Watkins, Richard Howells "Lagoon of Lost Command"

World War 2 short story set in the South Pacific. Two survivors of an American freighter (the fictitious NORTHERN SHORE) which had been sunk by a Nazi sea raider are washed ashore on a deserted atoll, one of several such small islands surrounding a lagoon. But it’s not deserted for long – the Nazi raider soon arrives on the scene (it had been seriously damaged in the firefight which had erupted when it attacked the armed NORTHERN SHORE). The two Americans spend much of the tale dodging Nazis and trying to work up a plan to permanently disable the raider. By tale’s end they have of course accomplished this and, after an Allied reconnaissance plane has spotted them (and the raider), their rescue is in the offing. As is typical of pulp stories of the era, the enemy is depicted as cold-blooded, cruel and curiously inept.