John Biggins

Naval Officer Ottokar Prohaska has been seconded to the Austro-Hungarian Air Force (k.u.k. Fleigertruppe) to avoid embarrassing questions about whether the Italian submarine he received the Knight’s Cross of Maria Teresa for sinking was actually a German U-boat operating in the Adriatic - and one with his brother-in-law on board, at that. He finds himself operating out of a dubious airfield on the dubious Italian front, commanded by a dubious officer who has never actually flown in an show more airplane.

This novel has a darker feel than the earlier ones in the series. There are still flashes of the humor and humanity that distinguishes the previous books, but the Italian front in WWI was hell, and there is no way to civilize it. Prohaska finds himself flying as an observer in a Hansa-Brandenburg C1 biplane, piloted by Hungarian ex-monk Zoltan Toth, with whom he must communicate in Latin because that’s their only common language. Their unit conducts ineffectual bombing raids because the statistics-obsessed commanding officer insists on judging success by number of bombs dropped and therefore loads the missions with the smallest bombs available. The author, John Biggins, once again draws on actual events - Prohaska encounters Italian ace Oreste di Carraciolo, clearly based on the real Gabriele D'Annunzio.

The Austro-Hungarian empire is a fascinating place - how could a state that was so incompetent in technical matters turn out Strauss and Strauss and Strauss and Lehar and Liszt and Rilke and Meitner and Klimt and Frisch and Musil and Bartok and hundreds of other composers and authors and painters and scientists? show less

A true unacknowledged classic in the historical fiction tradition, this is a book you simply must read.Like Flashman but without the racism or Aubrey but without the pompousity, the tales of Otto Prohaska, Submarine Captain of the Austrian Empire are exciting, educational (the research is outstanding) and surprisingly funny, although with moments of heart-stopping tragedy.
Told as reminiscences of a dying centenarian in a west Wales home for Polish veterans, to a younger Welsh submariner, show more this book carries the reader back to 1915 and then through the last years of the disintegrating Habsburg Monarchy to its inevitable fall, with a wit and panache that makes it amazing that this book is not better known.
High point: the chapter long description of Prohaska's childhood and why his hometown has no official name, which contains that rarest of things, black slapstick.
Low point: There are no low points.
By the way, this is one of my five desert island novels. By Jove, I think I'll have to read it again. show less

I love military historical fiction, and this book is one of my faves. Sadly, the book-buying public didn't agree with my opinion, and John Biggens was dropped by his publisher after four novels that didn't make money. The sad truth is most of the people who read this kind of fiction want a more standard-issue kind of hero, like Jack Aubrey or Dan Lenson; someone who is heroically going on to bigger and better things, which will be written about in due course. Lieutenant Ottokar Prohaska is show more in the service of Austria-Hungary, a decaying empire with a small navy; an empire that broke apart after World War One and lost all it’s oceanfront property in the process. This greatly limits opportunities for promotion to higher rank, among other things. Sadly, while Ottokar Prohaska is a certifiable hero: loyal, brave and extremely competent (a winner of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, no less!), his opportunities for heroic action are limited by circumstances beyond his control: rinky-dink u-boats with limited range and offensive capabilities; exploding submarine toilets; defective torpedoes; flatulence-inducing rations of tinned stew with sauerkraut. Yet he bravely sailors on with his multilingual crew with no little success, and only a bit of friendly fire. You have to love this guy; he’s loyal to the end and fun at parties.
The good news is this book is back in print again and can be easily found, along with the other three books in the series. This was not always the case. Even better, John Biggens has written a fifth novel, not about Austrian sailors, titled "The Surgeon’s Apprentice", which is available only as a kindle book. It’s on my to-read list. show less

The full title of this is worthy of note, as it says much of the dry humor:
A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire
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In my research on the medical field in World War I, I kept seeing mentions of this book as one of the best World War I novels out there. It didn't pertain to my research, but my curiosity was piqued, so I had to get it. Biggins created a charming, realistic, and show more dryly-humored character in Otto Prohaska, an Austrian submarine officer. My husband was in the United States Navy, so I know all too well how ridiculous the modern navy can be; this book shows that some things never change.

Otto's adventures are hilarious bordering on the absurd... yet absolutely believable at the same time. In particular, there were incidents involving food poisoning and a camel that had me laughing out loud. There's also the uniqueness of the perspective. It's a book from the perspective of a "bad guy" in a sense: a Czech-Pole, who works as an ally of the Germans. It's also mostly set along the Adriatic Sea and Mediterranean, going into deep, fascinating (never boring!) detail on the operation of submarines. Biggins is very honest in his portrayal of how people suffered during the war; his descriptions of Austria at the war's conclusion are very wrenching.

I loved the book up to the end. It's clear from the start that Otto survives the war, since he's narrating these events when he is over a hundred years old, so that takes away a lot of tension. I was able to predict the one twist of the ending quite far out, and I was disappointed that it played out the way I expected. I really hoped I could be surprised instead.

Now I am not sure if I will read on in the series, which apparently goes into other incidents before and during the war, but overall I found this a delightful read. show less