The story has 50 heroes and one heroine. The heroes are the officers and men of the submarine. The heroine is the ship herself.

As the cruise began, somebody saw a girl standing on the shore, her bright red skirts blown by the trade winds off the mountains. "Take a good look, boys, " the captain said. "It's going to be a long time before you see a woman again."

They didn't know where they were going but there were rumors, soon confirmed. Over the loud speaker came, "We have been directed to proceed to a position just off the coast of Japan. I need not remind you men that we are embarked on a dangerous and important mission.

The men looked at each other - not the casual look-over as in port or ashore, but carefully sizing each other up. On a job like this the kind of men you are with is terribly important.

The captain was LCDR. Thomas Burton Klakring, Jr. who talked like a divinity student and had the courage of a grizzly bear.

Among the crew the popular person was 14 stone, 4 pound Grif Piper, ship's cook, who cooked in a galley less than a third the size of a railway dining car galley. It was so small Pilfer could touch all four walls without moving. The crew called it, "Pifer's Pickle Plaza."

They were happy though a little nervous. There were no radios, but portable gramophones in the "dinette" (mess room) and torpedo rooms played all day long. The favorite song was "Ocean Roll," sung by Beatrice Kay. Not many of the men liked it, but for some unaccountable reason they played it continually. Then there was "Everything I love" sung by Bing Crosby.

It was not long before the submarine saw its first victim through the periscope. The gramophones were put away. The men went to work. Not long thereafter the torpedoes left their tubes. It was as if the ship had hit a small yielding, sand bar.

Then the explosion, a sharp crack, not a muffled sound. The crew burst out cheering. But what followed was not routine. Overhead, they heard a destroyer coming closer and the distant rattle coming closer of exploding depth charges. They sweated and looked at each other and cussed. At length the destroyer began to move away.

The next few weeks marked the beginning of their real work. One day they got in the middle of a Jap convoy of seven mechantmen and numerous naval auxiliaries. The sub approached so close before making her attack that one Jap ship began firing pointblank at the periscope.

Another ship swung straight toward her, trying to ram her. But Klakring swung the sub out of the way and got in the first torpedo hit. Later, after two ships from the convoy had been sunk and the sub had come boldly to the surface, a Jap merchantmen began firing with deck guns.

The climax to the cruise came after they had been out many weeks. The dawn seemed to come early that day. The ocean was calm with occasional whitecaps. Through the periscope the captain spotted smoke. It was another convoy. The sub approached. One of the Jap merchant ships was hiding behind a small harbor islet. The other was offshore and in direct line with a large power plant and an illuminated gas reservoir. The submarine was only partly submerged and the Harbor's main defense guns were opening up on her. Shells exploding in the water above sounded to the crew like firecrackers. The Jap ship offshore was still at extremely long torpedo range and there were hundred of rocks between the sub and her. The captain decided to try for her anyway. If he missed he figured he would hit the large power plant on the water's edge. And that was just as good as getting a ship.

So once more the ready light flashed in the torpedo room. Torpedmen forward and aft froze to attention. Then it came - two deep, clear-cut metallic raps. A wild cheer rose from the crew.

In the days and weeks to come they were to get to know the coast of Japan well. At night they lay off the shore watching trains run along a coast track, or picking out the familiar light in certain cities and country homes. They became sentimentally attached to familiar things like factories, wharves and docks. But the greatest thrill the men got was watching horse races at an amusement park near the beach. Says Captain Klakring, "I figured they'd probably have horse races on Sundays and sure enough they did. Aboard the sub, we placed some bets on the ponies, but unfortunately we were just a little too far away to be sure which horse won."