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In a sense a man called Otto Skorzeny started it all on Sunday 12 September 1943…

Once again, I see a theme running through my choice of reading; though it is a theme that I did not explicitly seek out. In The Eagle Has Landed, author Jack Higgins starts his tale with the Nazi’s rescue of Mussolini following his capture by the Allied forces. The name is most-recently familiar to me because it was the appellation assumed by the chief villain of the Michael Walsh book series. Am I condemned to read the same words over and over?

In another sense, though, Skorzeny didn’t “start it all” at all – and in more ways than one. Most obviously, this is the opening line of Chapter 2, not the start of the book. The Eagle Has Landed actually begins with a revelation to the author in the present day (published 1975) which causes him to research the story which then begins on that Sunday in 1943. The first chapter is entirely a first-person description from the author and takes place thirty-some years after the war’s end.

Let me come back to that and, instead, first look into the history of my own copies of this book.

There was a period, sometime in my teenage years, when this was absolutely my favorite book in the world. It was far too long ago to recall the details but I must have read the thing multiple times. It surely shaped a number of my interests, not least of which was starting me down a long road – a journey of historical fiction, which it helped to shape my expectations of what that should be.

Wishing to share my passion, I lent my beat-up paperback copy of the book to my “best friend” at the time. Many months went by before I checked back in to see if he’d finished it yet. He had not. Furthermore, he said that he had either (again, time obscures the details) already returned the book, unread, or he had never been given it in the first place. I insisted that I would surely know it if I got my book back and he insisted, just as emphatically, that he didn’t have my book and I should quit trying to tell him otherwise. Looking back, I suspect we were already drifting apart but, in many ways, the argument over this book marks (to my mind) the end of that friendship.

I’m pretty sure he dislikes me to this day. I also don’t think his distaste has anything to do with the book (unless perhaps my teenaged infatuation with Higgins somehow associates me, in his mind, with Nazism.)

Now, here is where my memory gets extra bad. I have this strong feeling that I bought myself a new copy of The Eagle Has Landed some time around college. If so, I’ve lost that too. It probably traveled with me back and forth to school, to a summer job, and maybe elsewhere around the country. For all that, though, I probably only read the book one more time before it again vanished.

Just a few weeks ago, I was reminded of all of this when a like-minded blogger was posting some “favorite book” stuff and mentioned The Eagle Has Landed in the context of a “series.” As much as I loved this book, and so presumably would love the author, I’ve only read one other Jack Higgins book; Flight of Eagles (also Second World War among other similarities to …Landed). I can’t really explain my reticence- except that so many years went by during which one’s reading material was limited to what Waldenbooks had on their shelf at the mall. These days, two mouse clicks can get you a book on your doorstep a mere a day or two later. Assuming your favorite author is still in print, the gatekeepers are gone. I seemed well worth looking up “the rest of the story,” as it were.

What I found is that The Eagle Has Landed is pitched as being, not just the first of trilogy, but the first of two different trilogies.

The first of these trilogies continues the story of Liam Devlin (if that really is his name*), the IRA operative who is working for the Germans in The Eagle Has Landed. The follow-on Devlin stories are titled Touch the Devil and Confessional, respectively.

The second is exemplified by this three-in-one publishing package, available mostly as “used.” The Eagle Has Flown apparently continues the story of Kurt Steiner who has somehow, miraculously, survived his apparent death in The Eagle Has Landed. I don’t know how the third book is supposed to make a trilogy except that it is another World War II story about secret identities and intrigue.

I ended up buying the second book from each of the two series, because the price seemed right. I haven’t read either one of the yet. This is not what I’m here to talk to you about today. I’m in the mood to reflect upon the original book, The Eagle Has Landed.

So let us get back to that first chapter, the one that takes place in the present day of a year before the book was published. In fact, let’s go back a few pages more. A introductory page before that first chapter explains that “at least fifty percent [of the novel] is documented historical fact.” Now, I am pretty sure the newly-purchased paperback I now own has more in this vein that the copy I owned back in 1979-1980. I’ve read on-line that the “contemporary” part of this novel’s story has evolved with reprintings over the decades. I think that if the attempt to call the novel “mostly true” were as obvious in my original copy, I would have remembered it that way. As it was, I always took it as a fantasy of sorts.

I’ll admit, though, that this might because teenaged me was apt to skip over the prologues and other front matter.

So was I wrong? Is this actually based on a true story? Apparently, some members of the jury remain out in this regard. There is discussion on the internet about these claims, although it is hard to come by real data. More accurately it might be said that there are discussions about discussion on the internet (i.e. “somebody wrote…”). I think the general consensus is that the hint about it being a true story is just a gimmick to sell novels.

Does that mean he is lying about the “at least fifty percent” thing? Well, not necessarily. Much in the book is a restatement of historical fact. For example, Adolph Hitler really was supreme leader of Nazi Germany and Winston Churchill really was the Prime Minister of England. There is even a voice actor named Norman Shelley who, in 1977, claimed he had stood in for Churchill in several of his iconic speeches. Skorzeny was, of course, real and there is little doubt that German planners may have dreamed of pulling off another, similar stunt. There is also no doubt that the short jump across the channel tempted the Germans with the apparent vulnerability of someone like Churchill.

I am even willing to concede that Heinrich Himmler received a coded message informing him that “the Eagle has landed” near the close of 1943. I’m not willing to concede that anyone has any idea, beyond pure speculation, what this phrase was supposed to mean.

The details of Higgins’ present-day story are obviously verifiable – or should I say, refutable. The rather improbably-named village of Studley Constable does not exist and searching Norfolk Catholic Church cemeteries will not turn up a grave with the bodies of German fallschirmjäger. Nonetheless, there are elements of truth buried nearby.

One obvious stand-in for Studley Constable and Studley Grange is the village of Weybourne. Weybourne was the location of a secret military installation during the war (Weybourne and nearby Stiffkey were used for anti-aircraft gunnery training). Churchill is known to have visited the Weybourne facility on multiple occasions. I even found one podcaster that claims there is documentation placing him there in 1943, around the time in the novel. In addition to the beach, the marshes, and the military facility, Weybourne (at the time) had a disused mill – a key to the book’s plot.

Is this enough to cross that 50% threshold of “documented historical fact?” Personally, I wouldn’t think so. It is enough to defend against an accusation of outright lying, though.

One more odd blogging coincidence – this time with the casting of the film version. The on-screen, under-age love interest, the 17-year-old Molly Prior, is portrayed by 25-year-old Jenny Agutter. The same year Agutter made The Eagle Has Landed, she also played driving-force love interest Jessica 6 – the hottie who inspired Logan to run. The age distortion is probably highly warranted. Her paramour, Devlin, is somewhere in his mid-thirties but is portrayed by a 42-and-looking-every-minute-of-it Donald Sutherland. It would have been awfully creepy to see him macking on an actual teenager.

Ironically, Liam Devlin is based* on the real IRA fighter Frank Ryan. Ryan, himself, would have been 41 at the making Sutherland’s age correct.

Photo by David Dibert on Pexels.com

*The Eagle Has Landed hints that “Liam Devlin” is a pseudonym although it does not explain what, then, his christian name actually would be. Higgins had begun (sort of, I am looking at his second published book) his writing career with a novel about the IRA (Cry of the Hunter) and saw commercial success resulting from the follow-on piece to that story (A Prayer for the Dying). Eagle, in its opening, present-day narrative mentions the IRA research. Devlin, himself, is based loosely on the career of whiskey-buyer and fascist-puncher Frank Ryan. With “Liam Devlin” being but a nom de guerre, the real Devlin could have been anyone, including a thinly-veiled Ryan.