I was surprised to see three books about the mission to shoot down Yamamoto published this year: surprised because so much has been written about it already and I did not anticipate new information coming to light about this single, over-studied mission. In that regard, I was pleasantly surprised. Dick Lehr’s Dead Reckoning goes beyond the usual controversy between Tom Lanphier and Rex Barber and instead looks at John Mitchell, the leader of the improbable interception. In my opinion, focus on the controversy has robbed Mitchell of much of the credit he deserves for leading such a daring raid. Lehr constructs his work as dueling biographies of Mitchell and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Much of the new information about Mitchell is based on correspondence between him and his wife. The intimate portrayal of a man previously only discussed in passing is well done and fascinating. However, Lehr should have consulted someone with knowledge of aircraft or air combat. He gives awkward, sometimes inaccurate descriptions of maneuvers, cockpit setup, and instrumentation. He also paints an idealized portrait of Yamamoto as the “reluctant warrior” and implies America’s targeted killing of the admiral set a precedent. In fact, the US has long targeted the leadership of its adversaries, such as killing Datu Ali during the Moro War and capturing Geronimo in the Apache Wars. The killing of Yamamoto fit into a long-established pattern, rather than setting a new one.

Dan Hampton’s Operation Vengeance does not suffer from Lehr’s issues describing aircraft and air combat. Hampton was a fighter pilot himself and goes into excruciating detail. At times, the book reads more like the expanded checklist for the P-38 rather than a narrative history. Hampton struggles to decide what his book is about, though, usually beginning each chapter with a lengthy description of about two minutes’ worth of conjecture about what Rex Barber was doing or thinking in his cockpit on the fateful mission and then pivoting to a stock explanation of the war’s background and the Guadalcanal campaign. The forward by Barber’s son and grandson made me hope Hampton would provide an intimate portrait of the man in the same manner as Lehr did with Mitchell. Unfortunately, we only ever really read about what Barber did, not who he was. The best way I can describe Operation Vengeance is “fuses existing research with an exhaustive reading of the P-38 operating manual” or “how a modern fighter pilot imagines he would have flown the Yamamoto mission.” The book ends advocating for Barber to receive the Medal of Honor, claiming the mission to shoot down Yamamoto was “no less dangerous or difficult” than the Doolittle Raid. Bold statement, Mr. Hampton.

Finally, Si Sheppard’s We Killed Yamamoto is a very quick read, but does a good job presenting the essential information and background about the mission. Sheppard brings in US and Japanese primary sources and runs through the differing perspectives and discusses the controversy without getting bogged down. Like Lehr, Sheppard’s lack of technical expertise (or consulting someone with technical expertise) leads to some awkward inaccuracies. The caption to one photo talks about P-38 fighters arriving at Guadalcanal, but shows an F-5 reconnaissance aircraft. He gets confused about the P-38’s armament and also describes one of the pilots throttling “back to 170mph, just enough power to keep his fighter from stalling.” In fact, according to the manual, the stall speed of a P-38 with power on is something like 74mph and with power off is 99mph. Sheppard also erroneously states that “Rex Barber served in China as commander of the 449th Fighter Squadron.” In fact, he was the operations officer—second in command.

Overall, I wish Hampton had forgone writing his own book and instead helped Lehr and Sheppard with theirs. He brings in no new information—only an understanding of aircraft and air combat which he leans on too heavily. Lehr’s book is worth reading for the correspondence he highlights between Mitchell and his wife. And while Sheppard’s book is a good, quick overview, I would still recommend Attack on Yamamoto by Carroll V. Glines as the best single book on the mission and Islands of Destiny by John Prados as the best book on the Solomon Islands campaign.