The Greatest Enemy [Paperback]

The Greatest Enemy is a gripping saga of the services of an old British frigate who's days of glory are long past. HMS Terrapin is in a Naval limbo, conducting routine, mundane operations in the Far East. Her previous commanding officer has left the ship to return to the United Kingdom, leaving behind a ship's company marking time until the ship is paid off and sold to a newly independent Asian nation. That is until the new skipper arrives and immediately sets about to instill a new pride in the crew, not only for their ship but for themselves. His measures are unorthodox and at times reckless. His officers are concerned for the ship and their careers. But is he right to be pushing this hard in the face of official statements that he just do his job? Reeman examines the issues of command in a time when it wasn't quite war but wasn't quite peace either. The requirements placed on men and ships to maintain this quasi-peace/war status. Reeman wrote his book shortly after the US Navy's incident whereby Lieutenant Commander Marcus Arnheiter was relieved of his command of the USS Vance based on a log kept by his officers which they felt showed he was not up to commanding the ship. Was Reeman's protagonist modeled on Captain Arnheiter and the events of his command? The reader must judge. Reeman's charecter meets a fate much different from Arnheiter's. In all, an exceptional read of a topic and situation far from the headlines of most newspapers until an incident drew it to the brief attention of people sitting at their breakfast tables or watching the evening news. A must for students of the Cold War.

Douglas Reeman's standard character-types -- the valiant junior Royal Navy officer with a personal sadness, the obsessive, driven commanding officer, and the beautiful girl with the shadowy and/or tragic past -- return again. Anyone who's read other Reeman books will find these types immediately recognizable. What makes "The Greatest Enemy" different from any of the other dozen or so Reeman titles I've read is that this one isn't set during World War II. Instead, it's a contemporary story (contemporary to when Reeman wrote it, that is, in 1970). And so whereas the other titles led to the inevitable climactic clash with German or Japanese forces, it's not clear, for most of this novel, who the enemy is ... or indeed, whether an enemy truly exists at all.

Because of the setting, there are fewer instances of combat in this novel than in most of the others -- although the climax, when it comes, makes up for the dearth. In place of the combat, there's a real psychological tension -- mostly surrounding the captain and his state of mind -- that reminded me at times of "The Caine Mutiny." A good part of the book's midsection is taken up by a harrowing description of the ship's voyage through a fierce and destructive typhoon.

As I said, the main characters are very similar to ones you'll find in many other Reeman novels, and so too is the developing romance between Our Hero and The Girl -- who, like so many of Reeman's female characters serves primarily, if not exclusively, as a love interest for Our Hero. And as is also typical in Reeman novels, the ship itself, in this case HMS Terrapin, an ancient frigate due for the scrap yard, is also one of the story's central characters. You may well find yourself attracted to her as much, or more, than any of the humans populating the story.

Although I put off reading this title for a while, for fear of not enjoying a non-World War II plot, I shouldn't have worried. Instead, I think this is one of the best Reeman titles I've read so far. Reeman's ability to weave a good story usually overcomes the stock nature of his characters. If you don't mind sailing with people you'll think you've met before, I predict Reeman fans -- or any fan of the war-at-sea genre -- will get a lot out of this title.

HMS Terrapin is a veteran of World War II and is about to be decommissioned and turned over to the navy of a newly independent asian nation. The crew know it is the end of the line for the ship and are eager to get off of her and back to the real Royal Navy. They are simply marking time until the day arrives when the white ensign is lowered for the last time.

Then along comes a new commanding officer who has other ideas about what the mission of the ship will be. Until she decommissions he is determined that she will be a vital ship of the Royal Navy. He has a new executive officer who has arrived under a cloud due to an incident in his last ship. The new captain is a driven man who wants to use TERRAPIN as a stepping stone in his own career advancement. The new captain orders the ship's crew to get her back into condition for action at a moment's notice. The crew is baffled by the new captain - can't he see that the ship only has a few months left? seems to be in everyone's mind - in the crew's mess as well as the wardroom.

His executive officer is caught in the middle. He tries to keep peace in the wardroom and the rest of the ship. He points out to the captain that several of his actions are potentially leading to trouble but the captain is determined and he is the captain.

A new medical officer joins the ship and some of the questions about the captain's actions are answered. The captain had suffered a nervous breakdown and was given the ship as means of keeping him out of trouble until he could quiety be retired but this wasn't how the captain saw the assingment.

He has mutinous officers as well as some who come to respect him if not his ideas. He demands that the supply officer stand bridge watches and drive the ship and he becomes a competent officer of the watch as time progresses.

The climax is one that could be seen developing through the book - at least a clash with another ship at some point, and it finally happens. It leads to the death of the captain and something of a eulogy for him at the court of inquiry into what happened.

This was written at at time when the US was heavily involved in Vietnam and the Royal Navy was beginning the final winding down of its major presence in Asia. A US naval officer had been removed from his command (which was an old WWII veteran ship soon to be disposed of) after reports from his officers inicated his was not following proper rules and regulations in the running of the ship and taking questionable actions in the pursuit of the enemy off the coast of Vietnam.

Now (2009) it is a good time to re-read this book in light of expansion of regional navies - India, China, Japan and Korea, to name a few. The activities of these navies as they assume more of a regional influence is a good counter-point to the events that Reeman is writing about in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

Reeman's book looks at the incident using the Royal Navy. He has an excellent group of charecters in his book and at the end of it, you might have a more sympathetic understanding of the captain. I felt is was a fine book and I've read it on numerous occassions since the first time I saw it.