Drake’s War: A Tennyson Drake WWII Thriller
Set in May 1940, during the first five days when WW2 began in earnest, as opposed to the ‘phoney war’, Drake’s War follows the adventures of its eponymous hero Tennyson Drake as he desperately tries to track down a German spy. A member of the British Expeditionary Force, Drake finds himself in Belgium as the German Army begins its headlong push through that country to invade France before the Allies, still believing in the impregnability of the Maginot Line, have any sense of what’s coming for them.
This is a period of WW2 not often explored, and the detail with which the author covers it is absolutely fascinating and highly informative: that the French still used cavalry; the effectiveness of French tanks versus German panzers; the shadow WW1 casts over those veterans now fighting in WW2; how the French artillery was superior; and the ferocity of the fighting, all well described and insightful.
Drake, along with his sidekick, Sergeant MacTaggart (complete with kilt), chase the spy, who is feeding information about French troop movements to the Germans whilst also running a campaign of misinformation to the French forces, through a series of battles which are described in electrifying detail. Drake and MacTaggart engage in the chase over the five-day period without sleep and barely eating, and it was here that this reader’s credibility was stretched at times, especially as they still have the strength to survive several sessions of hand-to-hand combat as well as dodging many bullets. All of this was exciting at the beginning, but by the time the spy had evaded them yet again, it became a tad repetitive.
Nevertheless, this was a riveting read which shone a light on a remarkable period of WW2, and I look forward to the next installment.
