Send a Gunboat - World War 2 Naval Fiction (Paperback, Reissue)

A real storm in a Chinese teacup is stirred up when Justin Rolfe, cleared but still smeared by a Court Martial proceeding, is commissioned to the ??- a "poor, flogged out gunboat", and sent to the small island of Santu to evacuate its British residents now threatened by a Chinese Communist invasion. Rolfe, drinking to ease his injuries, has a mixed crew aboard, and once at Santu faces further opposition from the wealthy tea-planter Laker with no desire to leave his island. For higher motives, Felton, the local doctor, resists deserting his native practice with the "empire builders" but he sends his sister Judith away, and Judith gives Rolfe something further to live for. There are many final scenes of devastation and violence: the plantations are fired- by Laker; the Wagtail shelled and pursued by a destroyer; but Rolfe is able to prove his courage and his worthiness, along with that of the obsolescent Wagtail..... There is concentrated tension here, and the handling is firm and fit. (Kirkus Reviews)

HMS Wagtail is a river gunboat, a ship seemingly at the end of her useful life, lying in a Hong Kong dockyard awaiting her last summons to the breakers' yard. Commander Justin Rolfe is also seemingly at the end of his useful naval life, an embittered man, brooding and angry from a court-martial verdict. Then the offshore island of Santu is threatened with invasion from the Chinese mainland. The small British community must be brought out and Commander Rolfe and the Wagtail are ordered to the island. The job is regarded with sullen resentment by his crew, but to Rolfe, and even the ship, it is a job that offers the chance of a reprieve and a restoration of self respect.

General

Imprint:	Arrow Books Ltd
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	February 1980
Authors:	Douglas Reeman
Dimensions:	177 x 111 x 16mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Mass Market
Pages:	256
Edition:	Reissue
ISBN-13:	978-0-09-907060-3
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Historical fiction Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > War fiction > General
LSN:	0-09-907060-X
Barcode:	9780099070603

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