Plot
The narrative began with a frame story in which author Jack Higgins discovers the grave of 14 Fallschirmjäger paratroopers in an English graveyard; their tombstones describe them as having been killed in action in November 1943. It then flashes back to late 1943, after the Gran Sasso raid by Fallschirmjäger frees Benito Mussolini from Italian government captivity. Adolf Hitler, with strong support from Heinrich Himmler, pushes for a similar plan to kidnap Winston Churchill. Wilhelm Canaris, the head of the Abwehr , is ordered to make a feasibility study of kidnapping Churchill from England. Despite fearing that the plan is unfeasible, Canaris orders a subordinate, Oberst Radl, to undertake the study.
Radl's staff receive a tip-off from a German spy in England, codenamed Starling, that Churchill is scheduled to spend a weekend holidaying at a country house in the village of Studley Constable in Norfolk. Starling is revealed to be Joanna Grey, an Afrikaner woman and longtime Abwehr agent who lives in Studley Constable. As a result of Grey's reports, Radl devises a plan to kidnap Churchill and transport him to Germany. Though Radl is certain the plan will succeed, Canaris orders him to abandon it. Himmler, having learnt of the plan, orders him to execute it without informing Canaris. In response, Radl arranges for Liam Devlin, a IRA member and Nazi agent, to be smuggled to Norfolk through Northern Ireland. [2] [3]
Posing as a wounded British Army veteran, Devlin makes his way to Studley Constable and makes contact with Grey, who arranges a position for him as gamekeeper in the country house. While awaiting further developments, Devlin becomes romantically involved with local girl Molly Prior. In Germany, Radl selects members of the kidnapping team. He travels to Alderney and recruits disgraced Fallschirmjäger officer Kurt Steiner. [4] Steiner accepts the mission, and is transported to an airfield in the Netherlands with his men, where they study Radl's plan. The team, dressed as Free Polish paratroopers and equipped with British weaponry, is then airdropped into Norfolk by a captured C-47 with Allied markings.
Initially, the plan goes off without a hitch. However, one of Steiner's men rescues a young English girl and dies in the process; his identity as a German is uncovered, and local priest Father Vereker inform nearby US Rangers, who launch an unsuccessful attack on the kidnapping team. [5] The Rangers launch another attack which is more successful, while Steiner and Devlin escape with help from Molly. Determined to finish the mission, Steiner allows Devlin to escape without him and makes a break for Churchill. He reaches Churchill but hesitates and is shot. Upon hearing news of the mission's failure, Radl suffers a heart attack while Himmler orders his arrest for high treason. The narrative flashes back to the present day, where Higgins meets with the terminally ill Vereker, who informs him that Churchill was actually en route to the Tehran Conference when the kidnapping attempt occurred, and the man Steiner nearly killed was an political decoy.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
