Review of "Operation Basalt : The British Raid on Sark and Hitler's Commando Order" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This slim history focuses on one event during world war II - the British raid on Sark (one of the channel islands occupied by Germany). The author also covers the reasons and results for both sides, including Hitler's infamous Commando Order. Unfortunately, the book is a bit muddled.
The table of contents provides a nice outline for the story, and the chapters are fairly short. Many wander a bit from their target, introducing items from later in the story or repeating items from earlier. It feels as if the chapters were written individually, perhaps out of order. This lends the book a muddled feel. I didn't read it in one sitting, and often I felt like the bookmark had been moved. Likely a good editor would help this quite a bit.
The author has done quite a bit of research, and states at the beginning that while other books covered …
This slim history focuses on one event during world war II - the British raid on Sark (one of the channel islands occupied by Germany). The author also covers the reasons and results for both sides, including Hitler's infamous Commando Order. Unfortunately, the book is a bit muddled.
The table of contents provides a nice outline for the story, and the chapters are fairly short. Many wander a bit from their target, introducing items from later in the story or repeating items from earlier. It feels as if the chapters were written individually, perhaps out of order. This lends the book a muddled feel. I didn't read it in one sitting, and often I felt like the bookmark had been moved. Likely a good editor would help this quite a bit.
The author has done quite a bit of research, and states at the beginning that while other books covered all of the channel islands, none covered Sark or this particular raid very well. He then connects this raid to the Commando Order which was issued just two weeks afterwards, and this case is compelling. There is a small photo section towards the back of the book which is also nice - but the one thing this book needs most is a good map!
The book was released shortly before the 75th anniversary of the raid (October 2017) and was perhaps rushed. An accompanying website has a bit more information, but still no map. 2½ stars.