A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight

by Robert J. Mrazek

Overview

A gripping account of the heroic efforts of one squadron of US Navy torpedo bombers at the World War II battles of Midway and Guadalcanal.

“The most highly decorated Navy Flyboys of World War II flew through hell and suffered the highest combat losses. Strap yourself in as Robert Mrazek takes you on a heroic flight into history.” —James Bradley, author of Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers

They were typical young Americans who came from every part of the country to fly an outmoded aircraft that launched unreliable torpedoes against enemy warships. Through a combination of courage, loyalty, comradeship, and sacrifice, this all-but-forgotten torpedo squadron helped change the course of history at the epic battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. In doing so, they became the war’s most highly decorated American naval air squadron.

Filled with thrilling scenes of battle and poignant portraits of the ravages of war—felt not only by those who fight, but by those who are left behind—A Dawn Like Thunder at last brings dramatically to light one of the great untold stories of World War II.

“A remarkably vivid tale of valor, fate, and young men dying young. [Mrazek’s] epic story, reconstructed with breathtaking research and recounted with a novelist’s keen eye for detail, is a worthy monument to Torpedo Squadron Eight.” —Rich Atkinson, author of The Day of Battle and An Army at Dawn

“A Dawn Like Thunder melds a good story with solid and skeptical research. . . . Fast-paced and yet personal, Mrazek’s narrative carries the reader to Midway quickly. But it does not stop there, as so many other accounts have. . . . With A Dawn Like Thunder Mrazek earns the title of historian, one that this reviewer does not apply lightly.” ―Robert Bateman, Washington Post

“An admirable history of the Torpedo Squadron Eight. . . . A boon to the literature of the WWII Pacific theater and of naval aviation.” —Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316040983
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	09/24/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	545
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Bob Mrazek graduated from Cornell University, served in the U.S. Navy, and served five terms in the U.S. Congress. Mrazek authored the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which brought nineteen thousand children of Americans who served in Vietnam to the USA. He also authored the National Film Preservation Act, which established the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress to protect films of cultural importance.

Since leaving Congress, Mrazek has authored ten books, earning the American Library Association's top honor for military fiction, the Michael Shaara award for Civil War fiction, and Best Book (American History) from the Washington Post. He also wrote and co-directed the 2016 feature film The Congressman. He lives in upstate NY and Maine.

What People are Saying About This

A remarkably vivid tale of valor, fate, and young men dying young. Robert Mrazek's epic tale, reconstructed with breathtaking research and recounted with a novelist's keen eye for detail, is a worthy monument to Torpedo Squadron Eight. --Rick Atkinson, author of The Day of Battle and An Army at Dawn

Bob Mrazek has found fresh material about the two pivotal Pacific battles of 1942 and written a marvelous book. His research and obvious affection for his heroes is indeed extraordinary. A Dawn Like Thunder is a spectacular achievement and a vital addition to any Pacific War library. --Hon. Charles Wilson of Charlie Wilson's War

The most highly decorated Navy Flyboys of World War II flew through hell and suffered the highest combat losses. Strap yourself in as Robert Mrazek takes you on a heroic flight into history. --James Bradley, author of Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers

A Dawn Like Thunder hooked me from the first page and didn’t let go. Robert Mrazek has written the definitive account of how the few American pilots of Torpedo Squadron Eight changed history at Midway and Guadalcanal. A stirring, truly heroic book that is destined to become a classic. --Alex Kershaw, author of Escape from the Deep and The Longest Winter

Robert Mrazek brings the dare-devil pilots of Torpedo Squadron Eight back to life in a narrative so vivid and heartbreaking that their courage reaches across the decades, leaving us moved by their incredible sacrifice and heroism. --Thurston Clarke, author of The Last Campaign and Pearl Harbor Ghosts

What makes A Dawn Like Thunder so special is that it is at once so absolutely horrible -- war is hell taken to the ultimate -- but at the same time so wonderfully uplifting. Robert Mrazek has, with a raw, unsparing telling, given grace and life to so many who died so young, so every-day, so gallantly. --Frank Deford, author of The Entitled and The Old Ball Game

A Dawn Like Thunder is no ordinary history. It is a soaring epic prose ballad about a group of young Americans whose rendezvous with destiny in 1942 at Midway and then Guadalcanal blazed a trail their whole generation would follow. With an amazing depth of research and a keen eye for detail, Robert Mrazek has brought to vivid life an enduring tale of human tragedy and triumph that will speak down to the latest generation. --Richard B. Frank, author of Downfall and Guadalcanal

From the Publisher

"Dick Hill gives this work an excellent reading.... His expressive and easygoing manner makes the art of narration seem effortless." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

Academically trained historians too often reduce gripping events to soul-parching compilations of cautious statements that only the most generous might grace with the term "narrative." On the flip side, journalists attempting to write works of history sometimes jettison their skepticism; the result is often a great story but not very good history. In his first foray into history, Mrazek captures the best of both approaches, avoiding hagiography and telling the story of Torpedo Eight and the war in the Pacific as it was, not as some might wish it had been.
—The Washington Post

Robert Bateman

Satisfying thought excessively popularized history of the bomber group that, legend has it, won the Battle of Midway. In the History Channel version, during the darkest days of World War II American carrier planes took off on June 4, 1942, to attack the immense Japanese fleet approaching Midway Island. Orders called for a simultaneous strike, but the planes separated, and Torpedo Squadron Eight sighted the enemy first. Attacking at sea level and unprotected by American fighters, the slow bombers were easy meat for defending Japanese Zeros, which shot down every plane. No torpedo struck home, yet these men did not die in vain. While the Zeros were preoccupied, American dive-bombers arrived overhead and attacked unopposed, sinking the Japanese carriers and winning the battle. Novelist and former congressman Mrazek (The Deadly Embrace, 2006, etc.) provides 200 pages of gripping details that do not tarnish the squadron's heroism but reveal spectacular incompetence among higher commanders. Two months after Midway, the survivors fought around Guadalcanal, a second critical battle in which outnumbered Americans inflicted a crushing defeat on the Japanese. While their role was less crucial, the squadron's bombers inflicted considerable damage, becoming the most decorated naval air unit in history but also the one suffering the highest combat losses. Similar books concentrate on fighters and traditional bombers, so this account of torpedo planes offers an original perspective. Serious history buffs will be irritated by the docudrama style, which features invented dialogue and purports to reveal characters' thoughts and feelings, often up to the moment they die. Yet events undoubtedly happened moreor less as Mrazek describes, and his massive original research has produced a richly detailed story that never flags. Despite the lowbrow historiography, an admirable addition to the histories of air battles that turned the tide against the Japanese. Agent: David Halpern/The Robbins Office

Kirkus Reviews

Dick Hill gives this work an excellent reading.... His expressive and easygoing manner makes the art of narration seem effortless.

AudioFile

"A Dawn Like Thunder melds a good story with solid and skeptical research....Fast-paced and yet personal, Mrazek's narrative carries the reader to Midway quickly. But it does not stop there, as so many other accounts have....With A Dawn Like Thunder Mrazek earns the title of historian, one that this reviewer does not apply lightly."—Robert Bateman, Washington Post

From the Publisher

"A Dawn Like Thunder melds a good story with solid and skeptical research....Fast-paced and yet personal, Mrazek's narrative carries the reader to Midway quickly. But it does not stop there, as so many other accounts have....With A Dawn Like Thunder Mrazek earns the title of historian, one that this reviewer does not apply lightly."

Robert Bateman - Washington Post

Torpedo Squadron Eight was based on the USS HORNET, and its members saw action at Midway and Guadalcanal during WWII. The squadron finished the war as the most decorated naval air squadron while suffering the highest losses in the Navy's aviation history. Its men are the focus of this work. Mrazek was able to track down those who survived and tells the human, as well as the military, history of the unit. Dick Hill gives this work an excellent reading. He easily performs the narrative and without missing a beat switches to a quote with an appropriate and believable accent, and then goes back to the narrative. His expressive and easygoing manner makes the art of narration seem effortless. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2009 - AudioFile