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Book 8: The Good Shepherd, by C.S. Forester

Date finished: 3/1



In The Good Shepherd, C.S. Forester departs from the age-of-sail Hornblower genre that made him famous to focus on an American naval officer during World War II. 

After a somewhat disappointing career, Commander George Krause, USN, is at last given the command he has long sought when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor creates an increased demand for destroyer captains. He had not perished at Pearl Harbor with his colleagues because he had requested Atlantic assignments to be as far away from his ex-wife as possible, her infidelity and abandonment still too painful to risk running across acquaintances or inadvertently hearing news of her. 

Assigned to Atlantic convoy escort duty, Krause commands not only his ship, USS Keeling, a destroyer, but also the other escorts assigned to protect a thirty-seven-ship convoy carrying much-needed supplies to the European Allies during WWII. 

The story takes place in the forty-eight hours when the convoy is most vulnerable to German U-boat attacks as it crosses the ocean gap where the ships are beyond air coverage and must rely entirely upon the few escorts to fend off and destroy the relentless enemy submarines. The tension and fatigue are palpable as Krause makes the mental calculations needed to place his escorts in the best positions to carry out their harrowing missions, all while battling "the howling night" of the freezing, heaving North Atlantic. It is indeed "a tiring game of death, but never tedious, with every moment tense."

Interspersed with his mental game of cat-and-mouse against the German U-boats, the trigonometry, the 20 years of experience, and the care and command of his crew are quite a few Bible verses that come to Cdr. Kraus's mind just as he needs them. This is admirable as he wrestles with decisions like going back to rescue out of the frigid water the crew members of an attacked ship, which would leave other ships in his convoy vulnerable to the same fate.

There is a lot of dialog involving orders, bearings, headings, etc., which are repeated back to the commander by crew members. Not being a sea-going gal, I didn't understand most of it. But it gave an authenticity and immediacy to the flow of the story nevertheless.

I believe the title describes both Cdr. Kraus -- whose decisions, even when he's fatigued, aching, hungry, and bone-chillingly cold, protect and restore his charges -- and God, who gets him through the most taxing two days of his career with minimal losses. He finishes with honor and 

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