The Phantom: The Untold Story of the American Marine the Nazis Could Not Kill by Drury, Bob

Soldier, spy, scout, saboteur, and French Resistance leader in the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe--the untold story of Marine legend Pete Ortiz.

Major Pierre "Pete" Ortiz was a Manhattan-born and Paris-educated polymath fluent in five languages. An adventuresome French Foreign Legion veteran specifically recruited by "Wild" Bill Donovan's Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to both the CIA and U.S. Special Forces) upon his enlistment in the Marines, Ortiz was the officer "Wild Bill" instinctively knew he needed and could rely on to complete a string of clandestine missions.

While recuperating from gunshot wounds received during a behind-the-lines excursion into enemy-held North Africa, Ortiz delivered his After-Action Report directly to Donovan in Washington. After reading it, "Wild Bill" scrawled across the top of the report: "Please re-employ this man as soon as possible." Ortiz's handlers heeded Donovan's request. Within a year Ortiz was surreptitiously parachuted into the Haute Savoie region of Occupied France, where he made contact with the resistance fighters who called themselves Maquisards.

By the time he retired as a United States Marine Corps colonel, he received two Navy Crosses for extraordinary heroism in World War II. He was one of the very few U.S. Marines to serve in combat in Europe during World War II, and one of the most decorated Marine officers of the war.

Author: Bob Drury,Tom Clavin
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 10/06/2026
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.60w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781250285850

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/01/2026 pg. 67
Publishers Weekly 07/13/2026
Booklist 09/01/2026

About the Author
BOB DRURY and TOM CLAVIN are the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of The Last Hill, as well as Blood and Treasure; The Heart of Everything That Is; Lucky 666; Halsey's Typhoon; Last Men Out; Valley Forge; and The Last Stand of Fox Company, which won the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award. They live in Manasquan, New Jersey, and Sag Harbor, New York, respectively.