Best of Enemies

Suppose fate placed you on an inflatable life-raft in the middle of the freezing Atlantic Ocean along with your most bitter enemy contrivable? Would the emotions of hatred, revenge and love of country trump the desire to survive, if killing that enemy ensured your own demise?

Captain Mat Richardson, USN, and Emil Gluckler, a German submarine commander, experience that option during the 2nd World War. Mat, captain of a small destroyer, and Emil, commander of an attacking submarine, become stranded on a life- raft after each of the combatant crafts sink each other during a fierce naval engagement. They subsequently experience 38 harrowing days striving for survival. If nothing else, this required the ultimate in mutual cooperation.

If the two survived, would the events have a lasting effect on their relationship? Or, if one had the opportunity to kill the other at a later date in a new war-time circumstance, would he do so, or not?