Strike From The Sea

My sole reason for picking up this book was the blurb about the submarine's equipment. Cruising off Saigon was the Soufriere, originally a massive French submarine with twin turret guns, her own recon plane and a belly full of torpedoes. Germany - through the annexation of Paris "owned" the sub, but the British wanted it badly before it could be used against them.

Reeman was a new author to me, but a little background check showed he had creditials. Originally a British Naval Officer, he saw service during WW2 and later the Korean War. Afterwards he wrote under another name before he started putting his real name to a string of books set throughout the later part of WW2. Reeman was first published as far back as 1958, but this book wasn't released until 1978. reeman has continued to write his most recent release just last year.

Back to the book, Commander Robert Ainslie is hand picked after a personal loss to lead the assualt on the French base and capture the sub. Problem is, there is someone else who wants the sub too. Ainslie eventually stages a daring raid in a tropical lagoon before heading out to sea, only to run into the entire German Navy. The climax is a little downhill, but that may have been because I spread the read around other books I was studying.

Not sure that I would recommend this as a first read for anyone unfamilar with Reeman, but I'll let you know about that in a few months once I finish a few of his other books.

On the Tides "thumbs up" 1-5 sliding scale;

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I used to read Douglas Reeman in my early teens. Very good but I did find the storyline became a little repetative. Misunderstood Commander is proved right against enormous odds and a sub plot of some female connection.

His books are pretty good though.

Gos