Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Recounts one of the greatest sea stories of World War II. It is the story of how George Binney, a 39 year-old civilian working in neutral Sweden when Norway was overrun by the Germans in 1940, set about running vital cargoes of Swedish ball-bearings and special steels to Britain through the blockaded Skagerrak, where German air strength was dominant and where the Royal Navy dare not trespass. Despite Admiralty gloom and in the face of political objections that were overcome by Binney's persistence, five ships carrying a year's supply of valuable materials for the expanding British war industries were successfully sailed to Britain in January 1941.A following attempt was not as successful and ended when six ships were sunk or scuttled. But then came the saga of the Little Ships, the motor gunboats flying the Red Duster that operated out of the Humber to and from the Swedish coast in the winter of 1943/44, defying the strengthened German defenses and the wrath of severe weather.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Author's Note (p. 6)
• Illustrations (p. 7)
• Introduction: A Man Called Binney (p. 9)
• Part I Operation Rubble: Escape Through the Skaggerak (p. 17)
• Postscript to Rubble (p. 76)
• Part II Operation Performance: 'Twice is not once over again' (p. 80)
• Postscript to Performance (p. 137)
• Part III Operation Bridford: The Grey Ladies (p. 146)
• Postscript to Bridford (p. 204)
• Sources (p. 213)
• Index (p. 216)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

1940: Neutral Sweden is supplying both Hitler and Britain with much-needed superior steel and ball-bearings--but Germany has occupied Norway and Denmark, and set up a blockade on the vital Skagerrak run from Oslo to the North Sea. George Binney, an aging British businessman with a lust for seafaring, has deep contacts in Sweden. He suggests to the Admiralty that Britain hire some Norwegian freighters hiding from the Nazis and holed up in Oslo to run the blockade. Binney believes that the danger is a propaganda myth anyway, that the Skagerrak is too deep and laden with currents to mine, and that the only real enemy is the German air force. With a bolus of luck, his big run is successful. Then a second run is called for--and six out of eight ships are lost. A third run, this time with armed ships, explodes with heavy action, but the ships escape in a cloud bank and the goods are delivered. Somehow, Binney emerges as a highly charmed, devilishly likable idea man, despite the flat coats of WW II-gray British expository prose in which his deeds are drawn. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.