In February 1945 the US Air Force launched their largest day time bombing raid on Berlin, dropping over 2,250 tons of bombs on the German capital. The Reichsbank, Germany's state bank, received 21 direct hits. This left the building badly damaged, its vaults unsafe and most of its contents at risk. The German authorities made the decision to take most of the Reichsbank's treasure away and hide it for safekeeping. Some $200M US in gold bars, weighing around 200 tons, plus paper currency reserves, as well as a great deal of foreign currency (approximately $4 million in US currency alone ? worth $4B US in today's money), was sent in trains from Berlin to secret hiding places around the Reich. Some of this loot was placed in a salt mine at a place called Merkers where it was captured by the US Army. After this disaster, the Germans spent the last six weeks of the war transferring their remaining bullion and currency reserves around what remained of the Reich in armoured trains; an area that included parts of northern Italy, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany, looking for somewhere safe. Much of this treasure disappeared. It was stolen or captured, mainly by American troops and the SS. Colin Fulton has woven a plot around one such robbery that includes the secret German squadron KG200 that flew captured allied aircraft, renegade Russian soldiers and a group of desperate Germans all anxious to escape the collapsing Third Reich. The mystery relayed surrounding the location and ultimate destination of one such hoard of liberated treasure is based on historical fact, providing as it does fertile ground on which to impose such a fiction. Secrecy, intrigue and fast paced action combine to create an absorbing novel, sure to appeal to fans of wartime fiction. AUTHOR: Colin Fulton has had a varied and successful career, spending more than fifteen years as a senior political journalist for three of Australia's television networks. He has also held senior positions in government as a media adviser and personal aid to a former Australian Premier and Deputy Premier in his home state of Victoria. For the past twenty years he has been the principal and owner of an Issues Management consultancy; Corporate Words. He and his wife live in Melbourne Australia. Author of the bestselling Peter Brock: Road to Glory (Allen jUnwin 2010) SELLING POINTS: ? Set amidst the bombing of the Reichsbank, Germany's state bank, during the Berlin Raids of WWII ? The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the treasures, which were liberated by the German authorities, provides an intriguing starting point. ? Combines action, suspense, familial tensions, and war-time intrigue to create an entertaining novel of startling pace
