Fullerton, Alexander A Wren Called Smith

World War 2 tale set in early 1945. A Norwegian freighter, sailing solo en route from the recently-liberated Philippine Islands to England and carrying a complement of passengers including British military personnel and German U-boat prisoners of war guarded by American soldiers, is sunk in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. Most of the ship’s crew and passengers are methodically – and horribly – massacred by the Japanese. Those few survivors who escape the carnage (two British officers, an America guard and Wren Betty Lou Smith for the Allies, and nearly all of the German POWs) embark upon a desert island life while awaiting rescue, with life ashore complicated by the presence of man-hungry Wren Smith. Fullerton’s story veers from low comedy to high drama before concluding on a deliciously ironic note. One thing that does not change, though, is the author’s focused hatred of Japanese submariners, whom he portrays as sadistic sub-humans. Germans, as a race, are portrayed perhaps up a step from the Japanese, but Fullerton doesn’t think much of them, either. From the vehemence of his prose, one doubts whether war veteran Fullerton would ever forgive Japan and Germany for their wartime maritime atrocities.