British Coastal Forces were the smallest fighting ships of the Royal Navy, able to fight in the shallowest waters, penetrate minefields and hide in the inlets of enemy-held islands -- they were, in fact, from 1940 to 1943 the only surface craft continually able to seek out and attack the enemy. Night assaults on enemy coastal convoys, clandestine operations landing spies and Special Boat Squadron units in North Africa and Yugoslavia were typical of the operations in which they were involved.

Based on the eyewitness accounts of the officers and men who served in these perilous actions, the story of Coastal Forces in the Mediterranean is told with all the attention to detail and vivid writing style that came to typify Dudley Pope's Ramage novels.