Jumping into the Darkness: The Trenches Wait

By Kurt Philip Behm

Jump into the darkness with America's most decorated military hero, William Broderick Simpson III.

With the Great War stalled along the Western front, General Simpson and 500 of his hand picked men will employ a novel and innovative new concept to get behind the German lines and break the stalemate.

And...they will be doing this in the darkness of night.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665551793

Kurt Philip Behm

Best selling author and renowned poet, Kurt Philip Behm, has been writing both poetry and prose since 1971. In this sixth installment of his historical fiction series, The Sword Of Ichiban, William Broderick Simpson III (Cutty) takes a radically new and dangerous approach to turning the tide of World War 1.

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© 2022 Kurt Philip Behm. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse  04/13/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5178-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5720-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5179-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022902893

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Casualty Of War

Chapter 2: Bull Murdock Is Dead

Chapter 3: The Loudest Of Silences

Chapter 4: The Raven

Chapter 5: The Help He Would Need

Chapter 6: Those Moments In Between

Chapter 7: The Two Faces Of Ida Brandt

Chapter 8: Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 9: The Code Broken

Chapter 10: The Beginnings Of A Plan

Chapter 11: Doubts From Beyond

Chapter 12: His Heart Of Hearts

Chapter 13: A Blood Trail

Chapter 14: Dollars & Sense

Chapter 15: Thirty Pieces Of Silver

Chapter 16: The Skies Over Dover Boom

Chapter 17: Questions Before Setting Sail

Chapter 18: The Pressure Was On

Chapter 19: The Day Before—Friday: April 12, 1918

Chapter 20: The Wound Bleeds Free

Chapter 21: A Surprise Playmate

Chapter 22: None Too Soon

Chapter 23: The Leak Is Plugged

Chapter 24: Secret Passages

Chapter 25: Life At Sea

Chapter 26: Foiled In Mid-Stream

Chapter 27: Strange Noises

Chapter 28: U-Boat Command

Chapter 29: Instructions At Sea

Chapter 30: The Axe Would Fall

Chapter 31: All Calm Would Be Broken

Chapter 32: Like A Ninja

Chapter 33: On The Home Front

Chapter 34: The Raven Is Caged

Chapter 35: Port Of Entry

Chapter 36: The Cleanup

Chapter 37: Damnation’s Gold Mine

Chapter 38: The Hammer Retracted

Chapter 39: The Aftermath

Chapter 40: Disembarkation—April 24

Chapter 41: The Ride Up The Hudson

Chapter 42: A Woman’s Prerogative

Chapter 43: No Questions Asked

Chapter 44: From The Depths

Chapter 45: Under The Tent

Chapter 46: More Flattops At The Ready

Chapter 47: A Dark Plan

Chapter 48: Charlie McMurtry

Chapter 49: Dick Prentiss Takes Charge

Chapter 50: The Secret Code

Chapter 51: The Enemy Within

Chapter 52: The Work Complete

Chapter 53: For The Last Time, No!

Chapter 54: An American Ninja

Chapter 55: French Intelligence

Chapter 56: To Hammondsport

Chapter 57: Keeping It Quiet

Chapter 58: Black Jack’s Office

Chapter 59: Touchdown

Chapter 60: Confirmation

Chapter 61: At Sea Again

Chapter 62: A Line He Couldn’t Cross

Chapter 63: Casualties Of War

Chapter 64: The Seas Were Calm

Chapter 65: A Noble Canine

Chapter 66: A Torpedo Or Mine

Chapter 67: The Weakest Spot In No Man’s Land

Chapter 68: In Pursuit Of The Kanzler

Chapter 69: The Gettysburg

Chapter 70: Following The Pack

Chapter 71: Above And Below

Chapter 72: Teutonic Pandemonium

Chapter 73: Nautical Chess

Chapter 74: The Wings Of War

Chapter 75: Relays Of Concern

Chapter 76: Attack, Retreat, Or Surrender

Chapter 77: Bombs Away

Chapter 78: The Valley Forge Takes Revenge

Chapter 79: Reconnaissance

Chapter 80: Retirement

Chapter 81: A Disquieting Quiet

Chapter 82: Land And Sea

Chapter 83: The Navy Comes To West Point

Chapter 84: Directly To London

Chapter 85: A Lion Waits

Chapter 86: Back In France

Chapter 87: The Blackest Black

Chapter 88: The Clock Was Ticking

Chapter 89: Sweet Anticipation

Chapter 90: Simulated Reality

Chapter 91: Saint-Mihiel Salient

Chapter 92: Superior In Rank Only

Chapter 93: Weather On The Eve Of Battle

Chapter 94: A Single Bell Was Tolling

Chapter 95: A Time-Honored Ritual

Chapter 96: Final Words

Chapter 97: Passing The Baton

Chapter 98: Moonlit Skies

Chapter 99: A Dime Short

Chapter 100: La Dame Blanche

Chapter 101: A Deaf Ear/A Blind Eye

Chapter 102: Like Father—Like Daughter

Chapter 103: Blood, Mud, And Guts

Chapter 104: Intelligence First And Then A Surprise

Chapter 105: Turning The Tables

Chapter 106: Letting The Hounds Loose

Chapter 107: If I Can Hit A U-Boat…

Chapter 108: Ichiban Waits

Chapter 109: Turn That Lead Steer

Chapter 110: Waiting In The Dark

Chapter 111: A Daughter’s Concern

Chapter 112: Prairie Fire

Chapter 113: The Blue Hour Before Dawn

Chapter 114: Lesson Learned

Chapter 115: Returning To Type

Chapter 116: The Zone

Chapter 117: Deadly Silence

Chapter 118: Closing The Back Door

Chapter 119: Dead Or Alive

Chapter 120: In This Case, Believe The Facts

Chapter 121: Brevet Matrimony

Chapter 122: The Aftermath

Chapter 123: Stateside

Jumping...

Jumping...

Jumping...

Into The Unknown

Dedicated To Those

Who Have Always

Been Willing

To Charge Into The Darkness

The Outcome Zero-Sum

Introduction%20copy.jpg

A Young William Broderick Simpson III

INTRODUCTION

A Gloried Past

Colonel William Broderick Simpson III—Cutty to his friends—had won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He had been personally selected by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt for his Rough Riders. He then led the assault on Kettle Hill on July 1, 1898, and had single-handedly charged, and taken out, three of the enemy’s Gatling guns that had been firing on his advancing troops.

Over Three Hundred American Lives Were Saved

He was then offered a duty assignment of his own choosing, and with his father’s advice, chose to become the military liaison to Ambassador Alfred Eliab Buck in Japan. While training with the Japanese emperor’s eldest son (Yoshihiro) on a cold and dreary afternoon, he saved the royal family from extinction when eleven ninjas stormed the Imperial Palace.

They were intent on killing all three of the emperor’s sons and putting an end to the Meiji dynasty forever. In a fierce battle against the invading assassins, Cutty and the young prince killed all eleven ninjas, while the prince’s two younger brothers napped in a side room off the main floor.

Cutty was then asked by the prince to become his blood brother like the Native Americans he had read about in books.

With Shinto monks in attendance, a tea ceremony was held along with the cutting of their flesh, as Cutty and the prince mixed their blood and became something more than any two normal brothers could ever be.

Becoming Immortal To The Japanese People

He was then called back to Europe when his fiancée went missing while on holiday in Portugal. In Lhasa—while en route to Portugal—he teamed up with his mentor, and lifelong friend and advisor, Colonel Lance Bristol.

Together, they mapped out an escape route for the Thirteenth Dalai Lama—Thubten Gyatso—to use if the Chinese carried out their threats and invaded Tibet.

Cutty went on to rescue his fiancée Adrian from her kidnappers in Portugal. They were then married in a small private service on the grounds of The Academia de Seville. This was where he had trained in the art of swordsmanship with the famous El Cristo as a boy, when his family lived in London during that time while his father served as chief United States ambassador to all of Europe.

While still a boy at his country day school in London, Cutty had become the most precocious and skilled swordsman in all of England. He had qualified for acceptance to the Academia de Seville in Spain once he had turned fifteen. It was Lance Bristol who had written him his letter of recommendation.

After marriage—and having risen to the status of a national treasure—Cutty was assigned to the United States Military Academy as a full professor of battlefield techniques and strategy. His course was the most popular on campus and regularly oversubscribed with a long waiting list. Great warriors like Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton had learned the finer points of war while taking his course— Advanced Military Tactics and Strategy.

In the summer of 1905, he took a thirty-day leave of absence from his duties at the academy and accompanied one of his students— Cadet James Cody Lightfeather—to help him avenge the death of his Blackfoot father and two brothers. They had all been murdered by a banished Blackfoot war chief who had been living with the Siksika tribe in southwestern Canada.

Cutty was now a living legend not only on the academy grounds but also in Washington, D.C., and on every military installation, both foreign and domestic, worldwide.

He had been asked several times to run for public office but had always refused, saying: Compromise is not in my nature, gentlemen. It is the lifeblood of politics, but to a military man, compromise is the nesting ground for defeat.

He Was Sure That Colonel Bristol

Would Have Concurred

When the United States entered World War I, he accompanied the early version of the Army Air Corps on their trip across the Atlantic. The ship he was on was a battleship that had been converted to an early aircraft carrier. It was unproven and untested, and the men who flew those early flights redefined what true heroism means.

Cutty—through his hard-earned knowledge of advanced military tactics—had protected the ship from several German submarine (U-boat) attacks on their way to the British Isles.

He now found himself in Dover, England, as the inspirational leader of the Allied effort—originally termed the Triple Entente—against the Kaiser.

To his extreme disappointment, it was determined that he was far too valuable, as a national symbol, to risk his loss in actual combat.

Cutty had other plans....

CHAPTER 1: A CASUALTY OF WAR

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

HEADQUARTERS

UNITED STATES MILITARY

CHAUMONT, FRANCE

MAAR-SW 22 FEBRUARY, 1918

MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD

SUBJECT: GENERAL WILLARD B. MURDOCK—KIA

1. On 21 February, 1918, Major General Willard B. Murdock was killed in action in Villers-Bretonneux by a German sniper. The general is a great loss to the United States Army and to all of America and the Allied war effort.

2. Colonel William Broderick Simpson III will be promoted to lieutenant general (battlefield commission) effective immediately.

3. Lieutenant General Simpson will assume all of the responsibilities of General Murdock in the planning and expedition of Allied Air Forces.

4. General Ralph Dickerson will assume all of the responsibilities of General Murdock in the expedition of Allied ground forces.

/Original Signed/

John J. Pershing

General Of The Armies

CHAPTER 2: BULL MURDOCK IS DEAD

The newly appointed general, William Broderick Simpson III, sat dejectedly behind the desk inside his headquarters in Dover, England. One of his few heroes was now dead.

Willard Bull Murdock was a general’s general and had earned his four stars the hard way—fighting on the front lines. He had been a key adjutant to Theodore Roosevelt in his assault up Kettle Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. He had also been a source of great inspiration to his men now fighting in the countless trenches dug in along the Western Front.

He had visited them in their trenches many times, and on his last visit, a sniper bullet entered the right side of his skull just in front of his ear. He died instantly, and a shining light was now gone from the American Expeditionary Forces.

The Bull, as his men loved to call him, was a career army man. He had enlisted in the army at the age of sixteen from his home state of Ohio. He had fought in numerous engagements during the Civil War, including Petersburg, Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Bull Run, and Gettysburg. He also wore something on his uniform that both he and Cutty shared.

He had been six-feet-four inches tall and weighed over 240 pounds.

Curry’s initial impression: When I first saw him, I thought he cut a most impressive figure, but that was before I learned that the biggest part of this man was on the inside. His courage was legendary and backing away from any adversary was not in his nature. He really lived up to his name—the Bull.

Lieutenant General Simpson (Cutty) was only five-feet-nine and 160 pounds. In spite of his diminutive size, he was the most decorated soldier now serving in the United States military.

He was called Cutty by his friends because of his legendary proficiency with edged weapons—the sword in particular. He had studied the art of advanced swordsmanship as a boy with the legendary El Cristo at the Academia de Seville in Spain. After three summers there, he graduated as the most skilled and proficient swordsman the academy had ever produced.

He now lived in a time when the sword was being de-emphasized as a weapon of choice. Firearms and explosives now decided most battles, and he often thought that maybe he had been born two hundred years too late.

During his time in Japan, serving as the military liaison to Japanese Ambassador Alfred E. Buck, he had befriended the emperor’s son, and together they had saved the royal family from an assassination attack by rogue ninjas. The prince had asked to become blood brothers with Cutty as he had read about in American dime novels.

Cutty was already a Medal of Honor recipient (he hated the term winner) before arriving in Japan in September 1898. His reputation had preceded him and held great sway among the Japanese. Theirs was a culture built upon warfare and honor, and despite being a gaijin (foreigner), Cutty was accepted almost immediately.

In moments of great loss, his memories were all he had to sustain him. The medals and commendations had always meant more to his family and his men than they had to him. His long-time mentor and best friend, Colonel Lance Bristol, had taught him that medals and ribbons are just excess weight to the true warrior. It is, and always will be, the combination of raw courage and purity of heart that wins out in the end.

Sadly, he had lost Colonel Bristol as he had lost almost all of his heroes. Yoshi (Prince Yoshihito) had now succeeded his father as emperor of Japan, and to the world was now known as Emperor Hirohito. Cutty could not know at this time that their current status as blood brothers would be seriously tested in the years to come.

Cutty had recently sent his wife Adrian back home to America. True to his warrior character, his young son Lance had begged to stay. He had been living with his father in base housing and had attended the local Dover primary school. Cutty promised Lance that he could stay through the summer, but by September, he needed to be back home in New York for the start of the fall term at school.

Cutty’s beloved daughter, Wilhelmina, was now engaged to Captain Tom Reynolds, and they had decided to postpone their wedding until after the war. Wilhelmina was currently serving as a first lieutenant in the United States Army Signal Corps, and although just seventeen years old, she acted with the aplomb of a veteran twice her age.

It was really at Tom’s insistence that they wait to marry. He didn’t want Wilhelmina, called Willy by her father, and Boomer by the other flyers, to be widowed at such an early age. Wilhelmina didn’t mind. She had glorious thoughts of combat for herself.

Against orders—both the Military Academy’s and her father’s—Tom had taught Wilhelmina to fly back at West Point. Her skill in piloting the modified Curtiss JN-4 lightweight bombers rivaled Tom’s and anyone else’s currently flying in the 7th Squadron.

Wilhelmina Had Plans Of Her Own

Cutty worried about Willy’s intrepid spirit, but in the depths of his heart and soul—she was now the warrior he admired most.

Her actions on the voyage over, in defense of the ship and all onboard, would have qualified her for the Medal of Honor, if she had been in the military, and if they gave the medal to females.

She was denied on both counts, but General Murdock had rectified one of the issues. He had inducted her into the Army Air Corps as a first lieutenant assigned to the Signal Corps. She was now the youngest female officer serving in the United States Army.

As big an honor as this was, for both Wilhelmina and her father, her eyes were fixated high above any signaling duties that the army might assign.

General Simpson—Lieutenant General William Broderick Simpson III, Cutty repeated over and over to himself. The words wouldn’t settle, and he wished that his father and grandfather were there to reinforce the moment.

More than anything, he wished that Lance Bristol were there. The colonel always had a way of saying just what Cutty needed to hear at exactly the right time.

But For Now, He Was Alone

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The ‘Medicine Woman’ Left An Indelible Mark

CHAPTER 3: THE LOUDEST OF SILENCES

As tragic as the loss of General Murdock was, Cutty felt an ecstasy that he could neither help nor control. He understood this feeling better than anything else he knew about himself. He had always suffered ambivalence as to whether this feeling was to be admired or despised.

Cutty was at war!

More than his family, his few good friends, his career, or even his love of the sword—Cutty lived to be at war. Most of the senior officers he knew waited their whole careers for a plum assignment like teaching at West Point or one of the other military educational centers. Cutty had already spent the better part of fifteen years at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

As a senior instructor and Medal of Honor recipient, he was treated like a true hero and living legend on Academy grounds. He was beloved by his students, and with very few exceptions—the entire faculty.

Sadly, the reality was that Cutty had not had one truly happy day there.

In a convoluted way, his happiest moments had been traipsing through the Himalayas with Colonel Bristol while blazing a trail for the Dalai Lama to follow, staring down radical insurgents in India, killing Elligretto in the defense of his best friend Ivan, and rescuing his fiancée Adrian from her kidnappers in the caves outside of Lisbon.

His most gratifying assignment had been his time in Japan, defending the royal family against a mortal attack. He and the prince (now emperor) had fended off a surprise afternoon raid by eleven ninjas. Their enemies had been sent by a disgruntled warlord who wanted the throne for himself.

Serving under Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba had been his proudest moment. The ensuing journey by train across the western United States was his reward for winning the Congressional Medal of Honor. He had boarded a train in New York City bound for San Francisco. Along the way, he fell in with a wild group of cowboys who showed him the finer points of handling a Colt 45.

Only a few short years ago, he had traveled with one of his students, James Cody Lightfeather, to Montana, to avenge the death of James’s father and two brothers. That was the second time he had traveled across the wide expanses of rural America. Having been born in New York City and raised in London, those trips fueled his imagination and cemented his resolve to never spend his life sitting behind a desk like his father and grandfather.

Both his father and grandfather had also won the Congressional Medal of Honor, but once their active-duty careers were over, both men settled into a life of diplomacy and politics. Cutty knew deep within his heart that their path was one that he could never follow.

Most warriors go to war and commit both their minds and their bodies to the struggle at hand. When the war is over, their bodies come home and hopefully most of their mind and their spirit. Cutty was one of those few warriors whose minds never returned.

From his earliest memories, hunting rabbits and squirrels in Central Park, the feeling, the wild feeling, of venturing off into the unknown with an uncertain outcome had become the centerpiece of his warrior spirit.

Later, during those times when there was no enemy to fight, Cutty often turned his warrior tendencies inward, against himself. These were truly his darkest moments, and his wife Adrian could always see them coming. She would then encourage him to go off on a sabbatical—where he could be by himself—and to visit new and exciting places that might partially fill the emptiness he felt.

Colonel Bristol had once told him: Most men evolve and change over the course of their lives. Many refer to this as a softening or mellowing out. The true warrior has to guard against this transformation with his martial will in control. The warrior who is always focused on the enemy at hand can stay a warrior until death. But the minute he forgets who the enemy is will cause any future battles and the warrior himself to be lost.

If anything, the fire that burned inside Cutty was now hotter than when he was young. This was very unusual for an aging warrior. Even though he was only forty-two, he had lived several lifetimes in his short time on earth and had been able to survive what most men would never have attempted.

While stationed in Dover, the thought of thousands upon thousands of men dying in the trenches, just a short distance away at the hands of the Kaiser, deprived him of his much-needed sleep. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew in his heart he could make a significant contribution to the ongoing fight against the Germans.

At the request of both houses of Congress, Generals Pershing and Murdock had both been asked to keep Cutty out of active combat.

They felt that he was a more valuable asset as a symbol of American valor and courage than as one more dead war hero lying facedown in the mud. They also used him as a recruiting tool back home. Posters of him, wearing his Medal of Honor, hung in every post office and recruiting center across the United States.

Every young boy in America knew of the exploits of William Broderick Simpson III, and the great majority of those boys aspired to be just like him. He was a living embodiment of both a hero and patriot, and this was not lost on the opportunistic politicians back home.

Lost inside his thoughts, Cutty heard a knock on the door.

Come in, Cutty announced. As the door opened, Cutty saw Sergeant Major Stanley S. Cooper, from Youngstown, Ohio, standing at attention. Come in Sergeant Major, Cutty announced.

A message from Central Command, to be delivered directly to General William Broderick Simpson III and no one else, Sir. It was I who was given the distinct honor of delivering this, General. On behalf of all the men, I would like to express how excited and proud we are of your recent promotion. It’s both an honor and a privilege to serve under you, Sir.

Thank you, Sergeant Major, and please thank the men for me also. The honor goes both ways. I’ve never served with finer soldiers.

Cutty hardly ever blushed, but in this case—looking at a highly decorated and senior enlisted man—his cheeks reddened. There wasn’t any man on base that he admired more than the sergeant major, except for the recently deceased General Murdock and his daughter’s fiancé, Tom Reynolds.

Cutty saluted the sergeant major and then extended his hand.

When the sergeant major had closed the door, Cutty walked back over to his desk and sat down in the chair. He leaned back while shutting his eyes, thinking, This is either the best or the worst of news.

The Best Or The Worst

CHAPTER 4: THE RAVEN

On a London back street—in a dark corner inside a quiet pub—two men sat huddled closely together. They were both dressed in long trench coats. The taller and older man with his back to the wall had on a dark brown fedora with a scarf wrapped double around his neck. Wearing horn-rimmed glasses, he appeared to be thirty-five to forty years old with sandy-colored hair.

The other man, smaller and younger with dark hair, had a knit hat pulled low on his forehead. He nervously tapped his foot against the floor. This man could not have reached his thirtieth birthday yet. The two men acted as if they knew each other but did not appear to be friends. The pub was empty except for a blind man sitting at a table ten feet away. He wore dark glasses and was finishing what was left of a plate of fish and chips.

A black briefcase sat on the floor next to the taller man.

Speaking English with no discernible accent, the taller man said: The money’s in the briefcase—ten thousand American dollars like we agreed upon in ten- and twenty-dollar denominations. Your information proved to be most helpful, and we were able to take the general out with one shot. The timing and the location were most accurate.

I’m glad the information was useful, Major, said the younger man. I should have even more valuable intelligence soon about the United States Army’s plans to break the current stalemate in France.

What type of information

I don’t know the details yet, Major. I only know it’s going to be something big. The incoming and outgoing wireless transmissions have been encoded, and it will take me another three to five days to break the code. What I have been able to decipher so far is that the messages reference the ‘Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company’ of Buffalo, New York. The company has recently moved to Buffalo but maintains two factories in Hammondsport, New York—their previous headquarters—to manufacture and develop aircraft.

Curtiss Was The Manufacturer Of The Army’s JN-4

As soon as I have the timing and details decoded, I will contact you. Is your location in Paris still the same?

"Yes, but make sure it’s me you’re speaking with. I will use the same passwords as before—’Quote the Raven, Nevermore.’ If anyone answers the telephone who does not sound like me and cannot respond with those exact words, just hang up. You can assume that is a bad sign. You then need to return to your duties on the base and wait for me to contact you.

As you can appreciate, we need that information just as soon as you can get it. We will need time to adequately prepare.

OK, Major. Or shall I call you Raven? I expect to have it in less than five days. My decoding efforts have to be done in secrecy, and that often takes me off the base. I insisted we meet again in London because we stand a good chance of arousing suspicion if seen meeting together in Dover.

The Raven was the lead espionage agent for German intelligence. He had been stationed in Paris since the beginning of the war. He carried Dutch papers and had a listed home address in Amsterdam. Born in Heidelberg, when he was five years old, his father had moved their family to take a position teaching physics at the University of Amsterdam. Both the Raven and the rest of his family were Dutch citizens.

After he completed his secondary studies, he decided to attend Humboldt University in Berlin. It was there that he met and studied under the famous and radical professor—Dr. Hans Friedrich. Friedrich was a German totalitarian philosopher and one of the driving forces behind the German propaganda machine.

Four years later, Edgar Leyrer—his given name—would rise quickly within German intelligence. He was now a total convert to German superiority—whatever the cost. He carried the rank of major and was codenamed the Raven because of his ability to travel long distances undetected, and for his 100 percent success rate in the field. He was known to US Army Intelligence only by reputation. No picture or firsthand sighting of the Raven had ever been reported.

It was the Raven, behind the sights of his Gewehr 98 modified sniper rifle, who had killed General Willard Bull Murdock with one shot. His Gewehr 98 was made by Mauser and had special sighting for accurate long-distance targets.

The smaller of the two men was Corporal Dwight