the auther wrote a handful of books about the Pacific War. The main characters were typically a "reluctant hero". The one I remember most vividly is a new officer is sent to an island. Sent on a special mission the submarine sinks but he and several survive by holding their breaths and rising to the surface. Once on the Japanese held island they form a plan to escape by stealing an airplane, while trashing the entire landing strip, disabling many other planes, and just generally shooting the place up. Our hero is greatly wounded, many of his men die, but they get the plane and fly it to safety, thus proving his courage and bravery and self-realization his is not as big a screwup as originally thought.
It seems the auther was Ross White, but that name does not come up in searches. Any leads would be appreciated
