INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 21 – OPERATION CLEAN SWEEP

19:39 (Philippines Time)

Sunday, November 09, 1952 ‘C’

Main tarmac of Clark Air Force Base

Island of Luzon, Philippines

Lieutenant-Colonel Jesus Villamor, Commander of the Philippines Air Force’s 15th Tactical Air Group, watched on with anticipated joy as the long line of American Air Force transport aircraft was approaching the main tarmac of Clark Air Force Base after landing. Standing next to him were Brigadier-General Teresa James, the commander of the American 99th Air Wing, which was the main resident air unit in Clark AFB, and Major-General Calixto Duque, the Chief of Staff of the Philippines Defense Forces. Thankfully, the rain had stopped falling but the air was still hot and muggy as the newcomers started lining up in the parking spots on the main tarmac. Jesus was particularly looking at the lead plane, a Hughes C-11T long-range liaison transport aircraft, in which a very dear friend was supposed to be.

‘’I believe that it is now safe for us to go forward to that C-11T, gentlemen.’’ said Teresa James as the last of the sixteen big C-142 cargo aircraft stopped in its indicated parking spot. Major-General Duque nodded his head in response.

‘’Agreed! I am truly anxious to meet again the fantastic woman with whom I and Jesus fought the Japanese in the jungles of Bataan over ten years ago.’’

As the trio was walking towards the sleek twin turboprop transport, an airstair door opened on the right side of its fuselage, with half a dozen people then climbing down the stairs to set foot on the tarmac. Jesus’ heart jumped in his chest when he saw that the first to come out was Ingrid Dows, decked in a flight suit and carrying both a duffel bag and a briefcase. He then shouted out to her while waving both hands in the air.

‘’INGRID, IT’S ME, JESUS!’’

Normally, Calixto Duque would have taken to task such a comportment vis a vis a person as important as the American Secretary of Defense, who was also a four-star general, but the fact was that Ingrid Dows was adulated by all Filipinos and was considered a national heroine here, thanks to her heroic defense of the Philippines against the Japanese, both in the air and on the ground, in 1941 and part of 1942. He himself had fought besides her as he led his own guerrilla group in the fight for the Philippines in 1941. As for Teresa James, she also was obviously happy to see Ingrid, having been recruited by her in 1942 as one of the first members of her then newly created 99th Composite Air Group, the Fifinellas. The trio accelerated its pace, imitated by Ingrid, with the four of them meeting some twenty meters in front of the C-11T and exchanging happy hugs and kisses on the cheeks. Ingrid was especially effusive with Teresa James and Jesus Villamor and exchanged salutes with them and Duque only after hugging them.

‘’It is so good to see you again, my friends. It feels to me like I am coming home after a long absence.’’

‘’And you are again coming to help the Philippines, General.’’ replied Duque, before he noticed a tall male American officer in combat uniform who had just stepped out of the C-11T. ‘’Uh, who is that tall officer who just came out of your plane?’’

‘’That is Lieutenant-General James Gavin, the commander of the U.S. Eighteenth Airborne Corps. He came with me and with the divisional headquarters company and one of the support battalions of the 82nd Airborne Division. General Gavin is a true warrior with lots of combat experience and he will lead his airborne corps in this operation against the diehard Japanese soldiers still hiding in the jungles and hills of the Philippines. Let me present you to him.’’

The four of them then walked to Gavin, who put down his duffel bag and backpack on the tarmac as they approached him. Both Villamor and Duque were favorably impressed by his obvious physical fitness despite being visibly in his mid forties. Gavin saluted Ingrid, who saluted him back before presenting her three hosts to him.

‘’General Gavin, let me present to you Major-General Calixto Duque, Chief of Staff of the Philippines Defense Forces, Lieutenant-Colonel Jesus Villamor, Commander of the Fifteenth Tactical Air Group, and Brigadier-General Teresa James, Commander of the 99th th Air Wing, the Fifinellas. Both the 99 Air Wing and the Fifteenth Tactical Air Group will provide close air support and air mobility to your troopers, while Filipino military guides experienced in hunting down and fighting Japanese soldiers will guide your units in the hills and jungles of the Philippines. ’’ Gavin nodded at that while shaking hands with them.

‘’That support will be most appreciated, lady and gentlemen: while my troopers are mostly veterans from World War Two, they fought in Europe and know little about the jungle environment of the Philippines.’’

‘’How many of your troops are due to participate in this operation, General Gavin?’’ asked Calixto Duque while shaking Gavin’s hand.

‘’A total of 73,000 soldiers from my airborne corps will arrive during the next week, mostly by sea. Those coming by air will mostly be my brigade and divisional support units, who will go establish in advance base camps for my light infantry and airborne units. Also arriving by sea, carried on Navy light carriers, will be my corps aviation brigade, with its attack and transport helicopters.’’ Both Duque and Villamor grinned on hearing this.

‘’Then, we should soon be able to finally get rid of those diehard Japanese bastards, who are still attacking, robbing and killing my fellow citizens, mainly in the hills northeast of Manila, on Luzon, and on Mindanao Island.’’ said Duque. We estimate that a total of about 7,000 such Japanese diehards remain active. While they are mostly disease-ridden and are very low on ammunition after all those years of hiding in the jungle, they still are making a major nuisance of themselves in those areas. I heard that such Japanese diehards are also remaining in other countries of Southeast Asia. Is that true, General Dows?’’

‘’It is indeed, General Duque. I myself encountered some of those Japanese soldiers when I visited Indochina a couple of years ago. The French Army has been actively hunting them down since 1945 but, as you know well, jungle guerrilla fighting is difficult, tough business.’’

‘’It is indeed, General Dows. I have booked a meeting between you, President Quirino and Secretary of Defense Ramon Magsaysay for ten tomorrow morning. That will give time for you and General Gavin’s soldiers to recuperate a bit from their long air travel and from the change in time zones.’’

‘’That will be most appreciated, General Duque.’’

Teresa James was the next to speak.

‘’General Gavin, I have transit barracks ready to lodge your troops tonight and they will be able to eat a solid breakfast tomorrow morning at our messes before moving to their planned bases of operations. My personnel will guide them to the barracks as soon as they will be out of their transport aircraft.’’

‘’Uh, is your air wing still an exclusively female unit, General James?’’

‘’It is.’’ answered Teresa, smiling at that question. ‘’However, I warned my girls to avoid any hanky-panky with your troopers: the latter came to fight, not to play tourists. You and your senior staff will now be able to board a bus, which will then drive you to the officers’ mess complex of the base.’’

‘’Thank you, General James.’’

Major-General Calixto Duque then spoke in turn.

‘’A staff car will be sent to drive you to the Malakanang Palace for your ten o’clock meeting with President Quirino. I will also be present at that meeting, where we will be able to discuss your Operation Clean Sweep with President Quirino, who is most grateful for the aid of the United States in finally getting us rid for good of those Japanese bastards. So, How long before all your units will be in place in the Philippines, General Gavin?’’

James Gavin looked at the line of C-142 heavy transports, from which dozens of wheeled vehicles and trailers were rolling out and onto the tarmac.

‘’It should take another two weeks, at best estimates. Unfortunately, a lot of our fleet of strategic heavy transport units was dismantled due to the stupid defense cuts effected by President Truman and restoring that capacity is a long-term job. We had to mobilize nearly our whole fleet of C-142 transports in order to start moving my units, as most other types of transport aircraft we have don’t possess the range necessary to cross the Pacific when fully loaded. Most of my corps will arrive by ship in a week or so.’’

‘’The girls of my transport squadron, ‘The Angels’, will depart for San Francisco late tonight to support the air movement of your units, General Gavin. That represents an extra eight C-142s to be added to our airlift effort.’’ said Teresa James, attracting an approving nod from Gavin.

‘’Thank you, General James: that will represent a substantial addition to our efforts. I just wish that we could have had more C-142s in service right now.’’

‘’An even better and bigger heavy airlifter should become available in a couple of years, General Gavin.’’ said Ingrid. ‘’There is presently a competition being held in order to obtain a jet-powered replacement to the C-142, to be called the C-152 GLOBEMASTER II. Too bad that it will arrive way too late for this operation. I however have ordered the Air Force to rent the services of all the long-range civilian transport aircraft which could be chartered for this operation. You will thus see a number of Pan Am, TWA and Air Fifinella DC-4s, SUPER CONSTELLATIONS and AIRBUS 2 arrive in the coming days. Since they are civilian airliners, they will concentrate on flying up your airborne troopers from the States. The battleships IOWA and MISSOURI are also on the way and will take stations off the East Coast of Luzon, in order to be able to give supporting bombardment fire on call to your units.’’ Both Duque and Villamor smiled on hearing that, with Duque replying to Ingrid.

‘’Now, that is what I would call ‘heavy support’, General Dows. We in the Filipino forces could only dream of having such capabilities.’’

‘’The Philippines have more pressing needs for its budget than to try playing the military superpower, General Duque: the needs of its population are both numerous and pressing. That is when friends and allies become truly helpful.’’

‘’And a true friend the United States is to the Philippines, General Dows.’’

15:40 (Manila Time)

Monday, November 10, 1952 ‘C’

Prototype Hughes PEGASUS supersonic airliner

Arriving at Clark Air Force Base, Luzon Island

Philippines

‘’We are now on final approach to land at Clark Air Force Base, where ground transportation is waiting to carry you to your unit’s base camp north of Manila. I hope that you enjoyed your flight and thank you for flying with Air Fifinella.’’ One of the 82nd Airborne Division soldiers being ferried to the Philippines in the PEGASUS, which had been loaned by Hughes to the airlift part of Operation Clean Sweep, grinned while admiring from his seat the well-shaped bum of one of the Air Fifinella stewardesses.

‘’How could we not enjoy our flight with such pretty and sexy stewardesses serving us on this fantastic plane?’’

His nearest comrade, sitting across the centerline aisle and who was also admiring Norma Jean Mortenson’s butt, replied to him in a low voice.

‘’That girl sure has a sexy body and a beautiful face. She also has more combat medals than you and I combined. The Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and three campaign stars? Hell, that girl must be Hell on wheels!’’

Another airborne soldier, a sergeant who had fought in Europe during World War 2, then added his grain of salt to that conversation.

‘’This is also the fastest, most comfortable long-range flight I ever had. Imagine: only seven hours to cross the whole Pacific from Los Angeles. This Hughes supersonic airliner is going to make a killing on trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes once in commercial service. And the meals are also great. If I ever travel commercial again, then I will stick with this Air Fifinella.’’

Ahead and in the business-class cabin situated on the lower deck, Major Richard Hurtling, who was the deputy commander of the 3rd th Battalion, 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, also known as the ‘Red Devils’, consulted his map of the Northern Philippines and pointed a location on it to the captain sitting next to it, who commanded the paratroop company traveling with parts of his battalion’s headquarters company.

‘’Here is the town of Benito, south of the city of Lagan, where our battalion base camp has been prepared. Vehicles are supposed to be waiting for us at Clark AFB and will drive us to Benito. Once there, make sure that the men get a hot meal and then go to sleep, in order to go over those multiple time zone changes: they will need to be well rested by tomorrow morning, when we will start getting some specialized jungle training and briefings from Filipino experts who have been fighting those diehard Japanese for the last seven years.’’

Captain John Massera gave a questioning look to Hurtling.

‘’Do we really need training from those so-called ‘experts’, Major? Our men are highly trained and are about the best soldiers in the World.’’ Hurtling was silent for a second while coldly eyeing his subaltern officer. He then spoke in a low but firm voice.

‘’Captain, those so-called experts, as you call them, were raised in a jungle environment, know the ground well and have been actively hunting and fighting the Japanese for years. That they are not American soldiers shouldn’t enter the present equation. Do you understand me, Captain?’’

‘’Uh, yes, Major!’’ replied Massera, smarting over the thinly disguised rebuke from his superior. He then stayed silent for the rest of the trip, getting up from his seat after the plane had landed and had stopped on a designated parking spot on the main tarmac.

‘’ALRIGHT, MEN: PICK UP YOUR STUFF, THEN LEAD OUR SOLDIERS OUT TO THE VEHICLES WAITING FOR US ON THE TARMAC.’’ There was a flurry of activity and shuffling as the paratroopers got up from their seats and gathered their weapons and kits from the large overhead bins before filing out via the forward left access door of the plane and going down the retractable staircase that was an integral part of the aircraft. The paratroopers then found out that a line of buses and two army trucks had effectively been waiting for them on the tarmac. Major Hurtling was shocked to see that a young woman in female business suit was also present, standing at the foot of the staircase, ready to shake hands with the arriving soldiers.

‘’Shit! That’s the Secretary of Defense, General Ingrid Dows! Try to look your best, men.’’

When he arrived at the foot of the staircase, Hurtling saluted Ingrid before shaking hands with her as she greeted him with a wide smile.

‘’Welcome to the Philippines, you and your men, Major. If you will step aside for a moment, I would like to emphasize to you a few things relevant to Operation Clean Sweep.’’

‘’Yes, Maam!’’

Taking a few steps away from the staircase, Hurtling then listened on as Ingrid spoke to him in a low volume of voice.

‘’Major, the points I will now give you are important ones and are not to be ignored. First off, the Filipino officers and NCOs who will brief your unit are competent and very experienced jungle fighters who have been hunting down and fighting Japanese soldiers for years, going back all the way to 1941. I fought with many of them on the ground and have only admiration for them and respect for their fighting abilities. I thus urge you and your men to listen to their advice and counsels concerning jungle warfare. Your men will also be supported by attack and transport helicopters from the 99th Air Wing, based here in Clark Air Force Base. The crews of those helicopters are all women but they are also hardened veterans with years of combat experience and highly distinguished service records. I will thus not accept any display of racism or sexism from your men towards the Filipino soldiers and female aviators who will support your unit. They know the ground, the environment and the enemy, so listen to their advice. As for the enemy, do not think of them as simply being half-starved soldiers riddled with disease and poorly armed. During the past seven years, those Japanese soldiers who survived our first cordon and sweep operations in 1945 have adapted to their apparently desperate situation, notably by occasionally raiding isolated villages and farms and stealing food, clothing and whatever weapons and ammunition they could find, on top of murdering the Filipino civilians they encounter. They often wear common Filipino clothes and have learned to speak some basic Tagalog, the local language on Luzon Island. They will be difficult for you to distinguish from Filipino civilians and often use that factor to try to trick their way out of tough situations. Filipino Army scouts will be attached to your unit and will guide you in the jungles and hills north of Manila. Those scouts will also help blow away the cover of any disguised Japanese soldiers who would try to pass on as Filipinos. However, and this is a very important point for me, your men are not to start shooting indiscriminately at Filipino civilians whom your soldiers will think are Japanese soldiers. Let your Filipino scouts do the identifying when encountering locals during your jungle sweeps. Any happy trigger attitude on the part of your men may well destroy the confidence of the Filipinos on our soldiers and create big problems for this operation. I will be very severe about the respect of those rules by our soldiers. If any unit breaks those rules and undermine the spirit of cooperation between the United States and the Philippines, then I will have no qualms to forcibly return that unit to the States, with a black mark on its unit record. Am I clear on that, Major?’’

‘’Yes Maam!’’ could only reply Hurtling, surprised and shocked by her vehemence.

‘’Then, you may board those buses with your men, Major.’’ Hurtling, coming to attention, saluted her and walked towards the lead bus while carrying his rifle, backpack and kit bag, his mind in turmoil. When he boarded the lead bus and sat besides Captain Massera, the latter noticed at once his preoccupied expression.

‘’Is anything wrong, Major?’’

‘’I hope not, Captain. General Dows just read me the riot act concerning how we are going to work with the Filipinos and also enjoined me to not underestimate the enemy. I will tell you about that once at our base camp.’’

08:22 (Manila Time)

Wednesday, November 12, 1952 ‘C’

Jungle area east of the town of Benito

Northern Luzon Island, Philippines

Ishida Jiro hid as well as he could behind a large tree

while looking up with hatred at the intimidating armed American helicopter now passing at low altitude in front of his position. Jiro and the five soldiers he was leading had been going towards an isolated Filipino farm some two kilometers from his present position, intent on securing any food, clothing, medicine and, possibly, weapons and ammunition they could find there and bring back to the remnants of the unit he belonged to. With luck, they would also find a few girls and women whom Jiro could then take prisoners and bring to his comrades in order to help support their morale. Once the helicopter was gone, Jiro made a hand sign to advance to his comrades and continued his trek westward.

It took them a good hour to cover the remaining two kilometers to the farm, due to the thick jungle and hilly terrain. The six Japanese finally crouched behind trees when they arrived in sight of the farm that was their objective. It was a small settlement counting only four wooden buildings and which main activity was the raising of poultry, dairy cows and pigs, with a small field growing corn as a sour ce of feed for the farm’s animals. Using his worn binoculars, Jiro examined the farm for a moment, spotting quickly enough a woman or girl who was feeding the hens contained in a small fenced yard. He also saw a battered old pickup truck parked next to the house serving as residence to the Filipino farmers. Jiro was about to tell his comrades to start creeping towards the farm when he froze and swore to himself: an armed soldier was now coming out of the house and was walking towards the barn housing the farm’s dairy cows. He then swore more on recognizing the soldier as being an American and not a Filipino.

‘’By the Kamis22! I see an American soldier walking around that farm.’’

‘’An American soldier?’’ said his next most senior soldier, Tomunaga Miyamoto. ‘’But, we haven’t encountered American soldiers for at least three years now. The only thing we saw of them were their devilish helicopters and planes. This can’t be good for us.’’

22 Kamis: Word describing mythical Japanese spirits and creatures.

‘’It sure can’t be good, Miyamoto. Let’s see if there are more than one American in that farm: maybe he came to visit a Filipino family he is either related to or is friendly with.’’

Resuming his observation with his binoculars, Jiro swore again less than a minute later: that American had just stopped next to a well-camouflaged position sheltering a machine gun crew armed with a medium machine gun.

‘’Damn! I see more American soldiers: this farm is protected by at least one infantry squad. We won’t have a choice now but to retreat. Tell the others to prepare to move back...cautiously.’’

The six Japanese soldiers, disappointed at not being able to raid the farm, started going back in their steps while staying under the cover of the jungle. They had covered at most 200 meters when the noise of approaching helicopter rotors made them stop and crouch down, trying their best to be invisible. However, they didn’t know about the modern technology used by the American helicopters, which included thermal cameras able to see the heat signatures of men hiding among the jungle. The helicopter, an AH-4 attack helicopter from the 99th Air Wing, passed overhead at first without apparently reacting to the Japanese, then slowed down and performed a half-turn at low altitude, pointing its nose at the hiding soldiers. Fear then came to Jiro, who knew too well how dangerous and powerful that kind of machine was: many of his comrades had been obliterated by the fearsome firepower of the American attack helicopters.

‘’GET DOWN!’’

While his comrades obeyed him at once, that didn’t save them, as the AH-4 fired a salvo of eight three-inch rockets at the patch of jungle they were hiding in. The explosive fragmentation warheads of the rockets then slammed against branches and trunks of the trees and detonated, raining deadly steel fragments all over that patch of jungle. All six Japanese fell victims to that dense rain of steel, with two of them being killed outright and the four others becoming wounded to various degrees. Jiro himself screamed in pain when a hot steel shrapnel punctured his right calf. He then got up with difficulty in order to try to run away, only to be killed by the second rocket salvo fired by the attack helicopter.

Some twenty minutes later, eight American paratroopers alerted by the AH-4 arrived at the location where the Japanese dead and wounded lay. The sergeant leading the squad quickly saw that four of the Japanese were now dead, while two other Japanese were wounded but still alive. One private, standing next to one of the wounded Japanese, who was trashing in pain while holding his ripped open abdomen, gave a questioning look to his squad leader.

‘’What do we do with those two, Sergeant?’’

‘’You know the directives about Japanese soldiers, Leverton: they are to be treated as terrorists and murderers. By attacking and killing unarmed civilians and systematically raping Filipina women and girls before killing them, they forfeited any rights to be treated like soldiers. Kill them!’’ The private nodded his head once, then coldly shot the wounded Japanese in the head, while another American paratrooper killed the other wounded Japanese. The squad leader then gave more orders.

‘’Let’s deploy and make sure that there are no other remaining Japs around. Our helicopter will help us by looking around with its FLIR cameras.’’

‘’Those FLIR cameras sure are damn useful things, Sergeant.’’

‘’That they are, Leverton.’’

13:41 (Washington Time)

Tuesday, November 18, 1952 ‘C’

Senate Chamber

The Capitol, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

John F. Kennedy was positively fuming as he took place behind the microphone of the dais situated in front of the assembled senators disc ussing the day’s business of the Senate. He had just been given the floor by the Senate President pro tempore in order to respond to the speech from the preceding speaker, who was like him from the Democratic Party.

‘’Ladies and gentleman of the Senate, I may be a Democrat, like the colleague from Mississippi who just spoke, but I have to vehemently contradict him about the outrageous nonsense he just spewed out. The Secretary of Defense is simply doing her job and fulfilling her mandate to protect the United States and its allies by sending troops to the Philippines, in order to eliminate for good the persistent threat posed by diehard, fanatical Japanese soldiers who are still refusing to surrender after more than seven years and who have been killing Filipino civilians and raiding their farms and villages. Let me remind you all that we are still technically at war with Japan, since all our demands for the Japanese to officially surrender and put down their weapons have been either ignored or rebuked along those seven years. The Warren Administration, including Secretary of Defense Dows, is thus not committing any abuse of power by supposedly starting a war without Congress approval: it simply is finishing off a long overdue job that the Truman Administration failed to do. As for the continued deployment of American troops in Palestine, our soldiers are there as peacekeepers and have already prevented thousands of unnecessary deaths by stopping the various acts of ethnic cleansing which shook Palestine until the sending of General Dows by President Dewey as his plenipotentiary envoy. By her decisive and insightful actions in Palestine, General Dows accomplished what many of you said couldn’t be done: to bring peace back to Palestine. General Dows was in the process attacked twice by extremists and wounded just as she had engineered an unprecedented accord between Jews and Arabs to have a new Jewish temple built on the Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. That accord, more than anything else, has contributed to appeasing much of the tensions and disputes between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine, while preventing the neighboring Arab states from attacking the Jewish population of Palestine. To accuse General Dows of abusing her power by her actions in Palestine is, in my opinion, simply hypocritical. As a result of her resolve and political acumen, Secretary Dows has brought peace back to the Middle East and is now in the process of ridding the Philippines, a good ally of the United States, of the persistent and deadly threat represented by the thousands of fanatical Japanese soldiers who are still hiding in the jungles of that country, murdering, raping and looting civilians. And some of my Democratic colleagues want to smear her and the present administration for crass political purposes? It is high time that this institution supports and acclaims the accomplishments of that incredible woman, rather than trying to blacken her name.’’

‘’YOU ARE DEFENDING HER BECAUSE YOU BEDDED HER, RIGHT?’’ shouted the Mississippi Democrat who had spoken before him. As a storm of mixed indignant protests and approving comments erupted, the President pro tempore of the Senate banged his gavel repeatedly.

‘’ORDER! ORDER, PLEASE!’’

With John Kennedy red with anger and ready to shoot back at Senator James Eastland, the gavel banging finally calmed down a bit the atmosphere in the chamber, with the President pro tempore then looking severely at Eastland.

‘’The senator from Mississippi must know that personal insults and innuendoes are not allowed in this chamber. If you continue along this line, then I will be forced to have you ejected from the Senate chamber. Am I clear, Senator Eastland?’’

‘’Yes, Mister President pro tempore.’’ answered Eastland in a reluctant tone.

‘’Good! Fellow members of the Senate, know that I have only great respect for Secretary Dows, who is one of our genuine national heroes, and that I consider the present accusations against her to be pure rubbish and unworthy of debate. The Senate will thus pass on to the next item on our day’s agenda...’’ While satisfied with the ruling from the President pro tempore against Eastland, John Kennedy still had to fight to calm himself down. Eastland was far from being the lone avowed bigot and racist in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. He thus would need to keep up his defense of Ingrid against the falsehoods and innuendoes her numerous political enemies and corporate adversaries in the aeronautical world kept throwing around.

16:29 (Manila Time)

Wednesday, November 19, 1952 ‘C’

Advanced field command post east of Benito

Sierra Madre, island of Luzon, Philippines

‘’ROOM!’’ shouted a junior officer the moment Ingrid walked into the large tent used as an advanced field command post for the 82nd Airborne Division. Everybody then came to attention, including Lieutenant-General James Gavin and Major-General Charles Canham, with Gavin and Canham saluting Ingrid.

‘’At ease, gentlemen!’’ said Ingrid as she returned their salute. For this field trip in the Sierra Madre’s front lines of Operation Clean Sweep, she had shed her civilian female business suit and was wearing instead an army combat uniform displaying the rank insignias of a four-star general. Walking to close to the map board sitting on a table, she shook hands with both generals while smiling to them.

‘’I understand that we are making some good progress to date, gentlemen?’’

‘’We indeed are, General.’’ answered Canham, a tough and energetic commander with extensive combat experience in World War 2. ‘’Our troops have now hermetically sealed the perimeter of the Sierra Madre, with our patrol boats and destroyers securing the East Coast and blocking any movement by boat by Japanese soldiers trying to escape the Sierra Madre pocket. Our infantry units are now steadily squeezing that perimeter while thoroughly combing the terrain for hiding Japanese soldiers.’’

‘’What is our average troop density along that perimeter, General Canham?’’

‘’Our four divisions are deployed with an average of one man per ten meters, while Filipino units follow behind them, ready to intercept any Japanese who would try to infiltrate through our lines and escape our cordon and sweep operations. I must say that the hand-held thermal cameras you have distributed to our troops have proved extremely effective and useful to date: many of the Japanese soldiers we encountered to date would have slipped through if not for those thermal cameras, which can show the thermal signatures of hiding Japanese in the heaviest jungle. Still, our advance has not gone without some resistance: those Japanese diehards are true fanatics and are also quite skilled at jungle warfare. Our losses, which have been very light to date, would have been a lot heavier if not for our superior equipment and for our air support.’’

‘’And what are our losses to date?’’ asked Ingrid in a sober tone. Gavin answered her on that, his tone also sober: like Ingrid, he was no butcher.

‘’To date, we have suffered a total of 138 men killed and 307 wounded in combat. Those Japanese can be tricky bastards indeed and I had to remind our troopers not to approach wounded or supposedly surrendering Japanese, who too often have grenades primed and ready in their hands. I told my men to instead finish them off from a distance with rifle fire. We also had some 462 men fall sick from various tropical diseases, like malaria and Dengue Fever.’’

‘’And in what physical state were the Japanese you encountered?’’ This time, it was Canham who answered her.

‘’Overall, they were quite emaciated but still put up quite a fight, while continuing to refuse to surrender . However, as per your orders, we didn’t take any prisoners: their past barbaric conduct during World War 2 and during the past recent years, when they massacred the Filipino civilians they attacked, simply disqualified them from being treated according to Geneva Conventions rules. To date, we encountered and killed over 6,000 Japanese, while many more were killed by our helicopters and attack aircraft while trying to flee. The AH-4 attack helicopters and the AC-142G heavy gunships of the 99th Air Wing have proved particularly deadly and effective in that aspect. Those helicopters and gunships may be ageing but they are still extremely useful for this kind of fighting. However, I must point out that the numbers of surviving Japanese were well above our estimates.’’

‘’And how many Japanese do you estimate are still hiding in the jungles and hills of the Sierra Madre?’’

‘’It is hard to say, General: the few maps and documents we found in the Japanese camps and hideouts we flushed out told us little about that. However, I would advance a rough estimate of some 8,000 Japanese soldiers remaining, dispersed in a multitude of small units each counting no more than forty to fifty men. This fight will thus be a long and arduous one, General, but it also constitutes prime jungle warfare training for our paratroopers.’’

‘’Eight thousand Japanese, just here in the Sierra Madre... There must be at the least another 10,000 Japanese diehards hiding on the island of Mindanao, in the South of the Philippines. However, I can tell you that the Filipino government and people are immensely grateful for our help in getting the Philippines rid of those Japanese.’’ She then looked directly at James Gavin, who was the overall ground commander for Operation Clean Sweep.

‘’Once we will have completed a thorough sweep of the Sierra Madre area, you will move your airborne corps to Mindanao and will use Davao as your departure point for the sweep there. The girls of the 99th Air Wing will continue to support your paratroopers, while the marines of the First Division will keep concentrating on the Japanese pockets located in the Southeast part of Luzon. I realize that this will mean that our troops will still be fighting in the Philippines by the time Christmas comes but I am not the kind of idiot ready to promise ‘home for Christmas’ to our fighting men and women. Our Christmas gift to the Filipino people will be to rid them of those Japanese bastards.’’

19:05 (California Time)

Saturday, November 22, 1952 ‘C’

The Hughes Mansion, Beverley Hills

Los Angeles, California

‘’HIEN, I’M HOME!’’

A happy Hien immediately rushed out of the lounge, where she had been watching television with Katharine Hepburn, and ran into the open arms of Ingrid, who was still wearing a combat uniform and carried a pistol and a carbine, on top of her three pieces of luggage. Both of them hugged and kissed each other, watched by Katharine, who waited for her turn to hug and kiss Ingrid. As she did so, Ingrid asked her a question.

‘’Hedy is not at home right now?’’

‘’No! She went to the Ciro’s nightclub. She likes that place.’’

‘’Probably because it is full of nice men looking for women to date. She does love her fun...a lot.’’

‘’Indeed! Now that she is rich on her own and thus don’t need to marry a man who would support her, she goes out for plain fun.’’ Ingrid couldn’t help smile at those words.

‘’Well, I can’t say that I can take her to task for that: I myself do a lot of hunting around.’’

She then returned her attention to her adopted daughter, kissing her on her forehead.

‘’And you, Hien, how were your two weeks without me?’’

‘’They were okay, Mommy, but I still missed you a lot.’’

‘’And I missed you a lot too, Hien. Let me go up to unpack, have a shower and change and I will be back down to watch television with you. What were you watching now?’’

‘’A documentary on hummingbirds. It is quite interesting.’’ Ingrid froze after hearing the word ‘hummingbirds’, then an air of revelation came on her face.

‘’Hummingbirds... Of course! I should have thought about that before.’’ Hien could then only exchange a befuddled look with Katharine.