Two retired servicemen tell the story of the "Isabel, Lanikai" and the "MollyMalone"--three ships that were ordered by FDR to intercept the Japanese Fleetin WW II.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
When the United States Navy fleet suffered a surprise attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it "A date that will live in infamy." But, just how big of a surprise was it to Roosevelt and his closest aides? Retired Navy Lieutenant Commander (LTC) Kenneth Landis and retired Army Staff Sergeant Rex Gunn, both present at Pearl Harbor during the attack, explore the facts and mysteries surrounding who knew what and when in their book Deceit at Pearl Harbor: From Pearl Harbor to Midway, published by 1stBooks Library in July 2001.
Deceit at Pearl Harbor highlights the fact that Roosevelt allegedly knew about the attack weeks before it occurred, yet kept this information from the public as a means of swaying public opinion in favor of joining the war after the attack had taken place. As the last surviving member of Admiral Husband Kimmel's (then Commander of the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor) staff, LTC Landis also serves to disprove that the lack of readiness for the attack was the fault of Admiral Kimmel.
The information found in Deceit at Pearl Harbor offers the reader a firsthand look at the attack on Pearl Harbor, and reveals shocking and disturbing information, some of which has never been in the public light until now. Dealing with the attack and the subsequent victory at Midway over the Japanese, turning the tide of the War in the Pacific, and, thus, signaling the end of World War II, Deceit at Pearl Harbor is a must read for history and war buffs, conspiracy theorists, and recreational readers. The book offers never before seen photographs, some taken by LTC Landis personally, and several appendices including information on Winston Churchill's warning to Roosevelt about an impending attack and a timeline of the events leading up to and following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
LTC Kenneth Landis was born in Chicago, and received a commission in the U.S. Navy shortly after graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in Industrial Engineering. He was first assigned to the USS Sculpin, and later assigned to Admiral Kimmel's staff at Pearl Harbor (a lucky break for Landis, as the USS Sculpin was later sunk with total loss of life). After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Landis earned the command of the USS Isabel, one of the legendary "tethered goats," and also was a member of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, seeing action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Landis currently resides in La Quinta, California and remains active in the Palm Springs chapter of The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, of which he is vice-president.
Staff Sergeant Rex Gunn was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and followed his older brother into the military. Becoming a member of the Signal Corps, Aircraft Warning Company, he was assigned to the first U.S. radar post in the Pacific theatre. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, he became a GI war correspondent for the 7th Army Air Corps picture magazine, Brief. With Brief, he covered the Tarawa and Abemama Eniwetok, and the Marianas Islands campaigns at Saipan, Tinian and Guam. After the war, he earned his doctorate from the University of Southern California. In 1995, he retired and returned to Hawaii, marrying his old sweetheart from the war days, and died four years later.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We finally know the background of the attack on Pearl Harbor,
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This review is from: Deceit at Pearl Harbor: From Pearl Harbor to Midway (Paperback)
Ken Landis, being the lone survivor of Adm. Kimmel's staff is in a position to know what Kimmel knew and what Kimmel did not know. Ken was Kimmel's communication officer and encoded/decoded all messages to Kimmel. More than that, extensive research by Landis has recently revealed some incredible facts about what Roosevelt and Churchill knew well ahead of the attack.This book goes beyond Pearl Harbor and delves into Naval Intelligence and how various Admirals did and did not respond to this information. Battles were won or lost on intelligence. This book is a powerful piece of history and a must read for anyone interested in World War II and the Pacific Theater of Operations.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Add one more in the list of "FDR Knew!" books ...,
This review is from: Deceit at Pearl Harbor: From Pearl Harbor to Midway (Hardcover)
Clearly an interesting text and well worthwhile the time for any one keen on Pearl Harbor lore. While the writing shows the need for some more editing, overall, an excellent addition to those many Pearl Harbor bookshelfs out there.
A "firsthand" account of two survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack provides some topical perspectives not brought to the fore previously. While much of what is related is "old news" for many, there are some new tidbits. Of course, the text does, yet again, highlight that many known documents and other WWII materials are still classified even today. The revelation of the "tapping" of the Churchill-Roosevelt trans-oceanic telephone conversations is one such new item for some, as apparently this was not very well-known to some Pearl Harbor buffs. This is based on the release, by the United States in the mid-1990s, of some of the transcripts the German "wire-tapping" which indeed supports the "We knew." sentence which is how Stinnett's ends his highly-regarded earlier "Day of Deceit". There are several other things of importance in this text, but two in particular are notable and even not mentioned: (a) these conversations and other correspondence began before Churchill became Prime Minister; these relate directly to Tyler Kent's imprisonment in Britain. And (b) all of Churchill's conversations were transcribed (yes, copies were made and are extant today; and very importantly they are not subject to any of the UK-USA crypto agreements); all of those Churchill-Roosevelt transcripts remain classified, but perhaps not much longer. As "reader" from earlier seems unclear, or ignorant of well-known facts, a primer here may help: As to the vulnerability of the A-3 scrambler; a scan of Marshall's Joint Congressional testimony will show that he ordered "induction" testing to be done by the US Army Signal Corps (HQ: Fort Monmouth, NJ). This was done off Gardiners Island (eastern end of Long Island, NY). The A-3 relied on random voltage inverters ... not very complex and not very hard to deal with. Now, the later SIGSALY was an altogether different beast ... synch those 78 rpm LPs. As to the German capabilites, consider just two examples: (a) See Kahn's "The Codebreakers" (1967 - yes, a text from now almost 40 years ago, and well prior to Prange's publications), Chapter 16 "Censors, Scramblers, and Spies" on page 557 is shown a "Transcript of a German descrambling of an intercepted Churchill transatlanitc conversation." and (b) See Irving's (2001) "Churchill's War" Volume Two "Triumph in Adversity" Appendix II "Telephone Jobs" beginning on page 841 - " ... this 'Forschungsstelle'(research unit) at Wetterlin was capable of intercepting both ends of the transatlantic radiotelephone traffic. They were scrambled, but the scrambling technique employed was one originally devised by Siemens, a German firm; the Nazi readily created a device for unscrambling the conversations. ..." Many of the Wetterlin Transcripts remain to be reviewed by historians. Finally, as some might know, Truman (via an Executive Order signed on September 28, 1945) had sealed in perpetuity certain "conversations." For those interested - RG 216 (Record Group 216) at the National Archives is a good place to start. The PRIME-POTUS telephone conversations ... Who knew?
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitive evidence of FDR/Churchill foreknowledge,
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This review is from: Deceit at Pearl Harbor: From Pearl Harbor to Midway (Paperback)
1996 marked the 50th Anniversary of the end of WWII and also marked the date that most WWII era documents became declassified. Among those that remain classified are the American and British official documents. However, when they declassified all German documents in 1996, the US Government inadvertently released proof that FDR and Churchill knew about and discussed the attack on Pearl Harbor on November 26, 1941.
Churchill and Roosevely, against the advice of their security staffs, liked to use a telephone scrambler to talk and often they discussed highly classified material. The Germans had a listening station in line with the Washington-London radio-telephone line in Denmark and had installed an A-3 scrambler so they could eavesdrop on the routine conversations done over this line. In the early morning hours of November 26, 1941 Churchill called Roosevelt with urgent information about the Japanese intentions in the Pacific. Churchill said that they had a high level source that informed them the Japanese intended to attack the US. FDR said he knew about the fleet headed south to the Philippine Islands. But Churchill interrupted him and said, no it was headed for Pearl. After discussing the trustworthiness of this information, and Churchill assuring FDR that it came from the same individual who helped them with the naval codes, they then discussed how much damage could be inflicted and what to do. Churchill suggested they "do nothing" and if it came to light that they knew, they could always claim to have "misinterpreted intelligence". They even discussed the day of the impending attack, December 8, 1941, which they puzzled over, it being a Monday. Of course, their intelligence people would have instantly known that the Japanese were using their own date/time system, not that of the locality of their attack and in Japan the attack did occur on December 8. Anyways, buy the book and read the entire transcript of the conversation for yourself. And while this is only one source, remember that the official sources remain classified, indicating that they contain information that has not yet been divulged. And the only reason to retain classification over this information is that it contains information the government is ashamed of.
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