The Iron Pirate

Rating:
Summary: 3 tattered swastikas for a weaker than usual effort
Review: Douglas Reeman is the most prolific novelist of those who have written about WWII at sea. Perhaps it's not surprising that he should turn his hand at writing a novel set in the German Navy. Reeman has demonstrated a respect for the German sailors and their professionalism, but definitely not their cause, in other novels. In The Iron Pirate he further demonstrates that respect by setting the action on a German heavy cruiser after D-Day in 1944. The intrepid crew must break out of the Baltic and into the Atlantic to disrupt the vast flow of men and material heading to Western Europe. Can the crew do it? Of course not; we all know how the war ended. The biggest questions are; how much damage will they do before they are sunk and who will survive the final confrontation?

Unlike other Reeman novels, The Iron Pirate really is far-fetched. It was too much of a stretch for me to supply a willing suspension of disbelief that a German cruiser could break out into the Atlantic in 1944 and not be caught and sunk immediately. After all, this was a time when a U-boat sticking its periscope above water during the day often brought immediate attack from the air.

Reeman also places a love interest for the captain on board in the person of a female Luftwaffe pilot. I suppose if one can believe the break out, then one can believe this. The cruise is further complicated by the presence of an admiral on board and a secret cargo. The story has some echoes of the Bismarck and Jervis Bay episodes and has Reeman's typically well written action scenes.

Ultimately, The Iron Pirate is just too much of stretch. The formula is the same; strong captain, some tension between the captain and first officer, much tension between the captain and his superior, a woman to give the captain a reason to carry on, and a deadly mission. The writing is no worse than his other efforts and he build suspense steadily until the climax but it's his weak premise that hurts this one.