: Alvin P. Cluster, Dr. Norman R. Fertig, H. Dale Hilton, Captain U.S.N. (Retired) and Gordon Curtis. Also, I couldn’t have accomplished any of this without valuable support from Captain Jerry Sullivan, USN retired, the Orange County Fictionaires and the Newport Beach Public Library.

  Special friends and readers who threw me a line as I went down for the third time are Richard M. Geiler, Donald L. Phillips, Larry T. Smith, and again, Russell J. Striff, M.D..

  Special thanks always, to Janine, my wife, my love, who unselfishly edits my material.

  John J. Gobbell

  Newport Beach, California

  www.JohnJGobbell.com

  PROLOGUE

  Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

  Isaiah 59:15

  PROLOGUE

  9, October, 1941

  German Embassy

  Tokyo, Japan

  “There was a phone call for you a few minutes ago.” Schmidt, un-snapped the top lock. As usual, the tall, mufti dressed SS thug had formed his statement like a question.

  “What?” Dieter Birkenfeld set his briefcase on the parquet floor, took out a handkerchief and mopped his brow. The side-door vestibule was furnished with a heavy, dark, side-table bookended by two ornate upright chairs, weighing a hundred kilos each.

  Schmidt, with short orange-blond hair and thin lips, took his time with the triple locks making the cramped space seem hotter. “The telephone?” He reminded Birkenfeld. “Say, are you all right?”

  “I got the call. Thanks.” Stammered Birkenfeld. Slow down.

  With a shrug, Schmidt finished the locks and swung the door open. Sounds of Tokyo wafted in, with Birkenfeld hardly noticing the fetching glow of the late afternoon sun. It had been a warm cloudless day, with a moderate breeze clearing the smoke from the steel furnaces and automobile exhaust. Usually, they combined to form an oppressive, lung-searing haze as the factories around the great city ground out the tools of war twenty-four hours a day.

  Get hold of yourself.

  Schmidt leered, “And who is the lucky girl tonight?”

  Birkenfeld tried to flash his even row of snow-cap white teeth. “Tanya.” For years he'd joked with Schmidt about loose women.

  Schmidt stepped out of the way, gave Birkenfeld a conspiratorial nod and whistled. “Ahhh, Tanya. Ja, Ja?”

  Birkenfeld, a reporter for the Berliner Zeitung, drew to his full height of six feet four inches. His worst feature was a pockmarked face and at forty-six, his weight had ballooned to two-twenty-five. However, this was well overcome by his best features: a full head of dark-graying hair, a thin moustache and a piercing, near-professorial countenance that overwhelmed the German diplomatic staff--and their wives. Indeed, his rich, baritone voice allowed him to easily penetrate the tightest of Tokyo's inner diplomatic and social circles. And with the lights out, Birkenfeld usually got what he wanted where women were concerned, be they German or Italian or American.

  “Ja, Ja?” Schmidt repeated as he let Birkenfeld pass.

  “All right, Karl. All right. If you must know, she works at the Italian Embassy.”

  Schmidt gave a low whistle. “You mean Tanya Gabrielle?”

  A surprised Birkenfeld stopped halfway down the steps oblivious to Tokyo’s cacophony. Horns honked, brakes screeched and there was a constant thump-thumping somewhere two or three blocks away. “How did you know?” Schmidt really did amaze him. At times, the thug actually displayed small flashes of insight.

  “She's the only one there worth dating. The rest are all animals with hairy armpits,” Sch
midt laughed.

  “Yes. She's different, all right.” Birkenfeld wondered if Schmidt was on to Tanya.

  Schmidt's eyes narrowed. “Different, yes. Isn't she Armenian?”

  My God! How did Schmidt know that? “On her grandmother's side.” Changing the subject he sputtered, “Tonight, she cooks roast goose.”

  “Just for the two of you?”

  Birkenfeld did his best to screw on a pixie grin as he walked down the steps. “I'm all she needs.”

  “I'll make sure the quack checks you tomorrow for crabs. We must have none of that on sovereign Reich territory.” Schmidt laughed as he closed the door.

  Sieg Heil, you pig, Birkenfeld muttered under his breath.

  “Doctor Birkenfeld!” Schmidt’s voice was like a thunderclap.

  “Yes?” He turned around, his heart skipping a beat.

  “You forgot this.” Schmidt’s leather heels quickly tapped down the marble steps. With a curt bow, he handed Birkenfeld his briefcase, said, “Wiedersehen.” then went up the stairs and slammed the door.

  This morning, the day had been so beautiful that he'd decided not to ride his motorcycle and had walked the two kilometers to the embassy. And now he cursed himself as he stepped into the faceless, shoving crowd.

  The trouble was, with all that was going on, he didn’t realize he really loved Tanya until last night. She’d cried and talked about things that awakened his own past and what the Germans did to his family in World War I. The same thing had happened to her, it turned out, and they held on to one another, desperately, until it grew late and they had to encode for tonight’s broadcast.