Review: A Quick Look at a Last Minute Mission in Europe
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2014
During World War II the German Army confiscated a number of the famed Lipizzaner horses from locations across Austria and Nazi-controlled Europe and had been holding them in a small town in Czechoslovakia. In the final days of the war, the Russian Army was approaching it rapidly from the east, and it was feared that if these horses fell into the hands of the Russians, they would be killed for food or pressed into service as draft animals back in the USSR. This short book provides an overview of the events surrounding a little known mission undertaken by the US Army in the final days of World War II in Europe to rescue these valuable, irreplaceable horses and transport them to safety behind Allied lines.This book is not an in-depth or scholarly work about the rescue of the Lipizzaners, but only a brief narrative of the timeline, events, and personalities involved in approving and implementing the action with a bit of background history about the famous horses.I enjoyed reading about this last-minute frenzy to save these unique animals that had become spoils of war and potential victims. The writing style was that of basic reporting rather than literary or scholarly. While informative as to the basic facts of the mission and the fates of the officers involved, the major failing of the book is that there were no references mentioned at all, no bibliography, nor even a short list of recommended further reading.Mildly recommended for animal lovers and those interested in World War II history.