Escorting the transports were almost
fifty Allied warships. The Task Force included the American
aircraft carriers
Enterprise
,
Saratoga,
and
Wasp,
the battleship USS
North Carolina
and three Australian
cruisers:
HMAS
Australia
,
Canberra
and
Hobart.
Armed with
vital intelligence, supplied by Australian coast watchers on the
island, the big guns of the warships relentlessly pounded known
Japanese positions to soften up resistance before the Marines
swarmed ashore.
One target which received particular
attention was an airstrip still under construction by Japanese
engineers. The massive naval bombardment delivered from over two
miles out to sea, not only sent the two thousand Japanese troops on
the island fleeing into the jungle, but it also served notice on
their far-off Emperor that the Allied fight-back in the Pacific had
begun. The Marines met no resistance when they poured ashore and
the huge task of unloading equipment and supplies from amphibious
craft was carried out without coming under enemy fire. Soon the
marines had established defensive positions.
The American assault on Guadalcanal brought a
swift response from the Japanese command at Rabaul which sent a
large bomber force to attack the Allied fleet. But Australian
coast-watchers on the island of Bougainville in the northern
Solomons spotted them and alerted the fleet which, forewarned,
inflicted serious losses on the raiders. After the bombers, a fleet
of Japanese cruisers left Rabaul for Guadalcanal. But when it
arrived, most of the Allied fleet had already departed to the
dismay of General Alexander Vandegrift, commander of the Marine
invasion force. The day before, the naval commander, Admiral
Fletcher, fearing an overwhelming Japanese air attack on his prized
carriers, had withdrawn them, together with their huge fleet of
protective warships. All that remained in the waters around
Guadalcanal was a handful of Allied cruisers and destroyers,
including the Australian squadron.
Shortly after midnight the Japanese
fleet attacked the unsuspecting Allied ships off Savo island, just
north of Guadalcanal. In less than half an hour
HMAS Canberra
went down with the loss of almost a
hundred lives. Soon afterwards, the
USS
Quincey
,
Astoria
and
Vincennes
followed
the
Canberra
to the bottom of
the sea. With four cruiser kills and empty torpedo tubes, the
Japanese fleet vanished into the blackness of the night.
During their first days on Guadalcanal, the
Marines dug in, preparing for a large-scale Japanese counter-attack
by land forces which General Vandegrift was certain would follow.
Marines quickly secured and fortified the partially built airfield,
raised the American flag above it and named it Henderson Field,
after a US Marine Corps pilot killed at the Battle of Midway.
General Vandegrift gave high priority to the completion of the
airfield and when the runway was deemed to be operational, just
five days after the landing, he summoned his senior officers.
‘Henderson Field,’ he said solemnly, ‘will be
invaluable to us. I believe the Marine Corps now has its own
unsinkable aircraft carrier. We must hold it at all costs. Unlike
Admiral Fletcher’s carriers, it will never desert us when we need
it the most. I’ve been told that within days we can expect a Marine
fighter squadron and a Marine bomber squadron from Vanuatu and also
a P-40 squadron from MacArthur’s Army Air Corps in Australia. It’s
not much, but it’s a start.’ Vandegrift’s craggy face broke into a
rare grin. ‘The start of the Cactus Air Force.’
*
Faith saw the two diggers’ hats on the hall
table the moment she arrived home at New Farm and her spirits
soared. She rushed into the lounge room and when she saw Joe and
another uniformed soldier sitting talking with the Sharkeys, she
couldn’t contain her joy. Joe was on his feet in a second and
holding her so tight she could hardly breathe.
After Joe and Weasel had satisfied their
appetites on one of Aunt Helen’s formidable roast lamb dinners,
Faith and her brother sat out on the veranda together. In the
moonlight they spoke of what had transpired since their separation
in the Top End. Soon they had filled in the unknown pages in each
other’s lives and shared together the sorrow of Sunday’s fate and
the anguish of not knowing exactly what had happened to Koko.
When they had caught up with the major
events, Joe said, ‘Uncle Dick told me about those bastards at the
labor exchange and the Manpower, Faith. That’s the trouble in times
like this. All of a sudden every petty official thinks he’s
God.’
‘Oh, it’s not all bad, Joe. If I hadn’t been
sent to the factory at Rocklea, I might never have met Dan
again.’
‘Aunt Helen told me you two seem quite
serious. It’s all happened pretty fast, hasn’t it?’
Faith smiled. ‘I suppose so. But as you say,
it’s the times. Nothing seems real with this war going on. There
doesn’t seem to be the time to do things in the usual way. One
minute someone’s here, the next they’re gone.’ Faith took Joe’s
hand. ‘Where are they sending you, Joe?’
‘After Katherine it could be anywhere in the
Top End.’
‘You’ll try and let me know where, won’t
you?’
Joe laughed. ‘That’s against the rules. You
know the Army censors everyone’s letters. But some of the AIF
blokes I met at Ingleburn said that when they were overseas they
found lots of ways to write between the lines. So just read my
letters carefully.’
Faith shivered as she felt the evening chill.
‘Just one more thing,’ Joe said as they got up to go inside, ‘Uncle
Dick mentioned something about a bloke at work that keeps pestering
you.’
‘Oh, you know how it is.’ Faith sighed.
‘There’s always one in the crowd.’
‘All the same. I think I should go and have a
word with the factory manager before I leave Brisbane. You
shouldn’t have to stay there under those conditions. Besides, it’s
not your kind of work anyway.’
Faith put her hand firmly against the door of
the house as Joe was about to open it. ‘Please don’t go over to the
factory, Joe. The Manpower won't let me leave there. And the job
itself isn’t that bad. I’m afraid if you interfere, the manager or
the supervisor will only give me a worse one. It’s not that
serious. Believe me, I can handle old Lipp.’
‘But you should have a job in your own line,
Faith. Uncle Dick says the Yanks are screaming out for stenos since
they moved their headquarters up here from Melbourne.’
‘
Yes, I know. But you know as well as I
do that it’s against the law to leave the job you’re in for another
one unless the Manpower sanction the move, or you have a signed
work release form from your present employer. And I’ve never heard
of anyone actually getting one.’
Joe opened the door to the house.
‘I’ve just thought of something,’ Faith
said as they went inside. ‘What did you say the name of that boat
was, the one that left you and
Faraway
out in the Gulf?’
‘She was the
Groote Eyelandt Lady
. Why?’
‘That’s funny. I’m sure that’s the name of
the boat Dan said he saw at Horn Island during an air raid
recently. He said he remembered it because it had the same name as
a boat you and he saw in Beagle Gulf after the big raid in
Darwin.’
*
Joe and Weasel shared a tent with four other
privates in a camp the Army had set up for the Nackeroos in
Yeerongpilly, a few miles south of the city centre. When they got
back from New Farm, they found a crowd of soldiers gathered around
it. Everyone was noisily complaining about the treatment a group of
Nackeroos had received in Brisbane when they’d gone to town earlier
in the day looking for some fun.
The Nackeroos had soon discovered that
American soldiers in Brisbane vastly outnumbered diggers and that
they had a monopoly on the local girls. And the reason was
obvious—the GIs were paid several times more than diggers and their
uniforms were much smarter than the old World War One hand-me-downs
the Australian Army issued its fighting men. But the final insult
had come when some Nackeroos had entered an American Army post
exchange in the city looking for cigarettes and beer and had been
forcefully thrown out. Several Nackeroos who had resisted the
eviction had been bashed by baton wielding MPs so badly they needed
stitches.
The more Weasel heard about the indignities
suffered by his mates the more incensed he became. ‘It’s not fair,’
he shouted. ‘Australian canteens are open to the bloody Yanks.’ His
thin face screwed up in anger. ‘The bastards. The dirty, rotten,
Yankee bastards. I’ll….’
One of the Nackeroos laughed out loud. ‘And
what will you do, Weasel. If you stood on your tiptoes you wouldn’t
come up to the knee-caps of those Yank MPs. Besides, they’ve got
batons and revolvers.’
‘But the bastards shouldn’t be allowed to get
away with it,’ Weasel protested. ‘Not in Australia. We shouldn’t
let ’em push us around in our own country.’
‘The Weasel’s right,’ another Nackeroo chimed
in. ‘It’s bad enough the Yanks have got all the girls, all the
fags, all the booze and all the money. But that doesn’t mean their
MPs can treat Australian soldiers like dog shit’
‘
What can we do about it?’ someone at
the back of the crowd shouted. ‘The Brisbane coppers just stood by
and watched the Yank MPs lay into us without lifting a bloody
finger.’
Weasel jumped up on top of an empty oil drum
and raised a small defiant fist. ‘I’ll tell you what we can do. We
can all go into town tomorrow and give those Yank MPs a lesson
they’ll never forget, teach them to give the Australian Army a
little respect.’
The crowd of Nackeroos which had been
steadily growing, roared its approval. Joe looked at the Weasel and
grinned. Weasel now had two clenched fists raised high above his
head. It was an aggressive side of his little friend Joe had never
seen before.
*
The day after seeing Joe, Faith arrived at
work in good spirits. Just knowing her brother was safe and well
and knowing every day that passed was a day closer to seeing Dan
again, made her whole world seem a lot brighter. The day just
seemed to fly by. Even Trevor Lipp had been nowhere to be seen
since soon after her shift started. But an hour before knocking-off
time, Faith saw him emerge from the administration office and to
her surprise he walked directly across the factory floor to
her.
Lipp touched her lightly on the shoulder and
smiled. ‘Will you come to my office please, Faith? I have a matter
to discuss with you.’
Faith reluctantly rose from her stool. She
could smell whisky on the supervisor’s breath. She glanced
apprehensively at a workmate beside her and the girl grimaced.
Faith followed Lipp down to his tiny office at the end of the
factory floor and went inside. He closed the door behind her and
gestured to a chair sandwiched in the corner of the little room
between the wall and his small desk.
‘I have some good news for you, Faith,’ Lipp
said, sitting down across the desk from her. ‘I have been in
meetings with the manager most of the day. It seems there is no end
to the demand the government is putting on us all here. We have
been asked to increase production yet again. We’ll need to install
more machinery and put on more people in the factory and in the
office. Now, when Manpower sent you to us they mentioned you have
considerable general office experience. I thought perhaps you might
like to take one of the new jobs in our office. What would you say
to that?’
‘Why, yes,’ Faith said happily, and she
wondered if her day could possibly get any better.
Lipp opened a drawer and took out a half
bottle of whisky and two small glasses. He poured himself two
fingers and took a sip. ‘I have just spoken with the manager about
you, Faith. He’s a very good friend of mine, you know. He trusts my
judgment completely and has left it up to me to make the final
decision.’ Lipp held the bottle over the second glass and smiled.
‘A little drink?’
Faith’s elation evaporated when she realized
what was happening,. ‘Oh, nothing for me, Mr Lipp. I rarely drink.
And certainly not here at the factory.’
‘Come on, just one.’
‘No, thank you, Mr Lipp.’ Faith got up from
her chair.
Lipp’s smile faded. He got up quickly and
moved around the desk. Now Faith was boxed in, with no way out of
the office except past Lipp. He shrugged. ‘All right, suit
yourself. But the job means better work, with shorter hours and
more money, and I can make it happen.’ He reached out and gently
rubbed the back of his fingers over her cheek. ‘And it’s all yours
if you want it. All you have to do is show me that you’re
grateful.’
Faith began to panic. She tried to force her
way past Lipp to the door but he shoved her hard up against the
office wall and pinned her there. She tried to call out, but before
she could his right arm was around her neck crushing her face to
his and he clamped his wet whisky mouth over hers. She lashed out
but Lipp didn’t seem to feel her clenched fists pounding his back.
Then his free hand pushed down the top of her dungarees, pulled
open her blouse and he roughly groped at her breasts. When one of
Faith’s flailing fists struck Lipp’s head it just seemed to excite
him more. Without taking his mouth from hers he grabbed her wrist
and forced her hand down and pressed it into his groin. Faith
struggled even harder to free herself but she just wasn’t strong
enough to stop what he was doing to her.