Customer Reviews

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is November 1943, and the Second World War is in its fourth year. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich is fending off Allied advances in the Eastern Front and in Italy. German cities are being bombed "around the clock" by the American and British air forces. Across the English Channel, the Anglo-American forces are marshaling troops and making plans for history's greatest amphibious operation, which is tentatively scheduled for May of 1944.

But even though Germany has suffered great defeats in North Africa and the vast territories of the Soviet Union, Hitler still has hopes of winning the war. Desperately seeking a significant propaganda victory and inspired by the rescue of fellow dictator Benito Mussolini by a team of German special forces, the Fuhrer (egged on by SS chief Heinrich Himmler) orders the head of Military Intelligence (Abwehr) to carry out an even more daring special forces mission: to capture British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bring him to the Reich.

At first, it is an offhand remark, "a joke," as Abwehr Col. Max Radl notes, "...something the Fuhrer threw out in an angry mood on a Wednesday, to be forgotten by Friday." Soon, though, as Himmler orders a feasibility study and Radl ponders it, what seems like a fantastic notion soon starts looking as something that can, with the right men and conditions, be done.

This dangerous mission is assigned to Lt. Col. Kurt Steiner, the son of a German general and his American wife, and a small group of paratroopers. Their mission: to drop into East Anglia near the town of Studley Constable, where Abwehr agent Joanna Grey and IRA operative Liam Devlin are waiting to assist in the capture of Britain's wartime leader, and snatch Churchill from the estate where he is staying while on an inspection tour.

And so, in the early morning hours of November 6, 1943, as soon as Steiner's small band of paratroopers floats down onto English soil, Heinrich Himmler receives the coded message he has been waiting for with great anticipation: "The Eagle has landed."

Jack Higgins' bestselling novel was published almost 30 years ago, but its taut storyline and inventive blend of fact and fiction place this World War II thriller in the ranks of the best books of the genre. His descriptions of historical characters -- such as Adolf Hitler -- and his references to actual historical events give the whole scenario verisimilitude. All the characters -- hero, anti-hero, and even villains -- are well-developed and believable. Higgins also has the creative chutzpah of injecting a first-person narrator named Jack Higgins, making the book sound like a reporter's expose of a German mission so daring that it had to be covered up by the Allies.

The novel launched Higgins' career into almost instant fame, and in turn inspired a 1977 film version starring Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, and Joanna Miles. It was followed in the mid-1980s by a sequel, The Eagle Has Flown.

The Eagle Has Landed is probably Jack Higgins best work. For almost fifteen years prior to this novels publication in 75 he had been turning out potboilers that took place among the London mob, the IRA, the Sicilian mafia, ex-Nazis hiding in South America. His books were solid, enertaining, and rather forgettable. But with Eagle Higgins found his stride. It's a classic WW2 suspense novel which takes all the cliches and combines them to make a rather fresh and exciting work. You actually find yourself hoping the German commandos pull it off. The book raised a few eyebrows when it came out because it was written predominately from the German point of view and the Germans were - for the most part - portrayed positively. I've read the book several times over the past sixteen years and have viewed the movie - also well done - several times as well. It moves quickly and is very engrossing. Unfortunly Eagle was Higgins high point - one which he has been working hard to recover ever since. His following books have been allright reading but he's never approached the quality of The Eagle Has Landed. If you're new to his work start off with Eagle and then try Storm Warning. After those two you're on your own. Eagle is excellent though.

In my opinion, this is the very best Higgins book. It is the type of novel that once into it, the reader simply cannot put down, especially after the team lands in England.

The premise of the story is a group of Germans that have a mission to kidnap Churchill. The leader, Kurt Steiner, a paratrooper, is a very compelling character, which makes th readers simpathize with him. On the other side is Liam Devlin, a former IRA fighter, helping the team in England.

The story unfolds seamlessly, with the German team recruiting help in England of nazi simpathizers, then moving in and planning the kidnap at Churchill's country estate.

As they are almost ready for the kidnapping, two children almost drown and one of the Germans tries to help them, blowing his cover. Then I should say no more, as the story becomes a thriller that the reader just cannot put down. It ends in an unexpected climax.

Though early in Higgins' career, I think this remains his very best, though it does not mean his later books are bad, just that this one is really good.

If there are two Jack Higgins books you absolutely MUST read, then this one and also EYE OF THE STORM are top of the list! This is perhaps his best known one in the UK - in 1943, Germany plots the ultimate undercover operation where an assorted ragbag of NAzi sympathisers and German paratroopers(Kurt Steiner being the main character here) clandestinely invade England to kidnap Prime Minister Winston Churchill. One of the main protagonists is Liam Devlin, an IRA fighter who teams up with the Germans and enjoys a romance with farmhand Molly Prior throughout the story. Everything seems to go smoothly until two children almost drown and one of the Germans tries to rescue them - and the residents of Norfolk village Studley Constable(where a lot of the action takes place) soon discover what exactly is about to happen. At this pojnt, the action moves swifty and builds up to an unexpected climax. One wonders if such a thing really did happen during World War 2, on reading the closing lines in the book . . . you never know! A real page-turner, which, although written in 1975, is still a winner today.

Probably like most contemporary readers of this World War II thriller, I first came across it as a Sunday afternoon film on TV when I was a child. But when I saw the audiobook at the library the other day, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to revisit a story I only remembered the outlines of. The book begins in a graveyard in a small English village on the Norfolk coast, where Higgins (the author) is futilely seeking the grave marker of an 18th-century American sailor as part of his research for a freelance article he's writing for a nautical magazine. In the course of this, he stumbles across a hidden gravestone from 1943 engraved with the names and ranks of a platoon of German paratroopers. When the local churchman attempts to run him off the property, he is determined to dig deeper, and so unwraps the secret tale of German paratroopers sent to abduct Winston Churchill.

Apparently Higgins felt there were a lack of English-language books that portrayed German soldiers in World War II as anything other than foaming-at-the-mouth Nazis, and wished to present a more balanced depiction in keeping with his own experience. The idea was to present a thrilling scheme organized and conducted by largely sympathetic professional German soldiers with the help of somewhat less sympathetic, but nonetheless engaging traitorous helpmates. Indeed, the backgrounds of these two traitors -- one is an IRA hit man, the other a Boer War widow -- is none too subtly calibrated to highlight the injustice and cruelty of British imperial rule. Although the IRA man probably has the most time on the page (and indeed, returns in five more books by Higgins), there's no protagonist as such, and the cast includes a bevy of German intelligence officers, a village full of typical stolid citizens, and a unit of American troops commanded by a kind of loose cannon (presumably meant to illustrate the ill discipline of the American cousins), not to mention the German commando unit itself. Everyone is kind of a stock character without very much depth, but that's pretty much OK for a thriller like this.

The book's opening graveyard scene appears to be a direct nod to the 1943 film When The Day Went Well (itself based on a Graham Greene short called "The Lieutenant Died Last"), which also opens in a small English village graveyard with a memorial to a platoon of German paratroopers. That story and film, which posit a small force bent on sabotage, must have clearly inspired Higgins, who then raised the stakes to the highest possible level in his version. On the whole, the book is a pretty fun read, and very well paced, with the action moving back and forth between the various players involved (including Himmler). It does get a little heavy-handed at times, especially the scene in which the true identity of the Germans is revealed, but it's all pretty ingenious and well-executed fun, chock full of interesting little details such as the Britisches Freikorps and things like that. Well worth reading by aficionados of WW II thrillers.

First published in 1975, The Eagle Has Landed, sets up a wild adventure with an incredible cast of characters to carry it out (and to meet it). The professional and highly capable Oberst Steiner is very engaging as is the enigmatic and charming Devlin. It is a fun romp with decent historical accuracy. What Higgins did so successfully is to have the reader confused about who they are rooting for! I love the line from Steiner, "Difficult decisions are the privilege of command".

Having seen the movie The Eagle Has Landed more times than I can remember I decided finally to read the book. I was totally taken aback to discover that it was based on an actual event with real life characters. An amazing story. The movie version does not do the story justice and recommend anyone who has seen the movie like me, to read the book. There is so much more involved in the actual event that has been left out of the movie that reading the print version will have you captivated from start to finish.

"The Eagle Has Landed' is a real thriller, there's no two ways about it. The characters are well developed and detailed. The audacious plot to either kidnap or kill Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, is entirely within reason and could have actually been done with a committed group such as that originated by Higgins. All the more so when you have a dedicated IRA gunman (Devlin) ready and waiting to assist the German commando goup.

To me, this novel rates as a classic of possible WWII espionage, and author Higgins certainly pulled out all the stops in his writing. You are so compelled to continue reading and never even think of putting the book down until you finish it.

E.J.Walden, autthor of "Operation Snow Owl"

I wondered why this book was still in print and selling briskly after all these years. Then I read it. The tension, the plot-line, the crescendo, the ending. It's all good.

This is certainly Higgis' best, or at least most well-known, book. The movie version (Donald Sutherland and Michael Caine) was equally great. Along with "Storm Warning" these are his two best yarns. I should know, I have them all. And I'm getting a little tired of Sean Dillon! Try Storm Warning, you'll love it!