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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Three terrific novels of the First World War at sea, 16 Feb 2003
This 690-page blockbuster comprises "The Blooding of the Guns", "Sixty Minutes for St George" and "Patrol to the Golden Horn". If you thought the First World War happened too long ago to be of any possible interest, think again! Fullerton's gift for writing, his eye for detail and his meticulous research put his books in a class with CS Forester. Moreover, unlike Forester - who never fulfilled his ambition to join the Navy - Fullerton saw action as a naval officer in submarines. These three are the first of a series of nine novels following the life of Nicholas Everard, who starts out as a wretched, unhappy midshipman in a battleship."The Blooding of the Guns" sees Everard transferred to a destroyer, where his native ability has a chance to shine through. "I suspect you may have been partially misinformed. This officer is neither wholly ignorant nor pathologically insubordinate. Only time will tell us whether or not he's lazy..." Three Everards fight at the battle of Jutland - Nick in his destroyer, his brother David in a cruiser, and his uncle Hugh as captain of the battleship Nile. This triple view gives us an outstanding three-dimensional experience of the greatest naval battle ever fought, which fills in a lot of the blanks in the history books. "Sixty Minutes for St George" is set against the background of the "Dover Patrol" in 1917-18, culminating in the famous assault on Zeebrugge. Once again Nick Everard is climbing the greasy pole of command, now getting some recognition from senior officers as well as the routine discouragement from unimaginative captains. The amazing action scenes are nicely blended with vignettes of life ashore, from the riotous bars of Dover to Mullbergh, the home of Nick's baronet father and abused stepmother. "Patrol to the Golden Horn" has everything a lover of naval novels could wish for - an exciting plot, lots of action, character development, and so much closely-observed detail that you really feel you are breathing the choking, stinking air of that apparently doomed sub. Set in and around the Bosphorus, shortly after the infamous Gallipoli landings, this book revolves around the German battlecruiser Goeben and British attempts to neutralise its threat.
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