This review contains spoilers.

****

This is a detailed story, taking you through every year of the war with a varied cast of characters. Some of the cast changes up throughout the book, and some are more well-rounded than others. Given the theatre of operations, there weren’t many female characters, and a high percentage of the ones that do exist end up dying. ( )

Simply excellent. It might be written of its time, but it needs to be, for it is about its time and the people and circumstances as they were then. Richly evocative and powerful. ( )

Published in 1951, this book is a classic fiction of maritime warfare in the Battle of the Atlantic during WWII, focused on a corvette ship assigned to protect convoys from German U-Boats. At the story opens, the newly built HMS Compass Rose is just being readied for launch and the crew is in training. The only experienced crew member is Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson, who had previously served in the Merchant Navy. His officers are new to the Royal Navy, as so many were at the start of the war, having previously held civilian jobs. It is told linearly, covering 1939 to 1945, with one chapter dedicated to each year, and is based on the author’s own (and, at that time, recent) experiences.

The book focuses on the relationship between the commander and officers, particularly his lieutenant, Lockhart. As a newbie, Lockhart is thrown into the maelstrom and must learn quickly how to function effectively. The commander serves as a friend and role model. I particularly appreciated one scene where fatigue was overtaking the crew after days of intense watches, maintaining constant vigilance in the face of exhaustion, and contending with the threat of torpedoes that could come with little warning. We follow the ship’s crew in encountering the enemy, weathering storms, and conducting the routine daily work at sea.

The story portrays the importance of making quick decisions, which lead to life-or-death consequences. We are privy to the characters’ doubts, fears, and feelings regarding those decisions. The women are not forgotten. We follow various crew members ashore during leave and view their interactions with spouses, family, and friends. One of the scenes toward the end poignantly and delicately describes love during wartime. Just beautifully done.

The characters are empathetically represented. Battle segments are vividly described. The crew rescues of other seamen after their ships sink and takes prisoners when the need arises. It is elegantly written, not sparing the brutalities of war, but not overly focused on them, either. I felt entirely immersed in this book. I felt like I was aboard ship during their voyages. It is among the best books I’ve read on the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. Highly recommended.
( )

Published in 1951 a mere six years after the end of the second world war, this is a novel of historical fiction that tells the story and role of the smaller boats that formed the protective screen around the convoys that made regular crossings of the Atlantic ocean during the second world war. The strength of the novel lays in its depiction of the work and conditions aboard Corvettes and then Frigates who were in almost constant danger from german submarine (U boat) attacks and from the horrendous nautical conditions during the winter months. Monsarrat focuses on his leading character Keith Lockhart who held various posts on both types of boat under the command of a professional navy officer Ericson with whom he forged a good working relationship.

The novel follows Lockhart's journey through the war years from his initial posting as an officer recruited from a career in journalism at the start of the war until his position as first lieutenant in a new frigate at the end of hostilities. Monsarrat own career during the war followed a similar path and while the novel is not an autobiography, Monsarrat uses his experience to paint a picture of life on the high seas during wartime. He tells a story full of danger and adversity spiced with memorable seascapes and impossible working conditions. Lockhart's first boat the Compass Rose was one of the early corvettes which first took to the sea equipped with a small gun and depth charges, but without any radar and proved to be a soft target for the German U Boats. The corvette struggled in rough seas and its crew of ninety endured very cramped conditions, with more injuries caused by weather conditions than from hostile forces, but in danger on every trip of being sunk with perhaps the loss of all on board. Monsarrat's skills as a writer create a realistic picture of the struggle against superior forces and the toughness of the men to survive the attacks and the hard learned skills of officers who have to make life or death decisions. He creates plenty of tension and excitement.

While the novel also attempts to show relationships between the officers and sometimes between them and the ordinary ratings this is not its strongest point. It is good on a fairly superficial level and shows the teamwork needed to survive the awful conditions, but there is little in depth of characterisation and sometimes it feels a little corny. Where women do feature it is as lovers and wives of the men and one particular episode could qualify as a contender for the best "bad sex" episode of the year, remembering that the year is 1951. It could be said that Monsarrat never gets far beneath the oil skins. Where the novel ca appear even more unstuck when read today is when it strays into an insidious patriotism. I fully understand that people signing up for the war effort were brave and patriotic, but one gets the feeling when talking about other nations that Monsarrat is merely mouthing the xenophobia that was in existence at the time.

Reading the novel gives a seemingly authentic account of the struggle to keep the convoy system in operation across the Atlantic during the war and as such provides an historical retelling as seen through the eyes of one of its participants. Conditions on board the small boats were both difficult and horrifying and Monsarrat does not spare his readers some of the more gruesome details. This was a wartime situation and Monsarrat's descriptions would be vivid enough to put the book into the anti-war camp for many readers. A cruel sea, a cruel war and an intolerable strain on the men who had to survive the conditions. Its not great literature: its all a bit too episodic for that, but it places the reader inside those small ships amongst the stink of oil and seawater to create an exciting account and a 4 star read. ( )

I haven't read much fiction about WWII but I was motivated to read this because waaaaaay back in my late teens I read The Master Mariner, by the same author, a kind of Wandering Jew story covering the history of shipping from I can't remember how far back up to the age of oil super-tankers. It was good but frustrating in that Monsarrat died before completing it and most of the 20th Century exists only as a brief outline. This book being much more famous, I picked it up when I saw it reprinted and have finally got round to tackling it.

For those who have seen or heard about a particular incident in the film adaptation, I say now that no seagulls fly backwards over the cruel sea in the book...

Monsarrat notes before the action begins that this is a "long" book. Given that it is fewer than 500p it hardly seems so, but it is three times the length of a more typical novel of its day...and there is no bloating or padding here. It's a compelling tale from the outset and all the way through to the end, which covers the entire period of the war as the Royal Navy attempts to keep the vital supply lines of Merchant Navy traffic protected from the depredations of the German U-boats.

Initially we are introduced to a group of characters who will form the senior officers of a newly built corvette; a ship designed for submarine hunting. The captain is portrayed as a competent and experienced career naval officer. It is interesting how similar the notions of what this competence consists of and how it is displayed are to those given by O'Brian describing Jack Aubrey, a naval captain from the Napoleonic era. It would seem that the technology has changed but the fundamentals of the Royal Navy and the demands of running a ship of war haven't changed, if you can rely on O'Brian's historical portrayal.

The history of WWII in general outline drawn here should seem familiar; losing until the U.S.A drop neutrality, then clawing back on to even terms and after D-Day slowly struggling to victory; it's not really interesting in this regard. What is more interesting is the views espoused by the officers about the war and the contrasting attitudes given to civilian characters.

Ireland comes in for a lambasting; the country is potrayed as contemptible for remaining neutral and benefiting from the vital food and other supplies from North America, guarded by the Royal Navy, whilst at the same time allowing the Nazis to run an espionage base on their territory.

Civilians are largely viewed as soft and lacking dedication, unless they are part of the Merchant Navy. The men of the Royal Navy are mostly a stoically heroic bunch, but not in a propagandist, unrealistic way.

Various views, some cynical, about the motives of the war are espoused. One character suggests that the war is simply about who will dominate Europe; this was of course true: would it be the people who, despite such mass-murders as the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, never had genocide in mind, or would it be the perpetrators of the Holocaust? ( )