''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck'' (Little Brown, 1959), also published as ''Hunting the Bismark'' (Michael Joseph, 1959), was written by C.S. Forester (1899–1966), the author of the popular

Horatio Hornblower Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films, radio and television programmes, an ...

series of naval-themed books. Closely based on the actual naval battle, the book is a novel with fictionalized dialogue and incidents. ''The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck'' tells the story of the breakout of the German battleship '' Bismarck'' into the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

as a major threat to the convoys that sustained Britain in the early days of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

's desperate pursuit and destruction of the ''Bismarck''. ''

Sink the Bismarck! ''Sink the Bismarck!'' is a 1960 black-and-white CinemaScope British war film based on the 1959 book '' The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck'' by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert.Weiler, A.H ...

'', a movie based on Forester's book, was released by

Twentieth Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

in 1960, with the book reprinted in paperback under the title ''Sink the Bismarck!'' (Bantam, 1959) as a promotional tie-in.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' called the book "a thrilling tale of a running battle at sea."

References

External links

* 1959 British novels British novels adapted into films German battleship Bismarck Michael Joseph books Novels by C. S. Forester Novels set in the 1940s Novels set during World War II Fiction set in 1941 {{1950s-WWII-novel-stub