Name: The cruel sea
ISBN: 9780304918546

The cruel sea

The Cruel Sea is a 1951 novel by Nicholas Monsarrat. It follows the lives of a group of Royal Navy sailors fighting the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. It contains seven chapters, each describing a year during the war. The novel, based on the author's experience of serving in corvettes in the North Atlantic in World War II, gives a matter-of-fact but moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive in a violent, exhausting battle against the elements and a ruthless enemy. Few books have ever conveyed in such gripping detail the brutal destruction of the Battle of the Atlantic and the endurance of the men who fought it. The novel brought instant fame to its author.

What Hacker News says

arethuzaSep 2016

I can recommend Three Corvettes by Nicholas Monsarrat - the author of The Cruel Sea - it is his account of his experiences at sea during WW2.

One of the few books that has moved me to tears.

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arethuzaJan 2016

There are some splendid UK films about the Battle of the Atlantic - my favourite being The Cruel Sea.

NB The author of the novel on which the The Cruel Sea is based, Nicholas Monsarrat, wrote a moving account of his own service - Three Corvettes - which is one of the few books that has reduced me to tears. Funnily enough I happened to read the book while flying over the North Atlantic...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Monsarrat

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porkerJan 2016

> NB The author of the novel on which the The Cruel Sea is based, Nicholas Monsarrat, wrote a moving account of his own service - Three Corvettes - which is one of the few books that has reduced me to tears. Funnily enough I happened to read the book while flying over the North Atlantic...

Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses is another of those. I read it as a teenager and a couple of scenes are as sharp in my mind as the day I read it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ulysses_(novel)

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tcopelandMay 2015

I started the site about 8 years ago because 1) these lists have lots of great selections that you might not come across otherwise (e.g., "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat) and 2) .mil web sites tend to get reorganized regularly and older content seems to get swept away. So I hope this site helps to preserve some things that might otherwise be lost.

FWIW, for an overview of all the lists, there's a "map" page:

http://militaryprofessionalreadinglists.com/map

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arethuzaMay 2015

"The Cruel Sea" was also made into an excellent movie with some genuinely shocking moments for a film made in 1953.

However, I am particularly fond of Nicholas Monsarrat's "Three Corvettes" his non-fiction account of his wartime experiences, one of the few books that has moved me to tears.

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arethuzaJan 2022

Some UK war movies fall into the "wars really suck" category - an obvious example being The Cruel Sea based on the novel by Nicholas Monsarrat who served in Royal Navy during the Battle of the Atlantic:

"This is a story of the Battle of the Atlantic, the story of the ocean, two ships, and a handful of men. The men are the heroes; the heroines the ships. The only villain is the sea, the cruel sea that man has made more cruel."

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