Guns of Navarone (Published in 1957) authored by Alistair MacLean, a classic set in the Second World War

Alistair MacLean is a Scottish writer who specialized in writing thrillers and crime stories. He was third son of a Scottish minister and joined the Royal Navy during the world war two. He was a senior torpedo operator at the height of his career. He was in the thick of the war theater during the world war and saw action on many fronts especially the arctic north. After retiring he started penning his novels based on the war he saw and many of them became best sellers. Maclean never looked back as a writer until his death in 1987.
MacLean's characters are men who fight against all odds. They are ordinary men who are thrown in to situations which are physically and emotionally demanding. Many of them never think about surviving, and their only instinct is to fight the odds. Some succeed, some redeem themselves and some sacrifice. But in the end all are heroes. This story is based on the battle of Leros during world war two. This is one of the most successful of MacLean's books which was made in to a successful motion picture.



The battle takes place in the year 1943 during the the world war two (based on the battle of Leros) where more than 2000 English troops are holed up. Their evacuation is possible only if the route through the island of Navarone is opened up, but this is not possible till the route is made safe from the huge guns overlooking the route which threaten any ship trying to pass through. It is needed to remove these guns, something which seems incredible, and this impossible task is put to a crack team is put together to neutralize the guns of Navarone.
The team is led by Captain Keith Mallory, a mountaineer from New Zealand who is also a commando, Andrea Stavros, a Greek colonel, Corporal Dusty Miller (an American explosives expert), Petty Officer Casey Brown (a Royal Navy personnel, from the Special Boat Service), and many others. They ultimately set sail to Navarone disguised as Greek fisherman.
Their boat has to fight the ever present enemy - the water and the sea, but eventually they reach the foot of the cliff and have to climb the sheer cliff in a storm, where the experience of Mallory proves invaluable.
They are one step ahead of the Germans, but just, and they have a timeframe whereby they have to blow up the guns to give the trapped men a chance through a relief convoy; in addition, like you would expect from such a book, one of the people supporting them is also betraying them. How do they manage to get into the fortress, and destroy the guns ?