12 Seconds Of Silence, Jamie Holmes
12 Seconds Of Silence, Jamie Holmes
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12 Seconds Of Silence
How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon

Author: Jamie Holmes

Narrator: Chris Mayers

Unabridged: 12 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 08/04/2020


Synopsis

The riveting story of the American scientists, tinkerers, and nerds who solved one of the biggest puzzles of World War II—and developed one of the most powerful weapons of the war
 
12 Seconds of Silence is the remarkable, lost story of how a ragtag group of American scientists overcame one of the toughest problems of World War II: shooting things out of the sky.
 
Working in a secretive organization known as Section T, a team of physicists, engineers, and everyday Joes and Janes took on a devilish challenge. To help the Allies knock airplanes out of the air, they created one of the world’s first “smart weapons.” Against overwhelming odds and in a race against time, mustering every scrap of resource, ingenuity, and insight, the scientists of Section T would eventually save countless lives, rescue the city of London from the onslaught of a Nazi superweapon, and help bring about the Axis defeat. A holy grail sought after by Allied and Axis powers alike, their unlikely innovation ranks with the atomic bomb as one of the most revolutionary technologies of the Second World War. Until now, their tale was largely untold.
 
For fans of Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre, set amidst the fog of espionage, dueling spies, and the dawn of an age when science would determine the fate of the world, 12 Seconds of Silence is a tribute to the extraordinary wartime mobilization of American science and the ultimate can-do story. 

Narrated by Chris Mayers.

About Jamie Holmes

JAMIE HOLMES is a writer living in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in print or online in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Slate, the Christian Science Monitor, the New Republic, the Atlantic, Foreign Policy, USA Today, and the Daily Beast. His first book was Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Porter

I cannot tell you how many times I've watched old World War II movies---particularly those depicting naval battles wherein they show an anti-aircraft gun firing at oncoming airplanes. Then they shift the perspective to the air plane where the show how close the bullets are coming by having them expl......more

Goodreads review by Mal

You can’t help knowing that the atomic bomb was a product of World War II and greatly influenced its outcome. If you’ve read a little, you’re aware that radar played a decisive role in the war as well, implemented both in the air, at sea, and on land. But it’s less likely you’ve heard about a third......more

Goodreads review by Dennis

Finished 12 Seconds of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Super-weapon by Jamie Holmes. The initial focus of this book is the development of the proximity fuse, a device that allows artillery shells to blow up when encountering planes, tanks and enemy soldiers. I......more

Goodreads review by Jeffrey

3 stars for the book itself, but 5 stars for the important and undertold story The proximity fuse, along with radar and the atomic bomb, was a key invention that helped decide world war 2. Its story is interesting not just because of that, but also because unlike the other two it's a microcosm of the......more