Force 10 from Navarone was published by Collins in 1968 as the sequel to The Guns of Navarone. The novel picks up hours after the destruction of the Navarone guns: Mallory, Miller, and Andrea are immediately reassigned to a new mission in Yugoslavia, where they must destroy a massive dam and bridge that the Germans are using to supply their forces in the region. The destruction will allow Partisan forces to launch an offensive that could tie down German divisions needed on the Russian front.
The Yugoslav setting allows MacLean to explore a different kind of warfare: the bitter internal politics of the Partisan movement, where Tito’s forces, royalist Chetniks, and opportunistic collaborators coexist in a landscape of mutual suspicion and betrayal. Mallory’s team must navigate these factions while carrying out their mission, and the human obstacles — traitors, double agents, political operatives with their own agendas — prove more dangerous than the German defenses.
The novel is more complex politically than its predecessor: where Navarone was a straightforward mission story (destroy the guns, save the men), Force 10 requires the team to understand and manipulate competing political interests while maintaining their cover. MacLean’s plot is characteristically intricate, with deceptions layered within deceptions and the true nature of the mission revealed only gradually.
The 1978 film adaptation — starring Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, and Edward Fox — was commercially successful but is generally considered inferior to the original Navarone film.
Collecting Force 10 from Navarone
First edition (Collins, London, 1968): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $75–$200
- Very good: $30–$75