"A nautical war buffs feast...[McCutchan] keeps an authoritative hand on the wheel and his descriptions of battles at sea ring with laconic truth." — The New York Times Book Review
World War Two. North Africa.
When Lieutenant Donald Cameron joined the corvette Oleander at Freetown he imagined they would be doing routine convoy duty.
But Oleander’s task is to take part in the seaborne invasion of North Africa, supporting Montgomery in his pursuit of the African Korps, and to join the immensely complicated maneuvers of Operation Torch.
Small and outdated, Oleander nonetheless has a vital part to play in the Torch strategy, involving a huge number of Allied warships spread throughout the Mediterranean.
Having narrowly escaped the heavy screen of German U-boats off the coast of Gibraltar, the Oleander receives new instructions to contact a Free French admiral who has information that could jeopardize the success of both the land and sea forces in Operation Torch.
A secret dump, thought to be a germ warfare depot, has been discovered in a small fishing village with canisters of anthrax ready for deployment in case of German retreat.
Cameron is one of the volunteers sent ashore near Mers-el-Kabir to capture the dump, but his party is totally unprepared for the dangers that they face.
Landmines, machine-gun fire and the German army’s determination to release the anthrax ensure that Cameron and his team face a near-impossible mission.
The pressure is on Cameron: success or failure depends on his courage and cunning alone.
Ship of Fate is the latest action-packed naval thriller from Philip McCutchan.
Praise for Philip McCutchan
"A nautical war buffs feast...[McCutchan] keeps an authoritative hand on the wheel and his descriptions of battles at sea ring with laconic truth." — The New York Times Book Review
"His character conflicts are well organised." — Daily Telegraph
"A most exciting successor to his first novel — and it is just as rugged." — The Times , Hamilton, New Zealand
Philip McCutchan grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest of his, resulting in several fiction books about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years. He served throughout WW II in a variety of ships, including the cruiser Vindictive, the ocean boarding vessel Largs, and the escort carrier Ravager, ending the war as a lieutenant, RNVR. He is author of over 200 books including the Commander Shaw, Simon Shard, Halfhyde, Donald Cameron, John Mason Kemp series.
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