In a nutshell this is Sharpe (only it’s Sergeant Jack Tanner) for the Second World War, complete with evil nemesis in the shape of a company Sergeant Major (like Hawskwill). It vividly shows the haphazard nature of the battles leading to the Dunkirk embarkation and it is so much better than the first, The Odin Mission.
May 1940. Sergeant Jack Tanner has been posted to a training company on the south-east coast of England where the mysterious deaths of two Polish refugees lead him to believe there has been foul play. As the Germans launch their Blitzkrieg in Europe, the entire company are sent to join the battle to stop Hitler's drive across the Low Countries. Pitted against the die-hard Nazis of the SS 'Death's Head' Division and the great panzer commander, General Rommel himself, it is left to Tanner to get his men back to Allied lines. But if they are to have any hope of surviving the mayhem of Dunkirk, Tanner must first deal with an enemy far more deadly than the Germans...
James Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and studied history at Durham University. He has worked for several London publishing houses and has also written for a number of national newspapers and magazines. He is also the author of a work of history, Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege, 1940-43, and two previous novels. Married with a son, he lives near Salisbury.
