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Countdown to Pearl Harbor
- The Twelve Days to the Attack
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 11 hrs
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Publisher's summary
A fascinating look at the twelve days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—the warnings, clues and missteps—by a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter.
In Washington, DC, in late November 1941, admirals compose the most ominous message in Navy history to warn Hawaii of possible danger, but they write it too vaguely. They think precautions are being taken, but never check to see if they are. A key intelligence officer wants more warnings sent, but he is on the losing end of a bureaucratic battle and can’t get the message out. American sleuths have pierced Japan’s most vital diplomatic code, and Washington believes it has a window on the enemy’s soul - but it does not.
In a small office at Pearl Harbor, overlooking the battleships at the heart of America’s seafaring power, the Commander of the Pacific Fleet tries to figure out how much danger he really faces. His intelligence unit has lost track of Japan’s biggest aircraft carriers, but assumes they are resting in a port far away. The admiral thinks Pearl is too shallow for torpedoes, so he never puts up a barrier. As he frets, a Japanese spy is counting the warships in the harbor and reporting to Tokyo.
There were false assumptions, and racist ones: The Japanese aren’t very good aviators and they don’t have the nerve or the skill to attempt a strike so far from their home. There were misunderstandings, conflicting desires, painful choices. And there was a naval officer who, on his very first mission as captain of his very first ship, did exactly the right thing. His warning could have averted disaster, but his superiors reacted too leisurely. Japanese planes arrived moments later.
Twomey’s telescoping of the twelve days leading to the attack unravels the crucial characters and moments, and produces an edge-of-your seat drama with fascinating details about America at this moment in its history. By the end, the reader understands how assumption is the root of disaster, and how sometimes a gamble pays off.
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Elliot Carlson's biography of Captain Joe Rochefort is the first to be written of the officer who headed the U.S. Navy's decrypt unit at Pearl Harbor and broke the Japanese Navy's code before the Battle of Midway. Listeners will share Rochefort's frustrations as he searches in vain for Yamamoto's fleet prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and share his joy when he succeeds in tracking the fleet in early 1942 and breaks the code that leads him to believe Yamamoto's invasion target is Midway.
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Amazingly engaging
- By Fletch on 10-19-13
By: Elliot Carlson
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The Brilliant Disaster
- JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba
- By: Jim Rasenberger
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The U.S.-backed military invasion of Cuba in 1961 remains one of the most ill-fated blunders in American history, with echoes of the event reverberating even today. Despite the Kennedy administration’s initial public insistence that the United States had nothing to do with the invasion, it soon became clear that the complex operation had been planned and approved by the best and brightest minds at the highest reaches of Washington, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President John F. Kennedy himself.
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US Government Perspective
- By Kindle Customer on 05-25-11
By: Jim Rasenberger
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Pearl Harbor
- From Infamy to Greatness
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Published in time for the 75th anniversary, a gripping and definitive account of the event that changed 20th-century America - Pearl Harbor - based on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times best-selling author.
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Poorly researched, author loses credibility.
- By booger on 12-23-18
By: Craig Nelson
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Blackett's War
- The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In March 1941, after a year of unbroken and devastating U-boat onslaughts, the British War Cabinet decided to try a new strategy in the foundering naval campaign. To do so, they hired an intensely private, bohemian physicist who was also an ardent socialist. Patrick Blackett was a former navy officer and future winner of the Nobel Prize; he is little remembered today, but he and his fellow scientists did as much to win the war against Nazi Germany as almost anyone else.
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First time science used to fight a war
- By Jean on 08-20-14
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The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I: Visions of Glory 1874-1932
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 41 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Winston Churchill is perhaps the most important political figure of the 20th century. His great oratory and leadership during the Second World War were only part of his huge breadth of experience and achievement. Studying his life is a fascinating way to imbibe the history of his era and gain insight into key events that have shaped our time.
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Superb - Review of Both Volume I & Volume II
- By Wolfpacker on 01-23-09
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Roosevelt's Centurions
- FDR and the Commanders He Led to Victory in World War II
- By: Joseph E. Persico
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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All American presidents are commanders in chief by law. Few perform as such in practice. In Roosevelt’s Centurions, distinguished historian Joseph E. Persico reveals how, during World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt seized the levers of wartime power like no president since Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Declaring himself "Dr. Win-the-War", FDR assumed the role of strategist in chief, and, though surrounded by star-studded generals and admirals, he made clear who was running the war. FDR was a hands-on war leader, involving himself in everything from choosing bomber targets to planning naval convoys to the design of landing craft.
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Superficial description of World War II
- By Mike From Mesa on 06-23-13
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American Caesar
- Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 31 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Virtually all Americans above a certain age hold strong opinions about Douglas MacArthur. They either worship him or despise him. Now, in this superb book, one of our most outstanding writers, after a meticulous three-year examination of the record, presents his startling insights about the man. The narrative is gripping, because the general's life was fascinating. It is moving, because he was a man of vision. It ends, finally, in tragedy, because his character, though majestic, was tragically flawed.
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A Great American
- By Charlotte A. Hu on 05-19-13
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Douglas MacArthur
- American Warrior
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 39 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Douglas MacArthur was arguably the last American public figure to be worshipped unreservedly as a national hero, the last military figure to conjure up the romantic stirrings once evoked by George Armstrong Custer and Robert E. Lee. But he was also one of America's most divisive figures, a man whose entire career was steeped in controversy. Was he an avatar or an anachronism, a brilliant strategist or a vainglorious mountebank?
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Claims to be balanced... glosses over flaws
- By Us 5 Camp on 07-03-18
By: Arthur Herman
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The Rising Sun
- The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 41 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."
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A political as well as military history
- By Mike From Mesa on 07-30-15
By: John Toland
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One Minute to Midnight
- Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: Michael Dobbs
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis.
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On the verge of annihilation.
- By MikeCG on 01-22-09
By: Michael Dobbs
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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Neptune
- The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: Craig L. Symonds
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventy years ago, more than 6000 Allied ships carried more than a million soldiers across the English Channel to a 50-mile-wide strip of the Normandy coast in German-occupied France. It was the greatest sea-borne assault in human history. The code names given to the beaches where the ships landed the soldiers have become immortal: Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and especially Omaha, the scene of almost unimaginable human tragedy.
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The Whys of D-Day
- By Mike From Mesa on 02-09-15
By: Craig L. Symonds
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A Man Called Intrepid
- The Incredible WWII Narrative of the Hero Whose Spy Network and Secret Diplomacy Changed the Course of History
- By: William Stevenson
- Narrated by: David McAlister
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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A Man Called Intrepid is the account of the world’s first integrated intelligence operation and of its master, William Stephenson. Codenamed INTREPID by Winston Churchill, Stephenson was charged with establishing and running a vast, worldwide intelligence network to challenge the terrifying force of Nazi Germany. Nothing less than the fate of Britain and the free world hung in the balance as INTREPID covertly set about stalling the Nazis by any means necessary.
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You have to wonder ...
- By Mike From Mesa on 04-15-14
People who viewed this also viewed...
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Pearl Harbor
- From Infamy to Greatness
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Published in time for the 75th anniversary, a gripping and definitive account of the event that changed 20th-century America - Pearl Harbor - based on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times best-selling author.
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Poorly researched, author loses credibility.
- By booger on 12-23-18
By: Craig Nelson
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Miracle at Midway
- By: Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
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Six months after Pearl Harbor, the seemingly invincible Imperial Japanese Navy prepared a decisive blow against the United States. After sweeping through Asia and the South Pacific, Japan's military targeted the tiny atoll of Midway, an ideal launching pad for the invasion of Hawaii and beyond. But the United States Navy was waiting for them. Thanks to cutting-edge code-breaking technology, tactical daring, and a huge stroke of luck, the Americans under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz dealt the Japanese navy its first major defeat of the war.
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Greatest Book on Midway Battle
- By WISDOC on 04-12-21
By: Gordon W. Prange, and others
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Day of Infamy
- By: Walter Lord
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Day of Infamy is Walter Lord's gripping, vivid re-creation of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The listener accompanies Admiral Nagumo's task force as it sweeps toward Hawaii; looks on while warning after warning is ignored on Oahu; and is enmeshed in the panic, confusion, and heroism of the final attack.
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Engaging Story, Great Reading
- By Chas on 12-07-04
By: Walter Lord
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Nimitz at War
- Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Only days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped Chester W. Nimitz to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. Nimitz transformed the devastated and dispirited Pacific fleet into the most powerful and commanding naval force in history. Facing demands from Washington to mount an early offensive, he had first to revive the depressed morale of the thousands of sailors, soldiers, and Marines who served under him. And of course, he also confronted a formidable and implacable enemy in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
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Excellent Story Solid Narration
- By arussellga on 06-14-22
By: Craig L. Symonds
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Pearl Harbor
- By: Newt Gingrich, William Forstchen
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Pearl Harbor covers the full spectrum of characters and events from that historic moment, from national leaders and admirals to the views of ordinary citizens caught in the chaos of war. Gingrich and Forstchen's now critically acclaimed approach, which they term "active history", examines how a change in but one decision might have profoundly altered American history. In Pearl Harbor, they pose the question of how the presence of but one more man within the Japanese attacking force could have transfigured the war.
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Good historical fiction
- By Stephen on 08-21-07
By: Newt Gingrich, and others
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Ghosts of Honolulu
- A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
- By: Mark Harmon
- Narrated by: Mark Harmon, Leon Carroll
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Hawaii, 1941. War clouds with Japan are gathering and the islands of Hawaii have become battlegrounds of spies, intelligence agents, and military officials - with the island's residents caught between them. Toiling in the shadows are Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information on the U.S. fleet.
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Stay away
- By Michele Berry on 11-20-23
By: Mark Harmon
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Pearl Harbor
- From Infamy to Greatness
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published in time for the 75th anniversary, a gripping and definitive account of the event that changed 20th-century America - Pearl Harbor - based on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times best-selling author.
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-
Poorly researched, author loses credibility.
- By booger on 12-23-18
By: Craig Nelson
-
Miracle at Midway
- By: Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the seemingly invincible Imperial Japanese Navy prepared a decisive blow against the United States. After sweeping through Asia and the South Pacific, Japan's military targeted the tiny atoll of Midway, an ideal launching pad for the invasion of Hawaii and beyond. But the United States Navy was waiting for them. Thanks to cutting-edge code-breaking technology, tactical daring, and a huge stroke of luck, the Americans under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz dealt the Japanese navy its first major defeat of the war.
-
-
Greatest Book on Midway Battle
- By WISDOC on 04-12-21
By: Gordon W. Prange, and others
-
Day of Infamy
- By: Walter Lord
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Day of Infamy is Walter Lord's gripping, vivid re-creation of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The listener accompanies Admiral Nagumo's task force as it sweeps toward Hawaii; looks on while warning after warning is ignored on Oahu; and is enmeshed in the panic, confusion, and heroism of the final attack.
-
-
Engaging Story, Great Reading
- By Chas on 12-07-04
By: Walter Lord
-
Nimitz at War
- Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay
- By: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped Chester W. Nimitz to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. Nimitz transformed the devastated and dispirited Pacific fleet into the most powerful and commanding naval force in history. Facing demands from Washington to mount an early offensive, he had first to revive the depressed morale of the thousands of sailors, soldiers, and Marines who served under him. And of course, he also confronted a formidable and implacable enemy in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
-
-
Excellent Story Solid Narration
- By arussellga on 06-14-22
By: Craig L. Symonds
-
Pearl Harbor
- By: Newt Gingrich, William Forstchen
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pearl Harbor covers the full spectrum of characters and events from that historic moment, from national leaders and admirals to the views of ordinary citizens caught in the chaos of war. Gingrich and Forstchen's now critically acclaimed approach, which they term "active history", examines how a change in but one decision might have profoundly altered American history. In Pearl Harbor, they pose the question of how the presence of but one more man within the Japanese attacking force could have transfigured the war.
-
-
Good historical fiction
- By Stephen on 08-21-07
By: Newt Gingrich, and others
-
Ghosts of Honolulu
- A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
- By: Mark Harmon
- Narrated by: Mark Harmon, Leon Carroll
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hawaii, 1941. War clouds with Japan are gathering and the islands of Hawaii have become battlegrounds of spies, intelligence agents, and military officials - with the island's residents caught between them. Toiling in the shadows are Douglas Wada, the only Japanese American agent in naval intelligence, and Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese spy sent to Pearl Harbor to gather information on the U.S. fleet.
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Stay away
- By Michele Berry on 11-20-23
By: Mark Harmon
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A Matter of Honor
- Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice
- By: Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Japanese onslaught on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, devastated Americans and precipitated entry into World War II. In the aftermath, Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, was relieved of command, accused of negligence and dereliction of duty, and publicly disgraced. But the admiral defended his actions through eight investigations and for the rest of his long life. The evidence against him was less than solid.
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Great information, Reads like a textbook.
- By UncleHammy on 12-13-16
By: Anthony Summers, and others
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Dark Waters, Starry Skies
- The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, March–October 1943
- By: Jeffrey Cox
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thousands of miles from friendly ports, the US Navy had finally managed to complete the capture of Guadalcanal from the Japanese in early 1943. Now the Allies sought to keep the offensive momentum won at such a high cost. This is the central plotline running through this page-turning history beginning with the Japanese Operation I-Go and the American ambush of Admiral Yamamoto and continuing on to the Allied invasion of New Georgia, northwest of Guadalcanal in the middle of the Solomon Islands and the location of a major Japanese base.
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great but way too much alliteration...
- By Greg on 06-16-23
By: Jeffrey Cox
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In Mortal Combat
- Korea, 1950-1953
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 27 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In this brilliant narrative of America's first limited war, Toland lets both the events and the participants speak for themselves, employing scrupulous archival research and interviews as the bases for the drama and accuracy of his writing. In Mortal Combat reveals Mao's prediction of the date and place of MacArthur's Inchon landing, Russia's indifference to the war, Mao's secret leadership of the North Korean military, and the true nature of both sides' treatment and repatriation of POWs.
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Slightly disappointed
- By Patrick on 09-02-19
By: John Toland
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December 7, 1941
- The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor
- By: Gordon Prange
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
With all the dramatic listenability of a novel, Prange provides a richly detailed, chronological account of the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Advertising in Army, Navy, Air Force Times, Military History, and World War II magazines.
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History in the first person
- By Walter Fiarman on 06-11-15
By: Gordon Prange
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The Quiet Warrior
- A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
- By: Thomas B. Buell
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Regarded as the standard biography of World War II naval hero Adm. Raymond A. Spruance. Spruance, victor of the battles of Midway and the Philippine Sea and commander of the Fifth Fleet in the invasions of the Gilberts, the Marshalls, the Marianas, and Okinawa, is one of the towering figures in American naval history. Yet his reserved, cerebral personality did not make "good copy" for correspondents, and until the publication of The Quiet Warrior he remained an elusive figure.
By: Thomas B. Buell
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The Girls of Pearl Harbor
- By: Soraya M. Lane
- Narrated by: Teri Clark Linden
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
When Grace, April, and Poppy join the US Army Nurse Corps, they see it as little more than an adventure, one made all the better by their first station: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Joined at the hip, idealistic Grace, exuberant Poppy, and brave but haunted April frolic in the sun, attending parties, flirting with the handsome soldiers, and becoming fast friends with seasoned nurse Eva. Like the Hawaiian sun, their future seems warm and bright - until the infamous morning of December 7.
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doesn't fit history
- By virginia in Iowa on 01-29-20
By: Soraya M. Lane
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The Admirals
- Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King - The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea
- By: Walter Borneman
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Only four men in American history have been promoted to the five-star rank of Admiral of the Fleet: William Leahy, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, and William Halsey. These four men were the best and the brightest the navy produced, and together they led the U.S. Navy to victory in World War II, establishing the United States as the world's greatest fleet. In The Admirals, award-winning historian Walter R. Borneman tells their story in full detail for the first time.
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Fantastic Insight In To Another Side Of the War
- By K. Winters on 02-25-13
By: Walter Borneman
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Admiral Bill Halsey
- A Naval Life
- By: Thomas Alexander Hughes
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
William Halsey was the most famous naval officer of World War II. His fearlessness in carrier raids against Japan, his steely resolve at Guadalcanal, and his impulsive blunder at the Battle of Leyte Gulf made him the "Patton of the Pacific" and solidified his reputation as a decisive, aggressive fighter prone to impetuous errors of judgment in the heat of battle.
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Finally a fair assessment
- By Stephen Breen on 06-28-20
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To Wake the Giant
- A Novel of Pearl Harbor
- By: Jeff Shaara
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Story
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt watches uneasily as the world heads rapidly down a dangerous path. The Japanese have waged an aggressive campaign against China, and they now begin to expand their ambitions to other parts of Asia. As their expansion efforts grow bolder, their enemies know that Japan's ultimate goal is total conquest over the region, especially when the Japanese align themselves with Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy, who wage their own war of conquest across Europe.
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Simplistic in the extreme
- By DPM on 05-22-20
By: Jeff Shaara
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Pearl Harbor
- The Verdict of History
- By: Gordon Prange
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 23 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Examines the underlying causes of Pearl Harbor and the revisionist theories that high officials knew of the attack. Gordon W. Prange is the author of Miracle at Midway and At Dawn We Slept. This title is the sequel to At Dawn We Slept.
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Exhaustive and only for the Most Inquisitive
- By C. G. Telcontar on 02-19-21
By: Gordon Prange
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Day of Deceit
- The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
- By: Robert B. Stinnett
- Narrated by: Rafael Ferrer
- Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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This great question of Pearl Harbor - what did we know and when did we know it? - has been argued for years. But no investigator has ever been able to prove that foreknowledge of the attack existed at the highest levels. Until now.
If you like Day of Deceit, try Trapped at Pearl Harbor and vintage audio of FDR's Day of Infamy Speech.
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Another View Of An Historic Event To Consider
- By Kindle Customer on 03-26-13
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Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
- By: Ian W. Toll
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss. Pacific Crucible tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history and seized the strategic initiative.
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
What listeners say about Countdown to Pearl Harbor
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sheldon of Idaho
- 11-24-16
Technical problems in Chapter 7
Would you try another book from Steve Twomey and/or Holter Graham?
Holter Graham's narration is unlistenable.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Text seems OK
How could the performance have been better?
Serious technical problems with narration in Chapter 7. Halting speech, weird gaps between words, UNLISTENABLE.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Doesn't ANYBODY review this stuff?
Any additional comments?
Same problem on both my iPod and on my Kindle.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Alec Drumm
- 01-23-17
New insights even for history buffs
I enjoyed learning about the weaknesses in the US preparation for war in the Pacific. The book makes it clear that with the knowledge they had at the time, it would have been a leap of faith for Admiral Kimmel and General Short to anticipate and prepare for an air raid. After all, the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was unprecedented. Never before had a force of aircraft carriers attacked a distant naval base by surprise.
However, it's also clear that Kimmel and Short could have done a lot more. They could have had a long distance air patrol, torpedo nets (especially after the British raid on the Italian navy in harbor in Taranto), and crews alerted to imminent hostile action.
But it was disappointing that the book did not address the US response to this lack of preparation after the attack. The book concludes with a postscript that briefly mentions the court martial of Kimmel and Short. I expected a discussion and analysis that was as insightful as the rest of the book, but the author did not discuss the command changes, changes in military procedure, and military response after the attack.
As with a lot of history books, this one is also written from the point of view of the victors and Japanese sources are few. It is never clear why the Japanese chose to attack and start a war that they knew they could not win.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Chris
- 12-05-21
Exactly what I wanted
In depth work about the political, military, and societal factors that culminated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Focusing heavily on American intelligence failures and the complacency that allowed the Japanese to achieve such complete surprise. Pairs well with Walter Lord’s book Day of Infamy to get a more complete picture of December 7th, 1941.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dr. Brian Klinge
- 12-07-16
An Excellent Historical Story
Expertly told...I had no idea of this history or its story. This story needs to be more fully understood by ALL students in schools and colleges as well as the General public.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-31-23
Loved this!
Such amazing detail, and reads like a suspense novel! This gave me a whole different view of Pearl Harbor and what I feel now was a laissez-faire approach to the defense of peace-time Pearl.
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- Paul Larson
- 06-13-23
Please narrator don't attempt voice's
Someone should have told the narrator that trying to do voice's is not his thing. The history is interesting but the bad attempt at voices is distracting.
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- Ted
- 02-27-22
Downright enthralling, despite a novice narrator
I call the reader a novice, but that’s just a guess. He sounds like a smart college student performing his first professional reading assignment, and he possesses an unfortunately boyish voice. And he tries a bit too hard: It’s clear he's fascinated by the material he’s narrating, which is definitely a point in his favor; but he’s somehow TOO enthusiastic, overemphasizing a word or two in every phrase as if reading to an inattentive elder.
The biggest problem is that when the book quotes someone directly — and in fact it’s filled with direct quotes — our eager young narrator signals that he’s quoting somebody by putting on a coarse, folksy, sometimes almost illiterate accent. Occasionally he even seems to be imitating a slightly drunken cowboy in a barroom, or a swaggering Southern redneck. The effect is weird; everyone comes off sounding a bit stupid. Admiral Husband Kimmel, for example, the man in charge of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor — obviously a major figure in this book — sounds at times like he’s some sort of crusty Western character actor. Even patrician President Roosevelt is sometimes made to sound like this. Prep-school- and Ivy-educated Boston Brahmins sound like ordinary folks.
I don’t know how the best professional audiobook readers indicate quoted material, but they somehow manage to do it without turning the speakers into caricatures.
Which is a shame, because the book is extraordinarily well written, fascinating in its wealth of research, and highly suspenseful (how could it not be?) as the Infamous Day draws closer and closer. It sheds a fairly sympathetic light on Admiral Kimmel and army commanding general Walter Short (but by no means exonerates them), detailing the preparations — or lack of them — for defense of the fleet; the poor communication between army and navy; the deference accorded Kimmel (in retrospect too much deference) to direct base security on his own without interference or oversight from Washington; the wealth of top-secret diplomatic traffic back and forth; the short supply of surveillance aircraft that might have spotted the Japanese fleet, if it had been sent out in the right direction; the well-known failure to act on two last-minute sightings (of a Japanese midget submarine and of a swarm of incoming aircraft spied on primitive radar); and the absurdity of the conspiracy buffs who claim Roosevelt knew of the attack.
The truth is, as the book makes clear, everyone knew that war with the Japanese was likely and probably imminent; almost everyone knew that the Japs were capable of a surprise attack without a normal declaration of war. What no one knew was precisely where the attack was going to come, or whether it would necessarily be against the United States (although, as the book reveals, we might well have regarded even an attack on British-held Singapore as sufficient grounds for war). For Japan to target distant Hawaii seemed such an implausible gamble, against a far mightier power, that it simply wasn’t taken very seriously. Earlier in 1941 a pair of intelligence experts had played with the idea of a dawn surprise attack launched by a fleet of Japanese aircraft carriers, and in retrospect the prescience of their scenario seems astonishing; but at the time, the paper they wrote was merely an intellectual exercise.
The sense I get from the book is that while, as is usual in disasters, there’s plenty of blame to go around, in truth the success of the Japanese strike was due as much to the sheer audacity of Admiral Yamamoto's plan as it was to America’s failure of imagination.
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- Croaky
- 02-25-22
Well researched and a detailed read
I enjoyed this book tremendously, although it was a bit wordy at times. I have never seen all of the pieces of the puzzle from the perspectives of Japan and the United States put together as they were in this book.
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- paul
- 01-10-22
book
loved it it shows on this version it was not the American s totally at fault
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A bit tedious but informative.
Narration: uninspiring. Lacks oomph. Just not enough variety in delivery. The narration comes across more as a chore than provocative insight.
Story: important and of significance to academics. All others may find this recounting tedious.
A shorter book (just the essence) would be for the less academic listener sufficient.
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