Frank Jack Fletcher’s Task Force 14, meanwhile, was right on schedule, and was in fact further west than Pye knew. His ships fully fueled and ready for battle, Fletcher planned to detach the _Tangier_ and two destroyers for the final run-in to Wake, while the pilots on board the _Saratoga_ prepared themselves for the fight ahead. Fletcher, not one to shirk a fight, received the news of the recall angrily. He ripped his hat from his head and disgustedly hurled it to the deck. Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch, Fletcher’s air commander, similarly felt the fist-tightening frustration of the recall. He retired from the _Saratoga_’s flag bridge as the talk there reached “mutinous” proportions. As word of the recall circulated throughout Task Force 14, reactions were pretty much the same. Pye’s recall order left no latitude for discussion or disobedience; those who argued later that Fletcher should have used the Nelsonian “blind eye” obviously failed to recognize that, in the sea off Copenhagen, the British admiral could see his opponents. Fletcher and Fitch, then 430 miles east of Wake, could not see theirs. They had no idea what enemy forces they might encounter. The Japanese had beaten them to Wake. [Illustration: MAP 6 SITUATION ON WAKE ISLAND AT TIME OF SURRENDER 0900, 23 DECEMBER 1941] ‘_A Difficult Thing To Do_’ Even as deliberations proceeded to determine the fate of the relief efforts, the men on Wake, ignorant of what was transpiring at Pearl Harbor and on the bridges of Task Force 14’s ships, fought on. Shortly before 0700 on Wake (1040, 22 December, at Pearl Harbor), the two trucks bearing Battery D’s former antiaircraft gunners, under Second Lieutenant Greeley and Captain Godbold, respectively, reached Devereux’s command post. Major Potter deployed the new arrivals in an attempt to form a thin defensive line running across the island. The attempt was doomed because of the terrain they were being forced to defend, an area which had been partially cleared of brush as part of the airfield construction. It presented the Marines with 450 yards of ground without cover or concealment. Marine Gunner Borth established a defensive line near the battalion command post with two .30-caliber guns crewed by command post Marines and a few Marines from Battery D. At about the time Greeley and Godbold reached Devereux’s command post with Battery D’s Marines, Second Lieutenant Kessler, at Battery B, shifted his attention to a column of three destroyers off Kuku Point. Four U.S. salvos appeared to inflict heavy damage on the lead ship, so he shifted his attention to the second ship in column. After about 15 minutes, dive bombers directed bombs and strafing toward the position, the battery’s firing having called attention to its existence. Fortunately, their accuracy was poor, and Kessler’s men escaped without casualty.