War Is Hell. Except in Rick Atkinson's hands

摘要

In late March 1945, as Allied armies colled for their final assault on the doomed Third Reich, General George Patton launched a truly foolish raid on a small prison camp 60 miles behind German lines to rescue his son-in-law. The 300-man task force quickly ran Into trouble. Within hours, the Wehrmacht had destroyed all 53 American vehicles and sent scores of GIs running for their lives down a wooded hillside, bloodhounds In pursuit. "The baying of dogs echoed across the slope," Rick Atkinson writes. "One by one, the GIs were captured or shot down." Pattern's son-in-law, wounded In the rout, was soon back In German custody.