Author:Nicholas Monsarrat
Based on the author's own vivid experiences, The Cruel Sea is the nail-biting story of the crew of HMS Compass Rose, a corvette assigned to protect convoys in World War Two.
Darting back and forth across the icy North Atlantic, Compass Rose played a deadly cat and mouse game with packs of German U-boats lying in wait beneath the ocean waves.
Packed with tension and vivid descriptions of agonizing U-boat hunts, this tale of the most bitter and chilling campaign of the war tells of ordinary, heroic men who had to face a brutal menace which would strike without warning from the deep . . .
A story that grips the reader with its quiet veracity, its truth to character, its understanding of the young man of the R.A.F and the nature of their job, of the so much owing so many to so few. The story has pace and excitement, unforced sentiment and wholly unaffected gaiety...Alive, humourous and finely restrained in feeling throughout...fascinating descriptions of Service operations...thrilling and eloquent
—— Times Literary SupplementA admirably good story, full of drama and good humour
—— Evening StandardA good simple story...genuinely moving
—— New StatesmanDirect, simple, wholly free from highfalutin nonsense and entirely charming
—— Daily MailExciting reading of war on land and in the air
—— kirkus reviews