Jacland Marmur (1901–1970)

Marmur was a Thirties and Forties adventure writer. Sea Duty is a collection of short stories of the Navy's war in the Pacific.
Some are conventional but exciting and well-described conventional combat stories.
One, the story of a Filipino steward, tells us that even small people can lose an entire world in the midst of a monstrous war. The story of the officer who got drunk and whose fiancee found him passed out asks what the reader would do.
The story of the castaways, one preparing to shoot a nurse should the battle turn out badly, is conventional except for the conversation between the nurse and the sailer.
Two problems: Marmur has far too many Annapolis grads. There weren't that many for a Navy as big as ours in WW II. Most officers were reservists or 90-day wonders. Nothing wrong with that, my father was one in the Infantry and by the time I got to it, it was 180-day wonders. I hardly met a West Pointer.
The other issue is that Marmur loves his torpedoes and his heroes never fail to score with a spread. The American torp was a piece of junk until about 1943 even if not compared to the incomparable Type 93, the Japanese Long Lance.
Marmur did some good shorts about Korea--see The Kid in Command.… (altro)