CHAPTER FIVE
_Instructions For Eagles_
The sun was hardly a faint band of yellow white light on the easternhorizon when the speeding destroyer came within sight of the waitingtask force. Despite the bucking and pitching of the craft during thedark hours of night, a good many of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corpspilots aboard had managed to curl up somehow on the deck and go tosleep. It was not the case with Dave and Freddy, however. They remainedawake the whole time talking of this and that, or just staringthoughtfully out across the vast stretches of night-shrouded water.
And so they were among the first to see the faint shapes of the taskforce low down on the horizon. As usual, Freddy spotted them first andnudged Dave excitedly.
"There they are, Dave!" he cried, and pointed. "Right up ahead, there.Lord! A mess of them, what? Looks like the whole blasted Navy. I cancount two carriers, half a dozen cruisers, and twelve destroyers!"
"Thanks, that saves me the trouble," Dave grunted, and squinted ahead."Yup! That's a task force sure enough. And, boy, look at thosedestroyers skipping around! Fat chance Jap subs would have getting closeto those flat-tops. I wonder which is the Carson? They both look thesame to me."
"I don't care which is which," Freddy replied, and kept his gaze rivetedon the flotilla of battle craft drawing closer and closer. "I'd muchrather know where they are headed. After we've been put aboard, I mean."
"Well, keep your shirt on, sweetheart," Dave choked him off. "You'llfind out soon enough, and--Oh yeah! There they are. I was wondering ifeither of those flat-tops had any planes up. Didn't think they'd leaveit all to the destroyers. The whole works is hardly making any headway."
Freddy Farmer didn't make any comment. He had followed the direction ofDave's pointing hand with his eyes, and was watching the three sectionsof Navy scout-patrol planes circling about high in the air above thecoasting task force. And a moment or two later, as though the task forcecommander had heard Dave's comment and decided to do something about it,every ship picked up speed and swung from a southeasterly course to onedue south.
"What the deuce, now?" Freddy Farmer breathed to nobody in particular."Why are they heading south? Have the Jap rats put a landing partyashore on Admiral Byrd's Little America?"
"Well, they've sure got a long ways to go to reach it!" Dave said with alaugh. "But if you use your head and your eyes, little man, you'll sooncatch on to the idea that the carriers are about to take their planesaboard. So they've headed into the wind, which happens to be from thesouth. Now, anything else you'd like explained?"
If there was, the slightly red-faced Freddy Farmer didn't ask. He simplygave Dawson a withering look and then watched the scouting planes aloftcircle around and down and land aboard one of the carriers like so manysoldiers on parade.
"Splendid!" he breathed. "Darn good show. Those Navy chaps are a bit ofall right when it comes to flying."
"And okay in a lot of other things, too," Dave added absently. "Well, itwon't be long now. We're changing course to cut down the distance.Wonder how we're going to get aboard them? Swim?"
"I certainly hope so in your case!" Freddy snapped, and let it go atthat.
By now all of the sleeping pilots were fully awake, and were gathered atthe chain rails to fill their eyes with the impressive sight. The airwas filled with complimentary remarks by the Navy pilots aboard. And foronce the Army pilots had nothing to say. They were witnessing somethingbeing done in expert fashion, and there was no room for chidingwisecracks.
Signal flags fluttered up aloft the destroyer carrying the collection ofpilots, and signal flags in answer were seen to break out from one ofthe carriers. A moment later the task force ships maneuvered about intoa change of position, and during the next few minutes too many thingshappened too smoothly to give either Freddy or Dave a chance to take inthe entire picture. Colonel Welsh and the destroyer's commander steppedout on the bridge along with the next in command. Names were called out.The pilots were split into two groups, one group assigned to one side ofthe destroyer, and the other group to the other side. Dave and Freddywere assigned to the port side, and in less time than it takes to tellabout it, the destroyer ran up close alongside one of the carriers thatwas practically stationary in the water. The destroyer was warped ineven closer, and at a command from the bridge the pilots went up ropeladders and in through an opened hull door of the giant carrier toweringhigh above the destroyer.
And no sooner were they aboard the carrier than a young ensign tooktheir names, and turned them over to a seaman who in turn led them totheir assigned quarters. As a matter of fact, so smoothly and withprecision had everything functioned, that Dave's first move when heentered the cabin he and Freddy were to share was to sit down on one ofthe bunks, give a little shake of his head, and expel air from hislungs.
"Boy, some navy!" he breathed. "No wonder they boast about it, plenty.Gosh! Seems like only a couple of seconds ago we were bouncing along onthat tin can. And now here we are aboard this big baby that feels asmotionless as the Empire State Building. Only it isn't. She's boilingoff knots, now."
Freddy glanced out the port at the dawn-tinted waters sweeping past, andnodded half-heartedly.
"Quite," he murmured. "But now that we're aboard, what next, I wonder?"
The English-born air ace didn't have to wonder long. The last word hadhardly left his lips when the inter-ship speaker (nick-named DonaldDuck) barked forth with orders.
"All pilots report to the flight deck at once! All pilots report to theflight deck at once!"
"That's us!" Dawson grunted, and made a pass or two at his tunic tostraighten out a few of the wrinkles that actually weren't there. "Hitthe deck, Freddy! Top side with you, sailor!"
"Don't!" the English youth groaned, and took a quick glance at hisreflection in the small wall mirror. "You talk bad enough as an Armyman."
"Every day it comes more compliments!" Dawson mocked, and led the waythrough the cabin door.
Some twenty or so seconds later they were up on the flight deck and withthe members of the group gathered just under the signal bridge. Up therethey saw a lot of Navy gold, but it was Colonel Welsh who spoke to them.
"You gentlemen have come aboard this carrier to take part in a difficultand hazardous operation against the enemy forces in the SouthwestPacific," he began. "The details of the operation will be explained toyou in full, later. Right now, though, I want to impress upon you thatyou are all guests of the officers and crew of this carrier, and as suchwill refrain from thoughtlessly interfering with the general routine ofthe ship's company."
The colonel paused and grinned.
"I'm including myself in these instructions," he said, "because,frankly, this is my first visit aboard a carrier at sea. And I, too, ammighty curious to see what makes one of these flat-tops tick. However,this is no time for sight-seeing, so I am asking you gentlemen toconfine your movements to the officers' quarters, and the flight deck.Well, I guess that's all--except for one thing. All of you are to reportto the Ready-Room, on the hangar deck, at five o'clock this afternoon.And--But there I make my first boner!"
The colonel stopped and grinned apologetically at the Admiral in commandof the task force. Then he turned back to the pilots.
"Air Forces pilots will report at five o'clock," he chuckled. "And Navyand Marine Corps pilots will report at two bells, or whatever thecorrect number of bells it is. Anyway, all of you be there. That's all,and dismissed."
The pilots let out a cheer for the colonel and then broke up intogroups of two and three and began to wander along the smooth flatsurface of the flight deck. They didn't wander about very long, however.There were few planes on deck, and the dawn sun climbing up over thehorizon reminded each and every one of them that what was really inorder was a little food. Particularly Freddy Farmer, and it was he wholed the straggling procession down below decks to the pilots' mess room.And when he and Dave had eaten their fill of Navy chow they went totheir quarters to arrange their personal belongings that had been takena
board from the destroyer, and to chew the fat a bit. They did little ofeither. At least, that went for Dave. Just to "relax for a couple ofshakes" he stretched out on his bunk, and the next thing he knew Freddyhad him by the shoulder and was shaking him hard.
"Out of it, Dave, old thing!" came Freddy's muffled voice to hissleep-lulled brain. "Out of it, I say! You want to be late and get offto your usual bad start? Blast you, man! Out of there, or you get thiswhole pitcher of water, and I promise it!"
Dave blinked and blinked some more, and finally sat up on the bunk.
"Huh?" he groaned. "What's cooking? Where are we, and what's the ideaof trying to break off my arm? And--Holy smokes! Where are we, anyway?"
"You can ask the navigation officer, later!" Freddy snapped. "Right now,move yourself, and get presentable. We've just about two minutes to getto the Ready-Room. Come on, Dave! Prop-wash the sleep out of your brain,will you? Lord! You're more bother than my maiden aunt!"
Dawson blinked again, started to speak, but checked himself as memorycame rushing back into his brain. Instead he let out a yell, jumped offthe bunk and cracked the top of his head against the bunk above. And helet out another yell.
"Doggone it!" he growled, and rubbed the top of his head. "Why don'tthey build these cabins big enough so a guy can move around withoutkilling himself? Hey! Where's my tunic? Where's my cap? Hey, Freddy!What did you do with my stuff? Oh! Here it is. Two minutes to go, huh?Then what are we waiting for, pal?"
Freddy Farmer snorted and went outside alone, but in just about lesstime than it takes to tell about it Dave went out and caught up withhim. And together they made their way to the Ready-Room on the hangardeck. It turned out that they were the last to show up, so when theyentered the door was closed and Colonel Welsh rose from where he wassitting with the task force's commander at the head end of the room. Hewaited a couple of minutes for feet to stop shuffling around. Then hegrinned and made a little half salute with one hand.
"Now it comes, Gentlemen," he said with a chuckle. "Now you'll get theanswer to the one question that has burned holes in the brain of eachand every one of you since the moment you received word to report toH.Q. at Sydney. Or could I be wrong?"
The short, hooting laugh that spread from lip to lip of those presentwas proof enough that the colonel had hit the nail right smack on thehead. Every last one of them had thought of little else but the reasonhe had been summoned to H.Q. at Sydney.
"Well, here is the picture," Colonel Welsh continued, but there was nosmile on his face now, nor any light note in his voice. "The SouthwestPacific Command is going to try and beat the Japs to the punch. In otherwords, we're pretty sure that the Jap is about set to let fly withanother of his blows at us, so we're going to beat him to it. In brief,we're going to go after them in the Solomon Islands."
The colonel paused for breath, and a mounting murmur of suppressedexcitement ran its course about the Ready-Room. Nobody said anything,though, not even a whispered word of comment to his friend sitting nextto him. On the contrary, each man simply hitched forward a little moreon the edge of his chair, and kept his attention riveted one hundred percent upon the Chief of Combined U.S. Intelligence.
"The assault upon the Jap-occupied Solomons," he went on presently,"will be a two part affair with land, sea, and air forces cooperatingthroughout. The first part will be the capture and holding of an airporton Guadalcanal Island. And the second part, which will be carried outsimultaneously with the first part, will be the capture of Tulagi onFlorida Island some twenty-two water miles north of Guadalcanal. That iswhat we have made plans and arrangements to carry out. However, a goodpart of whether we do it or not will depend upon you pilots."
The senior Intelligence officer paused again and for a moment let hiskeen eyes roam over the collection of faces before him.
"I doubt that any of you will be taking any active part in either of thetwo surprise attacks of which I've spoken," he suddenly hurled thethunderbolt at them. "Your job will be to find, checkmate, and stop coldJap forces that could prevent us from carrying out either of theseattacks successfully. To put it bluntly, we have information and datawhich indicates that a large Jap sea, land, and air force is forming attheir Truk Island base in the Carolinas preparatory to moving southagainst our positions on New Guinea, if not directly against Australiaitself. In fact, we believe that this huge Jap force is already on themove. But just exactly where it is, we can only guess. Your job, and thejob of those aboard the other carrier in this force, will be--to findthat Jap force _at all costs!_ We have got to find that force and eitherdestroy it or make it turn back. If we don't then thousands of Americansoldiers, sailors, and airmen will be forced to give up their lives invain. No matter what, you have got to find this Jap force that issomewhere between Truk Island and the New Guinea coast!"
As the colonel paused again, not a man moved. Not a man hardly so muchas breathed. Everyone sat motionless, eyes on the colonel's grave face,and thoughts fixed squarely upon the do or die order that had beenissued!