War at Sea #38

Commander Henry Harbach, a grizzled sea dog with nearly a quarter-century in the Navy, commands a fast attack transport patrolling the icy Greenland coast in January 1942—and he has little patience for the newly commissioned officers fresh from candidate school, whom he views as more dangerous than Nazi submarines. When a torpedo tears into his ship's fuel tank and a German U-boat surfaces nearby, Harbach's contempt for these "90 day wonders" is put to the test as they scramble to fight fires, man the guns, and prove their mettle under fire. This 1960 war story from War at Sea #38 shows whether inexperience and by-the-book training can survive the crucible of actual combat.

When a B-29 bomber goes down in the Sea of Japan during World War II, the crew of the U.S.S. Chop Suey—a disguised naval junk crewed by American sailors and Chinese deck hands—races to pluck the airmen from the water. Under Chief Boatswain's Mate Ernie Miller's watch, this unconventional little ship becomes a lifeline for downed pilots over the summer of 1943 and beyond, carrying out daring rescue missions while masquerading as a fishing vessel to fool Japanese patrols. But when a suspicious Japanese destroyer closes in and grows wise to the ruse, the Chop Suey's luck finally runs out in a fierce firefight that seals her fate.

Chief Gunner's Mate Bugs Reber watches in dismay as the green crew of the destroyer Enoch Knight sets out from Boston in 1942, seasick and barely trained—a disaster waiting to happen against the prowling Nazi U-boats of the Atlantic. When enemy contact finally comes, the untested sailors must overcome their own weakness and inexperience to survive, discovering that sometimes the worst liabilities can become unexpected advantages. A hard-fighting tale of inexperienced sailors tested by fire on the open ocean.