About this item
One of the great untold stories of World War II finally comes to light in this thrilling account of the members of Torpedo Squadron Eight and their heroic efforts in helping an outmatched U.S. fleet win critical victories at Midway and Guadalcanal. These thirty-five American men—many flying outmoded aircraft—changed the course of history, going on to become the war's most decorated naval air squadron, while suffering the heaviest losses in U.S. naval aviation history. Robert J. Mrazek paints moving portraits of the men in the squadron and exposes a shocking cover-up that cost many lives. Filled with thrilling scenes of battle, betrayal, and sacrifice, A Dawn Like Thunder is destined to become a classic in the literature of World War II.
About the Author
Robert Jan Mrazek was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 3rd Congressonal District on Long Island for most of the 1980s. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island, but grew up in Huntington, New York. He graduated from Cornell University in 1967. In 1967, he entered the United States Navy. Mrazek was elected as a Democrat to the 98th United States Congress, defeating one term Republican incumbent John LeBoutillier. Mrazek served in the House from 1983 until 1993. While in Congress, he coauthored the law that saved the Manassas battlefield from being bulldozed for a shopping center. He also authored the Tongass Timber Reform Act, the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which brought nineteen thousand children fathered by Americans during the Vietnam War to the US, and the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, which set up the federal registry in the Library of Congress to protect films of cultural importance. Since retiring from Congress, Mrazek has written ten books. He also wrote and co-directed a feature film called The Congressman, that was released in 2016. Mrazek is the author of seven novels, including Stonewall's Gold, Unholy Fire, The Deadly Embrace, Valhalla, The Bone Hunters, Dead Man's Bridge, and And the Sparrow Fell. In 2000, Stonewall's Gold won the Michael Shaara Prize as the best Civil War novel of the year. In 2007, Deadly Embrace won the W.Y. Boyd Prize for Excellence in Military Fiction from the American Library Association. Mrazek has also written two critically acclaimed non-fiction works, including A Dawn Like Thunder, which was named Best Book (American History) by the Washington Post, and To Kingdom Come, the story of a disastrous mission by the US 8th Air Force over Germany in 1943.
