The Fighting Agents Part 1

The Fighting Agents.

by W.E.B. Griffin.

For Lieutenant Aaron Bank, Infantry, AUS, detailed OSS (later, Colonel, Special Forces) and Lieutenant William E. Colby, Infantry, AUS, detailed OSS (later, Amba.s.sador and Director, CIA) As Jedburgh Team Leaders operating in German-occupied France and Norway, they set the standards for valor, wisdom, patriotism, and personal integrity that thousands who followed in their steps in the OSS and CIA tried to emulate.

Prologue.

Since General Douglas MacArthur's departure for Australia from the Fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay was in compliance with a direct order from President and Commander -in-Chief Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it was the General's belief that the move was nothing more than a transfer of his headquarters. He believed, in other words, that the battered, outnumbered, starving U.S. and Philippine troops in the Philippine Islands would remain under his command.

He believed specifically that Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright, a tall, skinny cavalryman who had been his deputy, would, as regulations and custom prescribed, remain under his orders.

General MacArthur's last order to Wainwright-on the small wooden wharf at Corregidor just before MacArthur, his wife, his son, and a small staff boarded the boats that would take them away-was verbal: He told Wainwright to "hold on." Wainwright understood this to mean that he was forbidden to surrender.

Since he had been promised reinforcement and resupply of his beleaguered forces by Roosevelt himself, MacArthur believed that as long as the Fortress of Corregidor held out, Roosevelt would be forced to make good on his promise of reinforcement. The island of Luzon, including the capital city of Manila, had fallen to the j.a.panese. But there were upward of twenty thousand reasonably healthy, reasonably well-supplied troops under Major General William Sharp on the island of Mindanao. That force, MacArthur believed, could serve as the nucleus for the recapture of Luzon, once reinforcements came.

MacArthur accepted the possibility that Corregidor might fall. But if that should happen, he believed that Wainwright should move his three-starred, red general's flag and the other colors to Mindanao, a.s.sume command of General Sharp's troops, and continue the fight.

Before MacArthur reached Brisbane, however, traveling first by PT boat and then by B-17 aircraft, General Wainwright began to receive orders directly from Was.h.i.+ngton, from General George Catlett Marshall, the Chief of Staff.

General MacArthur and General Marshall were not friends. For instance, some time before the war when Marshall was a colonel at Fort Benning, MacArthur, then Chief of Staff of the Army, had officially described Marshall as unfit for command of a unit larger than a regiment. Several such incidents did not bring the two closer.

It was made clear to General Wainwright by the War Department that he was no longer subject to General Mac-Arthur's orders, and that the conduct of resistance in the Philippines was entirely his own responsibility.

Without MacArthur's knowledge or consent, the decision had already been made by President Roosevelt, acting with the advice of General Marshall and Brigadier General Dwight D. Eisenhower (who had once served as Mac-Arthur's deputy in the Philippines), that not only was reinforcement of the Philippines impossible-given the relative capabilities of the United States and Imperial j.a.panese navies-but that the first priority in the war was the conflict against the Germans in North Africa and Europe.

On May 1, 1942, there were thirteen thousand American and Philippine troops (on a three-eighths ration) in the granite tunnels of Corregidor Island. These included a large number of wounded and all the nurses evacuated from Luzon in order to spare them rape at the hands of the j.a.panese. That day, j.a.panese artillery fired sixteen thousand rounds at Corregidor, one heavy sh.e.l.l landing every five seconds. And that many sh.e.l.ls were fired the next day. And the next day. And the next.

On the night of May 5, 1942, when it became evident to General Wainwright that the j.a.panese were about to make an a.s.sault on the fortress, he radioed General Sharp and other commanders elsewhere in the Philippines, releasing them from his command.

Although most of the heavy coast artillery cannon on the island had already been destroyed by j.a.panese artillery, there were enough smaller cannon and automatic weapons still available to Wainwright's forces so that j.a.panese losses in the a.s.sault were severe. But the j.a.panese were both determined and courageous, and a foothold was gained.

The fall of Corregidor was no longer in doubt.

There was nothing to be gained by further resistance. In fact, further resistance would have meant that the j.a.panese would have trained cannon at the mouth of Malinta Tunnel. These would have swept the tunnel clean of nurses and wounded and the rest of the garrison as effectively as a hose was.h.i.+ng down a drainage pipe.

Wainwright sent his aide, carrying a white flag, and a staff officer to treat with the enemy.

Soon after that, General Wainwright met with his counterpart, Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, on the porch of a small, bullet-pocked frame house on Luzon. The shaven-headed Homma, although he spoke fluent English, addressed Wainwright through an interpreter.

Homma was not interested in the surrender of Corregidor. He demanded the absolute, unconditional surrender of all American troops in the Philippine Islands. If General Wainwright were not prepared to offer absolute surrender of all U.S. forces, he would resume tactical operations. By this, he clearly meant wiping out the Corregidor garrison.

Accompanied by a j.a.panese lieutenant named Kano, who had been educated in New Jersey, General Wainwright was taken in a captured Cadillac to the studios of radio station KZRH in Manila. There he broadcast a message to all commanders of all U.S. military and naval forces in the Philippines. As senior U.S. officer in the Philippines, he ordered all American forces to immediately suspend hostile action and to make all preparations to surrender to the Imperial j.a.panese Army.

Not all Americans chose to obey General Wainwright's final order.

I.

1.

HEADQUARTERS, MINDANAO-VISAYAN FORCE UNITED STATES FORCES IN THE PHILIPPINES 28 DECEMBER 1942.

Brigadier General Wendell W. Fertig, Commanding, Mindanao-Visayan Force, wore two items not commonly seen on general officers of the U.S. Army: a goatee with mustache and a cone-shaped, woven-reed hat perched at a c.o.c.ky angle on his head. From this dangled what looked like a native bracelet.

General Fertig, a trim, red-haired man of forty-one, was not a professional soldier. He had not gone to West Point; rather, he had entered the military service of the United States just over a year before, directly commissioned as Captain, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Reserve. The U.S. Army in the Philippines had been delighted to have the services of an experienced civil engineer, in particular one who was familiar with the Philippines. When he had entered the Army, Fertig had sent his wife and family to safety in Colorado.

From the time of the j.a.panese invasion until the surrender ordered by General Wainwright on May 5, 1942, Fertig had been primarily involved in the demolition-usually by explosive-of roads, bridges and tunnels, supply and petrol dumps, and other facilities to deny their use to the enemy. Many of the facilities he destroyed he had built before the war.

On May 5, 1942-by then twice promoted-Lt. Colonel Fertig willfully and with full knowledge of the consequences elected to disobey the lawful order of his military superior, Lt. General Jonathan Wainwright, to immediately cease hostile action against the Imperial j.a.panese Army and to make all preparations to surrender.

He went instead into the mountains of Mindanao, with every intention of waging what hostile action he could against the j.a.panese. With him at the beginning were Captain Charles Hedges, another newly commissioned reserve officer of the Army, Chief Petty Officer Ellwood Orfett, USN, and Private Robert Ball, USA.

Things did not go well at first for the little group. To avoid j.a.panese capture, they had to live in the jungle, eating what they could find there. Or else they ate the native food Moro tribesmen furnished them every now and again-at the risk of their lives.

Once, they watched from the jungle as a long line of American prisoners-their officers bareheaded and with their arms tied behind them-were moved to a prison camp.

Although they encountered some yet-to-surrender Philippine troops, there was no rush to Fertig's colors. Most of the Filipinos, in and out of uniform, sadly suggested to them that the war was over and that the only logical course for the ragtag quartet to follow was to surrender.

But Fertig, if personally modest, had a somewhat grand notion of the role he could play in the war. He kept a diary, which has survived, and in it, in a rice paddy near Moray, he wrote: "I am called on to lead a resistance movement against an implacable enemy under conditions that make victory barely possible. . . . But I feel . . . my course is charted and that only success lies at the end of the trail. . . . If we are to win only part of the time and gain a little each time, in the end we will be successful."

Lt. Colonel Fertig gave a good deal of thought to the reluctance of the Filipinos and other Americans who had not surrendered to join him. He finally concluded that this was because they quite naturally thought he was simply one more middle-level bra.s.s hat, one more American civilian temporarily commissioned into the Army.

They would, on the other hand, follow a real soldier, he realized. He improved on this: If there were a general officer general officer who announced himself as the official representative of the United States and Philippine governments, that individual would command the respect of everybody. who announced himself as the official representative of the United States and Philippine governments, that individual would command the respect of everybody.

On October 1, 1942, on the back of a Delinquent Tax Notice, Fertig wrote a proclamation in pencil and nailed it to a tree: A Moro silversmith hammered out two five-pointed stars-the rank insignia of a brigadier general-from silver dollars, and Fertig pinned them to his collar points.

It was likely, Fertig knew, that his proclamation would be blown by the wind from the tree before anyone saw it. Or if it stayed on the tree (the distribution list, for instance, was a bluff; the delinquent tax form was the only sheet of paper he had), that whoever read it would either laugh or conclude there was a crazy American running loose.

But two days later, as the quartet was walking along the beach beside a Mindanao jungle, ready to rush in and hide if j.a.panese soldiers appeared, a wiry little Moro wearing vestiges of a uniform and carrying a Model 1917 Enfield U.S. Army rifle stepped into view. And then others appeared, until there were almost two hundred of them.

The wiry little Moro saluted crisply and in the best English he could manage informed General Fertig that he and his men were at the General's orders, and with respect, could he suggest they go into the jungle, for there were j.a.panese just a short distance down the beach.

Soon other Filipinos appeared, as well as other Americans who had decided to take their chances in the mountains and the jungles rather than enter j.a.panese captivity. No one seemed to question the stars on Fertig's collar points; they all seemed happy to be able to place themselves under the orders of someone who knew what he was doing.

A reasonably safe headquarters was established. Though it was not defensible, it was in a location that would be invisible from the air and difficult to locate on the ground. And even if located, it would be very difficult to surround. If j.a.panese appeared, Fertig and his forces would be able to vanish into the mountains before the j.a.panese got close.

Remaining free was the first priority.

The second priority, as Fertig saw it, was to make his presence known to others who had not surrendered and who could join his forces; to the j.a.panese, who would be obliged to tie down forces on a ratio of at least seven to one in order to look for and contain him; and to the U.S. Army.

There were risks involved in making the U.S. Army aware of what he was doing. For one thing, he simply might be ordered to surrender. He thus decided that if such an order came, he would not acknowledge it. For another, the U.S. Army was likely to frown both on his self-promotion to brigadier general and on the authority he had vested in himself to take command of Mindanao and proclaim martial law.

Fertig decided that these risks had to be taken. There was simply no way he could arm a guerrilla force as large as he envisioned by stealing arms from the j.a.panese. And the only possible source of arms was the U.S. Army, which could either make airdrops or possibly send a submarine. And then on top of that, just about as important as arms was medicine, especially quinine. And the only possible source of medicine was the Army.

What he really needed most of all was money. Not green-backs. Gold. Preferably twenty-dollar gold coins. Lots of twenty-dollar gold coins. With them he could pay his troops, which would lend sorely needed credence to Brigadier General Fertig and his authority. And he could buy food and possibly medicine, and make gifts to Moro chieftains and others who could thereby be persuaded to help him.

There was one major problem with informing the U.S. Army of the existence of the Mindanao-Visayan force of United States forces in the Philippines: Headquarters, USFIP, had no radio. And if it could somehow get hold of a radio, it had no generator to power it. And if USFIP came into possession of a radio and a generator, and could somehow begin to transmit, there was a very good possibility that the U.S. Army Signal Corps radio operators in the States would not reply. They would presume that the j.a.panese were playing games with them, because any message from legitimate American forces would be encrypted, that is, sent in code.

Acting on the authority he had vested in himself, Fertig commissioned Chief Petty Officer Orfett and Private Ball as second lieutenants. Lieutenant Orfett was put in charge of a deserted coconut-oil mill. Coconut oil could be sold or bartered. Lieutenant Ball was appointed signal officer, USFIP, and ordered to establish communications with the U.S. Army in Australia. He was to use his own judgment in determining how this could be best accomplished.

Lieutenant Ball appointed as his chief radio operator a Filipino high school boy by the name of Gerardo Almendres. Almendres, before war came, had completed slightly more than half of a correspondence course in radiotelephony. Using the correspondence course schematic diagrams as a guide, Almendres set about building a shortwave transmitter. Most of his parts came from the sound system of a motion picture projector that had been buried to keep it out of j.a.panese hands.

A boatload of recruits from Luzon arrived. It comprised the remnants of a Philippine Scout Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment: six master sergeants, one of them an American. With them they had an American captain who had deserted USAFFE, U.S. Army Forces, Far East, and taken to the jungles, rather than face certain capture on Corregidor.

The captain, Horace B. Buchanan, USMA '34, a slight, balding man showing signs of malnutrition, provided the second item necessary to establish communication with the U.S. Army in Australia. It was a small metal box bearing a bra.s.s identification tag on which was stamped: SECRET Device, cryptographic, m94 serial number 145. It is absolutely forbidden to remove this device from its a.s.signed secure cryptographic facility SECRET General Fertig had never seen one before. He found it fascinating.

It consisted of twenty-five aluminum disks. Each disk was about the size of a silver dollar and just a little thicker. The disks were stacked together and laid on their edges, so they could rotate independently on an axle. The stack of disks was about five inches long. On the outside of each disk there was printed an alphabet, sometimes A, B, C in proper sequence and sometimes with the characters in a random order.

"How does it work?" Fertig asked.

Captain Buchanan showed him.

Each of the disks was rotated until they all spelled out, horizontally on the "encrypt-decrypt line," the first twenty-five characters of the message they were to transmit. That left the other lines spelling out gibberish.

Cryptographic facilities were furnished a Top Secret doc.u.ment, known as the SOI (Signal Operating Instructions) . Among other things, the SOI prescribed the use of another horizontal line, called the "genatrix," for use on a particular day. The gibberish on the genatrix line was what was sent over the air.

Actually, Buchanan explained, the SOI provided for a number of genatrix lines, for messages usually were far longer than twenty-five characters. The genatrix lines were selected at random. One day, for example, Lines 02, 13, 18, 21, 07, and so on were selected, and Lines 24, 04, 16, 09, 09, and so on, the next.

When the message was received, all the decrypt operator had to do was consult his SOI for that day's genatrix lines. He would then set the first twenty-five characters of the gibberish received on that genatrix line on his Device, Cryptographic, M94, and the decrypted message would appear on the encrypt-decrypt line. He would then move to the next prescribed genatrix line and repeat the process until the entire message had been decrypted.

The forehead of the red-goateed brigadier general creased thoughtfully.

Buchanan read his mind.

"In an emergency, Sir," Buchanan said, "in the absence of an SOI, there is an emergency procedure. A code block . . ."

"A what?" Fertig asked.

"A five-character group of letters, Sir," Buchanan explained, "is included as the third block of the five five-character blocks in the first twenty-five characters. That alerts the decrypt operator to the absence of an SOI."

"And then what?"

"First, there is a standard emergency genatrix line sequence. The message will then be decrypted. The receiving station will then attempt to determine the legitimacy of the sender by other means."

"Such as?"

"His name, for one thing. Then the maiden name of his wife's mother, the name of his high school princ.i.p.al, or his children. Personal data that would not be available to the enemy."

General Fertig nodded.

"You are a very clever fellow, Buchanan," Fertig said. "You are herewith appointed cryptographic officer for United States forces in the Philippines."

That left two connected problems. The first was to get Gerardo Almendres's International Correspondence School transmitter-receiver up and running. That would require electrical power, and that translated to mean a generator would be required.

Buchanan had no idea how that could be handled, but both he and Lt. Ball suggested that perhaps Master Sergeant George Withers might be of help. Withers was the NCOIC (noncommissioned officer in charge) of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment on whose boat Buchanan had escaped from Luzon. He was a competent fellow; master sergeants of the Regular U.S. Army are almost by definition highly knowledgeable and resourceful. He had, after all, managed to acquire and hide the boat and bring his detachment safely to Mindanao on it.

Master Sergeant Withers was summoned.

He was obviously uncomfortable, and after some gentle prodding, General Fertig got him to blurt out: "The truth of the matter is, General, I'm not sure I'm a master sergeant."

"Would you care to explain that, Sergeant?"

Withers explained that he had been a staff sergeant a.s.signed to an Army ammunition depot on Luzon when he had been suddenly transferred to a Philippine Scout Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment.

"There was fifteen Scouts, General . . . we lost ten before we finally got out. Anyway, Sir, two of them was technical sergeants. They didn't know nothing about explosives, they'd come out of the Twenty-sixth Cavalry with Lieutenant Whittaker when it got all shot up and was disbanded."

"Lieutenant Whittaker? A cavalry officer? Was he killed, too?" General Fertig asked.

"No, Sir, and he wasn't a cavalry officer, either. He was a fighter pilot. They put him in the cavalry after they ran out of airplanes, and then they put him to work blowing things up when the Twenty-sixth Cavalry got all shot up and they butchered their horses for rations. He was a f.u.c.king artist with TNT . . ."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know," Withers said. "The bra.s.s on Corregidor sent for him. That's where we got Captain Buchanan. He was sent to fetch Lieutenant Whittaker, and he talked Lieutenant Whittaker into letting him come with us."

It made sense, Fertig thought, Fertig thought, that a demolitions expert . . . "a f.u.c.king artist with TNT" . . . would be summoned to Corregidor to practice his art just before the fortress fell. Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d, if he wasn't dead, he was now in a prison camp. With a little bit of luck, he could be here, and free. USFIP could use a f.u.c.king artist with TNT. that a demolitions expert . . . "a f.u.c.king artist with TNT" . . . would be summoned to Corregidor to practice his art just before the fortress fell. Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d, if he wasn't dead, he was now in a prison camp. With a little bit of luck, he could be here, and free. USFIP could use a f.u.c.king artist with TNT.

"You were telling me, Sergeant," General Fertig said, "about your rank."

"Yes, Sir. Well, Lieutenant Whittaker thought that since I knew about explosives, and the Scouts didn't, it would be awkward with two of the Scouts outranking me, so he said, right when I first reported to him, that I had been promoted to master sergeant. I'm not sure he had the authority to do that, Sir. I wasn't even on the technical sergeant promotion list."

Sgt. Withers looked at General Fertig for the general's reaction. His face bore the look of a man who has made a complete confession of his sins and has prepared himself for whatever fate is about to send his way.

"Sergeant Withers," General Fertig said. "You may consider that your promotion in the field, by my authority, has been confirmed and is now a matter of record."

"Yes, Sir," Sgt. Withers said. "Thank you, General."

"The reason I asked you in here, Sergeant," General Fertig said, "is to ask for your thoughts on a problem we have. We have need of a source of electrical power."

"What for, Sir?"

"To power our radio transmitter."

Withers hardly hesitated.