Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming thanks for supporting your authors, your favorite authors and your local independent bookstore and thank you tonight to cspan for being here. This is a first for me. Maybe you guys are used to this. Im going to cover just a few basic things before we get started. Copies of the book are available downstairs. I think at the register you can purchase them there and bring them up here to get signed after the events. If you could take a moment, silence your phones come i think we would all appreciate that. You are welcome to take photographs and you can post them on social media if they are good. After the author has finished speaking there will be a q a and if you could please wait for microphone, so we can all hear your questions. That would be great. All right, lets get started. James is a writer, literary agent and former book editor. Hes the author of the New York Times bestseller neptune inferno the last stand he is widely sorry, hes widely acclaimed historical account of the u. S. Navy and pacific during world war ii and has been praised for the detailed description and sharp impact. He has given keynote lectures at the Naval Academy and he is a frequent guest speaker on the history channel, fox news and civics groups. Graduate of the Ut Law School and he now lives in austin. His latest book, the fleet at flood tide is published just in time for the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. It is the extraordinary story with the most consequential contains of the or. The us seizures of the Mariana Islands opening the path to total victory over japan and establish a new state of the art in warfare. Here to give you the details on this extraordinary historical event is james hornfischer. [applause]. Think you, brenda. I appreciate it. Ive always been very happy and proud that my hometown of austin, texas, is home to one of the greatest independent bookstores in america, book people. At the Community Center and events such as these are salon to bring in such a diversity of authors and gives of vibrancy to the community. I am proud to be here for the third time, i think, and especially happy that cspan is here to turn our discussion in the presentation into an opportunity for readers around the country to connect, so thank you for being here. Much appreciated. I have had the Great Fortune to turn a lifelong interest my interest in the navy and pacific journal during world war ii into an ongoing project with a series of narrative histories that first the last stand of the 10 ken taylors back in 2004 was a battle narrative. Didnt extend to far beyond the mission of telling the story of this improbable upset victory that are navy one over japan in october, 1944. Benefited a great deal of engagement in interviews and ongoing conversations with the veterans of battle. Only a tiny handful are left right out. Its been 15 years and over the course of my projects i seen participation of that generation diminish from book to book. My second book, ship of ghosts, was about a single ship, the uss houston. They were lost early in the world march, 1942. Survivors were taken prisoner and made slaves on the notorious project on the thailand railway. Carry their story through three and half years of starvation or and it was a step up in scope and ambition. Of the third book, neptunes inferno is history covering in close detail six month time frame in which the navy that saving seven major sea battles. Now the fleet at flood tide raises the stakes further attempting to take on the story of the endgame of the pacific war really through the better part of 1944 and all the way through to the end, not just for the surrender of japan on board the uss missouri, but through the occupation itself and i think that shows us so much and has so much to show us about the american war effort. Get the microphone issues straightened out. So, this book then covers a large period of history and encompasses diverse operations on air, land and sea. The marianna Campaign Operation involved Three Islands. These islands were strategically vital and within striking distance of the japanese home islands and became hides of b29 bombers and began surrounding skin, 1944, the bombing of japan begins from these islands. The us seizure of the Three Islands moved to the next slide which wu you will see at the center of the detail map, top right, the seizure of these islands provoked japan into its largest counter stroke against the us offensive of the war. The battle of the Philippine Sea is the largest Aircraft Carrier battle of world war ii. Japan sends the entire combined fleet and precipitates a battle of carriers that was more than three size the site of midway. There were 15 us Aircraft Carriers in the engagement, nine japanese and by the end of it, really the question of whether japan has a carrier navy has been settled. It finishes them. As a major story and that itself has been the subject of many books. The third element of my story in this light here, paul tibbets, the founder of americas the worlds first atomic Striking Force and takes command of the composite group and his special mission is to deliver the atomic weapon, deliver to atomic weapons against japan to fly a specially modified b29 bomber in that mission, so the operation forager quickly precipitates something larger than an amphibious operation. It becomes the battle to decide the pacific war and becomes the fulcrum, the marriott of the critical islands become the fulcrum become which will finally forced japan tourist surrender. These three figures are my devices with diverse colonnade all operations and operations. We have three prominent willful interesting characters at the center of the story. Raymond screws, commander of the fifth fleet. Just as beatles and Rolling Stones people the world divides itself among the two types in the context of the navy navy and the pacific you have sprint people, so reserved and analytical, thoughtful and intellectual. Then theres the fiery and impulsive, both tremendously effective. There is a degree of risk to what he is doing japanese became to know him as the man that was impossible to trap, so when marianna and their contrasting styles really become pronounced naval history buffs like to speculate what might have happened if sprints role in hasses role had been flipped. That is a parlor argument can get rather heated with these polarizing figures and the story of the marianna campaign were kind of that of this huge carrier battle that pits one side of the navy at penn state another the air admiral. They became heir Group Commanders, carrier commanders, test Group Commanders and fleet commanders committed to the proposition that the true power of the navy is in the form of these Ugly Duckling ships. Spruance did not come up through these ranks, but was a battleship man and the fact that he did not cut his teeth in carriers is costly held against him in these partisans resent him for his victory in the battle of midway and now, for his audacity in conducting through the person of a subordinate, the greatest Aircraft Carrier of the dial of the Philippine Sea. The navy kind of fights for its own soul and takes place through the controversies with his subordinates and code equals and becomes the theme of the book with its rooted in the trade craft of Naval Warfare and the rise of the Aircraft Carrier, which comes to focus in the mariannas. With kelly turner who is the subordinate. The navy is undergoing a transformation not only in terms of the types of ships that fight for control of the sea, but also in terms terms of the type of ship that projects power and turner was in charge of the Ugly Duckling llcm, all of the, you know, amphibious ship which is the sole mission to carry troops across the ocean and turner is the modern master of this. The mariannas campaign is the first large island that he undertakes the siege, 46 square miles in a deep terrain and it becomes sort of a proving ground for ideas about amphibious warfare and also holds surprises for the americans that become faithful indeed as the Campaign Rolls along. Finally we have paul tibbets as i indicated earlier. Hes past with any of the war from these islands. The title of the book is suggested in the following pie chart. On sorry if this is hard to read. Apologies to the home audience on cspan. We have a graphic indicating annual Navy Production 1943 through 9044 and it really shows the growth of fleet, and the large silhouettes will command your attention. C control navy is surging through 1943, 15 large and medium size fast carriers quickly taken under notices we mostly from pearl harbor the pacific that the vast majority of these. Battleships as well, destroyers, but at lower right the Landing Craft you will see some positively huge numbers with Single Digits from the battleship and carriers an annual production. Its in the area of Landing Craft where we see the transformation of the fleets with this kind of metaphorical new dimension. Landing craft on the order of 21000 produced in 1943 and 37000 in 1944. This will be the fleet that really wins the western pacific campaign. Sought so its when turner arrives june, 15, it has been nine days since that landed in normandy. We have this math operation the Central Pacific thats always overshadowed by dday. This is the other da. June 15, 1944, 2 divisions of the United States marine corps go ashore the southwestern jeep of saipan as well as a division of the us army in reserve. Saipan is sort of a rubicon. Its here. These islands are essentially south of tokyo. Right along the 145th line a meridian and tokyo is 140. This provokes japan to a massive counterstrike and the fight for the island itself is seen as a preview of what awaits us further to the west. Particularly with regard to possible landing in the home islands of japan. Will we havent saipan for the first time in the pacific is not only craggy terrain, large landmass, we have a 1500foot mountain at the center that provides cover for artillery and mortars. Something important exists on saipan that americans encounter for the first time and thats the presence of civilians. Japanese sugar farmers and plantation workers are there in great numbers, 25000 some odd japanese civilians are on saipan. There is another large settlement and of course the military garrison with 30,000 japanese soldiers protecting saipan, see you have a mixed military Civil Society that we proceed to take by force and the reaction, the dynamics of the threeweek campaign for saipan changes the way the americans look at the war, especially american commanders that are tasked with wendy on the home islands. This will give you a sense of what saipan looks like, the mangrove forest, limestone, craggy caves, basaltic lava beaches. One of the features of this campaign surrounding saipan required for the first time a large employment of underwater demolition then, socalled demolition swimmers, the frog workmen to operate with turners force as kind of the reconnaissance unit, kind of scout out the laguna figure out the best avenue for the landing ships to approach. Was the marines could assure they are quickly swallowed up in a battle where the lines are blurry indeed. The marines struggle in the fight for saipan to hold their lines tight and prevent infiltrators and it gets very difficult, 13000 americans will become casualties in this campaign with about 4000 dead. You can see here how terrifying it must have been. Saipan also sees one of the first city fights anywhere in the pacific. The japanese capital, administrative capital is the the side of some fairly intense combat. So, that invasion takes place june 15 and almost immediately the japanese contest. Thr admiral brings the entire combined fleets and the americans meet him in what becomes the battle of the Philippine Sea. Its kind of a test case of spruances leadership style. That becomes controversial the fact that spruance never gets his carrier commanders license rome west and seek battle over the japanese fleet. Yokes them close to the island, so they stand, 15 carriers stay kind of quest of lawn in recovery position because spruance realizes the strategic objective is the island themselves in the air admiral cannot wait to reckon with the japanese plea, get a hold of the carrier and set them to the bottom, but spruance has this mission in mind have three divisions of spruce. The consequences of holding the island will become strategically vital, so he kind of throws the leash around nature and clark and their pilots and holds position close to the island. This means the navy has to absorb the first blow is the Japanese Carriers approach. The japanese know right where our carriers are with scouting aircraft flying from the island and sightings of our force. On june, 1944, the socalled great marianna turkey shoot takes place, battle of Philippine Sea acquires its nickname for the number of aircraft and planes in battle, some 380 japanese planes are shot down june 19. That has a lot to do with the world hellcat fighter and even more to do with our mastery of error search radar and the Rapid Transmission between ship and Squadron Commander of vectors and so forth. The fighter direction teams are able to control the combat air patrol to where we interest at the japanese almost on a Straight Line just at the right altitude. What is that matter . Our pilots are intercepting so efficiently with plenty of fuel left and in the series of air battles through the day of the 19th, 380 kills and this gaudy score is posted. This just about takes care of any possibility of a Japanese Carrier power ever again fighting with affective force. Mark pitcher is the air admiral who want to think carriers and they say this Mission Accomplished without a different way. Very convincing effect. One of the great pieces that follows the next day is when spruance finally authorizes strikes. We have absorbed a series of air attacks from the 19th and we are still casting search plans through all searching for the japanese fleet in turn in our submarines to make some sightings. To Japanese Carriers are put down by submarines. Seven more Japanese Carriers are roaming out there somewhere to the west and late in the day on the 20th, us guiding search aircraft make a siding of ozawa. The reason it presents a problem is the siding is made late in the afternoon of the 20th and any prospect of a strike will have to be will have to involve a nighttime recovery, which are pilots are not trained for, so late on the 20th, pitcher sent out strike planes such as the hell divers here and they manage to seek a third Japanese Carrier and the recovery entails a socalled turn on the lights episode, so planes take off late in the afternoon and they make their strikes around sunset and on the return we have a desperate circumstance where pilots are navigating in some cases wounded, low on fuel trying to find task force 58, their home, their Aircraft Carrier to land the. Standard at night is to black out everything. A cigarette butt can be seen for miles by an enemy submarine skipper, so the strict about blackout protocol is in place in the pilots are navigating home in the radio beacons assisted them, but they are making their way in this desperate way of late in the evening. All of a sudden the fuel is running tight and they have a sense they are close and they can hear the beacon and make radio contact. On they said none nighttime erupts in lights and every searchlight on every destroyer, cruiser, battleship and Carrier Task Force 58 is thrown skyward with huge 24 inch searchlights, handheld flashlights, every sailor topside and its a reprieve for these pilots. This episode kind of cements the loyalty of our naval air corps. Naval aviation has it traditional not only victory, of unit cohesion showed that admiral. Pilots to this day, f14 pilots will talk about this night as something important in their history and again its incredible set piece and i pulled this into the story of how the navy does it to business and age of the Aircraft Carrier as they chart west port its final reckoning in the home islands of japan. Here is a picture of the Japanese Carrier absorbing some blows. Meanwhile, back in taipan the stories acquiring gravity. The marines are confronting civilians for the first time, as i said. We sort of assumed that they would come to our lines, hands up and be taken into custody to be taken back to the internment camps. Thats not what happens in taipan. The japanese has been fed terrible propaganda about the nature of the American Fighting man and are told marines in order to have their enlistment accepted has to kill their mothers. They are told if you are taken prisoner by americans your children will be, your women will be raped and we killed in short order. This is a fairly persistent message delivered by the Japanese Army and other Japanese Garrison islands, so when american troops push inland and engage in japanese troops and ground combat, they find civilians with them. The civilians have been herded up and there held essentially prisoners by their own nations military in