And The Walls Came Tumbling Down
New York: Zebra Books [Kensington Publishing Corp.], 1984. First Zebra Printing [stated]. Mass market paperback. Includes Preface, as well as chapters on The Man Who Sold People; The American Connection, The Pint-Sized Giant; A Job for a Joshua; The Melting Pot, Bet-Laid Plans; Courvoisier the Pimp; "New Boy"; Opportunity Knocks at Noon; The Madame and the Maid; Visibility Zero; Nobody Got Soup; A Burglar's Lot; Of Brothels and Men; Piggyback Nightmare; It's Safer in Jail; Requiem Mass; and The Cycling Assassin. Also contains Postscript, Author's Notes and Acknowledgments; Bibliography, and Dedication. This work was a History Book Club Alternate Selection. Only one man--Charles Piquard--could lead the historic air attack that would free more than seven hundred men and women, and save the heroes of D-Day from Nazi extinction. Chronicles the drama of Operation Jericho, the February, 1944, air raid that freed more than seven hundred prisoners held in Amiens, France, in the greatest mass prison escape in history. Group Captain Percy Charles "Pick" Pickard, DSO & Two Bars, DFC (16 May 1915 – 18 February 1944) was an officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was the first officer of the RAF to be awarded the DSO three times during the Second World War. He flew over a hundred sorties and distinguished himself in a variety of operations requiring coolness under fire. He led the squadron of Whitley bombers that carried paratroopers to their drop for the Bruneval raid. Throughout 1943 he flew the Lysander on nighttime missions into occupied France for the SOE. Pickard led a group of Mosquitos on the Amiens raid, in which he was killed in action 18 February 1944. Jack Fishman believed that experience was the best education available and he ensured that he filled his life with as much as he could get: he achieved success as journalist, writer, and spycatcher. He worked his way up to become news editor, then deputy editor, of two of Britain's largest national newspapers, for the Kemsley newspaper group and later the Thomson organization. He then went on to edit Thomson's largest Sunday newspaper, Empire News, where he remained until the paper was sold to the News of the World in 1961. Fishman specialized in political journalism, and also had a particular interest in intelligence work. He was credited with the exposure of the most notorious spy Britain has ever known - Kim Philby. Following a tip from behind the Iron Curtain, the British government was alerted to the presence of a Russian agent within the Foreign Office. Fishman became convinced that Philby was the agent and set about using the national press to expose him. However, British libel laws prevented the story from being published in Britain, so, with the aid of two of Fishman's friends on the New York Daily News, the story was broken in America. The matter was then raised in Parliament, finally leading to Philby's defection to Moscow in 1963. Despite suggestions that Fishman was working for the CIA or MI5, he always claimed that he was merely acting as a journalist. . His first book had been published in 1954, The Seven Men of Spandau, about the seven Hitler henchmen who escaped the gallows at Nuremberg and were sentenced to be the sole inmates of the vast Spandau Prison in Berlin. His second, The Life of Joseph Stalin, was published in 1962, followed by My Darling Clementine (1963), a biography of Winston Churchill's wife. This was reprinted three times within the first month of its release, and became an instant best- seller in Britain and America, remaining in the list of top ten books for a further year. Based on his reaction to a pilot for a new American television show, in 1964 Fishman signed the literary rights to The Man From UNCLE, and was responsible for editing and co-publishing all the related books. In 1974 he published a collection of Winston Churchill's letters and documents, If I Lived My Life Again. He wrote two further best-sellers, the fictional KG200 (1977) and The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1982). Long Knives and Short Memories (1986) returned to the subject of Spandau Prison, concluding the story begun in his first book. Derived from a Kirkus review: In 1944 Amiens prison in northern France was filled, most with French Resistance patriots (most awaiting trial and horrible execution). The American and British powers-that-be determined that the D-Day invasion would have to be postponed unless the all-but-depleted Resistance forces, crucial to invasion-related intelligence, could be replenished (and re-inspired). So, with Dulles, Donovan, and Britain's "C" as masterminds, a plan was put together to bomb the prison and arrange for the safe escape of as many Resistance workers as possible -- with the vital help of French people in the area. The complications were staggering: the danger of the flying mission; the exactitude required in the bombing to maximize escape and minimize casualties; the peril from Gestapo agents among the populace; the search for hiding-places for the escapees. Such a tale resulted in a taut piece of WW II history/action. Fishman vows that "all events, scenes, and quotations stem from the testimony of eyewitnesses and documents." The narrative is likely to please. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Prisoners of War, POW, Escape, Air Raid, Charles Piquard, Prison Camp, Amiens, Royal Air Force, Special Operations
ISBN: 0821714449
[Book #82051]
Price: $30.00