Editing Nevil Shute (section)

== Second World War==
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Shute was a rising novelist. Even as war seemed imminent he was working on military projects with his former boss at Vickers, [[Charles Dennistoun Burney|Sir Dennistoun Burney]]. He was commissioned into the [[Royal Naval Reserve|Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve]] (RNVR) as a sub-lieutenant, having joined as an "elderly yachtsman" and expected to be in charge of a drifter or minesweeper, but after two days he was asked about his career and technical experience. He reached the "dizzy rank" of lieutenant commander, knowing nothing about "Sunday Divisions" and secretly fearing when he went on a little ship that he would be the senior naval officer and "have to do something".{{sfn|Shute|1954|p=3}}

So he ended up in the [[Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development]]. There he was a head of engineering, working on secret weapons such as [[Panjandrum]], a job that appealed to the engineer in him. He also developed the [[RP-3#Anti-submarine|Rocket Spear]], an anti-submarine missile with a fluted cast iron head. After the first U-boat was sunk by it, [[Charles Goodeve]] sent him a message concluding "I am particularly pleased as it fully substantiates the foresight you showed in pushing this in its early stages. My congratulations."<ref>Gerald Pawle (1957), ''Secret Weapons of World War II'' (original title, ''The Secret War''), 1967 reprint, New York:  Ballantine, Part II, "The Enemy under the Waters", Ch. 18, "Harrying the U-boats", pp. 183-186.</ref>

His celebrity as a writer caused the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] to send him to the [[Normandy Landings]] on 6 June 1944 and later to [[Burma]] as a correspondent. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant commander in the RNVR.