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Product Description
Product Description
'You wanted to see some action - well you're going to get it now. You're going to get it now all right'. It's Friday 24th May, 1940 Private Johnny Hawke, aged sixteen, awakens to artillery fire. Hours later, Stukas scream down from the sky. Messerschmit fighters roar towards his regiment. Trucks burst into flames. Now men and mules lay dead and dying, severed limbs twisted grotesquely as blood soaks the cobbled streets. Young Private Hawke just wants to do his duty and serve his country. But as he - and his fellow soldiers - prepare to stop the German advance, there's only one question on everyone's lips. How will they survive?
About the Author
James Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and studied history at Durham University. He is the bestselling author of numerous historical non-fiction titles and the Jack Tanner fiction series, and recently presented Battle of Britain: The Real Story on BBC2. A member of the British Commission for Military History, his many interviews with veterans of the Second World War are available at the Imperial War Museum and are also archived at www.secondworldwarforum.com. Duty Calls: Dunkirk is his first novel for younger readers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent YA WWII fiction, Sep 20 2011
By John Middleton - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Duty Calls: Dunkirk (Paperback)
James Holland is a historian and writer: he's written some historical WWII fiction before - most notably his Jack Tanner series - but this is his first novel aimed at a YA market. To an extent, the retreat to Dunkirk has been fertile ground for Holland: he's written on it as a large part of his Battle of Britain, a Jack Tanner novel (Darkest Hour), and now this, with a name a little bit like a FPS and crosshairs on the cover.The protagonist here - not quite a hero, not yet - is a 16 year old Johnny Hawke, fighting for the BEF in the defence of Cassel and the retreat to Dunkirk. Its well told horrors of war stuff: you can't say things are glamourised and sanitised, and Holland is writing historically accurate fiction here, for all young Hawke (and his mentor, Sgt Spears) find themselves in the thick of the action and always make it through. But characters - even friends - die or are captured, and there is always some doubt about who will make it and who wont.
I'm not a 13 year old boy anymore, but if I was I would really love the book. Even as a man more or less grown, I can say it's a fast fun read. Having read Holland's fiction before, about the only concession to YA I can see is that Hawke and Spears don't smoke. Its not dumbed down in any way and the vocabulary on show is wide and impressive. If you want to get a young (or even not so young) boy reading, this is probably a pretty good way to go.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read which has me awaiting the next release, July 1 2011
By xsquid "Bob" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
Overall a very good book. The previous review mentions this is similar to the Jack Tanner series which has me keeping an eye out for it. Basically this is primarily from the point of view of a young soldier who lied about his age to get into his fathers regiment and emulate his hero father (WWI) and friend. His story places him in the days right before the evacuation of Dunkirk as part of a holding force left to slow down the German advance. The story does jump from character to character and point of view on occasion but I believe this provided additional perspective for the reader and enhanced the storyline, especially if you consider this POV was local to the situation of this particular unit. There was only a limited attempt to keep the reader appraised of what was occurring outside of their immediate situation, at a strategic level, we learn events as the characters do. I liked the point of view of young Johnny Hawke and how he is forced to .... "grow up" and face the realities of war and how it wears down and wastes men. His early reactions to his first maimed body, the first time he is forced to kill and how he continues to believe he must prove himself make for an interesting character. The author does a good job providing some suspense when he introduces the history of young Johnny and his platoon Sergeant and the reasons for their interaction.The only reason I give this 4 stars vs. 5 is the authors need to have Johnny involved in several different situations to help his character evolve. This is not a bad thing but there were quite a few of these events. I have to give credit to Mr. Holland though, he did not give into the temptation to make Johnny some kind of superhero, that is left to Sgt. Spears who in the end proves to be more believable than I originally gave him credit for. A good point for this book was the author's ability to flesh out characters and then teach us the chance of war and killing them off. Periphery characters have depth of their own, actually perhaps more than Johnny does initially, but then he grows as the novel progresses.
I've always enjoyed reading the British perspective of the war, something available to me living in Scotland in the '70's; unfortunately, this genre has been out of reach for me until now and therefore I eagerly await the chance to read more about Johnny and hopefully Jack Tanner if comes available.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Darkest Hour, Jun 21 2011
By D. Neville - Published on Amazon.com
A good account of the bravery of British soldiers during the later part of the Battle of Framce. Very similar to the Jack Tanner series by James Holland which is not yet available to US based Kindle users.
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