About the Tour
The vertical snow-capped peaks, winding alpine trails, and emerald lakes of the Italian Dolomites and Austrian Alps showcase some of the world’s most glorious natural beauty. But during World War II, they were also the setting for the virtual suicide missions of the Brenner Assignment. This is the story of one of the most brutal yet untold shadow wars involving American OSS commandos, forerunners to the US Army Special Forces who forged the original “Inglorious Bastards.” Behind the lines, the truth was far stranger than fiction.
Uncover a secret world by retracing the footsteps of these operators first brought to life by author, military historian, and special operations expert Patrick K. O’Donnell. Based on his award-winning and best-selling books Operatives, Spies and Saboteurs, The Brenner Assignment, and They Dared Return, this groundbreaking tour relives the behind-the-lines drama of an unknown theater of World War II. O’Donnell and Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, PhD, Founding President & CEO Emeritus of The National WWII Museum, will guide guests on a remarkable journey through history, highlighting some of the greatest special operations stories of the war—and venturing where no tour has ever gone before.
Dates
Late September 2026
Exact tour dates, full tour itinerary, inclusions, accommodations, and more details will be released in September 2025.
Pricing
Now accepting phone reservations ONLY.
Call 1-877-813-3329 x 257 to book.
Space is extremely limited, act now to ensure your spot on this unique journey!
A $2,500 per person refundable deposit reserves your booking. Book by October 31, 2025, to save $1,000 per person!
Starting at $14,599 $13,599
Tour Highlights*
- Fly into Venice, Italy, then take a scenic drive to Cortina, the heart of the action in The Brenner Assignment and the site of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
- Be immersed in Roderick Stephen Hall’s Brenner Assignment, which began with a daring parachute drop in the Friuli region of Northern Italy in the Dolomite Alps.
- Traverse an area that was infested by the SS and German-allied Cossack troops 80 years ago, and visit remote mountain safehouses while taking in gorgeous vistas.
- Retrace the resistance and guerilla tactics of the commandos and double agents and the cat-and-mouse hunt pitting the Americans against the elite SS and Gestapo.
- Listen to true stories of stunning escapes from heavily armed SS troops and their ferocious war dogs in plunging mountain ravines.
- Explore the setting of an impossible love story featuring a mysterious machine-gun-toting, auburn-haired countess who is also a double agent.
- See the centuries-old Casteldardo, a villa owned by a noblewoman and member of the resistance, used as a German headquarters while doubling as a safehouse under the noses of the Nazis.
- Travel north toward the Brenner Pass and Bolzano, Italy, to the Corpo d’Armata headquarters of the Gestapo and SS. Enter its infamous “machine room” torture chamber and visit the site of a concentration camp that held captured members of the American team.
- While in Bolzano, see the famous Ötzi—a 5,000-year-old “ice man” discovered near the Brenner Pass in 1991.
- Shop the old center of Merano, enjoy a lovely dinner in a local vineyard, and visit enchanting 11th-century Castle Tirol—the oldest extant castle in Europe since Roman times.
- Journey to Innsbruck, Austria, to see the glacier where the commando team parachuted and explore the operations and memories of the original Inglorious Bastards. Their chutzpah, disguised as German soldiers, culminated in one of WWII’s most daring and successful covert missions.
- From Innsbruck, relive the moments of danger endured by the team members, meet families of the resistance, see the safe houses, hear from local historians, and follow our tour leaders to the sites of memory and extraordinary deception that led to the climactic finale of the Special Ops mission in the last days of the war.
- Enjoy leisure time for cultural tours to historic castles and museums, shopping in the old medieval town (the “Altstadt”), cable cars to mountain peaks, special event dinners, and a visit to the famous Swarovski Kristallwelten.
*Tour itinerary is not final and is subject to change. Daily itinerary to be finalized in September 2025.
Destination Map
Patrick K. O’Donnell
Patrick K. O’Donnell is a critically acclaimed military historian and one of the world’s leading authorities on special operations forces and elite units. He is the best-selling author of 14 books, including The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II. O’Donnell’s most recent national award-winning books include The Unvanquished, The Indispensables, and Washington’s Immortals. He is a director and the official historian for the OSS Society and a visiting professor who lectures on irregular warfare and history. O’Donnell served as a combat historian who fought house-to-house with a US Marine Corps rifle platoon during the Battle of Fallujah. Over the past 33 years, O’Donnell has interviewed thousands of WWII veterans and members of elite and special operations units. He walks the hallowed ground he writes about and has conducted numerous historical tours in the United States and Europe. On the big screen, he has provided historical consulting for the award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers and for scores of documentaries produced by the BBC, Fox News, and the History Channel.
Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller
Nick Mueller is Founding President & CEO Emeritus of The National WWII Museum. Mueller assisted historian Stephen E. Ambrose, PhD, in founding the institution, initially known as The National D-Day Museum, and led the organization as Chairman of the Board from 1998, through its fundraising and construction to the Grand Opening on June 6, 2000, and then as President & CEO for the next 17 years. Before stepping into the museum world, Mueller enjoyed a 33-year career as a professor of European history at the University of New Orleans. During his tenure there, he also served as Dean, Vice Chancellor, and founding President of the Research and Technology Park. He is also founder of UNO’s Metropolitan College, Business-Higher Education Council, and the university’s International Study Programs. Mueller was awarded the 2018 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Founder’s Award for his immense contribution to furthering the public’s understanding of the citizen soldier and the military’s role in a democracy. Mueller’s book about the D-Day invasion, Everything We Have, was released in 2019. His book Preserving the Legacy, which tells the comprehensive and compelling story of the Museum’s founding and first two decades, will be published by LSU Press in May 2025.
