Patrick O'Donnell
Da Capo Press
October 2008
Genre: Military History
Format:  Hardcover

"This exciting narrative of war at the personal level will be a good supplement to subject collections."- LIBRARY JOURNAL

"O'Donnell draws from primary documents and interviews with the story's main characters, lending the story historical truth...A valuable read for WWII buffs."- ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"Packed with action, suspense, intrigue, and even romance, this exciting tale of sabotage and survival behind enemy lines is one of the great untold adventure stories of the war. Highly recommended."- WWII HISTORY MAGAZINE

"The book's story is told with novelistic, even cinematic impact, and is sure to thrill fans of the derring-do of that war...O'Donnell writes nonfiction as if he is creating a thriller...He effectively presents not only the American operatives but also their enemies...And he traces the Brenner Pass assignment carefully, including what went right and what went wrong--bringing to life the small triumphs and failures that, collectively, can win or lose a war...O'Donnell's use of primary sources is impressive, as is his ability to knit the various parts of this story together. It is a well-told, true tale."- INFODAD.COM

"A story not widely known of unbelievable bravery, heroism, and commitment...A gripping old-fashioned tale of good (American agents and Italian Partisans) vs. evil (Nazi SS and Gestapo) with evil finally defeated and made to atone...Written with cinematic pacing and simplicity and with a cast of characters that are reminiscent of the black and white war films made during the war or shortly after." - POPMATTERS.COM

"O'Donnell, who wrote brilliantly of the current Iraq War in "We Were One," has revealed a little-known story of World War II...in fast-moving and engaging prose...Read[s] like a good suspense or spy novel. O'Donnell entertains thoroughly while bringing to light a locale and struggle few students of the war know about." AMERICA IN WWII

"Remarkable and very readable. Patrick O' Donnell has transformed an obscure World War II spy mission into a vivid and improbable adventure yarn."—Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize winning author of An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa

"Military historian Brenner (We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah) brings a cinematic style and considerable expertise to this engrossing tale of a behind-enemy-lines mission during the last year of WWII. With thorough research and new interviews, O'Donnell provides an insightful look into the internal struggles of the burgeoning OSS as well as a real-life espionage adventure of bravery, ingenuity and sacrifice." - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Mr. O'Donnell, who lives in Arlington, is a military historian of talent, and this work reflects a tremendous amount of work, both in OSS records in the National Archives and on-site explorations in Italy."- Joseph Goulden, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"In stark yet evocative prose, O'Donnell deftly shows how a young, idealistic Army lieutenant attempted to cut off access to the Brenner Pass."- THE WASHINGTON POST

"The story of two teams of OSS commandos dropped behind enemy lines to cut off Nazi transportation routes through the rugged Italian Alps. Military historian O'Donnell (We Were One, 2006, etc.) once again presents multiple perspectives from various sides of the battle lines, making use of diaries, letters, radio transmissions and reports, as well as hundreds of hours of interviews he conducted with participants. Among the significant actors were a pair of murderous Gestapo officers, a charismatic Italian partisan, a mysterious Swiss-born countess working as a French spy and a colorful OSS recruit whose résumé included stints as a cook, a maitre d', a soldier for Franco and a deserter from the French Foreign Legion. Most significant of all were newly minted OSS agents Capt. Stephen Hall and Capt. Howard Chappell, young, tough soldiers who had nothing to prove to anyone but themselves. In 1943, Hall wrote a letter to the OSS outlining a plan to parachute into the Italian Alps with enough supplies and explosives to be a one-man wrecking crew. His target: the high-mountain Brenner Pass rails and roads linking Austria with Italy , the Nazi war machine's lifeblood for supplies. Sent with a small team to make contact with Italian partisan fighters, Hall began his commando operations under the noses of German troops scouring the land in search of saboteurs. Chappell's team set out to link with Hall's, even as Hall began a solo move on Brenner Pass after the Nazis tightened their noose around the partisans. The endgame to this cat-and-mouse hinged on who got to whom first. O'Donnell clearly enjoys narrating war's gristle along with its meat; small successes and failures ground the story in the reality of sabotage, reconnaissance, capture and escape, torture and murder. Along the way, the participants' motivations, allegiances, thoughts and actions come alive in vigorous, exciting prose. A taut real-life thriller." - KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Patrick O'Donnell is a first rate storyteller and one of our most perceptive historians. Few writers give as much of themselves to bring history to life. THE BRENNER ASSIGNMENT is vintage O'Donnell. It is a pulse pounding thriller that reads like a novel. I had trouble putting it down. I highly recommend it."—John C. McManus, Award-winning Author of ALAMO IN THE ARDENNES

"Fascinating comes in many forms throughout this story, and at some point, most readers will have to remind themselves they are reading a non-fiction account. Whether it's the mysterious nature of the Italian countess or the fantasy-sounding glass bottle full of information, this story combines all the best thrilling possibility – the magic of Hollywood so to speak – into a fascinating adventure that could go wrong at a thousand different points. Within this framework, O'Donnell tells a tale worthy of praise weaving in and out of conflict, torment, and possibility throughout a torturous adventure in the heart of a massive conflict. Within this work, O'Donnell puts his wonderful narrative skill on display, and in so doing, hooks readers into a masterful historical plot from the first page." - METRO SPIRIT, J. Edward Sumerau

"If moviemakers ever run out of material for James Bond movies, they could always Anglicize the true stories of heroic American war saboteurs Stephen Hall and Albert Chappell.  In "The Brenner Assignment," Patrick K. O'Donnell tells for the first time the stories of the two men and their dangerous missions among double agents with the help of at least one lovely Bond girl." -DESERET NEWS

"This made-for-the-movies saga 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." - STEVE GODDARD'S HISTORY WIRE

"The best spy thriller of the year.... It is jaw-dropping that everything in THE BRENNER ASSIGNMENT is 100 percent real, making the writings of certain spy masters look like fairy tales.... O'Donnell has created a work of non-fiction that surpasses the greatest works of spy fiction." —Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm.com

"Just in time for the Christmas holiday season, The Brenner Assignment marks a fast-paced Word War Two epic that grips the reader with a sharp intensity seldom seen in today's middle-of-the-road literature. Melding the blow-by-blow reportage of Mailer's "The Executioner's Song" with the high drama of Hemingway's best short fiction...While most World War Two stories written today mistakenly attempt to be bigger than life, what's best about The Brenner Assignment is that it captures the human elements of war in true-to-life wordscapes (showing that valor and bravery are often only the by-products of ordinary men persevering against hard-edged odds). Featuring immaculate prose and exhaustive research (note that some of the details for this book actually grew from a diary that was once buried in a bottle), O'Donnell has created a movie in book form that will captivate its reader from start-to-finish. If there's a veteran in the house, this book makes for a natural gift that will entertain as it educates and enlightens." —John Aiello, Electricreview.com

"As strange and glorious as the most wildly conceived espionage fiction…Prose that could come right out of a spy thriller…O'Donnell is not only a first-rate historian, he's a world-class storyteller…He fleshes out history with a combination of hard evidence and intimate biography of the major players. If this were fiction, it would be remarkable; as an overlooked piece of world war history, it's priceless." —The Advocate

"One's imagination can guess about those things; if there is a movie based on this book, the producers will probably add that. While there the story includes a love affair, sexual details and scenes are not offered. Maps and black-and-white photos occupy the centerfold of the book, and endnotes and an index are included. The Brenner Assignment is highly recommended to those interested in World War II in Italy, spy stories, the OSS, or a good ol' hero story." —Curledup.com

"Set against the backdrop of an austere mountain landscape, the classic spy story O'Donnell succeeds in creating is complex, suspenseful, romantic, and reads like fiction."- Lisa Palmer, THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL

THE BRENNER ASSIGNMENT is the never-before-told true story of a small team of American spies operating behind enemy lines on an impossible mission: sever the Third Reich's main supply artery—the Brenner Pass.

Like a scene from WHERE EAGLES DARE, a small team of American spies 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 traveled this route, the German war effort would grind to a halt.

Using thousands of recently declassified files, private documents, and personal interviews, military historian Patrick K. O'Donnell has written a cinematic World War II adventure story, filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, including the dashing and daring team leader, the romantic idealist who plans the operation, a 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. 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 adventures of World War II.