Dead Reckoning: The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor
About this ebook
On December seven, 1941, the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on U.S. bases on Hawaii. In a little over two hours, more than two,400 Americans were dead, propelling the U.S.’s entry into World War II.
Dead Reckoning is the true story of the high-stakes operation undertaken to avenge that deadly strike. Expertly crafting this “hunt for Bin Laden” —style WWII story, New York Times–bestselling author Dick Lehr recreates the tension-filled events leading up to the climactic clash in the South Pacific skies.
Lehr goes behind the scenes at Station Hypo on Hawaii, where U.S. Navy code breakers first discovered exactly where and when to find Admiral Yamamoto, and then chronicles in dramatic detail the nerve-wracking mission to kill him.
Lehr focuses on Army Air Force Major John W. Mitchell, the ace fighter pilot tasked with conceiving a flight route. Given unprecedented access to Mitchell’s personal papers, Lehr reveals for the first time the full story of Mitchell’s wartime exploits up to the face-off with Yamamoto, along with those of key American pilots Mitchell chose for the momentous mission. The spotlight also shines on their enemy target –Admiral Yamamoto, the enigmatic, charismatic commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet.
“Riveting . . .Major John Mitchell and his avenger flyboys emerge in these pages as true-blue military heroes of the Greatest Generation.” — Douglas Brinkley
“Lehr is a gifted raconteur. . . .[His] telling . . .has the excitement of a Steve McQueen car chase.” — Wall Street Journal
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About the author
Dick Lehr is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of six previous works of nonfiction and a novel for young adults. Lehr coauthored the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award Winning Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal, which became the basis of a Warner Bros. film of the same name. His most recent nonfiction book, The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited The Battle for Civil Rights, became the basis for a PBS/Independent Lens documentary. Two other books were Edgar Award finalists: The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide, and Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind The Dartmouth Murders. Lehr previously wrote for the Boston Globe, where he was a member of the Spotlight Team, a special projects reporter and a magazine writer. While at the Globe he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting and won numerous national and local journalism awards. Lehr lives near Boston.
