Was "TCM" set in prewar, before or around 1941, or set in contemporary times, 1953 or 54, when the film was made?
shareSet during the beginning years of WWII in the Pacific. Pearl Harbor had been attacked already and war declared on Japan.
Whores will have their trinkets.
The main body of the book goes from December of 1942, when Willie enters midshipman school (The second chapter is a flashback to his meeting May in the summer of 1941 and their courtship through the rest of that year and the first year of the war.) until October of 1945 when Willie -as the ship's final captain- brings the Caine to the Navy Yard at Bayonne, New Jersey, for decommissioning, a few days prior to his own scheduled discharge from the Navy.
Willie reports aboard the Caine in September of 1943. Queeg assumes command a couple of weeks later. Maryk becomes Executive Officer in December. The Yellowstain Incident takes place at Roi-Namur on January 31st, 1944. The Strawberries Incident took place in November of 1944. The typhoon and relief was in mid-December of 1944. The court martial was in early 1945.
After the court martial, Willie returns to the Caine and becomes Executive Officer in late spring of 1945. He saves the ship from a kamikaze attack in June, towards the end of the Okinawa campaign. In September, following the surrender of Japan, Keefer -who had been Captain since the spring- is sent home and Willie is appointed Captain.
I believe the film compresses events though.