Warren Tute

My initial reaction to this book was rather positive. It's not as though a great deal has been written about the British assault on the French squadron at Mers-el-Kebir in the wake of the German victory of 1940, at least in English, and Tute certainly seemed to cover all his bases; going so far as to gain the assistance of the French admiral who had the misfortune to be in command that day. What doesn't hack it is when Tute is unwilling to pass judgement on what this whole incident meant in show more the end, and even when I was a much younger man I would have seen this as a cop-out; never mind that we're now as far as from the publishing of this book as the book was from the events described within. This seems like a tacit critique of Churchill at a time when the man's wartime reputation was still sacrosanct. I may have to hunt down Tute's "Reluctant Enemies," his relatively recent (1990) account of Anglo-French antagonism in World War II to see if he became less mealy-mouthed about passing judgement as time went by.

Apart from that, what I'd really like to have seen more of is what this meant to the French junior officers and enlisted men. Were they of one mind with their commanders? Would they have preferred to carry on the fight? Maybe such a book exists in French, but I haven't seen it in English yet, and if it hasn't been done it's probably a decade or so too late to be assembled. show less

This is an historical novel mainly set on Gibraltar from June 1939 to November 1942. Tute cleverly tells the history of Gibraltar during this period while also telling the fictional story of the captain of HMS Firesprite, a fictional destroyer based in Gibraltar in the real H Force. Through the experiences of Captain David Evers, we are given the background on patrolling the Mediterranean, shepherding convoys to England, participating in the destruction of the Bismarck and shepherding show more convoys to Malta including the famous Operation Pedestal which was a desperate August 1942 attempt to get a convoy through to Malta to save the island from starvation and probably an invasion by the Axis. As well, we see through the captain's efes and those of this friends what life was like trapped on the Rock only a few metres from the border of Spain which was a supporter of the Axis.

While the war history is interesting, there are the personal stories of the men & women who live and serve in Gibraltar. Thus we have men & women falling in love and in some cases destroying one another. There are the personnel who fight spies and there are the Nazis and others who try to destroy British control of the Rock.

While a fairly lengthy novel, it moves along briskly and is definitely entertaining plus the history is accurate. show less

The fascinating story of how the British navy came to attack and destroy part of the French Atlantic fleet in Algeria during WW2. Very well written.

Well written by a british staffer. Excellent photo selection. Takes a generally more big picture approach.