Dead Reckoning: The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor

I love books about WW2 and found this book to be an interesting read. Lots of insight into details of what it was like to serve during this time.

An event we all know about, but certainly not the story that unfolds in the book. The author does a masterful job of introducing us to the major players in this historic event so we get to know them as the people they were, not just a name. He brings the characters together with the event in a level of detail that lets us understand the strategic as well as the tactical thinking that had to come together in short order to make the mission work. And then he wraps it all up with the aftermath of the strike and what the major characters did in the rest of their lives. Highly recommended!

Fantastic and an outstanding read, well written and precise plus very clear. I have tried to give it 5 stars but the 5th won’t take or stay blue like the other 4.

BOOK REVIEW: Dead Reckoning by Dick Lehr Dead Reckoning by Dick Lehr recounts the daring WWII mission to intercept and kill Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor, a strike whose impact reverberated far beyond the destruction of a single aircraft. Lehr convincingly shows how Yamamoto’s death dealt a severe psychological and strategic blow to Japan, influencing the course of the Pacific war at a critical moment. Equally compelling is the book’s emphasis on the mission’s staggering logistical improbability. The operation required pinpoint intelligence, extreme-range flights at the limits of aircraft capability, and flawless timing across vast stretches of open ocean—any single failure would have doomed the effort. Lehr’s narrative makes clear that success was never assured and bordered on the miraculous. Concise and suspenseful, Dead Reckoning demonstrates how the elimination of Yamamoto stands as one of WWII’s most unlikely and consequential missions.

This is a great story about what actually happened on the mission to shoot down Yamamoto’s plane. A must read!

My mother asked for this book and loved it

While I was familiar with the basics of the Yamamoto kill, this book gives great insight into the men involved as well as that of the Japanese Admiral. I do wish the author had given information on the effect this event had on Japanese coding. Did they figure out the US had broken their code? Did they make significant changes?

This is a story worth reading about now I need to find thirteen more words in order to post the review. 🤣

Very well written book If I close my eyes, I can see Mitch telling the room of Generals & Admirals how the mission was going to be conducted - & Mitscher backing him up - great stuff....

It’s been written about, over and over. But this is a most personal and intuitive story, relating the ongoing parallels of two key players in that WWII drama. Wonderful and very insightful.

The dust jacket of 'Dead Reckoning' describes it as "The story of how Johnny Mitchell and his fighter pilots took on Admiral Yamamoto and avenged Pearl Harbor" [sic]. The book does indeed do that but only in the last 90 of its 330 pages. The rest is more or less a love story or, indeed, two love stories - set against the period before and during the Pacific War - describing how Mitchell met and married his wife Annie Lee and how Yamamoto courted the love of his life, the geisha Chiyoko. That said, there is sufficient material to engage the interest of the military historian and the author - Dick Lehr - describes the key events of the first two years of the Pacific War, whilst maintaining a focus on Mitchell's career as a fighter pilot and his rise to command of the 339th Fighter Squadron. The final third of the book then covers the mission to shoot down Yamamoto but only briefly explores the post-event controversy over who should have got the credit, ending with the debunking of Tom Lanphier's widely publicised claim to have been 'the man who killed Yamamoto'. All in all, it is nonetheless an engaging read and an informative addition to any military history library.