''Attack Alarm'' is a 1941

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. S ...

by the British writer

Hammond Innes Ralph Hammond Innes (15 July 1913 – 10 June 1998) was a British novelist who wrote over 30 novels, as well as works for children and travel books. Biography Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, and educated at Feltonfleet School, Cobham, Surrey ...

. It was inspired by the author's own experience as an anti-aircraft gunner at

RAF Kenley The former Royal Air Force Station Kenley, more commonly known as RAF Kenley was an airfield station of the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and the RAF in the Second World War. It played a significant role during the Battle of Britai ...

during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. In fact, according to Adrian Jack, the manuscript "was written on a gun-site after he had joined the Royal Artillery". It was published in the United States the following year by Macmillan.Vinson & Kirkpatrick p.455

Synopsis

In the summer of 1940, as the battle between the British and German air forces continues a former Fleet Street journalist now a gunner serving in an anti-aircraft battery begins to suspect that there may be a plot on the ground even more dangerous to his country than the enemy planes.

References

Bibliography

* James Vinson & D. L. Kirkpatrick. ''Contemporary Novelists''. St. James Press, 1986. 1941 British novels Novels by Hammond Innes British thriller novels William Collins, Sons books {{1940s-thriller-novel-stub