Fightin' Navy #80

The aging destroyer DD 139, battered and in need of repair, is on a mission to retrieve an Army major from a remote Marshall Island, where the crew’s morale is low but their determination remains strong. When the major praises the ship and its crew for their resilience, their spirits lift—only for the crew to learn their next assignment is a dangerous demolition mission, prompting them to volunteer despite their exhaustion.

In 1942, a young sailor named Joe Riccardi and his captain, Pete Adams, reunite aboard a disguised U.S. Navy Q-boat, a fishing trawler armed with hidden guns, as they hunt the notorious German submarine U-490 commanded by the cruel Captain Ernst Gebbler. After a harrowing encounter where Gebbler forces Adams and Riccardi to abandon ship, the two men return as Navy officers determined to turn the tide—now using deception and surprise to outwit the enemy.

In the remote Pacific, a Seabee unit is tasked with building an airfield on the island of Kaliti—only to find themselves outnumbered by determined Japanese defenders. While some Seabees defend their position with improvised weapons, the rest work tirelessly under fire to complete the runway, turning wartime chaos into a feat of engineering.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the destroyer Kendall takes refuge in a remote atoll, camouflaged by native allies and hidden from Japanese patrols. As weeks pass, the crew’s quiet existence is disrupted when they launch a daring raid to steal fuel, sparking rumors of a phantom fleet that throws Japanese forces into confusion.

The Herlihy, a destroyer cursed with bad luck, struggles through mechanical failures and near-disasters during a dangerous mission in the Aleutians, where its crew must hunt a Japanese cruiser despite constant setbacks. Though the ship’s jinxed reputation follows it from the Panama Canal to the Pacific, Captain Brodie and his men persevere, relying on grit and sheer determination when luck finally turns in their favor.