The English edition of a best-seller reveals the life of a true Green Beret legend!
Finland fought for its independence in the Winter War, when the Red Army attacked its small neighbour. One of the white camouflage fighters was young Lauri Törni, a fearless Army officer in the Continuation War. The Russians offered a bounty of three million on his head. The Finns awarded him their highest decoration, the Mannerheim Cross.
When it was feared that the Soviet Union would occupy Finland, Törni left for Germany by submarine to obtain resistance training. Sentenced to six years in prison and later pardoned, the persecuted war hero travelled via Sweden to Venezuela. At night, he jumped off the ship into the Gulf of Mexico and swam to shore.
In the United States, Lauri Törni became Larry Thorne, a charismatic Special Forces officer and Green Beret legend. Master of winter warfare, parachutist, hard-fisted soldier. He is the role model for the movie character played by John Wayne. The mystery became complete when Thorne disappeared in a secret operation during the Vietnam War in 1965.
Kari Kallonen has researched archives and interviewed relatives as well as brothers-in-arms in both Finland and the United States. The author was a member of the search team that found the remains of Larry Thorne in the jungles of Vietnam. In this biography, an incredible adventure comes to a perfect ending.