RogerBW's Blog

Most Secret, Nevil Shute 04 May 2017

1945 war story (written in 1942 but held back by the censor). Four mismatched officers come together on a project to build up French morale by deploying a flamethrower against German coastal forces.

Naval flamethrowers haven't seen much use in the post-wooden-ship era (and not all that much before it); the only example that comes immediately to mind is in the Zeebrugge Raid of 1918, where they were not at all decisive. They have less range than pretty much any other naval weapon, so the only way to deploy them is to get close without declaring hostilities and then attack with surprise, something that's not really possible in a typical naval engagement. The way it's handled here is to use a French boat to blend in with the local fishing fleet, then to attack and destroy one of their guarding Räumboote (small minesweepers used for escort duties) and vanish before any other forces can be brought to bear. Clearly, many things can go wrong with this plan.

The shape of this book doesn't fit the pattern of military fiction that's been established since, which would start with an action sequence, go back to build things up, then carry on. Rather, the entire first half consists of introduction, planning and set-up before the first mission is sent off; then, since the narrator is a senior officer who stays at home, we learn of what happened on each mission first in general terms of who's made it back and in what state, then later by more detailed report as he interviews the men who return and sees occasional messages sent from occupied France.

I was reminded somewhat of C. S. Forester's The Ship, written a year later but published before this book; each of the four officers gets his own detailed introduction, explaining his background, personality, and just what it is that has caused him to hate the Germans and to want to fight them with fire. (This does sometimes descend into sentimentality, but it's plausible sentimentality.) Fire is a recurrent theme, from the death of one character's wife, via shenanigans with American rum-runners and gangsters, to the half-mad priest who regards it as the special weapon that God gives to those fighting against evil.

Many elements are thoroughly propagandistic: all the Germans we meet are vile people, all the French and English are good, and there's little room for nuance in the portrayals of anyone apart from the principals. Still, this is Nevil Shute we're talking about, and he does a good job even when he's being heavy-handed; he, and our narrator, never lose sight of the ultimate objective of the operation, to build up French morale and break down German, even when the blokes going in are focussed on the immediate mission. The morality of using such a terror-weapon is considered several times, but Shute being Shute doesn't bash us over the head with whether it was right: it was effective, and for wartime that may be good enough, but nobody's going to sleep well for a while.

(Oddly, Shute gets some of the moon phases wrong. He correctly has a full moon in early September 1941, but by the final mission he has a waning moon when it should be coming up on full, not to mention rising six hours later than it should. I wonder whether perhaps he originally planned the final mission to happen a week and a half later than it did, and forgot to re-check his diary.)

The action isn't just on the naval raids: once things start to go wrong, there's a daring over-land and over-water escape, and some life with the French Resistance.

To me this book serves as a good model for what a technothriller should be: cutting-edge engineering wielded by interesting and complex people doing daring things and pushing themselves beyond what they thought possible.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1