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The Horizon
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It was an age of empire, an age of contrast, and an age of dramatic change - and one which would determine the destinies of nations as well as of men. Captain Philip Blackwood of the Royal Marines rejoins his ship, HMS Audacious, in August of 1850, anxious to get back into action. "Per Mare - Per Terram" is the marines' motto. In the torturous heat of Africa, where they are sent to stamp out the remaining strongholds of slavery, and later, in the bitter war of the Crimea, Philip Blackwood and his men learn to obey it without question.
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First book
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To Risks Unknown
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The year: 1943. Now there was to be no more retreat for Britain and her Allies. At last the war was to be carried into enemy territory. And from captured bases and makeshift harbours in North Africa, the Royal Navy's Special Force was to be the probe and the spearhead of the advance. To this unorthodox war came the corvette H. M. S. Thistle and her commanding officer, John Crispin.
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A good read.
- By John H on 27-08-16
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The Destroyers
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From the author of The First to Land, a novel set during World War II. They called them the Scrapyard Flotilla. After a quarter of a century of service, the eight destroyers had seen all kinds of action. Now they were to be used in raids to open the way for the invasion of Occupied Europe.
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another Mans book
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In Danger's Hour
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The Mediterranean, 1943... The HMS Rob Roy. A tiny machine, just 230 feet from stem to stern. In peacetime she would have trawled for cod. Now her catch is deadlier by far. Lieutenant-Commander Ian Ransome is a veteran of the treacherous front line of naval combat. Under sealed orders in the battle-tossed waters of the Mediterranean, he and his jack-tired crew face one final test of their courage....
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Disappointing.
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It is 1943 and Captain Mike Blackwood, Royal Marine Commando, is a survivor. Young, toughened, and tried in the hellish crucible of Burma, he labours beneath the weight of tradition and the burden of his own self-doubt. For him, the horizon is not the lip of the trench seen by men of the Corps in the previous war, but the ramp of a landing craft smashing down into the sea, and the fire of the enemy on a Sicilian beach.
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The dramatic sequel to Badge of Glory, China 1900. When the Boxer Rebellion erupts into bloody war. The Royal Marines, true to their motto, are the first to land - and the last to leave. Again, a Blackwood is in command.
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-
The Corps
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Badge of Glory
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
It was an age of empire, an age of contrast, and an age of dramatic change - and one which would determine the destinies of nations as well as of men. Captain Philip Blackwood of the Royal Marines rejoins his ship, HMS Audacious, in August of 1850, anxious to get back into action. "Per Mare - Per Terram" is the marines' motto. In the torturous heat of Africa, where they are sent to stamp out the remaining strongholds of slavery, and later, in the bitter war of the Crimea, Philip Blackwood and his men learn to obey it without question.
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First book
- By J W FERRIS on 17-06-18
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To Risks Unknown
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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The year: 1943. Now there was to be no more retreat for Britain and her Allies. At last the war was to be carried into enemy territory. And from captured bases and makeshift harbours in North Africa, the Royal Navy's Special Force was to be the probe and the spearhead of the advance. To this unorthodox war came the corvette H. M. S. Thistle and her commanding officer, John Crispin.
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A good read.
- By John H on 27-08-16
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The Destroyers
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- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of The First to Land, a novel set during World War II. They called them the Scrapyard Flotilla. After a quarter of a century of service, the eight destroyers had seen all kinds of action. Now they were to be used in raids to open the way for the invasion of Occupied Europe.
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another Mans book
- By alexander on 10-03-16
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In Danger's Hour
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Mediterranean, 1943... The HMS Rob Roy. A tiny machine, just 230 feet from stem to stern. In peacetime she would have trawled for cod. Now her catch is deadlier by far. Lieutenant-Commander Ian Ransome is a veteran of the treacherous front line of naval combat. Under sealed orders in the battle-tossed waters of the Mediterranean, he and his jack-tired crew face one final test of their courage....
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Disappointing.
- By John H on 05-09-16
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Winged Escort
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Performance
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As the Second World War progresses, the destruction of Allied shipping mounts. Fighter pilot Tim Rowan is posted to an escort carrier to help guard the precious convoys. His adventures take him first to the Arctic and then the Indian Ocean.
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Fantastic Listen.
- By Steve on 20-12-09
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Path of the Storm
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a good book
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The Greatest Enemy
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Twenty-five years ago HMS Terrapin was part of a crack hunter/killer group in the Battle of the Atlantic. Now she is working out her last commission in the Gulf of Thailand. To Lieutenant-Commander Standish, the frigate seems to mark the end of his hopes of a career in the navy. Then a new captain arrives, a man driven by an old-fashioned, almost obsessive patriotism. And under his stubborn leadership, Standish and the crew discover a long-forgotten unity of purpose.
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loved it.
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Battlecruiser
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Story
When Captain Guy Sherbrooke joins HMS Reliant in 1943, he knows he may be her last Captain. Sister battleships have been destroyed, and Sherbrooke cannot alter the bitter truth that there will be no half measures for HMS Reliant.
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Not one of his best story plodded a bit.
- By Robert Turner on 13-01-18
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H.M.S. Saracen
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Performance
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Story
Malta 1941. To most people H.M.S. Saracen is just an ugly, obsolete ship with an equally ugly recent history: her last commander is due for court-martial after shelling the troops he was sent to protect. But to Captain Richard Chesnaye she brings back memories - memories of the First World War when he and the old monitor went through the Gallipoli campaign together. It seems that captain and ship are both past their best. But as the war enters a new phase Chesnaye senses the possibility of a fresh, significant role - for him and the Saracen.
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Ripping stuff
- By Ceri on 17-10-12
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Send a Gunboat
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
HMS Wagtail is a river gunboat, a ship seemingly at the end of her unusual life, lying in a Hong Kong dockyard awaiting her last summons to the breakers' yard. Commander Justin Rolfe is also seemingly at the end of his useful naval life, an embittered man, brooding and angry from a court-martial verdict. Then the offshore island of Santu is threatened with invasion from the Chinese mainland.
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The destroyer's
- By jamesstrachan on 03-09-17
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Go In and Sink
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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February 1943. As the balance of the war slowly shifts in Britain's favour, Lieutenant-Commander Steven Marshall brings his battle-scarred submarine into home port. Captain and crew are exhausted after 14 months' continuous service, but for most there can be no thought of leave. If the enemy collapse in North Africa is to be exploited, every experienced man will be needed. Marshall must return to the Mediterranean, but this time to a very different kind of war.
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Great Book.
- By Craig on 12-05-19
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The Volunteers
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
They were the men and women of the Royal Navy's Special Operations units. Carrying out lightning raids on hostile coasts, they became a navy within a navy - each handpicked for their individual skills, and all of them courageous. Against the mighty backdrop of World War II they performed their small but deadly operations - living often beyond hope, sometimes beyond mercy. This is the dramatic story of a handful of such people. The Volunteers.
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Interesting
- By Pam on 10-08-19
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A Prayer for the Ship
- By: Douglas Reeman
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- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
HMS Royston, Coastal Forces Depot Ship, is mother ship to a battered, war-worn bunch of MTBs and MGBs. New on board is Sub-Lieutenant Royce: commissioned for three months, sea experience three months in an Asdic trawler, and aged 20. His commanding officer is Lieutenant Harston, aged 23.
His predecessor has been killed in action 48 hours earlier and is now hardly remembered. The crew are all young - some very young - but all old before their time....
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Good
- By Dr on 26-07-15
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Killing Ground
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Western Ocean, 1942... From the bridge of HMS Gladiator, Lieutenant-Commander David Howard’s orders were chillingly clear. There could be no mercy. To the men who fought to protect the vital, threatened Merchant Navy convoys in the Western Approaches, the Battle of the Atlantic was a full-scale war. A relentless, savage war against an ever-present enemy and a violent sea - in an arena known only to its embittered survivors as the killing ground. HMS Gladiator was part of that war.
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Excellent book Well read
- By A. DONALDSON on 22-03-17
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The Glory Boys
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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They are called 'The Glory Boys', by those who regard their exploits with envy. Bob is one of them. Already a survivor of the close action in the English Channel & North Sea, in January of 1943 he is ordered to the Mediterranean & beleaguered Malta.
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Great Story, superb narration. A damn good listen.
- By Mr N Wilkins on 05-06-19
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Torpedo Run
- By: Douglas Reeman
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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It was in 1943. On the Black Sea, the Russians were fighting a desperate battle to regain control. But the Russians’ one real weakness was on the water: whatever they did, the Germans did it better, and the daring hit-and-run tactics of the E-boats plagued them. At last the British agreed to send them a small flotilla of motor torpedo boats under the command of John Devane. Devane had been in the Navy since the outbreak of war.
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Torpedo run
- By J W FERRIS on 01-09-19
Summary
This is the third book in the 'Blackwood' saga. For three generations, members of the Blackwood family served the Royal Marines with distinction. With the outbreak of World War I, at last comes Jonathan Blackwood’s turn to carry the family name into battle.
But as the young marines embark for the Dardanelles, and a new kind of warfare, it dawns on them that the days of scarlet coats and an unchanging tradition of honour and glory have gone forever. First in Gallipoli, and two years later in Flanders, comes their horrifying initiation into a wholesale slaughter for which no training could ever have prepared them.
Caught up in the savagery of a conflict beyond any officer’s control, Blackwood’s future rests on the ‘horizon’ - the dark lip of the trench which was the last fateful sight for so many.
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- Anonymous User
- 14-12-17
The Best of the Blackwood’s
The Horizon is the third of Douglas Reeman’s novels about the Blackwood family and their trading of service in the Royal Marines. I have read all the Blackwood novels and the Horizon is the one I keep returning to. The story focuses on Johnathon Blackwood and his inner struggle to be the leader that his men and the Royal
Marine high command expect him to be. Although he lives with the inner turmoil of serving in a war that he believe is a futile waste of lives, Johnathon carries on because it is his duty to led. The book is broken into two parts. The first part deals with the Gallipoli campaign and as Australian I was fascinated by the description of the bloody campaign from a British point of view and I believe this is the strongest part of the novel. The second half becomes something of a love story where our hero recovering from the scars of the Gallipoli (both physical and psychological) is called upon to lead a Marine Battalion during the Battle of 3rd Ypres in 1917. He falls in love with a Doctors daughter and the painfully awkward hero manages to win his lady love while leading the trusting souls under his command into the mud and bloody of Ypres. Throughout the novel Reeman keeps the horror and waste of the First World War as the central theme of his novel. While not the best book ever written, it is a novel I enjoy and have listened to several times over the years and I strong;y recommend it to any students of the First
World War.
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- Donald Jones
- 29-04-12
Reeman does it again.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Tells a forgotten story.
What did you like best about this story?
The Royal Marines have very few stories written about them. The series covers this family of Marines through generations. The brutality of World War 1 has been forgotten by most. This book is not anti-war but it does make you realize the incredible loss war imposes on a country.