THE SHIP WITH TWO CAPTAINS

The British submarine Seraph which occasionally sailed under the American flag (hence the title) was reserved for special missions. She rammed and torpedoed enemy subs, downed transports and scored a direct hit on a whale -- but all this was incidental to her official purpose. It was the Seraph that ferried Mark Clark to North Africa when the Allies sought French cooperation for the impending invasion and later carried Giraud out of France to lead the anti-Vichy forces. The corpse celebrated in the Man Who Never Was entered Spanish waters aboard the Seraph. But her finest hour, without a doubt, came during the landings at Sicily for, under constant pointblank fire, she stayed at her post, flashing a beacon which directed the troops to their designated beaches. Between special assignments the panic of klaxons and the convulsions of depth charges keep things active. This adds another section to his earlier Night Raiders of the Atlantic (1955).