1943

Chapter 1

The plan that had brought the Admirals together had been a long time coming, first hammered out in the shipyards as the workers hastened to get new carriers to sea; then hammered out between the senior officers on every side, eventually refereed by Roosevelt himself.

It was a plan as much born of necessity as it was from any sense of strategy. The enemy had pushed as far as the Allies could permit, and there was no more ground they could afford to give. That was as true now in the Pacific as it had been for the Russians that winter. It was time to dig in, to hold on, and then to start pushing back.

At the Washington conference in early December of 1942, the Allies had met to discuss strategy in the Pacific, and assign responsibilities for the defense of that area. At that time, the 180th meridian, which was the dividing line between the east and west hemisphere, was selected as the demarcation point. The US would defend everything to the east of that line, and the Commonwealth everything to the west. That soon became impractical, when it was seen that the real thrust of the Japanese offensive fell to the west of that line, and that the Commonwealth was wholly incapable of stopping it. Now Admirals King and Nimitz had to decide how to intervene, and more, how to prosecute this war against Japan.

It was Napoleon who once remarked that: “The passage from the defensive to the offensive is one of the most delicate operations of war.” Now King and Nimitz had to undertake that operation. They had done everything possible to defend the few islands that still remained, and with the overall goal of keeping the vital lines of communications open to Australia. There sat MacArthur, simmering and steaming, writing off directives and demands for the eyes of Roosevelt himself. To take that passage from defense to offense, there were two clear routes open that became the subject of heated discussion.

MacArthur wanted to use Australia as his springboard to attack Papua New Guinea, then seize the Bismarcks, advance up the eastern coast of New Guinea to then attack the Philippines, followed by Formosa. This would not only eliminate the strong Japanese presence in these areas, but also cut off all the Japanese possessions in the Dutch East Indies, and establish a link to China, where it was thought that the US could then assist the Chinese War effort against the bulk of the Japanese Army on the ground. Yet to Nimitz and King, that road looked like a long and difficult slog against the bulk of the Japanese forces committed to the South Pacific.

“Halsey had just enough force in hand to stop the Japanese,” said Nimitz, “but it cost us Lexington, Yorktown, Saratoga, and Wasp. Thankfully, we hurt the enemy too, and they lost four of their big carriers as well. So you might call it a draw, but it was a near run thing. We were barely able to get enough forces to Fiji in time to stop them from taking Suva. Now, however, the buildup there has led to parity, and with the arrival of 2nd Marine Division in theater, we’ll have an edge for the first time on the ground.”

To get that edge, the Army had contributed the 23rd “Pacifica” Division, which had once been called the “Americal” Division in the old History. It was holding the south coast of the island, along the important Queen’s Road that connected Suva to the west coast ports of Nandi and Lautouka. The Army 37th Division, the first to arrive in early 1942, was now holding the large secondary island of Vanua Levu, where the US was actively building numerous airfields to insure air superiority over the islands, even if no US carriers could be on hand. That was an expedient forced upon them by the fact that the carriers lost in the early actions had so diminished US naval power, that the fleet had to be withdrawn to Pago Pago in the Samoa group, and Tahiti.

“Now we have three divisions tied down in the Fiji Group,” said King. “They put in two on the main island, the 38th and 48th, all troops they used to take the Philippines. After what they did to MacArthur in the Philippines, I’ll be honest and say I had my doubts we could hold Fiji at all.”

“Our Marines are tough hombres,” said Nimitz. “That was what made the difference. And this time we have enough fighters at Suva to contest and hold the airspace over that island, but that may not last forever.”

“Alright,” said King, “So we laid on the ropes for the last half of 42. Now it’s time to start punching again. But we may have to land one on MacArthur’s chin before we get things moving. First off, he wants command over the whole shebang, including our two Marine divisions. Well, to hell with that. I’ve insisted that you be named overall commander of all naval forces, and that includes the Marines. The Army can follow up and occupy positions we take, and MacArthur can run that operation.”

“MacArthur won’t like that one bit,” said Nimitz. “He’ll say we’re trying to steal the whole show out here and relegate the Army, and his own illustrious self, to a secondary role.” He’s been insisting on his drive to Rabaul, which is complete lunacy at this stage. We can’t contemplate such moves until we have Fiji and Noumea. Can you imagine trying to lift three divisions out of Australia through the Coral Sea with Japanese air power right there in New Caledonia? It’s madness.”

“MacArthur was quick to clarify his position last week,” said King. “He says he never had any intention of striking at Rabaul before we had obtained favorable positions in the Solomons and on the east coast of Papua New Guinea, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon.”

“Agreed,” said Nimitz. “Frankly, all this talk of an offensive now is premature in my view. We still haven’t licked the Japanese Navy, and until we do that, our own carriers won’t be able to go after places like Noumea and beat them down. So it’s going to come down to another big rodeo with the Kido Butai, and this time we’ve got to come out on top.”

“Right,” said King. “With the addition of the three new Essex Class carriers, we’ve reached parity again. We can out build them, which argues we might continue to wait for more carriers to gain an advantage, but we’ve been dragging our feet long enough. I’ve obtained permission from the President and Joint Chiefs to commit the Navy to offensive operations. The only question now is where?”

“Let’s look at this from the other side,” said Nimitz. “What will Yamamoto do? He’s taken Ceylon, and that really has the British up in arms, and he’s reinforced his troops on Fiji. It’s clear that they mean to consolidate and hold everything they’ve taken. Noumea is getting more supplies to sustain that operation, and they’ve started moving fighters from the New Hebrides to Nandi and Tavua on Fiji. At the same time, they’re starting to build up forces at Tulagi in the Solomons.”

“So we have to hit these operations, and strike at his line of communications to Fiji,” said King. “That’s where he’s placed most of his chips. The Japanese have more ground troops there than they have in all the rest of the south. I say we try and saw off that tree limb, and cut the supply lines to Fiji.”

“Their base at Noumea is a good location for logistical support. They run supplies down from Rabaul through the Coral Sea, and then from Noumea to Fiji. They moved bombers there, but it’s still too far for them to really bother us in the Fiji group. For that, they’ll need to build up in the New Hebrides, and so I think we ought to hurt them right there, at Efate and Luganville. Tulagi is secondary, but we ought to hit it too.”

“So what do you propose?”

“I’ll want the new Essex Carrier Group under Halsey, and have him move down to Baker Island. Spruance has the Enterprise and Hornet there, and that will give us all five fleet carriers. As for the escort carriers, I’ll send them in as advanced scout groups to try and locate the enemy carriers before they find us first. I’ll form up the fleet carriers here, northwest of the New Hebrides. That will put them outside of the range of Jap air power in the Fijis and Noumea. We pound Efate and Luganville, and put a stop to their development of those bases. That will get their attention, and they’ll likely come at us from the west of those islands. Remember that little affair the first week of the war with the Pensacola Convoy? That just might be a template for how this thing could shape up—the Second Battle of the New Hebrides. Rey, that’s the center of the board. Hell, if I had those two Marine Divisions free, that’s where I’d hit them next, and forget about MacArthur and his delusion of taking Rabaul for at least another six months.”

That put a light in Admiral King’s eye, for it was a plan he had contemplated himself, and Nimitz had come to the same conclusion. If the Navy was going to have any offensive punch beyond hitting enemy ports and airfields, it needed those two Marine Divisions, and free and clear of MacArthur’s interference. Yet there was MacArthur, clamoring for carriers, planning his attack towards Papua, as if the Fiji problem was simply beneath his notice, something the Navy had done to encumber his Army divisions with garrison duty.

“The only way we’d be able to free up the Marines is if MacArthur agreed to take over the fight on Fiji. That would mean he’d have to bring in two of his three divisions to stand in for our Marines. You think he’d agree to that?”

“It would throw the whole ground offensive to him,” said Nimitz, “just what his lordship wants. And it would leave the Marine divisions under our control, and give us freedom to move.”

“I like it,” said King. “In fact, I had the very same idea, and now I think I’ll take it to Marshall.”

“How will you get him to agree?”

“Oh, I’m an old cuss if ever there was one. I’ll just dig in my heels and refuse to relinquish command of the Marines to MacArthur. Then, when the whole thing is at loggerheads, I’ll let it slip that if MacArthur and the Army want to run the show then he ought to move his own troops in. Marshall will bite at that. He’s a master of the art of compromise. If I let slip that he has an opening there, he’ll run with it.”

“Good enough,” said Nimitz. “But realize this will delay things a bit. It will take time to swap out divisions, even if MacArthur agrees, so that means we’re likely looking at January of 43 before we can roll.”

“The carriers won’t be ready till then anyway.”

“Yes, but realize this would mean MacArthur would also have to abandon his idea about moving through the Coral Sea to Papua New Guinea.”

“Well, all we can do is offer the compromise. Let’s see what Marshall and the Joint Chiefs say about it.” King knew the final decision would have to rest there with the Joint Chiefs.

“You realize this also assumes we can control the waters around the Fiji Group during the transition,” said Nimitz.

“We’ll just have to time it right, so we’ll need good reconnaissance. The Japs have been rotating carriers to cover Fiji, but occasionally they pull everything back to Truk or Rabaul. We find a window like that, and Spruance can move in quick from Pago Pago and we can get the 25th Division to Suva. The Marines can get on those same boats and off they go. Give them a few weeks in Samoa to rest up, bring in the 2nd Marines, and we’re ready to go to bat against the Japs with more punch than just those carriers.”

“That’s where this business regarding Efate and Luganville matters,” said Nimitz. “If they take the bait and move the Kido Butai in to contest that operation, then we damn well have to beat them there. If we don’t, then it comes down to the ground battle for Fiji, and we’ll have to put the Marines right back where they started. We won’t be able to cover any major move of other divisions from Australia either. So everything hinges on the carriers. We’ve simply got to win this next fight.”

“I have every confidence in that,” said King. “Halsey did a fine job when he mixed it up with the Japs. Yes, we got hurt, but he landed a lot of leather on them, and they damn well felt it. My bet is that he’ll do the same this time out. Even if we do get hurt again, he’ll hammer them darn good and send them packing for Rabaul or Truk to lick their wounds. That’s when I want those two Marine Divisions ready to move. We’ve got those three fast battleships at Pago Pago. They can lead in an assault and we can take ground.”

“In the New Hebrides?”

“Where else? If we take Efate and Luganville on Espiritu Santo, then we start flanking Noumea and also throw up a defensive front there to protect our shipping to Fiji and Samoa. With those two Marine Divisions, we can take both those islands. You know damn well the Japs will build up there soon. Their bombers can operate there and raid Suva every day. Noumea is just too far for them to do that now, and basing bombers on Fiji itself is too risky. We hit their airfields damn near every day, just like they hit Suva.”

“It’s risky,” said Nimitz. “If we put those Marines into the New Hebrides, we’ll have to be able to support them.”

“That’s why this next carrier fight matters so much. In the meantime, I’ve got to win the fight against MacArthur first.”

King took the whole plan to Marshall, and in the sly way he had devised, a mix of fiery intransigence and then laying out his suggestion about MacArthur taking over the whole operation on Fiji. Marshall bit, just as he thought, and the Joint Chiefs agreed to the idea. The only obstacle now was MacArthur, and Marshall’s skill as a negotiator became invaluable. He ordered MacArthur to meet him in Pearl Harbor to see if he could hammer out a final agreement.

“Fiji?” said MacArthur. “We ought to be hitting Noumea with my troops. That will allow us to cover the flank of my move on Papua New Guinea.”

“True, but we aren’t ready to hit Noumea yet—not with two Japanese divisions and air squadrons behind us on Fiji. Besides, there are political considerations here. When the Japanese took Port Moresby and bombed Darwin, the Australians yanked three divisions out of the Middle East and, lo and behold, we lost Java, Burma, and Ceylon. Now they’ve jumped on Fiji, and folks down in New Zealand are afraid the enemy will be on their doorstep tomorrow morning. They want to recall their 2nd New Zealand Division from North Africa, and that has Churchill all in a tither again. Don’t you see? The New Zealanders see Fiji as their northern shield. If that falls, then what’s to stop the Japs from pushing right down through the Kermadec Islands to Auckland, or even Wellington? By god, from there they would control the Tasman Sea and cut off all shipping to Melbourne and Brisbane. We simply can’t allow that, so we need Fiji before we move any further. The Joint Chiefs agree, and they want you to kick the Japanese behinds out of there.”

“Me? The Army only has the 23rd Division in that fight. I thought the Marines were going to do the job there.”

“1st Marine did the heavy lifting,” said Marshall. “They landed in the thick of things last summer and stopped the Japanese push for Suva. Now we have the center and east, but the Japs control the west end of the island. The Joint Chiefs want you to take full authority there and wrap things up.”

“Including the Marines?”

“There’s the rub,” said Marshall. “Admiral King wants Nimitz to retain control of the two Marine Divisions.”

“Dual command? That won’t do at all. It’ll muddle the whole operation up. It’s already bad enough that we have both Army Air Squadrons and Marine Squadrons at Suva.”

“That can’t be helped. When the carriers pulled out we had to rely on those airfields, and threw every good fighter squadron we had in there.”

“Why doesn’t King just land the 2nd Marine Division and finish up there, while I plan for Noumea and New Guinea?”

“Because that would mean we’d have to take the 23rd Division away from you, and probably the 37th as well—unity of command and all…”

“What? Those are Army Divisions. You can’t seriously be contemplating turning them over to Navy control.”

“No, what we want is for you to take over. King wants to pull the 1st Marine Division off, and move in the 25th Infantry from Pago Pago. He wants offensive capability for the Navy to threaten the New Hebrides. So here’s what the Joint Chiefs have decided. You’ll take the 23rd, 37th, and 25th. Then pick anything else you have in the nest at Brisbane, and the Navy has agreed to move it to Suva at the first opportunity. You’ll have all the force you need to stomp on the Japanese and wrap this thing up. At the same time, King wants to take his Marines in to go after Efate and Luganville. That flanks Noumea, and then you move from Fiji to take that place. After that, we roll with your plan to move north, but we simply have to clean house on Fiji first. I’ve taken this to the President as well, and he’s approved the whole thing. So that’s the offer. You can either step in now and lead, or I’ll have to turn it over to Nimitz and the Marines. In that case, we can do nothing for you until that operation concludes, and you and all your forces, will just be sitting there in Brisbane twiddling your thumbs for another two or three months.”

MacArthur frowned. “Yet if we committed those same troops to New Caledonia, Fiji would be bypassed and fall like ripe fruit. They couldn’t supply it any longer.”

“Says who? That depends on the Navy, and there’s no guarantee we can assure naval control of those sea lanes. The President doesn’t want that. He wants certainty. He wants something more direct. With Churchill foaming at the mouth and New Zealand clamoring for help, would you leave such a strong enemy force unfought in your rear like that?”

It was an argument MacArthur would once make when the Navy would propose bypassing the Philippines later in the war, and he was silent for a moment, taking a long drag on his iconic pipe. “I’ll have complete authority there?” he asked again.

“It’ll be your show,” said Marshall. “And your headlines as well.” He smiled.

“Alright,” said MacArthur. “I’ll agree, but on one condition. After I take Fiji, we go for Noumea as I’ve already planned.”

“I think I can sell that,” said Marshall.

So it was decided. Marshall had one the first battle, ending the long simmering rivalry between his Theater Commanders, and now they could finally face the real enemy, Imperial Japan.

Chapter 2

The Japanese Operation FS had been a shock to both sides. As it struggled to stop the enemy, the American Navy had been just good enough to inflict serious harm on the Kido Butai, prompting Yamamoto to withdraw his carriers to refit and replenish at Truk and Rabaul. At the same time, Halsey had been hospitalized and Spruance took over with the last two US flattops, Enterprise and Hornet. His orders were to preserve those ships at all costs, and so he would be restricted to light raiding against Japanese supply convoys, and had to withdraw at the approach of any enemy carrier force.

For their part, the Japanese wanted no further carrier action in late 1942, concentrating on both their northern front in the Sea of Okhotsk, and then in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean for their highly successful operation to seize Ceylon and drive the British fleet back to Madagascar. In the Fiji Group, they would send one carrier division to watch over supply runs to Nandi Bay, but did not willfully seek out their enemy. All eyes were now on the land battle joined on the big island of Viti Levu, but it did not go as the Japanese had planned and hoped.

For the Army, the shock of seeing the Sakaguchi Detachment halted as it advanced on Suva from the north, then seeing it pushed back to Tavua by the American Marines, was yet another unexpected development. This was the Army that had overcome 100,000 British and Commonwealth troops in Malaya. Until that last stubborn defense put up by Montgomery on Singapore Island, it had been an unbeatable force in every engagement. Now it found itself retreating from American Marines, the burn of shame hot on the back of Sakaguchi’s neck. This had not happened in the Philippines, or anywhere else. That it happened there on far flung Fiji was most alarming.

The Army’s reaction was swift and predictable. Yamamoto first thought that they would claim the objective was too distant to adequately support the troops, and then blame the defeat on the Navy, but that was not what happened. Their pride and honor at stake, they doubled down, calling on some of the very same divisions that had delivered those stunning early victories. A single regiment had not been enough they realized. Now, with at least two American Divisions landed in the Fiji Group, they would need a much stronger force to prevail. Sakaguchi was ordered to dig in a little east of Tavua in the north and await reinforcements.

The 38th Division had taken Hong Kong, the 48th had taken Manila, then both had stormed into the Dutch East Indies, sweeping through Borneo and on to Java. They were quickly sent to the fight, the 38th arriving first, and Army planners smiled to note that the 38th Division, with only two regiments landed on the main island, had nonetheless taken Nandi and pushed south to Queen’s Road, driving the two Fiji Brigades before them as they expected. Then they met the Americans.

In this instance, it was the 23rd Pacifica Division, certainly every bit as raw and untested as any of the US divisions shipped so hastily to the Pacific Theater. Yet Alexander ‘Sandy’ Patch had his entire outfit, the last regiment shipping in from Tonga, and he had a mission—eliminate all Japanese forces operating in the Fiji Island Group. Before he could do that, he had to show the enemy who was boss on Viti Levu, and used the sheer mass of the force he had in hand to halt the Japanese advance, which was exactly what he did.

The Japanese reacted by first claiming the 38th Division was lacking its third regiment, and pressed the Navy to deliver. In their eyes, it was the lack of transport shipping, and ill-coordinated maneuvers by the Navy that were the root of the problem. Once ashore, however, there could be no further excuses. The 38th was indeed stopped at the line of the Singatana River, and then, when the Marines had pushed the Sakaguchi Detachment in the north to the point of near collapse, considerable forces had to be withdrawn from the south and sent by rail to hold the line just east of Tavua.

It was clear that more forces were required, and when the Navy finally delivered the 48th Division, the heroes of Manila relieved the remainder of the 38th Division, and took over defense of the south, but considerable amounts of ground had been yielded in the process. The Americans, with troops closer at hand in New Zealand, Tonga, and Samoa, and a good harbor at Suva Bay, had simply been able to deliver more forces to the island at a critical time to tip the balance in their favor. By the time the whole of the 48th Division was on the island, the Japanese defensive line had been established at Momi Bay on the southwest coast. There they dug in, receiving much needed supplies and waiting for their artillery to be delivered in the final convoys of late December. Now it was time to fight again.

Strategically, the Japanese only controlled about a third of the island as 1943 dawned. The last month of 1942 had seen the US relieve the 1st Marine Division with the 25th “Tropic Lightning” Division from Pago Pago, and it was now holding the line against General Sano’s 38th, about 10 kilometers east of the airfield and port at Tavua in the north. From there, roads led south into the highlands, where the Japanese had found a valuable resource in the gold mine near Vatukoula, and the General had a full battalion working there to pull whatever they could from the mine and stockpile it at the west coast ports for shipment to Japan. The newly arrived 48th Division held the western third of the island, and those ports were at Lautoka, Nandi, and the smaller landing facilities at Momi Bay.

General Shuichi Miyazaki, Chief of Staff for 17th Army, had come ashore personally to direct the landings, with his HQ at Lautoka. He reported directly to the Army Commander, General Harukichi Hyakutake in Rabaul. Midway between Tavua and Nandi, Lautoka was connected to both of those sites by the single rail line on the island, a real advantage that the Japanese now possessed in being able to shift forces back and forth from one front to another. The limited rolling stock was therefore a prime target for US planes based at Suva, and many duels were fought over those thin steel rails, with Japanese planes flying from the main field at Nandi. That air duel was a prelude to the ground action that would soon follow, for with the carriers absent, both sides had been relying on land based air power to try and wrest control of the airspace from each other.

The Japanese had a small field at Tavua, and a better one at M’ba (pronounced ‘Emba’), some miles to the east. Then their main field was at Nandi, where Late December had seen the arrival of better planes and pilots. Rear Admiral Sadayoshi Yamada was leading the Japanese 5th Air Attack Force at far off Noumea on New Caledonia. That was where the Japanese based most of their long-range bombers, but being 825 miles to Suva, the distance to Fiji strained and limited their operations. For this reason, the Japanese were now looking at the New Hebrides as better sites to bring in their G3M Rikko bombers, (the Nell), and the reliable G4M Hamaki, which meant Leaf Roll, due to the shape of the plane’s rounded fuselage. The allies simply called it the Betty. Efate was only 660 miles from Suva Bay, a much easier ride for those bombers.

On the main Fiji Group island of Viti Levu, the Japanese now had some of their very best aviators in the Tainan Kokutai Group. That unit was flush with many of Japan’s top aces, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa with 36 kills and many more assists that pushed his total to 87, Saburō Sakai with 28, (though Sakai himself claimed 64). Toshio Ōta got 34 enemy planes, and Junichi Sasai, Japan’s ‘Flying Tiger,’ had 27 kills. By late December, eighteen more Zeroes had come with them to relieve the cumbersome A5M Claude fighters that had been slowly outclassed as the Marine squadrons arrived near Suva. More fighters were moving down the Solomons to Tulagi, intending to continue on to Fiji.

For their part, the Americans had decided they would not try to rely on the airfield near Suva, and looked to the big island northwest, Vanua Levu, where a big effort had been made to build air bases the last three months of 1942. There were new fields at Bua on the western end of that island, at Lambasa in the center, at Savu Savu in the south, and Natewa in the east. Fields were also thrown up at Katherine Bay on the small Rambi Island, and at Matei on the larger Taveuni Island. Some were just small “dispersal” fields where planes could deploy or land if the main fields were hit too hard by the enemy, and they were mostly waiting to receive their planes to flesh out the squadrons building up in the region. But collectively, they provided that unsinkable aircraft carrier on station 24/7, and a means of contesting or controlling the air space over Fiji.

In the old history, the initial buildup of planes on Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field had been called the “Cactus Air Force” because of the Allied code word “Cactus” for that island. In this history, the code name for Fiji was “Fantan,” and so the early Allied air command over the islands was now simply “Fantan Force.”

Conditions on Fiji were far superior to those the Marine aviators faced on Guadalcanal. There they lived in muddy tents in a Coconut plantation they came to call “Mosquito Grove.” Fantan Force enjoyed far more plush accommodations in Suva, where the off-duty pilots could even get berthings at the Grand Pacific Hotel overlooking the stunning beaches. In addition to the main airfield at Nasouri near Suva, the Seabees had also hammered out a new field to the north where 1st Marine Division had been using Viti Levu Bay as its logistical base. Lighters and local steamers would come and go there with supplies, and so a field was built near Korovou south of the bay to provide rapid air cover. That, if anything, was the Henderson Field for the Marines on this island, a more wild and undeveloped region, with more Spartan conditions.

The Japanese had those three good airfields to the west, and so every day, just after noon, the main US fields would be visited by the enemy, and little fighter duels would be fought over the eastern end of the island. If the fields got hit particularly hard, Marine flyers would make it a point of honor to go in and hit the Japanese back, bombing and strafing for a little payback.

Commander, Aircraft, Fiji, or ComAirFANTAN was General Roy Geiger, who arrived in September of 1942 to set up the 1st Marine Air Wing. That was the one bone that King had also thrown to MacArthur. He could command those units until the Navy needed them, or suitable Army Air Squadrons could be brought in to replace them. A tough and demanding officer, Geiger pulled the sometimes vigilante temperament of the Marine flyers together very quickly. There were some good men under his command, including “Smoky Joe” Foss, who would get 26 kills in the war. Pappy Boyington would later join the group as well and lead his legendary “Black Sheep Squadron.”

Even as planes on either side were being drawn to this theater, both sides were also now committing the bulk of all the ground forces they had available in theater. The Americans had completed the shipment of the 25th Tropic Lightning Division from Hawaii to relieve the 1st USMC Division as Nimitz wanted. The last convoys were harassed by the Japanese A5M Claude fighters trying to bomb them with little result.

The American plan was a simple one. Sandy Patch and his 23rd would drive up Queen’s Road in the south towards Nandi, and Collins in the North would take his 25th Tropic Lightning Division along King’s Road, through Tavua to M’ba. The Corps commander MacArthur had selected, General Krueger, wanted one more division behind the 25th up north, but it did not look like anything would get there in time. The expedient would be to take one of the three Regiments from the 37th Division on Vanua Levu, and use it as his reserve. In effect, he was making the 25th a Square Division again, as he saw that front as the more difficult mission.

General Joseph Lawton Collins would walk the King’s Road, a man with a no-nonsense disposition, hard driving spirit, and excellent skills as an administrator. Collins had his troops out on the slopes of Oahu, training hard from the moment he took command. As he was setting up his Unit Codes, he hung the name “Lightning Joe” on his own Division HQ post, and the name stuck to him ever thereafter.

When General Krueger had his farewell conference with Marine Commander Vandegrift at Suva to plan the redisposition of forces, he put his finger squarely on the round heart of the island, and made a fateful pronouncement. “This is the war here,” he said. “They’ve dumped virtually everything they have onto this island, and so will we. Whoever wins this thing is going to win this war, and that has to be us. How soon will fresh forces from Australia come up?”

“As soon as MacArthur makes his pick of the litter,” said Vandegrift. He’s got the 32nd, 38th and 41st down there, but for my money I’d ask for the 6th or 7th Australian Divisions. Those men have some hard fighting under their belts and they know what they’re doing. We’ll be facing some equally tough troops here. We were up against Sano’s 38th up north. They call it the ‘Swamp’ Division, a good name for it I suppose. The whole area near Tavua has a lot of Mangrove swamps off the coast. Those are the bastards that took Hong Kong, then they moved them into the Java invasion that eventually ran Montgomery off that island.”

Krueger nodded. “Then I’ll want two more divisions, one up north to work with the 25th, and one down south behind the 23rd. That’ll double team them at both ends of the island, and we can make our push.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath,” said Vandegrift. The best you’ll get in the short run is that extra RCT from Vanua Levu from the 37th.”

“But without those troops, I can keep pressure on the southern road, but we’re up against the entire 48th Division down there now. Advancing to Nandi won’t be easy.”

“Yup,” said Vandegrift. “They’ve doubled down alright. But Halsey is back, and with a lot of new carriers. Things will be heating up as soon as he gets here.”

“I’ll bet that has MacArthur seeing red,” said Krueger. “He’s been wanting to get into this war for a long time, complaining the Navy has given him the short end of the stick for the last six months. He’s got all those Divisions in Australia, and there they sit. The man had it in his mind to make a move on New Guinea, and while there’s plenty of shipping available, there’s no carrier support for air cover.”

“Hell,” said Vandegrift. “After that riot in the Koro Sea last May there’s been no carrier air support down here for anyone. It’s our Marine Squadrons that have done the heavy lifting, and you’re lucky Nimitz left them behind.”

“Just the same, Big Mac is getting real antsy down under, and he wants to get in the ring now that they’ve turned the show over to the Army. He says he’s ‘bitterly disappointed’ at what he calls the foot dragging in Washington. Says the support he was getting was ‘entirely inadequate.’” Krueger emphasized the quotes with his fingers in the air. “I suppose I don’t blame him. I’d bellyache too if I were stuck down there in Brisbane when the real fight was right here. In fact, the troops in Australia are wound up tighter than a spring. There was a good deal of street fighting I’m told, and not just the typical barroom brawls. They damn near had a riot in Brisbane, with the Aussies and Yanks at each other’s throats. So when Halsey gets back, you can bet MacArthur will be after him for carriers. He still thinks he’s going to Papua New Guinea—said he wanted to discuss that whole operation for me after we finish up here on Fiji.”

“MacArthur did more than that,” said Vandegrift. “Nimitz told me he bent Curtin’s ear to see if he could persuade Churchill to send him a British carrier! Can you imagine that?”

“Hell, they lost two flattops the first time they mixed it up with the Japs, and then they lost Ceylon to boot. No, his majesty won’t get any help from the Brits, nor will we. This is our war out here.”

“Well get this… MacArthur’s little end around through Curtin and Churchill ticked off General Marshall to no end. He had Roosevelt explain the whole situation to MacArthur, but the man would not let it go. After being told he would have to get by with those divisions in Australia, and by the President himself, MacArthur sent a cable the next day demanding two aircraft carriers, another 500 planes and one more first-class infantry division. That man has bigger balls than Genghis Khan. If no more US divisions were to be allocated to his command, he then suggested that the President ask Churchill to lend him the British 18th Division at Perth!”

“Doesn’t he realize that if we don’t stop the Japs here in the Fiji Group, he may not get anything more for Australia at all? If they beat us here, then Samoa is next. They take that, and this thing is over.” Krueger was a hard fighter, but he could read a map. “Like I told you, he still has Papua New Guinea on his mind. Since the Aussies still have Milne Bay, MacArthur wants to transfer all the Ack Ack and air groups from Melbourne and Brisbane to Townsville and Cairns in the North. Then he wants to build a new air strip between Milne Bay and Port Moresby on the coast there. I got briefed on that when I was over in Melbourne last month. MacArthur is calling this new imaginary airfield by the code name BOSTON, but I guess he never stopped to think the place would be under Jap air attack from Moresby the whole time it’s being built.” Krueger shook his head dismissively.

“Right,” said Vandegrift. “Then he’ll want to march right on up through the Bismarcks to Rabaul.”

“Hell,” said Krueger, “I’d be happy to go over there and do exactly that, but not with this much Japanese force here in Fiji.”

“It’s the Philippines he really wants,” said Vandegrift. “New Guinea is just a staircase he has to climb to get back to his private little kingdom there. He never did get over being run out of the place.”

“I hear Nimitz doesn’t want it. He’s of a mind to bypass the Phils and just leapfrog along Pacific Islands, all the way to Japan. That’ll keep your Marines nice and busy. If MacArthur wins that argument, I guess he’ll want the Army to do the job in Papua New Guinea.”

“I expect we’ll find out what’s up soon enough. First things first—we’ve got to push the Japs off this island, and now it looks like they’ve handed the job to MacArthur. You get along with his majesty?”

“He’s just another CO,” said Krueger. “He’ll call the shots, but I’m the man on the ground getting things done. Fine with me.”

“When do you figure you’ll be ready to go after the Japs?”

“January. That’s when we’re scheduled to receive reinforcements from Brisbane. What about you, Archie? When do those fighting leathernecks of yours get back in the game?”

“God only knows,” said Vandegrift. “I’m told my boys get two weeks off in Samoa. After that, they’ll have something in mind. I can smell another big carrier battle shaping up here soon, and I suppose that will decide the matter.”

That wasn’t a hard thing to predict, but Archie Vandegrift was correct.

Chapter 3

As for the Navy, the Fiji Group was not the only thing on the minds of Navy planners. Now ready to go on the offensive, the Americans had moved both Marine Divisions to Samoa and they were waiting for the first clear opportunity to push into the New Hebrides, a place singled out by both Nimitz and King as the key to flanking the Japanese on both Fiji and New Caledonia.

“The initial objective will be this island,” said Nimitz. Eh-fa-tah, but for some damn reason the spell it Efate. The code name is ROSES. They wanted to change it to TRUCULENCE, but who wants to try and spell that on a thousand reports?”

“It doesn’t matter how they spell it,” said Halsey. “A rose is a rose by any other name. Where do I hit it?”

“Right here, at Port Vila on the southwest coast. There’s a decent small harbor there, but the bay beyond it gets a lot of rough swell. The place flanks Noumea, and if we get some good fighter groups in there, we can cut off their LOC to New Caledonia. Up north here at Havana Harbor there’s room for a seaplane base as well. We’ll take it with a single regiment, the 8th Marines. That’s job one, and this base will support any move we make on New Caledonia.”

“And job two?” Halsey was ready for more.

“Espiritu Santo,” said Nimitz. “That’s what we want next. It’s the largest island in the New Hebrides, and there’s an excellent anchorage at Luganville. From there we can throw up fighter and bomber fields and then build the place up for any move we might have to make into the Solomons. It’s perfect.”

“Japanese?” asked Halsey.

“None to speak of. They put all their chips in the Fiji Group. The French have a battalion from their Tonkin Division there, but they won’t fight.”

“Alright, how you gonna hit the place?”

“I want to put the other two regiments of 2nd Marines in there, with one landing up here in the north at Saint James Bay, and the other right at Luganville.”

“Two Regiments?”

“We won’t need both to take the place, but we might need them to hold it,” said Nimitz. “That will also give me enough to jump on anything else we might need. We’ll follow up with a Marine Defense Battalion, Naval construction troops, the works.”

Nimitz had put his finger on the island that would become the largest US Naval operating base in the South Pacific. Before the war ended in Fedorov’s history, two fighter fields and three bomber fields would be built there, along with a seaplane base, coastal guns of the 155th CD Regiment, massive supply and ammunition depots, a naval repair dock, and even aircraft engine shops and facilities to service and store torpedoes for both planes and subs. As many as 100,000 men would be based on the island, and over 2 million would pass through it enroute to other objectives. If taken here, it would likely replace Suva Bay as the US forward operating base for the Solomons Campaign, just as it did in the old history.

“So I’ll want us to form up here, about 100 miles northwest of those islands. We’ll only have to use one carrier to hit anything the French have on them, and the remainder can wait for the Japs. In fact, we have the 1st Parachute Battalion available to pioneer this landing. We can take them out to sea with us, escorted by Antietam. The main landings won’t be authorized unless we can assure sea control.”

“What if they don’t come after us?”

“All the better,” said Nimitz. “Then we bring in the Marines, and stand there with a chip on our shoulder to see if the other fellow wants to do anything about it. Don’t worry Bull, they’ll come. They wouldn’t leave a mug like yours off their dance card.”

Halsey grinned at that. “All that R & R in Pearl did wonders for me,” he said. “I feel like a new man.”

“And you’ve got a whole new fleet. Spruance has Enterprise and Hornet, and you take in the three new Essex Class carriers. Where will you plant your flag?”

“Essex,” said Halsey. “I thought I might go with the Lexington, but first in the class always gets the nod. Besides, that ship and crew have had more time to work in.”

“A good choice. How are the air wings shaping up?”

“We’ve been running drills for the last week. I’ve got 38 F4U Corsairs, and they look good. Yorktown still has the older Wildcats, but they honored Lexington with a couple dozen of those hot new F6Fs.”

“Those are the first of the new planes we’ll be getting,” said Nimitz. “They’ve been burning the midnight oil at the drafting tables for the last year. You’d be amazed at what we have coming.”

On both sides of the war, designers were busy with prototypes and handing them off to test pilots for evaluation. Ronnie Harker was one of those rare men when he got into a plane, another great British test pilot like Winkle Brown, who had a magic touch when he flew. Harker had his eye on a newcomer, and he first fell in love with it in April of 1942.

A latecomer to the dance, it was the P-51, rolled out of the design bays in a little over 100 days after the contract was signed. Oddly, the plane had been built for the British, who were looking for something new as they shopped American built planes to help flesh out new RAF squadrons. The Curtiss P-40 was getting long in the tooth, so they asked for something else. They specified the engine they wanted, the Allison V-1710, and the price they would pay. The North American 73, or NA-73, started test flights and had some very promising features.

The airfoils created very little drag, and the heated engine exhaust had the effect of giving the plane a little boost akin to that of a rocket thrust, called the “Meredith Effect,” after a British engineer who proposed that extra heat from a liquid cooled engine could be put to this use. The Supermarine Spitfires already benefited from the effect, but this plane delighted early fliers when it was found to be faster than even the latest model Spitfires at low to medium altitudes. It also handled extremely well, at least under 15,000 feet, but RAF test pilot Ronnie Harker didn’t like what he was seeing with the plane above that altitude.

“It’s a bit sluggish up there,” he said. “Put a Rolls Royce engine in it and we might have a much better plane.” Harker might be forgiven for being just a little biased in making such a suggestion, for he was actually employed by Rolls Royce at the time, their very first test pilot looking over new aircraft proposed for the RAF.

“I was impressed with it under 15,000 feet as well,” said Wing Commander Campbell-Orde. “But what could it do that the Spitfire hasn’t already done?”

“It’s faster than the Mark V,” said Harker.

“Yes, well now we’ve got the Mark IX to go after the German FW-190s.”

“Throw in a Merlin-61 and it will be faster than the Mark IX, and probably perform like a dance queen at high altitude.”

Perhaps Harker was simply selling, like any good company man might, but his prediction would turn out to be very true. In October of 42, they did put a Merlin engine in the plane and it was everything Harker said it would be, and more. One other feature of the plane was its built-in reserve fuel tanks which gave it very long range. It could fly 1650 miles, a thousand miles farther than the plane it had been designed to replace, the Curtiss P-40. That got the light winking in the eyes of the American bomber advocates, and was largely responsible for getting the US interested in this new design.

Before the war, US theory on strategic bombing was built on the assumption that heavily armed planes like the B-17 “Flying Fortress” would be able to easily defend themselves and always get through to their targets. Even as the war came, the Army Air Force thought of the B-17 as its premier offensive weapon, and the US urged round the clock bombing against Germany, with the US flying the day operations. With most of the Luftwaffe in Russia, that worked for a time, until Germany answered the treat my simply transferring more of their excellent Bf-109 squadrons to the west, and then introduced the fearsome Focke Wulf 190. It was soon found that the B-17 was vulnerable against these excellent fighters and the pilots that flew them, so much so that daylight bombing had to be cancelled.

The US 8thAir force took the buzz about the new P-51 to heart, particularly when they heard about that tremendous range. No fighter had the range to accompany the bombers effectively before the P-51, and with that new engine making the plane more than a match for anything it would face, a legend was born. It could outfight the German 109s, and match the 190s as well. The British Spitfire IX could make 368 MPH at high altitude, but with that new Merlin engine, the Mustang could go over 430 MPH. Yet for the 8th Airforce, it had the only real quality that mattered—range.

Unbeknownst to Ronnie Harker, there were other contenders to the throne in the realm of fighter performance. The American designers wanting to protect those bombers had first thought to go with a twin-engine plane like the P-38, which was almost as fast as the Mustang at 414 MPH, and had a range of 1300 miles. It could do everything, flying as an interceptor, light bomber for ground attack, and it was also a good night fighter and recon plane. Over 10,000 would be built, but there was another plane that was much better that was overlooked…. In Fedorov’s history.

That plane was the Grumman F7F Tigercat, another sleek twin engine design that was so fast that it could simply run away from the Navy’s hot new single engine fighter, the F6F Hellcat. With four 20mm cannons and four more .50 caliber MGs, it could outpunch any fighter it encountered, and had hard points that could carry both bombs and torpedoes. The Navy took a pass on the plane when it failed carrier qualifications, being too fast on landing, and too heavy. But the Marines eyed the plane with a good deal of interest. Only 12 were ever built during the war in the old history, but in these events, another man like Ronnie Harker was out to change history.

His name was Captain Fred Trapnell, a hot shot test pilot for the Navy who thought he was sitting in the best fighter he had ever flown when he took the prototype up. He had been flying a captured Zero to see just what the magic was in that plane. The Navy wanted to beat it, and they were hoping the F6F would do the job. It would, and Trapnell’s recommendation on the F7F would not supplant the Hellcats on the decks of US carriers—but it would convince the Marines to push hard for the plane. It could achieve altitudes of 40,000 feet, hit hard, serve in any role like the P-38, and the Marines wanted it. They would see that production moved from 12 to over 250, and a good deal earlier than the Tigercats ever saw the skies over the Pacific in the old history.

So it was that the ships that never were would also be joined by planes that never got their chance in the war. The F7F Tigercat would be a notable performer for the Marines in good time. Another newcomer would be the Boeing F8F “Bearcat.” It was a single seater, yet the biggest and heaviest ever built by the US. A “Five fingered plane” it was designed to perform five crucial roles, as a fighter, interceptor, dive bomber, torpedo bomber, or level bomber. To do that job, it had even more punch than the Tigercat, with six 20mm cannons and six MGs. It was yet another nightmare on the drafting tables that the Japanese would have to face before this was over—a plane that could fly off the decks of US carriers that were cruising outside the range of the best Japanese land based fighters. Again, that range was a critical factor in the Pacific, and the Bearcats could fly an astonishing 2800 miles, twice that of the fabled Mustang.

All of this would pose a real challenge for Japan, but there was one more man fiddling with the history, and his name was Ivan Volkov. He had quietly told the Japanese about things on the US Drawing boards, and urged them to respond. When Karpov opened the northern front by taking Kamchatka and invading Sakhalin Island, Volkov approached the Japanese again with dire warnings. America was building a new bomber, he told them, with very long range and the hitting power to lay waste to Japanese cities if it was not stopped. The “bomber threat” would lead Japan to design a number of excellent interceptors, and this threat, combined with the defeat of her carriers, channeled production away from better carrier capable planes.

The Army was already working on a promising interceptor designed by Nakajima, the Ki-84 Hayate, or “Gale.” This plane, called Frank by the Allies, began to appear in Mid-1943 in the real history, and Volkov was attempting to move that development along faster. He would also offer technical support for designs like the Nakajima Ki-87, a radial engine fighter with an exhaust driven turbo-supercharger that could take two 30mm cannon and two more 20mm guns to 42,000 feet, and at 433MPH. There was a bomber interceptor that might have a dramatic impact on the war, and Volkov was doing everything possible to see that it was developed early.

Another challenger was the Mitsubishi Ki-83, a long range twin engine fighter that was first inspired by the appearance of the American P-38. The Mitsubishi version had the same hitting power of the Ki-87, but a range of just over 1200 miles. The Japanese had not called for such designs until 1943, when it was already too late to see them produced. Volkov had called for them in 1941, and delivered secret documents to designers like Tomio Kubo working for Mitsubishi. He made sure the Takajiwa company was also in the race with their Ki-94, a sweet high altitude interceptor that incorporated many features being built into the American Mustangs. Tatsuo Hasegawa was the man behind the plane, and Volkov also passed him documents to smooth the way toward his vision.

A third designer, Miki Tadano, had dreams of speed from an early age and would one day design Japan’s first “Bullet Train.” In WWII, he put his imagination and skills to work on the design of a bomber that would be as fast as a Zero, but have the range of a G3M, the plane the Allies called “Betty.” They would call his new brainchild “Francis,” the P1Y Medium Bomber, and it would come to production a full six months early. That was the plane the Navy would choose to carry its Okha Cherry Blossom man-guided missile bombs, though no one knew that just yet.

When Yamamoto learned how the war once ended, he was also deeply disturbed. Dazzled by the performance of Naval rockets as both a strike and defensive weapon, he initially hoped Japan would be able to produce them. When he learned of the Okha Cherry Blossom project, and the entire notion of the Kamikaze behind it, he shrugged, wanting something more than such desperate measures.

While the Zero was still an excellent fighter, the Navy knew it would need a successor soon, and while they accepted the proposed A6M3 designs, the loss of range was a serious concern, and in this history it was rejected until that could be corrected in the A6M3-A variant, which included self-sealing gas tanks, better protection, and a radio that actually worked.

There was much more that could be done with the existing Zero, and Volkov pointed this out. Its wings could be extended and strengthened to give it much better speed and performance in a dive. The magazine could be increased to at least 100 rounds on the Type 99 cannon, and better machineguns for the wings needed at least 250 rounds. Wing mounted drop tanks extended the range. This plane would actually be put into production in mid-1942 in this reality, and it would receive the designation A6M4 Reisen.

Beyond that, Volkov would have another answer for Yamamoto as well, suggesting the plans for the many new bomber interceptors might be used to adapt these designs for carriers. One looked very promising, and the N1K Shiden-Kai would be one of those alternate history variants in this war.

In place of the “Divine Wind” to shield Japan from the ravages of US carriers and bombers, why not opt for planes capable of stopping them? The Army was eyeing the designs of the three companies mentioned above, and now the Navy wanted into the game. The N1K3-A, Model 41 Shiden-Kai, was finally born. The “Violet Lightning” instead of the Divine Wind would be Japan’s shield, and this one was built to fly from carriers. The Americans would come to call the NK1 “George,” perhaps the best enemy fighter they actually faced in the War in the Pacific. In the old history, only 71 came off the production lines in 1943, and no more than 1007 were ever built. Volkov was doing everything possible to see the US would face more Violet Lightning in this war, sooner, and in greater numbers… If Japan could ever build enough to matter.

The skies over the Pacific would soon be darker and more dangerous, for these superb piston and prop designs would fly much sooner. Production, not design, was now the great liability for Japan. In 1942, the Empire built 8,861 new planes of all types. They would nearly double that number in 1943, building 16,693. In that same time period, the United States built 47,836 planes in 1942, and 85,898 more in 1943. If only a third of those went to the Pacific, the Americans would still bring twice as many planes to the war as Japan in those years. In 1944, the US would build 96,318 new planes, more than Japan, Germany, and the UK combined. That was the grim reality that Yamamoto feared when Japan awoke the sleeping giant.

For now, however, Halsey could only crow about the Navy’s new Fighter and torpedo bombers beginning to arrive in small numbers. “If this new Hellcat is as good as they say, our boys will do a whole lot better against the Jap Zero,” he said. “And Lexington has all new TBD-5s and the new Avenger torpedo bombers in her strike wings. We’ll see how Lady Lex looks on the dance floor with that new outfit.”

“Lady Lex?” said Nimitz, somewhat surprised. “Is the crew still calling it that?”

“Naw, just me. I’ve a soft spot for the name. The crew has taken to calling it the Blue Ghost. I didn’t think we’d have either Lexington or Yorktown this soon, but Essex will be glad to have company. They may be a little raw, but once those pilots get airborne, they’ll know how to fight. I rounded up all the vets I could find from their old ships, so they have a bone to pick. Good men.”

“Well now they get their second chance,” said Nimitz. He paused, his thoughts lingering somewhere, his eyes on Halsey as he thought. “Bull,” he said. “We’ve got to win this one. If they knock us down here, it will set us back another six months. I’m counting on you.”

“Admiral, you just point me where you want me to go.”

“In harm’s way,” said Nimitz. “And may God go with you.”