Amazon Prime Free Trial
FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button and confirm your Prime free trial.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited FREE Prime delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-6% $28.24$28.24
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Pikabey Sales
$9.00$9.00
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: The Denver Exchange
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
- VIDEO
Audible sample
Follow the author
OK
Danger's Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her Hardcover – November 11, 2008
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length528 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateNovember 11, 2008
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-109780743260800
- ISBN-13978-0743260800
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 0743260805
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; First Edition (November 11, 2008)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 528 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780743260800
- ISBN-13 : 978-0743260800
- Item Weight : 1.74 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,693 in Naval Military History
- #10,041 in Asian History (Books)
- #11,336 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story interesting and well-written. They find the information informative and well-researched. Many describe the book as an amazing, helpful read for WWII or Navy enthusiasts. However, some readers feel the book contains excessive repetition and dry subject matter.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book informative and entertaining. They appreciate the well-written expositions of facts combined with personal stories. The author does an excellent job of describing not only the horror of the kamikaze, but also giving considerable background. The book goes into great detail while making sure it doesn't become repetitive.
"...Author Maxwell Taylor Kennedy does a superb job of describing not only the horror of the kamikaze attack, but he also describes the early battles..." Read more
"...The book starts a bit slow but then becomes a true page turner. You won't be disappointed." Read more
"...on some nit-picking mis-detail or another, but in terms of sheer scope of research and page-turning readability I think that such reviews couldn't..." Read more
"...We thank the author for being so thorough in the writing of the book." Read more
Customers find the book's story engaging and well-written. They appreciate the historical account of the kamikaze pilot and the human story of the Bunker Hill. The book describes two parallel stories, the struggle to save the big ship and a brief battle. Readers say it's a must-read for naval history fans.
"...This book is a must-read for naval history fans." Read more
"...This books describes two parallel stories, the struggle to save the big ship and a brief biography of the young men who took the fatal plunge..." Read more
"...It has it all -- suspense, drama, bravery and something much lower...." Read more
"...The description of the attack on the USS Bunker hill is riviting, tragic and heroic...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They find it informative and helpful, especially for WWII or Navy enthusiasts. The scope of research and page-turning writing style make it a fun way to learn.
"...'s careful attention to detail makes it a very informative and enjoyable read. I give this fine book my highest recommendation...." Read more
"...or another, but in terms of sheer scope of research and page-turning readability I think that such reviews couldn't see the forest because of all of..." Read more
"The history of Japan and the United States and the West was a good start to the book...." Read more
"...a great deal of new material for me, so it was a tremendously fun way to learn a lot...." Read more
Customers find the book has too much repetition, with many facts repeated in various iterations. They also mention that the subject matter can be a little dry at times.
"The first couple of chapters are tough sledding and a little boring, but since I am from Massachusetts, I was able to make sense of some of the..." Read more
"...I liked the portion describing the ship but here in particular, things are repeated...." Read more
"...many facts are repeated in various iterations, with glaring inaccuracy such as stating newly trained naval aviators had 2000 flight hours when they..." Read more
"...It's disjointed, repetive, herky jerky. It's hard to follow at times." Read more
Reviews with images
A Story That Leaves One Speechless
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2008By mid-1943, the new Essex-class aircraft carriers were rolling out of American shipyards and into the Pacific to fight against the Japanese. These magnificent ships were almost 900 feet long and carried upwards of 90 aircraft. Bristling with guns, these great ships seemed almost indestructible. However, as author Maxwell Taylor Kennedy points out, these ships were not indestructible and, in fact, if hit in the most vulnerable of places, could prove to be death traps for the crew.
In late 1944 and into 1945, the Japanese had resorted to kamikaze attacks on American vessels. Japanese planes literally crash-dived themselves into an American warship. The goal of the Japanese was one plane for one ship. One of the Essex-class carriers was the USS Bunker Hill, and she faced the full fury of a kamikaze attack on May 11, 1945.
The Bunker Hill was stationed approximately 70 miles off Okinawa, supporting the American land forces. At 10:00 in the morning, the ship was hit by two kamikazes, both carrying 500lb. bombs. Almost instantaneously, the ship became engulfed in smoke and flames. Many men, especially the pilots in the ready rooms, were killed instantly. Others suffered severe burns. Still others were severely wounded or blown completely overboard. A flaw in the carrier's design caused thick, poisonous black smoke to be pumped throughout the ship's ventilation system, causing many men to die from smoke inhalation. All of the carrier's aircraft were destroyed; many melting in their spots.
Despite this terrific initial shock, the survivors began to immediately fight the fires and rescue wounded comrades. Thanks to the strong construction of the Bunker Hill, the ship managed to survive, but never fought in the war again. 393 Americans lost their lives, while another 200+ were injured.
This is an excellent book. Author Maxwell Taylor Kennedy does a superb job of describing not only the horror of the kamikaze attack, but he also describes the early battles in which the Bunker Hill fought. He gives the reader a glimpse into the lives of the two Japanese kamikaze pilots who struck the Bunker Hill. Both pilots were young university students who were "drafted" into the kamikaze corps. The book reads like an action novel, and the author's careful attention to detail makes it a very informative and enjoyable read.
I give this fine book my highest recommendation. I've read naval history for years, and this is one of the best books I've read. This book is a must-read for naval history fans.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2009On May, 11, 1945 the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), while supporting the Okinawa landings, was hit by two kamikazes, suffering heavy damage and horrendous losses in lives. This books describes two parallel stories, the struggle to save the big ship and a brief biography of the young men who took the fatal plunge crippling her.
Several mistakes were found in the text, amongst them: (1) page 51 - General Eduardo Gomes didn't take power in 1930's Brazil; it was Getúlio Dornelles Vargas who did it, starting a dictatorship which went through 1945. Gomes was just one of his Cabinret Ministers. (2) page 109 - quoting the text "...the Intrepid, Essex, Bunker Hill, Yorktown and the new Lexington..."; the correct should be "...The Essex, Yorktown, Lexington, Bunker Hill and the new Intrepid..."; from the above mentioned carriers, the USS Intrepid (CV-11) was the last to get into action, doing it on January 1944; (3) page 164 - Iwo Jima served as na unsinkable carrier for the hundreds of B29 crewmen who took to her 9.000 foot airfield for emergency landings, and which also acted as a base for VLR P51Ds and P47Ns escorting the Superfortress fleets bombing Japan; (4) page 199 - All told, 24 Essex-class carriers were built but only 14 were comissioned and went into action against the Japanese before VE Day; (5) Page 260 - Buckner Bay was named after Lt.-General Simon Bolivar Bruckner, US Army (not Marines), who was KIA on June 18, 1945. His successor as 10th Army Commander was Lt.-General Roger Geiger, USMC; (6) Page 434 - "...Turnbull borrowed a plane from Henderson Field..."; Henderson was in Guadalcanal rather than the Hawaiian Islands.
However, these small revisional errors don't reduce the excellency of Mr. Kennedy's work, a very meticulous and well-done job.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2013My father was aboard the USS Bunker Hill on May 11, 1945 when it took two hits from kamikaze planes. He speaks highly of Commander Joseph Carmichael and credits him and his leadership for saving the ship. He has harsh words for Admiral Mitscher who, according to dad, was nursing a hangover that day. It would have been his duty to have had the ship ready for a possible attack -- the Japanese were looking for the large carriers.
This book did add to his understanding of events that day. By learning of the way Kiyoshi Ogawa and so many of the kamikaze pilots were conscripted and tortured as part of their training, and also hearing of the letters they wrote to their families, it finally gave my father, who is 88, a different way of looking at the people he had hated for so many years. For that alone and the peace he has begun to feel, I thank Maxwell Taylor Kennedy for writing this book.
Now someone, like a Tom Hanks or Steven Spielberg needs to turn this story into a movie. It has it all -- suspense, drama, bravery and something much lower. There were those who stole from the dead and they were taken care of just as the book relates -- by the law of the sea.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2009Offers an extraordinary insight into the culture of the Kamikazi. The description of the attack on the USS Bunker hill is riviting, tragic and heroic. My father was in the Navy during the battle for Okinawa and I came away from this novel with a true appreciation for the incredible danger which confronted the crews who fought in that battle.
The book starts a bit slow but then becomes a true page turner. You won't be disappointed.
Top reviews from other countries
- MikeReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars I had a personal reason for buying
Lubbock has a paragraph that details how my uncle was killed in world war II better than the newspaper article that was written at the time. I have seen reviews that the book is inaccurate but it matches all the family stories and the articles published in the Austin newspapers over time.
- Darth MaciekReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2013
1.0 out of 5 stars "Noblesse oblige" - and here this obligation was NOT fullfilled!
This thing is amongst the WORST military history books I read in my life - and I read certainly more than a thousand of them!
Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, wrote a book about the aircraft carrier USS "Bunker Hill", the horrible kamikaze attack which devastated her on 11 May 1945 and the desperate struggle to save this precious ship from sinking. The good idea was to mix this great tale with the story of life of two kamikaze pilots, Kiyoshi Ogawa and Yasunori Seizo, who made this attack. This could have been a great book about a great tragedy in which 373 US sailors died and 46 more were declared MIA. However, the execution of this good idea was ABYSMALLY BAD! Below, the reasons why I consider this thing as an utter disaster.
1. ERRORS, ERRORS, ERRORS - on every single page! And on 463 pages, that it is A LOT! Here are some examples:
- Lt John Powers "crash-dived" INTO Japanese carrier "Shokaku". Sorry - he didn't! He hit the "Shokaku" with a bomb and then was downed by Japanese anti-aircraft guns and his plane crashed into the ocean. He was awarded Medal of Honor for this and those facts are therefore matter of public record.
- "the dogged resistance of Bataan and Corregidor played an important role in the Solomons fight" !! No, it didn't. The Solomon's campaign began on 7 August 1942, THREE months after the fight for Corregidor was over (Bataan surrendered even before).
- "Mustang and Lightning fighters couldn't land on carriers and therefore were of little utility in Pacific War" - is this guy for real? Lightnings operating from Henderson Field were crucially important in Guadalcanal campaign and they were also the planes which intercepted and killed Yamamoto himself! As for land based Mustangs, they were crucial especially in 1944-45, when escorting the bombers attacking Japan!
- "Zero fighter carried a single 7,5mm gun which could do considerable damage but its 20-mm machine guns were ineffective". So... the heavier guns were ineffective, but the little one could do more damage!? I can't believe how it is possible to let such an obvious idiocy in the text! In fact the Zero carried two 7,5mm machine guns and two 20-mm guns - and the latter were indeed more efficient than the former...
- "on 20 October 1944 the first kamikaze pilot, Yukio Seki, attacked USS "Kitkun Bay" and damaged her heavily killing 16 men". NO, HE DIDN'T! He crashed into USS "St.Lo" and sunk her. USS "Kitkun Bay" suffered only a near miss by a kamikaze that day, losing one man killed... This 20 October 1944 fight is a famous episode - how on Earth could somebody make a mistake there??
- Vice-Admiral Ozawa took four carriers to Leyte Gulf without aircraft or escorts. FALSE! He had 108 planes on his carriers and his screen was composed of two battleships, three cruisers and nine destroyers. This is an information available on the internet - it takes like 30 seconds to find it.
- Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay refused to send B-29s against kamikaze bases during Okinawa campaign. BULL****! Later in the SAME BOOK it is repeated many times the he actually DID SEND B-29s against kamikaze bases!
- "by 1945 Japan manufactured almost nothing". Absolutely - except for HUNDREDS of tanks, planes, anti-tank guns and special weapons (Ohka flying bomb, Kaiten human torpedo, etc.) and DOZENS of warships (Tachibana class destroyers, Ukuru, Type C and Type D class escorts, Sentoku class giant submarines, I-201 class medium submarines, Kairyu class midget submarines, suicide motor boats, etc.) EVERY MONTH UNTIL SEPTEMBER!
- the loss of four carriers at Midway is attributed to the mistakes committed during the battle by Yamamoto. But he was not in tactical command and was NOT EVEN PRESENT at the battle - it was Vice-Admiral Nagumo who commanded this day!
- we are told that Grumman Avengers were used at Coral Sea. FALSE! Their operational debut was Midway - and even then there was only six of them available at that moment.
- we are told that Soviet Union warned Japan about Leyte Gulf landings! That is sheer LUNACY! Soviets had no way to know it, had no interest in sharing it with the Japanese and last but not least, in REAL HISTORY the Japanese were actually SURPRISED by Leyte Gulf landings and therefore didn't react immediately!
- when air operations are described we are told that bombs were attached to Corsair's - wait, hold it, here it goes... LANDING GEAR...))) I almost died laughing at that moment!
- according to this book "all students at the top Japanese universities were gathered together and became kamikaze". Not some, not even a majority - ALL! Well, this is just another obvious case of BULL****! In reality there were about 4000 kamikazes who took off and died in those missions in 1944 and 1945. Most of them were already in aviation in 1944 or earlier - the number of university students more or less pressed into kamikaze units was in fact very limited (hundreds rather than thousands) and even amongst those who trained to become kamikaze pilots, many didn't go for a mission because the war ended
- it is said that "Yamato" was armed with 18-inch guns (that is correct) which could fire shells "the size of a VW". Well, author is welcome to try to fit a Volkswagen (any model of it) into an 18-inch (457mm) hole...))) And I want to watch it with popcorn and a beer...)))
- author claims that when USS "Franklin" was damaged and was burning, her crew was "locked down the inside of the ship and left there by their comrades to rot until Pearl Harbor". This is a HORRIBLE LIE! Exactly the opposite was true! An enormous effort was made to save every single sailor on USS "Franklin", for 48 hours, amongst raging fires, exploding ordonnance and under Japanese bombs! Why say such a horribly false thing? It is BEYOND my ken!
- etc, etc, etc. ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE!
2. Complete lack of editing. I usually do not consider poor editing as a major problem, but in this book it makes the reading almost impossible, especially for anybody who has even the slightest idea about the Pacific War! Typos are crawling in virtually every place where any kind of military equipement is concerned - amongst the most unnerving is reading about American planes being armed with 40 mm guns (they really weren't).
3. Author clearly has a big problem with English language. Being Polish I am not a native speaker and in fact English is only my second foreign language (after French) - but even me I would not make some errors which I found in "Danger's hour". Possibly the worst example: author writes at one moment after the kamikaze attack "in one moment USS "Bunker Hill" and her all crew became expendable" - before describing the incredible efforts of other US warships to SAVE her... I really wondered at that moment if author (who supposedly graduated from a prestigious college) knows what "expendable" means...
4. Author simply invents things. At one moment he writes about US pilots who sunk some Japanese ships and bombed Japanese bases "all Bunker Hill fliers were challenged by the guilt of homicide." Not some, not most - all of them! Well, funny, but he somehow never cites even one real veteran who said such a thing - and I read enough books of Pacific War to know that American soldiers, fliers, sailors and Marines were very much OK with the war they were fighting!
5. But the CHERRY ON THE CAKE is the conclusion! Author writes: "The challenging lesson of the Pacific War may not so much be that aicraft carriers can extend American foreign policy across the world, but rather that a few determined men, willing to give their lives for a cause, may block that policy from ever being fullfilled". In my life I read already many things idiotic beyond belief, but that one really takes the cake! EVERYTHING described in this book proves the exact opposite - even the sacrifice of 4000 kamikazes didn't prevent USA from winning the Pacific War and liberating countless millions of Asians from Japanese tyranny.
For all those reasons, I consider this book to be not only a FAILURE, but also an INSULT to the memory of all sailors who fought (and for many died) on board of USS "Bunker Hill" on this fateful 11 May 1945. And I believe author should be ashamed of himself too! When one belongs to a great patrician family and has all the time and money needed to make research and work on such a book, when one is the son of such an eminent man and when one is named after another, even more eminent man (General Maxwell Taylor), well, then "NOBLESSE OBLIGE"!
But author simply didn't care about this obligation and when one looks at his biography, it is not so hard to see why. Born in 1965, educated in history and law, Maxwell T. Kennedy started a career as Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia in 1992 - but interrupted it after only three years. Since then he never held a real job! He got work as Director of Robert Kennedy Memorial, a NGO owned by Kennedy clan, then he got successive sinecures at Boston College, Georgetown University and Brown University and another NGO, the Pearl Coalition. According to his biography he spend all his life until now travelling around the world and talking with different people about human rights and environment...
All this shows clearly a guy who is rich, connected and has no ambitions nor will to really work. The publication of this book in 2008 was clearly supposed to fill a little bit his rather empty CV - and this thing received some extravagant praise from all kind of prestigious left-winged intellectuals connected to Kennedy clan and Democratic establishment...
Well, no matter how much praise this thing gets from prestigious intellectuals, as a simple military history buff and a simple amateur of good books, I say "STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF CR@P". And if you want to read an AMAZING book about a US aircraft carrier damaged by the Japanese and saved by the heroism of her crew, read "Inferno" by Joseph A. Springer, about the ordeal of USS "Franklin" - a book which was well researched, well written, carefully edited, all of which took many YEARS of hard WORK by a REAL historian - not a lazy, spoiled, jaded, rich brat...
One person found this helpfulReport