Skorzeny's Secret Missions

Otto Skorzeny, Hitler’s favorite soldier and Germany’s top commando in World War II, is one of the most famous men in the history of special forces. His extraordinary wartime career was one of high risk and adventure, and here he tells the full story.

When Mussolini was imprisoned in Italy in 1943, it was Skorzeny who successfully led the daring glider rescue, winning the Knight’s Cross and promotion as a result. Skorzeny’s talents were brought into play again when he was sent to Budapest to stop the Hungarian regent Admiral Horthy from signing a peace treaty with Stalin in 1944. Now dubbed “the most dangerous man in Europe” by the Allies, Skorzeny was awarded the German Cross in Gold. A few months later he took a critical role in the Ardennes offensive with a controversial plan to raise a brigade disguised as Americans with captured Sherman tanks. A fascinating depiction of commando action, Skorzeny’s memoirs are a key addition to special forces literature.

Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna in 1908. On the eve of World War II, Skorzeny was working as a civil engineer. Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, he joined the SS and was assigned to Hitler’s elite bodyguard Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. He died in 1975.

Charles Messenger is a renowned historian, who has previously served twenty-one years with the British Royal Tank Regiment. He is the author of nearly 40 history books.

Dan Raviv is a CBS News correspondent who has been based in Tel Aviv, London, Miami, and Washington. He is also author of Comic Wars, a book about the bankruptcy and renaissance of Marvel Comics, and coauthor of books on Israeli espionage and diplomacy, including the national best seller Every Spy a Prince and Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars. He is a graduate of Harvard, married with two grown children.