Richard M. Bluel

Captain Foster plans on raiding German-occupied Tobruk with hand- picked commandos, but a mixup leaves him with a medical unit led by a Quaker conscientious objector. Despite all odds they succeed with their mission. On the way they pick up and drug the mistress of an Italian general, blow up the entire fuel supply for the Afrika Korps, and swap philatelic gossip with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. (imdb)

During World War II the passenger liner "Goliath" is sunk by a German submarine. Portions of the ship's hull remain airtight, and some of the passengers and crew survive. Over the decades they build a rigidly regulated society completely isolated from the surface world, until in contemporary times a diving team begins to explore the wreck. (imdb)