Just Finished Reading: Darkest Hour by James Holland (FP: 2009)

England, May 1940. On his return from the abortive fiasco of the mission to save Norway, Sergeant Jack Tanner and his surviving platoon members are assigned to a training company to pass on their invaluable experience. But almost from the moment they arrive they encounter problems. The base oil is regularly being stolen and displaced Polish troops are being blamed. Jack thinks otherwise. At the centre of everything appears to be someone from Jack’s past in India. But before Jack can confirm his suspicions the balloon goes up and the company are sent to France to become part of the British Expeditionary Force whose job it is to hold back the advancing German forces. Badly led as before, but with more equipment this time, the British at first hold their own. But as the French forces are required to retreat again and again the British must follow suit or be surrounded. Forced into a fighting retreat Jack must hold his platoon together, train up a promising Lieutenant and watch his back as his authority is undermined at every turn. When a general retreat is ordered Jack and his men are told to hold the line long enough for the greatest escape in British military history to take place – the Miracle of Dunkirk. The only question is whether there will be any ships left to take them off the beaches when their time comes to save their own lives.

Holland is a best-selling historian and it shows. His description of the combat and confusion in Northern France in the chaotic six weeks between invasion and the Fall of France is gripping. Both on the ground and in the air his description of the fighting is vivid and, despite knowing that Jack himself would no doubt survive, I still held my breath at times as the bullets, bombs and shells fell on the British positions. Reading about the fictionalised events was bad enough. The reality must have been appalling. Tanner is a great character rightly called ‘Sharpe for the Blitz years’ by the Sunday Telegraph and I’m really looking forward to reading his future adventures (I have the next book and am waiting for the 4^th book to appear in paperback). I do hope that the series runs and runs. In this particular novel I did feel that the whole theft and criminal conspiracy in the company was unnecessary and added a layer of complication that didn’t add very much to the story. The events of May 1940 were dramatic enough without adding another layer. Hopefully Holland will dispense with such things in future books and concentrate on what he does so well – combat. I shall definitely be finding out on way or another. Recommended to any fan of war fiction, WW2 or indeed Richard Sharpe.