MovieChat Forums > The Eagle Has Landed (1976) Discussion > Beach mines question

Beach mines question

posted 16 years ago by jgroub
2 replies | jump to latest

When Devlin is on his bike after her on the horse, she goes through some barbed wire and some signs that say "DANGER - MINES!" to get to the beach. I don't care if she's Pam Anderson and Raquel Welch rolled into one, I ain't going past that barbed wire for some pu$$y! Why does he?

Why does he think that he can go wandering around on that beach, either when he's with her, or when he's gathering up the Germans parachuting in, without getting blown up? I don't get this at all. Was the sign just a ruse that the girl had figured out, and therefore, that he figured out too? And wouldn't there be some soldiers patrolling the beach to prevent exactly what happened - the landing of enemy soldiers?

I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] Locomotiva1 16 years ago

In the days after Dunkirk, British put up an haste defense of coasts.
So they put as much barbed wire they had, but they hadn't enough mines and enough men to phisically cover all coasts.

Fake minefields were common: and, also where there was a real minefield, villagers found the path to go throught.
You may read that even in the german Atlantic Wall, in Normandy, french paesants would pass through barbed wires, minefields and obstacles to go fishing.

And we're talking about 1942, when Sea Lion operation (invasion of Great Britan) was cancelled to fuel the east front and Rommel in north Africa.
So much of the paranoia about invasion passed, and Home Guard and territorial units were not that active on patrolling.

[–] Petey_138 14 years ago

1-2-3-4

I havent seen the movie yet, but i have read the book;
the story goes that Joanna Grey befriended with Sir Henry Willoughby, who is a "member" of the local Territorial Army (if i'm correct) & through him she got the information of the real locations of the mines, amongst other things, that she fowarded to Radl to help plan the top secret invasion, & of course the locals knew which mine field signs were real & which were not.

I highly recommend the book, you'd love it.

-pete-