<b><i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • From the author of <i>The Eighty-Dollar Champion, </i>the remarkable story of the heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War II</b><br><br><b>WINNER OF THE PEN AWARD FOR RESEARCH NONFICTION</b><br><br> In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing find—his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines. Hitler has stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine—an equine master race. But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food.<br><br> With only hours to spare, one of the U.S. Army’s last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decision—with General George Patton’s blessing—to mount a covert rescue op