Howard W Chappell

Capt. Howard Chappell was an "  OSS in BRENNER PASS 43-44  "

OSS - Office of Strategic Services

READ Capt Chappell's AMAZING Story!  http://www.ossog.org/italy/tacoma.html

October, 1943, Capt. Howard Chappell was assigned as Executive Officer to the Operational Group (OG) for Germany of which the CO was Col. Casper. Casper resigned and was replaced by Capt.Chappell. The Group was comprised of 30 men and two officers. All were qualified parachutists and trained in guerrilla warfare. The unit was sent to Africa where orders were lost and the group was assigned to a replacement depot in Oran. Capt. Chappell succeeded in having his unit transferred to the OSS base in Algiers but here was unable to arrange a mission to Germany. After two trips to Caserta for this purpose he managed to have his group moved from Algiers to Siena, the Italian OG base. Chances for a German mission faded but in November came opportunity to work with the Italian Groups in Northern Italy.

   Rest of the STORY on the web-page, link just above.....

The BOOK;   *****  The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II   ***** Tells the entire Story;

http://www.amazon.com/The-Brenner-Assignment-Untold-Mission/dp/030681577X

_____ AND _____

http://www.military.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews/military-bookshelf-war--warriors-ii  

The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II,
by Patrick K. O'Donnell. Da Capo Press, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-306-81577-5

O'Donnell, the author of several military-themed books including the excellent We Were One about the Battle of Fallujah, tackles a little-known World War II spy mission in his latest popular history.

In August 1944, Capt. Stephen Hall, an OSS—Office of Strategic Services, the World War II forerunner of the CIA—operative, jumped behind German lines into northern Italy. Hall's mission was to link up with local partisans and shut down the Brenner Pass that connects Austria and Italy and was the Germans' supply and communications lifeline through the Alps.

Hall's task was complicated by several factors: the local Gestapo's tireless pursuit of the partisans; the internecine struggles among the various partisan factions; and the rugged terrain. It didn't help that Hall's drop zone was eighty arduous miles south of the Brenner Pass.

As Hall trekked north, the OSS dispatched Capt. Howard Chappell and a three-man OSS team to take him a radio operator. Chappell's team was hounded by the SS almost from the beginning and only barely escaped captivity.

Meanwhile, Hall—suffering from depression and a severe case of frostbite after six months behind enemy lines—was captured, tortured, and murdered by the SS.

Hall's ambitious mission failed, but his stranger-than-fiction odyssey—including a love affair with a beautiful countess and double-agent—makes for a compelling tale. The parallel story of Chappell's race to find Hall, if less tragic, is equally compelling.

Beginning with an inherently engaging tale of wartime derring-do, the author adds extensive research—from the OSS files at the National Archives to interviews with eyewitnesses including Italian partisans and the 90-year-old Chappell—and sprightly prose. The result is a first-rate spy tale.
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