Harrowing but compelling read with attention to detail

The back cover of Duty Calls: Dunkirk proclaims: "You wanted to see some action - well, you're going to get it now all right."

British military historian James Holland has written a novel, based on World War 2 fact, about the perilous exploits of a small band of English soldiers fighting for their lives in France in May 1940, as the ignominious retreat to Dunkirk stutters its confused way under the hammering of the German foe.

This novel is intended for younger readers. Even in today's violence-ridden society, such readers will need stout stomachs, for Holland describes in horrific detail the often obscene results stemming from battle in this particularly confined theatre of war.

The main protagonists are Johnny Hawke, a mere 16-year-old private, and Sergeant Tom Spears, a veteran soldier whose close girlfriend happens to be Hawke's sister. That relationship initially earns Hawke no favours, but his courage in battle soon causes Spears to soften his attitude towards the brave youngster.

The novel does indeed pack a mighty lot of action within the few days of warfare it covers. The author succeeds in convincingly portraying the burden borne by a small band of British soldiers, short of ammunition and food, and the interplay of their mixed emotions. The book is strong gruel.

The evacuation from Dunkirk between dawn on May 26 and 3.30 on June 4, 1940, resulted in the rescue of 338,226 Allied soldiers from death or capture. Of this number, 118,000 were French, Belgian and Dutch.

I recall as an 8-year-old boy listening to the BBC and the announcer's comment that French soldiers, though very weary, remained awake as they relished seeing English scenery from the comfort of their train.

The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) lost 68, 111 men in the retreat from France, of whom 40,000 became prisoners of war.

Although not mentioned in this gripping novel, the reading of which certainly need not be confined to younger people, it is a matter of record that on May 27, 1940, British prisoners of war from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, were machine-gunned to death by the 1st Battalion of the SS Totenkopf's 2nd Infantry Regiment in the hamlet of Le Paradis in the Pas-de-Calais.

• Clarke Isaacs is a former chief of staff of the Otago Daily Times.