
Operation Vengeance
The Astonishing Aerial Ambush That Changed World War II
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Narrated by:
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John Pruden
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By:
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Dan Hampton
About this listen
The New York Times best-selling author of Viper Pilot delivers an electrifying narrative account of the top-secret US mission to kill Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese commander who masterminded Pearl Harbor.
"Operation Vengeance is colorful, intimate, eye-popping history, delivered at a breakneck pace. I loved it." (Lynn Vincent)
In 1943, the United States military began to plan one of the most dramatic secret missions of World War II. Its code name was Operation Vengeance. Naval Intelligence had intercepted the itinerary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, whose stealth attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America’s entry into the war. Harvard-educated, Yamamoto was a close confidant of Emperor Hirohito and a brilliant tactician who epitomized Japanese military might. On April 18, the US discovered, he would travel to Rabaul in the South Pacific to visit Japanese troops, then fly to the Japanese airfield at Balalale, 400 miles to the southeast.
Set into motion, the Americans’ plan was one of the most tactically difficult operations of the war. To avoid detection, US pilots had to embark on a circuitous, 1,000-mile odyssey that would test not only their skills but the physical integrity of their planes. The timing was also crucial: the slightest miscalculation, even by a few minutes - or a delay on the famously punctual Yamamoto’s end - meant the entire plan would collapse, endangering American lives. But if these remarkable pilots succeeded, they could help turn the tide of the war - and greatly boost Allied morale.
Informed by deep archival research and his experience as a decorated combat pilot, Operation Vengeance focuses on the mission’s pilots and recreates the moment-by-moment drama they experienced in the air. Hampton recreates this epic event in thrilling detail and provides groundbreaking evidence about what really happened that day.
©2020 Dan Hampton (P)2020 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Operation Biting
- The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler's Radar
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Operation Biting retells this dramatic operation through a gallery of amazing characters from Winston Churchill, who promoted the raid, to Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Combined Operations, to the brave unsung commandos who fought their way through enemy territory. A cliffhanger of a story that ratchets the suspense to the last moment, Operation Biting sheds new light on an exciting and little-known chapter of the Second World War.
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Just excellent. So enjoyable.
- By GuardDog on 02-16-25
By: Max Hastings
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Chasing the Demon
- A Secret History of the Quest for the Sound Barrier, and the Band of American Aces Who Conquered It
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of World War II, the United States accelerated the development of technologies that would give it an advantage over the Soviet Union. Airpower, combined with nuclear weapons, offered a formidable check on Soviet aggression. In 1947, the United States Air Force was established. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers were pioneering a revolutionary new type of aircraft which could do what no other machine had ever done: reach mach 1 - a speed faster than the movement of sound - which pilots called "the demon."
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Not at all what it purports to be
- By John A Stevenson on 11-20-18
By: Dan Hampton
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Whatever It Took
- An American Paratrooper’s Extraordinary Memoir of Escape, Survival, and Heroism in the Last Days of World War II
- By: Henry Langrehr, Jim DeFelice
- Narrated by: Mike Ortego
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Published to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom. Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told.
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Inspirational book
- By David S. on 02-11-21
By: Henry Langrehr, and others
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To Fly and Fight
- Memoirs of a Triple Ace
- By: Clarence E. Bud Anderson
- Narrated by: Joshua Katinger
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Bud Anderson is a flyers flyer. The Californians enduring love of flying began in the 1920s with the planes that flew over his father's farm. In January 1942, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program.
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Fantastic!!!
- By chris johnson on 07-24-23
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Thunderbolt
- By: Robert S. Johnson, Martin Caidin
- Narrated by: Clay Lomakayu
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Thunderbolt is the incredible true life story of Robert S. Johnson, one of America’s leading fighter pilot aces in World War II. His memoir is an action-packed account of how a young man from Lawton, Oklahoma went on to amass 28 enemy kills, the first US Army Air Force pilot in the European theater to surpass Eddie Rickenbacker's World War I tally of 26 enemy planes destroyed.
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My favorite flying book of all time.
- By S. H. Moore on 10-07-21
By: Robert S. Johnson, 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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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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Countdown 1945
- The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World
- By: Chris Wallace, Mitch Weiss
- Narrated by: Chris Wallace
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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April 12, 1945: After years of bloody conflict in Europe and the Pacific, America is stunned by news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. In an instant, Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning and knows nothing of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents—and confront one of the most consequential decisions in history. Countdown 1945 tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months to follow.
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Chris Wallace killed it!
- By Gaming Pancakes on 06-11-20
By: Chris Wallace, and others
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Valor
- The Astonishing World War II Saga of One Man's Defiance and Indomitable Spirit
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Lieutenant William Frederick “Bill” Harris was 25 years old when captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing ordeal had just begun. Shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually set off through hostile waters to China.
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Epic story of survival, and sacrifice
- By Michael V McKenney on 02-03-23
By: Dan Hampton
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Operation Chastise
- The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know.
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Wish He Had Stuck to the Core Story
- By John on 06-22-20
By: Max Hastings
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Dead Reckoning
- The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor
- By: Dick Lehr
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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“AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL.” At 7:58 a.m. on December 7, 1941, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center frantically typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the American navy stationed in Hawaii. In a little over two hours, the Japanese killed more than 2,400 Americans and propelled the US’s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the story of the mission to avenge that devastating strike.
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Half Soap Opera, target audience 20 something male
- By Donald L. Hogan on 03-20-21
By: Dick Lehr
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Wings of War
- The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly
- By: David Fairbank White, Margaret Stanback White
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Wings of War is the incredible true story of the P-51 Mustang fighter and the unlikely crew of designers, engineers, test pilots, and army officers who brought it from the drafting table to the skies over World War II. This is hardly a straightforward tale of building an airplane—for years, the team was stymied by corruption within the defense industry and stonewalled by the Army Air Forces, who failed to understand the Mustang’s potential.
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Disappointed
- By David Kocol on 06-22-23
By: David Fairbank White, and others
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War Beneath the Sea
- Submarine Conflict During World War II
- By: Peter Padfield
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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This riveting chronicle of submarine warfare is the first to cover all the major submarine campaigns of the war, describing, in detail, the operations of the British, American, Japanese, Italian, and German submarine and anti-submarine forces. Beginning with a vivid re-creation of the sinking of the passenger liner Athenia by a German U-boat in September 1939, critically acclaimed military historian Peter Padfield's compelling narrative casts an unflinching eye on the devastating consequences of maritime warfare.
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Fills in the gaps of other submarine books
- By Ben on 05-19-21
By: Peter Padfield
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Prisoners of the Castle
- An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gripping narrative, Ben Macintyre tackles one of the most famous prison stories in history and makes it utterly his own. During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape.
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Another chapter of history brought to life by a master
- By Steve on 09-28-22
By: Ben Macintyre
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- Pohokano
- 08-30-23
Another first-rate read by Dan Hampton
Detailed and compelling. Hampton relates the taking and occupation of Guadalcanal and Rex Barbara’s shoot-down of Yamamoto as if he was there himself. As a pilot I appreciated the cockpit-seat narrative and the insights of flying the P38. Excellent audio narration.
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- Tyree
- 10-03-20
Riveting
Simply Riveting! A fascinating read(listen). Well written and well read. I highly recommend this work, in audio or print. I have no association with the author, reader, publisher or distributors of this work and make this review independent of any interest, financial or otherwise, in this work .
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- Joe DeGennaro
- 10-29-23
Extremely well told story
I’ve read a few books about the Guadalcanal campaign, but this book tells the story in a nice even flow, which helped me understand more.l
The story about how the P-38s went about shooting down Yamamoto and most of his staff is truly amazing. The description of the controversy afterwards was described really well. 
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- Tom
- 11-06-24
Awesome story and Narrator
Loved the book from start to finish. Great narration. John and Dan, you quickly become my favourite. Third book in a row. Well done.
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- Stephen R Pendry
- 10-17-21
A Crucial Step Toward Victory in WWII
What first seemed like nothing but an act for of vengeance against the author of sneak attack on Pearl Harbor is revealed to be a vital step to conquering Japanese forces in the Pacific. While the complaint by some that this story meanders endlessly through preliminaries, especially the struggle to take and hold Guadalcanal has some validity, that background does provide a more thorough explanation of what followed. Eventually the story of the interception of Yamamoto’s flight and his killing is told in detail, and proper credit for those who accomplished it is proven.
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- Deagle
- 09-06-20
Another good entry from a prolific writer
I have enjoyed all of Dan Hampton's books and appreciate the historical background he gives each story. The stories are always complete, the analysis detailed and the point of view is always from that of the experienced pilot and warrior that Dan is. John Pruden is the perfect narrator for all of his titles and brings his own authenticity to the performances from his own aviation background. I recommend all of Dan Hampton's book for anyone who has an interest is aerial combat or the courage required for aviation in general. There's a bit of an edge to Dan's writing, maybe a little like Col. David Hackworth's. Both men were great warriors with little patience for the bs that sometimes comes with the chain of command. They both value courage and sacrifice, and those traits are well on display in the story of the pilots who took on a suicide mission and not only survived, but succeeded and changed the course of the war.
I look forward to Dan's next project.
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- Rock
- 08-26-24
Great details, story & voice narration.
Nothing it was all great to understand history & learn more of our incredible brave military.
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- mark fehl
- 07-15-23
Japans fall
Great story about the canal!I think y wife’s uncle was a marine at that battle. Didn’t know it lasted that long.
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- Randy
- 11-09-23
Great history lesson and perspective
This book provides a great overview of the war in the Pacific via the personal story of Rex Barber. I live in Oregon and have spent time in the area where he grew up. I’ve driven over the Rex Barber Memorial Bridge many times, and I knew a little about him. But this made it real and personal.
The writer does an excellent job of laying out the progression of Guadalcanal’s critical importance to the war and the evolution of the flying war as well. Hampton writes authoritatively and mostly clearly. There is a lot of jumping around from the chronology of the mission - a single day - to the chronology of the war from Perl Harbor on. It can be confusing but isn’t a big deal.
Overall, I appreciated the message and perspective and will certainly offer a salute next I drive over the magnificent Crooked River Gorge on the Rex Barber Memorial Bridge.
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- Rob
- 07-05-24
Very interesting book
This was an excellent book with some very interesting facts and history of the raid.
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