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Product Description
Daily Mirror
'One of the most decisive actions in World War II was fought by fourteen out-of-conditions middle-aged men sailing in a steam barge...'
New York Times Book Review
'A gem of World War II history.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an enjoyable book about an operation to scupper a German boat in Goa harbour in 1943. My grandfather was in the attack party, recruited as their explosives expert. Here is his description of the events:
"While at the Khadakvasla camp I was asked to join a proposed expedition to the then neutral port of Goa on the West Coast of India. The scheme had been hatched by two senior officers of S.O.E. to capture an almost new German liner that had been sheltering in Goa harbour since 1939, and the plan was for a party of irregulars from Calcutta with one or two S.O.E. officers to carry out the mission. The irregulars were, if my memory serves me right, Calcutta Scottish a sort of Territorial Army Unit. They were mostly in the Jute industry. So we sailed in a dredger from Cochin as I remember. We practised chasing around in the dark and on the night of our attack we slung nets on grappling irons on to the deck of the German ship and climbed up them. I was loaded with an explosive charge to slap on to a steel door which we knew would be sealed against us. We had hardly got on board when there was a muffled bang in the depths of the ship; one of the crew had scuttled it and down we went until we settled on the bottom of the harbour. When the retreat or return to our ship was sounded we found that we once more had to climb up the netting as our boat was standing higher in the water than the German ship.
"So back I went to Khadakvasla after what had seemed to me to have been a fiasco, although a different slant was put on to the affair by a book and then a film featuring Gregory Peck and David Niven and several others. As far as I can remember we came away with two German sailors who later helped our instructors by making model German aircraft etc."
Not quite as glamorous as the book (or the later film "The Sea Wolves") make out, but it's a good story nonetheless.
"While at the Khadakvasla camp I was asked to join a proposed expedition to the then neutral port of Goa on the West Coast of India. The scheme had been hatched by two senior officers of S.O.E. to capture an almost new German liner that had been sheltering in Goa harbour since 1939, and the plan was for a party of irregulars from Calcutta with one or two S.O.E. officers to carry out the mission. The irregulars were, if my memory serves me right, Calcutta Scottish a sort of Territorial Army Unit. They were mostly in the Jute industry. So we sailed in a dredger from Cochin as I remember. We practised chasing around in the dark and on the night of our attack we slung nets on grappling irons on to the deck of the German ship and climbed up them. I was loaded with an explosive charge to slap on to a steel door which we knew would be sealed against us. We had hardly got on board when there was a muffled bang in the depths of the ship; one of the crew had scuttled it and down we went until we settled on the bottom of the harbour. When the retreat or return to our ship was sounded we found that we once more had to climb up the netting as our boat was standing higher in the water than the German ship.
"So back I went to Khadakvasla after what had seemed to me to have been a fiasco, although a different slant was put on to the affair by a book and then a film featuring Gregory Peck and David Niven and several others. As far as I can remember we came away with two German sailors who later helped our instructors by making model German aircraft etc."
Not quite as glamorous as the book (or the later film "The Sea Wolves") make out, but it's a good story nonetheless.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Recommended. This is a true story which is more improbable than fiction. The book is an account of an attack on 9 March 1943 on a German merchant ship interned at Portuguese Goa on the west coast of India. The ship, the Erhenfels, housed a covert radio used to transmit information on merchant shipping to waiting U-Boats in the Indian Ocean. The friendly neutrality of Portugal was important to the Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic so an open attack on Goa was not an option. To provide plausible denial the Special Operations Executive (SOE) organized a covert attack by twenty middle aged army reservists from the Calcutta Light Horse and the Calcutta Scottish. The attack also forestalled the risk that the Erhenfels would escape to Singapore and be armed as a disguised raider. The book was the basis for the 1980 film The Sea Wolves with Gregory Peck, David Niven and Roger Moore.
The book is well written and a good read. It gives a good feel for the men recruited from the upper ranks of the raj in Calcutta for the mission. The author served in India and Burma in WW2 and became a journalist postwar. The foreword is by Earl Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. The final section details the post war fates of some of the participants. The book draws on the recollections of men from both sides of the conflict. There is a long list of contributors and records consulted but no secondary sources are cited. The authoritative history of the U-Boat arm, Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942-45 (Volume 2): The Hunted, 1942-45 Vol 2 by Clay Blair corroborates an unususally successful pattern of sinkings by Wolfgang Luth in the Type IX U-Cruiser U-181 in the Indian Ocean at this time but does not mention the role of the intelligence supplied by from the Erhenfels' radio. Luth was personally decorated by Hitler with the Swords and Diamonds to his Knight's Cross on his return to Germany.
The book is well written and a good read. It gives a good feel for the men recruited from the upper ranks of the raj in Calcutta for the mission. The author served in India and Burma in WW2 and became a journalist postwar. The foreword is by Earl Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. The final section details the post war fates of some of the participants. The book draws on the recollections of men from both sides of the conflict. There is a long list of contributors and records consulted but no secondary sources are cited. The authoritative history of the U-Boat arm, Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942-45 (Volume 2): The Hunted, 1942-45 Vol 2 by Clay Blair corroborates an unususally successful pattern of sinkings by Wolfgang Luth in the Type IX U-Cruiser U-181 in the Indian Ocean at this time but does not mention the role of the intelligence supplied by from the Erhenfels' radio. Luth was personally decorated by Hitler with the Swords and Diamonds to his Knight's Cross on his return to Germany.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you love the British, if you are interested in commando raids from WW2, then you just must not miss this one.
Fun and interesting!
Fun and interesting!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not quite the whole story?
I was fascinated to read the review account by O G Hunter's grandfather, as my father was also a small part of this jolly jape, albeit while 'back at the ranch' at SOE base in... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Iain Webster
So much better than the film!
I have seen the film many times and was prepared to think that this would be similar. But it is so much better. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Retroman
Much better than the film!
I read this book after watching the 1981 film "The Sea Wolves". While the film is ok - the book is an even better read. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2007 by "Smith" Reader
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