Task Force Baum
  • Published: 29 March 2021
  • ISBN: 9780786046324
  • Imprint: Kensington
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $17.99

Task Force Baum

Formats & editions
Paperback
29 Mar 2021
Hardback
26 Nov 2019
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Inspired by the clandestine unauthorized raid on a World War II POW camp that General George S. Patton later described as "the only mistake I made during the war," bestselling author James D. Shipman delivers a powerful, action-packed novel that illustrates the long-buried secrets and unending costs of war.

Inspired by true events during WWII that General George S. Patton later described as "the only mistake I made during the war," bestselling author James D. Shipman delivers a powerful, action-packed novel that illustrates the long-buried secrets and unending costs of war. Based on the true story of General Patton's clandestine unauthorized raid on a World War II POW camp.

March, 1945. Allied forces are battle-worn but wearily optimistic. Russia's Red Army is advancing hard on Germany from the east, bolstering Allied troops moving in from the west and north. Soon, surely, Axis forces must accept defeat. Yet for Captain Jim Curtis, each day is a reminder of how unpredictable and uncertain warfare can be.

Captured during the Battle of the Bulge after the Germans launched a devastating surprise attack, Curtis is imprisoned at a POW camp in Hammelburg, Bavaria. Conditions are grim. Inmates and guards alike are freezing and starving, with rations dwindling day by day. But whispers say General Patton's troops are on the way, and the camp may soon be liberated.

Indeed, fifty miles away, a task force of three hundred men is preparing to cross into Germany. With camps up and down the line, what makes Hammelburg so special they don't know, but orders are orders. Yet their hopes of evading the enemy quickly evaporate. Wracked by poor judgment, insufficient arms, and bad luck, the raid unravels with shattering losses. The liberation inmates hoped for becomes a struggle for survival marked by a stark choice: stay, or risk escaping into danger--while leaving some behind.

For Curtis, the decision is an even more personal test of loyalty, friendship, and the values for which one will die or kill. It will be another twenty years before the unsanctioned mission's secret motivation becomes public knowledge, creating a controversy that will forever color Patton's legacy and linger on in the lives of those who made it home at last--and the loved ones of those who did not.
  • Published: 29 March 2021
  • ISBN: 9780786046324
  • Imprint: Kensington
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $17.99
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Beyond the Wire
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Praise for Task Force Baum

Praise for James D. Shipman:

"This deeply impactful novel is based on the true story of Irena Sendler, a member of the Polish resistance who rescued 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto. James D. Shipman's heart-pounding historical thriller is a tribute to those who risked their lives to help others." - Christian Science Monitor, Best Books of the Month, on Irena's War

"Shipman (Task Force Baum) dazzles in this historical tour-de-force based on the real-life story of WWII Polish resistance fighter Irena Sendler...The author's impeccable research, gripping prose, and pitch-perfect pacing bring an immediacy to the atrocities wreaked on Jews and other "undesirables." Shipman's humbling, spellbinding tale is a standout among recent works of Holocaust fiction."- Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW for Irena's War

"Shipman packs a punch in the two days that the book covers. Tactics and countertactics and fuel and ammunition shortages add to the tension. Mixing both real and fictional characters, Shipman maintains the history while also conveying a message about the type of men who served and how a "modern" view of warfare and loyalty differs from the men who fought as the Greatest Generation. Fans of technical war stories will be engrossed by the action. A nice retelling of the real history of Task Force Baum." - Historical Novels Review

"From the first crackling sentence to the vividly rendered climax, Task Force Baum provides the reader with a tempo that never flags. Based on a controversial raid in WWII to liberate a POW camp behind Nazi lines, this novel is revealing, and at the same time, great reading entertainment." --James R. Benn, author of When Hell Struck Twelve on Task Force Baum

"A Bitter Rain is the best kind of WWII novel, action-packed, populated by complex characters facing deep moral dilemmas, and historically accurate. I loved it." --Mark Sullivan, author of #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky on A Bitter Rain

"Harrowing, intense, and oh so real, this story plunges the reader into the nightmare world of Nazi Germany where good and decent people struggle to survive." --Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of The Royal Spyness Series and In Farleigh Field on A Bitter Rain

"Shipman has a real knack for telling interesting stories plucked from the WWII time frame...Task Force Baum is no exception" --We Are The Mighty