Kirkus Reviews QR Code
BLACK SATURDAY by Alexander McKee

BLACK SATURDAY

By

Pub Date: July 25th, 1960
Publisher: Holt

The story of the sinking of the British battleship Royal Oak in 1939, is by now a sea classic. It has been retold in dozens of languages by a multitude of writers. Guenther Prien, the German submarine captain who sank the Royal Oak and later died, is still a national hero in Germany. Now, twenty one years later, the whole story is challenged. Having closely considered all sides, this author concludes that no one told the whole truth. He points out that four large British ships--one, Vanguard, was at Scapa Flow where Royal Oak later met her end--- blew up mysteriously in World War I. It is his conjecture that the same thing happened in this case. Royal Oak he believes was a victim of sabotage, of bombs detonating deep inside her. True or not, his argument is a good one. And his account of the actual sinking of the ship comes off as absolutely the best to appear to date.