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HELL HARBOR
Cherbourg Harbor was the key to the success of the D-Day offensive. If the Allied Forces were denied it as a port of entry for vital armaments and supplies, their campaign would be strangled to death by starvation or Wehrmacht counter-attack. They dragged the man they called The Sergeant -- C. J. Mahoney, code-name: Parrot -- a rough, tough son-of-a-gun, fresh from the hospital and a wild affair with a virginal young nurse, back to the battlefront to save the harbor. His assignment was simple: with five men, break into an impregnable Nazi fortress guarded by a regiment. Then disarm the detonators that would blow Cherbourg Harbor -- and the Sergeant -- to hell and gone ...
LEN LEVINSON, ALIAS GORDON DAVIS
Hailed as a ‘trash genius’, Len Levinson was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1954-1957, and graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Social Science. He relocated to NYC that year and worked as an advertising copywriter and public relations executive before becoming a full-time novelist. Len created and wrote a number of series, including The Apache Wars Saga, The Pecos Kid and The Rat Bastards. He has had over eighty titles published, and PP is delighted to have the opportunity to issue his exceptional WWII series, The Sergeant in digital form. After many years in NYC, Len moved to a small town (pop. 3100) in rural Illinois, where he is now surrounded by corn and soybean fields ... a peaceful, ideal location for a writer.
Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Len Levinson served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1954-1957, and graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Social Science. He relocated to NYC that year and worked as an advertising copywriter and public relations executive before becoming a full-time novelist. Len has had over eighty titles published and has created and wrote a number of series, including The Apache Wars Saga, The Pecos Kid, The Rat Bastards, and The Sergeant. After many years in NYC, Len moved to a small town (pop. 3100) in rural Illinois, where he is now surrounded by corn and soybean fields ... a peaceful, ideal location for a writer.
Sergeant Mahoney and his team are ordered to prevent a harbor from being blown up in Nazi occupied Cherbourg, France. One important thing that sets The Sergeant books apart from other military action stories is that Len Levinson, writing as Gordon Davis, in no way glorifies the war or fighting. The fighting is a necessary evil and the war is an utter atrocity. A highlight for me was the long sequence of Mahoney and his seduction of an army nurse. Rather than the impersonal and sleazy seduction, as found in most action books, it spoke to the desperation and loneliness of the men and women fighting overseas for a cause bigger than themselves. Mahoney looks back with longing at his short time spent with Shirley and what might have been if it wasn’t for the damn war. Sure Mahoney is still kind of an asshole, he’s human and with the failings of many of us, but he’s also loyal and honorable and that goes a long way to make him a compelling character rather than a macho military caricature. Another excellent entry in the series.
The writing has improved and the action is just as fast-paced as the first. The Sarge and his team of Rangers are sent on an impossible mission to support the D-Day offensive - break into an impregnable Nazi fortress and secure Cherbourg Harbor. Furious action on motorcycles, in tanks and trenches. The final battle in the sewers beneath the city will have you heading for a shower.
As I Wrote when writing a review of the first Sergeant adventure (Death Train https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) I Originally read the Sergeant's adventures in the early 80s. This is number two in the series Hell Harbour. It might lack some of the bites of the first novel & it could be argued is the weakest of the eight it still has enough in its pages to entertain those who like their War adventures to have a bit of blood & guts.
The climatic gun battle in a dark sewer is excellent, though the first third of the novel spends a little bit too much time in London before the action really picks up.