Based on survivor accounts, this gripping novel opens days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and details three years of sea battles that spanned between Hawaii and the shores of Okinawa with the crew of one of the most decorated ships of the Pacific War.
Onboard the heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City, Lieutenant Commander Justin Collier was 230 miles west of Pearl Harbor accompanying the USS Enterprise on a secret mission when Japan attacked the United States. Upon his return to Honolulu, the gravity of the war begins to change him, as does every subsequent mission, including a rare beach landing with an Army infantry division. He fears his wounds of war, both physical and mental, will be incurable.
Meanwhile, on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, hundreds of wounded men lay scattered in cots and stretchers in and around the naval hospital, and volunteer nurse Heidi Collier feels overwhelmed by the number of casualties. She had watched the bombing by Japanese planes as she huddled with her two children in front of their home, hoping that her husband aboard the USS Salt Lake City was safe wherever he was. In her prayers, she feels he is still alive.
Lieutenant Riley Bracken feels the sudden g-force of his catapult-launched observation floatplane with each harrowing mission. Alerting the USS Salt Lake City of enemy ships gives him purpose, which is why no one can know about his recent bouts of vertigo. He can't risk losing what he loves most.
Fifteen-year-old Al Jowdy lied about his age in order to join the Navy. Whatever he believed Navy life would be was shot out of the water--twice--when his ships were torpedoed. Now aboard the Salt Lake City, he fears his luck may have run out.
About The Author
Jerry Borrowman is a best-selling and award-winning author of historical fiction, historical non-fiction, and co-authored biographies.
Compassionate Soldier won the 2018 Indies Gold (First Place) Award from Foreword Reviews in War and Military. Invisible Heroes of World War II won the 2022 Silver Medal. Compassionate Soldier and Three Against Hitler (with Rudi Wobbe) are George Washington National Award Winners from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.
Jerry has given voice to true heroes -- Rudi Wobbe, a German boy who stood up against the Third Reich, Joe Banks in A Distant Prayer who served on 49 combat missions deep into German territory in a B-17 bomber, only to be shot down and taken prisoner of war, and Colonel Bernard Fisher, USAF, a career Air Force pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor for Valor Above and Beyond the Call of Duty in Vietnam, (also known as the Congressional Medal of Honor).
But for those who enjoy historical fiction, his World War I and World War II series provides insight into the great European wars of the 20th Century in a unique and exciting way.
Jerry's books are for readers of all ages, men and women. They will inspire you by the great sacrifices made by those who have fought for American freedom.
My Review
What a remarkable job the author did in combining fact with fiction.
We are there as Pearl Harbor is attacked, and the loss of life, I could almost hear the bombs that were being dropped on the Island.
There are fictional people that we get to know and care about, and there is some truth to what happens to them, with some of it being wow moments.
While this is a WWII story and the Japanese attack on the US, it is also the USS Salt Lake City's story, and we follow this ships battles that help win the war.
This is a read that at times had me holding my breath, and page turning for the answers, the guns getting so hot they need to stop firing, and the miracles that happened!
Be sure to read the Author's Notes, and we learn the fate of the ship that help win the war!
I received this book through the Publisher Shadow Mountain, and was not required to give a positive review.
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