The Long Watch

The WW2 Commando Missions #4

by Alan White

The British patrol's enter a well-guarded French prison, find an old professor, get from him secret chemical knowledge that can help secure victory for the allies. Easier said than done when the countryside is crawling with German soldiers, when the citizens they depend on may be collaborators, when the leader is a private and one of the men he commands is a major and there's no love lost between them. This story opens as the patrol spills out of a farmhouse under fire, and the action and suspense build from to preventing the disloyalty of villagers, to securing a cemetery hide-out in direct sight of the Germans, to scaling the prison walls between guard's rounds, to the final clever act of bravado that gains access to the prison...

159 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

About the author

Alan White is an English novelist and journalist. He used his experiences as a Second World War commando leader in his writings. He also wrote using the names "Alec Haig", "James Fraser" and "Alec Whitney". His novel The Long Day's Dying was made into a 1968 film directed by Peter Collinson. White wrote mysteries, as well as war and adventure novels.

Reviews

[Iain Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of his best. His stories are always compelling, partly because you know that he knows whereof he writes. Not many WW2 commandoes came back home and sat down to write novels, so it isn't a crowded field when it comes to authenticity. The writing itself is workmanlike, the characters believable, the moral conundrums realistic, but the real fascination is with the trade craft and the way the inner mind seconds guesses itself in war when you are along in enemy territory. Worth reading for that alone. Sadly, as with all his books that I have read, the ending is a let down.