Despite himself, Clete was aware that he was smiling.
“That’s the truth, Clete,” Graham said. “And essentially all of it.”
“‘Essentially all of it’? What’s the rest of it?”
“Donovan sent me down here to salvage what can be salvaged. I think he expects me to see that the Reine de la Mer is taken out of action.”
“She’s anchored twenty, twenty-five miles offshore, in the Bay of Samborombón,” Clete said. “She’s equipped with searchlights, heavy machine guns, almost certainly a couple of 20-mm Bofors automatic cannon, and probably has a five-inch cannon concealed in her superstructure. There’s no way anybody can get near her.”
He was surprised when he sensed Graham accepting his assessment without question.
“If you were God, how would you take her out?” Graham asked.
“With a B-17 from Brazil. But I’ll settle for a TBF from Brazil.”
“Both
ideas went on the table and were shot down. Politically impossible.”
“Colonel, if you can find me a TBF in Brazil, I can refuel it in Uruguay. That’ll give me enough range to make the Bay of Samborombón. And then, after I put a torpedo in the Reine de la Mer, I’ll have enough range to fly over my father’s estancia. I’ll put the TBF on a heading that will take her out over the Atlantic and bail out.” He paused for a moment, thoughtful. Then he went on, “I could also take her back to Uruguay and refuel there again, if people want the TBF back.”
“You can fly a TBF? That wasn’t in your records.”
“And it’s official doctrine that a TBF needs a paved runway. And I’ve flown one a dozen times off Henderson Field, which is a lot rougher than the dirt road we used as a drop zone in Uruguay.”
“That may be interesting information for the future. But using a TBF—or any warplane—has been decided against. The political price is considered too high.”
“What are the Argentines going to do, bomb Miami?”
“No, but if we bombed a neutral ship in Argentine waters, that would blow your father’s chances of becoming President of Argentina out of the water. The President says we can’t do that.”
“The President?” Clete asked incredulously. “President Roosevelt?”
Graham nodded. “Newton-Haddle went to him—they were at Harvard together—and complained about being relieved. The President called Donovan in for an explanation. The result was a compromise. They sent Newton-Haddle to Fort Benning instead of home, and Donovan was ordered to take out the replenishment ship by any means short of overt act of war. For this mission, an overt act of war has been defined as the use of military aircraft.”
“What about the destroyer that’s…”
“The Alfred Thomas? Same answer. No overt act of war within Argentine waters, and no board-and-search of neutral vessels on the high seas.”
“Then what?” Clete asked in frustration. “We’re ordered to do something; and in the next breath we’re told we can’t carry out the orders. We’re told we can’t use anything that would actually get the job done.”
“The President is the Commander in Chief,” Graham said. “He gives the orders, we obey them. And the only thing he’ll let us use now is a submarine, but how we’d use it God only knows…”
“I thought submarines were on the forbidden-to-use list too. I asked Nestor why they didn’t sink the Reine de la Mer in the middle of the Atlantic, and—”
“In the middle of the Atlantic,” Graham interrupted, “the Reine de la Mer was a peaceful merchant ship flying the flag of a neutral country. It’s not against international law for a neutral ship to carry anything it wants to—fuel, torpedoes, anything. It is only when it uses its cargo to the benefit of a belligerent power that it loses its neutral status.”
“I don’t quite follow that.”
“We routinely intercept radio messages between U-boats and the Oberkommando of the Kriegsmarine,” Graham explained. “Not without difficulty—a lot of difficulty, I was there—Donovan managed to convince the President that the Reine de la Mer has already begun to replenish German U-boats, and in so doing has lost its neutral protection.”
“The President says the Navy can send a submarine?”
“Yes. But don’t get your hopes up high. We are still forbidden to attack replenishment vessels until we have convincing proof they have supplied at least one submarine, which means they can’t be sunk on the high seas on the way here. And so far as sinking the Reine de la Mer in Samborombón Bay is concerned, the Navy says submarines can’t operate in Samborombón Bay. It’s too shallow.”
“Submarines operated in some pretty shallow waters off Guadalcanal,” Clete thought aloud. “Without any charts.”
“That’s what Admiral Leahy said,” Graham said.