War beneath the waves

In November 1943, a young officer named Charlie Rush drew duty on the USS Billfish, a submarine in the Pacific. While the Billfish was on war patrol in the Makassar Strait off Borneo, a Japanese task force spotted the sub and launched such a vicious depth-charge attack that no vessel could possibly survive. Rush, as diving officer, ordered the ship to dive, despite the confusion and hesitation of his captain. As he oversaw damage control, thundering depth-charge explosions racked the submarine during fifteen hours of hell under the sea. When he was finally able to seek out the captain, Rush…