HMS Ulysses

Maclean did serve on a cruiser on the Murmansk Run, although it was later in the war. i read an interview of Maclean done later in his writing career. He said that created a chart or grid of the characters in his novels. The column across the top would have the names of the characters. The column on the side would have the chapters or incidents in the novel. That's handy because in HMS Ulysses a number of the characters die---in fact in the first draft of the novel all of the characters were dead by the end of the book. Well that won't do. He rewrote the ending so that a few of the crew of HMS Ulysses survived. That grid is a handy tool that should be used by a lot of novelists. It's embarassing if a character who exits (leves down, gets blown up , murdered etc) in Chapter 5 reappears unannounced in Chapter 10. In any case HMS Ulysses is a good and enjoyable read.

I've read any number of stories about what it was like for the sailors and seamen escorting those allied convoys carrying war materiel to the Russians during WW II -- but this story really digs into the hearts and feelings of those members of the crew of HMS Ulysses as they faced the despicable weather and the determination of the Germans to prevent them from successfully convoying supplies and war materiel to the hard-beset (and always suspicious) Russians.

Great character development of the hero of the story. I read this book almost fifty years ago. Re-reading 'H.M.S. Ulysses' so many years later proved to me that this war-novel is timeless as it stands the test of time. Needless to say, at sixty-five years old, ¡I still want to be just like CPT Vallery when I grow up!

Literally couldn't put it down. Strongly recommended for mature readers, war is not a game and the consequences of all out naval warfare in the naval convoys of World War II was never an easy trip. My Uncle Ray for 45 years never spoke of the 5 ships torpedoed out from under him in Torpedo Alley in the same area as this book portrays, then the last time he came, for his brother's funeral ( my father also a WWII hero, as all 5 of The Fighting Thompson's were), he spoke to me of the naval terror and exhilaration of being in the Merchant Marine, combining supplies to Russia in the below zero weather, waves crashing over the decks " like sheets of ice, and fighting the enemy in the sky and under it", he told me because I too am a veteran, and like all of my uncles served honorably and returned, as the men of so many ships, planes and land warfare did ..of did not. This novel, while fictional, was written by an experienced naval veteran, it captures the real feelings veterans feel on active duty, it is not something you armchair generals will ever forget...I hope you never have to do it yourself. ( my family portrait is immortalized at the Pacific War Museum in Texas), I served long after they did but my Uncle Ray's words, his fear, his terror but also his Honor and Courage are mirrored in this Book. Read it.