The Cruel Sea

Set during the Battle of the Atlantic, Nicholas Monsarrat's 1951 novel follows a group of Royal Navy sailors through the Second World War in seven chapters, one for each year of the war. When war begins in 1939, George Ericson, a reserve officer from the Merchant Navy, is recalled and given HMS Compass Rose, a newly built Flower-class corvette meant to escort convoys. Apart from Ericson and the petty officers, his men are new to the Navy, among them the sub-lieutenants Lockhart and Ferraby. Storms, freezing cold and the constant threat of U-boat torpedoes test them on crossing after crossing. Monsarrat drew on his own wartime service in corvettes, and Ealing Studios filmed the novel in 1953.

James Mattis included it on the list of favorite books in an appendix to Call Sign Chaos.