WINTER 1944 A sick, half-mad Hitler is planning his last offensive in the West. It is one that he hopes will break up the great Anglo-American coalition in Europe. But the Fuhrer has even more ambitious plans up his sleeve. It is his intention that side-by-side with the military operation on the Continent, undercover agents will take the war to the enemies' homelands, Britain and America. For Britain he plans a major breakout of all German POWs held there, which will culminate in a march on London. For America, he plans an attack on New York something the Japanese have failed to do. He intends to launch his new secret weapon at the country's greatest city, plunging it into destruction, despair and defeatism. Alerted by Commander Ian Fleming of Naval Intelligence, it is up to the British Admiralty to stop the German U-boats crossing the Atlantic with their spies, saboteurs and new terror weapons to carry out this first foreign attack on US soil since 1812.

But after five years of war, Britain is scraping the barrel. Can the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, a handful of experienced officers commanding raw recruits not out of their teens, stop the Germans before it is too late? Duncan Harding is a pseudonym for Charles Whiting (1926-2007), who also wrote as Leo Kessler and John Kerrigan. Charles Whiting volunteered for the Army aged 16 in 1943, where he saw active service in Belgium, Holland and Germany with the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment. He has over 350 books to his credit, encompassing military history, espionage, biography and action fiction and holds the Sir George Dowty Prize for Literature.