Patton's Last Gamble

In March 1945 against the advice of his top subordinates Gen. George Patton created a special task force to venture more than fifty miles behind enemy lines and liberate a POW camp near Hammelburg Germany. The camp held some 1500 American prisoners including Patton’s son-in-law. Hampered by ambushes and a lack of fuel and even maps the raid was a disaster one of the worst mistakes of Patton’s legendary career. Out of some 300 men only three dozen returned. Based on memoirs diaries combat reports and interviews with survivors Patton’s Last Gamble vividly recounts a mission Gen. Omar Bradley later said “began as a wild goose chase and ended in tragedy.”