Read Online Iron Gray Sea: Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson - Free Book Online Page B

Perth . We was in the Java Sea together.”
    “You were sunk.”
    “Aye, with Houston, later that night in the Sunda Strait. That was a helluva fight! Me an’ some o’ me mates swam ashore an’ dodged the Nips for a few days, but they nabbed us. Set us to breakin’ sodding rocks.” He shook his head sadly. “Me mates died there or in the ship with these blokes, an’ I never seen any o’ me other shipmates again.”
    Perry Brister, still silent, advanced and extended his hand. Hesitantly, the Australian took it.
    “You’ve got quite a collection here, Commander Herring,” Letts said. “All with the same . . . reluctant views?”
    Herring frowned. “Let me explain. It’s not our intention to cause trouble or disrupt your operation here, but you must understand our situation . . . our concerns. Those of us who were in the Philippines were ordered to surrender, and we were treated like animals by our captors. Lieutenant Diebel and Mr. Stokes may have had it even worse, but I can only speak to our own ordeal. The misery and despair Horn, Miles, and I witnessed and endured is hard to describe. Discipline broke down completely and men no longer obeyed their officers. It was dog-eat-dog. Sadly, many officers abandoned their responsibility to their men as a result, and the Japs encouraged that state of affairs to make the men easier to handle, I suppose. Ultimately, men just sat there and watched each other die.” Real, almost physical pain clouded Herring’s eyes. “And all that was long before they stuffed us in that damn ship, where we met these other fellows”—he gestured at the Australian and the Dutchman—“already aboard. The enemy was taking us to die in the coal mines of Japan.”
    “But you were an officer,” Alan said softly. “What did you do?
    “Very little, I’m sad to admit,” Herring confessed, then hesitated. “You see, as far as the Japs knew, I wasn’t an officer, and my Marine friends here helped me maintain that fiction.”
    “But . . . why?”
    “Not that it matters here . . . now. I’m—was in—ONI. The Office of Naval Intelligence.” Herring replied.
    “Sometimes he tried to do stuff,” Gunnery Sergeant Horn defended, his voice surprisingly clear and firm, considering his appearance. “We all did what we could, and things got a little better as time went on, from a discipline standpoint. But we couldn’t let the Japs know Herring was an officer.”
    Letts looked back at Herring and the man nodded.
    “I had connections to the Kuomintang, and I was trying to establish the same with Philippine resistance leaders when the surrender took place. We tried to get out, but we were caught. To preserve the identities of people I was in contact with, we decided I should masquerade as an enlisted man.” Herring straightened. “To the Japs, all enlisted men are peasants, Mr. Letts, and therefore incapable of producing any useful information if questioned.”
    “I . . . see.”
    “In any event, that was then. Perhaps you can understand why we are hesitant to place ourselves under what seems to be a very . . . irregularly constituted authority. I’m given to understand we won’t be forced to serve, and that gives us some relief, but the fact is I am a Naval Officer, and the most senior present on this . . . world, by legal reckoning. That leaves me feeling somewhat awkward, and I have a responsibility to these men who have helped me. We won’t simply jump aboard this . . . odd alliance without further understanding the situation.”
    “I can understand that, Commander, and respect it. But why didn’t you just talk to Saan-Kakja in Manila? She’s a swell dame, and smart as a whip. She could’ve sorted it out for you.”
    “I’m . . . not sure the, ah, authorities in Manila fully understood that I needed to speak with the senior Naval Officer,” Herring said stiffly.
    “That’s Captain Reddy,” Letts stated firmly, “and he won’t be here for