Customer Reviews

Ten Thousand Eyes: The Amazing Story of the Spy Network That Cracked Hitler's Atlantic Wall Before D-Day

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At the darkest hour in France's history, after the defeat by the Germans in 1940, a plan was already fostered by Frenchmen living in England to build a vast espionage network behind enemy lines. This book tells how that plan came to fruition, providing vital information for the Allies as they prepared for the D-Day invasion.
Collier's well-written book is not a history in the usual sense of the word. Great personages occasionally visit the pages, but this tale is about ordinary people - bakers, doctors, mechanics, stenographers - who banded together, often in times of great peril, to obtain information essential for the Allies' success. Key to their efforts was to provide the specifications for "The Wall" - the massive system of fortifications that the Germans built, mainly in Normandy. The story of the theft of the German plan serves as a reminder that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Above all, Collier's friendly style shows the people at the center of this history with all their strengths and foibles - from their fear and despair at betrayal in their midst, through their anguish as they see their hometown of Caen destroyed by bombs, to their final joy as the Allies sweep the Germans from Normandy.
Although written in 1957, this book has lost none of its freshness. A story of ordinary people who, despite hardship and setback, triumph over evil. A book that lifts the heart.

Not what I expected. Very personal accounts of some of the locals. Very few and nebulous references to key details of the invasion. Not my type of work, but still not too bad reading.