Gold from Crete: Ten Stories

This is a collection of World War 2 stories set aboard ship, as you might expect from a Forester book. Most of the stories feature as their hero we follow the destroyer captain. As a destroyer captain he is well qualified, but as a person he leaves a bit to be desired, given that he is stringing along four women at once, and in one of the story he is so “busy” that when he gets access to a typewriter and a secretary he gets the SECRETARY to type up FOUR COPIES of the SAME LETTER. Ugh.

Of the stories in this collection, I like best the title story, “Gold from Crete”, and the story “An Egg for the Major”, which has a funny ending. Egg is also set in the desert, making it a novelty n the collection and in my experience of WW2 show more literature. I’m under-read in the North Africa part of the war… it may be that Spike Milligan is my highest authority on the subject.

The only story in the collection I did not read was “If Hitler Had Invaded England” because I am DONE with WW2 counterfactuals and refuse to read any more.

In terms of Forester’s story collections, if you have to pick one, I would pick The Man in the Yellow Raft over this collection, to be honest. show less

For WW II naval buffs, this is an entertaining collection of stories by a master writer of the genre. Several are set in the Mediterranean during the invasion of Crete. One story is non naval and chronicles the Eagle Squadron during the Battle of Britain. My favourite was "The Dumb Dutchman" which is about a Dutch tug boat captain who fools the Germans into believing he is a sympathizer to their cause. He is permitted to participate in the planning of the up coming invasion of Britain. When he is towing a train of lighters on a practice run, he uses a heavy fog to take the tow across the Channel into a ambush by British vessels. The last story in the collection is entitled " If Hitler Had Invaded England" and while too short to give the show more topic all the detail it requires, it did some interesting ideas about how the invasion could have been carried out and the problems Hitler would have faced. As it turned out in the story, his inability to control the air sealed his fate just as it had when he was defeated in the battle of Britain. show less

The larger part of this book is a collection of short stories about a British destroyer captain operating in the Mediterranean, there are also single stories about RAF pilots and a tank officer, one about a Dtch tug captain sabotaging German plans and for me the most interesting part is a piece "If Hitler Had Invaded England" describing the defeat of a German invasion. It purports to be based on real military possibilities, but I cannot help feeling it is tilted a bit to the British. My favorite part is when a one-armed British retired officer manages to walk up and shoot a German general.

A collection of short stories from a master of the genre. Entertaing enough, and the title story is in keeping.

Excellent Forester as usual. Stories dating from 1942 were re-published, and are still fresh and exciting. At the end is the speculative story of the German invasion of England.