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The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II |  | Author: Patrick K. O'Donnell
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 3117
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.548673
ASIN: B001P5HMKA
Publication Date: October 6, 2008
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Product Description
An impossible mission
Behind enemy lines
The never-before-told true story of a small team of American saboteurs with orders to sever the Third Reich’s main supply artery—the Brenner Pass Like a scene from Where Eagles Dare, a small team of American special operatives parachutes into Italy under the noses of thousands of German troops. Their orders: link up with local partisans in the mountains and sabotage the well-guarded Brenner Pass, the crucial route through the Alps for the Nazi war machine. Without the supplies that travel this route, the German war effort in Italy will grind to a halt. Using thousands of recently declassified files, personal interviews, and private documents, including a behind-the-lines diary buried in a bottle, military historian Patrick K. O’Donnell has written a cinematic World War II adventure story. The unforgettable cast of characters includes the dashing and daring team leader; the romantic idealist who plans the operation; the seductive Italian countess who is also a double-agent; and the maniacal SS officer who will stop at nothing to kill the team and their partisan collaborators. The Brenner Assignment is also a World War II story that resonates today, revealing lessons for the war on terror and illustrating the complex nature of insurgency. Packed with action, suspense, intrigue, and even romance, this exciting true tale of survival and sabotage behind enemy lines is one of the greatest untold adventure stories of World War II.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 English professor recommends! July 5, 2010
Theana Kastens (Washington D.C.)
Having lived in Austria and having traveled the Brenner Pass to Italy, I was deeply moved by the descriptive realism and empathetic conveyance of character Patrick K. O'Donnell brings to his pages. His detailed academic research is evident in every word, supported by extensive notes in the back of the book, establishing the factual basis of his historical examination.
When O'Donnell describes a rastrellamento, the Italian word for a German posse in search of Allied forces or Italian partisans, the reader can feel the palpable fear that shot through a region and shook to the core those living in the shadows. While some were captured, others carried forward, persevering through the harshest weather conditions, driven by their dedication to the mission.
The courage of the brave men of the OSS - Hall, Chappell and team - is visually recreated and we, the readers, are the beneficiaries of the writer's tightly written account. When O'Donnell states near the book's end, "Like most soldiers who have tasted battle and loss, a part of them remains where they fought," he touches poignantly on all battles endured by the human spirit since time immemorial.
A MUST READ!
A Single Combat Fame Speaks Clear March 17, 2010
Gussie Fink-Nottle (California, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Dim is the rumour of a common fight,
When host meets host, and many names are sunk;
But of a single combat Fame speaks clear."
-- Matthew Arnold "Sohrab and Rustum" (1853)
The ski resort town Cortina d'Ampezzo is nestled in the Ampezzo valley of northeastern Italy, bordering Austria. The region's scenic Dolomite alps and valley have played host to a number of motion pictures. Classic adventure films such as The Pink Panther (1963), For Your Eyes Only (1981), and the Cliffhanger (1993) were filmed in the area. Cortina was also the site for the 1956 Winter Olympics.
During World War II, Cortina was a vital German army headquarter in northern Italy. It served as the communications and transportation synapse between Italy and Germany. To the west of this alpine village, the Brenner Pass had been the principal artery linking Italy and Austria during the conflict. Even to this day, it is still the lowest and easiest of the alpine routes to travel between the two countries. Its strategic importance dates back to the Roman empire.
One month before the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, the objective of The Brenner Assignment was for small teams of OSS (Office of Strategic Services) operatives, with the aid of local partisans, to disrupt and destroy the road network in the Cortina area feeding into the Brenner Pass. The principals of this true story centered about the Captains Stephen Hall and Howard Chappell.
Hall parachuted into northern Italy in August 1943, a month after the invasion of Sicily. Chappell's charge was to linked up with Hall and provided the latter with a radio operator. Chappell arrived at the Dolomites, the day after Christmas in 1943. By then, it had been three months since the Allied had successfully invaded and secured southern Italy. Consequently, the Allied and Italy declared armistice on 8 September, 1943. With Italy out of the war, the Germans fought on but slowly retreated northward to the Brenner Pass. And the SS were closing in on Hall and Chappell.
Yet, the fate of war barred the meeting of these two brothers-in-arms. Each relied on their skills and endurance to complete the objective charged. An excerpt from the book illustrates what these OSS operatives endured while fighting behind enemy line. In this narrative, the determination of an already ill and frostbitten Captain Hall heads toward the Cortina railroad station:
"An hour after dawn on January 26, Hall pushed off from his safe house in the tiny Dolomite town of Andrich...Hall's journey took him through seventeen miles of some of the most formidable terrain on earth. The miles are not a true measure of the journey, which only takes more than half an hour by car. On skis, the trip moves over mountains, down gullies, and into canyons. Hall's journey would take at least two days."
It's been said the world knows nothing of its greatest men. Books like The Brenner Assignment are answering such challenge and disproving its proposition. Wartime heroic exploits of men like Hall and Chappell are being revealed. There are those like Sartre, however, in their own state of existential existence, reason that wartime heroism is "a false experience". A Kant philodoxer, Sartre is in this instance. Heroism feels and never reasons, says Emerson, and therefore is always right. He further makes the point the things the hero does is the highest deed, and is not open to the censure of philosophers or divines.
Odd and quaint as it may seem, there is an old legal document which brings to bear on the illustrious character and splendid achievements of Captains Hall and Chappell:
"The difference between the difficult and the impossible is as follows: the difficult is troublesome to procure, but though troublesome it is still procured; whereas the impossible is a thing which it is impossible for a person to procure, because it is not natural for anybody to get it at all."
-- Ancient Laws of Ireland: Uraicect becc and Certain Other Selected Law Tract, Vol.5, 1901, page 223.
When viewed in totality the separately pledged labor of Hall and Chappell, they had, indeed, procured the difficult and the impossible in the Brenner assignment.
With diagrams and pictures, this is an easy and captivating book to read. Notwithstanding, the author should have included a discussion on the Allied invasion of Italy in the prologue. The Baby Boomers and the generations which follow could stand to learn more about World War II. In addition, a brief mentioned of dates and events of the invasion for each chapter heading would have helped. Having this information, the reader would have a better grasp of the dates mentioned the Hall and Chappell narratives, relative to the overall chronology of the invasion.
Near new condition,great price, great service. October 18, 2009
Jacobus J. Neggers
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Book was in excellent condition, the price was lower than one would expect for the condition, and the service was also very good. I would buy from them again.
 Not As Good Condition As Advertised May 15, 2009
Michael E. Conlon (MC)
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
Product was not in as good condition when I received it as I expected from the ad.
FIVE STAR HISTORY! May 4, 2009
W. H. McDonald Jr. (Elk Grove, CA USA)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
Start off with one great writer, Patrick K. O'Donnell, add a daring spy mission; then add a world at war, some really bad guys and lots of action and suspense, and you have the essence of a great book. "The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story Of The Most Daring Spy Mission Of World War II" is that book and it captures a story that is so fascinating it truly is worthy of being made into one of those huge blockbuster action films.
For history buffs and readers who enjoy spies, war, suspense and action entertainment they do not get much better. Written like a great novel this story will hold reader's attention from page one to the end. O'Donnell reminds us of why we enjoyed his other writings so well - he is a first rate story-teller!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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