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Take Or Destroy
Lieutenant-Colonel George Hockold must destroy Rommel’s vast fuel reserves stored at the port of Qaba if the Eighth Army is to succeed in the Alamein offensive. Time is desperately running out, resources are scant, and the commando unit Hockold must lead is a rag-tag band of misfits scraped from the dregs of the British Army. They must attack Qaba. The orders? Take or destroy.
- GenresFiction
286 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
16 people want to read
About the author
John Harris
66 books21 followersJohn^^Harris
Pseudonyms: Max Hennessy; Mark Hebden
Image is a self caricature from the late 1970s.
From Wikipedia:
John Harris was a British author. He published a series of crime novels featuring the character Inspector Pel, and war books. He wrote with his own name, and also with the pseudonym of Mark Hebden. His 1953 novel The Sea Shall Not Have Them was the basis for a feature film of the same name in 1954. He was the father of Juliet Harris, who published more Inspector Pel books under the name of Juliet Hebden.
Pseudonyms: Max Hennessy; Mark Hebden
Image is a self caricature from the late 1970s.
From Wikipedia:
John Harris was a British author. He published a series of crime novels featuring the character Inspector Pel, and war books. He wrote with his own name, and also with the pseudonym of Mark Hebden. His 1953 novel The Sea Shall Not Have Them was the basis for a feature film of the same name in 1954. He was the father of Juliet Harris, who published more Inspector Pel books under the name of Juliet Hebden.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 8, 2025
This book was in 2 parts, the Plan and the Raid. The first part was too long and it was therefore slow. The second part was a cracker, and kept me engrossed until midnight! I don't know if it was based on fact or just fictional, but it was an amazing mission to end the desert war in North Africa in the second World War.
September 29, 2019
I have always enjoyed John Harris books, and this is no exception. The human interest juxtaposed against the reality of war drives you to continue reading to find out what happens to the main characters. And as always there is a twist or two to keep you guessing where the story is going.
June 17, 2009
John Harris' historical fiction is particularly interesting. This tale of a commando raid parallel to the Tobruk campaign was quite fascinating. Where most military fiction is primarily concerned with setting up the action, Harris walks us through the preparation for the raid and the training regime for the raid with the precision of a well-written police procedural.
A side consequence of using this procedural approach is that it necessitated a technique that I usually don't care for, that of skipping back and forth between characters at different locations with different perspectives. In this case, the technique was absolutely necessary in order to give the sense of circumstances developing in parallel.
The books doesn't gloss over the logistics of procurement, the difficulties of building an impromptu obstacle course for training in the field, or the jealousies of each branch of service toward each other. Yet, all of the elements in the book (including the service elements) eventually pull together for this amazing action.
Of course, this is not the kind of military fiction that leaves everyone feeling good and longing for glory. It is gritty and realistic. You really aren't sure who is going to survive until the last chapter because a lot of characters the reader has grown to care about end up killed in the actual account of the raid.
It's very clear that Harris doesn't intend to write his military novels as a series of books. His protagonists aren't bigger than life. They are ordinary soldiers in extraordinary circumstances. And, Harris doesn't confine himself to any particular theater of war. The first I read was about Eastern Europe at the close of World War I and this one is about the North African campaign during World War II.
I can definitely say that it is the best novel about WWII that I've read since Catch-22. And, of course, Catch-22 was more parody than historical fiction (I hope!).
A side consequence of using this procedural approach is that it necessitated a technique that I usually don't care for, that of skipping back and forth between characters at different locations with different perspectives. In this case, the technique was absolutely necessary in order to give the sense of circumstances developing in parallel.
The books doesn't gloss over the logistics of procurement, the difficulties of building an impromptu obstacle course for training in the field, or the jealousies of each branch of service toward each other. Yet, all of the elements in the book (including the service elements) eventually pull together for this amazing action.
Of course, this is not the kind of military fiction that leaves everyone feeling good and longing for glory. It is gritty and realistic. You really aren't sure who is going to survive until the last chapter because a lot of characters the reader has grown to care about end up killed in the actual account of the raid.
It's very clear that Harris doesn't intend to write his military novels as a series of books. His protagonists aren't bigger than life. They are ordinary soldiers in extraordinary circumstances. And, Harris doesn't confine himself to any particular theater of war. The first I read was about Eastern Europe at the close of World War I and this one is about the North African campaign during World War II.
I can definitely say that it is the best novel about WWII that I've read since Catch-22. And, of course, Catch-22 was more parody than historical fiction (I hope!).
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews