Griffin, Gwyn An Operational Necessity

A searing story, based on a real World War 2 incident in which an allied freighter (the Greek-owned PELEUS) was sunk in the South Atlantic by a German U-boat, with the ship’s survivors then being strafed in the water after taking to their lifeboats. Only one crew member ultimately survived, and his evidence ultimateledy led to a war crimes trial for four of the U-boat’s officers and crew shortly after World War 2 ended. Griffin’s novel opens with the destruction of the fictitious MARÉCHAL OUDINOT (French-owned in the novel, though having an English captain and crewed by a polyglot mixture of nationalities) in the South Atlantic on Jan. 5, 1945, moves on to the increasingly difficult situation endured by her dwindling handful of survivors adrift at sea after the subsequent U-boat strafing and then details the miraculous survival of the ship’s wireless operator off the coast of Brazil. A parallel narrative describes the U-boat and her crew, her mission, the vessel’s dramatic capture by British forces on the Indian Ocean shores of British East Africa and then continues to the post-War trial of her two surviving officers. At its height, Griffin’s narrative rivals that of De Hartog and Montserrat, the two great post-War interpreters of the Battle of the Atlantic. He brings something new to the scene, too, for his psychological profile of the great toll that war takes on man is finely balanced, brilliantly showing both the Allied and German sides of this heartbreaking tale. A must read for anyone interested in this era. Those interested in the incident upon which Griffin’s novel is based can find it documented in Trial of Heinz Eck, August Hoffman, Walter Weisspfennig, Hans Richard Lenz and Wolfgang Schwender (the Peleus Trial), edited by John Cameron (London: W. Hodge Publisher, 1948).