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Take or Destroy: The WWII Collection
The fate of a continent rests on one devastating battle...The Eighth Army, gathering its strength in the Nile delta, was preparing for a major assault against the combined forces of Rommel's Afrika Korps.
One of the places the Korps occupied was the little port of Qaba, two hundred miles to the west of Cairo. British Lieutenant-Colonel George Hockold saw great potential in Qaba, planning an offensive there to both distract the enemy and rob them of essential fuel supplies.
This was the start of what came to be known as 'Operation Cut-Price', carried out by perhaps the oddest assortment of makeshift commandos ever brought together. Their objective was quite to take or destroy.
An intensely exciting war thriller observed with shrewdness, humour and compassion, perfect for fans of Alistair MacLean, Jack Higgins and David McDine.
One of the places the Korps occupied was the little port of Qaba, two hundred miles to the west of Cairo. British Lieutenant-Colonel George Hockold saw great potential in Qaba, planning an offensive there to both distract the enemy and rob them of essential fuel supplies.
This was the start of what came to be known as 'Operation Cut-Price', carried out by perhaps the oddest assortment of makeshift commandos ever brought together. Their objective was quite to take or destroy.
An intensely exciting war thriller observed with shrewdness, humour and compassion, perfect for fans of Alistair MacLean, Jack Higgins and David McDine.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 6, 2020
118 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 8, 2020
An interesting book
Another angle on the reversal of fortunes brought about by Monty and the Allied leadership. Some good angles and quite a lot of needless page filling, this I found less than riveting.
Another angle on the reversal of fortunes brought about by Monty and the Allied leadership. Some good angles and quite a lot of needless page filling, this I found less than riveting.
October 24, 2022
This is one of those Max Hennessy books which reads like a movie script, something like The Guns of Navarone. Spoilers ahead.
The setting is North Africa and the 8th Army is about to kick Afrika Korp's butt. But there is a village port (Qaba) where 4 Italian ships have been anchored. 3 of the ships contain 30 tons of petrol and the other ship contains a lot of ammo and replacement items for the Deutsch Afrika Korps. The DAK runs on petrol and no petrol means no armor or movement. Lt. Col. Hockold's job is to destroy those 4 ships with a raid from the sea.
To do that, he's given all the men Cairo can scrape together. He ends up with about 530 men and calls the group 97 Commando. The men are from different units: convalescents, bad boys, lost men, Americans, RAF, etc. Typical fodder from 70's war movies. They are given training in the desert. To get there, they plan to use a captured Italian freighter. They also have some Royal Navy launches and motor boats, even a landing craft with 2 Honey tanks.
The set up takes up about 60% of the book, from intro to gathering the men to training. In the middle of that, there's a long stretch where some of the men are given a short "funny" or "uplifting" bio. I fast read through most of that. Like another of Hennessy's books, many of these men are given 5 page bios and then killed with one sentence in action so I didn't want to waste any time on them. I think it's much more effective to write about them as they appear or as they do stuff rather than concentrate them in one section. Even better, don't give 5 page bios to people who get killed in one sentence. We don't need to know their family history to give them depth, you can give them depth as you write about them, that's just mediocre writing.
The action part was well written as always. Part of the story was also written from the German (and Italian) defender's POV. And just like 70's movies, there's a small twist where the Germans were given a lot of extra defensive power only for most of it to be taken away before the Brits arrive.
Overall, I think the book would have been a lot better if it was shorter. Remove a lot of the bio and concentrate on a few main characters. Spend time on the people who matter. Just imagine if it was a movie script, the script writer or director would chop up most of the book so that it would flow better and have no slow boring parts.
The setting is North Africa and the 8th Army is about to kick Afrika Korp's butt. But there is a village port (Qaba) where 4 Italian ships have been anchored. 3 of the ships contain 30 tons of petrol and the other ship contains a lot of ammo and replacement items for the Deutsch Afrika Korps. The DAK runs on petrol and no petrol means no armor or movement. Lt. Col. Hockold's job is to destroy those 4 ships with a raid from the sea.
To do that, he's given all the men Cairo can scrape together. He ends up with about 530 men and calls the group 97 Commando. The men are from different units: convalescents, bad boys, lost men, Americans, RAF, etc. Typical fodder from 70's war movies. They are given training in the desert. To get there, they plan to use a captured Italian freighter. They also have some Royal Navy launches and motor boats, even a landing craft with 2 Honey tanks.
The set up takes up about 60% of the book, from intro to gathering the men to training. In the middle of that, there's a long stretch where some of the men are given a short "funny" or "uplifting" bio. I fast read through most of that. Like another of Hennessy's books, many of these men are given 5 page bios and then killed with one sentence in action so I didn't want to waste any time on them. I think it's much more effective to write about them as they appear or as they do stuff rather than concentrate them in one section. Even better, don't give 5 page bios to people who get killed in one sentence. We don't need to know their family history to give them depth, you can give them depth as you write about them, that's just mediocre writing.
The action part was well written as always. Part of the story was also written from the German (and Italian) defender's POV. And just like 70's movies, there's a small twist where the Germans were given a lot of extra defensive power only for most of it to be taken away before the Brits arrive.
Overall, I think the book would have been a lot better if it was shorter. Remove a lot of the bio and concentrate on a few main characters. Spend time on the people who matter. Just imagine if it was a movie script, the script writer or director would chop up most of the book so that it would flow better and have no slow boring parts.
March 14, 2020
African attack
5 stars because the story is worth it, told by a master story teller who takes the reader into the heart of the action as well as into the minds of the protagonists.
5 stars because the story is worth it, told by a master story teller who takes the reader into the heart of the action as well as into the minds of the protagonists.
September 20, 2020
Excellent book
Good read no frills just tells of a raid from the conception through the training to the landing and destruction of the target
Good read no frills just tells of a raid from the conception through the training to the landing and destruction of the target
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews