Shout at the Devil is a tense adventure novel by Wilbur Smith, set during the outbreak of the First World War. Wilbur Smith admits in the foreword to this book that the story was inspired by the real-life sinking of the German mercantile raider SMS Konigsberg in the Kikunya channel of the Rufiji delta in 1915 by the British Royal Navy.
The story takes place in German East Africa, of what is now modern-day Tanzania, along the River Rufiji and its delta on the eve of the First World War.
In the book two freebooting adventurers – one a flamboyant Irish American called Flynn Patrick O’Flynn who is a poacher and con man, the other an impeccable young Englishman called Sebastian Oldsmith – pit their wits against the gross German Commissioner from whose territory they are making their living as game hunters and ivory poachers.
But the outbreak of war gives the signal for their private skirmishing to flare into a relentless vendetta pursued with devastating violence by land and sea, so that what begins as a comic escapade gives way to chilling horror.
Driven by revenge and fury, Oldsmith and O’Flynn join the British naval forces in order to destroy the Germans, and a shocking plan is formed. Can two of Africa’s greatest hunters bring down one of the greatest battleships in the world?
Shout at the Devil is a fast thrilling adventure, laced with humour, big scenes, savage fighting, leading to a highly exciting finale.
Shout at the Devil was also made into a 1976 British war adventure film directed by Peter R. Hunt and starring Lee Marvin and Roger Moore.
