Battleship Commander
The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr.
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Battleship Commander
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Narrated by:
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Walter Dixon
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By:
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Paul Stillwell
About this listen
Battleship Commander explores Lee's life from boyhood in Kentucky through his eventual service as commander of the fast battleships from 1942 to 1945. Said to be down to earth, modest, forgiving, friendly, and with a wry sense of humor, Lee eschewed the media and, to the extent possible, left administrative details to others. During his service in the Navy Department from 1939 to 1942, Lee prepared the US Navy for war at sea, and was involved in inspecting designs for battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, and destroyers. He sent observers to Britain to report on Royal Navy operations during the war against Germany and made plans to send an action team to mainland China to observe conditions for possible later Allied landings there.
In 1942, Willis Lee became commander of the first division of fast battleships to operate in the Pacific. During that service, he commanded Task Force 64, which achieved a tide-turning victory in a night battle near Guadalcanal in November 1942.
Continuing his career of service near the end of the war, Lee, in the summer of 1945, directed anti-kamikaze research efforts in Casco Bay, Maine. While Lee's wartime successes and failures are compelling, what is here in this biography is a balanced look at the man and officer.
©2021 Paul Stillwell (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good story about something that really happened
- By TRey on 07-25-18
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Nimitz
- By: E. B. Potter
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 25 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 837
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 752
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Story5 out of 5 stars 748
Called a great book worthy of a great man, this definitive biography of the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet in World War II is considered the best book ever written about Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Highly respected by both the civilian and naval communities, Nimitz was sometimes overshadowed by more colorful warriors in the Pacific such as MacArthur and Halsey. Potter's lively and authoritative style fleshes out Admiral Nimitz's personality to help listeners appreciate the contributions he made as the principle architect of Japan's defeat.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Spectacular Book
- By Darrell E. Fisher on 07-13-18
By: E. B. Potter
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Storm over Leyte
- The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy
- By: John Prados
- Narrated by: Ricard Ferrone
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 123
As Allied ships prepared for the invasion of the Philippine island of Leyte, every available warship, submarine, and airplane was placed on alert while Japanese admiral Kurita Takeo stalked Admiral William F. Halsey's unwitting American armada. It was the beginning of the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf - the greatest naval battle in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Startling revelations to a 72 year battle!
- By Chiefkent on 07-31-16
By: John Prados
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,612
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,433
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,432
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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5 out of 5 stars
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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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Torpedo Run
- The Story of WWII Submarine Hero Eugene B. Fluckey
- By: Don Keith
- Narrated by: Vincent Caruso
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story5 out of 5 stars 54
Over the course of five combat patrols during the Pacific War, Commander Fluckey reinvented submarine warfare, pioneering audacious strategies to hunt and sink Japanese warships and merchant vessels. At the helm of the USS Barb, he directed his boat to attack warship convoys - never mind the lop-sided odds - and to slip into heavily defended enemy harbors to launch torpedoes at unsuspecting targets.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great historical information
- By William Kirkland on 02-15-25
By: Don Keith
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Neptune's Inferno
- The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,383
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,056
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2,053
With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts, James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal. Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The WWII Pacific Theater Explodes In My Lazy Chair
- By Rum Runner on 03-01-11
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Submarine Commander
- A Story of World War II and Korea
- By: Paul R. Schratz
- Narrated by: John N. Gully
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 135
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
A fascinating personal memoir of underwater combat in World War II, told by a man who played a major role in those dangerous operations. Frank and beautifully written, this book will be of lasting value as a submarine history by an expert and as an enduring military and political analysis.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Engrossing Memoir
- By Jean on 12-24-15
By: Paul R. Schratz
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Tin Can Titans
- The Heroic Men and Ships of World War II's Most Decorated Navy Destroyer Squadron
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,437
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,296
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,292
When Admiral William Halsey selected Destroyer Squadron 21 to lead his victorious ships into Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese surrender, it was the most battle-hardened US naval squadron of the war. But it was not the squadron of ships that had accumulated such an inspiring résumé; it was the people serving aboard them. Through diaries, personal interviews with survivors, and letters written to and by the crews during the war, preeminent historian of the Pacific theater John Wukovits brings to life the human story of the squadron and its men.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Captivating
- By Jean on 09-23-17
By: John Wukovits
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The Bravest Man
- The Story of Richard O'Kane & U.S. Submariners in the Pacific War
- By: William Tuohy
- Narrated by: E.H. Jones
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 493
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 308
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Story5 out of 5 stars 308
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Tuohy follows Richard O'Kane, America's undersea ace of aces, and a few fearless submariners, during the U.S. submarine war in the Pacific. This grueling battle saw 10 million tons of Japanese shipping sunk by U.S. submarines, but the cost to the U.S. Navy was one in five of its boats, the highest casualty rate of the U.S. armed services.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great details of WWII Submarine Patrols
- By James B. Cookinham on 02-13-05
By: William Tuohy
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Into the Bright Sunshine
- Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights (Pivotal Moments in American History Series)
- By: Samuel G. Freedman
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 15
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 14
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 14
During one sweltering week in July 1948, the Democratic Party gathered in Philadelphia for its national convention. The most pressing and controversial issue facing the delegates was not whom to nominate for president—the incumbent, Harry Truman, was the presumptive candidate—but whether the Democrats would finally embrace the cause of civil rights and embed it in their official platform. On the convention's final day, Hubert Humphrey, the relatively obscure mayor of the midsized city of Minneapolis, ascended the podium.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narrator bungles pronunciations
- By ARV on 09-23-23
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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
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 466
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 402
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Story5 out of 5 stars 400
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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4 out of 5 stars
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Great
- By Jean on 12-14-22
By: Craig L. Symonds
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Miracle at Midway
- By: Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story5 out of 5 stars 97
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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5 out of 5 stars
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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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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,000
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,566
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,551
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Astonishingly good.
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-01-12
By: Ian W. Toll
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The Silver Waterfall
- How America Won the War in the Pacific at Midway
- By: Brendan Simms, Steven McGregor
- Narrated by: David DeVries
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
The Battle of Midway was, on paper, an improbable victory for the smaller, less experienced American navy and air force, so much so that it was quickly described as “a miracle.” This new history demonstrates that luck, let alone miracles, had little to do with it. In The Silver Waterfall, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor show how the efforts of America’s peacetime navy combined with creative innovations made by designers and industrialists were largely responsible for the victory.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Read "The Silver Waterfall"
- By Tiffany Gemas on 06-17-22
By: Brendan Simms, and others
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Hell from the Heavens
- The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II's Greatest Kamikaze Attack
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Story5 out of 5 stars 99
On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey saw what seemed to be the entire Japanese air force assembled directly above. They were about to become the targets of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling story worth the effort
- By David Traill on 08-10-16
By: John Wukovits
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally a fair assessment
- By Stephen Breen on 06-28-20
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To Risk It All
- Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision
- By: Admiral James Stavridis USN
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 195
At the heart of Admiral James Stavridis’s training as a naval officer was the preparation to lead sailors in combat, to face the decisive moment in battle whenever it might arise. In To Risk it All, he offers up nine of the most useful and enthralling stories from the US Navy’s nearly 250-year history, and draws from them a set of insights that we can all put to use when confronted with fateful choices.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A great book
- By John A. on 06-06-22
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Joe Rochefort's War
- The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway
- By: Elliot Carlson
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 22 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 216
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 189
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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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4 out of 5 stars
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Amazingly engaging
- By Fletch on 10-19-13
By: Elliot Carlson
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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
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 466
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Performance<