This book is as real to life as possible in its discription of the events from Windover to Tinian and on to History. My grandfather served under Tibits and is pictured and mentioned several times in this book. As I turned the pages I was reading what I had heard first hand for several years from my grandfather spelled out across the pages. The attention to detail and recreation of the stories, events, and emotions capture the readers attention and draw you in. The various perspectives of the events also allows the reader to understand the magnitude of the bombings and the enourmous undertakingas that transpired prior to the event.

This is a must read for those who are interested in WWII History. I will pass this book along through the generations as the most accurate account of what transpired for my Grandfather and the men who served along side him.

I read the authors Voyage of the Damned a long time ago and really enjoyed it. So when I found this book I had expectations. And they were easily met.

The authors take you along with Col. Tibbets and the rest of his squadron - through training, hellraising and more. The book reads like a novel even if it is based on well documented facts. They also cover both sides of the story including the experiences of Hiroshima survivors.

All in all a good and enjoyable read.

From the very beginning this narrative grabs your attention. It wasn't until one hour away from Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, that Enola Gay's pilot, Paul W. Tibbets turned around and announced to his crew that they were about to drop the world's first atom bomb.

The crew was handpicked by Tibbets. Their training was so secret and compartmentalized that they didn't even discuss it among themselves. They all "knew", but they didn't "know" until they were told. Survivors of "Little Boy" were also interviewed for this story.

Another book recommend is Flight of the Enola Gay written by her pilot, Gen. Paul W. Tibbets. This is the story from his perspective. Excellent.

Michelle deBreuil Farrell - Military Aviation Photojournalist.

To me this review does not do justice to the most compelling aspect of the book, which is how political pressure, and assurances of safety in the face of all evidence to the contrary, by governmental officials and other trusted leaders dissuaded the people of St. Pierre from evacuating the city in time to save their lives. I read this book many years ago and have forgotten some of the details, but this theme -- more popularly explored in "Jaws" and recently in "Isaac's Storm" -- has stayed in my mind. Most readers will never be threatened by a volcanic eruption, but this book is a somewhat grim reminder that our own leaders may be lying about impending natural disasters. Remember Pelee!

Thomas and Witts tell the story of a week in May, 1902,when the Carrabean city of St. Pierre was obliterated by a volcanic eruption. When I first saw this book, I wondered how anyone could pen over 150 pages on a volcano that wiped a city out in seconds, leaving only two survivors. I thought there would not be much to write about. Boy was I wrong! It turns out that in the week prior to the eruption, St. Pierre was hit by landslides, a tsunami, and even a deadly snake infestation! Several hundred were killed before the great event itself. The final eruption is simply the climatic horror and can almost be seen as a blessing, putting people out of their misery. This book is probably hard to find now, but it is worth getting, and will interest just about everyone from the scientist to the casual reader.

In the vein of Walter Lord's A NIGHT TO REMEMBER and DAY OF INFAMY, this wonderful book details the horrific journey of persecuted Jews and their desperate attempt to flee Nazi Germany. As good as the movie which it spawned. A fascinating and important read, especially for history enthusiasts.

"Voyage of the Damned" is the infamous true story of the ill-fated 1939 voyage of the S.S. St. Louis, which carried 937 Jews who were fleeing Hitler. They hoped for freedom, but found only disappointment and, in some cases, death. The St. Louis made it safely Cuba, but the passengers were turned away under the influence of Hitler's anti-Jewish propaganda. Next, they sailed for the Florida Coast, only to be refused entry into the USA because of immigration quotas. For weeks the St. Louis sailed up and down the coast while Congress debated whether to make an exception and let them in. In the end, even a plea from President Roosevelt could not open America's doors to these refugees. The St.Louis was sent back to Europe, where her passengers were dispersed to France, Belgium, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Some perished in Hitler's concentration camps. Others lived to tell the story.

This tragic event remains an ugly blot on America's past, and is one of the reasons for the "Law of Return" in modern Israel (which allows any Jew who is fleeing persecution in any country to enter Israel immediately upon arrival with no hassles.) It is also the reason that Israel was the first country in the world to grant political asylum to Vietnamese "boat people" fleeing the Communist regime at the end of the Vietnam War. The story also had an effect on America's current immigration laws, which make better provisions for granting asylum.

"Voyage of the Damned" was first published in 1974 and became an instant bestseller. It was made into a movie in 1977, and won three Academy Award nominations. It went through a number of printings, and was re-issued in 1994 as a fine "coffee-table" hardcover with 300 pictures, including reproductions of tickets, telegrams, passports, menus, newspaper articles, official documents, etc. as well as photos of the crew and passengers. To make the story more personalized, the 1994 version also features "cameo" photo albums, focusing on three specific families. For sheer wealth of information as well as human interest, the photo edition is the one to buy -- if you can find a copy.

Unparalleled in the history of warfare, the Luftwaffe's elite "Condor Legion" flattened the remote Basque town of Guernica in April 1937 during the experimental Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

This historical novel dissects the facts on why and how the ancient capital of Basque honor and history met such a lurid fate. It picks up history turns it into a minor degree of fiction to enhance realism and drama and culminates it with the infamous bombing operation, openly argued as the lab and crucible of the European war and a preface of events to come in Warsaw, Rotterdam, Pearl Harbor, Dresden and Tokyo.

The use of primary accounts by motley eyewitnesses absorbs the reader into an increasingly suspenseful pace. A restaurant owner, a manufacturer of weapons, a liberal priest, a radical Republican officer and an empathetic nun-turned-into-nurse make up a most credible, yet unconventional "dramatis personae."

The book also provides a generous and abundant narration on the evolution of the strategic buildup of the mission, the tense politics between German pilots and Spanish Francoist officers, the military background in the Basque valleys and villages, and the depiction of Erwin Von Richtofen (cousin of the highly decorated and ultimately fallen Red Baron) as the mastermind of the raid. The book is intelligently written.

This work by two investigative reporters is extremely interesting and well-written. How accurate it is I do not know, but I know thatI found it to be extremely absorbing reading. E.g.: The authors say that Cardinal Benelli had 70 votes and if he had gotten 75 he would have elected Pope. Since Benelli died Oct. 25, 1982, if he had been elected the whole history of this latter part of the 20th century would have been different!

Gordon Thomas has written several books that question current orthodoxy simply by investigating a subject. My first experience with his style was with his book Issels the Biography of a Doctor. This book showed that the cancer establishment in most countries doesn't want effective treatments for cancer and is prepared to use any method to suppress them.

This more recent book explores the investigation of the cause of Legionnaires' disease by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta immediately following the Legionnaires' disease outbreak at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia in 1976.

It gives a blow by blow decription of the people involved and, more importantly, the political factors that led to the CDC looking for a virus or bacterium as the cause, rather than any other likely factor such as food contamination or any other toxic substance.
The main conclusion I drew from the book, not necessarily shared by the author, came from the last few pages where the scientists finally found some signs of a microorganism which they named legionella. It was not found in large enough amounts to cause disease, nor was it found in the relevant tissues of all the victims who died (such as the saliva or mucus). This shows that it could not have been the main factor in the deaths of the Legionnaires. Since that time legionella has wrongly been singled out as the only cause of the disease. It thus adds to the long string of false assumptions made by the medical profession that lead to the situation where only 15% of medical interventions are based on solid evidence. The HIV as the cause of AIDS is a similarly wrongly accused innocent victim as described in Peter Duesberg's excellent book "Inventing the AIDS Virus"

In the waning months of the year 1929, the New York Stock Exchange was going strong. Millions of small and large investors poured their life savings into the pool of speculative issues, hoping for a big return on their gamble. On Black Tuesday, October 29th, the dream came to a crashing halt. This is the heart wrenching tale of that fateful day: the giddy years that preceded it, and the miserable decade that followed in it's wake. Sterling drama, with many poignant stories of the principal movers and shakers of Wall Street...before the Bubble burst.