| Force 10 From Navarone | |
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Front and back cover from Fawcett Crest paperback edition |
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| Author(s) | Alistair MacLean |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | War novel |
| Publisher | Collins |
| Publication date | 1968 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 255 (1969 Fawcett paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Where Eagles Dare |
| Followed by | Puppet on a Chain |
Force 10 from Navarone is a World War II novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean published in 1968. It is a sequel to MacLean's very popular 1957 The Guns of Navarone, but in terms of plot continuity chooses to follow the also popular 1961 film adaptation, such as including characters who were in the film but not in the book, although it dispenses with the film's major altered back-story.
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Force 10 From Navarone begins immediately after the events portrayed in The Guns of Navarone, with Captain Keith Mallory and Corporal Dusty Miller assigned on a new mission code-named "Force 10". Mallory and Miller return to Navarone to recruit their comrade Andrea Stavros (who stayed behind in the film, but not in the book). They are then joined by three young British Royal Marine Commandos, and are parachuted into Nazi-occupied, frozen, war-torn Yugoslavia. There they attempt to aid the Yugoslav Partisans in their battle against the Nazi German occupiers and Chetnik collaborators. As with all MacLean novels, the true mission is secret. Everyone including the Marine Commandos are misled. The front is to rescue captured British agents in occupied Yugoslavia but the real mission remains known to only Mallory, Miller, Andrea and the Partisan General.
As usual with MacLean, all things are not quite what they seem, and like The Guns of Navarone one of the mission(s) is to try to save significant number of Partisans from a certain death from German offensive. In the melee of double crosses and triple crosses, things do not go as planned and distrust is rife among allies and enemies alike.
The story starts straight where the film ended, with Mallory and Miller aboard the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Sirdar, sailing on its way to the besieged island of Kheros. The ship is forced to turn around and head back to Navarone when they receive an urgent message from Captain Jensen, who orders them to collect Andrea Stavros and await transport on a deserted airstrip. Mallory and Miller go ashore and arrive in Mandrakos just in time to witness Andrea' wedding to the feisty resistance fighter, Maria, who had led them into the fortress to destroy the guns. After persuading Andrea and barely appeasing Maria, the three board a Wellington Bomber to take them to Termoli, Italy and Captain Jensen.
In Termoli, Jensen congratulates Mallory's team and introduces them to three Royal Marine Commandos sergeants, each an exact replacement for Mallory's men. However one of the sergeants (Reynolds) is less than pleased to be considered a reserve and makes his feelings known. With the introductions over, Jensen briefs them on the mission, they're to go to the Neretva area of Bosnia to discover why in the recent weeks every allied agent parachuted into that area has been captured. Later Jensen introduces Mallory to a Partisan General called Vukalovic. Jensen explains that Vukalovic commands the Partisans in the Neretva valley who are now trapped against the Neretva river to the south and east and impassable mountains in the north and west in the so-called Zenica Cage. Across the river German General Zimmerman commands two German Panzer Divisions camped in the Pine forrests waiting to cross the lone bridge and slaughter the helpless Partisans, and when that happens the Germans will have nearly enough control of Yugoslavia.
The next day Mallory, Miller, Andrea and the three sergeants fly from Italy to Bosnia, where they empty their plane's fuel tanks and parachute into a clearing not far from the area the agents were captured. After landing they meet up with what they believe to be a group of Partisans, led by Droshny, a huge Bosnian Captain. Droshny immediately takes a strong dislike to Andrea who nonchalantly kills one of the Partisans and injures another when they aim their guns at Mallory's team. With both men ready to tear the other apart, Mallory calms the situation down and they head off to the Partisan camp. At the camp they're ushered in one of the huts and are shocked to be greeted by a German Army Captain, Captain Neufeld explains that Droshny's men are not Partisans but German collaborators called Chetniks. So now captured, Mallory tells Neufeld the story he briefed the team while they were aboard the plane, but Neufeld seems unconvinced that they are deserters who have been tried for selling penicillin. But when Neufeld's men discover the crashed plane, which Mallory deliberately jettisoned the spare fuel to tie in with his story of how they'd run out of fuel, he seems to believe the tale.
Amongst the Chetniks is a female guerrilla fighter named Maria, who with her blind and mute brother Petar wanders the area playing his guitar and sort of singing in a strange way. In an area where superstition is part of the culture, people no matter that they are Partisan or Chetnik see Petar as 'cursed' and will not turn him away from their doors. So he and his sister have found themselves being able to go anywhere in the area, making them valuable spies to the Germans. General Vukalovic, who was parachuted into the Zenica Cage by a different plane, meets his various commanders one by one. First the General meets Major Stefan, whose troops block the Western Gap. Stefan explains to the General that the Germans have moved units of their 11th Army Corps to attack through the gap.
Back in the Chetnik camp, Neufeld radio's General Zimmerman at the Neretva Bridge. Zimmerman is concerned with the fact that the Allies are bound to mount a counter attack to save their Partisan allies, but he doesn't know two things, when and where. To find out, Neufeld sends Mallory's team to a nearby Partisan encampment and return with the vital information. The Chetniks then escort Mallory's team through the towering forests in an ancient truck to near Partisan territory. Lrft to make the final part of the journey alone, Mallory instructs Andrea and Miller to kill two Chetniks who were trying to follow them. But unbeknownst to Andrea and Miller, Droshny is also following behind the two Chetniks. Arriving at the Partisan camp (strangely similar to the Chetnik camp), Mallory is met by Major Broznik. While Broznik and Mallory go to the HQ hut the rest go to a communal rest hut, except Saunders who Mallory sends to the radio hut to report to Captain Jensen. Reynolds now even more bitter as he suspects Mallory of betraying them notices the normally aggressive Maria talking friendly to Mallory outside Broznik's hut, a short while later they descover Saunders murdered and his radio smashed. While Mallory, Andrea and Miller are sure it was Droshny, Reynolds believes the murderer to be Mallory.
With friends and enemies mixed together, Mallory must continue the real purpose of their mission while keeping the two remaining disgruntled Marines in check. As the story twists and turns, Mallory's team travel back to the Chetnik camp before taking Neufeld and Droshny as hostages to rescue the captured British spies. After releasing the British agents and imprisoning Neufeld and Droshny with the guards at the remote concrete block house, Mallory and co travel up into the Bosnian mountains where Partisans have constructed an airstrip on a waist deep snowy plateau. Of course Neufeld and Droshny escape just in time to witness Mallory's team boarding an Allied bomber and fly off to Italy. But typically for a MacLean novel, Mallory and co haven't left but five Partisans and the agents hasve. While returning back to the Neretva valley, Mallory with the help of Reynolds realises that Droshny must have witnessed him and Maria talking friendly too and must now recue her and Petar.
Neufeld radio's Zimmerman and tells him that Mallory said the Partisan's expect the attack to come from across the Western Gap, feeling safe Zimmerman orders his two armoured divisions around the bridge for their attack in a few hours time. Having returned to the block house, Neufeld and Droshny are astonished to be confronted by Mallory, Miller and Andrea while they're interogating Maria. Freeing Maria and her brother Mallory returns to Neufeld's camp and destroys his radio. Finally after a terrifying ride on an old and rusty narrow gauge railway engine, the group descends the Neretva gorge down to the river bank with Andrea fighting a rear guard action while squadrons of Lacaster bombers saturate the Western Gap with high explosives. Mallory and Miller manage to scale the dam wall and covertly drop into the reservoir where they destroy the dam with a submersible mine dropped by a lone Lancaster bomber. Escaping the reservoir in time to see the dam explode, millions of gallons of water rushes down the gorge and destroys the bridge, washing away the bridge and Zimmerman and his two armoured divisions crossing it.
Force 10 From Navarone was commercially very successful, spending five months on the New York Times Bestseller List and being chosen as a Literary Guild Alternate Selection.
The novel was finally adapted into the 1978 film Force 10 from Navarone after years of delays by the film studio, directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox and Franco Nero. The book and the movie shared little other than title, the locations and the characters Keith Mallory, Dusty Miller and Commander Jensen.
Author Sam Llewellyn wrote two authorised sequels during the 1990s, Storm Force from Navarone and Thunderbolt from Navarone. These both featured Maclean's three heroes Mallory, Miller and Andrea along with Commander Jensen, R.N.
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