During the second World War Navarone, a small island near the Turkish coast, dominates a part of the Mediterranean Sea, or at least the naval traffic in the area.  Protected by an overhanging rock two huge German guns cover enough sea to make some operations simply impossible.  The British Army has tried air raids and attacks over sea but they al failed.  The geography of the island makes it relatively easy to defend against large scale attacks over sea or through the air, even with relatively few soldiers or material - not that the Germans are understaffed there.  So the British attempt one last attack, with a small commando-group of sabotage-specialists.  They better hurry: within 5 days they have to evacuate an island nearby or 1500 soldiers will either die or be captured, and their only escape is over sea, a sea covered by the giant guns.

Keith Mallory, a very skilled mountaineer from New Zealand, leads a group of five, each carefully chosen for their specialities.  The first hurdle they have to take is to arrive unnoticed over the sea, at the southside of the island, as the smooth almost vertical cliff there is considered unclimable.  On sea however they notice that the secrecy surrounding the whole operation isn't total, and somehow the Germans seem to know about them.

They do manage to reach the island, and climb the cliff.  For once the weather cooperates, concealing their activities.  One of them does get seriously wounded, but they all get on the cliff and into relative safety.  With some difficulty the group makes contact with one of the islanders who will guide them to the fortress where the guns are.  But from there on it seems as if the Germans are constantly on their tail, too constantly to be comfortable...

I don't know if you saw the movie, with David Niven and Gregory Peck (though their slick appearance didn't quite represent the exhausted and almost constantly soaked characters from the book): good old entertainment, lots of excitement, lots of tension, a real war-thriller, with here and there a lovely humoristic remark to lighten everything up.  The book is no different.  The characters are not that three-dimensional, the story is rather straightforward, the plot is not that unpredictable...  But oh boy what a read.  Don't start this when you don't have much time, the action starts on page 2 and it doesn 't stop until (in my translation) page 219 (out of 220), and you'll have a hard time putting the book down.

Great entertainment.