Target Arnhem

by John McKay

'A cracking story, which also gives the reader a window into Arnhem and the Airborne forces.' Saul David, author of Sky Warriors

September 1944.

Days after launching Operation Market Garden, General Montgomery’s ambitious plan to end the war by Christmas, a single Dakota aircraft takes to the skies. Inside, Sergeant Sean Harris - a tough, resolute veteran of five years of war - and seven elite paratroopers wait to jump.

Their mission - to rescue Dutch scientist, Gerrit de Jaager, hiding in a Resistance safe house near the Arnhem bridge. In de Jaager’s possession are documents containing the location of a secret Nazi facility producing a new synthetic fuel for the V-2 rockets.

With the sadistic Gestapo officer, Gunther Klein in pursuit, Harris and his men need to locate de Jaager and bring him safely to Allied lines, before the German net closes in around them.

But the tanks of 30 Corps, on their way to relieve the encircled British troops, are nowhere to be seen. For those caught in the fighting, time is quickly running out.

Cut off behind enemy lines, and drawn into one of the fiercest battles of the war, Harris and his men must find a way to not only complete their mission - but survive.

John McKay served in the RAF before pursuing a career in the Fire & Rescue Service. He lives in Wigan.

Praise for John
'Thoroughly researched and brilliantly presented. A terrific story of the Arctic Convoys of World War Two.' Damien Lewis

284 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Alan Bardos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Target Arnhem picks up where Operation Codicil, the first book in John McKay’s The Manner of Men series ended. After surviving D-day and the bloody attritional fighting to breakout of the Normandy beachhead, Sargent Harris and his team of elite pathfinders are ordered to rescue Gerrit de Jaager, a Duch scientist who has vital information about a Nazi secret weapon that could change the course of the war. De Jaager and his young daughter have been trapped in Arnhem by Operation Market Garden, the Allied airborne landing intended to end the war in weeks. Harris has been set up with a near suicidal mission and as Market Garden descends into chaos the chances of his getting de Jaager and his daughter out, in the face of the Gestapo and Waffen SS, becomes near impossible.
        Target Arnhem is a real page turner, McKaysets up the premise of the story perfectly, drawing the reader into a classic war story of daring and resilience. McKay does not shy away from describing the full horror of total war, as the story takes the reader from the torture chambers of the Gestapo to the brutal killing fields of Arnhem. McKay’s narration captures the raw emotion of civilian and soldier alike caught up in some of the heaviest fighting of the war, as they overcome unimaginable adversity in their battle for survival.

[Mark Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific war adventure in which a small group of British soldiers are given the task of finding a Dutch scientist who has escaped from a German military facility with scientific information of vital importance to Britain’s war effort. It is a tough enough task as it is, but made infinitely tougher in that they must extricate the scientist and his young daughter from Arnhem right in the middle of 1944’s massive, and ultimately unsuccessful, Allied airborne invasion of Holland known as Operation Market Garden. A gripping, compelling tale brilliantly told.

[Bernard Acworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another cracking read

The author makes you feel that you are there in the midst of the chaos and action. He spares no details. I couldn’t put it down.