Click here to edit.
The fourteen books cover the exploits of a fictional special operations group and, so far, cover the period from the outbreak of the Second World War until 1943.
Codenamed ‘Orca’, after the killer whale, Commodore Barr, its founder liked to think that it had been forged in the heat of the battle for Norway and tempered in its icy seas to become the Royal Navy’s toughest and most versatile unit.
Barr, a brilliant but unconventional Naval officer, who some thought more fitted to teaching antisubmarine warfare then leading men, proved an inspired choice to lead such a group. ‘Orca’ grows to become a clandestine collection of captured enemy warships backed up by an entire escort group of destroyers.
Originally set up to persecute Churchill’s plan to harass the coastline of occupied Europe using what the great man called ‘butcher and bolt tactics’. Its remit was to harass the enemy along the coast of Norway using every means available. Its successes soon gives its inspired leader, under the patronage of the Prime Minister, the freedom to do as he thinks fit.
ON THE EDGE OF DARKNESS
Following an heroic part in the Second Battle of Narvik, Captain Barr puts the marines, his ship and a collection of captured enemy vessels to such good use that their exploits come to the notice of the Prime Minister, Churchill sees how neatly Barr's tactics dovetail with his own fledgling strategy of ‘Butcher and bolt’, which he sees as one of the few means by which a beleaguered Britain will be able to take the fight to the enemy. He orders the new unit, to carry out clandestine missions along the enemy coast. Soon Barr’s small force evolves into an elite fighting unit, codenamed ‘Orca’, with its far reaching remit to harass the enemy held coast of Norway, it soon becomes a thorn in the side of Hitler’s Third Reich.
DEAD RECKONING
June 1940, the World waited. Dunkirk was over, a third of a million allied troops snatched back from, in Churchill’s words, ‘death and shame’ in the largest sea-evacuation the world had ever seen.
France, the British Empire's only ally, tottered on the brink of defeat. Italy had entered the war on the side of Germany.
The World considered the future. If Britain was to be defeated and the world's largest Navy fell into the hands of the Nazis the Axis would dominate the seas and by definition the world.
Churchill had an ace up his sleeve; the Royal Navy. Support Britain in her fight to the death, or risk the Royal Navy becoming part of a greater German Navy.This was the spectre that Churchill’s friends in America held over the heads of the appeasers and the isolationists. For America had, as of yet, given no practical help to Great Britain.
In this sea of uncertainty and defeatism Churchill stood solid as a rock; the immovable platform from which victory could still be snatched.
Only the Royal Navy, was ready to carry the fight to the enemy, undefeated it patrolled the seas carrying with it the hopes and the pride of the British people.
The Special Operations Group, 'Orca', under its inspired and charismatic commander, Alexander Barr, are ordered to concentrate their efforts against the enemy U Boats based in occupied Norway…
STANDING INTO DANGER
It is the autumn of 1940, since Dunkirk, three long, weary and worrying months before, the British people have lived under the dual threats of invasion and starvation. They are still unaware that Hitler has abandoned Operation Sea Lion and re-focused his manic ambitions east towards Russia. The threat of slow starvation is still a real and present danger. With thousands of tons of vital supplies lying at the bottom of the World's oceans, the island race tighten their belts, venturing forth, ration book and ID card in hand, to draw their meager rations. Short of metal for munitions, of guns for Dad’s Army and with their children evacuated, they soldier on armed only with their sense of humour and a dogged determination to prevail.
The Government prepare for the worst, racing against time to re-equip a beaten and depleted Army, advising their citizens to watch the sky and the seas for invasion and to dig for victory, while sending the country's gold reserves to safety in America.
At sea the situation has grown steadily worse. Month after month more and more ships, carrying essential food and ammunition, are being sent to the bottom of the sea. September’s grim total is exceeded by October’s and October’s by November's.
The Admiralty find out the hard way that Doenitz’s U Boat Command are using new and even more deadly tactics. Tactics that threaten to starve Britain into submission within weeks rather than months. The dreaded Wolf Pack has been born. The pitiless ‘Grey Wolfs’ lie in wait across the dark sea-lanes of the Atlantic, attacking the convoys at will, without mercy and with a savage ferocity not seen before in the annals of war.
With the nation tottering on the brink of defeat, seven million in gold and securities, so vital to the county’s ultimate survival, has to go across the Atlantic by sea. What if the Germans were to learn of the British plans to take the gold out of the country? What if they lie in wait with the biggest Wolf Pack ever to be assembled?
Codenamed ‘Orca’, after the killer whale, Commodore Barr, its founder liked to think that it had been forged in the heat of the battle for Norway and tempered in its icy seas to become the Royal Navy’s toughest and most versatile unit.
Barr, a brilliant but unconventional Naval officer, who some thought more fitted to teaching antisubmarine warfare then leading men, proved an inspired choice to lead such a group. ‘Orca’ grows to become a clandestine collection of captured enemy warships backed up by an entire escort group of destroyers.
Originally set up to persecute Churchill’s plan to harass the coastline of occupied Europe using what the great man called ‘butcher and bolt tactics’. Its remit was to harass the enemy along the coast of Norway using every means available. Its successes soon gives its inspired leader, under the patronage of the Prime Minister, the freedom to do as he thinks fit.
ON THE EDGE OF DARKNESS
Following an heroic part in the Second Battle of Narvik, Captain Barr puts the marines, his ship and a collection of captured enemy vessels to such good use that their exploits come to the notice of the Prime Minister, Churchill sees how neatly Barr's tactics dovetail with his own fledgling strategy of ‘Butcher and bolt’, which he sees as one of the few means by which a beleaguered Britain will be able to take the fight to the enemy. He orders the new unit, to carry out clandestine missions along the enemy coast. Soon Barr’s small force evolves into an elite fighting unit, codenamed ‘Orca’, with its far reaching remit to harass the enemy held coast of Norway, it soon becomes a thorn in the side of Hitler’s Third Reich.
DEAD RECKONING
June 1940, the World waited. Dunkirk was over, a third of a million allied troops snatched back from, in Churchill’s words, ‘death and shame’ in the largest sea-evacuation the world had ever seen.
France, the British Empire's only ally, tottered on the brink of defeat. Italy had entered the war on the side of Germany.
The World considered the future. If Britain was to be defeated and the world's largest Navy fell into the hands of the Nazis the Axis would dominate the seas and by definition the world.
Churchill had an ace up his sleeve; the Royal Navy. Support Britain in her fight to the death, or risk the Royal Navy becoming part of a greater German Navy.This was the spectre that Churchill’s friends in America held over the heads of the appeasers and the isolationists. For America had, as of yet, given no practical help to Great Britain.
In this sea of uncertainty and defeatism Churchill stood solid as a rock; the immovable platform from which victory could still be snatched.
Only the Royal Navy, was ready to carry the fight to the enemy, undefeated it patrolled the seas carrying with it the hopes and the pride of the British people.
The Special Operations Group, 'Orca', under its inspired and charismatic commander, Alexander Barr, are ordered to concentrate their efforts against the enemy U Boats based in occupied Norway…
STANDING INTO DANGER
It is the autumn of 1940, since Dunkirk, three long, weary and worrying months before, the British people have lived under the dual threats of invasion and starvation. They are still unaware that Hitler has abandoned Operation Sea Lion and re-focused his manic ambitions east towards Russia. The threat of slow starvation is still a real and present danger. With thousands of tons of vital supplies lying at the bottom of the World's oceans, the island race tighten their belts, venturing forth, ration book and ID card in hand, to draw their meager rations. Short of metal for munitions, of guns for Dad’s Army and with their children evacuated, they soldier on armed only with their sense of humour and a dogged determination to prevail.
The Government prepare for the worst, racing against time to re-equip a beaten and depleted Army, advising their citizens to watch the sky and the seas for invasion and to dig for victory, while sending the country's gold reserves to safety in America.
At sea the situation has grown steadily worse. Month after month more and more ships, carrying essential food and ammunition, are being sent to the bottom of the sea. September’s grim total is exceeded by October’s and October’s by November's.
The Admiralty find out the hard way that Doenitz’s U Boat Command are using new and even more deadly tactics. Tactics that threaten to starve Britain into submission within weeks rather than months. The dreaded Wolf Pack has been born. The pitiless ‘Grey Wolfs’ lie in wait across the dark sea-lanes of the Atlantic, attacking the convoys at will, without mercy and with a savage ferocity not seen before in the annals of war.
With the nation tottering on the brink of defeat, seven million in gold and securities, so vital to the county’s ultimate survival, has to go across the Atlantic by sea. What if the Germans were to learn of the British plans to take the gold out of the country? What if they lie in wait with the biggest Wolf Pack ever to be assembled?