num_pages: 320
description: Families caught in the war in East Africa are desperate to get home and back to Britain…   Their first opportunity to leave lies with Aurelian Star.  With a virtually empty liner, Commodore John Mason Kemp’s orders are to pick up and accommodate the civilians, as well as German prisoners of war, on their way to Clyde.  In preparation for the war, the Aurelian Star’s original assignment was to just carry officers to Britain for training before being drafted in the Second Front.  Now, with a high-maintenance Brigadier already on board, Kemp is concerned about the convoy’s journey through enemy infested waters.  The journey is bound to be fraught with dangers, largely from German U-boats…  As a cholera suvivor, Brigadier Pumphrey-Hatton is appalled at the conditions aboard the liner and quickly gets to work voicing his complaints.  But Kemp has other things to worry about and he doesn’t need this additional hassle, even if Pumphrey-Hatton is out to do things his way…  Travelling in a convoy, and escorted by heavily-armed battleships, the Aurelian Star has sufficient backup in these troubled waters.  That is unitil the battleships are called away on another mission.  With a the crew made up of a mix of British, American and Australian officers, and with German prisoners of war also aboard, the tensions soon rise…  But for now, their priority lies with ensuring the liner is able to reach its destination with the Stuttgart just ahead of them.  On board the Stuttgart, Captain Von Bellinghausen is one step ahead of the British convoy.  Aware of the convoy’s weakness, Bellinghausen formulates a plan and, if it works, he knows he will win his prize…  Convoy Homeward  is a gripping naval thriller filled with suspense and betrayal at every turn.   Praise for Philip McCutchan    ‘A nautical war buff's feast...[McCutchan] keeps an authoritative hand on the wheel and his descriptions of battles at sea ring with laconic truth.’ — The New York Times Book Review    ‘His character conflicts are well organised.’ — Daily Telegraph    ‘A most exciting successor to his first novel — and it is just as rugged.’ — The Times, Hamilton, New Zealand     Philip McCutchan  (1920-1996) grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest resulting in several fiction books, from amongst his large output, about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years. He served at sea in the British Royal Navy throughout World War II, spending time on everything from destroyers to battleships to aircraft carriers. 
language: English
title: Convoy Homeward
publisher: Endeavour Press