The true story of American POWs in a Nazi concentration camp and their daring escape.
Operation Swallow is the story of how a small group of American soldiers, led by a charismatic but reluctant leader named Hans Kasten, tried, as camp leaders, to save hundreds of fellow servicemen from a diabolical Nazi plan to turn US prisoners-of-war into concentration camp slaves. It is a story that begins in the dark forests of the Ardennes during Christmas 1944 and ends at the charnel house that was Buchenwald Concentration Camp in spring 1945. It is the remarkable battle of wills between a young GI who is thrust into a leadership position he didn't want and an evil SS officer who will stop at nothing to complete his diabolical orders. It is also an escape story replete with courage, sacrifice, torture, despair, and salvation.
Even more remarkably, it is a story that has barely been told before, an appalling chapter of US military history and a truly uplifting Holocaust story that deserves to be widely known and understood. A compelling narrative-driven nonfiction book has not been written that takes the reader deep into the dark story of Operation 'Swallow' and Berga Concentration Camp--until now.
Written from personal testimonies and official documents, Operation Swallow is a tale replete with high adventure, strong and compelling characters, human drama, tragedy, and eventual salvation, from the pen of a master of the modern military narrative.