The Guns of Navaronne by Alistair MacLean

I had read this book over 30 years ago as it was a part of my Alistair MacLean collection. I was always fascinated by the characters in the story and enjoyed reading it many times. After I left home my parents got rid of my collection and I lost touch with all the old ‘friends’. I finally got all these old books again and read these books once more. It was such a joy to meet old friends. In the intervening years I had seen the movie of The Guns of Navaronne on TV almost every year. Since my memory of the original story had dimmed I had only vaguely remembered the changes that are in the film as one generally cannot stay true to the original details of the story.

The team is a bunch of the top professionals in various combat fields sent to silence the big Guns of Navaronne. These guns are on a small Greek Island now under the German control. These guarded the straits which formed a passage for ships and were a thorn in the allied forces side. The British wanted to evacuate a nearby island before the Germans got there and this was not possible while the guns of Navaronne were intact. The journey to the island was fast and furtive. On reaching the island they had to climb the massive cliff for which the team leader Captain Mallory was ably qualified as he was the famous mountaineer from New Zealand. His second in command was a Greek Colonel, a giant, called Andrea who also had a very colourful history and was past master of the art of war. Then there was Corporal Dusty Miller, an American, who was their explosive expert, a Petty Officer Casey Brown, radio man and engineer who knew how to handle boats and lastly Lt. Andy Stevens who was to navigate the boat and also an accomploshed climber but not in the same league as Mallory. They were to have support from 2 locals once they reached Kheros.

This is a typical Alistair MacLean novel with twists and turns that keep you glued to the book. There are tight spots, capture and betrayal that almost seem to defeat the team but they dig deep within their reserves and manage to come out fighting. The movie has a major deviation in that one of the locals aiding the team is a woman. She is the one who betrays them but it comes out that she has been coerced into spying. Also it seems that the movies depend on some romantic angle even in a war film and show that one of the team ends up in love with her!

The Guns have to be silenced but how? They have lost their food and shelter items while climbing the cliff, the fuses and detonators and bomb equipment have been tampered with and rendered useless. Lt. Stevens is in a bad shape after his broken leg starts rotting. The Germans are carrying out house to house search in order to catch them. All I can say is I am so glad to read this book again. The dry humour and understatements are really amusing and bring a smile to my face. There are so many little incidents that make me smile and it was nice to renew their acquaintance. Enjoy your read that is definitely better than the movie, which in its own right is a fantastic film.