About:
Ortiz's War: The Allies' Secret Weapon Against the Nazis in France by Nicholas Reynolds & Katie S. Sanders is a biography of Major Pete Ortiz, a Legionnaire, Marine, and OSS agent. Mr. Reynold is a retired Marine Colonel, and historian. Ms. Sanders is a journalist and podcast producer.
- 304 pages
- Publisher : Harper Horizon
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 140025616X
My rating for Ortiz's War - 4
Buy Ortiz's War from Amazon.com*
More books by Nicholas Reynolds*
More books by Katie S. Sanders*
Thoughts:
This book is a tight, focused, and well-researched account of Major Ortiz's life, one that could easily fill several lifetimes and a dozen movies. It's an easy and fast read, almost aimed at the younger generation instead of hard-core history buffs, which is great. When I was a young man, I loved these types of books.
Major Pierre "Pete" Ortiz was born with action in his blood. He ran away from home to join the French Foreign Legion, fought and got hurt in North Africa, and survived German imprisonment. By the time he joined the Marine Corp, he was already a seasoned veteran. Head of the s Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Wild Bill" Donovan, recruited Mr. Ortiz to train and lead the French Resistance before any American boot hit occupied Europe.
Ortiz's War by Nicholas Reynolds & Katie S. Sanders is grounded and focused. The authors' research is deep, though, and cross-referenced to bring to the reader the full story without conjunctures or embellishments. Not that Major Ortiz's life needed any embellishments, his whole journey is almost too believable to be true.
Man of la Book's Margin Notes: Resistance Network Resilience
Reading Ortiz's War, it suddenly occurred to me that I've read several other books that happened to be at the same time, and almost the same place of spies running their networks. I was especially interested in female ones and went back to books I've read for comparison. Major Ortiz disrupted the enemy on the ground, but the two spies I thought of when reading both books were ones that build, repaired, and sustain hidden human infrastructure that made the French Resistance possible to begin with.
Major Peter Ortiz was a tactical saboteur running local field teams without a central command. He ran a network of combat forces with a small footprint relying on tactical discipline, native fluency, and physicality. He interacted directly with local armed resistance fighters and led many on missions to sabotage enemy infrastructure.
Virgina Hall, the subject of Erika Robuck's excellent historical fiction book The Invisible Woman, operated as a central master logistics router, not a tactical saboteur, creating the Heckler network in Lyon and is often referred to as "World War II's most dangerous spy". Like Peter "The Phanom" Ortiz, Virginal Hall, an SEO and OSS operative, was hunted by the Gestapo, but managed to evade capture despite having a wooden leg. Ms. Hall organized safe houses, established secret drop zones, and funneled huge amounts of viable, and often actionable intelligence across occupied France and to the Allies hands. Like Major Ortiz, Virginia Hall realizes that chances of survival are often much better with deep social integration, than direct combat with a superior force.
Unlike Major Ortiz's small, localized units, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade administered a vast network, Alliance, of 3,000 French agents. The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester tells of how Mademoiselle Fourcade managed a massive, decentralized network of spies, codenames, and conduits across France. Alliance systematic operational uptime was maintained under constant infiltration by the Nazis, proving that high-level strategic management could keep the Allies informed before major invasions took place.
The author's laser focus on the facts doesn't slow down the narrative, quite the opposite. However, the tight scope doesn't' leave much room to put his action in the bigger context. That, I feel, is important if the book is really aimed at younger people.
If I had a dime for every book I read about Major Ortiz... I'd have 20 cents but it's strange that it happened in the same month. The first book I read, The Phantom, was excellent as well illuminating the same unbelievable story, however structurally they differ significantly.
As I mentioned, Ortiz's War is very disciplined, a micro biography of sorts. It's tuned mainly to the tactical orbit highlighting several unsung heroes of the which include French civilians, downed pilots, and Major Ortiz's team members, all a big part of his successful missions. By contrast, The Phantom tells a larger, more cinematic story. It makes sure to zoom out every now and then to reflect on the broader geopolitical impacts and implications of time. The OSS's bureaucratic clashes in Washington, for example.
With two major biographies of Major Pete Ortiz coming out back-to-back this fall, do you prefer tight, meticulously sourced micro-histories that stay focused strictly on the operative, or broad, cinematic narratives that detail the wider geopolitical war room?
Buy Ortiz's War from Amazon.com*
More books by Nicholas Reynolds*
More books by Katie S. Sanders*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
