Shadows In the Jungle by Larry Alexander Page B

Brewer’s D-day up five weeks to February 29.
    Prompting the change were reports from reconnaissance pilots flying low over Los Negros, who said they spotted no signs of the enemy. Up until this point, debate had raged over how many Japanese inhabited the island. MacArthur’s staff guessed 4,050. The 1st Cavalry Division, whose nearly one thousand men were to comprise the initial strike force in the invasion, set to go ashore in the Hyane Harbor area, estimated 4,900, while 5th Air Force intelligence insisted the number was less than 300. Now, however, there was speculation that perhaps the enemy had abandoned Los Negros entirely.
    Krueger, always bowing to caution, refused to believe that the Japanese would abandon Los Negros. Nor was he convinced by the fact that U.S. Mitchell bombers, trying to distract enemy attention away from photo reconnaissance planes, drew no hostile fire as they roared over the island at treetop level.
    â€œIt doesn’t take a genius to fool aerial reconnaissance,” Krueger told his G2 intelligence chief, Col. Horton V. White. “I want to know what’s there before I send the First Cav in. Let’s put a team of Scouts onshore and find out. Get Bradshaw up here.”
    * * *
    Bradshaw, orders in hand, now struggled over which team to send. As he prepared for the briefing at Finschhafen, he turned to Williams for his thoughts.
    â€œSo who goes? Barnes or McGowen? Both are capable.”
    â€œFlip a coin,” Williams suggested. “If it’s heads, McGowen goes. If it’s tails, Barnes gets the job. The loser will serve as the contact.”
    Finding the solution agreeable, Bradshaw fished a coin from his pocket and flipped it. It came up heads.
    Within thirty minutes, McGowen and Barnes entered the briefing hut, standing with their commander around a table, which held a map of what both officers recognized as the Admiralties.
    â€œI flipped a coin to see who got this mission,” Bradshaw said. “John, you lost, so you’re going in.” Everyone chuckled. “Bill, you’re the contact team.”
    He turned to Colonel White, who took over the briefing.
    â€œThe mission is Los Negros,” White began, tapping the map with a finger. “The air force is telling MacArthur that the Japs are abandoning the place, but General Krueger doesn’t agree. This is a two-day mission. You’ll fly in tomorrow night by PBY, landing as close to shore as the pilot can get you. You’ll go the rest of the way by rubber boat, landing on the beach here, at Chapatut Point.
    â€œThere are two airfields on the island, a thirty-three-hundred-foot strip just northwest of Lorengau village and a four-thousand-foot airfield at Momote Point. To keep the Nips’ heads down, B-25s will attack those fields while you are landing. Once ashore, recon the area to the northeast noting troop strengths and defenses, if any. First Cav, which will go in near Hyane Harbor on the twenty-ninth, needs that info. Then get back to the pickup point by the next morning. During the extraction, the bombers will again hit their airfields. If, for any reason, the Catalina can’t get in to pick you up on schedule, it will return again twenty-four hours later, and again twenty-four hours after that, for three days.
    â€œYou will carry a walkie-talkie so you and Barnes can coordinate the pickup. As always, avoid contact with the enemy if possible. If there are no questions, get some rest. You leave at oh three thirty.”
    After the briefing broke up, Krueger called the team members into his tent, shook each man’s hand, and wished him luck.
    â€œThis is our first mission,” Krueger told McGowen. “Our first time at bat. You know how important that is.”
    â€œDon’t worry, General,” McGowen replied. “We’ll hit a home run.”
    * * *
    Emotions ran high that night as the men prepared for their first assignment, and sleep proved