Patton's Last Gamble: The Disastrous Raid on POW Camp Hammelburg in World War II

By Duane Schultz

In March 1945, against the advice of his top subordinates, Gen. George Patton created a special task force to venture more than fifty miles behind enemy lines and liberate a POW camp near Hammelburg, Germany. The camp held some 1,500 American prisoners, including Patton’s son-in-law. Hampered by ambushes and a lack of fuel and even maps, the raid was a disaster, one of the worst mistakes of Patton’s legendary career. Out of some 300 men, only three dozen returned. Based on memoirs, diaries, combat reports, and interviews with survivors, Patton’s Last Gamble vividly recounts a mission Gen. Omar Bradley later said “began as a wild goose chase and ended in tragedy.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780811765954

Duane Schultz

This is Duane Schultz’s first foray in writing a book, as he wanted to do a legacy piece for his children and grandchildren. After this stint in rock and roll back in the day, he graduated from college and worked for Wisconsin’s Governor Lucy as an Administrative Assistant, then setting up workforce training programs across the state. He was then hired on at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Initially, he worked with community-based classes, retraining programs, and outreach efforts, and then he set up workplace education and supervised technology programs in the technical and industrial division. He wrote numerous state and federal grants while working at the college. He is now retired and living in the Milwaukee area.

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