Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor

By Donald A. Davis

Book Overview

This is the story of the fighter mission that changed World War II. It is the true story of the man behind Pearl Harbor--Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto--and the courageous young American fliers who flew the million-to-one suicide mission that shot him down.

Yamamoto was a cigar-smoking, poker-playing, English-speaking, Harvard-educated expert on America, and that intimate knowledge served him well as architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next sixteen months, this military genius, beloved by the Japanese people, lived up to his prediction that he would run wild in the Pacific Ocean. He was unable, however, to deal the fatal blow needed to knock America out of the war, and the shaken United States began its march to victory on the bloody island of Guadalcanal.

Donald A. Davis meticulously tracks Yamamoto's eventual rendezvous with death. After American code-breakers learned that the admiral would be vulnerable for a few hours, a desperate attempt was launched to bring him down. What was essentially a suicide mission fell to a handful of colorful and expendable U.S. Army pilots from Guadalcanal's battered "Cactus Air Force"

- Mississippian John Mitchell, after flunking the West Point entrance exam, entered the army as a buck private. Though not a "natural" as an aviator, he eventually became the highest-scoring army ace on Guadalcanal and the leader of the Yamamoto attack.
- Rex Barber grew up in the Oregon countryside and was the oldest surviving son in a tightly knit churchgoing family. A few weeks shy of his college graduation in 1940, the quiet Barber enlisted in the U.S. Army.
- "I'm going to be President of the United States," Tom Lanphier once told a friend. Lanphier was the son of a legendary fighter squadron commander and a dazzling storyteller. He viewed his chance at hero status as the start of a promising political career.
- December 7, 1941, found Besby Holmes on a Pearl Harbor airstrip, firing his .45 handgun at Japanese fighters. He couldn't get airborne in time to make a serious difference, but his chance would come.
- Tall and darkly handsome, Ray Hine used the call sign "Heathcliffe" because he resembled the brooding hero of Wuthering Heights. He was transferred to Guadalcanal just in time to participate in the Yamamoto mission---a mission from which he would never return.

Davis paints unforgettable personal portraits of men in combat and unravels a military mystery that has been covered up at the highest levels of government since the end of the war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312309074
• ISBN13: 9780312309077
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent account

Gripping, it hard to put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed this book that was obviously well researched.

A Davis Strike

A fine history of not only the mission to kill Yamamoto, but also of the Pacific theater during WWII. A fantastic overview for people like me who have read little of the history involved, and knew nothing of the plan to kill the Japanese top admiral. A colorful account of the characters, a whodunit of the mission strike, and an explaination of the secrecy involved in mission and why. I loved this book, and would reccomend it to anyone new to the flying aces of WWII.

Lighning Strikes Very Late (Chapter 21 in fact)

If you bought this book expecting to read about the secret P-38 mission to kill the Admiral who planned Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, you'd be sadly disappointed - at least until somewhere around page 220. By then, you might have concluded that the book is really a history of World War II as fought in the Pacific, for the book is written in much the same vein as one might write about Abraham Lincoln's assassination by starting with the Confederate's firing on Fort Sumter and working his way up. Or, as Jack Nicholson's character in the movie "As Good As It Gets" might say, "I'm drowning here and you're describing the water." That's not to say that this isn't a good book. It's a very good book, but it sure takes a long time to get to the subject of the book as advertised on the dust cover. In fact, I wanted to downgrade it because to took so long to get to the meat of the subject, but I just couldn't do it. Starting with Chapter 21 on page 226 the book is just too interesting, too intriguing, too engrossing, and a little too maddening. After reading these pages you'll be able to decide for yourself who really shot down Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; the shameless, politically connected self-promoter who wrote the after-action report or the flier who returned from the mission with 104 bullet holes in his plane and chunks of Yamamoto's bomber stuck in his wings. (Shades of the John F. Kerry/Swift Boat Veterans controversy) I just have to give it five stars. But, if you're not really interested in the buildup to the mission, you can always skip the first 20 chapters.

A Million-to-One Shot That Paid Off

In April, 1943, American code-breakers managed to learn that the commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, would be making a personal visit to oversee front-line operations in the Solomons. After much careful consideration by the American commanders, most notably Admiral Nimitz, it was decided that the Americans would try to intercept Yamamoto's flight and shoot down his plane. The Americans were concerned that this mission might compromise their secret knowledge of the Japanese codes, but it was decided to proceed anyway. Eighteen P-38 Lightning fighters lifted off from Guadalcanal early on that April morning. Led by John Mitchell, the flight flew for over 400 miles at heights no greater than 50 feet above the water. It was the longest fighter intercept mission of the war. A 'killer group" of four P-38s was assigned to attack the Betty bombers which were carrying Yamamoto and his staff. Among the hunter group were Tom Lanphier, Rex Barber, Besby Holmes, and Ray Hine. Once the dogfight began, the sky became a crowded mass of planes fighting for their lives. In the end, Yamamoto's bomber, along with the other Betty bomber, were shot down and Yamamoto was killed, but this is where the controversy began. Each pilot in the hunter group claimed responsibility for shooting down Yamamoto. Who actually did it? In the end, it was accepted that Tom Lanphier shot down Yamamoto, but author Donald Davis does a remarkable job of piecing together each pilot's story and sheds enough doubt to question Lanphier's claims. This is an excellent work of military history. Donald Davis does a fine job of describing Yamamoto's life as a young militatry attache in Washington during the 1920s as well as the meticulous planning for the Pearl Harbor attack and the failures of Midway and Guadalcanal. The reader gets a true sense of what Yamamoto was like; a reluctant admiral who knew that fighting a war against the United States would lead to ultimate defeat for Japan. The story of the intercept flight, dogfight, and aftermath is some of the most exciting reading that I've read. The reader gets the sense of being in the cockpit of one of the P-38s on the fateful mission, and the aftermath, with its many individual claims and the subsequent near-disaster of the revealing that we had indeed broken the Japanese code, are presented with extreme realism and action. I highly recommend this great book. The action is fast-paced and the story reads like an action novel. Read this excellent work and learn how a million-to-one mission came together in the skies over the Pacific.

Well Done History of the Flight

It seems like not much of anything can happen without it becomming a conspiracy. In this case, we all know the story. The code breakers had determined where Admiral Yamamoto was going to be at a particular time. It was just barely within range of the P-38's from the closest air base. American planes took off flying so as to minimize fuel consumption (Charles Lindberg did the experiments to teach them how to do this.). The American planes got to the location exactly on time, and Yamamoto was also punctual, unfortunately for him. Surprisingly there were two bombers there, and the Americans were able to shoot them both down. Yamamoto was killed. Then began the argument about who actually shot him down. There were four people in the flight that shot Yamamoto down. One of these did not return from the mission. Of the three that returned, each was convinced that he and he alone had gotten Yamamoto. But there were only two bombers, all three couldn't have shot one down. We still don't know who actually got him. This very well written book covers the history of the flight to get Yamamoto. By way of background it talks a lot about Yamamoto and covers the careers of the American pilots through the war. A lot of the background information will be familiar to the reader, but it is well done here.