The Battle of North Cape

The Death Ride of the Scharnhorst, 1943

By: Angus Konstam

Narrated by: Chris Bland

On 25 December 1943, the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst slipped out Altenfjord in Norway to attack Arctic convoy JW55B which was carrying vital war supplies to the Soviet Union. But British naval intelligence knew of the Scharnhorst's mission before she sailed and the vulnerable convoy was protected by a large Royal Naval force, including the battleship Duke of York. In effect the Scharnhorst was sailing into a trap.

One of the most compelling naval dramas of the Second World War had begun.

©2009 Angus Konstam (P)2023 Tantor

A Severe Downgrade from his Bismarck Book

I thought if he could do a decent book on the Bismarck why not give him another try for the Scharnhorst, definitely an undertold story from the war. It's almost always an afterthought in the Arctic Convoy story, a neat bookend. Cool, good enough, let's go!

Nope. Konstam takes many regrettable steps backwards in writing ability here, never hesitating to talk down to the reader and recapitulate information he just gave you. It reads like a script for a History Channel "DOCUMENTARY" on the Scharnhorst. His unending use of the phrase "IN OTHER WORDS" will make you crazy. I also tired rather quickly of the repetition of main battery gun size, secondary battery gun size, etc. He insists on repeating the name of the convoy, JW55B, again and again and again, despite the fact the return convoy that sailed at the same time had no part to play in the story and he mentions that early on, so why repeat unnecessary information ad nauseam? To play up the drama? Maybe, but the simple fact is that Scharnhorst never got within sight of the convoy, so why badger us with the supposed suspense of what happens if the Kriegsmarine make their plan work? Senseless.

I should have known what was coming, when in the introduction, he makes the claim that the sinking of Scharnhorst had more impact than the carrier battles in the Pacific. I just about walked into a wall when he said that. This book was published six or so years after the Bismarck book, so why the regression in ability, I won't say talent, of the author? Why the dumbing down, why the clumsiness, why, why, why?

It's a long slog, under such conditions, to go for 7 hours. It would be bearable at 5 hours. The narrator is a another demerit as he reads in slow motion with extra commas at every available turn. A disappointment, through and through.