Shockwave: The Countdown to Hiroshima

by StephenWalker (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.25

  August 6th, 1945, 9.15 a.m. Six miles above Hiroshima, the bombardier of the Enola Gay releases an atomic bomb into the freezing skies. Seconds later, the city is obliterated in a single, monumental blast of fire. The destruction is immediate and catastrophic, as if a small sun had suddenly exploded. Tens of thousands of people are instantly annihilated. In that moment, the world will never be the same again.

  Combining a rich array of interviews with gripping storytelling, Stephen Walker's Shockwave presents an extraordinary and unforgettably moving portrait of one of the defining events of the twentieth century.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2005

  $3.25

  At 8.15 a.m. on 6 August 1945, Major Tom Ferebee, the ladykilling, poker-playing bombardier on board a B29 bomber flicks a switch. In the bomb bay a single shackle drops its load into the freezing air. It plummets towards a city but no commuters look up. Then the bomb explodes. The shockwave rips out from the epicentre, flattening every object in its path. Tens of thousands of people are annihilated. In that instant, the name Hiroshima is stamped on the consciousness of a world that will never be the same again.In this tense, real-life narrative of events unprecedented interviews with witnesses interweave in a tapestry of voices. They include the co-pilot who writes a minute-by-minute diary on board the Enola Gay. The atomic scientist who arms the bomb in mid-air equipped with a screwdriver and a spanner. The Japanese student desperately searching for his lover in the ruins of the city. The doctor forced to treat thousands of burnt bodies with only soy-bean oil and wet leaves. Combining a rich array of sources with brilliant storytelling, Stephen Walker grippingly charts the defining event of the 20th century, on its 60th anniversary.