Chapter 8

David Spencer had noticed that military technology was limited mainly to the air. Plains had improved from biplanes to fighters and bombers more akin to those of World War II and while everyone seemed to have rockets, no one seemed to have anything electronically guided. As what looked like World War I was approaching he saw an opportunity to exploit a lack of ground development by giving armored motorized vehicles not to the Americans, but to the English. Showing up in England David tried to sell them on the idea of tank warfare, but it wasn't until trench warfare grinded the allies' efforts to a halt against the Germans that the British high command started taking the American inventor's advice. They had been convinced that air power would be enough working in conjunction with their infantry who were still using bolt action or semi-automatic rifles and pistols. David's tanks now seemed like a good idea. Drawing up plans based on tanks he had already built in the past David gave them his first design so they could build their own, and accepted a job in research development where he would have an entire staff to see what other ideas he might dig up.

Fielding his new tanks the British were able slug it out with the Germans and push them out of the trenches, though they lost many tanks who got stuck as the English crews tried to push the tanks to their limit and burned out their engines in order to keep up the speedy advance. David immediately stopped whatever research he was working on to back and improved the engine for the tank and thus their performance. Halting their advance long enough to replace their engines the British new armored core pushed further and spearheaded the allied effort to end the stalemate on the western front. The Germans quickly realized they had nothing that could stand up to the tanks on the ground and concentrated their efforts on the infantry, often enough watching English tanks pass them by while they hid and hoped that weren't noticed.

British infantry divisions asked for better transportation to bring them to the front and David did his best to solve the problem by taking his tank engines and redesigning them to be used in vehicles. Allied automobile plants quickly pushed them out to the line so troops could use them. Almost every design the automakers were given was way ahead of anything they had, and they knew that if their side won that they would probably get to keep the plans for this new generation of vehicles. Even the Americans, eager to get involved and share some of the fruits of labor got a piece of the actions. No matter how well the German commanders managed to counterattack, their enemy only seemed to get stronger. David Spencer was rapidly becoming the key to the Allies' victory.

When German spies heard of where all the trouble seemed to be coming from they dispatched a series of assassins and spies to either captured the inventor or kill him so they could possibly win the war. David was standing in his kitchen when the first assassin took a shot at him. Lucky enough for him he had dropped a dish that slipped out of his hand and shattered down on the floor. Bending down to pick it up, he heard the first bullet strike into the side of his metal sink. Immediately diving to the ground he crawled into his living room and called for help while the sniper desperately tried to hit him. Armed men searched the rooftops but only found the assassin's rifle where he had left it before getting out of dodge to avoid capture. When the police found him David was hiding behind his couch. Fearful for his life the army moved him to one of their bases, believing he would be safer there.

While working on a new anti-aircraft gun David was attacked by a bunch of men trying to kidnap him. Managing to fight them off he locked himself in a closet before army troops came to the rescue and subdued the men before they could bust the door down. The army taking no chances this time put David in a bunker and only put their most trusted people to guard him. Alone for the most part the inventor continued to draw up plans which his former staff tested and okayed before it was put into production. This significantly slowed down the advance of technology, but it was better than losing the Allies' top man, especially to the enemy. From the first day he stepped into that solitary place until the day the war was over he was watched day and night. While the food was good David was never allowed to talk to anyone who didn't have high security clearance. Only the British and top brass knew that David was still alive when they put out a double who was quickly shot as he was walking to the inventor's old work place. As for anyone else that had known about his existence, it was believed that David's team of fellow scientists were managing to carry on his work. David Spencer even had an official funeral with full honors for his efforts in the war just to fool the Germans.

Technically a dead man David knew that the quicker he gave the Allies the weapon or tool they needed to end the war, the quicker her would be able to see sunlight again. Coming with the first radar system he handed it over to his handlers and hoped it was enough, as it turned out that finished the job. With radar the Allies had an early warning system that they could use against incoming enemy aircraft allowing their air and ground forces to scramble to their own defense. German fighters and bombers soon found anti-aircraft honing in on them with impressive accuracy as gun crews now had plenty of time to line them up in their sights. Bit by bit the guns of the British and their allies began to silence the enemy's air power, and the Americans led the charge to claim the once disputed skies of Europe. The knockout punch came when the Americans weakened the enemy line that had reformed after crossing the Rhine and the British used their tanks to punch through. After that the German army quickly surrendered and peace was quickly established.

Not everything in the aftermath was so fortunate as the quick peace as Woodrow Wilson; the current President of the United States became ill in a visit and remained bedridden after the important peace talks, and was unable to see his dream of a "league of nations" because his Republican opponents quickly took the opportunity to defeat while the President's wife practically ran the country in her husband's absence. David who was well aware of what that meant knew that another war was due to come thanks to America's isolationist attitude. Returning home to the United States under his new name Louis Wilson, he found a home in California near San Diego. Needing the work he joined the United States Navy to become a pilot. While stationed in Hawaii he met a young woman named Hiroko Yashita. Beautiful and intelligent she had a job a guide for local tourists. They had come to know each other as she had shown him around the island for the first time, and before he knew it he was kissing her.

Both of them had blushed at the awkwardness of the moments that followed, but when Louis asked her if she wanted to go to a movie sometime Hiroko said, "Yes I would like that very much."

They had held hands on their first date and Louis took her to a scary movie and smiled as she hid her face during the scariest parts. During one such moment he decided to give her a more pleasant distraction and kissed her lips softly. Hiroko happy to participate returned his kiss and Louis had to fight to control himself. They left the theatre grinning as they were happy just to be together.

When he met her family Louis heard her father say, "I don't about this young man. Are you sure he is the one?"

"Yes father, I believe he is." Hiroko replied.

"I'll take care of her, you have my word on that sir." Louis said in fluent Japanese, much to the surprise of Mr. Yashita.

"I was not aware you spoke our language, especially so well." Mr. Yashita a man of middle age said.

"I visited Japan many times in the past. It is almost a second home to me." Louis replied.

Yashita's face softened to him, "Then I would be honored to have you in the family."

Louis told Hiroko what he had done in the previous war before they married.

"I wanted you to know why it was that I changed my name." Louis said.

"Surely it was to remain safe in case other men were looking for you." She said.

"No, it was I wanted a clean slate. No one from my past knows me by my new name and they would be hard pressed to find me. I don't want to spend another year in some dark hole all alone again. I did my duty and want to go on with my life. Now I get to shoot back if trouble comes looking for me, and with you I won't be alone." Louis explained.

"I don't care what name you called yourself by in the past. I love the man that's in front of me." Hiroko said.

"Then that's all I need." Louis said.

They were married on a summer day in August, and Mariko was born a year later, followed by Adam Wilson. Noticed for piloting and tactical skills Louis rose quickly up through the ranks until he was captain of his own ship. A destroyer captain he was surprisingly good at coming up with very realistic air to air battles that let American pilots test their skills against each other. Using paint bullets he came up with experts were able accurately judge who their best pilots without using live ammo and risking their lives more than the exercises would themselves. Laying in his cabin onboard ship a knock woke him up.

"Come in." Louis said.

The door creaked open revealing the McHenry's XO. He was in his mid thirties

"What brings you here Mike?" Louis said shaking himself awake.

"Sorry to bother you captain but a message has just been received from command. You're supposed to report into the HQ on the island sir." Mike said.

"Do you know what this is about commander?" Louis asked.

"I'm afraid not sir." Mike said.

"Very well, the ship is yours until I get back." Louis said.

"Yes sir." The Commander said.

Heading over to the Naval HQ Captain Louis Wilson reported to the office of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet. Both were capable officers and respected the other man's abilities.

"Have a seat captain." Kimmel said and watched him take a seat in the chair before him.

"Sir I was told you wanted to talk to me about something." Louis said always to the point.

"You're my best officer Captain in Hawaii. While I've tried to do my best to keep you in your own command, but I'm afraid orders have come down from above that have transferred you here to headquarters." Kimmel replied.

"With respects sir you're taking my ship from me?" Louis asked in disbelief.

"This wasn't my choice Captain Wilson. These are the orders passed down to me. I've been told that the reasoning behind it is that Washington feels your invaluable skills as an aircraft training officer is wasted in your current posting. Training efficiency has greatly decreased since you left your last one to take command of the McHenry. I've been told that it in performing this service to your country you will be put on the fast track to a promotion to Rear Admiral. With that said at your earliest convenience I want you in your new office to carry on the training missions and get our planes back up to combat readiness. If a war does start in the Pacific I want our pilots ready for a fight." Kimmel answered.

Swallowing his anger and frustration Louis said, "As the officer in charge of our planes and training I would recommend that we improve our radar cover. Our current setup invites an enemy attack. If our people don't check out everything then the enemy could mount a surprise attack."

"You actually believe such an attack is possible?" Kimmel asked seriously.

"If I were the enemy this is where I would hit. Our entire fleet is here and one good strike could cripple us." Louis said.

"I doubt command will send us more listening stations. Materials are already being sent to help the British and other allies while America refuses to enter the war. Our resources are already being stretched." Kimmel said.

"With your permission sir I'll take care of the problem. You won't need to send out a request. I'll make it an additional part of our Pacific Fleet training. We can even get our army comrades involved if you want since they will probably be running them when we are finished. Worst case scenario you will have to ask Washington for more men if we don't have enough when we are done setting them up." Louis said.

"You sound pretty confident Captain. I wasn't aware you were so proficient in building complex electronic devices." Kimmel noted.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises sir. I report in as soon as I can vacate my former post sir." Louis said snapping to attention.

"Very well dismissed." Kimmel said and watched Louis leave.

Captain Wilson was kept himself busy for the next few months. He never let his frustrations show themselves at home and tries to keep a professional image at all times so it wouldn't affect the morale of his troops and the peace and comfort of his family.

Hiroko did notice her husband spend more time at work, making excuses like, "I have another project that needs my attention."

Understanding her husband's demeanor she noticed this was his way of relieving stress by planning another project or working on another radar listening device with his own hands. It gave him a chance to funnel his frustrations into something constructive. Building or making something always made him feel better and she respected him enough to let him deal with the amount stress he was facing in his own way. Even when he finished his side project involving the listening posts Wilson spent a lot of his free time working on designs for natural renewable power generators. His main focus was on wave and river generators that would use the force inherent in the sea or running rivers to produce energy cheaply. Drawing up designs for one based on old windmills that used water to help them grind grain in the past proved the easier of the two as he faced more problems with the wave design including waterproofing key wiring and other components. Wind energy though easily produced and cheap would risk the local bird populations as they had the tendency to fly into the moving blades. Solar energy would be slow in coming because he would have to manufacture all the components needed to use it himself, which would be very time consuming. The generators he was currently working on had very little if any ecological effect compared to any other energy source, unless you counted geothermal which faced the same problems for him as solar.

What time he did spend with his children he tried to make the most of, playing with them in the house or reading to them. Often enough Hiroko found her husband reading to the children on a weekend afternoon with both of them sitting on his lap; his daughter was now four years old at the time with his son at three. They adored their father and loved spending time with him. Tucking them in at night, he kissed their foreheads before turning out most of the light and leaving the night light he invented on to help his son deal with his fear of the dark. Whenever they had a nightmare they would often call for their father and safe in his arms as he sat in his favorite rocking chair they would be able to fall asleep.

Other ideas occurred to him but he was busy trying to convince his commander and Washington that there was a greater threat from an outside threat than sabotage. Washington not believing him refused to send Wilson more men to be able to handle the radar workload which meant that a skeleton crew of radar operators were watching all the data coming in. Wilson tried to convince the Admiral to put more pressure on Washington, but even the Commander of the Pacific Fleet could only do so much, and Wilson found himself generally ignored. Disobeying an order from command to give all his aviators a break Wilson kept a squadron on standby at all times, with orders to be ready at a moment's notice. He had studied World War II and knew a war was coming, his only question was could his people be ready enough despite the attitude of his superiors, who in his opinion believed that an attack on Pearl was impossible.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941 the attack came just as he predicted and Captain Wilson who unexpectedly did a surprise inspection on the day of the attack performed a "combat drill" with his standby squadron checking out a possible enemy sighting that the radar operators there assumed was a group of six B-17s coming in. The incoming Japanese bombers and fighters shot down a few of the bombers before the land based U.S. Navy fighter squadron spotted the enemy and engaged after calling it in. Receiving the report the Radar operators quickly spread the word up the chain, while Captain Wilson ordered his pilots to their hangars and they were under attack. While his other pilots scrambled to their planes, the pilots already sent out made a good account for themselves shooting down several bombers and experiencing minimal losses while the Japanese fighers caught by surprise quickly tried to draw them away. Anti-aircraft fire opened up, guided by the radar as they came deeper into the island and most of enemy bombers were knocked out of the sky before they had the chance to reach their objectives.

By the time Kimmel got involved his subordinate was already organizing the defense. Unfortunately the Japanese realizing the greatest danger was from the island itself, skirted it and headed right into the harbor where the U.S. ships waited. While the carriers were not there at the time many other ships were, and most were sitting ducks by the time the second wave hit, even as men quickly manned the guns. Trying to keep the enemy planes off them they tried to get moving so they could maneuver and thus make themselves harder targets. Two ships: the USS Arizona USS Tennessee were hit and suffered major casualties. Neither ship was sunk, but both were heavily damaged. Men fought desperately to put out fires and save their ships as the ships limped away.

As more and more American pilots took to the air the Japanese saw that they had a real fight on their hands and rather than risk a full on engagement they chose to withdraw rather than risk their own ships. Launching their fighter pilots the Japanese fended off the oncoming Americans while they made their escape. Almost half of the pilots the Japanese Imperial Navy had used to launch the attack were lost while most of Wilson's standby squadron had been lost. The few survivors were given medals for their part in Pearl Harbor's defense and the quick thinking of key officers including Captain Wilson who kept the surprise attack from becoming a total catastrophe. Admiral Kimmel was still blamed for allowing the attack to happen in the first place and was reduced in rank by one star, which made him a Vice Admiral from that point on and cost him command of the Pacific Fleet.

Captain Wilson was given temporary command of the Pacific Fleet while his replacement was pending. While President Franklin Roosevelt called for war Admiral Wilson mobilized his fleet for a counter attack. The mobilization was actually a ploy to make the Japanese believe that the main fleet would be attacking and while Congress declared war Wilson launched the Doolittle Raid that used sixteen of the United States' best long range bombers. Due to the advance aircraft design he was able to launch his aircraft from a safe distance well away from the Japanese mainland using carriers. Only one plane was lost in the surprise counter attack, and it clearly showed the Japanese the attacks they would be facing from then on. Making the aircraft carriers and his submarines the focus of his fleet Wilson took the fight to the Japanese matching his wits against his counterpart Admiral Yamato. Outfitting his ships with a new radar and sonar designs secretly he vastly increased their offensive and defensive capabilities. His ships and planes were now able to see their enemy long before the Japanese even knew they were in the area, giving him first strike capability. The Japanese struggled to closer the gap in radar technology, but thanks largely to the Armistice Agreement on the sharing of radar technology, only the allies who had fought the Germans in the first World War had full access to the original radar designs, so the Japanese had to learn how to develop their own form of radar by scratch putting them years behind even before the recent upgrade.

Using these advantages to his greatest benefit while Washington was left scrambling to keep up, Wilson made a savage thrust with his subs before bringing his surface fleet in behind them to hammer the enemy with guns and aircraft. It would be called his classic maneuver of, "Hit 'em low and hit 'em high."

His version of the Coral Sea included four Japanese destroyers be sunk by three of his subs before the rest of their ships including an aircraft named the Soryu gave chase right into a trap set for them by Wilson. Commanding from the front rather than the rear despite pressure from Washington Admiral Wilson was there and had his planes ready to fly when his submarines radioed that they had engaged the enemy. Launching aircraft from the Enterprise and Hornet he sunk two more destroyers and a carrier, forcing the Japanese to withdraw. Not giving any ground Wilson confronted his enemy whenever they were sighted while the rest of his fleet protected and supported his marines as they landed on enemy beaches and began taking islands in the Pacific. No matter what Yamato tried the Americans seemed to see him coming, largely because Wilson used some of his subs to spy on the enemy and relay their movements. Whenever under attack all his submariners had to do was to call for help and head towards the nearest American fleet. Most of them made but the growing wariness of the Japanese taught to start pinging away with active sonar of their own which put the American subs in danger.

The United States Navy started spending more resources on making their submarines faster so they could better outrun the Japanese Navy, and gave them better radios and torpedoes so they could fire from greater distances and report in from farther away. United States Marines began setting up radio relay stations on islands captured to increase the range even further and allow ships or planes nearby to be able to quickly come to the submarine's aid. Bit by bit Admiral Wilson pushed his enemy back and with the breakthrough of jet technology that inventors had been struggling with for years came in he immediately asked Washington for at least a few of them as soon as they came off the line. Deciding to keep him in his current position thanks to his many successes, Congress sponsored a program to provide him with the aircraft he asked for.

While he was waiting Admiral Wilson who finally gave into pressure to be off the frontlines took command his new base in the Philippines and began a program of his own by creating the first radio controlled miniature prop aircraft that could be used to strike at enemy positions and ships using onsite observers. Cheap and disposable they could afford to use the explosives they carried and could even drop. In some cases when using large groups of them they could be used against incoming aircraft, exploding on impact. While not highly maneuverable at this point, when used in a massed attack. Most of his men assumed that these advances came from the states, not their commanding officer's head. It didn't take long for those in command to notice and began to quietly observe every base where these new aircraft showed up. Impressed they began asking questions and eventually found out no one knew except to say, "The Admiral got it for us."

When they questioned Admiral Wilson he wouldn't say, so they were left with a great mystery. It was actually the British who presented the answer, telling their trusted allies who the Admiral Wilson had been during the first World War they informed the Americans who they were dealing with.