Nicholas Monsarrat's superbly written "The Cruel Sea" captures in fiction the essence of the Battle of the North Atlantic in a way that a history could not. It describes, at a very human level, the desperate struggle to safely escort convoys across the North Atlantic in the face in incessant Nazi submarine and aircraft attacks. On the success of the these convoys hung the outcome of war; without them, the Allied war effort would have ground to a halt and Britain would have starved.
The narrative of "The Cruel Sea" centers on two men and two ships. George Ericson, a middle-aged commercial sea captain and Royal Navy Reserve officer, is recalled to the fleet in 1939 to lead the newly commissioned corvette HMS Compass Rose. Also central to the narrative is young Lockhart, a very green and newly commissioned Sub-Lieutenant who will grow into a fine naval officer and Ericson's "Number One" on both the Compass Rose and a follow-on command, the frigate HMS Saltash. "The Cruel Sea" is populated by an astonishingly rich cast of supporting characters, including ship's company at sea and wives and girlfriends ashore.
The story itself, richly informed by the author's own experiences at sea in the Second World War, is that of the convoys. The Compass Rose and the Saltash will spend weeks at sea, sheparding merchant vessels under wartime conditions, enduring the harsh weather of the North Atlantic, and fighting the Nazi onslaught. It is a fight that calls for patience, endurance, skill, and cunning, much of it learned the hard way, on the job. The fight will demand the utmost from the men of the Compass Rose and the Saltash, making heroes of some and breaking others. Monsarrat captures it all in superbly readable, often lyrical prose: the mundane routine, the terror of combat, and the heartbreak of loss.
"The Cruel Sea" does not attempt to glorify war. Monsarrat faithfully describes the huge human cost of war, in the strains on tired and frightened men, the struggle to acquire and keep the hard edge necessary to kill in combat, and in the sometimes unsuccessful effort to have a normal life ashore.
This book is very highly recommended to the reader interested in the Battle of the North Atlantic and to the reader looking for a superb novel of the sea.
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Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
The best novel about the Battle of the Atlantic
Reviewed in Canada on August 11, 2020ramon montejano
Una gran novela de tema naval. Grandiosa.
Reviewed in Spain on June 25, 2021Pierfrancesco Di Giuseppe
Libro eccezionale per capire l'epopea dei convogli durante la II G.M.
Reviewed in Italy on October 7, 2020