ALEXANDER FULLERTON

NON-COMBATANTS

2005, Time Warner Books (Hard cover book)

It is the summer of 1940 and Andy Holt has signed on as 2nd mate in the SS Barranquilla, sailing in ballast from the Clyde for Nuevitas in Cuba. From there she'll be routed up the US seaboard to Halifax, Nova Scotia, assembly-point for homebound convoys. The homebound ones are the worst - U-boats preferring their victims to be deep-laden, full of cargo. Andy has joined Quilla at the last minute and not with an easy mind. He's just heard from his girlfriend Julia that she's pregnant - two months gone - and in Newcastle in 1940 this means wedding bells. Which in itself is OK - he loves her. Only he'll be away from her now for ten weeks or more, so it will be five months before they can marry. That's if he makes it back, because this is what the U-boat people are calling their Happy Time - easy targets and lots of them, convoys with hardly any escorting warships. There have been heavy losses off Norway and Dunkirk - the vital priority at this time is for destroyers to counter the invasion that seems imminent. At the moment it is odds against any individual ship getting over 'the pond' and back...

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