War Cry (novel)

War Cry
Author Wilbur Smith
Country South Africa
Language English
Genre Fiction
Publication date
 April 2017
Media type Print
ISBN 978-0-06-227649-0

War Cry is a 2017 novel by Wilbur Smith. It is a Courtney saga novel, set between World War One and Two.

Plot

Seven years after the events of Assegai, Leon Courtney is married to Eva Barry, and the two of them have a daughter by the name of Saffron Courtney, and have used the gold taken from Otto von Meerbach to establish a prosperous ranch in Kenya. After Eva passes away from complications related to eclampsia, Leon sends Saffron away to the Roedean School in South Africa to ensure that she can have a proper upbringing.

When the Nazis come to power in Germany, Gerhard von Meerbach, the youngest son of Otto, provides money to the Jewish Isidore Solomons, the Meerbach family's former lawyer, to allow him and his family to escape from Germany. His actions are discovered by Reinhard Heydrich and his personal assistant Konrad von Meerbach, Gerhard's elder brother and the head of the Meerbach family's industrial interests, both of whom force Gerhard to become a model citizen of the Third Reich, threatening to send him and any associates of his to Dachau concentration camp if he refuses. In accordance with their demands, Gerhard is apprenticed to Albert Speer, and becomes a reserve fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe.

During the time of the Great Depression, Leon learns that Courtney Trading, the company established by the late Ryder Courtney, is on the verge of ruin, and agrees to provide one million pounds to keep the company afloat for four years in exchange for majority ownership in the company, a step taken to ensure that he can protect his investment. Francis, who was injured by chlorine during World War One and became bitter when he recovered and no longer received special treatment from his family, accuses Leon of deliberately stealing the company from his family. Francis becomes an admirer of Oswald Mosley and fascism, as well as a Nazi ally.

Saffron attends the english Roedean and then Oxford University, having been inspired to do so by the King and Country debate. Leon marries Harriet Halfpenny, the manageress of the department store where Saffron buys her school clothes, with her presence filling the void in Leon and Saffron's lives left by Eva's death. While in England, Saffron meets and befriends the German Aristocrat Francesca von Schondorf, and is discretely observed by a man named Mr Brown, a high-ranking member of British Military Intelligence who recruited her mother, and hopes to evaluate Saffron's potential as an agent. Gerhard later begins a relationship with Francesca, but falls in love with Saffron and the pair elope together. When World War Two breaks out, the couple keep in contact with one another via a secret mail chain headed by Solomons, who has escaped to neutral Switzerland. A bitter Francesca reveals their relationship to Konrad, who blackmails Solomons into sending letters to Saffron and Gerhard claiming that the other is dead, eager to cause misery for his brother.

When the war in Greece turns against the Allies, Leon agrees to provide one of Courtney Trading's merchant vessels to smuggle the nation's gold reserves to Alexandria before they can be seized by the Nazis. Francis tips the Nazis off about the plan, and a squadron of bombers are sent to attack the ship, with Gerhard's squadron escorting them. Leon and Saffron are on the ship during the attack, and she and Gerhard both recognize one another and realize that they are both still alive. The ship is sunk, but Leon and Saffron discover that the gold had actually been transported on a different ship, and Leon's ship was a decoy.

Leon deduces that Francis was responsible for telling the Nazis about the supposed plan. Not wanting Francis to be exposed as a Nazi spy, Saffron travels to his flat and kills him after goading him into attacking her, thereby allowing her to avoid prosecution on grounds of justified self-defense. Hearing of the incident, Mr Brown visits Saffron and convinces her to take a job in the Special Operations Executive. Meanwhile, Gerhard witnesses the actions of the Einsatzgruppen during Operation Barbarossa, and resolves to bring down the Third Reich.

References

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