Battle Ensign. J.E. Macdonnell's Royal Australian Navy World War II Fiction, #3

H. M. A. S. Scimitar was ordered to join the American Fleet, but it soon became clear that the Americans didn't have much time for the Aussie battleship. Even when Scimitar's commander, Bruce Sainsbury V. C., reported that a secret Japanese airstrip was operating somewhere in the area, the warning was dismissed. Then the Japanese hit the fleet, and hit it hard. Sainsbury volunteered to comb the ocean for the island airstrip, and promised to destroy it when he found it.
If anyone could pull off such a dangerous mission, it was the Scimitar's crew. But there was a weak link that might just turn a potential victory into a terrible defeat. Because one of Scimitar's officers was a glory-hunter. Worse than that, he was also a coward .