Glasshouse Gang #2

 

WARNING: The current ebook reprints of the Glasshouse Gang books lists Desert Marauders (1976) as Book 4 in the series. This is incorrect. It is Book 2 and literally picks up the action where Book 1 leaves off.

 

But the publisher messing up the series order doesn't distract from the quality of the book. Set in North Africa during World War 2, it recounts the adventures of Captain John Offer and his Glasshouse Gang Commando Unit. Except Offer isn't really a captain and the G.G.C.U. isn't a real unit. Instead, it's a ploy used by Offer and his men (all deserters and former residents of brutal military prisons called Glasshouses) to avoid being captured by the authorities.

 

But it turns out Offer is a really good tactical field commander and--when forced to do so--his men can do real harm to the enemy.

 

The book is filled with superb action set pieces as they finish an escape from the German army started at the end of the last novel and, later, find themselves shooting up a German airbase when they run across it by accident during a rain storm.

 

By this time, they've acquired an arch-enemy in the German army and the British army has figured out who they are. But Offer is given temporary immunity from prosecution if he and his men can pull off an apparently suicidal raid on Rommel's oil depot, deep in German territory.

 

This leads to an extended climatic action sequence that is literally edge-of-your-seat stuff.

 

Like the first novel, there's an interesting thematic tension existing just underneath the action. Offer and his men despise the British army because of the brutal treatment they were subject too in the Glasshouse. But to survive the war and stay free, Offer has to recreate a system of military authority within the G.G.C.U.--replicating what he has supposedly rejected. And, when the British finally tumble to what he's doing, a particular major general doesn't react with the same arrogant authority Offer usually sees from the Top Brass. Instead, the general respects what Offer has accomplished and, though he's quite straightforward about his willingness to sacrifice Offer's men on what is probably a suicide mission, he does so out of strict military necessity.

 

So is the series anti-authoritarian or simply critical of abuse among otherwise necessary authority figures? Is Offer a criminal (stealing vehicles, supplies and payrolls without a qualm) or does his skill, courage and the loyalty he shows towards his men lift him up into something more?

 

In the end, it doesn't matter. Desert Marauders works primarily as a cracking good wartime adventure novels. Thematic issues underlying it make for worthwhile discussions, but we come to the novel mostly to watch stuff get blown up.