The Eagle Has Landed is a book by
Jack HigginsJack Higgins is the principal pseudonym of UK novelist Harry Patterson. Patterson is the author of more than 60 novels. As Higgins, most have been thrillers of various types and, since his breakthrough novel The Eagle Has Landed in 1975, nearly all have been bestsellers...
set during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It first published in
1975The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...
. It was made into a
film of the same nameThe Eagle Has Landed is a 1976 film version of the novel The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. It was directed by John Sturges and starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall...
in
1976The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
starring
Michael CaineSir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
. The plot has some similarities with that of
Went the Day Well?"Went the Day Well?" is a British war film produced by Ealing Studios in 1942 as unofficial propaganda. It tells of how an English village is taken over by German paratroopers . Made during the war, it reflects the greatest potential nightmares of many Britons of the time, although the threat of...
, a film made during World War II itself.
The book is still in print, being reissued in New York by Berkley Books in 2000 with ISBN 0-425-17718-1.
Synopsis
The book makes use of the
false documentA false document is a literary technique employed to create verisimilitude in a work of fiction. By inventing and inserting documents that appear to be factual, an author tries to create a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected suspension of disbelief for a work of art...
technique, and opens with Higgins describing his discovery of the grave of thirteen German paratroopers in an English graveyard. What follows was inspired by the real life rescue of Hitler's ally
Benito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
by
Otto SkorzenyOtto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
, a similar idea is considered by Hitler, with the strong support of Himmler.
Admiral Wilhelm CanarisWilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...
, head of the
AbwehrThe Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
(German military intelligence), is ordered to make a feasibility study of the seemingly impossible task of capturing British Prime Minister
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and bringing him to the Reich.
Canaris considers the idea a joke, but realizes that although Hitler will soon forget the matter, Himmler will not. Fearing Himmler may try to discredit him, Canaris orders one of his officers,
OberstOberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. The Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti...
Radl to undertake the study, despite feeling that it is all just a waste of time.
An
UnteroffizierUnteroffizier is both a specific military rank as well as a collective term for non-commissioned officers of the German military that has existed since the 19th century. The rank existed as a title as early as the 17th century with the first widespread usage occurring in the Bavarian Army of the...
on Radl's staff finds that one of their spies, code named
Starling, has provided a tantalizing piece of intelligence. "At any other time, in any other place, this information would be useless", Radl said. "And then
synchronicitySynchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner...
rears its disturbing head." Winston Churchill is scheduled to spend a weekend at a country house near the village of Studley Constable,
NorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. There Joanna Grey, an
AfrikanerAfrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
woman and longtime
AbwehrThe Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
agent, lives. She detests England because she was tortured and raped by British soldiers during the Anglo-Boer War. As a result of her reports, Radl devises a detailed plan to intercept Churchill and return with him to Germany. Although he is certain the plan is foolproof, Admiral Canaris orders him to abandon it.
Himmler, however, has already learned of the scheme and summons Radl, ordering him to proceed, but without notifying Canaris. In response, Radl arranges for
Liam DevlinLiam Devlin is a protagonist and recurring character in the novels of Jack Higgins. "Liam Devlin" is a pseudonym and his real name is never revealed.-Background:...
, a member of the Anti-Treaty IRA, to be smuggled to Norfolk by way of
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Posing as a wounded veteran of the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, he contacts Mrs. Grey, who arranges a position for him as
game wardenA game warden is an employee who has the role of protecting wildlife. Game wardens may also be referred to as conservation officers or wildlife officers...
to the estate of Studley Grange. While awaiting further developments, Devlin romances Molly Prior, a girl from the village.
Meanwhile, Radl selects of a team of commandos to carry out the operation, led by a disgraced Fallschirmjäger commander,
Lieutenant ColonelLieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Kurt Steiner. While returning from the Eastern Front, Steiner had intervened when SS soldiers were rounding up Jews at a railway station in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. To the outrage of the SS and
PolizeiPolizei is the German word for police. It might refer to:-National agencies:*Bundespolizei - Federal Police of Germany*Bundespolizei - Federal Police of Austria*Bundeskriminalamt - Federal Criminal Office of Germany, comparable to the FBI...
, he took one of their men hostage and helped a teenage Jewess to escape on a passing freight train. For this, he was court-martialled, along with his men, who assisted his actions. Too highly decorated to face a firing squad, Steiner and his men were allowed to transfer to a penal unit in the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
. There they are forced to make suicidal attacks with manned torpedoes against
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Channel convoys.
Radl travels to
AlderneyAlderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...
and recruits the disgraced Colonel and his surviving men. Steiner's father, General Steiner, who is being tortured by the
GestapoThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
for his ties to the
German ResistanceThe German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
, serves as an additional incentive for the Colonel to accept the mission. Radl relocates Steiner and his men to an airfield on the north western coast of
Holland, there they familiarise themselves with the British weapons and equipment will be using. The team will be air dropped into Norfolk via a captured C-47 Dakota with Allied markings. The commandos outfit themselves as
Free PolishPolish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
troops, as few of them speak English; the plan is to infiltrate Studley Constable, complete their mission, rendezvous with an
E-boatE-boats was the designation for Motor Torpedo Boats of the German Navy during World War II. It is commonly held that the E stood for Enemy....
at the nearby coast and make their escape.
At first, the plan seems to go off without a hitch. Then, however, one of Steiner's men rescues two local children who have fallen in a water wheel. He is killed and his German uniform (worn, by Himmler's order, under the Polish uniforms, as protection against being executed as spies) is seen by Fr. Verecker, the local Roman Catholic priest. Determined to continue the mission, Steiner arranges for the locals to be rounded up, but the sister of Father Vereker escapes and alerts a local unit of US Army Rangers. Colonel Robert Shafto, an inexperienced but headstrong officer, rallies his forces to retake the hostages. The assault on the church fails, with many Americans killed in a foolhardy assault ordered by Shafto. After the Colonel is shot in the head by Mrs. Grey, however, Major Kane organizes a second, successful attack.
Steiner, his second-in-command Ritter von Neumann, and Devlin manage to escape with the aid of a local girl, Molly Prior, who had become romantically involved with the Irishman. Determined to finish the mission, Steiner allows Devlin and Neumann to escape without him and decides to make one last attempt at Churchill. He succeeds in reaching Churchill, but hesitates and is shot and is supposedly killed. (However, Steiner reappears alive in
The Eagle Has FlownThe Eagle Has Flown is a book by Jack Higgins, first published in 1991. It is a quasi-sequel to The Eagle Has Landed, with a similar plot structure, but an arguably weaker storyline.-Plot summary:...
, a sequel.) Radl has a heart attack, implied to be fatal, although at about the same time, Himmler, upon discovering that the mission has failed, orders Radl's arrest for
high treasonHigh treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
.
As in many novels of Higgins, this story is surrounded by a 'frame story' with a prologue and epilogue. The author, whilst doing historical research in
NorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, supposedly meets various surviving characters. Some paperback editions have more historical backstory than others, including a meeting with an older Liam Devlin in a Belfast hotel. The final revelation comes from an aged and terminally ill Father Vereker: "Churchill" had been an impersonator and even if the mission had succeeded, it would not have mattered.
Sequel
- After the success of The Eagle Has Landed, Higgins wrote a quasi-sequel called The Eagle Has Flown
The Eagle Has Flown is a book by Jack Higgins, first published in 1991. It is a quasi-sequel to The Eagle Has Landed, with a similar plot structure, but an arguably weaker storyline.-Plot summary:...
, which was published in 1991.
Characters
- Liam Devlin
Liam Devlin is a protagonist and recurring character in the novels of Jack Higgins. "Liam Devlin" is a pseudonym and his real name is never revealed.-Background:...
seems to be a compilation of several IRA veterans who collaborated with the AbwehrThe Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
, especially Frank RyanFrank Ryan was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army, editor of An Phoblacht, leftist activist and leader of Irish volunteers on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War....
(an IRA man who was captured during the Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
and "released" to Germany under house arrest). Liam Devlin is featured in several later Jack Higgins books, older and acting as a mentor to Sean DillonSean Dillon is a fictional Irish character who is the hero of certain Jack Higgins novels. He is described in the stories as a short man and fair-haired. An aspiring actor at the age of 19, Dillon takes up being an IRA member, seeking revenge after his father is killed in Belfast in the crossfire...
and Martin Brosnan. In Higgins' novel Confessional, Devlin allies with MI6 in order to prevent a rogue KGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
assassin from murdering PopeThe Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
John Paul II.
- The S.S.
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
British Free CorpsDuring World War II, the British Free Corps was a unit of the consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. The unit was originally known as The Legion of St...
unit is described in the book. In the novel, a British S.S. Officer named Harvey Preston is attached to Steiner's unit to add credibility. A rabid Nazi and convicted felon prior to his enlistment, Preston is viewed with disgust by Steiner, Devlin, and their fellow commandos. After Steiner, Neumannn, and Devlin escape, Preston is lynched inside the village's Roman Catholic Church by a mentally ill resident of Studley Constable.
- Lt. Colonel Kurt Steiner is not a Nazi stereotype. His character was based mainly on Fallschirmjaeger officers Frederich August Freiherr von der Heydte and Major Walter Koch
Walter Koch was a member of the Fallschirmjäger during World War II and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his actions during the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership...
. Koch himself was rumoured to have been murdered by the GestapoThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
. Steiner is a veteran of the Invasion of NorwayThe Norwegian Campaign was a military campaign that was fought in Norway during the Second World War between the Allies and Germany, after the latter's invasion of the country. In April 1940, the United Kingdom and France came to Norway's aid with an expeditionary force...
, Albert CanalThe Battle of Fort Eben-Emael was a battle between Belgian and German forces that took place between 10 May and 11 May 1940, and was part of the Battle of the Netherlands, Battle of Belgium and Fall Gelb, the German invasion of the Low Countries and France...
, the Battle of CreteThe Battle of Crete was a battle during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete under the code-name Unternehmen Merkur...
, Leningrad, StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
and the Ukraine.
- Leutnant Ritter von Neumann survived the war then joined the French Foreign Legion but was killed fighting as a sergeant in a French Foreign Legion parachute regiment at Dien Bien Phu
Điện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
in 1954
- Hauptstabfeldwebel Otto Brandt Killed in action in Studley Constable November 1943
- Feldwebel Hans Altmann Killed in action in Studley Constable November 1943
- Gefreiter Werner Briegel Killed in action in Studley Constable November 1943
- Joanna Grey is a German Fifth Columnist living in Studley Constable. Killed by American Ranger Jerzy Krukowski November 1943
- Paul Koenig Commander of the German E-boat
E-boats was the designation for Motor Torpedo Boats of the German Navy during World War II. It is commonly held that the E stood for Enemy....
killed in action three days after D-day making a torpedo run on British transports using Mulberry Harbour when his E-boat was blown out of the water by the guns of an American destroyer.
- John Amery
John Amery was a British fascist who proposed to the Wehrmacht the formation of a British volunteer force and made recruitment efforts and propaganda broadcasts for Nazi Germany...
, founding father of the British Legion of St George, was sentenced to death for high treason by Mr Justice Humphreys in No .1 Court at the Old Bailey in November 1945, and Harvey Preston's comrades of the British Free Corps fared no better. In spite of intensive recruiting, the SS never succeeded in raising it beyond a strength of two platoons. Those who survived the war received sentences varying from life down to a year or two. An interesting photo still exists showing twenty men and a sergeant serving with the SS Panzer grenadier division Nordland. When this unit was sent to Berlin to take part in the last terrible battle for the city, the British contingent was ordered to Templin on 15 April 1945, and their names disappear from the Division's records. Preston was, perhaps, in some ways luckier than he knew.
- Pamela Vereker married Harry Kane in 1945 but died of leukaemia in 1948.
- Brana Lezemnikof the little Jewish girl Steiner saved, had jumped from the train seven miles out of the city and had been found in a ditch with a broken ankle by members of a partisan unit. She survived the war and was last heard of in 1947 on leaving Warsaw for Marseilles with a group of other Jews, their intention being to take passage on one of the boats attempting to run the British blockade into Palestine.
External links
Release details
- 1975, US, Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-02500-7, Publication date ? ? ?, Paperback Edition