The Perfect Horse- The Daring U.s. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis by Elizabeth Letts

New York Times Bestseller From the author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion, the remarkable story of the heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War Iiwinner Of The Pen Award For Research Nonfiction In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing findhis briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines. Hitler has stockpiled the world's finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machinean equine master race. But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food. With only hours to spare, one of the U. S. Army's last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decisionwith General George Patton's blessingto mount a covert rescue operation. Racing against time, Reed's small but determined force of soldiers, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines in a last-ditch effort to save the horses. Pulling together this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters- Alois Podhajsky, director of the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a former Olympic medalist.