"Operation Vengeance is colorful, intimate, eye-popping history,
delivered at a breakneck pace. I loved it." **-Lynn Vincent
**
The New York Times bestselling author of Viper Pilot delivers an
electrifying narrative account of the top-secret U.S. mission to kill
Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese commander who masterminded Pearl
Harbor.
In 1943, the United States military began to plan one of the most
dramatic secret missions of World War II. Its code name was Operation
Vengeance. Naval Intelligence had intercepted the itinerary of Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet,
whose stealth attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America's entry into
the war. Harvard-educated, Yamamoto was a close confidant of Emperor
Hirohito and a brilliant tactician who epitomized Japanese military
might. On April 18th, the U.S. discovered, he would travel to Rabaul in
the South Pacific to visit Japanese troops, then fly to the Japanese
airfield at Balalale, 400 miles to the southeast.
Set into motion, the Americans' plan was one of the most tactically
difficult operations of the war. To avoid detection, U.S. pilots had to
embark on a circuitous, 1,000-mile odyssey that would test not only
their skills but the physical integrity of their planes. The timing was
also crucial: the slightest miscalculation, even by a few minutes--or a
delay on the famously punctual Yamamoto's end--meant the entire plan
would collapse, endangering American lives. But if these remarkable
pilots succeeded, they could help turn the tide of the war--and greatly
boost Allied morale.
Informed by deep archival research and his experience as a decorated
combat pilot, Operation Vengeance focuses on the mission's pilots and
recreates the moment-by-moment drama they experienced in the air.
Hampton recreates this epic event in thrilling detail, and provides
groundbreaking evidence about what really happened that day.
Operation Vengeance includes 30 black-and-white images.
