73 North: The Battle of the Barents Sea

by Dudley Pope

Book Overview

The events and decisions that culminated in the Battle of the Barents Sea-- what many consider to be the most important naval engagement of World War II's European theatre-- in which eight of the German navy's most powerful ships failed to sink a Russian convoy guarded by only four small British destroyers, are brought to life by the author in this tale of men struggling to carry out their orders in the face of overwhelming obstacles.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870216600
• ISBN13: 9780870216602
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

very descriptive

I bought this as a gift for my father, his father was in the merchant navy and part of the arctic convoys. He said he couldn't put it down but also he didn't want it to end.

A cold day in hell.

A reissue of a book written in 1957 about what now seems an obscure and indecisive clash in the winter sea off Norway at the begining of 1943 prompts the question why ? The reason can only be to remember the courage and endurance of the men involved and their devotion to duty. Dudley Pope pulled no punches in describing the terrible physical hardships of duty on board the warships and merchant vessels of the day in such conditions. He is also very frank in talking of the underlying fear that stuggled in the heart of every man with his conception of himself. Yet, there was one difference between the two sides, as Pope makes clear. Every British warship officer and seaman knew their duty very clearly, to defend the convoy JW51B at whatever cost. This meant taking a slowly sinking destroyer Achates, crowded with dead and wounded, commanded by a very junior officer,to the proper screening position no matter what. This meant the fleet destroyer screen commander, a position rotating to whoever was still unwounded with an intact ship, constantly interposing his small sqadron between the convoy and the german heavy cruiser Hipper. However the minds of the Germans, most especially their commanders werer not so well concentrated on an aim. Was it to destroy the convoy or to preserve their fleet in being ? Their skills deteriorated by long stays in harbor and their confidence undermined by equivocal orders from Hitler and the Naval High Command the German flag officer and cruiser captains put in an inglorious performance. Pope invokes great descriptive powers in depicting the effects of exceedingly poor visibility in the few hours of half light available. The radar available was of great value and used skillfully by both sides but by no means gave the God's eye view we would now assume to be the case. A mixture of boldness and caution was required and the British commanders found the right balance and the German commanders did not. The most powerful effect of the book is the way Pope used inteviews with the surviving British particpants to create a powerful testimony to the skill and resolution of the Royal Navy in 1943. Yet he does not ignore the human cost on the other side. He says the crew of the Freidrich Eckholdt " must have had a dreadful struggle" Indeed so, as their ship was last seen by human eyes on fire from stem to stern after dozens of 6 inch shell hits and not one man survived to tell the story of their frightful end, finally consumed by fire or water. The afteraction consideration of the Furhrer decision to close down the German surface fleet after this action appears from the hindsight of sixty years to be of little consequence. What is of consequence is the continued testimony that men can bring themselves to the point of sacrificial bravery. Every ship of convoy JW51B made it safely to port. Each man on each one of those ships owed his life to the ability of the escort forces to bear every burden, pay every price. That is what seem