Operation Vengeance

May 25, 2020
U.S. Air Force veteran Hampton (Chasing the Demon) delivers a solid account of the mission to take out Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, chief architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, in April 1943. Aiming to correct the historical record concerning which American pilot actually shot down Yamamoto’s plane, Hampton profiles three members of the fighter squadrons involved in the mission (Maj. John Mitchell, Capt. Tom Lanphier, and Lt. Rex Barber); documents how the breaking of Japan’s secret naval codes allowed U.S. commanders to learn that Yamamoto would be making an inspection tour of several Japanese-held islands, and which type of plane he would be flying in; and details the calculations required to intercept his plane over the island of Bougainville. Though Lanphier was the first to claim the kill, and credit was officially split between him and Barber, Hampton’s research proves that Barber alone brought down Yamamoto. Most recent war historians had already come to the same conclusion, but Hampton’s detailed calculations are definitive. Colorful details, no-nonsense prose (“a carrier with no aviators is just an oversize barge”), and meticulous research make this an essential retelling of Yamamoto’s death. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.

June 15, 2020
A long and diffuse but generally satisfying account of the World War II hunt for a notorious Japanese strategist. Hampton charts the killing of Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, a key planner of Pearl Harbor and of the Japanese war in the Pacific. After Midway and the Coral Sea, the Japanese perception of America as weak gave way to the realization that the enemy was tougher than anticipated; as the author writes portentously, "sand was leaking from the Japanese hourglass." Yamamoto developed a three-pronged plan to tangle the Americans in island-hopping fighting in the Solomon Sea, invade southern New Guinea to threaten Australia, and finally "catch the U.S. fleet in open water and destroy it." Such a formidable opponent had to be eliminated, and this became the objective of a group of elite American flyers who, working closely with intelligence units and cryptographers, divined Yamamoto's location. Knowing that once a plan was formulated the Japanese seldom varied from it, they timed when his plane would pass within striking distance. As Hampton clearly chronicles, credit for the kill goes to an Oregon-born flyer named Rex Barber. Instead, a hot-dogging senior officer claimed credit and, by doing so, broadcast the plain implication that U.S. intelligence had cracked the Japanese code. An irate Adm. William Halsey thus shelved recommendations that the members of the air mission be awarded the Medal of Honor and instead demoted them to receive only the Navy Cross. Barber considers Halsey's actions to be "contemptuous" and "ill-mannered," but he reserves greater scorn for "Japanese hubris." Though much of the big picture stuff has been covered more thoroughly in many of the standard WWII texts, the action sequences are vivid and engaging. By the numbers but with a welcome payoff in giving credit where it's due, albeit long after the fact.

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June 12, 2020

The Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942-43 was a pivotal event in the Pacific of World War II, as it denied a strategic base to Japanese forces and was the keystone of the first major land offensive by the Allies. Much of this latest book by retired lieutenant colonel Hampton (The Flight; The Hunter Killers) offers a simplified history of the battle. The author begins by describing how in April 1943, naval intelligence intercepted and decoded a message containing a detailed itinerary for Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Shortly after, a squadron of U.S. Air Force pilots were tasked with ambushing the admiral's transport. Sixteen P-38s embarked on a risky trip to the admiral's stop on an island near Bougainville; timing was critical, as there would be only a few minutes when he could be intercepted. There remains some debate over who fired the fatal shots--Hampton maintains that Lt. Rex Barker was the only pilot able to fire directly into the admiral's plane. Detailed maps and archival photographs are included. VERDICT Although this history is well documented in World War II literature, the accessible storytelling by Hampton will likely be of interest for aficionados of the period.--Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2020

Like Dick Lehr's Dead Reckoning (featured in Prepub Alert, 11/1/19), Hampton's work chronicles the U.S. mission to kill Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor. Hampton (Viper Pilot) focuses on the complexities of a 1,000-mile flight that wound about arduously to avoid detection. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.