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In early 1944, the Massif du Vercors, isolated by high mountains, offered a refuge to the maquis sabotaging the Germans. Among their boldest leaders was a man who fought in a US Marine Corps uniform. He became known as Le Fantôme – the phantom.
“The Phantom: The Untold Story of the American Marine the Nazis Could Not Kill,” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, tells the story of Pierre “Peter” Ortiz, a Marine and OSS agent who served as a soldier, spy, scout, saboteur and French Resistance leader in the heart of Nazi-occupied France.
The book follows two tracks. It is a biography of Pete Ortiz, focused on his World War II service. It also charts the birth, growth, and history of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), under William Donovan’s leadership in World War II.
The authors show how William “Wild Bill” Donovan used a college friendship with President Roosevelt to create an independent intelligence gathering and sabotage service. Finding his original set of field agents, socially-elite collegians, failed to work out, he recruited a new batch from the Marines, including Ortiz.
Ortiz, the son of a French-born Spanish father and an American mother of Swiss descent, was born in New York City into New York’s cultural elite. After his parents’ divorce, he was raised in San Diego by his mother and then educated in France under the eyes of his father. An adventurous and athletic youth, with a talent for languages, he joined the French Foreign Legion for five years at age 18.
When World War II started, he was in Hollywood. Returning to France, he reenlisted in the French Foreign Legion, fought at the battle of France, was captured, escaped and returned to the US in December 1941 to join the Marines. After joining he was shifted into the OSS, to infiltrate North Africa and France.
They follow Ortiz through his training, service in North Africa, and insertion into France. Most of this focuses on his exploits operating out of the Vercors Massif in 1944. He was inserted twice, ranging France conducting sabotage and espionage. In August he was captured. Fortunately, the Germans did not connect him to the Phantom, and sent him to a Wehrmacht POW camp.
“The Phantom” reads like an adventure novel, but is a true story. The authors show both Ortiz and Donovan as larger-than-life figures who achieved great things in World War II.
“The Phantom: The Untold Story of the American Marine the Nazis Could Not Kill,” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, St. Martin’s Press, October 2026, 352 pages, $33.00 (Hardcover), $16.99 (E-book), $19.99 (Audiobook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com
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