by Dick Lehr
First published 2020
Dick Lehr reconstructs Operation Vengeance, the American military's targeted assassination of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in April 1943. The book opens with the Pearl Harbor attack that Yamamoto orchestrated, then shifts to sixteen months later when U.S. Navy codebreakers at Station Hypo intercept intelligence revealing Yamamoto's exact location and schedule. Lehr focuses on Army Air Force Major John W. Mitchell from Enid, Mississippi, who must design a precise flight plan for P-38 Lightning fighters to intercept the Japanese admiral hundreds of miles from Guadalcanal. The author draws on Mitchell's personal papers and private correspondence to detail the planning and execution of this high-risk mission. Lehr also examines Yamamoto himself, exploring the Harvard-educated naval commander's complex relationship with America. The narrative follows the American pilots Mitchell selected for the operation, including Rex Barber, Thomas Lanphier Jr., Besby Holmes, and Ray Hine, as they prepare for their encounter with Japan's most celebrated military leader. The book captures both the strategic importance of eliminating Yamamoto and the personal stakes for the men tasked with hunting him down in Pacific skies.
Genres: 20th-century, military-fiction, action, non-fiction, military-history, american-history
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: based-on-true-events, historical-figures
Setting: Guadalcanal, Pacific, Enid, Mississippi
Period: 1943, 1941
1 pages · Audio CD · HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing