Argentia Bay to join the throng of ships anchored
there for the Atlantic Charter meeting. When they got there they claimed the
entire settlement, airfield and harbor facilities were a burned and blackened
ruin. Astounded by what they saw, Kauffman claimed he even put men ashore to
look for survivors or signs of what may have happened, but saw only charred
ground, burned to glass in some places, and utter devastation.
Shaken
by the discovery, and believing that Roosevelt and Churchill had perished in
the gruesome attack, they searched about for some days before finally giving up
hope and heading for Halifax. To their great relief, the city was still there.
The five destroyers came sailing in, their crews waving at stunned stevedores
and wharf workers in the harbor, for these were the five ships that had been
missing! Time had caught another big fish in her net when Desron 7 disappeared, but now she threw these little fish back, in to the seas of 1942
where they belonged.
Their
‘report’ was not received well by the Americans, and it stretched the bounds of
credulity to think that these men could have claimed to have searched the ruins
of Argentia Bay when they knew damn well that the Atlantic Charter was well
underway at that very same time. The men of Desron 7 were either
deluded, insane, or lying. They had to have made a navigation error, or so it
was said, but the US Navy found no sign of anything remotely close to the
description the men of the destroyer group gave. Every island in the region,
and every bay, was sitting there quite unbothered. To make matters worse, they
had reported that these were the brave ships that had sunk the enemy raider,
and now their cover story was about to go down the tubes as well.
The
Navy would have none of it. They secreted the five destroyers off to a lonesome
berth, painted over their hull numbers, renumbered and renamed each ship, and
then scattered them, and every man who had served on them, to harbors all over
the Pacific coast. Any man who ever mentioned Desron 7 again was stewed,
which put a quick lid on the incident. A week later a special detail was
quietly sent to a lonesome and deserted bay in the area, where they proceeded
to burn and blacken anything in sight. Now if anyone got too curious the navy
could say, in closed quarters, that this was the bay that had been found by
Captain Kaufmann and his ships.
Alan
Turing was one of a handful of men who officially knew the whole story. There
were probably many more who knew about it unofficially, though they were wise
never to breathe a word of it. The whole thing eventually calmed down and went
into the file boxes, and a long year passed. Then it happened again, the same
nightmare as before, only this time in the Mediterranean Sea.
The
British finally though they had the matter in hand after that remarkable parley
between Tovey and the Admiral from this strange phantom raider…until it
vanished, just as it had vanished from the North Atlantic the previous year.
That
set the bells off rather quickly in the Golf, Cheese and Chess Society, until
reports came in from FRUMEL Headquarters in Melbourne just a few days later
that a strange ship was now engaged with the Japanese Navy off Darwin—and using
naval rocketry as its primary weaponry!
Admiral
John Tovey was quick to pay a visit to Hut 4 a few days later, and he briefed
Alan Turing on the matter, astounded to think that this might be the very same
ship that had vanished at St. Helena! Turing remembered clearly the
conversation he had with Tovey that day, and the startling conclusion they had
been forced to accept.
“It’s
Geronimo,” he said quietly. “There’s no question about it. The silhouette is
unmistakable. And those other ships are Japanese cruisers.”
“Indeed,”
said Tovey. “Those photos were taken August 24th. Now Professor, might you tell
me how this ship, which was a thousand yards off the Island of St Helena on the
morning of August 23rd, could
there for the Atlantic Charter meeting. When they got there they claimed the
entire settlement, airfield and harbor facilities were a burned and blackened
ruin. Astounded by what they saw, Kauffman claimed he even put men ashore to
look for survivors or signs of what may have happened, but saw only charred
ground, burned to glass in some places, and utter devastation.
Shaken
by the discovery, and believing that Roosevelt and Churchill had perished in
the gruesome attack, they searched about for some days before finally giving up
hope and heading for Halifax. To their great relief, the city was still there.
The five destroyers came sailing in, their crews waving at stunned stevedores
and wharf workers in the harbor, for these were the five ships that had been
missing! Time had caught another big fish in her net when Desron 7 disappeared, but now she threw these little fish back, in to the seas of 1942
where they belonged.
Their
‘report’ was not received well by the Americans, and it stretched the bounds of
credulity to think that these men could have claimed to have searched the ruins
of Argentia Bay when they knew damn well that the Atlantic Charter was well
underway at that very same time. The men of Desron 7 were either
deluded, insane, or lying. They had to have made a navigation error, or so it
was said, but the US Navy found no sign of anything remotely close to the
description the men of the destroyer group gave. Every island in the region,
and every bay, was sitting there quite unbothered. To make matters worse, they
had reported that these were the brave ships that had sunk the enemy raider,
and now their cover story was about to go down the tubes as well.
The
Navy would have none of it. They secreted the five destroyers off to a lonesome
berth, painted over their hull numbers, renumbered and renamed each ship, and
then scattered them, and every man who had served on them, to harbors all over
the Pacific coast. Any man who ever mentioned Desron 7 again was stewed,
which put a quick lid on the incident. A week later a special detail was
quietly sent to a lonesome and deserted bay in the area, where they proceeded
to burn and blacken anything in sight. Now if anyone got too curious the navy
could say, in closed quarters, that this was the bay that had been found by
Captain Kaufmann and his ships.
Alan
Turing was one of a handful of men who officially knew the whole story. There
were probably many more who knew about it unofficially, though they were wise
never to breathe a word of it. The whole thing eventually calmed down and went
into the file boxes, and a long year passed. Then it happened again, the same
nightmare as before, only this time in the Mediterranean Sea.
The
British finally though they had the matter in hand after that remarkable parley
between Tovey and the Admiral from this strange phantom raider…until it
vanished, just as it had vanished from the North Atlantic the previous year.
That
set the bells off rather quickly in the Golf, Cheese and Chess Society, until
reports came in from FRUMEL Headquarters in Melbourne just a few days later
that a strange ship was now engaged with the Japanese Navy off Darwin—and using
naval rocketry as its primary weaponry!
Admiral
John Tovey was quick to pay a visit to Hut 4 a few days later, and he briefed
Alan Turing on the matter, astounded to think that this might be the very same
ship that had vanished at St. Helena! Turing remembered clearly the
conversation he had with Tovey that day, and the startling conclusion they had
been forced to accept.
“It’s
Geronimo,” he said quietly. “There’s no question about it. The silhouette is
unmistakable. And those other ships are Japanese cruisers.”
“Indeed,”
said Tovey. “Those photos were taken August 24th. Now Professor, might you tell
me how this ship, which was a thousand yards off the Island of St Helena on the
morning of August 23rd, could
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