Just Finished Reading: Blood of Honour by James Holland (FP: 2010)

Crete – 1941. After another retreat in the face of advancing German forces, this time from Greece, the British Army finally looks like it has decided to fight. As large numbers of troops dig in to face the inevitably German attack their confidence is high. The British Navy still dominate the Mediterranean and defensively the island of Crete is no push-over. When the attack finally comes it seems at first that the British have things under control. The airborne assault does not go well for the elite German paratroopers and losses are heavy. When their attack on British positions is repulsed with heavy casualties it looks like the invasion is about to fail. But a series of mistakes and a reluctance to engage the lightly armoured German forces starts to erode the initial British advantage. Frustrated by the lack of aggressive initiative Colour-Sergeant Jack Tanner tries his best to lead his men against a local group of enemy paratroopers. But hampered by lack of ammunition, naïve young officers with no combat experience and a strange inactivity from the top brass he is finally forced into yet another retreat. Returning to the island after his relief ship is sunk by German dive bombers Turner must use all his skill to keep his exhausted and demoralised squad in one piece and alive long enough to try to escape the increasingly hostile island a second time. Thrown into the mix are local partisans who resent the British who they see as fainthearted friends who cannot be trusted. If Tanner and his mean want to stay alive they must earn the trust of people who do not give it easily and who hold grudges for a very long time indeed.

This is the third book in the Jack Tanner series and was another cracking read. As I’ve said before Tanner is a great character – not surprisingly called ‘Sharpe for the Blitz years’ – and I look forward to his future adventures in North Africa and Italy (I’m not giving anything at all away here). The internal conflict which annoyed me in the previous book has been replaced by a much more believable ‘spat’ with a local partisan leader and the appearance of a young officer from Tanners home town who knows more about his past than he’d like to become public (which intrigued me greatly). The supporting cast was generally very good with his side-kick Sergeant Sykes using his skill to blow things up and ruin the days of a great many Germans and various officer types both helping or hindering Jack’s main task of killing as many Germans as possible. One thing you shouldn’t expect from this book (or the other two) is an even handed treatment of both sides in the conflict. This is no politically correct book! The British are the good guys and the Germans are the bad guys – end of story! That’s actually part of the almost old fashioned charm of the thing. There’s no moral ambiguity here it’s all very black and white. In that way not only is it a breeze to read it’s very entertaining indeed because you don’t really have to think about the complexity of things – because there isn’t any! If you do like a pretty straight forward and honestly simple (but not simplistic) story that aims primarily to entertain (which it does in spades!) then this is definitely the book for you. In these days of ambiguity, complexity and grey areas it’s like a wonderful breath of fresh air – tinged with the smell of cordite. Highly recommended.