World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
spy thriller written by British novelist
Ken Follett
Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works.
Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the ...
. It was published in hardcover format in 2001 by
Macmillan
MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to:
People
* McMillan (surname)
* Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan
* Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician
* James MacMillan, Scottish composer
* William Duncan MacMillan ...
. It was reissued as a paperback book by
Signet Books
The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishe ...
in 2002.
List of Characters
* Felicity "Flick" Clairet – S.O.E. agent. She is the most experienced member of the resistance (being married to one of its leaders) and has taken more missions than any agent in S.O.E
* Dieter Franck – German Army Intelligence officer working for FM
Erwin Rommel
Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...
. Unlike his colleagues he is not anti-Semitic and admires French culture, but he is still a German stereotype of efficiency; a shrewd detective and a ruthless interrogator, well versed in torture.
* Hans Hesse – Franck's right-hand man.
* Willi Weber – A zealous but narrow-minded
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
officer, Dieter's former colleague in the German police force
* Percy Thwaite – Senior S.O.E. agent, Flick's longtime superior and father figure.
* Paul Chancellor –
OSS
OSS or Oss may refer to:
Places
* Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands
* Osh Airport, IATA code OSS
People with the name
* Oss (surname), a surname
Arts and entertainment
* ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...
Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
;
Ken Follett
Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works.
Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the ...
, ''Jackdaws'',
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. aide to FM
Bernard Montgomery
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and t ...
; although he initially makes a bad impression on Flick, his admiration (and attraction) for her grows quickly.
* Michel Clairet –
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
leader, Flick's French husband; he is unfaithful to her, but is devoted to his country
* Mademoiselle Lemas – French Resistance sympathiser
*Stephanie - Dieter Franck's French mistress and a collaborator.
* Flick's team, the Jackdaws:
** Ruby Romain – an Anglo-French prison inmate who is uneducated, but cunning and tough
** Diana Colefield, daughter of Flick's mother's employer, who grew up with Flick – an awkward aristocrat, but a brilliant markswoman.
** Maude Valentine – an Anglo-French flirt, liar, and dreamer. She wants to see Paris.
** Lady Denise Bowyer – another awkward aristocrat, recruited by one of Flick's fellow officers who is trying to steal credit from her team.
** Geraldine "Jelly" Knight – Canadian explosives expert, the oldest of the Jackdaws.
** "Greta Garbo" (Gerhard) – an Anglo-German telephone engineer and drag queen, has suffered much at the hands of the Nazis.
Plot
A week or so before
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
, a group of
French resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
fighters tries to take out a critical telephone exchange in Sainte-Cécile. Felicity, who goes by Flick, is the group leader. The attack is a disaster, with many of the fighters killed or captured. Flick escapes with her wounded husband Michel, who is a resistance leader and is having an affair with a younger lady. Dieter Franck is a
German Army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
officer working for Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Rommel is on the coast, preparing for an invasion attempt by the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, and sent Dieter into France to gauge the strength of the French resistance. Dieter, an expert
interrogator
Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful infor ...
, witnessed the attack, seeing trained, brave fighters with plenty of weapons. Under interrogation, he forces one of the captured prisoners to tell him about Michel and Mademoiselle Lemas, who is the contact for Allied agents entering France. Flick heads back to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where she develops a new plan, using a team of women dressed as cleaning women to enter the building in Sainte-Cécile and destroy the exchange. She recruits a six-woman team: Denise, a Lady; Maude, a driver for FANY who exaggerates the truth; Diana, daughter of the Baron where Flick’s mom is a servant and Flick grew up, who is a crack shoot; Ruby, who is in prison and killed another prisoner; Jelly, an explosives expert; and Greta, a friend of Flick’s brother and a female impersonator who is a telephone exchange expert. Training follows. Diana and Maude develop a lesbian relationship. Denise is kicked off the team, because she talks too much. Paul is an American on the staff of General Montgomery and falls for Flick.
In France, Dieter tries to infiltrate the resistance groups. He gets
Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle (abbreviated as ''Mlle'' or ''M'') may refer to:
* Mademoiselle (title), the French-language equivalent of the title "miss"
Film and television
* ''Mademoiselle'' (1966 film), a French-British drama directed by Tony Richardson
* '' ...
Lemas to reveal how she is contacted by resistance fighters. Dieter’s French girlfriend Stephanie assumes the role of Mademoiselle Lemas and is able to convince Helicopter, a new radio operator, that she and Dieter are part of the resistance.
Flick senses something wrong at their original drop site, so she and her team parachute into France at an alternate location. This thwarts Dieter’s first attempt to capture Flick. It becomes a
cat and mouse
Cat and mouse, often expressed as cat-and-mouse game, is an English-language idiom that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes." The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mouse ...
, with Dieter making it more and more personal to capture Flick. Flick, on the other hand, doesn’t know how much Dieter has been able to deduce about her team. Flick and her team travel from their drop to Paris and then on to
Reims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
. Photos of Flick are on posters everywhere. Diana and Maude are captured in a fancy restaurant. Back in London, Paul has deduced that Helicopter was captured and that Flick may be in trouble, so he flies into France and makes his way to Mademoiselle Lemas place, where he is captured. Flick leads her team to Mademoiselle Lemas’s house, looking for a place to hide. She finds Paul’s toothbrush outside (he purposely dropped it there) and senses a problem. Flick and her team kill the two Gestapo officers inside the house, kill Stephanie and find Paul alive in the basement.
Flick and her team (minus Jelly, who was captured) manage to destroy the telephone exchange, but Greta is killed in the explosion. Dieter has managed to capture Michel and his young girlfriend, and has Michel reveal the pickup location for Flick’s team. While Dieter waits for the plane, Michel is able to sound a car horn, alerting Flick of the danger. Dieter kills Michel and his girlfriend, but Flick stabs Dieter in the eye. Her team returns to London as the D-Day invasion begins.
One year later, we learn that Diana and Maude died in a German prison. Ruby married one of her training instructors. Mademoiselle Lemas survived the German prison. Flick and Paul are married and plan to live in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. Dieter is back in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
with his wife, one eye missing and having mental issues.