Chapter 40

Junior was stuck. She couldn't use her license. Her expensive airplane was Andie's toy.

Andrea flew the general area looking for 'evidence.' She found it. She found a lot of it ... bunches and piles.

Old airfields, abandoned before the war ended because the main push was up through the Pacific Island chains that pointed like arrows at the heart of industrial Japan. Take an island ... build a better airfield. Bomb the living daylights out of the Japanese ... shoot down their aircraft, sink their Navy, destroy the supplies.

You would have to do something drastic to eliminate their will to resist but it was possible to stop the supplies that made it possible to resist.

Find out what islands the Jap thought were important and bypass them ... leave their thousands of troops to sit and rot. Take out the little islands with just enough room for a medium bomber strip and harass, harass, harass.

The Empire was beginning to stretch ... weak spots were tearing holes in the flag of the Rising Sun. The Burma Road was handing Chang and his troops supplies.

More troops were needed to stop up the Burma Road. More troops were needed in the ever resisting China; reinforce mainland China.

Reinforce the Pacific Islands; the islands were falling like dominos.

Southeast Asia, the Island chain from Singapore east to the Celebes. Borneo ... a headhunters paradise ... the heads were Japs.

New Guinea, the Nips were finding increasing resistence. Raids on Port Moresby were absorbing veteran pilots ... more every day.

The Filipinos are resisting their Imperial masters ... the Philippine Islands need more troops.

American, Englander, Dutch, Australian plantation managers have formed a group of Coast Watchers who report ship movements ... seek them out, eliminate the leak ... We need more troops!

The new troops were high school students ... old men; fathers, grandfathers, men who had had their factories obliterated by the bombing. Ill trained fanatics who were just marginally better than nothing. They could shoot ... and die for the God of the Imperial Nation of Nippon ... the Emperor.

Arrayed against them were the Australian, New Zealander, Free Dutch, and American ... and American industry.

Andrea was beginning to have a feel for the area. Some of the old strips were still useful ... she had excellent documents. Fly to a strip ... park the plane off on a hardstand ... set the watch and introduce herself as a reporter ... covering the war. David went with her ... cameraman ... it helped the disguise and confusion. There was confusion ... no one told the commanders there was an American woman coming.

As soon as she could she left the officers and found enlisted men who weren't at all shy about telling the real story ... a few were people she knew in the future ... those she was very glad to avoid ... couldn't have them remembering the reporter who seemed to know how the war was going and didn't lie to them about it.

She was constantly writing ... no one knew she had a battery of tape recorders taping every word. From the lies of the colonels to the truths of the private ... it was all preserved. She talked to the aborigine, she talked to the teen girls who realized that love might not be coming back and they had better get it while they could.

Hookers, bartenders, store owners and shopkeepers. She talked to them all. She loved to interview the cheats, the bribers, the makers and sellers of shoddy goods. The men working the docks ... the thieves who had stolen arms and munitions for future resale. A word here and a hint there...

She wasn't getting the reminiscence of old soldiers ... she was interviewing those who would die ... their fears and ... their women, parents and brothers. It was heartbreaking ... she persevered. This was their story ... History is always written by the winners ... many of the men she interviewed were losers. The story behind history. The untold story.