MWI 40120622 Ole Jacob
1940, Friday 06 December;
Rear Admiral Paul Wenneker sat back in his chair with the great satisfaction of a job well done. He had poured himself a scotch, he had a full case of Glenlivet given to him as a present from the Ole Jacob, which had docked at Kobe a couple of days ago. He looked at the amber liquid in his glass and reflected on his achievements.
Within a couple of hours of docking, his man had been on Ole Jacob to welcome Lt Cmdr Kamenz, make arrangements for the prize crew’s accommodation, supervise the transfer of a large diplomatic bag of materials for the embassy back in Tokyo, and taken charge of some ‘documents’, which he’d returned with on the train, arriving the next morning.
Kamenz had sailed into Kobe with a captured Norwegian tanker, carrying 10,000 tons of aviation fuel, with 6 men and a compliant crew of Norwegians, promised release on arrival in Japan. Wenneker had just completed a deal with the Japanese Imperial Navy to exchange the fuel for 11,000 tons of diesel oil, and had started gathering a prize crew of Germans and Central Europeans in Tokyo to man her for a run through the blockade to France.
But that was business as usual, as it were. What excited him was the ‘documents’. In the ‘top secret’ marked mail bags were a large quantity of decoding tables, fleet orders, charts, gunnery instructions, and naval intelligence reports. And the jewel in the crown, so to speak, was a small green bag containing a British Chief of Staff’s appraisal of the Far East detailing their forces, shortfalls and strategies.
He remembered the growing excitement as he read through the appreciation detailing Britain’s military weaknesses and stances on what if scenarios. Basically, Britain couldn’t send a fleet, being fully committed at home and in the Med. Defence was reliant on the Army and Air Force, but neither was able to provide adequate forces. This led Britain to having to try and avoid an ‘open clash’ with Japan. The stance on Hong Kong was an understandable one, not really unexpected, but the revelations about not reacting if Japan occupied Indo-China, only an invasion of the Dutch East Indies would bring about a British reaction, outside of a direct attack on a British territory, was breathtaking.
How important this information was for Japan wasn’t lost on him, but nevertheless it wasn’t within his remit to share it with them. He sent a detailed four-part coded telegram to the German Naval HQ in Berlin almost straight away, then made a number of copies before, today sending Kamenz with the original to Berlin via the Trans-Siberian railway through Russia. He had no doubt Japan would be told and wondered what impact this would have on the war.
Rear Admiral Paul Wenneker sat back in his chair with the great satisfaction of a job well done. He had poured himself a scotch, he had a full case of Glenlivet given to him as a present from the Ole Jacob, which had docked at Kobe a couple of days ago. He looked at the amber liquid in his glass and reflected on his achievements.
Within a couple of hours of docking, his man had been on Ole Jacob to welcome Lt Cmdr Kamenz, make arrangements for the prize crew’s accommodation, supervise the transfer of a large diplomatic bag of materials for the embassy back in Tokyo, and taken charge of some ‘documents’, which he’d returned with on the train, arriving the next morning.
Kamenz had sailed into Kobe with a captured Norwegian tanker, carrying 10,000 tons of aviation fuel, with 6 men and a compliant crew of Norwegians, promised release on arrival in Japan. Wenneker had just completed a deal with the Japanese Imperial Navy to exchange the fuel for 11,000 tons of diesel oil, and had started gathering a prize crew of Germans and Central Europeans in Tokyo to man her for a run through the blockade to France.
But that was business as usual, as it were. What excited him was the ‘documents’. In the ‘top secret’ marked mail bags were a large quantity of decoding tables, fleet orders, charts, gunnery instructions, and naval intelligence reports. And the jewel in the crown, so to speak, was a small green bag containing a British Chief of Staff’s appraisal of the Far East detailing their forces, shortfalls and strategies.
He remembered the growing excitement as he read through the appreciation detailing Britain’s military weaknesses and stances on what if scenarios. Basically, Britain couldn’t send a fleet, being fully committed at home and in the Med. Defence was reliant on the Army and Air Force, but neither was able to provide adequate forces. This led Britain to having to try and avoid an ‘open clash’ with Japan. The stance on Hong Kong was an understandable one, not really unexpected, but the revelations about not reacting if Japan occupied Indo-China, only an invasion of the Dutch East Indies would bring about a British reaction, outside of a direct attack on a British territory, was breathtaking.
How important this information was for Japan wasn’t lost on him, but nevertheless it wasn’t within his remit to share it with them. He sent a detailed four-part coded telegram to the German Naval HQ in Berlin almost straight away, then made a number of copies before, today sending Kamenz with the original to Berlin via the Trans-Siberian railway through Russia. He had no doubt Japan would be told and wondered what impact this would have on the war.
from Cryhavoc101, where's my daisy, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, I've just killed off his favourite character, he loves me NOT