SOMEDAY SOON (14 page)

Koko’s heart began to thump when he realized
that with the river or wetlands so close there might be water
buffalo roaming about. He wondered if he could keep his nerve if
one of the huge beasts suddenly appeared and charged them. As
quietly as possible he worked the action of the rifle sending a
round up into the firing chamber and leveled the gun at the bushes
ahead. The noise in the scrub became even louder. Koko’s heart
raced faster. He tried desperately to stay calm. But when he
pressed the rifle-butt against his shoulder and held his forefinger
on the trigger his hands were trembling. And when he tried to
squint through the gun-sights, he couldn’t hold a line because the
barrel of the .303 was shaking so badly.

When at last the bushes suddenly parted only
about ten yards away, Koko was so startled he didn’t even feel the
weight of his finger on the trigger when the gun went off.
Instantly he felt a series of searing, stabbing pains and for just
a moment before he fell to the ground he stared in disbelief as a
soldier repeatedly fired a handgun at him from point blank
range.

Sunday turned and bounded away the moment
Koko fell. A hail of gunfire whistled around his ears as he dashed
back the way he and Koko had come. After a few minutes he emerged
unscathed from the thick scrub and looked back. When the soldiers
chasing him burst out into the open they were almost a hundred
yards behind him.

Sunday was still looking over his shoulder
when he saw the soldiers stop running. Now he was plainly visible
and a clear running target, the soldiers dropped to their knees and
took careful aim. He heard several well spaced shots but none found
their mark. He ran like the wind and was just beginning to think he
had outrun the soldier’s rifles when a lucky shot hit him in the
back of the head. Sunday was dead before he hit the ground.

*

‘They’ve been shot?’ Faith could hardly
believe her ears.

She sat opposite an Australian Militia Force
lieutenant inside a small clapboard administration hut on the
recently established Phelp River Aboriginal Control Camp. Outside
the hut, Monday and the half-caste girls sat in the dirt under the
watchful eyes of armed soldiers.

‘What did you expect my men to do, Miss
Brodie?’ the lieutenant snapped ‘It’s a bloody miracle none of my
soldiers were killed. They come under fire from an armed Japanese
and an Aborigine who were sneaking up on the control-camp for God
only knows what purpose. Did you expect us to offer them a cup of
tea or something?

‘
Are they badly hurt,
Lieutenant?’

‘The Japanese was shot several times in the
arms, shoulder and upper chest. He’s damn lucky to be alive. The
black is dead.’

Faith gasped. ‘What happens now?’

‘The Japanese will be taken to headquarters
in Katherine as soon as possible for interrogation, after which I
expect he will be transported south as a prisoner of war.’

‘Prisoner of war? I told you he’s an
Australian,’ Faith blurted out angrily. ‘He’s worked for my brother
for years. He’s no more the enemy than you are, Lieutenant.’

‘The Army will decide what he is or what he
isn’t, Miss Brodie,’ the lieutenant said dismissively. He stood up
from the desk. ‘In the meantime, I’ll make arrangements to get you
and your half-caste refugees up to the civilian authorities at
Roper Bar. They’ll make arrangements to get you all taken south.
But the full-blooded Aborigine you call Monday will be detained
here at the control camp, of course.’

By early May, 1942, with the surrender of
American forces in the Philippines, the seemingly invincible
military might of Imperial Japan had decimated the last real
resistance in the Far East. It occupied all the colonial
territories of Great Britain, Portugal and the Netherlands in the
region, had a toe-hold in New Guinea at Lae and Salamaua, and also
at Bougainville in the northern Solomons. Now the outstretched claw
of the samurai was about to close into an iron fist around the
throat of Australia and choke her into submission.

All that remained to be done before a
full-scale invasion of the sparsely populated island continent
could be launched, was for Japan to overrun the Australian forces
in Papua and the small garrison at Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands.
Once this was achieved, the Japanese could use Port Moresby’s
strategic airfield to mount a major offensive against Australia,
and establish bases in the Solomon Islands to block the movement of
American forces from US staging positions being set up in American
Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji and New Caledonia.

In April, American Intelligence in
Hawaii had intercepted and decoded Japanese naval signals learning
that a huge Japanese force was being assembled to proceed to Port
Moresby and Tulagi Island. In early May an allied fleet including
the Australian cruisers HMAS
Australia
and HMAS
Hobart
, gathered around the US aircraft
carriers
Lexington
and
Yorktown
in the Coral Sea to
intercept the Japanese invasion fleet.

On hearing the Japanese had landed at
Tulagi and the Australian garrison had withdrawn, the
Yorktown
and a few support vessels
sped north to engage the enemy. They sank a Japanese destroyer and
a few small vessels, but finding the main enemy fleet, including
the aircraft carriers
Zuikaku
and
Shokaku
and the
light carrier
Shoho,
had
already left the area, they raced back south to rejoin the
Lexington
and the allied fleet to
defend Port Moresby.

For three days carrier-based reconnaissance
aircraft from both fleets combed the Coral Sea looking for each
other. On the second day a few support vessels on each side were
sighted and sunk by torpedo bombers. On the third day both American
and Japanese reconnaissance aircraft located their respective
fleets and the Battle of the Coral Sea began.

For the first time in history, a naval
engagement was fought by carrier-based aircraft without warships
ever coming within sight of each other. By the time it was over,
serious losses were sustained by both fleets, including the
Japanese light carrier
Shoho
and the US carrier
Lexington
, which went to the bottom after taking
several direct hits from bombs and torpedoes, finally being
scuttled by a US destroyer. Aircraft losses were also high: nearly
a hundred were shot down on each side with six hundred Allied
personnel and over eleven hundred Japanese killed. On the eighth of
May, at the end of a long, brutal and bloody day, both commanding
Admirals withdrew their fleets from battle.

Although neither side could claim to be the
winner of the Battle of the Coral Sea, it was the first time in the
war that a Japanese invasion force had not achieved its objective.
For the time being Port Moresby, and perhaps Australia, had been
saved.

*

Joe heard the news of Coral Sea while waiting
to be interviewed at the Army recruiting office in Townsville.
Since his discharge from hospital, he had twice tried to enlist but
on both occasions the Army had told him to come back when he had a
doctor’s certificate saying that his arm had mended
satisfactorily.

Everyone in the recruiting office let out a
cheer when a grinning sergeant shouted out excitedly that a Jap
invasion fleet had been kicked ‘hard in the arse’ out in the Coral
Sea. Although there had been no official announcements, everybody
in Townsville had known for some time that something big was going
on. Fearing the worst, hundreds of residents had fled the city on
every available southbound train. For almost a week those that
remained had seen Allied reconnaissance planes, fighters and
bombers head out over the ocean from the RAAF station at Garbutt at
the crack of dawn each morning. Now everyone knew the reason
why.

When Joe’s name was called he walked over to
the sergeant brandishing his clearance from a local doctor. The
sergeant rose from his chair.

‘Brodie. Just the man I want to see. Come
with me.’

The sergeant led Joe to an office at the back
of the recruiting centre and knocked on the door.

‘Enter.’

The sergeant opened the office door. An
elderly Major sat at a desk inside.

‘This is Joe Brodie, sir.’ the sergeant
explained, ‘The bloke I was telling you about. The one who’s boat
got sunk by the Japs in the Gulf of Carpentaria.’

Joe’s eyebrows rose, surprised his story had
reached such high ranking ears. The sergeant withdrew leaving Joe
standing stiffly in front of the major’s desk.

‘
The sergeant told me all about your
run-in with the Japs, Brodie.’ The major said with a wry smile.
‘Must have been a hell of an experience. I spoke with the American
flyers at Garbutt who brought you in. They confirmed your
story.’

‘Did you talk to the RAAF, sir?’ Joe broke in
quickly. ‘The Yanks said they would tell them about a party of
evacuees I left at the mouth of the Rose River.’

‘Yes, as a matter of fact I did,’ the major
replied. ‘A squadron leader at the station told me they had a
Catalina fly over the old settlement you spoke of but there was no
sign of anyone there. Didn’t they tell you that?’

Joe shook his head ‘No, sir. It’s hard to get
any information out of the RAAF at Garbutt.’

‘Yes, well…’ The major unnecessarily cleared
his throat. ‘The boys in blue can be like that, Brodie. Kind of an
aloof lot. The American’s have got the right idea you know, making
the Air Force part of the Army. Anyway, let me tell you why I
wanted to talk to you.’ The officer hesitated just for a moment.
‘You do have your medical clearance, don’t you?’

Joe laid the doctor’s certificate down on the
desk.

The major’s eyes scanned the paper briefly
then laid it aside. ‘Very well. Now, Brodie, recently the Army
circulated a confidential memorandum to all units of the Imperial
Force and the Militia, requesting volunteers for a specialized
top-secret unit to serve in a sort of commando observer force
scattered all across the Top End. Its purpose is to keep our remote
northern coastline and inland waterways under constant observation,
report any Japanese movements, and impede and harass the enemy’s
progress inland if they land. Also the force will be on the lookout
for any fifth column activity. If we learned nothing else from
Darwin and Broome, it certainly came home to us that the Japs must
have a very efficient intelligence and spy network in place across
the Top End. Because of your extensive knowledge of our northern
coastline you would be ideally suited to this new force, Brodie.
What do you think?’

‘I was hoping to join the AIF, sir. After
seeing what happened in Darwin and my experience in the Gulf, I
just want to kill Japs.’

‘That’s what we all want to do, son. We all
want to be in the thick of it.’ The major sighed. ‘If I had my way,
I’d be with the AIF Ninth Division in the Middle East or with the
Militia up in Papua. I’ve seen combat you know, I fought in France
in the Great War. But this time my age is against me and the Army
thinks my place is behind a desk. They always deploy their
resources to the best advantage, you know. That’s why they need
young chaps like you in this new Top End force.’

‘I would have thought they’d do better with
experienced soldiers, sir.’

The major opened a desk draw and pulled out a
single sheet of paper and ran his eyes over it. ‘What they’ve asked
for here in this circular, Brodie, are volunteers who are fit,
between twenty and forty years of age, have bush experience,
possess initiative, intelligence, courage, and can handle small
firearms and horses. I reckon you qualify, don’t you?’

Joe managed a tight smile. ‘I’ve never ridden
a horse, sir.’

‘But you could if you had to, couldn’t
you?’

‘I suppose I could, sir.’

‘Good, I’ll put you down for this force
then?’

‘When would I actually be in the Army,
sir?’

‘In about five minutes, just as soon as you
sign the necessary papers.’

‘When will I get my first pay, sir? I had
eleven pounds in my shorts when the Yanks brought me to Townsville.
Now I’ve got six shillings and a hospital bill.’

‘The Army looks after its own, Brodie.’ The
major smiled reassuringly. ‘Just see the sergeant outside and sign
up.’

*

The orders given to Dan in Melbourne were to
report to the RAAF station at Amberley in Queensland. The station,
just thirty miles west of Brisbane, was an almost new facility
which already had a production line assembling fighter aircraft
shipped in crates from the United States. As an engineer, Dan had
been assigned to assist in streamlining the assembly procedure at
Amberley, and to see the system put in place in other strategic
locations as the supply of aircraft from America increased.

After three weeks at Amberley, Dan was sent
to Brisbane to set up a similar assembly depot. He found the
Queensland capital, like Melbourne, was bursting at the seams with
US military personnel. Most were raw Army recruits, housed in
various camps in and around the city. A high percentage were
Negroes, and in deference to the Queensland government and the
local authorities, segregated camps of the blacks were set up just
outside the city limits, with the central district and better
middle-class suburbs placed strictly off-limits to them.

The facility was to be at Archerfield, a
congested airfield on the edge of the city. In addition to being a
RAAF base, Archerfield also served as a commercial airport and
housed a pilots’ training school. Dan was assigned accommodation in
a nearby hotel and went to work right away. Soon Archerfield was
ready to begin assembly of its first shipment of P-40s which were
eagerly awaited by Australian and American pilots.