Gutterson, Herbert "The Needle"

World War 2 story. American Magazine tag line: “He was an American prisoner of war on a Japanese ship – and out there in the white-capped sea was an American submarine, maneuvering for the kill.” Gutterson’s hero is naval officer (and submarine man himself) Lt. Commander William Haines – and what a hero he is. With scant thought for the personal consequences of his actions, from his sea-going cell Haines signals the following American sub with a small flashlight he’d managed to hold on to in captivity. His signal gives the sub a target to home in onto, and at story’s end, with torpedoes about to strike the “old Jap merchantman”, Haines calmly (though “with tears streaming down his face”) awaits his fate.