Eagles Over Britain (The After Dunkirk Series)
The four Littlefield siblings—raised on Sark, an English Channel Island—have their worlds turned upside down by World War II. 1940—Adolf Hitler’s Germany has taken France by blitzkrieg and Allied forces evacuate during the Battle of Dunkirk. Fearful of France’s Navy falling under Axis control, Britain sinks French ships at Mers-el-Kébir; hundreds of French sailors die. Meanwhile, Germany’s Marshal Göring plans Adlertag (“Eagle Day”), a Luftwaffe attack on Britain.
Jackson, a prolific author with a West Point degree and U.S. Army experience, offers a fascinating glimpse into this bleak period of WWII. The main character Paul Littlefield, MI-6 intelligence officer, feels sidelined in London but, unknowingly, he’s groomed for an all-important mission. Jeremey, the youngest brother and Dunkirk hero—“the chap who saved the toddler” from the sinking Lancastria—is now a fighter pilot. Middle brother Lance is a German POW. Sister Clair, an MI-9 decoder at Bletchley Park’s “Hut 6,” is smitten with Eugene Tobin, a “tall, redheaded” American pilot. Or is Arthur Donahue more her type?
“Historians,” Paul reflects, “can’t possibly record all the sacrifices made by so many people.” We meet many. In France’s Resistance network, Madame Fourcade and the mysterious—beautiful and smart—Jeannie Rousseau. Bletchley’s “rising star,” Gordon Welchman; American “Billy” Fiske III, bobsled-champion-turned-fighter-pilot; and Canadian spymaster William Stephenson—codenamed “Intrepid” by the irascible Winston Churchill.
Some characters are rather stiff, as, at times, is the book’s prose. But Jackson artfully describes the Battle of Britain from multiple perspectives. In the skies, Spitfires and Hurricanes engage Messerschmitts and Stukas. On land, we experience London’s bombed buildings and follow the action on Sir “Stuffy” Dowding’s radar screens, and within secret Fighter Command bunkers where “small wooden cubes with multi-colored tags and little flags” are “pushed about by plotters with their croupiers.”
