The story rarely strays from the crew's point of view, but Monsarrat manages to include a sense of the strategic development of the conflict by filtering it through their eyes. The prose style is generally earnest and matter-of-fact, which actually enhances the emotional impact. As a war novel, it's got plenty of adventure, quiet heroism, gnarly injuries, and sudden death.
The final third of the book flags compared to the rest. Our heroes move to a larger ship where they can't possibly know their crew mates as intimately, and the business of escorting conveys settles into something like routine. The tide of the war turns in their favor. ("If I were writing the story of this contest, this is where the book would tail off, because we've reached the moment where nothing happens—we're just winning the war, and that's all there is to say.")
This one gets my highest recommendation. No fancy literary technique, just good old-fashioned immersive adventure, with some history to boot.
