A Review of The Knights Cross Trilogy – A World War Two Adventure Novel by D.N.J.Greaves

Since the death of the military historian and wartime adventure novelist Charles Whiting, in July 2007, there has been a serious decline in World War II fiction, a genre that once graced the bookshelves of every half decent bookshop in the country. You’ll search in vain these days for a Whiting, Kessler, Hassell, or Maclean ( Jack Higgins is still there, just), although, by contrast, the military history shelves groan under the ever increasing weight of ever longer tomes about WWII.

But, like the proverbial bus, having waited a long time for just one new adventure novel about WWII to appear, three come along together in the guise of D.N.J. Greaves’ Knights Cross Trilogy, which adds up to the best part of 900 pages of gritty, strongly written prose, that, in places, reminds me of Len Deighton and Ian Fleming in its attention to detail and in its pace and sheer descriptive verve. But if I had to compare Greaves’ work to just one other writer I’d say that it is on a par with the very best of Leo Kessler.

Leo Kessler was a 1970s invention of Charles Whiting ( a soldier who fought in WWII) who wanted, on the one hand, to give Sven Hassell a run for his money, but on the other, to also try and write about WWII from the German soldiers’ point of view, which is something he did admirably, at the same time make the reader think hard about the politics of war (any war), but also about why soldiers continue to fight, especially – as was the case with German soldiers in 1944-45 – when they continue to lose battles and the larger conflict.

Greaves does this too, but also adds the element of a man ‘forced’ to fight, by his German father, for the Fatherland. This may sound a bit far fetched, but many German Americans, for instance, found themselves, through family pressure, fighting for Hitler instead of Roosevelt. It’s also a good device for a novel because it adds and builds up pressure that, at times, is almost unbearable, until the story telling takes over once more and we just want to know what happens next to our anti-hero Max Simons, who, at times, feels very close to Kessler’s handsome hero Colonel Stuermer, and a character who would have to be played by George Clooney, if and when the movie is made.

To give you some idea of the quality of the writing, the following is taken from Book 2 of the trilogy – London Calling:

” Hauptman Helmut Berger was struggling to keep his plane on course. They were supposed to be heading for the huge Vickers armament factory located in west London, but the Liechtenstein SN-2 radar set was playing up, and it was difficult to navigate over a blacked-out city with only intermittent moonlight for help. The task was not made easier by the attentions of the anti-aircraft defences. Thankfully, the RAF night fighters had called off their efforts, at least for the moment.

” He cursed again. The mission was typical of the misguided direction that afflicted the higher levels of Luftwaffe command, almost all of it instigated by Reichsmarschall Goering himself. It was supposed to be another retaliation raid for the destruction inflicted on the Reich’s cities, the ceaseless bombing of armaments, industries and communications that determined Germany’s ability to make war. But with only eight bombers on take off, and now down to five due to engine problems, what the hell was fat Herman trying to achieve? How could this compare to the thousand bomber raids the British and Americans mounted on the Ruhr and other German industrial areas? It was like trying to put out a raging fire with a water pistol. He almost laughed with frustration.”

Those couple of clearly written paragraphs distill the essence of the technical and the emotional beautifully, and also give a hint at the emotional and professional frustrations of those who, on the German side, still keep on fighting: they know they are lions led by toads.

Desmond Greaves – who sadly died in 2010 – was a general practitioner in Birmingham who, as a Major in the Territorial Army, served in the first Gulf War and therefore new the horrors of warfare and how serving men and women cope with it first hand. It also gave him the gravitas of experience that adds hugely to this wonderful conceived and written trilogy that belongs on the shelves of every student of World War II, or any reader who enjoys a damned good story wonderfully told that will be remembered for years.

The Knights Cross Trilogy – Book 1: Red Tide, Book 2: London Calling, and Book 3: Fall of the Fatherland, is published by Original Writing.