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Informationen zum Autor Stuart Smith is a business journalist. He was a Major Open Scholar in Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford, 1973-76 and completed an MA in International Relations at Sussex University, 1978-9. For 20 years, until 2008, Stuart was editor of Marketing Week , a high-circulation business magazine. He lives in the UK. Klappentext SS- Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. 'Hitler's favourite commando' acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussolini from a mountain-top prison. Skorzeny's influence on special operations doctrine was far-reaching and long-lasting - in 2011, when US Navy SEALs infiltrated Pakistan to eliminate Osama Bin Laden, the operational planning was influenced by Skorzeny's legacy. Yet he was also an egoist who stole other men's credit (including for the seminal rescue of Mussolini), brave and resourceful but also an unrepentant Nazi and a self-aggrandizing hogger of the limelight. Stuart Smith draws on years of in-depth research to uncover the truth about Skorzeny's career and complex personality. From his background as a student radical in Vienna, to his bloody service with the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, his surprise rebirth as a commando, and his intriguing post-war career and mysterious fortune, this book tells Otto Skorzeny's story in full - warts and all - for the first time. Zusammenfassung This first book to reassess the myth and the realities of Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's favourite commando. SS- Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny became a legend in his own time. 'Hitler's favourite commando' acquired a reputation as a man of daring, renowned for his audacious 1943 mission to extricate Mussolini from a mountain-top prison.Skorzeny's influence on special operations doctrine was far-reaching and long-lasting - in 2011, when US Navy SEALs infiltrated Pakistan to eliminate Osama Bin Laden, the operational planning was influenced by Skorzeny's legacy. Yet he was also an egoist who stole other men's credit (including for the seminal rescue of Mussolini), brave and resourceful but also an unrepentant Nazi and a self-aggrandizing hogger of the limelight. Stuart Smith draws on years of in-depth research to uncover the truth about Skorzeny's career and complex personality. From his background as a student radical in Vienna, to his bloody service with the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, his surprise rebirth as a commando, and his intriguing post-war career and mysterious fortune, this book tells Otto Skorzeny's story in full - warts and all - for the first time. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments Prologue Maps 1. The Knowledge of Pain 2. Accidental Soldier 3. Thugs in Field Grey 4. The Liberator of Mussolini 5. Special Ops and High-Value Targets 6. Miracle Weapons 7. The Stauffenberg Plot - July 1944 8. The Scherhorn Affair 9. The SS Changes Tack 10. Operation Panzerfaust: Budapest, October 1944 11. Everything on One Card: Operation Greif 12. Operation Greif: Mission and Aftermath 13. Implosion: The Schwedt Bridgehead 14. Skorzeny's Last Stand 15. Trial and Errors 16. Escape from Darmstadt 17. Apocalypse Soon: Preparing for World War III 18. Neo-Nazis and Colonel Nasser: Skorzeny's Wilderness Years 19. The Years of Plenty 20. Ghosts of the Past: Skorzeny's Last Years Epilogue: Man and Myth Glossary Note on the Waffen-SS Bibliography Notes Index ...
