天降雄鹰 (1975)

《天降雄鹰》（英语：The Eagle Has Landed）是杰克·希金斯在1975年出版的一部小说。它讲述的是一群纳粹德国特种部队成员刺杀英国首相温斯顿·丘吉尔的故事。1976年，本小说被拍成了同名电影。

内容简介

杰克·希金斯在小说中使用了伪书的技巧，故事开头他称在英国看见了13个德国空降猎兵的坟墓而知道了这个故事。

1943年，奥托·斯科尔兹内率领德国特种部队成员成功将贝尼托·墨索里尼从盟军手中救出，阿道夫·希特勒由此得到灵感，命令党卫队全国领袖海因里希·希姆莱和国防军总司令部军事情报局（德语：Abwehr，音译为“阿勃韦尔”）局长威廉·卡纳里斯制定一个刺杀英国首相温斯顿·丘吉尔的计划。威廉·卡纳里斯随后命令兰道上校制定计划。

德军计划温斯顿·丘吉尔在参观一个海边飞机场时将其刺杀，德军派出的是以库特·史坦纳为首的空降猎兵小队，他们计划伪装成波兰军队，在温斯顿·丘吉尔抵达时将其刺杀。但是当德军小队经过一个灌溉渠时，一个英国小女孩掉到灌溉渠里并差点被水车绞死，一名德军突击队员奋不顾身跳水救她并被被水车绞死，他穿的盟军制服里德军铁十字勋章露出，突击小队的身份被暴露。随后美军士兵赶来，将德军小队围困在教堂内。

此时德军小队拼命掩护队长库特·史坦纳逃出教堂，子弹打光后，德军小队在教堂内拉响了手榴弹集体自杀，库特·史坦纳在抵达海岸边的德军潜水艇时决定返回去刺杀丘吉尔，他最后成功的刺杀了丘吉尔，但是此人实际上只是丘吉尔的一个替身。

党卫队全国领袖海因里希·希姆莱随后将兰道上校定为行动失败的替罪羊，以叛国的罪名将其枪决。

The Eagle Has Landed is a book by British writer Jack Higgins, set during World War II and first published in 1975. It was quickly adapted into a British film of the same name, released in 1976.

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 and has a vendetta against the British due to losing her entire family in the Second Boer War. 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 reluctant Abwehr agent, to be smuggled to Norfolk through Northern Ireland.

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 after saving her from an attempted rape. In Germany, Radl selects members of the kidnapping team. He travels to Alderney and recruits disgraced Fallschirmjäger officer Oberst Kurt Steiner, sent there for trying to help a young Jewish girl escape from the SS during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Steiner accepts the mission to ensure the safety of his anti-Nazi father, and is transported to an airfield in the Netherlands with his men, where they study Radl's plan. Here, the team is joined by British Free Corps member Harvey Preston, whom Himmler sends as an SS observer. 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 from drowning and dies in the process; his identity as a German is uncovered. Local priest Father Vereker informs nearby US Rangers, who launch an unsuccessful attack on the kidnapping team, who are holding the villagers hostage in the parish church, resulting in the death of the Ranger commanding officer. Subsequently, Steiner releases the villagers as a show of good faith and is offered surrender, but politely refuses. The Rangers launch another attack which is more successful, wiping out almost all of the team, 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 by military police. 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 a political decoy.