This brilliant action fought by the Royal Navy to protect an Allied convoy to Russia at the end of the year [1942] led directly to a crisis in the enemy's naval policy and ended the dream of another German High Seas Fleet.' – Winston Churchill.

Dudley Pope's brilliant and authoritative account and analysis of this action makes compelling reading from both a historical perspective and the exciting way he relates the story. Four British Destroyers fought off the battleship Lutzow, heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, plus six destroyers, so as to protect a convoy bound for Russia in the hostile northern waters and as a result not a single merchant ship was lost. Pope manages to show how power and iron discipline is not always a match for ingenuity, initiative, and courage.

If Dudley pope was not already established as a leading Naval historian, this volume would do it.