Chapter 7

Ian was just getting ready to leave when Jax stood up and looked to the northwest.

Everyone turned to look at what had alerted Jax and had him pointing to the sky. Suddenly the men were scurrying around to turn the QF 3.7-inch AA-gun. They placed a new high explosive cartridge with a time fuse into the loading tray and rammed it home before they set the sights.

Ian and his people scrambled into the car and took off out of the way, so the men could do their job. They did have other jobs to do themselves.

“They are heading for the RAAF base,” David said, craning his head out of the window to see where the planes were going.

“Fucking, slant-eyed bastards,” Rod snarled as he careened around the bend as he headed towards the airport at speed.

Ian and Jax just held on for the rough ride.

They were all appalled by what they saw next.

As the car sped through the outskirts of town, the men could see some of the wrecked homes and businesses. The town had been hit by the bombs when they had been visiting the men at the batteries on the west side of town.

Ian surmised that the troops that were on shore leave were going to have to help with the clean-up while they waited for a new troop ship. Their ship was sinking to the bottom of the harbour.

As they neared the RAAF base and the airport on the east side of town, David asked, “Why isn’t their heavy artillery firing back?”

“I guess we will find out,” Ian replied grimly.

The enemy planes were now scattering back out to sea, having delivered their rain of destruction, and only the smaller batteries were shooting at the tail-end planes.

It was soon evident that any aircraft on the ground had been a target. The Japanese had wiped out the rest of the Americans’ fleet and most of their planes too. The Japanese planes had also randomly bombed the RAAF Base and the airfield.

The place was a mess, and the burning aviation fuel, woods, rubber, plastics, and whatever could burn stank up the air. The smoke was both thick and black as it plumed into the hot, tropical atmosphere.

Pandemonium reigned, and Ian soon learned that most of the staff had left as he shouted orders and asked for information. Interestingly, even though he wasn’t part of the RAAF, the erks (ground crew) all responded to his commands.

The erks were soon putting out fires and trying to rescue whatever supplies they could from the partly demolished storage hangars. It was going to take some time to get the place serviceable again.

Jax was astounded that people would do this to each other. War on this scale made no sense to him at all. These people must all be crazy to resort to such tactics to solve their grievances.

He wasn’t at all happy to be on this nasty planet that made him feel heavier and uncoordinated. Trying to understand a new language and a throbbing headache didn’t help either.

Ian and his men came up to a car that had been blown over. Jax and the sergeants with him were soon trying to pull the wounded men from it. Jax dropped a healing spell on both of the injured men once they were free.

Fortunately, the men were not seriously hurt, just knocked about. The Army team soon learned that scores of people were wounded from flying shrapnel and some of them, quite seriously.

Ian finally located Squadron Leader Nathan Walsh, who looked after the RAAF Engineers and asked what assistance his men could be to them.

They soon found out that the most important thing was that the telex lines had been damaged, and the Post Office being blown up had taken out the exchange.

Nathan told them that the power lines had also been damaged, as had the town water treatment plant. The RAAF base had its own water filtration plant and a generator, so they were okay on that score. The Army base was also all right as it didn’t get any direct hits.

The Zeros had shot the shit out of the RAAF’s diesel storage tanks, and that was going to be a problem. They needed it for their generators and vehicles.

Since Ian had a team of sappers and a telex system was under his control, he believed that they would have to get the lines repaired quickly.

Then they would need to set up a temporary telex-phone office as they were going to need to talk to high command. Other officers would have to make sure the Army’s camp also had power and water.

As they headed back towards their staff car, Ian asked Nathan why their heavy artillery hadn’t been used. Nathan explained that the fuses in the shells were faulty, and the men were still working on finding a way to get the damn things to work.

Ian knew that the components would need replacing, but he didn’t have the spares. He would need to get the telex lines fixed ASAP. He was quite sure he’d get the go-ahead from higher up and even the personnel that he needed after the recent debacle.

Nathan then said that his other main problem was that half of his men were missing. They had gotten some screwy order to evacuate back down the Stuart Highway, and then the orders were cancelled. So now, no one knew what the hell was going on. He had to send people to find the rest of his men.

Ian promised to look into the telex lines, and he and his people headed back to their vehicle.

Ian and his sergeants were not happy to find some men trying to smash the windows to steal the car.

Jax squealed in alarm when Ian, Rod and David shot at the feet of the men to scare them off. The three men, seeing who was shooting at them, took to their heels. None of the thieves thought to use the rifle hanging off their shoulders.