Dark Full of Enemies(81)

Norway was not a priority to the Allies, who—on the grand strategic scale—had to balance their goals with pleasing Stalin, whose demands for a new front became more and more shrill as the war continued. Eisenhower eventually opened this front in Normandy, in June 1944, which led to the liberation of France, the Low Countries, and a sizable portion of Germany itself. Norway’s ordeal only ended with the final German surrender in May 1945, by which time over 10,000 Norwegians had died as a result of the occupation.

I am indebted to Max Hastings’s book Winston’s War, which first awakened me to the cost and moral questionability of special operations in Nazi-occupied Europe, and to Admiral William McRaven’s Special Ops, a series of case studies—many, like the mini-sub attack on the Tirpitz, drawn from this period of World War II—that served as an inspiration as I worked on this book. I owe a special debt to the late David Howarth, whose book The Shetland Bus is a monument both to the ferrying operation he helped to organize and lead, and to the courageous fishermen who crisscrossed the North Sea at enormous risk to themselves for the sake of their countrymen. Greater love hath no man.

I’m grateful to the Friendos—Dave Newell, Jim Blanchard, and Andrew Graves—who first read this novel in rough draft nearly five years ago and offered helpful critiques, as always. Alex Crunkleton’s time working for our alma mater’s university historian provided valuable insight into Clemson in the 1930s. I also want to thank my early readers, including Jared Wahl, John Chiafos, Jay Eldred, and especially my father-in-law, Steve Methvin, whose veteran thriller-reading sensibilities were a help and support as I began serious revisions last summer.

I wrote Dark Full of Enemies in the spring of 2013. In the four and a half years since, I have gotten married, moved away from my home state, gone from unemployed to adjunct to full-time college instructor, and had two children. The through-line in all of these events is Sarah, a brave and steadfast wife, mother, and friend, and it is to her that I dedicate this novel.





About the Author


Jordan M. Poss is a native of Rabun County, Georgia, and a graduate of Clemson University, where he studied Anglo-Saxon England and military history. He currently teaches history at a community college in upstate South Carolina, where he lives with his wife and children. He is also the author of No Snakes in Iceland and Griswoldville.