Countdown to Pearl Harbor

The Twelve Days to the Attack

By: Steve Twomey

Narrated by: Holter Graham

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.

©2016 Steve Twomey. All rights reserved. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

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.

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.

had some slow parts but over all a good listen

over all work the credit but it can be a bit slow in sooner parts

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.

This explained a lot about the failures on Dec 7th

This book so wonderfully shows the human and system failures that resulted in the attack on Pearl Harbor.and in doing so, it reports the history, not the fault findings that continue to this day. There is a lot of areas that need to be considered in the telling of the story and the author does an excellent job at covering as much as possible.

Good read

Where does Countdown to Pearl Harbor rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Never really knew what the lead up was to the attack. Amazing that we were "surprised" it happened, but hindsight is 20/20 and intelligence was very limited to what we are accustomed to today. Great research

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.

The details were crystal clear.

Now I know what happened on December 7,1941. Thank you for telling the full story.

An exploration of the relatively unknown events...

leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As with most things in life, there are two sides to every story. This book explores many aspects of this event that I had not previously heard.

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.