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MagazineRe-deployed from convoys in the Atlantic, the men of PC-450 must
face Japanese submarines and air attacks as they support the U.S.
Marines island-hopping across the Pacific.
Twice torpedoed during the Battle of the Atlantic, LT. Tony Colombo
USNR, a former merchant marine officer, is appointed to command a new
Navy ship, PC-450, a 173 foot, steel-hulled and much advanced submarine
chaser carrying five officers and sixty-five men. After a period of
escorting convoys up and down the Atlantic coast, Tony suddenly finds
himself escorting ships loaded with Marine Corps equipment all the way
to Wellington, New Zealand and then to Brisbane, Australia.
Once arrived, he is instantly ordered to begin escorting small convoys
up and down the Australian coast. Some weeks later, Tony and PC-450
engage in battle with a dangerous Japanese midget submarine which is
attempting to penetrate Brisbane Harbor.
In the summer of 1942, as PC-450 begins to escort numerous convoys from
Australia to Noumea in New Caledonia, the United States suddenly invades
Guadalcanal with the result that Tony begins guiding convoys north in
support of the invasion while fending off the multiple day and night air
raids that the Japanese throw down The Slot. Subsequently, following the
hard fought victory on Guadalcanal, PC-450 participates in the invasion
of the Russell Islands and then, during the grinding fight for New
Georgia, PC-450 not only helps to fend off Japanese air attacks on the
fleet but twice engages in surface actions when the Japanese attempt to
infiltrate troops onto the island. Wounded in a sudden air attack that
radar could not detect in advance, Tony and Baldy are returned to
Brisbane for convalescence and new assignments.
