Tom Townsend: Author Royal Fireworks Press Category:  Historical Fiction Publisher: Royal Fireworks Press ISBN-10:  0880924330 Type: Fiction Pages: 187 Copyright: June 1, 2004 ISBN-13: 9780880924344 A horse struggle to survive as part of the German Army in World War Two. Gypsy Prince was born small, the last foal of an old German war horse who had survived World War I. The stablemaster hoped he would grow up to pull a beer wagon in Munich, but it was the late 1930's and Germany needed every horse for the conflicts to come. Gypsy Prince sees action on the Eastern Front at Moscow and Stalingrad, then D-Day in Normandy. Before the war ends he helps the Americans and the French resistance before trying to make his way home to Bavaria.

Gypsy Prince: War Horse, A Book For Horse Lovers Of any Age, by JoAn Martin, Review Of Texas Books
Tom Townsend, of science fiction and pirate fame has written a compelling story of World War II, beginning in Bavaria at the beginning of Hitler's rise to power.
When Brunhilda,at almost thirty years old, drops her last foal, stable boy Karl feels a special affinity for the small colt. He determines to bottle-feed and train him, in spite of Josef, the stable master's, opinion that he would never amount to much. Although the colt's parents were war horses, pulling big guns in the First World War, this little runt will only be able to pull beer wagons. Karl has his work cut our for himself. He has to force-feed him with goats milk and continue to do his work for Joseph who is a hard taskmaster.
Against her husband's wishes, The baroness names the colt Gypsy Prince, even though gypsies are held in even lower esteem than Jews. Karl continues caring for Gypsy Prince along with other horses. Uta, a skinny young skinny girl, and Deiter, another stable boy, tease Karl about his attention to the small colt.
Karl and Deiter, along with Gysy Prince join the German Army's horse-drawn artillery and find themselves headed east to the Russian Front.
War does its disllusionment work. From Karl and Deiter's Hitler Youth idealogy to the gut-wrenching sight of the wanton destruction of a Russian village, through the battles of Stalingrad, Normandy, Falaise and Remagen, Townsend puts us there with the two naive boys. After a series of coincidences, Gypsy Prine's life comes full circle, back to Bavaria and his beloved pastures.
Tom Townsend has a unique talent for visuals: moonlight bathes the floor with pools of palke light; their water buckets freeze and their breath becomes thin silver clouds. Townsend also puts the reader inside Gypsy Prince's head, and with just the right touch, we view the world through a horse's eyes and feel his love for Karl and his hatred for the destruction of the war: it is reported that ten million horse died in World War Two.