Fightin' Navy #124

Machinists-Mate 2nd Class Gus Buffino has haunted memories of surviving a torpedo strike aboard a destroyer in the North Atlantic, but when he ships out on a light cruiser headed for combat against the Japanese, his nerves threaten to give out as battle approaches. The ship's captain recognizes Buffino's courage and fear alike, offering him a choice—but Buffino chooses to stay and face what he dreads most: manning the engine room during combat. When enemy aircraft and a heavy cruiser close in for an attack, Buffino must find the strength to do his job and survive what could be his last battle.

Lt. Einar Enson, a Norwegian commissioned in the U.S. Navy, leads a daring raid on Osman Prison to free Captain Keljo, a resistance fighter the Nazis plan to execute—but the mission becomes far more than a single rescue when Norwegian prisoners and underground fighters seize the moment to strike back against their Nazi occupiers. With a submarine standing by to torpedo a German transport and explosives rigged in the prison cliffs, Enson and his team must move fast to pull off a liberation that could spark something larger across the Norwegian coast. It's a tense blend of commando action and the human cost of resistance, where one man's choice to stay behind proves mightier than escape.

The U.S. Navy's newest weapon is the North American A3J Vigilante, a twin-jet bomber that outperforms any fighter plane and can deliver devastating payloads across the globe. This story showcases the aircraft's extraordinary capabilities through combat exercises, revealing how a single atomic carrier like the Enterprise could carry enough Vigilantes to shift the balance of power worldwide.

Lt. Wayne Collins commands PT 709 through a harrowing escape from Subic Bay after Japanese forces trap the torpedo boat during a mercy mission, forcing him to fight his way past enemy cruisers and aircraft to reach open water. As the crew pursues Japanese troop convoys down the Philippine coast, they discover that their small boat has earned a fearsome reputation—the enemy refuses to believe the "unsinkable 709" could have survived their earlier attacks. When fuel runs out and a Japanese cruiser closes in, the PT boat's luck and grit are tested one final time.

The Imperial Navy's greatest battleship—the massive Yamato—sets out on a desperate mission off Okinawa in April 1945, armed with imposing firepower and supposedly impenetrable defenses. When American carriers get word of the vessel's position and movements, they're ordered to engage the legendary warship in what becomes one of the war's most significant naval clashes.