1942, and the Royal Navy finds itself threatened by a powerful new adversary. Thinly stretched across half the world's oceans, the Admiralty turns to the little ships of Coastal Command. In answer to the call, Lt-Cdr Richard Thorburn, maverick skipper of the small destroyer H.M.S. Brackendale, steps forward to fill the breech. In a time of desperate need, he will once more do battle in the turbulent waves of war.

In the June of 1944, a small, battle weary Royal Navy destroyer is recalled from the war-torn seas of the English Channel and assigned to a vital operation; codenamed ‘Neptune’. For Lieutenant-Commander Richard Thorburn, the once rebellious but now older and wiser captain of H.M.S. Brackendale, the desperate confusion of savage combat awaits. Primed for the bloody assault on the beaches of Nazi occupied Europe, he and his ship’s company stand ready for the trials ahead. When battle commences, it will be the indomitable spirit of a few, suffered by many, and shared by all, that determine the outcome for Hitler’s much acclaimed Atlantic Wall. This then, is their courageous fight to survive.

They said she was past her prime, fit only for the scrapyard. But after four long years the small destroyer had more than proved her worth. Now, in the September of 1944, three months after D-Day, HMS Brackendale prepares to slip her moorings and take passage for hostile waters. And although the Allied Armies are gaining ground across enemy occupied territory, elsewhere the Nazi war machine is still far from beaten. For Lieutenant-Commander Richard Thorburn, and his entire Ship’s Company, the war at sea rages on. As they return to battle, Thorburn can only promise an uncertain and perilous future.